Mythology makes regular references to various levels of consciousness, specially those that range between the super gods and mere mortals like us. The references closest to reality that we know is that of the Shiddhars but the range of celestial beings is far bigger than that.The word Celestial brings to mind a certain kind of imagery, one where they are magical, excessively beautiful and charming, glowing and emitting their own light, blessed with the ability to fly faster than the speed of light (maybe) and of superior intelligence and brilliance that gives them the power to attract others tremendously towards them.
These celestials come with the unique ability to fly great distances in far less time and with a telepathic intelligence that makes them far more inspiring. Hanuman, Garuda, Kinnaras, Gandharvas, Apsaras, and Adithis belong to this realm and they recide in Kimpurusha Loka. Indian art and mythology as depicted in the scriptures brings this world out most beautifully. Ancient stories have referenced strong ties of love across strata of consciousness. In some cases the mortal prince falls for the beautiful apsara longs for her presence and she over hears him while she is flying by in the sky. Her act of reciprocating is by carving her feelings into a beetle leaf and tossing it into his realm and it simply floats to the ground, scaling levels of consciousness before it lands near him for him to pick up and realize she has acknowledged his love.
In reverse cases beautiful princesses have been described as being shy and coy in their bridal finery as they were visited by a passing Gandharva who fell to their mortal charm and beauty. Having spent tender moments with him through the night, she awaits his presence in her chamber every night hoping to translate this into a mortal/celestial wedlock.
In other references hybrids have been given a special place in religious scriptures across religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Egyptian, Greek and Assyrian to name a few. Cupids play an important role and so does the sphinx. Hanuman and Garuda belong to this hybrid world and come with supreme human and spiritual qualities.
So what makes these mystical creatures so important and why are they referenced in such vast scale? This for now at least solves our question about their existence and the level of consciousness they belong to. Indian temples across all styles of architecture - Dravida, Nagara, Vesara and Bhumija, have made it a point to elaborately sculpt the exteriors of temple walls with these celestial beings. The various levels of the temple walls indicate the various strata of consciousness. The bottom belongs to animals and is by far most insignificant followed by mortals, kings men and depiction of regular life. This is followed by intellects(Sages) and river goddesses who occupy the brackets of various pillars. Celestials are mostly used as space fillers around the main iconographical deity housed within these niches. The great Gods occupy the center in all the niches with the celestial beings flying and pouring flowers and singing over head.
With such rich depiction on our ancient temple walls, with such meticulous effort put in to motivate us and pass the knowledge forward to the coming generations, these temples stand as an open book revealing one of the greatest secrets of Hinduism - that is the value of self evolution. Why then is it so difficult for you and me to understand and appreciate this, realizing this truth and wanting to be a part of it? We currently stay happily sucked into our realm of worldly role play!
We need to care to step into this real world that we call imagination, and as the Vishnudharmottara indicates that it takes imagination or divya drishti to catch these sparks of enlightened experience, we need to realize the true potential of the mind. What a completely different world it will be if we were able to see celestials flying across our skies in all their purity, dancing and singing, dressed in flowers and celestial ornaments, draped in clothes that glowed in their brilliance like a hundred suns together, emitting light beyond our imagination and descending to have a conversation with us in a divine telepathic language where sound has a different meaning altogether. And at the end they fly away leaving no trace of a shadow or a foot print behind.
What miserable state of worldly blindness are we in that we complete do not tune our minds into this frequency. This is just a hint to indicate that the world we belong to is so vastly different from the world our mind is capable if tuning into to achieve greater heights of spiritual evolution. The world of the celestials is one such example of magic, mysticism and superior power we can hope to achieve if we contemplate hard enough to discover this world our forefathers left for us to discover.
19 comments:
The post was very thought-provoking. We need to study in depth about the various forms of celestial beings. Knowing our religion very well, I must say that each entity and ritual in our religion has a specific and unique meaning. It would be great if some of us could study our vedic scriptures seriously and announce to the world its significace.
Because we are moving towards a more materialistic form of life, we are failing to realize what we are missing. Advanced palmtops, Iphones, and I-phones do not help you to realize your true goals. It's high time we stop aping the west and involve in some self-introspection.
Hi Aswin Kini. 'Self introspection' (meaning examination of one's thoughts and feelings) sounds beautiful, though perhaps theoretically only, particularly when 'today' nobody apparently has time...!
Best wishes to all 'Hindus'for a bright future.
Hi Aswin Kini, 'I' would suggest you to observe the natural snow/ ice Shivling at the cave in Amarnath that is visited by lakhs of people every year, formed naturally after it has snowed heavily in the upper reaches in Kashmir, and is opened to visitors by the middle of June or so...You need not physically go, because there is more than enough TV coverage, till the lingam lasts, as it gradually melts and thereby reduces in size in the 'present' that is Kaliyuga...
Thereafter, try to analyse the reduction in height of the lingam with passage of time, which repeats year after year. And thus understand the hidden message being communicated to us humans through 'water' (related with moon), one of the 'panchbhootas' of Bhootnath Shiva, with the given background 'Hindu' belief that human intelligence reduces over the Yugas, from 100% in Satyuga (range 100 to 75%) to zero% by the end of Kaliyuga (range 25 to 0%)- and in the 'present' one perhaps knows that even the 'most intelligent person' utilises only negligible %age of grey cells made available to him, that the supreme being alone can continue to utilise cent per cent eternally...
Maybe as part of a grand design of Nadbindu Vishnu - who is believed to have created the entire physical universe, utilising sound energy - 'I' have kept mental track of important events whenever some such reportedly came to 'my' notice...with the background that right from the childhood 'I' had natural interest in Hindustani Classical Music, that was composed by sages in the Himlayas, the mountain ranges, that attract not only clouds - generated by the 'panchbhootas' that are responsible for the annual 'water cycle', and thus responsible for providing water as well as food - but all and sundry humans also, including the great ancient poet Kalidas, (though apparently a mad person in childhood), who imagined clouds (in 'Meghdoot') as messenger...
'I' had earlier also indicated how, in the 'present', 'western scientists' have learnt the sound emitted by Saturn to appear like the mixture of three ('3' the magical number that represents 'om' or Nadbindu) sounds: #1 Tinkling sound of a metal bell, commonly used (also sometimes with drums), in Hindu Temples since time immemorial; drum beats (that could be visualised associated with Shiva the Mahesh/ Natraj and His hour-glass shaped percussion instrument 'dumroo', and thus the term used for Shiva, ie, Mahakal also); and chirping of birds (that fly in the 'sky' and could be believed to represent our Sun, ie, Brahma whose consort Saraswati is imagined as 'veena vadini' or stringed instrument, Veena, player. For the rrecorded sound emanating from our sun is found close to the stringed instrument, called harp by the 'westerners' that believably indicated as a symbol associated with 'angels'...
As food for thought 'I' can give an example that could help in understanding the 'churning of 'Kshirsagar' that is 'milky ocean' (with the background knowledge that our galaxy is called 'milky way galaxy') that describes the evolution of heavenly bodies with a view to attaining immortality that is 'amrit'...and thus one learns that our solar system/ earth is already over billions year in age, still appears beautiful, and continues to provide all material for all life forms also to evolve (a child needs food throughout its life, for instance, besides need for shelter and clothing)...
In view of the above and with the background apparent advancement in Technology whereby one can keep record with the help of video-cameras, etc. imagine you prepare a video that shows how from a barren land over time you end up in a green field...now imagine you review the video in opposite direction and imagine what you are likely to see? (maybe you will get to see a green field turning into a barren land!)...That's what appears to be happening gradually as things appear to go from bad to worse with the passage of time...:)
With the previous comment, regarding review of recorded events in reverse order in mind, now one could perhaps be in a position to appreciate the significance of 'Hindu' mythological story related with Vishnu** the 'Nadbindu' that is a formless dot-like pure energy form that evolved into the infinite physical universe utilising sound energy, symbolically conveyed by 'Hindus' through the sound 'Om', and also in one's mind the apparent 'couch potato' viewing third rate serials on the TV in the 'present' that was 'remote past' for Vishnu...
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** Vishnu is indicated as enjoying in 'yognidra' a super conscious state His own creation, while reclining on the bed formed by Sheshnag or Anantnag the celestial serpent who, besides acting as Vishnu's bed, also supports our planet earth on its hood (imagine it as the TV 'we the people' use today)...
Lalitha had posed the query in the space for messages:
: i want to know about patalbhuvaneshwar temple in uttarakhand. can you tell me about its significance? - 10 Jun 09, 19:04
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As is expected one doesn't come to know whether one has got what one sought...
'I' might therefore add that in the Himalayas there must have been many natural caves carved out by 'water' one of the panchbhootas, whereever limestone was naturally present, and those acted as convenient places for the ancient sages who apparently got attracted to those locations although those normally were inhabited by wild animals. Obviously it was so possible because man is the leader of the animal world...
The Yogis, thus settled in the peaceful and beautiful environment and believing in 'simple living and high thinking', could receive in their own heads certain thoughts related with creation in graphic languages, as one apparently receives in the form of dreams while sleeping...for anyone to interpret those correctly, or in any manner deemed fit based on one's background knowledge...For example, human brain is such a wonderful computer that it can present before one's eye a full reel even when just one word is spoken, for instance, Madras/ Chennai would be described differently by different inhabitants of the same very city depending on the concerned individual's exposure to some location(s) related with one's profession say, whereas a visitor, thanks to curiosity, might get exposed to much more information related with the entire cross section of the people who make the city...Nowadyas, of course, internet might sppear to act as a good medium for receiving overall information and thus might realise why the 'wise ancients' advised 'siddhi' and not 'pure expertise' in one particular subject...the 18 chapters of Bhagavadgita indicates the central idea through the characters of Krishna and Arjuna...And Krishna in Dwaperyuga is indicated to have killed 'Kaliya nag' who had apparently ruled 'Yamuna' teh most polluted river in 'India' during 'Kaliyuga' the 'Dark Age'...
Although the 'wise ancients' have observed the essence of human life, though different stages, in the statement, to the effect, "Childhood is spent in games, youth in foolish acts, and old age in repentence," some more food for thought for the youth, if only someone finds some spare time...
Reading from human palm as 'I' had earlier indicated how one could read 365 days in a year, three alone from the natural divisions in the little finger (that is associated with heart of Shiva where Kali resides), with the fact in one's mind that time (thanks to Mahakal Shiva) is moving backwards, that is, on the whole leading 'life on earth' (Earth's family) to Vishnu, the station from where life in large numbers, but zero intelligence, believably commenced their journey to reach Shiva the one and only immortal person with 'supreme intelligence'...(with the known fact that in the 'present' man is able to tap only a negligible percentage of grey cells available in his/ her brain)...
Now, with the 'Indian' political scenario in mind, perhaps one could notice how all other parties, such as the 'Left' (Communists) and 'right' ('Hindu' BJP) that contested in the election in the centre have been virtually rendered impotent. And thus Congress alone is left - perhaps to lead us to Vishnu the Nadbindu who was responsible (through the agency of Krishna/ Kali the 'Black') for the poison that had believably evolved when 'churning' had just begun (under the supervision of Sage Brihaspati, ie, the ring-planet Jupiter) and was consumed by Shiva (earth) thanks to Parvati (moon)!
The popular story of 'churning' indicates evolution to have taken place in four steps, eventually ending in 'perfect balance between material and spiritual' with 'amrit' or immortality granted to 'devtas' by the 'Mohini' or attractive form of Vishnu...And, 'demon' or 'rakshasha' named Rahu is indicated also cunningly managing to receive and sip it, but consequently losing his head, cut away by Vishnu with his discus shaped weaon ('sudershan-chakra', thus indicating ring-planet Saturn (Suryaputra Shani, ie the son of Sun, as the cut-off planet among the 'navgrahas' or lliterally nine planets) before 'amrit' could even trickle down below his neck on way to his belly, based on identification of 'Sun & Moon' (the 'decision makers'?)...Thus Rahu's lower body, Ketu, continued to exist independently of the head...
The above, reading between lines, could lead one to realise Rahu & Ketu as forms of energy, Ultraviolet and Infrared, that are associated with Sun, or white sunlight, as part of these also manage to enter earth's atmosphere besides the apparent seven colours (and associated energies with those) that are seen in a rainbow, or the visible part of the spectrum...that the 'wise ancients' managed to relate with different planets as well as with certain particular gemstones that are made avilable by planet earth (Shiva, the 'supreme being') itself!
The 'super conscious being' (Shiva the immortal formless supreme being to 'wiser ancient Hindus', symbolically represented by Shivlinga) has left innumerable messages in code languages for one to decipher in one's day-to-day life irrespective of one's status, caste, sex, creed, belief, time, location, etc. using five functional physical senses naturally made available to all 'normal humans', maybe each inefficient to a certain extent...and hence a feeling of 'inferiority complex' in each individual...
For example, right from the early stages one can perhaps see how a child is afraid to go to a dark room, say, although it mightn't have any fear when the room is illumined during the day, or night, by sunlight or otherwise through a source of artificial light kindled by a 'senior', ie, a more knowledgable person irrespective of her age...
With the above in mind, in this ever changing world, one could perhaps imagine 'making fire' at will and also 'ability to control it' must have been considered a great technical advancement at some given point in time in the past...and historians indicate the present day 'intelligent humans' all over the globe, the Homo sapiens, to have their original roots (thus realising human structure's function similr to that of a tree also) in the 'Dark Continent', Africa, located 'west' of 'Indian subcontinent', separated by the Arabian Sea. (And according to ancient 'Hindus', in the 'east', the direction 'west' is believed controlleed by Saturn, or mischievous Krishna the Neelamber, ie, the one who wears blue garments, and also our planet is called the 'Blue planet' by 'west', and Shiva since time immemorial is called 'Neelkantha Mahadev' the blue throated one who alone has the capability to hold poison in His throat and thus remain immortal)...
Perhaps thus it is very clear that 'east', ruled by Kali of red tongue, at some point in time in the remote past, the direction in which the Sun rises, could perhaps be imagined as relatively more advanced in the 'past' compared to the 'present' when 'west' is apparently ruling the world, having its roots in the 'west'...and that also is reflected by human being's ability to tap only a negligible percentage of the grey cells (as part of a design) that probabily human beings apparently did in the past, described as Dwaoeryuga, Tretayuga and Satyuga by 'wise Hindus'...
Perhaps one could find with a detached view-point that every temporary human being is perhaps no different from a candle made out of wax and a wick, say: It might ever remain unused, to finally break naturally into pieces and get thrown into the garbage bin; or it might help illuminate a dark room every night, night after night, for some hours each night till all its material components get consumed - happy to have been utilised for some 'useful' purpose!
Hi Joshi uncle and all!
Its been an awful 3 weeks and i have not been able to post regularly since i was not in station.
Hope to bring the blog back on track with regular posts next week onwards.
Hi Kavitha, Welcome!
Yes, 'I' also thought 'you' were not in town, for perhaps since 'I' have been visiting regularly 'your' blog and, as invited by you, have been attempting to post comments regularly as far as possible, perhaps it is the first time 'you' have delayed posting (mechanically maybe..:)
However, all said and done, perhaps if one had time as well as desire, one by now would have been adequately educated (in so far as Absolute Truth is concerned)...
It's well known that in childhood one's observation power is good, but analytical power is poor, due to lack of experience. However as one grows up, with experience, curiosity and thus obseration power becomes duller, whereas analytical power becomes better...
But in the present it is also well known that one isn't able to utilise one's full potential, believed by wise ancients on account of the inherent characteristic property of Time, in terms of Yugas. And in Kaliyuga, the 'present', of duration 432,000 years, human efficiency range believably remains between 25% maximum of the potential achievable at the beginning of Satyuga, to 0% by its end that 'we' are believably approaching gradually as events are reviewed by Bhootnath Shiva...
And although man is a model of the universe, one is unable to recall one's past (therefore called Apsmatra Purush), even in terms of hours, or days, or weeks, etc., leave aside Time and related events in terms of Yugas, for Mahayuga, that is, a duration of four yugas itself believably is ten times that of Kaliyuga, and till the present almost 1,080 such cycles have alreaady elapsed, for the estimated age of earth today is around 4.5 billion years!
In view of the above, one needs a Guru or superior, a highly elevated soul, that could show the right direction...And, books are supposed to be man's best friends! 'I' found the Gita as 'my' Guru, and leartn how the wise ancients realised Krishna to have promised one and all to leave it to him to lead one to Him, the Supreme Soul, ie, his own most evolved form!
Thus if a seeker could even decide to observe closely events 'we' generally take for granted, she might find many messages, say for example even in a burning candle flame! One might now notice how a lighted flame looks like a vertical human eye, say (as the hot air rushes upwards and the flame around the wick appears yellow in colour, considered related with Guru/ Peetamber Krishna/ Parvati, while also enveloping a blue coloured flame within it, associated with Neelamber Krishna, Kartikeya/ Neelkanth Mahadev)! And thus realise the significance of Shiva's Third Eye, believed located between human eye-brows, the location called Ajna Chakra, that normally is believed to remain dormant and, therefore, need to reactivate it by 'activating the kundalini' if the seeker is interested in 'enlightenment'
The 'wise ancient Hindus', called the Yogis - the word derived from 'yoga' meaning addition or fusion - realised all physical forms necessarily composed of five elements ('panchtatvas'), or 'panchbhootas' (related with 'bhoota', that is, 'past'), identified as 'sky' or space, 'earth', 'fire' or energy, 'water' and 'air' - all as the manifestation of Bhootnath Shiva the Lord of Past, ie, the immortal, omnipotent and omnipresent 'perfect being' who, believably, is reviewing innumerable stories related with His Own Past, or History of evolution from a point or zero tiem and space state...The 'panchbhootas' can be easily seen as responsible for the annual monsoon in 'India' whereby water from the Arabian Sea (SW India) gets transformed into vapours that form clouds, which then are carried forward to the Himalayan range in the NE direction, by the current of air set up due to unequal rates of heating (and also of cooling) of land mass and the water body (sea)...thus the annual monsoon when it rains on an average for 100 days in India due to the resultant 'water cycle'...and hence the need for storage for the rest of the year, as otherwise most of the potable rainwater, in rivers, rushes down to the seas...
One could thus observe that at any given point in time everything appears to undergo change with passage of time: either improving, or evolving (to a 'Hindu' a reflection of 'future', which due to 'maya' or illusion appears as 'past'); or getting worse till it virtually dissolves, or becomes obsolete, such as observed in cases of many animal species from time to time and hence a feeling of insecurity among humans too, as it is being projected by the media in the 'present', particulary in view of the apparent rapid ice melt in glaciers and in the Arctic/ Antarctica regions too besides observation of holes in the ozone layer in the sky over the Antarctica...
The Yogis also appear to have directly used the flame (candle's or earthen diya's, where oil, or sometimes clarified butter from cow's milk, is used as the fuel in place of wax) for helping in initiating the process of activation of the dormant energy at 'Ajna Chakra', with eyes closed, after having stared at the flame, strictly under the guidance of a guru or a superior experienced soul only...
The closer observation of the candle flame for example, might help one see how the original, exposed to the air, white wick turns black after use even just once (like a clean black slate turns whitish after something written in white chalk is dusted off its surface)...And when the black wick is lighted everytime it produces a yellow flame (with a smaller blue flame envelopped within it), as pointed out earlier also. However, when the flame is extinguished, for some time, the top end of the wick becomes red and then after a short time results into white smoke...and it's well known that these colours are also seen in the rainbow, due to breaking up of white light by water in the atmosphere...
Also the three of the above-mentioned colours. ie, Blue, Red and Yellow are called 'primary colours'...and in the four-colour offset-printing terms, CMYK represent these (Cyan, that is, blue, Magenta that is red, Yellow, and 'Key' that is black...
One can see how for all life forms on earth - particularly as it applies to humans - besides air and water, food is necessary for the physical growth; education is necessary for mental growth to differentiate humans from inferior animals; and only then perhaps a 'normal person' reaches a stage, after fulfilment of one's normal duties towards one's famiy when one might get bored with the routine day-to-day life and thus might be interested in seeking the purpose of human life - although maybe a bit too late in life! However there is a saying, "Better late than never."
And, interestingly, through Hindu mythological stories, one also might come to learn with the examples of Prahlad and Dhruv, etc that age in terms of years elapsed, reckoned from the apparent year of one's birth, cannot be generalised as the age for 'sanyas' or retirement from the routine of day-to-day life, or 'slavery of time' as it is called in the 'present'...
The wise ancients have however conveyed the only purpose of human life on earth is to seek the formless God as well as God with forms...
Of course, the statement is of a general nature and doesn't specify to what depth one should seek the formless God, who is indicated as unending and unseen, and so on, undescribable in words as in case of abstract entities...
And, in the 'present', with the rapid rate of growth of human poulation in the limited space available of planet earth, and consequent tougher competition for fulfilling the basic needs itself, there apparently is no time even for the day-to-day activities, leave aside any time to spare for seeking the 'Absolute Truth', ie, the believable unending formless creator, the cause apparent of 'maya' or illusion!
However, perhaps, as 'I' feel it, appearance of dreams in sleep, even in inferior animals, and reflection of ESP sometimes, could at least help one to accept existence of some 'supreme being', or beings, as has been the belief passed on from one generation to another since time immemorial, at least in 'India', or among 'Hindus' wherever they might be found, scattered all over the world...
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