The Mystery Behind the Rise and Fall of Civilizations - by Gopi Krishna
In the year 1922-23 the Archaeological Survey of India made a
remarkable discovery. Close to the two rivers, Indus and Ravi, in the
Provinces of Sind and Punjab, it lighted upon the ruins of a prehistoric
civilization which changed the whole concept of Indian pre-history
current up to that time.
The prevalent idea had been that, when the invading hordes of
warlike Aryans poured into India from the north-west, they found only an
autochthonous population of dark-skinned, flat-nosed, primitive
barbarians, worshiping snakes and trees, whom they conquered and
enslaved or drove to the east and south. But the excavations, which still
continue, revealed a different picture altogether.
As generally happens, when a fresh discovery is made, the whole
massive volume of learned views, expressed by scholars on the issue, on
the basis of the relics available up to that time, became untenable and
obsolete, a mere dust-heap of many years of wasted thought. The fresh
evidence gathered bit by bit, confirmed by successive teams of
investigators, brought to light the startling fact that a vast empire,
covering more than twice the area of the old kingdom of Egypt, extending
to many parts of India, was the seat of a civilization which in some
respects excelled even the contemporaneous cultures of Sumer and Egypt,
the most advanced kingdoms of that day. For the vastness of the area over
which the dominion extended the only parallel, according to Pigott, is the
Roman Empire which flourished 2,000 years later. Describing the layout
of Mohenjo-Daro, one of the capital cities of the Indus Valley culture,
Majumdar writes:
"Even the extant ruins show remarkable skill in town planning. The
streets, varying in width from 9 to 34 feet, were regularly aligned,
sometimes running straight for half a mile. The principal streets were
duly oriented to the points of the compass and intersected at right angles,
dividing the city into square or rectangular blocks, each of which was
divided lengthwise and crosswise by a number of lanes. The buildings
never encroached on these streets and lanes, almost each of which had a
public well and lamppost at intervals.
"The city had an elaborate drainage system which opened into great
culverts emptying into the river. The dwelling houses varied in size from
a palatial building to one with two small rooms, showing the quarters of
the rich and poor . . . most of the houses had a well, a bathroom and a
good system of covered drainage connected with that of the street . . .
2
some of the houses had an upper story with vertical drain pipes indicating
additional bathrooms"1
The most striking features of the city of Mohenjo-Daro are its wellplanned,
broad streets and the elaborate, intricately ramified system of
sanitation of almost modern character. The domestic and civic
architecture, it is held, was much more highly developed than that of
either Egypt or Mesopotamia of the same period.
"The high quality of sanitary arrangements at Mohenjo-Daro could
well be envied in many parts of the world today," says Sir Mortimer
Wheeler. "They reflect decent standards of living, coupled with an
obviously zealous municipal supervision . . . The doorway leads into an
entrance room with a tiny porter's lodge, through this lies the courtyard
with the household rooms opening off it . . . along the main streets the
private wells are supplemented by public wells accessible from the streets
and lanes and here and there are small sentry-boxes for the civic
watchmen. Construction is normally of baked bricks in 'English bond.'
"The vast size of the capital city is comparable to that of Imperial
Rome. There is a huge citadel, a large public bath measuring 180 by 180
feet, a big granary originally 159 by 75 feet, a commodious pillared hall
80 by 80 feet which probably served as an assembly room, and other huge
structures. There are rows upon rows of shops and places resembling
public restaurants, with scales and exact measures of weight."19
This description of a distant archaeological find might seem to be
irrelevant to our theme but it has a tremendous bearing on what I am
trying to expound. Many years ago Gerald Heard drew attention to some
unique features of the Indus Valley culture and with almost prophetic
insight expressed the view that it may help to reveal the secret of strifefree,
peaceful co-existence to the modern world.3
"When I read the book I was thrilled at the idea that nearly 5,000
years ago a vanished people had learnt the art of town planning and lived
in well-constructed metropolises almost like our own. I did not even
dream then that it was in my fate to make certain disclosures about a
mighty secret, buried under the ruins of this great civilization of the past,
to lay the foundation of a new science and to open another area of
investigation for the lovers of knowledge.
"The standard of living of the ancient denizens of the Indus Valley,
judged from the indications available, appears to have been fairly high
comparable to that of our own day.
"'Specimens of wheat and barley found in the ruins prove that they
were not of the wild species and were regularly cultivated,'" says
Majumdar. "Rice was probably also grown. In addition to these the
general diet consisted of other fruits, vegetables, milk, fish and flesh of
various animals, including beef, mutton, pork and poultry . . . both men
3
and women used various ornaments made of gold, silver, copper and other
well-known metals, shell . . . lapis lazuli, turquoise, amethyst etc. . . .
materials for toilet and cases for holding them, some of which are made of
ivory and metal, prove that the ladies at Mohenjo-Daro were not probably
far behind their sisters of the present day in the culture of beauty and
knew the use of collyrium, face-paint and other cosmetics.
"Round metal rods for applying cosmetics, lipsticks, bronze oval
mirrors, ivory combs of different shapes, some of which probably
decorated the hair, and even small dressing tables have come to light at
Mohenjo-Daro and other sites. Furniture and utensils of various kinds and
designs indicate a high degree of civilization with centuries of
development behind it. Special mention may be made of pottery candlesticks
indicating the use of candles, pottery toys for children, including
whistles, rattles and clay models of men, women, herds and animals,
including those with movable limbs or made to climb up and down by
means of a movable cord. Special interest is attached to the toy clay-carts,
as they are the earliest specimens of wheeled vehicles so far known.
Marbles, balls and dice were the favorite games, and among other
pastimes may be mentioned hunting, bull-fighting, trapping of birds and
fishing."18
These details have been given to show that the standard of life of these
ancient dwellers of the Indus Valley was almost as high as that of the most
advanced countries of recent times, before the discovery of steam and
electricity. Experts differ in their opinion about the period of time of the
Indus Valley civilization. But according to the general view it lasted from
about 2,700 to 1,700 B.C. There are not very marked differences between
the earliest and the latest layers at Mohenjo-Daro.
This fact presupposes a previous history of the culture about which
almost nothing can be positively asserted at present. It is obvious,
however, that for nearly a thousand years, before their abrupt end, the
dwellers of Mohenjo-Daro and other cities had maintained an
uninterrupted cultural urban life with a fair degree of abundance and
prosperity. The representation of a ship on a seal indicates maritime
activity, and there is evidence to show that people of the Indus Valley
carried on trade not only with other parts of India but also with Sumer and
other centers of culture, including probably Egypt also.
The figure of a deity with a hooded cobra over his head corresponds to
a similar figure of a man with the head of a serpent over his head found in
Egypt. The latest limit of entry of the Aryans into India is placed at about
1,500 years B.C. The earliest limit remains undetermined. It is held that
the word dasyus in the Rig Veda, used to denominate the aboriginal
populations, whose habitations and forts the victorious Aryans overran
and destroyed, refers to the dwellers of the Indus Valley.
There are, however, some scholars who hold, on the basis of the
skeletal remains, that Indo-Aryans formed a part of the populations of
4
Mohenjo-Daro and other places. One of the main arguments against this
supposition was the absence of horses among the animals domesticated by
or known to the Indus Valley dwellers. But recent excavation in another
part of the country has disproved this assumption. Along with other
unmistakable evidence of the Indus Valley culture at the site, the skeletal
remains of horses have been found: a clear proof that the animal was
known and domesticated.
The most important find from the point of view of our subject is a
finely engraved seal bearing the figure of a three-faced God in a
meditative posture, seated on a throne with legs crossed in the fashion of a
yogi. He sits with penis erectus surrounded by a tiger, buffalo and
rhinoceros, with a deerskin under the seat.
It is obvious that the representation is of a deity corresponding to
Shiva who is also called Trimukha (three faced), Pashupati (Lord of
animals) and Mahayogis (the great Yogi). This symbolism is
corroborated by the representations on some other seals and also by a
large number of cylindrical stone emblems which clearly represent the
phallus. There are clay and stone representations of the female generative
organs too and also a figure of the Mother Goddess.
The seals are hundreds in number, some of which are considered to be
virtual artistic pieces of the engraver's art. They bear a pictographic script
which, in spite of great efforts, has not been deciphered yet. As many as
270 different characters of the script have been traced so far. Some
scholars even think that the Brahmi script, in which the Vedas were first
recorded, was preceded by an alphabet derived from the Indus Valley
pictographic characters.
The decipherment of the script, when it becomes possible, is likely to
throw a flood of light on many things that are obscure at present. The fact
that, in addition to the seals, the pictographs have also been found on
pieces of pottery makes it clear that there was a fair degree of literacy
among the people. The emblems of the phallus and the yoni and the
figure of God Shiva in the yogic position, as also another of a yogi in a
meditative pose, make it plain beyond the least shadow of doubt that a
system of Yoga, akin to that embodied in the Tantras and books on Hatha-
Yoga, was known and practiced in the Indus Valley about 3000 B.C.
What is of particular interest in the figure of God Shiva, engraved on
the seal, is the particular position in which the phallus has been depicted.
In many iconographic stone or other images of Shiva in India the phallus
is shown prominently in a state of tumescence as in the case of the Indus
Valley representation. This is a highly significant symbol on which no
light has been thrown so far by any scholar, past or present. From a
common point of view an erect phallus is the last thing that one would
expect of Divinity.
5
For those who believe in a formless deity the worship of a stone or
other idol or image is bad enough, but, when to this is added the symptom
of undisguised erotic excitement in that image, the position becomes
intolerable in the extreme. It is inconceivable for those brought up in the
tradition of other faiths that the God of any community of worshipers
should exhibit himself as a rank voluptuary. But it is in this very aspect of
God Shiva that the mystery of higher consciousness lies concealed.
The reproductive and the evolutionary mechanism in the human body
are so closely inter-related as to be almost identical. The same life-energy
produced by the nerves is at the base of erotic excitement at one end and
of passion for the Divine at the other. The same intensely pleasing
sensation which provides a powerful incentive for the reproductive act
also supplies a strong inducement for the evolutionary effort of man. In
the latter case, the rapture is even more enhanced and magnified.
Why nature should resort to this apparently ironic device of
combining the two functions, which we mistakenly believe to be
antithetic, is not hard to understand. The process of evolution of the race
is vitally dependent on reproduction. We owe our existence to the
accident of birth consequent on the conjugation of the lingam and yoni in
the reproductive act. The accident of birth is also responsible for our
striving for and the attainment of God-Consciousness as also for the
continuance of the process of evolution from generation to generation.
Reproduction is, therefore, the primary factor not only in individual
self-awareness but also in the evolution of the whole race. The male and
female principles in every human organism have to combine ultimately to
give rise to the soul-captivating rapture that forms a perennial feature of
Divine Consciousness. The lingam-yoni symbol thus forms a most
effective device for conveying the momentous significance of the creative
act. Both as the procreator of his offspring and the emancipated product
of Kundalini, man is divine. That is why sanctity is attached to marriage
in all the current major faiths of mankind.
This is also the reason why the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt
often hold the symbol of the ankh and the divinities in India the lotus in
their hands, both emblematic of the divine nature of the creative act. The
Egyptian symbol of the ankh itself resembles a half-opened lotus in which
the long stem represents the stalk, the opened petals the arms of the cross
and the ring or the loop-like handle the unopened part, symbolizing the
lingam welded to the yoni as is the case with the images in India.
Still entirely in the dark about the double meaning of the symbol, the
present-day scholars only treat it as an emblem of creativity or the sexual
act, a sign of the union which results in the birth of man, or of the fertility
of earth. The common iconographic representation found in temples all
over India of the lingam and yoni joined together, the latter forming the
base and surrounding it, apparently lends support to this idea. But this is a
complete error to which scholars have fallen prey during recent times.
6
The reason for this error lies in the misconception that this symbolism
represents a stage in the evolution of the religious concepts of primitive
man. This attitude, in turn, is primarily based on a lurking egoistic sense
of superiority over the populations of the past. It is complacently believed
that the ancient religious writings, customs, beliefs, idols and rituals from
prehistoric epochs to medieval times are either the remnants of a primitive
culture or the later outgrowth of shamanistic practices.
The life stories of Christ and Krishna are traced to primitive myths
woven round the worship of the Sun-God, or the expression of a sense of
awe, wonder, and unintelligibility at the phenomena of nature, at the
marvel of earth's productivity, and the creative act of man.
How wrong this belief has been in respect of the sex symbols used
from prehistoric times prior even to vanished cultures of the past will be
apparent when the significance of the lingam-yoni symbolism is properly
understood. It may appear paradoxical but there is no denying the fact
that the knowledge of the hidden truths of religion was never at such a low
ebb among the elite of the past as it is now among the learned of our day.
As our study will progressively show, the religious myths and
symbols of past civilizations, which continue to dominate the main faiths
of our time, are the scattered relics of a highly developed prehistoric
culture swallowed, in all probability, by a mighty cataclysm of earth
without leaving any visible trace before the beginning of the Egyptian or
Sumerian kingdoms.
The scattered threads of these myths and symbols must have been
carried here and there by the fugitive survivors, who somehow escaped
the destruction, or were out on business or travel beyond the area
devastated by the upheaval. We shall discuss this point in more detail at
other places. It is enough to state here that the prevalence of symbols in
Egypt, the Indus Valley and other ancient centers bespeaks an elaborate
knowledge of Kundalini from the very beginning.
This could only be possible if we postulate a still anterior place of
origin for the cult where it had already developed to a high degree which
it never attained in any subsequent period to this day. The symbol of the
lingam and yoni interlinked is a representation of the final stage of arousal
of the Serpent Power. The intricacies of the system and the varied mode
of the awakening constitute a vast area of study and experiment extending
to ages.
The very manner of the awakening and its effect on the brain can be
so radically different in various individuals that there may appear not the
slightest sign of resemblance between them nor the least likelihood of
linking each to the same source. In some cases the arousal is so gradual,
unattended by any special symptoms in the mind-body complex that the
initiate practicing the discipline remains unaware of the changes wrought.
His awareness of the transformation begins only from the time when
7
unusual phenomena of consciousness, as for instance, phosphorescence,
peculiar sounds in the ears, visionary experiences or extrasensory
perception become a feature of his inner being.
This state is described in the Svetasvatara Upanishad (2-11) in these
words: "Fog, smoke, sun, fire, wind, fire-flies, lightning, a crystal or
moon-these are the preliminary appearances which produce the
manifestation of Brahma in Yoga."4 But taken alone these symptoms do
not necessarily imply success in the undertaking. They can also be
products of delusion.
In order to be genuine, they must be attended by other symptoms and
signs, as for instance, an innate urge for truth and purity, a greater
measure of love and benevolence, a diminished degree of ego and pride or
the appearance of other noble virtues which are a necessary adjunct to
spiritual development. This is made clear in the same Upanishad at
another place (3, 13-14):
"Lightness, healthiness, steadiness, clearness of countenance and
pleasantness of voice, sweetness of odor and scanty excretions-these, they
say, are the first stage in the progress of Yoga. Even as a mirror stained
by dust shines brilliantly when it has been cleansed, so the embodied one,
on seeing the nature of the soul (Atman) becomes unitary, his end
attained, from sorrow free."
This type of awakening effects the cleansing of the human mind and
body by slow degrees, provided due attention is paid to food, behavior,
and the mode of life. The initiate gradually develops a contemplative bent
of mind, often absorbed in one's own being, and a saintly bearing. This
change might be attended by psychic gifts with sweetness and charm of
personality.
The object of the transformative processes is to create a new inner
man or woman in tune with the infinite world of life. The inner sounds,
flashes of light, astral voyages, and visions are merely the preliminary
indications of a new area of highly extended awareness. But many
practitioners of Yoga and other disciplines, carried away by these initial
symptoms, fall prey to seduction and miss the lofty goal. Lured away, as
if by a will-of-the-wisp, by these transient appearances they never glimpse
the golden haloed Purusha, nor experience with ineffable bliss the living
Sun of consciousness within.
But there can also be a more powerful and sudden arousal of the
Serpent Power leading to an explosion in consciousness. In such a case a
sudden metamorphosis of personality may occur in weeks or months
which in the former case would have taken years to accomplish. In either
case, however, the human level of consciousness may not be completely
transcended. The subject may remain hovering on the fringe with
occasional flashes of transcendental vision in a state of entrancement or
sudden sporadic glimpses of it during wakefulness. In rare cases they
8 may attain the perennial state of super-consciousness, living constantly in
an effulgent world of infinite being and bliss both in the waking state and
dream. In order to achieve this sublime end, the sustained activity of a
powerful current of the Kundalini force is necessary for varying periods
which may extend to years.
In such cases the nervous system and the brain are completely
refashioned at the basic levels still beyond the probe of science. The
spectrum of prana (bioplasma) is radically altered to apprehend other
planes of creation and to open a new transcendent world to the inner
vision of the individual. The accomplished product is now a specimen of
the man to come.
The range of manifestations of an active Kundalini can be as vast and
varied as the range of intellect from a half-wit at one end to a genius at the
other. Similarly an awakened Kundalini can manifest itself from mere
flashes of sudden insight, rudiments of extrasensory perception,
premonitory dreams, dim thresholds of clairvoyance, at one end to a
perennial contact with Cosmic Consciousness at the other.
This enormously extended range of manifestations is further enlarged
and complicated by obsessive, delusive and aberrant mental conditions
which, not unoften, attend the operations of Kundalini because of the
incompatible ways of life followed by the mass of mankind due to
ignorance about the mighty mechanism.
It is not possible to convey a comprehensive picture of the change
involved in the ascent from the human to transhuman state of
consciousness. In the perennial sahaja state, the observing principle in the
awakened individual wears a never-fading effulgent halo of silvery lustre
tinged with gold, a marvelous raiment of light in which the physical body
appears like a flimsy shadow, linking the ever-free, unutterable glory to
the solid earth. Both in their external observation and inner being the
individual is changed.
The senses and the intellect continue to function with precision as they
did before, but, in its relation to the observer, the world they present now
wears a different aspect altogether. The seer and the seen now appear to
be the two different facets of one underlying Reality. The indescribable
rapture of this ineffable experience is beyond anything encountered by
normal consciousness. For this state of Grace a certain mature condition
of the cerebrospinal system is absolutely necessary. What this maturity
denotes in terms of our knowledge of human neurophysiology only
extensive research can determine.
Suffice it to say that a certain constitution of the mind and body has
been an invariable feature of all the great mystics and illumined sages of
the past. A peculiar condition of the brain and body is also a marked
feature of the men and women of genius as also of all genuine mediums
and sensitives. There is no doubt that human ingenuity will one day
9 discover how this physiological specialty in the systems of such
individuals can be determined and measured. Till that time we have to
content ourselves with the incontrovertible evidence provided by the
subjective experience of the illuminated and the creations of geniuses,
both of them born with an extraordinary physical endowment which has
so far defied the skill of the empiricist to locate.
It is obvious that the change from a normal to a supernormal state of
consciousness, to be genuine, must involve a genetic change in the whole
system. This change must even extend to the reproductive seed. The
genital secretions of an illuminated individual must reflect the
metamorphosis that has occurred. This fact is mentioned to present an
idea of the colossal nature of the change involved in the attainment of a
trans-human state of consciousness.
When a workable method to mark the difference in the two kinds of
organisms is devised, the cases of genuine transformation can be detected
as easily as the detection of the different blood groups can be done at
present. It is easy to imagine that in order to carry out such a drastic
change, to the very grass-roots of the human body, the force capable of it
must be of tremendous potency.
It must be able to shake the system to its very foundations in order to
reconstitute the microscopic bricks of which it is composed. It must have
the capacity to renew the basic structure of the cell and the protoplasm
and rebuild the system at the base to generate a new kind of bioelectricity
and install a new pattern of consciousness
A distant analogy of the immense proportions of this change is
provided by the difference in an ordinary propeller-driven plane and a
supersonic jet. A tremendous increase in the propelling force is needed to
cross the sonic barrier in the case of an aircraft. In the same way a
tremendous thrust from the Kundalini force, working ceaselessly, is
needed to cross the barrier of normal perception to reach the transcendent
planes. It is unfortunate that this obvious position is not correctly
understood by the erudite of our time.
It is because of the tremendous drain caused on the system, by the
withdrawal of the higher grade fuel from the body to feed the brain in
mystical ecstasy, that the condition is so often attended by catalepsy and
entrancement. The lingam-yoni symbol has been used in India from the
remote past to designate this extremely powerful activity which leads to
the emergence of Shiva-consciousness.
The symbol denotes the reversed action of the cerebrospinal system,
utilizing every spare ounce of this energy, normally used for amatory
purposes, for the remodeling of the body and the brain under high
pressure in which all the organs of the body become inextricably involved.
10
A highly extended state of consciousness, with heightened perception,
permeated with an extreme form of rapture cannot be possible without a
greatly enhanced consumption of psychic energy. Even for the more
mundane transport experienced in amorous play a price has to be paid in
the form of the energy expended.
This is the common experience of both men and women, for the
excitement of the climax is often followed by languor with a pressing
desire for rest and repose. This sense of lassitude and desire for repose is
more pronounced in an intellectual than in the rustic as both the pleasure
and expenditure of energy is greater in the former than in the latter.
The erect organ of generation denotes the ceaseless activity occurring
in the genitals to produce the potent reproductive substances in a highly
enhanced measure to renovate the brain and the nervous system. In the
earlier stages with the ceaseless erotic sensations caused in the kanda (the
pubic region), by the flow of these substances through the nerves, the
male organ experiences powerful involuntary erections time after time,
often the common experience of initiates who succeed in arousing
Kundalini.
It is for this reason that God Shiva is said to be urdhava-retas (with
upward flow of reproductive energy) and urdhava-linga (with phallus
erectus). The symbol of conjoined lingam and yoni is emblematic of what
occurs in sahasrara, the highest center in the brain.
With the flow of the nectar, distilled by the nerves from all parts of the
body into this center, the area of rapture is transferred from the genitals to
the cerebrum. It is a stupendous experience beyond anything conceivable
by a normal individual. Space does not permit a detailed description of
this most extraordinary experience here. This will be done in another
volume of this series.
The constant reference in the Tantras and Hatha-Yoga manuals to the
union of Shiva and Shakti refers to this breathtaking experience. As
already explained, it is this state of super-earthly rapture which is sought
to be portrayed in the Rasa-lila episode of Krishna and the gopis. The
emblem of conjoined lingam and yoni has another symbolic significance.
An awakened Kundalini in men and women both denotes a signal change
in marital relationship also.
The husband and the wife or the lover and the beloved, in a state of
union, undergo on the earthly sphere what is transpiring in the
consciousness of either of them in the transcendent plane. Instead of
flowing downward and outward, with the effect of the amorous dalliance,
the energy streams inward and upward, raising the consciousness in wider
and wider spirals to transcendent heights.
It is not now two human beings in a state of erotic union, but Shiva
and Shakti rolled into one, afloat with unutterable bliss in the ethereal
11 regions of everlasting being, without any thought of their intertwined
bodies or the earth.
There is nothing to be scared of at the so-called erotic element in
mystical ecstasy. Often, because of ignorance about the actual genesis of
mystical experience, writers on mysticism try to explain it away in diverse
ways. For instance, Dean Inge writes:
"But the tendency of Catholic mysticism has been to make the
individual soul the bride of Christ and to treat the Song of Solomon as
symbolic of spiritual nuptials between him and the individual
contemplative . . . Erotic mysticism is no part of Platonism. That
'sensuous love of the unseen, (as Pater calls it), which the Platonist often
seems to aim at, has more of admiration and less of tenderness than the
emotion which we have now to consider.
"The notion of a spiritual marriage between Gcd and the Soul seems
to have come from the Greek Mysteries, through the Alexandrian Jews
and Gnostics . . . and among the Jews of the first century there existed a
system of Mysteries probably copied from Eleusis. They had their greater
and their lesser mysteries and we hear that among their secret doctrines
was marriage with God. . . but curiously enough, it is Tertullian who first
argues that the body as well as the soul is the bride of Christ. If the soul is
the bride, he says, the flesh is the dowry. Origen, however, began the
mischief in his homilies and commentary on the Song of Solomon."4
The futile effort made to gloss over what is a common recurrent
feature of mystical experience is obvious from those lines:
"Bernard's Homilies on the Song of Solomon gave a great impetus to
this mode of symbolism, but even he says that the church and not the
individual is the bride of Christ. There is no doubt that the enforced
celibacy and virginity of the monks and nuns led them, consciously or
unconsciously, to transfer to the human person of Christ (and, to a much
slighter extent, to the virgin Mary) a measure of those feelings which
could find no vent in their external lives . . . The Sufis or Mohammedan
mystics use erotic language very freely, and appear, like true Asiatics, to
have attempted to give a sacramental or symbolic character to the
indulgence of their passions . . . The employment of erotic imagery to
express the individual relation between Christ and the Soul is always
dangerous, but this objection does not apply to the statement that the
church is the bride of Christ." In conclusion Dean Inge adds:
"This use of the Sacrament of marriage (as a symbol of the mystical
union between Christ and the Church), which alone has the sanction of the
New Testaments is one which, we hope, the Church will always treasure.
The more personal relation also exists and the fervent devotion which it
elicits must not be condemned though we are forced to remember that in
our mysteriously constituted minds the highest and lowest emotions lie
very near together, and that those who have chosen a life of detachment
12 from earthly ties must be especially on their guard against the occasional
revenges which the lower nature, when thwarted, is always plotting
against the higher."
The lameness of the arguments adduced is obvious. The statement
that Church is the bride of Christ would be ridiculous in the extreme were
it to refer to the organization or the holy edifices alone and not to the
hearts of men and women who constitute them.
The dilemma obviously facing Dean Inge arises from the generally
prevalent notion that the erotic impulse is something alien to God and
divine consciousness. That it is a profane desire and act incompatible
with the divine nature of the quest for self-transcendence and the vision of
God. But if we calmly reflect on the point for a moment, we cannot but
arrive at the conclusion that the creative urge and the creative act are the
springhead of existence and hence the most important and holiest
functions, enjoined by God, for the propagation as also for the
ennoblement of the race.
When this is admitted the erotic aspect of mystical experience
assumes a different proportion altogether. The exquisite sensation
peculiar to the orgasm, normally experienced only in the play of love, is
not confined to the amorous sport alone. The same transporting sensation
is caused when the nerve secretions which feed the reproductive apparatus
flow towards the brain from any part of the body. Therefore the thrill of
the sexual climax and the rapture experienced in mystical ecstasy are
almost identical.
When we refer to erotic sensations we always associate them with the
experience of love. The fact that mystics of all nations and epochs often
expressed themselves in an erotic strain or used sensuous imagery in their
expressions or declared themselves to be the Brides or Lovers of a Divine
Being or the Deity does not at all mean that the experience that fell to
their share had any element of carnality in it.
They only tried to portray a certain aspect of the experience which, in
the normal course, can be encountered nowhere except in the province of
physical love. But if it is demonstrated that this rapturous sensation is
peculiar to the whole cerebrospinal system and can be caused by the
impact of certain neuronic substances, both in the reproductive region or
the brain, the subject assumes a different aspect altogether.
The aesthetic emotion evoked by a soul-captivating piece of music
can influence and direct the flow of thought both towards an object of
carnal desire or sublime adoration. The same dulcet strains of melody
may draw one to the contemplation of his beloved, with all the intensity of
feeling, and another to God or to a divine order of being beyond the pale
of earth. In the same way the transporting sensations which we associate
with the play of love can ravish the mind on the consummation of the
sexual act or by absorption in the transcendent image of God.
13
It is obvious that the rapture of the orgasm in order to be experienced
must depend on the capacity of consciousness to create it from a particular
type of stimulation affecting the nerves. In actual fact, the rapture is but a
faint reflection of the incomparable bliss inherent in consciousness itself.
It becomes more and more evident as we ascend the scale step by step
towards the final state of beatitude which is the hallmark of a genuine
contact with universal consciousness. This is what the term sat-chitananda,
coined by the Indian masters to designate this state, is aimed to
convey.
We now come to the crux of our discussion. The detailed mention of
the high degree of civilization reached by the dwellers of the Indus Valley
has been made with a purpose. Their obvious knowledge of the
mechanism of Kundalini, as clearly indicated in the iconographic
representations, provides irrefutable testimony to the fact that
transcendent experience in a few individuals, at least, must have been a
prevalent feature of the time. If it were not so, the imagery of the phallus
erectus would never have occurred to them.
The basic factor necessary for a spontaneous awakening of the
Serpent Power is a certain mature condition of the cerebrospinal system,
as already indicated. The point that now arises is how can this maturity
come about? The process of awakening is too complex and depends to
such an extent on the congenital disposition of the body that it would be
too much to suppose that the arousals occurred solely through certain
disciplines or shamanistic practices undertaken by them.
No amount of pressure exercised in any manner can force the upward
flow of the reproductive energy unless the nerves are already in a state of
preparedness. This fact is clearly recognized by all authorities on Yoga in
India. Even hammer-blows cannot rouse the Serpent Power unless the
time for it has arrived, says one authority. In fact, some books on Yoga
prescribe different periods of time for success in the discipline of Yoga for
students of different grades of intellect. "Contemplation on (the space
between) the eyebrows, in my view, leads to the attainment of the unmani
avastha in a short time," says Hatha-Yoga Pradipika (4,80). "Even for
people of modest intellect, this is a suitable means for attaining the state of
Raja-Yoga: the state of absorption arising from nada (the inner sound)
gives immediate experience."
From the words "even for people of modest intellect," it is obvious
that the author considers success in Yoga to be more difficult for seekers
with lesser mental acumen. This is an issue of great importance and will
be discussed more fully elsewhere. In fact, this is the idea underlying the
division of labor in Plato's Republic. It also formed the basis of the caste
system in India which later degenerated into hereditary usurpation of the
functions, initially meant to be distributed according to merit.
With the knowledge of agriculture and a settled urban way of life a
new phase started in the life of primitive man. Before this his dependence
14 on game and the wild products of the forest consumed all his time to
maintain himself. It is obvious that the dwellers in the Indus Valley,
Egypt, Sumer, and other advanced sites, by the process of urbanization
and the division of labor, had achieved a way of life which provided them
with ample leisure and time for reflecting on the problem of existence
almost in the same way as we do today.
In fact, the upper and priestly classes, considering the more relaxed
temper of the period, had probably a greater measure of free time than we
have. Since a secure, unhurried, leisured way of life is an indispensable
condition for the seasoning of the cerebrospinal system, this seasoning, it
is clear, could be achieved even without the amazing products of modern
technology. On the other hand, the more simple and healthy natural
environment that nourished the urban settlements of the past was, all
things considered, perhaps more favorable to the working of the inner
process than the hectic and polluted milieu created by technology today.
With such a background an uninterrupted civilized life, enduring for
hundreds, even thousands of years, as in the case of India and Egypt,
could not but provide successive crops of individuals, however limited in
number, in whom Kundalini was spontaneously awake from birth in the
same way as has generally been the case with the born mystics and saints
of medieval and recent times.
Since interest in the supernatural has always been a property of the
human mind, the extraordinary exhibitions, peculiar ways of life and the
experiences of these gifted individuals must have created a sensation
every time that they appeared on the scene. The various systems of
religious disciplines, magical practices and the complex of yogic exercises
must have originated from them, in dim antiquity, preserved by their
followers and carried forward by oral tradition through epochal spans of
time.
This is the reason why we find the roots of magic, religious discipline
and Yogic practices stretching backward to periods even anterior to every
known civilization of the past. Another fresh archaeological discovery
might bring to light a still more ancient culture, prior even to that of Egypt
or Sumer, extending the area of our enquiry backward by many thousands
of years.
The degree of knowledge of the mechanism of Kundalini, displayed
by an ancient culture, can help to determine, almost as accurately as
carbon dating, whether the knowledge gained during the span of its life
could be indigenous, acquired during the course of its own civilized
existence or was borrowed from some other source anterior to it.
This fact will be firmly established in the course of the investigation I
am proposing. The maturing of the nervous system and the brain is a
biological process, depending on a host of psychic and material factors.
Like all other activities of the flesh this process, too, follows the cyclic
15 order of time subject to vicissitudes caused by the mode of life and
behavior of an individual or a group.
As an instance, to illustrate what I mean, it is enough to point to the
present sudden eruption of strong desire, especially among the youth, both
in America and Europe, to achieve self-awareness at any cost, even by
resorting to drugs. The psychosomatic factor at the base of this sudden
upsurge is a certain degree of maturity of the cerebrospinal system in a
large section of the society.
The rush for yogis, adepts and masters has resulted from the fact that
the indigenous systems of religion and the occult do not provide the
appropriate food to satisfy the resistless urge. That is the reason why
efforts are made by thousands to gather the required knowledge from
other countries and sources, in this case from Yoga, Tantras, Sufism,
Tibetan systems, or Zen, where it has already attained to a greater degree
of advancement.
This "borrowing" of available information about the vital mechanism
from other sources has always occurred throughout the past. Only fifty
years ago the young adults and adolescents of these countries had quite a
different attitude towards their own ancestral faith and the society as a
whole. What has happened in this short interval to bring about a
wholesale change in the mental outlook of many of them?
Plato in the Timaeus recounts a legendary tale narrated by an old
Egyptian priest to Solon, an Athenian, relating to the existence of a highly
civilized nation in Athens a thousand years before the cultural awakening
of Egypt itself. This cultural awakening, according to the priest, had
occurred 8,000 years before.
"Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our
histories," said the priest to Solon, "But one of them exceeds all the rest in
greatness and valor. For these histories tell of a mighty power which,
unprovoked, made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia,
and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the
Atlantic ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable, and there was
an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called 'The
Pillars of Hercules.'"
Plato then proceeds to give a description of the island, known as
Atlantis, which is said to have been larger than Libya and Asia put
together. On this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful
empire which had rule over other islands and some parts of continents.
"This vast power gathered into one," added the priest, "endeavored to
subdue at a blow our country and yours . . . and then, Solon, your country
shone forth in the excellence of her virtue and strength among all
mankind. She defeated and triumphed over the invaders and preserved
from slavery those who were not yet subjugated . . . But afterwards there
16 occurred violent earthquakes and floods and, in a single day and night of
misfortune, all your war-like men in a body sank into the earth and the
island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea."
We are not concerned with the truth or otherwise of this story or about
the actual existence of Atlantis. Our purpose is to show that there were
legendary tales of civilizations even prior to that of Egypt current in the
time of Plato. He must have come across them in Egypt where, it is said,
he was for a number of years.
Recent archaeological finds in Kenya and other places in Africa tend
to extend the span of mankind's existence to more than double what was
previously assigned to it. Similarly another yet unsuspected discovery
might extend this span of civilized existence further backwards by many
thousand years.
There is every probability that the cult of Kundalini initially
developed in a vanished culture of which no record is available at this
time. Whatever the case might be, I wish to make it clear that the average
individual of our day stands no greater chance of a successful awakening
of Kundalini than did the elite of the Egyptian or the Indus Valley
empires. The world of science has yet no awareness of the fact that a
veritable mine of wonders, a real Aladdin's Lamp, exists as a mighty
potential in the human body, awaiting discovery and application for
establishing a heaven on earth.
The extremely narrow and misleading views expressed by some
exponents of this cult and even eminent scholars of our time shall be
discussed elsewhere. Here it is sufficient to say that the general
impression prevailing in the minds of the laity and even of scholars is that
Kundalini is some sort of a nerve energy, bioelectricity or astral force
which can be used at will to open the door leading to the occult realms of
nature. They seldom show an awareness of the fact that prana-Shakti is
the controlling Intelligence behind the universe and Kundalini is the
mechanism of its operation in the human frame for the evolution of mind.
The mechanism is operative both in the individual and the race, and is
always represented in the individual and racial consciousness. This is
enough to indicate the colossal magnitude and importance of the
knowledge about Kundalini. There is nothing in the organic structure of
man so intricate and so fraught with momentous consequences as the
Serpent Power. Empires rose and fell, attained to glorious proportions,
shrank to insignificance or vanished altogether by the favorable or adverse
operation of this mighty force.
There is incontrovertible evidence to show that, like the Indus Valley,
the cult of Kundalini was practiced in Egypt also. Some parts of the
Egyptian cult extended to periods before the commencement of the known
pre-history of the Nile civilization. The use of cryptic and symbolic
language to disguise the real facts of the mysterious science was in vogue
from the earliest times. There is no doubt that Isis was the iconographic
17 and mythical symbol for the Serpent Power. Under the New Empire Isis
became, beyond all doubt, the greatest Goddess in Egypt, and the
following titles illustrate the estimation in which she was held throughout
the lands.
"She is of the many names . . . Great One who is from the beginning .
. . The greatest of the Gods and the Goddesses, The Queen of all the Gods
. . . The best beloved of all the Gods . . . The prototype of all beings . . .
She is of the beams of gold . . . The golden One . . . The most brilliant
Goddess . . . Lady of the solid earth . . . She who vomiteth fire . . . The
Blazing Flame . . . The Mother of the God Horus, The mighty Bull . . .
The Cow Heru-Sekha, who bringeth forth all things . . . Bestowed of life .
. . Lady of life . . . Lady of abundance . . . Lady of joy and gladness . . .
Lady of love. . . Beloved in all lands . . . The Mighty One . . . Beautiful,
Majestic and Beneficent . . . The Mistress of Spells."5
A moment's reflection is enough to show that the Shakti of the
Tantras, soma of the Vedas and Isis of Egypt refer to one and the same
entity. The decipherment of the Indus Valley script may reveal yet
another name for this power. The terms like "The Cow that giveth all
things . . . Lady of abundance . . . Lady of Joy . . . Lady of Spells . . . Lady
of love," are almost identical with the epithets applied to Kundalini in the
Indian texts.
The secrets of the mysterious rites performed in initiation into the cult
of Isis and other secrets of the Mysteries are still obscure. But it is
obvious that the power was cultivated more for magical purposes and
attainment of psychic gifts than for illumination. This is also probably
true of the Indus Valley cult. The Kaula Tantric practices also have more
of the magical and the sensuous than of the transcendent and the Divine.
It is likely that there was some sort of hierarchical priestly oligarchy
in the Indus Valley or, like the Egyptian pharaohs, the heads of state were
invested with the insignia of divinity. It could also be that the cult of
Kundalini was practiced to hold the toiling populations in thrall with
weird exhibitions of magical power, healing gifts or psychic displays.
The Tantras are replete with rituals and practices of uncanny kinds,
designed to overawe and fascinate unsophisticated, suggestible and
superstitious minds.
The successive layers of the so-far excavated ruins show a static
uniformity. The Indus civilization, it is obvious, had attained a fairly high
degree of industrialization. The industry was well organized, but the
products manufactured for the use of the common classes were mostly
utilitarian and without real artistic value. After the first ascent to a certain
point in organizations and industry the population became stagnant,
repeating the same designs, the same style of architecture and the same
varieties of manufactured products over and over again. 18
The sudden disappearance of the Indus Valley dwellers is attributed to
the inrush of the hardy Aryan immigrants through the northwestern
passes. More tough and skilled in fighting, equipped with weapons made
of iron and making dexterous use of the horse in battle, they swept over
their habitations like a hurricane carrying all before them. Although they
must have fought bravely to save their lives and assets, the effete
populations, kept under thrall by superstition and magic, could prove no
match for the less civilized but better armed hosts which fell upon them.
These facts have been mentioned to show that mere knowledge of the
Kundalini force or of the methods to arouse it is no surety of an easy
golden harvest attainable by its use. If employed for dominance, temporal
power, licentiousness, magic or psychic gifts, it can lead to death and
degeneration as surely as it can raise to divine eminence and heights of
transcendence with reverent application and approach.
"Though a man be a knower of the Three Times-past, present and
future,"" says Shakti Sangama Tantra (part IV), "Though he be a
controller of the Three Worlds, even then he should not transgress the
rules of conduct for men in the world, were it only in his thought."
"Among the Egyptians of the Middle and New Empires," says Budge,
"Isis was regarded as a great magician and the papyri contain several
allusions to her magical powers. She knew how to weave spells and how
to fashion magical figures, and she possessed the knowledge of all the
secret or hidden names of all the Gods and of all the spirits . . . At her
bidding the powers of nature ceased or modified their operations and she
could make everything both animate and inanimate to perform her will."5
How like it is to the powers ascribed to Shakti in the eulogies
addressed to her. "Thou art lustre in the moon, radiance in the sun," says
Panchastavi (IV-20), "Intelligence in man, Force in the wind; Taste in
water, and Heat in fire, without Thee (O Goddess) the whole universe
would be devoid of its substance." That she controls all of nature, both
animate or inanimate, is expressed in these words (IV-21) "Those starry
hosts that roam the sky, this atmosphere which gives birth to water, this
Sheshanag (a mythical serpent) which supports the earth, the air which
moves and this fire which shines brightly, they all, O Mother, exist only
on Thy command."
Can there exist the least shadow of doubt if to these unmistakable
points of resemblance between Isis and Shakti is now added the further
fact that one of the most powerful amulets known to the Egyptians was
the object thet, which carried with it the influence of the blood, magical
powers, and word of power of the former.
According to Budge it is most probably a conventional representation
of the uterus with its ligatures, and the vagina. The all powerful symbol
of Osiris is said to be a portion of his backbone "Tet" or rather the OS
sacrum (sacrum of Osiris) set on a stand. This clearly corresponds to the
19 lingam-yoni symbol of the Tantras with this difference-that in place of the
lingam, symbolic use is made of a part of the backbone which plays a no
less important part in the culture of Kundalini. The usual ornament or
crown on the head of Isis consists of a pair of horns, between which is a
solar or lunar disc.
This also corresponds to the moon in the hair of Shakti. "Adorned
with the crescent of the Queen of Night (the moon) in the hair on Thy
head," says Panchastavi (III-23), "and like a stream of Nectar washing
away the suffering of worthy existence, I make obeisance to Thee, O
Bhawani (Mistress of Creation)." She has an uraeus (the serpent symbol)
over her forehead for the Egyptians never forget her divine origin. In the
New Empire women wore pendants made of porcelain or metal which
represent the Goddess, seated among lotus plants with her newly born
child Horus on her knees. The lotus is a symbol of Kundalini.
Isis is generally depicted on the monuments and papyri in the form of
a woman holding the ankh in one of her hands. As a symbol the ankh is
found everywhere on the Egyptian monuments. Gods and Goddesses hold
it in their hands, or present it to the nose of their favorites. It is used as an
ornamental device or auspicious symbol on furniture, jewelry and other
objects. The ankh was also used as an amulet for protection against evil
and magic or to bring good luck. In this way it is analogous to the cross,
the swastika and "Om."
Scholars are divided in their opinions about the symbolic
interpretation of the ankh. According to Battiscombe Gunn the symbol
depicts the strips or straps of a sandal. Nothing can be more absurd than
to suppose that Gods and Goddesses would carry the symbol of strips and
straps of a sandal as an emblem of their divinity and power in their hands
or present it to the nose of those they want to befriend.
The figure is of a cross with a handle, like a ring or loop, on the upper
end. According to Jablonski the symbol represents the phallus. Whatever
may be the material object portrayed by the handled cross, its abstract
sense is not doubtful. It is the symbol of life, of the vital germ, and for
this reason is called the key of life. In one of the representations, Anumit
is shown holding the handled cross to the nostrils of the king, Usertesen
III, to give him life, stability, and purity, like Ra (the sun-god) forever.
The ankh is also a symbol of regeneration, of new life for the dead,
and of immortality beyond the earth. These are the very offices which an
awakened Kundalini is meant to fulfill. It is, therefore, obvious that in its
esoteric significance ankh is the same as lotus or the lingam-yoni symbol
of Kundalini.
According to Budge there is plenty of evidence to show that the
Egyptians of the Middle and New Kingdoms did not know what many of
the sacred emblems or symbols represented, a fact which is clearly proven
by the way in which they drew them on papyri, or fashioned them in
20 various substances. This applies to all the three figures-the thet or the
buckle of Isis the tet or backbone of Osiris and the ankh. The cult of
Osiris and Isis had its beginnings in the mists of prehistory before the
accepted period of about 4,500 years assigned to the kingdoms of Egypt,
prior to the birth of Christ. The confusion about the real significance of
these symbols that prevailed in later times is not to be wondered at. The
riddles presented now, by some of the obscure passages in the Rig Veda
must be traced to the same cause.
The monuments and relics of Egypt, Mesopotamia or Crete appear
alien and foreign to us because they belong to a different culture, way of
life and thought. The remnants of ancient Rome and Greece seem more
familiar, indicating a greater affinity in thinking and the mode of life. It is
this exotic element that adds to the mystery of the pyramids.
Looking into the future the conclusion is irresistible that, maybe, even
after a few hundred years, our skyscrapers, high-speed vehicles, and other
fruits of modern technology might appear alien and strange to our distant
progeny taught by experience and the pressure of circumstances to adhere
to a more natural and simpler way of life. But the present-day intellect,
carried away by the novelty and glamor of modern life, believes it to be
the best possible way of existence that was ever achieved so far.
We can safely infer that the same attitude of mind must have.
characterized the thinking of the Egyptian intellectual also in his day. “In
the impressive portrait statue of Cheops' cousin, the Vizier Hemon (the
Devotee of Heliopolis),” says Aldred, “who was evidently responsible for
the building of the Great Pyramid, there is more than a hint of that divine
assurance and intellectual ruthlessness which these early engineers must
have possessed in such abundance to plan, organize and carry out such
mighty works.”6
The modern intellectual is no less over-confident of his own ability.
The fatal lacunae in his planning and thinking will come to light when the
crash occurs. In his own sphere of activity the leading politician, thinker,
scientist, teacher, writer, businessman, or priest believes in the soundness
and correctness of his own judgment and act.
The leading intellects in all the vanished civilizations believed and
acted on the same lines. We, who now sit in judgment on their merits and
flaws, will be judged in the same way by our progeny. But we seldom
grow aware of our own mistakes and faults, as the human intellect,
clouded by ego and pride, is prone to serious error and miscalculation,
even when adorned with all the learning available at the time. It is the
fallibility of intellect that has been responsible for every decline of
ascendant nations in history.
The present-day premier nations are heading for the same end and
exactly for the same reason. So long as the human mind functions as the
storm-center of passion, desire and lust there is no way to avoid this
21 distortion and disorientation of the intellect. It needs constant cleansing
and purification from within. All healthy religious disciplines are
designed to effect this purgation to illumine the intellect with the infallible
Light aglow in the soul of man.
This is the reason why Revelation was allotted such a high place of
honor all through the past. Like the velocity of light-the invariant of
Einstein-which is used as the standard of measurement for all other
motions and speeds in the universe, there is an invariant hidden deep in
the recesses of human consciousness.
It sometimes reveals itself to specially gifted men and women in
wakefulness, dream or the elevated state of mystical ecstasy. This has
been happening now for thousands of years in the past and will continue
to happen for thousands of years to come, till all the race is established in
this sublime dimension of consciousness. The mode of life and the social
orders of human beings need to be oriented again and again to harmonize
with this evolutionary transformation in their consciousness.
The crises occur when the intellect fails to adjust itself to the change,
resulting in upheavals to demolish and reform a disharmonious social
order. This is the situation we are facing today.
END
FOOTNOTES:
1. Ancient India, R. C. Majumdar, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1968.
2. Civilizations of the Indus Valley and Beyond, Sir Mortimer Wheeler,
Thames & Hudson, London, 1966.
3. The Source of Civilization, Gerald Heard.
4. Thirteen Principal Upanishads, R. E. Hume, Oxford University Press,
London, 1921.
5. Osiris, E. A. W. Budge, The Medici Society Ltd., London, 1911.
6. Sex Symbolism in Religion, J. B. Hannay, The Religious Evolution
Research Society, London. 1922.
remarkable discovery. Close to the two rivers, Indus and Ravi, in the
Provinces of Sind and Punjab, it lighted upon the ruins of a prehistoric
civilization which changed the whole concept of Indian pre-history
current up to that time.
The prevalent idea had been that, when the invading hordes of
warlike Aryans poured into India from the north-west, they found only an
autochthonous population of dark-skinned, flat-nosed, primitive
barbarians, worshiping snakes and trees, whom they conquered and
enslaved or drove to the east and south. But the excavations, which still
continue, revealed a different picture altogether.
As generally happens, when a fresh discovery is made, the whole
massive volume of learned views, expressed by scholars on the issue, on
the basis of the relics available up to that time, became untenable and
obsolete, a mere dust-heap of many years of wasted thought. The fresh
evidence gathered bit by bit, confirmed by successive teams of
investigators, brought to light the startling fact that a vast empire,
covering more than twice the area of the old kingdom of Egypt, extending
to many parts of India, was the seat of a civilization which in some
respects excelled even the contemporaneous cultures of Sumer and Egypt,
the most advanced kingdoms of that day. For the vastness of the area over
which the dominion extended the only parallel, according to Pigott, is the
Roman Empire which flourished 2,000 years later. Describing the layout
of Mohenjo-Daro, one of the capital cities of the Indus Valley culture,
Majumdar writes:
"Even the extant ruins show remarkable skill in town planning. The
streets, varying in width from 9 to 34 feet, were regularly aligned,
sometimes running straight for half a mile. The principal streets were
duly oriented to the points of the compass and intersected at right angles,
dividing the city into square or rectangular blocks, each of which was
divided lengthwise and crosswise by a number of lanes. The buildings
never encroached on these streets and lanes, almost each of which had a
public well and lamppost at intervals.
"The city had an elaborate drainage system which opened into great
culverts emptying into the river. The dwelling houses varied in size from
a palatial building to one with two small rooms, showing the quarters of
the rich and poor . . . most of the houses had a well, a bathroom and a
good system of covered drainage connected with that of the street . . .
2
some of the houses had an upper story with vertical drain pipes indicating
additional bathrooms"1
The most striking features of the city of Mohenjo-Daro are its wellplanned,
broad streets and the elaborate, intricately ramified system of
sanitation of almost modern character. The domestic and civic
architecture, it is held, was much more highly developed than that of
either Egypt or Mesopotamia of the same period.
"The high quality of sanitary arrangements at Mohenjo-Daro could
well be envied in many parts of the world today," says Sir Mortimer
Wheeler. "They reflect decent standards of living, coupled with an
obviously zealous municipal supervision . . . The doorway leads into an
entrance room with a tiny porter's lodge, through this lies the courtyard
with the household rooms opening off it . . . along the main streets the
private wells are supplemented by public wells accessible from the streets
and lanes and here and there are small sentry-boxes for the civic
watchmen. Construction is normally of baked bricks in 'English bond.'
"The vast size of the capital city is comparable to that of Imperial
Rome. There is a huge citadel, a large public bath measuring 180 by 180
feet, a big granary originally 159 by 75 feet, a commodious pillared hall
80 by 80 feet which probably served as an assembly room, and other huge
structures. There are rows upon rows of shops and places resembling
public restaurants, with scales and exact measures of weight."19
This description of a distant archaeological find might seem to be
irrelevant to our theme but it has a tremendous bearing on what I am
trying to expound. Many years ago Gerald Heard drew attention to some
unique features of the Indus Valley culture and with almost prophetic
insight expressed the view that it may help to reveal the secret of strifefree,
peaceful co-existence to the modern world.3
"When I read the book I was thrilled at the idea that nearly 5,000
years ago a vanished people had learnt the art of town planning and lived
in well-constructed metropolises almost like our own. I did not even
dream then that it was in my fate to make certain disclosures about a
mighty secret, buried under the ruins of this great civilization of the past,
to lay the foundation of a new science and to open another area of
investigation for the lovers of knowledge.
"The standard of living of the ancient denizens of the Indus Valley,
judged from the indications available, appears to have been fairly high
comparable to that of our own day.
"'Specimens of wheat and barley found in the ruins prove that they
were not of the wild species and were regularly cultivated,'" says
Majumdar. "Rice was probably also grown. In addition to these the
general diet consisted of other fruits, vegetables, milk, fish and flesh of
various animals, including beef, mutton, pork and poultry . . . both men
3
and women used various ornaments made of gold, silver, copper and other
well-known metals, shell . . . lapis lazuli, turquoise, amethyst etc. . . .
materials for toilet and cases for holding them, some of which are made of
ivory and metal, prove that the ladies at Mohenjo-Daro were not probably
far behind their sisters of the present day in the culture of beauty and
knew the use of collyrium, face-paint and other cosmetics.
"Round metal rods for applying cosmetics, lipsticks, bronze oval
mirrors, ivory combs of different shapes, some of which probably
decorated the hair, and even small dressing tables have come to light at
Mohenjo-Daro and other sites. Furniture and utensils of various kinds and
designs indicate a high degree of civilization with centuries of
development behind it. Special mention may be made of pottery candlesticks
indicating the use of candles, pottery toys for children, including
whistles, rattles and clay models of men, women, herds and animals,
including those with movable limbs or made to climb up and down by
means of a movable cord. Special interest is attached to the toy clay-carts,
as they are the earliest specimens of wheeled vehicles so far known.
Marbles, balls and dice were the favorite games, and among other
pastimes may be mentioned hunting, bull-fighting, trapping of birds and
fishing."18
These details have been given to show that the standard of life of these
ancient dwellers of the Indus Valley was almost as high as that of the most
advanced countries of recent times, before the discovery of steam and
electricity. Experts differ in their opinion about the period of time of the
Indus Valley civilization. But according to the general view it lasted from
about 2,700 to 1,700 B.C. There are not very marked differences between
the earliest and the latest layers at Mohenjo-Daro.
This fact presupposes a previous history of the culture about which
almost nothing can be positively asserted at present. It is obvious,
however, that for nearly a thousand years, before their abrupt end, the
dwellers of Mohenjo-Daro and other cities had maintained an
uninterrupted cultural urban life with a fair degree of abundance and
prosperity. The representation of a ship on a seal indicates maritime
activity, and there is evidence to show that people of the Indus Valley
carried on trade not only with other parts of India but also with Sumer and
other centers of culture, including probably Egypt also.
The figure of a deity with a hooded cobra over his head corresponds to
a similar figure of a man with the head of a serpent over his head found in
Egypt. The latest limit of entry of the Aryans into India is placed at about
1,500 years B.C. The earliest limit remains undetermined. It is held that
the word dasyus in the Rig Veda, used to denominate the aboriginal
populations, whose habitations and forts the victorious Aryans overran
and destroyed, refers to the dwellers of the Indus Valley.
There are, however, some scholars who hold, on the basis of the
skeletal remains, that Indo-Aryans formed a part of the populations of
4
Mohenjo-Daro and other places. One of the main arguments against this
supposition was the absence of horses among the animals domesticated by
or known to the Indus Valley dwellers. But recent excavation in another
part of the country has disproved this assumption. Along with other
unmistakable evidence of the Indus Valley culture at the site, the skeletal
remains of horses have been found: a clear proof that the animal was
known and domesticated.
The most important find from the point of view of our subject is a
finely engraved seal bearing the figure of a three-faced God in a
meditative posture, seated on a throne with legs crossed in the fashion of a
yogi. He sits with penis erectus surrounded by a tiger, buffalo and
rhinoceros, with a deerskin under the seat.
It is obvious that the representation is of a deity corresponding to
Shiva who is also called Trimukha (three faced), Pashupati (Lord of
animals) and Mahayogis (the great Yogi). This symbolism is
corroborated by the representations on some other seals and also by a
large number of cylindrical stone emblems which clearly represent the
phallus. There are clay and stone representations of the female generative
organs too and also a figure of the Mother Goddess.
The seals are hundreds in number, some of which are considered to be
virtual artistic pieces of the engraver's art. They bear a pictographic script
which, in spite of great efforts, has not been deciphered yet. As many as
270 different characters of the script have been traced so far. Some
scholars even think that the Brahmi script, in which the Vedas were first
recorded, was preceded by an alphabet derived from the Indus Valley
pictographic characters.
The decipherment of the script, when it becomes possible, is likely to
throw a flood of light on many things that are obscure at present. The fact
that, in addition to the seals, the pictographs have also been found on
pieces of pottery makes it clear that there was a fair degree of literacy
among the people. The emblems of the phallus and the yoni and the
figure of God Shiva in the yogic position, as also another of a yogi in a
meditative pose, make it plain beyond the least shadow of doubt that a
system of Yoga, akin to that embodied in the Tantras and books on Hatha-
Yoga, was known and practiced in the Indus Valley about 3000 B.C.
What is of particular interest in the figure of God Shiva, engraved on
the seal, is the particular position in which the phallus has been depicted.
In many iconographic stone or other images of Shiva in India the phallus
is shown prominently in a state of tumescence as in the case of the Indus
Valley representation. This is a highly significant symbol on which no
light has been thrown so far by any scholar, past or present. From a
common point of view an erect phallus is the last thing that one would
expect of Divinity.
5
For those who believe in a formless deity the worship of a stone or
other idol or image is bad enough, but, when to this is added the symptom
of undisguised erotic excitement in that image, the position becomes
intolerable in the extreme. It is inconceivable for those brought up in the
tradition of other faiths that the God of any community of worshipers
should exhibit himself as a rank voluptuary. But it is in this very aspect of
God Shiva that the mystery of higher consciousness lies concealed.
The reproductive and the evolutionary mechanism in the human body
are so closely inter-related as to be almost identical. The same life-energy
produced by the nerves is at the base of erotic excitement at one end and
of passion for the Divine at the other. The same intensely pleasing
sensation which provides a powerful incentive for the reproductive act
also supplies a strong inducement for the evolutionary effort of man. In
the latter case, the rapture is even more enhanced and magnified.
Why nature should resort to this apparently ironic device of
combining the two functions, which we mistakenly believe to be
antithetic, is not hard to understand. The process of evolution of the race
is vitally dependent on reproduction. We owe our existence to the
accident of birth consequent on the conjugation of the lingam and yoni in
the reproductive act. The accident of birth is also responsible for our
striving for and the attainment of God-Consciousness as also for the
continuance of the process of evolution from generation to generation.
Reproduction is, therefore, the primary factor not only in individual
self-awareness but also in the evolution of the whole race. The male and
female principles in every human organism have to combine ultimately to
give rise to the soul-captivating rapture that forms a perennial feature of
Divine Consciousness. The lingam-yoni symbol thus forms a most
effective device for conveying the momentous significance of the creative
act. Both as the procreator of his offspring and the emancipated product
of Kundalini, man is divine. That is why sanctity is attached to marriage
in all the current major faiths of mankind.
This is also the reason why the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt
often hold the symbol of the ankh and the divinities in India the lotus in
their hands, both emblematic of the divine nature of the creative act. The
Egyptian symbol of the ankh itself resembles a half-opened lotus in which
the long stem represents the stalk, the opened petals the arms of the cross
and the ring or the loop-like handle the unopened part, symbolizing the
lingam welded to the yoni as is the case with the images in India.
Still entirely in the dark about the double meaning of the symbol, the
present-day scholars only treat it as an emblem of creativity or the sexual
act, a sign of the union which results in the birth of man, or of the fertility
of earth. The common iconographic representation found in temples all
over India of the lingam and yoni joined together, the latter forming the
base and surrounding it, apparently lends support to this idea. But this is a
complete error to which scholars have fallen prey during recent times.
6
The reason for this error lies in the misconception that this symbolism
represents a stage in the evolution of the religious concepts of primitive
man. This attitude, in turn, is primarily based on a lurking egoistic sense
of superiority over the populations of the past. It is complacently believed
that the ancient religious writings, customs, beliefs, idols and rituals from
prehistoric epochs to medieval times are either the remnants of a primitive
culture or the later outgrowth of shamanistic practices.
The life stories of Christ and Krishna are traced to primitive myths
woven round the worship of the Sun-God, or the expression of a sense of
awe, wonder, and unintelligibility at the phenomena of nature, at the
marvel of earth's productivity, and the creative act of man.
How wrong this belief has been in respect of the sex symbols used
from prehistoric times prior even to vanished cultures of the past will be
apparent when the significance of the lingam-yoni symbolism is properly
understood. It may appear paradoxical but there is no denying the fact
that the knowledge of the hidden truths of religion was never at such a low
ebb among the elite of the past as it is now among the learned of our day.
As our study will progressively show, the religious myths and
symbols of past civilizations, which continue to dominate the main faiths
of our time, are the scattered relics of a highly developed prehistoric
culture swallowed, in all probability, by a mighty cataclysm of earth
without leaving any visible trace before the beginning of the Egyptian or
Sumerian kingdoms.
The scattered threads of these myths and symbols must have been
carried here and there by the fugitive survivors, who somehow escaped
the destruction, or were out on business or travel beyond the area
devastated by the upheaval. We shall discuss this point in more detail at
other places. It is enough to state here that the prevalence of symbols in
Egypt, the Indus Valley and other ancient centers bespeaks an elaborate
knowledge of Kundalini from the very beginning.
This could only be possible if we postulate a still anterior place of
origin for the cult where it had already developed to a high degree which
it never attained in any subsequent period to this day. The symbol of the
lingam and yoni interlinked is a representation of the final stage of arousal
of the Serpent Power. The intricacies of the system and the varied mode
of the awakening constitute a vast area of study and experiment extending
to ages.
The very manner of the awakening and its effect on the brain can be
so radically different in various individuals that there may appear not the
slightest sign of resemblance between them nor the least likelihood of
linking each to the same source. In some cases the arousal is so gradual,
unattended by any special symptoms in the mind-body complex that the
initiate practicing the discipline remains unaware of the changes wrought.
His awareness of the transformation begins only from the time when
7
unusual phenomena of consciousness, as for instance, phosphorescence,
peculiar sounds in the ears, visionary experiences or extrasensory
perception become a feature of his inner being.
This state is described in the Svetasvatara Upanishad (2-11) in these
words: "Fog, smoke, sun, fire, wind, fire-flies, lightning, a crystal or
moon-these are the preliminary appearances which produce the
manifestation of Brahma in Yoga."4 But taken alone these symptoms do
not necessarily imply success in the undertaking. They can also be
products of delusion.
In order to be genuine, they must be attended by other symptoms and
signs, as for instance, an innate urge for truth and purity, a greater
measure of love and benevolence, a diminished degree of ego and pride or
the appearance of other noble virtues which are a necessary adjunct to
spiritual development. This is made clear in the same Upanishad at
another place (3, 13-14):
"Lightness, healthiness, steadiness, clearness of countenance and
pleasantness of voice, sweetness of odor and scanty excretions-these, they
say, are the first stage in the progress of Yoga. Even as a mirror stained
by dust shines brilliantly when it has been cleansed, so the embodied one,
on seeing the nature of the soul (Atman) becomes unitary, his end
attained, from sorrow free."
This type of awakening effects the cleansing of the human mind and
body by slow degrees, provided due attention is paid to food, behavior,
and the mode of life. The initiate gradually develops a contemplative bent
of mind, often absorbed in one's own being, and a saintly bearing. This
change might be attended by psychic gifts with sweetness and charm of
personality.
The object of the transformative processes is to create a new inner
man or woman in tune with the infinite world of life. The inner sounds,
flashes of light, astral voyages, and visions are merely the preliminary
indications of a new area of highly extended awareness. But many
practitioners of Yoga and other disciplines, carried away by these initial
symptoms, fall prey to seduction and miss the lofty goal. Lured away, as
if by a will-of-the-wisp, by these transient appearances they never glimpse
the golden haloed Purusha, nor experience with ineffable bliss the living
Sun of consciousness within.
But there can also be a more powerful and sudden arousal of the
Serpent Power leading to an explosion in consciousness. In such a case a
sudden metamorphosis of personality may occur in weeks or months
which in the former case would have taken years to accomplish. In either
case, however, the human level of consciousness may not be completely
transcended. The subject may remain hovering on the fringe with
occasional flashes of transcendental vision in a state of entrancement or
sudden sporadic glimpses of it during wakefulness. In rare cases they
8 may attain the perennial state of super-consciousness, living constantly in
an effulgent world of infinite being and bliss both in the waking state and
dream. In order to achieve this sublime end, the sustained activity of a
powerful current of the Kundalini force is necessary for varying periods
which may extend to years.
In such cases the nervous system and the brain are completely
refashioned at the basic levels still beyond the probe of science. The
spectrum of prana (bioplasma) is radically altered to apprehend other
planes of creation and to open a new transcendent world to the inner
vision of the individual. The accomplished product is now a specimen of
the man to come.
The range of manifestations of an active Kundalini can be as vast and
varied as the range of intellect from a half-wit at one end to a genius at the
other. Similarly an awakened Kundalini can manifest itself from mere
flashes of sudden insight, rudiments of extrasensory perception,
premonitory dreams, dim thresholds of clairvoyance, at one end to a
perennial contact with Cosmic Consciousness at the other.
This enormously extended range of manifestations is further enlarged
and complicated by obsessive, delusive and aberrant mental conditions
which, not unoften, attend the operations of Kundalini because of the
incompatible ways of life followed by the mass of mankind due to
ignorance about the mighty mechanism.
It is not possible to convey a comprehensive picture of the change
involved in the ascent from the human to transhuman state of
consciousness. In the perennial sahaja state, the observing principle in the
awakened individual wears a never-fading effulgent halo of silvery lustre
tinged with gold, a marvelous raiment of light in which the physical body
appears like a flimsy shadow, linking the ever-free, unutterable glory to
the solid earth. Both in their external observation and inner being the
individual is changed.
The senses and the intellect continue to function with precision as they
did before, but, in its relation to the observer, the world they present now
wears a different aspect altogether. The seer and the seen now appear to
be the two different facets of one underlying Reality. The indescribable
rapture of this ineffable experience is beyond anything encountered by
normal consciousness. For this state of Grace a certain mature condition
of the cerebrospinal system is absolutely necessary. What this maturity
denotes in terms of our knowledge of human neurophysiology only
extensive research can determine.
Suffice it to say that a certain constitution of the mind and body has
been an invariable feature of all the great mystics and illumined sages of
the past. A peculiar condition of the brain and body is also a marked
feature of the men and women of genius as also of all genuine mediums
and sensitives. There is no doubt that human ingenuity will one day
9 discover how this physiological specialty in the systems of such
individuals can be determined and measured. Till that time we have to
content ourselves with the incontrovertible evidence provided by the
subjective experience of the illuminated and the creations of geniuses,
both of them born with an extraordinary physical endowment which has
so far defied the skill of the empiricist to locate.
It is obvious that the change from a normal to a supernormal state of
consciousness, to be genuine, must involve a genetic change in the whole
system. This change must even extend to the reproductive seed. The
genital secretions of an illuminated individual must reflect the
metamorphosis that has occurred. This fact is mentioned to present an
idea of the colossal nature of the change involved in the attainment of a
trans-human state of consciousness.
When a workable method to mark the difference in the two kinds of
organisms is devised, the cases of genuine transformation can be detected
as easily as the detection of the different blood groups can be done at
present. It is easy to imagine that in order to carry out such a drastic
change, to the very grass-roots of the human body, the force capable of it
must be of tremendous potency.
It must be able to shake the system to its very foundations in order to
reconstitute the microscopic bricks of which it is composed. It must have
the capacity to renew the basic structure of the cell and the protoplasm
and rebuild the system at the base to generate a new kind of bioelectricity
and install a new pattern of consciousness
A distant analogy of the immense proportions of this change is
provided by the difference in an ordinary propeller-driven plane and a
supersonic jet. A tremendous increase in the propelling force is needed to
cross the sonic barrier in the case of an aircraft. In the same way a
tremendous thrust from the Kundalini force, working ceaselessly, is
needed to cross the barrier of normal perception to reach the transcendent
planes. It is unfortunate that this obvious position is not correctly
understood by the erudite of our time.
It is because of the tremendous drain caused on the system, by the
withdrawal of the higher grade fuel from the body to feed the brain in
mystical ecstasy, that the condition is so often attended by catalepsy and
entrancement. The lingam-yoni symbol has been used in India from the
remote past to designate this extremely powerful activity which leads to
the emergence of Shiva-consciousness.
The symbol denotes the reversed action of the cerebrospinal system,
utilizing every spare ounce of this energy, normally used for amatory
purposes, for the remodeling of the body and the brain under high
pressure in which all the organs of the body become inextricably involved.
10
A highly extended state of consciousness, with heightened perception,
permeated with an extreme form of rapture cannot be possible without a
greatly enhanced consumption of psychic energy. Even for the more
mundane transport experienced in amorous play a price has to be paid in
the form of the energy expended.
This is the common experience of both men and women, for the
excitement of the climax is often followed by languor with a pressing
desire for rest and repose. This sense of lassitude and desire for repose is
more pronounced in an intellectual than in the rustic as both the pleasure
and expenditure of energy is greater in the former than in the latter.
The erect organ of generation denotes the ceaseless activity occurring
in the genitals to produce the potent reproductive substances in a highly
enhanced measure to renovate the brain and the nervous system. In the
earlier stages with the ceaseless erotic sensations caused in the kanda (the
pubic region), by the flow of these substances through the nerves, the
male organ experiences powerful involuntary erections time after time,
often the common experience of initiates who succeed in arousing
Kundalini.
It is for this reason that God Shiva is said to be urdhava-retas (with
upward flow of reproductive energy) and urdhava-linga (with phallus
erectus). The symbol of conjoined lingam and yoni is emblematic of what
occurs in sahasrara, the highest center in the brain.
With the flow of the nectar, distilled by the nerves from all parts of the
body into this center, the area of rapture is transferred from the genitals to
the cerebrum. It is a stupendous experience beyond anything conceivable
by a normal individual. Space does not permit a detailed description of
this most extraordinary experience here. This will be done in another
volume of this series.
The constant reference in the Tantras and Hatha-Yoga manuals to the
union of Shiva and Shakti refers to this breathtaking experience. As
already explained, it is this state of super-earthly rapture which is sought
to be portrayed in the Rasa-lila episode of Krishna and the gopis. The
emblem of conjoined lingam and yoni has another symbolic significance.
An awakened Kundalini in men and women both denotes a signal change
in marital relationship also.
The husband and the wife or the lover and the beloved, in a state of
union, undergo on the earthly sphere what is transpiring in the
consciousness of either of them in the transcendent plane. Instead of
flowing downward and outward, with the effect of the amorous dalliance,
the energy streams inward and upward, raising the consciousness in wider
and wider spirals to transcendent heights.
It is not now two human beings in a state of erotic union, but Shiva
and Shakti rolled into one, afloat with unutterable bliss in the ethereal
11 regions of everlasting being, without any thought of their intertwined
bodies or the earth.
There is nothing to be scared of at the so-called erotic element in
mystical ecstasy. Often, because of ignorance about the actual genesis of
mystical experience, writers on mysticism try to explain it away in diverse
ways. For instance, Dean Inge writes:
"But the tendency of Catholic mysticism has been to make the
individual soul the bride of Christ and to treat the Song of Solomon as
symbolic of spiritual nuptials between him and the individual
contemplative . . . Erotic mysticism is no part of Platonism. That
'sensuous love of the unseen, (as Pater calls it), which the Platonist often
seems to aim at, has more of admiration and less of tenderness than the
emotion which we have now to consider.
"The notion of a spiritual marriage between Gcd and the Soul seems
to have come from the Greek Mysteries, through the Alexandrian Jews
and Gnostics . . . and among the Jews of the first century there existed a
system of Mysteries probably copied from Eleusis. They had their greater
and their lesser mysteries and we hear that among their secret doctrines
was marriage with God. . . but curiously enough, it is Tertullian who first
argues that the body as well as the soul is the bride of Christ. If the soul is
the bride, he says, the flesh is the dowry. Origen, however, began the
mischief in his homilies and commentary on the Song of Solomon."4
The futile effort made to gloss over what is a common recurrent
feature of mystical experience is obvious from those lines:
"Bernard's Homilies on the Song of Solomon gave a great impetus to
this mode of symbolism, but even he says that the church and not the
individual is the bride of Christ. There is no doubt that the enforced
celibacy and virginity of the monks and nuns led them, consciously or
unconsciously, to transfer to the human person of Christ (and, to a much
slighter extent, to the virgin Mary) a measure of those feelings which
could find no vent in their external lives . . . The Sufis or Mohammedan
mystics use erotic language very freely, and appear, like true Asiatics, to
have attempted to give a sacramental or symbolic character to the
indulgence of their passions . . . The employment of erotic imagery to
express the individual relation between Christ and the Soul is always
dangerous, but this objection does not apply to the statement that the
church is the bride of Christ." In conclusion Dean Inge adds:
"This use of the Sacrament of marriage (as a symbol of the mystical
union between Christ and the Church), which alone has the sanction of the
New Testaments is one which, we hope, the Church will always treasure.
The more personal relation also exists and the fervent devotion which it
elicits must not be condemned though we are forced to remember that in
our mysteriously constituted minds the highest and lowest emotions lie
very near together, and that those who have chosen a life of detachment
12 from earthly ties must be especially on their guard against the occasional
revenges which the lower nature, when thwarted, is always plotting
against the higher."
The lameness of the arguments adduced is obvious. The statement
that Church is the bride of Christ would be ridiculous in the extreme were
it to refer to the organization or the holy edifices alone and not to the
hearts of men and women who constitute them.
The dilemma obviously facing Dean Inge arises from the generally
prevalent notion that the erotic impulse is something alien to God and
divine consciousness. That it is a profane desire and act incompatible
with the divine nature of the quest for self-transcendence and the vision of
God. But if we calmly reflect on the point for a moment, we cannot but
arrive at the conclusion that the creative urge and the creative act are the
springhead of existence and hence the most important and holiest
functions, enjoined by God, for the propagation as also for the
ennoblement of the race.
When this is admitted the erotic aspect of mystical experience
assumes a different proportion altogether. The exquisite sensation
peculiar to the orgasm, normally experienced only in the play of love, is
not confined to the amorous sport alone. The same transporting sensation
is caused when the nerve secretions which feed the reproductive apparatus
flow towards the brain from any part of the body. Therefore the thrill of
the sexual climax and the rapture experienced in mystical ecstasy are
almost identical.
When we refer to erotic sensations we always associate them with the
experience of love. The fact that mystics of all nations and epochs often
expressed themselves in an erotic strain or used sensuous imagery in their
expressions or declared themselves to be the Brides or Lovers of a Divine
Being or the Deity does not at all mean that the experience that fell to
their share had any element of carnality in it.
They only tried to portray a certain aspect of the experience which, in
the normal course, can be encountered nowhere except in the province of
physical love. But if it is demonstrated that this rapturous sensation is
peculiar to the whole cerebrospinal system and can be caused by the
impact of certain neuronic substances, both in the reproductive region or
the brain, the subject assumes a different aspect altogether.
The aesthetic emotion evoked by a soul-captivating piece of music
can influence and direct the flow of thought both towards an object of
carnal desire or sublime adoration. The same dulcet strains of melody
may draw one to the contemplation of his beloved, with all the intensity of
feeling, and another to God or to a divine order of being beyond the pale
of earth. In the same way the transporting sensations which we associate
with the play of love can ravish the mind on the consummation of the
sexual act or by absorption in the transcendent image of God.
13
It is obvious that the rapture of the orgasm in order to be experienced
must depend on the capacity of consciousness to create it from a particular
type of stimulation affecting the nerves. In actual fact, the rapture is but a
faint reflection of the incomparable bliss inherent in consciousness itself.
It becomes more and more evident as we ascend the scale step by step
towards the final state of beatitude which is the hallmark of a genuine
contact with universal consciousness. This is what the term sat-chitananda,
coined by the Indian masters to designate this state, is aimed to
convey.
We now come to the crux of our discussion. The detailed mention of
the high degree of civilization reached by the dwellers of the Indus Valley
has been made with a purpose. Their obvious knowledge of the
mechanism of Kundalini, as clearly indicated in the iconographic
representations, provides irrefutable testimony to the fact that
transcendent experience in a few individuals, at least, must have been a
prevalent feature of the time. If it were not so, the imagery of the phallus
erectus would never have occurred to them.
The basic factor necessary for a spontaneous awakening of the
Serpent Power is a certain mature condition of the cerebrospinal system,
as already indicated. The point that now arises is how can this maturity
come about? The process of awakening is too complex and depends to
such an extent on the congenital disposition of the body that it would be
too much to suppose that the arousals occurred solely through certain
disciplines or shamanistic practices undertaken by them.
No amount of pressure exercised in any manner can force the upward
flow of the reproductive energy unless the nerves are already in a state of
preparedness. This fact is clearly recognized by all authorities on Yoga in
India. Even hammer-blows cannot rouse the Serpent Power unless the
time for it has arrived, says one authority. In fact, some books on Yoga
prescribe different periods of time for success in the discipline of Yoga for
students of different grades of intellect. "Contemplation on (the space
between) the eyebrows, in my view, leads to the attainment of the unmani
avastha in a short time," says Hatha-Yoga Pradipika (4,80). "Even for
people of modest intellect, this is a suitable means for attaining the state of
Raja-Yoga: the state of absorption arising from nada (the inner sound)
gives immediate experience."
From the words "even for people of modest intellect," it is obvious
that the author considers success in Yoga to be more difficult for seekers
with lesser mental acumen. This is an issue of great importance and will
be discussed more fully elsewhere. In fact, this is the idea underlying the
division of labor in Plato's Republic. It also formed the basis of the caste
system in India which later degenerated into hereditary usurpation of the
functions, initially meant to be distributed according to merit.
With the knowledge of agriculture and a settled urban way of life a
new phase started in the life of primitive man. Before this his dependence
14 on game and the wild products of the forest consumed all his time to
maintain himself. It is obvious that the dwellers in the Indus Valley,
Egypt, Sumer, and other advanced sites, by the process of urbanization
and the division of labor, had achieved a way of life which provided them
with ample leisure and time for reflecting on the problem of existence
almost in the same way as we do today.
In fact, the upper and priestly classes, considering the more relaxed
temper of the period, had probably a greater measure of free time than we
have. Since a secure, unhurried, leisured way of life is an indispensable
condition for the seasoning of the cerebrospinal system, this seasoning, it
is clear, could be achieved even without the amazing products of modern
technology. On the other hand, the more simple and healthy natural
environment that nourished the urban settlements of the past was, all
things considered, perhaps more favorable to the working of the inner
process than the hectic and polluted milieu created by technology today.
With such a background an uninterrupted civilized life, enduring for
hundreds, even thousands of years, as in the case of India and Egypt,
could not but provide successive crops of individuals, however limited in
number, in whom Kundalini was spontaneously awake from birth in the
same way as has generally been the case with the born mystics and saints
of medieval and recent times.
Since interest in the supernatural has always been a property of the
human mind, the extraordinary exhibitions, peculiar ways of life and the
experiences of these gifted individuals must have created a sensation
every time that they appeared on the scene. The various systems of
religious disciplines, magical practices and the complex of yogic exercises
must have originated from them, in dim antiquity, preserved by their
followers and carried forward by oral tradition through epochal spans of
time.
This is the reason why we find the roots of magic, religious discipline
and Yogic practices stretching backward to periods even anterior to every
known civilization of the past. Another fresh archaeological discovery
might bring to light a still more ancient culture, prior even to that of Egypt
or Sumer, extending the area of our enquiry backward by many thousands
of years.
The degree of knowledge of the mechanism of Kundalini, displayed
by an ancient culture, can help to determine, almost as accurately as
carbon dating, whether the knowledge gained during the span of its life
could be indigenous, acquired during the course of its own civilized
existence or was borrowed from some other source anterior to it.
This fact will be firmly established in the course of the investigation I
am proposing. The maturing of the nervous system and the brain is a
biological process, depending on a host of psychic and material factors.
Like all other activities of the flesh this process, too, follows the cyclic
15 order of time subject to vicissitudes caused by the mode of life and
behavior of an individual or a group.
As an instance, to illustrate what I mean, it is enough to point to the
present sudden eruption of strong desire, especially among the youth, both
in America and Europe, to achieve self-awareness at any cost, even by
resorting to drugs. The psychosomatic factor at the base of this sudden
upsurge is a certain degree of maturity of the cerebrospinal system in a
large section of the society.
The rush for yogis, adepts and masters has resulted from the fact that
the indigenous systems of religion and the occult do not provide the
appropriate food to satisfy the resistless urge. That is the reason why
efforts are made by thousands to gather the required knowledge from
other countries and sources, in this case from Yoga, Tantras, Sufism,
Tibetan systems, or Zen, where it has already attained to a greater degree
of advancement.
This "borrowing" of available information about the vital mechanism
from other sources has always occurred throughout the past. Only fifty
years ago the young adults and adolescents of these countries had quite a
different attitude towards their own ancestral faith and the society as a
whole. What has happened in this short interval to bring about a
wholesale change in the mental outlook of many of them?
Plato in the Timaeus recounts a legendary tale narrated by an old
Egyptian priest to Solon, an Athenian, relating to the existence of a highly
civilized nation in Athens a thousand years before the cultural awakening
of Egypt itself. This cultural awakening, according to the priest, had
occurred 8,000 years before.
"Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our
histories," said the priest to Solon, "But one of them exceeds all the rest in
greatness and valor. For these histories tell of a mighty power which,
unprovoked, made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia,
and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the
Atlantic ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable, and there was
an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called 'The
Pillars of Hercules.'"
Plato then proceeds to give a description of the island, known as
Atlantis, which is said to have been larger than Libya and Asia put
together. On this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful
empire which had rule over other islands and some parts of continents.
"This vast power gathered into one," added the priest, "endeavored to
subdue at a blow our country and yours . . . and then, Solon, your country
shone forth in the excellence of her virtue and strength among all
mankind. She defeated and triumphed over the invaders and preserved
from slavery those who were not yet subjugated . . . But afterwards there
16 occurred violent earthquakes and floods and, in a single day and night of
misfortune, all your war-like men in a body sank into the earth and the
island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea."
We are not concerned with the truth or otherwise of this story or about
the actual existence of Atlantis. Our purpose is to show that there were
legendary tales of civilizations even prior to that of Egypt current in the
time of Plato. He must have come across them in Egypt where, it is said,
he was for a number of years.
Recent archaeological finds in Kenya and other places in Africa tend
to extend the span of mankind's existence to more than double what was
previously assigned to it. Similarly another yet unsuspected discovery
might extend this span of civilized existence further backwards by many
thousand years.
There is every probability that the cult of Kundalini initially
developed in a vanished culture of which no record is available at this
time. Whatever the case might be, I wish to make it clear that the average
individual of our day stands no greater chance of a successful awakening
of Kundalini than did the elite of the Egyptian or the Indus Valley
empires. The world of science has yet no awareness of the fact that a
veritable mine of wonders, a real Aladdin's Lamp, exists as a mighty
potential in the human body, awaiting discovery and application for
establishing a heaven on earth.
The extremely narrow and misleading views expressed by some
exponents of this cult and even eminent scholars of our time shall be
discussed elsewhere. Here it is sufficient to say that the general
impression prevailing in the minds of the laity and even of scholars is that
Kundalini is some sort of a nerve energy, bioelectricity or astral force
which can be used at will to open the door leading to the occult realms of
nature. They seldom show an awareness of the fact that prana-Shakti is
the controlling Intelligence behind the universe and Kundalini is the
mechanism of its operation in the human frame for the evolution of mind.
The mechanism is operative both in the individual and the race, and is
always represented in the individual and racial consciousness. This is
enough to indicate the colossal magnitude and importance of the
knowledge about Kundalini. There is nothing in the organic structure of
man so intricate and so fraught with momentous consequences as the
Serpent Power. Empires rose and fell, attained to glorious proportions,
shrank to insignificance or vanished altogether by the favorable or adverse
operation of this mighty force.
There is incontrovertible evidence to show that, like the Indus Valley,
the cult of Kundalini was practiced in Egypt also. Some parts of the
Egyptian cult extended to periods before the commencement of the known
pre-history of the Nile civilization. The use of cryptic and symbolic
language to disguise the real facts of the mysterious science was in vogue
from the earliest times. There is no doubt that Isis was the iconographic
17 and mythical symbol for the Serpent Power. Under the New Empire Isis
became, beyond all doubt, the greatest Goddess in Egypt, and the
following titles illustrate the estimation in which she was held throughout
the lands.
"She is of the many names . . . Great One who is from the beginning .
. . The greatest of the Gods and the Goddesses, The Queen of all the Gods
. . . The best beloved of all the Gods . . . The prototype of all beings . . .
She is of the beams of gold . . . The golden One . . . The most brilliant
Goddess . . . Lady of the solid earth . . . She who vomiteth fire . . . The
Blazing Flame . . . The Mother of the God Horus, The mighty Bull . . .
The Cow Heru-Sekha, who bringeth forth all things . . . Bestowed of life .
. . Lady of life . . . Lady of abundance . . . Lady of joy and gladness . . .
Lady of love. . . Beloved in all lands . . . The Mighty One . . . Beautiful,
Majestic and Beneficent . . . The Mistress of Spells."5
A moment's reflection is enough to show that the Shakti of the
Tantras, soma of the Vedas and Isis of Egypt refer to one and the same
entity. The decipherment of the Indus Valley script may reveal yet
another name for this power. The terms like "The Cow that giveth all
things . . . Lady of abundance . . . Lady of Joy . . . Lady of Spells . . . Lady
of love," are almost identical with the epithets applied to Kundalini in the
Indian texts.
The secrets of the mysterious rites performed in initiation into the cult
of Isis and other secrets of the Mysteries are still obscure. But it is
obvious that the power was cultivated more for magical purposes and
attainment of psychic gifts than for illumination. This is also probably
true of the Indus Valley cult. The Kaula Tantric practices also have more
of the magical and the sensuous than of the transcendent and the Divine.
It is likely that there was some sort of hierarchical priestly oligarchy
in the Indus Valley or, like the Egyptian pharaohs, the heads of state were
invested with the insignia of divinity. It could also be that the cult of
Kundalini was practiced to hold the toiling populations in thrall with
weird exhibitions of magical power, healing gifts or psychic displays.
The Tantras are replete with rituals and practices of uncanny kinds,
designed to overawe and fascinate unsophisticated, suggestible and
superstitious minds.
The successive layers of the so-far excavated ruins show a static
uniformity. The Indus civilization, it is obvious, had attained a fairly high
degree of industrialization. The industry was well organized, but the
products manufactured for the use of the common classes were mostly
utilitarian and without real artistic value. After the first ascent to a certain
point in organizations and industry the population became stagnant,
repeating the same designs, the same style of architecture and the same
varieties of manufactured products over and over again. 18
The sudden disappearance of the Indus Valley dwellers is attributed to
the inrush of the hardy Aryan immigrants through the northwestern
passes. More tough and skilled in fighting, equipped with weapons made
of iron and making dexterous use of the horse in battle, they swept over
their habitations like a hurricane carrying all before them. Although they
must have fought bravely to save their lives and assets, the effete
populations, kept under thrall by superstition and magic, could prove no
match for the less civilized but better armed hosts which fell upon them.
These facts have been mentioned to show that mere knowledge of the
Kundalini force or of the methods to arouse it is no surety of an easy
golden harvest attainable by its use. If employed for dominance, temporal
power, licentiousness, magic or psychic gifts, it can lead to death and
degeneration as surely as it can raise to divine eminence and heights of
transcendence with reverent application and approach.
"Though a man be a knower of the Three Times-past, present and
future,"" says Shakti Sangama Tantra (part IV), "Though he be a
controller of the Three Worlds, even then he should not transgress the
rules of conduct for men in the world, were it only in his thought."
"Among the Egyptians of the Middle and New Empires," says Budge,
"Isis was regarded as a great magician and the papyri contain several
allusions to her magical powers. She knew how to weave spells and how
to fashion magical figures, and she possessed the knowledge of all the
secret or hidden names of all the Gods and of all the spirits . . . At her
bidding the powers of nature ceased or modified their operations and she
could make everything both animate and inanimate to perform her will."5
How like it is to the powers ascribed to Shakti in the eulogies
addressed to her. "Thou art lustre in the moon, radiance in the sun," says
Panchastavi (IV-20), "Intelligence in man, Force in the wind; Taste in
water, and Heat in fire, without Thee (O Goddess) the whole universe
would be devoid of its substance." That she controls all of nature, both
animate or inanimate, is expressed in these words (IV-21) "Those starry
hosts that roam the sky, this atmosphere which gives birth to water, this
Sheshanag (a mythical serpent) which supports the earth, the air which
moves and this fire which shines brightly, they all, O Mother, exist only
on Thy command."
Can there exist the least shadow of doubt if to these unmistakable
points of resemblance between Isis and Shakti is now added the further
fact that one of the most powerful amulets known to the Egyptians was
the object thet, which carried with it the influence of the blood, magical
powers, and word of power of the former.
According to Budge it is most probably a conventional representation
of the uterus with its ligatures, and the vagina. The all powerful symbol
of Osiris is said to be a portion of his backbone "Tet" or rather the OS
sacrum (sacrum of Osiris) set on a stand. This clearly corresponds to the
19 lingam-yoni symbol of the Tantras with this difference-that in place of the
lingam, symbolic use is made of a part of the backbone which plays a no
less important part in the culture of Kundalini. The usual ornament or
crown on the head of Isis consists of a pair of horns, between which is a
solar or lunar disc.
This also corresponds to the moon in the hair of Shakti. "Adorned
with the crescent of the Queen of Night (the moon) in the hair on Thy
head," says Panchastavi (III-23), "and like a stream of Nectar washing
away the suffering of worthy existence, I make obeisance to Thee, O
Bhawani (Mistress of Creation)." She has an uraeus (the serpent symbol)
over her forehead for the Egyptians never forget her divine origin. In the
New Empire women wore pendants made of porcelain or metal which
represent the Goddess, seated among lotus plants with her newly born
child Horus on her knees. The lotus is a symbol of Kundalini.
Isis is generally depicted on the monuments and papyri in the form of
a woman holding the ankh in one of her hands. As a symbol the ankh is
found everywhere on the Egyptian monuments. Gods and Goddesses hold
it in their hands, or present it to the nose of their favorites. It is used as an
ornamental device or auspicious symbol on furniture, jewelry and other
objects. The ankh was also used as an amulet for protection against evil
and magic or to bring good luck. In this way it is analogous to the cross,
the swastika and "Om."
Scholars are divided in their opinions about the symbolic
interpretation of the ankh. According to Battiscombe Gunn the symbol
depicts the strips or straps of a sandal. Nothing can be more absurd than
to suppose that Gods and Goddesses would carry the symbol of strips and
straps of a sandal as an emblem of their divinity and power in their hands
or present it to the nose of those they want to befriend.
The figure is of a cross with a handle, like a ring or loop, on the upper
end. According to Jablonski the symbol represents the phallus. Whatever
may be the material object portrayed by the handled cross, its abstract
sense is not doubtful. It is the symbol of life, of the vital germ, and for
this reason is called the key of life. In one of the representations, Anumit
is shown holding the handled cross to the nostrils of the king, Usertesen
III, to give him life, stability, and purity, like Ra (the sun-god) forever.
The ankh is also a symbol of regeneration, of new life for the dead,
and of immortality beyond the earth. These are the very offices which an
awakened Kundalini is meant to fulfill. It is, therefore, obvious that in its
esoteric significance ankh is the same as lotus or the lingam-yoni symbol
of Kundalini.
According to Budge there is plenty of evidence to show that the
Egyptians of the Middle and New Kingdoms did not know what many of
the sacred emblems or symbols represented, a fact which is clearly proven
by the way in which they drew them on papyri, or fashioned them in
20 various substances. This applies to all the three figures-the thet or the
buckle of Isis the tet or backbone of Osiris and the ankh. The cult of
Osiris and Isis had its beginnings in the mists of prehistory before the
accepted period of about 4,500 years assigned to the kingdoms of Egypt,
prior to the birth of Christ. The confusion about the real significance of
these symbols that prevailed in later times is not to be wondered at. The
riddles presented now, by some of the obscure passages in the Rig Veda
must be traced to the same cause.
The monuments and relics of Egypt, Mesopotamia or Crete appear
alien and foreign to us because they belong to a different culture, way of
life and thought. The remnants of ancient Rome and Greece seem more
familiar, indicating a greater affinity in thinking and the mode of life. It is
this exotic element that adds to the mystery of the pyramids.
Looking into the future the conclusion is irresistible that, maybe, even
after a few hundred years, our skyscrapers, high-speed vehicles, and other
fruits of modern technology might appear alien and strange to our distant
progeny taught by experience and the pressure of circumstances to adhere
to a more natural and simpler way of life. But the present-day intellect,
carried away by the novelty and glamor of modern life, believes it to be
the best possible way of existence that was ever achieved so far.
We can safely infer that the same attitude of mind must have.
characterized the thinking of the Egyptian intellectual also in his day. “In
the impressive portrait statue of Cheops' cousin, the Vizier Hemon (the
Devotee of Heliopolis),” says Aldred, “who was evidently responsible for
the building of the Great Pyramid, there is more than a hint of that divine
assurance and intellectual ruthlessness which these early engineers must
have possessed in such abundance to plan, organize and carry out such
mighty works.”6
The modern intellectual is no less over-confident of his own ability.
The fatal lacunae in his planning and thinking will come to light when the
crash occurs. In his own sphere of activity the leading politician, thinker,
scientist, teacher, writer, businessman, or priest believes in the soundness
and correctness of his own judgment and act.
The leading intellects in all the vanished civilizations believed and
acted on the same lines. We, who now sit in judgment on their merits and
flaws, will be judged in the same way by our progeny. But we seldom
grow aware of our own mistakes and faults, as the human intellect,
clouded by ego and pride, is prone to serious error and miscalculation,
even when adorned with all the learning available at the time. It is the
fallibility of intellect that has been responsible for every decline of
ascendant nations in history.
The present-day premier nations are heading for the same end and
exactly for the same reason. So long as the human mind functions as the
storm-center of passion, desire and lust there is no way to avoid this
21 distortion and disorientation of the intellect. It needs constant cleansing
and purification from within. All healthy religious disciplines are
designed to effect this purgation to illumine the intellect with the infallible
Light aglow in the soul of man.
This is the reason why Revelation was allotted such a high place of
honor all through the past. Like the velocity of light-the invariant of
Einstein-which is used as the standard of measurement for all other
motions and speeds in the universe, there is an invariant hidden deep in
the recesses of human consciousness.
It sometimes reveals itself to specially gifted men and women in
wakefulness, dream or the elevated state of mystical ecstasy. This has
been happening now for thousands of years in the past and will continue
to happen for thousands of years to come, till all the race is established in
this sublime dimension of consciousness. The mode of life and the social
orders of human beings need to be oriented again and again to harmonize
with this evolutionary transformation in their consciousness.
The crises occur when the intellect fails to adjust itself to the change,
resulting in upheavals to demolish and reform a disharmonious social
order. This is the situation we are facing today.
END
FOOTNOTES:
1. Ancient India, R. C. Majumdar, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1968.
2. Civilizations of the Indus Valley and Beyond, Sir Mortimer Wheeler,
Thames & Hudson, London, 1966.
3. The Source of Civilization, Gerald Heard.
4. Thirteen Principal Upanishads, R. E. Hume, Oxford University Press,
London, 1921.
5. Osiris, E. A. W. Budge, The Medici Society Ltd., London, 1911.
6. Sex Symbolism in Religion, J. B. Hannay, The Religious Evolution
Research Society, London. 1922.
Labels: chakras, cognitive psychology, direct experience of awakening, god, Kundalini, meditation, metaphysics, ohm, om, soul, spirituality, transpersonal psychology, unconscious
posted by Tom Zatar Kay at 7:18 PM
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