Daily Notes and Reflections by Alokda

Added to this primary source of disharmony, there are secondary causes as well. These arise due to the fact that Man is neither alone nor isolated in the cosmos. He himself is one field for the complex play of forces that weave the fabric of his nature. But in a deeper view of things everything in this cosmos can be seen and understood in terms of energies and forces. These are broadly of three or four categories. There are the gross physical forces that material Science studies. There are also the subtle forces that psychological Science tries to explore. Finally, there are occult forces hidden to our present abilities and capacities for perception and conception. To use the term from Indian Thought, these forces can be each categorized by their action as forces of creation or constructive forces, forces of preservation or balancing forces, forces of disintegration or destructive forces. Indian Thought gave to these forces significant names of Rajas (constructive and creative), Sattwa (preserving and balancing), Tamas (destroying and disintegrative). The respective beings and powers behind these three are Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, the trinity of Indian spiritual thought and vision. Illnesses also arise when there is an imbalance between these forces either due to an unequal stress in the nature or due to coming in contact and proximity with one or the other.

Let us take an example, words, written or spoken, music that is expressed, food, air, water, organisms, etc. are all gross forces and each exercise influence us to a certain degree. The corresponding subtle forces would be Thought, inner harmony and rhythm, feelings, strength, will etc. The occult element would be the various types of energies and beings that enter into us unseen and move us even without our knowledge. Now, words of Thought, food, air, feelings, organisms, people, plants, for that matter anything can have on us a destructive, constructive or preservative influence. Indian thought elaborately classified these phenomena and discovered that each and every object or form can be resolved into varying degrees of combination of five elements, namely space (etheric vibrations), air (movement), water (attraction and repulsion), fire (energizing a form), earth (concretizing, precipitating, gravitational). Different activities of life require different elements. However, if the use of one of these elements is in excess or in deficiency compared to the others, the balance is disturbed leading to a state of disharmony and illness.

Finally, we have a whole range of physical and biological phenomenon which can upset the state of harmony and trigger an imbalance. This means that the vision of Integral Health provides us with a comprehensive understanding of health and illness, and, man’s relation with the world around. It takes into account and does not exclude physical causes of health and illness. But it sees them in a New Light, thereby allowing a deeper and more holistic understanding. Similarly Integral Health takes into account and does not exclude different forms of healing practices that mankind has evolved so far. But here too it sees them in a New Light providing us with a greater flexibility and a more holistic approach.

Alok Pandey

The vision of Integral Health is based on an integral understanding of man. The truths of integral healing are derived from Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga and his Guidance along with the Mother, on various aspects of health and healing. Taken in its totality, it is a comprehensive guidance on each and every aspect of human existence, right from our bodily to the highest spiritual existence. Sri Aurobindo’s teaching also reconnects man, the mental being, to his larger cosmic and Divine existence. In this total vision we do not see things and events in isolation but as part of a larger movement of Nature towards realizing greater and greater degree of Perfection through the various forms She has evolved so far.

The human body is one such form and though, largely still of an animal make, it hides within itself new, higher and greater possibilities that are bound to emerge in due course of Time. However, unlike the animal, man can collaborate in the process through an integral yoga.

Or he can resist the change.

The result is an evolutionary conflict that we experience within and around. The past and the future both act upon man. He feels the pull of the dark subconscient energies accumulated and inherited from the earth’s past. He also feels drawn, however vaguely, to the bright Superconscient which is Earth’s Destiny. In man these two currents meet, often in disharmony with each other. He is caught between the forces of ‘natural’ disintegration and the forces of New Creation which visit his heart and mind thereby creating hope, idealism and dreams of a better humanity and earth. It is this inner conflict that is the primary cause of disharmony in man. Humanity experiences it as an inner ‘unease’ and a ‘ restless urge’ to find ‘something’ or ‘someone’ who can give it the much needed Peace and Joy and Truth and Freedom and Love. At first he seeks these things outside through objects and persons and outer circumstances. But as he evolves and becomes aware of a larger subjective existence within himself, he seeks them inside, in the spaces of his inner being. But until he has found the right balance between the inner and the outer, his ‘unease’ has a tendency to precipitate into a ‘disease’. The disease serves to remind him that there is a need to rediscover the threads of his life and to reorient them. It is in fact, an evolutionary door if we thus use it.

We move ever towards the New and the Unknown. But the New is not always new even as the old is not always old.

The New may be a rediscovery by another age of the old much as a child ‘discovers’ and is thrilled with discovering what his parents and grandparents already know.
The old too may be a partial glimpse ahead of Time of that which the race must realize much later. The dreams of Leonardo Da Vinci were not old and the ancient legends of Daedalus and Icarus were precursors of the Future. The Vedic Rishis and the Chaldean mystics foresaw something that the race was yet to experience. Krishna is still alive in the psychological spaces of man waiting for his call to be heard. Christ and Buddha wait on the threshold of our inner being for humanity to receive their message rightly.

Therefore, as we enter into the New and the Unknown future, we should carefully discern the surviving ghosts and phantoms of a slain past from the early blush of a forthcoming Dawn. The first leads us back to the cycles that have exhausted their purpose, the second to endless new discoveries.

Science is one of the way to understand the world and its functioning. It starts from studying phenomenon and then proceeds both horizontally and vertically to understand it. Horizontally, it tries to see and study the events and circumstances that surround the phenomenon closely in terms of Space and Time. By making these observations repeatedly it arrives at a mathematical model of cause and effect. What is seen to repeatedly precede an event is cause, what follows is effect. But since there are any number of variables at any given point of time, science picks up likely variables by exercising a selection especially in terms of Space and similarity. Thus for example, while studying the cause of a disease, one will select physical and biological elements and forces that are closely connected. It is a certain angle of vision, a selection that includes some elements and leaves out others. However, one of the ways that Science advances is by expanding its field of enquiry to look for distant events and also includes in its ambit other fields and forces such as psychological and possibly spiritual.

However there is another dimension of study. It is the vertical dimension. In this process Science digs deeper and deeper to discover and isolate with precision the phenomenon itself. In the event of diseases it would mean moving beyond symptoms to the organ pathology and biochemical imbalances and immunity disturbances to organisms and genetic studies. Medical science has proposed thus far in its effort at widening and deepening the scientific consciousness.

But what really is the scientific mind or the scientific consciousness itself. It is, as we have said, one approach to Reality and like all the diverse approaches to Reality it can easily become a cult or a religion if it believes itself to be exclusive and ultimate. Then it takes the form of a fundamentalist dogma wherein the god of Science is the all-powerful deity beyond all others (or perhaps others do not even exist, – a monotheistic Science or Scientific monism). With its superior and condescending air it looks down with contempt on all other approaches. In the process it misses out on two very important elements, – an enrichment by taking into consideration other approaches and, secondly, a heightening of the scientific consciousness. Therefore, if Science must evolve it must work towards the evolution of the scientific mind and the scientific consciousness. It is the same with religions, cults, philosophies and ideologies.

The problem is that each of these approaches has closed itself in a mental compartment, almost a prison and is unwilling to see further or beyond. Very often it denies other approaches thereby entering not only in a prison but a hole. The walls of the prison are limited by the limits of its inquiry and the certitude of having found the Reality. Further, like any cult, the followers of Science have often been unconsciously conditioned and indoctrinated into a belief system. This belief system is in the certainty and absoluteness of its methods. This blinds the scientific mind as it then moves and gropes in blind ended circles and closes doors to new things.

Take for instance widening. The scientific mind accepts to widen itself only upto a certain point. But lets say, what if the far, distant elements such as the sun and the moon effect our state of health and illness just as they effect the movement of winds, the rise and fall of water, the change of seasons upon earth? Are not these things also intimate to us. In the early days of Science when it was open to wonder such studies were held but as Science began to enter a blind closet these things are regarded as ‘outdated’. In other words we need to examine if far and distant events also influence our everyday living ‘today’.

Or, to take another example would an event before conception, prayer of the parents or an upheaval of Nature for example, influence the future course of a child?

Similarly, when we deepen into discovering the ‘forces’ at play in health and diseases, we often stop at studying organisms, genes and biochemistry. What about electrical wires and the electro-magnetic environment, the computer network, the radio-waves, the various panels for scientific appliances? Do they effect us or not? Again we have to largely draw a blank here. Yes, it won’t be surprising if we discover one day that a whole re-organisation of the physical world by the scientific consciousness and its appliances, the loss of natural environment from the flow of winds to the changes of temperature has led to a marked decrease in body resistance and made us much more vulnerable to diseases. Of course hygiene is one thing but a total artificial environment cutting us from the sum total of material Nature that acted upon us is quite another.

This is another area of study. Perhaps an even more important one since this is the stuff of which our physical bodies are made, this the environment adapting to which humanity has evolved. But now we are cut off from all that nature, wired in many ways so to say. But the most important aspect is a heightening of the scientific mind. This is only possible if the scientist regards an evolution of consciousness as a fundamental inbuilt process in the cosmos. We are a part of this evolving consciousness and we can evolve further. This would mean, in practical terms, the evolution of a new consciousness, a new way of thinking and feeling, a new way of sensing and perceiving, a new way of responding and acting upon the world and its challenges. This change would also imply, as has happened in the leap from the animal to man, the evolution of new capacities and powers, a new mode of knowledge more direct, intuitive and holistic. When that happens, science would have taken a tremendous leap. We may then discover new and hidden causes that are now concealed to thought and vision. And along with this new knowledge, we may also discover new and more powerful ways of healing, ways more direct, intuitive and holistic as well. Or perhaps we may discover the root cause which is hidden to our sight. We wait for that day for the last word of science is yet to be spoken and the last act of the drama of creation yet to unfold itself.

Alok Pandey

A New Age has dawned upon the horizons of humanity and few will deny it. Yes, we can debate whether it is the newest of the new or simply a repetition of the old ‘new ages’ that have repeatedly dawned upon man, only to end in yet another twilight and the ambiguous Night. We may also argue whether it is something ‘positive’, a turn of humanity for better or it is something that is evil, a loss of degradation of values for the worse. Of course, each age of humanity brings its own set of values and is conditioned by it. These values, the ways of living peculiar to an Age become a sort of comfort zone for the society conditioned by it. The more strongly we are conditioned as in a certain rigid and narrow doctrine, religions and ideological groups, the more there is the tendency to regard change as evil. Similarly, the more a society is governed by purely external frames of behavior and less by the spirit behind it, the more it resists change. When the focus is on the spirit, then we can understand that the same spirit can clothe itself in different forms and yet remain alive and a vibrant dynamic influence on humanity. But when the focus is only on the form, the externalities, the conformism of common behavior rather than conformism of ideas and still deeper of the divine essence in humanity that clothes itself in different ideas, then the change is shunned, denied, opposed or forcibly suppressed and violently crushed.

But the change imposes itself for the change is again not just a change of external way of living, – which is incidental, but a change of poise of the spirit that governs humanity. It finds its way as a river its path towards the sea. And if we have to look somewhere for the change then it has to be found in this spirit of humanity rather than in outer behavior and patterns of life. The change in outer patterns is an after-effect, the result and not the cause, the rearrangement of things on the shore or the land after a giant tidal wave or massive winds have flown past. The winds break many an old structures, the giant wave takes back into the sea many shells lying on the shore and give back some new ones. So too after the tornado has passed away, a clearing of the debris follows and then, new colonies of plants and people, new arrangements of relationships emerge. Until the whole process is over, there is confusion, the blinding of our vision, the breakage and the wreckage, rather than buildings and institutions of a new hope. But meanwhile there is often a rainbow phase that colours our vision, makes us momentarily forget the fury and fills our eyes with hope and renewed charm. But the rainbow is only a sign of the gods, the change upon earth comes afterwards through much labour and effort. We seem to be passing through such a rainbow phase now. Like the honeymoon of the newly wed it is full of happiness and charm and dreams of the new creation yet to arrive. Nevertheless for the new relationship to endure and succeed a phase of evolutionary struggle must follow, a phase where past atavism, subconscious habits, the pull of the old will assert itself until the new equation between heaven and earth has been discovered and humanity settled in the new poise. Such is the phase of evolutionary struggle that we are now going through and will go through for quite some time until the New has definitively conquered, transformed and integrated the old.

Yet, it is precisely here that a word of caution is needed.

None can deny that something has changed and fundamentally changed in the earth and humanity since 1960. A seeking for new things, for a new adventure, for new experiments has begun. The old, stable theories, paradigms, systems, constructs, institutions are being broken and set aside or are undergoing an enlargement and change so as to accommodate and prepare for a new kind of thought and a new way of life. But it is precisely here that a word of caution is needed. All that is off-beat and in-fashion is not necessarily ‘new’ even though it may indirectly help in ushering the New Age. Very often it is like a distraction that helps to dislodge the mind from being glued to past formation. But the passage can be perilous too for the mind loosing the safe anchor of the old may suddenly sink into a bog mire worse than the immediate darkness of the past. Renouncing the human way it may gravitate towards animality instead of swimming upwards towards divinity. The prison bars of Reason removed and the light of intuition not yet dawned, it may rush blindly towards the precipice driven by infra-rational forces that may imitate the supra-rational.

Nor is the New Age served on a platter, ready to eat as some fast food. It is not a rainbow dream sold to us for a shilling. There are many such dreams which are flooding the market in times of transition that we live in. These dreams come as various products as well as various ready-to-satisfy inner experiences. Momentarily, some of them, may serve as a bridge between the Earth and the Beyond. But soon enough they fade away under the debris and smoke of the old world whose destruction is still under way. When this happens there is a disillusionment, a disbelief in the New Age itself. There is then a tendency to fall back on the ‘old, tried and tested’ ways.
The real cause of the confusion is that we are in transition. The old ways do not work well any more since their time is over. And the new is yet to be discovered. Meanwhile our mind and heart rush at every glimmer and mistake it for the New Light. What we forget is that even when the Light has dawned we still have to emerge out of our prison-homes, remove the thick draperies of Ignorance, cleanse our eyes of the debris that is flying around and then dare to step out into the vast to discover the true and the Beautiful.

The New Consciousness is not ready-to-eat dish. It is a new ingredient, a new element that has been added just as fire was one day discovered and added to man’s life. This discovery did not automatically lead to an application of the presence of Fire in many ways that have changed our life. The first humans probably simply felt ‘awe and fear’. The Fire was there, born amidst man, but its meaning and power and full possibilities were yet unborn, waiting for our effort.
So too, now, the New Consciousness, the Supramental Force is there upon earth and activated in humanity. Now we have to slowly learn to receive it rightly. Perhaps some may get burnt in the process as the discoverers of fire might have been. But slowly as man grows in this new experience he will be led and guided over a period of time wherein he will learn to change his individual and collective life, to reorganize his dealings with himself and the world, to readjust the balance and equation with inner and outer nature. This is what’s being worked out slowly but steadily and assuredly in the Divine laboratory called Earth and within the ‘Divine reactors’ called man. The Divine experiment is meanwhile going on and extending itself so that more and more bodies and souls open to this ‘New element’ and integrate it with their life.

Till then, the labour and the effort, the struggle between the old and the new will be there. It is only when the price is fully paid and our ego-bound individuality drops off and desire driven nightmare cease, to be that we shall truly see, live and be the Dream Divine.

Alok Pandey

The nine-day fight is a symbolic story of man’s quest for Perfection (Siddhi) as the divine element battles through the layers of ignorance and the forces of Darkness and Night. These are the nine stages of the soul’s inner journey as is evident from the names itself.

Shailbala is the daughter of the mountains signifying the birth of the Divine Energy within matter. She is hidden in matter lying concealed at the base of the spine in man. When she awakens, then man begins to turn towards higher spiritual things. His quest begins with the awakening of this fire as the Vedic seers would say.

The next stage is Brahmacharini whence we have to tend and safeguard this newborn aspiration by becoming more and more one-pointed.

As a result the night of ignorance in which we dwell becomes lit up. This is the Chandraghanta.

The fire has to be further held within and further concentrated like a baby in the womb. This is Kushmanda, the cosmic egg.

The next step is the delivery of the psychic being or the secret soul in us. The Divine Power working in us delivers the soul out of the prison of the ego and is called Skandamata.

It is after this that man or a woman becomes a power of Durga, Katyayani to fight the cosmic battle against the demons and forces of Mahishasura.

Once the battle against the cosmic forces of darkness are accomplished, then the next step is surrender at the feet of the Divine Mother who takes away from us the entire burden of good and evil as Kalaratri.

It is then that we perceive her in Her true original form as MahaGauri, the effluent Mother giving birth to the gods in us.

Finally, all these powers are taken up to their utmost possible individual perfection by the Grace of the Divine Mother as Siddhidhatri.

The final victory indeed takes long but the beauty of the story is that in the end Mahishasura realises his end is near. He then throws himself at the feet of the Divine Mother in complete surrender. The mood of the Divine Mother now changes into Compassion and she not only slays the outer form of Mahishasura but takes his inner being into hers and assures that he will be kept near her in all her worship. This image reveals that the highest aspect of Durga is indeed the power of Compassion rather than the power to slay. Her destruction is also a Grace and even her punishment is a blessing.

It is a paradox of our times that we are flooded with information from every side but there is so little time for wisdom and true knowledge. We are busy with quantity and numbers, – whether on the cricket field or in our bank accounts, but we pay little time to reflect upon the quality of our life or to turn the money in our wallet and the success written on our visiting cards into ‘real’ values. Now, we are not suggesting, for one moment that money, success and informational knowledge are not important. But what we are trying to reflect upon and understand is ‘how’ to turn these things into ‘real’ value. For what we mean by this term is the real and lasting worth of our life.
There are things that are of temporary and moment value, there are things that are of lasting and abiding value and, there are things of eternal value. Very often we are unable to distinguish between these three leading to much confusion and avoidable suffering. And then we wonder why the very same thing that was means or supposed to give us happiness is causing so much suffering to us. But before we try to understand, let us see what these three levels of value are.

Let’s take an example, – the example of a rich and successful man. He has money in his pocket and a tag of high position on his visiting card. Because of these he is respected by people in his work place and by friends who seek to take advantage of his high position. Soon enough the man begins to mistake these things as an end in itself. Without even realizing he begins to seek ‘a high’ from these things as an addict from a drug. Greed and ambition begin to take the better of him until one day he lands up in the Coronary Care Unit or Cancer ward at a relatively young age. Or he finds himself alienated from his wife and children and true friends.

So what went wrong? If he carefully and sincerely looks within himself, he will discover to his discomfort, that in running the rat race to achieve things of momentary value, he did not pay attention to things of a more lasting value. He forgot to pay attention to his family, he forgot to pay attention to his health, he forgot to pay attention to many other small and sweet gifts of nature that make our life beautiful and happy, – such as, the simple joy of gazing at a flower in bloom, hearing a coil’s voice in summer, taking a quiet walk by a river-side or a pool, spending some time in nature with his family, giving time and attention to his children to educate them to become better citizens.

The result is what we see. We have money and comfort but no happiness and peace. We have insurance policies to ensure expensive medical care but no natural health and poor body resistance. We are surrounded by those who flatter us but not those who love us since we have slowly alienated them by our behavior. We begin to weigh everything in terms of its immediate utility and instant gratification and start seeking momentary thrills of the flesh and the palate. But soon there is satiety and we crave for more and more. Ever dissatisfied we move down a spiral of gloom and despair, disease and doubt, anxiety and fear.

But we could have taken another route, – the route of balance and moderation, giving at least as much importance to family and friends and other pursuits that help us progress and remain healthy as we did to money and ambition. Perhaps we thought, ignorantly like the murderous Ratnakar who later became Valmiki, the seer, that these things will bring happiness to my family and I can also buy health for them. We forgot that love and health cannot be brought. There is no price tag for these things and to acquire them we need to put in as much effort as we do now to satisfy our greed for money and position.

But there is more to our story of life. There is something else of an even greater value than health, happiness, family. It is something that is there with us before birth and will be with us after death. It accompanies us like a faithful friend and chases us like our own shadow. This thing of eternal value that we always carry with us is called in Indian thought as ‘Dharma’. Unfortunately dharma is poorly translated into English as Religion. But the word does not refer to any cult or sect or a particular religion, nor does it mean rituals etc. Dharma is the central Idea, the core Value, the very reason and principle value of our existence. Dharma is the great and solid foundation on which we build our life. That is why, the seers and sages of this great land, Bharata Varsha, chose to call it Sanatana Dharma, the eternal Law of Truth that none can escape from. It is Dharma that sets the wheel of creation moving and not our fanciful wishes, imaginations, hopes and planning. It applies equally to the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the king and the subject. It is the law of our own inner progress and evolution that carries us from life to life on the great sea of years. Dharma is the ship and if we do not care to build our ship well, we may well sink half way and feel defeated in the midst of our victory.

The ship of Dharma is built by our own hands. Our deeds, our thoughts, our feelings, our attitudes and motives, our will goes into the making of this ship. Therefore, the seers of Truth reveal to us what is the way to build a strong ship by showing us the path of Dharma; that is, the ideal way to live. They tell us that the core values of life are truth, honesty, courage, sincerity, nobility of temperament, generosity, kindness, compassion, charity, self-control, simplicity, beauty, wisdom, love. These things are of eternal value and if we have them or can acquire them, then the ship of our life will sail safely through every storm and we will emerge stronger and wiser with every trial.

But if we have neglected this side of our life, this spiritual and divine element then lasting peace and abiding happiness will always elude us. Therefore, it is worth the trouble to sit quietly for a few moments everyday and reflect whether, in the process of running blindly to win a coveted prize we are not neglecting and loosing upon this most important part of our living. If we are sincere and look at ourselves in a transparent mirror then we will have the answer and make the right choices. But if we fail to look into our souls then life and circumstances will compel us to look inside one day, hopefully, before it is too late.

To summarise, we may say that if money is lost, we can once again make it with our effort or cut down our desires to fit into our means. Besides, if we have given love and care to our family and friends they will be there to support us in a crisis. But if our relationships and our health suffers then money cannot buy it. Then it is only dharma, the strength of our inner being, our attitudes that can once again rebuild everything from scratch. That is why it is said that if money is lost then nothing is lost, if health and relationships are lost, then much is lost and, if dharma is lost then everything is lost.

Alok Pandey

The gods are great but greater than the gods is the human soul. In the human soul is seated all the glories and powers and greatness of the gods. The soul passes at first, in the early beginnings of its journey, through the Titanic worlds and the Titanic states; in the middle it tastes the glory and the splendour of the gods, the nectar of bliss that is also the nectar of Immortality, the Soma wine of the Vedas; but in the end, it rises beyond both evil and good, vice and virtue, sinfulness and righteousness, indeed beyond all dualities and opposites into the utter Unspeakable Truth from which all else is born. This is beautifully revealed in an interesting story, the legend of Sati Anasuya.

Sati, as the word signifies would mean one who is wedded to Truth. In later years as many words with a deep psychological and spiritual significance, such as yajna, āditya, varna, dharma etc got distorted, this profound word also came to assume a rather limited and fixed meaning. During periods of decline it first assumed the meaning of a total commitment and fidelity to the husband irrespective of what he did or how he treated the woman. An extreme result of this change was that a woman was supposed to die along with her husband if he were to die first. She was supposed to burn herself alive along with his dead body in the pyre. Those who could do so were declared as ‘Sati’ and worshipped or revered. Those who could not do so were looked down upon and had to remain largely indoors. They were regarded as inauspicious. The fallout of all this was that women started wishing to die before their husbands, even considering it as something sacred and blessed if she were to die before the man she loved and lived with. Whatever be the sentimental side of this last romantic wish, the actual custom of Sati was no doubt a grotesque and cruel thing which Vibhutis like Raja Rammohan Roy rightly fought to change. It is also possible that later the custom got enforced by social pressures arising from the invasions that India suffered through the Hindukush. Whatever be the reasons, the ancients did not mean this when they used the word Sati as a sign of reverence before a woman’s name. The steadfastness to Truth was the one thing, the absolute fidelity to the husband in thought, word and act was a secondary element quite naturally flowing out of the first. The story of Shakuntala is itself an indicator that Truth was greater than anything else and it is that to which both man and woman had to be faithful to.

And Truth is powerful, as we find in the story of Sati Anasuya who could humble even the gods by the power of Truth within her.

Like Lopamudra, Arundhati, Gargi, Anasuya [without jealousy] is a realized being. She is wife to another great rishi, Atri.

It so happens that one day Narada calls upon the three great goddesses, consorts of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, that is Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati and praises Anasuya’s steadfastness to Truth. The praise is in such terms that even the goddesses feel a touch of jealousy, – ‘How can a mere mortal be greater in consciousness and conduct than the gods?’ Though time and again the gods have been humbled when they let pride creep inside them, yet the lesson of humility is forgotten. They forget in their pride that however high and great these celestial beings may be, man has in him ‘something’ that can make him even greater than the gods. That is because unlike gods who are typal beings fixed to the role and function, man is an evolutionary being. Man carries in himself a spark or seed of the Divine Himself and if this seed is nurtured by vigilance and watered by spirituality, it will blossom and make him greater than the gods. But he has lent his heart and brain to the untruths of the Titans.

But Anasuya is different. She has grown in her inner stature greater than the gods. So they decide to test her. The three great gods, the trinity, visit her house in a Brahmin’s appearance and ask for food. Now Brahmins, in ancient India were meant to gather the deeper and higher knowledge. This required tremendous askesis, time and concentration. They could not afford to spend their energies in livelihood and the elaborate framework of life. Therefore the arrangement in the old social order was this that the Brahmins shared their knowledge and wisdom thus gathered with the society while, the society in turn took care of their earthly requirements. This was a neat arrangement, each giving his best for the good of all; the Shudra, his craftsmanship and service, the Vaishya his wealth and opulence, the Kshatriya his courage and strength to protect and the Brahmin the very highest gift, the gift of Knowledge. He looked after the most important of all needs, the spiritual needs of the society. In turn the society expressed its gratitude by looking after the material needs of such men of great learning and wisdom. That the whole thing degenerated later like many other things is another matter. But this was before the decline.

The gods concealed as Brahmins asked for food and Anasuya responded with a ‘yes’ asking them to come in and take their seats till she prepared to lay some food for them.

When the preparations were made and the food was ready to be served the Brahmins suddenly made a strange request: ‘You have promised to offer food to us and we are extremely pleased. We have a request to make. You have to serve us food by making us sit in your lap undressed’.

Pausing to note her reaction they added: ‘You may go back on your word and not feed us. We will go away quietly. But if you would still keep your promise and honour your word then this is our condition’.

Now Anasuya was a Sati. She was wedded to Truth, – Truth in speech, Truth in feelings, Truth in thoughts and Truth in actions. The gods knew that such a person would not go back upon her word. At the same time, to concede to this strange demand may be for her a deviation from another dimension of Truth, – a total fidelity to her aim and also to the sage to whom she had completely committed herself.

As was the way with these yogis and rishis, she invoked the very power of Truth with which she had lived to come to her rescue. This power, the power of Truth gave her the capacity to see behind appearances. Ansooya clearly saw who these beings were in reality and what their purpose was. She also saw in the Light of this Truth within her heart as to what should be her response. Turning to the gods in disguise, she said with a smile: ‘Yes, I would certainly keep to my word and your condition. By the law of Truth that has built this world and keeps in order a mother can feed her child on her lap without a piece of cloth to cover either’. Thus saying and invoking the Truth that she had practised all her life, she commanded: ‘May you become like babies so I may feed you as you wish’.

No sooner did she utter these words that the gods came as if under a spell. They became like children and started behaving like little babies since their consciousness was reduced to that of a human babe. It is said that one who always speaks the Truth, his words and thoughts carry such a power that they come true because they embody the vibration of Truth in the person.
No sooner did the gods become a babe, Anasuya fed them making them sit in her lap. Then she caressed them as one does to a child affectionately and put them to sleep.

Meanwhile the three goddesses, the consorts of the Trinity started to wonder as to why so much time has elapsed since their departure to earth. As they descended from their immortal seats to the mortal sphere, they could feel the agony and pain that the mortals bear. That itself is a humbling experience. But they were in for more and they had asked for it surely. When no trace of their divine counterparts could be felt or sensed they approached Sati Anasuya to find out if they came and what had happened. The great and luminous being of Anasuya replied: ‘Yes they are there, sleeping inside as little babes. You may go inside and carry them back after recognizing them.’

The goddesses were surprised and stunned. Their consorts could not be recognized as they had become just like babies. Ashamed at their deed they approached Anasuya with humility, requesting her to release the gods from her divine spell. She smiled compassionately and had to simply utter ‘So be it’ and the gods returned back to their original form. They too bowed before the power of Truth in the woman’s heart and knew that man will one day surpass the gods. For they could sense in the being of Anasuya the future type of humanity, free inwardly and governed by truth. She is the prototype and the forerunner of a greater being who would one day arise out of a man and surpass even the greatest of gods.

Indian thought has always tried to synthesise the diverse strands of human nature, its aspirations and seekings, its higher sublime flights and its more mundane strivings. This is reflected everywhere including its religious side.

On the one side Indian thought is not just polytheistic but pantheistic. It sees the Godhead in everything; behind what we consider as natural elements as also behind what we consider as supernatural elements. Nature and Supernature is only a hierarchical arrangement of One Reality that surpasses both and yet, and – here comes the beautiful synthesis, – expresses through both. What we consider as Nature is only a diminished figure of a concealed Supernature waiting for our discovery. Thus, on the other side, Indian thought is deeply monotheistic.

These two sides of One Reality are best expressed in the ancient formulas of the Upanishads:
– ekam satyam vipra bahudha vadanti: The Truth is but One, the wise call it by different names
– ekamevadviteeyam: The One without a second
– ekobahunām: The One who has many names
– ekambeejam bahudha yat karoshi: The One seed that became the many and, finally, a most powerful one,
– sarvakhalvidambrahman: Know all this that is here as the Brahman (the sole Reality behind all things).

The gods are therefore powers and aspects of the One who alone is self-luminous, Pure and unstained, Shadowless Light, All-Love, All-Power, All-Wisdom, All-Bliss.

They are many and arranged hierarchically corresponding to the many planes of cosmic existence. Thus, when the great seer Yajnavalkya is asked by Gargi as to how many gods are there.
Yajnavalkya replies that there are indeed thirty-three million gods or three million or even three thousand or three or one and a half or just one, if you please.

The sense is clear the gods are emanations of the One Divine like countless rays emerging from the Sun. The first three emanations are the aspects and Powers that are engaged in the Creation, Preservation and the Dissolution of the universe. As they move further, they multiply in multiples of three and work in the smallest of elements of the universe.

And who are the Titans if there is only the One? They are the shadows of the gods as it falls upon creation. The principle is very simple. A god is one aspect of the Infinite and by its very nature, we may say that a god takes birth when the Divine withholds all else within and puts forth only one or two aspects in the front. It is this frontal consciousness that later lapses into its very opposite by forgetting the Oneness from which it emerged. It feels itself separate and enters into a state of division. Thus, while the gods create forms in harmony with Oneness and the Divine law in Creation, the titans create forms that are not in tune with the cosmos and the Divine law. The result is an increase in disorder. Again, while the gods preserve what needs still to be preserved for the right balance of creation, the titans preserve those elements that need to pass out and whose hour is over by the Divine dispensation and decree. So too with destruction. The gods destroy what needs to be destroyed for the good of the totality, to assist the creation’s forward march. The titans destroy all that comes in their way, in the way of their personal, separate goal and not in harmony with the greater Divine Law. The gods carry creation forward in the evolutionary journey, the titans hold it back and even try to slide it back. Thus, the gods and the titans are forever in struggle in the cosmos, and in every human heart.

Yet, the two may be seen as representing two stages of the evolutionary growth. Our journey starts as a darkness, in the womb of division, ignorance, obscurity, under the tutelage of the dark mother, Diti, the mother of division and ignorance. She too is a mother and holds her children dearly. In the legends She is shown as coaxing her children, the daityas, sons of darkness and ignorance with ambition and desire. She even goads them to win the crown of the gods that ever remains beyond their reach. Yet through these means She stimulates them, brings out their force, though not the wisdom. Restless, they strive for personal egoistic aims and that is good for them lest they completely lapse into tamas, obscurity and darkness, in a state of torpor, clouding and utter confusion as if drugged and drunk. The dark mother pulls them out of this torpor and as they grow in power, shows them the crown and the kingdom of the gods to covet and enjoy.

They strive, sometimes momentarily succeed as in certain stories, dethroning Indra. Yet they are unable to touch Indra’s consort Sachi. For Sachi is Truth-conscious, even though her origins are from the world of the Titans yet she has ascended to the throne of Indra, not by brute violent force of Titans but by the power and the Light of Truth. She and the gods then turn to their own origin, their Source of Light and Might, the Mother of the gods, the luminous mother Aditi, who dwells forever in the undivided Consciousness. Then Aditi works out a way to bring back the cosmic order.
Diti and Aditi, the dark and the luminous Mothers are the two steps of evolution. When our souls chastened and strengthened through conflict, opposition, struggle and suffering is ready then mother Diti delivers it out of her dark womb and we are then carried by mother Aditi in Her Vast and Strong and Luminous embrace to heights of freedom, to pinnacles of joy, to the splendours of a higher Supernature.

At Her highest, She stands one with the Supreme, the Shakti, the Parameshwari, the Power and Knowledge of the Supreme: 

Om Anandmayi, Chaitanyamayee, Satyamayee Parame

Alok Pandey