The Sanskrit word for philosophy is darśana, which means direct vision. The words symbolize the difference between modern Western philosophy, which mainly relies on intellectual pursuit and Indian philosophy that relies on direct vision of truths and pure Buddhi (reasoning). Darśana is divided into two categories namely, Astika (believer in the Vedas) and Nastika (non-believer in the Vedas). Astika are Nyaya, Vaisheshik, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta. Nastika are Charvaka, Jainism and Buddhism. Others are a mixture of the ideas of these systems. Although each school of philosophy is unique, all of them have certain common characteristics. These are direct experience, acceptance of authority, harmony amongst schools, parallel growth and coexistence of a number of schools, open mindedness, support of logic and reasoning, belief of eternity, law of karma, moral and ethical teachings, acknowledgement of suffering, thoroughness and practicality. Here is a brief introduction to some of these ancient Schools of Indian Thought.

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When blood is nipp'd and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
To-whit!
To-who!—a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

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By chant of the Integral Mantra of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Gangadharan felt Light and Omkara Sound surrounding him, and his psychophysical system blossomed in all the centres. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother appeared for a while in their luminous golden Forms of Grace. Then his deep soul-consciousness joined with the Self and ascended to the Truth-World, and he felt the Divine Presence everywhere. Even during the ascent, the Golden Light was seen flowing down from above and spreading everywhere. On the summit of the Truth-World he experienced vast and pure white Light of Grace. When he was identified with it, he heard an immortal sound which made him wake up with open eyes. The vibrations of the experience continued for a long time, and were tangibly felt in the body.

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Part II is about Jung’s Gnostic creation myth, which he wrote in 1916 as an important part of his encounter with the unconscious. He called it the Seven Sermons to the Dead, and attributed its writing to Philemon, a winged being he encountered in dreams and fantasies, who assumed the role of a guru with superior insight. I refer to a Vedic creation myth commented on by Sri Aurobindo and a creation story of the Mother as well as relevant passages from Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri for the sake of comparison. In all four cases there is a primordial creative Shadow and the number of principal beings (deities) is four, suggesting that the qualitative number four (4) is significant as a fundamental truth of existence and individual wholeness. Jung’s myth puts more emphasis on the created world, while Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s accounts tell a story as to how the original luminous fourfold being turned into its opposite. Jung writes that his early fantasies, including the one mentioned above, foreshadowed his entire life and scientific work as a psychologist. I go through each of the seven sermons and indicate their psychological meaning, while alluding to his developed psychological system. I also briefly analyze two seminal initiation dreams Jung had, one between the age of three and four and one at the age of thirty-seven. The first dream is his initiation into the mystery of the earth, and the second his initiation into the wisdom of alchemical transformation by the Divine Mother as Sophia. I end this essay by discussing how the path of individuation involves both the heart-Self centered (psychic) transformation and spiritual ascension or spiritual transfiguration as indicated in Jung’s early fantasies.

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In my ancestral farm there's a statue
Of Shiva radiating calm. As if
Out of some unbuilt centuries had come
The spirit of time, tall, invincible,
Yogic in granite strength yet intimate...
… Sometimes, as the night gathers storm,
Infirm faith gets shaken; the thin furrows
Tremble, and the trees bend in fear of ire
Let loose by the elements of nature.

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It is in the subtle physical where the material life gets reorganized, that which cares for perfect form, where there is no more room for fault. This subtle physical is vast and it is a very curious place. There is a remarkable resemblance between what is seen there and things and objects that are here around us in the gross physical. In fact one would think if it is not the memory of these physical forms that is carried over there. But it is a coherent world, and not a disorderly imagination. If one is to extend this kind of thinking, it might even appear that the Overmind gods are also perceived in the same manner, that our physical habits give rise to those forms. Are all these objects and beings like that, seen in the way one is in that state, or is it that they are made out in that way because of our association with what is here? Is it anthropomorphism of a kind? The explanation becomes very simple, very easy when one enters into the consciousness where material reality itself becomes an illusion; it is illusory, it is not exact: the inner reality is truer than what we conceive it to be. It is perhaps only our mind that is astonished. This can even lead one to maintain that real ill-will, real hostility and real falsehood are very rare, that is to say, “real” in its absolute sense, in themselves, and conscious, deliberate—deliberate, absolute, conscious—that is rare. Sri Aurobindo used to say that all the rest is a kind of illusion of consciousness—of consciousnesses that intermingle with each other. That gives rise to a real problem, a problem in the context of the transformation to be achieved, a problem of immense magnitude. When one is there, in the subtle physical, things get done as if there is no sense of time, certainly not the sense of our time; it is the content of the action that matters. But what is done there, that disappears when one suddenly returns to this world. Even as the Presence becomes more intimate, more and more concrete, so concrete that it seems to be absolute, then another state of consciousness comes up and all has to be begun again. The great words, the great attitudes, the great experiences, but here nothing spectacular, everything is very modest. And this is the condition for progress, the condition for transformation.

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In Part I I discuss the significance of the number four (4) in both the Mother’s story of creation and Sri Aurobindo’s account of a Vedic creation myth. I relate this to the fact that Philemon, to whom Jung attributed superior insight, is clutching four (4) keys in Jung’s dream, drawing the conclusion that Philemon’s message involves the essential fourfold nature of the Self. Throughout the essay I amplify the nature of Philemon by referring to Metatron, the chief angel of the Judeo-Christian hierarchy of Angels, Merlin and the Fisher king of the Grail legend, and Indra of the Vedic pantheon of gods. I also observe that Jung notes that he eventually integrated Philemon along with a spirit of nature, who insists on concrete reality. I discuss the difficulty of psychologically moving from three (3) to four (4), that is from insight to wholeness involving incarnation of the Self in life. This requires coming to terms with the shadow as sol niger or dark sun of alchemy, which finds a parallel in the Vedic Martanda. I briefly discuss Jung’s later formulation of the Self as a static fourfold quaternity, where the heights meet the depths of being in a dynamic circulatory process. Jung’s model is highly complex involving the interplay of light and shadow with the final result being a unity of the highest, the Anthropos or Original man, and the lowest, the prima materia and chaos of the—circular or round—Rotundum, to produce the uroborous, the serpent biting its tail, a symbol for completeness of being.

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There is a description of the Sons of Darkness in chapter twentyone of The Secret of the Veda by Sri Aurobindo. The following is a paraphrased version to focus attention directly on them, they who are the haters of the sacred word, those who give not to the gods the gift or the holy wine, who keep the wealth of cows and horses and other treasure for themselves and do not give them to the seers; they are those who do not do the sacrifice. In the Rig Veda it is the spiritual conflict and victory, not the physical battle and plunder of which the Rishis are speaking. These sons are the broods that have sprung up from the Inconscience when Life and Mind-in-Life entered into the evolving consciousness. Their birthplace is the Cave of Darkness. Unless they are overpowered, progress on the higher spiritual path cannot proceed. These are the beings who are different from the Four Powers of the supreme Light who separated themselves away from their divine Origin and became their opposites, the Antagoists who, after a long travail and after doing the dreadful task yearn to return to it. This return of theirs can happen only when the Supermind enters into the evolutionary process for which the Supreme himself comes as an Avatar and does the needed yoga-tapasya in the earth-consciousness, yoga-tapasya invoking the divine Power to incarnate herself and do the work of manifestation after removing the obstacle sanding across the path of the divine Event, the full account of which we have in Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri, the Veda of the New Age. In contrast to these four mighty and fruitful Anatgonists the Sons of Darkness do not express any intention of changing themselves into beings of light, they who are the byproducts of the process as against the initiators of the process.

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If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man my son!

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Brussels is a rich mix of old world grandeur and new-age cosmopolitanism. It has interesting neighbours too. On reaching the platform, after climbing the steep 226 steps, all we could see was a vast expanse of green with buildings dotting the distant landscape. It was serene and calm. Above us, the Butte de Lion, 4.45 metres high, towered, looking towards France, marking the spot where the Prince of Orange was injured in one of the most famous battles of history, Waterloo—both a place and a concept. It is a small town, about 13 km from Brussels.

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China announced it had begun construction of the world's longest sea bridge—barely 18 months after opening the current record-holder. The Y-shaped link between Hong Kong, Macau and China will be around 50 km (31 miles) long in total, 35 km of which will span the sea, said the state news agency Xinhua. Due to be completed by 2015, the 73bn yuan (£6.75bn) cost of the bridge will be shared by the authorities in the three territories. Wang Yong, the head of that project, said the design had led to more than 250 technological innovations and engineering breakthroughs, many of which will no doubt prove useful in building the new construction. He added that the Hangzhou bridge survived 19 severe challenges, including typhoons, tides, and geological problems during the three and a half years of construction.

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Then, in another passionate cycle,
Came love, but followed by murdering heart
Of dubious faith. Now a gold star shines
In everlastingness above the earth.

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In the world in which we live at present all is mixed up, and the Law of Truth does not openly manifest itself in it. Our half-blind consciousness will not even understand it. But it is the supreme vision that is realising itself constantly, a great triumph of good and true. It is our ignorance and obscurity that give a deforming appearance to the divine Action. But the world is perpetually changing, and the general harmony expresses itself more and more perfectly; harmony is becoming more and more harmonious, the truth becoming more and more true in the Manifestation. But to see that, one must see the whole. As the Manifestation becomes more conscious of itself, its expression perfects itself, becomes also truer. The two movements go together. When the Manifestation will have sufficiently emerged out of the Inconscient all this necessity of struggle, created by the Inconscient, becomes progressively more and more useless. However, it will still be only one step. It has to turn into a progress through joy and harmony instead of a progress through struggle and suffering. All these so-called problems are problems of the human mind. But for the sufficiently sincere there is always the inner joy, the full satisfaction, whatever the circumstances, and that nobody and nothing has the power to snatch or touch. That sincerity, that adherence to the truth is the password for true happiness.

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I have used 100 ASA, 1/4000 seconds, diaphragm 11 (the extreme values I had). The batteries of the new Fuji run out so I continued with the old Fuji, opting for less dramatic effects. Here are four of them.

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When I lived in Pondicherry and worked at the Ashram during the early seventies, I began my study of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as well as Jung. They came together for me in such a way that, despite their differences, I could only see similarities in their work and not oppositional positions. Nor was it simply a question of areas of overlap, but the similarities often had to do with essential aspects of their respective paths. At the same time I was conscious of the fact that several sadhaks of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother viewed Jung with suspicion if not downright contempt or dislike. I learned early on that it was taboo to speak to some sadhaks about Jung with any sense of respect or admiration; and I was very careful to watch my ‘p’s and ‘q’s.’ My general impression is that the dynamics involved have cast a dark cloud over Jung, which is at the origin of the negative impression held towards him by several disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. But an open attitude and willingness to seek a reconciling truth could benefit everybody concerned. Now is the time for it and, some forty years after my initial exposure to Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Jung and as a contribution to the discourse I feel prepared to give an answer to those whom I believe don’t give Jung his appropriate due.

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Four great deities,—Varuna, Mitra, Bhaga, Aryaman,—constantly appear in the Veda as closely allied in their nature and in their action. It can be said that a solar character attaches to them all. Not only are the four closely associated among themselves; they seem to partake of each other's nature and attributes; evidently they are emanations of Surya Savitri the Creator, the divine being in his creative and illuminative solar form. According to the Truth of things, in the terms of the divine dynamism, the worlds are brought forth from the divine consciousness, from Aditi, goddess of infinite being, mother of the gods, the indivisible consciousness, the Light that cannot be impaired, the mystic Cow that cannot be slain. In that creation, Varuna and Mitra, Aryaman and Bhaga are four effective Puissances. Varuna represents the principle of pure and wide being, Sat in Sachchidananda; Aryaman represents the light of the divine consciousness working as Force; Mitra representing light and knowledge, using the principle of Ananda for creation, is Love maintaining the law of harmony; Bhaga represents Ananda as the creative enjoyment, he taking the delight of the creation, the delight of all that is created. It is the Maya, the formative wisdom of Varuna, of Mitra that disposes multitudinously the light of Aditi brought by the Dawn to manifest the worlds. Surya Savitri, who is Bhaga, stands between the Infinite and the created worlds within us and without. All things that have to be born in the creative consciousness he receives into the Vijnana; there he puts it into its right place in the divine rhythm by the knowledge that listens and receives the Word as it descends and so he looses it forth into the movement of things, āśrāvayati ślokena pra ca suvāti. When in us each creation of the active Ananda, the prajāvat saubhagam, comes out of the unmanifest, received and heard rightly of the knowledge in the faultless rhythm of things, then is our creation that of Bhaga Savitri, and all the births of that creation, our children, our offspring, prajā, apatyam, are things of the delight, viśvā vāmāni. This is the accomplishment of Bhaga in man, his full portion of the world-sacrifice.

Sri Aurobindo has presented the Vedic hymn V.82 in The Secret of the Veda and revealed the veritable nature of these four mighty powers,—Varuna, Mitra, Bhaga, Aryaman,—who also took upon themselves the painful and difficult task of bringing out rather initiating a new creation from the Supreme’s pregnant Nothing. These four powers of Sat-Chit-Ananda-Vijnana by the process of intense inwardness lost contact with that Reality of theirs, the Reality from which they had sprung up. As soon as they lost contact with that Reality, the golden womb, hiraņya yoni, Origin of theirs, they turned into their own opposites. But the intensity of their deepening inwardness was such that, it was such concentration of the will, tapas, that from its heat of incubation sprang up the divine Soul to take another birth in fortune and opulence of the ever-growing wideness and joy and plenitude and perceptive experience of newer possibilities. In their tapas-will lies the entire mystery of Involution, it at once opening a way for this excellence of manifestation. But these four powers in their transcendental greatness also participate in the present cosmic working, even as they take the individual soul to the worlds of cherished immortality which should now become a part of the earthly or terrestrial creation, it dissolving the shadow that that clings to it as a false persona. The Vedic Rishis as individuals were concerned with it, they invoking the supreme Light of Truth to remove all Falsehood, ŗtasya jyotih dispelling all that is anŗta. In it indeed is all the greatness and all the worth of human aspiration, it giving meaning and content to it.

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The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) launched a total of 11 Rohini series indigenous sounding rockets from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station here and the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikotta to investigate the effects of the longest annular solar eclipse of this millennium, which occurred on Friday, on the earth’s atmosphere. Many scientifically interesting phenomena occur in the diurnal equatorial atmosphere during an eclipse. When solar eclipse occurs, there will be a sudden cut-off of solar radiation. This cut-off will affect the atmospheric structure and dynamics and there will be a large reduction in ionization and temperature. Today’s eclipse offered a unique opportunity to scientists to investigate the effects of fast varying solar flux on the photochemistry and electrodynamics of the different atmospheric regions, especially the equatorial mesopause and ionosphere-thermosphere regions.

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Treacherous
generals:
see my dead house,
look at broken Spain :
from every house burning metal flows
instead of flowers,
from every socket of Spain
Spain emerges
and from every dead child a rifle with eyes,
and from every crime bullets are born
which will one day find
the bull's eye of your hearts.

And you'll ask: why doesn't his poetry
speak of dreams and leaves
and the great volcanoes of his native land?

Come and see the blood in the streets.
Come and see
The blood in the streets.
Come and see the blood
In the streets!

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“Science cannot be quantified by number of papers published.” Sharing his thoughts, Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan addressed the audience at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore on Tuesday 5 January 2010. On his ongoing research, Dr Ramakrishnan said he looked forward to understanding the more complex eukaryotic ribosome, and the entire ribosome pathway. Using simple graphics to explain what his lab had achieved, he traced the trajectory that led to understanding ribosome structures—comprising two subunits made of complexes of RNA and protein. He then explained how this was critical to understanding the functioning and designing of better antibiotics. Dr Ramakrishnan was requested to spell out his message for young India. “I have nothing. People think you solve ribosome structures … and [think] you’re a prophet. I only know about ribosomes,” he said cheerfully. “I am often asked by young Indians: ‘How can I get a Nobel?’. Now that’s a sure way to fail. You go into science to solve a problem, not to find ingredients of success.”

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Watch thousands of Terns in the breeding season or plan a rendezvous with the big cats. Either way, you can’t go wrong with the River Tern Lodge… Aesthetic cottages with cosy interiors offer picture-perfect vistas of the reservoir, the blanket of hills around it and sunsets over the water.

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