Gopi Krishna
Gopi Krishna
The Kundalini Research Foundation, Ltd., established as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization at the request of Gopi Krishna in 1970, Contributions are tax-deductible. Send your check to the K. R. F., Ltd., P.O. Box 2234, Darien, CT 06902.
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O people of the world unite,and pave the way to peace sublime,Divided you yourself inviteDisastrous wars, unrest and crime.
7-3-1952, Gopi Krishna From the Unseen,
"Gopi Krishna was a pioneer in the land of spirituality." - Deepak Chopra, M.D.
Gopi Krishna was born in 1903 to parents of Kashmiri Brahmin extraction. His birthplace was a small village about twenty miles from the city of Srinagar, the summer capital of the Jammu and Kashmir State in northern India. He spent the first eleven years of his life growing up in this beautiful Himalayan valley. In 1914, his family moved to the city of Lahore in the Punjab which, at that time, was a part of British India. Gopi Krishna passed the next nine years completing his public school education. Illness forced him to leave the torrid planes of the Punjab and he returned to the cooler climate of the Kashmir Valley. During the succeeding years, he secured a post in the Department of Public Works of the State, married and raised a family. In 1946 he founded a social organization and, with the help of a few dedicated friends, tried to bring about reforms in some of the outmoded customs of his people. Their goals included the abolition of the dowry system, which subjected the families of brides to severe and even ruinous financial obligations,and the strictures against the remarriage of widows. After a few years, Gopi Krishna was grantedpremature retirement from his position in the government and devoted himself almost exclusively toservice work in the community.
In 1967 he published his first major book in India, Kundalini--The Evolutionary Energy in Man(currently available under the title Living With Kundalini). Shortly thereafter it was published in GreatBritain and the United States and has since appeared in eleven major languages. The book presented tothe Western world for the first time a clear and concise autobiographical account of the phenomenon ofthe forceful awakening of Kundalini, which he had experienced in 1937, and the long process by whichhe eventually attained the perennially transformed or sahaja state of consciousness. This book, and thesixteen other published works by Gopi Krishna have generated a steadily growing interest in thesubjects of consciousness and the evolution of the brain. He also traveled extensively in Europe andNorth America, during the last seventeen years of his life, energetically presenting his theories toscientists, scholars, researchers and others. Gopi Krishna's experiences led him to hypothesize that thereis a biological mechanism in the human body, known from ancient times in India as Kundalini, which isresponsible for creativity, genius, psychic abilities, religious and mystical experiences, as well as sometypes of aberrant mental states. He asserted that ignorance of the workings of this evolutionarymechanism was the main reason for the present dangerous state of world. Gopi Krishna passed away inJuly, 1984 of a severe lung infection and is survived by his wife, three children and grandchildren. Thework that he began is currently being carried forward through the efforts of a number of affiliatedfoundations, organizations and individuals around the world.
Gopi Krishna's Revised Theory of Evolution1. Evolution is directed by a super-intelligent force which operates through a biological mechanism in the human body known to yoga theory as ‘kundalini’, and by many other names in a wide variety of ancient and esoteric texts.
2. Evolution, including human evolution, is therefore not ‘random’, but a deliberate act on the part of an invisible cosmic intelligence or organizing power and has a ‘target.’
3. The target of evolution is to produce a virtual superman or woman who will live in a permanent state of bliss, possess a genius level of intelligence, and various other attributes seldom seen in the population at large such as psychic powers.
4. Since the kundalini mechanism is a biological mechanism, given a properly conducted research program based on a serious scientific study of a group of suitable candidates, it should be possible to measure the biological and intellectual changes using suitable tests and equipment.
5. The existence of the kundalini mechanism explains the origin of the religious impulse in man, and therefore heals the schism between science and religion.
The Lasting Significance of Gopi Krishna's Works
Gopi Krishna's discovery was without doubt the most important discovery in scientific history. Why? Because it revealed the source and destiny of man.
Put In one sentence, Gopi Krishna discovered a biological mechanism in his body, known to yoga theory as ‘kundalini’, which over a period of years entirely transformed his consciousness, raised him mentally to the level of a genius, and took him to a permanent state of ecstasy.
But in a world of doubting scientists, who lacked his inner experience, of what significance could this have to the rest of us?
Gopi Krishna's answer was in over 15 books and many talks world wide, to groups of scientists and laymen alike, with the intent of permanently raising our global consciousness to the next stage of human evolution.
Anybody who studies his works seriously and with an open mind, will see a genuine vision of man's future, only clearly visible to a man in such a higher state. Yet enough will filter down to the average reader which will enable him to see the meaningless and illusory rift between science and religion, which has been at the core of social and political unrest throughout the last millennium.
"I am in particular trying todraw the attention of the world to a very important fact, that at thepresent moment, our scientists, our learned educators, leaders, andpoliticians, are only aware of natural laws, and even those are not known completely or perfectly.
In addition to material laws, there are also spiritual orpsychic laws in the universe. We have absolutely no awareness of these laws. Time and again, a glimpse of these laws has beengiven to mankind by the great prophets and Messiahs who appeared in different parts of the world. We have rejected theirteachings as pure myth or superstition. But actually those teachingscontain germs of truth that are essential for the safety andsurvival of the race.
The tragedy is that we have rejected the evidence ofreligion or of the teachings of great sages about the spiritual worldand the soul which dwells in the human body. Since spirit, mind orsoul is not perceptible to any of our senses, or to any of ourscientific instruments, we presume that they have no independentexistence apart from the body or the organic organ, the brain, and therefore we need not worry about what happens to them. Butactually they do have an independent existence. They have a universe of their own, and they have profound influences onall that we do, on all that we think, on all that we create.
But this influence is conditioned by certain laws which aretotally a sealed book to us. These laws are operating at present and driving mankind to a catastrophic war to end the presentorder, which is against the evolution of the human brain".
"I say,on the basis of my experience that the human brain is still in a state of organic evolution.I say this in contradiction of the views held by most leading biologists at this moment. I say that this biological evolution is carring all the race towards a higher state of consciousness I do not say that the human mind is evolving toward an undefined summit. What I firmly assert is that human consciousness is evolving toward a Predetermined Target, which I have experienced. What I further affirm is that the human brain is evolving toward that state of transhuman perception through the activit of an organic mechanism named Kundalini by the ancients.The fact is that there is a biological mechanism in every human being and this mechanism is known as Kundalini. It can be accelerated though the discipline of Yoga or through other religous exercises. The human cerebrospinal system is capable of a new amazing activity that is still unknown to science. The practice of meditation, carried on in the proper way regularly for a sufficient duration of time, tends to force a normaly silant region in the brain to an astonishing activity. The idea that under the direct influence of the Cosmic Life Energy the human brain is still in a state of organic evolution is a fact so important that, compared to it, all other discoveries of modern science pale into insignificance.
What I am revealing is not knowledge picket up by study or gained through reflection but gathered from my day-to-day experience for years on end".
"In no other period in history have the learned been so mistrustful of the divine possibilities in man as they are now, and in no other age has the need for spiritualgeniuses been so urgent as it is at this time. The human mind is so constituted that no luxury and no treasure of the earth can assuage its burning fever seeking anexplanation for its own existence. All the heavy weight of this inscrutable mystery, all the questions posed by intellect, all the suffering of the harrowing ascent ofevolution, all the pain felt at the injustice and misery prevailing in the world, all the disappointment of shattered dreams and broken hopes, all the anguish of eternalpartings from near and dear ones, and all the fear of ill health, decay and death vanish like vapor at the rise of the inner Sun, at the recognition of the inmost Self,beyond thought, beyond doubt, beyond pain, beyond mortality which, once perceived, illumines the darkness of the mind as a flash of strong lightning cleaves thedarkness of the night, leaving man transformed with but one glimpse of the inexpressible splendor and glory of the spiritual world. May this sublime knowledgebecome accessible to all. May there come enlightenment and peace to the minds of all.”
posted by Tom Zatar Kay at 11:37 PM
35 Comments:
AN INTERVIEW WITH GOPI KRISHNA
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Excerpts from an interview conducted by Tom Kay ©
TK: Mr Krishna, you have had a Kundalini experience. I wish you could explain what a Kundalini experience is and what its ramifications are.
GK: Before I start to describe my own experience, perhaps it would be better to give a little detail about what Kundalini means. We are not using the totality of the human brain. According to various estimates, most of us use only ten percent of the brain and according to some only eight percent. That means 90 percent of the brain is unutilized, that there is still a large margin in the brain which could be used for other purposes, and nature has provided it for certain purposes which are not yet known to science. According to Indian tradition, there is a region in the brain below the crown and about the pallette which is called Brahmarendra or the cavity of Brahman. This region can be activated by certain disciplines and when activated it can give to the individual the same vision of the universe which all great mystics of the Earth have described. When it is awakened the normal energy of the body or the blood is not able to fuel the center. It needs a more powerful and constrained psychic fuel. This fuel comes from the reproductive system, which is transformed into a kind of radiation and that radiation awakens and makes the center function.
In my case, the awakening occurred at the age of 34, in 1937. I had been meditating for 17 years and then all of a sudden during Christmas, while I was sitting cross-legged in a state of meditation, a strange thing happened. Something exploded in my brain and a current of silvery light rising from my spine radiated throughout my whole brain, and I felt myself expanding in all directions. This expansion was so incredible, so amazing that I thought that something unusual had happened in my inner ear. After this I had two other experiences of the same kind, at short intervals apart, and it then succeeded.
But something was changing in me and I could perceive this change for many, many years, day and night. In fact, I passed through grave crises during that period. Finally, I became stabilized in that condition of consciousness in my 49th year. Since that time I have been living in that condition. That is to say, before my 34th year I was living in this world thinking, seeing, perceiving in the same way as other people do, but since my 49th year I have been living in two different worlds. One is the normal world of senses and reason, and the other is the world which is much higher, much more happy and which is totally apart from anything that we can know of the earth. It is the world of consciousness.
TK: How do you see the world?
GK: We know what all people perceive of this world. I can understand what you perceive of it, you can understand what I perceive of it. That is, this perception is uniform. Everyone has the same perception. But this other perception is different. In this other perception you do not see the world as a solid, real, objective creation. The real objective creation is consciousness. You see consciousness everywhere. You see the ocean as if it is consciousness everywhere. You see the ocean as if it is living; you see a mountain as if it is living; you see the sky as if it is living; you see the Earth as if it is living; you see life or consciousness everywhere. And this life or consciousness is not something which is really dead or which is something you can understand. It is unfathomable. It is wonder and everytime you see it, you perceive it. The wonder grows deeper. I am never tired of sitting in quiet and reflecting on myself. I am never tired of looking at the sky. The sky, to me, does not appear as it appeared before my 34th year; it is so fascinating. It is such a beautiful vision that I would like to look at it for days and months on end. In other words, in the air a fountain of happiness, a new kingdom, I should say, is opened. This is probably what Christ meant when he said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." This is the Nirvana of Buddha; and this is the state of Vada mentioned by the Suffi mystics. In fact, in this inactive state what we perceive is consciousness in its most magic form, in its glorious form, and not consciousness as a point looking through the eyes or hearing through the ears, but a consciousness which has its own channels and which knows that it is the master and not the slave of the material forces which knows it is the creator. It is infinite: it is deathless. In this state one feels himself to be a king, he feels himself to be the master of what he sees. It is not the ego. I should say it is not the ego; it is the very condition of this consciousness. That is the reason why it is said that no mystic would change his state even for a kingdom. It is somehing so unique, so glorious, so elevating that I have no words to describe this state.
TK: What type of life must a person live to awaken their Kundalini?
GK: In order to make this clear, I would like to say that it is not Kundalini per se, Kundalini is the power, the mechanism. But actually, what we do is awaken to activity a certain region in the brain. This means that nature has already provided a potential in the brain which has to be awakened. This means that the brain can still organically evolve to a higher performance. This is my experience, that the human brain is still organically evolving in the direction of the great mystics, in the same direction as the great geniuses. For this evolution a certain type of life is necessary.
For instance, throughout our life this evolution is relentlessly going on and we have to cooperate with it. When we do not cooperate with the inner evolution we create problems for ourselves. For that purpose, for the last 5,000 years at least great prophets have been born. Beginning with the Vedas, then Buddha, then Christ, then Mohammed, then Guru Nanak, and all the ancient prophets of the Bible, they have been born time after time, and they have given some 'teaching to mankind', which was a direction for how to live while the brain is still evolving. Their Sermon on the Mount, the Ten Commandments, the Discourses of Buddha, The Bhagavad-Gita, and all those directions contained in the religious scriptures of the Earth -- they are all meant to regulate our life so that we may live in harmony with the law of evolution which governs our life.
The revolutionaries have come to regulate the lives of human beings so that they may work in harmony with the law of evolution that is at work day and night within their brains. When they depart from this law of evolution, they always bring calamities or problems upon themselves. The present time is one such occasion when we have digressed from the laws of evolution and the result is that we are threatened from many directions.
The life to be lived is just as you see in the sermon on the Mountain - a life of humility, a life of love, a life of purity, a life in which you wish for others what you wish for yourself, a life in wich you are pure, you are not sophisticated, you are not overly clever, you are not smart, you do not use your cleverness or smartness to take what belongs to others, a life of extreme purity and a life of simplicity, that you do not waste the resources of the Earth.
As you know, every animal satisfies his basic needs from the recycled resources of the Earth. Man is the only creature who is wasting the basic resources -- the minerals -- for his own luxury and pleasure. That is what the Sermon on the Mount is meant to teach, that humanity should live simply, beautiful, pure, compassionate lives. That is the type of life necessary for the awakening of Kundalini.
TK: And this is what all religions of the world say?
GK: Every prophet, every great mystic, even every philosopher, for instance, Socrates or Plato. We will find that this life is okay: purity, compassion, love, service is the ideal life which human beings have to live.
TK: Is there no change in consciousness in birth or in death? Would you explain that?
GK: Here we come to metaphysics. We see the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening. Actually, is there any change in the sun? The same is true of consciousness.
Consciousness is eternal: our souls. They are eternal, immutable, omissive, omni-present, omnipotent, and our spark partakes of the same nature as the divine, so there can be no death for this, no change for this. The change occurs in our shells, mind, intellect, the senses. But not in the essence, the principles which is consciousness.
TK: The more we use our mind, the greater our development of our evolution takes place.
GK: The human brain is evolving rapidly because from morning until evening we are applying our brain to some task, we are reading, we are looking through the newspapers, we are watching the television or we are working in the office.
Most of the people are applying their brain throughout the day, this was not the case before when people hunted or when they were tilling the soil; they had no need to apply their brain in such a constrained way.
We are now applying our brain in a very constrained way, from morning until night. In other words we are meditating, though on material objects. The result is a rapid state of evolution.
Our way of life must change, but we have not changed, on the other hand. We have made our living and our life more and more complex and intricate, so that all day we are working and working and working to feed our belly, to live. We are giving no time to the mind, no time to the spirit. We are not giving any thought to it. The results is that there is a disproportionate evolution. We have developed a very powerful intellect as seen by the scientific discoveries that have been made and the changes that have occurred in our life, but on the other hand our spiritual and moral growth has been negligible.
So what we have in mordern times is a disproportionate human being, a giant of the intellect, on the one hand, and a pygmy of moral or spiritual growth. This disproportion is at the base of the present threatening situation of the world.
TK: What can we do to remedy that?
GK: What we can do is to make a thorough research of all the religious scriptures of mankind, of all the occult traditions of the past, and to make experiments on the brain. In fact, yoga was devised in India to make experiments on the brain. The very word "yoga" means to yoke, to join the individual soul with the over-soul, with moderation, with temperance. It is this type of life that has to be led, not a luxury life of wasting the Earth's resources, of pollutants polluting the planet, so that nature's forces are now creating a situation in which either calamity occurs which will change the direction of human life, or by their own sensible reaction they will change themselves. Change has to occur in any way.
TK: The research of this force is the most urgent task of our time.
GK: It is the most urgent. I have been saying it, after observing my own state for at least 30 years. For 30 years I said nothing because I wanted to confirm that my experience was real experience, and not a delusion and that it is corroborated by ancient tradition. I made a study of those traditions, and I found that my experience is in conformity to the ancient traditions. After that I wrote my first book, and now in my 80th year I solemnly say this and this alone is the answer to modern crises.
The answer is this: The brain is evolving and present science doesn't know how. There is complete darkness about it because you cannot see this evolution of the brain. By external observation can see only neurons and their connections. It has to be seen from internal observation by awakening this power. When this power is awakened, then you are able to observe the internal working of the brain and that shows you that you are still evolving.
TK: What do you propose? How do we investigate this?
GK: I think any sane government, any good government, should first make research on the brain, on the nervous system. The ancient religious traditions, the ancient occult traditions. After all, we have to understand that religion has always been a companion of man. We have evidence that man was religious even two hundred thousand years ago. The first relics found show that those people were performing religious rituals, so it means religion has always been a part of human life.
What research have we made on it? We have made research on psychic coma. But no research on religious tradition and religious experience. If we were to devote as much time and resources as we devote to other scientific experiments, the results would be a hundred-fold more precious.
TK: The results would prove...
GK: The results will show that the human brain is still organically evolving, that certain lifestyles, certain ways of behavior are necessary to live in conformity to the inner changes, and that religion came in time to guide mankind on this path.
TK: And it is the path that will lead us to the stars, if it is our purpose to.
GK: It will lead humanity to this new dimension of consciousness. It will lead to the goal which nature has assigned for her. It will lead humanity to a peaceful co-existence, to happiness, to long life, to much greater achievement than she has done, even now. It will lead her to the exploration of the universe.
TK: How will this affect the political structure?
GK: I need not say, for the experiments will show what kind of life and what kind of environment a human being must have to evolve completely in harmony with the law of evolution, there will be more freedom.
TK: I believe that things happpen not by chance but by purpose to our life, that there is a purpose to our existence.
GK: Now, please tell me, can such a vast creation be purposeless? Can such a vast creation come out of nothing? Can such a vast creation ruled by laws be all composed of dead, insensitive matter? The very idea of being - existence - - comes from the mind. A rock or a mountain or an ocean has no idea of existence, this existence comes from intelligence, and the author of the universe must be intelligent. If we didn't have an intelligent creator, there would be no purpose to this existence. There must be a purpose. If there was no purpose, how have we then come to have a purpose in ourselves? We do everything with a purpose. How has this purpose come if there is no purpose in creation? How do we act on purpose? So it means that purpose and plan is a part of consciousness.
TK: The very fact that we build nuclear weapons is spiting nature's wrath. You said that nature is very merciful, and that nature will use the least amount of force to put us back on the proper path.
GK: Unless nature were merciful, how would we be here? You see this Earth, inside the Earth, fire, it is a volcano, inside inferno and outside the Earth fire. You have cosmic rays coming, for which you have an umbrella. Known as the "hemisphere layer" this umbrella is 50 miles from the earth. If you didn't have this layer there would be total destruction of all life in a short time. We are so protected that even on single slip or error can destroy all of life on Earth. If nature were not merciful, how could we live? The very fact that we are alive and that all these hazards around us are controlled by other powers means that nature is merciful and kind.
TK: And even though we are building nuclear weapons, spiting nature's wrath, nature will be merciful.
GK: It gives us chance after chance. Just as we overeat and go on overeating, many times nature forgives us. But when we indulge too much in this bad habit we have a serious pain in our digestive organs. When we overdo a thing then naturally disaster overtakes us, so we cannot blame nature. But ourselves, we have an intelligence, we have reason, we have learning. But if by having everything we ignore it, then of course nature has no alternative except to teach us by suffering. For instance, 16 civilizations have perished so far, and we are not even aware of what reasons prevailed that made those civilizations at the height of power mingle with dust. The reason is that at every stage of progress, life of man has to change.
For instance, a child grows up and he lives one type of life when is an infant. Another kind of child, has tastes, his activities change when he is an adolescent, then further when he is an adult. Then when he is mature and at last when he is old. At every stage he has different tastes, different activities, different ways of life. The same is the case of nations and people. They have to change at every stage in their development. For instance, there were once feudal systems: before that, clans, tribes, or monarchies. But now we have democracy, so even the systems of our governments are changing. Why? Because our brain is evolving. But when we stop living according to the laws of our evolution, we degenerate indignantly. This is also happening at present.
TK: If a man wants to go into his room and hang himself, no one can stop him. This is what we are doing with nuclear weapons.
GK: When we deviate from the path we invite suffering and disaster for us. There are devices in our brain, in consciousness, which when we digress we invite a calamity or disaster. We are devising nuclear weapons: there is no sense in that. War can be fought without nuclear weapons but we are devising weapons to punish ourselves.
TK: So what is the hope? Where does the hope come from?
GK: Heaven is always merciful. If we analyze the course of our present dilemma -- crisis -- and try to change that, try to live more in harmony with the laws of evolution, this threat will be averted. But if we continue like this there is no chance. We must suffer.
TK: What would you tell the leaders of the world?
GK: The leaders of the world have to be convinced and for that convincing the experiment is necessary.
TK: The analyzing of Kundalini energy?
GK: We have to show that the brain is evolving, and that this evolution needs a certain kind of harmonious life. If this life is denied, man degenerates and brings calamity upon himself.
TK: You have the Kundalini Research Foundation in Canada and in Switzerland. Please explain to the public what this is.
GK: It can be started anywhere. If it is good, it is started in many places. The United States can provide a beautiful environment for this experiment.
TK: You propose taking a hundred people and...
GK: For the experiment a hundred people will be needed but for running the organization we can have any number of people who have a deep passion for spiritual matters and who are prepared to mold their lives in consort with the spiritual laws. They would be more than welcome in this organization.
TK: And these hundred people will lead a life prescribed and hopefully out of this hundred, one or two will awaken.
GK: Out of the hundred to whom the disciplines are given, maybe three or four will show the symptoms, some time after which scientists can observe them.
TK: What would examples of this be? What will happen to these people?
GK: What will happen is that the brain activity will be increased and its effect will be found all over the body. There will be metabolic processes which can be measured. There will be physiological changes which can be measured.
TK: And the effects of this on the world?
GK: They will convince the biologist that this change of the mind, of the brain, has physiological systems. Those into whom these processes start may bloom into geniuses. By blooming into a mystic, both sides will be confirmed. For it is the evolution of the brain that creates a mystic or a genius.
TK: And these are the same mystics and geniuses all throughout time, that we would study in the past?
GK: For the first time we will study the religions and the occult literature of the world with an aim to finding how the brain evolves, and what methods are needed to make it more active so that the evolutionary processes become faster.
TK: So in effect this will be the spearhead of a new race of human beings to prove all human begins have this ability.
GK: It will be a spearhead for many things. It will be the spearhead of changes in the social and political systems. It will be a spearhead for the first time bringing to the notice of the race that there is the potential in every human being which is the most precious asset that he has, and which can transform him from a mortal into an immortal and eternal source of happiness.
TK: Is this what evolution has meant of human destiny and it is inevitable for this to take place?
GK: Man has come for this purpose. Otherwise please consider this for a moment: one whole planet -- the Earth -- and all its kingdom -- mineral, animal, everything -- is placed at his disposal. Why? Because man has to attain to other states of consciousness for which all these recourses are needed by him. Otherwise, if it is not a planned creation it would be useless to put all this at his disposal. If he has nothing to do, only to live like animals. It is because he has to reach to higher dimensions of consciousness that all this Earth and its resources have been placed at his disposal, and he has been granted an intelligence to make the best use of it.
TK: A strong love from birth, a strong mother and father, a strong, loving environment will help develop this.
GK: I can't say strong, but I can say that a more harmonious, more peaceful, more happy, more contented humanity will come out of this, and then in every generation there will be some people who have reached the higher dimensions. They will be the rulers, political leaders, scientists, and educators. They will guide the race to rise higher and higher and higher.
TK: And we don't have a spiritual leader of that magnitude today?
GK: At this time we do not but they will come. They will be born when experiments are made and what I say is confirmed.
TK: What is your wish for the children of the future?
GK: Children should be brought up with the ideal cultivated in them that the universe is ruled by an intelligent power, that they must cultivate purity, honesty, truth, compassion and live ideal lives. In that way they will conform to the evolutionary needs. That is the best thing we can do for the children.
TK: How can we help the people today who have been lost to drugs or have killed people? What do they need to know?
GK: When you place before them an alternative that in their own entirety there is a mind of happiness, an ocean of eternal life, and prove it they will take that path. You must show them a better incentive.
TK: What do we need to evolve moderate lifestyles? How can we effect our evolutionary process the best?
GK: We need healthy food, simple dress, a clean shelter, a wholesome occupation, education for our children, to have the highest happiness on the earth. Happiness comes from the mind, not from the world. A man may have all the luxuries but his mind might be depressed. He will never be happy. It is the mind that gives us happiness. A peasant, a poor farmer eating just a bread with a little salt, sometimes has a better appetite and eats with more relish, than a rich man who eats all his delicious food. Nature is very, very wise in this. I have seen people who live hardy lives who eat with such an appetite, simple foods that one would like to eat with them.
TK: Are the biological bases of manic depression, schizophrenia, and genius all manifestations of the same thing?
GK: Yes, they are interrelated. You see, if you do not live a disciplined life, then the awakening of this center can be unhealthy. We know that many of the geniuses perhaps have been most mentally unhealthy, had on mental disorder or the other. This is due to the fact that they did not know how they had to live. Similarly, we have this schizophrenia. Many people who think they are poets, some who think they are spiritual geniuses, some who think they are in touch with God. That means a distorted vision of the same power.
TK: It means that their Kundalini --if that's the right word -- is off balance.
GK: Yes, it means that the system is not pure and that the energy is not working in a healthy way.
TK: Do you feel that there are other life forms beyond our life?
GK: There can be in the universe different species of life more intelligent than we. It is a vast place and there can be thousands of species different and more intelligent than we.
PROPOSAL FOR
A SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION
INTO THE BIOLOGICAL MECHANISM
BEHIND HUMAN EVOLUTION
OVERVIEW
It has been said that Gopi Krishna’s greatest fault was that he had only one message and that all of his writings - more than a dozen books, scores of articles, interviews and lectures, and voluminous unpublished writings and correspondence - dealt with that message in one way or another.
The reason why he never varied this one message was because he took his directions from the Source from which he drew his inspiration. What the world stands most urgently in need of, he said, is knowledge of the Law of Evolution. The drama that is being enacted all over the earth at this moment is staged to bring about drastic changes in the thinking and behavior of the race. Nature is screaming warning after warning. This is what Gopi Krishna said when he first proposed that science should do its utmost to discover the Law of Evolution. He made this appeal to scientists, scholars and world leaders in "The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius", a landmark book published by Harper & Row in 1972. The noted scientist, Prof. C. F. von Weizsacker, director of the Max Planck Institute of Life Sciences, wrote the introduction.
In that book, Gopi Krishna pointed out that the mounting tensions in the world, increase in crime and violence, the trend towards more and more destructive machines of war, revolutions, terrorism and massacres, were the red-light signals of Nature foreboding disaster. If the leading minds of the world fail to interpret these red lights in the right way, a catastrophe is inevitable.
A VERITABLE TOWER OF BABEL
But the political leaders of almost all countries are entirely occupied with their own problems, and the leading scholars are lost in the labyrinth of their own learning. The result is that in spite of all the progress made, the earth has become a veritable Tower of Babel where the essentials needed for human survival, peace and happiness are lost in the hunt for faster cars, planes, computers or other extravagant additions to the existing flood of technologies and luxuries.
This is the reason why there is a virtual avalanche of interest in the study of consciousness at this time. The number of conferences, Web Sites, books, and other publications on consciousness is growing month by month. There is even talk about a new "science of consciousness", but it is not clear what this term means.
"The recent surge of interest in consciousness studies has left many commentators scratching their heads and looking for an explanation," says the publisher of the Journal of Consciousness Studies. "Seeing as science has effectively ignored the problem for most of this century, then why the sudden change? This used to be the province of religion, but we now look to science to provide a more authentic description of what it is to be a conscious agent."
When once the experiments proposed here are confirmed, there will be no subject that will receive as much sustained attention from scholars and scientists as this. The evolution of consciousness will shortly be taken up by scholars in all its different aspects - spiritual, psychological, sociological and biological. But the most colossal task will be to explain the evolution of the mind in terms of the organic evolution of the brain.
MYSTICAL CONSCIOUSNESS DEFINED BIOLOGICALLY
This would mean, for example, that the transcendental state of consciousness, experienced in the form of ecstasy by prophets and mystics, does not signify a special favor from God but only a more extended dimension of the perceptual faculty towards which mankind is irresistibly evolving.
As far as we know, this is the first time that Mystical Consciousness, or the organic mechanism leading to it, namely Kundalini, have been defined in this way. Credit for this monumental discovery must be given to the illuminated sages of ancient India. We are only presenting their discoveries and knowledge in the language of science.
BEYOND ANYTHING CURRENTLY PROPOSED
We are not saying that the human mind is evolving towards an undefined summit, as Teilhard de Chardin and others have said. What we are suggesting is that human consciousness is evolving towards a predetermined target and that this target is the mystical or illuminated state attained by thousands of mystics and enlightened human beings in the past. The religious scriptures of the world are a harvest of the revelations received from a higher Intelligence in this state of exalted being.
Investigation into Kundalini, therefore, goes far beyond anything currently under way or proposed by scholars in other fields of consciousness research. By penetrating to the very roots of consciousness, the research will attempt to unravel the mysterious world of intuition, creativity and evolution, and by doing so seek to uncover the source from which all knowledge, science, art and philosophy has sprung, namely genius.
A GREAT NEED FOR GENIUSES
The world at this time stands in desperate need of geniuses, especially political geniuses who could bring in line the existing systems of politics with the needs of millions of fast-evolving human beings.
In jurisprudence, geniuses are needed to revise the outmoded, cumbersome systems dating from the Romans. In science, in healing, and in social science, geniuses are needed to remedy the present imbalances and plant society firmly on the path to the sublime state which is its destined evolutionary goal. Kundalini research would be based on the premise that there is a potentiality in the human brain, not merely a spiritual but an organic potentiality as well which, when actualized, can alter the state of the mirror through which average men and women perceive the image of the universe. With this alteration, the whole aspect of creation is changed and a new horizon opens.
It is only in this state of transformed consciousness that the real nature of the mind stands revealed, and the conclusion becomes clear that the cosmic image, presented by our senses, is not a reality in itself, but a reflection of the mind. And this reflection can vary with alterations in the state or dimension of the mind itself.
KUNDALINI, THE EVOLUTIONARY ENERGY IN MAN
For thousands of years, mystics have been unanimous in their avowals that the physical universe is the creation or projection of a Divine Immanence, but they never succeeded in imparting the vision to their compatriots or convincing the learned that such a transformation of the world image and the observing mind is possible. Or that it is only in this state of enhanced perception that the real nature of the Cosmos is exposed.
They did not succeed because all human beings, except these few specially gifted ones, view the universe through the same sensory channels and the same mirror of the mind without ever having a chance, except rarely in dreams, to transcend this state of confinement.
What we are saying about creativity, genius, and evolution, is not intellectual or theoretical but born of the experience gained by Gopi Krishna over a period of nearly fifty years. He observed himself as meticulously and dispassionately as an empiricist would observe an object under study in his own laboratory. He never allowed his feelings to influence his judgment in the least.
His experience was so extraordinary that it is hard to imagine another recorded narrative anywhere of similar happenings. Even so, he purposely refrained from narrating some of the more bizarre incidents, even in his autobiography, "Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man", because he felt they would be unacceptable to a rational mind.
THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF KUNDALINI
From the time of the Vedas to the present day, there has existed a tradition in India that there is a force in the human body, residing at the base of the spine, known as Kundalini, which means "the coiled," that can be aroused to activity, with certain mental and physical disciplines, including meditation and a righteous way of life. When aroused, this force rises to a certain region in the brain, known as Brahmarendra or the cavity of Brahman, which, also, is simultaneously awakened to activity.
It is said, that when this happens, the human mind is transformed and attains to a state known as mystical ecstasy or samadhi. This mystical ecstasy has been a repeated feature of history and is confirmed by the self-written narratives of mystics and saints, both of the East and the West, in different cultures of the world.
The basic features of the phenomenon tally with each other, which shows the uniformity of the experience and its objective nature. This very same force is said to be the source of inspiration and genius in numerous treatises on the subject from the Vedas to our day.
Inasmuch as Gopi Krishna’s own experience coincided in almost all respects with the ancient Kundalini traditions, concerning its transformative effects on the human brain, he considered it his solemn duty to make it known to the world for investigation and confirmation.
THOUSANDS OF TEXTS ON KUNDALINI
The volume of literature on Kundalini (or the Serpent power) is enormous. In India alone there are thousands of books, including the Tantras, dealing with this holy subject in Sanskrit and other regional languages of the country. Kundalini has also been known for thousands of years among occultists, alchemists and esoteric brotherhoods in Europe.
The serpent symbol on the forehead of the pharaohs, the hermetic doctrines and the mystery cults of Greece and Rome are all related to the knowledge of the Serpent power. The caduceus or the rod of mercury, which serves now as an academic emblem, is a symbolic representation of this power as clear as the diagrammatic symbols used in India.
There is conclusive evidence to show that Kundalini has been known throughout the past, both in the old and new worlds as a jealously guarded secret of a few. The only period in history when the subject has been delegated to the dustbin of superstition and myth is the present rationalistic era of the last two hundred years.
GOPI KRISHNA’S OWN EXPERIENCE
A few months before his death in 1984, Gopi Krishna was asked to write an article on creativity for "Impact of Science on Society", a journal published by the United Nations. Although he was unable to submit the article before he died, he had completed about 6,000 words. The following is an excerpt from that article:
"After my first experience [with Kundalini], I oscillated between life and death, sanity and insanity, for nearly twelve years and experienced the indescribable ecstasies of the mystics on the one hand and the agonies of the mentally afflicted on the other. For part of this period my mental state became so acute that, when retiring to my bed at night, I was never sure whether or not I would rise alive or sane in the morning.
"But almost by a miracle my reason and judgment remained unimpaired, which allowed me always to evaluate my mental condition day and night. I clearly saw my whole organism battling with a new situation in my interior, as if a new and powerful psychic energy was operating in my brain and the nerves in place of the former, much weaker, current whose passage I could not feel at all.
"But the powerful energy now circulating in my system filled my head with a silvery luster and darted through my nerves and organs in flashes of light. At the same time, I started to hear an inner cadence, varying in tone and pitch, from time to time, which has lasted to this day. This play of sound is known as unstruck melody in all the books on Kundalini or yoga in India and is an unmistakable sign of the awakening of this power.
BATHED IN A HEAVENLY LUSTER
"Inner light is an invariable feature of mystical experience and has been variously described by the mystics of all ages and climes. In the mystical trance the subject finds his visionary experiences bathed in a heavenly luster and, sometimes, hears voices or sounds coming out of empty space around. After nearly twelve years of uncertainty and suspense I found myself well established in a new state of perception, resulting from a continued biological transformation that had occurred during this long period.
"In my ignorance, I could not make the head or the tail, however, because the whole province of this extraordinary potential in the human body is shrouded in mystery. There is no knowledge or record of it except in obscure language or veiled hints in the occult or mystical literature of mankind.
AN IRRESISTIBLE URGE TO WRITE
"I now came to realize that every panorama of nature had a beauty for me that I had never noticed before. Every landscape or scene which I observed and every object which I saw was bathed in a milky luster which enchanted me and I could hardly take off my eyes from it so fascinating was the spectacle at times.
"My ears were always listening to a melody which enraptured me except at times when I had some health problem when the sounds became somewhat discordant and harsh, as if to warn me that something was amiss in my interior.
"This helped me times without number to assess the condition of my health and to take precautions in time. This was not all. About the end of this period I felt an irresistible urge to write in verse. This urge finally culminated in a small booklet of poetry, written in nine languages, out of which four were unknown to me.
"I had never written a line of poetry in my life, and in normal conditions was incapable of writing even a few lines in rhyme and meter even if I tried for days. But now I found that finished lines of poetry, whole paragraphs, or even entire poems came to me in a flash as if emerging from the surrounding emptiness and, sometimes, I found it difficult to put them on paper so rapid was the flow.
A VERITABLE PARADISE IN MY INTERIOR
"The rapture experienced in the mystical state is said to be beyond anything experienced in normal awareness. The mystics of both the East and the West are unanimous in their avowals about this aspect of mystical ecstasy. From the day I found myself established in this state of transport I never went back to the chaotic experiences of the past.
"The new awareness which invested every object and every scene I witnessed with a beauty and a glory I had never perceived before, instead of ceasing after a time became a more and more stable and a lasting feature of my consciousness.
"Today I live in a veritable paradise in my interior. The colors I see, as for instance the blue of the sky, are so lovely and bathed in a silvery radiance and the music I hear is so melodious, at times, that if I did not restrain myself I might swoon with the sheer rapture of it.
"I know that what I say might appear incredible but there is ample material in the Upanishads, and in the writings of great mystics, like Abhinaba Gupta and Shankaracharya and others in India, also in some of the Sufis, Christian mystics and Taoists, which shows that such a condition of perennial beatitude is possible.
"Not only this, but soon after my attempts at writing in verse, I felt an irresistible urge to learn other languages. Unfortunately, utter lack of resources and the unsettled state of my physical health made it impossible for me to satisfy this desire and to engage the services of teachers for this purpose. I did not have even the means to educate my children properly or to provide myself with some of the articles of diet I needed.
"This aggravated my health problems and it was not until I was sixty-four years of age that I could command the means to meet my needs and to settle down to a peaceful and creative life. My first book was published in 1967 and since then fifteen more volumes have been printed and about a dozen more unfinished tomes await publication in the immediate future.
WRITING FOR IMPACT OF SCIENCE ON SOCIETY
"I at first hesitated to write for the "Impact of Science on Society", under the impression that what I had to say did not fall in the province of modern science, but, reflecting on the fact that the phenomena investigated by parapsychology are now accepted as possible by a large section of scientists, and also that the chance-born nature of life and mind advocated by Darwin and his successors which influenced scientific thinking for nearly a century is now under fire, I feel that the time is opportune to present my experience as a factor to be considered in a scientific discussion of creativity and innovation.
"I do not claim that my poetry or my prose possess that excellence which is the hallmark of genius but for one who had never been a poet or a writer all his life the sudden acquisition of the gifts, at an advanced age, as it happened in my case, is not an ordinary occurrence and I view it in the same way as Newton viewed the fall of an apple as an indication of the universal law of gravity.
"I have presented these few facts about my experience not for any personal reasons, but on account of the tremendous scientific potential which they possess. Briefly summarized the conclusions that emerge from this experience are as follows:
"1. That the gift of creativity was exhibited when the turmoil caused in the system on the arousal of Kundalini had subsided nearly twelve years after the first experience, during which the bodily changes experienced were meticulously observed.
"2. That the poetry and even prose is inspired, which is borne out by the rapidity with which it is written and the swiftness with which the ideas crowd in the mind, a phenomenon experienced by a number of gifted writers and poets even during recent times.
"3. The paranormal nature of some of the writings, especially in verse, about the future a clear case of precognition and prophecy. To be more precise I call it prognostication and not prediction though, all the same, it falls into the category of the paranormal. The experience related meets all three categories of creativity, namely the normal, paranormal and the prophetic.
FUELED BY A MORE POTENT PSYCHIC ENERGY
"By suggesting the activity of a specific area of the brain and its fueling by a more potent psychic energy, as the true source of creativity, psychic gifts and mystical experience, the riddle of the extraordinary achievements of child prodigies is also solved.
"What I have stated covers the entire field of creativity and paranormal phenomena. The abnormality of genius and, to some extent, of the mystics and mediums, also is explained by my traumatic experiences for nearly twelve years after the experience.
"Abnormal conditions arise when the body as a whole or any organ or organs are not able to adapt themselves to the flow of the new psychic energy or when the lifestyle followed or the mode of behavior is not in harmony with the inner processes of the creative mind. “
"It is not that genius is closely allied to or a form of madness or the result of degeneration but that it is attended by abnormal states of the mind or body, because there is a complete lack of knowledge of the psychosomatic mechanism responsible for it and of the pattern of life to be followed by those in whom this Promethean fire is burning bright.
NOW KUNDALINI HAS BECOME WELL KNOWN
"When my autobiography, "Kundalini, The Evolutionary Energy in Man", was published in 1967, I expected trenchant criticism from the skeptics and a barrage of questions from the learned but, although the work has been translated and published in many languages of the world, it has not excited even a fragment of the incredulity I had expected.
"On the contrary, other books on the subject have been published, a few by scientists and, what is more surprising, even Kundalini clinics have been opened to treat patients with ill effects from the arousal of this power brought about by the practice of yoga or other forms of spiritual discipline. The phenomenon has more or less been accepted, perhaps on account of the prevalence of occult traditions concerning this power in many parts of the earth.
"Whatever the reason, the phenomenon of Kundalini has become well known. And because of its implications as a major factor in creativity and mental disorder, it stands in urgent need of a thorough scientific investigation which has not been conducted so far.
THE MATERIAL COMES EFFORTLESSLY
"I have been led to the conclusion that Kundalini is the source of inspiration by comparing the creative process in myself with that reported or narrated by other writers, poets, painters, musicians and the rest. I often write in full consciousness, weighing every word which flashes across my mind before putting it down on paper.
"But the material comes effortlessly, sentence after sentence, passage after passage or line after line of poetry, usually rhymed. It seems as if completed sentences, couplets, or quatrains already formed are floating before my mind to be recorded.
"Sometimes I am filled with awe at the way in which the creative process works. Whole pages or even chapters flash before my inner eye so rapidly that I am not able to write them down however hard I may try to do so. The gaps left are filled later.
"As I have already stated, my whole inner being is now like a brilliantly lighted chamber of immeasurable dimensions. The moment I try to measure its limits, it expands further and further until I feel myself floating in a measureless void. In deeper moods it is from this unbounded emptiness that the words and the ideas seem to arise and vanish again after imprinting themselves upon my memory.
POINCARE AND COLERIDGE AS CASES IN POINT
"The mathematician Henri Poincare mentions that one evening, after having drunk black coffee, he lay awake unable to sleep and became a spectator of an ordinarily hidden aspect of his own spontaneous creative activity. Ideas rose in crowds: I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination. By the next morning I had established the existence of a class of Fuchsian functions, those which come from the hypergeometric series. I had only to write out the results, which took but a few hours. It is clear Poincare was not really asleep but a spectator of the process occurring in his interior, which went on beyond his control.
"Coleridge describes a somewhat similar experience in writing Kubla Khan. He continued for about three hours in a profound sleep, at least of the external senses, during which time he has the most vivid confidence that he could not have composed less than from two to three hundred lines, if that can indeed be called composition, in which all the images rose up before him as things with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions without any sensation or consciousness of effort. On awaking, he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines."
EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS
The confusion among scholars about the factor or factors responsible for the birth and the growth of the moral sense is due to the fact that there is no awareness about the evolutionary dynamics of the brain. The evolution of morals has not occurred either through the exercise of reason or through experience.
The crude struggle for existence draws into play those resources the body and properties of the mind which help one to overcome the other competitors and rivals in the race for survival. The emphasis of this struggle would therefore be on the strength of brain and muscle, on endurance and courage, on cleverness and wit, on strategy and cunning, on deceit and trickery, planning and plotting, falsehood and sham, or on violence and aggression, to achieve the dominating position in the battle.
These are the traits that we continually see at work in the animal kingdom everywhere on land, in the ocean or the air. But the moral virtues that have been highly regarded since the dawn of civilization and are admired even today are the very opposite of these traits.
Innocence has a greater appeal to the heart than cleverness, frankness than duplicity, truth than falsehood, simplicity than sophistication, humility than pride, honesty than deception, self denial than indulgence, pacifism than aggression, calmness than violence, artlessness than deceit and trickery and so on.
Some of these virtues are in direct opposition to the essential qualifications needed for the ruthless battle for self existence. But the learned have no awareness of the factors that have brought about this change in the instinctive armor necessary for survival. The theologian ascribes the emergence of morals to divine commandments transmitted through Revelation. Scholars ascribe their growth to mundane causes—for instance, the demands of civilization—but without convincing evidence.
The inference is obvious that for any kind of moral behavior which militates against the demands of the struggle for existence, there must occur changes in the depth of the human psyche and consequently in those intricate mechanisms of the cerebrospinal system that give rise to it. Ethics and reason represent the two branches of the same tree confused by the vicissitudes through which mankind has passed and the variances in the moral impulse displayed throughout.
We find it difficult to reconcile the erratic behavior of the ethical sense with the action of a consistent evolutionary principle in the human mind. But this is exactly where the error lies. Looking at the path we can easily find that the growth of reason has always been attended by absurd behavior, irrationality and superstition, as if two opposite forces were contending for supremacy through the human mind.
In the same way morality has been accompanied by immorality and even diabolic traits of character, deceit, untruth, ruthlessness and inhumanity to this day.
Pinholes in Other Planes of Infinity
We often do not give sufficient thought to the colossal task which evolution has to accomplish. It represents a rise from the earth to the sky. A clod of earth has to gain the power of thinking, of awakening to the knowledge of itself and then of the universe round it. A handful of insensitive matter has to win a state of awareness where it can mingle with a consciousness which pervades the universe, from a handful of dust to be one with the All. It is a stupendous transformation, a mighty drama which only an absolute power could design, stage and play.
We are wont to underestimate the inconceivably vast dimensions of creation and the stupendous proportions of the power of it because our mind and senses, like the brain and the eyes of an ant on a tree floating upon the surface of an ocean are not able to register our own insignificant position compared with the titanic forces by which we are encompassed.
We believe that the picture of the universe presented to us by the mind and intellect is all that there is, and we start to speculate how the entity we picture could have come into existence. We never expand our thinking to be conscious of the fact that we are staring at an infinity through a pinhole and that there are countless other pinholes in other planes of creation through which this infinity can be viewed.
In countless different ways each pinhole presents a different image of it. The colossal nature consciousness begins to dawn only when the human limit of perception is exceeded through the grace of the still partially hidden biological mechanism responsible for evolution. For the attainment of a transhuman dimension of consciousness, the evolution of morals is as much, if not more, necessary than the evolution of the intellect. A monkey who knows how to ignite the fuse leading to a store of gun powder cannot be expected to be nice about it when his instinct drives him to set fire to it.
Modern man, with the power to use the awful force of nuclear fusion for destructive purposes, is hesitant to employ it partly because of moral scruples and partly because of the equally terrible retaliatory action that would follow. But he has certainly not attained to the moral stature yet when the very idea of using such a weapon either for offense or for defense would be repugnant to him.
Wars can be fought even without the use of instruments that can annihilate the whole of mankind and even wipe off life from earth. He has also not attained to the moral height where the massacre of defenseless and innocent men, women and children, not involved in actual fighting, would be repellent to his mind. The fact that both these moral considerations were thrown to the winds in the wars fought during this century is a clear indication of the fact that moral evolution has not kept pace with the evolution of the intellect.
The Effect of the First Nuclear Blast
The effect of this disposition between the moral and intellectual evolution of humanity can be disastrous in the extreme. This is the real cause behind the highly explosive and dangerous situation of today. By creating these tensions and pressures, the aim of Nature is to teach this important lesson to mankind.
The overgrown intellect, denied true insight, exhausts itself in ferreting out the causes for- the crisis and proposes remedies without ever lighting upon the truth. All the academic hair-splitting and the noisy hubbub of the learned world will vanish with the first blast of nuclear weapons in the next World War. Until then, unable to see into the future, it will continue to thrust its opinions on a multitude already hopelessly lost in the confusion it has caused.
Entry to transhuman consciousness highly adds to the responsibilities of man. We have gained the awareness now of the potentialities of the intellect and the almost limitless power it can exercise both for destructive and constructive purposes.
Our forefathers only a century back had no awareness of the technological achievements possible to man with the exercise of his mental ability and skill. What undreamed of possibilities will open before man and what stupendous forces will come under his sway with the further evolution of his mind to the transhuman state is impossible to conceive of at present.
It might become possible for him then to extend his sovereignty over all the solar system as he now extends it over the earth. But how can Nature allow man to win this sovereign position unless he has also gained the capability to shoulder the highly increased responsibility in a befitting manner, and not to abuse the almost unlimited powers gained?
Dominating Supermundane Forces
This is the reason why in every case of the awakening of the evolutionary mechanism secret devices in the brain come into play to mold the individual towards a state of mind where the possibility of abuse of psychic power is eliminated. The desire for self reform is the first sign of the activity of this dormant psycho-physiological mechanism.
This is also the reason why almost all those who possess psychic talents are never able to control the power, or to exhibit them at their own will and choice, or often even to remain alert and conscious when the phenomena come to pass.
This is also the reason why through all the past, in spite of the great advances made in spiritual science, as for instance in India, the secret of domination over the super-intelligent forces of creation was never revealed.
It is also why discoveries, whether in the spiritual or the material realm, were made in a series of different minds and were not vouchsafed to but one individual, including Buddha and Christ, however high their spiritual stature might have been.
Unfortunately, our notions of immorality are still distorted. War is not considered to be an immoral act. If it were, then the armed forces of nations would not receive the approbation, the honor and the homage that they do.
But prostitution on the part of a woman who is driven to it by starvation, by reduction or by other pressures in her life is considered to be a grossly immoral act.
This disorientation and confusion in our ethical values and ideas about immorality is due to the fact that there is no awareness at all about the aim of evolution and the moral code of behavior that must be followed, by the individuals and the race, to achieve it.
Excess Erudition Damages the Brain
Excess of erudition can be as damaging to the evolutionary activity of the brain as excess of any other kind. If it were the aim of Nature to turn it into a computer then inspiration and the flash of discovery would have been denied and great writers and thinkers provided with the resources of the intellect to compose their great works or to initiate the laws of science.
But according to the affirmations of some of the greatest minds which mankind has produced, it is obvious that all really great works of literature, all great masterpieces of painting, music, sculpture, of philosophy, and all the discoveries of science were made by minds which, in addition to accumulated knowledge and intelligence, had the gift of intuitive insight or inspiration.
To say that inspiration or creativity comes from the subconscious is to make the confusion worse confounded. If the subconscious has access to new knowledge never gathered before, or to laws of the physical world never discovered in the past or has the capacity to create works of art never thought of previously, it then clearly means that it excels the surface consciousness in all that is original and creative.
In all our thinking about man, about his social, political, cultural behavior and dietetic needs, the factor of evolution has never been taken into consideration. But there can be no doubt that it will be necessary to revise our thinking and to overhaul all the existing systems to conform when once the reality is established beyond dispute.
The experience of life imparts a knowledge that cannot be gained in any other way. Even the study of the whole existing literature on human behavior cannot make us so wise about the complex nature of human life as experience can do. It is a great mistake to suppose that entry to the transcendental stale of consciousness can make one infallible, all wise and all knowing.
Attribution of infallibility and absolute wisdom to prophets and sages has been mainly responsible for the evils of religion. If the race is not to stagnate human knowledge must continue to grow to the end. The dogma of infallibility precludes further progress in knowledge and is, therefore, inimical to the evolution of the mind.
I do not feel myself to be superior in any way to my fellow human beings. There is no idea of purity or chastity, virtue or saintliness in my mind to inflate my ego. Our whole constitution stands on frailty. We live at the mercy of forces beyond our ken. I still continue to learn from my friends and associates.
There is hardly any man or woman who has not a beautiful trait of character or a small store of wisdom lying inside. It is through the inherent goodness in human beings that mankind is able to prosper and progress.
Religious Dogma Precludes Progress
Legions hesitate to speak an untruth, to sell dear, to adulterate, to be unjust, to deceive, to blackmail, to be mean or avaricious, not out of fear of the law but because of an impulse in their interior which keeps them on the side of right. The great importance of religions and their founders has lain in the fact that they sowed and nurtured this righteous impulse. The materialistic thinking of the last two centuries now poses a great threat to mankind because it tends to uproot and destroy this natural, still-developing sense.
The only exceptional knowledge I possess is the harvest of the extraordinary experience I have undergone. I still keep my intellect free and benefit immensely from the books I read. In my contact with the world, in my knowledge of it, I am no better than millions of my fellow beings and, maybe, at times display even less practical sense than many of them.
In my contact with the transcendental world to which I slowly gained entry, after the awakening, I am but a child, constantly wondering at what I perceive, trying to pick up the alphabet of a language more difficult than any knowledge of the physical universe ever gained. The supreme experience is staggering, enrapturing, blissful and inspiring but, at the same time, inexplicable and ungraspable by the intellect. The experience is illuminating, no doubt, because it reveals the grandeur, sublimity and eternal nature of the soul but beyond that what? All that is beyond lies out of the reach of the intellect and hence cannot be translated into any language devised by the mind.
The inscrutable and ineffable nature of mystical ecstasy cannot constitute a permanent barrier to the unraveling the Great Mystery. The evolution of man is a transition from darkness to light. But this transition has to occur in millions of years.
A New Concept of Religion
At the first dim dawn of reason the new processes of thought must have appeared strange and inexplicable to the evolving primate. He must have felt bewildered when the new-born faculty began to overrule the instinctive behavior of the mind.
Entry to another dimension of consciousness, where reason is superseded, must have the same perplexing and mystifying effect on the mind. When this area of study is accurately demarcated with painstaking research of the phenomenon, a new alphabet, a new language and new symbols will develop to understand and interpret the experience.
A time will shortly come when all the resources of science and the intellect will be mobilized to gain more and more insight into this extraordinary state expressible in terms of the intellect. The evolutionary concept puts a different complexion on religion. The myths of divine birth, miraculous transformations and special delegation are entirely ruled out.
It has to be conceded then that the whole race is evolving in the same direction followed by the great prophets, sages and mystics of the past and has to achieve the same goal. It has also to be admitted then that what we call miraculous, supernatural or paranormal might be the outcome of laws ruling the spiritual world or the forces compounding it of which we have no real awareness at present.
There can be no two opinions about the fact that all the great spiritual prodigies of the past had the same kind of body, the same physiognomy, the same brain, the same power of reasoning and the same emotions as other normal human beings. They were prone to hunger and thirst, to age and decay. They were vulnerable to disease and death; and even in the length of their life span they were like other human beings.
KUNDALINI IN TIME AND SPACE
by Gopi Krishna
Chapter One
There are some facts about Kundalini which it is necessary to grasp first before the idea of the chakras and the nature of the force that rises through them can be properly conceptualized. This elucidation is needed to clear the errors and misconceptions that exist, at present, about this Divine Power and which, incorporated in the books written on the subject, in our time, tend to create erroneous ideas in the minds of those who read them. In the Tantras and the Shakti Shastras, Kundalini is invariably designated as a Goddess or as the Creative Power of the Absolute. In the present-day versions it is often referred to as a "Force," as "Serpent Power", or as "Energy" which does not portray the sovereign stature of this Almighty Architect.
When, in my writings, I refer to Kundalini as a dormant force, lying coiled three and a half times at the base of the spine, I but repeat the traditional view, as expressed in the ancient treatises on the subject. I am led to follow this course as, otherwise, confusion is likely to be created if there is a radical difference in what I say and what is stated in the ancient documents on which the current popular ideas are based.
But I always make it clear that there are two aspects of the Power: First, the individual aspect where She can be said to be lying dormant at the base of the spine and second, Her Cosmic Aspect, which is beyond our understanding. In dealing with Kundalini, we deal with an element of creation that is beyond the reach of the intellect. The Energy, named as the Serpent Power or Kundalini Force, is not at all an energy or a force in the sense in which this term is used in modern science, or in any sense in which the idea of an active force is used in any language of our day.
In order to elucidate further what I mean I can do no better than take the help of the following few verses from Vijnana Bhairava, an esoteric treatise dealing with meditational techniques used for expansion of consciousness. Replying to a question from His spouse, Parvati (Shakti or Kundalini), to reveal His real nature, Lord Shiva (Bhairava), as the Creator, replies:-
"O Auspicious One, though wrapt in deep secrecy, I shall still reveal to you what the form or shape of Bhairava is said to be."
"O Shining One, that (the form or shape of Bhairava) should be understood to be unreal, like a magic show, illusory, dreamlike, delusive, like (an unsubstantial) city of Ghandarvas (a mythical class of Celestial Beings)."
"This (the Deity with shape and form) is for the purpose of contemplation of people with deluded intellects, who make a show of religious rites and labor only under a load of error."
"In the real sense, the Supreme Deity has neither nine forms, nor is He Bhairava, nor even the three-headed One (said to be the form of Lord Shiva), nor even in the form of three-fold Energy."
"He is neither of the nature of sound (nada), nor dot (bindu), nor is there the condition of the crescent moon (that is, there is no crescent of the moon adorning Him), nor is He differentiated by the system of chakras (through which the Shakti rises), nor is He even of the form of Shakti (Cosmic Energy or Kundalini)."
"These (formulations) are for (people of) unawakened intellects to serve like bugbears to children or like the sweets offered by mothers to their infants for their appeasement."
"He is beyond the limits of time, space and direction. He cannot be explained by simile nor named, nor qualified, nor described in the real sense."
"He is internally blissful by His own Self-awareness and becomes perceptible when one is free of ignorance. That state of fullness, O Bhairavi (Parvati, Shakti) belongs to Bhairava (Universal Consciousness)."
"That form should be realized in its true proportions as being pure and filling the worlds. This being the Supreme Form (of Bhairava), how can he be worshiped or propitiated?"
"In this way the state of Bhairava (Universal Consciousness) has been fully described. That highest state with the Supreme Form has been eulogized as the Highest Energy."
"Just as power and the possessor of power remain always unseparated, in the same way, by virtue of this law, the Supreme Self and its Supreme Energy are both one."
"The burning power of fire cannot be thought of as being separate from the fire itself. Only when this insight is gained, that marks the beginning of initiation (true knowledge)." (8-19)
These few verses from a work, primarily intended for the instruction of Yoga teachers, written more than a thousand years ago, make it clear that the adepts in India always made a distinction between the esoteric concepts of Divinity and formular images placed before the aspirants for worship or to meditate upon in the initial stages. The Creator and His Creative Energy are one, as a fire and its heat are not two separate entities but one. Therefore, when talking or reading about Kundalini, this position has always to be kept before the mind: that Kundalini is the Creative Power of the Absolute beyond name and form.
The tragedy of our time is that we try to interpret every object or every force and element in the universe in terms graspable by the intellect. In fact, our concepts about the Almighty Source of Creation or Divinity are also often determined by our reason. We make every possible effort to interpret realities, beyond the utmost limits of our mind, in terms intelligible to us in the light of our experience of the physical world. This is a hopeless task. Our minds are designed to perceive and interpret objects and events within a certain extremely narrow range, permitted to our senses. Everything beyond that is as foreign and incomprehensible to us as a florid, sunny surface of the earth would be to marine creatures lying hundreds of fathoms deep in the dark depths of the ocean impervious to the light of the sun.
The reason why spiritual genius has been so scarce in the last two centuries is because, in the exuberance of their intellectual achievements, the learned have lost sight of the fact that the province of the Divine is entirely beyond the grasp of reason.
This being so, all those who wish to embark on this quest have first to become aware of the fact that what they are seeking belongs to an order which is entirely different from that to which they are accustomed on the earth. The reason why, in spite of the position that millions are practicing Yoga in our day, success in the enterprise is so rare is because the seekers often take up the discipline without a clear idea of the direction it would take or of the sublime state to which it would lead.
The practice of fast reading, which is becoming a confirmed habit of intelligent readers of our time, is sadly misplaced when applied to a study dealing with the Super-physical and the Divine. This unhealthy habit is at the root of the general ignorance prevailing about mystical experience and the sublime truths of religion in our day. An intellectual, fully informed of the latest additions to human knowledge, when studying a book like the Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Vasishta, the Bible or the Upanishads, often ends up with the impression that he has grasped what the author intended to convey, in the same way as he does after studying a work on a mundane theme. But this is an error which has to be rectified before all that has been written about Kundalini or higher consciousness in time-honored original works on the subject can be really understood by an intelligent reader of our time.
I am not saying this out of pride or out of any sense of special importance of the subject with which I am dealing. I say this because in studying a book on the subtle forces of Nature, like Kundalini or the Transcendental State to which they can lead, we for the first time enter a territory which is foreign to our senses and our mind. For this reason, a certain period of probation and a certain sustained application of the mind is necessary to grasp the rudiments of a subject which begins at the frontier where our rational faculty ends.
There are not many scientists, it is said, who thoroughly understand the equations which establish the theory of relativity. But the number of those who can grasp the profundity of the ideas expressed in books like Vijnana Bhairava, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads and even some of the abstruse chapters of Plato, is likely to be even less. It is possible to master the theory of relativity with a thorough study of the mathematical equations and astronomical observations on which it is based. But we cannot understand the implications of the references to Divine states of consciousness or subtle planes of creation without direct experience, even if we spend all our life in studying the scriptures and the esoteric works on these recondite subjects.
Another factor responsible for the decline in spiritual knowledge and the erroneous impressions, prevailing in the minds of seekers, is the reliance on the false assurances held out by many professional spiritual teachers of our time about the efficacy of their methods in leading one to God-consciousness or other sublime goals. Due to lack of correct knowledge, the seekers, in general, including intellectuals, believe in these assurances and spend many precious years of their lives in practicing the disciplines without ever attaining the true goal. On the other hand, the disappointment caused creates a revulsion of feeling in many honest seekers that tends to shake their faith and to turn them from one teacher to the other in a vain attempt to gain their end.
The reason for what I say is simple; what we call God-consciousness is not an object which we have to search for from a distance and achieve solely with our own efforts, irrespective of the feeling on the other side. But God-consciousness surrounds us day and night, permeates every cell and every fibre of our body, acts behind our thoughts, feelings, aspirations and hopes and, like an all-seeing eye, is always probing our heart to know our innermost thoughts and plans.
What, therefore, can be said of spiritual teachers who persuade their disciples into the belief that the methods, prescribed by them, can help to experience this Almighty, Omniscient and Omnipresent Spirit which oversees every action and every thought both of the teachers and the taught? Many students believe in these assurances because they fail to devote sufficient study and time to the preliminary knowledge of a subject, dealing with states of being and levels of creation, where the most penetrating intellect is rendered impotent, like the nocturnal bat when confronted by the bright light of the sun.
We are duped because we do not take sufficient pains to study the scriptures of mankind and the works of masters, accepted as authorities from ancient times. We are duped because we carry the habit of fast reading and intellectual assessment into the realm of the Super-mundane. We are duped because the learned world has not yet awakened to the truth that the revealed religious teaching of mankind, irrespective of where and when it was imparted, was intended to be the first code of direction for shaping human life to reach the evolutionary target of Cosmic Consciousness for the race.
The reason is we still fail to understand that the simple narratives of the great founders of faiths and all the well-known mystics, sages and seers of the past contain more valuable germs of truth than the sophisticated, highly colored and profusely illustrated spiritual or occult works of our time.
Chapter Two
What has been stated in the preceding chapter can be clarified by a simple illustration. Let us suppose that an aspirant, eager to start the practice of meditation, approaches a teacher and seeks to learn how to practice the discipline. The idea behind the search usually is to find an effective method that could help the said aspirant to gain self-awareness or an answer to the problems about himself and the universe that weigh upon his mind.
We already know what type of answers present-day spiritual teachers return to these interrogations from their disciples. A method is prescribed and the disciple is asked to practice it regularly, while observing a certain disciplined lifestyle with careful attention to his thought, behavior, diet, sexual activity, intercourse with other people and the like. This type of teaching, with the presentation of a variety of methods and disciplines to regulate the mental and physical behavior, is contained in hundreds of books, written during recent times on the subject. But these venerable teachers and the well-written books seldom tell the eager seekers the plain truth that the instruction they need is contained in a simpler, better and more effective way in the revealed scriptures of their own and other faiths of mankind.
Similar is the case with the methods advocated to arouse Kundalini. In addition, the treatises contain intriguing pictures of the chakras, their lotuses, the tutelary Deity of each lotus, the letters of the alphabet marked on each petal of the lotus, the prominent color of each chakra and other mystifying diagrams which have a strong attraction for a certain class of seekers, interested in the miraculous and the occult. There are so many versions of the chakras, so many variations of the colors and the diagrams shown in them and so many divergent accounts of the functions they perform, contained in hundreds of published works and ancient manuscripts, that anyone looking for a consistent explanation of the phenomenon is sure to find himself in a labyrinth from which it is impossible to find a way out.
Edgar Cayce has discussed Kundalini in one of his readings and offered his own explanation of the force.1 There are scores of books, written during the last few years, that link Kundalini with secret methods of sexual indulgence. There are hundreds of books on alchemy, occult brotherhoods, and Hermetic science, dating from ancient times, in which, in some form or the other, Kundalini is discussed. It is not possible to reconcile the conflicting views expressed or to fit them into a rational framework. This being the case, the subject provides a lucrative field for exploitation, for business-minded writers and profit-seeking professional teachers alike. In this confusion, conflict of views and attempts at trade, a momentous discovery of a mighty Law of Nature is lost, because no amount of intellectual study or presentation can clear the obscurity in which the subject has been shrouded so far. It can only make the confusion worse confounded, and that is exactly what is happening now, so far as Kundalini is concerned, even in this enlightened age.
The idea that Kundalini is a force, lying dormant at the base of the spine, which can be aroused by certain disciplines undertaken by a seeker, when analyzed in the light of what has been stated in the ancient authoritative books about this Divine Power, will not be found to be wholly correct. The mind of the sadhaka, who decides to take up the discipline of Yoga to arouse the power, is as much a projection of Kundalini, in the dormant state, as the Enlightened state which She bestows on arousal. It might cause us amazement, even incredulity, but the fact is that it is Kundalini that prompts a seeker to take up a course of exercises to raise Her up to Sahasrara in the same way as Kundalini creates the burning fire of love in all human beings, during the period of adolescence, to propagate the race. The following verse from Panchastavi is clear on this point:
"I make obeisance to Thee, O Goddess Tripura (Kundalini), who actest like the warm glow of the sun in bringing the lotus-cluster of one's intense desire for higher knowledge to bloom, who when worshiped in six ways (i.e. with the five senses and the mind) dost become the sporting arena of the lion of wisdom ready to kill the elephant of delusion." (Canto II:28)
It is this aspect of Kundalini, as the hidden source of all our thoughts, desires, passions and feelings, that has to be kept in mind, when undertaking a practice aimed to arouse this force. From the point of view of awakened consciousness, it is one All-pervading, Mysterious Element of Creation, namely Prana-Shakti, which acts the role of the embodied human being on the one side, oversees his actions, determines his karma and rewards or punishes him on the other. She is the Illusive Power (maya) of the Creator, the Architect of the Universe and the infinitely varied forms of life, including intelligent forms far superior to man, dwelling in it. It is only with this concept of Kundalini, as a Divine Power of unimaginable majesty-Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent, that the disciplines of Kundalini Yoga have to be taken up.
Whatever type of Yoga is practiced, one of the first qualifications needed in a student is that he must keep his mind open to Divine influence and, by repeated practice, his intellect should be saturated with the idea of the Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence of God. It is not so much the intensity of the practice nor the efficacy of the exercises as the image of Divinity to whose vision the seeker aspires, drawn by him, which matters. One may concentrate or meditate on any pure, chaste, beautiful or noble object; it might be a human being, a Divine figure, a shining orb, a flower or an icon; the real key to the success of the discipline lies in the idea, present at the back of the seeker's mind, about the state he hopes to achieve on his union with the Divine, pervading his inner being as also the world outside. The practice of meditation often remains barren of results because the seekers have no clear-cut idea of the sublime state they wish to reach. Before I started the practice of meditation, at the age of seventeen, I had already studied the Bhagavad Gita, which made a deep impression on my mind. I had also listened to stories from the Bhagavad Purana, in my boyhood, which helped me to form a faint picture of Divinity—the mental image of an All-Pervading Spirit permeating the entire universe of atoms, suns, planets and stars.
When the expansion of consciousness occurred on the first occasion, I realized at once that it was not a normal experience and that I was witnessing a Divine manifestation beyond anything which, in my wildest fancy, I could ever imagine before. "The yogis striving (for perfection)," says the Bhagavad Gita (V:11), "behold Him dwelling in themselves, but the unlettered and unintelligent, even though striving, see Him not."
"But the fruit (accruing to these men) of little understanding is limited," says the Bhagavad Gita (VII:23) at another place. "The worshipers of the Devas (Shining Ones) go to the Devas; but my devotees come to Me."
The reason why the highest place of honor has been accorded to the revealed religious scriptures of mankind, out of all other literary treasures, is because they contain descriptions of God or of His attributes and thus provide healthy mental images of Divinity for the seeker to ponder over and meditate on or to worship or pray to, in one's own home or any place of worship, as one might like to do. This is also the reason why the practice of daily reading of Gospels of the various faiths by their followers was considered to be a sacred duty that brought merit to the performer.
This constant study of sacred books led the mind to dwell upon the images and the attributes of Divinity, according to one's own capacity for visualization. In this way, the mind was gradually saturated with the idea of God-the Almighty Spirit that rules the universe, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, just, compassionate and merciful, the Lord of all the creatures in the universe. Though they did not express it in these terms, the Gospels of mankind, in this manner, portrayed figuratively and, sometimes, even clearly the Glorious Crown of Evolution, destined for mankind. In other words, the Message contained in all these holy books points to the glorified human beings who win access to the Lord, or attain the Kingdom of Heaven, open to the righteous and the pure.
The purpose of Revelation has been to give right direction to the deeply anchored religious impulse in human beings. To evaluate the importance of Revelation it is sufficient to recall the horrible religious practices of pre-revelatory eras, rife among superstitious populations of the past. It is in the Gospels of various faiths that the idea of glorification of humble human beings who follow the prescribed path was inculcated for the first time. Previously, only kings or highest personages could claim the right, as for instance in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and China. The concept that the entire race will be blessed and, one day, adorn the earth with transhuman attributes, ascribed to God-omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence-in a limited way, subject to the maximum capacity of the evolving brain is, therefore, completely in keeping with the current religious traditions of mankind.
It seems that the real significance of worship has been lost in our day. The attendance in the temples of worship, all over the world, is scanty because the real purpose of devotional prayer and adoration is not now clearly understood. The province of the Divine has become unfamiliar to the modern intellect. All places of common worship signify a subconscious impulse in human beings for a collective expression of the intellectual and emotional responses in the adoration of an evolutionary Ideal. This is the reason why the adherents of various faiths often fanatically adhered to the tenets and the ideals imprinted deep on their minds by the often inspired words of the founders.
The very concept of God, as outlined in the scriptures of various faiths, betokens a subconscious wish for an evolutionary model to be always kept in mind. In this lies the importance of faith. How can billions of average human beings be made to conform to the conditions, imposed by nature, or keep a sublime ideal before their eye for their emulation, homage and worship without a religion of some kind?
A study of the major faiths of mankind, undertaken with the sole object of finding the main factor responsible for their appearance, cannot fail to separate the basic realities from the myth and superstition which covers them, as a hard shell covers a kernel. The study of William James, embodied in his Varieties of Religious Experience, could provide a valuable groundwork for subsequent studies. But, instead of uncovering the myth and the superstition, not a few of the present-day investigators in the domain of faith have themselves fallen easy victims to the fiction and fancy that surrounds religion, as smoke covers a burning fire.
The stories of wizards like Don Juan, or the fantastic tales narrated by Lobsang Rampa, or the claims made by professional salesmen of the occult about their own incredible experiences, among seekers, including scholars and scientists, is a spectacle that makes one gloomy about the future. It is incredible that those who, still in doubt about the purpose of spiritual teaching, should be ready to accept unverified, bizarre accounts of imaginary or highly exaggerated happenings that are far removed from the ideals of faith.
Should we profane the solemn province of the Divine by making it conform to the current popular taste for excitement, sensation and thrill or for the perverse, the weird and the uncanny so that our narratives become unmatched bestsellers and their screen versions draw unprecedented crowds? Should we allow our earthly desires and passions, likes and dislikes or preferences and tastes to invade also the territory of our soul? What will then differentiate our present state of bondage from the glorious dominion of a liberated soul?
Chapter Three
The foregoing discussion was necessary to show that it is not easy to explain the mystery of the "Coiled Serpent" in the intellectual climate existing in our day. It cannot be explained in terms of modern psychology. In actual fact, when the research initiated attains some measure of success, the whole science of psychology will have to be recast in the light of the knowledge gained about this mysterious power. The investigation is likely to tax all the resources of science and all the ingenuity of the human mind for knowledge of Kundalini means knowledge of the worlds beyond the sensual perception of mortal man. The following verse from Shat-Chakra-Nirupana depicts, to some extent, the mysterious nature of the Serpent Power:
"Within its middle space (i.e. middle of the Nirvana-Kala) shines the supreme and primordial Nirvana-Shakti; She is lustrous like ten million suns and is the Mother of the three worlds. She is extremely subtle and like unto the ten-millionth part of the end of a hair. She contains within Her the constantly flowing stream of gladness, and is the life of all beings. She graciously carries the knowledge of the Truth (Tattva) to the mind of the sages." (48) 2
The sentence, "She is extremely subtle like unto the ten-millionth part of the end of a hair," is intended to convey an idea of the subtlety of this power which is beyond measurement. The phrase "Mother of the three worlds" is often used in the works dealing with Kundalini to show that She is the Creatrix of the universe.
How can we reconcile the idea of the Author of this stupendous creation lying asleep at the base of the human spine, coiled three and a half times, closing the pathway to Liberation with Her mouth? It is sustained reflection on points like these, constantly met with in the ancient works on Yoga, Kundalini, Tantra, etc., that can help a student to gain the necessary insight. The next verse, which is complementary, extends the scope of the former a little further:-
"Within Her is the everlasting place called the abode of Shiva, which is free from Maya, attainable only by yogis, and known by the name of Nityananda. It is replete with every form of bliss, and is pure knowledge itself. Some call it the Brahman, others call it the Hamsa. Wise men describe it as the abode of Vishnu, and righteous men speak of it as the ineffable place of knowledge of the Atma, or the place of liberation." (49)
It might be rather difficult for casual readers to grasp the meaning of both these verses. It would be easier for an Indian reader as the terms Maya, Brahman, Shiva, Tattva (Truth) are more familiar to them. But it is because of the rather recondite nature of these two verses that I have selected them for discussion here to show what a gulf of difference exists between the current concepts of Kundalini and those which the ancient masters have always tried to convey.
In order to grasp the purport of these two verses, it has to be borne in mind that, according to the philosophy of the Tantras, the world we see is the projection of consciousness or Shiva. The word Shiva means auspicious, blissful, felicitous, the Supreme Deity, the phallus, etc. Lord Shiva brings the universe into existence through His creative power or Shakti. He is both the Lord of Creation and the captive human soul, subject to pleasure and pain. He is also the fetter which binds the soul to the flesh and the earth.
In other words, it is the Creator Himself who acts the Drama of Creation as the Director, the Actor and the Stage, as also the Power by which He unfolds this Drama through eternity. It is His Shakti which, acting as maya or Illusive Power, makes the embodied soul forget his identity as a Spark of the Divine Fire, like a person dreaming in his sleep, and to experience a cycle of births and deaths until, with right effort and a meritorious life, he awakens to his own majesty as a deathless fragment of the Absolute.
It is not possible to grasp the esoteric significance of Kundalini unless this basic fact of one Ocean of Universal Consciousness, as the primordial Source of the visible universe, and also as the observer behind the personality of an embodied human being, is kept constantly in view. The power that enchains the Spark of the Divine to the gross flesh, and also liberates Him from it, is Kundalini. The stupendous nature of His own Power, which makes the Lord of Creation forget Himself and act the drama of life in countless infinitely varied forms throughout the universe can, therefore, be readily understood. From this point of view, the Mystery surrounding Kundalini is so deep that the human intellect can never hope to fathom it. It is the profound Mystery behind the universe.
Keeping in mind the unfathomable nature of the mystery, and the sublime grandeur of the experience to which it leads, the assertions of many present-day teachers and in many present-day books, claiming authentic knowledge of this stupendous Power or the ability to awaken it in their disciples, appears to be based on assumptions which, to say the least, are erroneous. They are like the assertions of one who claims direct experience of the interior of the sun, or the ability to keep the orb of day in his pocket for demonstration to others. It is the prevailing ignorance about the infinite power and majesty of this Sovereign Architect of Creation that allows such hoaxes to be played on credulous minds.
The omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of the Lord is an accepted tenet of all the Theistic religions of the world. This is also an accepted attribute of Brahman, Shiva, Vishnu or other forms of Divinity in India. The Buddhist Arhat, too, is often credited with these superhuman properties. These three attributes of omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence indicate a First Cause, possessed of every power, knowing everything and present everywhere.
From this accepted article of faith, the very idea that material objects or living souls can exist without the presence of the Lord within them is untenable. This being the case, to hold that intelligent creatures, like human beings or the denizens of other planets in space, can think a single thought or entertain a single idea, without the knowledge of the Lord would also be irrational. It would also be illogical to assume, in the light of this fact that atoms or the subnuclear particles can occupy a space in which God does not exist. The accord on this fundamental issue between the concept of God, in theistic religions, and that of Shiva, Brahman or Vishnu of the Indian pantheon is, therefore, obvious.
Coming back to Kundalini, just as the Lord is spread everywhere, so is His Shakti or Creative Energy. The human body is Her creation. The body is the temple of the Lord who dwells in it in self-imposed confinement by the agency of His own maya or Illusive Power. In actual fact, there is no bondage and no liberation. The Absolute is beyond the least touch of duality or the ever contending forces of nature. What we call God and what we call His creation, according to the metaphysics of Kundalini, is one ineffable Absolute, or Sada-Shiva, who acts both as the Lord and the creation by His own unbounded Shakti or Power.
For the unawakened soul the universe and its own embodiment, with all the disabilities it has to face, are real. For the awakened one, the experience of incarnate life is like a dream. In actual fact, it is the Lord existing everywhere in His glory in whose radiance the universe is dissolved, like a melting vapor at the rise of the sun.
In one dimension of consciousness the world is real and so are the vicissitudes of life that fall to one's lot. In the next dimension, this world of opposites disappears, like a melting ghost, yielding place to one all-pervading Ocean of blissful Consciousness in which embodied life, pain, decay and death disappear, like the figments of a dream from which one has just awakened. In the wakeful state, the soul finds itself wafted to a new Eternal World of Being, where all is sunshine and happiness, that knows no pain, no decay and no death.
It is strange that our normal dream and wakeful states should correspond dramatically with this shift in the state of our awareness on the awakening of Kundalini. Can it be possible that, in the daily cycle of night and day or sleep and wakefulness, we but repeat, on a miniature scale, the cosmic cycle of our bondage and liberation extending to colossal spans of time?
In one instantaneous leap into a higher dimension of being, our sensual picture of the universe and ourselves is completely altered. The soul, instead of perceiving itself as a puny creature, encased in flesh and surrounded by immensities of time and space, for the first time becomes aware of its own sovereignty, observing the dramatic dissolution of the gigantic material world to which it was accustomed from birth. It finds itself transformed into a boundless Spirit, oversizing and overshadowing that which had oversized and overshadowed it before. The human creature, now become oceanic, watches the melting away of sensual shadows, which he had only a short while before thought to be a real world, so stupendous that he felt lost in its immensity.
"How strange it is, O Mother," sings Panchastavi (IV:17), "that this Ocean of Illusion (i.e. this creation born of maya) confusingly crowded like bubbles (on the surface of an ocean), filled with waves (of countless) diverse kinds of affliction, with the submarine fire generated by constant meditation on Thee, is destroyed in an instant (i.e. dissolved in consciousness)."
This verse clearly refers to the process of the dissolution of the objective world on the streaming of the more potent form of prana into the brain, melting away the images of sound, touch, smell, sight and hearing, conveyed by the senses. The world that holds the imprisoned soul in bondage is demolished to set him free by a change in the spectrum of the same mind-stuff (prana) that creates it. It is a shattering experience and, for the first time, brings one the staggering awareness of his own sovereignty over the elements of nature that previously held him a captive, as it were, with unbreakable chains.
At another place Panchastavi (V:15) adds:
"O Mother, how great is Thy glory that even though swallowed up by earth, water, fire, air, mind, the sun and moon (i.e. though enveloped by all these elements in the embodied state of the soul), in Thy superfine state of sky-like (expanded) consciousness, not a trace of any of these enveloping sheaths is found."
The purport of both these verses is clear. All these elements of creation are the products of our sensory outfit, as interpreted by the mind. When the penetrative power of the mind is increased in expanded states of consciousness, the shadows created by the senses dissolve in the more powerful light of the observing mind. The world, thereupon, loses its tangibility and a new aspect of creation is presented to the inner eye of the initiate.
"This whole universe," says Vijnana Bhairava (133), "is without substance, like a creation of magic; and by going deep into the question of the Ultimate Reality behind this magic show, one can achieve real peace of the spirit."
The target of evolution is to create a highly extended state of awareness in all human beings in which the immortal nature of the Spirit and the phenomenal nature of the universe become clearly distinguishable. What then would be the incentives to continue in the state of embodiment for awakened spirits of this stature, we have still to know. In all probability, their talents and energies will be directed towards the exploration of the infinitely vast Universe of Consciousness, in the same way as the material universe formed the subject of study for the human intellect from its very first appearance in the mind of man.
Based on the evidence provided by the Illuminati of the past, it is obvious that the evolution of the human brain is designed to help mankind in gaining awareness of the world of consciousness as the fundamental Reality behind creation, in the same way as his intellect helped him to gain awareness of the material world. We can, therefore, safely assume that no treasure of the earth and no height of temporal power will bring satiation to man's unassuageable thirst for knowledge of himself and the mysterious Source of the visible universe.
The awakening of Kundalini is indispensable for success in any kind of spiritual discipline, including Yoga, irrespective of time and place. The higher dimension of consciousness in which the glory of the Lord and the phantom-like nature of the world are experienced is not possible without a transformation in the subtle levels of the brain, and the flow of a more potent form of vital energy into a newly activated center in it.
The notion that this Almighty Power can be handled as we handle a material force, including atomic energy, is utterly fallacious. The efforts at self-discipline, made by an aspirant, and the exercises performed act in the same way as the conjugal embrace of the parents acts for the impregnation of the seed which, later on, develops into an embryo. But after the initial act of impregnation, neither of the parents has any power to interfere in the process of growth of the child, which proceeds according to the laws of which we are ignorant at present. The marvelous intelligence that supervises and controls this development is so remote from our conceptions that we feel more at ease in denying its existence, as this denial releases us from the responsibility of explaining the nature of this power.
A teacher instructs a pupil or a physician heals a patient, both of which are commendable acts, and the results achieved are often remarkable. But the power of learning or of curing an ailment is inherent in life itself. Not even the most learned teacher can turn a born idiot into an intellectual nor the most skilled physician cure a disease when the curative response of the body is dead. A spiritual master can act as a teacher or a physician, but cannot alter the inherent abilities of the disciple or the innate capacity of the evolutionary mechanism in him.
For this alteration, the efforts of the student himself and the grace of Kundalini are essential. It is She, as the sustaining power of Life who determines both the ability of the pupil and the capacity of the cerebrospinal system for lifting him up to Transcendence with a higher performance of the brain.
Chapter Four
A human child comes into the world with his brain almost fully formed. Nature has taken care that the sovereign organ, controlling the whole system, and the food which the baby needs for its healthy growth should come pre-prepared, eliminating man's interference in a province about which his knowledge is scanty even at this stage. We have no idea of the marvelous intelligence which supervises the growth of the infant from the day of its birth to the time of adulthood and at every step equips it for the part it has to play in life till the end. We do not know what driving force within it shapes its thoughts, acts, fancies, appetites, aptitudes and tastes to make the child, when it grows up, a character by itself, different in some way from the other children born of the same womb.
It seems unbelievable, but it is true that in spite of their intelligence, human beings live in a world of their own creation rather than in that of stern reality. If they did, there is nothing more palpably clear than the fact that we, with our ego, thoughts and dreams, are but unsubstantial images projected by a body and a brain over which we have no control. Scholars and thinkers are included in this classification.
What opinion can we form of an intelligent form of life which dwells in a body, not knowing how it works, utterly impotent to change its direction towards old age, decay and death, which is a stranger to the very house wherein it resides, held captive by its doors and windows of perception that never allow it to look beyond the limits they impose? What estimate can we frame of this helpless prisoner who, in spite of his own dubious state, out of sheer vanity presumes to pass final verdicts on the universe, while still completely ignorant of the mechanisms which bring him to life and sustain him every moment unto the end. This is the tragedy of our time.
It is to remedy this incurable vanity of the intellect that religion became a part and parcel of human life to draw attention to the problems of birth and death for sober minds to reflect and ponder on. The present-day hectic race for the goods of the earth and the excessive thirst for luxurious lifestyles have created a milieu in which these vital problems, peculiar to man, have been relegated to the background, and a strange oblivion towards what the real purpose of human life is has gripped the intelligent mind.
A giddy life often makes us dead to realities which, otherwise, should not fail to strike any normal human being-realities which made the sensitive heart of Buddha to abandon a kingdom in the search for truth. We come across infirmity and obsolescent age every day in our life and, not unoften, feel sympathy or pity for the wreckage we see. But seldom, if ever, the thought comes home to us, with telling effect, that one day not far away, the same will be our fate. This is an incredible frame of mind for an intelligent species. In the Mahabharata this insensitivity of normal human beings towards the inevitable end of life, witnessed every day, is classed as one of the strangest features of human existence. What trickery or alchemy of Nature makes us, in the sunny days of our life, forget the withering chill of winter, is hard to know. It is possible that there are special hormones in the system that make the mind oblivious to the tragic end so as to keep the deluded soul intensely absorbed in the world.
Here is another great mystery of Kundalini. In spite of his penetrating intellect, mortal man is enticed by so many temptations, enmeshed by so many desires, inflamed by so many passions, gripped by so many lusts, lured by so many ambitions and lives always in such a state of inner turmoil and suspense, in bewilderment about himself and the universe that it is a wonder how he can entertain the least idea of his own importance or be vain of his own achievements.
"O Bhawani (Shiva's consort)," says Panchastavi (II:5), "Thou art the Creator as well as the Preserver of the worlds. At the same time, thou art alert towards their destruction when the time is ripe. Thou dost destroy illusions though hiding Thy real self. All this, Thy sport, is triumphant, though bewildering in its ways."
Shat-Chakra-Nirupana (10 and 11) calls Kundalini the world-bewilderer thus:-
"Over it shines the sleeping Kundalini, fine as the fibre of the lotus-stalk. She is the world-bewilderer, gently covering the mouth of Brahmadvara (abode of Brahma) by Her own. Like the spiral of the conch shell, Her shining snake-like form goes three and a half times round Shiva, and Her lustre is that of a strong flash of young strong lightning. Her sweet murmur is like the indistinct hum of swarms of love-mad bees. She produces melodious poetry and Bandha (a kind of poetic composition) and all other compositions in prose or verse in sequence or otherwise in Sanskrit, Prakrit and other languages. It is She who maintains all the beings of the world by means of inspiration and expiration, and shines in the cavity of the root (Mula) Lotus like a chain of brilliant lights."
The Bhagavad Gita (XVIII:61) expresses the same idea in these words:-
"The Lord dwelleth in the hearts of all beings, O Arjuna, by His Illusive Power, causing all beings to revolve as though mounted on a potter's wheel."
Kundalini is maya, the Illusive Power which keeps the soul imprisoned in the world. We are not normally conscious of this illusion, but it is always there. We know nothing about our beginning, nothing about our end, nothing about our true nature, nothing about what power in the body keeps us alive, nothing about ourselves in deep sleep or swoon, nothing about how our impulses and thoughts arise and yet we stalk proudly on the earth, for a while, strutting and boasting as if there is no other object so great and important, blissfully ignorant of the invisible strings that move and turn us like puppets on a stage. It is in this light that Kundalini has to be viewed. In the macrocosmic form, She is the Creatrix of the universe, the origin of every form of life scattered on it from end to end. She is the blazing sun and the cool orb of the moon, the ocean and the desert, the mountain and the plain. In the microcosmic form, She is in every living creature as the Vital-Force which brings it into existence, maintains it in all the stages of life and dissolves it at the end. She is, in fact, the words we utter, the thoughts we think and the dreams we dream. She is the intellect as also the cloud of delusion that does not allow it to know the truth about itself.
After having fashioned the baby in the womb, the Power of Life, hidden behind the veil She drops round Herself, brings it into the world, ripe for experience, endowed with a certain prescribed amount of intelligence and other faculties, based on laws beyond the reach of mortal thought. All this done, She hides a fragment of Herself in an organic mechanism at the base of the spine.
When this organic Key is stirred to activity, by the sustained efforts made and a noble life led by a mortal, She again starts the same process of organic reconstruction as She had used in the formation of the embryo, until the regenerated human gains a new channel of perception by Her Grace. This new state of perception allows him to distinguish between the transient nature of the phenomenal world and the eternal substance of his own soul.
On account of stringent restrictions imposed on the organs of our perception, we look at the universe through glasses by which only a tiny fragment of it for an extremely brief duration of time can be discerned. The Grandeur and Sublimity of creation which comes into view, when the limitation is transcended for a while, is beyond description. This is the Drama, staged by the Creative Power of the Lord, to hold particles of His own Glory enfettered in flesh for aeonian epochs of time, revolving ceaselessly on the wheel of birth and death, until by the Compassion of the same Power, by which they are held in bondage, they are released to taste the inexpressible thrill and bliss of the adventure. This is the Power which, in India, is known as Shakti or Kundalini-the unimaginably Sovereign Power which creates, sustains and destroys the universe.
"O Mother," sings Panchastavi (V:23), "O Parvati, under the name of Brahma, Thou bringest the three worlds into existence, under that of Vishnu, Thou sustainest them, and in the form of Sada-Shiva, breaking asunder the fetters (of illusion), dost lead to blissful Shiva-Consciousness. Although one (in reality) with Thy own self-created modifications, Thou dost manifest Thyself in countless forms."
Saundarya Lahari (35), ascribed to Shankaracharya, expresses the same idea in these words:-
"You are Mind, you are Ether, you are Air, you are also Fire and Water and Earth. You manifest yourself as the universe; there exists nothing other than you. To transform yourself, who are Consciousness-Bliss into the Universal Body, you make yourself the young bride of the Auspicious One (or the Creative Power) of Lord Shiva."
Shat-Chakra-Nirupana (12) expresses the same sentiments thus:-
"Within it reigns dominant Para, the Sri-Parameshvari (the glorious Sovereign of the world), the Awakener of Eternal Knowledge. She is the Omnipotent Kala who is wonderfully skillful to create and is subtler than the subtlest. She is the receptacle of that continuous stream of ambrosia that flows from the Eternal Bliss. By Her radiance it is that the whole of this universe and this Cauldron is illumined."
It is relevant here to reproduce the following few stanzas from the Bhagavad Gita (XIII:12-17, 19-22), describing the Attributeless Brahman or the Supreme Reality of the universe:-
"Constancy in the wisdom of the Self, understanding of the object of essential wisdom; that is declared to be the Wisdom; all against it is ignorance."
"I will declare that which ought to be known, that which being known, immortality is enjoyed-the beginningless supreme Eternal, called neither being nor non-being."
"Everywhere That hath hands and feet; everywhere eyes, heads, mouths, all-hearing, He dwelleth in the world, enveloping all."
"Shining with all sense-faculties without any senses; unattached supporting everything and free from qualities, enjoying qualities;"
"Without and within all beings, immovable and also movable; by reason of His subtlety imperceptible; at hand and far away is That."
"Not divided amid beings, and yet seated distributively; That is to be known as the supporter of beings; He devours and He generates."
"Thus the Field, Wisdom and the Object of Wisdom have been briefly told. My devotee, thus knowing, enters into My Being."
"Know thou that Matter and Spirit are both without beginning; and know thou also that modifications and qualities are all matter born."
"Matter is called the cause of the generation of causes and effects; Spirit is called the cause of the enjoyment of pleasure and pain."
"Spirit seated in Matter useth the qualities born of Matter; attachment to the qualities is the cause of his births in good and evil wombs."
Chapter Five
Purusha, the Supreme Lord, in his microcosmic form, is also the embodied soul and, in the same way Prakriti, the substance of the Universe, forms the vehicle of his embodiment. The inference is clear that Kundalini in Her cosmic aspect is the Creatrix and in the individual aspect the organic frame of a human being. The point of greater concentration of Her force is the Muladhara chakra, where She lies in a dormant form, controlling the evolution of every human being and waiting to be aroused by those with an ardent desire for self-awareness. When aroused to activity, She accelerates the otherwise slow process of inner reconstruction to allow the fortunate seeker to achieve the target in one life.
The arousal of Kundalini, from the point of view of the ancient masters, does not, therefore, signify the activation of a mysterious force in the sense in which it is often understood by many present-day teachers and their disciples alike. What, properly speaking, Yoga or any other form of spiritual discipline or the awakening of Kundalini signifies is the undertaking of a daily practice to invoke the Almighty Power of Life, to which we owe our existence and every breath we draw, to lift us up to the level of perception where we are able to cross this Ocean of Illusion to the other Shore of Perennial Peace and Bliss. The same is the purpose of worship, prayer, meditation, surrender, sacrifice and selfless service done in the name of the Lord.
Every spiritual discipline, every kind of worship, every prayer, every form of meditation, every act and every service done, in the name of the Lord, for reward in this life or the Hereafter, is an appeal to the Divine forces of Nature to raise one higher in the spiritual scale, as a prelude to the climax of God-consciousness. It is obvious that the Almighty Intelligence, behind our life and our thought, behind our cleverness or simplicity, can never be duped or deceived, if we try tricks or backdoor methods to win its favor.
It is tragic that, in spite of an unparalleled advance in the knowledge of the material universe, millions of human beings, in our day, lack awareness of the real purpose of spiritual discipline. Whatever method we practice, whatever creed we follow, whatever discipline we undertake, it is only a gracious response from the indwelling Fount of our life that can lead the effort to fruition. The very idea of using magic, art, mantras, shortcuts, secret methods, drugs or mechanical devices to achieve success in the effort to win approach to the Omniscient Lord is an affront to our own intelligence and cannot but recoil in an adverse way. Those who promise speedy golden harvests to the students who follow their special methods, in a sublime quest of this magnitude, betray their own perverse thinking on the sacred subject they profess to teach.
At every step on the path chosen by a seeker, the idea of the Divine should always be kept in mind with utmost devotion and reverence. Some of the modern books on Yoga make spiritual striving a mockery. This is the reason why, in spite of the fact that millions of seekers, all over the earth, practice one method of meditation or the other, the harvest is so poor. The scholars, scientists or those occupied with research on paranormal phenomena, however high their intelligence and however extensive their knowledge, are as incompetent to guide on this path as the unlettered. It is a different province altogether. The intelligence behind creation must be directly experienced first before one can claim any knowledge of the august subject. When the experience is gained, the transformation effected is so remarkable that there is no need for academic adornments to enhance its sterling quality. The bloom of higher faculties spontaneously manifests itself.
In trying to understand Kundalini we must always bear in mind that She is the Cosmic Reservoir of Thought from which we draw our intelligence. Therefore, the least pride evinced about one's purity of conduct, truth or honesty or the least idea that one can circumvent the Plan of Nature by his assiduous application can, at once, become a hurdle in the path. The trickster tricks himself and the deceiver but deceives his own dear self. Incorruptible Justice rewards and punishes the actions of all intelligent life in the universe. We are not able to know because of our extreme limitations in time and space.
"And all-devouring Death am I," says Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita (X:34, 36, 38), "and the origin of all to come; and of feminine qualities, fame, prosperity, speech, memory, intelligence, constancy, forgiveness."
"I am the gambling of the cheat, and the splendor of splendid things I; I am victory, I am determination, and the truth of the truthful I."
"Of rulers I am the sceptre; of those that seek victory I am statesmanship; and of secrets I am also silence; the knowledge of knowers am I."
"I am the gambling of the cheat," is a veiled hint to those who believe that what they design or aim at is hidden from the all-seeing eye of Divinity. The Cosmic Forces counter trick with trick and deceit with deceit of those who believe their cleverness is too subtle for others to detect. Alas, this puny mortal, deluded by his intellect, is never able to reconcile himself to the fact that whatever he thinks, plans or conceives is already known and that an Infinite Intelligence, which controls the movement of every atom in the universe, is calmly watching his every act and thought in the drama it has staged for him to act in.
The various methods of Yoga and the exercises for the awakening of Kundalini have the same meaning that the jerking of arms and legs by an infant has. In the infant the movements denote a preparatory stage, prescribed by nature, for exercising its muscles to develop the body for the task it has to do in later life. Spiritual exercises are designed for a similar purpose in preparing the student for the bloom of his higher faculties.
These methods, exercises and disciplines have been devised by the same intelligence that manifests itself in man and, in the macrocosmic form, rules the universe. The same applies to the wonder-exciting achievements of science. The same intelligence acts the part of a puny human being and is also the Almighty Source from which everything originates. The super-mundane world is entirely beyond the range of our thought. It is only when face to face with the glory and the wonder of this plane of creation that the human intellect, for the first time, finds itself completely dwarfed in comparison.
The chakras represent nerve concentrations, regulating the functions of the various vital organs in the body. The first attempt of an awakened Kundalini is to replace the normal pranic spectrum with a more potent form of it. The nervous system and the organs must be adjusted to the flow of this psychic current of enhanced potency to keep the fflame of expanded consciousness burning in the cortex. The illuminated sage, as also a genius, differs from the normal run of people primarily in the quality of the pranic radiation animating the body and serving as the fuel of thought.
The lotus has been used from time immemorial as a symbol of purity and divinity. For this reason, the chakras are represented as lotuses with a certain definite number of petals in them. The total number of petals is fifty and there is a letter of the Sanskrit alphabet on each petal. This accords with the total number of letters that make up the Sanskrit alphabet. The intriguing diagrams, symbolizing each chakra, have no magical or occult significance. In fact, in true religious striving, directed to win self-awareness or the vision of God, the occult and the magical have no relevance. A childlike nature, simplicity and innocence are the most precious assets one can have to be eligible to Grace.
The pictures of chakras and the lotuses, as also the diagrams used in Tantric worship, have a touch of the occult and the mysterious about them. Pictures, diagrams, images and icons of this kind serve a definite aim. The lure of the supernatural, the occult and the mysterious is deeply embedded in the human psyche and serves a definite evolutionary purpose. The mind is drawn by their intricacy, weirdness or mystery. It broods and reflects on them, over and over again, trying to find a hidden meaning or to uncover the secret lurking behind.
This constant study and contemplation helps to make the mind more receptive to the vibrations from the profoundly mysterious planes of Cosmic Intelligence. But the benefit that could accrue can be negatively offset if the seeker gets lost in the weird or intricate designs of these drawings and diagrams and forgets the real object of his quest. It is not necessary to make any special efforts to arouse the Serpent Power. Whatever spiritual path is followed, if the aim is true and the heart is pure, can help to move Her to benign activity. Yoga, meditation, selfless service, worship or prayer, done with humility and devotion, all ultimately lead to the same end. It is the Super-Intelligent guardian of our organic frame that has to decide our fate, however intense and however methodical our efforts might be. It is our inner Self that has to pass the final judgement on the labor done and to signal release from the prison-house of the body. Everything then falls into place, and even a little effort, done with sincere motives and noble aims, succeeds in winning to the sublime state where the door is opened by Kundalini to golden realms of surpassing Glory and Beatitude.
Chapter Six
The sensory equipment of all human beings is the same. The vital organs are the same; the nervous and the blood distribution systems are the same. The neuronic structure of the brain is the same. The alterations in the metabolic activity of the human body, under the stress of disease, fatigue, sorrow, anxiety or fear are the same. The feelings, expressed by sighs and tears in grief or by smiles and laughter in happiness, are the same. What fault in thinking has then led to the assumption that this or that section of the race has been specially favored by Heaven in the faith revealed to it, or that one religion is superior to the others or that the founder of one faith was dearer to the Lord than that of the other?
The notions of superiority or infallibility of one's own faith provide the soil from which bigotry and fanaticism are born. The horrors associated with religion, throughout the past-oppression, forced conversion, persecution, torture, murder, massacre, wars and crusades-have all been the harvest of this unhealthy frame of mind. The reason for it is not hard to find. It is to appease their own ego and pride that the adherents of a creed or the followers of a prophet arrogated to themselves the position of being the chosen of Heaven for the faith that they were asked to profess. he selfish trend in human nature, which excites the desire to excel one's neighbor, is also at the bottom of this impulse to be superior in one's religious convictions. It is sad to see a revival of this dangerous trend in our day. In the nuclear age it can prove a great disaster for the race.
The days of rivalry and contention among the various faiths of mankind are over. So are the days of rivalry and competition among nations. The terrific power placed in the hands of mankind by science makes it imperative that, both in the national and the spiritual fields, the race should be united. Whatever form this unity takes will depend upon the verdict of time. But a broad-based agreement is absolutely necessary to plant mankind on the path to spiritual illumination ordained for her.
But how can this concord be brought about? How can harmony prevail in areas that have provided a battleground for contending political as well as religious forces? How can the people of one nation or of one religion be convinced that, as in the case of their sensory channels, their vital organs, their thoughts and their emotions, that they are one, in the same way that there is one goal for their religious striving and one target for their progressive social and political movements? This target, this goal or this objective is to gain the evolutionary summit for mankind. When this is achieved a superior race, versed in the knowledge of spirit and matter both, will inhabit the earth.
In the light of present-day ideas about religion, what I argue must appear fanciful. But a careful study of the revealed literature of any of the great religions of mankind is more likely to confirm than disprove what I say. If the aim of religious striving, as affirmed in the sacred books of all faiths, is to reach a state of union with or proximity to Divinity, or to gain enlightenment in order to rise above the world of name and form, it clearly implies a transformation in consciousness and a flight to super-earthly regions so high that a normal human mind is incapable of the feat. What all the great Illuminati of the earth have said about the merger of the soul with the Divine in the state of samadhi, ecstasy or mystical trance is literally true. Two of the main points that remain to be answered are: how this state of communion with an intangible Reality is possible and why it is not possible for every human being to have the same illuminative experience.
This is where Kundalini comes in. The religious impulse, embedded deep in human nature and the desire for self-perfection, are not man-created urges or the outcome of certain psychological pressures or repressions, as held by some of the learned of our day. But they both spring from the subconscious to meet the needs of the slow-working organic evolution of the brain still active in the race.
The attraction felt by an adolescent boy or girl for a member of the opposite sex owes its origin to the operation of the reproductive urge in human beings. What ecstasies, what agonies, what adventures, what romance and what thrills flow out of this deep-rooted natural impulse, through all the course of life, we are already familiar with. But we are not still aware that the compulsions, ecstasies, adventures, joys and agonies of religious life are also the products of the same urge, when directed upwards towards the brain.
The reproductive urge is irresistible. Even the most learned and the most powerful eagerly submit to it to become votaries of this shrine. In a similar way, nature has implanted the religious impulse deep in the nature of human beings to become active when the stage of adolescence is gained by a human society during the process of its growth from the primitive state to that of a more elevated community.
The history of civilizations is a gripping story of the dramatic ascent and decline of the evolutionary impulse. We have not been able to locate the real cause for this rise and fall of ancient empires because there is no awareness yet that our brain is still in a process of organic evolution, or that there is a special mechanism in the cerebrospinal system for this activity.
The intellectual leap taken by the race during the last two or three centuries is the harvest of an increased tempo of this, otherwise, slow-moving process. The marvels of technology are a standing tribute to the powers of Kundalini. The intellectual bloom of our day is not our own creation. It is the product of a more evolved cerebral cortex. The evolution of the human brain does not proceed only in the direction of illumination to the exclusion of other faculties and attributes characterizing a more evolved mind. An enhanced intellect is one of these attributes. But, unfortunately, as the result of our preoccupation with only temporal knowledge, to the exclusion of the spiritual, our evolution has become lopsided. The most productive minds of our day, instead of being a harmonious blend of a high intellect, deep spiritual insight and noble traits of character, often show a disproportion and a lack of balance which are at the root of most of the infelicities of our day.
A native simplicity is essential for healthy evolution. The greatest asset of a child, conducive to its healthy mental growth, is its innocence. Some of the great psychologists of our time have depicted the mind of a child in a monstrous color. Most of these analyses reflect the contents of their own subconscious. A new group of socio-biologists is spreading the poison that the hatred of parents is genetically implanted in a child. If this position really exists, it can spell the extinction of the race and a dismal end to Nature's sublime plan of evolution. With widespread awareness among couples, all over the earth, inevitable in the present era of publicity, there would be few, indeed, ready to accept the responsibility of parenthood for offspring, already filled by nature with the venom of hatred towards them.
In actual fact, it is obstruction of any kind, caused in the process of its evolution, which results in the upsurge of revolt in the mind of a growing child. The bad example set by parents, with their own undisciplined lives, too much severity or laxity or other omissions in the upbringing of the child and, thirdly, a deterioration in the seed, as a result of a faulty heredity, are often the causes for the lack of love in a child towards its father or mother or both. The profound depths of the soul, which determine the behavior of human beings, and are said to rest on karma, are still a closed book to the learned. These conclusions will be put to rigid test in the course of our study of the phenomenon of Kundalini.
The fact that the human mind is evolving and that the social and political climate of a country or the behavior of parents can radically affect this evolution does not, at all, form a part of the thinking of the scholars of our day. The result is that, in their haste to provide solutions for the countless problems of the human mind, they are often driven to offer hurriedly thought-out, incorrect or only partly correct explanations in the absence of knowledge of a most important factor, which affects its entire behavior and directs its course of conduct throughout life.
This little detail is sufficient to show what confusion can prevail in the various spheres of human thought if spiritual evolution of the mind is left out of consideration altogether. This is true of religious and secular thinking both. If the human brain is evolving in a certain direction, and this activity demands a coordinated effort on the part of the individual to help in its healthy performance, it means that ignorance of this vital fact can lead to disastrous results in cases of grave departure from the line of conduct to be followed. For this reason, it has now become imperative that the nature of the factor or factors responsible for the religious impulse of human beings, and the purpose which this impulse is aimed to accomplish, in the life of mankind, must be determined to make the race conscious of the duty imposed on her by nature.
The time is past when intelligent folk could believe that the Creator of the Universe incarnated Himself in human form or that His only Son or His Special Envoy was deputed to the people of the earth to apprise them of His existence and make them alert to His Commandments. If such were the case, the Message which each of these specially chosen vessels came to deliver would have been identical. But that is not the case. We can accept these legendary accounts as a figurative rendering of events that led to the appearance of more evolved human beings blessed with higher faculties of the soul.
There is only a slight difference between dogmatic religious beliefs about the founders of different faiths and what I state about the evolutionary target of mankind. From my point of view, all great founders of major faiths were more evolved human beings in tune with Cosmic Consciousness, either perennially or during trance states, and that their Revelations were the product of this communion with Divine Intelligence. The difference is so slight that it need not disturb the mind of even the most staunch believer of a faith.
What I affirm, in all humility, is that Consciousness in its Cosmic aspect is the Almighty Creator of the Universe. God of theistic faiths is a Spirit which, again, means the Soul of the Universe. The founders of the great faiths have all been vehicles for the communication of mandates from this Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent Divine Intelligence to guide the race. A rational explanation for the birth of religions and the phenomenon of Revelation has become a most urgent need of our time, if spiritual values of the race are to be preserved.
We have seen what fate overtook the clergy in the communist revolution of Russia. We still see every day highly erudite scholars and scientists airing their disbelief in the super-sensible and the Divine. Not a few of the great thinkers, philosophers and scientists of the last two centuries have been agnostics. It would be a grave error to close our eyes to the fact that the highly critical rationalistic trends of our time will continue to gather force unless religious leaders, too, on their part, use the same objective methods to demonstrate the truth of their stand. Otherwise, as is clearly perceptible, it would not be possible for revealed religions to hold their own against the advancing tide of skepticism for long. The only way by which the engulfing flood could be arrested, for a while, is by regression to strict dogma and fanaticism. But such a step is fraught with grave danger in the technological climate of our time.
It is relevant to our theme to note here that the Vedic religion in India has been able to survive the invasions and onslaughts of other faiths for thousands of years because of its spirit of catholicity and tolerance. A happy feature of the Indo-Aryan faith has been a broad-minded allowance for diversity of view about the Super-physical. Spiritual insight and logic were combined to rationalize mystical experience, the seedbed of all major faiths of mankind, and whole systems of metaphysics were evolved out of this combination.
Even disbelief in God was not considered to be a cardinal sin by the learned in India in ancient times. Kapila, the founder of the Sankhya system of philosophy, openly denies the existence of an Almighty Creator and yet in the Bhagavad Gita, written more than 2,000 years ago, Krishna acclaims him as the highest among sages. Similarly Buddha, although known for his negative attitude towards the existence of God, is even now treated as an incarnation of the Deity, and revered as such by orthodox believers in the Vedas. It is not disbelief in God, but repudiation of the teachings of the Vedas or, in other words, of the righteous path, which was considered to be more reprehensible.
Every member of the brilliant galaxy of spiritual luminaries, who rose in India from the Vedic times to our day, gave free expression to his own views and made no attempt to adhere to but one school of metaphysics or but one system of religious thought. They freely criticized each other where their opinions came into conflict about major issues. This fact is clear from the Bhagavad Gita, which tries to synthesize the views of certain divergent schools of thought. ut behind all this clash and conflict of views, there has been one consistent feature and this is that for almost every one, accepted as an authority on spiritual matters, the experience of samadhi or mystical ecstasy was considered a necessary accomplishment.
The preceding lines are intended to show that there can be a divergence of views about God, Soul and the Hereafter, even in one religion, as it is also in the concepts of science. Similarly, there can be a diversity of faiths rising from a common foundation, which is the evolution of the brain. As is the case of other faiths, heroism, sacrifice, renunciation, strict regard for truth, honesty, self-denial and a critical judgement have always been a part of the austere spiritual life in India, generation after generation. The difference has been that every spiritual genius was allowed to have his say. His voice was not smothered even if it was raised against the religious ideas and conventions current in his time.
The result of this broad-minded approach was that one after the other spiritual giants arose in India to act as living witnesses to the ancient traditions and beliefs to confirm the experience of samadhi or mystical trance by their own writings or discourses. This mass of literature is often not available to the western seekers. What they are offered in modern books is a sophisticated version which does not, at all, depict the intellectual battles that have raged for thousands of years in India to gain precise knowledge of the Transcendental world, perceived in the super-sensory stage of every form of Yoga.
Chapter Seven
Our conception of religion is often very limited. The general belief is that religion is necessary to propitiate God and to win His favor for success and felicity in life. For some, adoration of Divinity merely satisfies a longing of the heart. For others, ostentatious religious practices are a means to win the approbation and esteem of their circle of acquaintances. For the common believer, the supernatural and the miraculous are an inseparable part of faith. A holy man is one who has come nearer to God and can perform miracles, or one who has supernatural powers that he can exercise for the good of others. There are not a few, even among the learned, who believe that a spiritual man has control of occult forces or is in communication with supernatural beings by which he can do and undo things. It is not unoften that seekers find themselves in a state of nervousness or with a fast-beating heart in the presence of a holy man about whose supernatural prowess they have heard from others.
The irony is that, even in the case of his religion or his search for the divine, man is not able to divest himself of his earthly passions or his desires and longings for temporal objectives. The awe which some of them experience in the presence of saints and ascetics is often the creation of their own subconscious fear that the hidden thoughts in their mind might be read or that they might not be able to win the favor they wish for.
Today's well-informed men and women often behave almost in the same way, in the sphere of the occult and the supernatural, as did their ignorant counterparts hundreds and even thousands of years ago. The position has remained nearly unaltered because the real purpose of religion has not been understood. It is astonishing what naive, even puerile beliefs people entertain even in our own time. The light in which the well-known prophets, saints or mystics of the past are regarded has almost always a supernatural tinge in it. The belief that there are hidden or disguised Masters, dwelling in hard-to-reach heights of the Himalayas or in Tibet or in Mexico or in some other fabulous spot is so common that one is amazed at the credulity of the uncritical crowd.
Then there are stories of saints eating only a few grains of rice a day, or drinking only a cup of milk, or eating nothing at all and still surviving by the power of their penance or with the help of supernatural forces invisible to others. There are other stories of flying in the air, walking over water, simultaneous appearance at two or more places, immunity to fire, dematerialization of the body and life spans of hundreds of years, so current that almost everyone hears or reads about them at one time or the other.
The actual life stories of the greatest prophets, mystics and saints, known to history, tells a different tale. Most of them had to face ordeals and bear privations during, at least, a part of their life and sometimes even to the end. Many of them had to suffer persecution at the hands of enemies, rivals or disbelievers; several suffered martyrdom attended by terrible agony. Almost all of them passed away within the normal span of human life, some of them in the grip of intractable diseases that ravaged their bodies at the end.
Ramakrishna passed away at the age of 50 from cancer of the throat. Maharishi Ramana also from cancer at the age of 71. In the year 1924, thieves broke into the latter's ashram. On the second occasion they even landed blows on this holy sage as they found very little of value for them to steal away. Buddha is reported to have expired of dysentery at the age of 81. Shankaracharya passed away at the young age of 33, also of an intestinal disorder. Vivekananda died of heart failure at the young age of 40. He suffered from diabetes from an early age. St. Theresa passed away at the age of 67 and Blake of a prolonged illness at the age of 70.
Muhammad left his body when about 60 years old and St. John of the Cross breathed his last at the age of 49, suffering excruciating agony at the end. St. Paul was about 67 years old when he breathed his last, and St. Augustine passed away at the age of 76 in Hippo, while the town was under siege by the Vandals. Rumi left his body when he was 66 years old, and Suso breathed his last at the age of 71. Christ was crucified at the age of 33. Guru Nanak lived up to the age of 70, and Kabir breathed his last at the age of 78. In the case of other historical saints, mystics and prophets, too, the age span has been within normal limits. Ramanuja, the well-known Vaishnavite saint, is said to have lived up to 120 years but, sometimes, long-lived centenarians even exceed this limit.
Where is then conquest over death or victory over bodily disease? Where are then the fabulous spans of life with which credulous folk credit masters and saints? Where are the miraculous powers that could help their disciples and followers to overcome adversity, ill-health, sudden misfortune, age or decay when none of these exalted souls could overcome his own fate? Where are then the hidden adepts, magicians or knowers of the occult whose strange figures appear on the pages of books written in our time?
We have to remember that there are sensation-mongers, story-tellers, fiction-writers and even pathological liars in the sphere of religion as there are in other spheres of life. All the fabulous tales, exciting narratives and thrilling accounts in the province of the supernatural or the Divine emanate from them. They have done and are doing incalculable harm to the credulous by inducting deceptive ideas into their minds. In actual fact, the vision of the Divine is accessible only to the more sober, more penetrating, more compassionate, more truthful and more humble mind. There is nothing in the territory of the Lord that can, in the least, cause confusion and chaos in the laws, organic and inorganic both, that rule the destiny of humankind.
Faith cures and psychic phenomena have been in evidence for the past thousands of years. They have been a known feature of primitive societies also. But their occurrence is ruled by laws as rigid as the laws that govern the happenings in the material universe. Psychic faculties are a part and parcel of the evolutionary transformation of the human mind. The pranic spectrum that irradiates the brain on the arousal of Kundalini is the real repository of these uncanny gifts.
But the aim of evolution and the awakening of the Serpent Power is to create an illuminated state of consciousness. It is only by this illumination that the soul is set free from the trammels of the senses. Otherwise, it continues to be a captive even if endowed with extrasensory perception or other psychic talents. Genius and psychic faculties are the natural adornment of the higher dimension of consciousness for the human race. But they do not mark the end of man's quest to gain awareness about himself.
Religious genius has often been attended by literary talents and, sometimes, by psychic gifts too. Most of the great mystics, prophets and sages have been talented writers or speakers and, some of them, in possession of psychic or healing gifts. But these psychic or healing gifts are of the same kind displayed by mediums, faith healers and sensitives of our time.
It is possible that the fabulous powers, ascribed to some mystics and saints, are, in fact, highly colored exaggerations of minor performances involving clairvoyance, healing, precognition or psychokinesis, etc. The legends and stories, past and present, related by uncritical observers or by disciples are, in most cases, wishful creations of credulous minds or of those whose aim is to trade on the credulity of the religious-minded people.
In the ancient authoritative works on Kundalini, the concurrent attainment of illumination, genius and paranormal gifts is repeatedly mentioned. Here are a few of the verses from Shat-Chakra-Nirupana which confirm this position:-
"By meditating thus on Her who shines within the Mula-Chakra, with the luster of ten million suns, a man becomes Lord of speech and King among men, and an Adept in all kinds of learning. He becomes ever free from all diseases and his inmost Spirit becomes full of great gladness. Pure of disposition by his deep and musical words, he serves the foremost of the Devas." (13)
"He who meditates upon this stainless Lotus, which is named Svadhisthana, is freed immediately from all his enemies, such as the fault of Ahamkara (egoism) and so forth. He becomes a Lord among Yogis and is like the Sun illuminating the dense darkness of ignorance. The wealth of his nectar-like words flows in prose and verse in well-reasoned discourse." (18)
"Foremost among yogis, he ever is dearer than the dearest to women. He is preeminently wise and full of noble deeds. His senses are completely under control. His mind in its intense concentration is engrossed in thoughts of the Brahman. His inspired speech flows like a stream of (clear) water. He is like the Devata who is the beloved of Lakshmi and he is able at will to enter another's body." (27)
"He who has attained complete knowledge of the Atma (Brahman) becomes, by constantly concentrating his mind (Citta) on this Lotus, a great Sage, eloquent and wise and enjoys uninterrupted peace of mind. He sees the three periods (present, past and future) and becomes the benefactor of all, free from disease and sorrow and long-lived, and, like Hamsa, the destroyer of endless dangers." (31)
"The excellent Sadhaka, whose Atma is nothing but a meditation on this Lotus, is able quickly to enter another's body at will, and becomes the most excellent among Munis, and all-knowing and all-seeing. He becomes the benefactor of all, and versed in all the Shastras. He realizes his unity with the Brah-man and acquires excellent and unknown powers. Full of fame and long-lived, he ever becomes the Creator, Destroyer and Preserver of the three worlds." (34)
Although the mode of expression is figurative, the purport is clear. The aspirant, blessed by Kundalini, gains a state of eminence among his contemporaries by virtue of the extraordinary gifts and prophetic vision gained as the result of inner illumination. Saundarya Lahari corroborates this view in the following verses:-
"O! Mother, He who meditates on you, accompanied by your attendant powers, like Vasini and others, the creatrices of good words, beautiful like moon-gems, becomes the creator of great works of art, using expressions fragrant like the lotus-face of the Goddess of learning, resembling those of the great ones." (17)
"O! Chaste One. O! Ideal of pure womanhood. Many poets attain the Goddess of learning, the consort of the Creator; through various types of riches, many become lords of the Goddess of prosperity: but the contact of your breasts is available to none other than the Great God—not even to the Kuravaka tree." (96)
"O! Queen of the Supreme God, the learned ones have deemed you as the Goddess of learning, wife of the Creator, as the Goddess of riches, wife of the protector, as the daughter of the Mountain, the partner of the Destroyer. But you as a mysterious, illusory, fourth Power with inaccessible, infinite greatness dazzle the universe." (97)
The following verses from Panchastavi are equally emphatic on this issue:
"O Saraswati (Kundalini as the Goddess of learning), verily there pours out from the mouths of those devotees who contemplate Thy entrancing resplendence, spotless like unto a bunch of white lotuses, irradiating the brain and dwelling in the forehead, akin to a stream of ambrosia, an uninterrupted forceful flow of words, clear and full of deep meaning, like the milky and wavy luster of the river of Gods (the Ganges)." (I:8)
"O Daughter of the Himalayas (spotless like snow): The devotee who, with a pure heart, meditates on Thy stainless glory, like a cluster of moonbeams, O Beauteous One, Thou dost soon bless him with unlimited power of faultless expression (genius) in a matter of days." (II:19)
"O Bhawani: those devotees who see Thee clearly, like the crescent of the moon, shining in the forehead, lighting from its depths the sky of mind, those wise men soon become seers and Thou grantest all desires to these discerning souls full of faith." (II:21)
"Only a few, taking refuge in the dust of Thy lotus feet, became great poets, pure in heart, of great wisdom and noble deeds and won to fame which resounded in the three worlds, stainless like the moon, silk, milk or snow." (II:26)
The performances of some well-known mediums, investigated by the Society for Psychical Research, are so amazing that a saint credited with the same powers would draw crowds of followers from far and near. In the case of the Illuminati, possession of psychic faculties is an encumbrance rather than a blessing, as compared to the glory and the bliss of the new world of awareness open to them. Mediumistic gifts are not, as a rule, amenable to the control of the owner. The possessor is more often a slave than a master of the powers inherited or gained.
The investigation directed to unravel this mystery, far from elucidating it, has made the riddle of the paranormal even more unanswerable. The reason for it is not hard to locate. The enthusiastic researchers, confident of their own scholarship and blessed with a penetrating intellect, set themselves upon the task with the conviction that the invisible psychic forces, behind these bizarre occurrences, must one day yield their secrets to the efforts of man.
Shut out perennially from the world of mind, these honest savants have no idea of the stupendous nature of intelligent, elemental forces that fill the universe. They never realize that their efforts to understand the nature of these intelligent elements, in order to gain mastery over them, can meet with an ironical response from that side. For these Cosmic intelligent forces can be far more clever and intelligent than man can ever be. It can be that the freak performances and erratic phenomena they witness are designed to mystify the investigators even more without permitting a single insight into the deeper secrets of the manifestations.
One can imagine the derisive smiles of these mighty intelligences at the bewilderment of the mortals and the laughing stock the latter make of themselves by their own overconfidence in an instrument of perception, namely their intellect, which is as ineffective in the astral world as the sharpest mortal eyes are ineffective in the pitch darkness of a trackless wood at night.
Chapter Eight
The possibilities inherent in Kundalini are unlimited. Its implications in respect of every sphere of human life are enormous. What the seekers often believe to be a power that they can activate for their own spiritual or material benefits is the Power that rules the universe, the Infinite Intelligence of which we are but a tiny speck. Once the existence of an organic evolutionary mechanism in human beings is confirmed, Kundalini will assume an importance that is unimaginable at present. It will decisively influence every field of human activity and thought. The whole atmosphere of the earth will be saturated with the idea that man is a pilgrim on the way to the Shrine of God-Consciousness.
We cannot even imagine, at present, the state of mind of the multitudes, inhabiting the earth, when it becomes widely known that the goals and ideals of religion are already structured in the human brain. We cannot properly envision now how human beings will think and act when it is confirmed by science that our brain is slowly inching its way towards a sublime state of cognition, irrespective of our will and choice. We can only dimly foresee how it will affect human behavior when it is established that every thought we think and every deed we do has a direct impact on this evolution and that we transmit to our offspring the harvest of our acts, measured in terms of our evolutionary climb.
The children, too, on whom our future depends, will be alive to this truth from an early age. The result can be electrifying. There is no influence and no method of upbringing that can act so well in inculcating the desire for an ideal life, in the plastic minds of children, as the idea of a romantic adventure needing courage, devotion, honesty, truth, love, compassion, patience and perseverance, of which the object is entry into a golden world of eternal life.
The inherent liking for fairy tales, stories of high adventure and exploits of superordinary heroes, in children, is a clear sign pointing to the real purpose of human life. A child delights in narratives of superhuman adventure as it has to attain that stature one day. Fairy tales, mythologies and folklore have all been the outcome of the subconscious desire in the mind of primitive man to gain supernormal powers and to live in worlds of freedom, released from the fetters that bind the soul to the earth.
The practice of reading the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, the Dhammapada and other revealed scriptures, in the morning, with the family gathered together to listen to the words, had a profound significance. The discontinuance of this custom has not resulted in a wholesome change. The target of evolution, the spiritual order behind the universe and the need for self-discipline to reach that target must always occupy a place in the mind of man. The reading of holy books fulfilled this need to a great extent, instilling noble ideals in the minds of the young and strengthening those in the minds of the old.
The reason why the revealed faiths of mankind received a setback at the rise of science is because dogma is an enemy of progress, whether spiritual or material. It is a serious stumbling block in the path of evolution. Like other forms of genius, spiritual prodigies are needed from time to time to open new horizons, set up new ideals, prescribe better ways of life and provide fresh accounts of the transcendental world.
It has to be remembered that, like the intellect, supernal vision has to grow stage by stage to learn more and more of the unbounded universe of mind. I do not believe it is rational to suppose that any prophet, mystic or enlightened sage, who rose in the past, could master all the knowledge of the cosmos or even that part of it pertaining to the soul of man. It is inconceivable how such an idea can be entertained by an intelligent mind.
The amazing world of knowledge, gathered in our time by science, was not known to any spiritual genius of the past. The conclusion is, therefore, unavoidable that they had no foreknowledge of the stature mankind would win by empirical study of and control over the elemental forces of nature. If they had no prescience of this fact, how can we assume that their knowledge of the even more unbounded and complex world of Spirit was final and all-comprehensive? The present spiritual stagnation of mankind is the outcome of this error.
By restricting the frontiers of our spiritual knowledge to the ideas expressed by one great spiritual luminary, the way to progress is irreversibly blocked. A religious community is thus forced to vegetate, unable to surmount the obstruction, with the resultant atrophy of the inherent spiritual faculties. This error can only be rectified with the experiments done on Kundalini, for it will show that spiritual illumination is as much the result of an enhanced organic activity of the brain as the power of abstract reasoning in human beings.
In the coming eras, with the knowledge gained of the evolutionary mechanism, sage after sage and messiah after messiah would arise, gaining in stature and in their insight of the spiritual world until the limit to which the brain can grow is reached. By that time, in all probability the whole race will have been firmly planted on the path to Cosmic Consciousness.
Confirmation of the organic facet of our evolution is absolutely necessary for unanimity of opinions on the subject. Without some kind of physiological change in the brain, a transhuman dimension is not possible in the same way as the intellectual flights of a great mind are not possible in the stunted brain of a cretin. It has been a great error throughout the past to believe that one could experience the Super-sensible levels of creation with the same brain with which one attends to the observation of the physical world.
How the shift from one plane of existence, which needs our sensory equipment for its exploration, to another, which has all along been held to be beyond the reach of the senses and the intellect, can be possible, no one has cared to investigate. It never has been possible and never will be possible to the end of time. The great messiahs, mystics and sages who had the experience had, one and all, a more evolved organ of thought. They provide weighty evidence to show that the human brain has been and still is in a state of organic growth.
This lack of knowledge, even among mystics, about the fact that the organic structure of the brain is involved in any act of supersensory cognition is clear from the following lines of Rudolf Steiner:
"The truth is that there is no scientific finding which contradicts spiritual findings. Nevertheless, it is easy to believe that this or that scientific judgement conflicts with the accounts of the higher worlds, if the scientific results are not taken into account comprehensively and without prejudice. It will be found that the more unprejudicedly spiritual science is compared with the positive achievements of science, the better their full agreement can be recognized. Some other statements of spiritual science, however, will not really lend themselves simply to the intellect's judgement. But he who realizes that not only the intellect but also healthy feeling can be a judge of truth will, without difficulty, acquire a proper relationship to these statements as well."3
To say that not only the intellect, but also healthy feeling can be a judge of truth cannot help to resolve the conflict existing, at present, between religion and science. If the world is made to believe the feeling of every hierophant about his experience of the super-mundane worlds, there would be no possibility of arriving at a common measure or model according to which the authenticity of one experience, as compared to the other, can be judged without error. For instance, Steiner's own descriptions of his experience do not tally with those of Sweden-borg. As a sample, let us cite Steiner's description of the Tantric chakras. According to him, with the development of soul and its organisms, a student, on the way to clairvoyance, perceives a structure standing out on his body. In his own words:
"It extends from the center of the head to the middle of the physical body, and appears as a kind of independent body possessing certain organs. These organs, now to be considered, are apparent to the clairvoyant near the following parts of the physical body: the first between the eyes; the second near the larynx; the third in the region of the heart; the fourth in the so-called pit of the stomach; the fifth and sixth are situated in the abdomen. These organs are technically known as wheels, chakras or lotus flowers."
Steiner remarks further that as the student continues his disciplines these lotus flowers grow brighter and later begin to revolve. At this time the capacity for clairvoyance begins. These chakras are the "sense organs of the soul." The lotus flower at the larynx enables the student to perceive the thoughts and mentality of other beings and to gain deeper insight into the laws of natural phenomena clairvoyantly. The organ at the heart perceives the sentiments and dispositions of others. Each flower has a different number of petals and the one at the heart has twelve. In a distant past, half of the petals of each flower were developed and it now remains for the student to cultivate those remaining by performing certain disciplines set out by Steiner.
The perceptions of each spiritual organ, he adds, bear a different character. The sixteen-petalled lotus transmits thoughts and the mentality of other beings as figures, mobile forms filled with life. On the other hand, the twelve-petalled lotus perceives something which can be likened to the sensations of cold and warmth. It is obvious that these descriptions are based on the Tantric conceptions of the various chakras. But there are great variations between what Steiner claims and what is stated by the ancient masters about the siddhis (psychic powers) gained with the arousal of the Serpent Power, and its ascent from one chakra to the other.
This is not all. There are marked differences between the views of the ancient writers among themselves not only in respect of the paranormal powers gained or the states of mind achieved, but also about the number of chakras and their locations. In these circumstances, how can the world determine which of the accounts is correct and which fictitious? Also, how can it be confirmed that the experience is real and not a vivid dreamlike presentation of the ideas already present in the subconscious?
Let us now compare the description of Rudolf Steiner with what Emanuel Swedenborg has related. The latter's own account of his illumination to his friend, Robsahm, as far as it goes, is very characteristic. He reports that God appeared to him. "I am God the Lord, the Creator and Redeemer of the World. I have chosen thee to unfold the spiritual sense of the Holy Scriptures. I will myself dictate to thee what thou shalt write." Swedenborg continues:
"Those whose thoughts are confined to natural things cannot understand that there is a light in heaven; yet in the heavens the light is so great that it exceeds by many degrees the noonday light of the world. I have often seen it in the time of evening and night. At first I wondered, when I heard the angels say that the light of the world is little better than shade in comparison with the light of heaven; but now that I have seen it, I can bear witness that it is so. The brightness and splendor surpass all description. Everything that I have seen in the heavens I have seen in that light, and therefore more clearly and distinctly than things in this world."
At another place he adds:
"I have sometimes been brought into the state of mind in which the angels are, and in that state I have spoken with them; and then I understood every word; but when I was brought back to my former state, and thus into the natural thought proper to man, and wished to recollect what I had heard, I could not; for there were thousands of things not adapted to the ideas of natural thought, and therefore inexpressible except by variegations of heavenly light, and not at all by human words." 4
In spite of the sometimes unrealistic nature of his assumptions, I feel certain that Rudolf Steiner was blessed with an active Kundalini. I am citing him at some length to show how necessary it is to make mystical experience a subject of exhaustive study to lay down guidelines for those, who have this transporting state of mind, by which they can evaluate their own ecstasies. Kundalini creates a revolution in the brain to an extent that the individual often loses contact with reality. He must have the sobering touch of the experiences of others, acclaimed to be Masters, to moderate his exuberance and to correct his errors. This is necessary to help him cross the borderline safely to reach perennial supernal wisdom and correct knowledge of the Transcendental World. Describing the mental state of one on the Path to Higher Knowledge Steiner writes:-
"He will grow calmer, he will attain firm assurance in all his actions, and will cease to be put out of countenance by all manner of incidents. By thus advancing he will gradually become more and more his own guide, and will allow himself less and less to be led by circumstances and external influences. He will soon discover how great a source of strength is available to him in these moments thus set apart. He will begin no longer to get angry at things which formerly angered him; countless things which he formerly feared cease to alarm him; he acquires a new outlook on life."
He adds further:
"He must pass on the contemplation of those things which would concern him, if he lived under quite different circumstances, and in a quite different situation. In this way something begins to live within him which ranges above the purely personal. His gaze is directed to higher worlds than those with which everyday life connects him. And thus he begins to feel and realize, as an inner experience, that he belongs to those higher worlds. . . ."
"He begins to deal with thoughts as with things in space, and the moment approaches when he begins to feel that which reveals itself in the silent inward thought activity to be much higher, much more real than the things in space. He discovers that something living expresses itself in this thought world. He sees that his thoughts do not merely harbor shadow pictures, but that through them hidden beings speak to him. Out of the quiet something begins to speak to him."
At another place he writes:-
"When he practices listening without criticism, even when a completely contradictory opinion is advanced, when the most 'hopeless mistake' is committed before him, then he learns, little by little, to blend himself with the being of another and become identified with it. Then he hears through words into the soul of the other."
In the case of Swedenborg, the influence of Kundalini is clearly discernible in the description of the transport experienced by him. He writes:-
"I perceived . . . that the joy and delight came as from the heart, diffusing themselves very gently through all the inmost fibres, and thence into the bundles of fibres, with such an inmost sense of enjoyment, that every fibre was, as it were, nothing but joy and delight, and everything capable of perception and sensation seemed in like manner to be alive with happiness. Compared with these joys, bodily pleasure is as a thick pungent fog compared with a pure and most gentle atmosphere."
Chapter Nine
The influence of Kundalini is obvious from the brightness and splendor perceived by Swedenborg in his visions. The arousal of Kunda-lini does not mean that the experience should lead to the climax at the same time or that the rapture experienced and the mental elevation brought about should be the same. The supersensory channel of cognition, opened up with the activity of Kundalini, will take ages to reach the stage of perfection and maturity decreed for it by Heaven. This will also depend, to some extent, on the efforts of man himself. For a rational assessment of the position, it is sufficient to bear in mind that illumination, mystical experience, mediumistic gifts and genius, to become possible, involve an organic change in the brain. This change is not a direct product of one's own effort, but the harvest of an evolutionary transformation occurring in the brain.
The fact that there are variations in the accounts of the experience, left by mystics, or that there are contradictions and conflicts in the revealed scriptures of the various faiths is thus easily explainable. Higher Consciousness is still a fledgling super-sense in man. Hence, observations made through it at a primary stage could be neither precise nor uniform nor final, as those who had these experiences, in most cases, did not even know the real nature of the gift that brought an amazing resplendent World of Being before their newly opened inner eye.
The same has been the case with intellect in the earlier stages and, to some degree, is the case even now. The great diversity in the culture, beliefs, customs, habits, mythology, art, rituals and the ideas about the other world of primitive societies had their roots in this nebulosity of the slowly growing intellect. The difference in the lifestyles, beliefs, philosophical systems, culture and habits of our day, as compared to the people of the Stone Age or the predynastic culture in Egypt, is also due to the same reason. To what, at present, unimaginable heights of intellectual and spiritual knowledge mankind would attain in the course of the next few thousand years, it is not possible to envision at this time.
The overwhelming impact of the stronger pranic radiation on the brain often has a stunning effect on the mind. The one who has the experience has no conception that such a Heavenly state of existence could ever be possible. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at if, in the intoxication of this soul-ravishing experience, those who had it were led to believe that they were the chosen of God or that they had won to a superhuman stature that invested them with a power and dignity not accessible to the ordinary run of human beings. With the attendant gifts of genius and psychic faculties many of them were able to attract crowds of followers and to win homage and respect of their contemporaries that persisted for long periods of time.
As narrated in my autobiography5, overpowered by the wonder of the visions, I, too, experienced once the same intoxication and the same delusive ideas about my own Messianic role in life. But the thought of my family obligations, and the buffets I received from Fate to adapt my body to the new vision I had gained, humbled my pride to dust and made me continue the normal tenor of my life, trusting in Heaven to guide me on the Path. For this reason, I believe, a constant study and ceaseless experimentation on the phenomenon is necessary to gather every bit of authentic information about this supremely important activity of the human brain. I am firmly convinced that the life, safety, survival, peace, progress and happiness of the race, both now and in the future, depend on this experimentation and the results that will flow therefrom.
I say this because, at this time, the learned world is in a state of confusion about the purpose of human life. The issue whether consciousness or inanimate matter is the basal substance of the universe is still a moot subject among the learned. The religious-minded, on the other side, are no less divided among themselves. In this conflict and clash of views, both in the temporal and spiritual areas pertaining to life, humanity blunders on completely unaware of her destiny. If evolution is a fact and the human brain is inexorably undergoing a change, which can have a momentous effect on the life of man, it is high time that all the aspects of this transformation should be studied to know its day-to-day impact on the life of human beings.
Man is no longer a creature bound by his instincts. He has a will and a choice of his own. It can be that in the exercise of his will and choice he might be, at times, acting in a way hostile to the irresistible changes occurring in the brain. What can be the outcome of such a conflict at the present level of human intellect? We have not to go far to know about it. The present explosive condition of the world provides a graphic picture of the consequences of this conflict. The racial mind, obstructed in its evolutionary career, has now created, on a collective basis, a world situation in which the very existence of humanity is at stake.
The ways of nature are simple. Only because of our own problem-creating intellect we often ascribe complexity to a phenomenon that has a simple explanation. The source behind the evolution of the brain is the reproductive system. The same organic device which serves for generation acts for evolution also. The reproductive apparatus has its own set of nerves which integrate with the entire nervous system of the body. There is no doubt that a direct link exists between the brain and the reproductive organs. On the arousal of Kundalini this connection becomes clearly perceptible. An intensely rapturous sensation, starting from the pudenda, rises up through the spinal cord and terminates in the brain, where it becomes so exquisite that one may even swoon in ecstasy.
Attended by this transporting feeling, there is a distinct perception of a fluidic essence pouring into the brain along with a streaming radiance, also rising through the spinal cord. It is this fluidic essence which is repeatedly mentioned, in the Tantras and the works on Kundalini, as the Ambrosia that drenches the brain on the union of Shakti with Shiva. In fact, since the intensely pleasurable sensation experienced can only be compared to the rapture of an orgasm, its symbolic expression as the union between Shiva and His Spouse is easily understandable. This indescribable rapture is an inalienable feature of true mystical ecstasy. Those who have visionary experiences, brought about by the practice of Yoga or any other spiritual discipline, should keep this fact in mind when evaluating their own experience.
The prudes who feel shocked or disturbed at the thought that mystical experience should have anything to do with what is sensuous or who treat the creative act as a profanation of the Divine should better reexamine their hearts. Love between the sexes and the rapture of the union between them are the greatest gifts of Heaven to man. Without these priceless gifts the earth would still be a haunt of savages and man a brute, devoid of all romance, refinement and love. Life would be a boring round of laborious tasks and would have nothing to offer to charm and captivate the heart of man. The love that makes a beloved the dearest object in the world, when directed upward to rejuvenate the brain, creates that intense longing for Divine encounter which has been a prominent feature of mystical life.
It is this upward flow of an ambrosial essence into the brain that has been the source of all the eloquence, personal magnetism, psychic faculties or the healing touch displayed by great Illuminati of the past and present. The secret of this reverse activity of the generative organs was known to the sages and occultists in prehistoric times. It was definitely known to the Egyptians. The marvelous constructions raised, and the advanced knowledge gained by them were the harvest of this secret tradition. The portraits of the erect phallus or of the phallus and the female organ of generation combined, dating back to prehistoric times, and found in many places on the earth, are symbolic depictions of this altered activity of the cerebrospinal system.
Mankind cannot continue to exist without procreation. It cannot continue to exist without evolution also. The Plan of Nature is binding for the race. By no means whatsoever can man escape his Fate or change the direction of his life, as ordained by Heaven. The vicissitudes of history and the rise and fall of nations have been the outcome of the operation of this Law. With one momentous discovery in the domain of mind, comparable to the great discoveries made in the domain of matter, the whole thinking and planning of mankind can change. The mystery of Kundalini, when explored with the methods known to science, can provide the groundwork for a monumental insight into the mind that can dwarf all other discoveries made in recent times.
To assume that man will continue to be the same frail creature for all time to come, swayed by passions, gripped by lusts and lured by temptations, always under the relentless sway of death and decay, is to draw a conclusion too gloomy to contemplate. It would amount to prescribing perpetual internment for the soul with no hope of release to the last day-a most dreary prospect for an intelligent form of life.
What does it avail if this ambitious creature by dint of sweating labor rises for a while to the pinnacle of fame, wealth or power? The end comes soon when relentless age wrests them all out of his trembling hands, and a shaky wreck, who once stamped and stormed in the intoxication of his youth, furtively counts the months and years while awaiting, in suspense, the approach of Death. What victory, what treasure, what fame, what pleasure and what summit of power can then compare to the glorious achievement of one whose liberated soul gains awareness of its Sovereignty and Eternal Life?
Gopi Krishna
New Delhi
April 13, 1979
INTERVIEW WITH GOPI KRISHNA
BY CLAES NOBEL
TALK ABOUT
THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
It is a privilege to be here and to meet you in person. This is a particularly beautiful setting, with the mountains and the wonderful lake in front of us. It must give a person much inspiration to live in such beauty and solitude as this.
It is a strange coincidence, because it is in this type of surroundings that the ancient sages of India spoke to the seekers after truth. The entire philosophy of the Upanishads is based on the teachings delivered by the sages, in hermitages located on hills, on the banks of rivers, or on the banks of lakes where nature bloomed in all its glory and beauty.
Solitude and nature are absolutely necessary for the proper development of a human being.
It is an admixture of natural life, lived in solitude, amid beautiful surroundings of nature and what we call an arboreal life, which is absolutely necessary for the poise and harmony of the human mind. Otherwise, it becomes too much distracted, and that distraction is fatal for its evolution towards a higher dimension of consciousness.
The blunder made by us at present is to put the human mind in surroundings among machines, speeding cars, and airplanes, which do not allow it to have that repose and calm environment where it can grow in the right direction.
Could you tell me a little about this particular area? I understand that you were born in Kashmir and have been living here for most of your life.
I was born in a village about 21 miles from Srinagar. This area is considered to be one of the most beautiful and most productive in Kashmir. It is lavish with fruits and produces an abundance of corn. It is said that some of the greatest philosophers that Kashmir has produced have been residing in this area, such as Abhinava Gupta.
The spring which supplies water to our buildings and garden, overlooking Dal Lake, is known as the Gupta Tirth, the Hidden Spring, and it is said that some of those sages lived here, close to the spring, and at other places on this slope.
And these mountains? Are we in the Himalayas?
Yes, they are the foothills of the Himalayas, and on the other side of this mountain a stream is flowing which comes from a lake about 13,000 feet above sea level. It carries the water to a place about six miles from here, where an artificial lake has been built by the government. The lake supplies drinking water to the entire city of Srinagar, about 10 miles away. It is very beautiful water, and this valley, on the other side of the building, is a reserve where wild animals are allowed to live.
I am very interested in wild animals and have been working with various environmental and ecological organizations to protect them. What kind of animals do you have in these mountains?
Jackals, wolves, and even some variety of tiger. Also bears in large numbers, and they sometimes come into our garden.
I would like to say that what particularly brought me here to visit with you is my very strong concern over matters related to peace. Today it seems as if we are on the brink of another world war. A third world war could confront mankind, and bring out the most destructive weapons we have in our arsenals, the nuclear missiles. Among many of the books you have written is The Shape of Events to Come, which I carried with me from the States. It is a mind-boggling book, and I would like to hear about it from you. What is the message you are trying to get out to the world?
In this book, I am in particular trying to draw the attention of the world to a very important fact that at the present moment our scientists, our educators, leaders, and politicians are only aware of natural laws, and even those are not known completely or perfectly. In addition to material laws, there are also spiritual or psychic laws in the universe. We have absolutely no awareness of these laws. Time and again, a glimpse of these laws has been given to mankind by the great prophets and Messiahs who appeared in different parts of the world. We have rejected their teachings as pure myth or superstition. But actually those teachings contain germs of truth that are essential for the safety and survival of the race.
The tragedy is that we have rejected the evidence of religion or of the teachings of great sages about the spiritual world and the soul which dwells in the human body. Since spirit, mind or soul is not perceptible to any of our senses, or to any of our scientific instruments, we presume that they have no independent existence apart from the body or the organic organ, the brain, and therefore we need not worry about what happens to them. But actually they do have an independent existence. They have a universe of their own, and they have profound influences on all that we do, on all that we think, on all that we create.
But this influence is conditioned by certain laws which are totally a sealed book to us. These laws are operating at present and driving mankind to a catastrophic war to end the present order, which is against the evolution of the brain.
What laws are you referring to now?
I am referring to the first law, the Law of Evolution. This law of evolution has been referred to by every prophet; by the founder of every great faith. They have not called it a law. They called it a Path, a way, a road. Christ has called it a Path, Buddha has called it a Path, Mohammed has called it a Path, the Bhagavad Gita calls it a Path. All of them call it a Path, the road that can lead mankind to salvation and beatitude. This Path is a law. This is what I am emphasizing with all the force at my command. And I hope and pray that science and our intellectuals would come to the same conclusion after conducting scientific experiments, before the catastrophe occurs, rather than after.
When you say catastrophe, to what are you referring?
Nature, we find, is relentless in her programs and schedules. She is also relentless in enforcing her laws. We know that the moment we digress from some of the biological laws ruling our life, we are punished in some way. We have a disease, we have a weakness, or we die, or something happens to us, if we violate the laws pertaining to our body.
The same thing happens when we violate the laws pertaining to our mind, but we never recognize this. We are now violating this Law of Evolution, which the prophets have called the Path, very seriously. The alternatives are either mankind will degenerate, or its mind will become disoriented, as is actually happening at the moment, or it will have to revert to a lifestyle and a social system which is more in harmony with this Path.
You say in The Shape of Events to Come that it is most likely we will have a nuclear war, and you also say that we must try to avoid it no matter what the cost. My question is this: Are we ruled by predestination or by free will?
We are ruled by both predestination and also by free will.
And the predestination in this case, you feel that it will escalate to some kind of a confrontation between different ideologies? It seems as if you are saying that this is a growing process that man is going through; that we have been going through history continually plagued by wars.
The indications are that there will be a nuclear war. But it could be averted if mankind were to obey the law which it is violating at present.
What law are we violating?
To repeat, it is the Law of Evolution, the Path referred to in every great faith of mankind, the Path of Christ, the Path of Mohammed, the Path of Buddha, the Path described in the Bhagavad Gita. As I have said, the Path described in every great scripture of the world.
But if it has been described in all the leading religions, why is man so foolish as to disobey those findings, and why are we not following the prescribed path?
There is a very valid reason for it. The scientists of the 18th century, and even before, expressed views which are mostly skeptical. They denied the existence of God, immortality of the soul and the hereafter. The result is that at the present moment the intelligent mind is wavering between the precepts of religion and the concepts of science.
This has been a great tragedy. In fact, it is this premature expression of skeptical views that led Karl Marx to formulate his entirely materialistic theories. These premature views have divided mankind into two blocs; one of them who believe in God and the other who deny God.
When you say the two blocs, are you referring to the Communistic bloc, which denies religious freedom, and the Western Capitalistic bloc?
Yes. It has been a real tragedy that Western scientists never studied other religions, such as the Indian religion or the ancient tradition of Egypt. They only concentrated their attention on Christianity. Even after concentrating their attention on that one particular religion, and pointing out certain anomalies, they still could have studied the phenomena in an objective way instead of rejecting the whole finding of religion altogether.
If they had done it, if they had studied the occult literature of the world just as they studied alchemy and astrology, and the ancient sciences of medicine and the like, and then out of the amorphous mass crystallized certain laws and facts, then they would have come to the conclusion that there is a law to which all these prophets were referring. And that is a spiritual law which relates to the evolution of the human mind, and also to the emancipation of the human soul and its rising to higher dimensions of existence.
You speak with such assurance. Having read a number of your books, I know that you have had a great personal enlightenment. Thanks to this enlightenment, your illumination as you also call it, you are in a position where you can indeed look into the future and discern events to come. Could you tell me when this happened, and what kind of experience it was?
I had an incredible experience in my 34th year. And from that experience started a process of transformation in my body which continues to this day. This transformation led me to a state of consciousness which I had never experienced before. It is a strange experience. In the normal human being, one's personality is a small flame of consciousness or awareness. And seen from that small flame, the world appears to be a gigantic expanse of stars, planets, oceans, mountains, deserts and plains. But when this transformation of consciousness occurs, the whole picture is reversed. It is now the consciousness which becomes an ocean. It is now the consciousness which surpasses these suns, planets, mountains, oceans, plains and deserts. It is now consciousness that becomes the fundamental reality of the universe. And all that we see now, with our sensory equipment, is like an image projected on it.
Consciousness now appears to be the basic reality, to be the universe in fact. And what we see, the material manifestations of the universe, are but projections of this very consciousness. We can say they are like shadows, phantoms, like a mirage floating on it.
This consciousness that developed in you at the age of 34 became a super-consciousness, a thing which happens very seldom to people. Perhaps in our times it has happened to only a few people. Is there any way that this can be triggered in others by some sort of activity?
I believe so. I believe that this transformation is not a haphazard affair. We have in us a mechanism implanted in the human system by nature. This mechanism rules the cerebrospinal system in our bodies. Once it is aroused to activity, the cerebrospinal system works in a certain predetermined direction. A new form of energy flows in the body, and a new form of consciousness develops in the brain.
For instance, in my case, I always dwell in a world of light. There is light in my interior, there is light on the exterior for me, also. Everything I see is bathed in a luster. Whenever I turn my attention inward and close my eyes, I am bathed in light. In dreams also I am always walking, running and moving in ethereal spaces filled with luster. I now live in the same world which has been experienced by mystics of all ages and climes, a world of light, of unutterable happiness and of intellectual illumination. It is in this state of consciousness that I get these hints and visions and directions, precognitions and awareness of future events, to tell me that this is the path chalked out for mankind, and that she has digressed from this path, with the result that her evolution and very existence is threatened.
You say that different people have different receptivity in these matters, or intelligent energies that are in the cosmic universe, that we are indeed like receivers, and that some individuals are more able to receive them than others. We know from the various religions that anything having to do with creation stems from thought. And if there is a universal creative thought, we see the manifestations in plants, trees, and in the acts that man performs.
What you are also saying is that this is such an enormous, powerful instrument, this new consciousness in yourself, but that we have failed to use it properly in recent centuries due to the fact that mankind has been too actively involved in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. We have therefore forgotten the knowledge as to how to communicate with cosmic intelligence. Is that correct?
You are very right. Some minds are more responsive and more receptive to this cosmic reservoir of intelligence than others, for instance, geniuses. It is well known, and it is admitted by geniuses themselves that they receive whole chapters, whole books, whole ideas, whole poems, just as if somebody else is feeding them with the material.
So when a genius works, it is not something that his mind does by itself but the ideas or thoughts come to him, that he is the instrument of the creative process?
Certainly, when it comes to the original things. Now, it is not that the genius does not make any effort. The effort is made, but his brain is so constituted that it has easier access to this reservoir of eternal knowledge than others do. Similarly, we have the psychics, prophets, clairvoyants, prodigies, great artists and the great musicians. They all receive new ideas, new flashes, new music, and new art from this intelligent source, which is behind the human mind. We are making a grave mistake in supposing that consciousness or the mind is the product of our brain. That is what is at the root of the present disaster. Consciousness or mind is an energy by itself. It is an independently existing universe. It is a self-sustaining ocean from which a drop filters into our mind. Our mind, our neurons, our nervous system, is but a computer. They are just the parts of a computer worked by this energy. The moment we come to realize this fact we can begin to make experiments to prove it. That is what I mean when I say that we must have experimental centers where we can do research on the evolutionary mechanism that is implanted in every human being. In the ancient India scriptures, this mechanism is often referred to as Kundalini.
Now you've brought in a new word.
Well, Kundalini, in the Indian tradition, means a reservoir of psychic power in the human body which can be aroused to activity by certain mental or spiritual disciplines, as for instance, Yoga. Kundalini is said to be the basis for illumination, genius, miraculous power, and for all extraordinary faculties and possibilities latent in the human mind.
I assume that Kundalini is a very old doctrine, not something that has surfaced just at this time.
It is as old as pre-dynastic Egypt. That means it was known more than 5,000 years before the birth of Christ.
And you say it has been recorded in the ancient scriptures?
Hundreds and thousands of books mention it. It is recorded in Chinese books, the Egyptian hieroglyphics, in the Indian Tantras and Shakti Shastras. There are thousands of books on Kundalini in India, dating from prehistoric times.
And it is a biological force in all human beings? Is that what you are referring to in your book, The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius?
Yes. But, unfortunately, science has no awareness of this Power Center, which is in fact the evolutionary mechanism. Some scientists believe that evolution has occurred through random mutations, which is disputed very hotly by others. But the fact is that there is a biological mechanism in every human being, and this mechanism is known as Kundalini. It can be accelerated through the discipline of Yoga or through other religious exercises. And when it is accelerated, one can, in one life, attain to the same state of expanded consciousness as would otherwise be attained in many incarnations.
This is what you did as a young man; you were actively pursuing this and you awakened this evolutionary mechanism?
It aroused not only because of my efforts but first, probably, because my nervous system and brain were mature for this awakening. I had it through heredity in my own system.
Wouldn't this be of great importance if we could have decision-makers and world leaders become exposed to this subject, this doctrine, so that they could understand more about how the mind operates and how everything fits together?
It is of the utmost importance. If we study Plato deeply, especially his Republic, he is referring to this type of man as the philosopher who should be the highest ruler in the state. It is this type of man who is discussed in the Upanishads, the man who is illuminated, who has risen above normal temptations. He alone should be entrusted with the responsibilities of rulership.
And if this could be done, then maybe we would achieve peace, harmony and happiness in the world.
It has to be done. It is not only a question that it could be done. We have now gained control over the most terrible power in the universe, the power of the atom. Unless mankind has sober, patient, selfless human beings at the top in every sphere of activity and thought, to control and moderate the passions and ambitions in others, there is no possibility of human survival in the next fifty or hundred years.
Isn't it strange that mankind has been ignoring, or unaware of this profound knowledge instead of using it to great advantage and benefit? Why are we not using it?
Mr. Nobel, it is a matter of great pain for me. For the past thousands of years, in Grecian times, among the Romans, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, everywhere, the greatest thinkers have been believers in the Power ruling the universe. They have written profound systems of philosophy, especially in India. They are the most profound systems even today. But all of a sudden scientists appeared in the 18th and 19th centuries, saying that this whole mass of knowledge was a myth and superstition, and they made those assertions without ever experimenting on it.
So what do we need to do now, today, in order to correct this mistake or reverse the trend?
As you say, we have to reverse the trend. We have to make a thorough study of the religious scriptures of the world.
On a scientific level?
Yes, on a scientific level. We have to see the points of resemblance. We have to see where they refer to the occult disciplines. We have to see what is the state of illumination, what has been the experience of the great mystics. We have to gather all this data, and then we have to make experiments on volunteer subjects for the arousal of this power in them. I am as sure as that the sun is shining before me that this will be proved and established within the next twenty years, provided we were to make the right efforts for this purpose.
Gopi Krishna, how do you distinguish between the false prophet, which we know existed even in Biblical times and continues to exist today, and the genuine prophet?
The genuine prophet does not normally run after disciples; is not ostentatious. He is spontaneous. He is humble. He is compassionate, and he has certain faculties, certain visions of, if I may say, a newly developed inner eye by which he can discern things and solve problems which it is not possible for a normal man to do.
The first sign of an illuminated personality is that there is a spontaneous flow of wisdom. This is known as vaikhari in India. That wisdom generally deals with the spiritual side of man. It must be original. It must be correct. And it must be born within himself without the aid of external reading or other things. You will find that in the case of all great mystics whatever has been given out has usually been in verse or in a very beautiful form of prose. The illuminated mind has its own language, its own expression. The illuminated mind will never exaggerate, it will only give out the truth.
There are many ways by which we can distinguish a true prophet from a false one. In India one of the methods was that only those who could write original commentaries on what is known as parasthan atray, that is, the Upanishads, the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, should be acclaimed as those having attained to higher consciousness. It is not an easy task to write an original commentary on either the Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads, because one who does so must have attained to the same realms of consciousness as described in those books.
We have had illuminated human beings in India who were wonders from the age of 8 or 10, Guru Nanak, Jnaneshwar and Shankaracharya. Shankaracharya passed away at the age of 31 after leaving a prodigious amount of philosophical and religious thought. Jnaneswar, who passed away at the age of 22, wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita at the age of 16. It is a masterpiece and perhaps unparalleled in recent literature on the subject. Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikhs, was a spiritual prodigy from the age of 8.
It is not difficult to distinguish a spiritual prodigy or a spiritual genius, just as it is not difficult to distinguish a secular genius in other branches of knowledge. But with the investigation that I have in mind, it may become possible to find physiological evidence also, evidence in the blood, the cerebrospinal system, in the brain, even in the organs, the tissues, that show differences between an illuminated human being and an average person.
This scientific evaluation, is it something that has been done before or would it be something new?
It will be entirely new. I believe that science is now in a position to be able to notice the differences and also the effect of the transformative processes that occur in the body on the arousal of this evolutionary power.
Something that surprises me is that you write such beautiful verse, or lyrics, in English when it is not your native language. Is that by inspiration, something that just flows?
Yes, it just comes. What I am trying to express needs a deep study, because it is a very a profound subject. I must tell you, Mr. Nobel, without arrogating any importance to myself, in a humble way, just as a statement of fact, that I am a living witness to the truth of religion. I am a specimen of the class which has been known as mystics. I am a living model of transformed consciousness, a testimony to the correctness of the esoteric doctrines of the world, embodying in myself what has been said by the great religious teachers of the past, of whom recent examples in India have been Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi . It is a rare class. We can at once distinguish the genuine from the false. It is a matter of great pain for me to see the skeptical attitude of modern scientists about a phenomenon that has been the most important in history in changing the direction of human thought.
Buddha, Shankaracharya, Mohammed, Socrates, Zoroaster, Guru Nanak, all of these great leaders, who brought out radical changes in the thinking of mankind, belonged to this class. So it is not difficult to distinguish a genuine prophet, mystic or enlightened being from the false. But still there can also be psychological, intellectual and physiological tests by which this distinction can be easily made.
Earlier in our conversation you said that this wonderful gift that you are endowed with is something that can come to every person in lesser or greater degree if they are properly trained and motivated. Today we are annually spending some $450 billion on armaments, and I can well remember The Manhattan Project, which produced the first atom bomb, and at a tremendously high price.
If we could just invest a small amount of these funds, which are meant for death, towards research for life, towards spirituality and enlightenment, and to develop super-consciousness, wouldn't it be of great benefit to all of mankind? The research could proceed hand-in-hand with science.
The very fact that we are spending $450 billion on armaments and armies, that is on machines meant for destruction, is clear evidence for what I am saying, that the human mind has deviated from the right path. Millions are dying of starvation, millions become blind because they do not have the necessary vitamins, millions live on only one meal a day, and millions lack medicines, lack education, and live without shelter. Do you think that a sane species or a sane nation or a sane community should spend billions on weapons of mass destruction, or on sending rockets into space, when humanity needs every penny of these funds to survive?
Frankly, I cannot understand it, either.
That, my friend, is the reason why a devastating war is coming. We have lost faith in Heaven. We have lost the idea that every moment we are watched by the eyes of God.
Again, I must ask, how have we gone wrong?
We have gone wrong by believing that religion is but an individual concern, that religion is a hobby of the individual and that it has no place in government administration, or politics, science, in our projects, or in our planning for mankind.
But it used to be in America and Japan and Europe, that the state and religion worked together and misused their powers. That's why politics and religion were separated.
That is true. But we have to understand that at no time was proper study or research directed on religion. The religious leaders were given a free hand, and naturally they slowly became too fond of temporal power, even ecclesiastical power and the easements that were provided for that, rather than following in the footsteps of the founders of the faith.
This is also what has happened to science. Scientists have become dogmatic, and now they also have their vested interests. That love for science and scientific discoveries, that selfless service, is very rare today. So religion, since it became dogmatic and obsessive, needed a purging; it needed a cleansing process, just as science needs today, as every human institution needs after a time.
Even the Indian institutions needed it in their own time before they degenerated. But that was never done. On the other hand, it was just pushed aside, and our entire economy, or political and social systems, were just considered on a secular basis, on a basis where religion has no say. It was just treated as an individual concern. But religion is dealing with universal laws.
In a few words, science deals with material laws, religion deals with the laws of the spirit. We have become one-sided. We have gone too far into the material side and too far away from the spiritual side. The result is that there is a lopsided development of our intellect. It has become a dry intellect, without the sobering and harmonizing influence of religion.
Do you think that our religions will accept this idea? Will they allow science to work hand in hand with religion to carry out the kind of evolutionary or spiritual research you are calling for?
There is no question of their not accepting, or not believing in, what I say. They should not accept a single word of what I am writing as truth but leave it open to experimentation. Just make the experiments on the evolutionary mechanism, Kundalini, which is a historical fact. It is a hidden doctrine mentioned in all the esoteric systems of the past. I say they should make experiments on it in a certain way. If they succeed, if they find that I am right, then give the widest possible publicity to it.
What I have said in my writings is that no great illuminated sage had a conversation with God or communion with God. He reached only a higher dimension of consciousness. Man is destined for that same higher dimension of consciousness. There is a special psychosomatic mechanism in his body which Nature has provided for him to accelerate and rise higher and higher into this higher dimension. The prophets, illuminated sages, geniuses, the inspired poets, and the people with miraculous or psychic gifts, have all been the products of this psychosomatic mechanism, which is slowly transforming the human brain.
I say that we can achieve this transformation in one life. When these things are proved, then all the hidden secrets of religion will stand revealed, why Christ was inspired, why Mohammed was inspired, why Guru Nanak was inspired, why they had miraculous powers. And such eloquence that they could fascinate and convert everyone who came into their influence or their orbit. It is because of this power center. Once you establish it, at once there will be harmony in all the religions, because the Divine Source of revelation will then be known.
In our day and age, science and technology have become our God. Having science verify the truths of religion, therefore, seems like a valid goal.
Please understand me clearly, Mr. Nobel. I would repeat this with my last breath. The source of revelation, inspiration, genius, psychic powers lies in us. This source can become active with certain disciplines. Normally it is dormant and idle. We don't use it, but with certain experiments, this source, this fountainhead of all spiritual knowledge and powers, can become active. And it did become active in all the great prophets, sages and geniuses of the past.
The research that I am asking for will place in the hands of science the secret of genius, the secret of that Source from which science was born, from which philosophy, literature, genius, music, from which all was born. The research will put science in touch with the Source of all creativity, all nobility, and all the psychic powers in man.
That's a profound statement.
As I said, I would be happy to make it even in my last breath. The human race is evolving in a certain predetermined direction, under a certain law, which of course, it would need a long span of time to understand thoroughly. Now if this evolution continues in a healthy way, we progress. If this evolution does not continue in a healthy way we stagnate, degenerate and deteriorate.
There is also another danger. If this evolution does not occur in a healthy way, then it can occur in a morbid or malignant way. That is the reason why, in this advanced age, with all the facilities and amenities that we have, the number of mentally distorted, or the insane, is so alarming, especially in the Western countries.
There is no reason why a nation that has everything that it needs, plenty and abundance of everything, food, provisions, shelter, sanitation, everything. Why then should there be such a large incidence of insanity? The reason is because the brain's accelerated evolution is going the wrong way.
Dear Mr. Nobel, all this will be confirmed by the progeny, that our most intelligent minds have started to lose touch with reality. They have started to become alienated. Otherwise, no sane human being who is intelligent, well educated, has knowledge of all the branches to which man has gained access to this day, who has books, newspapers, television and the radio to give him news about the world, should devise a weapon like the nuclear missile, a weapon that puts the whole species in danger of annihilation.
It is insanity. We are not able to see it at this point but we will see it after 20 or 25 years. It is craziness, because the human intellect has started to deteriorate. The Romans, Greeks, Indians, Mughuls all fell because their leading intellects deteriorated. The same is happening to the Western nations. The mind is losing contact with reality.
Do you today see any similarity between the fall of the Roman empire and the possible fall of our Western capitalistic system?
The same reason. You can see a striking resemblance between the ways of life of the last Romans and Western society of our day. The same overemphasis on carnal pleasures. The same dissension among themselves. The same appetite for abnormal things. You will find parallels between the two, the same breakup of families, the same lowering of moral and ethical values.
I want to come back again to the mind, because it fascinates me very much. We know a lot about the health and diseases of the body, and we cure them. In America there is the great body cult. We exercise, jog, play tennis and golf for hours. Our physical stamina is excellent, but we give little time to the development of our mind. There is an imbalance.
It is a great imbalance. Even if we were to exercise for hours every day, for the betterment of our body, and at the same time neglect the culture of the mind, we would gain nothing by all the labor. For the pilot, the driver in us,the power that is behind all our thinking and action, would act in the wrong way. And the body will be misused when the driver is not healthy and wholesome.
Now I will give you one more instance to show how the mind works. Please try to frame a picture of New York, London, or Zurich, and see the cars, trucks and buses whirling around and around. See the people rushing across roads, burning enormous quantities of energy.
Why this haste? Is the earth turning upside down? Is some other species threatening mankind from a distant planet? Is there a plague? What is happening? Why is everybody running and rushing and working, without giving any time to allow the mind to be in repose and in peace, in tune with itself? What is happening in all the cities, especially in the industrial countries, and now in the developing countries also? Speed, speed, and work and work. For what?
I agree, people rush about without smiles on their faces.
You will find laborers and farmers smiling and laughing in their fields and workplaces. But you don't find people laughing or smiling in the large cities of the world. They are working and rushing this way and that. Now let us carry this analogy a little further. Let us take a growing infant, tie him with a rope and whirl him around the head. Or put him in a small chair which is whirling for the whole day, so that he has no time to look at anything in a patient way, in a steady way. He is always whirling. Do you think such a child will grow into a normal adult?
Definitely not.
Then how can you imagine that all these crowds, from morning till night, who are burning this energy, burning their own energy in such a rush and tumble, with a craze for speed, with a mania for more and more, with an abnormal desire for pleasure, for excitement and adventure, how can you say that this mind will grow into healthy adulthood or into a healthy humanity?
This is the reason why a nuclear war is threatening mankind. To end all of this insanity, this riot of the intellect, of speed and creativity. See how calm and reposeful Nature is and how restless is man. And not only man but intelligent man, because he has no idea that a glorious future awaits him. He doesn't know that he has to evolve in a certain direction, that he has to reach a dimension where he will combine the scientist, the sage and the illuminated in himself. He has no idea that he is destined to live a life of happiness, peace and glory on the earth.
For him, the ideal is this whirling around, going in a jet plane, rushing from Bombay to London, from London to New York; and then when he gets there, rushing in a car, this way and that, spreading smoke and pollution everywhere.
The people who are doing it are acting with the best of intentions. I myself do it by rushing to meetings here and there.
I agree with you that they are well-meaning. They are merely following the current way. But this way is built on ignorance of the spiritual law and the evolution of the human brain and mind. So they are not to be blamed. It is the system that is to be blamed. And the system is based on ignorance. That is why my voice is lonely.
But it will be confirmed that man has not to live only for his body but for his soul also. And the soul needs self-reflection, repose, meditation, calmness, nobility, and those characteristics, those traits, which were once common among the spiritual teachers of the earth. So every one of us must also give some time for the culture of our mind. And that means retirement to secluded locations, prayer, worship, creative occupations, music, and just sitting in beautiful places, or among things which have an aesthetic value, which fascinate the mind, which make it grow, which make it expand beyond the narrow limits which are forced on it by our material existence.
It is very hard to tell another nation that we have gone in the wrong direction and that it should not follow our lead. We all have to learn by our own mistakes. How can we tell developing countries that to develop their societies and economies as Europe and America have is not the right way?
In the first place, one of the consequences of this type of life has been the two great world wars. Secondly, if there were real peace and happiness in this type of life, this hectic race after material possessions, then why should millions of people take to drugs, to meditation, to living simple lives, to building communities where they are away from this rush and bustle? Out of the remaining millions, or out of the whole, why should maybe ten percent go crazy?
When we calculate the crazy, the dropouts, the drug addicts, those who meditate, those who leave for secluded places, if we count them all together, we will find that only a small fraction is left that is happy with this type of life. The rest are not happy at all. We should take a lesson from this.
Add to what you have said the possibility that we may run out of energy, and we have another serious problem. But even if we had more energy available today, would it really be good for us?
Why should we, all of a sudden, take it into our heads that everyone of us is permitted to spend as much energy as would suffice for perhaps a hundred other people? The fact is, Mr. Nobel, that we are not planning; we are not doing anything by plan that keeps in view our evolution, the resources of the earth, the needs that we have and the economy of nature. We are doing everything haphazardly. Nations are doing it out of rivalry and competition. There is nothing like a planned economy anywhere on earth.
During the last hundred years we have consumed so much energy and so much of the resources of the planet that, if frugally employed, could have lasted perhaps a thousand years. If we were to continue the same extravagance and extend it to the developing countries, to all the four billion people, there will be nothing left in the next fifty years. So all this is just haphazard thinking and wrong planning, without any idea about survival.
We have to live a frugal life, just as nature is frugal, parsimonious. A frugal life is good for our health, both inner and outer. Any new source of energy, even if discovered or developed, would not solve our problems. It would just add to them.
The present population trend indicates that around the year 2000 we will have a world population of some six or seven billion. If our problems are difficult to solve today, we can only imagine how they will be with that many people.
In calculating the needs of the population, we do not take into consideration that the human brain is evolving and that each individual needs more than we assign to her or him. Therefore, if the earth can sustain a population of, say, four billion people, then when the factor of evolution is added, it would only be able to sustain three billion or even two billion. Each individual should have something more for his evolutionary processes than what would otherwise be needed in the normal way. This is not understood anywhere.
We should have a population for which we have sufficient out of all that is produced by the earth. This can only be possible when the needs of the population and the planning done for it are on a global basis. What would be needed are men and women who are cultivated, trained, and who have reached to other dimensions of consciousness, in charge of important offices. That is the only way to safety. Otherwise, under stress, a normal mind will give way in the present complex societies of the world.
Thank you very much.
THE GOAL OF CONSCIOUSNESS RESEARCH
This interview was conducted in New Delhi late in the 1970s by a reporter for a UNESCO publication.
Q: For more than a decade now, you have been writing books on consciousness and evolution and about mystical experience. Could you restate your position in clear-cut terms and point out some of the reasons that might have stood in the way of their acceptance by scientists so far?
A: The main reason is that there is still a great deal of confusion about the phenomenon known as mystical ecstasy. The general impression is that it is just an altered state of awareness, comparable to the states brought about by intoxicants, mind-altering drugs, hypnosis, biofeedback, auto-suggestive conditions and the like. Even an authority like William James has been in error in the comparison he has made between mystical ecstasy and the states induced by wine and nitrous oxide.
Q: What is the reason for this?
A: The reason is simple. The transcendental and transhuman nature of mystical experience are a still uncharted province for scholars. There is a wide gulf between scholarship and mystical vision. The staggering nature of the vision and the revolution it brings about in the life and thinking of one who is blessed with it, and the light it throws on the problems of existence, are all beyond the power of the intellect to grasp.
Q: Can you explain this further?
A: Intellectual study is like the data gathered by a dreamer of the dream world in which he dwells for a while. The mystical vision is like the awareness gained by one when awake. I must make this clear, with all the emphasis at my command and in full conformity to what has been as emphatically stated by mystics of the past, that the objective world disappears, like a phantom, in the illuminating blaze of mystical consciousness. The Reality which is unveiled in the duration of the experience is beyond the grasp of the intellect and the power of language to describe.
Q: Since it is impossible to describe, how can you hope to convince scientists that there is still something beyond their comprehension?
A: It is the same as though the intellectual prodigies of the past, such as Shakespeare and Bacon, were expected to know of the awful force of the atom. Most of the present-day intellectuals believe that they are almost at the frontiers of knowledge, but they have no inkling that the real quest of man has yet to begin. All the knowledge and experience they have gained, all the discoveries they have made and all the inventions wrought, so far, have been but a preparation for the next step in his progress, which is the exploration of his own mind to answer the Riddle of his being.
Q: It seems to me that what you are saying points to a new direction for human effort and thought.
A: Exactly. It is entirely beyond the imagination of our contemporaries. Hence, it is but natural that many of them should consider what I say as incredible and fantastic. We cannot expect a more favorable response from the learned, because they are no more informed about the phenomenon, on which I dwell, than the ordinary class of human beings. The intellect, proud of her knowledge, is seldom ready to believe that there are worlds and regions beyond her reach.
Q: But what about present-day research on consciousness? Isnít there some progress being made in this area of science?
A: Research on consciousness, as it is being carried out today, can easily be compared to the investigation done by a dreamer of the mental condition of the personalities in his dream. For one who lacks the least awareness about himself, however erudite he might be, the issue will always arise, and on what? How can one who is ignorant of his own mind stalk forth to study the mind of another who is as ignorant of himself as he?
Q: Is that why the Upanishads say that the effort of the unenlightened, however scholarly they might be, are like the blind leading the blind when it comes to guiding others in the knowledge of the Self?
A: Yes. According to the Indian Masters who have contributed most to the study of the mind, Turiya or the fourth state of consciousness, experienced in the mystical trance, is the real state of human awareness and the other three below it, namely deep sleep, dream and the normal wakeful state, are delusive. The normal state lends substance to a false appearance which hides the true Reality.
Q: Then research on consciousness should mean study of ones Self?
A: In truth, this is what the ancient sages and seers proceeded to do in their search for enlightenment. It is for this reason that during recent times there has been hardly any new addition to the brilliant galaxy of enlightened prophets and sages of the past. This is also the reason why there has been no fresh accumulation of knowledge of the mystical state of consciousness. When our study of the outer world, during the same period, has yielded such a rich harvest in transforming the life of human beings, why do we find the doors tightly shut in our exploration of the inner realm?
Q: This is the crux of the problem, I'm sure. What is your explanation?
A: As one who has been granted a brief glimpse into this profound Mystery, I can say with confidence, that no amount of objective study of consciousness, undertaken over the next hundreds of years, with the methods employed at present, would lead the learned any nearer to the solution of the enigma. On the contrary, except for the hundreds of volumes of confusing data that would result, the investigation would make it even more bewildering than before.
Q: But what is the reason for this?
A: Research on consciousness demands a new approach, because it marks a new phase in the career of humanity. Evolving man must now shift his attention from the outer to the inner world, make his own body the laboratory and reverently approach the Spirit within to instruct him in the rudiments of this science.
Q: Many people are eagerly waiting for this to take place. There seems to be an instinctive longing in many to return to nature, for instance, and to break away from the highly complex, hectic life of today. Isn't all this just an indication of a coming revolution in thinking?
A: Yes, the stage is being set for this radical change in the direction of human effort from the outer to the inner world. The learned are not able to read the signs, because the future is entirely shut from their view, and they have no idea of the coming revolution in the life of humankind as a complement to the evolutionary change that has occurred within.
Q: Can you describe this evolutionary change that you believe has occurred within?
A: It will take some time, but it has to do with the existence of a potential in the brain that can transform human life and bestow undreamed of intellectual, super-sensory and artistic gifts to individuals in a manner beyond imagination at present.
Q: But as you have already said, most of the intellectuals have no grounding in mysticism, so they continue to apply to it the same methods of analysis and criticism to which they are accustomed in other branches of knowledge.
A: It is a sad commentary on the academic life of our time that a subject treated with respectful attention and reverential regard by the greatest intellectuals of the past, including such giants as Plato and Newton, should appear so trivial and unimportant to them that they deem it beyond their dignity to study it with the care and attention which it needs.
Q: You are considered to be a rebel to many of the popular ideologies of our time. Perhaps if you were to put your ideas in the language of the intellectuals, they would be more acceptable to the readers in the United States.
A: I have made no secret in my books of the fact that my education has been poor and that all I am writing is from inspiration, which needs a dive into the depths of my own being to receive it.
I have never made any claims of infallibility and have repeatedly said that every word I am writing should be weighed and put to rigid test before it is accepted. It is for this reason that I am so keen to lay the foundation of an Experimental Center, to validate my views about the evolutionary mechanism in the human frame.
Q: Your ideas need to be expressed by scholars who are trained in the language of academics. Without such credentials, it might be impossible to make any real headway in the West.
A: Either that or else what we need are the resources to broadcast our views far and wide. I am putting my ideas in the language of the common man and woman rather than in that of the intellectuals for the simple reason that, in the first place, I am not capable of writing in the discursive style peculiar to scholars. Secondly, I wish my message to be easily intelligible to all those who read it.
Q: Do you believe it is possible to communicate your ideas in the language of modern psychology?
A: Perhaps not. Modern psychology is bristling with internal conflicts and controversies, and also the pulls and pressures from individual authorities, each contradicting the other. How can a study based on a mistaken conception of mind, with excessive emphasis on the beast and chilling silence over the god in man, provide a suitable vehicle for explaining the profundities of consciousness or its triumphant march from the sub-human to the super-human plane?
Q: Then what is the solution?
A: The moment it is demonstrated that the human brain is still in a state of organic evolution in a pre-planned direction, not only the current theory of evolution but also psychological systems, based primarily on the animal origin of mind and not on its infinitely intelligent cosmic character, will come toppling to the earth.
How can we reconcile the divine nature of consciousness with some of the revolting explanations offered by psychologists? The universe is a vast amphitheater and the dramas enacted by consciousness, on this stage from one end to the other, infinitely varied in plot and action, are yet closely interwoven and interconnected in a manner far beyond the grasp of the puny human intellect. Mankind will have to rise to dizzy heights of evolution before she can begin to comprehend the bewildering play of Life.
From Euclidean space we have come to the curved space of Relativity. But there are already indications to show that this is not the end. Who knows what new surprises are in store for astrophysicists in the years to come? It is a fallacy to suppose that we have come to the end of the knowledge of the mind.
Q: You claim to be in possession of extraordinary knowledge, is that not true?
A: I have never laid any claim to a higher position than the one I possess. In fact, I have emphatically tried my utmost to make it clear that mystical experience does not represent a vision of God but only a passage into a new dimension of consciousness in which it wears an aspect of glory and sovereignty which is not present on the human plane.
I have also repeatedly asserted that in all other aspects I belong to the class of normal human beings with the frailties and vanities common to human nature. Nowhere in my writings have I made any claim to sainthood or nearness to God or to a superhuman stature, as is often done by godmen to point out the gulf that exists between them and the normal run of human beings.
Q: But you do claim to reside in the transcendental state of consciousness, do you not?
A: Yes, but it has always been my endeavor to make it clear that the transcendental state of consciousness, experienced in the form of ecstasy by prophets and mystics throughout the past, does not signify a special favor from the Deity. It is only a more extended dimension of the perceptual faculty towards which mankind is evolving irresistibly through the operation of an evolutionary mechanism in the body, designated as Kundalini by the Indian sages of the past.
Q: As far as I know, this is the first time that mystical consciousness, or the organic mechanism leading to it, have been defined in this way, in the language of reason, divested of the supernatural and mythical.
A: That is my view, exactly. I have, at the same time made no secret of the fact that knowledge of Kundalini represents a monumental discovery of the illuminate of India, and that I am only presenting this knowledge in the language of modern science. I have also said that the interpretations I am placing on it would be beyond my capacity but for a strange dispensation of fate, beyond my comprehension, by which I became the participant in an experience that unfolded the secret to me.
Q: Secret? Can you expand on this a bit?
A: What I am trying to emphasize in all my work is that we have our existence in two worlds, the world of matter and the world of mind. As the result of an inquiry that has persisted through a prodigious span of time, ever since the dawn of reason, we have come in possession of a huge amount of knowledge of the material world, which is available for the study by any one of us. But the study of the world of spirit needs entry into a new plane of consciousness and a super-sensory channel of cognition, which are slowly coming into the possession of man.
Q: The secret, then, is that mankind is slowly coming into possession of this super-sensory channel of cognition, is that correct?
A: Yes, through evolution. This is the purpose of the mystical trance or the transhuman states of consciousness exhibited by the prophets and mystics of the world. They sung praises of the glory of God because the plane of being where they arrived is a plane of splendor, beauty and transport, surpassing anything conceivable by a normal mind.
Q: But even so, if I understand you correctly, it is a plane of being just a little higher than that of normal human beings.
A: You are perfectly correct. Those men and women who arrogate to themselves a transhuman stature or position of authority, as incarnations of, or surrogates for, the Divine, must have a poor opinion about the staggering dimensions of the universe or the inconceivable proportions of its Almighty Creator.
Q: Because it is simply an evolutionary advance of the normal state of consciousness?
A: Yes. This attitude could be justified in the prophets, sages and seers of the past, when the earth alone bounded the vision of man and he had no idea of what gigantic worlds lie beyond, and what a countless host of colossal suns and planets dwells in space. But from a godman of today, the statements of the kind which are made in the Scriptures of the past should be an affront to the intelligence of one who has even a passing idea about the extent of the universe or possibility of other, far superior, forms of life residing in it. There are some, even among the learned, who believe in such self-concocted tales, but they scoff at the rational explanations which I offer.
Q: What about the future of humankind?
A: From my point of view, the future luminaries of the race, adorned with transhuman consciousness, would still be occupied with the exploration of the Mystery of Creation in the higher, to us, imperceptible planes of being, in the same way as we are now occupied with the exploration of the material universe. The present-day concepts about the mind, its behavior, urges and appetites, are mere capricious intellectual excursions into a territory which needs another channel of cognition to explore.
Q: I would like to know more about this other channel of cognition.
A: You said yourself that it was a plane of being that is a little higher than that of normal human beings, and that is perfectly correct. But it is nothing to merit comparison or equality with the infinite majesty and splendor of the Lord. It is a variation of almost the same kind as we observe when we rise in the scale of life from the lower species to the higher ones.
It amuses me to find that people in general, including scholars, sometimes, raise mystics and enlightened saints to the stature of gods who cease to be humans, belonging to a world of superhuman dimensions and possibilities, where they can defy the laws of nature, change the fate of common men and women or do whatever they please.
This is a serious error which stands as an impediment in the understanding of the mystical trance and in placing this extraordinary state of mind on a rational footing. It is simply the addition of another channel of perception, designed by Nature for every human being.
Q: But you still insist that it is necessary for science to undertake research on consciousness?
A: There will soon be a time when the evolution of consciousness will be taken up by scholars in all its different aspects, spiritual, psychological, sociological and biological. When once the experiment I propose is confirmed, there will be no subject, I am sure, which will receive as much sustained attention from scholars of every shade and color, and the rank and file of science, as this.
But the most colossal task in front of the erudite would be to explain the evolution of mind in terms of the organic evolution of the brain. As far as I can see, it shall take long spans of time to cover each single step in the territory of consciousness.
Q: Then you do welcome the efforts of scholars and psychologists to write on consciousness, to the best of their knowledge and skill.
A: Of course, I welcome it most certainly. But in fairness to all, I must point out that except in the case of those who have experienced the transformation, no attempt made by a scholar, merely with the exercise of his intellect, however versatile and learned he might be, can fathom the mystery.
How does Eternal Consciousness come to be embodied and then rise, step by step, through aeonian spans of time, to the realization of its own sovereignty? This is a riddle so profound that it is hard even to gauge its proportions. I must also add that present-day ideas about psychology, which emanated from Freud and others, offer only short-range explanations.
These explanations will be subject to radical change from time to time, as more and more knowledge is gained by the illuminate of the future about the nature and working of the mind and the organ of its expression, namely the brain.
Q: Your opinion of modern psychology is rather unflattering.
A: I have written extensively on this subject, but we can compare the present views of psychologists to the ideas of alchemists before the modern science of chemistry came into existence. The human intellect, not unoften, takes delight in providing explanations even for those phenomena which are beyond its probe, as for example, the existence of God and the origin of the universe, the nature of the soul and life after death.
These eternal riddles have strongly drawn the human mind from the dawn of reason to this day without ever finding the right answer that could solve them once and for all. This is also the case with the riddle of the mind.
Q: You believe that the experiment you propose will furnish the solution?
A: It is my endeavor to divest mystical ecstasy of ancient superstition and modern intellectual confusion both by drawing attention to the biological factors responsible for it. Because this objectification of the phenomenon has never been attempted before, the academic world is still unaware or incredulous of it. That shows the entirely unsuspected nature of the disclosures made.
From my point of view, mystical ecstasy is a human experience, the outcome of an organic process at work in the brain, which signifies the first beginning of transhuman capacities in man. Except for the organic changes occurring in the subtle levels of the neuronic structures, science, as it exists today, can have no direct knowledge of the subjective nature of this experience.
Q: If that is the case, then no intellectual formulations about it are possible at this time.
A: That is correct.
Q: Your writings are, to summarize very briefly, primarily confined to the evolution of the mind. Isn't this what others have said?
A: I do not say that the human mind is evolving towards an undefined summit as, for instance, Teilhard de Chardin and others have said. What I firmly assert is that human consciousness is evolving towards a predetermined target, which I have experienced, and that this target is the mystical or illuminated state attained by thousands of mystics and enlightened human beings in the past and that the religious scriptures of mankind are a harvest of the revelations received from a Higher Intelligence in this state of exalted being.
What I further affirm is that the human brain is evolving towards this state of transhuman perception, through the activity of an organic mechanism, named Kundalini by the ancients, whose existence can be demonstrated with the methods known to science.
Q: This is a monumental assertion. Science has been attempting to discover this organic mechanism for decades, without, insofar as I know, any success whatsoever.
A: From all this, it follows that I am trying to place the whole domain of religion and mystical ecstasy on the footing of a regular science, demonstrable with empirical methods of which the laboratory has to be the human body itself.
Q: Has any thinker, scientist or religious teacher, present or past, thrown a challenge of this kind?
A: I frankly know of none. There is no need for me to use dubious intellectual methods to carry my point. One successful experiment is sufficient to clear the confusion and confirm what I say.
Q: Your writings include a good deal about other mental phenomena in addition to mystical ecstasy, could you elaborate on this?
A: My whole philosophy can be summed up in a few words. Therefore, it is not necessary that my books should be read and reread to arrive at the conclusions I have drawn from my experience. I also aver that the commonly known abnormal and paranormal states of mind, such as retardation, neurosis or insanity, on the one hand, and exceptional talent or paranormal gifts on the other, all proceed from the working of the evolutionary mechanism; that with advanced knowledge of this lever the aforesaid evils, resulting from its malfunctioning, can be cured or obviated and the latter highly precious attributes cultivated at will.
Q: This is a new and original contribution to the knowledge of man, I believe.
A: To the best of my belief no other philosopher or mystic of the past has given the same interpretation to mystical experience and put a cut-and-dried formula before mankind. I am not putting forward an intellectual dissertation based on mere erudition and logic, I am submitting a concrete proposal based on personal study of the phenomenon, for experiment, to validate the conclusions drawn by me, which are of colossal importance for the race.
Q: If this is the case, and I have no reason to doubt what you say, why haven't these disclosures been greeted with acclaim?
A: The reason is because the ideas expressed by me are new and original, which therefore need time to take root in the common mind, and, secondly, because they strongly militate against some of the current conceptions or misconceptions of both orthodox science and religion.
How can the erudite, on either side, readily swallow the utterances of one who proclaims loud that matter is a mirage, Darwin was wrong, Freud mistaken, consciousness is All, that humanity is on her way to this awareness in the beatific state, that the great illuminate were not and could not be the favorites of the Almighty and that mystical experience does not represent an encounter with God but only a vision of the divinity in man?
Q: Then what is needed, urgently, as far as I can see, is something like a New Manhattan Project to try to scientifically validate your theory?
A: It is only by a deep study of my thesis that it can dawn on an unbiased intellect that there can be no other interpretation which can synthesize the diversity of religious experience and outlook, serve as a connecting link between religion and science and bring science back from a lopsided, entirely materialistic view of the universe, towards a more rational and more comprehensive philosophy of Creation. This philosophy is one in which matter and mind figure as the two aspects of one incomprehensible Reality dimly perceptible in another dimension of consciousness of which religion is the still growing child.
Q: It must be extremely frustrating to you to spend year after year, writing your views down in books, only to see decades pass without any signs of recognition on the part of the scientific community?
A: I have been watching the whole drama of my life without a tinge of regret for the coldness I have received for the knowledge given out by me, while living virtually in the jaws of death. I am a frail human being myself, and I know the frailties of my other follow human beings. Had the secrets disclosed by me come from the lips of a distinguished personality in science, the discovery would have resounded throughout the world.
Or were a leading personality, like the President of the United States, to affirm publicly the importance of the disclosure, all the newspapers of the earth would open their columns to the message and the learned fall over each other in expressing their high appreciation of it.
It was only through the conversion of Asoka the Great in India, and Emperor Constantine in Rome, that Buddhism and Christianity became dominant faiths in the East or West.
Q: Apparently the support of temporal authority was always needed to push forward a spiritual creed.
A: That is entirely correct. Left at the mercy of the populace, including the learned, without the enthusiastic support of ardent protagonists, no new idea or line of thought, diametrically opposite to prevailing conceptions, can find wide acceptance. At best, it would only serve as a topic for perfunctory discussion here and there. Even the media, which are supposed to keep track of all new developments, would give a wide berth to it for its uncommon nature and touch it only if it is mentioned by one in authority, not because they have become enamored of it but because it suits their purpose to give publicity to the utterances of a great personage.
Such is the opacity of the human intellect when face-to-face with a new revelation, showing the way out of a confusing labyrinth of thought. Ours is not a message that can be thoroughly grasped or made universal in the course of a few years, but it must roll across long spans of time to gather the momentum necessary for it to become a universally recognized philosophy and science.
Q: What if you had your wish, what would it be?
A: With all my heart, I wish that in the exploration of consciousness mystical tradition, not the methods of traditional psychology, were to be followed to bring a correct awareness of its evolution to the world. Intellectual dissertations, beyond a certain limit, would only lead to confusion and chaos in a province where first-hand experience is necessary to know the truth. Like the exploration of the sky, intellectual exercise can carry us only for a short distance. After that, the use of the telescope be-comes absolutely necessary for correct knowledge of the position. In the same way, for the study of the inner firmament, a dive into the depths of oneís being is essential to know the reality.
Q: The inexpressible?
A: Music and poetry provide a better language for expressing the profundities of consciousness than logic. This is the reason why prayers are sung. The state of mind produced under the spell of a beautifully sung prayer is more expressive of the indefinable world of consciousness than volumes of reasoned prose.
The problem is that it is hard to make an intellectual accept the position that his territory ends at the very beginning of the mystical trance. It is characteristic of the intellect that she is seldom prepared to accept defeat and is often over-confident of her ability to know all that can be known.
It is only when face-to-face with the unbelievable splendor of the Mystical Vision that, hushed into silence at the awesome majesty of the Reality unfolded, the tittle-tattle of this irrepressible gossip, that always talks of this sublime experience from a distance, comes to an end and her propensity, in the words of Pascal, of putting two and two together and make it five, is lost.
Q: Perhaps science will be forced to take up the research project, just as it was forced to experiment on the atom bomb some 40 years ago, when the threat of its falling into the hands of an enemy was urgent.
A: Time will prove the correctness of our stand. I am not the last of the line that has already appeared to beseech their contemporaries to look within. Others will rise to repeat what has already been said and win confirmation for the disclosures made, if lacking still. No power on earth can prevent truth from spreading when time for it has come, just as no power can stop the sun from bathing the earth in light when the night is over.
The verdict on what I have revealed does not rest in the hands of a few scholars in a particular country, living now or who may rise in the future. The secret we have disclosed, not by choice but at the decree of fate, is not limited by time and place but covers the whole earth and is of everlasting value for the race.
Q: It doesn't disturb you, then, that still more time is needed for a better grasp of your message?
A: Not at all. I know what I am up against in the claim I make and the truth I reveal. The day will come when those whose intuition was right in accepting this disclosure are vindicated.
Written by: Gopi Krishna
GOPI KRISHNA INTERVIEW
WITH JOHN WHITE
Gopi Krishna Iinterview with the American writer, John White, in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1976.
J.W. Pandit, you say we have no knowledge of these forces and operations. I presume you mean knowledge from the level of intellect. But in The Shape of Events to Come, your prognosis of human events comes from a higher level of awareness and therefore we do have knowledge from the transhuman superconscious state. Would you explain that, please.
G.K. You see, taking into account the general atmosphere, I mean the mental atmosphere prevailing at present-revelation, inspiration, intuition and all things-all paranormal channels of knowledge are not accepted by all as a valued source of information for human beings. There is so much confusion of views, and so much display of materialistic tendencies, that they do not receive the amount of recognition that they should. For instance, let us take the case of revelation of our scriptural teachings. A great crisis has come about which threatens even the survival of the race. And if we turn now to the scriptural knowledge we find that the warnings are there. That if we depart from the prescribed path of life then natural calamities or the anger of God follows. But we never take it seriously. It is for this reason that I said we have no generally accepted knowledge of these paranormal channels of information and the research on Kundalini by scientific methods is expected to create that awareness, on a very rational and scientific footing.
As I was saying, that there are devices and forces in the human consciousness which can react on such occasions. We are very well aware that strange group instincts regulate the behavior of ants, bees and many other forms of herd animals-monkeys, elephants-there are powerful instincts in the individual members of the group, but also collective instincts by which they behave in a certain way and in a certain manner under crisis or under certain eventualities. They have those ingrained instinctually-safeguards built in them. Does it not stand to reason that the collective consciousness of the race or the group consciousness of humanity must also have some sort of safeguards built in it to see that the race ascends the path of evolution without ever annihilating herself or without ever going the path of degeneration with no return. There are such and they have come into operation at different times in the history of mankind.
The difficulty is that the laboratory is so vast and the time through which man has to live and to act is so colossal and the position is so complex-all the four billion people think in their own way that it is not possible for the intellect to gather this information.
It is only intuition, that without the aid of reason or the intellect can place its finger at the right information. And it is this, that in a crisis like this, certain warning signs, certain strange states of mind occur among the individuals. And we see there is enough evidence for it. There are millions of people who have a terror of the coming war. There are millions of people who are after a new age. There are millions of people who are after enlightenment. There are millions of people who have again turned religious. Even in the communist countries there is also an urge for knowledge of paranormal forces. So you see, already in the human mind there is a ferment as if something unusual is to happen or as if we are in a situation which needs some kind of an outlet to ease it. You can trace all the present day deep search for spiritual knowledge also to this ferment caused by the collective consciousness of the race. There is a subconscious fear everywhere of impending calamities and as you know, many clairvoyants and psychics, they are also foretelling that something will happen, something will happen, something will happen, to warn mankind that the situation calls for care and attention.
It does not happen that a voice would speak from the skies or that there would be a warning written across the firmament but it happens by reaction on the human mind and we have enough evidence to show that the minds of people are disturbed. They are not happy with the present situation. They instinctively feel that something might happen, something is about to happen. Now what I am saying, and what has been revealed to me, is not what the intellect would presume. For instance, consider the nuclear weapons and the present political situation of the world. We would suppose that a war would annihilate all mankind or at least destroy a large part of the populations. What is revealed to me is that natural events will coincide in such a way with our preparations for war or our actual conflicts as to minimize the destruction. It may be, considering the whole bulk of humanity, only a superficial injury. It will not be a fatal injury. It will not be even a grave wound. But it will be enough to turn men from their present course.
How this would occur, what things would take place, what events would befall, I cannot say. I can only say this much, that even in the next two decades, the next twenty years, there will occur natural events and also events on the human plane which would divert the attention of mankind towards a new way of life and by the beginning of the next century, the world will be no longer divided but there will be one world confederacy ruling over mankind. This is absolutely necessary because of the demands of evolution. At the present moment, the way of life is distorting the human mind. You see, the more we evolve, the more sensitive becomes the human system. It has been a fallacious thing to suppose that Yoga or search for God hardens the system. It doesn't make it more brutal, more crude, more hard. It makes it more sensitive, more loving, more perceptive. It may be able to endure cold and heat and privations and other things but, on the whole, the change is towards a more delicate and a more perceptive instrument. And as we see, compare human beings to animals. Animals eat one kind of food, live amongst the worst possible environments, have no idea of sanitation or anything and still go on living but human beings need a certain very different environment to live and thrive. And, you see, the more the civilization, the better the environment, I mean hygienically and physically.
Effort is made to create a very easy, convenient and hygienic environment for the human beings to live. Now the superman would need even a better ordered environment. An enlightened person needs more care in his environment and in his needs and in the demands of his body and the attention to it. So what I mean to say is this, that these devices in the human collective consciousness, when face to face with a crisis of this nature, would create among the more sensitive minds certain symptoms and signs-fears, anxieties, urges and appetites which would be of a measure that would like the present environment to be changed.
In fact, the present revolt of youth in many countries of the world springs also from this urge. It is not only the generation gap, it is not only that this generation has now to change totally from the older generation-we did not see such a drastic change in the older generations. There was a change but much less than has occurred now. And why? Because mankind has taken a great leap forward in evolution, on account of the amenities provided by science and with this great leap forward, a different environment and a different social order is absolutely necessary. If, now, this environment and this social order is not provided, then this leap, which cannot be retraced-you do not have an evolved human being then going back again to the animal level-he will degenerate, and end. But the station once achieved by evolution is not then discarded. Then, he will degenerate and end. He is discarded-rejected by the evolutionary forces. Now this nation, this group, this man has ceased to follow the rules of evolution so he is rejected.
This happened in the whole history of evolution. The species that could not survive were rejected, thrown out and they died. They ended. Similarly, the case with men. If, at a certain level of evolution, they are not able to proceed forward then the reaction is that they are degenerated and then they end themselves. They no longer evolve. They are then as a backwards species now, as backward human beings. And this has happened throughout. One nation went forward, then failed to maintain the pace, another nation came forward, threw it back and subjugated it, and for some time exploited it.
We have the same phenomenon going on even at this time. If, now mankind does not become aware of the needs of the evolutionary progress that she is maintaining at present, on the one hand and on the other hand, rejects the scriptural directions, then this collective consciousness of the race will come into operation. And, already, men who have to take a decisive role in the forthcoming disastrous war have been born, with the mental equipment that will allow them to gain the place of precedence-the place of power-that will result in the ferment about which I am speaking. But at the same time, natural powers will also come into operation not to allow the damage to exceed a certain level, because it is a planned creation. It is a designed creation. Only the actors, the places of action, and the time in which the drama is played, they are all so colossal and stupendous that we cannot see the links-we cannot understand the purpose because we are living behind a curtain. For instance, at the present moment, those men who have to play a decisive role in the coming slaughter, or in the coming wars, are already among us, at a young age. They are already, as in the French revolution or in the Russian revolution or in the German revolution-recent revolutions-everything that happened had a purpose behind it. But it is such a vast purpose, and the whole cosmos is involved in it, that we cannot try to rationalize it-to look at it from an intellectual point of view. We have to accept it as something which is beyond our intellectual power. But from an intuitional point of view, it is obvious that there will occur events, catastrophes, geophysical events, and wars, that will, within the course of these twenty years, turn mankind in another direction from the direction she is pursuing at present.
J.W. Are you saying that these events are only probable or inevitable?
G.K. You see, they are all inevitable. So far as the present condition is concerned, they are inevitable. But if the position changes, which is unlikely, therefore I say that they are inevitable. If mankind changes the position, realizes the importance of revelation or even their own intellectual assessment of the position, that we are destroying the race, they may be saved, but since they would not do it. You see, already there are many people who are writing that the existence of the nuclear stocks, the pollution and other things, may result in earthquakes-may cause natural calamities. They are intuitively feeling this sort of a thing. There are several books now, even written by scientists, that natural calamities in the atmosphere or earthquakes are possible with the pollution and with the stock of the nuclear weapons which exists on earth at present. This is their speculation. What I mean to say is that these unnatural and unhealthy actions of human beings can have no other end except that nature takes recourse to drastic methods to change the direction of human life. Then it becomes inevitable. And since people will not change themselves overnight-one doesn't do it-nature is always warning us but we always neglect the warnings until we are ill. And then we have the fever and everything and then come back again to normal. The same thing will happen with mankind. It will have the fever because it is infected. There is poison in her veins and that poison is of thought, that there is no supreme power over the universe, that man can do what he likes, that man can achieve to power and achieve to wealth which are not the evolutionary targets. They are means to an end. But if we give up-surrender the end for the means-then, naturally, nature will also use some methods to put us right. What I foresee is that there will occur calamities.
J.W. Including nuclear war?
G.K. There will be a nuclear war also, but its effect will be greatly restricted. Certain strange developments will occur so that it will all appear to be natural acts, occurring by accident. The future events that I mean will seem to be occurring by accident or for geographical or astrophysical causes. But they will be deliberately created actions of superconsciousness. To us, they will appear as if they are natural-they are accidental-and explanations may be rendered for them. But they will be the outcome of our present disregard of evolutionary laws.
J.W. Pandit, would you describe the process by which Revelation is given to you?
G.K. For me it is a very amazing occurrence. Always when I am in a mood in which these visions, and these writings come, it is always a condition so overpowering that I can only express it with tears. As I have said, I feel as if this, my person, my awareness, is not confined to my own body or to my head. That is, is as if I am body-conscious as an individual, but it is spread in space. I always feel as if there are two personalities existing side by side. One, a titan spread everywhere-everywhere 'I.' And the other is also a consciousness, an awareness, a part of it, a drop in it, but also one with it. I have read that in the case of inspiration, according to many poets and writers, including Nietzsche, the ideas and the lines or the passages, or the plots of whole stories, or even the whole story, came to them suddenly, as if they fell into their lap, as Nietzsche has put it . . . and then they put those passages, those lines or those ideas on paper. In my case, it is different. It seems that this titan, this other intelligence of which I am talking-this universal consciousness-is handing over these thoughts, these ideas, these passages and these verses to me. It is such a breathtaking experience that I feel awefull, humbled to dust. I am nothing. In this encounter, I am nothing. Just a shadow receiving directions and instructions from an intelligence which is spread everywhere. I feel that it is the limitation of my brain that I cannot get more from it.
Otherwise, what I believe is that every centimeter -every point in this Presence-knows all that there is to be known about the universe. It is a concentrated ocean of knowledge in which every drop is an ocean in itself. It is overwhelming and staggering. And when I start writing, suddenly a paragraph flashes before my vision. It is handed over to me. I can feel it. In the Vedas it is called shruti-heard. I both hear and see it. It is something which is just coming into my field of consciousness from the other field of which
I am always conscious. It is lent to it. It is handed over to it. And then, after some time, I start writing. What takes me half an hour to jot down is transmitted, maybe in five seconds sometimes. It just comes and enters my field of knowledge and my field of awareness. I can compare it to the fall of snow. When you look at the snowflakes they appear as points at the sky level. Then slowly they grow larger and larger and larger and larger till you have the snowflakes on your hand, or just falling in front of you. It is like this . . . as if subtle seeds of these ideas come out of this awareness. And then they are transformed by my brain into our language and into our thought. I hope you follow me.
From the Unseen-from this ocean of consciousness-a seed-like thing comes. Just a hint, which then grows into a passage, and I try to retain this passage in my memory. It is followed by another seed and another passage, followed by another seed and another passage. And then, when it is over, I try to write it down, and it takes me a long time. And in the meanwhile, some of the passages will escape my memory, and I have to recall them later when I am correcting what I have written once. This happened from the day I received those poetic lines when I was crossing a bridge-the first manifestation of this power in me. And since then I have always found that at such times as if another intelligence is working, and I am receiving directions, instructions and ideas, and also the linguistic expressions from it-even the words.
But, I am alert all the time. When I put it down, I am using my own reason, also, that what I have put down is correct. Does it conform to my own ideas? And when I feel that perhaps this does not concord with my own ideas, I try to change it, so that I am also using my own mind and my intellect. But what I assert is that it seems that another intelligence is handing over, or giving me, the hints or the passages in a mysterious way which I can clearly perceive, as if I am getting it from some other source. And that source is present before me, not from a source which I do not see. I perceive it as an intelligence, as a consciousness spread around me, above and below me.
This has given me the idea that what they call as Revelation has this difference from inspiration, that in the case of Revelation-the prophets were also able to understand the source, to perceive the source-say either in the form of a God or an angel, or a consciousness spread everywhere.
I can very easily imagine that there can be a vision of an angel or a god for a mind which believes in a god or an angel. Then this intelligence can take the form of a god, of an angel, of a prophet, and give the message. That, then, is Revelation. While in the case of the poet, the philosopher or the novelist, the inspiration that comes, one feels something pouring into his mind but is not conscious of another intelligence handing it over to him. In the case of the enlightened, there is a clear perception of an all-pervading intelligence which hands over these ideas and these passages.
This also, now, leads to another inference that even in your normal consciousness what we receive, what we think-the ideas, the thoughts-they come from a universal source. Only our brain is so conditioned that we think that it is our own, while it is coming from some other universal source, which is the founthead of all thought, all feeling, all emotion. Sometimes, especially when these verses about the shape of events to come, occur, I also see the visions. The vision and the verse, the passage, they come almost together. The vision is seen in this universal consciousness. I see it presenting a scene which pertains to a future date, or even sometimes of a bygone time. I see it reflected in that pool, in that mirror of consciousness. It passes through my mind and vanishes. But the line, the passage, which accompanies it, I retain in my memory. I retain the memory of the vision, also, but this I retain in language, and that language I then transcribe on paper. Then I see through it again and then again. Some of the last sentences-some sentences, some passages, some words-I misplace. I lose my memory of them, and then they come back and twice or thrice I correct my own writing till I put it in the final shape. I still am not sure if I was able to take all that came to me because the seed and these passages and these lines come so rapidly and are handed over in such a manner that one is bewildered and sometimes it becomes even difficult to see or grasp or retain in memory all that has been said. I miss pages, lines, passages. When I am writing I totally forget them. And there is another thing. If, for instance, I receive a passage or a line, or a poem, or something, and then I fail to record it, I lose its memory after a day or two. ,I must record it down, because then other lines come, and the former ones-they are almost obliterated-and it becomes difficult for me to record them, because in that state, when I am in touch with this intelligence, the brain is so delicate, and there is such a fine communication between this consciousness and that consciousness that the normal procedures, the normal mechanisms of our memory and of our writing, and everything, they remain in abeyance for some time.
It is a communication between spirit and spirit, and the normal mechanisms are suspended for some time. Therefore, if I do not put down, or record what is revealed to me at a particular moment, then sometimes it escapes the memory. And in these visions and in these writings I have seen a consistency in the last twenty-five years which leads me to the conclusion that a Mighty Intelligence is trying to apprise me of what is actually to happen.
I can absolutely not doubt it for the reason that I do have other prophetic visions also-I mean concerned with my own life or with those of my friends, and they come true. For instance, sometimes-even in dreams-I see things which are confirmed that very day, or the second day, or say after a week. I sometimes note down this peculiar dream, and I find that it is confirmed. Then I already think that my consciousness has- after this awakening-attained the power of looking into the past or the future. But not at my own will.
From this I conclude that those who believe that they are prophets, or can prophesy, or can gain occult powers, are either deluding themselves or playing with fire. A great intelligence takes possession of our mind, and we are under its control-not that it is under our control. That can never be!
Our ego has always to remain as human ego, while this is a transhuman state of consciousness. This gives me the impression that what is revealed to me, what I have put The Riddle of Consciousness and The Shape of Events to Come, and in other books, will surely take place, because I see it coming from an Intelligence which is, to me, all-pervading and which to me appears to be super-human-in the right sense of what we know as omniscient and omnipresent-which knows the past, the present and the future. And from this also I conclude that this higher dimension of consciousness in man is designed to guide humanity to regions and to achievements in future and to the control of energies and forces which are totally beyond our reach or even beyond our thought at present.
WHY DO CIVILIZATIONS FALL?
We are quite aware of what happened to civilizations of the past. We know that they rose, had a period of ascendancy and then fell. But why did they fall? Scholars have no correct knowledge of those facts. They ascribe them often to some other factors than the true ones.
The real reason for the fall of civilizations, kings, dynastic rulers, and nobles is that luxury, over abundance, and excessive wealth are fatal for the evolution of the brain. One who knows that he has enough to last for generations does not exert himself to conserve his resources as does one who has to meet his urgent needs.
Secondly, one who has over abundant wealth sometimes gives free rein to his own passions, desires, appetites, and the rest, so that he dissipates his energy and falls.
With this lesson of history before their eyes, the scientists in particular, and the scholars in general, should have known what were the right roles for humanity to adopt relative to the powers and forces discovered by science.
They should have known to what extent we could use the earth's resources for the purpose of human control, considering the fact that the human race is expected to stay on earth for even millons of years more. They should not have depleted the resources of the earth only to satisfy the comforts or ambitions of human beings.
Masters in all branches of science
The time has arrived when in order to guide the race, a man or woman should be polymath, a master in all branches of science, in art and philosophy. That is very difficult for a normal ntellect, however intelligent he might be, but it is very easy for a completely evolved individual in whom Kundalini is awake.
It is possible in the future that we will have polymaths who have command not only of the sciences, philosophy, and the arts, but of all the languages of the earth. Only since we are not aware of this potential in human beings, and what nature has already provided for the progress of man, we continue to limit our intelligence with what has already happened in the past. Otherwise, the human mind has the capacity to exhibit intelligence and genius a hundred-fold more than what is the case at present.
The human mind can produce prodigies of a kind that would stagger the world. We can have a little insight into this when we study the mathematical prodigies or child prodigies who have command over music, or mathematics, or art, or chess, which is not possible for the experts in those fields.
Combine a few prodigies together, a prodigy in science, one in mathematics, another in philosophy, and you have the future leaders of mankind. The only way to avert wars and to plant mankind on the real path to progress, progress which includes development of the higher faculties in human beings, it is absolutely necessary to have enlightened human beings as heads of state, leading scientists, scholars, and philosophers. The present day mind, however learned and intelligent it may be, will not be able to meet the needs of the race as the days pass by. He or she will not be able to command the confidence of all the people. We need prodigies who can instill awe and reverence in the minds of the younger generations, and the population as a whole. And the time is coming when those people will appear on the arena of the earth.
Only Prodigies Can Guide the Race
Once the mechanism of Kundalini is known, the profits that can accrue from it, the benefits which it confirms, the glory which it begs, the peace and happiness which it can grant, millions of people, especially the intellectuals, will try their utmost to arouse the Power so as to lead the leaders in every sphere of human thought and activity.
It is not a Utopian dream but a stern reality. Humanity has reached a state of evolution where only these prodigies will be able to guide her destiny--to correct the diet, the habits, and the appetites of the people.
The birds in the air, the animals in the forest, have no medicines to keep themselves in fine condition. Nature has already provided every safeguard for human beings to lead a healthy life. If they were to know what nature demands of them, they would understand why there are diseases, why there are dangerous reptiles, why there are scorpions, why there are flies, why there are bacteria, etc.
To illustrate this I will tell you a story from the Arabian Nights. Have you ever read the story of Aladdin and the wonderful lamp? After Aladdin had gained control over the genie of the lamp, he became very rich and influential. He became respected everywhere. Finallly the king offered him his daughter in marriage. When the marriage was about to be performed he said to Aladdin, "You must build a palace suited to my daughter."
The Unfinished Palace
Aladdin agreed. That night he rubbed the lamp and the genie appeared. Aladdin said to him, "Now build me a palace which is peerless and have in it a big hall which has many windows on every side, and all those windows should be decorated with diamonds and other precious stones. But leave one window unfinished.
The genie executed the order. Overnight a palace was built which glittered in the sun, decorated with jewels, diamonds, and other precious stones. The king came to see the building and went from room to room in the company of Aladdin. Finally, they went up to the highest story where the hall had been built. The king admired the hall and was wonderstruck by seeing the wealth decorating each window. When he saw the unfinished window, he turned to Aladdin and said, "Why is this one left unfinished in this beautiful hall? Have you exhausted all of your diamonds, and pearls, and precious stones?"
Aladdin said, "Perhaps that might have been the case, and they left it for your majesty to complete."
The King said, "Alright."
So the next day he ordered his treasury to be opened and the window to be completed by his own artists. For days they worked, and every precious stone in the treasury was exhausted. But the window was still unfinished. Finally Aladdin again called the genie and ordered him to complete that window also.
This is what nature has done with us. It has provided us with everything in the animal kingdom and in the plant kingdom. Everything is provided, medicines, plants, our clothing, our food, horses to carry us, cows to furnish us with milk, factories for everything we might need. But it has left one window unfinished. And that window is the diseases, the snakes, the reptiles, the flies, the bacteria, etc.
Why? For man to exercise his intellect to complete this one window in order for him to live a happy life. If this unfinished window were not left, man would stagnate. On what would he develop his intelligence? On what would he develop his science?
This is the Plan of Nature
It is because he is goaded by want, by disease, vermins, germs, by viruses, that he is doing his utmost to live in comfort and to have all the facilities and amenities which otherwise he would not have.
You can now compare what he has, what mineral wealth, what plant wealth, what animals, fish, birds, and what wonder and vigor he has in his own body, his health, his brain, his digestion, his comfort. He has everything except one unfinished window, and with all his resources he is not able to complete it.
This is the plan of nature. It is an all-wise intelligence that has built the world. If there were perfection, there woulld be nothing left for man to evolve. He would stagnate, and in his present state of mind he would even use all the luxuries to degenerate himself. For that reason nature has left a few loopholes for him to plug which he is not able to do.
Man has himself to blame for his faults because he is not able to understand that this creation and all he sees around is provided for him by nature for his progress, stage by stage, step by step, until he reaches the stature of Godhood and is able to live for perhaps even hundreds of years, with all the blessings that earth can provide.
It is because some people are over-ambitious, too full of greed, too lustful, that they stand in the way of progress of the race as a whole. It is not that nature has denied man opportunities, or placed him in difficulties. He has everything. He has strength of the body, healthy intellect, and all the resources, whether of minerals, plants, or animals, of which he can make himself akin.
But if he is not able to achieve that objective, it is because his own lust and passion, and his own indolence, stand in the way of his reaching the target which nature has prescribed for him.
Man Must Exert Himself
Nature is not to blame. It is the scholars who fail to understand this plan of nature. They cannot understand it until they explore themselves, unless they know the secret of the brain. Once they do, everything will be clear to them like an open book. That is why there are so many things which man needs in order to exert his intelligence.
If there were not these faults, flaws, and lacks, he would just idle away his time and stagnate. Nature wants him to exert himself. By providing all amenities, including computers, we are at present digging our own grave.
Who has found the still hidden secrets of nature in the human brain? Do we even know what our brain is and how it functions? If we do not know how it functions, how it is repaired, how it is maintained, and if we do not know where the flashes of genius come from, we have no right to say that the the brain is a finished article. We are simply using it without knowing anything about it.
So it is nature again which has made us perfect and which has allowed us to reach a state of intelligence where great inventions, discoveries, and control of other forces have become possible. This was never possible for the paleolithic or the neolithic man. It is only the modern human being, with a much more evolved brain, who has been able to do it. We take care of ourselves which is our ego. Otherwise the credit goes to the body, to our brain, over which we have no control. How do we claim this credit when we know nothing about our brain? We just eat our food and sleep like every animal. How is the food distributed? How is our body maintained? How are we able to fight diseases? How are we able to keep our brain sane and sound? We know nothing about it. It is done by the body, by some other force.
It is foolish thing to take credit for a matter over which we have no control. We never created this intelligence. It is given to us. This body is granted to us. So, while we have no control over the body or knowledge of the brain, we are still ready to take credit for any discovery we make.
It is for this reason that I say in every book I have written that whatever I say is not from me but from a power above and beyond. I am merely the instrument. In that sense we all are instruments of a higher power.
We have now to see to what extent it is beneficial for us, with all the knowledge of what has happened in the past, with the knowledge of history, with knowledge of the earth's resources, it is for us to see how this or that new invention is beneficial for us and when it can be harmful. We have not to proceed blindly.
First of all, we should have known that if we cease to exercise our brain we stagnate, and then we fall. Therefore, any instrument or invention, or any aid, which extensively interferes in our own exercise of the brain, or eliminates that exercise, is injurious in the long run.
Religious scriptures everywhere say there is a tempter who is the devil, or who is Mara, or who is Maya, etc. This tempter is of our own mind when it does not discriminate between what is right and what is wrong, what is beneficial and what is harmful.
We Must Cooperate with Our Evolution
As I have said, the human brain has already reached a state of evolution where the unification of humanity is essential. If our political leaders, our scholars, or our editors, are not able to understand or grasp this idea, it means our brains are lacking in one of its most important processes. If we do not unite, if we continue to have rivalry, competition, and wars, we will destroy ourselves.
The intellect that is not able understand that a weapon has been devised that makes it imperative for humanity to eliminate war is not fit for the 20th Century.
Man is evolving; the brain is evolving, and we have to cooperate with this evolution. All revelation and religious teaching has come to give us this broad outline of evolution and the way we can cooperate with it. The matter stands explained. Otherwise there is no reason why there should be Revelation except that the God of this almighty universe is particularly interested in the human race and has no other work to do.
Take the volume of a child's marble from the center of the sun, only that tiny amount of matter from the sun, kept two hundred miles from the surface of the earth, would not only destroy all life but would melt mountains and dry up all the oceans. This is the power of the Almighty, and there are more than three hundred billion suns in our galaxy alone. Such a terrific creation could never be possible of itself.
We know of existence by our mind. If we are not alive, no one can know of any existence. Existence, the word itself, the idea, springs from the mind. There can be no existence without a mind. The very idea comes from the mind.
When we say that it can exist even when we are no more, when there is no mind, we are projecting our mind into the future, it is mind again. It is mind which begets the very idea of existence. This idea of existence is in the mind, I am. Since existence and mind are inseparable, there can be no existence without a mind.
Mind and Existence Are Inseparable
Those who say it is matter don't have the depth to understand that mind and existence are inseparable. When you think that existence can be without a mind you are projecting your mind again. In other words, there can be no existence without a mind.
It is the mind which is at the base of all creation. It is intelligence. The universe is intelligence. What you see is intelligence manifesting itself as the universe. This is the crux of the Vedanta and Shiva philosophy.
It is Shiva intelligence, delightful intelligence, which is manifested as the universe or Brahman which is again intelligence manifested as the universe. The ocean, stones, the mountains, ourselves, all is intelligence, all is alive with life.
This creation is not so simple as many of the university professors believe it to be, especially those who are specialists. In Germany, where I visited, they are starting to call them specialized fools. This is what the professors themselves told me, that in the classrooms they are often heckled.
They were talking among themselves and laughing about it. I said to them, "What are you laughing at?" They said now the students are calling their professors specialized fools. The term is deserved because it represents a state of stagnation. What is demanded now is progressive knowledge of the universe. At this time to say that the universe is composed of matter, when they know that even the concept of matter springs fron the mind, is just foolishness. The first thing to explore is the mind before they start exploration of matter. This is the wonder of creation.
Written by: Gopi Krishna. This short essay was taken from an interview by Gene Kieffer in 1983 in Gopi Krishna's home in India.
ABOUT CONSCIOUSNESS RESEARCH
AND HOW WE CAN HELP
SAVE THE WORLD
Yoga is the generic name employed in India to designate all forms of mental, physical, and spiritual, disciplines necessary to explore the incredibly wondrous world of consciousness. From this point of view, all efficacious methods of spiritual discipline, adopted in any religion of the world, can be classified as yoga.
Used in this sense, yoga is the master-science of the future, the door of entry to intelligent levels of creation impervious to the five senses and unapproachable to the intellect. Why yoga is as important for the hard-boiled, practical man of the world, as it is for the seeker after God and self-awareness, is because it is only self-knowledge and discipline that can help modem scholars and scientists to know more about consciousness and the profound depths of the human psyche.
And because it is only yoga that provides effective methods for the opening of the sealed super-sensory compartment in the brain which, when opened, can lead to illumination or to the florescence of genius and psychic gifts in human beings.
The Gateway to An Elevated Humanity
Yoga is the only gateway to a more elevated humanity, to a well-provided, progressive, war-free, harmonious and happy world. It is the only vessel in which one can cross the stormy ocean of existence to the other shore, where eternal life and unbounded happiness await the passenger.
Yoga, in short, is the methodology and the science by which the embodied soul can become aware of its own identity and of the glorious world to which it belongs. Material science unearths the laws of matter; yoga reveals the secrets of the soul.
The present-day world is a strange compound of opposites, a fantastic blend of anomalies and contrarieties. We establish democratic institutions to raise autocrats to power, and profess faith in God to ignore Him in our actions and elude Him in our thoughts. We profess concern for human beings and yet devise methods for their total destruction at the same time. And we proclaim love for our nation while bleeding our weaker brethren white for gain.
A Great Anomaly of Our Time
We applaud fair play in order to have the larger share, and we honor justice in order to outwit the rest. We express brotherly love for our neighbors often just to malign him, and we show our burning desire for peace by secretly preparing for war.
Our science-oriented, glamorous culture has created a peculiar social environment ideally suited for highly sophisticated minds with a strongly marked polarity that makes them talk in one way and act in another. We have developed minds which, without a single qualm of conscience, can sacrifice all that they profess of religion, faith, God, morals, virtue or lofty ideals, if that helps in our day-to-day pursuit of the objective dear to our heart, be it position, power, pleasure, fame or wealth.
Another great anomaly of our time is that while science has succeeded in overcoming the barriers of time or distance, demolishing geographical frontiers, and created conditions that make earth one vast neighborhood, the political heads of all countries still adhere to parochial and chauvinistic ideas of the times of the Greeks and Romans.
A Thousand Years Out of Date
In other words, the evolution of political thought has not kept pace with the speed with which knowledge has expanded and technology overhauled. Socially, politically, and mentally, man is where he was a thousand years ago.
Science has created a milieu of such lightning speed, mechanical wonder and complexity around us that we now need a much more balanced and penetrating intellect than is operating at present in order to adjust the society to it.
This anomaly has a marked subconscious effect on every man and woman in our time. Each person experiences the effect without awareness of the cause behind it. Whoever be the head of state whom we elect or vote into power, once installed, soon loses the favor of those who elected him. The ardor and the glamour of the election fade rapidly and, in the limelight of publicity, spots and blemishes begin to appear where all looked stainless before.
Speedily the process of disenchantment accomplishes its task. After only a few years, or even sooner, he meets their disapproval and they fret and fume first under their breath and then openly. The temper of the people is reflected in the papers and periodicals, rumors circulate, whispers and knowing winks become a common sight, until the inevitable comes to pass and someone else is lifted to the chair to start the same cycle over again.
A State of Uncertainty Prevails
Apart from leaders of state, the ministers and high dignitaries, more often than not, suffer the same fate. The heads of various departments of administration seldom continue for long to earn the goodwill of their subordinates or the people with whom they deal in the various spheres of their operation. Pulls and pressures, plots and intrigues, fall to their lot without respite to the end.
Professors, teachers, scholars, thinkers and writers only in a few cases retain their popularity and influence for long. A meteoric quality has attached itself to success. A state of ephemerousness and uncertainty seems to prevail in every sphere of life.
Strikes, lockouts, riots, demonstrations, mutinies, revolts and rebellions, the harvest of this discontentment and disenchantment, plague the life of people everywhere. Why they should occur in such proportion in an era of material comfort and affluence, compared to previous times, is a mystery.
Antipathy towards men and women who hold exalted positions anywhere, administration, industry, business, the church, university etc., or in any way influence the life of people with whom they associate is a common feature of our time.
The mass of humanity no longer feels happy or satisfied with its leading lights in any sphere of activity for long, except rarely, and seeks their replacement by others of its choice, only to be disappointed. This creates constant eddies and whirlpools in the swiftly flowing current of life in every part of the world.
The Main Reason for Our Discontent
The main reason why there is seething discontentment in almost every country in the world, including the richest and most advanced, in every field including religion, is not because the leaders are less competent than before or less efficient in the performance of their duty, but because the human mind has attained a degree of sensitivity, and the environment a state of bewildering complexity, where a more evolved, superior type of men and women are needed to create confidence and enlist the cooperation of the masses.
With every advance in knowledge and every addition to the products of technology, the normal intellect, however powerful, is sure to fall short in meeting the choice of the masses for creating a stable order in the society.
What I am forecasting is likely to become more and more apparent in the years to come. By no political revolution, by no change of government, by no enactment of new laws, by no new discoveries of science, by no new teaching or preaching, can the recalcitrant mind cease to express its resentment and dissatisfaction in some way.
Hence there must occur an increase in acts of violence, sabotage, aggression, terrorism, etc., and an increase in unrest and tension. Humanity stands at this moment on a parting of the ways.
Second Thoughts About Man
To take an instance, commenting on the disenchantment that has occurred in the domain of science, Time magazine in an article entitled 'Second Thoughts About Man,' makes this statement: After years of sunny admiration, science suddenly finds itself in a shadow. No longer are scientists the public's great heroes or the beneficiaries of unlimited funding. Unemployment runs high in many scientific disciplines; the number of young people drawn to the laboratory in certain key areas has diminished significantly.
Indifference to scientific achievement is the mood of the moment. Even such bold ventures as new voyages to the Moon or Mars, construction of giant atom- smashers, and journeys to the depths of the sea, fail to excite a public that is half-jaded, half-doubtful of the future benefits of such extravagant undertakings.
In part, the turnabout came from an increasing awareness of the environmental ravages that seem to accompany technological advance. On a more philosophical level, the reversal is the result of a new mood of skepticism about the quantifying, objective methods of science. Moreover, there has begun to emerge, even within the laboratory, a new fascination with what traditionalists consider the very antithesis of science: the mystical and irrational.
Says Harvard biologist-historian Everett Mendelsohn: "Science as we know it has outlived its usefulness."
The Faustian Side of Science
It is this Faustian side of science, with its insatiable drive to conquer new fields, explore new territory and build bigger machines, regardless of costs and consequences, that worries so many critics,î says Time.
The current disenchantment is also rooted in the growing gulf between scientists and laymen. In an earlier age, one man alone might dare take up a host of scientific challenges. Now science has been sub-divided into so many cubbyholed disciplines that not even a Galileo or a Newton could keep pace with all developments.
Some 25,000 books and a million scientific articles are published each year. Most of them are written in such abstruse jargon and abstract mathematical terms as to be incomprehensible except to specialists. Even computer systems seem unable to cope with the onslaught of information, to say nothing of translating it into an understandable language.
These few quotations should be sufficient to show the disenchantment that has occurred and the controversies that are raging in the heretofore unchallenged domain of science.
Similar states of disenchantment and conflict of views exist in other spheres also, and the reason is that the human intellect has almost reached its tether and is not able to move beyond the field of its observation into the hidden causes that rule our lives and the destiny of mankind.
It is a state of stalemate from which there is no escape, unless a new channel is opened to explore the extra-sensory levels of the universe. This is also what the reputed German physicist, Werner Heisenberg, suggests when he says that rational science may be limited in its ability to comprehend nature, at best it can only arrive at certain statistical probabilities in determining say, where an electron is at any given moment.
To know the cause of discontent and instability the inner world of consciousness must become as important a subject of study and research as the outer one. The men and women who offer themselves or are chosen for positions of honor and trust must have gained an awareness of themselves to guide the footsteps of the race on the path to accelerated evolution.
The most pressing need of humanity is not to spend billions on launching projectiles into space or devising more lethal instruments of destruction, but in removing killing poverty, ignorance and disease and in restoring the balance of the world. It is futile to expect that the present heads of state, or the elite of society, will come to the rescue.
Nature may have to resort to some other way to achieve the end
There appears to be little hope that this idyllic dream would come true, not because it is basically Utopian and impracticable, but because it needs a more elevated class of human beings to actualize it, without using coercive or violent methods, but only their spiritual and intellectual prowess.
We need not wait for a chance combination of genes inherited and passed on through centuries, as in the past, for the appearance of spiritual prodigies who are competent to handle the affairs of mankind in the way they must be handled to ensure stability and peace.
This exceptional class of men and women can come into existence, regularly and in increasing numbers from year to year, with the steady practice of yoga, meaning all spiritual disciplines, directed to activate the paranormal center in the brain and employing that genius in the service of humanity.
I call yoga the master science or the key to the mysteries of the universe, because it is through such spiritual practices that genius can be cultivated. Genius is the source from which all knowledge, science, art and philosophy, has sprung.
What we desperately need now are political geniuses to bring in line the existing systems of politics with the present-day needs of millions of fast-evolving human beings. What we need are geniuses in jurisprudence to revise the outmoded, cumbersome systems dating from the Romans, geniuses in science, geniuses in healing, and geniuses in social science, to remedy the present imbalances and to eradicate the evils and diseases in society and plant it firmly on the path to the sublime state which is its destined goal.
I know that except for some intuitive men and women I will not be readily believed. They are not to blame, because what I say is radically different from what they have been taught to believe. But history is a witness that neither Copernicus nor Bruno, nor Galileo, was believed in his time for what he premised.
On the contrary, each was criticized, castigated and ridiculed for his ideas. Bruno was burned at the stake and Galileo, in his old age, had to recant what he had written to save himself from torture and imprisonment. What is now the position of the ideas and concepts they introduced into the thinking of their contemporaries for the first time? Are they not accepted with gratitude and have they not become a part of everyday thinking?
What I assert, however farfetched, fantastic or incredible it might appear, will prove to be a most important and urgent branch of empirical investigation, a budding new science, demanding all the knowledge and resources of the older science for its progress from year to year.
We cannot deny the fact that we have been dilatory in investigating consciousness, the wonder-stuff behind all that mankind has achieved. It is for this reason that we still believe in the myth that mind, as we know it, and matter alone are the realities which need an explanation to solve the mystery of creation.
The problems arising out of extra-sensory perception, as we know, bother sober scientists, because if they are accepted they will require a fresh evaluation of the universe. ESP cannot be explained on the basis of any known laws, either of the mind or the physical world. As the eminent psychologist McDougall has remarked, if psychic phenomena are accepted, physiology will have to be rewritten.
It is not science but we ourselves who are responsible for our arbitrary interpretation of the universe. And it is only research on consciousness that can correct the error and open new vistas of creation beyond our dreams. It is only this new vision and the effort directed to gain it that can keep the restless intellect calmly on its course.
Written by: Gopi Krishna
EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS
The confusion among scholars about the factor or factors responsible for the birth and the growth of the moral sense is due to the fact that there is no awareness about the evolutionary dynamics of the brain. The evolution of morals has not occurred either through the exercise of reason or through experience.
The crude struggle for existence draws into play those resources the body and properties of the mind which help one to overcome the other competitors and rivals in the race for survival. The emphasis of this struggle would therefore be on the strength of brain and muscle, on endurance and courage, on cleverness and wit, on strategy and cunning, on deceit and trickery, planning and plotting, falsehood and sham, or on violence and aggression, to achieve the dominating position in the battle.
These are the traits that we continually see at work in the animal kingdom everywhere on land, in the ocean or the air. But the moral virtues that have been highly regarded since the dawn of civilization and are admired even today are the very opposite of these traits.
Innocence has a greater appeal to the heart than cleverness, frankness than duplicity, truth than falsehood, simplicity than sophistication, humility than pride, honesty than deception, self denial than indulgence, pacifism than aggression, calmness than violence, artlessness than deceit and trickery and so on.
Some of these virtues are in direct opposition to the essential qualifications needed for the ruthless battle for self existence. But the learned have no awareness of the factors that have brought about this change in the instinctive armor necessary for survival. The theologian ascribes the emergence of morals to divine commandments transmitted through Revelation. Scholars ascribe their growth to mundane causes—for instance, the demands of civilization—but without convincing evidence.
The inference is obvious that for any kind of moral behavior which militates against the demands of the struggle for existence, there must occur changes in the depth of the human psyche and consequently in those intricate mechanisms of the cerebrospinal system that give rise to it. Ethics and reason represent the two branches of the same tree confused by the vicissitudes through which mankind has passed and the variances in the moral impulse displayed throughout.
We find it difficult to reconcile the erratic behavior of the ethical sense with the action of a consistent evolutionary principle in the human mind. But this is exactly where the error lies. Looking at the path we can easily find that the growth of reason has always been attended by absurd behavior, irrationality and superstition, as if two opposite forces were contending for supremacy through the human mind.
In the same way morality has been accompanied by immorality and even diabolic traits of character, deceit, untruth, ruthlessness and inhumanity to this day.
Pinholes in Other Planes of Infinity
We often do not give sufficient thought to the colossal task which evolution has to accomplish. It represents a rise from the earth to the sky. A clod of earth has to gain the power of thinking, of awakening to the knowledge of itself and then of the universe round it. A handful of insensitive matter has to win a state of awareness where it can mingle with a consciousness which pervades the universe, from a handful of dust to be one with the All. It is a stupendous transformation, a mighty drama which only an absolute power could design, stage and play.
We are wont to underestimate the inconceivably vast dimensions of creation and the stupendous proportions of the power of it because our mind and senses, like the brain and the eyes of an ant on a tree floating upon the surface of an ocean are not able to register our own insignificant position compared with the titanic forces by which we are encompassed.
We believe that the picture of the universe presented to us by the mind and intellect is all that there is, and we start to speculate how the entity we picture could have come into existence. We never expand our thinking to be conscious of the fact that we are staring at an infinity through a pinhole and that there are countless other pinholes in other planes of creation through which this infinity can be viewed.
In countless different ways each pinhole presents a different image of it. The colossal nature consciousness begins to dawn only when the human limit of perception is exceeded through the grace of the still partially hidden biological mechanism responsible for evolution. For the attainment of a transhuman dimension of consciousness, the evolution of morals is as much, if not more, necessary than the evolution of the intellect. A monkey who knows how to ignite the fuse leading to a store of gun powder cannot be expected to be nice about it when his instinct drives him to set fire to it.
Modern man, with the power to use the awful force of nuclear fusion for destructive purposes, is hesitant to employ it partly because of moral scruples and partly because of the equally terrible retaliatory action that would follow. But he has certainly not attained to the moral stature yet when the very idea of using such a weapon either for offense or for defense would be repugnant to him.
Wars can be fought even without the use of instruments that can annihilate the whole of mankind and even wipe off life from earth. He has also not attained to the moral height where the massacre of defenseless and innocent men, women and children, not involved in actual fighting, would be repellent to his mind. The fact that both these moral considerations were thrown to the winds in the wars fought during this century is a clear indication of the fact that moral evolution has not kept pace with the evolution of the intellect.
The Effect of the First Nuclear Blast
The effect of this disposition between the moral and intellectual evolution of humanity can be disastrous in the extreme. This is the real cause behind the highly explosive and dangerous situation of today. By creating these tensions and pressures, the aim of Nature is to teach this important lesson to mankind.
The overgrown intellect, denied true insight, exhausts itself in ferreting out the causes for- the crisis and proposes remedies without ever lighting upon the truth. All the academic hair-splitting and the noisy hubbub of the learned world will vanish with the first blast of nuclear weapons in the next World War. Until then, unable to see into the future, it will continue to thrust its opinions on a multitude already hopelessly lost in the confusion it has caused.
Entry to transhuman consciousness highly adds to the responsibilities of man. We have gained the awareness now of the potentialities of the intellect and the almost limitless power it can exercise both for destructive and constructive purposes.
Our forefathers only a century back had no awareness of the technological achievements possible to man with the exercise of his mental ability and skill. What undreamed of possibilities will open before man and what stupendous forces will come under his sway with the further evolution of his mind to the transhuman state is impossible to conceive of at present.
It might become possible for him then to extend his sovereignty over all the solar system as he now extends it over the earth. But how can Nature allow man to win this sovereign position unless he has also gained the capability to shoulder the highly increased responsibility in a befitting manner, and not to abuse the almost unlimited powers gained?
Dominating Supermundane Forces
This is the reason why in every case of the awakening of the evolutionary mechanism secret devices in the brain come into play to mold the individual towards a state of mind where the possibility of abuse of psychic power is eliminated. The desire for self reform is the first sign of the activity of this dormant psycho-physiological mechanism.
This is also the reason why almost all those who possess psychic talents are never able to control the power, or to exhibit them at their own will and choice, or often even to remain alert and conscious when the phenomena come to pass.
This is also the reason why through all the past, in spite of the great advances made in spiritual science, as for instance in India, the secret of domination over the super-intelligent forces of creation was never revealed.
It is also why discoveries, whether in the spiritual or the material realm, were made in a series of different minds and were not vouchsafed to but one individual, including Buddha and Christ, however high their spiritual stature might have been.
Unfortunately, our notions of immorality are still distorted. War is not considered to be an immoral act. If it were, then the armed forces of nations would not receive the approbation, the honor and the homage that they do.
But prostitution on the part of a woman who is driven to it by starvation, by reduction or by other pressures in her life is considered to be a grossly immoral act.
This disorientation and confusion in our ethical values and ideas about immorality is due to the fact that there is no awareness at all about the aim of evolution and the moral code of behavior that must be followed, by the individuals and the race, to achieve it.
Excess Erudition Damages the Brain
Excess of erudition can be as damaging to the evolutionary activity of the brain as excess of any other kind. If it were the aim of Nature to turn it into a computer then inspiration and the flash of discovery would have been denied and great writers and thinkers provided with the resources of the intellect to compose their great works or to initiate the laws of science.
But according to the affirmations of some of the greatest minds which mankind has produced, it is obvious that all really great works of literature, all great masterpieces of painting, music, sculpture, of philosophy, and all the discoveries of science were made by minds which, in addition to accumulated knowledge and intelligence, had the gift of intuitive insight or inspiration.
To say that inspiration or creativity comes from the subconscious is to make the confusion worse confounded. If the subconscious has access to new knowledge never gathered before, or to laws of the physical world never discovered in the past or has the capacity to create works of art never thought of previously, it then clearly means that it excels the surface consciousness in all that is original and creative.
In all our thinking about man, about his social, political, cultural behavior and dietetic needs, the factor of evolution has never been taken into consideration. But there can be no doubt that it will be necessary to revise our thinking and to overhaul all the existing systems to conform when once the reality is established beyond dispute.
The experience of life imparts a knowledge that cannot be gained in any other way. Even the study of the whole existing literature on human behavior cannot make us so wise about the complex nature of human life as experience can do. It is a great mistake to suppose that entry to the transcendental stale of consciousness can make one infallible, all wise and all knowing.
Attribution of infallibility and absolute wisdom to prophets and sages has been mainly responsible for the evils of religion. If the race is not to stagnate human knowledge must continue to grow to the end. The dogma of infallibility precludes further progress in knowledge and is, therefore, inimical to the evolution of the mind.
I do not feel myself to be superior in any way to my fellow human beings. There is no idea of purity or chastity, virtue or saintliness in my mind to inflate my ego. Our whole constitution stands on frailty. We live at the mercy of forces beyond our ken. I still continue to learn from my friends and associates.
There is hardly any man or woman who has not a beautiful trait of character or a small store of wisdom lying inside. It is through the inherent goodness in human beings that mankind is able to prosper and progress.
Religious Dogma Precludes Progress
Legions hesitate to speak an untruth, to sell dear, to adulterate, to be unjust, to deceive, to blackmail, to be mean or avaricious, not out of fear of the law but because of an impulse in their interior which keeps them on the side of right. The great importance of religions and their founders has lain in the fact that they sowed and nurtured this righteous impulse. The materialistic thinking of the last two centuries now poses a great threat to mankind because it tends to uproot and destroy this natural, still-developing sense.
The only exceptional knowledge I possess is the harvest of the extraordinary experience I have undergone. I still keep my intellect free and benefit immensely from the books I read. In my contact with the world, in my knowledge of it, I am no better than millions of my fellow beings and, maybe, at times display even less practical sense than many of them.
In my contact with the transcendental world to which I slowly gained entry, after the awakening, I am but a child, constantly wondering at what I perceive, trying to pick up the alphabet of a language more difficult than any knowledge of the physical universe ever gained. The supreme experience is staggering, enrapturing, blissful and inspiring but, at the same time, inexplicable and ungraspable by the intellect. The experience is illuminating, no doubt, because it reveals the grandeur, sublimity and eternal nature of the soul but beyond that what? All that is beyond lies out of the reach of the intellect and hence cannot be translated into any language devised by the mind.
The inscrutable and ineffable nature of mystical ecstasy cannot constitute a permanent barrier to the unraveling the Great Mystery. The evolution of man is a transition from darkness to light. But this transition has to occur in millions of years.
A New Concept of Religion
At the first dim dawn of reason the new processes of thought must have appeared strange and inexplicable to the evolving primate. He must have felt bewildered when the new-born faculty began to overrule the instinctive behavior of the mind.
Entry to another dimension of consciousness, where reason is superseded, must have the same perplexing and mystifying effect on the mind. When this area of study is accurately demarcated with painstaking research of the phenomenon, a new alphabet, a new language and new symbols will develop to understand and interpret the experience.
A time will shortly come when all the resources of science and the intellect will be mobilized to gain more and more insight into this extraordinary state expressible in terms of the intellect. The evolutionary concept puts a different complexion on religion. The myths of divine birth, miraculous transformations and special delegation are entirely ruled out.
It has to be conceded then that the whole race is evolving in the same direction followed by the great prophets, sages and mystics of the past and has to achieve the same goal. It has also to be admitted then that what we call miraculous, supernatural or paranormal might be the outcome of laws ruling the spiritual world or the forces compounding it of which we have no real awareness at present.
There can be no two opinions about the fact that all the great spiritual prodigies of the past had the same kind of body, the same physiognomy, the same brain, the same power of reasoning and the same emotions as other normal human beings. They were prone to hunger and thirst, to age and decay. They were vulnerable to disease and death; and even in the length of their life span they were like other human beings.
The only remarkable difference between them and the others has been that they claimed to be in communion with an absolute Power or Cosmic Intelligence which they called by different names. The proof of this inner experience was furnished by the revelations which they made and the way in which they molded their life. Their revelations are still before our eyes. There is nothing supernatural or miraculous coming out of them, save that for hundreds, even thousands of years, they have had a most profound influence in shaping the life and thought of millions of followers who reposed their faith in them.
Reverse Effect of Today’s Religion
The current concept of religion has the very reverse effect of that which was intended by the founders. They prescribed a certain way of life and behavior for the multitudes that accepted their teaching, but due to a travesty of fate, their self-appointed deputies, instead of persuading others to conform to their directions themselves took the lead in violating them. Instead of laying stress on inner discipline and purification they put more emphasis on outer show, ceremony and ritual.
But when it came to making the teaching an actual part and parcel of life they treated it as a dead letter meant to be pondered over and admired but not to be practiced at all. This is the reason why the modern world took a sudden spurt in the opposite direction and now is filled with fear at the consequences of this step.
An ordered life free of immoderate ambition, desire and lust is a primary need of evolution. The transformative processes ceaselessly going on in the brain become disorganized with uncontrollable outbursts of anger or passion, constant preoccupation with ambitious projects, greed, lust for power and ignoble thought or propensity.
The basic teaching of all revealed scriptures tends to keep man from yielding blindly to passion, desire, malice, envy or other evil tendencies of the mind.
The World of Science Tomorrow
A good many readers of my autobiography are appalled at the suffering I underwent for years after the awakening of the evolutionary mechanism. Some even believe that the results achieved were not at all in proportion to the ordeal I had faced. Since no one can visualize my inner being, it is rather difficult for me to convince the world that I have been compensated a hundred times over.
If I were offered the choice to brave the same grueling ordeal again to reach the same state of inner illumination and beatitude, I would accept it without a moment’s hesitation, even if I had a kingdom to throw away.
The reason for a deprecative frame of mind lies in that the colossal nature of the transformation is not realized. If a certain practice of meditation were to culminate in the production of an Einstein, a Shankaracharya or a Plato right before the eyes of the learned, they would readily acknowledge the efficacy of the discipline and there would spring up thousands of emulators fired with the hope of attaining to the same state of consciousness. The trials and tribulations suffered will be considered to be trivial compared to the eminence achieved.
In fact, the whole world of science would stir to activity if confronted with the phenomenon of a voluntarily produced Einstein, Plato or Shankara, because their matchless intellectual contributions would be a sufficient proof to validate the transformation. We can be sure that, in such an event, the most eminent scientists would vie with each other to be the first to announce the discovery.
A Subject Still Obscure and Unknown
My writings mainly revolve around a still unrecognized organic device in the human body and its activity. I write on a subject still obscure and unknown, centering round the still unsuspected evolution of the brain and the future of the race. All that I say appears hypothetical and speculative in the extreme, awaiting the confirmation of empirical science to receive acceptance as a branch of accurate knowledge.
I am, therefore, a controversial figure still awaiting recognition for any talents that I possess. I have made this comparison only to show how different would be the reaction if, instead of an unknown, mediocre man like me, an Einstein would have resulted from the experience that I had.
The reason why I am not disturbed at this lack of a correct evaluation of the result in my case is because I know that there is no awareness at all about what I am trying to expound, both among the scholars and the average readers of my books.
When this awareness dawns on a successful termination of the experiments done, all that I am writing about this subject and the evolutionary target of the human race will then be priced at its correct value and allotted its due position in the annals of science. The pain and agony that I suffered will not then loom large in the imagination of the people but may even be treated as a cheap price paid for the exceptional knowledge gained.
Evolution Active in Millions Everywhere
The evolutionary mechanism can be active, in varying degrees, in thousands—even millions of people—without resulting in any spectacular mental transformation. But with en-hanced knowledge about the mechanism, executed with the right knowledge of the human body, spectacular results can be achieved. The dangers inherent in a metamorphosis of the brain, as a result of the awakening, to give rise to a transcendental state of consciousness, will come to light when the phenomenon is subjected to investigation.
A glance at the hazardous practices and disciplines of certain forms of spiritual disciplines of Yoga is sufficient to show what mastery over the vital functions of the body had to be gained and what a will of iron had to be cultivated by those who ventured to arouse the evolutionary mechanism from its dormant state.
The first experience of a sudden awakening of the power is that of a raging psychic storm, as if a tornado has been let loose in the system which, if not handled with an iron grip on the mind, can drive one crazy with its unimaginable violence. Long years of careful preparation will always be needed in the case of those who would like to brave the hazard of arousing evolution to accelerated activity before the due time. The explosion of the inner world is far more beset with dangers than the exploration of outer space. In less than another half a century these and other pressures from the psyche must cause drastic changes in the structure of human society in all parts of the world.
These shifts will not be confined to the western nations alone. The less-developed lands will also participate in this transmutation. The growing urge in the younger generations of all countries for a more equitable social order, for a simpler and more natural life and ford the brotherhood of all nations will find fulfillment in some way. The urge betokens a certain advanced stage of evolution demanding a new form of society and a new world order for its fulfillment.
A storm is brewing in the psychological depths of the race to bring about radical changes in all spheres of human life. It will be so radical and unthought of that scholars will be taken completely by surprise at the onslaught of superconscious forces of which they had no knowledge at all.
It is this approaching revolution in the life of individuals and the nations that will bear clinching testimony to what I say. The participants in the New Age movement, with followers in many parts of the world, are all motivated by the same urge:
There is no possibility of escape from the operation of an impulse which will overmaster the mental activity of the whole race. The only cause for anxiety is that a conflict between the progressive and the retrogressive forces by retrogressive I mean those who stubbornly refuse to change with the times might result in a global strike, causing colossal loss of lives and unbearable agony to myriads.
Not Real Threat but a Paranoid Mental Condition
The huge armies and vast arsenals of the most destructive weapons ever devised by the ingenuity of man, which we see filling the earth on every side, are the outcome of a kink in the human mind. The whole nuclear armory, that can destroy mankind many times over, owes its existence not to a real threat but to the overexcited and paranoid mental condition of a few nations not able to adapt themselves to the idea of peaceful coexistence with other human beings.
Were they compelled by a superior extraterrestrial species of life to sink their differences on pain of total annihilation the whole military situation of the earth can change in a few days. The same brain, brawn and muscle which was employed to create the gigantic forces of destruction would be engaged now to disband the armies and destroy the armaments in but a tiny fraction of the time in which they had been built up.
The commanders, designers, scientists, technicians and the rest would vie with each other to be the first to complete the task of liquidation, spurred on by the frantic exhortations of the public and the media. All nations would be galvanized into activity to undo what had taken decades to accomplish.
Let us suppose that at the very moment when the last sign of military power is removed and every nation is left without any weapons or armed personnel, the extraterrestrials disappear from the scene. But before they vanish, they voice a parting admonition that any revival of the old practice and any sign of military preparation would be immediately visited with a terrible retribution. With such a threat constantly at the elbow, would any nation then dare to violate the conditions of truce in any way or to circumvent them to suit their ends?
If the threat of annihilation at the hands of a concrete extraterrestrial power can work the miracle of establishing lasting peace on earth, why does not the more concrete threat to total extinction with nuclear weapons, now scattered over the globe, have the same effect on the minds of those who are piling them up?
This one example is enough to show the erratic behavior of the human mind and the vagrancy of the intellect on which we pride ourselves. But alas, man is not able himself to solve his social or political problems in a rational way with his own intellect. He would readily do it under duress or terror but not with his own free will.
Written by:Gopi Krishna
CREATION VERSUS EVOLUTION
Ever since Charles Darwin first published his theory of Natural Selection, the subject has been embroiled in controversy. In the case of Darwinism, the explanation for the origin of life on the earth is that it was the combination of certain elements, coming together more or less accidentally, which created the first primary forms. For the creationists, the position is that God created man in his own image.
From my point of view, both explanations are incorrect. The Darwinian hypothesis is weak because it could not be possible for an accidental product to attain to such remarkable variations and complexity during the course of millions of years. Darwinian evolution stretches chance too far. The odds against it are almost infinite.
As for Creationism, it is equally hard to believe that man could make an appearance on earth all of a sudden, as if he had descended from the sky. The fossil record does not support this point of view. We see man as a half-cultured being, before that as a savage, and before that in almost human forms in different parts of the earth. There must have been some sort of a growth, some sort of an evolutionóa process of gradual development.
The human fetus passes through stages from the day of conception to the day it is born from the womb of the mother. It passes through different stages, like a fish, tadpole, reptile, quadruped, and then a fully formed baby. The child stands erect at the last stage, and then is able to walk and talk, which is not possible for it to do during the first couple of years.
EVOLUTION IS PLANNED, NOT RANDOM
But what the evolutionists ignore is that the human seed is already oriented for these later manifestations. Like the seed of the tree, it contains the future man within it. A fertilized human ovum only produces a human child, not any other form of life From this it is easy to infer that in the same way life must have started on the earth as a primordial seed, which by subsequent steps reached to the stature of man or was built up in the various other forms of life. In other words, evolution is planned and not random as the evolutionists say.
The reason for this attitude can probably be found in their antagonism toward the concept of religion. It is a battle between those who believe in religion and those who inherently are opposed to it. Most of the evolutionists array their arguments as if evolution stands proved, but it hasnít. There are many gaps which have not been filled in.
For instance, there is no explanation for how the intellect developed. Darwin explains it by saying that it was due to accident or a random mutation, as in the other cases. But no detailed explanation is forthcoming either from him or from any other evolutionist.
Similarly, there is no explanation as to how the eye was formed, how such a complex organ as that of the organ of sight developed. And there are many other facts not explained, so greater opposition to the theory is mounting up by other biologists and scientists. For that reason, the Darwinian hypothesis does not hold such a sway today as it did fifty years ago.
Is there any reason why we should not ascribe the phenomenon of life to the operation of an energy which is entirely dissimilar to the material energies with which we are surrounded everywhere?
Our senses can perceive only a very tiny fragment of the universe. There are animals and other lower forms of life which have some of their senses developed much more acutely than the senses of man.
For example, in the case of dogs, moths, whales, and migratory birds, there are senses which inform them of their surroundings, and about other matters, far more accurately than they do in the case of man. We have no explanation for the sharpness and the acuteness of their senses. Nor do we have very complete knowledge about the brain, how it functions and what fuel sustains it in its day to day work.
LIFE THE RESULT OF AN UNKNOWN ENERGY
With these gaps in our knowledge, it seems to be unscientific to insist on a doctrine or a theory which still does not stand proven to the hilt. For this reason I think it is better to have an open mind on this question, both in respect of the creationists and the evolutionists, and try to find an explanation which better suits the phenomenon.
The creationist theory stands on the story of Genesis as contained in the Holy Bible. It is not supported by the revealed material of the Vedas or the Buddhists. In the Vedas the explanation of man is more or less of the evolutionary kind. The embodied spirit starts from the lowest form of life, and in a cycle of 840,000 lives it completes the circle before it reaches the stature of man.
There also its future depends on the Karma that it does in a particular life. So from that standpoint, the Indian view is nearer to the theory of evolution, but with this difference: It is not the material elements but the spirit which evolves.
I believe that life is the product of another element of creation which is entirely dissimilar to the material elements. The universe is not only what we perceive through our senses, but it contains other energies and forces of which we have no awareness at all. It is these energies and forces that come into play in psychic phenomena, in the enlightenment of great prophets and in other paranormal or abnormal phenomena of the mind.
Science has rejected all experiences of religion for the simple reason that scientists never experimented with religion itself. If it were to do so along the lines followed in India for thousands of years, their attitude would change, and they too would come to understand the force which is behind the phenomenon of life. However, there is a growing tendencyóeven among scientistsóto believe that mind has an independent existence of its own and that it is not an epiphenomenon or a product of the brain cells entirely. It is only the manifestation of a force which is beyond our comprehension.
Now if it is admitted that mind has an independent existence, and that the human mind forms a part of a whole, which is beyond our observation, this mind must continue to exist irrespective of our bodies. If this is true, then it cannot be supposed that this world of the mindóthis reservoir or this oceanóis without laws of its own. It must have its own laws just as we have laws in the physical universe.
Religious revelation has come solely to bring this fact to the notice of mankind. Revelation says that there is something beyond the phenomenal world which is imperceptible to our eyes but which can be observed or experienced by means of certain disciplines and a righteous way of life.
This means there is a law which rules our destiny as human beings with a soul and that this law has been imperfectly and partially revealed in the various scriptures of mankind. It has been my endeavor, also, to reveal this law as far as I have been able to observe it during the course of my long experience in this state of consciousness.
THE LAW DEMANDS A PEACEFUL LIFE
Now this law is very hard to be put into precise words. But the type of a life it demandsówhat kind of behavior, thinking, and societyóis apparent and can be corroborated from a study of all of the worldís major religions.
What this law demands is that people should lead a peaceful, moderate, and harmonious life, according to principles that are good for others and for society as a whole. There should be no exploitation, no aggression, no action or thought which in any way affects the welfare of another human being.
When we compare the commandments issued by the prophets, based on their experience of a higher state of consciousness, we can readily see that present-day competition, both as individuals and as members of a nation or group, brings with it the very reverse attitudes. Everyone tries to have the largest share of the earthís resources, or of wealth, possession, or whatever may be of use or utility to him.
This is the very thing that is forbidden under the law which rules the evolution of the human race. In view of manís many scientific and technological advancement, and progress in so many other aspects of civilization, why does he seem to be even more deadened to the law than man of two hundred or three hundred years ago? Before we can address this question, we must first determine what civilization really is.
Does civilization mean technological advancement, learning, large cities, palatial buildings, elevators, cars, computers, and all the other amenities and facilities provided by science? Or does civilization mean sound, healthy, morally perfected human beings?
Does civilization mean war, with the earth transformed into an atmosphere in which selfish, egotistical, hard-hearted exploiters, black marketers, criminals, and aggressors reside, or one simple community with open fields, natural developments, small homesóa community where there is peace, tranquillity, health, happiness, long life and love among members of a society or of humanity as a whole? Which would you prefer?
WHAT DOES CIVILIZATION MEAN?
Our whole concept of life is sometimes mistaken. Nature does not care if we fly in planes or if we have computers. When we observe the various forms of life we find that we cannot compete with what she has created in the animal kingdom. We cannot fly like an eagle, we cannot dive like a whale, we cannot be as beautiful as a peacock. Other forms of life have their beauties, their abilities, and their special traits of character.
It is not in building spaceships, computers, or television sets that man can excel. It is in his perfection, in his developing more and more mental faculties, in his knowing more of the universe surrounding him. Otherwise, if he competes and dresses himself in satin, eats whatever he craves every day, resides in palaces, and has all the comforts of the flesh and yet dies without knowing anything about himself, he is no better than an animal. There is no difference. There is only the difference in the quality of dress, the food and other things. Otherwise he is as good as an animal. And that is what a number of scientists tries to make of him. Man has not come on earth to stagnate as an animal but to fly as an angel. He has come to become a god.
Our wrong thinking and stress on nonessentials make a beast of him. What we need are thinking men and women, noble, compassionate, loving. If these traits are lost, the consequences will be self-destruction with the forces gained by the advance of science. The very instrument with which we pride ourselvesóour keen intellectówill become the cause of our own extinction.
WHAT IS LACKING IS WISDOM
Our technological advancements and inventions appear superficial and inimical to manís well being because we have overdone them and used them to an immoderate degree. They now have become stumbling blocks to our progress. What is lacking is wisdom. If we were to cast a glance at the history of mankind, we would find that every civilization of the past reached a certain zenith and then fell to the earth, never to rise again. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Indo-Asians, and Chinese, arrived at almost the same point at which Western civilization arrived in the seventeenth century, and in some cases even advanced beyond it.
The more powers man attains, the greater the need for a more disciplined mind to handle them. We went radically wrong when we devoted every ounce of our energy to gain more and more knowledge and control over the forces of nature rather than in becoming more and more self-disciplined and perfect. The very foundation of civilization must rest on the self-perfection of every human being.
We rejected this as a false doctrine, as superstition, as a myth, and the result is that after two hundred years of scientific triumphs, we are now face to face with a contingency where the annihilation of the whole race stares us in the face.
We must ask ourselves, have men become more noble, more honest, kinder, or more benevolent to deal with, or is the position the reverse of this? Is there love and amity between nations or do we find hatred seething everywhere, even between neighbors and erstwhile friends? If this is the position in this age of scientific triumphs and technological victories, what will be the state of society after another 25 years? The answer seems obvious. It would be more tense, more full of alarming situations, more critical, more threatening, and more fraught with danger than what it is today.
How long can the human brain bear this stress and tension? When we look at the present world with all the learning it possesses, with all the knowledge that it has gained, doesnít it mean that something is wrong in the leading intellectuals and spiritual teachers? The future leaders and guardians of the world should have had the experience of their inner selves to understand life better than they are able to do now.
A NEW DIMENSION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Man is not what he appears to be from what we can know of him from the observation of his body and his physiology. He is something much more. He is a soul. He is a mind. He is a conscious entity about which, at the moment, we have very little knowledge. Therefore, it is those people alone who have greater knowledge of his soul, his mind, his consciousnessócombined with the knowledge of his physiology and the world in which he livesówho will be able to guide him correctly on the path.
What the world needs are mystics, or in other words people who have had the experience which Christ, Buddha or Socrates underwent, coupled with full knowledge of temporal things.
There is a psychosomatic mechanism in the human body which is operative in the race and which can be accelerated with certain disciplines. This was done by thousands of men and women over the past 3,000 years. This center of psychic energy is responsible for genius and paranormal gifts. All great mystics and enlightened sages were in possession of this active center, which raised them to the level of a new dimension of consciousness. In that dimension they could experience what is hidden from normal vision.
It is for this reason that every religious book is written in a mandatory tone, because the message it conveys was received from a higher source of consciousness, a source which gave the authors the confidence that it was infallible. If it had been the result of their own reasoning they would have been more cautious in their expression and tried to argue out what they were saying. But the scriptures are expressed in an authoritative tone, as if what the prophets are revealing has the sanction of a power or a mind far above their own.
In the case of geniuses, a large percentage were eccentric in their behavior or had mental problems at one time or another. The same is true of mystics. But since mystics have been treated as a class apart, men and women in communion with divinity or God, their eccentricity has been ascribed to spiritual intoxication. Both mystics and geniuses, however, are under the impact of an awakened Kundalini and are not able to maintain their balance like ordinary human beings. They need special lifestyles, special ways of thinking, behavior, discipline and moderation, in order to live healthy, sound and happy lives, with the gifts they possess.
A SPIRITUAL RESEARCH PROJECT
The scientific experiments I have in view will give us much more information about the lifestyles those with an awakened Kundalini have to follow. People who are already neurotic or unstable will not be suitable candidates for such a research project. It would be better to have sound-bodied and sane candidates who are able to bear the stress and pressure of the awakening and the new experiences they will endure. We have to consider that awakening of Kundalini is not an easy undertaking, for it means acceleration of the evolutionary processes at work in the body
People who have psychic or spiritual experiences often have an activated Kundalini, and this imposes certain conditions on their bodies which must be fulfilled by them. Since knowledge of this mysterious mechanism is still very slight, still shrouded in mystery, those who have an active Kundalini have tended to be hysteric, neurotic, unstable, or even insane.
This is also the reason why many men and women of genius, including great mysticsóboth the result of the activation of Kundalinióhave also been unstable, neurotic, disoriented. Gen-erations may be needed for the emergence of ideal candidates who are perfectly suited for such experimental projects. It will not only be the candidates themselves who will be able to achieve that state of perfection required. but a part of this work will also have to be done by their parents. This is the most potent method for ensuring that generation after generation there is an attempt at self-perfection among human beings. People will soon come to believe that it is far better to leave their children with a healthy heredity than unnecessary and super-abundant wealth or position.
A period of five or six years may be necessary for those candidates who already have the seeds of the awakening in them and whose nervous systems have attained a stage of maturity where an awakening is possible in a healthy way.
THE GUARDIAN OF HUMAN EVOLUTION
While the mechanism of Kundalini is operative in all the race, its operation is accelerated in highly talented and gifted individuals, and where the conditions are favorable. In many people, there are visionary and other experiences which tell them that something new is happening in their mind but for which they are unable to find the reason.
Many people describe experiences heat in their system, currents going up their spine, lights before their eyes, sounds in their ears, and other symptoms of an awakened Kundalini. When once this knowledge becomes widely known, these people would be able to understand their own condition and also to use other methods that can bear the best fruit for them.
Kundalini is the guardian of human evolution and the key to the mystery of existence. There is nothing in the whole mass of knowledge, gathered by mankind so far, of such paramount importance as this. A new science with a fresh outlook on the Riddle of existence is therefore needed to open the still hidden horizons for the elevation of the race.
If this is not done, the fires of ambition and desire, smoldering in every human breast, can never be extinguished. Each war, however deadly, would but provide the base for a still deadlier one. The only remedy lies in changing the direction of the human mind from temporal to spiritual objectives. This has to be done in order to conform to the evolutionary change in the human brain. The aim of nature is to lift man to another dimension of consciousness, to be a superman in his own right, possessed of amazing powers of body and mind. All the achievements won by science are but a means to this sublime goal.
Once this evolutionary goal becomes the subject of discussion in the halls of learning and the media, the long-standing controversy between evolutionists and creationists will come to an end. Then the whole of humanity will begin to take a new direction towards peace and universal brotherhood.
Written by: Gopi Krishna
GOPI KRISHNA
TALKS ABOUT
SEX AND LOVE
As we have seen in our previous discussions, it is not easy to prescribe behavior and diet for the future evolution of the brain. Although I also spoke about sex before, I now would like to be a little more explicit. Inasmuch as all our modem theories about sex, including the ideas expressed by Freud, do not take evolution of the brain into account, we can therefore say that they are incomplete.
The moment it is established that the brain is evolving biologically, it will then be seen that a part of the reproductive energy is consumed in this evolution. I have given the proof, genius and the illuminated mind. For the last three thousand years the Indian savants knew it, as did the Greeks and the Egyptians. They knew that genius and illumination come from transmuted sex energy.
Freud puts it in a different way. He says it is libido and that all creative activity and mental disorders arise out of the libido. But he has not defined libido. For him, libido is psychic energy in its subtle form, in its psychic form.
But it has a somatic aspect also, as Reich correctly put it. It is anchored in the body, his libido. He has clearly mentioned this. But since science has no awareness of a phenomeno that has been in evidence for the last thousands of years, that it is the transmutation of sexual energy that leads to creativity, then naturally all current theories about sex are incomplete.
What is recommended by some psychologists or by some clinicians about unrestrained sex is therefore not only fallacious but highly dangerous for the race.
In the ages to come, people will determine what part of the energy goes to the brain and what part they can utilize for procreative or for pleasurable purposes. There is no doubt that there is nothing in the world so enchanting, so alluring, so inspiring as sexual love. It has inspired some of the greatest thinkers. It is the women whom they loved who inspired some of the greatest writers, thinkers, politicians, conquerors of the world. There is nothing comparable to love for the happiness, health and evolution of mankind.
Evolution Must Have Its Share
But it has not to be abused, because this energy is designed by nature both for evolution and procreation. And evolution must have its share. It would be saner to conserve the energy, even to be a celibate than it would be to overspend it. This is the reason why celibacy has been recommended in religions. Otherwise there is no reason. Why should religion in some way insist that you have to be celibate unless the energy is used in some way?
But we need not go to that extreme. The rational, normal and natural course is to adjust our life so that we allow that part which is meant for our evolution to be used for that purpose.
There are some facts that show that nature is always giving us warnings. For instance, many people, after the climax, after the expenditure of the energy, feel a sense of disgust or coldness, antipathy, or great tiredness. That is a warning from nature that they have overdone it. After the sexual climax, man should feel as energetic as before. That means he has not used or taken from the amount that is needed for evolution.
Sex Energy Creates the Spirit
With scientific investigation many facts will come to light about how sexual behavior has to be regulated. As a general formula, you have to see how much time must elapse afterwards before you are able to indulge again without a feeling of regret, strain, or guilt. That will give you the time span quite correctly.
It is the sex energy that creates the spirit, the creativity and manliness in us. Perhaps you know that when animals are castrated, like a horse or a bull, they become very docile and weak. Although they are very bulky, they become even fatter. But their spirit is lost.
Excess of sexual indulgence is also a self-castration. The vim, zeal and zest of life is lost. The individual functions as a normal being. He attends to his office and does everything. But he is not able to do what he could do if he were to use this energy sparingly. He loses the chance. It is a disservice to mankind to suggest that people should indulge in their sexual activity unrestrainedly.
In the social work I undertook in Kashmir, one of our accomplishments was the remarriage of hundreds of widows, who in my community were not allowed to remarry. They were not allowed even to meet men. They were treated almost as outcasts and had to live lonely lives. All the members of the family looked down upon them as almost witches. They said, ìThey brought misfortune to our house, as our son died because of them.î They cannot remarry. They sometimes get very harsh treatment. They are not even able to go in the company of men. This is changing now and has changed to a great extent.
But out of the hundreds who might have been rehabilitated, I have not seen one that had gone insane. Not one. If you were to collect the statistics of mental disorders for the advanced nations, and also for the backwards people who canít afford even two meals a day, you will find perhaps a greater incidence in the advanced nations than in the poorer ones. Among the widows with whom I worked, some of them were of such noble character that I cannot express to you.
How Sex Energy Must be Spent
I still have a recollection of my aunt, who was a widow from an early age. She was a saint, but her life has been a tragedy. Much harm has been done. As soon as research is made on the biological mechanism responsible for evolution it will be shown that sex energy has to be spent only frugally.
Concerning one who indulges in sex, or I should say overindulges, perhaps you donít know about the experiments made on rats. A rat was put in a cage and an electrode was attached to the pleasure center in his brain. When the current was on, the pleasure center was excited. And when it was off, it was disconnected.
The rats were taught how to move the lever that gave the pleasure sensation. They went around and around, always touching the lever that gave them the pleasure sensation. They went on doing it until they were exhausted and fell down unconsciousness. After they were revived and put into the cage again, they did the same thing; they went around and around. Should we do the same? Should we bargain our future, our life hereafter, for this sensation, which often leaves us disgusted and weak afterwards?
These are the things we have to learn. We have to be normal. One can have sex again after waiting some days. That will give greater pleasure. Just try to observe it. Wait for a longer period and you will find that you have greater pleasure. You will have more love for your wife or for your friend. But when you are at it like the rat, a time comes when you have no pleasure, either with the friend or the wife, and so a divorce results.
The Greatest of Illuminated Men
We never understand the basic reasons for our behavior. As intelligent human beings, we have to adhere to certain moral laws which we do not know. Since I have to speak the truth, I cannot keep back anything that my experience has taught me.
I have been dealing in the social field with thousands of men and women as closely and intimately as a modem psychiatrist does in a laboratory. And I never came across even one widow whom I found insane. On the other hand, I found them more tolerant. They were resigned to their fate.
By this I do not mean that you have to neglect the sex impulse, or to be celibate. There was no system of celibacy in India in Vedic times. In fact, it was looked down upon in the Vedas. In the Upanishads we have the greatest illuminated men ever born, hundreds of them. During the period 1,500 years before the birth of Christ to about 500 years B.C., there were hundreds of spiritual geniuses. And when they were of ripe age, they went into hermitages, and there they gave the teaching, and that teaching is recorded in the Upanishads.
The Upanishads are the fountainhead of all the philosophy of India, even of Greece, although this has not yet been traced by modem scholars. But you will be surprised to know that out of those great sages were those who first said that all this was one.
They were the first to declare that consciousness is the real basis of the universe. They gave the first teachings to mankind, and not one of them was a celibate. One of the wisest of them, Yajnavalkya, had two wives, in accordance with the custom then in vogue. And both of them went with him to the forest.
The Best Use of Our Brain
So on the one hand we have asceticism and monasticism. It was Buddha who introduced monasticism, and it was St. Benedict who introduced it in the West in the sixth century. Monasticism was not a part of the early Christian church.
What I mean to say is that we are not called upon to repress this urge. But we are certainly bound to moderate it if we want to live happy, creative lives; if we want to maintain the spirit in us in a bloom; if we want to make the best use of our brain and our energy; and if we want to give the right heritage to our progeny.
Although we have not discussed sex and social behavior very fully, what little I have said may appear difficult. Inasmuch as it does not accord completely with modern views, it may even appear unusual or outlandish, but I say it with full responsibility.
And most of you who are young will see in the movements that will start all over the earth, during the next twenty years, generated by the bomb, that these same ideas will be confirmed by science and by scholars. They are the keys to a happy life in which the evolutionary laws are not violated.
The Reward Set By Nature
I cannot express to you what reward nature has so far kept for man. Just let me give you an example. You know what a fascination sex has for us. You know what sacrifices a man makes for his beloved, especially in the past when there were restrictions on sexual behavior.
In Europe the knights fought and went on errands to please their beloveds and died in the attempt. They fought duels. Kings were inspired. Empires were destroyed in war when an emperor wanted to have a woman belonging to another country but could not get her without a war.
We know how history has changed because of women, similarly because of man, and what sacrifices they make for men. Now imagine a couple that loves each other intensely, almost to death, who are separated by some circumstances, then come together again after some years. Imagine the intensity of the pleasure and the love when they embrace.
Multiply it a hundred times and you can have a little foretaste of the rapture which fills the brain when you are one with Cosmic Consciousness. This has been considered to be the greatest happiness possible to man. It is for this reason that it is known as sat-chitananda. Ananda means extreme bliss. Sat means truth, and chit means consciousness. This union of the human soul, it is not union, because soul is already the infinite, is only the breaking through of the veil of maya, which obstructs its vision. And when this liberation occurs it becomes sat-chit-ananda.
One Upanishad compares it like this: If the pleasure of love were one unit and the pleasure of reaching Heaven were a hundred such units, then thousands of such units would make up the ecstasy of Brahmajnana (the knowledge of Brahman). This is also known by the terms ecstasy, rapture and ravishment. It is so intense that the mystics faint.
A Glimpse of Your Own Self
It is not possible for the human mind to bear such happiness, when once he is face to face with the creatrix of the universe; when one knows oneís own majesty; when one knows that he and the beloved object, the universe, are one. It is attended by such intense rapture that all the rapture of this earth is but a faint reflection.
In fact, when you experience this rapture of love you are experiencing but a glimpse of your own self, still veiled. It is only a glimpse, a slight glimpse of that greatest of all pleasures. Even kings, emperors, multi-millionaires, and billionaires, all bowed to love. All their lives were made happy by love.
Imagine that this love, which is the greatest incentive to human effort, so valued that people even die for the sake of their beloveds, imagine this love multiplied and becoming a part of your daily life. Imagine that the joy, the exhilaration of an emperor, like Alexander, though he was prone to drink and ruined his happiness, and the joy of the richest billionaire in the United States, and the life of a man who had the most beautiful harem in the world, all combined in Cosmic Consciousness. Where then will be the need for people to run after wealth, or to run after seats of power when such a blessing comes within their reach?
For confirmation of what I say, read the lives of mystics. They spurned everything. They never cared for riches, for wealth or for position. They were all engrossed, day and night, in their inner bliss. And when it failed them sometimes, they were in despair.
The Crown of Evolution
It is this marvelous crown of evolution that will provide the greatest incentive to mankind. The sex incentive is insignificant before it. It will provide the incentive for peace, for service, because without inner peace, without service, without humility, without absence of pride, one cannot reach that state.
So one will have to give up all these things to reach this bliss, this gift, this blessing, which is beyond everything we can dream of, beyond what wealth can give you, beyond what power can give you, and beyond what sex can give you.
This major incentive will result in the complete change of humankind, because all those who reach the illuminated state of consciousness will repeat what has been said by Christ and Buddha and the spiritual teachers of the past. The knowledge in that state is one, and it is in that direction that mankind is evolving.
This is the dream, the golden peak before us. And once it is acknowledged and known, and people go in that direction, you will soon have thousands upon thousands of lofty illuminated human beings to run the various departments of human activity. They will conduct the race safely through the nuclear age; and they will give everyone an equal opportunity and due credit.
There will be no exploitation. No Christ or Buddha would like to have the credit to himself. He will say, ìLet us share it all.î That will be the future man and woman. That is the man or woman for whom the world is waiting and who is sure to arrive when these methods are confirmed.
No Desire for Anything Else
And it is for this lofty goal, to make mankind aware of our glorious destiny, that I am going from place to place. Otherwise I am happy inside, and traveling does not suit me so well. I am blessed. I do not need any praise, any commendations or any followers. I have enough. What I have gained leaves no room, no desire for anything else.
I am living a normal life, eating my meals, sleeping. I am normal in every activity. But I am also blessed. I know what I am talking about. And I take care to say only that which I feel is the truth, and in perhaps the simplest words. I have no need, but I want to share this with all fellow human beings; to put this idea before the scientists and scholars; to encourage and initiate research on it so that the human race, which is suffering, might be spared this suffering and live a more happy, purposeful and more fulfilling life; might reach the stature ordained for her and win the golden prize which Nature has reserved for us. That is my only ambition.
And, I am content to whatever extent Heaven allows me to fulfill this mission. I am content if I am able to talk or to write about it, leaving the fruit in the hands of God. So I thank you very deeply for your patience in listening to me these days.
My words are being recorded. No effort on our part, no discovery of science, no strategy adopted by our political leaders all over the earth, will alter the situation until we change ourselves. The nuclear bomb is Nature ís instrument to correct us. Otherwise it would not be there. It is so preposterous, so suicidal, so inhuman, that such a weapon could never be devised by a normal thinking people. But it is here because we have deviated from the path prescribed by Revelation.
All civilizations fell when they transcended the limit. The same fate awaits our own civilization if it does not change.
- Gopi Krishna, Nishat, Kashmir, 1979
GOPIE KRISHNA INTERVIEW ON
MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE, DRUGS,
AND THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS
Excerpted from The Awakening of Kundalini, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1975; Toronto: F.I.N.D. Research Trust & New York: The Kundalini Research Foundation, 1989.
Y ou say there is a biological process at work in man that is responsible for his evolution, and that this same process which you call Kundalini is also responsible for genius as well as many forms of insanity. Just what is Kundalini?
It is a very ancient doctrine. You can trace the cult of Kundalini back to a period three thousand years before the birth of Christ. We find the first signs of it in what is called the Indus Valley civilization. From some seals and figurines discovered there, we can see that people worshiped this "mother goddess." Yoga was also practiced at that time, for we see a figure of Shiva sitting in a Yoga posture in a state of ecstasy.
When you speak of the cult of Kundalini, it sounds as though Kundalini were some form of goddess or religious leader.
You see, it is very difficult for us at this time to imagine the structure of the primitive or even the medieval mind. If we study medicine we find that very strange and fantastic cures were proposed for sicknesses. Spells and charms and exorcisms --and many of the diseases-- were considered to be due to the evil influence of demons. In such an atmosphere any abnormal or supernormal state of the body could only be attributed to some divine power.
Naturally, Kundalini eventualy came to be regarded as a goddess, as a divine energy, which started from the base of the spine and then remolded the brain to a higher state of consciousness. The methods to activate it and the results that were achieved were fairly well known. We can see them described in the ancient works, but its physiological implications were not understood.
You seem to take for granted that there is an energy which remolds the brain.
There should be nothing startling in this. We see that the human mind has been in a state of evolution for many thousand years. There is a great gulf between the intellectual of today and, say, the intellectual of Egypt in ancient times. We can see from works of art, from writings, and from other signs, that the human mind has taken a tremendous leap in a forward direction. Human thinking has become more flexible and much more comprehensive.
We have to find some sort of reason for this evolution. Modern savants are unable to find any changes in the brain or in the size of the skull, so they are not able to locate the cause of this advancement in knowledge. But if we just reflect on this point, we see that no change in the mind or consciousness is possible without a change in the brain, or even in the whole body. Every thought, every passion, every emotion has some mark on our body though it may be too slight to notice immediately. This clearly means that the advancement of man from a primitive to the present intellectual state must be attended by certain physiological changes which we are not able to locate.
So there is nothing wonderful in saying that there is a power which can transform the body and the brain of man. Already this transformation is occurring, though in an imperceptible way. lt occurs even in a child when he grows from infanthood to maturity. There is aways a change in his brain, so that later on his rational faculty --which is dormant when he is a child-- becomes manifest. In the same way the rational faculty in man has been in a very primitive or low state in the savages, but now is in a heightened condition. The reason for this is change and transformation in the brain.
Modern researchers are not able to locate this change because the alteration occurs mainly in the nerve energy, which to the ancients was known as prana. Prana is the energy we use in thinking. Certain electrical discharges occur with any activity of the brain. These electrical disturbances vary in different states of consciousness; for instance, there is one state in sleeping and another in the waking condition. Prana is the agent which causes these changes, though it is absolutely imperceptible. Scientists only measure the electrical discharges, not the mysterious agent which causes them.
If prana is imperceptible, what makes you say that it exists?
Verification is contained in the ancient books where there is a great deal of information given about it --books as old as three thousand years. And then above all, I have experienced it myself.
In your autobiogrphy, Kundalini, you talk about the awakening of a cosmic energy. Was it prana that was set into motion in your body?
Exactly. It is the psychic energy that is set in motion. How can you change the body and the brain, including the nervous system, unless there is an inner transformation? You can't transform it by any other means. It has to come from within.
What is this transformation like?
You see, the transformative processes set in motion by Kundalini correspond to the heightened metabolic processes which we see in a child. It has been rightly called a rebirth by almost all the religions of the world, including Christianity. Even Christ refers to it.
But when we read of "rebirth" in the scriptures --especiaIly the Christian scriptures-- we've always thought it was just a change in personality or a change in attitude, a sort of an awakening of our spiritual instincts.
Even the awakening of spiritual instinct needs some sort of a stimulus or a change in the brain.
Every kind of mental development needs persistent and hard work. I mean that if a man desires to become a painter, he has to be an apprentice or a student of some painter. He must learn the art and practice it every day with care, and so it is the case with every profession and every system of education. Do you think that while ordinary and trivial advancement in knowledge needs careful attention and study for years, a new consciousness can develop just by some magic or by some mantra or by some spell? Isn't it ridiculous to suppose there can be such a paradox in nature that while for smaller things we should have to study and struggle and labor for years, but for this purpose of transforming our consciousness, we should just take a leap and reach it all at once?
Well, there have been some Christian mystics, even St. Paul, who seem to have had such a transformation almost overnight. How can these be explained?
If we study their lives we will find that they were lives of dedication, of devotion, of faith, of missionary service, and of other altruistic and noble actions.
What about St. Paul?
Even in the case of St. Paul there would be such factors operating, if we study his life carefully. From his epistles and his organizing capacity we see that he was a man of exceptional talent. As I have said, this evolutionary energy is taking man step by step toward higher states of consciousness. In the course of this journey he becomes intellectual, esthetic, talented, a genius, and finally an enlightened man.
We can presume that for one who has already reached the state of genius, or of exceptional talent or of extraordinary intellectual development, there is only a step between him and the next higher state of consciousness. In such cases, universal consciousness or the vision of Divinity can occur without much labor. We see this happening even in the case of Einstein. From what he writes, it is evident that he had some sort of mystical experience.
Apart from Einstein, let us examine Dr. Maurice Bucke, Tennyson, Wordsworth, and so many other thinkers, philosophers, astronomers, poets, including Plato, although they did not undergo any particular discipline, they had the experience, and that experience left an indelible mark on their minds. Their writings and their admissions clearly reveal this. We have to admit that mystical experience, or Cosmic Consciousness, cannot only be developed by effort, but it can also occur spontaneously. This entirely agrees with my view: that there is a ''mechanism'' which is called Kundalini, that is carrying all mankind toward a higher state of consciousness, and that all the prophets and mystics known to history had their "mechanism" already active from birth; and also that this mechanism is active in the case of men of genius and extraordinary intellectual talent.
Written by: Gopi Krishna
MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE
AND PSYCHIC ENERGY
(Chapter 3 of The Real Nature of Mystical Experience)
Our difficulty in explaining the nature of mystical experience stems mainly from the fact that we are not able to visualize a state of consciousness superior to our own. We cannot even imagine the state of mind of a musical or a mathematical genius. A child cannot imagine the mind of an adult. We can understand the position better if we suppose that consciousness has an infinite series of gradations from the most strong to the most dilute. This we can illustrate by treating our consciousness as the faint glimmer shed by a spark of fire and comparing it with the blinding glare on the gigantic surface of the sun. The human eye cannot even bear the sight of this splendor. It would be struck blind even when millions of miles away.
Our consciousness is an extremely dilute form of this splendor. Another analogy would be to liken our mind to a droplet of water and to compare it to an Ocean of Life. If this one small droplet of Divine Intelligence in man has been able to create the present amazing world of art, philosophy, science and the wonders of technology, what is impossible for the Almighty Ocean itself? What is there to prevent us from conceptualizing the truth that the whole universe, with its millions of galaxies and billions of suns and planets, is the creation of an Infinite Intelligence so concentrated that but one highly diluted atom suffices for all the mental activity of man?
We are not able to perceive this Almighty Intelligence or its Splendor because our sensory equipment is designed the other way. In fact, we are held prisoners by our brain. We are not able by any means to look into the mind of another person, as we look into a material object. Any mind other than our own is a completely unknown territory to us. Each one of the four billion human minds, dwelling now on the earth, is an enchanted island invisible to the rest. There is no instrument that can see, measure, touch, smell or taste consciousness. Then how can we be conscious of Universal Consciousness, even if all our life we live, sleep, think and act in it?
This explains why mystical ecstasy has such an overwhelming impact on the mind. The visionary, for the first time, perceives the all-surpassing Splendor of Cosmic Intelligence. This is also the reason why intellect and science are both lost in the labyrinth of matter, for they look at the universe, as it were, through a filtering glass. The veil before our eyes is the creation of our senses. They act only within a particular range. Areas beyond that range are completely shut out from us. For instance, we cannot perceive the electromagnetic waves with any of our senses, but only through instruments and devices designed for the purpose. Even our instruments, at this stage, cannot predict an earthquake, though some forms of life can sense in advance the coming shocks.
A moth can smell its mate from even as far off as seven miles and a shark can scent blood two miles away. A bloodhound can detect the scent of an absconding criminal for scores of miles among thousands of other scents left by animals and human beings that walk over the same path. Bees find their way by polarized light imperceptible to human beings, and whales locate their prey with sonar-echo thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean. What worlds are hidden from us we cannot even imagine. For all we know, our sensory equipment might be but one set peculiar to the earth out of millions operative on other planets and other planes of creation in the universe.
We are mystified by U.F.O._s and the psychic phenomena, because we are not prepared to concede that there are other planes of creation and other beings whose bodies are formed of other materials invisible to us. Mystical experience, in an instant, shatters the illusion that our subjective and objective worlds are the only actual realities. In the mystical state a new element dominates the whole scene. The world of awareness and the world of matter fuse into one, a stupendous Consciousness now penetrates and encompasses all in a blaze of glory impossible to describe. As the Vision unfolds itself, the whole universe seems to melt in the splendor of the One present everywhere.
In order to understand mystical ecstasy in its true proportion, it is necessary to mark the difference between the animal and the human mind. The animal mind is extremely restricted and has absolutely no awareness of the world of knowledge, thought, imagination and feeling existing in man. It has absolutely no idea of science, mathematics, philosophy, poetry, literature, medicine, music, painting and sculpture which, all together, comprise a whole world entirely out of the reach of any other form of life on the earth. How has man taken this prodigious leap over the brute? How has the new world opened in him? Obviously by the addition of more brain matter and a difference in the quality and configuration of the brain.
We are told that the reptilian and animal brains still survive in man. Be that as it may, it is clear that the undoubted superiority of the mind of man over that of the animal is primarily due to the superiority of the human brain. Dolphins, too, have large brains and, as is well known, they are among the most intelligent creatures, below man, on earth. Here we come to a crucial point in our discussion. So far as science is concerned, the human brain is a sealed compartment and has no other potentiality present in it over and above those manifested so far. This is an error and, as long as we continue to hold this view, the phenomena of mystical consciousness and extrasensory perception will continue to be unsolvable riddles for mankind.
We have seen what a tremendous change the addition of some ounces of brain matter has made in the life of man as compared to that of animals. But the mere quantitative or qualitative change in the brain does not explain the whole story. Dolphins, with an almost parallel brain weight, bear little comparison to man. Some small species of monkeys have proportionately larger brains than human beings. The ant with its tiny brain has an organizing capacity and a social order which is amazing. Science is still at sea as far as the phenomenon of life is concerned.
A Max Planck or an Einstein in the science of mind is needed to correct the error of the mechanistic interpreters of life. It is not elements of matter, like carbon, oxygen, calcium, hydrogen and others or the DNA and RNA molecules alone of which life forms are compounded, but there is another element in nature, imperceptible to our senses, which is at the bottom of all phenomena of life. We can call it by the name of life-energy. It is this force which is credited with magical or miraculous powers in all the occult systems of the past and is known by various names, such as astral light, odic force, psychic energy, orgone, super-solar force, chi, etc. In India it is known as prana, and has been universally held to be the lever behind mystical vision and paranormal gifts for the last more than three thousand years.
Prana can well be the matrix from which even physical energy is born. It might be present in the atom and sub-nuclear particles without ever being detected by any means known to science. It is, no doubt, a galling position, but it is true. The pranic force, in combination with atoms and molecules, fashions the bricks as also the complex structures of life. For this reason, it has been held to be the architect of the organic kingdom and the driving force behind evolution.
The Power of the Creator which brings the universe into existence is known as Shakti in India. Shakti is mind and matter both. Gnosis or Knowledge comes from the Creator. This is the Divine Spark or Soul in us--the Inner Light that illumines the mind and the intellect both. We sometimes become aware of this real "Knower" in states of deep contemplation or in the impartial Self which tells us that we are wrong, when, in the heat of anger or passion or in any other turbulent mental state or disturbed reason, we wrongly act or think. It is this Self or atman, as it is named in the Upanishads, which becomes more clear and perceptible in the mystical state.
Shakti, as the Power of the Creator, is incomprehensible to the intellect. We are already at the frontier, in the investigation of matter and mind both, where the unfathomable nature of the deeper layers of creation, with the tools available to us in the form of our senses and the mind, is becoming increasingly apparent to the leading scientists and thinkers of our day. Shakti is unconditioned and limitless, capable of creating any kind of world or substance that one can conceive of or that is inconceivable. Prana, too, is a form of Shakti. It is the Energy behind the phenomena of life. It is the Power behind faith-healing and miracles, as also behind time, space or causality, also emptiness, timelessness and chaos.
What amazing worlds, what incredible forms of life and what unimaginable planes of existence it has created or will create we can never know. The dream state is a distant sample to show its bewildering play. It is maya, the incomprehensible and unexplainable illusory power of the Creator, which our intellect can never entirely understand. The theory of relativity, the progressive discovery of subnuclear particles, with amazing properties, and the new finds of black holes, pulsars, quasars, the expanding universe and antimatter all point to the conclusion that, with every advance in knowledge gained so far, the universe has not become simpler and easier to understand, but more complex and more difficult to grasp by the intellect. To what undreamed of conclusions the investigation done by science will lead, in the course of even one century, no one can predict.
The Indian metaphysics is based on the experience of samadhi or mystical vision. In this state the subtle worlds of mind and prana become perceptible to the Yogi. In the time to come, science will have to adopt the same methods to reach these transcendent planes. There is no other way for man to find other areas of creation, not perceptible to our senses. It is only then that the true proportion of creation can be understood by the human mind. At present we deal only with the fraction perceptible to us. The longing for spiritual experience exists even in the most intelligent minds, because there is always a subconscious sense of insufficiency in the physical knowledge gained and of emptiness in one_s knowledge of the self.
Prana is the bewildering source behind the amazing organizations and instincts of living creatures. With the first breakthrough in the discovery of prana, which is imminent now, the incredible behavior of the intellect that has persisted in ascribing the phenomenon of life and evolution to pure unpremeditated chance will at once become apparent. There is a different spectrum of prana for each form of life, with modifications for each individual of that form. We know very well that the organic structures and their chemical compositions in every species of life vary from each other, and there are slight differences in the individuals of each species. This is true of prana also. Each distinct human personality reflects a distinct type of pranic spectrum. No two spectrums are alike in every respect, as there are no two personalities similar in every way. The differences in our mental constitutions and character are all due to variations in the spectrum of prana of each individual. In the pranic plane, human personalities exist as clear and distinct as their mortal frames in the physical world.
During the course of mystical ecstasy a new, more potent stream of prana enters the brain, creating a revolution in consciousness. The flow of this new pranic current is caused by a slight but clearly marked activity in the brain. It looks as if a hitherto silent area has leapt to a sudden activity, demanding a more potent psychic fuel to sustain it. When the available store of this new pranic fuel is spent, the mystic again reverts to his normal consciousness returning, as it were, from a smiling, brightly lit Garden of Paradise to the humdrum existence of a prosaic world. No words can express the grandeur and sublimity of the experience nor the happiness and serenity felt during the interval. In rare cases, the experience can become a perennial feature of human life. In India, it has been called the sahaja or jivan-mukta state.
The whole ocean of prana, sustaining the human race, is in a state of flux. It is this motion in the fundamental element of life which is behind the evolution of the brain and the transformation of consciousness. The human world is advancing in knowledge as prana is moving in that direction. This movement, in turn, causes subtle evolutionary changes in the brain which we are not able to measure yet, but will do so when the mystery shrouding prana is solved. This will also solve the riddle of talent, genius and extrasensory perception for a well-marked change in prana is responsible for these conditions, too. The evolutionary change occurring in the race now is irresistible. Mankind is being carried to an, at present, unknown destination by the very ocean of life which feeds every individual mind night and day. This destination is a new dimension of consciousness which has not been previously defined so far. We call it by the name of mystical experience, illumination or enlightenment without knowing precisely what that means. All of us are sailing in the same mysterious ship without knowing for which port it is bound.
Written by: Gopi Krishna
BEYOND THE HIGHER STATES
OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Even with its nuclear arsenals and contamination of air, water and earth, it is not science that has become destructive; it is the distortion and vitiation of the human intellect that is responsible for the present unsafe situation of the world.
Knowledge can be both constructive and destructive. The ultimate arbiter is the human intellect. This is the reason why revelation has always been a necessary instrument for the spiritual progress of the race. Intellect, unable to see centuries or even only decades ahead, cannot determine the evolutionary needs of mankind. It is liable to make serious errors in calculation at any time.
Human life is so complex and the course of evolution so full of bewildering situations that it is only a cosmic intelligence that can guide it rightly to the destined goal. Can even a whole galaxy of the highest intellects, in every branch of knowledge, make an accurate forecast of what would be the state of mankind after the span of only the next quarter of a century? Or even what changes will occur in the current concepts of science, politics and religion?
If not, doesn't it plainly signify that the race is drifting toward an indeterminable goal at the mercy of forces over which it has no control?
The error of science has been that it has entirely ignored the spiritual side of man and devoted all its attention to the physical and organic fields. The outcome is that mankind faces a threat of annihilation on one side, or death with poisoned air, water and earth on the other, and of mental distortion on the third.
On the political side, it has become a seething cauldron of aggression, violence, lust for power and hate. On the spiritual and moral side we see confusion rampant everywhere. There are as many ideas, concepts, systems and doctrines as there are scholars or teachers expounding them.
It is not surprising, therefore, that science has failed to create that harmonious progress of mankind in the social, political and spiritual fields.
Science today is suffering from the same distemper of mind which affected faith during the period of her supremacy, namely dogmatism, vanity and arrogance. It is amazing to what extent even scientists can be led astray by vanity. They understand very well that all we know about the visible cosmos is but a drop in the possible ocean of knowledge. Not a year passes when they are not forced to revise their opinions about certain issues.
But with all this uncertainty, most of them display a dogmatic attitude toward mind and consciousness. It is chiefly because science has been one-sided in this investigation--ignoring the spiritual side of man--that it has failed to bring about that wholesome transformation in the mental and moral sides as it has in the physical.
The neglect of the material side brought about the fall of the once-highly honored sovereign faiths of mankind. In the same way, the neglect of the spiritual side is now tending to undermine the position of ascendancy gained by science.
In either case, it was the intellect that failed to assess the position correctly and to err in over-emphasizing only one side of man and neglecting the equally important other side.
Therefore, it is not science itself but the overweening vanity and shortsightedness of savants and scholars--or, in other words, a faulty intellect--that is responsible for the destructiveness of modern technology.
The first thing that should be done to bring about a harmonious development of human beings and the eradication of present-day irrational beliefs in the spiritual realm is to embark on a scientific investigation into consciousness.
There is a huge volume of literature available in both the East and the West, describing methods for attaining the higher states of consciousness and the nature of these higher states. A documentary research into these volumes, followed by systematic experimentation, can, I am sure, lead to an understanding of the biological relationship between expanded states of consciousness and the brain.
When this is achieved, the next step would be to find the laws underlying this relationship. Enough material would be available--when this is done--to enable scholars and scientists to determine the path and the goal of evolution designed for mankind. They would then be able to understand the nature of the changes imperceptible occurring in the brain and consciousness.
It is not only by experimentation on the methods leading to higher states of consciousness, but also by the observation of the psychic forces responsible for genius, mediumistic faculties and insanity that these evolutionary processes can be understood.
The all-inclusive nature of sex energy has not yet been correctly understood by psychologists. In fact, the very term reproductive, or sex energy is a misnomer: Reproduction is but one of the aspects of the life energy, of which the other theater of activity is the brain. The cephalic activity is so slow and subtle as to be almost imperceptible. But it is this activity that is the cause of genius, uncanny psychic powers and also insanity.
Once this fact is empirically demonstrated, we come to a turning point in our present concepts about mind and consciousness--even about matter and the universe as a whole.
The first harvest of this change will be the beginning of a new science dealing with subtle intelligent energies in the cosmos. When this happens, the gigantic physical world--now dominating the whole mental horizon of science--will be relegated to its proper position. It is but the visible peak of an infinite creation, of which the unbounded major part is sunk below the surface of the space-time ocean, forever hidden from the sight of man.
It is only in higher states of consciousness that a fragment of the submerged portion comes into view, causing a state of wonder and exhilaration which is beyond description. It is only when the evolving human organism and the cosmos are viewed in right perspective that the appropriate ways of life and conduct, favorable for this transformation, can be devised by science.
Try as we might, without a clear knowledge of the goal ahead, we can by no exercise of the intellect determine the right pattern of life essential for mankind on the evolutionary path: A united world, abolition of war, demolition of armaments, disbandment of armies. An environment more in harmony with nature. A life more natural and simple. Removal of barriers between man and man, inculcation of altruistic and humanitarian principles, moral education, social equality and universal brotherhood. These are some of the basic factors that contribute to the harmonious progress of mankind.
This may appear idealistic or even fantastic and impracticable to many people. But the conclusion is unavoidable. At its present intellectual stature, the alternatives facing the race are either self-caused annihilation with dreadful agony for myriads, or knowledge of and obedience to the laws of evolving consciousness.
*This article is from Gopi Krishna's book "Higher Consciousness", published by The Julian Press. The article appeared in the New York Times October 6, 1973.
SCIENCE AND MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE
Chapter 6 of The Real Nature of Mystical Experience
There is a great deal of variation in the accounts of mystical vision available to us for study. Apart from the traditional mystics, whose frame of mind was essentially religious and who underwent various spiritual disciplines to attain the mystical state, there have been poets, philosophers, scientists and scholars who had a sudden visionary experience, once or several times in their life, without the practice of any orthodox religious or esoteric discipline. Pascal, Bucke, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Tagore are a few examples of this type of mystical vision. According to his own statement, a few moments before his epileptic seizures, Dostoevsky experienced a state of lucidity and bliss which, he says, counted more than a lifetime of ordinary experience.
How are we to account for this phenomenon? From immemorial times the mystical state has been held to be a vision of Divinity, or God or Allah or Brahman or any celestial or supernatural Being. There are hundreds of books from the pens of mystics themselves or of theologians and other scholars supporting this view. For this reason a deeply religious life, involving seclusion from the world, renunciation, submission to Divine Will, contentment, austerity, even penance with extreme love of the Deity, and utter devotion, has been considered to be the essential prerequisite for success in this sublime quest. The Revealed scriptures of mankind are all explicit on this point. From this point of view, the anomaly created by the mystical ecstasy of those on whom the experience was, as it were, thrust in the course of normal life, devoted to worldly pursuits, without having made the surrenders and sacrifices to deserve the reward from Heaven, is hard to explain.
There have been well-known mystics in recent times in whom ecstasy started from boyhood, as in the case of Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharishi. In both of them the state of intense absorption was, as it were, a natural state of the mind. Guru Nanak and Jnaneshwar were mystics from birth. The former in his talk, behavior and poetic composition was a religious genius from the age of ten, while the latter wrote his famous commentary on the Bhagavad Gita known as Jnaneshwari, and considered to be a classic, at the age of sixteen. There is no rational explanation for these extraordinary cases of mystical consciousness.
There are still many scientists who, like Freud, treat the whole phenomenon of religion as an illusion, a pathological condition due to repressed sexuality their one answer to many problems of the mind. According to this view, the whole irrational fabric of faith should have been exposed to its bottom by now. But, strange to say, the reverse has happened. Mystical vision and the miracles associated with it, now classified as psychic phenomena, have assumed an urgency and importance that they never possessed before during the last two centuries. This shows how erroneous the intellect can be. The widespread thirst for self-awareness or the occult side of nature, which is a striking feature of our day, is utterly inexplicable in the light of modern psychology.
It is incredible that the learned world should still be in the dark about a phenomenon that has been at the base of civilization and culture, also all the moral and intellectual progress made by mankind. The religious impulse and the lure of the supernatural, which we see always associated with the life of man from as far back as archeological record is available, provide irrefutable evidence to show that the human mind has been occupied with the occult and the divine almost from the beginning of reason. The priest, the witch doctor, the medicine man and the shaman appear on the scene from the remotest periods. In the prehistorical world we see all the vanished civilizations of the past completely dominated by religion. In fact, in some of them the kings performed the offices of the ruler and the high priest both. The current faiths that took form from about 2,000 years before the birth of Christ to medieval times kept as firm a hold on the imagination of man as those that preceded them by thousands of years. In this sphere of the human mind, science is but a helpless spectator of the scene.
The world is tense and the race lives under the overhanging threat of a holocaust because we are violating an Almighty Law of nature. We have not even the awareness of this Law. It is not mere chance or accident or hysteria or the machinations of charlatans and priests that brought the current major faiths of mankind into existence. In such an event, they could never hold the tremendous sway which they did over the minds of people in almost all parts of the world. It is not by chance or accident that the great spiritual luminaries were born to reveal the mode of life and the pattern of behavior to be followed by the multitude to live in concord with the evolutionary processes working in the race. It is the impact of their teachings and the order they established which prepared the soil for the great achievements of modern science. The parents, grandparents and the great-grandparents of the pioneers of science were, in most cases, deeply religious men and women with faith in God and a righteous way of life. What will be the achievements of the progeny, born in all parts of the world, two or three generations from now, in the mental climate which undiluted rationality has created we have still to see.
The signs, however, are not auspicious. Pregnancy and birth in a tense, highly charged and threatened mental atmosphere can never be above fault. The tragedy has been that the custodians of faith attached more importance to formulism than to the basic teachings of the founders. At the same time, many of the great thinkers and scientists, during recent times, failed to understand the importance of religion as the outward symbol of the deeply rooted evolutionary impulse in human beings. They failed to note that all the revealed scriptures of mankind had a common purpose which is to implant an ideal of a Heavenly Deity, called by the name of Brahman, God, Jehovah, Vishnu, Allah, Buddha or Ahura-Mazda, etc., and, to prescribe the way of life and the mode of behavior necessary to achieve union with or proximity to that Being. In other words, the aim was to present an evolutionary ideal and the methods to achieve it.
Religion came, as I have said, to prepare the ground for science. The advent of science, too, did not come by chance or accident. It marks another stage in the evolution of the human mind. We do not see the connection because there persists an erroneous impression, even in the ranks of science, that the human brain is static and has been so for the last, at least, twenty thousand years, since the time of the Cro-Magnon type of man. We are, however, prepared to concede that there must have been some kind of a qualitative difference between the brain of a genius, as for instance Einstein, and a man of average intelligence. In fact, it is to locate this difference that portions of Einstein's brain have been under observation for the last many years.
The wonder is that while we are ready to acknowledge that there must be a variation in the brain of a genius as compared to that of a common man, we still naively believe the myth that there has been no appreciable change in the human encephalon for the past thousands of years. Even a champion of evolution, like Teilhard-de-Chardin, subscribed to the same view, probably under the impression that what the biologists of his day propounded was the last word on the subject. The bloom of science and the bloom of intellect, we see today, compared to the dense, slow-moving mind of the Stone Age man, shows as great a gulf, if not greater, as exists between a highly talented individual and a blockhead in our time. What physiological factors are responsible for this difference? No one is able to answer this riddle at present. The moment this difference is located, the enigma whether or not the human brain is still in a state of evolution will be solved.
The tragedy is that the human mind is never able to frame a correct picture of the state of its knowledge even a few decades ahead. The great intellects, alive in the late 1800's, could never imagine the state of knowledge of the intellects alive today. Similarly, the latter can never visualize correctly the mind of those living in the late 2000's. There are extremely few who can think ahead of their time. The science of life has reached a stage where a breakthrough in our knowledge about the brain is imminent. This would show that the religious impulse is genetically present in human beings. Where it does not exist, a departure from the normal is indicated. The aim of the impulse is to effect coordination between the evolutionary modeling of the body and the surface consciousness of the individual. I say this because there is no other explanation for mystical experience. The fact that those who laid the foundation of all current faiths of mankind made a clear avowal of the position that what they were preaching was revealed to them by God, or an Angel, or a Divine Consciousness, or an Enlightened state of mind is a clear indication of this fact.
With the breakthrough in the knowledge about the brain, the stage will be set for rapprochement between religion and science. The real purpose for which science took birth is to bring about an acceleration in the evolution of mankind. From this point of view, science is not the end but the means to an end. This is the reason for the highly increased tempo of progress in our time. We are all a witness to the fact that changes and innovations that, in medieval times, took centuries to occur are often accomplished in decades now. How has this come to pass? The answer that this is due to highly sophisticated technology is only partially correct. Technology itself is inextricably linked up with the capacity of the human mind. It is the technological brain that has evolved to the pitch where the amazing achievements of our day have become possible. If the evolution of the brain does not keep pace with the speed of progress, a state of stagnation would ensue beyond which it would be impossible to proceed.
The past history of mankind is standing witness to this ossification. What happened to the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, the people of the Indus Valley, the Indo-Aryans, Chinese, Persians, Greeks and Romans after their rise to lofty heights of culture and even technological achievements of which we see surprising relics even today? Stultification and decadence occurred as the brain ceased to keep pace with the demands of the progress achieved, and decay set in to level the once victorious and ascendant nations to dust. As many as fourteen civilizations, whose achievements are scattered all over the earth, which, some believe, were harvests of their contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, have already paid the forfeit for their ignorance of this Almighty Law. Our civilization will follow the same course, if science continues to ignore the fact that spiritual evolution is the real goal of human life.
The time-defying pyramids and the wonder-exciting temples of Egypt could not save the populace from falling a helpless victim to decline, when the brain ceased to cooperate. Space rockets, skyscrapers and all the wonders of modern science, combined, will not be able to save the race, if the brain refuses to tolerate the pressure to which it is subjected now, because of ignorance of the Law. The result would be what we are already witnessing-a desire to drop out of the struggle, perverted thinking, drugs, promiscuity, escapism, discontent, violence, crime and wishful thinking of a holocaust. The top-heavy, ponderous structure of modern civilization, in every part of the world, is actually rocking. Only we are not fully aware of it, as we are not conscious of the worldwide rebellious trend of the human brain.
LIVING WITH KUNDALINI
It is a grave error to suppose that the arousal of kundalini can be achieved with impunity by anyone who applies himself to the discipline. The popular idea that the practices result simply in the activation of a new force in the body is fallacious. Those who believe that the arousal and mastery of the force can be achieved by one's willful effort alone live in a paradise of fools. Properly speaking, the position has to be viewed the other way round. It is actually the pressure exerted by the slowly opening supersensory channel in the brain on one's mind which acts as the root of the religious impulse, driving one to seek expedients to satisfy the longing.
It is not a little more calmness or relaxed condition of the mind nor a little more creative ability nor a feeling of euphoria nor visionary experiences nor a little more efficiency in work that determines whether or not a transformation in consciousness has occurred in an individual. Rather, it is a complete metamorphosis of the personality that points to it.
The craziness of religious mania is similar to the eccentricity and madness of genius. Only the aberration takes a different form. It is only the highest luminaries, comparatively speaking, who have been free from it. Excessive penance, horrible self-mortification, utter seclusion, denial of love, renunciation of the world and family, abnormal ways of life and behavior, quaint appearance and dress are all part of this mania.
Unless the mind has been disciplined from an early age, a stimulated kundalini brings with it an irrepressible desire for the occult and the bizarre. It is incredible to what extent the victims of this desire can be duped by pseudo-Godmen, charlatans and impostors...In my own lifetime, one of these Godmen, residing in a village in Kashmir, used to urinate into a silver vessel in full view of the crowds that came to visit him and then sprinkled the liquid over the audience, both men and women. It is even said that his admirers held up their faces and uncovered their bosoms to receive the sanctifying drops.
The need for a highly balanced and regulated life, as a prerequisite for cosmic consciousness, was recognized in India from very early days. The emphasis of all great religions on a chaste, consecrated life stems from the same necessity.
The awakening may be gradual or sudden, varying in intensity and effect according to the development, constitution, and temperament of different individuals; but in most cases it results in a greater instability of the emotional nature and a greater liability to aberrant mental conditions in the subject, mainly resulting from tainted heredity, faulty modes of conduct, or immoderation in any shape or form.
It seemed as if I had abruptly precipitated myself from the steady rock of normality into a madly racing whirlpool of abnormal existence. The keen desire to sit and meditate, which had always been present during the preceding days, disappeared suddenly and was replaced by a feeling of horror of the supernatural. I wanted to fly from even the thought of it. At the same time I felt a sudden distaste for work and conversation, with the inevitable result that being left with nothing to keep myself engaged, time hung heavily on me, adding to the already distraught condition of my mind.
The nights were even more terrible. I could not bear to have a light in my room after I had retired to bed. The moment my head touched the pillow a large tongue of flame sped across the spine into the interior of my head. It appeared as if the stream of living light continuously rushing through the spinal cord into the cranium gathered greater speed and volume during the hours of darkness. Whenever I closed my eyes I found myself looking into a weird circle of light, in which luminous currents swirled and eddied, moving rapidly from side to side. The spectacle was fascinating but awful, invested with a supernatural awe which sometimes chilled the very marrow in my bones.
I seemed to have touched accidentally the lever of an unknown mechanism, hidden in the extremely intricate and yet unexplored nervous structure in the body, releasing a hitherto pent-up torrent which, impinging upon the auditory and optic regions, created the sensation of roaring sounds and weirdly moving lights, introducing an entirely new and unexpected feature into the normal working of the mind that gave to all my thoughts and actions the semblance of unreality and abnormality.
For weeks I had no respite. Each morning heralded for me a new kind of terror, a fresh complication in the already disordered system, a deeper fit of melancholy or more irritable condition of the mind which I had to restrain, to prevent it from completely overwhelming me, by keeping myself alert, usually after a completely sleepless night; and after withstanding patiently the tortures of the day, I had to prepare myself for even worse torment of the night.
A man cheerfully overcomes insurmountable difficulties and bravely faces overwhelming odds when he is confident of his mental and physical condition. I completely lost confidence in my own mind and body and lived like a haunted, terror-stricken stranger in my own flesh, constantly reminded of my precarious state. My consciousness was in such a state of unceasing flux that I was never certain how it would behave within the next few minutes. It rose and fell like a wave, raising me one moment out of the clutches of fear to dash me again the next into the depths of despair.
It seemed as if the stream of vitality rising into my brain through the spinal cord, connected mysteriously with the region near the base of the spine, was playing strange tricks with my imagination. Also I was unable to stop it or to resist its effect on my thoughts. Was I losing my mind? Were these the first indications of mental disorder? This thought constantly drove me to desperation. It was not so much the extremely weird nature of my mental condition as the fear of incipient madness or some grave disorder of the nervous system which filled me with growing dismay.
No one could even suspect what was happening to me inside. I knew that but a thin line now separated me from lunacy, and yet I gave no indication of my condition to anyone. I suffered unbearable torture in silence, weeping internally at the sad turn of events, blaming myself bitterly again and again for having delved into the supernatural without first acquiring a fuller knowledge of the subject and providing against the dangers and risks of the path.
I did not know then what I came to grasp later on--that an automatic mechanism, forced by the practice of meditation, had suddenly started to function with the object of reshaping my mind to make it fit for the expression of a more heightened and extended consciousness by means of biological processes as natural and as governed by inviolable laws as the evolution of species or the development and birth of a child.
Whenever my mind turned upon itself I always found myself staring with growing panic into the unearthly radiance that filled my head, swirling and eddying like a fearsome whirlpool; I even found its reflection in the pitch darkness of my room during the slowly dragging hours of the night. Not infrequently it assumed horrible shapes and postures, as if satanic faces were grinning and inhuman forms gesticulating at me in the darkness.
...There was a sound like a nerve thread snapping and instantaneously a silvery streak passed zigzag through the spinal cord, exactly like the sinuous movement of a white serpent in rapid flight, pouring an effulgent, cascading shower of brilliant vital energy into my brain, filling my head with a blissful luster in place of the flame that had been tormenting me for the last three hours. Completely taken by surprise at this sudden transformation of the fiery current darting across the entire network of my nerves only a moment before, and overjoyed at the cessation of pain, I remained absolutely quiet and motionless for some time, tasting the bliss of relief with a mind flooded with emotion, unable to believe I was really free of the horror. Tortured and exhausted almost to the point of collapse by the agony I had suffered during the terrible interval, I immediately fell asleep, bathed in light, and for the first time after weeks of anguish felt the sweet embrace of restful sleep.
In the case of a sudden, powerful arousal of the Serpent Power, the utmost care has to be taken of the following: (1) the state of mind, (2) the intake of food, and (3) erotic behavior. The will must have been already cultivated to exercise control over the now chaotic state of the mind. Like the pendulum of a clock, it oscillates between hope and fear, anxiety and assurance, joy and sorrow, for no apparent reason, as if pushed from this side to that and back again by an invisible force from within in a manner entirely unpredictable to the subject of the experience. If the will is not firm and lacks the strength to hold itself in check, the oscillations can lead to those irresponsible acts which are a characteristic of mental disorder.
There was no diminution in the vital radiation which, emanating from the seat of kundalini, sped across my nerves to every part of the body, filling my ears with strange sounds and my head with strange lights, but the current was now warm and pleasing instead of hot and burning, and it soothed and refreshed the tortured cells and tissues in a truly miraculous manner.
I was in an extraordinary state: a lustrous medium, intensely alive and acutely sentient, shining day and night, permeated my whole system, racing through every part of my body, perfectly at home and absolutely sure of its path. I often watched the marvelous play of this radiant force in utter bewilderment.
What made me hesitate in according publicity to it is the unique nature of the phenomenon; it neither falls in line with the known manifestations observed in mediums, nor does it seem similar in kind to the recorded experience of any known mystic or saint, Eastern or Western. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that, in its entire character, the phenomenon represents the attempt of a hitherto unrecognized vital force in the human body, releasable by voluntary efforts, to mold the available psychophysiological apparatus of an individual to such a condition as to make it responsive to states of consciousness not normally perceptible before.
I was now a spectator of a weird drama enacted in my own body in which an immensely active and powerful vital force, released all of a sudden by the power of meditation, was incessantly at work and, after having taken control of all the organs and the brain, was hammering and pounding them into a certain shape. I merely observed the weird performance, the lightning-like movements of the lustrous intelligent power commanding absolute knowledge of and dominance over the body.
I do not know how it happened that, even in that extremely abnormal state of my mind, needing constantly the application of new measures to adapt it to changing circumstances, I often hit upon the right procedure to deal with unexpected and difficult situations arising in my day-to-day contacts. If I had even so much as hinted to colleagues a word about my abnormality and the bizarre manifestations which were now a regular feature of my life, I might have been labeled a lunatic and treated accordingly.
To the frivolous inquiries directed to gathering more information about my experience, I usually turned a deaf ear, maintaining a reserve which has continued to this day. Failing to gain satisfaction for their curiosity and finding no remarkable change in me, the story of my spiritual adventure was treated as a myth, and to some I even became an object of ridicule for having mistaken a physical ailment for a divine dispensation.
From a unit of consciousness, dominated by the ego, to which I was habituated from childhood, I had expanded all at once into a glowing conscious circle, growing larger and larger, until a maximum was reached, the "I" remaining as it was, but instead of a confining unit, now itself encompassed by a shining conscious globe of vast dimensions...Speaking more precisely, there was ego consciousness as well as a vastly extended field of awareness, existing side by side, both distinct yet one.
An ordinary man in a humble walk of life, burdened with responsibilities, as I always have been and think myself to be, I never allowed any false idea about myself to take root in my mind after the new development. On the other hand, my absolute helplessness before the lately manifest power in me had the effect of humbling what little remnant of pride I still possessed.
Written by: Gopi Krishna
EVOLUTION AND THE
SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
(Chapter 2 of Yoga -- A Vision of Its Future)
A thousand more years of daily technological triumphs and oceans of temporal knowledge, gained by science, can never succeed in calming the fever of the intellect caused by its inability to know itself. Continued evolution of the intellect and continued extension of all the treasures of art and philosophy, possessed by mankind, would not tend to diminish this fever but, on the contrary, make it more acute. The ferment in the hearts of the youth in all parts of the world is a symptom of the exacerbation of this malady. There is no possibility for man to explore his own mystery, save by further development of his brain, and the activation of the center designed for it by nature.
The evolutionary process tending towards this development cannot be neglected or ignored with impunity. It would be like neglecting or ignoring the growth of a child. Nature has taken every precaution to ensure that human beings do not by their ignorance or recalcitrance impede or obstruct the operation of the great law. Deep-rooted urge for transcendental experience, hunger for occult powers, curiosity about the supernatural, lure of magic, thirst for spiritual knowledge, love for religion, desire for worship and prayer, and the impulse of self-reformation are all devices installed by nature to draw human beings to the target of evolution without exactly knowing the reason responsible for the urge or the hunger which they experience.
Yoga is designed to fulfill this unspoken demand of nature and to meet this unwritten law by prescribing a way of life which is in conformity to the process of evolution working in the system. It is therefore obvious that Yoga is not what it is or has been held to be-a system of discipline for personal salvation, efficacious on account of certain unknown or magical properties, dependent for its success on the favor or grace of a guru. The actual position is that Yoga, as we know it at present, is merely the first step of a long process aimed to enlarge the capacity of the human encephalon, ultimately resulting in the establishment of a super-science for the exploration of transcendental realities. This exploration, conducted through Yoga, of the super-sensory planes of existence, which are the real cause of creation and the basis of the extremely complex phenomenon we call life, will have far greater fascination for the intellectual elite at no distant future than exploration of the material world has for them today.
There are millions upon millions of people whose love for religion is only skin-deep, whose attendance at the church or temple is motivated merely by desire to conform to a convention, or whose interest in God or the Hereafter is only superficial, without exerting the least influence on their daily thought or act. There are millions upon millions of other people whose interest in Yoga or the occult or the supernatural is cursory, the outcome of a passing curiosity, when they observe others' interest in these subjects. In contrast to these there are others deeply imbued with love for their faith or keenly interested in Yoga and the transcendental who make serious efforts to conform their lives to the ideals of their creed or the disciplines they undertake.
On the other side, too, there are legions for whom Yoga, worship, prayer, as also dabbling in the occult or the supernatural, or interest in magic represents merely a peculiar bent of mind in some people or a hobby or fad and they allow them to indulge in their fancies without evincing any desire to imitate or emulate their taste. There is another category of human beings, including statesmen, industrialists, scholars, thinkers, scientists, writers, teachers and others whose number too is large, for whom religion, God, Yoga, occult or the supernatural have no significance. They often applaud their own mental acumen in not being led astray by what they believe is an irrational pursuit, a mental aberration, hysteria or superstition from which they are happy to be free. There are millions of practical, hard-headed men and women who do not even give a thought to the occult or the Beyond and continue in their round of duties as if they do not exist at all. This disposition the Indian masters ascribe to tamas, the downward pressing force which retards evolution.
On the other side, those who practice some form of spiritual exercise or regularly attend the church as a duty, with faith and love, or daily worship and pray carried away by the ego, not unoften congratulate themselves for their observances and faith in God. In some cases this self-applause has the adverse effect of increasing vanity which makes them consider themselves more blessed and privileged than others for their good way of life and conduct which is denied to the rest. These attitudes of mind and active thinking have as pronounced an effect on the evolutionary career of human beings as spiritual discipline and cultivation of virtue. The law of gravitation operates uniformly in every nook and corner of the universe. Similarly do the laws of light and motion and similarly the laws of life.
The Law of Evolution acts precisely in the same way in every human being and in all intelligent forms of life in all parts of the universe. The skeptic who applauds himself for this practical common-sense in not subscribing to, what he calls, superstition or softness of the brain in the religious-minded, is as under the operation of the law as the one who flatters his ego for his piety and goodness, thinking himself superior to those who lead a different life. Whatever the idea and way of life of a human being, he is always under the operation of this mighty Law. Just as, while sitting, sleeping, walking, running, or flying in an airplane, we are every moment under the operation of the law of gravitation and can never escape its force all our life. In the same way, from birth to death, every human creature, thinking, acting, sleeping, waking, laughing or grieving is under the sway of the Law of Evolution, ceaselessly working in his body and brain.
The force of gravitation penetrates to each particle of earth and into every atom in our system, holding every cell and molecule in its place. A sudden cessation of this law would create an inconceivable situation, an explosion of which no one can visualize all the consequences. In the same way a sudden cessation of the law of Evolution will have unpredictable results and gradually transform mankind into an inconceivable species of life, making its survival as an intelligent creation entirely out of the bounds of possibility.
In order to obtain a clearer idea of how the forces of life and the Law of Evolution can be conceived of, in the context of the current theories about the elemental forces of matter, it is sufficient to say that the classical concepts of extremely minute solid objects which combined, like diminutive bricks, to form molecules and compounds has been demolished. The material world has now to be imagined as a stupendous ocean of wavelike patterns of probable interconnections of which it is not possible to form a precise image by any means possible to man.
"A material particle, such as an electron," says Hermann Weyl," is merely a small domain of the electric field, within which the field strength assumes enormously high values, indicating that a comparatively huge field energy is concentrated in a very small space. Such an energy knot, which by no means is clearly delineated against the remaining field, propagates through empty space, like a water wave across the surface of a lake; there is no such thing as one and the same substance of which the electron consists at all times."1
From this plain description of the invisible levels of matter, we can readily form the image of a human being as he actually exists-as a fluidic field of interconnected and interacting forces devoid of the form, shape, size, color and substance, presented to our mind by the senses and the brain. With this picture the world of name and form vanishes away completely. This dissolution of the objective world into Consciousness is a phenomenon known to yogis for thousands of years. Universal Consciousness (Brahman) with its maya-Shakti, existing behind the energy-field of the universe, lies completely beyond the range of our observation, the real source of all creation, yet entirely aloof and unaffected by its constant movement and activity. The Law of Evolution springing from the maya-Shakti of the Creator is operative at the finest levels of our organic structures, subtler than the neurons and their constituents or, in other words, in the invisible energy fields to which they owe their existence, shape and form. The issue has been touched in passing to bring out the colossal implications of the law of Yoga as a discipline designed to remodel the human brain at its deepest levels, completely hidden from our knowledge and sight.
We are seldom conscious of the Grace that keeps us alive every moment of our life. "My delusion is destroyed . . . and I shall do your bidding," says Arjuna at the end of the Gita because, humbled by the Vision, he sees the Lord in every atom and event of the Universe. The mighty discipline of Yoga, by melting the ego and extending the horizon of human consciousness, reveals the ineffable Presence of one Omnipotent Intelligence behind the infinite variety and ceaseless activity of the cosmos-a Vision so overwhelming and magnificent that the human mind reels under the impact.
The all-embracing Cosmic Law of human evolution is still unknown to modern savants. The reason is preponderate attention to the outer world at the cost of the inner. Man has forgotten himself in his excessive love for the body. It has been an error to explain the origin and evolution of different species of living creatures with hypotheses and assumptions which completely ignore the fact that a superintelligent cosmic law, governing life, is in operation throughout the universe. There is no awareness that it is a natural law and not accident that brought about the change in the storm-swept surface of the earth and made it the abode of the marvelous organic kingdom, full of the variety and wonder we find everywhere, each form perfectly suited to its habitat. The reason for it lies in the fact that the Almighty Force of Life is imperceptible and will continue to be so until the capacity of the brain is enhanced to include super-sensory perception of other levels of creation.
Even at the present advanced state of science, apart from its action on the body, we cannot, by any means whatsoever, perceive mind or consciousness in a living creature, as a tangible reality, visible to the eye or to the most delicate instrument devised so far. From this constantly observed fact, it should be easy to infer that it is equally impossible to perceive, by any means, the all-pervading Ocean of Consciousness and Intelligence, present as an invisible medium in every part of the universe, and in every atom and molecule of matter of which it is composed.
It is unfortunate that a fact, observed and understood more than three thousand years ago, should be lost on those savants who reject consciousness as a subject beyond the scope of science. The position has been anticipated by the enlightened and the answer provided. "How can we know the Knower, how can we hear the Hearer, how can we see the Seer, how can we smell the Smeller . . ." sang the Upanishads, at least a thousand years before the birth of Christ. In fact, how can we apprehend and study the intangible principle which, acting as the observing mirror in us, reflects the visible universe with all its numberless constituents, perceptible to our senses or conceived by our intellect? To hold that a marvelous stuff, like mind, is purely the product of neuronic activity in the brain, is to stick to an absurdity which has perhaps no parallel. As Plotinus put it, it is a fallacy to suppose that awareness can be born out of insentience.
The tragedy is that, even at this stage of advancement, scholars have only a rudimentary knowledge about neuronic activity. The structure of the brain is so elaborate and complex that it has to be treated as a universe in itself. Every neuron of the brain is connected with other neurons by means of hundreds of microscopic fibrils, and the whole marvelous structure has a possibility of combinations and permutations which exceeds the number of atoms in the universe. Neurons are the smallest working units of the brain. They possess incredible powers. When stimulated they discharge fusillades of tiny electrochemical pulsations whose shifting patterns, in a mysterious way, find expression in our fields of consciousness. To believe that such a staggering instrument of observation and thought could be developed and perfected by a blind force, i.e. matter, is to hurl an insult at intelligence itself.
The last picture of the extremely complex mechanism of the brain, the most organized lump of matter in the universe, presented by neuroscientists, will remain only a picture without explaining Mind which creates it. Here we are at the last frontier intellect can reach. "It now seems highly plausible," says Keith Floyd, "that the 'seat of consciousness' will never be found by a neurosurgeon, because it appears to involve not so much an organ or organs, but the interaction of the energy fields within the brain. These patterns of energy would be disrupted by surgical intervention, and have long since disappeared in cadavers. Neuro-physiologists will not likely find what they are looking for outside their own consciousness." 2
Human consciousness will remain inaccessible to observation except through the methods advocated by Yoga. From the mind-body dualism, an essential feature of our very existence, we have failed to draw the conclusion that there has to be duality in their methods of observation also and that the methods of one cannot be applied to the other. The subjective and objective worlds, in our normal state of cognition, lie distinctly apart, constituting the duality which, from ancient times, has been classed as the 'Knower' and the 'Known'. The pool of consciousness we name as the 'Knower' has an extremely complex and marvelous territory of its own.
It is now an accepted premise that emotions like anger, grief, passion, hate, joy, excitement, and the like, have no existence in matter or the objective world, but are a property of life itself. There might be physical or physiological factors to cause these emotions, but the effect is a construction of consciousness itself. In the same way colors, sounds, smells, tastes, shape, form, figure, time, and distance are the fabrications of mind. All that we know, still very imperfectly, is that certain peculiar states or conditions in the energy fields, we call matter, give rise to these events, images, and ideas in consciousness.
Any intelligent human being, well-informed about the latest advances in science, when reflecting on mind, cannot but come to the conclusion that we have in it an element of creation entirely different from the physical universe of which it is the mirror and the receptacle.
We often fail to notice the wonder of consciousness, the wonder of our being, as the Knowers, or the wonder of the multiple power of observation which we possess, because we are accustomed to take our existence for granted and seldom care to reflect on it. On the other hand, we are thrilled, astonished or amazed when we come across a wonder-exciting phenomenon of the objective world. The sight of a grand spectacle of nature, as for instance of a cascading waterfall, a storm-swept sea or a panorama viewed from the top of a mountain, not unoften creates a sense of awe and wonder which thrills a susceptible onlooker to the core.
But do we ever stop to think that this thrilling joy, wonder or amazement does not reside in the scene or in the elements behind the scene, but in our own self-that is, in the 'Knower'? The present world is almost dead to the most wondrous plane of creation, namely, the plane of mind and consciousness which does not, in reality, consist of separate points of awareness, thought and observation, in the form of individuals and persons, but is one stupendous Ocean of Intelligence, spread everywhere, of which each individual is an infinitesimally small drop. The wonder of Yoga lies in that it is the only way by which this tiny droplet can become cognizant of the boundless ocean which acts as the 'Knower' in every form of life from the most lowly creature to man himself.
We never stop to think that we are the universe which overawes us with its complexity and size. Seldom do we know that we are the lovely landscape before our eyes, the dulcet music that we hear, the delicious fragrance that we smell, the tasty dish that we eat, the soft, voluptuous body that we caress in the transport of love. A body stricken dead by a sudden total failure of the heart or a damage to the brain, with all its sensory organs intact and whole, while still flooded with impressions from the outside world, now lacks the ponderous element that interpreted those impressions to create the marvelous world of our thought and imagination, the world of desire, passion, anger, joy, beauty, and the thrill of love. It is for this reason I say that we miss the wonder of consciousness, as we lavish all our care and attention on the 'Known' and not the 'Knower' which creates it from the diffused, unaesthetic energy fields that make up the Universe.
The testimony of hundreds of sages, seers, and mystics, born in different countries and different periods of time, brought face to face with this inner marvel, provides unshakable evidence for what I say. "I am the Vedic ritual," says Krishna (Universal Consciousness) in the Bhagavad Gita. "I am the sacrifice, I am the offering to the departed, I am the herbage, I am the sacred formula, I am the clarified butter, I am the sacred fire and 1 am verily the act of offering oblations and the sacrificial act . . . I am the sustainer and ruler of this universe, its father, mother and grandfather, the Knowable, the purifier, the sacred syllable Om and the three Vedas-Rig, Yajur and Sama . . ."
Toward the end of his discourse, Krishna explains the surpassing nature of consciousness in these words: "The Lord dwells in the heart of all beings, O Arjuna, by His illusive Power causing all beings to revolve, as though mounted on a potter's wheel." The importance of the teaching is lost on the world because an expression of this nature is treated either as an act of Divine favor or a state peculiar to yogis and mystics having little relevance to the common man or woman. But what would be the impact when it is demonstrated that every human brain is being pushed up from within to reach this marvelous state of perception which brings meaning and homogeneity to the cosmic scene? The spark of divine fire which knows, hears, sees, thinks, and plans is the wonder of wonders and the secret of secrets of the Universe. The herculean discipline of Yoga is designed to explore the stupendous mystery of man himself and to experience the wonder of the 'Knower' in him face to face.
In spite of the fact that millions of people have deep faith in religion, and millions more practice spiritual disciplines in one form or the other, the misfortune of our age is that almost all of our activity and thinking is directed towards the outer world. Except for a few notable exceptions, does any man-made institution of today, devoted to education, politics, science, literature or social issues recognize the basic fact that the study and exploration of this mysterious inner world is as necessary for human welfare and progress as that of the outer one? How can the advance of Knowledge of all these subjects be conducive to harmony and a balanced view of creation when the 'Knower' is basically ignorant about himself? Humanity, as a whole, is completely extroverted and one-sided in its approach not only to the riddle of existence but also to the solution of its everyday problems of survival and its efforts to create happiness and fulfillment for the species. The present-day world is in a precarious state of imbalance, in danger of destruction by self-created monsters, because of pronounced partiality for material well-being at the cost of the even more important inner harmony.
Yoga, or by whatsoever name the discipline comes to be called, provides the only key to open the door that bars our passage to the marvelous universe of consciousness. The 'wonder' which mirrors the universe and serves as the repository for all our knowledge and art, of our emotions, passions and thoughts cannot be approached by extroverted application of our senses, but only by introspection which turns the attention of the mind on itself. This is what Krishna means when he addresses Arjuna with these words at the end: "Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, worship Me, bow to Me, and in this way shall you doubtlessly attain to Me. This I truly promise you for you are very dear to Me."
The advice of Krishna is designed to draw the attention of the devotee from the external to the inner world, for the Lord, the intangible and ineffable 'Knower', the wonder of creation, resides in us. The crude material instruments of science, however delicate, precise, and sensitive they might be, cannot reach this holy of holies, this Knowing principle which, lying disguised in the brains of the savants, is himself their inventor, designer and architect. It is not material science, but a loftier discipline that alone can hope to explore this most mysterious inner universe. Present-day Yoga, cultivated with love, dedication and reverential care would slowly flower into the new Super-Science of consciousness, the guiding light of mankind in the near future, for it is only this Sovereign knowledge that can harmonize the present imbalance and ensure a more judicious and disciplined use of the products of exuberant technology.
Written by: Gopi Krishna
THE WAY TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE
Preface
This book is from the Super-Mind
A fast dictated gift sublime,
The Message it contains will find
Full confirmation in due time.
This well-observed phenomenon,
So new to modern intellect,
Has been exhibited, off and on,
In varied tongue and dialect,
Right from the old Egyptian times,
By many a richly gifted mind,
Of which the evidence in some climes,
One can in holy scriptures find.
The current theories, which ascribe
This outflow to the unconscious mind,
Are pure concoctions of a tribe
Of scientists that cannot find
The right solution in their texts,
Or in what their elite have writ,
Who, too, belong to diverse sects,
Each one depending on his wit
Which, in the vast domain of mind,
Is like a pin lost in a stack
Of hay, impossible to find,
When one in search has turned his back
Towards the huge, offending pile,
As Knowledge has turned his to God,
To please himself but for a while,
Intensely searching clay and sod.
The top psychologists whose fame
Still high in learned circles lives,
Are not entirely free of blame
For giving currency to views
About religion, God and soul,
Which are completely off the track,
As far from Truth as the South Pole
Is from the North, and some e'en smack
Of fabrication with a view
To enhance their prestige and their fame,
A subterfuge which is not new,
But in a holy cause, a shame.
The Almighty Power that rules this All
Is neither male nor female nor
Androgynous, and that we call
By names we have a liking for.
Our life can't be a simmering broth,
Where true and false conjointly live,
But there must be a purer Path
From which we Soul's estate can view.
The self-awareness of the soul,
To know her own divinity
Denotes the purpose and the goal
Of human life, as it should be.
That is why holy scriptures grip
So hard the normal human mind,
More than the love of scholarship,
And firmly to religion bind.
Mankind is passing through the age
Of dreams come true of scientists,
And with their gifts has set the stage
Now for the rule of nuclear fists.
What mental plagues will be her share,
If this accursed, infernal race,
With more and more destructive ware,
Continues at a faster pace,
Unless kind nature takes the stand
To make the hotheads see the light,
And comes down with a heavy hand
To bring to dust their vaunted might.
The arsenals built by the urge
To power, by lust, ambition, greed,
Nature will soon use as the purge
To cure these current ills with speed.
This awful Drama shall reveal
How marvelously nature works,
And how in all with which we deal,
Her hand behind the curtain lurks.
This gifted book will leave no doubt
That all we do is preordained,
And knowledge of what comes about,
Before it happens can be gained.
Ambition, passion, lust, desire,
Each impulse, urge or appetite,
Which move, propel or set on fire
Or fill with pain, grief or delight
The mind, must be judiciously
Brought under the control of man,
To help him climb courageously
The height prescribed in nature's Plan.
The bounden duty, in this fight,
Of every parent is to grow
In nobleness and moral height,
Their seeds in every child to sow.
The view of some psychologists
To give a more loose rein to sex
Is poison, and one must resist
Excess, ere it the system wrecks.
The ignorance, just at this stage,
Of this one, all-important Law,
When humankind has come of age
To end the rule of tooth and claw,
Can prove disastrous for the race
And has already done much harm.
That is why she will soon retrace
Her steps back to the field and farm;
And start the steep ascent to reach
The Kingdom nature has ordained,
One which religion came to preach,
When she self-mastery has gained.
Knowledge, entirely in the dark,
About this Crown of human life,
Must soon a new course embark
To clear the erroneous notions rife.
Hence this inspired direction came
To guide humanity aright,
As Dogma has made knowledge lame,
Bias and Hubris weak in sight,
So he cannot discern the Path,
Which nature for Man has aligned.
His cooks too many spoil the broth,
More so, when some are lame, some blind.
That is why Revelations come
To set the wrongs of Knowledge right,
To muffle his loud beating drum,
And bring his faults and fibs to light.
No poet, scholar, scientist
This Wonder-book can duplicate,
Or its innate appeal resist,
As Truth must triumph soon or late.
'Tis come to herald the New Age,
For which some people fondness show.
Like parrots talking in a cage,
What "New Age" means they do not know.
This Book is aimed to make it clear
That the existing two pursuits
Of wealth and power we must forswear,
As both are hence forbidden fruits;
And mankind must begin the ascent,
Free of the faults that block her way,
To reach the glowing firmament
Of Life-Divine without delay.
A new World-Order must emerge
That has no room for rivalry,
Where all attention would converge
On friendship, love and harmony.
Where every human flower must
Receive the thought and care it needs
To bloom divinely, in full trust,
That there are no encroaching weeds.
One can imagine it must be
A comic spectacle for gods
Our proud, intelligent selves to see
Stooping to tricks, deceptions, frauds
To o'ertake or outpace a mate,
A stranger, neighbor, kith or kin
And leave, what we accumulate,
Behind, when bade to quit the bin;
While in us there is, all along,
The Spark which, with a little care,
Can change this life into a song
Of heavenly music all can share.
But we discredit or ignore,
Or for mere trifles sacrifice
This deathless Treasure, evermore,
Which grows in beauty and in price.
There might be many who will try
To pick some hole or find some fault
In this book, but in vain their cry,
As coming storms the attacks will halt.
The more discerning will forbear
From making comments, till the time
When patent signs can make it clear
How far prophetic is this rhyme.
This heaven-sent verse will be excelled
By future Seers, on their Rebirth,
Whose mighty visions might be spelled
In all main languages of the earth.
Written by: Gopi Krishna
THE PRESENT CRISIS
All those who fight against this awful doom
Have firm religious sanction on their side;
They will be glorified in both the worlds,
This and the next, their conscience clear and bright,
Their triumph: mastery of lower self,
And freeing mankind from the Devil's hold.
Although resourceless, they will be recalled
With honor, love and tears by grateful crowds,
Their names engraved for e'er on loyal hearts
They rescued from the open jaws of death,
By their heroic acts, done at the risk
Of disappointing their pugnacious friends,
Who burn to kindle soon the fires of war.
The Present Crisis, Page 105
This hideous war is now approaching fast,
Beyond the power of man to avert the blow.
Already the monster hovers o'er the site
Which at the appointed hour the Fire will light.
0, ye encrowned elite of every state,
Tone down your fervor and slow down your pace;
Let not your own descendants take your name
With horror and abhorrence for the pain
And agony that will fall to their lot,
By your impatience, lack of wisdom or
Your want of insight to foresee the end.
For Heaven's sake, retrace your steps before
It is too late, reduce your pressure and
Soften your tone, relax the tense state of
Your mind, slow down the preparations for
A war, abandon fast the nuclear race!
The Present Crisis, Page 102 - 103
For Heaven's sake, O, ye much-honored chiefs,
Ye brilliant penmen and ye great elite
Of every clime and country on the earth,
Forbear, and let not your ambitious plans
For more dominion, prestige, markets, wealth,
Resources, domination or revenge,
Pervert your thinking and subvert your will,
And losing sight of what a war would cost,
When fought with nuclear engines, pray restrain
Your ardor and in calmer moments ask
Yourself: How can you gain your cherished ends
If, only after a few hours of fight
With missiles, earth would be a wilderness,
And all that on which you now build your plans
Dissolve into air, like a vanished dream,
And you will find yourself, if still alive,
The monarch of the waste surrounding you!
The Present Crisis, Page 133
The Present Crisis -- Chapter X
The Only Sure and Honorable Way Out
How would the law adjudge the acts of one
Who proves a traitor to his motherland,
Deceives the nation, sells her to a foe,
Imposes on her and betrays her trust,
Tells vital secrets to her enemies,
Dishonours her in the eyes of the world,
And by these actions does her grievous harm.
He braves the anger of his country-folk, Draws on himself their insults and abuse, Disgrace and condemnation for his crime; Aware they would despise and hate his name, And, if in their grip, would demand his life, To avenge the serious wrong he did to them.
He knows all this when he commits the sin, Driven to it by burning thirst for gold, Or high position or possession or His passion for a charmer whom he loves, Who lured him from his nation and his home And made him face the tempest for her sake.
If we conceive Faith as our native land, The soil on which we were brought up and bred, With God as Sovereign Ruler, Heaven as home, And heavenly beings as compatriots, Which is the true position, if we trust The gospels of our creed, declaring that We are the children of a heavenly Sire, With angels, cherubim and devas as Our close companions, dwellers on the land To which, in solemn truth, we all belong- The land of seraphs and immortal orbs Of life-divine, who drest in clay descend To earth to play their parts, allotted by The Sire, in keeping with Celestial Laws, Beyond our ken, as girt by walls of clay, We lose touch with the customs of our land And need, to win back our divine estate, Continued effort to unearth the Key.
O, ye Believers in Religion and The Truths which it upholds for common good, How can we justify our lack of faith When we shut from the mind our pure descent, Our high position as Empyrean-born, Our tall imperial stature as a Soul, Above the good and evil of the earth, Above its opulence and poverty, Above its storm and stress, dispute and strife, Above its squalor, dirt, refuse and filth, Above all that disturbs us in the least, Or acts against our native state of bliss That reigns supreme in our celestial home, Above the din and noise, disease and pain, Despair and hope, distress and fleeting joy, Which make up, for a while, our worldly life?
Why have we given up this gold to waste The Time allowed to us by waiting death, In heaping litter and in hoarding trash, Which, when beyond our need, are valueless And only satisfy a morbid itch For show and grandeur, boundless power or wealth, Or mad desire for all-devouring love, Which all end in frustration or remorse Or vain regrets, when with decaying health And bent with age, we ponder o'er the past?
There can be no two views about the fact That we cannot be loyal to our faith, If we discredit its accepted truths, Or fail to act upon the injunctions laid To discipline our lives in keeping with Its tenets and beliefs held all along. We must behave, if loyal to our creed, Which tells us that we have a deathless soul, In ways which do not savour of pretence Of guile or false belief to save our face, And must work diligently all our life To gain the Kingdom of Heaven, Nirvana Or Paradise or Brahman, as the Peak For which we have to strive, with all our strength, And how: This too is clearly underlined In Sermon on the Mount, Commandments Ten, The Gita, Dhammapada or Quran And scriptures of the other holy faiths.
How can we class a mortal who is loud In his avowal of a holy faith, But does the opposite of what she says, Calls God his Father or Creator or By what-so-e'er relationship he likes; But by his acts belies the love professed; Accepts that his soul is immortal and That Gospels hold inspired commands of God, Or of his incarnation, or of One Among the highest of enlightened Souls, Or of a Prophet with a Message from The Lord to show the right way to the fold; But far from acting on the precepts taught Does the reverse, obeys the cannons laid By breaking each and every one of them, Invokes the Grace of God for help in need, And then repays it with ingratitude; Except in lip-deep worship, prayer, rites, Ignores the Gospels as if of no worth; A fibster, outwardly who owns a creed With lips, but soon disowns it with his deeds; A crime worse than unmasked apostasy. How far do we obey the tenets of Our faith, how far act on the word of God, Can be assessed by our aversion to A simple, humble life of peace and truth, Compassion, love for neighbour, charity, Subdued ambition, passion, lust, desire, Downgraded anger, hate and violence: A life attuned to God and His image pure Of what is good and noble in the world. But what will we find, if we try to probe How far our life is modelled on our Faith; How far we reach the ideals carved by her, How far we carry out the Will of God? If we are lax, what do we merit for Our gross intransigence 'gainst the laws, Against what is ambrosia for the soul, Whom we drag in the mud of our desire; Against what can attest our love of God Against all that we must uphold as right If we admit we have a soul to save, To prove we are above unthinking beasts, And have a Crown of wit upon our head?
But if we fail in this emergent task And act contrarily, then are we not As good as traitors to our native soil, Seduced from duty by the very same Alluring chattels which entice one who Betrays his country for some tempting bait? Is it surprising then that Man is faced With a threat to his whole community?
The menace, too, does not descend from heaven But is our own creation, for it is Born of our own intelligence and wit, Which are the prompters, too, of our revolt. And so our treason 'gainst our native land In dire calamity might soon recoil. 'Tis our superb intelligence that won For us the richest empire on the earth, But now an outlaw for her grave defiance Is waiting for the Rod to set her right.
Do you think in the preparations made For war the Powers-that-be can have no hand, And that the nuclear weapons, forged by us, Have not their concurrence and active help? Have you e'er pondered o'er the issue that The Omnipresent and Omniscient God Can ne'er be ignorant of what we do, Nor can we act against His edicts nor Can aught materialize against His Will?
So, if a true believer, one cannot Refuse to own that we are face to face With that phenomenon which ancients called The "Wrath of Heaven," descending on the earth, To put insurgent Man back on the Path. And so the weapons, piled up fast, provide The scourge, devised by human wit, to whip Herself to sanity, with awful pain, Out of her drunken state of arrogance.
The plea that progress in technology Confers on those who can prepare the stuff The right to use atomic armaments Is as untenable as the logic that One who invents a new machinegun can Employ it lawfully in a roadside fray To win more honour from his neighbours, or A larger portion from the market stock, Or a predominant position in The neighbourhood with greater right to grab Whate'er he chooses for the reason that He is more powerful, richer, more advanced, And has a new machinegun in his hand!
Or if a man discovers a new way Of dalliance with women he should be Allowed to show his skill in public parks Before the eager eyes of hungry crowds! Or let a student who invents a bomb Which, using only air, can kill a crowd, Can deploy the new device, when in class, To cow down teachers, frighten other boys, Or rob the school of books and magazines, And, when restrained, explode in self-defence To blast the offending kids, as their restraint Would mean infringement of his right to do Whate'er he likes with this new wonder of His more enhanced skill in technology.
The truth is that a vile, infernal stuff, Prepared in secrecy by clever brains, By wrongly using their great intellects, Howe'er high in repute they might have been, Howe'er high their attainments and their skill, To be used by their nation which, without Regard to principles of justice, truth And fair play, laws of ethics, human rights, Divine Commandments and the rules of war, Employed it for revenge on innocents. To exact the penalty imposed for such A wild defiance of Celestial Law, The stuff-assuming now the awful form Of an infernal Monster-is about To pounce upon the guilty intellect, And hovers close to every spot on earth The ends of heavenly justice soon to serve. A Dragon reared up by man with his wit, To inflict due punishment for guilty acts Of his own and to learn a lesson which He shall recall with awe for centuries.
The wonder is how all the world is dead To so gross a denial of the rights Of other nations, threatened by the blasts, Though not a party to the deadly feud, Who run the risk of radiation, death, Pollution, famine, dearth, disruption, loss And e'en a direct hit with missiles, when The war is at its height, and palsied hands, Inert with horror at the ghastly sights, Mis-aim the monsters to unchosen sites. Who will then pay the damage done as none Out of the parties may survive the clash, Or be in a position to make good The loss inflicted on a neutral land, Which is inevitable in a war With nuclear engines of the latest type?
This raises issues how on moral grounds, And how, while advocating human rights, A nation can deploy a weapon so Uncertain and unmanageable that It can cause grievous harm to distant soils, And wreck and ruin them beyond repair, Can damage and disrupt contiguous lands, In no respect connected with the war, With fallout and contamination of The native elements essential for The existence and survival of their life?
How can we justify a weapon which Can prove as lethal for noncombatants As for belligerents? Where is the law Or e'en convention which permits a state, Wittingly or unwittingly, to blast A neutral land, with irreparable loss Of life and property to its unarmed And guiltless folk? How can a foul device, That has this possibility, be used By nations proud of their traditions for Uprightness, freedom, justice, rule of law, And human feeling shown for all the race? How can they reconcile the two, O God? How can they reconcile their word and deed?
It is beyond the slightest shade of doubt That, judged by any standard, e'en of war, The use of nuclear weapons is a crime Against both man and God, and all upheld As Right by law and world religions both. No arguments or logic can defend What will be undefendable to the end. 'Tis but a waste of time and energy To whitewash what is but a heinous crime. How odd that this egregious sin is made A subject of debate, when it would meet Only contempt and condemnation from The law-abiding nine-tenths of the race.
The nuclear nations know it too well that Their lives will be in gravest danger, when Atomic weapons are employed, and hence Those well informed about this menace try Their best to end the overhanging threat, To save their own dear lives, well knowing that They may cause e'en more damage to their land Than to that of the distant enemy, For no one can predict whose aim will be More true, or favoured more by chance, to hit The most strategic sites on either side.
We know these foul contraptions have not been Accepted e'en by all the people of The nuclear nations, and but one exchange Of fire might cause upheavals that may force The ones in power to quit or end the war. Those who are counting on the nuclear arm For their ascendancy, survival or Subdual of the foe live in the land Of dreamers, and will be the first to reap The fruit of their revolt against the Law, By paying forfeit with their robes and gowns; For such a murderous frenzy will soon grip The crowds that they will stop at nothing, and, May rise in mad rebellion 'gainst the few In power who will be out-and-out for war To end at once the diabolic fray.
How does the conscience of the leading ranks Of these ascendant lands remain unpricked, When they know that their own compatriots Live with a dread sword hanging o'er their heads; That pregnant mothers, crowing babies and The toiling crowds of simple, honest folk, Who bide contented with the tithe they have, Delighted to be moving and alive, Will all be instantly hurled into hell, For no fault on their part, no sin, no wrong, No action done to merit such an end, Save that of cheering loud the ruling teams Whene'er they chanced to pass their way or, when They saw them in a gala function held To listen to the words they had to say- Without least knowledge of their hid designs Or actions or what they intend to do- A state of trust unparalleled on earth, But often from one side alone, returned But seldom by the other and, sometimes, Repaid with treachery by those adored?
If all the world upholds this kind of war, This murder from a distance of the folk Of hostile lands, in millions at a time, Unarmed, defenceless women, children, men- That does not mean 'tis not a heinous crime.
If all the world upholds a way of life Which contravenes the gospels of a faith, And acts conversely to the precepts taught, Or revels in defying all the rules, That does not mean adherents of that creed Are right in their behaviour, in the least, Or true to their profession or belief.
If all the world upholds ideals which Confer equality on one and all, With liberty and brotherhood to add, And then to enforce these high ideals puts To sword and into concentration camps, For grinding labour with frostbitten hands, Millions of victims in dark secrecy, It does not mean that what is done is right And that the principles professed are sound.
This is what ails the clever mind today, 'Tis dead to its transgressions all the time; It ne'er perceives the ugly, darker side Of its behaviour or its thought and act, And, as one pets a sweetheart, hugs its faults, Condones its errors, justifies mistakes, Excuses misdemeanours, waives off sins, By self-deceit keeps merry all the time, Dwells on but its good traits, ignores the bad, Which, when remembered, might its conscience prick, And thus, oblivious to its own defects, Which one must keep before one's eye to mend, With slow erosion of the moral side, Has made embellished lie a passable norm Of man's behaviour in his business deals- A practice which, condemned by every faith, Is honey to sophisticated minds.
The outcome is that of the leading brains The bulk delights in what it thinks or does And often views an action, e'en if wrong, In the light of its broader interests; Or of the high position which it holds, Judging them not by the criteria laid, Nor by some standard fixed for what is right, But by its interests, objectives, aims, Or nature of the expediency- An egotistic and narcissistic mind, Which firm believes 'tis always in the right And salves its conscience with the logic that This was the only course it could pursue; In that position all would do the same; That was how it could best its country serve, Its firm or office or its interest, Casting morality in diverse molds, Like wax, to make it suit its ends and aims.
Since moral values are essential for Mankind's survival in the atomic age, It would be virtual suicide to break The wall that stands between us and sure death. 'Tis for this reason that the actions done By leading minds in all academies, In trade, in politics, professions, arts Or in the media-the leading wit And skill in every sphere of human life- Unless restrained by strict adherence to The Moral Laws would jeopardise the race. The present crisis is a warning sign From heaven, reminding us to change our ways; But since we are bedazzled by the glow Of our achievements in the earthly fields, There is a common error that we can Defy the moral laws that rule our lives, A fatal blunder at the very base Of dangers which now stare us in the face.
A full-blown nuclear war is suicide, A mad itch for self-immolation done To meet some foul distemper of the mind, For sanity can ne'er become so mad To walk into the jaws of death at choice.
Those who display a lack of sense to see The present hideous conflict in this light Betray a deadness of the instinct for Self-preservation, the primordial urge On which survival of the race depends.
A half-way nuclear war is out of count, For once the Demon of Hate is at large, And the exchange of nuclear missiles starts, With capitals as the first targets hit, Who will retain the sanity of mind To call a halt to the exploding bombs! For there will not be one but many states Involved in this infernal give and take, With wounded, dying and dead everywhere, The country in a shambles, transport and Communication wrecked, the leaders out Of wits, a thousand problems on their mind; The people in the grip of mortal fear, Running in panic, dead to everything Save how to flee from the pursuing flames; A wild stampede, more than frantic rush, In which the weaker would be crushed to death; Who will maintain his balance, keep his wits In these macabre, mind-unhinging scenes, Unfolding with the speed of lightning and Beyond the power of man to handle now?
Those who complacently talk of this threat Which can make earth a fuming hell in space, While lolling in their chairs, with pen in hand, Smoking, as if they are the lords of earth, Looking so calm and undisturbed, the while They speak on this unspeakable curse of war, Treating atomic fights, too, as routine, Howe'er accomplished, are a hopeless prey To that abnormal state of intellect, Which barren of compassion and the power To place herself in the shoes of the crowds That will fall victims to the awful blasts, And form the objects of those grisly scenes, They, like the colour-blind who have no sense Of colour, fail to assess the pain involved- A common failing of conceited minds, Which all their life think only of themselves, Against injunctions laid by every faith To think of others in one's prayers and To exercise compassion off and on. For sans this love of neighbour and the thought Of poor and helpless in one's daily life, The mind becomes too self-indulgent to Think kindly and humanely of the world- The type of mind neglect of faith has bred.
The mighty heads of states, on whom devolves The great responsibility of our time To avert the threatened holocaust, should not Bend low to listen to the phobic lot, Who ne'er can taste the bitterness of that Which they propose unless themselves hit hard. The only potent method to resolve This hard dilemma is to moderate The heat, stop adding fuel to the fire, And slowly bring to a halt the weapon race, Convene effective meetings of the states Which stand up stoutly for a peaceful world, Ban weapon sales to needy lands for gain, For you thus arm yourself potential foes, Nor e'en supply them free to your allies; Reduce production of this ware until The curse of war is lifted from the earth.
Key up the U.N.O. to push this cause, Alert the people of all lands and climes About the dangers of a nuclear war, In duty bound, as you first should have done Before embarking on this fatal course. Enlist their full support in this campaign, Their cry will be resistless and shall win E'en in the lands where their voice is suppressed.
Begin discussions with the foe to evolve A formula for coexistence in A climate of peace, friendship, love and trust, And draw up soon a mutual agreement, With fullest safeguards set for either side, Each bound to observe for e'er the solemn pact, Each bound to honour and respect those who Are parties to this holy covenant.
This is the only dignified way out, The only sure and honourable course, Which, with pure efforts and the Grace of God, Can grant humanity a further lease Of life to win the glorious prize ordained To crown her hard millennial toil on earth. Do not forget when in fear of this war That Hope is ne'er away from human hearts, And blank despair is ne'er the only course For those beleaguered by an adverse Fate, As Grace of God is always near at hand To fill the darkest day with bright sunshine.
Gopi Krishna
April 13, 1981
THE SHAPE OF EVENTS TO COME
The 1968 Edition was a 44 page boklet in three chapters. In 1979, Gopi Krishna added more verses (chapters 4-6), and at the end, an 11 page chapter entitled "Conclusion" (pages 105-115). The stanza on page 110, reproduced below, is of special significance as we enter the new millenium:
Next two eventful decades will unfold,
An awe-inspiring Drama, staged by Fate,
To end the present order, as foretold,
With fires of war lit by greed, power-lust, hate
PREFACE
(i)
The future happenings, already a part
Of one Eternal Present, with no end,
No ceaseless movement of time and no start,
On those the illusive veil of thought can rend,
Cast their reflection, when the shadows part,
As each succeeding lightning flash reveals
The changed position of a moving cart,
But not the regular motion of its wheels.
And these projections from a subtle plane
Of life, an unconditioned Realm Sublime,
Upon the time-conditioned mortal brain
Become a picture clothed in space and time.
So utterly amazing and unique
Is this experience of immersion in
The Void of Future that when at the peak,
The mortal, cut off from the noise and din
Of earth, is lost in wonder at the sight,
Which now unfolds before his inward eye,
A world of mystery aglow with light,
Impenetrating both the earth and sky;
Across which, shadowed on a glowing screen,
Ethereal portraits in a luminous dress,
With all the context of a future scene,
In rapid flashes whole events express.
But only to the extent as is allowed,
To him to see and hear by Grace Divine,
For Laws Celestial ev'n in those endowed
With this rare gift, prescribe the boundary line.
What is vouchsafed to me whenev'r I brood
On destiny, in a devotional mood,
I honestly and faithfully record,
Treating it as a Mandate from the Lord.
But in these fleeting glimpses of the scenes
Of future, when those who now in their teens
Will have grown mature, I see filled with awe
The operation of a Mighty Law,
Which we are flouting now to purchase ease
And comfort for the flesh, that has to cease.
For man, evolving slowly to reach God,
Cannot make flesh his only measuring rod,
And leave the Soul to take care of itself
The while he runs mad after power and pelf.
I but repeat what all religious creeds
Had once enjoined to regulate the deeds
Of mortals, who averse to leave their hold
On pleasures of the flesh, on power and gold,
Commit the same mistakes time and again,
Not knowing that they harm the evolving brain,
Thus forcing nature, to avert decay,
To use coercive measures in some way.
What I see sometimes in the lucid mood
Provides for my digestion heavy food,
For I see pain and suffering, deaths and loss,
Soul-harrowing scenes of woe before I cross
The boundary of the present century,
And there an all united mankind see,
Trying to steer clear of our vices, firm
On virtues, building for a glorious term
Of peace and happiness with faith devout
In Godhead, cured of disbelief and doubt.
These are the visions, which from time to time
I see in wakefulness and write in rhyme,
For both the vision and what I record
Come synchronously by the Grace of God.*
Unbidden nothing happens, not a leaf
Can stir, nor man act nor taste joy and grief.
So what I see when bidden by the Lord
With what is now to happen shall accord.
Gopi Krishna
Srinagar, Kashmir
India
May 1968
Chapter 1
World Wars
A Sign of Obstructed Evolution
(i)
The earth rotating round her axis brings
Our days and nights, the summers and the springs,
The falls and winters, verdure, flowers and fruits,
The mating seasons of the birds and brutes.
And all that makes us happy, dull and sad
Or angry, all that we call good or bad,
As from the earth's revolution streams
The light that gives us life, our hopes and dreams.
It also brings for mortals peace or war,
By spreading love or hatred near and far,
By causing, as in beasts it causes rut,
In men, when their unholy actions shut
The gate of mercy, cravings and desires
That spread from mind to mind like forest fires,
Until enveloped by the sparkling blaze
They fail to see what is before their gaze,
The human caravan, all in a heap,
Into the abyss of war about to leap.
But why, when everything comes from the change
In earth's position, should we think it strange
That our collective steps for peace or war
Are not of our choice, but come from afar;
From cosmic-conscious forces all around
The earth, unseen, mysterious and profound,
Which on our minds a dark reflection cast,
When we transgress or move too slow or fast?
As sun eclipses fill the world with gloom
At intervals, and to the moment last
When, of obstruction free, the sun has room
Again his radiance on the earth to cast,
Collective violations of the law
Of life, by nations, groups or all mankind
Create periodic spells when fear and awe,
Like shadows, settle on the human mind.
They mirror brewing storms upon the plane
Of Cosmic Being heralded by signs,
Which, though unnoticed by a normal brain,
A superconscious sage at once divines.
There are some questions which can well arise
In what I argue, more so from the wise;
For why should nature be so callous, when
Celestial laws are hid from common men,
As to apply the rod or use the knout
For e'en such faults we know nothing about?
Has e'en Almighty God a morbid thirst
For causing pain, when shackled mortals burst
Their bonds to have full liberty to taste
The pleasures He devised, lest they go to waste?
Why was not man cast in a nobler mold,
That lust would not have on him such a hold
As to neglect the duty owed to God,
And so obliging Him to use the rod?
These questions are the outcome of a lack
Of knowledge of the evolutionary track,
Of ignorance about the patent fact
That universe is not a lawless tract,
That ev'n the earth herself is strictly bound
By laws, complaisant turning round and round,
And so how can her dust, from which man springs,
Be unsubmissive to the King of Kings?
The very texture of the earth, her air
Or water and the sun, which mankind rear,
Are so imbued with law that questions such
As these the bottom of unwisdom touch.
The commonly accepted modern view
Of science, that man grew up from the beast,
Nor wholly Western nor entirely new,
Has long been in existence in the East,
More so in India where it forms the ground
For karmic doctrines and the ceaseless round
Of births and deaths for the embodied soul
Until it merges with the cosmic whole.
According to this view, it is the soul
And not the gross, corporeal appendage
In man which, to achieve a higher goal,
Through epochs worked its way up stage by stage,
Attaining, after changing many shapes
Of lowly creatures, reasonless and mute,
A form akin to that of man-like apes
And then of man, intelligent and astute.
Now this progressive growth of humankind,
Be it on Eastern or on Western lines,
It should be patent to the simplest mind
Cannot but act within some set confines,
And not unlawfully in a law-bound whole,
Where every atom plays a given part
And every sun performs a chosen role,
Not once attempting nature's will to thwart.
What vanity or lack of wisdom drives
The guiding spirits of this age to doubt
The fact that laws celestial rule the lives
Of men and cannot be infringed without
Incurring penalties that must be paid
For individual or collective breach,
In strict accordance with the canons laid
For our collective crimes or sins of each?
Unseen devices in the brain record
And judge the thoughts and acts of mortal men,
And every single act brings its reward
In time, without revealing where and when.
It is presumptuous on our part to think
That our self-conscious being is not bound,
When physical bonds intricately link
Our flesh to all the natural forces round.
Our mind and flesh connected from the day
When first the pulse of life stirs in the womb,
Without the slightest hitch obey the sway
Of one another almost to the tomb.
How in this body-mind compound can one
Only, out of the two, be bound by laws,
And the other with unchartered freedom run
Wherev'r it some alluring object draws?
The fact is, baffled by the mystery
Of life and not allowed to look behind
The veil of senses, mortals fail to see
That no less rigid laws control the mind;
That mankind destined for a lofty height,
A god-like stature, still out of her sight,
Must learn to obey the signs which nature makes
And follow them in what she undertakes;
As does a child, till it grows up to learn
Much more about itself, to work and earn.
Next two eventful decades will unfold,
An awe-inspiring Drama, staged by Fate,
To end the present order, as foretold,
With fires of war lit by greed, power-lust, hate
PREFACE
(i)
The future happenings, already a part
Of one Eternal Present, with no end,
No ceaseless movement of time and no start,
On those the illusive veil of thought can rend,
Cast their reflection, when the shadows part,
As each succeeding lightning flash reveals
The changed position of a moving cart,
But not the regular motion of its wheels.
And these projections from a subtle plane
Of life, an unconditioned Realm Sublime,
Upon the time-conditioned mortal brain
Become a picture clothed in space and time.
So utterly amazing and unique
Is this experience of immersion in
The Void of Future that when at the peak,
The mortal, cut off from the noise and din
Of earth, is lost in wonder at the sight,
Which now unfolds before his inward eye,
A world of mystery aglow with light,
Impenetrating both the earth and sky;
Across which, shadowed on a glowing screen,
Ethereal portraits in a luminous dress,
With all the context of a future scene,
In rapid flashes whole events express.
But only to the extent as is allowed,
To him to see and hear by Grace Divine,
For Laws Celestial ev'n in those endowed
With this rare gift, prescribe the boundary line.
What is vouchsafed to me whenev'r I brood
On destiny, in a devotional mood,
I honestly and faithfully record,
Treating it as a Mandate from the Lord.
But in these fleeting glimpses of the scenes
Of future, when those who now in their teens
Will have grown mature, I see filled with awe
The operation of a Mighty Law,
Which we are flouting now to purchase ease
And comfort for the flesh, that has to cease.
For man, evolving slowly to reach God,
Cannot make flesh his only measuring rod,
And leave the Soul to take care of itself
The while he runs mad after power and pelf.
I but repeat what all religious creeds
Had once enjoined to regulate the deeds
Of mortals, who averse to leave their hold
On pleasures of the flesh, on power and gold,
Commit the same mistakes time and again,
Not knowing that they harm the evolving brain,
Thus forcing nature, to avert decay,
To use coercive measures in some way.
What I see sometimes in the lucid mood
Provides for my digestion heavy food,
For I see pain and suffering, deaths and loss,
Soul-harrowing scenes of woe before I cross
The boundary of the present century,
And there an all united mankind see,
Trying to steer clear of our vices, firm
On virtues, building for a glorious term
Of peace and happiness with faith devout
In Godhead, cured of disbelief and doubt.
These are the visions, which from time to time
I see in wakefulness and write in rhyme,
For both the vision and what I record
Come synchronously by the Grace of God.*
Unbidden nothing happens, not a leaf
Can stir, nor man act nor taste joy and grief.
So what I see when bidden by the Lord
With what is now to happen shall accord.
Gopi Krishna
Srinagar, Kashmir
India
May 1968
Chapter 1
World Wars
A Sign of Obstructed Evolution
(i)
The earth rotating round her axis brings
Our days and nights, the summers and the springs,
The falls and winters, verdure, flowers and fruits,
The mating seasons of the birds and brutes.
And all that makes us happy, dull and sad
Or angry, all that we call good or bad,
As from the earth's revolution streams
The light that gives us life, our hopes and dreams.
It also brings for mortals peace or war,
By spreading love or hatred near and far,
By causing, as in beasts it causes rut,
In men, when their unholy actions shut
The gate of mercy, cravings and desires
That spread from mind to mind like forest fires,
Until enveloped by the sparkling blaze
They fail to see what is before their gaze,
The human caravan, all in a heap,
Into the abyss of war about to leap.
But why, when everything comes from the change
In earth's position, should we think it strange
That our collective steps for peace or war
Are not of our choice, but come from afar;
From cosmic-conscious forces all around
The earth, unseen, mysterious and profound,
Which on our minds a dark reflection cast,
When we transgress or move too slow or fast?
As sun eclipses fill the world with gloom
At intervals, and to the moment last
When, of obstruction free, the sun has room
Again his radiance on the earth to cast,
Collective violations of the law
Of life, by nations, groups or all mankind
Create periodic spells when fear and awe,
Like shadows, settle on the human mind.
They mirror brewing storms upon the plane
Of Cosmic Being heralded by signs,
Which, though unnoticed by a normal brain,
A superconscious sage at once divines.
There are some questions which can well arise
In what I argue, more so from the wise;
For why should nature be so callous, when
Celestial laws are hid from common men,
As to apply the rod or use the knout
For e'en such faults we know nothing about?
Has e'en Almighty God a morbid thirst
For causing pain, when shackled mortals burst
Their bonds to have full liberty to taste
The pleasures He devised, lest they go to waste?
Why was not man cast in a nobler mold,
That lust would not have on him such a hold
As to neglect the duty owed to God,
And so obliging Him to use the rod?
These questions are the outcome of a lack
Of knowledge of the evolutionary track,
Of ignorance about the patent fact
That universe is not a lawless tract,
That ev'n the earth herself is strictly bound
By laws, complaisant turning round and round,
And so how can her dust, from which man springs,
Be unsubmissive to the King of Kings?
The very texture of the earth, her air
Or water and the sun, which mankind rear,
Are so imbued with law that questions such
As these the bottom of unwisdom touch.
The commonly accepted modern view
Of science, that man grew up from the beast,
Nor wholly Western nor entirely new,
Has long been in existence in the East,
More so in India where it forms the ground
For karmic doctrines and the ceaseless round
Of births and deaths for the embodied soul
Until it merges with the cosmic whole.
According to this view, it is the soul
And not the gross, corporeal appendage
In man which, to achieve a higher goal,
Through epochs worked its way up stage by stage,
Attaining, after changing many shapes
Of lowly creatures, reasonless and mute,
A form akin to that of man-like apes
And then of man, intelligent and astute.
Now this progressive growth of humankind,
Be it on Eastern or on Western lines,
It should be patent to the simplest mind
Cannot but act within some set confines,
And not unlawfully in a law-bound whole,
Where every atom plays a given part
And every sun performs a chosen role,
Not once attempting nature's will to thwart.
What vanity or lack of wisdom drives
The guiding spirits of this age to doubt
The fact that laws celestial rule the lives
Of men and cannot be infringed without
Incurring penalties that must be paid
For individual or collective breach,
In strict accordance with the canons laid
For our collective crimes or sins of each?
Unseen devices in the brain record
And judge the thoughts and acts of mortal men,
And every single act brings its reward
In time, without revealing where and when.
It is presumptuous on our part to think
That our self-conscious being is not bound,
When physical bonds intricately link
Our flesh to all the natural forces round.
Our mind and flesh connected from the day
When first the pulse of life stirs in the womb,
Without the slightest hitch obey the sway
Of one another almost to the tomb.
How in this body-mind compound can one
Only, out of the two, be bound by laws,
And the other with unchartered freedom run
Wherev'r it some alluring object draws?
The fact is, baffled by the mystery
Of life and not allowed to look behind
The veil of senses, mortals fail to see
That no less rigid laws control the mind;
That mankind destined for a lofty height,
A god-like stature, still out of her sight,
Must learn to obey the signs which nature makes
And follow them in what she undertakes;
As does a child, till it grows up to learn
Much more about itself, to work and earn.
(ii)
Is it not strange in this progressive age
That nor the empiricist nor learned sage
Can break the seal of silence and disclose
The object of man's earthly pilgrimage?
What wonder then if hungry millions look
For it in some antique religious book,
And trust implicitly the word of those
Themselves to this uplifting quest betook?
The testaments of these immortal men,
Which neither sword could brush aside nor pen,
Show that the wrath of Heaven descends to check
Defiance of Law by mortals now and then.
The chances are that either they were wrong
Or that material cravings are too strong
For man to overcome, hence it befalls
That punishment awaits the rebel throng.
Undoubtedly impartial jurists sift
The actions which debase us or uplift,
And after judging the ancestral pool
Decree a just reward, delayed or swift.
When deathless laws, we clearly understand,
Rule mighty suns and planets, sea and land,
Could not the wise Creator find one which
Would keep this moving lump of clay in hand?
In all the stormy epochs left behind
Had e'er man such a morbid state of mind
As now, when he has built to win in war
Atrocious weapons that can end his kind?
A ghastly streak no lower form of life
Exhibits e'en when prone to deadly strife,
A clear-cut symptom of perversion which
Remains unnoticed, as it is so rife.
A direct challenge to the Almighty Lord
That if things do not with our wish accord
We shall destroy those He created but
Now sadly lacks the ability to guard!
(iii)
As it is only when impartial time
Before us brings the errors of our prime,
That hoary age develops seasoned views
And gains a knowledge which no learning gives.
There is yet so much for our race to learn,
So much to experience, such a crown to earn,
That all of our philosophies combined
Betoken but an infant's growing mind,
For she is born to reach a godly size
With ups and downs designed to make her wise.
The rising generations of our race,
However young in years to those who grace
The chairs of learning and position now,
When grown gray will know better why and how
Their parents chose, as if compelled by fate,
A deadly path of such malignant hate,
That like a pestilence its fury spread
On earth, to cause such agony and dread
And such appalling damage to mankind
As will for centuries live in her mind.
The world condition has come to a pass
Where greatest danger to the human mass
Comes not from natural causes or disease,
But from the leading men who hold the keys
Of power in their weak but ambitious hands,
And can employ the might of powerful lands
To cause death and destruction on a scale
Before which all the powers of language fail.
One of the ways to meet this deadly threat
To safety is for masses not to abet
The men in power in their ambitious aims,
Which would be hard since they propose their names.
Moreover the rulers do not act alone
For many a wealthy and ambitious drone,
Surrounding them, like kites, plans and conspires
To plunge a nation in the awful fires
Of war, which in this era has become
Pure homicidal mass-delirium.
Another way, which is as nature wants
Mankind to do now, like industrious ants,
To have Superior Beings at the head
As rulers, who inspire respect not dread,
Who more in harmony with nature's plan
Foresee the future of evolving man,
And skilled in state-craft who the two combine
To elevate the mass-mind and refine,
And not, as rulers do now, brutalize
The crowd for but a brief temporal rise,
Heedless of what the next world-war will teach
That man has yet a loftier height to reach.
This is the only way to pull the world
Out of the mess in which it has been hurled
By scholars, priests and rulers all combined,
Lost in the unfathomed mystery of mind,
Not heeding that the evolving human brain
Can ne'er sit idle, but must e'er remain
Alert on ripe occasions to revise
The faulty social orders they devise.
The only cure now for the current ills
Is that the brilliant galaxy which fills
The chairs of power should be required to gain
Transcendence with attunement of the brain,
Which is not as hard as we might suppose,
With exercise and discipline, for those
Who rank as intellectuals in our time,
And are now ripe for their enlightened prime.
A dire necessity shall soon arise,
When we the existing systems must revise,
As strength of arm which once subdued the crowd,
Would cause more damage than we can afford,
Making it imperative for the race
To build with speed a firm irenic base,
Whereof the architects shall be, in main,
The mental athletes who remold the brain.
Only such prodigies can now control
The masses by appealing to the soul,
As intellect now almost near her end
The clever mind to her will cannot bend,
And hence instinctively the crowd now seeks,
Not one who with insane ambition reeks,
But he who by his own unruffled calm
Proves for the weary world a soothing balm.
Nor learned skepticism nor other trash,
Now ranked as wisdom, shall survive the crash,
Which soon will come to teach our wiseacres
That godless reason can become a curse,
And breed Satanic minds, if left alone,
With matchless intellect but hearts of stone:
A crop which is inevitable if
The attitude of scholars, hard and stiff
Towards sublime belief and faith, does not
To Revelation its true place allot.
Can we determine, when we ponder deep
On it that heaven has framed no laws to keep
Mankind upon the Path to reach the goal
It has appointed for the human soul;
And men are free to act as they decide,
To wallow in sin or to drown in pride,
And there is no Almighty Power to deal
With them, the fever of the mind to heal?
Most men believe that lust and passion bind
With no way of escape the human mind,
And as a slave to many an evil trait
We have no power to change our native state:
A most misleading notion often due
To this, that modern scholars have no clue
About the Power behind the ascent of man,
Which tries to lift him as high as it can,
Against the manifold obstructions which
He puts in its way by his lustful itch.
The outcome is that the existing mode
Of life, since long become a cumbrous load,
Colliding with the soul's uplifting force
Creates a mind intelligent but too coarse
For man's exalted stature at this time,
When at the portals of the Life Sublime,
The leading intellects could have attained
The State Divine and Cosmic Vision gained,
Had their ascent been more in accord
With Laws which human evolution guard.
And hence the strangely inconsistent phase
In man's development in our own days,
Control and mastery of every force
Of nature, full command of foreign shores;
But utter ignorance about his home,
About the interior of his cranial dome,
About his nervous system and the way
In which subconscious trends his thinking sway.
He knows now everything except himself,
Except the "Knower" in the fleshy shelf,
Immune to death, decay and every kind
Of sorrow and distress known to the mind.
He knows no more about him than was known
To ancient seers of Greece and Babylon,
A gap of thousands of long years between
His knowledge of the seer and objects seen.
We have no inkling man is changing fast
Towards a glorious form and godly cast
Of countenance, we often attribute
To angels, free entirely of the brute,
Encrowned with thoughts sublime and noble traits
Of character, above the alluring baits
Of wealth and power, blest with a longer span
Of life, to be the Enlightened cosmic man.
This unawareness of a vital fact
Of life does in a dangerous way react,
And all the fears and tensions which surround
The present world grow from this breeding ground.
Because the evolving human systems need
A way of life and social frame which heed
The signs and gestures that convey to us
Mandates from our collective consciousness.
(iv)
The Unexpected is the potent cause
That keeps forgetful humankind alert,
And when it happens with too long a pause
The evil trends in man their sway assert.
It often is the Unforeseen Event
Which brings depravity to sudden halt,
Ambition's crafty plans can circumvent,
And forces Arrogance to mend her fault.
Old orders often yielded place to new,
By strange unthought-of turns in world affairs;
And chance events drove out, before they knew
That their day had come, tyrants from their lairs.
Dynastic kingdoms, built with blood to last
For generations, but one sudden gust
Of stormy civil war or but one blast
Of whirlwind-like invasion brought to dust.
In many a dreary spot, where dust-winds howl
And savage beasts send out blood-curdling calls,
To which at night responds the hooting owl,
But lately grandeur dwelt in marble halls.
Has not the unforeseen in the recent past
Put the earth's mightiest empire into shade,
And war the state of countless men recast,
The beggar king and king a beggar made?
What veil before our eyes obstructs the light
That nature social stagnancy abhors,
And when we fail to climb the appointed height
Creates upheavals, revolutions, wars?
Hence, I do not predict but just inform
The world about a mighty Cosmic Law,
Which soon may raise a hideous global storm,
Out of the present groove mankind to draw.
Existence of this Force may soon be felt
When steel and cement walls like wax will melt,
And fuse to rise in clouds of fiery dust;
The Wrath of Heav'n on man's unbridled lust,
Against which every prophet raised his voice,
But often failed to sway the fatal choice.
Those who treat nature as a lifeless rock,
Insensible to virtue, vice and crime,
And fancy that its motion, like a clock,
They can adjust at will from time to time,
One awful day must see it come to life
Confronting them with fierce, aggressive swarms,
And then with loss, distress and slaughter rife
The whole of nature will seem up in arms.
We cannot follow with our puny brains
The play of millions of subconscious threads,
Which cognizant of what the Law ordains
Control the thought content of ruling heads.
Amid the medley of unnumbered trends
In human nature, which our minds unfold,
These hidden strings to gain the chosen ends
In all contingencies the Law uphold.
Hence when disastrous situations rise,
Producing consternation and dismay,
A wise man can with confidence surmise:
The Law has been infringed in some way.
Destructive wars that cause the world concern
Present no riddle to the enlightened mind,
Which in the raging tempest can discern
The attempt of nature safety-vents to find.
Behold the time has come when once again
The auguries of prophets shall come true,
And man, a rebel grown too proud and vain,
With tears for heaven's clemency shall sue.
The pride of great achievement, knowledge, wit,
As much to effort as to fortune due,
Which blind to its mistakes does not submit
To timely counsel, one day has to rue,
When fortune, prompt to take back what she grants,
Decides the arrogant career to close;
A swift debacle and the passage slants
Towards the inglorious depths from which it rose.
(v)
Once we acknowledge that the human brain
Is mounting slowly step by step to gain
A broader vision of the Cosmic Scene,
Both of the visible world and realms unseen,
We must then cede that, when man wanders far
From his route, something must occur to bar
His movement in the wrong direction bound
To block his progress till the Path is found.
The modern intellect compelled to grow
In wrong environment, with passions low
For wealth or fame or power, entirely raw
In heavenly knowledge and Celestial Law,
Is oft distorted, like a stunted plant,
That grows precariously on a slant,
And twisted out of shape appears so weird
And strange, compared to those in orchards reared.
Such are some minds in this enlightened age,
That had they rightly grown would, at this stage,
Excel the greatest sages of the past
In fresh adventures on the ocean vast
Of life, and with the knowledge gathered, led
Not to destruction but a rosy bed,
The bloated modern world at heart so sick
That for explosion it needs but a prick.
But barred from Vision their lopsided brain
Prepares explosives for temporal gain,
By which soon into chaos may be hurled
The present gay but maladjusted world.
Full many thinkers, whose own mind refused
Belief in God's existence, when they mused
On Life's mysterious drama, good and bad,
Delightful and revolting, gay and sad,
Denied true insight into human hearts,
Despite their erudition and their arts,
Clever with pen, their faulty doctrines spread
All ov'r the earth to wean the simple head
From faith in God, and let him loose to drift,
Alone unable right from wrong to sift.
Now watching helplessly, with deep alarm,
The growing stockpile of the nuclear arm,
Some try in vain to stem the rising flood
Their own imprudence o'er the planet spread,
Which gave unbridled license to the strong,
With full impunity to do a wrong,
Mistaught there is no God to judge their deeds,
And no Celestial Court to award the meeds.
No other single factor ever did
Such harm to mankind as was done, amid
The glamorous progress of the present age,
By scholars who condemned the illumined sage,
Deceived by reason, like an impish wraith,
Who cut unwisely at the roots of faith.
It is not reason but a second sight,
A higher faculty that can throw light
On this recondite subject, at this time
Of such a moment and importance prime,
That every other major problem fades
Into unimportance, as if lost in shades,
For at this critical juncture human life
Is balanced on the thin edge of a knife,
Is in the gravest jeopardy because
We lack in knowledge of Celestial Laws.
Chapter 2
Nuclear Weapons: A Symptom of Abnormality
(i)
Can you surmise the reason why the mass
Of men their life now complacently pass,
And ne'er allow the slightest sign escape
That warfare has assumed an ugly shape,
Due to the deadly challenge daily hurled
By growing nuclear build-ups of the world?
How, as if charmed, the busy crowds forget
Or are resigned towards the dreadful threat,
Towards a prospect that can quickly turn
The earth into one vast, rotating urn;
Towards a mortal danger from which none
Can be safe whether war is lost or won;
A threat attended by the ghastly fear
Of mass destruction slowly drawing near?
Is it not strange that we now calmly sit
And wait until the Infernal Fire is lit,
When ev'n the whisper of some pestilence
Into hysterics drives and makes us tense,
On thorns to flee the place or find some way
The foul, contagious plague to keep at bay,
With reason for the safety of our life?
But this atrocious menace now so rife
And so immediate we quite disregard,
In this one case completely off our guard,
As if it is so small and so remote
That 'tis not worth the effort ev'n to note.
With such a monster hovering overhead,
Waiting to strike unwary myriads dead,
What surety there is in this reckless age
That one will not succumb to nuclear rage,
Will not be one of countless victims hurt
Dreadfully or struck down lifeless and inert,
Will not with ghastly sores or sightless eyes
Bewail this deadly lightning from the skies?
What have our leading figures done about
This horror lurking near without a doubt,
Which always at our elbow but one jolt
Can bring down roaring like a thunderbolt,
And from a distance of ev'n scores of miles
Can eat deep into flesh and heap in piles
Eroded bodies stripped off to the bone,
For long to bear the racking pain alone,
With not a soul around the wounds to dress
To soothe the torment or relieve distress.
Confronted by this menace who knows why
Against this hellish engine so few cry?
Why but few take it in a serious way
While most men unconcernedly pass their day
About this danger so untroubled that
It worries them less than a thieving cat,
Alert to every small unpleasant thing
That can the least harm or disquiet bring?
How can they tolerate this deadly shaft,
Designed with such a diabolic craft,
That round the blasted area it can drop
A genetic poison for a grisly crop
Of grinning monsters and grimacing freaks,
Whose language is a blend of horrid shrieks,
Fouling the outraged earth for many a year
With such abortions none their sight can bear.
And who can say with what revolting shape
It will the future stock of mankind drape?
When we attach such value to our health,
To looks, deportment, property and wealth,
Attend to all of them with deep concern,
And for their betterment new methods learn,
What makes us callous to the atomic threat
Which o'erhangs all we have or can beget,
A danger from which we cannot be free
Till death, nor our heirs, nor their progeny;
Which is a thousand times more lethal than
The deadliest plague that e'er afflicted man?
Can you assign a reason for the fact
Why we do not against this threat react
With such ebullience as it should provoke,
And why such efforts always end in smoke,
As if a spell descends on earth to lull
To slumber those this blood bath would annul?
Look for a while into your mind again
And try to find the reason which, in main,
Prevents our acting as we would, no doubt,
Do at once, when there is a fire without;
Or we are warned of cholera in the town
Or of a flood that threatens us to drown,
Or of some passing evil that can be
Disastrous for my household or for me,
And mark that in a crisis we do not
Sit calmly, well contented with our lot,
But act without delay to set things right,
Though we may have to battle day and night.
But can you say why we are not disturbed
When nuclear stockpiles grow apace uncurbed?
For some the problem is how they can stop
A vicious trend descending from the top,
How can they when the ruling groups decide
To have it, their decision override?
They argue how they can avert the threat
When rival, hard-competing lands are set
On deadliest weapons science can devise,
For their defense or ev'n aggressive rise,
In this inventive age, when all are free
To make whate'er improvement there can be?
Who can technological progress stop
Of which it is the inevitable crop?
From other symptoms also one can find
That people now are more or less resigned
Towards a catastrophic nuclear war,
As they are often towards an evil star,
Which, they think, bodes misfortune and can change
The tenor of their life beyond their range,
And they bide patiently the fateful day,
Knowing they cannot change it or delay.
(ii)
Let us sincerely for a moment ask
Ourselves, when resting from the daily task,
Does not existence at this or that place
Of nuclear engines jeopardize the race?
Is not the threat so imminent and grave
That we may one day find it hard to save
Not just ourselves and all we love and own,
But all the art and culture that has grown
With man's unceasing, patient labor done
By countless generations one by one?
Is not the danger, from what we are told
By scores of experts, many hundredfold
More than that posed by all the plagues combined?
For it can cause extinction of mankind;
Or, at the least, kill millions or distort
In such a ghastly way that nothing short
Of death can end their frightful suffering more
Intense than that of any cancer sore.
What stupor then prevents from crying out,
The myriads doomed without a shade of doubt,
Millions condemned to lifelong agony
So terrible one cannot bear to see?
What destiny creates this nonchalance
Towards a fast approaching Kali's* dance;
Which, if not warded off, will leave behind
Millions dead, millions wounded, millions blind,
Millions disfigured, millions maimed and crazed;
Their assets blown up or to the ground razed?
No one to ease their pain or mourn the loss,
For all the dazed survivors too will cross
Into a horrid world e'en worse than hell,
To face grim famines and diseases fell.
Why are our scholars loath to use their pen
To tell the naked truth to common men?
Do they believe the danger is not so
Immediate or so serious as I show?
Do they suppose the piles of nuclear arms
Will vanish as does snow when sunshine warms
Or that a thousand billion worth of stocks
Will lie unused like subterranean rocks
Or that the havoc of a nuclear war
Will not be so great or extend so far
As I depict, and mankind might survive
The blow, without much loss, to live and thrive?
Our failure to respond to such a threat
Reveals a symptom for the first time met
In human history, for at no time
Have masses acted such a pantomime;
Remained so passive with no word or sign
To show they are not dumb and stupid kine,
But have the common sense at once to grasp
That they are threatened by a deadly asp,
About to bury deep its deadly fangs
In them, and that their life by a thread hangs.
What widely met oblivion tightly holds
The rich and poor in its confining folds?
Or what hypnotic influence sends to sleep
Distinguished scholars that, like docile sheep,
They nimbly trot towards a slaughter house
Obediently, as quiet as a mouse?
The few debates and protest meetings held
By some enthusiasts, who tried to weld
Into one powerful global forum those
On principle who nuclear war oppose,
After some stir expressive of dissent
Against the use of nuclear armament,
And sundry comments in the press, became
Too feeble to defeat the deadly aim
Of those behind the game, and then expired,
As if the whole adventure had misfired.
And in the wake of these outpourings comes
The Silence managed with colossal sums,
Which ne'er allows conscientious folk to gain
A hearing and their labor goes in vain.
Somewhat by this, but primarily because
The strange callosity now never thaws,
The human race accepts the nuclear arm
With no explosive symptom of alarm;
Accepts the presence of a Demon that
Will slaughter millions, as one kills a rat;
Accepts a dread contrivance that may loom
Before rebellious mortals as their doom.
(iii)
Much as I should desire to write about
A theme that could put fear and gloom to rout,
And fill a ruffled mind with peace and joy;
But knowing well that it would but decoy
The reader into a false sense of repose,
While grim disaster lies extremely close,
I treat it as a duty laid on me
By Heaven that does my every action see,
To keep the world reminded of this threat,
Which by some Trick of Fate we soon forget.
The strange indifference which we now display
Towards the greatest problem of our day,
Towards an issue that now holds the scales
Between our life and death, and grief entails,
Call it inertia or, whate'er it be,
A keen observer cannot fail to see
And think it foolish of us, if not worse,
That we should grow so mentally perverse
As ev'n grim prospects of extinction stir
No feeling in us that may be we err,
And ought to ponder on this point to find
The reason for this numbness in our mind?
Let us not be misled by outer gloss,
Nor at the simple truth get sour or cross,
But face reality, as we now see,
Not what we think or figure it to be.
For probing this point, as well as we can,
We cannot but mark that in modern man
A strange departure from a healthy mode
Of thought has come about, as if a load
Sits heavy on his brain, that he has grown
Indifferent to his death e'en when foreknown.
This apathy is not a healthy sign,
Nor would it be in creatures, sheep or swine,
If of a likely risk that loomed in front
They took no heed ev'n by a bleat or grunt.
Towards a mortal threat inertness means
Fault in the pillar on which mankind leans,
Fault in the instinct by which she survives,
Preserves her life from danger, lives and thrives;
It means a fault so terrible and grave
As cannot be compared to any, save
Perhaps, the tendency to suicide found
Often in people mentally unsound.
Insentience towards a deadly risk
Through which we gaily pass now, sport and frisk,
While each addition to the infernal store
Is adding to the hazard more and more,
Denotes a morbid symptom so acute
It has no parallel in any brute,
Or other form of life nor ever had
Except in those that run amuck or mad.
For heaven has set the urge to live so deep
In earthly creatures that no furious sweep
Of passion or adversity can shake
The firm foundation, or remotely make
Them when confronted by a mortal threat,
The urgent need for self-defense forget.
No one would dare impute so grave a fault
To those that soar beyond the azure vault,
And say that in the highly cultured brain
A morbid streak is just becoming plain;
A streak which seldom is with horror filled
When it imagines millions maimed or killed,
Which, with the hideous scenes of two world wars
Still fresh in memory, now behind the farce
Of peace, prepares for yet another one
To put to shame the carnage earlier done.
We are now reconciled, as if decreed
By Fate, as lazy farmers are to weed;
To this diabolic instrument of death,
Like those the young read of with bated breath
In stories, weapons Satan would devise
With gloating looks God's earth to pulverize;
A challenge to the Lord from puny man
To save the earth from ruin if He can.
An arm so devilish that, to be blunt,
There surely cannot be a worse affront
To intellect, no worse slap on the face
Of every moral fiber in the race,
Which save inhuman minds, akin to those
Of homicidal kings who slaughter chose,
No normal man, who is not mad with hate,
Can make, employ, invent or tolerate.
What great effect on one, who calmly chews
His breakfast, have the most alarming news
Of riots, revolts and slaughters, now so rife,
They have become a part of daily life:
Or what emotion does a picture formed
Of nuclear warfare or a city stormed,
And blown out of existence, rouse in us,
When with our friends we nuclear war discuss?
This lack of feeling is a dangerous sign,
A grave impairment of the mental shrine;
A warning that incipient freeze has set
To cause indifference to a mortal threat.
Let us discuss a while this curious trait:
The dark Forerunner of an evil fate,
That death, destruction, slaughter, riot, war,
On our accustomed ears now no more jar,
Nor cause the horror that they should evoke
Nor grieve the heart, nor with emotion choke,
As they did but a hundred years before,
When such disasters shocked the people more,
As history attests, for every case
Of carnage filled with horror all the race.
I know the earth was ne'er a chaste abode
Of human angels with a purer code
Of conduct in the past, and I concede
That there was greater poverty and need,
Still greater cruelty upon the weak,
The slave and bondman, servant, thief and freak,
There were religious wars and torture done
To heretics or forced conversions won.
But people were alert and feared a war,
Decamped in panic while it was yet far,
And seldom waited for the monster's jaws
To swallow them, as we do now because
We have so callous and unfeeling grown,
That though we know whole nations can be blown
To bits with nuclear blasts we ne'er regard
The threat as serious and are not on guard,
Against this source of all-devouring war,
Which from no nation and no man is far,
And like a baneful comet points towards
The earth, about to engulf men, beasts and birds.
Compare this with what happened fifty years
Ago, when wakened by instinctive fears,
A strong electric shock went through the mass
Of men to ban the use of poison gas;
Mere caustic as compared to megatons
That can incinerate millions all at once.
There is no doubt that something deep inside
Our minds has changed, and our emotions slide
Towards a callous disregard of death
And slaughter that made people hold their breath.
So war and massacre have now become
A matter of routine, not just to some,
But to the teeming multitudes who treat
Such grim occurrences like cold and heat:
A subject for some comment and no more,
No surge of deep emotion as before,
No scenes of woe afloat before the eye,
Time and again to make one weep and sigh,
Forgotten ere the morning to make room
For fresh news, as if swept off with a broom,
A most abnormal trait by which we are
Careering fast towards a nuclear war.
Perhaps I have explained now in detail,
Enough to show that I would grossly fail
In duty that I owe to God and man,
If, with as much submission as I can,
I do not emphasize the fact again
That we are blunting our evolving brain,
By our transgressions with the grave result
That Cosmic Forces, neither seen nor felt,
To avoid incurable damage to the brain,
Before it is too late, might cause again
A dreadful global war, that may extend
To many lands, rebellious man to mend.
It is not superstition nor a myth
Nor dogma nor mere theory with no pith,
Nor yet delusion nor a sorry game
To cause sensation for some gain or fame,
But it is something, which extremely rare,
Has on occasions fallen to the share
Of men, without their striving, with the Grace
Of Heaven to voice a warning to the race,
As I do now in this spontaneous rhyme,
That brooks no barrier of creed or clime,
From that Immortal Source to which alone
The whole of future and the past are known.
But for this I could never dare pronounce
A judgment on the world, or know an ounce
Of what I have revealed about the stain
Now forming on the evolving human brain,
A morbid blemish, which too soon will spread,
If not removed or changed to love instead,
And cause a horror no pen can portray
No language can express, no words convey.
What profit would accrue if mankind wanes
In spiritual endowments, though she gains
Untold possessions, only to unbar
Destructive frenzy in a nuclear war,
Of which the authors, now completely lost
To sense, with their extinction pay the cost?
It sounds blasphemous, but I must confess
That, though we boast of it, the polished dress
Of modern intellect, beneath its folds
Conceals a faulty twist, which firmly holds
A part of mankind in its vicious grip,
And ne'er allows the busy crowd to slip
The noose; a twist that keeps God out of count,
Has no need for the Sermon on the Mount,
Nor Vedas nor Quran nor what was taught
By Buddha to ennoble human thought,
To chase the shadows which confuse the mind
Of e'en great leaders and their vision blind,
Unless both morn and eve they sue for grace,
When only they can rightly guide the race.
(v)
Were there not something in our actions wrong,
The Evil Forces could not grow so strong,
Could not create in us the fatal trends
To slaughter millions for our selfish ends,
Could not have brought the masses down so low
To be the dumb spectators of a show,
Which now keeps mankind in a state of dread
With clouds of mass destruction o'er her head.
Nor does the horror of approaching war
Nor of misfortunes which our hopes may mar,
Create in me the urge to pen this rhyme,
For nothing can occur before its time,
But it is something which as humans we
To do or not to do are often free,
Something as humans which we ought to know
If we desire to live in peace, and grow
To that intensely blissful state sublime,
Attained by holy sages in their time.
I write of something which without mistake
We can discern if we completely shake
Ourselves free from the hold of self-conceit
And by the Altar of Truth take our seat,
And it is this, that since we have digressed,
From light and more towards the shadow pressed
Than is consistent with our inner growth,
With our intelligence and morals both,
We have, due to the action of a Law,
Developed in ourselves a serious flaw
Which warps our judgment and denies us Light,
When with atomic arms we choose to fight.
Had there not been a numbness in our thought
The use of nuclear arms from the first ought
To have been cried down and condemned by all,
Further use of this dread device to stall,
As there was time enough, since their first use
A less disastrous type of war to choose.
To assess their dread capacity for harm
And put a total ban upon the arm.
For nuclear power confers resistless might
Against which 'have-nots' cannot hope to fight.
But they desisted from obstructive steps,
And protests came but seldom to their lips,
As if bewitched, they left the 'haves' to do
The worst, and keep on adding to that too.
But for the apathy that seized their mind
They could have made a clamor all combined,
Making it hard for nuclear states to escape,
Without to some adjustment lending shape.
With more than half the world all on one side
These states could not against their will decide
Without exposing their ignoble aim,
And earning condemnation for the same.
As if there was a charm to make them numb
They all remained too long inert and dumb;
But some awakening to the stunning truth,
Reminded of it by outspoken youth,
That nuclear arms bestow invincible might,
They are now keen to have the fiery blight,
As if possession of this pest bestows
A rare distinction, like contentious crows,
Which, when they see one light on carrion, haste
To reach the spot, the putrid dish to taste.
There must be, after all, some cogent cause
For this unhealthy lull and sickly pause
In our instinctive, forceful urge to live,
When deadly hazards cause for action give,
For this unnoticed grave, abnormal tinge
Of slackness in an impulse on which hinge
Our life and all, making us so obtuse,
That monstrous weapons which can mountains fuse
And lakes desiccate, we take lying down,
As if engrossed deep in a study brown.
Survey the world for one effective stir,
And you will come to know I do not err,
That there is no concerted effort done,
And no opposing dissidents, as one,
Demand the banning of this dread device,
That can wipe off whole nations in a trice;
Of this Satanic world-destroying bane,
Because a palsy has come o'er our brain,
Such as has ne'er been on the earth before,
A serious warning from the Eternal Shore
Of Cosmic Life to make mankind alert
That her intelligent mind is weighed with dirt.
Look at the people passing unconcerned,
Absorbed deep in what they have lost or earned,
And mark there is no serious talk about
What should, indeed, fill them with fear and doubt:
About the alarming state the world is in
Where our existence hangs upon the spin
Of change to cause the initial clash that can,
In but a day effect the wreck of man,
And then no one can tell what will befall
Or who will suffer-others or us all.
There must be some defect beyond our ken
Which, yet unnoticed by the world of men,
Has caused a partial torpor of the sense
Of safety, made this instinct slack and dense,
Has in some way eclipsed the Orb of Light,
The Source of all our sense of wrong and right,
Has somehow caused obstruction in the Ray,
Which keeps the evil threatening us at bay,
And like the commonly met morbid streak,
In those towards drink or vice who are weak,
Is not perceptive of the nuclear threat,
Although to other hazards most alert.
Is there not something morbid in this calm,
This sense of safety, this pretense and sham,
That keeps us tongue-tied and somehow contrives
To make us dead to a danger to our lives?
Which having now become a usual trait
Keeps us from knowing our abnormal state?
Keeps us from knowing e'en that there is ground
For worry, for which some cure must be found?
While some deceived by hope that Heaven will save
The world somehow, ignore the yawning grave,
Again forgetting that Celestial Laws
Are always just in the events they cause.
Chapter 3
Modern War Is Inferno Actualized
(i)
Call it coincidence or call it fate,
Call it the fruit of lust for power or hate,
Or call it by whatever name you like
The unmistakable fact cannot but strike
A keen mind that in some mysterious way,
Whate'er the reasons for the grim display,
Mankind at certain intervals is gripped
By grave distemper of the mind, and whipped
Until blood oozes from the livid frame,
And she collapses broken, wounded, lame.
This happened, as if willed by destiny,
Twice in the first half of this century.
The start entailed such heavy sacrifice
And end exacted such a dreadful price
In millions crippled for life, millions killed,
Millions with lasting grief and anguish filled,
That, as one terribly burnt once by fire
Retains the memory for his life entire,
This should have caused a feeling e'er so strong
And so intense, persisting for so long,
That no compelling pressure should have led
Nations again the same dread path to tread.
By some inscrutable Law, we still ignore,
Forgetfulness of what has gone before,
Affects the victims to such grave extent
They lose all memory of the punishment
Or, if recalled, it is so dim and vague
That far from fleeing from the deadly plague,
More lethal than the foul bubonic sore,
They soon invite its ravages once more.
Once more to hear the cries of dreadful pain,
And see the gruesome corpses of the slain,
Once more to experience all the horror borne
That had made millions wretched and forlorn;
Once more the same colossal loss of lives
And lamentations of grief-stricken wives;
Once more to pass the same distracting round
Of rush for work or shelter underground:
A mania, now become a common trait,
Such that it would not be amiss to state
That people in this age amass and hoard
One day to put it all to fire and sword.
This is the story of a rebel world
Which every now and then into hell is hurled,
Whose teeming populations, as if struck
By manic frenzy, at times run amuck,
And long before the awful headlong dive
Straight into Hades, kicking and alive.
Prepare the instruments of torture meant
To cause a torment till the heart is rent,
To shriek and groan, to writhe and twist in pain,
With awful anguish to be maimed and slain,
To bear the dread, excruciating smart
Of frightful wounds that make the stoutest heart
Weep like a woman, blubber like a child,
When not in stupor or delirium wild.
What poetic imagination sought
To paint of hell is literally now wrought
In every trench and every battleground,
Where screaming, moaning wretches sprawling round,
Lie in such twisted and contorted shapes
And bear such torment till the breath escapes,
As e'en the most imaginative men
Could ne'er envision, much less put to pen.
The incurably wounded, burnt or maimed
Present a sight that should make us ashamed;
So dreadfully battered, mangled, filled with scars,
As if crushed to a pulp with iron bars,
Unfit to attend to any vital need,
To rise unaided, ease themselves or feed;
Acutely conscious minds in fleshy tombs,
Or monstrous freaks born of inhuman wombs;
Their life one long-drawn night of agony,
Allowed to feel but not to hear or see,
The face a shapeless lump devoid of eyes,
And mouth a hole through which the spirit cries;
The types of human wretches who alive
Although dead to the world, in pain, survive
Out of the victims of a modern war,
Maintained in strict seclusion from us far.
This is the mockery to which, with thought
And care, civilization has been brought,
Setting for many years a hell ablaze
On earth to live in, shudder at, and gaze
On ghastly suffering and appalling wrecks,
As if a vampirish seductress becks
The gaudy caravan by devious means,
To taste the horror of infernal scenes.
What is amazing is the curious fact
That, as if some abnormal forces act
To sway their minds, soon after each such spell
Of dreadful torment in this raging hell,
The victims 'gain forget the torture borne,
Or countless dead whom still their kinsfolk mourn,
And with the scars still showing on the flesh
Make haste to invite the agony afresh.
(ii)
It is not courage nor brave disregard
Of death that we are not now on our guard
Against the fast increasing nuclear arms;
Nor are we rendered dumb by spells and charms,
So that we do not raise our voice to stop
The growth of this pest for the human crop;
Nor is it mere distaste towards a role
Which is beyond our province and control;
Nor apathy towards a problem, most
Concerning statesmen and the ruling host;
But it is something deeper and acute
Which in a serious crisis keeps us mute,
Makes us oblivious to a deadly threat,
While at mere trifles we soon fume and fret.
Perhaps, our attitude is partly due
To this, that we have not a picture true
Of what will happen in a nuclear bout,
And, may be, some of us regard with doubt
The claims made for the hideous nuclear blast,
And think the damage cannot be so vast,
Or that the neutral countries will remain
Unharmed and suffer no distress or pain.
But such a stand is yet again a sign
That we are acting like unthinking kine,
For e'en young children know well what befell
When two small nuclear bombs created hell
In Japan, forcing that brave land to sue
For peace, to avoid more such bolts from the blue.
What havoc would result when nuclear darts
A thousand times more powerful, strike the hearts
Of densely peopled towns and countrysides
To spread a vapor in which death resides,
To emit a radiation that can kill
At scores of miles or burn to ash or grill?
What would befall when dozens, if not more,
Of latest nuclear shafts bombard a shore?
And what would happen when to win in war,
The two belligerents, from each other far,
In hundreds use their most destructive darts,
All aimed at densely populated parts
Of hostile lands to spread, where'er they fall,
For many hundred miles a lethal pall
Of deadly fallout long to hang on earth,
Causing outrageous weather, famine, dearth,
And forming soon into a biting cloud
Enwrap mankind in a corrosive shroud.
We should remember that a missile war,
Whether the combatants are near or far,
Will not be fought out on a foreign shore,
But in our country, at our very door,
And to our chambers will be wafted fast
The flesh-consuming poison of the blast,
Creating dreadful havoc far and near,
Such scenes of devastation, death and fear
That can the dazed survivors rob of will,
Their minds unhinge or with sheer horror kill.
Too soon the whole disrupted human world
Into the depths of chaos will be hurled,
The scene of panic-stricken, frantic crowds,
Unnerved completely by the mushroom clouds,
And stunned, when they entirely shattered find
The interlinked economy of mankind,
Their bank, industrial center, shopping site
Looking like silent graveyards during night,
Of all the glitter, pomp and show bereft,
With not a single living creature left.
The earth enveloped in despair and gloom
For ev'n a moment's joy will have no room.
Like shipwrecked sailors on an island cast
To live in utter want and often fast,
Millions will wilderness make their abode
To live in travail with a crushing load
Of sorrow, suffering and remitless toil
To build the world anew right from the soil.
I am not writing this to fling a scare,
But if it be an error to lay bare
Alarming truths of vital moment for
The whole of mankind at this crucial hour,
Of such importance on them does depend
Whether the race will live or come to end,
I must plead guilty now, and press the plea
That judgment should rest with the progeny,
Which will be better able to decide
How exigent it was to stop the tide,
That sweeping o'er the earth had washed away
Resistance to this Evil of the day.
A child can see the race for massive loads
Of these infernal engines clear forebodes,
In more horrific form and shape, perhaps,
All that I have conveyed with many gaps,
About the grim disaster threatening all
The nations, whom now their pride and the wall
Of self-delusion ne'er allow to gauge
The fury of the storm that soon may rage
To snatch their every comfort, blessing, gift,
If they complacently still choose to drift.
And all their schemes and plans, their hopes and dreams
May be extinguished, like the mellow beams
Of garden candles blown out by the gust
Of an approaching storm, seen by its dust.
If after all the experience gained by us,
And all our knowledge we do not discuss,
And take more seriously the aftermath
Of such a pitfall, looming in our path,
Which shall not only shatter all our bones,
But turn our homesteads into sand and stones,
It means that either we are gripped by sloth,
And would burn rather than turn, like a moth,
From bright ambitious dreams that hold us fast
And draw us headfirst to a holocaust;
Or, like birds fascinated by a snake,
We lie immobile leaving things to take
Their course, until the Bomb makes us its prey,
While we wait hypnotized the fatal day.
Or we are not convinced that such war can
Come to destroy the whole dream world of man,
And hope that luck or prudence will prevail
To bar the use of this infernal hail,
Or that no one is of sense so bereft
To fight a war in which no one is left.
Suppose there is a fifty-fifty chance
That combatants will use the explosive lance,
Or fearful of the outcome may avoid
The dread device lest mankind is destroyed,
What would transpire towards the dismal end,
When one belligerent is forced to bend
Beneath the crushing pressure of his foe,
While girt with nuclear arms from head to toe?
Do you think he will tamely bend his head
And yield the victor e'en this armor dread?
Or, if of human nature you know aught,
Will not just then a nuclear war be fought?
If still some doubts this sound conclusion bar
Recall what happened in the last world war;
When but one power possessed the hellish arm,
Was not yet near defeat or serious harm,
But to deliver a decisive blow,
Demolished two towns with the atomic glow.
(iii)
The state of silence that has followed close
The secret nuclear policy of those
Who have a stock or now prepare the arm,
Has been adopted not to cause alarm
And panic, sure to spread if people know
The full details of what is hid below
The outer gloss of words in which they boast
Possession of a stuff the earth can roast,
And change inhabited spots for many a year
To ghoulish haunts filled with dementing fear.
But oft to mitigate the horror felt
A lame apology is blandly spelt
That nuclear arms serve as deterrents for
Aggressive nations to keep them from war!
Not even the experts who prepare the darts,
No doubt with sorrow weighing on their hearts,
Who raise their potency with matchless skill
To cause more havoc, millions more to kill,
Know what disaster, O God, will occur
When fallout vitiates the atmosphere,
What monstrous evils will corrupt the earth,
What horrors and abortions fill her girth,
When these atrocious bombs in hundreds fall
To spoil the economy of nature all,
Enwrapping in a radiating robe
The famine-stricken, poison-laden globe.
Effects of e'en a few atomic tests
Create in nearby areas deadly pests,
Enough to cause disorder and disease,
To foul the weather, to torment and tease,
Enough to cause fear and uneasiness,
And loud denunciations from the press
Of nearer lands, affected by the blast,
Compelling them to take precautions fast.
But who can say what irreparable harm
Will follow when this foul, Satanic arm,
Like hundreds of volcanoes, bursts to pour
A vitriolic ash on every shore,
Causing climatic rigors never met,
The harmony of nature to upset.
The havoc caused is sure to take a shape
As awful as the door of hell agape,
Would show to horror-stricken mortal sight,
To freeze the marrow with benumbing fright,
As shrieking, groaning wretches twist and writhe
In dreadful postures, and in thick gasps breathe
Corrosive fumes, laid on a scorching bed,
Under a ceiling of fire overhead,
With cold sweat streaming down the anguished face,
While red-hot pins tear off flesh from its place,
No water to assuage the parching thirst
Or cool the burning fever, growing worse.
For days and weeks to endure infernal pain
Until delirium grips the tortured brain,
And soothing death the torment comes to ease,
When their contortions and convulsions cease,
Beyond the reach of aid, as no one near
Is left alive a helping hand to bear.
This is how men to quench their bestial thirst
For power, when pressed, will make the earth
accurst,
One vast, asphyxiating, lethal spot,
The dread abode of flesh-corroding rot,
A fuming hell, a prickly bed of thorns,
Of stifling eves and suffocating morns,
Polluted and infected to the core,
Abode of phthisis and incurable sore,
For decades making God's creation foul
With actions that would shame a desert ghoul,
Filling with poison both the earth and sky
To their descendants safety to deny.
In this realistic epoch we have seen
Blood spattered thickly o'er the country green
And towns, not once or twice but many times,
Not in one land but over many climes,
Showing us clearly what relentless hold
Destructive war has on the human fold.
It is a serious problem for the wise
To tackle, why despite the amazing rise
In knowledge, in aesthetics and in love,
In this one trait man could not soar above
The beasts, but on the contrary has sunk
To greater depths, as if with hatred drunk
For e'en the most ferocious creature known
To self-destructive trends is never prone.
With such a prospect and two bloody wars
Before our eyes, what mental twist debars
The elite from seeing that a bloodier third,
With nuclear weapons, plunging all the world
Into a blazing hell-fire, to our shame,
Might be fought leaving mankind broke and lame,
So dreadfully mangled that it would take an age
To patch the damage done by nuclear rage?
Why do we disbelieve or disregard
The words of those who put us on our guard
Against a possibility that can be
A stark reality for you and me,
Or all of us, demanding from our part
Preventive efforts done with all our heart?
There was a time when courage, skill and arms
Decided battles whose account still warms
The heart and stirs the blood whene'er one reads
Of bold encounters and heroic deeds.
Despite ferociousness and savagery
We still in old wars human features see,
Which marked the fight between two groups of men
From that of beasts in forest and the glen.
But now all that has changed, and war denotes
The slitting open of a million throats
Of sleeping women, men and children small,
One swift, grim massacre of one and all,
With nuclear weapons, deadly germs or gas
To mow down from a distance one whole mass
Of human beings, all left cold in death,
Swimming in blood or gasping hard for breath.
This frame of mind, against all laws of life,
Dictates of conscience, scales and values rife,
And every code of morals ever framed,
We brazenly display now unashamed,
Because irreverent ideas dead
To our divine descent possess our head.
Higher the rise the greater is the fall,
But our elite, forgetful of it all,
Despite enormous rise in knowledge still
Adhere to social patterns matching ill
With our advanced position, which provokes
Of racial consciousness the crushing strokes,
Designed to teach the rebels that the hour
Has come to abjure to dreams of wealth and power,
And find some other way to live in peace,
Not building on the ash of Rome and Greece.
There might come heavier blows that will not spare
Anyone but will be for all to share;
For those who tamely follow a wrong lead
Cannot escape the guilt of evil deed.
The more our weapons gain in power and range
The more the urgency that we should change.
When heaven intends, to suit the Cosmic Plan,
To change unhealthy habits formed by man,
To humble and deflate his bloated head,
Or cleanse the poison skeptic thought has spread;
In short, when there occurs a need for change,
A tangled thread of life to rearrange,
Then ere the evil grows beyond repair
To cure it, as a vacuum in the air,
When it exceeds a certain point, entails
From denser regions furious storms and gales;
Terrestrial life creates a mental storm
A faulty social order to reform.
See how a raging tempest sweeps away
The dust and dirt and throws in disarray
One whole affected region, bringing down,
Like match-sticks, giant trees in many a town
And country, smashing doors and window panes,
And hurling down the roofs in streets and lanes,
Causing a pandemonium while men dash
For shelter, midst the deafening din and crash
Of falling debris and the thundering roar
Of wind, in fury rising more and more,
Until with fitful gusts its rage abates,
When men and things resume their normal states.
Does not the same befall when dreadful storms
Of riot and revolution change the forms
Of governments and social systems which
In man's progressive movement cause some hitch?
Did not the same befall whene'er the rage
Of great historic wars in any age
Hit kingdoms and world empires, like a blast,
Their sovereignty and boundaries to recast?
Did not then millions with their precious lives
Remove impediments which, with the gyves
Of wealth and power, enchained a massive part
Of mankind, ruling it with as much art
As is displayed now by some nations which
In man's advancement cause again a hitch,
And so, as has befallen oft before,
The same dread process may recur once more;
This time with more destructive weapons than
Those used before by power-besotten man?
Alas, our lust for power or wealth untold
Should so befool us and our thinking mold
That, with our brilliant intellectual rise,
We should think that the measures we devise
Or contemplate, untrue to man and God,
As diplomatic trick, pretense or fraud,
Can e'er succeed against the Almighty Plan
Of Heaven aimed at the unity of man.
Can we arrest the movement of the earth,
Or shorten by an inch its mighty girth,
Prevent the sun from rising in the east,
Or cool its fiery ardor in the least,
Or hold a while an atom from its course
Without encountering its explosive force?
If not, what lack of sense in us denies
The knowledge that when nought under the skies
Can flout the laws of nature or its might
Resist, can puny man put up a fight,
By mean resort to sneaking trick and ruse,
Against a measure Heaven decides to use?
Chapter 4
Religion as the Mouthpiece
Of the Evolutionary Impulse
(i)
That we are passing through a crucial phase
Is well reflected in the shining rays
Of sun and pallid luster of the moon,
Perceived by only those who have the boon
Of Supersensory Vision, the most rare
Of all the rich endowments which we share.
Because mankind has made a sudden shift
From ways of life that can bestow the gift;
From rules of conduct which conduce to make
The mind serene, a placid conscious lake,
Whose limpid waters clearly show below
Of Cosmic Consciousness the radiant glow,
The modern world displays a serious dearth
Of men of vision needed on the earth
To feel the pulse of nature and prescribe
The mode of conduct for the human tribe,
Climbing a lofty, unfamiliar height,
Which needs at every step a guiding light.
Does it not look to you as rather odd
That we depend for all we know of God
On books and utterances of some men born
In dim antiquity, when earth was shorn
Of all the glamor that makes modern life
One tense performance of unending strife?
And no one in the intervening span
Of time could say a single word more than
What they had said or press a cubit more
Beyond the line already drawn before?
If you agree that this has been the case
Can you the cause of this stagnation trace?
Why since the time of prophets men became
So void of heavenly grace and are the same
In this amazingly productive span,
As if since then God has forsaken man?
Can you assign a valid cause for this,
Why in this rich, industrial age we miss
The ennobling presence of that lofty class
Of men, whose words inspired the human mass
To righteous deeds with such a soul appeal
That they can, e'en now, moral torpor heal?
Do you believe that was a simpler age
More suited to the anointed seer and sage,
Or more productive for the visionary
Than later periods, when mankind, though free
And more sophisticated, contact lost
With nature, and of this breach paid the cost
In utter absence of such men encrowned
By Heaven with higher knowledge most profound?
Can we ascribe this rather strange surcease
Of great Messiahs to the high increase
In man's material comforts, and the slow
But sure advance of mortals, high and low,
Towards a richer and a healthier life,
Full of amenities so cheap and rife,
That dire necessity does not now force
The more susceptible to have recourse
To rigid penance or the need to heal
Their sorrows with intense religious zeal?
Which means the earlier need for prophets ceased
When science man's temporal hardship eased.
If this is so, why do we then rely
So much on old religious lore and try,
As far as we can, in our thought and deed,
To act upon the tenets of our creed?
The time has come when mankind should decide
If it, in future, can with safety ride
In two dissimilar boats, one out of which
Aspires to God, the other to be rich
And strong to have all that the earth can give,
Believing man has but one life to live.
(ii)
Does it not strike you as extremely strange
That, at this lofty height, the more we change
Towards a more and more luxurious mode
Of life the more we lack a common code
That could all nations bind in harmony,
Each of them self-administered and free?
But far from this we build a vicious load
Of arms, on power and wealth to keep our hold.
And why? Because we fail to understand
That in our progress nature has a hand,
And when we battle hard to have our way
We, sometimes, find in front a grim array
Of forces we cannot resist, designed
To change the wrong direction of our mind,
And hence the urge to increase our nuclear might
But serves the aim of Heaven to set us right.
What can our puny wit and strength avail
Against a Power that rules the stormy gale,
The wind and tide, the sun, the moon and stars,
If it ordains the scourge of bloody wars
To teach the lessons we too oft forget,
Upon which hoary Time his Seal has set,
The lessons binding for the evolving race
Which of all great religions form the base.
This hallowed teaching calls upon mankind
To lead a simple, healthy life to find
Its way to God, the source of human life,
And win perfection with ennobling strife,
To treat all folk as brothers, kith and kin,
And raise the fallen, heavenly grace to win,
To deal with all as one does with oneself,
And not betray them to gain power or pelf,
To have the feeling always that the Lord
Does o'ersee all our actions and record.
If we into our mind's hid sanctum peep
To see how far we these directions keep,
Can we still wonder at a grim reward
For just the contrary endeavor hard,
For our sophistication heedless of
Conscientious scruples, waived off with a laugh?
These golden lessons were not taught to serve
As empty ornaments to adorn the curve
Of lips, or but to swell the memory,
But of our life a vital part to be.
Since most of us have failed to school our heart
To make these rules of life a changeless part,
We lack in peace and make the earth a base
For war, since individuals make the race.
You may discredit this and loudly scoff
At what I say, dismiss it with a laugh,
Or more resistant and rebellious grow,
But that will not avert the awful blow
Which will, as surely as the fire is hot,
Descend to change the tenor of our thought.
For what we do is not consistent with
Revealed commands, so either they are myth
Or we are in for trouble, so let us
See what is right-our faith or cleverness.
I make a firm assertion, no doubt bold
For my most humble station, but of old
This doubt has rankled in full many a heart,
Of which the crop is now the nuclear dart:
A weapon so opposed to common sense
And one's instinctive urge for self-defense,
That any normal man, free of the cloud
Of doubt, with judgment and foresight endowed,
When brooding o'er it cannot but discern
That either it serves as a measure stern
Of Heaven for our correction, since no form
Of life reacts 'gainst its instinctive norm,
Or there is something in Creation wrong
And we but to a godless world belong.
Except these two conclusions, not inapt,
It is a riddle what mist has enwrapt
The mind of man, compelling him to invite
A dreadful end, his cleverness despite
A weird behavior followed by no kind
Of life, save when death makes its instinct blind;
A horribly abnormal trait we fail
To mark as clouds before our vision sail.
If truth and righteousness have real worth
And but to mortal thought owe not their birth,
Can we conceive of something more accurst,
And sacrilegious than this horrid thirst
In man to cause extinction at his will
Of countless forms of life this planet fill?
So either nature is unjust and blind,
Or there is some unfathomed Law behind
Our present fatal choice to act like this,
And has a meaning which today we miss,
But must become apparent at its time
To strengthen mortal faith in Laws Sublime;
And if it be not so, then Faith should cease
And leave men free to frolic as they please.
For if you hold belief in God, can He
Be so impotent or leave men so free
That they kill millions, as one kills a louse,
While He looks timidly on, like a mouse?
An infantile belief that cannot stand
The probe of reason or the keen demand
Of stern morality, for it would mean
That Satan is the master, and we lean
On God, as slaves to false beliefs, and not
Because He is the ruler of our lot.
(iii)
But if our faith is true and there exists
A just Creator hidden in the mists
Of whirling atoms and revolving suns,
Whose will through every grain of matter runs,
Expressed in partly known perennial laws,
Which all phenomena of nature cause,
There must be still some hidden laws behind
What is yet dark and puzzling to our mind;
Behind what is mysterious and obscure,
Or that which keeps us doubting and unsure,
And these unfathomed laws, when they are known,
May clear the doubts to which now we are prone.
These undeciphered laws, to make us gain
Serenity of mind, must make it plain
Whether or not the sphere of life has rules
That make some people wise and others fools,
Create divergence and disparity,
Which so acutely rankles you and me,
Or cause the injustice and unfairness found
In such a soul-tormenting form around,
That 'tis no wonder Faith has ceased to give
The solace by which we in peace can live.
Can we suppose that save our puny mind
The rest of nature is inert and blind?
That man is master of his destiny,
In his own will and choice entirely free?
If this were so could prophet, seer and sage
Have shown a Path, conforming to each age,
For folk to follow to deserve the Prize
Which they all hinted at to make us wise
That we are destined for a higher goal,
And so must act a more becoming role,
That mankind has to reach a State Divine
Where free of chains our souls in glory shine?
This Path or Dharma, call it what you will,
Demands that we should conquer, but not kill
Our passions and desires, tame and subdue
Our nature to be noble, pure and true;
And these instructions were precisely laid
To save from error, rightly guide and aid
Evolving mortals destined for a state
Of deathless glory, reachable soon or late:
A state of Cosmic Knowledge most sublime
Ordained for all mankind in course of time.
But in this age there has occurred a clash
Between our judgments as, mad after cash,
We have forgotten all about the Aim
Of Life, for which the sage and Savior came,
Forgotten that evolving as we are
We should not with improper actions bar
Our path, which means the same as when we try
To stop our heart or lungs, with pain to cry;
Which means to arrest a natural growth decreed
To uplift our mind, ennoble thought and deed;
Which means to disregard all that was taught
By every Founder of religious thought.
This soul-illuminating trend affects
People of all professions, creeds and sects,
Affects decisively all mortals born
To end one day the always rankling thorn
Of death, and joy of deathlessness to taste,
If only they their spare time do not waste,
If only they avail of the golden chance
Of human life to hasten their advance,
And reach the portals of the holy shrine,
Where mortals with immortal luster shine.
The learned scholars on whom we depend
For guidance, have no knowledge of this trend,
Have no suspicion of this hidden urge,
Which like a bright star shining on the verge
Has raised up mankind from a savage shore
To heights of culture, higher still to soar.
No wonder then that scarce a man alive
Has any inkling of this powerful drive
That builds in him a cosmic conscious mind,
Eternal life and peace sublime to find.
Through lack of knowledge of this Plan Divine
We harm and desecrate the evolving Shrine
Of thought, collectively and one by one
And, still unmindful of the damage done,
Expose ourselves to nature's righteous wrath
To stop our wild departure from the Path.
(iv)
When you exhaust all valid reasons for
This morbid state, look through the corridor
Of time, and try to see what fate befell
The ancient empires, which first prospered well,
But later on, contracting faulty traits,
Or morbid thirsts, allured by tempting baits,
And slaves to habits which they could not mend,
Succumbed to them and hastened to their end.
The modern gaudy pageants too await,
By their refusal to change, the same fate.
For mankind has now to a state evolved
Where all schismatic wrangles must be solved,
So that the united race with cautious tread
Along the Cosmic Path may move ahead.
But if a basic change does not occur,
Or out of mutual fear we make no stir
To build a safe, harmonious world with speed,
Embracing every color, class and creed,
The fateful day, clairvoyant spirits fear,
Will come, by force, a global state to rear.
For all adepts, with astral vision blest,
See but one reason for the deep unrest
Seething in men of every faith and class,
As if a current passing through the mass
Demands removal of restrictions which
In man's fraternity create a hitch.
The present restless trend in human minds,
Which in disturbance and commotion finds
A vent, is but a veiled form of this urge
In one united world regime to merge.
At such a lofty intellectual height
It is suicidal for nations to fight,
Since nuclear armaments to mortals give
The choice of whether man shall die or live;
A most decisive factor that should weigh
With those the destinies of nations sway,
And since division is the root of war
They must be more united than they are.
Hence now the choice before the leading minds
Is that their wisdom soon in union binds
The still divided nations of the earth,
To one terrestrial empire to give birth,
Or be prepared for a disastrous war,
With blood the tightly shut doors to unbar.
For Heaven at no compulsive course will stop
To plant the mentally well-seasoned crop
Of humans on the Path to Cosmic Life,
Demanding freedom from contentious strife.
The safety, peace and progress of the race
Can ne'er be built on the explosive base
Of modern armament; this is a sign
To priests and rulers from the Power Divine,
That they must sink their differences to save
Mankind from burial in an atomic grave,
For jarring creeds and sparring nations are
The surest means to invite a nuclear war;
So either nuclear bouts or federal ties,
United mankind lives, divided dies.
I know my these few words will not avail
Against the summoned force of Doom's assault,
But hoping better counsels might prevail
For Heaven's mercy soon to mend our fault;
I, in obedience to an Inner Voice,
Coming from regions deeper than the mind,
Beyond the sphere of mortal will and choice,
Make this submission to alert mankind
That we have passed beyond the safety line
In our immoderate thirst for wealth and might,
Which is against Creation's Grand Design,
And forces Nature too to set us right.
Vibrations in the planet's astral plane
Denote the nearness of the awful Day,
When Hell may rage to make war-mongers sane,
For true, perennial peace to pave the way.
The indications are that time is due
To recreate respect for Heaven's Law,
And that a reign of terror may ensue,
So that the rebel hosts a lesson draw.
Believers in a God cannot condemn,
In their defense, this retributive course,
For if the Almighty Ruler does not stem
The tide of evil, and allows brute force
To flout eternal laws, it would confute
The truth of revelation, leaving man
To follow any self-appointed route
Of life, as well or as ill as he can.
But if religious genius has been right
In its awareness of the moral path,
Then when astray, believing but in might,
Offenders must incur Celestial Wrath.
Alas, the narrowness of human mind
Allowed no conqueror to have a peep
Beforehand at his end, but we can find,
If we employ our mental eye to sweep
Horizons of the ancient empires, built
Upon the sweat and blood of weaker folk,
That they had to disgorge the fruit of guilt,
And soon with their own blood the earth to soak.
Do you not sense now in the atmosphere
Of earth, a turbulence among the youth,
Unrest in elders, though some here and there
Try hard to keep excited tempers smooth?
A clear sign that the Fountain, which supplies
The stream of human thought, reveals a trend
Of disaffection and diversely tries
The factors causing it somehow to end.
The whole terrestrial surface has become
One vast Satanic web of foul intrigue,
With some conspiring on this side and some
On that to form for war a Mighty League.
And from this fiendish web may soon emerge
A strong contingent of determined states,
Which still but dimly seen upon the verge,
For its abruptly launched offensive waits
The destined hour, the predetermined day,
The appointed moment and the fated year,
When some unreckoned cause shall start the fray,
And crowds the sounds of bursting missiles hear.
The best defenses aimed to intercept
And stop a streaking dart, ere it can smite
To vaporize in seconds, as if swept
Clean from the planet, some forechosen site,
Shall prove of no avail against the blasts
Of nature's mightiest Force, employed before
Its time, by power-drunk minds for holocausts,
To wash the stigma of guilt with their gore.
And those who still believe, despite the array
Of facts to show that stern Supernal Laws,
From atoms to sidereal systems, sway
The cosmos, that they can escape because
Inventive man is from their hold immune,
For this fallacious view, itself a crime,
Shall reap, when arrogantly out of tune,
A bitter harvest in due course of time.
Past all defenses, past all ramparts built
At such enormous cost as could suffice
To keep earth's starving millions from the guilt
Of crimes committed for a morsel twice
A day, the infernal engines, as if wrought
By nature for requite through mortal hands,
Shall spread destruction, poison, death and rot
Among the people of contending lands.
And this to such a staggering extent
That future men shall shudder at the thought,
And centuries of time and labor spent
On pomp and vanity shall come to naught.
The awe-struck world shall shiver, numb with fright,
Deprived of feeling, movement, joy and mirth,
As monstrous globes of fire site after site,
Teeming with human crowds, wipe off the earth.
Thus shall be fought, to purge the poisoned world
Of sin, a bloody Mahabharata*,
With hellish arms by human agents hurled,
To re-establish faith in Moral Law.
The only remedies are Holy awe,
A sane apportionment of earthly wealth,
One world confederacy with equal law,
Improved morality and mental health,
Caught in the mesh of passion, pride and lust,
Become confirmed materialists, we trust
No more in faith and God, in heaven and hell,
And live but to amass, our needs to swell;
Alas, awareless that beyond our dreams,
Beyond the moon and stars and lustrous beams
Of sun, a deathless, happy state awaits
Us all, if we resist temporal baits.
See how full many centuries before,
When needs were few and meager was the store
Of goods, the earth produced the noblest men;
Religious geniuses, not met since then,
Whose simple narratives of Realm Divine,
For that sublime experience make us pine.
A state of such surpassing glory filled
With joy celestial that the mind is stilled
In ecstasy, in overwhelming bliss,
For more than that when ravishing Houris kiss
Impassioned men, than highest earthy joy
Which floods the hungry senses but to cloy;
That most intense joy native to the soul,
When free from ego it becomes the Whole.
One with a marvelous pulsating Main
Of deathless Life, beyond the reach of pain,
One with the Eternal Source that gives it birth,
One with the universe, the heaven and earth,
Lost in the Cosmic Deep of Being, past
The thought of life and death, the first and last,
It soars beyond the opposites, serene,
Itself the unified seer and the seen.
This is the future state for which mankind
Is destined, if we let the evolving mind
Have freedom for the inner process which
Is tending to remold it and enrich,
Until the mortal, one with Cosmic Life,
Discerns the meaning of this baffling strife,
To live a glorious life as nature wills,
One which his dreams and high ideals fulfills,
For which, in fact, primordial man was born,
In time as Cosmic Man the earth to adorn.
But now obstructed, as we cannot scan
A day ahead beyond our mortal span,
The soul-uplifting Force, to pass the hitch,
Creates the seething ferment and the itch
For war, a glaring symptom of this age,
Ignored and o'erlooked in the burning rage
For sensuous comforts and luxurious ware,
Exciting pleasures and delicious fare,
And other things, exhausting now on it
The massive armory of all our wit,
Without a single thought towards the soul,
The Spark Divine, of all our search the goal.
Look at the sums on war and pleasure spent,
While millions starve for want of nutriment,
A most revolting feature at a time,
When intellect is basking in her prime,
And needs the human touch to be divine
Or lacking charity to face decline,
Compelling Heaven, as gently as it can,
To clean the dirt, enabling chastened man
To labor for perfection till the race
Attains the heaven-appointed crown with grace.
Chapter 5
A Divided Mankind: Unsafe In the Atomic Age
(i)
The first need of our time is to recast
The current concept, borrowed from the past,
Of what should be the boundaries and the span
For all the homelands of gregarious man,
And whether nations should with hatred seethe,
With every one of them armed to the teeth,
Or they should all unite for earth to be
A haven of peace for our progeny.
There is no reason why man-made confines
Between two nations should have rigid lines,
Why mountains, rivers, deserts, ocean shores
On peoples segregation should enforce;
Why nations should erect forbidding walls
To split themselves and then resort to brawls
On narrow strips of land or right-of-way,
And keep the world in turmoil every day.
Why country, culture or a lingual bond
Or shade of color in black, brown or blond
Or mode of worship or design in dress,
Mankind should into tight compartments press,
And in her union function as a bar;
The primary cause of internecine war,
Of savage bloodshed on some flimsy ground,
Which to our heirs will idiotic sound.
When all our efforts at invention tend
The barriers of time and space to end,
To bring the people of the earth so near
That they can one another's whisper hear,
Or reach the farthest corner of the globe
In less time than it takes a beau to robe,
How can we keep our narrow lines of thought
Against this close interconnection wrought
By our own efforts and desire to span
The gulf of distance keeping man from man?
How can we still house in the narrowed space
Our former prejudice against a race,
Or nation or a foreign creed or caste,
When spatial walls are disappearing fast,
And all the broad earth has become for good
One closely linked, contiguous neighborhood?
How can our faulty notions lead to peace
That though we now converse with France and
Greece
As neighbors, or in but some hours alight,
In them from Malaya by aerial flight,
Yet in our mind their people still regard
As foreigners against them on our guard?
How can this antiquated view, a spawn
Of times when man depended on his brawn
For travel, nourishment and all his needs,
Continue still to sway his thoughts and deeds,
During an era when his lazy crawl
Has gained the swiftness of a cannonball;
When food and fabrics come from all the globe
To feed his hunger and provide his robe,
When every nation near or far away
Relates to him the gossip of the day;
When melody from every land regales
His ears, and their distress his mind assails;
When he for business and material needs
To every corner of the planet speeds;
To buy their products, crops or metal ores,
Supplied by many distant foreign shores,
To have commodities of every type,
Which are a part and parcel of our life?
How can he think in terms of nation, race,
Or color, when the whole terrestrial space
Has grown too narrow for his lightning speed,
Too scanty for his still augmenting need,
And too congested with less room to hold
The rapidly increasing human fold?
When, rather than divide the crowded earth
Into compartments, causing greater dearth
Of space, he can, as one terrestrial whole,
Control of other planets make his goal;
For which already nature must have kept
A good provision, when he grows adept
In setting his domestic problems right,
And, skilled in interplanetary flight,
Can shift to other orbs part of the race
To people new-found territory by Grace.
Before man came was not the earth supplied
With all the needs of life on which he thrived;
What wonder then if there now stands reserved
Some place where his enhanced need will be served?
Apparently the leading intellects
Of our day fail to gauge the full effects
Of new discoveries that have changed the face
Of earth, relaxed the chains of time and space,
Remolding the whole mental frame of men,
More so that of the youth who have begun
To grow rebellious to the older norms
And values-nature's signal for reforms!
But e'en the ablest statesmen fail to scan
The fire aglow now in the heart of man,
Creating in the hid depth of his mind
A sense of unity with all mankind,
A broader outlook, wider mental range,
Although himself unconscious of the change;
A keener urge to share the weal and woe
Of every nation, whether friend or foe;
An ever-growing wish to be on par
With other people, living near and far;
About whose wealth, abundance and high state
He knows as well as of his closest mate;
Proximity creating what before
Remoteness cooled, a yearning more and more
To have harmonious bonds and warmer ties
With all the people as friends and allies.
How with this growing fervor in our mind
Can we a people to one region bind,
When old ideas of a native land
Are changing rapidly towards a grand,
And more progressive concept, full of worth,
That all humanity's homeland is earth?
When intellect with her inventive zeal
Brings distant nations close, and makes them feel
That all the earth is free for them to roam,
To be their country, granary and home,
Their orchard, vegetable garden, field,
Their farm and dairy, ready with their yield,
What madness has the elders seized that they
Still act as Romans once did in their day;
And, all unconscious of the altered trends
Of thought, pursue the same out-dated ends,
Discordant with the higher stature won
By mankind through the fruitful labor done
By genius, which came in a fertile team
To make this age the first part of a dream.
Because the learned still take no account
Of this commotion in the fancy's fount;
This widening ripple on the mental pools
Not only of the wise, but also fools,
The wrong political ideas of old,
Which should have been revised, have the same hold
That they had, when a trip to Java meant
Absence of years from home for one who went.
How can progressive concepts be confined
Inside the prison of a narrow mind?
Or how can notions of the clan and tribe
The thinking of our bright age circumscribe?
And not excite derision or scorn
In people in the present milieu born,
On whom the idea of nation now holds sway,
As that of tribe on tribals did one day?
So, too, the idea of the nation born
In former times, long after the dim morn
Of history, to which we now hold fast
As something which denotes the very last
Advance in our political growth, sure
To stay unchanged, till mankind would endure,
Is but an idle dream, viewed in the light
Of what befell those who once ruled by right:
The tribal chieftain and the feudal lord,
With man's evolving stature to accord.
Can nations stay, when factors that had bred
The concept in Greek times, since long are dead;
Out-dated by our own inventive rage
Which, for a one world-state, has set the stage?
And so our Heads of State whom crowds applaud
May share the fate soon of the feudal lord.
(ii)
Can you believe mankind can long survive,
If scores of nations make a frantic drive,
As they are doing now, to equip their swarms
Of fighting troops with all the latest arms;
With nuclear weapons, in a moment's span
Which can blast countries and kill every man:
All keen to shine in glory, wealth and might,
In power and self-importance at their height,
To be acclaimed the foremost of the race
To have among them all the pride of place?
They are extolling patriotic zeal,
Like serfs and tribesmen who once thought their weal
And woe lay with the chieftain and the lord,
Praised to the sky by minstrel, clown and bard:
A function brilliant penmen still perform,
With this debasing practice to conform,
When, for some favor, they with fawning praise
A king or ruler nigh to godhood raise,
Unmindful that events are taking form,
To drown their panegyrics in the storm
Brewing now many homes to burn and scorch
To force the next step in man's upward march.
And, since to gain these ends each nation tries,
With all her skill, to throw dust in the eyes
Of watchful neighbors, and by hook or crook
To gain a place of vantage or a nook
That can help her attain a forward rank,
Or for a higher leap provide a plank,
To get the better of the rival states,
Or pick the pockets of confiding mates,
What wonder then the whole world has become
An Augean Stable, and the earth's scum
Is hired by leading countries with the aim
To keep ahead in this nefarious game?
How can our rising generations gain
In truth and virtue or grow sound and sane
In this tornado of deceit and wile,
Which does the whole of earth's crust defile,
Whereof the young imbibe a daily dose,
When shrieking headlines in the news disclose
Corruption, scandals and misdeeds of those
In whom whole nations all their trust repose?
Or, when disputing nations lay the blame
On one another for gross acts of shame;
So heinous that no murderer or thief
Has done what many a ruler, statesman, chief
Still does on the plea that the need of time
Or nation's interest called for the crime:
Engineered butcheries, uprisings, riots
And bloody coups, acclaimed as brave exploits,
Of those who pose as models for the rest,
And are, by vote, ranked as a nation's crest.
Observe now what conflicting forces act
On human minds to scatter and distract,
To pour into the psychological pool
Of man a tincture at once warm and cool,
To make his life a contradiction torn
Between the need of times and creeds outworn.
We see what our advancing intellect
Has since created, as the architect
Of our terrestrial life, to fill our hands
With choicest things and gifts from all the lands;
To lay, whene'er required, beneath our feet
The magic carpet by which we can meet,
And talk to all the people on the earth
To take part in their daily grief and mirth.
But still the elders of a State demand
All one's devotion for his native land,
Which makes him blind to what a child can see
That he belongs to all humanity;
That he is free now of the chains that bound
His mind and body to the soil around;
And has attained a global stature which,
To grow, an earth-wide culture must enrich.
Today few are the nations that can trace
Their pedigree to but one stock or race,
To but one blood, descent or but one brood,
To have the pride of flawless nationhood.
Full many factors, nigh in every clime,
Acting diversely through colossal time,
Upheavals, cataclysms, famine, dearth,
Compelled uprooted crowds to roam the earth;
To flee the threat of shortage, foes or drought,
Creating with the intermixture wrought
New groups, new people, nations, tribes and clans
Whose past the anthropologist now scans.
And e'en today, despite the rigid ties
That ban admixture, many a pair defies
Conventional bonds to marry out of caste
Or creed, which conservatives watch aghast,
Resulting in crossbreeding and fresh broods
To meet mysterious nature's changing moods.
Besides this, exodus, migration, war
And other causes that draw people far
To settle in another land or clime,
By intermarriages, in course of time,
May slowly with new ethnic types dilute
The present nations nature's aim to suit.
Viewed in this light what factor still remains
To forge the inelastic mental chains
That keep and have in isolation kept
The people of a country often swept
By fierce, successive waves of foreign hosts
That mated with the natives of the coasts,
Or drove them out in turn to fall a prey
To stronger hordes which with them chose to stay;
And then a natural boundary, common creed,
Language or culture made this mongrel breed
A nation, which the lust for power and rage
Of gain has made an Idol in this age.
The modern nation is a passing phase
In man's yet vaguely grasped instinctive chase
After perennial peace, both in and out,
For which the basic need, without a doubt,
Is the formation of a global state
Entirely free of rivalry and hate;
To mark the consummation of a trend
Which started with Man's first attempt to blend
And mix with other people, groups and tribes:
One of the methods wisdom still prescribes
For peace, abiding happiness and good
Of mankind in one Earth-wide Brotherhood.
(iii)
The modern intellect has been at fault
In bringing mankind to a longer halt
So obstinately at the national bound,
As if it is the last solution found,
Refusing stubbornly to step beyond
The hackneyed orders of which they are fond.
Most of our leading spirits know it well
That war between two nuclear powers would spell
The end of progress and a fiery hell
Would fiercely rage around us all to dwell
For decades, in which awfully mangled, maimed
And mutilated wrecks who once were famed
For beauty, wealth or wit would fill the earth.
But few, indeed, condemn this hopeless dearth
Of deeper insight in those who command
Leading positions of trust in their land.
They are few, as there is a cause behind
The present faulty thinking of mankind;
A kink born of agnostic intellect,
Which holds that man is the sole architect
Of his political and social creeds,
And not that an unseen intelligence leads
The race by steps towards a lofty height,
While blind to it we on mere trifles fight,
And cut each other's throats, fooled by the twist
In thought, that our creations can persist
Against the plan of nature, and this kink
Is more pronounced in the way skeptics think.
Do not today full many nations hold
Diversity of culture in their fold,
Of language, faith, attire and ethnic brands,
That dwell in naturally divided lands?
But still political exigence calls
The lot a nation till the structure falls
Apart, when a war or disruptive trend
This weak admixture does to pieces rend.
The national concept-an exploded myth,
A genealogical tree that has no pith-
Is but a shibboleth of ruling teams
To please the masses with Utopian dreams
Of world supremacy and boundless power,
A most pernicious doctrine at this hour.
Swept off by man-engineered popular tides
On which, for some time, every nation rides,
The wiser heads too, though averse, are loath
To go against the elite and commons both,
And yield to what they would denounce, if free
To choose, as nothing short of lunacy.
But when the destined moment comes to pass,
And war hysteria grips the nation's mass,
The more discerning too are equally hit,
Though knowing the futility of it.
When man's organic frame is strictly bound
By laws that act to keep it safe and sound,
And in distempers, with amazing knack,
Contrive to bring it to its vigor back,
Anent the racial frame can we suppose
That for the whole of mankind nature chose
A loose, capricious course and left the fold
Entirely free its destiny to mold;
And has not bound it with a hid device,
Akin to those which guide the ants and mice,
In the collective frame to be a check
Against propensities the race can wreck.
It must be that the same organic laws
Which make us ill or crazy, also cause
Upheavals, revolutions, riots and wars,
When people pass beyond the safety bars
Towards a way of life disastrous for
The health and welfare of the species or
Discordant with a future aim in view,
And at a crucial time cause in a few
The frenzy and the ferment that soon leads
To dread uprisings and atrocious deeds.
The leader whose fire and infectious zeal,
Resource, flint-heartedness and will of steel,
Master-minds every popular rising aimed
To change political setups earlier framed,
Is not a product of chance but design,
Sent by the racial mind to undermine
Outmoded orders that need instant change
To suit man's e'er extending mental range,
Which vested interests, parochial aims
And conservatism, under various names,
Wish to perpetuate, holding to them fast,
And ne'er allow by choice to be recast,
Until designedly fashioned rebel brains,
Disrupt the order and untie the chains.
Can you explain why turmoil and unrest,
Despite the fact that man now amply blest,
Has all that can make earth a paradise,
Instead of calming down yet higher rise?
They pose a ticklish problem for the shrewd,
If calmly in the right perspective viewed.
For every step to improve and mend the plight
Of people for a smooth and rapid flight
To realms of joy and luxury provokes
The spiteful witch of envy, whose hand stokes
The fire of hatred to such high degree
It threatens to consume humanity?
The richer states, e'en when they freely spend
Out of their coffers with the aim to mend
The sad condition of penurious lands,
Soon find that they had only built on sands,
For not unoft the folk they helped to rise
By their behavior shortly make them wise
That their hearts more with fires of envy glow
Than warmth for the gratitude they owe.
This is because the instinctive urge in man
Is for an equal portion no less than
That of his neighbors, and impelled by greed
He tries his best to make his share exceed
That of the rest, the basic fault which keeps
Mankind in trouble and misfortunes heaps.
The learned of our age are much perplexed
By what is happening now and rightly vexed
At this strange outcome of a grandiose plan,
And unexpected vagaries of man,
Who has a hunger which the more you feed
The more insatiable it grows, indeed.
They are not wise to what they should have known
That nature has antagonistic grown,
That, like a sunspot, on the flaming plane
Of Cosmic Consciousness, which feeds the brain,
A fearsome vortex, signifying wrath,
Proclaims man's wild departure from the path.
(iv)
From ancient records which the earth has kept
Or which the wit and skill of man has left,
Like pyramids of Egypt which now stand
To tell the story of the hoary land,
It is apparent that time after time
Some people of the earth attained a prime,
When with heroic battles they subdued
Their neighbors, not yet with this fire imbued,
And spread their conquest far to distant lands,
To hold colossal empires in their hands.
Our previous history, we cannot fail
To notice, always tells the same old tale;
The same old cycle of unceasing fight
And battle for one with superior might
To annex the conquered regions and enslave
The vanquished nations who, perhaps, as brave,
But, poor in organizing, arms or skill,
Were forced to be submissive to their will.
In many once victorious, wealthy lands,
Now partially engulfed by spreading sands,
The hand of destiny has kept the marks,
Of royal towns and magnificent parks,
Of piles of scattered ruins which bespeak
Wealth, luxury and grandeur at their peak,
On which morosely shines the pallid moon,
Aware how human greatness ends too soon,
That earthly splendor is an empty show-
A meteor's waxing and then waning glow-
Of which the strings are pulled by a mighty Force
That keeps evolving mankind on its course.
Imperial power, high rank and wealth are baits
Which nature uses to tempt both men and states
To strive for higher and still higher peaks,
As once did Romans and before them Greeks,
To gain more power, more treasures and more fame,
Extorted from the gentle, weak and tame,
All this to have more leisure and more time
For what? To meet the ends of quest sublime,
One must pursue with zeal in youth or prime,
To make use of the preparatory stage,
One needs to bloom into a Cosmic Sage.
But oft the leisured folk soon make the means,
Designed to reach a grand end from their teens,
The end itself, and in indulgence drown
Their prime, alas! to lose a glorious crown,
To barter for the pleasure of a day
Eternal blessedness and perennial sway.
Hence nature using time's relentless hand
Too soon destroys the glory of a land,
When those who let their rise to power and wealth
Corrupt their morals and impair their health,
The pillars on which evolution rests
Wherefore their soundness nature keenly tests,
Before admitting to the Holy Shrine
Mortals, on pilgrimage to Life Divine.
Imperial nations and great kings arose
And at the zenith of their glory froze,
As if Fate takes a diabolic joy
In granting greatness only to destroy,
Driving ascendant realms towards decline
When in full glory they begin to shine.
The mammoth edifices the Pharaohs built,
As if ordained by Fate to voice their guilt,
Consumed resources and manpower which bore
Exhausted Egypt down the slippery shore.
The conquests of Napoleon soon bled white
A mighty land, fore'er to lose that height
And victories of Alexander cost
The Greeks their greatness which they shortly lost.
A standing warning to the modern great,
Who fondly think they can escape this fate,
In dark about the Eternal Cosmic Law
Which acts on mortals, as wind does on straw,
And of which scholars, to the grief of man,
Have no awareness nor are prepared to scan.
But which relentlessly will deal again
The same chastisement to the great who, vain
And power-drunk, with imprudent thought and deed
The pace of man's progressive rise impede.
The empires built, while trodden millions wept,
Soon with cyclonic fury off were swept.
Whichever nation domination sought,
Or tooth and nail for vast dominion fought,
Exhausted swiftly by the enormous strain,
And soon depleted by the excessive drain
On manhood and resources fell at last,
To serve as warning lessons from the past
To modern nations which commit again
The same mistake and strive for world domain.
Has not our age, too, witnessed this display
Of lust for power which ended the same way:
Ambitious Hitler's rise to power amidst
The scenes of horror of his iron fist;
And proud Napoleon's dream of world domain,
Built on vast piles of wounded and the slain,
Dreams and ambitions of abnormal minds
Endued with genius of aberrant kinds,
Which, skilled in setting human hearts on fire,
With glowing promises of fulfilled desire,
Of national vanity and cultural pride-
Igniting sparks so easily applied-
And, building strongholds on warm human hearts,
In bloody dramas play conspicuous parts,
To leave soon prostrate, like a fallen tree,
The crowds fooled by their skill in oratory?
Chapter 6
Why Another World War Is Inevitable
(i)
What is the answer to the riddle posed
By our behavior, which is all opposed
To the primordial instinct, rooted deep
In mortals their lives safe from death to keep?
What is the reason for the glaring fact
That threats of nuclear war do not distract
Our minds to that extent as they should do
To worry us and drive to action too?
If our reaction to the menace were
As healthy as it should be, when in fear,
With life on one, death on the other side,
All normal men with lightning speed decide:
How they should act, which way their safety lies
For every animal at danger shies.
Viewed in the right perspective one would think
That people should react with fear and shrink
From e'en the thought of nuclear wars, so grave
It should produce a strong reflex to save
Their life and all, before it comes to pass,
Resulting in destruction of the mass
Of mankind or, at least, those threatened most
Who would, no doubt, make up a mammoth host
Of millions slain and millions in a state
Of torment only Death can palliate.
Bearing in mind that now on several shores
There are concealed or open massive stores
Of nuclear missiles of the latest type,
Ready for use whenever the time is ripe,
Put this one simple question to yourself:
Will all these toys remain locked in a shelf
For ages, and their owners all refrain
From making use of this destructive bane,
And under every provocation hold
To this decision till we all grow old,
And death will spare us the dread scenes we fear
When one day missiles earth will rend and tear?
If you are optimistic, pray excuse
My lapse, if bluntly I contest your views,
If I attempt to show that you are wrong
So much so, that I have no words too strong
To castigate this kind of mental rust;
This intellectual block which takes on trust
Matters of vital import for us all;
Whether the human race shall rise or fall,
Or whether our own world shall stay the same
Or turn into a hell of raging flame.
What are the grounds for your complacent stand,
Trusting that things will not go out of hand,
That all these deadly engines will remain
Unused, and that no unexpected chain
Of chance events will e'er occur to explode
The now precarious state of peace, and goad
Some country, when beyond endurance hit,
To throw all caution to the winds and slit
The slender thread of prudence to unbar
The floodgates of a world-wide nuclear war?
Do you suppose the elite who hold the rein
Of power in your country will e'en remain
(Knowing what devastation can occur,
If they are lax in care or slightly err)
Unmoved, and that no insult, threat or loss
From any side would e'er push them across
The bound of prudence to a state of ire,
Where blind to all the consequences dire,
They rashly use a weapon that would mean
The grim beginning of a Doomsday scene?
If so, you show a woeful ignorance
Of human nature and the role which chance
Can act in forcing men to change their mind,
As happened in the decades left behind,
When chance occurrences, like evil stars,
Drew nations helplessly to bloody wars.
Again what of the many foreign lands
That have the awful weapon in their hands?
Do you suppose that your superior arms,
Or much more larger stock will act like charms
To cow them to inaction or deter?
If so, you still miscalculate and err,
And are committing such a grave mistake
That might cost you your life ere you awake.
You have no knowledge, save from outer signs,
Of their ulterior motives and designs,
And if you measure them with your own yard
That means you previous lessons disregard,
And let yourself be cheated and deceived
By false exteriors to be sorely grieved;
Expose to danger all you value best,
Your life, possessions, household and the rest,
And offer what you love with all your heart
To demolition by the nuclear dart.
(ii)
The view that states will not resort to war
Until in nuclear arms they are on par
Is as fallacious as it is inane,
And everybody wide awake and sane
Can see, and ought to know, that lust for power
Waits not for parity nor mature hour,
But smites when least foreseen and in advance,
The moment it believes there is a chance
To bring a rival down or but to cow
Into submission with a timely blow;
Nor vengeance cares to hold her hand for long
In weighing whether she is weak or strong,
But unexpectedly, more in the rear
Than front, she strikes hard when the foe is near.
Neither your state nor other powers will wait
Your pleasure nor respond to any bait,
Nor stick to any principle nor code
Of law, when mounting pressures spur and goad
Them on to rash decisions and, at once,
The sky may blaze with bursting megatons.
When bent on it no argument at all,
No treaty, agreement or moral wall
Will stop this mad decision any day
To send the fatal weapon on its way.
If still you harbor e'en the slightest doubt
That in the next decisive global bout
The missile will not figure from the start,
Or at the end, to act a ghastly part,
It shows you have not learnt from history,
Or it has clean escaped your memory
That, e'en if they wish it, top statesmen are
Themselves incapable, in peace or war,
Of changing world conditions, at their will,
Whatever be their stature, power or skill;
And all at once on some unlucky day
A single incident may pave the way
Towards a sudden crisis, past their skill;
And nuclear war erupt against their will.
In case you still in them repose some trust
That they can hold firm in a sudden gust
Of adverse wind, when accidents upset
The flimsy balance of peace, you forget
That, clutching with both hands their shaky throne,
Against the oppositions, they are prone
To overact their part to meet the attack
From any hostile country, for if slack
They hear their opponent's derisive cry
That they retreated since they feared to die.
So if we think our clever ruling teams
Can, in the nick of time, hold falling beams,
And keep the roof from crashing on our head,
Then both to sense and prudence we are dead.
Whate'er our diplomats contend or say,
Whatever tricks the foreign statesmen play,
Do not forget that this infernal stock,
This lightning poised above the human flock,
Will not, unto the last, keep circling round,
Just looking for a vacant bit of ground,
Where it can strike without inflicting hurt,
Nor will the owners always stay alert
To keep the Dragon sleeping which but one
Out of ten million men, each with a gun,
Can with a single random shot awake,
And then with its attacks the planet shake.
How long can nations, all armed to the teeth,
Avoid the deadly mine laid underneath,
Avert but one collision that can fire
The dread thing, blowing up the host entire?
How long can statesmen with evasive talk,
The crouching monster of its blind prey balk?
How long can narrow margins and escapes
Avoid the Mouth of Death which widely gapes,
So strong and huge it can in one bite eat
A million living creatures, bone and meat?
We but deceive ourselves or are unwise,
Or still live in a fool's mock paradise,
If, after witnessing the striking change
In war technology and the long range
Of missiles, we ignore these vital facts;
And all surrounded by infernal tracts,
Full many scores in number, which now form
The launching sites for this destructive storm,
We still believe that they will always lie
Intact, and armies battle, kill and die
With normal weapons, and that no reverse
Nor accident nor any mind perverse,
Amongst the warring nations, will ignite,
To wrap the earth in flames, this nuclear blight.
Better it is to keep our mind prepared
More for this: that no effort will be spared
To find some loophole, when the battle starts,
For hurling, lightning-like, these awful darts
To paralyze the foe ere he has time
To take the lead in this Satanic crime.
(iii)
We still will be mistaken if we hope
That statesmanship will find a way to cope
With this alarming problem, if not now,
At least, as soon as changing trends allow.
For how in future can you guarantee,
When less developed countries are now free
To buy new weapons and increase their might,
As much as they desire or think is right,
The safety of less populated lands
That have preponderant portions in their hands
Of earth's resources, fertile tracts and gold,
Secured by force or by adventure bold?
They cannot with the older type of arms
Withstand the onslaught of the mammoth swarms
Which densely peopled countries can deploy
Against the meager number they employ.
Within a few more years the larger ones
Armed with the latest engines, tanks and guns,
Would be more than a match e'en all alone,
But with a coalition stronger grown,
Can prove invincible when they smite
And make the erstwhile great the dust to bite.
Within a few more years the crowded East
Will be a power to reckon with, at least.
The larger countries India, China and
The Arab states brought under one command,
Which singly or combined are sure to prove
A serious threat to those whose minds yet move
In the old rut, who still serenely feed
Their vanity, their power-lust and their greed
On this assurance that their nuclear arm,
In all events, can keep them safe from harm.
Increase in strength of a less developed state
Compels one more advanced to compensate
It by a swift proportionate increase
In its own strength, a race that ne'er can cease
So long as mankind is bound by the chain
Of high temporal power or rage of gain.
Progressive trends in less developed states,
More so the larger ones with high birth rates,
When coupled with enhanced campaigning might,
Cannot but lay bare to the piercing sight
Of heads of forward states the urgent need
Of raising their own strength with greater speed.
As in a war manpower immensely counts,
And as the might of larger countries mounts,
And will keep on augmenting till they are
With mightiest of the forward lands on par,
The latter's efforts then to keep ahead
In this mad race must lead to exhaustion dead,
And in some decades more, if in that span
War is not outlawed by a global ban,
Before exhaustion supervenes, perhaps,
It might have changed the planet's boundary maps.
The hackneyed formula of balanced power
Can prove disastrous for peace at this hour,
Because, when every nation tries to gain
The top position, it can forge a chain
So vicious that continuance of this trend,
Of all attempts at peace can make an end.
Since our advancement on the mental side
Continues upward with a rapid stride,
So every step we gain on this ascent
Effects improvement in our armament,
Entailing greater labor, heavier price,
And day by day increasing sacrifice.
Ambitious nations which strive to excel
In fighting power, with each addition swell
Their budgets for defense to such a load
That can their whole economy explode;
Compelled to host for this barbaric need
A most voracious monster whom, to feed,
They have to sweat and bleed, to stint and save,
Privations, hardships and ill winds to brave.
But try, as they might, they see no way out
From this exhausting and expensive gout,
Except to find new ways to meet the expense
On this distemper caused by lack of sense.
The foremost nations in this hectic race
A hundred handicaps and hurdles face.
They have to guard against the slightest chance
That helps their rivals gain the least advance
In army strength or stocks of latest arms,
Or world opinion which in some way harms
Their prestige, always anxious not to cede
Any loophole for them to gain a lead,
In e'en one of a hundred different things
Out of which interstate contention springs;
Assailed by e'er recurring fear to keep
Their country well protected from the sweep
Of hostile forces, they do not permit
Their vigilance to slacken e'en one bit.
Hard is a diplomat's unholy task
To keep a dagger hid behind the mask
Of smiles and goodwill, with a constant watch
So that a rival does not steal a march,
Nor grow in strength nor wealth nor prosper more
Nor gain in industry nor precious ore,
Nor own more talent nor inventive skill,
Like envious neighbors wishing each other ill:
A hopeless tangle no one cares to solve,
For it does not let human mind evolve,
And waits for nature now to apply the rod
To bring us round to sanity and God.
Why this malignance with hypocrisy,
So that no nation any time is free
Of ill intent against her sister states,
Not their felicity but downfall waits?
How such a morbid frame of mind can lift
Up from the sea of hate on which they drift
Our honored politicians, who win fame
When they kill myriads, countries set aflame,
Or watch in silence millions put to sword
And, if it suits their aim, not say a word?
Now, that two mighty giants in the race,
India and China both grow strong apace,
And other smaller lands whose warlike hosts
Try hard to vie in strength with forward coasts,
The efforts of the leading powers to stay
Supreme, become more taxing every day,
And fresh endeavors made to keep in front
Can drain their life's blood with the effort spent;
And has begun already to create,
Among the youth of many a forward state,
Distaste for actions which the elders prize,
Ill matching now man's intellectual size.
(iv)
The human world, divided into parts,
Riven by envy, hate, malicious hearts,
Dissension, rivalry and deathless feuds,
Antagonistic views and attitudes,
So deep and on such basic principles
That e'en if half of mankind firmly wills
The problem of world peace cannot be solved
Unless the fundamentals are resolved.
In such an atmosphere the imp of war,
With all his dreadful gear, is never far,
So every prudent nation from each dawn
To dusk, at all hours, keeps her armor on.
Too credulous and simple is the man
Who, with the vista of the previous span
Of current century before his eyes,
Still hopes that all these loud, appealing cries
For world peace and disarmament might tend
To ease the tension and the menace end.
These efforts might have borne abundant fruit
Had warfare but in man's own choice its root.
But since it is a symptom of disease,
Which must be rooted out ere it can cease,
The lukewarm efforts made now, like a cry
In wilderness, without an answer die.
In fairness to the leaders, known to fame,
On top in various lands, whom we now blame
For all unpleasant happenings in the world,
It must be said that they themselves are whirled
By international crises, never far,
Which, if not solved with skill, can cause a war.
There is no one ideal for all mankind
That into one great brotherhood can bind
The nations of the earth which meets the needs
Of politics and all religious creeds,
This only evolution can supply
By holding a great prize before the eye
Of all the race, for the goal is one
The way is one, and one the effort done.
Mankind can then push forward as one whole,
A mighty Caravan bound for one Goal,
Compared to which the treasures of the earth
Are less alluring and far less in worth.
In fact, but for our own self-seeking trend
And vanity, this is the aim and end
Of all religions, this faith in one God
One great ideal to worship, love and laud,
Faith that our soul can rise to heights, beyond
Our thought, provide for peace a common bond.
Can you resolve this tangle in your mind,
When you consider all the strings which bind
The wealthier nations, who their utmost try
To keep themselves safe from the evil eye
Of needy ones, whose hungry millions lack,
Sufficient room their ill-fed mass to pack,
And are resolved their boundaries to expand
By snatching every piece of vacant land
From others, as keen to defend their right
And save their own from theft with bloody fight?
How can you curb the native urge to thrive
In Want, and hold back its impulsive drive
To garner plenty at the highest price,
And in a manner that may not be nice;
Or force Abundance to relax her hold
On treasured assets, territory and gold,
To end contention and disastrous fight
Which both the sides have always well in sight?
Since neither Plenty nor can Want relax
Their efforts, we but our own patience tax
By hoping vainly that a day will come,
When peace bells would replace the battle drum.
A most distracting problem in the mind
Of rich and powerful nations is to find
A way to end the e'er existing threat,
Posed by the rise of poorer countries set
On climbing rapidly to the same height
In weapons, army and aggressive might.
The methods now employed by leading states
To muster all their strength for heavy spates
Of war production, using ablest hands
And all resources that the state commands,
To excel, outnumber and outmatch a foe
In armies, armor and the weight of blow,
Are spreading rapidly to poorer realms
That have ambitious rulers at their helms,
Wrapt in alluring dreams of mastery,
And eager on the highest peak to be.
As it is possible for a larger land,
Fivefold in population, to command
Five times the craftsmen to prepare the arms,
Five times the labor and five times the swarms
Of armed assailants at a chosen front,
A total conflict, it is evident,
Confers a clear advantage, if not now,
As soon as their own progress can allow,
On populous lands which must emerge ere long
If not superior to, at least, as strong
As are the mightiest nations of the day,
For e'er as hated rival powers to stay,
Until this constant state of siege incites,
As it does often, both to deadly fights.
As learning, technical know-how and skill
Can never be subservient to the will
Of any favored land or gifted mind,
(For bias does not heaven's bounties bind)
They sadly lack in common sense, indeed,
Who of the recent lessons take no heed,
And still have some illusion on the score
That time will ne'er come for a backward shore
To match them, point by point, if not outpace
In what is now a suicidal race
Towards destruction-nature's last resort
To cut humanity's rebellion short.
Although we may well from the notion shrink
That great men can to such low levels sink
As to engage the finest human brains
To win in world-destroying death campaigns,
Yet this exactly is the main concern
Of those who now the chairs of power adorn,
More so, in super-states, behind the scenes
For man's extinction who devise the means!
Assuming that on some day, not now far,
Some less advanced land will be nigh on par
With forward ones in every foul device,
Which lust for power invents at any price,
What force or measures can we use to bar
The former from resorting then to war,
When but superior numbers can decide
The fight in favor of the larger side?
(v)
The leading nations that are facing now
This threat to their position ne'er allow,
By word or gesture, e'en a hint to escape,
That they are worried but discreetly shape
Their policy to smother and delay
The growth in strength, unto the farthest day,
Of warlike people, who reveal a scope
For prowess, with which it is hard to cope.
Hence diplomatic battles rage around,
And ships of less advanced lands run aground,
Hence dark conspiracies, intrigues and plots
Befoul the face of earth at many spots,
Hence gold, like water, flows through hidden hands
To buy the scum and filth of other lands,
For mutinies, rebellions and revolts,
Which rend and tear their clime, like thunderbolts,
Leading to those horrific bloody deeds
Of which one in the daily papers reads;
Hence states incited against each other fight
To bring down or exhaust their growing might.
This is the elevating spectacle
Which we present, when at the pinnacle
Of progress, science and technology,
When we are cultured to a high degree,
With such amenities and lavish means
Our sires could not imagine in their dreams;
And yet are guilty of a hideous rape
Of morals, such that no one can escape
Its vicious influence, more so the young,
Whose artless minds, exposed to all this dung
And filth, soon learn the tricks their elders play,
To beat them in this wicked game one day;
And, while declaring faith in God, make it
Their choice to act the Devil with their wit.
Since these ignoble methods ne'er ensure
Of Lust-to-Power's unrest a lasting cure,
And countries, long subjected to these tricks,
Soon learn to counter them with similar pricks.
But then the tricksters learn new ways to guard
Themselves and use e'en subtler tricks and fraud,
To put off to the last the dreaded day,
When they are equally matched for a fray,
When their proud armies, erstwhile at the top,
From this commanding height to bottom drop.
That they are wholly helpless needs no proof,
For in this epoch who can stay aloof,
When vengeful opponents can reach his door
In but a few hours from a distant shore?
When avaricious hosts his wealth to share
Would stop at no risk and all hazard dare?
The only way to keep the hordes away,
Or, at least, for a period to delay,
Their onslaught, was to forge a fiendish arm
Which, with the open threat of grievous harm
And devastating loss of life, would keep
A foe from taking such a fatal leap.
That is why oft a stony silence greets
The pacifists, when they parade the streets,
To shout against war and the nuclear arm,
And why the rest who, too, view with alarm
The growing nuclear stockpiles keep so mum,
For they know that the swinging pendulum
Of power makes it essential for their land
To have a frightful weapon in her hand
To save their treasures and their balmy clime
From fierce, rapacious hosts who bide their time;
That is why there are now less chances for
Lovers of peace to end the threat of war.
That is why public figures of today,
At least those to parochial trends a prey,
Renounce their principles to glide at ease
On popular currents the crowd to please.
While for the sake of Truth and Safety both
They should denounce this new malignant growth,
Which grants security but to destroy,
And adds to prestige only to decoy
Into a flaming hell, which soon shall rage,
To mark the birth pangs of a Golden Age.
Against the over-hanging threat innate
In the existence of the sovereign state,
Unsuited now to man's progressive trend,
Which, therefore, nature is resolved to end,
The forward lands, on guard 'gainst envious eyes,
For their assured protection think it wise
To have atomic arms to keep their shores
Safe from a numerically superior force.
They can no more exist without this than
A bank can do without a night watchman.
This mode of thinking, too, has serious faults,
For it takes no account of sudden assaults
Made with the same infernal engines, they
Possess to keep the invading hordes at bay.
But when they too possess the dreaded arm,
And madly bent on doing grievous harm,
What can prevent them from a step designed
To plunge into a maelstrom all mankind?
(vi)
Existence of the nuclear arm, designed
To calm the unrest of a troubled mind,
By its extreme destructiveness, reveals
How its possessor for his safety feels.
This most elaborate, destructive gear
Consuming tons of gold, extremely dear,
Is not the outcome merely of a whim,
But of a purpose most profane and grim,
To gain an end that cannot be fulfilled,
Save with this foul device that would have killed
Full many scores of millions ere mankind
The safest route to lasting peace will find.
What means can you suggest to stop this flood
Of nuclear arms from sucking all the blood
Of mankind, for this costly weapon will
Exhaust poor nations, crowds with hunger kill.
But hate, mistrust or rivalry will force
Full scores of them to this disastrous course;
And those who set the example will repent
The wrong lead taken and the treasures spent.
This crisis, which our thinking must revise,
Is now envisioned clearly by the wise,
And hence to settle interstate disputes
All try their best to use pacific routes,
Knowing full well the storm that will arise,
Should statesmanship once fail to compromise.
Hence shuttle diplomacy, hurried trips,
With problems on the spot to come to grips,
By high dignitaries of premier states
To buy potential foes with tempting baits,
So that a major war may not erupt
Their own ambitious dreams to interrupt.
Except one world regime, there is no way
The fire of hate or thirst for blood to allay.
For who descending from his perch aloft
With love, humility and manner soft,
Would raise the trodden from their lowly plane,
A task that keeps evolving mortals sane,
And in this way combining West and East
Lay the foundation of abiding peace.
Except this certain cure there is no way
To stop the conflict now or any day.
The top-rank statesmen of the premier realms-
The men who sway their fate and hold the helms-
Already have the problem on their mind,
And try their best some remedy to find.
But they have found no means, no certain way
To stop formation of this strong array
Of power against them; they find no way out
To avoid this dread, inevitable bout
With steadily advancing needy swarms,
Save by the atrocious force of nuclear arms.
This throws a flood of light on many things,
So far obscure, on many hidden strings
That daily make a host of puppets act,
Disguised and marshaled with exceeding tact.
This makes it clear why such enormous wealth
Is spent to bring to life a threat to health;
A monstrous weapon with a murderous aim
Of which posterity will take the name
With horror, shrinking at the frame of mind
That could make use of weapons of this kind,
Reducing war to plainest massacre
Without experiencing the slightest stir
Of conscience that it is a heinous crime;
The most abhorrent evil of all time!
It is apparent that the premier states
Want this device to guard their large estates,
Their dominant position and control
On earth's economy, their leading role
Amongst the nations, and to this end need
A strong deterrent for all those to heed,
Who hostile, jealous or ambitious dream
Of e'er replacing them to reign supreme.
Now that they both, the mighty of the day
And their contestants, hunters and their prey,
Have at their elbow this profane device,
And none of them would like to pay the price
Of climbing down from his adopted stand
Towards a compromise or stretch his hand,
There is no hope that mankind will escape
The dreadful outcome of this wanton rape
Of reason, of this hate that has begun
In place of love in all her veins to run.
The leading powers cannot afford to scrap
This millionfold destructive thunderclap,
Which, when discharged, with one earth-shaking roar
Can fill with terror the most distant shore,
Can anywhere with one tremendous leap
Like to a white-hot solar tempest sweep.
They cannot for their safety now discard
This most destructive, diabolic guard
Which, at the least encroachment, with one bound
A whole dominion can to pieces pound,
And, reaching every place on land and sea,
Deter the most audacious enemy
From making any move that would provoke
Retaliation with this thunder-stroke.
They need a hellish engine of this sort
To cover many a distant harbor, port,
Commercial sea route or strategic site,
To guard approaches and augment their might;
Full many a distant palace, castle, fort:
Adornments of a vast, imperial court,
Which, as did Alexander in his day,
They hold to guarantee perennial sway,
Again to meet the same unhappy fate,
And lose the hollow greatness soon or late.
It is not easy for a kingdom spread
All o'er the earth to function at the head
Of fast-competing countries, or to guard
Her distant bastions, built with labor hard,
With e'en the deadliest of the older arms,
For time despoils all weapons of their charms.
Such countries must have, in this giddy age,
A lightning-like device of war to wage
Their battles from a distance to defend
The widely scattered empire at each end.
How can rival powers be true or sincere,
When they each other like the devil fear,
In their professed desire for lasting peace,
Disarmament or e'en a small decrease
In nuclear arms or armies; when each views
The other with extreme distrust and lives
To show him down, out-match him and excel
In power and prestige, built on bomb and shell?
How can this race to death impelled by greed
And lust for power or wealth abate, indeed,
And not grow faster as more decades pass,
Gathering alarmingly in speed and mass,
Till, like an avalanche with thundering roar,
And fierce concussion, never felt before,
It swallows millions more than one can tell,
And makes of millions more their life a hell?
And so disarmament will e'er remain
A dream unrealized, a longing vain
Of sober minds that know the outcome well,
If nuclear weapons multiply and swell
At such a rate, and if still more domains
Act by this latest flash of clever brains.
They know the awful outcome which will be
In part destruction of humanity.
For no man born can hold the hand of chance
Or guard against the now haphazard dance
Of world's disruptive forces, or forebode
Where and when will a hidden mine explode
During the cold war and the struggle hard
Between the rival groups, fought at each yard
Of the earth's surface they claim as their sod,
Entirely mindless of the will of God.
Since all the summit powers are firmly bent
On owning this plutonian engine meant
To guard their grandeur from the greedy paws
Of poorer folk, who can take up the cause
Of peace or raise a finger to denounce
This dread conspiracy, as they will pounce
On them, and clever penmen tear to bits
One who this weak spot in their armor hits.
That is why knowledge, wisdom, skill and wit
Against a deadly challenge calmly sit,
And do not raise their voice in protest bold
Which o'er the earth like thunder should have rolled
Against this mortal threat to morals, life
And health of humankind; against this knife
Which stabbing at a city in the dead
Of night can every townsman kill in bed;
Against this horrible example set
By more enlightened nations, who forget
That those who won their greatness with the sword
Were always emulated, word for word,
By people less advanced who, in the past,
Defeated them at their own game at last.
Conclusion
(i)
Today mankind cannot survive for long,
Divided into fragments, if a strong
Decision-making body at the head
Of one United World, whose rule is spread
To each and every corner of the globe,
Is not appointed soon to look and probe
Into the main affairs of every state,
Drawn from all nations now, and not too late,
Kept on the o'erall task to build and plan
A new world order for progressive man.
It is high time that mankind heeds the signs
Which point to what the racial mind designs,
What is the surest method we can find
To build a war-free world for humankind,
And end the menace of a nuclear war
Which, from all indications, is not far,
To save from horror, death and agony
Millions of guiltless souls who cannot see
How close they are to yawning jaws of death
Or life-long torture borne to the last breath.
Of all this mad race for supremacy
In nuclear power the only end can be
A confrontation on a luckless day,
And this is what my visions, too, portray.
A cry arises from my troubled heart,
A crushing load descends to press me down,
I feel all of my body ache and smart
And in a gloomy sea of sorrow drown,
As with eyes open and the mind awake
I am allowed to watch scene after scene
Of stark, appalling horror that will make
The blooming earth, now lovely and serene,
A foul inferno, glowing red in space,
Where human lust, become the cause of doom,
Millions will kill, and millions clean efface,
Or slowly with dire agony consume.
Whole towns will vanish or in ruins lie,
And deserts burn where crowded cities were,
Millions with hunger, thirst or terror die,
And millions run round shrieking mad with fear.
Millions disfigured, crippled, wounded, maimed,
Tortured at every step, would limp and crawl,
Their faces pale with anguish, eyes inflamed,
With hardship or exhaustion dead to fall.
Men, women, children, sick, infirm and weak
Disheveled, sleepless, hungry, plagued by flies,
Too ill to drive them off, to move or speak,
In vain will look for help till their hope dies.
No horror story e'er conceived so far,
No tale of ghastly murders ever told,
No picture of the havoc done in war
Can match the ghastly scenes that will unfold.
Fiery cyclones racing with lightning speeds,
And flaming hurricanes, extending far,
Will chase escaping crowds to burn, like reeds,
Or roast them coal-black, as if dipped in tar.
This false, deceptive glamor, pomp and show,
In which pretentious vanity delights,
Nemesis will into disorder throw,
And on more sober lines rebuild the sites.
For nature has decreed that every time
Man barters his soul to indulge his lust,
All that he harvests by this heinous crime
Against himself, will be reduced to dust.
This age of boundless wealth, uncounted goods
And endless wonders, which grow day by day,
May end soon, for on it disaster broods,
And scorching hurricanes are on the way
To close an era that has grown too rich
And reckless for man's health and safety both,
And, if not ended at this moment, which
Would seriously distort his inner growth.
Why view the future with a sinking heart,
And try to find retreats to escape the doom,
The Lesson is designed to cause a smart,
For wholesale healthy changes to make room.
The wonder is we readily accept
The world of matter from the tiniest grain,
But when it comes to mind do we suspect
A World of which an Atom runs our brain?
This atom, clothed in flesh, we call the soul,
Ordained by slow ascent to know itself,
But oft in dark about its real goal,
Is lured by tempting pleasure, power and pelf.
For ages alchemists endeavored hard
To find the secret of eternal youth.
But nature does her Treasures so well guard
That few of them could hit upon the Truth,
Which is that hidden in the mortal frame
There is a splendor, blissful, calm and bright,
Not bound by time, devoid of form and name,
Which keeps the flame of life in us alight.
This wonder of creation we cannot
Imagine nor describe nor paint nor draw,
For here we reach the end of human thought,
The point where scholars line up with the raw.
These are the alternatives to choose from:
Either cremation in a nuclear storm,
And for the injured torment to the end,
A bleak and blasted world in which to spend
One's life, all comfort, joy and rest denied;
Or to renounce hate, prejudice and pride,
Excess, immoderation, greed and lust
For power, to foster mutual love and trust,
In tune with Faith's decrees and Laws of God,
To foot the same Path which the Enlightened trod.
Our progress on the path of truth involves
Greater concern for other's woe and weal,
Because the more the human mind evolves
The more it oneness with the rest should feel.
This is the reason why the enlightened mind
Has shown this noble trait throughout the past:
True Love and deep concern for all mankind
With selfless zeal for service to the last.
That is how nature regulates the play
Of life, as she ordains the eves and morns.
Some come, with bleeding hands, to sweep away
What some have sown and scattered-pins and thorns.
Remember, life can be a fairy tale,
A dancing sunbeam when it bathes in light
Some charming landscape, a blooming hill or dale,
And makes all that it touches alive and bright,
If for a fraction of the time we spend
In idle gossip, fun or vain pursuit,
We pray to Heaven a helping hand to lend
To those in pain, distress or want acute,
To see their shrunken hearts expand with joy,
And hope return to light their darkened lives;
To ease their pain and grief or to destroy
Their fear until the ebbing strength revives.
This highly gifted being is not born
To work himself to death for earthly things,
But to irradiate, like the sun at morn,
The light of love which cheer and warmth brings.
What, after all, is thoughtful man here for?
To toil and sweat for wealth or seats of power?
And lose them both at death or in a war,
Living in dread of this to the last hour?
There is enough provision, talent, wealth
To keep the race in plenty and in peace,
If greed and lust for power by trick or stealth
Did not the artless of these treasures fleece.
A warring mankind cannot co-exist
With modern weapons, one of them must cease:
Either complete ban on the Iron Fist
Or One World Order, for which labor pleas.
Contentment, truth, compassion, love and peace
Are more necessary for the health of brain
Than all the fabulous wealth of Rome and Greece,
To keep evolving mankind safe and sane.
Excessive lust, ambition, passion, greed
For earthly goods or power or carnal feasts
Can warp and twist the tender human seed,
And change the angels-to-be into beasts.
Allowed to wallow longer in the mire
Of reckless pleasure, craze for power and gold,
Mankind one day consumed in nuclear fire
Might cease-her story but a legend old.
The tragedy is that our leading minds,
Regardless of the crisis we are in,
Engrossed in their ambitious dreams of kinds,
Know not that we against our future sin.
This is why Revelation came to warn
Mankind, in time, to moderate her lust,
But treating Faith as a fictitious yarn
Science this crisis on the race has thrust.
Next two eventful decades will unfold,
An awe-inspiring Drama, staged by Fate,
To end the present order, as foretold,
With fires of war lit by greed, power-lust, hate.
When dust has settled on the fiery scene,
Then on the ashes of the past would rise
A One-World State built on the Golden Mean
To make man happy, healthy, peaceful, wise.
That air-befouling, earth-polluting ware
Upon which greed's ambitious empire stands,
Replaced by safer types, with thought and care,
Will pass from wasteful into thrifty hands.
In every civilization of the past
The storm came, when to pleasure, rank or gold
The rich and powerful, hungry to the last,
Like children mad for toys, their soul had sold.
The high and mighty of our day, again,
Do what their counterparts did in the past,
And hostile to the still-evolving brain,
Wait for their exit, too, the atomic blast.
(ii)
Unlike the men of learning, I do not
Depend on effort for creative thought,
Or on the opinions of great men to find
Support for the new thought born in my mind.
A formless Presence, infinitely wise,
An ocean of thought from which insights rise,
A grace unbounded and compassion deep,
Permit me many a time to have a peep
At a stupendous Something which no mind
That found access to it has e'er defined.
And born of firm conviction that cannot
Be had from aught conceived by mortal thought,
Or aught observed by eye or heard by ear,
But far more clear and intimately near,
I write these verses, like a pupil taught
By silent whispers coming out of naught.
And having gained this rare estate akin
To that of ancient seers, allowed to win
Approach to higher planes of consciousness,
So marvelous that no words can express
The wonder of it, I, although remiss
In many ways, transported to a bliss
And to abodes of such effulgent light,
Dancing before my vision day and night,
Such a Divine, effulgent silvery sheen,
Which fills with glory all the objects seen,
That in unbounded wonder at this sight,
At this enchanting Eden always bright,
I live in ecstasy day, night and morn,
Into a new world of experience born,
So rich, so full of grandeur, peace, delight,
That mind and senses, ravished by the sight,
Their contact with the external world withdraw
To watch the Inner with amaze and awe.
And Ah! the glorious realm in which I live,
Transporting, elevating, always new,
Beyond the horizon of my hopes and dreams,
All our philosophies and clever streams
Of thought, beyond conception, knowledge, guess,
That cannot be imagined more or less,
As foreign to the normal human mind
As sunlight is to one from birth is blind,
Or sugar to a man devoid of taste,
Or rapture of love to a virgin chaste:
A state of consciousness as far removed
From our conceptions though hard to be proved,
As light from darkness, summit from the base;
The future common asset of the race,
Towards which with slow, halting steps our brains
Are working their way up pulled back by chains
Which, due to ignorance, we often forge,
When we ourselves with earthly dainties gorge.
The difficulty, faced by ancient seers
To bring conviction home to their compeers,
Crops up as people cannot see the way
How this mysterious soul-uplifting ray
Of Cosmic Consciousness can bring about
So marvelous a change, remove all doubt
About Divinity, transform a man
Into a gifted seer, with power to scan
The complex problems which confront mankind,
At times too mixed up for a normal mind;
But clear as crystal to an illumined sage,
Ordained to expose the errors of his age.
The flash of great discoveries, matchless skill,
And gift of poesy, not gained at will,
And inspiration of great authors rise
From depths of consciousness, where genius lies,
Thence come the moods and visions that create
New gems of thought and masterpieces great
Of science, art, and literature which
Have made mankind so cultured, wise and rich.
The fire that has transformed the face of earth
From man's cortical matter ne'er took birth;
But comes, by Grace, from regions far away
Where mortal lusts and passions hold no sway,
Where sovereign Consciousness in state abides,
And in the appointed manner mankind guides
With vision, insight, flash of thought or trance
Which scholars wrongly attribute to chance.
The blooming garden of creative thought
In man, which has such sweeping changes wrought,
That from a helpless, weak, impoverished state
He touched the peak of progress in a spate
Of great discoveries that had lain concealed
In mortal mind for long to be unsealed,
By Chosen Vessels, only at the time
And place ordained before by Laws Sublime,
And who can say what other priceless gems
Still lie uncovered to become the stems
For e'en more precious buds of thought and skill
To raise evolving mankind higher still.
From war to peace, barbarism to the height
Of culture, to ideals and visions bright,
Man is ascending step by step without
The least idea what all this is about,
Why this bewildering life, why peace and war,
Why love and hate and why these problems bar
The understanding of what brought him here
To think and wonder, to run here and there
To meet his pressing needs, to have a weight
Around his neck, tied hard by cruel Fate.
These hard, unanswered Riddles from the dawn
Of reason many vainly brooded on,
To leave as mystified as when they came,
Including wise men of great name and fame,
All working, sleeping, loving, hating in
Their own peculiar way to lose or win,
To pass the round of day, night, eve and morn,
And leave as empty-handed as when born.
The sweating labor done through all their life,
The daily chores, the struggles and the strife,
All fading, like an ended dream at morn,
With the last breath of every mortal born,
A dancing bubble on the ocean's face,
Lost in immensities of time and space.
All this alarm of war and threat of guns,
Of frightful missiles and dread megatons
Is nature's warning of a faulty trend
Which makes material goals the aim and end
Of life, for man comes not to act a farce,
To be a well-led, brightly harnessed horse,
Who makes his round of duties with his eyes
Only half open to the earth and skies,
Oblivious to his glorious destiny,
From what he is now what he has to be.
Man does not know that he has woken up
To earthly life to sip the ambrosial cup
Of Life Sublime, to realize that he,
Free from the earth belongs to Eternity:
The cream of earth, the bright Immortal Spark,
The priceless Gem of Life, lost in the dark
Of ignorance, the Glory of the Sun
And stars, the countless host contained in One.
The fragment and the whole, of all the known,
The knower in his majesty alone;
The ocean, all-surpassing, e'er supreme
Of Cosmic Consciousness a Deathless Beam
That has to know itself to rise above
The lower passions, high in Truth and Love,
And building on this earth a Paradise,
In ecstasy to roam the boundless skies;
And drawn in oneness with all that exists,
Released from mental clouds and sensual mists,
To taste the bliss of rapturous union with
The Fount of Life-the Eternal Ground beneath
The massive Cosmos of effect and cause,
Which melts away, as if it never was!
Written by: Gopi Krishna
THE WONDER OF THE BRAIN
Consciousness and Super-Consciousness:
In the preceding chapters I have tried to show, firstly, that the number of the mystics that had the genuine experience, throughout the course of history, has been extremely small, and that all those who claim knowledge of the spirit are not really enlightened. Secondly, that the present world is woefully deficient in the knowledge of the brain and that the learned, in dealing with mind or the origin and nature of the universe, usually leave the encephalon out of count, as if human intelligence exists incorporeally and independently, and does not depend for its manifestation, quality and performance on the activity of an organic instrument, beyond our scrutiny at present. The result is that much of our knowledge, at the moment, is unilateral and speculative, nescient of the nature of the 'Knower' itself. An intelligent species with a brain that shows an altered perception of time, an easy possibility, would frame an entirely different picture of the universe.
The aim of this writing is to draw attention to this serious lacunae which keeps us in ignorance about our own selves. The position that I am taking up is that the human mind, as we know it at present, is not a constant, unalterable entity. It can change and with it the whole picture of the universe, which we perceive with our senses. This is a bold statement to make, and is not likely to be accepted for the simple reason that it undermines the very foundation on which science is built, namely, the reality of the objective world and the validity of the empirical observation conducted by the mind.
The issue boils down to this: if it is admitted that the human mind is variable and that this variation can affect the very image of the universe, and all the phenomena observed, it would clearly imply that the cosmos is not, in reality, as we perceive, assess and measure it with our intelligence, but only a creation of our mind liable to change in other dimensions of the perceptive faculty. From this it would follow that the temporal knowledge gathered by us is relative also and that what is accumulated in one dimension of consciousness can prove incomplete, deceptive or erroneous in the other.
"Our conception of the structure of the universe," says William de Sitter, "bears all the marks of a transitory structure. Our theories are decidedly in a state of continuous, and just now very rapid evolution. It is not possible to predict how long our present views and interpretations will remain unaltered and how soon they will have to be replaced by perhaps very different ones, based on new observational data and new critical insight in their connection with other data." Where from is this new critical insight to come except from a more evolved mind and brain?
An affirmation of the same position comes from no less than an authority than Max Planck. He says: "How do we discover the individual laws of Physics, and what is their nature? It should be remarked, to begin with, that we have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up to now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future. It is perfectly conceivable that one fine day Nature should cause an unexpected event to occur which would baffle us all; and if this were to happen we would be powerless to make any objection, even if the result would be that, in spite of our endeavors, we should fail to introduce order into the resulting confusion. In such an event, the only course open to science would be to declare itself bankrupt. For this reason, science is compelled to begin by the general assumption that a general rule of law dominates throughout Nature."
Once the position is accepted, the conclusion becomes unavoidable that all the contexts of our day-to-day experience of the world--the events which befall and the sights we see, the good and evil, noble and base, beautiful and ugly we meet, or the ideas of God, Soul and the Hereafter we entertain, all emerge from the unfathomable depths of our consciousness. This means that all we come across during the pilgrimage of life is not an objective reality, but a stupendous, realistic drama, presented by our own mind, and another enigmatic stuff, we call material energy. The latter is becoming more and more of a paradox and the more we try to reach its bottom the more paradoxical and unpredictable it becomes. For all we know, it might be a twin brother of our mind, both off-shoots of the same tree or a projected image of mind itself. The corollary that follows this view of creation, forced on us by the latest concepts in physics, is that since our brain is the junction-point, where this incredible exchange between the mind and his brother takes place, it is to the brain that we must look for a solution of the mystery.
The matter does not end there. What should now become obvious, beyond doubt, is the fact that when contemplating a grand spectacle of nature, during the day, or the shimmering firmament at night, the sense of admiration, awe or wonder felt does not come from the magnificence, loveliness or the vast extent of these external objects, inherent or dwelling in them, but from the grandeur, beauty and the immensity residing in our own consciousness. In other words, it is we who lend grandiosity, charm and vastness to an object, also horror, cheerfulness, humor or sadness to what appears to us as a dreadful, merry, ludicrous or tragic scene. What the world will look like to a mind, dead to emotions and bereft of the sense of beauty and color, I leave it to the reader to imagine.
This still does not complete the picture. The other conclusion that follows is that all the over four billion human creatures on the earth, the multi-millionaire and the pauper, the king and the beggar, the strongman and the cripple, the philanthropist and the thief, the beauty-queen and the leper, as long as they live, share the same incredible wonder in their interior, as they share the sun, the moon, the stars, the air and water, the precious bounties of nature that make life possible on earth.
It is a staggering position. But there is nothing incongruous in what I say. The scriptures of all the current faiths point to the same conclusion. Since the Soul is held to be immortal, incorporeal and divine, it must always stay immaculate, above the corporeality and the blemishes of the mortal frame. It would be blasphemous to say that there could be a sightless, lecherous, leprous or penniless Soul. It is because of an impure frame of mind that attaches more importance to the externals of religion than to its beatific interior that we are denied access to the Glory that dwells in all of us, irrespective of our station in life.
The main task of religion is to bring awareness of the divinity within to every human being. In this unique treasure of heaven no one is richer, stronger, superior or better than the other. This divine Splendor all share alike, irrespective of their position, wealth, learning intelligence, strength or looks. Like the brilliant orb of the day, it shines alike on the rich and the poor, the wise and the fool. The glaring differences and discrepancies, elegance and squalor, virtue and vice or excess and want we see around, belong to the stage and the dress of clay and not to the divine actor, ever undefiled, like a dancing beam of light. The aim of human life is to explore this 'wonder' in every one of us whose pleasure-ground is the universe.
This is the Message which for the last over three thousand years the exalted class of true mystics has brought to the world. This is the Message which juvenile science, at first, cared not to heed like an impetuous youngster refusing to listen to his more seasoned elders, ultimately in his declining age to regret the rebellious thoughts of his early years. There are myriads who, in their closing days, review with sorrow their reckless youth. Were there no surprises and no innovations in the province of thought in store for the human wit in the ages to come, she would die of boredom in a few centuries. It is change that keeps her alive. The pendulum is now swinging in the other direction to usher in a new era of thought in which the spirit and not matter, the mystic and not the skeptic will dominate.
An indication of this change is provided by the thoughts expressed by many eminent scientists of recent times. This is a sample of one of them: "Yet I repeat once more," declares William James, "the existence of mystical states absolutely overthrows the pretension of non-mystical states to be the sole and ultimate dictators of what we may believe. As a rule, mystical states merely add a super-sensuous meaning to the ordinary outward data of consciousness. They are excitements, like the emotions of love or ambition, gifts to our spirit by means of which facts, already objectively before us fall into a new expressiveness and make a new connection with our active life. They do not contradict these facts as such, or deny anything that our senses have immediately seized. It is the rationalistic critic rather who plays the part of denier in the controversy, and his denials have no strength, for there can never be a state of facts to which new meaning may not truthfully be added, provided the mind ascends to a more enveloping point of view. It must always remain an open question whether mystical states may not possibly be such superior points of view, windows through which the mind looks out upon a more extensive and inclusive world.">
The present-day concepts of physics no longer contradict the experience of the mystic but, on the other hand, find it more consistent with the new insights into the nature of the physical world. This view has been expressed by many of the leading physicists of our time. "A rainbow described in the symbolism of physics," writes Eddington, "is a band of ethereal vibrations arranged in systemic order to wave-lengths from about .00004 centimeters to .000072 centimeters. From one point of view, we are paltering with the truth whenever we admire the gorgeous bow of color, and should strive to reduce our minds to such a state that we receive the same impression from the rainbow as from a table of wave-lengths. But although that is how the rainbow impresses itself on an impersonal spectroscope, we are not giving the whole truth and significance of experience--if we suppress the factors wherein we ourselves differ from the spectroscope. We cannot say that the rainbow, as part of the world, was meant to convey the vivid effects of color; but we can perhaps say that the human mind, as part of the world, was meant to perceive it that way."
Another eminent physicist, James Jeans write, "In more recent times, Bertrand Russell has expressed what is essentially the same argument in the words: 'So long as we adhere to the conventional notions of mind and matter, we are condemned to a view of perception which is miraculous. We suppose that a physical process starts from a visible object, travels to the eye, there changes into another physical process, causes yet another physical process in the optic nerve, and finally produces some effect in the brain, simultaneously with which we see the object from which the process started, the seeing being something "mental," totally different in character from the physical processes which precede and accompany it.' This view is so queer that metaphysicians have invented all sorts of theories designed to substitute something less incredible...
"Everything that we can directly observe from the physical world happens inside our heads, and consists of mental events which form part of the physical world. The development of this point of view will lead us to the conclusion that the distinction between mind and matter is illusory. The stuff of the world may be called physical or mental or both or neither as we please; in fact the words serve no purpose."
"Even if the two entities which we have hitherto described," continues Jeans, "as mind and matter are of the same general nature, there remains the question as to which is the more fundamental of the two. Is mind only a by-product of matter, as the materialists claimed? Or is it, as Berkeley claimed, the creator and controller of matter?
"Before the latter alternative can be seriously considered, some answer must be found to the problem of how objects can continue to exist when they are not being perceived in any human mind. There must, as Berkeley says, be 'some other mind in which they exist.' Some still wish to describe this, with Berkeley, as the mind of God; others with Hegel as a universal or Absolute mind in which all our individual minds are comprised. The new quantum mechanics may perhaps give a hint, although nothing more than a hint, as to how this can be."
"It seems, at least, conceivable," Jeans adds, "That what is true of perceived objects may also be true of perceiving minds; just as there are wave-pictures for light and electricity, so there may be a corresponding picture for consciousness. When we view ourselves in space and time, our consciousness is obviously the separate individuals of a particle-picture, but when we pass beyond space and time, they may perhaps form ingredients of a single continuous stream of life. As it is with light and electricity, so it may be with life; the phenomena may be individuals carrying on separate existences in space and time, while in the deeper reality beyond space and time we may all be members of one body. In brief, modern physics is not altogether antagonistic to an objective idealism like that of Hegel."
I know it will be hard for me to make myself understood, as I tread on unmapped territory in the effort to bring into focus in the province of religion and science both, a vital element that has been ignored so far, namely, the center of life in the body, that is the brain. Since the organ is indispensable for all our activity and even existence in the human form, it is inconceivable that our consciousness can take a leap beyond its normal periphery without affecting its substance in any way. There is no historical precedent of a higher animal, say a horse, ever attaining the mental stature of a human being, and co-mingling with other humans on a basis of equality. How can it then be possible for a human being to consort with gods without some kind of change in the brain? Those who long for self-awareness, clairvoyant gifts, miraculous powers, communication with the spirit world, encounters with masters, or adventures in the occult realm would do well to give second thoughts to their cherished dream. The world did not produce another Christ or Buddha, Vyasa or Socrates, Plato or Mohammed, Rumi or Shankaracharya, Francis of Assisi or any other great mystic or master of the occult, because the mystery of the part played by the brain in these accomplishments remains unsolved so far. The aim of this writing is to make this hidden knowledge accessible to humanity.
I am confident of my stand, as a psychological cathartic is necessary to crown the revolution caused by science, and its off-spring, technology, in human life and thought. Without this psychological climax, mankind will continue to move in the accustomed groove and utilize the resources of the earth and also of her fertile intellect only to enhance and satisfy her physical needs as she is virtually doing now. Her most pressing need at the moment is to become aware of the spiritual goal planned for her by nature and the methods to attain it. Once this knowledge is gained and the unmatched splendor of the crown destined for her realized, no efforts of pharisees or saddusees, who thrive on the credulity and nativity of human beings, can make the race deviate from the course.
A tidal wave of skepticism, doubt and disbelief, symbolized by the materialist ideology, is sweeping over the earth, not because Satan and the Anti-Christ have become dominant nor because it is Kali-Yuga of the Indian mythology, but because the time for a further elaboration and enrichment of the religious creeds and spiritual ideals of mankind has come. Like a cocoon, man weaves a tough sheet of dogma around himself to lie inert and passive until nature tears it open with a revolution to allow him freedom. But he soon starts to weave it afresh in the newly introduced pattern of life or thought to entomb himself once again. This is true not only of religion but also of political orders, social customs, educational systems, even scientific institutions and other long-standing ideas and beliefs. It is easier, sometimes, to bore a tunnel through a mountain than to break open the shell which the conservative element in human nature builds around itself.
To believe that the universe consists of only those elements and forces that are perceptible to our senses or detected by our instruments is to belie the latest assessments of science. The very size and the extent of the Universe, the new formations discovered in the sky and the problems created by them, the marvels of the ultra-microscopic world and the possibility of even superior types of life in other parts of the Cosmos provide more than sufficient material to make it clear that the creation round us is too complex, too vast and too full of unsolved riddles to make us complacent about the fact that what our senses perceive or minds apprehend is all that exists in it. Such an attitude of mind at this stage of our knowledge can only emanate from one not in touch with the progress of today.
The first impact of genuine mystical experience on the mind of the experiencer is something like this that the world he was perceiving and his own individuality, as he was conscious of it so far, were not true realities but only the figures of, say, a relatively speaking, dream state from which he has just awakened to the full bloom of another sun shining on a splendrous world, entirely unlike the one which his senses were revealing to him before. It should be remembered that for this state of cognition, it is not necessary that the percipient should be insensible to the sensory world. Not at all. What makes mystical ecstasy an increasing wonder is the incredible fact that both the sensory and supersensory worlds can be perceived simultaneously. But how? Like the radiant sky showing a mirage on it, both visible side by side.
The real status of the 'mystic' has not been correctly adjudged. He is not a dreamy idealist prone to visions, conjured up by his subconscious or to epileptic seizures or to hysterical swoons or to ecstatic trances, brought about by a suppressed libido, or his own obsessive occupation with the supernatural or by a pathological condition of the brain. In those cases, where these symptoms have been exhibited by true mystics, the abnormalities were the concomitant features of the extrasensory mental state, as in the case of genius, and not the causative factors responsible for it. These are mere conjectures of the learned made in absence of an accurate knowledge of the phenomenon. Nor is he a special protege of the Almighty, sent to the earth to preach His glory among mortals and to exhort them to surrender their all for His sake and, himself intoxicated with His love, to infuse this intoxication in others also. The human intellect has since outgrown the anthropomorphic picture of the Creator and it is time she outgrows the current picture of the mystic too.
Every mystic born has been a specimen of the man to come. His self-imposed penances and his religious beliefs were the creation of his culture, faith and the environment around him. But his vivid descriptions of the new visions gained, the new worlds unfolded and the basic teachings about the way to be followed to reach the same state of perception were the outcome of knowledge gained in the new dimension of consciousness to which he had attained. The descriptions are diversely colored and at times contradictory and conflicting because they are, as it were, the first reports of a few space travelers, separated by long stretches of time and distance, viewing the gigantic planet, Jupiter, at a distance of hundreds of thousands of miles from different angles through glasses of varied magnifying power.
Nature repeatedly produced the prototype of the future man to awaken humanity to her destiny. But the multitudes, including the scholars and the divines, misinterpreting the hint, erected for themselves the four walls of ritualistic religions to confine themselves within, with a fanatical zeal which led to some of the greatest horrors in history, still repeated at times in some parts of the earth. That the followers of every faith arrogate to their own creed the highest station among all the religions, to their founder or founders the highest stature among all the prophets and to themselves the most favored position with the Almighty, makes it obvious that the human ego has been as strongly at work in this holy territory, where humility is the law, as in the other spheres of life. This shows that self-worshiping man does not even spare his Maker in the fulfillment of his selfish ends and makes of Him, too, a tool to bolster his own vanity.
I have purposely introduced the prosaic figure of the human brain in this discourse to serve as an anchor to the otherwise highly mobile vessel of thought, prone to be carried away here and there by the wind of prejudice, dogma, idiosyncrasy, stubbornness and the rest, especially when sailing on the waters of religion, philosophy or metaphysics. It is only experiments on the brain that can call a dead halt to these arbitrary flights of human thought when dealing with the phenomena of mind. In order to explain why this need has arisen, I can do no better than refer the reader to the views expressed by some of the writers on mysticism in recent times. For instance, Evelyn Underhill, in answering for her self-formulated question, "What then is the nature of this special sense--this transcendental consciousness--and how does contemplation liberate it," proceeds to explain:
"Any attempt to answer this question brings upon the scene another aspect of man's psychic life: an aspect of paramount importance to the student of the mystic type. We have reviewed the ways in which our surface consciousness reacts upon experience: a surface consciousness which has been trained through long ages to deal with the universe of sense. We know, however, that the personality of man is a far deeper and more mysterious thing than the sum of his conscious feeling, thought and will: that this superficial self--this Ego of which each of us is aware--hardly counts in comparison with the deeps of being which it hides. 'There is a root or depth in Thee,' says Law, from whence all these faculties come forth as lines from a center, or branches from the body of a tree. This depth is called the center, the fund, or bottom of the soul. This depth is the unity, the Eternity, I had almost said the infinity of the soul, for it is so infinite that nothing can satisfy it or give it any rest, but the infinity of God."
"Since normal man is utterly unable to set up relations with spiritual reality by means of his feeling, thought and will, continues Underhill, "it is clearly in this depth of being--in these unplumbed levels of personality--that we must search if we would find the organ, the power, by which he is to achieve the mystic quest. The alteration of consciousness which takes place in contemplation can only mean the emergence from this 'fund or bottom of the soul' of some faculty which diurnal life keeps hidden 'in the deeps.'"
To draw a parallel for her own conclusion, Underhill turns to the widely used concept of the 'unconscious mind,' a handy device of modern psychology to explain whatever is unexplainable or unintelligible in the area of mind. "Modern psychology," she continues, "in its doctrine of the unconscious or subliminal personality, has acknowledged this fact of a range of psychic life, lying below and beyond the conscious field. Indeed, it has so dwelt upon and defined this shadowy region--which is really less a 'region' than a useful name--that it sometimes seems to know more about the unconscious than about the conscious life of man. There it finds, side by side, the sources of his most animal instincts, his least explicable powers, his most spiritual intuitions: the 'ape and tiger.' and the 'soul.' Genius and prophecy, insomnia and infatuation, clairvoyance, hypnotism, hysteria and 'Christian' science--all are explained by the 'unconscious mind.' In his destructive moods, the psychologist has little apparent difficulty in reducing the chief phenomena of religious and mystical experience to activities of the 'unconscious,' seeking an oblique satisfaction of repressed desires. Where he undertakes the more dangerous duties of apologetic, he explains the same phenomena by saying that 'God speaks to man in the subconscious,' by which he can only mean that our apprehension of the eternal has the character of intuition rather than of thought. Yet the 'unconscious' after all is merely a convenient name for the aggregate of those powers, parts or qualities of the whole self which at any given moment are not conscious or that the Ego is not conscious of."
I have reproduced these passages at some length for two reasons. Firstly, to show the similarity between my ideas and the view expressed that mystical vision is the herald of a 'new birth,' the symbol of a profound transformation in the personality of an individual which reaches down to the roots of his being, making him perceptive of spiritual realities denied to the average human folk. Secondly, to bring into focus the usual tendency among modern writers on religion, metaphysics or psychology to keep out the brain in their discussion as if it does not come into the picture at all. This habit allows too loose a rein to fancy. We know very well that even a slight alteration in the chemistry of the brain, brought about by a drug, a shock, or loss of sleep can cause an explosive change in consciousness or the personality of the subject for the time being. Hence to suppose that such a signal event as the experience of God or the entry into supersensory planes of creation can be possible without involving the cranial matter in any way is but to confess the fault, now common among scholars, of dissociating thought from the brain, both inseparable chums from birth to death.
The answer to Underhill comes very near to the commonly accepted explanations for the extraordinary experience of mystics and saints. The notion is that there are submerged capacities and potentialities in the human soul which can make these enrapturing flights to the holy precincts of divine consciousness possible for those who apply themselves heart and soul to the task. Linked inextricably to the idea that mystical ecstasy represents a union with or, at least, a vision of God, and that the human soul is a particle of the divine essence, an explanation of this kind has every semblance of plausibility and usually puts the doubts of the inquirer to rest.
Every human being is aware of himself as a self-contained independent unit of consciousness. The brain does not protrude into the personality at all. For this reason, we do not think of it any more than of other parts of the body and at times, even less. On account of the fact that a serious injury to the head can easily prove fatal, all that the people exposed to accident risk do is to take greater precautions to protect it. But even so, it does not figure more in their thought, and the idea is usually absent that the brain is our workshop and all that we observe, think or imagine happens inside its bony frame.
There are glaring discrepancies in the conventional argument adduced by Underhill. The lyrical mystical ecstasy which attracts and inspires us is comparatively of recent origin, dating at the earliest from a period of not more than three thousand years before the birth of Christ. Before that the picture of religion and the ecstatic trance is more ugly than beautiful. We should not forget the trance of the Shaman, the medicine-man, the witch-doctor and the magi which, too, among their contemporaries betokened ascent to the spirit-world or intercourse with supernatural beings. But often there was hardly any element of the divine or the sublime as we understand it today, in those states of entrancement. The rapture, the clearly marked expansion of self and the sense of identity with all creation, which marked the later expressions of the ecstatic state, are not noticeable in the earlier types, or at least in the remnants of them which survived during historical times. It is a moot issue whether the subjects of those ecstasies were mentally advanced enough even to entertain those feelings as the later mystics did.
There were many gods and goddesses, human, divine or demonic even in the form of animals, birds, reptiles and fish, that demanded bizarre types of worship and ritual, including human sacrifice, cannibalism, self-mutilation, infanticide, obnoxious ceremonies, revolting sexual orgies and the like. It is not wise to overlook, in our zeal to find a supernatural explanation for mystical ecstasy, the dark side of religion or religious experience in the primitive phases of human culture nor the barbarous features that attended the birth and growth of current faiths--forced conversion, ruthless persecution, bloody wars and massacres, pillage and rape, the curse of untouchability, the revolting custom of sati, self emasculation, the horrors of the Inquisition and the rest.
The mystics, whose writings or recorded histories are before us, do not even form one billionth of the population that lived on earth and passed away during this period. Why they alone were gifted that way we do not know. Why even now hardly one out of myriads reports success in the same endeavor is still an enigma. Millions of aspirants to Samadhi in India abandon their homes, dwell in solitude, practise every form of austerity, penance and self-discipline, meditate and pray day and night without coming anywhere near this state of indescribable beatitude. Were the 'sense' of Timeless Being an integral part of man's spiritual consciousness, as argued by Underhill, then the Vision of Reality would be equally accessible to all, of course, with variations in the degree of success gained, as happens when a class of students attends a university course to widen their knowledge or a group of athletes works in a gymnasium to streamline their bodies. If this view were correct, the 'Vision' would have been the same for the cave dwellers of the neolithic age as it is for the cultured products of this day. But we know this is not the case and the two are poles apart. Why in our religious beliefs do we overlook the past?
The extreme rarity of success in this enterprise has been clearly recognized in India. "Among thousands of men," says the Bhagavad-Gita, "scarce one striveth for perfection, and of the successful strivers, scarce one knoweth me in essence." But even this rare one who achieves the blessed union has, according to the Indian tradition, behind him an accumulated store of meritorious actions done in previous lives, which form the seeds of success in his present one. Explaining this, the Gita says: "But a Yogi, laboring with assiduity, purified from sin, fully perfected through manifold births, he reacheth the supreme goal." This is emphasized again at another place: "At the close of many births, the man full of wisdom cometh unto Me; 'Vasudeva is all; saith he, the Mahatma very difficult to find."
It is obvious that the glorious consummation of human life, of which the Gita sings, and of which a glowing picture is presented in the writings of all great mystics of the past, cannot be the work of a day or even of a lifetime, unless there are constitutional factors favorable to the climax, of which we have no knowledge yet. In this respect, the great mystics can be classed with the great secular geniuses of the earth. The mystical consciousness of an Eckhart, or Al-Ghazali or a Chaitanya, is not possible for even one out of hundreds of thousands of earnest practicers of yoga or other spiritual disciplines, in the same way as the intellectual achievement of a Shankara, or Einstein is not possible for every scholar or university professor. What these constitutional factors are, it will be my endeavor to explain.
I have briefly touched on the views expressed by Evelyn Underhill, as representative of a religious bent of mind, which believes in God and the divine nature of the Soul. For the views representative of modern psychology, I shall turn to William James and quote him at some length to show the wide divergence in the two points of view. The trouble starts when the Freudian psychologists on the one side, behaviorists on the other, transpersonal on the third, anthropologists on the fourth, physicists on the fifth, philosophers on the sixth, theologians on the seventh, the laity on the eighth, the Vedantists on the ninth, the occultists on the tenth and, to crown it all, the mystics themselves on the eleventh, express highly divergent views on the same phenomenon, using all the embellishments of language and the resources of intellect to make their point, without even one calling in for evidence the one single witness of all the happenings in this historically ageless scene. Not one of them even mentions the brain.
"The last aspect of religious life which remains for me to touch upon," writes James, "is the fact that its manifestations so frequently connect themselves with the subconscious part of our existence. You may remember what I said in my opening lecture about the presence of the psychopathic temperament in religious biography. You will in point of fact hardly find a religious leader of any kind in whose life there is no record of automatisms. I speak not merely of savage priests and prophets, whose followers regard automatic utterance and action as by itself tantamount to inspiration, I speak of leaders of thought and subjects of intellectualized experience. Saint Paul had his visions, his ecstasies, his gift of tongues, small as was the importance he attached to the latter. The whole array of Christian saints and heresiarchs, including the greatest, the Bernards, the Loyolas, the Luthers, the Foxes, the Wesleys, had their visions, voices, rapt conditions, guiding impressions and 'openings.' They had these things because they had exalted sensibility, and to such things persons of exalted sensibility are liable. In such liability there lie, however, consequences for theology. Beliefs are strengthened wherever automatisms corroborate them. Incursions from beyond the transmarginal region have a peculiar power to increase conviction. The inchoate sense of presence is infinitely stronger than conception, but strong as it may be, it is seldom equal to the evidence of hallucination. Saints who actually see or hear their Savior reach the acme of assurance. Motor automatism though rarer is, if possible, even more convincing than sensations. The subjects here actually feel themselves played upon by powers beyond their will. The evidence is dynamic; the God or spirit moves the very organs of their body."
"When, in addition to these phenomena of inspiration," adds William James, we take religious mysticism into account, when we recall the striking and sudden unification of a discordant self which we saw in conversion, and when we review the extravagant obsessions of tenderness, purity and self-severity met with in saintliness, we cannot, I think, avoid the conclusion that in religion we have a department of human nature with unusually close relations to the transmarginal or subliminal region. If the word 'subliminal' is offensive to any of you, as smelling too much of psychical research or other aberrations, call it by any other name, to distinguish it from the level of full sunlit consciousness. Call this latter the A-region of personality, if you care to, and call the other the B-region. The B-region, then, is obviously the larger part of each of us, for it is the abode of everything that is latent and the reservoir of everything that passes unrecorded or unobserved. It contains, for example, such things as all our momentarily inactive memories, and it harbors the springs of all our obscurely motive passions, impulses, likes, dislikes and prejudices. Our intuitions, hypotheses, fancies, superstitions, persuasions, convictions, and in general, all our non-rational operations, come from it. It is the source of our dreams, and apparently they may return to it. In it arise whatever mystical experiences we may have, and our automatisms, sensory or motor; our life in hypnotic and 'hypnoid' conditions, if we are subjects of such conditions; our delusions, fixed ideas, and hysterical accidents, if we are hysteric subjects; our supra-normal cognitions, if such there be, and if we are telepathic subjects. It is also the fountainhead of such that feeds our religion. In persons deep in the religious life, as we have now abundantly seen--and this is my conclusion--the door into this region seems unusually wide open; at any rate, experiences making their entrance through that door have had emphatic influence in shaping religious history."
This is where we land at the end--the bottomless hollow of the unconscious, the sub-conscious, below-the-surface, transmarginal and subliminal mind. This is the hidden region of our personality which, they say, stalks on the stage in dreams, hypnotic and somnambulistic conditions, in hysteria and insanity, in genius and inspiration, in mediumistic displays and extrasensory perception, in possession, obsession and fixations, in cracks, twists and kinks in the brain; in fact, in all the abnormal, paranormal, extraordinary or inexplicable conditions of the mind.
But has anyone explained why in some it leads to nightmares, in some to happy dreams, in some to a mixture of the two and in some to dreamless sleep? Why some are somnambulists, others not; why some are suggestible and more intractable; why, in some, it leads to the highest purity and nobility of character, as in mystics and, in some, to revolting compulsions or horrible perversions; which make them act more like brutes than human beings; why in some it leads to the horrors of insanity and in some to the joy of creation? What rational solution is this that leaves everything unexplained? To say religion and religious experience come from the unconscious is to shift the venue to another compartment of the same mind. But, whether from this compartment or that, mind is the bastion from which these incursions and invasions, insidious or sudden, come. This we know, but how?
Were we to believe implicitly the saga of the 'unconscious,' the suggestion would be irresistible that we harbor in our interior the arch-fiend himself, and fall victim to his machinations every moment of our lives. He turns into psychopaths the rare few who have the Vision of God, into lunatics the handful who create or discover new treasures for the race, shocks the pure and innocent in dreams or maddens the good and gentle with appalling fear in wakefulness! Where is the man who can truthfully declare that he has subdued this invincible giant? Who has taken a census yet or alleviated the anguish of myriads who watch daily with horror, grief or shock the unpredictable obliquities of their own mind? Does all this cart-load of fears, sorrows and sins rumble out of the cavernous 'unconscious' or does it symbolize a slice of the torment reserved for rebellious man for partaking of the forbidden fruit?
Written by: Gopi Krishna
To Encourage Kundalini Research
ICR has established an Honorarium Fund to encourage and support those researchers and authors who write and submit articles to ICR that further the Institute's research.
The Institutes' research proposal is presented in "A Memorandum for Kundalini Research" (available upon request) and follows the Kundalini hypothesis as first set out by Gopi Krishna:
Within a framework of remarkably similar characteristics, the mystic, the genius, the psychic, and some of the mentally ill exhibit extraordinary states of consciousness. We propose to investigate whether one psycho-physiological process (Kundalini) is responsible for all these phenomena.
The following abstract briefly summarizes the proposed research:
Research has been proposed to investigate the hypothesis that there is a specific psycho-physiological mechanism-referred to as Kundalini in esoteric scriptures-in human beings. The Kundalini hypothesis suggests that human evolution has proceeded by the action of this mechanism in the human body and brain. Traditionally, Kundalini is held to be responsible for creativity, inspiration, genius, mystical experience, psychic phenomena and, in its morbid form, certain classes of mental illness. The proposed research would involve the collection, analysis, and documentation of both psychological and biological data relative to the common characteristics which appear to be the result of an awakened Kundalini. We believe that these objectives can be accomplished via the following avenues of investigation:
1) Literary research into the lives and writings of great mystics and geniuses and the written and oral teachings of ancient esoteric traditions.
2) The acquisition of statistical data from persons experiencing the symptoms of a Kundalini awakening.
3) The validation of the Kundalini hypothesis through a successful "awakening" in selected subjects within a scientifically monitored environment.
Qualifying authors will be acknowledged each August at I.C.R.'s Annual General Meeting. The amount of the Honorarium will come from the interest earned on the endowing funds. However, not less than $400 will be available annually for the Honorarium.
To be considered, the completed article must be a minimum of 4,000 words in length, and submitted to the Article Review Committee by May 1st. For interested authors, an outline and abstract of your proposed article should be submitted to Paul Pond, Ph.D., Director of Research and head of the Article Review Committee at ICR.
We look forward to receiving contributions that will further the advancement of knowledge of the Kundalini phenomenon.
For those of you who are not inclined to write an article but would like to contribute to the Research effort, contributions to the Honorarium Fund are welcome.
For more information, contact Dale Pond at (519)-986-1857 (before 9:30pm EST)
KUNDALINI AND THE PARANORMAL:
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
by
Paul Pond, Ph.D.
© 1998 Institute for Consciousness Research
All Rights Reserved
Abstract
The Kundalini hypothesis asserts that there is a specific psycho-physiological mechanism in human beings that is responsible for mystical experience, creativity, genius, psychic phenomena and, under certain conditions, some types of mental illness. We believe that mystical experience is the ultimate goal of the Kundalini process and the other benefits or "gifts" which result from this process are to be used cautiously lest the goal be lost.
The purpose of this work is to examine the paranormal in terms of psychic powers, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, pre-cognition, healing, etc. and the danger the pursuit of these powers is said to hold for the spiritual seeker.
Warnings of the dangers of the development and use of psychic powers comes from established religious traditions, respected spiritual teachers, contemporary researchers into the paranormal and from practicing psychics themselves. We will examine a wide variety of opinions on this subject.
These warnings are found in the Bible, the teachings of Buddha and in eastern esoteric writings such as those of Patanjali. Yogis such Gopi Krishna have recommended restraint. Practicing occultists such as Eliphas Levi who issued cautions in the 19th century and more contemporary mediums such as Edgar Cayce all warn of the possible loss of mystical ideals.
The dangers spoken of, aside from the distraction from spiritual goals, are the psychological and physical damage these practices can have on the individual. There are also the ethical implications of the misuse of these powers both for the individual and society.
Yoga theory is based upon the existence of prana (bioenergy) as a subtle intelligent life energy. This prana is unlike any energy being investigated by present day science. Kundalini is held to be the mechanism by which an enhanced flow of prana reaches the brain. Under the right conditions this enhanced prana operating in the brain can lead to higher states of consciousness such as genius, psychic abilities and mystical experience.
The fact that this intelligent energy (prana) is of such an extremely subtle nature could explain why the empirical verification of psi experiments has been so difficult. That this energy has its own intelligence may also explain why many psychics when under pressure to repeat their successes have often been discredited.
The Kundalini hypothesis emphasizes that the real treasures of this process are mystical experience and inspired knowledge. It is for this reason that we suggest that attempts to verify the Kundalini experience via psychic research is an avenue that is both limited and dangerous.
KUNDALINI AND THE PARANORMAL:
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Psychic Phenomena, Yoga and Kundalini
Webster defines paranormal as something which cannot be explained scientifically. This definition can be applied to a broad base of occurrences i.e. mystical experience, occult practices, magic, miracles and other psychic phenomena. For the purpose of this paper we will confine the topic to Kundalini, its connection to psychic phenomena and the need for caution in the pursuit of this knowledge.
The Kundalini hypothesis1 holds that there is a psycho-physiological mechanism responsible for mystical experience, genius, psychic abilities and, under certain conditions, some types of mental illness. Mystical experience is considered the ultimate goal of the Kundalini process. Psychic powers, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, psychokinesis, etc. are believed to be gifts that come with a Kundalini awakening.
The fact that Kundalini is associated with the appearance of siddhis, or psychic gifts is presented in esoteric writings. For example: The first canto of the Kashmiri hymn Panchastavi illustrates this relationship.2
"O Goddess Tripura; Pervading the visible and invisible worlds, whatsoever be the Siddhi for which Thy devotees of stable intellect pray. . . .they undoubtedly, freed from all obstruction, gain fulfillment. . .".
in the third canto, verse 15:
". . .What Siddhi there is, O Thou adored one of the Deities, that cannot be gained by Thy worship and what Yoga is there that cannot be achieved by centering the mind on Thee?"
The Kundalini hypothesis1 further asserts that there is an evolution going on in the brain which is refining both the body and the mind and preparing it for the ultimate mystical experience. Concentration on psychic powers alone could interfere with this evolving process producing a life style which, at best, interrupts or, at worst, damages this evolution. It is not unheard of, that under pressure to "perform", psychics and healers become tempted to fake it, thus becoming slaves to their abilities, jeopardizing their credibility and often, their physical and mental well-being.
The Kundalini hypothesis also holds that this energy is intelligent and that the subject is not the one in control of it. If this is so, other than preparing oneself, i.e. living a balanced life and practicing methods recommended by all spiritual belief systems, we are not in control of Kundalini and should proceed with this understanding in mind.
Classical yoga as described by Patanjali contains eight steps or limbs that should be followed by the earnest spiritual seeker (3,4), The first two limbs, yama (restraint) and niyama (discipline) are essentially the proper codes of conduct and thought that must be followed before any real spiritual advancement can occur. The next three, asana (posture), pranayama (control of breathing) and pratyahara (control of senses) lead the seeker to the necessary control of the physical senses, and prana. The final three stages collectively known as samyama. Dharana (concentration), dhyana (unbroken contemplation or meditation) and samadhi (complete absorption) are meant to bring about control of consciousness. Certainly in the West, the second and third stages have received the most attention. However we will see the importance of the first stage in relation to our present discussion.
In accordance with Book III of the Yoga--Sutras once the practitioner has reached the third stage--samyama--certain "miraculous powers" or siddhis are acquired. These powers or perfections are described in many ways and include what are currently considered to be occult or psychic powers. From this perspective the attainment of siddhis is an indication of the seeker's "spiritual" progress.
The lives of saints and mystics contain a wealth of miraculous episodes. "In India an accomplished yogi has always been considered to be a mahasiddha, a possessor of occult powers. . ." 5. Miraculous powers are ascribed to those mystics and saints, such as Mohammed and Buddha, who have strongly denounced their use. Gopi Krishna says Kundalini is the basic lever in all forms of Yoga and siddhis are the harvest of an awakened Kundalini and its ascent into the brain.(6,2)
Lee Sannella believes that the Kundalini process is not necessarily connected with the appearance of psychic phenomena, i.e. there are psychics who have not undergone the psychophysiological transformation he associates with Kundalini and there are those in whom Kundalini is active but who show no apparent psychic talents. However, he does tend to agree with Gopi Krishna's appraisal that "Kundalini is the real cause of all so-called spiritual and psychic phenomena."7
Warnings from Religions & Spiritual Traditions
Warnings of the dangers of the use of psychic powers or siddhis come from a variety of sources, from biblical time to the present. These warnings run the gamut from caution to outright damnation.
Both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible contain warnings of varying degrees. For example:
Leviticus., Chapter 19, Verse 31
". . .and the Lord spoke unto Moses "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them. I am the LORD, your God."
Deuteronomy, Chapter 18, Verses 10, 11 and 12
". . .There shall not be found among you anyone who maketh his son or daughter to pass through the fire or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
. . .Or a charmer or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard or a necromancer.
. . .for all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord. . . ."
From St. Paul--Corinthians, Chapter 13, Verse 2
. . ."And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. . ."
It is interesting to note that Jesus never used his powers to exalt himself, i.e. when goaded by the priests or his temptation in the desert. It appears he only used them to heal or save others.
Buddha, not unlike St. Paul, was concerned that the possession of psychic powers might tempt the seeker away from his original goal--mystical experience. Yet, Buddha (as well as Patanjali) took the acquisition of siddhis to be an indication of the seeker's spiritual progress. The possession of siddhis is not harmful in itself but the seeker must not succumb to their temptation and must not exhibit these "powers" in front of others. Buddha forbade the use and display of siddhis since he considered them doubly dangerous. They tempt the practitioner with a "vain magical mastery of the world" and confuse the minds of the public at large.5
According to Patanjali, Book III--37,3 "these powers stand in contradistinction to the highest spiritual vision. In manifestation they are called magical powers". Thus these powers in the waking state represent obstacles in the mystical state.
Evelyn Underhill 8 has given a splendid explanation of the difference between the pursuit of self-knowledge and the pursuit of occult knowledge. She relates mankind's attitude toward the unseen in terms of two paths--the "way of mysticism" and the "way of magic". Accordingly, she says "the fundamental difference between the two is this: magic wants to get, mysticism wants to give. . ." Underhill goes on to say that "the great mystics themselves. . .are unanimous in warning their disciples against the danger of attributing too much importance to `visions' and `voices'."
Warnings of the abuse of siddhis come from all ages and from varied belief systems.
Lal Ded, a famous Hindu mystic of the 14th century is described by Jayalal Kaul: "She cleansed the mirror of her heart for the Truth to shine unmistakable and clear. She took the middle path, of moderation in food and drink, neither pandering to her appetites nor undergoing extreme penance. Nor did she hanker after the siddhis, the miraculous powers which she condemned as fraud and jugglery."8
Kirpal Singh, 20th century spiritual master in Man! Know Thyself writes: "Master-Saints never show any miracles, except in very rare cases, to a disciple due to special circumstances. Miracles are in accordance with the laws of Nature but are nevertheless, terrible entangling webs detrimental to the higher ideals of man to approach the Almighty God. . .The miraculous powers achieved after lengthy periods are instrumental in doing both good and harm, and as they are utilized more to harm than anything else, are looked down upon by all truly spiritual persons. The Masters are in possession of Supreme Power but their mission is sacred. . .Those who are anxious to see miracles are not true seekers."10
Vera Stanley Alder in Finding of the Third Eye also points out the pitfalls of the seeker after Truth. She says one of the distractions is sensationalism and warns "It must always be remembered that sensationalism (or emotional excitement) is to the mentality what sexual overindulgence is to the body. Even religious emotion can be a type of mental sensuality and therefore unbalancing."11
If we can accept the basic teaching of Emanuel Swedenborg that there are good spirits and evil spirits associated with man and it is possible to contact them, his warnings have significant meaning. His teachings indicate that we are more likely to contact evil spirits because these spirits are fulfilled and satisfied by being associated with people in the world who are doing the things they love. Terry Schnarr, Director of Information Swedenborg in Canada gives us his interpretation of Swedenborg's teachings: "Basically his warning is not to seek contact with the other world, as is the warning of the Bible. This does not mean that contact can not be made, only that it should not be sought after. If and when it happens naturally, the chances are very good the Lord arranged it to happen for good use."12
Wilson Van Dusen in The Presence of Other Worlds talks of Swedenborg's reluctance to display his miraculous powers and says "In several places he said that miracles have a coercive effect on belief and destroy the free will in spiritual matters."13
In his book The Mystics of Islam, Reynold Nicholson says "In early Mohammedan Vitae Sanctorum it is not uncommon to meet with sayings to the effect that miraculous powers are comparatively of small account." The Persian saint Bayazid said "God used to bring me wonders and miracles, but I paid no heed to them; and when He saw that I did so, he gave me the means of attaining to knowledge of Himself."14
We have quoted from a variety of spiritual teachers and religious traditions to show that the appearance of siddhis is universally accepted as an occurrence on the path to self knowledge. Further, each suggests that too much attention to the display of these powers will prevent the seeker from attaining the ultimate goal--mystical experience.
Caution from Psychics / Examples of Problems Related to Psychic Activity
In addition to the warnings from established religious traditions; occultists and practicing psychics have issued their own concerns.
Underhill 8 quotes from Eliphas Levi, a 19th century occult philosopher: "Too deep a study of the mysteries of nature may estrange from God the careless investigator, in whom mental fatigue paralyses the ardor of the heart."
Edgar Cayce, the 20th century medium, had some very specific views concerning the development and use of psychic abilities. He felt that psychic talents should not be sought in themselves. Cayce, like Gopi Krishna, felt that psychic talents were the direct result of the activity of Kundalini and that the practice of spiritual discipline was a prerequisite for a healthy awakening.15
Following are a few examples from his readings:16
"Development in the spiritual sense by meditation and prayer is dependent upon the Creative, the soul or spiritual energy trapped in the body, rather than upon that which is wholly of the material. This brings about what may be termed psychic development of individuals."
"The activities of the glands used aright may bring serenity, hope, peace, faith, understanding. . . .Misdirected, the energies may bring doubts, fears, apprehensions, contentions, disorders, disruptions. . . .raised in power and then misdirected may bring death itself."
Hugh Lynn Cayce, Edgar's son, repeatedly mentions the destruction of personality, the suffering caused by oversensitivity and the complications that could result through ignorance and misuse of such energies.16
Shortly before her death, the Theosophist, H.P. Blavatsky wrote: "Psychic capacities held perfectly under control, checked and directed by the Manasic principle, are valuable aids in development. But these capacities running riot, controlling instead of controlled, using instead of being used, lead the student into the most dangerous delusions and the certainty of moral destruction. . ."17
All seem to agree on the danger inherent in the development of psychic powers as ends in themselves. Not only does the earnest seeker risk losing sight of his real goal but he may suffer both psychological and physical damage. The following cases are illustrative:
The Case of Eusapia Palladino
In the Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, Leslie Shepard18 recounts the experiences of Eusapia Palladino, a medium whose psychic powers were observed by numerous academics, including Caesare Lombroso and Mme. Curie. Lombroso noted that although Palladino possessed a keen visual memory and remarkable intuition and subtlety for an uneducated person, she had many marked characteristics i.e. mood swings, hallucinations, strange phobias and was given to violent outbursts. It was also observed that she became ill immediately after a seance, sometimes for more than two days when she could not eat and would vomit. She began to use deception and fraud to avoid the physical discomfort of using her psychic powers.
The Case of Vanga Dimitrova
According to scientists who have worked with and noted her abilities, the blind Bulgarian psychic Vanga Dimitrova is unhappy with her psychic gift. "She's often very sad about the things she foresees. . . . But, on the other hand, she can't live without it. She can't stop."19 This suggests that a person can become obsessed by psychic desires and abilities.
Vanga admits her own inabilities to control or access the images that give rise to her psychic abilities. She says "I can't force them. They may be about the past, the present, or the future."19
Nina Kulagina a Russian who has demonstrated psychokinesis (PK) has developed serious medical problems as a result. In addition ". . . she feels a strong energy like a prickling sensation begin to move up her spine to the base of the brain. She has also said that she knows when she is going to move an object because she feels pain and her blood pressure rises.20
It is not difficult to imagine the effect that misuse of psychic powers could have on the ethical development of the seeker. If as has been expressed so often by the great teachers, the spiritual student should use his gifts for material gain or fame, he has virtually destroyed his moral progress and has surely traded the real thing for fool's gold.
On another level, what might happen to the balance of power, world economies or social laws if someone with highly advanced powers chose to use them for personal gain? These and the other dangers cautioned against have lead us to believe that investigation into the paranormal should be approached carefully.
Conclusion
We have discussed the appearance of psychic gifts or siddhis as a mark of progress in spiritual development. Traditional warnings from a wide variety of spiritual disciplines and religious traditions have been cited to emphasize the inherent danger in the mishandling of these "talents" by the seeker. Even the verse quoted from the first canto of Panchastavi emphasizes that the seeker must be of stable intellect and free from all obstruction.
The fact that definite demonstrative signs appear as proof of spiritual progress suggest that Yoga was indeed developed as a verifiable science. This proof was available to the seeker and could also serve as evidence to others that spiritual progress had been made. Thus both the student and teacher had a way to distinguish factual progress from wishful thinking.
It should be emphasized that the appearance of siddhis is not proof that mystical consciousness has been attained--only a sign that progress has been made. Many have made the mistake of equating psychic talent with mystical consciousness.
The unwary seeker may fall prey to the distraction provided by appearance of these "gifts"--resulting in the loss of the spiritual goal. In addition, physical and psychological damage may result. A few examples of this have also been cited.
Given these concerns, those in whom psychic gifts appear should be extremely cautious and diligent. Their lifestyle should follow the standards outlined in classical yoga theory. In addition to a moderate lifestyle with proper nutrition, particular attention should be paid to the first two steps of yoga--restraint and discipline. This is equally important for someone who may not be practicing a directed spiritual discipline.
Extreme caution must also be practiced by scientists using psychics in their research, lest they "push" the student too far and cause damage. The student/teacher relationship of traditional yoga was there for good reason. The essence of spiritual discipline can only be truly understood by one who practices it on himself. Today's scientists need to understand that in dealing with consciousness they are attempting to directly probe a superintelligent life energy. This energy--prana--has its own agenda unlike the insentient energies accepted by present day science. This may mean that psi-experiments cannot be verified or repeated in the standard empirical way.
Gopi Krishna offers a possible explanation for the difficulty in establishing empirically verifiable data from psi-experiments.21
"How can nature allow man to win this sovereign position unless he has also gained the capability to shoulder the highly increased responsibility in a befitting manner and not to abuse the almost superhuman powers gained. This is the reason why in every case of the awakening of Kundalini secret devices in the brain come into play to mold the individual towards a state of mind where the possibility of abuse of psychic power is eliminated. This is also the reason why almost all those who possess psychic talents are never able to control the power or to remain alert and conscious when the phenomena come to pass."
Kundalini Research
A general framework for the verification of paranormal experience must be developed and tested as part of any serious research into the Kundalini experience. According to classical yoga theory and other research,(22,4,23,24) one who has attained the transcendent state should display the following characteristics:--new knowledge (genius), sense of inner light or sound, detachment, cosmic expansion, religious impulse, highly developed moral nature, psychic ability. From Vedic times, one in whom Kundalini is awakened was believed to be transformed from an average person into an intellectual prodigy, an eloquent speaker, even a poet.14 Even Whitman said that the future man will be a poet.
From "A Prayer to Columbus".25
"After the seas are all cross'd, (as they seem already cross'd)
After the great captains and engineers have accomplish'd their works,
After the noble inventors--after the scientists, the chemist, the geologist, ethnologist,
Finally shall come the Poet, worthy that name:
The true Son of God shall come, singing his songs."
As Gopi Krishna has pointed out4 the development of increased intellectual powers and literary talents--i.e. genius - as part of the Kundalini process has essentially been ignored by modern authors. In Cosmic Consciousness, Dr. Bucke also points out that intellectual illumination is a key feature of one who has attained what he calls the Cosmic Sense.23 The association of intellectual development with spiritual perfection is constantly referred to in the traditional writings on Kundalini and should be used as a test point for anyone claiming a full Kundalini awakening.
To illustrate the "powers" ascribed to one in whom Kundalini is awakened we reproduce portions of three verses from the sanskrit Sat-Chakra-Nirupana (Description of the Six Centers) as presented by Arthur Avalon in The Serpent Power22
from verse 10 and 11
". . . .Her (Kundalini) lustre is as that of a strong flash of young strong lightning. Her sweet murmur is like the indistinct hum of swarms of love-mad bees. She produces melodious poetry and Bandha (literary composition in which verse is arranged in the manner of a diagram or picture). . . ."
Here we can clearly see the obvious reference to light, sound, and literary talents.
From verse 27
"Foremost among Yogis, he even is dearer than the dearest to women, He is pre-eminently wise and full of noble deeds. His senses are completely under control. His mind in its intense concentration is engrossed in thoughts of the Brahman. His inspired speech flows like a stream of (clear) water. He is like the Devata. . . .and he is able at will to enter another body."
The above clearly illustrates the characteristics of high moral nature, detachment, cosmic expansion, inspiration, and psychic talents.
All those claiming some type of Kundalini awakening should be measured by the presence of the characteristics listed above. Unless those professing knowledge and expertise of the Kundalini process can be tested to determine the validity of their own understanding how can we determine a balanced path from an unbalanced one? Many sincere seekers have paid with their mental and physical health in search of transcendental experience.
Those claiming partial awakening or an increase in Kundalini activity could also be measured against the same standards. The expected results would of course not come up to those of a full awakening. In any case, some marked degree of the main characteristics should be measurable.
In all cases further study of physiological changes could be made on those claiming to have some degree of Kundalini experience. The changes and the energy involved may be subtle but if paranormal states--mystical consciousness--genius--psychic gifts--are real they must be somehow anchored in the human physiology and empirically measurable.
The study of paranormal phenomena provides a fertile field for understanding the Kundalini process. In this investigation both the seeker and researcher must practice yoga--especially yama (restraint) and niyama (discipline). Above all when investigating the paranormal, caution appears to be the key exercise.
This paper was presented in May 1989
at the annual Academy of Religion and Psychical Research Conference
at Rosemont College, Philadelphia.
References
(1) Krishna, G., Kundalini, The Evolutionary Energy in Man, Shambhala Publications, Boulder, Colorado, 1967
(2) Krishna, G., Secrets of Kundalini in Panchastavi, Kundalini Research and Publication Trust, New Delhi, 1976
(3) Johnston, C., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Brotherhood of Life, Albuquerque, 1949
(4) Krishna, G., The Secret of Yoga, Harper and Row, New York, 1972
(5) Eliade, M., Yoga Immortality and Freedom, Princeton University Press, 1969
(6) Krishna, G., The Dawn of a New Science, Kundalini Research and Publication Trust, New Delhi, 1978
(7) Sannella, L., The Kundalini Experience, Integral Publishing, California, 1987
(8) Underhill, E., Mysticism, Meridian, New York, 1974
(9) Kaul, J., Lal Ded, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1973
(10) Singh, Kirpal, Man Know Thyself, Ruhani Satsang Sawan Ashram, Gurmandi, Delhi-6, India, 1954
(11) Adler, V., Finding of the Third Eye, Samuel Weiser, Inc., New York, 1968
(12) Schnarr, T., director Information Swedenborg, private communication, 1989
(13) Van Dusen, W., The Presence of Other Worlds, Swedenborg Foundation, New York, 1981
(14) Nicholson, R., The Mystics of Islam, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1963
(15) Bro, H., Edgar Cayce on Religion & Psychic Experience, Coronet Communications, 1970, Private communication from Patrick Hayne.
(16) Cayce, H.L., Venture Inward, Harrow Books, New York, 1964
(17) de Purucker, G., Fountain Source of Occultism, Theosophical University Press, California, 1974
(18) Shepard, L., Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, Second Edition, Gale Research, Detroit, 1984
(19) Ostrander, S., Schroeder, L., Psychic Discoveries Behind The Iron Curtain, Bantam, New York, 1970
(20) Ostrander, S., Schroeder, L., Handbook of Psychic Discoveries, Berkley Medallion, New York, 1975
(21) Krishna, G., Autobiography part II, unpublished.
(22) Avalon, A., The Serpent Power, Dover, New York, 1974
(23) Bucke, R.M., Cosmic Consciousness, Dutton, New York, 1923
(24) Pond, P., Kundalini: Biological Basis of Religion and Genius--The Case of Walt Whitman, 1988, to be published, ARPR Proceedings.
(25) Whitman, W., Leaves of Grass, The Lowell Press, New York.
MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE:
BRAIN FUNCTION OR TRANSCENDENT STATE
by Michael Bradford
© 1998 Institute for Consciousness Research
All Rights Reserved
In a recent series of experiments, Dr. Michael Persinger of Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, claims to have elicited mystical-type experiences from experimental subjects who were put into a controlled environment and then subjected to certain forms of auditory and visual stimuli. According to Dr. Persinger, these results indicate that mystical experience, and possibly other types of paranormal phenomena, are explainable totally by alterations in brain function. The result of these experiments has been that Dr. Persinger has received kudos from many of his more scientifically-minded colleagues, but severe criticism, and even death threats, from others who are not happy with his conclusions.
The questions thus arise; is Dr. Persinger's research doing exactly what he claims it is, i.e., are these really mystical experiences that are being induced, and are his conclusions consistent with, and justified by, the results he has obtained?
Before we can answer these questions, it is necessary first to examine the way in which modern scientific investigation relates to non-physical, or subjective, aspects of reality. The main reason that many paranormal phenomena, such as mystical experience and Kundalini awakening, have not been accepted by the scientific community in the West to date lies in the fact that modern science has a world-view which does not support phenomena of this type. This world-view or paradigm is profoundly different from that of cultures, such as that in India, in which means of perception of non-physical aspects of reality were developed to a very high level in the past and became an integral part of the culture as it evolved over the millennia.
The main difference between these two paradigms lies in the fact that the Western world-view is based on the supposition that matter is the ultimate form of reality, and that consciousness is an epi-phenomenon, or characteristic of it. The Eastern world-view, on the contrary, is the exact opposite, with the ultimate reality being consciousness and the physical universe a projection of it. Thus, the Western world-view is based on the premise that what is perceived with the senses is the highest form of reality, in contrast to the Eastern view which posits that higher faculties of mind must be developed in order to apprehend reality in a more direct way.
Science also makes the subtle assumption that the two primary tools with which it works -- the intellect with its logic and reasoning powers, and the physical senses with their extensions, i.e. the equipment used for the observation of various physical phenomena, are the ultimate tools for the perception of reality and the formulation of theories about its nature. And yet it has become clearly evident from the discoveries made in physics in the last 150 years or so that matter at its very roots is profoundly different from what our senses tell us that it is and, as such, that this assumption is highly suspect. Since science has put its faith in matter, as opposed to consciousness, it would be good to review some of these discoveries in more detail to see just what the materialistic world-view is based on at its very roots.
The Downfall of the Deterministic World-View
By the middle of the 19th century, a comprehensive set of laws had been developed which seemed to accurately describe the effects of gravitation and the observed motions of physical bodies such as the planets. Time was fixed in its rate of flow and space was constant and uniform throughout its extent. It was also believed that all observed events were the direct consequence of the conditions which preceded them and, therefore, it was theoretically possible to accurately determine all future events from projections of current conditions. It was also believed that an event was, theoretically, totally independent of and separate from the observer measuring the event.
In 1905, Albert Einstein presented his paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (now known as the Special Theory of Relativity), which stated that the observed speed of light was constant in all directions and in all inertial frames of reference. As a consequence of this, the shape of space and the rate of flow of time were dependent on the relationship between the observer and the observed phenomenon. This meant, for instance, that the observed length of the same object would be different when measured from two frames of reference moving at constant, but different, velocities. It also stated that the rate of flow of time as measured in these two frames of reference would also be different. Thus, Einstein's theory shattered our long-held notions about the nature of space and time and demonstrated dramatically that our 'common-sense' ideas of how the universe worked were not necessarily true.
The next blow to the old deterministic world-view came from Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which was based on the fact that the energy needed to observe a subatomic event (at least one quanta) altered the event itself. Therefore, it was not possible to know with complete accuracy both the location and velocity of a subatomic particle. The more accurately the velocity was determined, the less accurately its location could be pinpointed, and vice-versa. In effect, this principle put a finite limit on our ability to observe subatomic events and, as such, negated the principle of strict determinism.
Along with Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Dirac went on to develop quantum mechanics as a mathematical tool to predict the outcome of subatomic events. It was based on the idea that the quantum state of a particle implies a number of possible outcomes and assigns a probability to each of these outcomes. The notion that reality could only be described as a set of possibilities was repugnant to Einstein but quantum mechanics has since become generally accepted and has proven to be highly successful in predicting experimental results.
As an example of how this works, the process of radioactive decay, where an atomic nucleus splits, is based on the principle that each one of the constituents of the nucleus of an atom -- its protons and neutrons -- has only a probability of actually being located in the nucleus at any given time. Although this probability is extremely high, it is not totally 100% and, by the laws of probability, in a certain percentage of cases over a given time span, a proton or neutron will suddenly NOT be located in the nucleus, causing the nucleus to become unstable and break up. There is no external force which causes the proton or neutron to suddenly be somewhere else. It just is, instantaneously. The concept of causality simply doesn't work here any more.
It became evident as time went on that the actual act of observation is ultimately important. The story of Schrodinger's Cat is quite illustrative of this. Schrodinger did a hypothetical, or thought, experiment in which he placed a cat in a box with a random particle generating machine which would generate either a positive or negative particle. If the machine generated a postivie particle, nothing happened. If it was negative, a flask of acid was broken and the cat was killed. The conclusion he reached was that the status of the cat -- whether it was alive or dead -- had no reality until an observation was made. Until then, there were only probabilities of the cat being alive or dead. The act of observation actually causes all the possibilities except one -- the end result -- to sum to zero, and the probability of the result itself to become 100%. What is important is not that the status of the cat is indeterminate till this time, but rather that it has no reality until the observation is made. In other words, it is the act of observation which creates the reality. William James summed it up beautifully with his remark that "the universe has come to look less like a gigantic machine and more like a gigantic thought."
One conclusion that can be drawn from this brief history of exploration at the subatomic level is that the observer and the observed phenomenon are simply two aspects of the same event, and cannot be separated. The event simply has no reality without an observer to observe it. But even though these relativistic and quantum effects are thought to be negligible at the macroscopic level, the possibility that similar effects may be present in some shape or form at this higher level should not be summarily ruled out.
The Eastern world-view is based on the premise that the observed universe is a projection of the observer’s consciousness. Given that a very similar principle appears to hold true at the microscopic level, should this not call into question some of our basic assumptions about the relationship between consciousness and matter? And if such ideas are repugnant to our 'common-sense' notions of how reality works, we would do well to remember the fate of other such notions that have fallen by the wayside.
Another conclusion that may be drawn from the above review is that our description of reality is not the reality itself or, as Neils Bohr put it, "Physics is not about how the world is, it is about what we can say about the world." The primary advantage of this attitude towards our level of scientific understanding is that it does not allow us to 'rest on our laurels' and become entrenched in one particular world-view.
The nature of the relationship between matter and consciousness can be further illustrated by the asking of the simple but profound question: "What do I know with absolute certainty?" Even modern science tells us that we do not experience external phenomena directly. Rather, we experience only fluctuations in the state of the chemistry and electrical potential of our brains. Yet beyond that lies the question of what exactly it is that our senses perceive. Science again tells us that the actual matter in an atom is confined to a very tiny fraction of 1 percent of its volume or, in other words, that it is almost entirely empty space. But how is it, then, that our brains perceive this near emptiness as solid? Ultimately, the answer to the question posed above can only be: "I know with absolute certainty only that I am."
It is interesting to note that modern technology is not far from the stage where it will be able to create an environment with holographic projection equipment in which we could not visually distinguish reality from manufactured images. And even without this technology, probably most of us have experienced sitting in a movie theatre and becoming so absorbed in the beams of light being projected on the flat, white screen in front of us that they become the reality for us. This brings into question the validity of the assumption that our waking consciousness is the ultimate tool for the perception of reality.
The Role of Consciousness
While we are dreaming during sleep, we are in a totally different state of reality from our waking consciousness. The dream state has its own unique mode of operation and type of perception. And yet during this time, although the dream world is totally real to us, we are usually oblivious to the fact that there is a much more real state of consciousness from which we came and to which we will return. How then can we be certain that there is not another state of awareness which is as different, and equally more real, than the waking state? The accounts of the great mystics throughout history would seem to suggest that such a state is actually available to us. But in the same way that we cannot conceive the waking state during a dream, we cannot easily conceive the mental state of the mystic with our normal consciousness, even with the descriptions provided in their accounts. As a consequence of this, science has given little credence to such accounts. But at the very least, these accounts should call into question the assumption that the waking state is the one and only valid condition from which reality can be assessed.
A 'Thought' Experiment
The mechanistic view that is generally taken by science, that our consciousness is only a result of brain function, is understandable in light of the world-view in which it is based. But it would be good to consider the effect that this world-view has on the way in which science functions. As an example, consider the following hypothetical or 'thought' experiment.
If we were somehow able to take a 'scientist' from the early or middle 1800's and bring this person forward to our own time and show them a television set, their attitude would be quite interesting from our perspective. They would tinker with the controls and watch the picture alter in depth or tone of color or shade. They would perhaps remove some of the components in the set and note the disruption or total disappearance of the image. It would therefore become obvious to them that any alteration in the state of the apparatus had a corresponding effect on the picture being displayed. And, not having a complete knowledge of how the television functioned, and not knowing anything about the electromagnetic spectrum or the radio waves that the set receives and translates into a picture, they would almost certainly come to the erroneous conclusion that the television set itself was the source of the images being displayed.
The current research being done on brain function and its relationship to various states of consciousness could very well be a parallel situation. In the same way that our researcher of the 1800's did not know how the television set functioned at a basic level, there are currently many basic brain functions and conditions, such as subvocalization, pattern recognition, creativity, genius, multiple personality disorder, and schizophrenia, to name a few, which are very poorly understood. In the same way that our researcher did not know about the electromagnetic spectrum, the researchers of today assume that there are no forces or energies beyond those that can be measured by the current state of technology. And in the same way that our researcher's incomplete knowledge led to the assumption that the television set generates the images, current research often comes to the conclusion that because many mental functions can be artificially induced, or altered with external agents, that therefore the brain is the sole source of our consciousness.
And it is even more interesting to take the above analogy a step further as a model of our brain and consciousness, as Gopi Krishna has done in his book Kundalini for the New Age (recently reprinted as Kundalini: Empowering Human Evolution, Paragon House, New York, 1996). In the article "Life is Everlasting," he describes our individual consciousness as a beam from a universal conscious source or broadcasting station of mind. Although our consciousness seems to originate from within our bodies, he states that it is actually coming from another dimension or level of creation via a medium which is far too subtle to be detected with the instrumentation currently available to science. Or, to use another of his analogies, it is like a beam of sunlight streaming into a room through a window. Although the beam is in the room and lights up the room, it actually has its source in the enormous life-giving sun, many millions of kilometers away.
Other Energies
The existence of psychic and paranormal phenomena should seriously call into question the assumption that there are no other forces or energies in creation beyond the ones we already know about. But the objection is often raised that the existence of psychic phenomena is not proven as it has not been possible to reliably replicate them in a laboratory, and that many accounts are either erroneous, fraudulent, or explained by already known phenomena. It is certainly true that a certain percentage of cases are due to mistaken perception, coincidence, and fraud, but the objection is irrelevant as it is almost impossible that all of these accounts, many of them from highly reputable sources, are invalid. If it were discovered that water flowed downhill 99% of the time and uphill the remaining 1%, science would immediately come to the conclusion that its theories about the law of gravitation were seriously flawed, incomplete, or incorrect. But the attitude in science has long been to simply dismiss paranormal phenomena as they do not fit nicely into the existing world-view, and the prospect of subjecting that world-view to a complete overhaul has been far too threatening to seriously contemplate.
This reluctance is clearly indicative of the fact that the paradigm in the mind of a researcher determines not only the interpretation of results of an experiment, but also the questions that are asked, the experiments devised, and the conclusions drawn. There also seems to be a subtle but unmistakable attitude in the minds of some researchers that science has learned most of what there is to be learned and that, as a result, it is now in a position to make categoric statements about the ultimate nature of reality. But it would be a grave mistake to assume that because we have reached a certain level of knowledge and understanding, that there is not an infinite amount of knowledge still to be gained about the creation we live in. The history of science is replete with one example after another of 'experts' who summarily pronounced that such and such a thing could never possibly be, only to be proven wrong a few decades or even years later.
For instance, in a recent article in Time magazine on predicting the future, the eminent Lord Kelvin is quoted as once having said that "heavier than air flying machines are impossible." Also, the commissioner of the U.S. patent office in 1899, Charles Duell, remarked that "Everything that can be invented has been invented." And, more recently, the president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment, Ken Olsen, stated in 1977 that "there is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their own home." It is obvious that our ability to accurately envision the future is severely limited and it must always be kept in mind that it is just as possible now as it was 100 years ago for a new discovery to radically alter our perception and understanding of the universe.
Attitudes such as those presented above are quite prevalent even today. In his recently published book, The End of Science, (Addison-Wesley, 1996) John Horgan, a senior writer for Scientific American, advances the proposition that all the major areas of scientific inquiry have now reached the point where the basic questions involved have been answered and that what remains to be discovered is only the finer details. This view, although certainly not accepted universally within scientific circles, is obviously being seriously considered by many of today's foremost thinkers.
The problem with this view is that it ignores almost entirely some of the most basic questions of our existence: "What is the relationship between consciousness and the brain, and what happens to our essential being after death?" "What is the origin and guiding or animating principle behind life?" And even the most basic of questions: "Why is there even a universe in the first place instead of just NOTHING?" is a profound mystery. The apparent generation of the cosmos from nothingness (i.e. First Cause) is an outright affront to common sense! It would make far more sense for there to be nothing instead of something, as 'nothing' requires nothing to cause it! Even science admits that the conditions in effect prior to the so-called 'Big Bang' are indeterminate. Since there does seem to actually be a universe, it would imply that our cognitive apparatus, which is rooted in time, space, and causality, is simply not capable of apprehending the answer to this question. If it is not, then what further evolution of this apparatus must take place before it reaches the level where it can unravel such mysteries?
Even the creation of the visible universe is an event that is totally beyond our comprehension. The present estimates are that the universe is tenanted by something on the order of one hundred thousand million million million (10to the 23rd power) stars, a figure which has been increasing by an order of magnitude every few years! The level of cognition needed to apprehend this number is probably as far in advance of our current state as we are from a microbe, if not further.
There is a very basic assumption that is being made by science in general, (as also by many of the proponents of religion) that our cognitive apparatus is capable of showing us enough of the reality we are a part of to fathom all of its mysteries. But if, for instance, our species had evolved without the faculty of sight, our understanding of the universe around us would doubtless be radically different. And if we were suddenly to begin to develop the faculty of vision, it would require us to totally revise our entire world-view. Since our forebears could have had no concept of the intellect before it evolved as a basic feature of our species, we also find it extremely difficult to envision the nature of higher faculties of perception than the intellect. But that should not rule out the likelihood that such an evolution is taking place.
Given all this, how can either science or religion be justified in making categoric statements about the nature of creation and our level of understanding of it? The wiser course would be to reserve judgement on such far-reaching issues and to assume that we still have a long way to go in the evolution of our understanding, and our cognitive faculties, before we can be confident in making such assertions.
Science and Consciousness Research
To return to our original questions about the validity of Dr. Persinger's research and the accuracy of his conclusions, we should first try to define as precisely as possible what a 'mystical experience' is. In his book Cosmic Consciousness, originally published in 1901, the Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Richard M. Bucke gave a number of criteria for what he called the 'cosmic sense'. The primary of these criteria are:
1. perception of inner light
2. intellectual elevation
3. sense of immortality / loss of fear of death
4. loss of sense of sin
5. suddenness or instantaneous of the experience
6. transformation of the person's moral character, perceptible to others
Other accounts commonly describe a feeling of expansion of consciousness till it encompasses the universe, and more recent research might also add to this list the development or enhancement of creative faculties such as art, music, writing or poetry. But beyond this, the accounts of the great mystics of the past indicate that the full-blown experience changes the person to the very roots of their being and blesses them (as they describe it) with indescribable bliss and a fund of knowledge and wisdom that could not be gained through a lifetime of ordinary experience.
Of the above criteria, the feeling of expansion of consciousness and perception of inner light were described as being present in Dr. Persinger's experiments, but the more profound effects, such as a lasting sense of immortality, development of artistic abilities, attainment of a 'lifetime' of knowledge and radical transformation of personality do not seem to be in evidence.
It would thus appear that the stimulation of his subjects has triggered the operation of a certain process or mechanism in the brain which does produce the rudimentary signs of a mystical experience. But this stimulation by external means appears to be very different in intensity and effect from that which can occur naturally from within the body. It is quite possible that the subjects in these experiments are experiencing only a tiny fraction of the full potential of the activation of this mechanism. If such a mechanism exists, it may be that it requires the stimulation of an energy produced from within the body itself in order to function at anywhere beyond a very rudimentary level.
The results of these experiments actually tend to confirm the reality of such phenomena as mystical experience as their reproducibility suggests that our brains are wired for such an experience. If this were not the case, then these phenomena would remain as purely subjective states of the mind and their existence and importance would remain questionable at best.
But Dr. Persinger's conclusion that the existence of a physical mechanism for mystical perception in the brain is adequate to totally explain the phenomenon is, as discussed above, rooted in the sensory-based paradigm that science currently functions under and is, as a consequence, wholly premature.
In order for this attitude to change, it will first be necessary for science to accept that its ability to understand subjective phenomena is radically limited by its current world-view and that this world-view or paradigm is long overdue for a radical transformation. What will aid enormously in this transformation is for scientists to begin the process of inner research or exploration of their own consciousness so that the states of mind being studied, such as mystical perception, become a part of their own experience. When the consciousness of the researchers starts to undergo a profound transformation, the old world-view or paradigm will correspondingly undergo a similar shift.
In the last few hundred years, science has miraculously transformed our civilization almost beyond recognition. It has eradicated many horrific diseases, advanced our standard of living to a level that even kings and queens in the past did not possess, vastly expanded our understanding of the physical universe, and given us the power to leave the earth and explore other worlds. But these achievements should not blind us to the possibility that other levels of creation exist and that it will be necessary to radically change the methods by which we pursue this exploration. It is to be hoped that science will make the necessary shift in approach while retaining the spirit of the scientific mode of inquiry so that it can expand the scope of its investigations into the more subtle realms of this vast creation of which we are a part.
MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE KUNDALINI PROCESS
by Gopi Krishna
© 1995 Institute for Consciousness Research
All Rights Reserved
Let us suppose that a public leader, of the same mental constitution as Gautama the Buddha, Christ, Socrates or Gandhi, all famous figures of history, universally respected for the excellence of their character and model way of life, were to be elected to the position of a President or a Prime Minister in one of the forward countries of the world. Does it stand to reason that he would behave in the same way as our present-day leaders do and be an active participant or a passive onlooker of the suicidal race for more and more destructive nuclear engines run day and night before our eyes?
The answer is an emphatic 'no'. Such a personality would never be a party to or an idle spectator of the horrid game. On the contrary, he would raise heaven and earth to rid mankind of this hideous night-mare and even stake his life to achieve this aim. Has it ever struck you that if only one among the top - leaders of the nuclear nations were to throw all his weight on the side of peace, with a ban on the use of nuclear armaments, and show his preparedness to make any sacrifice for it, he would gain the support of millions all over the earth and ignite a fire which only disarmament would quench.
But, apart from lip service, no leader of rank would risk his position, what to say of life, to take up this cause, the noblest and the most urgent of our day, for the simple reason that political consideration of power, prestige and domination would outweigh the self-preservative and humanitarian instincts, a clear symptom of incipient decay. It is obvious that the leading political minds of our time lack in proportion, when compared to the personalities that have made the greatest appeal to the human mind or, in other words, the personalities nearest to the standard of excellence, demanded by evolution, to which willy nilly the race has to conform.
What I am expounding is not entirely new. A glance at the basic tenets of the current faiths of mankind would amply corroborate what I say. Further confirmation will come from the experiments on Kundalini. In fact, no political system set up on the earth is true to any religion, principle or creed. It is a gangrenous mass that needs a surgeon's knife to remove. If this does not happen, a mentally deformed humanity will result of which the signs are plain to see even now.
For a harmonious human personality, there should be a correspondence between the qualities of the head and the heart. This is the reason why, in every form of Yoga, cultivation of cardinal virtues and noble traits of character has been accorded the premier place. Love of fellow human beings, truth, compassion, humility and austerity are the first marks of a harmoniously evolved mind. How can we debate on evolution, when we do not know where it would lead? It cannot be a blind process that can over-haul a most intricate organ like the brain, while its neurons are occupied with a thousand tasks. It must be an Intelligence beyond our grasp. That is Kundalini, and that is what the Third Eye can reveal.
Continued evolution of the human mind cannot be taken lightly or treated as a process which can go on by itself without our racking our brains about it. The transition from the human to the transhuman consciousness would create for mankind such a host of intricate problems and entail such care and attention that, with all her resources of knowledge and skill, she would find it hard to carry the load of duties and responsibilities involved.It is for this reason, Kundalini is addressed as Mother for it is only through her grace that the brain can be saved from cracking under the pressures exerted on it, when there is a conflict between the demands of evolution and the unwholesome life led by self-deluded human beings.
It would be a mistake to suppose that the knowledge gained since the collapse of the ancient cultures would prevent a repetition of the same process of degeneration and decay, for the reason that the present world is yet completely in the dark about the problems arising out of the still operative evolution of the brain. The tempo of progress can serve as an index to show at what speed the brain is upsoaring. The greater the speed the more urgent is the need to put our house in order to avoid a conflict. The world is asleep while a crisis is mounting in every human brain.
Had the discovery been made in time, the state of the world would not be what it is at present. There would be better planning, healthier living conditions, a united mankind, more advanced social and political orders, widespread awareness about the target of human life and the methods to achieve it. What we have now is an intellectual confusion and chaos, a Tower of Babel in which everyone is crying at the top of one's voice to make oneself heard. The cries mingle together into an incoherent roar which save its loudness, has no saving wisdom to impart.
With the first experiments on Kundalini many of the current systems of thought, many of the concepts of science and the assumptions of psychology will come tumbling down to earth. The reason is that the universe we perceive is only a creation of consciousness. In one dimension, it is all there with its atoms and molecules, books and charts, suns and planets; in the other it melts away like a vanished dream. But the mystery is not over; the universe of consciousness, now unfolded, is a greater wonder and presents a more unfathomable mystery to solve. Mankind, when arrived at this stage, would not be at the journey's end, but begin another lap of it entirely beyond our imagination to conceive. One of the most amazing features of our time, in the eyes of our progeny, towards the end of the 21st century, would be the blindness of the intellect which assumes that what it perceives with the senses is the totality and not only the tip of an iceberg of which the bulk is beyond our power to discern.
The leading personalities of our day are far in advance in quick thinking, political acumen and temporal knowledge of the greatest thinkers of the past. But many of them are pygmies compared to the spiritual giants of those times, like Janaka, Buddha, Christ or Socrates. The former present a disproportionate appearance in their psychic buildup, giants of intellect on the one side, and dwarfs in spiritual wisdom on the other. This disproportion in the mental structure, invisible to the normal eye, makes them oddities on the astral plane, the result of lop- sided evolution of the brain.
It is because of this well marked disproportion in leading minds that the intellectually more advanced 20th century has been the era of the most barbarous cruelties, massacres and wars in history. It is for this reason that there has come into existence a most infernal weapon of self-destruction, devised by the most advanced brains of all time, completely dead to the idea that the use of such a weapon to destroy millions of innocent women and children only because they are born in a hostile land, is a mark of cowardice that has no parallel in the annals of the race.
A monstrous weapon of this destructive power has been fashioned and is tolerated because a well defined reflection of this disproportion is clearly noticeable in the collective racial mind - a most alarming symptom, heralding an upheaval of gigantic proportions in the racial body to correct the fault. It is incredible that, even at this stage of progress, the learned should still be unaware of the fact that the psychic waves that sweep over a large or small segment of humanity, driving it to a revolution or war, come as surely from the Cosmic Mind as individual thoughts and feelings do. The ceaselessly agitated surface of an ocean in a storm or the endlessly vibrating fields of energy, forming the material universe, bear a poor comparison to the tornado of activity raging in the Pranic world.
Count roughly the ghastly massacres that occurred in this century, of thousands to millions of innocent human beings, in Russia, China, Germany, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Persia, Lebanon, Ireland, Africa, South-America and other places and also count the sadistic leaders and their hundreds of thousand genocidal accomplices who perpetrated the crimes, resulting in the brutal murder of over 20 million human beings. Count also the number of the battles and wars, large and small, fought in the same period and the even greater number of soldiers killed or disabled for life. Project this picture into the 21st Century, with the additional terror of the all-destroying nuclear bomb, and you will have a pretty clear idea of the horrors to come. If this grisly march of events is not arrested, while there still is time, the race is doomed.
Why I am drawing attention to this critical situation of the world today in a conference of The Transpersonal Psychology Association is because the phenomenon relates most closely to the science of the mind. It is an alarming foreshadow of the events to come that, even at this stage, when a volcano is about to burst under their very feet, the people of the world look on nonchalantly at the hideous preparations made for a holocaust, as a herd of cattle looks on passively at the arrangements made for its slaughter. This is an ominous sign, the result, to a lesser degree, of the same disproportion that has occurred in the more evolved leading brains. Had the guiding lights of the race been as normal in their response to this suicidal threat, a hue and cry would have been raised from the very beginning, forcing the leaders to abandon the project. But they did not. It could be that many of them tacitly nodded their assent keeping, by their silence, the masses unaware of the hazards to which they are exposed.
It is only now, through the heroic efforts of a few saner minds, that the people are becoming more and more aware of the grave danger to their life. It is this growing awareness which is at the root of the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements now launched in many parts of the earth. The real cause for the crisis created, as also of the apathy shown by the bulk of the earth's population towards it, is still unsuspected by the world. It rests on something that is still unknown to science.
So far as I know, there is not the slightest inkling either among the scholars or the laity, that, by a gross disregard of spiritual values during the last few centuries, the evolution of the human mind has taken an unhealthy direction with the result that a large section of the population is affected by a disproportion which, if not set right, can have the gravest consequences for humanity. The imbalance is more clearly marked in the more intelligent minds.
The millions of known cases of mental disorder, in spite of the crimes committed by some of them, are not a menace to the race. The danger comes from the crowds of smart, highly efficient people whose instincts are not balanced and who lack the moral counterpoise to off-set the enlarged ego, boundless ambition and immoderate greed of the highly intelligent mind. Keeping in view the picture of this mental disproportion, count now the number of abnormals, occupying the highest seats of power, among the nations of the earth. Remember that there will be in a few years no less than twenty nuclear states and that even one abnormal at the head of any one of them, can ignite a fire that would set the world ablaze.
The only possible way to save the world from this grave danger is to gain knowledge of the evolutionary mechanism and the conditions needed for its healthy operation to create the harmonious personalities that can bring peace to the world. The only method to gain this knowledge, apart from what is contained in the religious and occult literature of the world, is to undertake extensive studies of the phenomenon in various parts of the earth.
There are many fields of study and research in the various departments of science, but none of such urgency and importance as the research on Kundalini. Nature has left no other door open for the study of mind or other intelligent forces of nature, except this one, for the reason that further evolution of the brain is needed before entry to the super-sensory planes of creation can be gained. It is only the accomplished products of Kundalini who will be able to guide the race beyond the intellectual level now reached by her.
II
I now come to another aspect of Kundalini which, I believe, would bring the phenomenon more sharply into focus, especially among the learned. For this purpose it is necessary to draw attention to a few historical instances to show how Kundalini acts as a divine instrument in shaping human destiny. How the extraordinary personalities, fashioned by her, become instruments, in turn, in causing mass upheavals to change the fate of empires and the multitudes under their sway.
One of the most remarkable personalities of our time has been M.K. Gandhi, who brought independence to India. There was an episode in the life of this extraordinary man of which no satisfactory explanation has been provided so far. The authors of the book "Freedom at Midnight", on which the Gandhi film is based, describe this episode as a drama whose unique dimensions eventually scandalized some of his oldest associates, alarmed millions of Indians and baffled the historians who tried to comprehend all the intricate facts of Gandhi's complex character.
The drama centered round a 19 year old girl, Gandhi's grand-niece, Manu. The girl, orphaned at an early age, had been brought up by Gandhi and his wife as their own grand-daughter. On the death of his wife, Gandhi promised to be a mother to the girl and actually cared for her as mothers do. One day, when 19, Manu shyly confessed to him that she had never felt sexual arousal, normal in a girl of her age. Gandhi himself had taken a pledge to be a Brahmachari, that is, to abstain from sex and had taken this decision to his wife in 1906. After the vow was taken Gandhi did all in his power to obliterate the faintest signs of erotic desire in himself. For years, he experimented with different diets to choose one that had the least effect on his libido.
As the result of his rigid control, he came to believe that he had killed the last vestige of sex in himself. But his confidence was shattered 30 years later, when he noticed himself in a state of erection one night. He was greatly depressed at the thought that he had not been able to achieve the goal for which he had battled so long. The perfect Brahmachari, in the view of Gandhi, was a man who could lay by the side of a Venus, in all her naked beauty, without being physiologically or mentally disturbed. He firmly believed that the sublimation of his sexual energies would give him the moral and spiritual power to accomplish his mission in life.
After listening to the confessions of Manu, Gandhi decided to put himself and her to test. With this idea in his mind, he announced his decision to Manu that they would share the same pallet and sleep together, like a mother and daughter, without the least idea of an erotic nature. Manu agreed and the plan was put into effect. But soon rumors began to float and scandals to spread. As his confidence in his mastery over himself grew, Gandhi extended the range of physical contact with women. He nursed them when they were ill, and allowed them to nurse him. He had his daily massage on his bare body, done by young girls, and in that state gave interviews or consulted with the leaders of his party.
As the word of what was happening spread beyond the limits of the Ashram, the news caused an intense shock to the party - leaders, face to face with a critical situation at the time. Gandhi confronted the rumors in an evening prayer meeting. His words calmed his immediate associates, but the calumny continued to spread. Emissaries came from Delhi to protest against this strange behavior, but Gandhi flatly refused to deviate from his course. Finally it was Manu herself, perhaps on a hint from one of the emissaries, who persuaded him to abandon the practice with the assurance that in all other matters she would continue to act as before.
This riddle in the life of Gandhi has not been satisfactorily answered so far. In the case of a scrupulously conscientious man, like him, who staked his life for his principles, not once but several times and did not yield, even in the face of death, it would be unfair to suppose that he had libidinous aims which he deliberately concealed under the pretext of acting as a mother to Manu. It is, indeed, a puzzle why Gandhi himself should have been so insistent on her sharing his bed in order to steel himself or her in the discipline of Brahmacharya, as he must have been conscious that such a behavior on his part could be misunderstood and create scandals, seriously inimical to his reputation and mission. We cannot imagine that a shrewd public leader, like Gandhi, could be so naive as not to be aware of the consequences that could ensue from his strange behavior.
This paradoxical episode in the life of Gandhi is easily explainable in the light of Kundalini. As the result of a favorable heredity, his own ideas and, perhaps, even practices, Kundalini must have started to stir in him even before he ceased his relations with his wife, that is, the energy must have started to flow into his brain. In other words, he must have felt that he was becoming an urdhva-retas, which in Sanskrit means, one with an upward flow of reproductive energy.
In the first phases of the awakening, the demand on the energy is so much that sexual appetite is lost and the male organ shrinks. This is clearly brought out by Arthur Avalon in his "The Serpent Power". Gandhi, too, must have experienced it. This is patently clear from his own remarks that "the sexual organs of a real Brahmachari begin to look different. They remain as mere symbols of his sex, and his sexual secretions are sublimated into a vital force pervading his whole being."
The first phase of the awakening can last for months and years, depending on the constitution, heredity, life-style and the behavior of the subject. The awakening of the power signifies a new activity in the brain, leading to an expansion of consciousness which ultimately terminates in the Mystical Vision. The opening of the brain-centre does not occur at once as that would be calamitous and can end in instant insanity or death. But, in benign cases, it occurs by slight degrees, each small expansion followed by a period of adjustment, time after time, until the maximum possible for the subject is achieved. After each adjustment, when the demand on the secretions diminishes, the partially or completely lost virility is restored.
The attempt of the mechanism of evolution is to adapt the body to the expanding new activity of the brain, so that the flame of extended consciousness is maintained undimmed, with the combined activity of the organs and tissues, as is the case with normal consciousness. For this vital purpose, every single drop of the reproductive fluids is sucked up and used as the driving force for the changes wrought. For this reason, although from the outward appearance, the male member appears to shrink, there is, on the whole, a heightened activity of the reproductive organs to supply, for inner consumption, as much of the secretions as possible.
In this process there occur periods when the demand on the generative secretions is so great that the subject needs constant stimulation to increase the supply of the reproductive juices. This stimulation is provided by an erotically pleasing object. The Tantras and other works on Kundalini clearly acknowledge the need of an attractive female partner in the practices undertaken to awaken Shakti. The real reason for this lies in the demand of the brain to condition itself for the manifestation of a more extended state of consciousness. If this demand is denied, due to some fault in the reproductive system, or if the precious essence is wasted in pleasure, the results that follow can be disastrous.
Gandhi, as the leader of the independence movement of a subcontinent, carrying a population of over 400 million, with a hundred problems constantly on his head, needed an enormous consumption of psychic energy to keep himself in a state of balance and calm. The expansion in his consciousness, which had already started, added vastly to the problem. Only a man of iron resolve could maintain his composure in the crises that surrounded him on every side. The drain on his procreative organs, to sustain his brain in such a situation, must have been terrific. It is, therefore no wonder that this great son of India needed a stimulant to keep up an uninterrupted supply of the food which his brain needed.
Most probably Gandhi himself had no inkling of the transformative process at work in him. This needed a life's experience of a power-fully active Kundalini. The adjustments must have taken a much longer time in his case, on account of the severe ordeals he had to undergo, the extremely austere way of life he led, the load of tasks he had to do and the fasts he kept. He was cast into a severe fit of depression 30 years later, when he noticed that he was still prone to sexual arousal, as he was unaware of the cyclic operation of Kundalini.
Gandhi could never know of the real reasons for his attitude towards Manu. He submitted to the organic need of his brain without knowing why he was so insistent in acting as a mother to his niece. Compared to the colossal task he had on his shoulders, this little episode of his affection for Manu, or his preference for daily massage has no significance. Nature accomplishes her great tasks in her own way and leaves short- sighted mortals wondering how it could happen. But for this subconsciously motivated behavior, which he himself could not consciously understand, it might not have been possible for this great soul to carry out the herculean task which had been entrusted to him.
The experiments on Kundalini will keep the world breathless with wonder for centuries to come. Every great historical event, every great revolution and every war, that has occurred in recent times, has been the result of a ferment in the brains of the leading personalities involved, resulting from the activity of Kundalini. When Kundalini starts to act, every facet of the personality in which she acts is known to her. The rigid, unbending Gandhi who would not deviate from his principles had to be tackled in his own way. In order to keep the overtaxed brain supplied with the fuel which it needed for its sanity, stimulation was indispensable. How could it be provided consciously, in the existing frame of his mind, against the principles he had cherished all his life. For this reason, the subconscious came into play, as it does in the life of many of us, to impel to actions unconsciously, which, otherwise, we would refuse to do.
There are certain peculiarities in the life of Gandhi which unerringly point to the conclusions I have drawn. He was married at the age of 13, and entered the delightful rose-bed of married life with exuberant joy. It seems he had a strongly marked erotic side. This is clearly brought out by a curious incident. One day, while massaging the legs of his dying father, whom he dearly loved, Gandhi was seized by a sudden burst of sexual desire that made him tip-toe to his room and wake up his pregnant wife. A few minutes later, while the two were still swimming in pleasure, a servant came to inform that his father had died. The incident left a deep scar on the mind of Gandhi, which could have provided one of the reasons for his vow of continence at the age of 37.
The pledge was not confined to the subdual of erotic desire alone. To Gandhi, at this age, it meant control of all the senses, restraint in emotion, diet and speech, the suppression of anger, violence and hate, a simple, austere life and the attainment of a desireless state close to the ideal, depicted in the Bhagavad-Gita, of a self-controlled sage. The most significant feature of the transformation is the age at which it occurred. As already indicated in my books, the usual time for a spontaneous arousal of the Serpent-Power is round about the age of 35 years, with a margin of a few years this way or that. The desires and impulses that arise are the same which stirred in Gandhi. These include an accentuation of religious fervor, or a strong urge to turn from the world and devote oneself to a spiritual or noble cause. Mark the somewhat identical stirrings in the crowds which devote themselves intensely to Yoga or some other spiritual discipline.
There are other traits exhibited by Gandhi during this period which leave no doubt that the Shakti had begun to operate in him. Space does not permit me to dwell on them at present. At the time when the incidents mentioned occurred, Gandhi, now 77 years, was facing stresses that demanded a more abundant supply of the psychic fuel to save his aging brain from giving way under the strain. When Kundalini occupies the last centre in the head, a constant stream of sublimated reproductive energy irrigates the brain, reducing greatly the pressure on the generative organs or removing it altogether. Instead of causing tensions that need release, it now opens a fountain of creative joy in the head which puts what was formerly thought to be the peak of delight, into shade.
It is our own distorted vision, born of weakness, which makes us think that sex-energy is too profane an object to be used for the holy communion with God. The breasts of a mother serve as a delightful object of erotic pleasure for the husband or lover, but, at the same time, they provide life-saving nourishment to her child. No one ever contends that the milk he imbibed from his mother's breasts in infancy was impure. In formulating her plan, nature does not care for the petty idiosyncrasies of the human mind. The same divine power which brings a human child into being drives it at a certain period of life to the act of procreation and, when the time is ripe, fills it with the urge for self-awareness, as it had once filled it with erotic desire, to lead it ultimately to the Vision Divine.
I have presented the case of Mahatma Gandhi, as it is typical of an active Kundalini. The aim has been, in the first place, to show the tremendous influence that the power exerts on the life of individuals and, through them, on the life of multitudes. Secondly, to throw a glimmer of light on one of the infinitely varied activities of this divine power to help those in whom it is astir or might stir up in future, to regulate their lives. Thirdly, the aim is to clear this great soul of the shadow that was cast on him towards the end by the episode described. The love between men and women, on the earthly plane, for procreation or enjoyment is human. But the same love, on the super-earthly plane, to help the soul win back its glory and freedom is divine.
The subject will be discussed more fully elsewhere, with illustrations drawn from the lives of other distinguished men and women in whom there is clear evidence to show that the power was active from an early period of life. These would include Freud and Jung also, who contributed so richly to the science of mind, but had no inkling of the mysterious force operating in them to which they owed their fluency of expression, vast knowledge. and deep insights. Had they known it, much of what they have written would have remained unsaid. Such is the bewildering play of Kundalini. She is the inscrutable Maya-Shakti, the author of this magic-show of life, a dream and a reality both.
THE NATURE OF PRANA
AS THE BASIS FOR THE STUDY OF KUNDALINI
by Michael Bradford
© 1995 Institute for Consciousness Research
All Rights Reserved
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The extremely diverse and conflicting views currently in vogue about the nature and characteristics of Kundalini, and the lack of a concise and reasonable theory on which to build an investigation, have recently led to a tremendous amounexperiences in the past leave no doubt that we are dealing with a phenomenon which is very real. But the almost total lack of recognition given it by modern medict of confusion as to what this 'energy' really is and how it functions in the human body.
The growing number of cases of people who are having what has been termed 'spiritual crises' and the many accounts of those who have had similar al science has only served to heighten the confusion and fear in the minds of those who are going through these all too real experiences.
Since we are dealing here with a subject which is concerned in part with non-physical aspects of creation, such as life-energies and consciousness, the scientific methods that have led to such tremendous progress in the material realm are of only limited use in studying these phenomena. On the other hand, the written material that has come down to us from the spiritual traditions and Yoga systems of the past, although obviously written by men and women who had a thorough understanding of the effects of Kundalini, was recorded without the knowledge we currently have of physiology, biology, neurology, physics, chemistry, etc. It is for this reason that this valuable body of material has been largely dismissed by many modern investigators as the product of primitive superstition.
The crux of the problem lies in the fact that reality, as represented by these ancient philosophies and reality as it is postulated by modern science are radically different in nature. Whereas the modern view is based on the assumption that matter is the primary basis of existence and that consciousness is an epi-phenomenon stemming from it, the ancient spiritual philosophies hold exactly the reverse view. But, as modern science has been sadly deficient in answering very basic questions regarding the nature of mind, life, consciousness and the origin of our existence, the conclusion may be readily drawn that the scope of creation is radically beyond what modern science currently can comprehend.
Thus, the solution to the problem of what direction a modern investigation into the nature of Kundalini should take may best be found in a re-examination of the vast body of ancient material on the subject with a scientifically based but philosophically flexible attitude. It would have to be kept in mind by those doing such an investigation that the relevant information is there in an allegorical form, recorded in a cryptic terminology that would have to be painstakingly deciphered, eliminating what does not stand up to modern scrutiny. But such a study would doubtless uncover a tremendous body of knowledge which would be invaluable as a guide to the direction for more quantitative forms of research.
Let us make a beginning, then, by taking a brief survey of the views taken by the ancient spiritual philosophies and Yoga systems to see if they form a logically consistent picture which could be used as a basis for an investigation into that mysterious process taking place in the human body called Kundalini.
The Indian Tradition
Knowledge of the mechanism of Kundalini is very ancient. It dates back at least to the time of the Indus Valley civilization which flourished in what is now present-day India and Pakistan from about 3,000 B.C. onwards. Excavations indicate that this culture may have attained a degree of development which has rarely been surpassed until the last few hundred years. Ancient seals from this time depicting a three-faced God, sitting on a throne in a crossed-legged Yoga posture on a deerskin, surrounded by a tiger, buffalo and rhinoceros are almost without doubt representations of the God Shiva of later Indian philosophies. The fact that the male God depicted on the seals is shown in Yoga posture with erect phallus demonstrates a definite knowledge of the intimate connection that Kundalini has with the reproductive system.
The Vedas in India are the oldest recorded major scriptures known to exist and it is even held that they were transmitted orally for centuries prior to being written down. Following them, at a much later time, were the Upanishads, held to be the product of a number of great illuminaries. After that came the Vedanta, Shaiva, Vaishnava, Buddhist and Tantric philosophies, to name a few of the primary ones. Thus, there was literally a continuous development of the science of Yoga for millennia during which time the disciplines which led to the awakening of Kundalini were developed and refined to an extent that has been unmatched in any other known culture in the world. The following is a brief description of the essence of these philosophies and how it relates to an investigation into Kundalini.
The ultimate reality behind the phenomenal universe, according to the Upanishads, is referred to as Brahman. The difficulty with understanding Brahman lies in that it is said to be attributeless--that is, it has none of the physical characteristics by which we normally make identification. It has no size, no shape, no color, no taste, no smell nor form. Brahman is held to be infinite, unbounded by time or space, the source of all. It is a unity, with no degrees or differences or sub-divisions. Being infinite and formless, it is therefore unknowable by the intellect.
The Maitri Upanishad (VI-17) says "Verily, in the beginning, this world was Brahman, the Infinite One. Infinite in the south, infinite in the west, infinite in the north, and above and below, infinite in every direction. For Him, indeed, east and the other directions exist not, nor across, nor below nor above. Incomprehensible is the Supreme Self, unlimited, unborn, not to be reasoned about, unthinkable. He whose Self is space. At the dissolution of all, He alone remains awake. Thus from that space, He awakes this world which consists of thought only. By Him alone is all this meditated on and in Him it is dissolved."
The Bhagavad Gita, referring to it as The Unmanifested, says (8-18) "All the manifested stream forth at the coming of day; at the coming of night they dissolve even in That, called the Unmanifested."
But this view of reality is certainly not limited to the Indian traditions alone. Plotinus, in his Enniads (VI-9.3), expresses a strikingly similar viewpoint. He says "The One is the engender of the All. It can itself be none of the things in the All, that is, It is not a thing. It does not possess quality or quantity. It is not an Intellectual Principle, not a soul. It is not in motion and not at rest, not in space, not in time: It is essentially of a unique form, or rather of no form, since It is prior to form, as It is prior to movement and rest: All these categories hold only in the realm of existence and constitute the multiplicity characteristic of that lower realm."
Perhaps the only characteristic by which we can comprehend Brahman is that it is an infinite unbounded superconscious Intelligence. The description of God in the Christian tradition as being Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent--that is all-powerful, all-knowing and existing everywhere--is thus not radically different from the Indian concept of Brahman.
For the benefit of our limited, sense-bound intellect, the Indian philosophies have subdivided Brahman into two complementary aspects. This consists of an unchanging Conscious Principle which is in turn completed by an infinite Creative Energy. The conscious principle has been designated as Atman, or Shiva and the creative energy as Shakti. These may, in a general sense, be thought of as the static and kinetic aspects of creation.
Sir John Woodroffe, in his comprehensive book The Serpent Power, says (Page 26) "The ultimate or irreducible reality is `Spirit' in the sense of Pure Consciousness . . . from out of which and by its Power (Shakti) Mind and Matter proceed. Spirit is one. There are no degrees or differences in Spirit . . . ..Atma is unchanged and inactive. Its Power (Shakti) is active and changes in the form of Mind and Matter." He describes Shiva and Shakti as Power-Holder and Power, pointing out that one cannot exist without the other. Shakti is "the Mahadevi who conceives, bears and nourishes the universe sprung from her Womb."
The ancient Sanskrit work Panchastavi, written around 1000 A.D., whose author remains unknown, reflects a similar viewpoint about Shakti. It says (V-31) "That which has gone before, that which is to come after, that which is within and that without, the unbounded and the limited, the most gross and the most subtle, the manifested and the unmanifested, the open and the secret, the near and the distant, being and non-being, in these and other forms Thou art perennially seen as the Universe. It is the movement (creative activity) born of Thee at Thy command which brings the (infinitely varied) Cosmos into being."
Shakti, or Para-Shakti as it is known in its cosmic form, is said to be the power which creates, maintains and destroys the entire phenomenal universe. This concept of an infinite intelligence, coupled with a creative power, is at the heart of most of the Indian systems of philosophy but has had little acceptance in the west. The main reason for this is that it is a radical step for the intellect to accept the existence of an intelligence so vastly superior to it. It is even harder for a scientific mind that is steeped in a philosophy which discounts as non-existent anything that it cannot measure quantitatively to accept such a proposition. But it is exactly this concept of a super-intelligent creative energy which must be accepted before the phenomenon of Kundalini can be understood.
According to Gopi Krishna, in the seventh chapter of his autobiography Kundalini--The Evolutionary Energy in Man, this Cosmic Shakti operates in the phenomenal world in two primary ways. It functions in inanimate matter by manifesting the elements, atoms and molecules of the physical world and the four (at this time) known forces which bind them together. It also functions in the animate or living world as a subtle immaterial essence pervading all life forms, governing all biological processes within them. This form of Shakti is termed Prana-Shakti or just Prana.
As Gopi Krishna remarks (page 107), "In order to explain the phenomenon of terrestrial life there is no alternative but to accept the existence of an intelligent vital medium which, using the elements and compounds of the material world as bricks and mortar, acts as the architect of organic structures. All show evidence of extraordinary intelligence and purpose, built with such amazing skill and produced in such profusion and in so many diverse forms as to falsify any idea of spontaneous generation or chance. The existence of this medium cannot be proved empirically; human ingenuity and skill have not yet reached the perfection where one can experiment with media of such subtlety."
In The Dawn of a New Science (page 216), he comments on the biological aspect of Prana. "In its cosmic form Prana is a highly diffused intelligent energy spread everywhere. But in the individual it takes a specific form as the bio-plasma or individual Prana composed of an extremely subtle organic essence drawn from the elements and compounds forming the body. It is this essence which, transformed into psychic energy, becomes the fuel for thought. The bio-plasma, sustained by the cosmic ocean of Prana, permeates each and every cell of an organism."
He refers to Prana at another point as the "medium for the activity of thought and transference of sensations and impulses in living organisms," which controls the vital functions of all sentient life. It is held that this energy becomes directly perceptible to the mind when some degree of true success is achieved in Yoga. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, revealing his Universal Form to Arjuna says, "But surely you cannot see Me with your physical eyes. Therefore I vouchsafe to you the Divine Eye with which you can behold my supreme form as the Lord of Yoga."
Prana is considered to be the basic vital life force which, disappearing at death, leads to the separation of the physical body from the Infinite Conscious Principle that had been linked to it. Prana has a range or 'spectrum', as Gopi Krishna termed it, which varies from individual to individual and from species to species. It is this spectrum which is the source of the human aura that is described by psychics and clairvoyants and detected by Kirlian photography.
Prana and the Birth Process
Although the existence of Prana cannot be empirically verified at this time, its activity in the body is quite evident in many ways. Perhaps the most striking of these is the process of development of the fetus in the womb of its mother. In the space of nine short months, a single solitary cell, too small for the naked eye to see, divides, develops and grows into a living thinking, breathing human being, composed of tens or hundreds of billions of cells of thousands of different types, organized in a way which is nothing short of miraculous.
By the time of birth, the brain is fully formed and, within a few short months, it is functioning at an amazing level. In a recent article on neural networks and computers, Time Magazine of August 15, 1988 remarks, "The more time scientists spend designing computers, the more they marvel at the human brain. Tasks that stump the most advanced supercomputer--recognizing a face, reading a handwritten note--are child's play for the 3-lb. organ. Most important, unlike any conventional computer, the brain can learn from its mistakes." How can it possibly be that an absolute miracle of creative intelligence, the human brain, can develop from a single cell to the most complex entity known to exist, without the guidance and control of some super-intelligent agency?
This control and guidance is also evident in the experiments done with developing animal embryos in which the removal or substitution of tissue, if done at an early enough stage, does not result in a totally deformed final form but rather in a smaller or modified, but still complete form. If the process of development were strictly a mechanical one, this would certainly not be the result. One logical explanation for this phenomenon is the existence of a controlling field, such as the Pranic spectrum, which has a pre-determined form towards which it is guiding the development of the organism via the growth processes.
The accounts of those who have had pronounced symptoms of Kundalini awakening also confirm that a purposeful, intelligent energy is working within them to bring about changes in their metabolism. The parallels between this form of activity and that present in the womb of a mother-to-be indicate that it may be the same energy working in both cases but with a different end result. Thus the term 'rebirth', used by those who have had a spiritual awakening, may be more appropriate than has previously been supposed.
Prana and the Immune System
The second major area in which the activity of this super--intelligent vital energy can be seen at work in the human body is the immune system. A recent article in Time Magazine of May 23, 1988 made the following remarks:
'As they probe the intricate workings of the immune system, scientists are awestruck. "It is an enormous edifice, like a cathedral," says Nobel Laureate Baruj Benacerraf . . . .The immune system is compared favorably with the most complex organ of them all, the brain. "The immune system has a phenomenal ability for dealing with information, for learning and memory, for creating and storing and using information," explains immunologist William Paul . . . .Declares Dr. Stephen Sherwin, Director of Clinical Research at Genentech, "Its an incredible system. It recognizes molecules that have never been in the body before. It can differentiate between what belongs there and what doesn't." '
The article goes on to remark, "The B-cell genes that dictate the production of antibodies occur in distinct segments. These pieces, like cards in the hands of a Las Vegas dealer, are constantly and speedily shuffled into different combinations." The obvious question then arises--what agency is doing the `shuffling' to produce the correct antibody needed to fight the infection?
And lest it be assumed that a simple mechanical process is at work, the article further states 'Thus within the slowly evolving human being, the immune system is undergoing a rapid internal evolution of its own. And a good thing too. "If all we had to meet the microorganisms (with) was true evolution," says NIH's William Paul, "We'd long ago have disappeared from the face of the earth." ' How can a system with these amazing characteristics possibly exist without the control and guidance of some remarkable agency such as Prana?
A similar process occurs when we physically damage our bodies and the healing process takes over, completely beyond our control or understanding, repairing bones, organs and tissues. The fact that these processes work much more quickly when we are asleep--in a totally unconscious state--again indicates the operation of an intelligent agency present in our bodies but separate from and undetected by our normal consciousness.
Perhaps one of the most amazing aspects of Prana is that it carries on all its intricate, complex and far-reaching activities in the human body without being in any way directly perceptible to us in our normal state of consciousness. Day after day we behold the miracles of conception and birth, healing, recovery from disease, regeneration during sleep, and for the most part do not even begin to suspect the possibility of a stupendous intelligence behind it all.
And not only must this super-intelligence know intimately every aspect of our physical being, but almost certainly our mental and emotional natures too. It is for this reason that those who awakened the Serpent Power in the past referred to it as a 'Goddess'--an all-knowing Intelligence which knew every aspect of their being. The implications of this are far-reaching both for the individual seeker after enlightenment and the scientist trying to uncover the secrets of Kundalini.
Modern Theories
Given that an agency such as Prana exists, and that it is the basis for the processes which result from Kundalini activity, how then do some of the modern ideas about Kundalini compare with the traditional ones from the Indian systems.
The more recent interpretations have tended to depict it as a phenomenal energy in the body which can be aroused and manipulated through meditation and breathing exercises to rise up the spine into the brain. It is often pictured as being a form of subtle electricity, powering the chakras, leading to states of cosmic consciousness.
It is also a commonly held belief that a moderate amount of meditation, if practiced for a period of time, will probably result in the awakening of Kundalini and the experience of higher consciousness. Some modern proponents even advertise that their system will have the desired result within weeks--guaranteed or your money back!
Several obvious discrepancies between the traditional concepts about Kundalini and the modern ones are immediately apparent. In the traditional view, the energy is regarded as an all-powerful, super-intelligent agency which cannot be controlled or manipulated but must rather be approached with reverence, respect and great caution after many years of intense training and self-discipline. In the modern views, though, it is often presented as something that can be controlled and manipulated according to desire, without fear of any serious consequences. This latter view has resulted because the energy is thought of as being similar to the known physical forces and its super-intelligent aspect is never taken into consideration.
Also, the traditional Yoga systems have always regarded the awakening of Kundalini for the attainment of higher consciousness as an arduous life-long undertaking, suitable for only a few, where the chances of complete success were very limited. The Bhagavad Gita is quite explicit on this point when Krishna remarks to Arjuna, "Out of thousands, only one seeks me. And out of thousands who seek me, only one is successful." Current concepts about Kundalini which suggest that higher consciousness can be attained with a minimum of effort in a short span of time have lead to a very distorted picture of the entire process in the minds of both the spiritual seeker and the serious investigator.
Prana and Yoga
Since the nervous system in the human body is the basis for all feeling, movement, muscle control, information transmission and coordination, it is almost certain that Prana's activity in the body is intimately connected with this system. This aspect of the energy is of great concern in Yoga theory and a brief summary of the philosophy of Hatha Yoga (the most physically oriented of the disciplines) may give us some relevant information.
As Sir John Woodroffe remarks in The Serpent Power, (page 198), the term Hatha Yoga is a compound of the two Sanskrit words Ha and Tha, which mean the 'Sun' and the 'Moon'. They represent the two basic polarities of Prana-Shakti, termed Prana and Apana, which are said to function in the nervous system producing a heating or cooling effect respectively. They correspond to the two channels or nadis named Pingala and Ida on the right and left sides of the spinal cord. Gopi Krishna, in his autobiography (page 105) says, "Prana . . . assumes different aspects to discharge different functions in the body and circulates in the system in two separate streams, one with fervid and the other with frigid effect . . . Prana and Apana exist side by side in the system in every tissue and every cell, the two flowing through the higher nerves and their tiny ramifications as two distinct currents, though their passage is never felt in the normal state of consciousness . . ."
The discipline of Hatha Yoga has as one of its primary objectives the ability to enhance the production, purification and control of Prana in the practitioner and thereby to stimulate into heightened activity the mechanism of Kundalini. The term pranayama, which is sometimes mistaken to mean simply the control of the breath, in actual fact denotes the control of this vital energy. It is primarily through the medium of the respiratory system that Prana is absorbed into the body from the surrounding air to replenish the store of vital energy which circulates in all parts of the body.
The primary active element in both air and water is oxygen and it is probably the most crucial element to the functioning of life that we know of. It may be possible, as Gopi Krishna has theorized, that Prana uses this unique element as the major vehicle for its activity in the body. The nervous system, then, would be the channel by which the Pranic energy stored in the cells of the body is collected and transmitted to the brain.
Conclusion
A thorough, open-minded examination of the ancient literature on the subject of higher consciousness would be invaluable as a preliminary step in the investigation of Kundalini. The next stage of such an investigation would be to develop empirical methods for the detection, measurement and modification of Prana to the degree that is possible from a physical standpoint.
The ramifications of the discovery of such methods are without doubt enormous. The affect that they would have just on the process of understanding and treating mental illness alone would make the undertaking totally worthwhile. But beyond that, the proof of the existence of such an energy would have an impact on our political, social, economic and education systems that can hardly even be imagined at this time.
The discovery of methods by which Prana may be detected will require a tremendous amount of hard work and ingenuity. But the existence of such processes as Kirlian photography indicate that we probably do not have too far to go before some concrete results would be achieved. The major step is for those who have the resources and the skills to accept the possibility that creation is not limited only to the physical universe and that the modern scientific method must be expanded in its scope in order to make progress in the exploration of these non-physical realms.
Also, it will be vitally important for those who are serious about undertaking this research to realize that there is almost certainly a limit to which the physical methods of modern science will be effective in studying this energy. Beyond that point, the investigation of these subtler realms of creation may only be possible through the agency of their own consciousness, as it was done by the great illuminaries of the past.
The techniques, methods, problems and solutions relating to this vast and amazing subject have to a large degree already been put down in basic form over the centuries by many who have experienced directly the awakening of Kundalini. We would do well to make the best use of this priceless body of information so that no further time may be lost in this far-reaching endeavor.
Bibliography
1. R. E. Hume, Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Oxford University Press, London 1921.
2. Plotinus, Enniads. Heinemann, London 1966-7.
3. Sir John Woodroffe, The Serpent Power. Dover Publications Inc, New York, 1974.
4. Gopi Krishna, Secrets of Kundalini in Panchastavi. Kundalini Research and Publication Trust, New Delhi 1978.
5. Gopi Krishna, Kundalini--The Evolutionary Energy in Man, Vincent Stuart and John M. Watkins Ltd., London 1970.
6. Gopi Krishna, The Dawn of a New Science. Kundalini Research and Publication Trust, New Delhi 1978.
JIDDU kRISHNAMURTI
20TH CENTURY PHILOSOPHER AND MYSTIC
by Michael Bradford and Patrick Hayne
© 1995 Institute for Consciousness Research
All Rights Reserved
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"There is a person called J. Krishnamurti who has had in his view the end he would reach and in search of that end he has passed through many struggles, sorrows and pains. He has explored many avenues thinking they would lead to the goal. And then came the vision of the mountaintop which is Union with the Beloved, which is liberation, and from that moment he set aside all affections, all desires, all things except the attainment of the goal. And now that goal is reached and he has entered into the flame. And what happens after that does not matter--whether the spark remains within the flame or issues forth. And you may have the Beloved with you constantly even before you have become one with the Beloved."
J. Krishnamurti, from Krishnamurti--The Years of Awakening
Throughout the known history of mankind there have been individuals in every culture who have experienced a 'mystical' perception beyond the scope of normal human understanding. Each has tried in vain to express in comprehensible language the Reality that they have perceived and to deliver the message that this state of Being is our eventual destiny. Likewise the geniuses of the past and present present a puzzle to modern science to explain how it is that certain individuals can be so extraordinarily talented compared to their contemporaries.
In his many books, the twentieth century mystic and philosopher, Pandit Gopi Krishna, expressed repeatedly his conviction that these transhuman states of mind are the outcome of a psycho-physiological mechanism in the human body, known from ancient times in India as kundalini. He claimed that the human brain and nervous system are in a slow but inexorable process of evolution and that through an as yet unknown transformation of the brain one can attain higher states of consciousness.
Gopi Krishna gives accounts of his own transformation and in many poetic volumes has displayed the inspired fruits of the higher conscious state. After many years of study of both the modern and ancient literature on this vast subject and decades of critical observation of the remarkable changes being brought about in his own being, he concluded that mankind is destined for a new, higher, expanded state of consciousness beyond anything which we can, at present, genuinely understand.
Gopi Krishna felt that a critical examination of the lives of mystics and geniuses would provide a wealth of corroborative evidence for his theories and would be the starting point for a comprehensive scientific investigation of kundalini as the mechanism of human evolution. It is with this in mind that the life of Jiddu Krishnamurti, modern day mystic, teacher and philosopher is here explored.
On May 11, 1895 Jiddu Krishnamurti was born to Brahmin parents in Madanapalle, India. At about fourteen years of age he was discovered and 'adopted' by the Theosophical Society to be the vehicle for the return of the 'World Teacher'. Apparently he was selected in part because one of the clairvoyant leaders of the Society felt that Krishnamurti's aura was entirely free of selfishness. In fact, as a boy, he had on many occasions shown his generosity by sharing his belongings and his food with strangers, in spite of caste taboos.
During his early years with the Theosophical Society, Krishnamurti and his younger brother, Nityananda were educated, fed, exercised and taught good grooming, to complement the knowledge learned from their strict, orthodox Hindu upbringing and to prepare Jiddu to be the vehicle for the 'World Teacher' prophesied by the Theosophical Society. But in 1921, at the age of 26, he had an experience which irreversibly altered the course of his life.
Krihsnamurti had always been a questioner of ceremony and dogma but starting at this time, and lasting for eight years, he began to speak forthrightly and critically of the methods and goals of the Theosophical Society which had endeavoured to place him in a position of authority and prestige. Then, in 1929 he publicly renounced the Society and embarked on his own mission, which lasted and flourished to his passing.
Whatever happened to Krishnamurti on that summer day in 1921 totally changed his life. Though they did not perhaps fully appreciate the magnitude of the event, some members of the Theosophical Society said, at the time, that he had aroused Kundalini. To verify this possibility, these events are here examined for the physical and psychological symptoms which are characteristic of the awakening of the 'Serpent Power'.
The Initial Awakening
In August of 1921 Krishnamurti began practising meditation for thirty to forty minutes a day. After five days, he began to experience extreme pain at the nape of his neck where a lump-like muscle spasm had appeared. The next morning, he seemed to fall into a semi-conscious state, characterized by fits of moaning and restlessness and accompanied by extreme internal heat. These states alternated with periods of relatively normal consciousness in which he became tranquil, generally at meal times. His digestive system tended to reject most of the food that was fed to him, but he slept at night as usual.
This continued for three days with his consciousness becoming more and more intermittent and the fits and heat intensifying. He had become unbearably sensitive and even the most minute physical sounds upset him terribly. On the evening of the third day, he went through an experience which is best described in an account which he wrote two days later:
"I felt myself going out of my body. I saw myself sitting down with the delicate tender leaves of the tree over me. I was facing the east. In front of me was my body and over my head I saw the Star, bright and clear. Then I could feel the vibrations of the Lord Buddha . . . . I was so happy, calm and at peace. I could still see my body and I was hovering near it. There was such profound calmness both in the air and within myself, the calmness of the bottom of a deep unfathomable lake. Like the lake, I felt my physical body, with its mind and emotions, could be ruffled on the surface but nothing, nay nothing could disturb the calmness of my soul. The Presence of the mighty Beings was with me for some time and then They were gone. I was supremely happy, for I had seen. Nothing could ever be the same. I have drunk at the clear and pure waters at the source of the fountain of life and my thirst was appeased. Never more could I be thirsty, never more could I be in utter darkness; I have seen the Light. I have touched compassion which heals all sorrow and suffering; it is not for myself, but for the world. I have stood on the mountaintop and gazed at the mighty Beings. Never can I be in utter darkness; I have seen the glorious and healing Light. The fountain of Truth has been revealed to me and the darkness has been dispersed. Love in all its glory has intoxicated my heart; my heart can never be closed. I have drunk at the fountain of Joy and eternal Beauty. I am God-intoxicated."
Such excerpts from Krishnamurti's correspondence, in addition to the accounts of those near him, provide the details which suggest that his experience was a genuine case of the awakening of Kundalini and that the processes of transformation were active in him for an extended period. To get an idea of how far these processes went towards the full state of 'enlightenment', an examination of some of the aspects of Krishnamurti's experience will be necessary.
In his book Cosmic Consciousness, Dr. R.M. Bucke listed a number of characteristics which seem to be common, to a more or less degree, to individuals who have partial or full experience of cosmic consciousness. These criteria have been clarified and augmented by Gopi Krishna and the physiological aspects of the condition developed so that a comprehensive set of criteria is now available for evaluating individual experiences. Krishnamurti's accounts and those of his acquaintances will now be considered in the light of these criteria.
Intellectual Elevation
One definitive feature of the transformations brought about by an activated Kundalini is a marked intellectual elevation. In his youth, Krishnamurti was a poor student, referred to as 'particularly dimwitted' by the man who had tutored him in his school work. He had been repeatedly caned by his teachers for his inability to learn. Mary Lutyens, his biographer, called him 'almost vacant' in his early years. Yet many who read his books today agree that they are thought-provoking and profound. Anne Morrow Lindbergh reviewed his second book, The First and Last Freedom, saying . . . "The reader is given in one paragraph, even in one sentence, enough to keep him exploring, questioning, thinking for days."1
In the years 1926 to 1931 Krishnamurti wrote sixty poems. From 1926 until his passing, he gave innumerable talks worldwide, published dozens of books and founded eight schools. Hardly the outcome for one characterized as 'particularly dimwitted'. It is evident from the accounts of those who knew him from an early age that Krishnamurti's capacity for comprehension and expression changed markedly after his experience in 1921.
The Process
Modern concepts of kundalini often do not take into account the biological apsect of this super-intelligent vital energy. Kundalini is viewed by some modern writers as either a psychological artifact or just 'energy which circulates in the body.' Gopi Krishna, on the other hand, has offered enough detail in his numerous books to make it clear that a knowledge of the biological aspect of the energy is absolutely necessary in order to understand its real nature. Accounts such as those of Krishnamurti can offer valuable information in this area.
One feature of Krishnamurti's experience which suggests this biological aspect is the pain in his neck and spine, which he suffered intermittently from the time that he started to meditate, and continued to experience for years afterward. Another feature was the intense internal heat which he felt during these periods. He dubbed the physical and mental effects of what was happening to him as 'The Process', a name which suggests that he was aware of a purposeful, controlled activity going on in his body. His pain was often chronic and acute at the sacryl region (lower spine) and the neck area. " . . . at present it is rather awful . . . It goes on all day and all night now . . . I feel as though I want to cry my heart out."2 Frequently he was sick with the pain for weeks, unable to work or sleep properly.
Years later, the pain was accompanied by other feelings; "Several times, after sleeping, he woke with a sense of special joy, feeling that the room was full of 'eminent holy beings' . . . .and he felt, as always at such times, that something was happening to his brain, expanding it."3 The pain of the process came on most often when he was quiet and alone and perhaps significantly also when he was talking with others about matters of consciousness or spirit.
Krishnamurti writes, "the body does not resist or protest against the pain . . . There is an unknown energy involved in all this."4 And later again; "But there was an activity deep within which was wearing out all obstructions."4 Additionally he says; "Deep inside me I know what has happened. I have been stocked with gasoline. The tank is full."6 And also, "The purification of the brain is necessary. Only when the brain has cleansed itself of its conditioning, greed, envy, ambition, then only can it comprehend that which is complete. Love is that completeness."7
Inner Light
An 'illuminated' mental perception is probably the single most definitive feature of mystical experience. The perception of internal light has been mentioned repeatedly by countless mystics throughout history. Light has been a symbol in all sacred lore since prehistory. The term illumination, as applied to mystical perception, comes from this aspect of the phenomenon. The accounts of the experience of the 'Inner Light' made by Krishnamurti and others suggests that the mental processes become powered by an as yet undetectable, luminous energy.
In 1924 Krishnamurti wrote in a letter: "Whatever it is, the force or whatever one calls the bally thing, came up my spine, up to the nape of my neck, then it separated into two, one going to the right and the other to the left of my head, till they met between the two eyes just above my nose. There was a kind of flame and I saw the Lord and the Master . . . .Of course the whole thing was painful, in the extreme."8
Mary Lutyens reported that Krishnamurti would awake at night for several hours with "an extraordinary light burning in his mind."9 He wrote in his Notebook; " . . . there was an intense bright light at the very center of the brain and beyond the brain at the very center of consciousness, of one's being. It was light that had no shadow nor was it set in any dimension . . . with that light there was present that incalculable strength and beauty beyond thought and feeling."10
In his autobiography, Gopi Krishna describes at one point a radical, permanent change in his visual perceptive faculty which transformed the appearance of the external world from mundane to a 'fairyland', an 'extraordinarily rich blend of colour and shade, shining with a silvery lustre'11 which lent an indescribable beauty to everything that he saw. To a somewhat lesser degree, Krishnamurti's external perception also changed. "Colour, shape, line, and the total form of things have become more intense and extraordinarily alive!"12 Many similar comments appear in his Notebook.
Psychic Gifts
If it is accepted that the human brain is evolving under the influence of a super-intelligent life-force, then perhaps it is reasonable to view paranormal states of mind such as psychic phenomena as additional, evolving faculties of mind, rather than pathological states, as is commonly done.
From a very early age Krishnamurti had a tendency to be clairvoyant, seeing deceased or absent loved ones; occurrances which could be brushed off as fanciful if they hadn't been witnessed in some cases. When asked about this ability he replied, "It was a faculty he could still have but did not choose to."13 Perhaps he felt that such an ability was not and end in itself, but rather a distraction from real spiritual development, and also that it could be an intrusion upon others' privacy.
The power to heal was also possibly at his disposal. According to Mary Lutyens. "He undoubtedly possesses a power of healing."14 Krishnamurti had written to friends years earlier that he was developing that power and was gaining success. However, he later down-played the assertion because he did not wish to be known as a healer. He emphasised throughout his teaching that internal personal growth is far more important than the development of psychic abilities.
There are very few statements made by Krishnamurti which can be proven to be prophetic. These, however, are from an early age; "I know my destiny and my work. I know with certainty and knowledge of my own, that I am blending into the consciousness of the One Teacher."15 "I will never give up anyone but everyone will give me up."16 Both these predictions have been born out.
Compassion
Krishnamurti's compassionate nature was noted earlier and is conveyed by Mary Lutyens and others. "It is evident that he has a tact for working around peoples' doubts and criticisms. The New York Times reported that even though many interviewers had tried to corner him with complex questions, he skillfully avoided being trapped and eventually earned their admiration."17
The feeling was similar in India when he spoke there. "Unperturbed and with infinite sympathy he listens to their harangues and tries to answer them in their own language and idiom, and gradually leads them step by step to see his point of view, to understand his approach to their problems; and in the end, invariably, they say to him: `Well Sir, we do not pretend to have understood you, but we feel you are right."18
Personal Magnetism
It is very common for those in whom kundalini is active to display a powerful personal magnetism which greatly influences people in general and the opposite sex in particular. Mary Lutyens describes Krishnamurti as modest, polite, elegant and "as perfectly formed as a human being could be."19 George Bernard Shaw said about Krishnamurti; "He was the most beautiful human being he had ever seen."20
In letters, Krishnamurti's friends and acquaintances express their admiration in words such as 'wonderful', 'beautiful', 'pure'. His manner of speaking to large audiences was remarkable; "Then he spoke with inconceivable majesty and power with a flow of beautiful words. Such sterness and such compassion."21
Those near and dear to Krishnamurti have commented that on occasion a sort of light and love, a presence, seemed to accompany him. Mary Lutyens witnessed these seemingly extraordinary happenings on many occasions. There is little doubt that Krishnamurti had an intense personal magnetism which allowed him to influence people. He had faithful support for years to create his schools and consistently drew large audiences on his annual speaking tours.
Expanded Consciousness
The development of the cosmic sense, in which reality comes to be perceived as an infinitely vast, all-knowing, all-powerful consciousness, is the definitive sign of mystical perception. Krishnamurti writes about such a state in his Notebook. " . . . fullness--the benediction, not only in the room but it seemed to cover the earth from horizon to horizon."22 "An immense vastness . . . .there is no space, nor time to cover space."23 " . . . intense stillness of the brain and a feeling of vastness,"24 "experiencing of an incalculable expanding state of mind,"25 and later, "the benediction came and went leaving a feeling of vastness whose height was beyond words."26
He comments on 'the benediction':
"Most unexpectedly, the sense of immensity and that extraordinary benediction . . . that imminent feeling of sacredness, began to take place . . . the pressure and the strain were intense and there was acute pain at the back of the head. there was only this state and there was no observer. The whole body was wholly in it and the feeling of sacredness was so intense that a groan escaped from the body . . . .It was as though one was looking not with eyes only but with a thousand centuries; it was altogether a strange occurrence."27
These experiences continued at intervals throughout his life. In 1974 he was awakened at night with "something spreading out to take in the universe."28 The pain in Krishnamurti's head still persisted as late as the 1980's and he expressed the conviction that 'the process' was 'part of his expansion of consciousness.'29
Religious Impulse
Mankind has always held some kind of belief in a creator or a unity of existence beyond our immediate knowledge. Religious faith has pervaded every culture of which we have knowledge. Whether or not the masses have ever experienced a genuine spiritual or religious realization is not necessary as somehow this religious feeling or desire has persisted through thousands, even tens of thousands of years. Even today when science, technology and gold appear to be the means and the goal of human life as we live it, religion survives. Dr. R. M. Bucke claimed quite emphatically, as did Gopi Krishna, that religious desire would, upon the awakening to higher consciousness, bloom into a conviction, a spiritual realization, a new perception which surpasses our present concepts of Reality, Self and Creator.
Krishnamurti experienced much of this and it runs throughout his teachings. His sense of 'unity' is revealed in his Notebook: "There was a flash of that unapproachable power and strength that was physically shattering . . . one had to shut one's eyes not to go off in a faint . . . everything that was didn't seem to exist. It burned out the limitations of sight and sound."30 He said this about himself in 1927: "There is no Krishnamurti--the river and the sea."31 Perhaps he had lost his sense of aloneness or separateness and gained a unity with something greater, yet unexplainable.
Even before his transforming experience on that summer day in 1921 there is evidence that Krishnamurti carried within a powerful spiritual urge. He wrote in a letter in May 1920, "curiously all day I have been very dreamy, more dreamy than usual and in my heart there has been a continual thought of Lord Buddha. I was in such a state that I had to sit down and meditate."32
An excerpt from a talk he gave in 1928 summarizes in part his early view on religious striving.
"I hold that there is an eternal life which is the Source and the Goal, the beginning and the end, and yet it is without end or beginning. In that Life alone is there fulfilment. And anyone who fulfils that Life has the key to Truth without limitation. That Life is for all. Into that Life the Buddha, the Christ entered. From my point of view I have attained, I have entered into that Life. That Life has no form as Truth has no form, no limitation. And to that Life, everyone must return."33
Sense of Immortality
Another hallmark of the cosmic sense is an absolutely unshakable conviction in the immortality of the spirit and a total absence of the fear of death. Krishnamurti had this to say about immortality in 1935; "Now I can say there is immortality, to me it is a personal experience, the mind must free itself from the habit of self-protecting acquisition; when it is utterly naked, then there is immortality."34 These comments are all the more significant when it is noted that often Krishnamurti's health was bad. He many times fainted and at other times his energy seemed to be all but completely drained. The pain of the 'process' on some occasions persisted for weeks, and yet he was absolutely certain that the spirit was indestructable.
Mystical Perception
Perhaps the most dramatic and compelling evidence of the development of the cosmic sense is mystical perception and the ecstasy which accompanies it. Krishnamurti gives us some examples of his inner and outer experience in the Notebook:
" . . . what took place was beyond all words and description. It was the center of all creation; it was a purifying seriousness that cleansed the brain of every thought, and feeling; its seriousness was as lightning which destroys and burns up; the profundity of it was not measurable, it was there immovable, impenetrable, a solidity that was as light as the heavens . . . There was only seeing, the eyes that saw beyond time-space."35
" . . . .of a sudden, that unknowable immensity was there, not only in the room and beyond but also deep, in the innermost recesses, which was once the mind . . . that immensity left no mark, it was there, clear, strong, impenetrable and unapproachable whose intensity was fire which left no ash. With it was bliss."36
"Suddenly one felt this immense flame of power . . . .It is beyond all thought and words to describe what's going on, the strangeness of it and the love, the beauty of it. It's beyond and above all faculties of man."37
Krishnamurti hints at the brain's part in this, "The brain had lost all it's responses; it was only an instrument of observation, it was seeing, not as the brain belonging to a particular person but as a brain which is not conditioned by time-space . . . "38 And also, "All this seemed to affect the brain; it was not as it was before. Because of it, relationships seems to have changed. As a terrific storm, a destructive earthquake gives a new course to the rivers, changes the landscape . . . .so it has levelled the contours of thought, changed the shape of the heart.39
From the Notebook we get some idea of the immediate physical and emotional effects of the experience. "One was awakened this morning with a living feeling of joy . . . It was coming, this ecstasy, from 'outside', not self-induced; it was being pushed through the system, flowing through the organism with great energy and volume."40 And later, "the benediction came bringing pure cheer. This cheerfulness was pouring out of one's whole being . . . but the heart and the mind would never be the same again."41
The Product Of Illumination
If illumination, as has been theorized above, is the goal of human evolution, then the attributes of one blessed with it will be a gift and a blessing to all humanity. Whether it is poetry, music, science or healing, the expression in some way will uplift the civilization. This is true in the case of Jiddu Krishnamurti. A few quotes from observers give an impression of the impact he made on audiences. The Time Literary Supplement said, "The insight, spiritual and poetical, of these commentaries is as simply expressed as it is searching in its demands."42 The author Francis Hackett wrote in New Republic; "I feel that he has hold of a major secret."43 In The Observer, his second book The First and Last Freedom was acclaimed: "For those who wish to listen it will have value beyond words."44 Mary Lutyens says; "I find I understand him with that sense, that intuition, which grasps the meaning of difficult poetry, rather than through my intellect."45
Krishnamurti confessed that he did not rehearse his teaching. "It is like, what, what is the biblical term--revelation. It happens all the time when I'm talking. This simple person Krishnamurti has not come to the teaching through thought."46 This too suggests that the talks, the talents of Krishnamurti are not just his but are for all who listen. At the core of his teaching is the message that `profound psychological transformation' is the aim of his teaching and the goal of each life. "Liberation--each individual must hold a mirror to his own consciousness and strive to develop freedom. There is a direct line to Truth within each individual."47
Other Factors
The dawning of the new sense quite often occurs in the prime of life, with variations which appear to be a consequence of the person's heredity, lifestyle, spiritual practices, etc. The average age of occurrence is about 33 to 34 years; in Krishnamurti's case, he was 26, slightly young by the general standard, but well within normal limits.
Another marked feature of Krishnamurti's life was his lack of physical relationships with women. Although many of them fell in love with him, he seemed to have no need for the physical expression of sex and, in the first half of his life, even had a strong aversion to it. It would seem that the sexual energy was primarily directed upwards and was used entirely for the evolution of the brain and nervous system.
Summary
In summary, we have seen that Krishnamurti's experiences conform to many of the criteria outlined above. But, although he seemed to display some of the features of expanded consciousness, it is evident from his accounts that the condition was not perennial, that is, a permanently functioning feature of his awareness. The development of the nervous system to the point where the cosmic sense is completely functional is, it would seem, a very, very rare occurrence.
Another main feature of full enlightenment, that is, the revelation of new knowledge which more clearly defines the direction the race must take in its evolutionary development, is there to perhaps a lesser degree. His advice to individuals concerning the transcendence of the normal thinking patterns is not an entirely new idea in the history of spiritual teaching. When questioned about the source of his knowledge and the mechanism by which he manifested it, he was at a loss to explain it. Thus, the physiological and other scientific aspects of his experiences, necessary for a clear understanding of the phenomenon, are to a large degree absent from his teachings.
But despite this, the message that Krishnamurti taught is in no way less relevant. The knowledge that he shared and the schools which he founded have come from his conviction of the importance of that psychological freedom he teaches. Mary Lutyens capsulizes the philosophy behind the schools, "He feels that the best hope for the world's sanity lies in the right education of children from the earliest age . . . without national and racial prejudices, without competitiveness or any of the cultural traditions and ideologies that divide man from man, there might be peace."48
References
1. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, Farkar Straus Giroux, 1983, page 87
2. Krishnamurti, J. Krishnamurti's Notebook
3. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, page 180
5. Ibid, page 47
6. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, page 69
7. Ibid, page 109
8. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Awakening, Avon Books, 1975, page 202
9. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, page 180
10. Krishnamurti, J. Krishnamurti's Notebook, page 44
11. Krishna, G. Kundalini--The Evolutionary Energy In Man, Shambhala, 1971, page 144
12. Krishnamurti, J. Krishnamurti's Notebook, page 47
13. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, page 202
14. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, page 22
15. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Awakening
16. Ibid
17. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, page 22
18. Ibid, page 75
19. Ibid, page 18
20. Pearson, H. Bernard Shaw, Collins, 1942, page 115
21. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Awakening, page 251
22. Krishnamurti, J. Krishnamurti's Notebook, page 22
23. Ibid, page 19
24. Ibid, page 20
25. Ibid
26. Ibid, page 42
27. Ibid, page 21
28. Ibid
29. Ibid, page 7
30. Ibid
33. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Awakening, page 274
32. Ibid, page 125
33. Ibid, page 280-1
34. Krishnamurti, J. Krishnamurti's Notebook, page 36
35. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, page 113
36. Ibid, page 118
37. Krishnamurti, J. Krishnamurti's Notebook, page 35
38. Ibid, page 25
39. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, page 113
40. Krishnamurti, J. Krishnamurti's Notebook, page 26
41. Ibid, page 49
42. Ibid, page 94
43. Ibid, page 94
44. Ibid, page 81
45. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, page 122
46. Ibid, page 230
47. Ibid, page 262
48. Lutyens, M. Krishnamurti--The Years of Fulfilment, page 27
ONE MESSAGE – TWO VOICES
The recent controversy over the Dalai Lama’s invited lecture at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) brings to mind a meeting of scientists that took place in Florence, Italy on October 23, 1970. It was there that Pandit Gopi Krishna made a bold and direct ‘appeal to world leaders, scientists and scholars’. His message, entitled The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius, called for a co-operative research effort between the world-wide scientific and religious communities that would ensure the safe and healthy development of the human race. His main purpose was to make humanity aware “that there is a specific psychosomatic power center in [human beings], and that it is by the action of this center that human evolution has proceeded so far.”
From the writings and speeches of the Dalai Lama and Gopi Krishna, it is clear that both men realized the necessity for scientific and religious communities to work together in order to safeguard future generations of the race while possibly saving this generation from destruction. Interestingly enough, at different times both men met and had numerous discussions with the renown physicist Carl von Weizsacker. In fact, Professor von Weizsacker wrote the introduction to The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius when it was published by Harper & Row as part of their Religious Perspectives series in 1971.
In the Preface of the Bio-Basis, Gopi Krishna writes that “the existence of the power center [known in India as Kundalini] and methods to rouse it were known in almost all ancient cultures of Asia, Europe, America and even in Africa. I believe that a voluntary arousal of Kundalini, under satisfactory conditions and observed by competent investigators, can furnish unquestionable proof of the existence of this center in the body and its capacity to bestow psychic gifts, genius and cosmic consciousness.”
“The experiments, when proved empirically, would effect a radical change in some current concepts about life and narrow the gulf existing between religion and science. It would also draw the attention of scholars towards the spiritual laws of evolution of which they have no knowledge at present.”
Throughout his writings, and from his own experience, Gopi Krishna emphasized the importance of brain research and has asserted that the human brain is still in a state of organic evolution. In the Wonder of the Brain, 1987, he writes that “there is a serious gap in the knowledge of the learned about the working of the nervous system and the brain. They have no clear idea yet about the relationship between the neurons of the brain and the process of thought, nor about the energy that fuels the former…”
“As far as I know, no thinker in modern times has attempted to present ‘mystical experience’ as an objective reality, as an advanced state of cognition or a wider dimension of consciousness designed for [human beings] . . . from a still active biological evolution of the brain, which is accelerated or retarded by the mode life, way of thinking and the environment of the individual . . . Mystical consciousness is thus a potential, with a biological base, already present in the cerebral structure of man which, in some cases, allows his voluntary efforts to succeed.”
As Fate would have it, the Dalai Lama has been actively working with neuroscientists to more fully understand the workings of the brain. Gopi Krishna’s assertions are supported by a number of comments made by the Dalai Lama on the current research. His reference to the recognition of “neuro-plasticity” is particularly telling.
“Recent discoveries in neuroscience have demonstrated the innate plasticity of the brain, both in terms of synaptic connections and birth of new neurons, as a result of exposure to external stimuli, such as voluntary physical exercise and an enriched environment.”
“If it turns out, as Buddhist tradition implies, that mental practice can effect observable synaptic and neural changes in the brain, this could have far-reaching implications.”
“The repercussions of such research will not be confined simply to expanding our knowledge of the human mind; but, perhaps more importantly, they could have great significance for our understanding education and mental health.”
He also brings attention to the potential built into human beings with the comment that: “Buddhism has long argued for the tremendous potential for transformation that exists naturally in the human mind.”
Another important aspect of the Dalai Lama’s message can be summarized by the following of his thoughts:
“Today the question of science’s interface with wider humanity is no longer a matter of academic interest alone; this question must assume a sense of urgency for all those who are concerned about the fate of human existence.”
“I feel, therefore, that a dialogue between neuroscience and society could have profound benefits in that it may help deepen our basic understanding of what it means to be human and our responsibilities for the natural world we share with other sentient beings.”
“Until recently, this approach of segregating ethics and science, with the understanding that the human capacity for moral thinking evolves alongside human knowledge, seems to have succeeded.”
“It is all too evident that our moral thinking simply has not been able to keep pace with such rapid progress in our acquisition of knowledge and power.”
“. . . I am speaking of what I call “secular ethics” that embrace the key ethical principles, such as compassion, tolerance, a sense of caring, consideration of others, and the responsible use of knowledge and power – principles that transcend the barriers between religious believers and non-believers, and followers of this religion or that religion.”
“I appeal to scientists to bring into their professional work the dictates of the fundamental ethical principles we all share as human beings.”
Although one great spirit has left us (GK), the other (DL) is here to help direct humanity in ways that will safeguard the race. Now its time for all of us to act on “the message”.
Resource material:
Further information on the SfN and how to obtain a copy of Brain Facts can be found at web.sfn.org.
Quotations of the Dalai Lama’s were taken from the article “Science at the Crossroads” posted at www.Phayul.com.
A more complete description of Gopi Krishna’s research proposal is available at www.icrcanada.org.
List of Books
by Gopi Krishna
THE DAWN OF A NEW SCIENCE
In this book, Gopi Krishna shows that the human race is presently in the midst of a world-wide process of evolution to a higher state of consciousness. The secret knowledge of Kundalini, the biological force controlling this evolution, is as old as mankind and the author graphically reveals the existence of this secret knowledge in the ancient writings and religious mythologies of many cultures. He also shows how this process of evolution is behind the rise and fall of all civilizations since the beginning of human society and why we must understand it in order to ensure the healthy and safe progress of the race.
216 pages, 8 color illustr. 5 1/4" x 8 1/4", paperback, $20.00
THE WAY TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE
This easy-to-read book of verse, the last work written by Gopi Krishna, is an unparalleled wonder of revelation. Composed in only a few short weeks, it contains the essence of the basic teachings of all religions. For the individual seeking to know more about their own self and the riddle of existence, it is a modern-day book of instructions. It describes in detail the way of life essential for real spiritual development and the obstacles that stand in the way of the proper evolution of the race. The book presents a view of the enlightened society of the future and the true destiny of mankind in this well-planned creation.
139 pages, 5 1/4" x 8 1/4", paperback, Complementary (1 per person)
HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS AND KUNDALINI
Here are clear, direct answers to questions that millions of scholars, spiritual seekers and scientists have been asking. What is higher consciousness? What is Kundalini? How does Kundalini work? What is the biological imperative for the next step in mankind's evolution? Is the current revolution in the younger generation a response to this imperative? Are drugs an aid to achieving self-discovery? What is the role of the sexual mechanism in Kundalini arousal? What can we do to change society? Are our leaders misleading us? All these questions and nearly fifty more are answered by Gopi Krishna in this extremely lucid and informative book.
200 pages, 5 1/4" x 8 1/4", paperback, $18.00
THE AWAKENING OF KUNDALINI
In this book Gopi Krishna deals specifically with the subject of meditation and with the question, what should everyone know about higher consciousness? He shows that the science of Yoga is far more complex, comprehensive and profound than is generally supposed. The book also deals with many commonly-asked questions about meditation, mysticism, drug experiences and the phenomenon of partial awareness. With the exception of his autobiography, Living With Kundalini, this is perhaps the best of all his books to serve as an introduction to the subject.
129 pages, 5 1/4" x 8 1/4", paperback, $15.00
THE SECRET OF YOGA
This book, written both on the basis of the author's own extensive experience and a great deal of scholarly research, explores the complex terrain of Yoga and its energy, Kundalini, in the light of modern knowledge. He surveys the real aim of Yoga and how it can be achieved, describes the various steps of Yoga practice, the purpose they serve and the physiology behind them, and outlines the biological aspects of this comprehensive discipline. He also explains why a clear understanding of the goal to be reached is essential for achieving success in this endeavor.
216 pages, 5 1/4" x 8 1/4", paperback, $18.00
THREE PERSPECTIVES ON KUNDALINI
This volume consists of three of Gopi Krishna's previously published books which have been reprinted here together.
The Real Nature Of Mystical Experience
This work is a clear, concise and logical exposition of the mechanism responsible for genius, creativity, paranormal phenomena and spiritual experience. It clarifies the role of mystical experience as the common thread running through and uniting all religions and points out the grave consequences of science's inability to understand the crucial role that it has played in the intellectual and moral development of our civilization. This work is especially concerned with the current conflict between science and religion.
Kundalini In Time And Space
This work contains some facts about Kundalini which it is necessary to grasp first before this mysterious Force and the mechanism behind it can be understood. Gopi Krishna explains the real nature of the chakras and the source of the energy which can bring about a revolution in our consciousness and outlines the most effective way to undertake a spiritual practice. The book also deals with psychic powers, enhanced creativity and emphasizes the crucial role of lifestyle in the healthy spiritual development of the individual.
Reason and Revelation
This is a work which challenges the agnostic and atheistic attitudes of modern science. As Gopi Krishna assesses the situation "I know that Revelation has been right in predicting a glorious spiritual destiny for mankind and Reason has been grievously wrong. The marvels of technology we see around, beyond a certain limit that has been passed, can become a prison for the evolving human mind." He asserts that in order to progress in a healthy way, science must free itself of the self-imposed, rigid and closed-minded attitudes that have limited its scope of investigation into non-physical realms of creation.
212 pages, 5 1/4" x 8 1/4", paperback, $18.00
THE WONDER OF THE BRAIN
The current state of confusion about the real nature of spiritual experience is due to a lack of understanding of how the brain functions as a channel for the expression of consciousness. In this book, Gopi Krishna challenges scientists and psychiatrists alike to stop ignoring the important part the physical brain plays in our development. He asserts that an understanding of prana, the super-intelligent cosmic energy behind all forms of life, is the key to understanding how higher forms of reality and other planes of creation, currently inaccessible to us, will become available for exploration.
122 pages, 5 1/4" x 8 1/4", paperback, $14.00
THE RIDDLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Currently out of print)
This is a book of revealed knowledge of the highest order. Written in rhyming couplet verse, it gives us the cream of the author's message, and is in accordance with the fundamental teachings of all the revealed religions of the world. This inspiring and uplifting book presents an interpretation of the phenomenon of existence that is truly amazing, in a form which is the hallmark of genuine Revelation and gives us a picture of the incredible power of the cosmic life-energy that is Kundalini.
156 pages, 5 1/4" x 8 1/4", paperback $14.00
THE PRESENT CRISIS
An analysis of the complex and explosive state of current world affairs, presented in verse and completed by the author in little more than three weeks. It is a biting and profoundly challenging look at the power structure behind our society and lays bare the real motives of those who control the political and sociological factors affecting the progress of the race. This startling Message suggests solutions to these problems and draws an all too vivid picture of the terrible consequences if these problems are not dealt with soon. The Present Crisis is a powerful addition to an ever-growing library of anti-nuclear literature.
213 pages, 4 1/2" x 7", paperback $12.00
FROM THE UNSEEN
This amazing little book, written in 1950-51, is the first expression of the extraordinary changes in consciousness that Gopi Krishna experienced with the awakening of Kundalini. It contains nineteen prophetic poems, written in nine different languages, three of which were completely unknown to the author! This spontaneous effusion "from the void" contains an urgent message, a dire warning that mankind in its presently divided state is courting disaster and must unite to progress safely on the path of healthy evolution.
68 pages, 4 1/4" x 7 1/2", paperback, 4.00
ANCIENT SECRETS OF KUNDALINI
Formerly Secrets of Kundalini in Panchastavi) Many of the sages and seers of the past have left written accounts of their pilgrimages in the territory of the unknown or transcendental states of consciousness. One of the greatest but least-known of these is Panchastavi, a hymn of praise to Kundalini, the cosmic life-energy in living beings. Gopi Krishna has written a commentary on this marvellous work, describing the state of cosmic consciousness and the organic mechanism in the cerebro-spinal system by which this matchless state of inner perception is attained.
192 pages, 5" x 8 1/4", paperback $10.00
THE DIVINE POSSIBILITIES IN MAN
(Formerly titled The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius) An extremely concise essay on Kundalini as the mechanism responsible for the evolution of the human race. The awakening of this psycho-physiological mechanism through the techniques of Yoga or other suitable disciplines, the author believes, produces a scientifically measurable biochemical essence that is responsible for the phenomena of genius, creativity, inspiration, the religious impulse and revelation. The book contains a lengthy introduction by the internationally respected astrophysicist Dr. Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsacker, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Life Sciences in Germany.
118 pages, 5" x 8 1/4", paperback $8.00
THE PURPOSE OF YOGA
(Formerly Yoga--A Vision of Its Future) What enabled the Egyptians to design and construct the Great Pyramid? How did the ancient Maya develop a calendar more accurate than our own? How did the backward Dogon tribe in Africa learn precise details of the star Sirius and its dwarf twin when the latter is invisible to the naked eye? How can we account for child prodigies and geniuses? Gopi Krishna asserts that a new activity of the cerebro-spinal system and the opening of a super-sensory channel in the brain provides the answers to these riddles and that Yoga is the basis of a new super-science which will allow access to this new state of awareness.
196 pages, 5" x 8 1/4", paperback $8.00
SHIPPING AND HANDLING COST (Please add $3.50 per book) Prices listed are in Canadian funds. If ordered, please include shipping for The Way To Self-knowledge
Please send your order, along with your payment, to:
ICR
c/o Dale Pond,
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GOPI KRISHNA - THE LAST INTERVIEW (Free Video) A Conversation about Higher Consciousness and the Evolution of the Human Brain
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=d094a80583d668b9b7c5acc2b1482660.826312
Hello, Tom Zatar Kay. I was very pleased to see that you'd left the link to the interview on my blog! I'm still on dial up, but I'd try to download it this afternoon and also come back to and read the excerpts you've printed. Just a wee bit busy just now. Odd that you contacted me just at this time since last week I finished a novel called RaBlissBook (ra is Glaswegian for the!) It's not really a novel (not like any kind you'll have read anyway), but all the stuff in it about my experiences with bliss are true. If you had a look and told me what you think ... anyway, I'll email it to you if you want. I've had two other novels published and many plays produced so it should be reasonably well written. Thanks again for landing on my blog! Hotboy
Tom Zatar Kay: Didn't realise the comment section was so long, so I'll come back and finish it intermittently! Very, very interesting. My novel is short. You should read it as it's right up your street! Anyway, if you don't, it doesn't matter. Very pleased to have found this blog. The Tibetans (Kagyus anyway) seem to think they've got the "skillful means" to do this stuff, hopefully safely. There is a definite correspondence here, I think. All the best! Hotboy
THE LAST INTERVIEW WITH GOPI KRISHNA by Tom Zatar Kay
Duration: 50:35
http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/z/zatar/
THE LAST INTERVIEW WITH GOPI KRISHNA VIDEO - Length:00:50:35
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=d094a80583d668b9b7c5acc2b1482660.826312
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