Skip to main content

In the griffin forefront of the Night and Day

For him mind’s limiting firmament ceased above.

In the griffin forefront of the Night and Day

A gap was rent in the all-concealing vault;

The conscious ends of being went rolling back:

The landmarks of the little person fell,

The island ego joined its continent.

Overpassed was this world of rigid limiting forms:

Life’s barriers opened into the Unknown.


In earlier lines we read Aswapati being transformed into a Seer, by the Divine 'Presence' at work. In next lines here Sri Aurobindo is describing few qualities of Aswapati as a Seer. He says: Aswapati overcame the limiting states of a conventional mind. He was no longer stuck in those limited and fixed states from which a conventional man is unable to go beyond. 'Griffin' is a dual combination of lion and eagle who are symbolic of the powers on the land and sky. A griffin is at the forefront of duality of Night and Day, and with his powers dragging a conventional man through those powers of duality of a material word. However for Aswapati, an opening was made in the buried dual grave of mind that hides the truth and wisdom of synthesis beyond. His consciousness was transformed beyond conventional being and he had conquered the powerful pull of griffin. The landmarks or limited features of the little lower self were left behind. An indvidual ego is like an island separated from the huge and vaster continental shores of Truth and Wisdom of the higher self. The island of lower ego or self connected with its higher self or soul as if the surrounding waters dried up leading to Oneness. The rigid limiting forms of the personality in material world were bridged with higher self. Life's barriers were overcome by Aswapti opening into the Unknown.



The powerful pull of duality symbolized by a 'griffin' was conquered by Seer Aswapati.


On Duality in Theosophy


"It was also decided to make the line of demarcation between the two forces of matter and spirit clearly defined; the inherent duality of all manifestation was emphasised, with the aim in view of teaching men who want to liberate themselves from the limitations of the fourth, or human kingdom, and thus pass on into the fifth, or spiritual. The problem of good or evil, light or darkness, right or wrong, was enunciated solely for the benefit of humanity, and to enable men to cast off the fetters which imprisoned spirit, and thus achieve spiritual freedom. This problem exists not in the kingdoms below man, nor for those who transcend the human. Man has to learn through experience and pain the fact of the duality of all existence. Having thus learnt, he chooses that which concerns the fully conscious spirit aspect of divinity, and learns to centre himself in that aspect. Having thus achieved liberation he finds indeed that all is one, that spirit and matter are a unity, naught existing save that which is to be found within the consciousness of the Planetary Logos, and—in wider circles—within the consciousness of the Solar Logos.


The Hierarchy thus took advantage of the discriminative faculty of mind, which is the distinctive quality of humanity, to enable him, through the balancing of the pairs of opposites, to reach his goal, and to find his way back to the source from whence he came.


This decision led to that great struggle which distinguished the Atlantean civilization, and which culminated in the destruction called the flood, referred to in all the Scriptures of the world. The forces of light, and the forces of darkness, were arrayed against each other, and this for the helping of humanity. The struggle still persists, and the World War through which we have just passed was a recrudescence of it. On every side in that World War two groups were to be found, those who fought for an ideal as they saw it, for the highest that they knew, and those who fought for material and selfish advantage. In the struggle of these influential idealists or materialists many were swept in who fought blindly and ignorantly, being thus overwhelmed with racial karma and disaster."


- Initiation, Human, Solar.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More on Synthesis

 Again we shall contemplate on a few more words on the wisdom of synthesis (navigating the "narrow razor-edged Path" between duality or the "noble middle path" of Buddha) from our beloved DK. However I wish to emphasize that Djwal Khul and Alice Bailey demonstrated practical (not just theoretically) synthesis. For instance Alice Bailey being born in the west was open enough to acknowledge and bring forth teachings from a far wiser eastern/oriental master Djwal Khul. She could both surrender herself (a difficult quality to develop for the western concrete mind with its overemphasis on freedom) and at the same time was careful enough to guard herself against foolish blind devotion (a vice of oriental masses). Another disciple who demonstrated practical synthesis was Blavatsky (synthesis of religions). She established Theosophical society headquarters in the west and soon shifted it to the east although she worked and died for the cause of theosophy in the west. One mo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Third Initiation : Disciple and Mental Body

 We studied initiations until the second in our ealier posts. Today let us look at the third especially from the perspective of a disciple (rather than the ray as well as the external ceremonial aspect conferred during the wesak full moon which we will cover later). The third initiation marks the culmination of complete mastery of the mental (in the same way that the earlier two initiations resulted into the control of physical and astral planes). It is a distinct initiation, which marks a definite transition out of the form consciousness (lower personality of mental, emotional(astral) and physical planes), and the initiate can function at will on the plane of the intuition though soul (ego). Between the second and third initiation work is struggling with and mastering the energies of the mental world. What kind of work ? DK sums that for us (details found in TWM book) as -  "A. Work on the mental plane produces realisation of duality. The disciple seeks to blend and merge the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Aphorisms as seed-thoughts

 Subsequent to our discussion on seed-thoughts, another great example of seed-thouht I think is an aphorism. The complete agni-yoga series of books by Roerichs are aphorisms of Ethical living (and give Ray 1 flavour of fiery will to the yoga of synthesis). Similarly the temple aphorisms of Francia A. La Due give a Ray 5 flavour of occult science to the works of H.P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge. We quote those aphorims (as seed-thoughts) from temple teachings of Master H. (with his image):  "Days come and days go, but if thou watchest thou shalt see: THE LOAD thou hast laid on the heart of a friend will God transfer to thine own heart; heavy as it presses on the heart of thy friend, heavier will it press on thine own heart in the days to come. THE STONE thou hast cast from the path of the blind will smite the adder lying in wait for thee. THE WEIGHT thou hast clamped on the feet of another will drag thine own feet into Hadean desolation. THE SHELTER thou hast given the wayfa...
Post a Comment
Read more