Mahasaraswati And The Perfection of Consciousness
Vedic Deities
No great invention of the world has ever been possible without mathematical knowledge and precision in its measuring devices, but an invention is nothing more than a knowledge of arriving at something which is already there in some external form and shape of consciousness in evolution, but the knowledge of the Veda is discovery of something which is already there but in the form and shape of a greater, recondite, occult Consciousness, not only in evolution but in the ascending infinities beyond. Vedic knowledge is incomparable splendour emanating from the dynamic spiritual ether of the Divine Consciousness and is beyond all human hierarchy of knowledge, while science is a knowledge of the critical intelligence aided by an innate genius in Nature at times; it is a prism of a reverse knowledge in which whatever is reflected assumes its characteristics. Sceptics, agnostics and fervid intellectuals do not agree with us, nor do they understand the process of the Spirit hidden in Matter and embodied of a secret power of the highest God. So the idea of a debate between the God-realised and the God-denier cannot entirely proceed on the lines of mere logic, reason and intellectual argument alone; we have to take into account the sense of the invisible and the less-apparent realities, not by the measure of science and its puerile paranormal theories, but by the measure of self-realisation of the occult realities which lie beyond our apparent human vision. Science is a mere amplification of the material mind in self-ignorance seeking for knowledge, a throb and a quiver of a reckless child on seeing the bright distant northern lights. That which it cannot explain, it terms it superstition. Even paranormal research is only a search after surface truths of phenomena inexplicable to rational intelligence. Therefore, science cannot hope to measure self-experience through its limited and defective instruments, neither can it boast of a system capable of beating the mysteries of Nature to gallop ahead of her as well as God!
The greatest invention of science is the self-deceiving notion that its established systems are perfect and can guide humanity to the next level in human evolution safely. But evolution, whether of the human species or the plant or the animal, is too complex and infinitely myriad to be fathomed by science; it has so far created a rough sketch of the process by studying the infinite curve of Nature from a distant observatory, but Nature cannot be deceived, nor her processes reveal themselves to science and its exacting enquiries. Evolution is a power of the Spirit hidden in Nature and revealing itself through forms of its infinite choice and intent, and Nature is an infinite apparatus of the Spirit, an executive force and power of God to bear in her bosom the forms of the choice and intent of the Spirit into living and non-living species through a progressive evolution of a divine Consciousness here in the Inconscience. If evolution were to be measured at all, it ought to be from a higher spiritual standpoint and from a higher divine experience. The Vedas are more than a mere indication of the evolutionary mysteries and its processes; they are a foundation upon which stands the faculty of a limitless knowledge and intelligence to decipher the indecipherable; it is a measuring of the progressive ascent of the Spirit through esoteric symbolism and higher spiritual imagery, an infinite measure of the divine Truth captured and recorded in a language of the native Sruti of the immortal Spirit. That it may remain so for generations to come was the will of the hearers of the Truth, lest no untrained mind can stake claim to the riches of the Vedic tradition, or obtuse or retard the significance for its devious ends.
The language of the Veda, on the surface and from an ordinary surface viewpoint, appears to be nothing more than a numerous set of lengthy and prolonged rituals to propitiate the powers of Natures and the angry demi-gods, the verses themselves seem bereft of any deeper meaning or profound significance than what the credulous, practical mind sees and understands, which is to discredit the inapparent and the esoteric into cheap terms and practices of the incorrigible race of barbarians who lived on the plains and mountains and wandered aimlessly, performing these rituals for the brute satisfaction of their unevolved minds. The incredulous judge the merit of the Vedic Riks by a passionless enquiry of a disastrous intellectual derivation of the otherwise recondite symbols, and so conclude that the verses are largely propitiatory and ritualistic in nature, a symbol of a refined barbarism and a sense of a primitive idealism too impractical to be emulated in this age of dominant reason and science. For the inner sense of the Rishi, the illumined Seer, Vedic rituals are symbolic of the psychological functioning of the gods who are seated above man in a spiritual hierarchy of planes of the ever-ascending Consciousness and symbolic too of their descent into the human nature. It is on this principle of a higher truth that we have to approach the sense and meaning of the Vedic rituals, and not from the external viewpoint of the reasoning mind. It may still be possible to extract an intellectual derivation or meaning of the Riks without much distortion, but it has to proceed as an initial attempt to enter into the higher symbolism only and not as something exhaustive and final in itself. Such attempts were made in the past also, but without much success. We may have to move beyond the intellectual light and reasoning intelligence in order to enter into the secret spirit of Vedic mysticism and its esoteric symbols and so manifest a temper suited for the study of the Vedic Riks, instead of a barren attempt towards a blind and incorrect translation of them into crude aberrations of the thinking mind. Indology evolved out of this ruckus, from the limitations of human reasoning but it often takes a high moral ground in dominating the narrative, and since there is nothing substantially done either in terms of quality or in terms of defining the narrative by a superlative effort to get behind the esoteric sense of the Vedic symbolism, the voice of the western stupidity has dominated the scene for over a century or so, and in the recent times, has begun its final assault on the collective systems of our civilisation and culture to complete a cycle of cultural decimation.
The definitive moment in the history of our evolution may very well be found in the early Vedic civilisation in which the men and their societies were organised according to a higher law of the Divine, and not according to a mental rule as is the case now. The Vedic men were moved by a broader impulse of the Spirit, by the luminous glow and warmth of the Sun-God, by the immortal fire of Agni they grew into radiant symbols of the One and the Many, the supreme Purusha of whom they were representatives in the physical. But the impulse to perfection in work comes always from Mahasaraswati, one of the most important primal Deities of the Vedic cycle, and in her higher bhava (spiritual aspect) she is the luminous hand of a perfect siddhi of God, the craftswoman of perfect word and art, the impeccable designer of divine symbols, the ultimate weaver of God’s secrets into parchments and stone-structures. She is the perfect word of God in all the planes of spiritual consciousness, the truth-symbol in the mind and the revelation of Vidya in the darkness of life. All perfect poetry, all perfect art, all perfection in work, all that is infinitely beautiful and everlasting comes from her single gaze, for she creates out of her inherent knowledge of Truth in as much as she creates out of it the forms which bear her eternal creations. But the mind in its ego-centricity normally mistakes this perfection for a singular, one-sided movement of the Spirit in evolution, and the sense of an all-round, integral perfection of the evolving Spirit is intangible to its experience and beyond the scope of its reach. The ascending ladder of Consciousness does not admit an aspiration of a fixed apotheosis, though it does not debar it from reaching its full potential in the mental ladder, which is static in nature and undynamic in its effects. And, therefore a perfection emanating out of a mental self-absorption into a static light of the highest mind-principle is only a distant offshoot of a greater perfection of a supreme divine Consciousness. Besides, all creative knowledge comes from a dynamic spiritual Consciousness, all skill from a higher Magician.
She is also the Goddess of an infinitely skilful, methodical and patient labour, the golden axe that grinds through all imperfection and lack of detail in work; her labour is a manifestation of a secret Muse, her toils are a symbol of a patient Mother teaching her children the language of perfection and of the necessary forbearance in the process towards building a perfect edifice of an integral Truth here in the terrestrial consciousness. Without her grace no perfection in evolving forms or in the integral labour towards a greater creation is possible. And without her perfection in work, no beauty and delight can manifest. She perfects the stairs of the ascending consciousness in man as she works in the descending curve of a long, laborious evolution towards a divine Life upon earth. Of the collective labour of an aspiring humanity, she is the divine impetus and creative energy of its labour, the symbol of a self-insisting perfection in its efforts. To those who are recalcitrant and unwilling, she is the ever-patient Mother and waits for their souls to seek her help and succour so that she may mould them in the image of a luminous light of a divine perfection. Perfection she seeks, but not at the peril of a compromise or by encouraging the loathsome attitude of the inertial mind towards half-perfection in work. Her constant energies shape up our lives and refashion them in the image of a secret Godhead, but it cannot be done in a void without the participation of both the individual and the collective race, and this participation has to be wholehearted in nature and self-giving, a giving up of all that we are to her perfect wisdom so that she may shape our minds and bodies with her perfect tools of spiritual self-mastery. The self-impeding, the self-centred ambitions and objectives of humanity cannot find support in her light, for she works tirelessly for the establishment of a wider Knowledge in man as the source of his self-seeking, and through this knowledge alone man can perfect himself, and not through his scientific temper and its numerous inventions. It might even be possible that science can aspire to its higher counterpart in a greater knowledge, but even here it cannot be done without her sanction, nor it is possible to carry the imperfect readings of science into this perfect spiritual knowledge. All lower knowledge, whether it is science or humanities, seeks for a secret knowledge and light unconsciously and aspires to ascend into an integral truth of the Divine. Mahasaraswati is the inevitable passage to the higher Vidya, to the luminous word of the divine Godhead.
The Vedic tradition itself has been well preserved by her recondite knowledge, by her secret impartings and initiations to her diligent and deserving children, and though in the oneness of her knowledge and limitless compassion she embraces all equally, it is only those who have turned themselves to the quest of a higher knowledge and truth that she favours most, and helps them towards newer dawns of a greater spiritual light.
