Author: Patrizia Norelli- Bachelet
Publication: Bharatiya Pragna
Date: November-December 2000
This article was inspired by a
two-part series, entitled, An Open Letter to Bangaru Laxman, that appeared
in The Hindu, (10-11.10.2000), written by Gail Omvedt. It is not
difficult to understand what prompted Ms. Omvedt to write such a
Letter. In describing herself as 'leftist, liberal and secular',
it suggests that there is commotion and consternation in the ranks of her
fellow travelers because of the elevation of a Dalit to the presidency
of the Bharatiya Janata Party. That apart, I feel compelled to state
certain facts about the sensitive issues she raises.
There will no doubt be many other
readers more disturbed than I in reading her piece, and no doubt the newspaper
has received numerous protests due to its offensive tone in dealing with
the most sacred Scriptures in Hindu culture and tradition. Then again,
Hindus being as they are, perhaps none will complain about the insults
hurled at them, or at least voice their complaints. The historicity
of the Rig Veda, as postulated by Omvedt, can be left to the specialists
in this particular field, since as of the past fifteen years an entirely
new breed of researchers has arisen, thankfully, to correct errors and
misconceptions that have persisted in academia for over a century.
These new insights have definitively
exploded the myth of an Aryan Invasion. Suffice to state in this
regard that Omvedt reveals herself to be hopelessly out of touch with this
new aria definitive research, supported even by the latest technology in
genetics and satellite images, for example, those that reveal the now underground
existence of the sacred Saraswati River, long thought to be simply 'mythical'.
Though I am not an historian, I do have certain credentials that allow
me to assess an article such as this in a proper perspective.
In keeping with my speciality, I
wish to focus on the cosmological issues raised in the first paragraph
of Omvedt's Open Letter, Part II. She writes, Why, I wonder, is there
so much fixation on the Vedas anyway? And why do so many of those connected
with your party seem to feel the need to claim that the Aryans originated
in India?
To take the second question first,
originally Lokmanya Tilak and all other elite thinkers of the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries were quite happy to agree that Aryans came
from outside of India, even claiming that their original home was in the
Arctic. These points require elucidation, in particular Tilak's Arctic
theory around which he sought to construct his interpretation of the Invasion
Myth, a pressing issue of his day in academic circles, largely inspired
by indologists from abroad. But the references can only be clarified
oh the basis of the cosmological knowledge that was the foundation of the
Rig Veda and which Omvedt lacks. Indeed, even the Lokmanya lacked
this knowledge, without which it was quite reasonable for him to suggest
that certain enigmatic verses might have indicated a descent from the Arctic
of the mythical Invaders.
Therefore, Omvedt need not be disturbed
by her lack of cosmological preparation since she is in very good company.
I propose to show why Lokmanya Tilak was mistaken and why no cosmologist
of the day was able to correct his misconception, insofar as the cosmology
of the Rig Veda had long since been set aside in India. Tilak suggested
that the Aryans might have descended from the Arctic region because of
his reading of certain enigmatic verses which ostensibly describe a six-month
Day and six-month Night. Without proper insight into this Veda and
its cosmological content of a particular school, it would seem that when
taken as history this reference could be justified only if one searched
for such a situation, or an approximation at least, somewhere on the globe.
Seeking to read history into this Veda and a purely external or physical
rendition of the sacred Hymns, would legitimise his interpretation.
But when one is versed in the cosmology of this ancient Tradition - and
I must make a distinction between that School and the astrology and cosmology
practiced in India over the past millennium - then there is no enigma in
the verses at all.
The six-month Day and six-month
Night refers to the Laws of Equivalence whereby the Year central protagonist
of the Rig Veda - is equivalent to one day, six months (12 hours) of which
are night, and six of day. A relative of this Law is the division
of the year into Night and Day as in the hemispheric divisions, Dakshinayan
and Uttarayanan, or the southern and northern hemispheres, the former referring
to cosmic midnight and the latter to cosmic midday. However, what
may surprise readers is that we find the Law intact and still a basic feature
of so-called Western Astrology in the Secondary Progression (of a horoscope)
where it reads, 'One day for a year', in exactly the same way that the
year was divided and used in the ancient Vedic School. Since this
knowledge has long since been set aside in India, it is not surprising
that no astrologer or cosmologist was able to point out the misconception
and interpret rightly these verses.
The foundation of the Rig Veda,
or rather the language it employs and assumes its readers to be fully acquainted
with, is cosmological. One may seek in the Hymns a spiritual, mystical
or even ritualistic content, but these must be supported by an understanding
of this cosmic script. Without this, no proper and complete sense
can be made of its enigmatic verses, as Omvedt's article itself illustrates.
To discuss Einstein's Theory of
Relativity, at the very least a knowledge of the fundamentals of physics
is required, nay, demanded. The ancient way also has its language,
its science. Why is it that researchers today feel themselves free
to tear apart these teachings without even a minimal preparation in the
science upon which they were founded?
The next point, connected to the
above in Omvedt's treatment, concerns the question she poses: Why does
the Sangh Parivar find it so important to prove that the Aryan civilisation
was indigenous and not an import? The reason can again be found in a cosmological
assessment of the problem. This involves a very basic, essential
premise at the root of all Vedic thought: Fullness versus the Void.
This statement is substantiated by quoting some of the most profound utterances
of all times and preserved in the Atharva Veda, so dear to all Hindus'
(let us ignore the irreverent ridicule Omvedt casts on this most sacred
text), regarding Skambha, the cosmic Pillar:, From fullness he pours forth
the full; / the furl spreads, merging with the full. / We eagerly
would know from whence/ he thus replenishes himself. (AV X.8.29.)
Or else, the more familiar verses
from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: That is Fullness, this is Fullness,/
from Fullness comes Fullness./ When Fullness is taken from Fullness,/ Fullness
remains. (BU V, 1.10.) It may seem farfetched to connect the premise
of Fullness versus Emptiness to the conviction in a growing section of
the population that the Aryans did not descend upon India from beyond but
evolved right from this sacred soil. However, it is not at all far-fetched.
A person of true nationalist spirit has to feel intensely disturbed by
this Aryan Invasion Theory because though he or she may not be in a position
'to articulate properly a reaction in any cosmological terms, a rejection
of the theory does indeed arise from a grounding in India's most ancient
culture and tradition; and it is at this ancient culture that the Theory
was aimed in an attempt to undermine its most sacred and sustaining premises.
As such there has to be a rejection from a true Indian whose soul vibrates
to these ancient truths.
To elaborate, from a less philosophical
postulation toil more realistic assessment of the power struggle in colonial
times, and the need to subjugate an ancient civilisation whose culture
proved almost impossible to eradicate, the claim that the Aryans were invaders
from beyond was a vitally important tactic and had little to do with linguistics,
scholarship, or even an historical Dravidian versus Aryan civilisational
divide. Rather, if Indians could be brainwashed to the degree that
they would accept this theory as fact, and this could be connected to their
most sacred Scriptures, then Hindus could just as easily accept a modern
invasion from beyond India's borders, since essentially she was empty and
void of any true indigenous roots and culture in the first place.
This would grant any coloniser who so desired a right of passage into India
to 'fill that void' of the ages, dating back to the Rig Veda which 'proves'
the theory. But we all know that it does not.
The Rig Veda makes no mention at
all of any such migration, much less of an invading civilisation advanced
to such a degree that it was capable of envisioning and recording, in a
relatively brief span of time from the supposed date of its arrival, a
Scripture of the high quality of the Rig Veda, with its obvious cosmological
content; a study of the Creation Hymn makes that clear enough. The
Aryan Invasion Theory is a lie, a deliberate fabrication devised to further
brainwash and subjugate an ancient people by striking down the most sacred
of all Vedic precepts: Fullness and not the Void. If
Gail Omvedt and her companions believe
that I exaggerate, let us apply the same premise ('...from Fullness comes
Fullness...') to music, Indian classical music, particularly Carnatic.
We all know that the music of India has a cosmological basis. But
similar to the 'lost measure of the year', discussed above, the precise
knowledge of this cosmic structure is in large part lost as well, though
it lives on in the music, in the same manner in which it lives on in the
Vedic Chants; or else in the worship of the many Gods and Goddesses of
Hinduism, though their precise connection with the Cosmic Energies they
embody is now ignored by the populace. The key lies in the simplest
and perhaps most overlooked component of classical music; the Shruti.
As a Westerner and like so many
of her compatriots, perhaps Gail Omvedt is also disturbed by the relentless,
ceaseless drone of the Shruti if she listens to classical Indian music.
It must surely appear to her as if the musicians began by tuning their
instruments together to this pitch and forgot to turn it off, and so it
droned on and on and on! This is a pity because, once again, the Shruti
in classical music harks back to the same premise, Fullness and not Emptiness.
It is a rendering in the language of music of the same Vedic precept that
creation and the universe do not arise from a Void but rather from that
sacred Fullness. Thus, the Shruti is silence given sound so that
never is there emptiness in the execution of the raga. The raga (or
silence in movement) which arises from that Sound/Silence and dips back
into it periodically, is ever sustained by the Shruti and never collapses
into a void, into an emptiness or nothingness. It is the perception
of Skambha, support of the worlds, even as the Shruti 'supports' the raga.
In classical Indian music it is this seemingly insignificant drone that
preserves the most ancient truths of the Veda, though these may be attacked
again and again', almost to extinction. The musical composition is
never 'void', always 'full', filled with the sound of silence that is the
Shruti, the inspired and revealed Word. A bit of humility is required
by types like Omvedt when approaching the Sacred, for they must know that
academic knowledge is a paltry sum next to the ancient wisdom of this most
sacred of all sacred lands. Omvedt's creations will die with tomorrow's
dawn when a new sun arises, while the Shruti lives on and is eternal because
it arose and continues to arise from a 'seeing' in the eternal consciousness
of India's great Vedic Seers.
Omvedt has not spared education
in her harangue; and connected to the topic is the ancient caste system.
Before commencing, it needs to be stated that reading texts like Omvedt's
convinces me that there was a great wisdom in keeping the Sacred away from
the profanities of the uninitiated. Nowhere else in her Open Letter
has ignorance been more pathetically revealed. Regarding the Caste
System, the Varnashrama, ever the object of Gail Omvedt's attacks, we all
know and agree that it has fallen into a hopelessly and irredeemably decrepit
condition and that in spite of the sincere efforts of many social and religious
reformers, as well' as political activists, this discredited structure
nonetheless persists. Such being the case, perhaps it is wise to
question why this is so. Again I must refer to cosmology, because
that is the foundation of the Varnashrama.
Just as Indian classical music and
the arts have a cosmological structure, so too does the caste system.
To understand the connection we must take the circumscribing ecliptic of
our Solar System divided into twelve parts, or the signs of the zodiac,
and then into four quarters, or the four cardinal points that are still
today such an important feature in temple building as indicated in Vaastu
Shastra; we allot each of the four sections a particular caste. This
is supported by the earliest mention of caste in the Rig Veda itself, the
Purush Shukta, X,90,12: His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms/ became
the Kshatriya, his legs/ the Vaishya who plies his trade./ The Shudra was
bomb from his feet. As any astrologer knows, that ecliptic divided
into four and twelve describes a body in the same way these verses do.
Each sign of the zodiac has rulership over the parts of the body indicated,
from Aries and the head, to Pisces and the feet, moving through the complete
circle. In the Veda the connection is explicit in the description
of the Cosmic Purush. If caste persists today it is simply because
of that unbroken cosmicconnection which is still maintained in Hindu Culture,
and it continues to permeate the entire subcontinent, influencing all of
its inhabitants irrespective of their diverse religious, social or political
beliefs.
Therefore, it is not surprising
to find that even Christians, a vehemently casteless group, are reported
to succumb in India to the class/caste malady, because so long as the cosmos
lives on, and so long as there is someone to witness and read that Harmony,
everything that has its foundation in that Harmony is destined to endure.
The problem lies simply in an inability to focus our lens of perception
so that the true Harmony comes into our vision once again, clearing away
the distortions. In point of fact, our entire global secular society
is structured according to that same Harmony, the fourfold pattern of labour,
trade/industry, governing body/military, and intellectuals/ scientists.
The latter are the new Brahmins
ruling our lives. They give us today a scientific cosmology which
departs from the old simply in the question of purpose. The ancient
way invariably provided a 'sense' to the evolution of consciousness and
civilisation, and the species in general. Today's scientific cosmology
merely observes and records phenomena for phenomena's sake; and given this
lack of wholeness, the results are more often than nor highly destructive.
The decay we know to have set in afflicted each and every segment of the
caste system, not only the Brahmin. The problem began centuries ago
when the 'measure of the year' was lost and that script could not be read
properly since the correct Zero Point was missing. It was at that
time too that science became a separate discipline and parted ways with
the spiritual, in India and throughout the rest of the world. Then,
without the Zero Point, like cogs moving out of synchronicity with each
other, the wheels of the Cosmic Clock fell into disarray in our perception,
the 'lens' became unfocussed.
Similarly, the six-month Day and
six-month Night reference could no longer be comprehended; Tilak and others
had no key to unravel the mysteries. They could only be treated in
the most physical sense, divorced from any reality other than the most
material. This gradually degenerated into a rigid and deterministic
right/prison of birth (of all castes), and what was originally given a
cosmic sanction (through a knowledgeable reading of the individual's horoscope
of birth), became a meaningless yoke born of ignorance and which eventually
became the shackles of society. The four fold Order no longer accorded
with an individual's worth and particular destiny in that lifetime, based
on certain 'cosmic credentials', as it were. The true essence of
each member of society was ignored; only the determinism of birth remained.
Similarly, the custom prevails today
of comparing the horoscopes of contenders for matrimony. But just
as the original meaning and purpose of the practice has been lost, and
its .correct utilisation for discovering the appropriateness of two individuals
who desire to join together on the journey of life in the fulfillment of
their destinies, so too we have today nothing but a meaning-less 'superstition'.
It is not that the custom is a superstition; the problem lies in its usage
by the profane, as well as the unscrupulous.
Thus, the 'secrecy' Omvedt deplores
and the erstwhile restrictions prohibiting other than Brahmins from studying
the sacred texts is understandable. Omvedt herself is a perfect example
of the misinterpretations and shallowness of perception which abound when
the texts are treated by the profane; her interpretation of Vritra and
Indra as destroyers of the 'dams' of the indigenous people they allegedly
conquered during the invasion, being a case in point. That times
have changed and the world no longer accepts a formalised secrecy is also
understandable, particularly in this age of the Internet and ever more
pervasive tools of information technology.
But it may not be too unreasonable
to expect the contemporary seeker, be he/she in the spiritual or scientific
field, to acknowledge with, humility and reverence that the ancient Seers
'saw' what modem man cannot see. The reason lies primarily in the
fact that strenuous, prolonged disciplines, tapasyas, are required to attain
this unique capacity. No 'instant fix' will do the trick, as the
Commerce of Spirituality offers today. It was a lifetime pursuit
and dedication. And for any of us today who wish to tread the same
path of old, it is equally a lifetime dedication, but a labour well worth
while. We choose our paths today, at least most of us.
But the Brahmin of those ancient
times had no choice in the matter. Education for him was not a privilege,
as Gail Omvedt sustains, it was a duty. The Brahmin had no choice,
similar to the duty restrictions applied to the other castes. Just
a few centuries ago even Kings and Queens were illiterate. Unlike
in former times, today a person's worth is measured by his/her education;
indeed, it has now reached the point where it is only a question of just
how much money that education will bring in. We 'invest' in education
for our children, not 'for the sake of knowledge, as of old in the Brahminic
tradition and worship of Saraswati, but simply for the money-power an education
can buy. Writers such as Omvedt, and there are many, foist onto the
ancient culture this contemporary yardstick which is totally deceiving.
They are then free to make a new set of outcastes. In so doing, the
result is simply a further division of society and a strengthening of the
very barriers they ostensibly seek to demolish.
Today we want, we demand equal opportunities
for all. This is not secured by closing out, setting limits, by barring
entry on the basis of former duties (read 'privileges'). It should
mean the opening of many, many more schools, enough to accommodate every
caste and class. Above all, suited to the realistic needs of all
segments of society In closing, mention must be made of the insidious statements
Omvedt makes on the alleged closing out of Buddhism by Hindus, and the
present discomfort she perceives Hindus experience when faced with a casteless
Buddhism. I do believe that in this action Omvedt is highly provocative
It is as if she were provoking Hindus to react vehemently, to then further
beat them with the stick of Intolerance.
The reason for a reticence in regard
to Buddhism by Hindus has nothing to do with Intolerance and bigotry.
It is, again, a question of Fullness versus Emptiness. Buddhism struck
a blow at this basic and essential premise of Hinduism, not because the
Buddha chose to do so, but because the Buddha chose, in his quest for liberation,
to pursue that path which plunged his consciousness into Nothingness through
nirvana, or the dissolution of everything that binds one to this material
creation. In a word, this was a denial of the nexus of a person's
sojourn on this planet.
To achieve the liberation from suffering
that the Buddha sought, one would have to undermine creation itself as
having intrinsic reality. To do this the Soul had to be denied its
reality as that divine nexus in life, in creation, in a physical body within
the cosmic manifestation. Thus, whatever was born of that cosmic
design would automatically, fall to the axe of Nirvana. This is again
the question of Fullness versus the Void, for the Soul is the channel of
that Fullness.
Following this line of thought,
another non-Indian writer, Francois Gautier, in one of his regular columns
appearing in The New Indian Express ('Buddhism to blame for India's ills',
25.9.2000), put the blame for foreign-invasions on Buddhism. His
contention is that Hindu society was weakened by the practice of ahimsa
by Buddhists (and Jains), and therefore no effective resistance was offered
to invading armies, starting with Alexander. Gautier has a point.
However, I would go a step farther,
or rather deeper. Buddhism's emergence in the spiritual panorama
introduced a radical shift in the goal of spiritual quests. Other
worldliness became the target. As this 'goal' took deeper and deeper
hold, the finest energies of the civilisation were siphoned off, shall
we say, directed to and posited in that Beyond, depleting the civilisation
of the tool that could effectively repel the invader in a truly non-violent
manner. This was the formidable reservoir of soul power which gradually
lost its strength, leaving an emptiness that invading armies could easily
and increasingly fill.
The conquering spirit of the Aryan
warrior was replaced by the Ascetic and the Renouncer. It was in
this same period that the cleavage began between Spirituality and Science,
until finally the Divine Measure (of the year/ Earth) was lost. Again
the challenge arises: Fullness versus Emptiness, and the Soul receding
under ever more denseveils. The Soul, in this context, is perceived
in the Seer's consciousness as Guha, hidden under many veils, until he
cuts through the darkness of the ages with his weapon in hand, and emerges
as the victorious War God, son of Shiva, the myth/history of our times.
All paths do not lead to Rome, as
the 'secularists' would have us believe. Let us thank the Creator
that they do not, for it would be a denial of the motto that governs Indian
society: unity in diversity. There are many paths and not only do
they have divergent methods but divergent goals as well. And when
we hear the verse from the Veda bandied about that seekers know the one
Truth 'by many names', interpreted to mean many Religions wherein each
seemingly calls the same one God by a different name, let us reflect that
these perceptive words were uttered BEFORE the orthodox and exclusivist
religions arose.
Even today Shiva, for example, is
known by 1008 names. But the Cosmic Energy that Shiva stands for
is one thing, the Void is another. This is the distinction that produces
a reticence, if you will, when Hindus are confronted with the Buddhist
axe of Nirvana. They need not feel ashamed or embarrassed by this
discomfort for in their innermost essence they know the distinction between
Emptiness and Fullness. It is the foundation of the Sanatana Dharma:
eternal just as the cosmos is eternal, that fullness whence it arose and
renews itself with each rising Dawn.
