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LEAD FEATURE: Continued from page 13: Culture of Consciousness Part One; In the Presence of the Gods (Main
Text; Side Boxes: Living Tradition; Quotes: Spock; Bhagavad Gita; Pictures: Mao; His Holiness the Dalai Lama;
Yagya fire pits.; Mandala) | Go To Contents | Go To Next Page (15)
Tradition
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OF THE GODS
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he light of the Vediccivilisation continues to
shine in India today. The
sacred knowledge and
practices contained and explained
in the Vedas remain the heart
and soul of contemporary Hindu-
ism, as they have been for more
than 4000 years. More than that,
however, the Vedic knowledge of
individual evolution leading to
Enlightenment has created a
living tradition of Great Masters,
Saints, Sages and Seers who are
venerated for their highly
developed levels of consciousness.
Functioning on the basis of
supreme consciousness, at one
with the Cosmos, reflecting the
Holy Light of the Absolute for all
on earth to see, radiating the bliss
of life removed from the suffering
and trials of the material world,
such individuals are the most
highly prized in Indian society.
TheThe Spiritual Masters of India
reach their exulted state through
many years of austere practices
and arduous disciplines. Living
far from the material world, deep
within the forests and in caves
high in the hills, they are the
Yogis seeking ‘union’ with the
great pool of uncommitted
consciousness that underwrites
every aspect of the Cosmos.
Applying techniques that are
designed to develop consciousness
in a dramatic and dynamic
fashion, such ascetics are said to
be -- and are often still seen to be
-- endowed with ‘magical’ powers.
Tales of levitation, control of the
body’s systems that defies medical
knowledge, wide-ranging psychic
powers and much more are
commonplace in India.
TheEven today, Enlightened
Masters (and some who are not
Enlightened) provide the
structure for India’s continuing
spiritual life. The ashrams in
which aspirants can gather
around a Master, to serve him
and, in return, receive his
knowledge and eventually
initiation into sacred rites and
practices, are the focal point of
Indian spiritual life. Having
achieved Enlightenment, a state
of bliss outside the Laws of Nature,
through their solitary practices,
the Masters of India abandon their
isolated lifestyle (often somewhat
reluctantly) and return to the
world to impart their knowledge
to others.
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Anyone who travels in China today in search of spirituality can-
not help but feel the sense of vacuum that exists, like the centre
of a bombed out city. But if you dedicatedly spend ten years or
more destroying your own spiritual, artistic and social heritage,
as the Cultural Revolution did, what can you expect? And, not
The darkness and The darkness and the light
content with social and spiritual heritage, it extended its evil
influence to create the Holocaust that no-one talks about: the
total destruction of Tibet. Whatever its faults, Tibet really was a
society uniquely dedicated to humanity’s highest purpose: the
search for Enlightenment; but even Tibetan wisdom proved
powerless in the face of the materialistic might of the People’s
Army.
ThAnd so we come, as all good seekers eventually must, to
India, Mother India. And here, at last, there is a glimmer of light:
it is called the Vedic Civilisation.
ThHistorically we know very little about this mysterious civilis-
ation — it left virtually no archaeological remains and no
artefacts. The Vedic people seem to have entered India about
2000 BC, from where we don’t know exactly, (though their rituals
have much in common with those of ancient Iran, home of the
Zoroastrian fire-worshipping religion) and spread across the
continent in a series of waves for the next thousand years or so,
establishing themselves as the dominant power. Their culture
centred around sacred teachings contained in mankind’s oldest
record of knowledge — the Vedas, of which there are four: Rig
Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. This was an
oral tradition of sacred expertise, passed on from father to son,
in a priestly class called Brahmins, and was based on three
things: sacred chanting in Vedic Sanskrit, the performance of
ritualistic fire offerings, called yagyas, and the practice of
meditation. Together, they form the oldest forms of religious
practice in the world, with a living and continuous tradition dating
back 4000 years.
ThThe first word in the Rig Veda is ‘agni’ (fire), and the Vedic
religious performance was essentially one of fire worship. The
Rishis, the sages who received the Vedas, worshipped fire as
the representative of the sun on earth, for life could not exist if it
were not for the sun. In Vedic teaching, however, fire signifies
not only the sun, but the light of consciousness, the energy of
desire, the sense of sight and the ardour of spiritual exercise.
The Rishis used fire in their worship because fire is the great
purifier, and it is said in India even today that the sadhu — the
ascetic holy man — should always keep his sacred fire burning,
for it is through the fire that he communicates with the subtle
eternal beings that operate beyond the normal range of the
senses, and it is through his fire that he is able to see to all
corners of the universe. One sect that conscientiously maint-
ains this tradition is the Nagas, or naked sadhus, who have
given up everything except their sacred fire. Control of this
element is much favoured among such sadhus. Once a Naga
who had the ability to create fire by repeating a mantra, came to
the town where I was staying in central India. The Indian
Rationalist Association called together several eminent scient-
ists to expose him as a fraud. Much to their amazement and
annoyance, they could not. So impressed were members of the
public that several begged him to teach them the trick. He replied
that they would have to come with him to a secluded place in the
deep forests
and spend
twelve years standing on one leg and repeating the mantra. By the end of that time it would be sufficiently energised to work for them. There were no takers.
ThThe purpose of the Vedic yagya is to connect the worshipper
with the elemental forces that govern the universe. This connect-
ion nourishes both human and the ethereal levels, by inspiring
the myriad celestial energies — gods, goddesses and others —
to give their blessings for the benefit of humanity and to ensure
the safe continuance of the cosmic harmony that sustains and
organises life. A yagya can be performed to benefit an individual,
a family, a group, a nation or the whole universe; in any case, the
Vedas teach that every action affects all of the cosmos, so the
beneficial effects of a yagya spread far and wide beyond its
immediate object.
ThVedic yagyas are immensely complicated theatrical perform-
ances that can last for days or weeks at a time. A simplified
version, called homa, is more often performed today in India and
this can be done by someone with less priestly knowledge than
that necessary for a full-blown yagya. I was taught the homa
ritual by an old sadhu in Rajastan who lived under a railway arch,
had hair thickly matted with cow dung, a heavily lined face, one
tooth and eyes that glittered like diamonds. My homa ritual has
been a great source of inspiration, although, dear reader, I have
not yet won the lottery.
ThLet us sit in on one of these sacred performances where the
ThContinued on next page (Page 15).......................TOP OF PAGE
‘We live in a
disenchanted age,
disillusioned age --
not about things but
about human beings
. . . . I believe that
man’s disillusionment
is based on a
misunderstanding of
his nature . . . . He
is idealistic in his
aspirations and his
relationships are
primarily spiritual.’
Dr. Benjamin Spock
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PICTURE CAPTION
A yagya in progress. The three fire
pits provide the link between the
celestial world and the mundane.
The circular pit represents the
heavens, the square pit represents
earth and the semicircular pit
represents the ancestors. Linking
the circular and square pits is the
stape, strewn with sacred grass,
where the deities will appear.
Photo: Blisspix
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'Established in yoga perform action'
Bhagavad Gita 2.48.
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