Operation Al Aqsa Flood: Signs and Symbols of the Vedic Apocalypse ~ Part 3.1 ~ The Vedic Symbolism of the Islamic Hajj
A top-down view of the Kaaba and congregations gathered around it to pray. Attributed to Abdullah Yahya. (x.com)For anyone not familiar with the term “Hajj,” it refers to the Islamic pilgrimage to the Kaaba (Baitullah). As discussed in Part Two, Kaaba is the sacred center of Mecca (Makkah), considered by Muslims to be the Earthly representation of God’s home (Bayt ul Ma'mour) in the seventh heaven. Muslims are expected to pray towards the Kaaba five times a day regardless of where they are on the planet. Performing the Hajj at least once is considered to be mandatory for all Muslims who are able to make the journey. Pilgrims are expected to set a divine intention, perform a physical and spiritual purification ritual and then put on prescribed clothing which is white for men, symbolizing purity, and white or black, or some combination thereof, for women. After this purification ritual, involving various prohibitions, the pilgrims (hajjis) circle or circumambulate the sacred Kaaba seven times in counter-clockwise direction, kiss, touch, or revere the Black Stone (al-Ḥajar al-Aswad), drink from the Zamzam well said to be “a miraculously generated source of water”, walk seven laps between two hills, throw seven stones at three walls (thrice-seven stones) to rebuke “the Devil", sacrifice a living animal, and then feast. This culmination of the Hajj is called the “Feast of Sacrifice” (Eid al-Adha), said to commemorate Abraham’s “willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to a command from God.” The following excerpt is an explanation of “the wisdom behind circumambulating the Kaaba seven times.”
“Circumambulating the Kaaba represents the idea of oneness. Its meaning regarding the social life is not to leave unity and to try to maintain this unity. Its meaning regarding individual life contains deep truths. The sky has seven layers; man has seven souls. Each turning around the Kaaba represents a phase, a stage; man covers a phase and is elevated up to the seventh sky, above the material realm. Besides, it means to rise from the lowest step of the soul, which has seven steps, to the highest one. That is, from nafs al-ammarah (soul commanding the evil) to nafs al-mutmainnah (tranquil self); from the animal life to the spiritual life….
“God Almighty states the following in the Quran: ‘The seven heavens and the earth, and all beings therein, declare His glory: there not a thing but celebrates His praise; and yet ye understand not how they declare His glory....(al-Isra, 44)’” – questionsonislam.com
In my view, regardless of who is able to recognize it or not, the Islamic Hajj to the Earthly representation of God’s sevenfold home in heaven, and its various sevenfold rituals, including the thrice-seven “stoning of the Devil,” is a symbolic annual enactment of the Vedic sacrifice (yajna) or year which Sri Aurobindo wrote of as a pilgrimage and evolutionary journey by which Man ascends to the “seat and home of the Truth” (aka Swar), and grows “into the godhead.”
“[Swar, the wide world, with the birth or appearance of the Sun and the Dawn] is described as the result of the sacrifice, the end of our pilgrimage, the vast home to which we arrive, the other world to which those who do well the works of sacrifice attain, sukṛtām u lokām. Agni goes as an envoy between earth and heaven and then encompasses with his being this vast home.…” – Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, CWSA, Vol. 15, p. 151
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“The winning of [the] seven rivers of our being withheld by Vritra and these seven rays withheld by Vala, the possession of our complete divine consciousness delivered from all falsehood by the free descent of the truth, gives us the secure possession of the world of Swar and the enjoyment of mental and physical being lifted into the godhead above darkness, falsehood and death by the in-streaming of our divine elements.
“This victory is won in twelve periods of the upward journey, represented by the revolution of the twelve months of the sacrificial year, the periods corresponding to the successive dawns of a wider and wider truth, until the tenth secures the victory. What may be the precise significance of the nine rays and the ten, is a more difficult question which we are not yet in a position to solve; [1] but the light we already have is sufficient to illuminate all the main imagery of the Rig Veda.
“The symbolism of the Veda depends upon the image of the life of man as a sacrifice, a journey and a battle. The ancient Mystics took for their theme the spiritual life of man, but, in order both to make it concrete to themselves and to veil its secrets from the unfit, they expressed it in poetical images drawn from the outward life of their age….
“The life of man is represented as a sacrifice to the gods, a journey sometimes figured as a crossing of dangerous waters, sometimes as an ascent from level to level of the hill of being, and, thirdly, as a battle against hostile nations. But these three images are not kept separate. The sacrifice is also a journey; indeed the sacrifice itself is described as travelling, as journeying to a divine goal; and the journey and the sacrifice are both continually spoken of as a battle against the dark powers.” – Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, CWSA, Vol. 15, pp. 182-83 [Bold emphasis added]
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“It is for the great human journey that [the seven Angiras Rishis] are invoked; for it is the human journey from the mortality to the immortality, from the falsehood to the truth that the Ancestors accomplished, opening the way to their descendants…. [In Rig Veda VII.42] the gods are invoked precisely for this great journey, adhvara yajña, [2] the sacrifice that travels or is a travel to the home of the godheads and at the same time a battle… [M]an by the sacrifice ascends to the home of the gods…. [Its] general characteristic is forward movement, the advance of all to the divine goal…. It is quite clear therefore that the Angirases are travellers to the light and truth of the solar deity…. It is clear also that this journey is a growing into the godhead, into the infinite being….” – Ibid., pp. 188-90 [Paragraph breaks removed.]
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“By the sacrifice and by submission in the sacrifice man, the ever-advancing pilgrim, brings near to him his wide dwelling-place beyond, the seat and home of the Truth.” – Ibid., p. 343
Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea) recognized and revealed the Earth’s 360° twelve-month solar year or tropical Zodiac as an essential key of unveiling the long-kept secrets and cohesive context of the Vedic sacrifice. Without this zodiacal key and context, humanity was simply unable to properly understand the compelling ancient lore of the divine sacrifice, pilgrimage, birth, victory, etc. Without this understanding, the compelling idea of the divine victory and its related symbols it naturally lived on in the minds, myths, symbols, and religions of humanity but its true meaning was lost and distorted. As Sri Aurobindo wrote:
“The letter lived on when the spirit was forgotten; the symbol, the body of the doctrine, remained, but the soul of knowledge had fled from its coverings.” – Ibid., p. 57
The loss of this key and context is perfectly symbolized by Muhammed’s destruction of 360 idols surrounding the Kaaba when he conquered Mecca and the polytheistic pagans living there in 630 AD, in order to claim it for the monotheistic worship of Abraham’s God, known to Hebrews as Yahweh and Muslims as Allah.
“The Prophet entered Mecca and there were three hundred-and-sixty idols around the Ka`ba. He started stabbing the idols with a stick he had in his hand and reciting: "Truth (Islam) has come and Falsehood (disbelief) has vanished." – Sahih al-Bukhari 2478, Book 46, narrated by Abdullah bin Mas`ud
Note that the year 630 AD contains the same three numbers as 360, just with the 3 and the 6 positioned in reversed order. Given that ancient pagans celebrated the 360° zodiacal year, the odds of the 360 pre-Islamic Kaaba idols representing anything other than the 360 degrees of the twelve-month solar or tropical Vedic year, or “sacrifice”, entirely equivalent to the 360° Sumerian Year, are low to say the least.
The Orwellian irony of the statement "Truth has come and Falsehood has vanished" comes into full view in our current Age of Aquarius. The natural result of rejecting the original 360° zodiacal Vedic context and key of humanity’s divine pilgrimage (i.e., quest, journey, sacrifice, purification, apocalypse, etc.) has been the disastrous crystallization of humanity’s binary mental Ignorance, i.e., of the Falsehood which serves as the chief obstruction and antagonist of our divine victory, apocalypse, or birth. This divine victory cannot be accomplished by rejecting the MANY forms of the ONE universal God. It is accomplished rather by the advent of humanity’s liberated Sage consciousness, which recognizes and experiences the ONE as the MANY and the MANY as the ONE. It is the victory and birth of our indwelling unity consciousness—the spherical, non-binary, non-linear unity consciousness of the Aquarian “Man”—by which the human being comes to experience itself and all of creation—ALL FORMS—as the embodiment of the Divine. This victory is the condition and basis of humanity’s experience of Heaven on Earth which Sri Aurobindo wrote of as the rise of the supramental truth-consciousness, aka the Supermind, and as “The Life Divine.” The establishment of the seed of this victorious Sage-consciousness in humanity and on Earth, and with it the unveiling of the veiled symbols of the ancient seers, was the luminous core of Sri Aurobindo’s avataric mission and yoga.
Sri Aurobindo credited Swami Dayananda Saraswati with recovering for India and thus for the world, this central key of Vedic gnosis and thus of understanding the Rig Veda itself. We can witness the supramental consciousness and its quality of perfect action or organization in our world via the fact that Sri Aurobindo’s 15 August 1872 birth and Swami Dayananda’s 12 February 1824 birth fall exactly opposite each other—at 22° Leo and 22° Aquarius—in the tropical Vedic year, equivalent to the twelve-month Zodiac. Thus, in tandem, Dayananda and Sri Aurobindo embodied the Vishnu’s Leo-Aquarius (aka Lion-Man, Narasimha) axis of the Zodiac, an axis which is monumentalized in the ancient Giza Sphinx. This supramental perfection amounts to what Thea wrote of as “cosmic credentials” which are relevant to their mission of recovering the Eternal Law of the Vedic Rishis and with it unveil the truth of the cohesive poetic symbols of the Rig Veda from aeons of disastrous misunderstandings and fragmentation. [3] Dayananda’s efforts in this regard, along with his bicentennial birth anniversary were widely celebrated in India earlier this year, on 12 February 2024, my 55th birthday.
“Dayananda has given the clue to the linguistic secret of the Rishis and reemphasised one central idea of the Vedic religion, the idea of the One Being with the Devas expressing in numerous names and forms the many-sidedness of His unity. [¶] With so much help from the intermediate past we may yet succeed in reconstituting this remoter antiquity and enter by the gate of the Veda into the thoughts and realities of a prehistoric wisdom.” – Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, CWSA, Vol. 15, pp. 31-33
And likewise, with so much more help from Sri Aurobindo and his lineage, we may yet succeed breaking out of our crystalized collective Ignorance,—which manifests itself as all manner of fractious ideas, institutions, religions, mythologies, symbols, rituals, and politics, and all manner of human self-sabotage, illness, fear, disharmony, and war. We may yet achieve the goal of our collective evolutionary pilgrimage and birth into the illumined solar or spherical consciousness of the Vedic Sage.
Seven Circles Measure Out the Divine Home of the One and the Many Gods
The occulted Vedic symbolism of the seven circles or circumambulations that the Hajjis make around the center point of the Kaaba begins to come into view when we see and understand that the seven rivers (≈ floods, seas, mothers, cows, mares, songs, hymns, voices, virgins, goddesses, purifying filters, etc.) of the Vedas are equivalent to the first seven vesicae piscium of the Zodiac that bear the Vedic Sage-Horse (the radius of 0° Sagittarius/Dhanu) to his heavenly kumbha (jar), home, or goal by whatever name (0° Aquarius/Kumbha). It comes into even clearer view when we see and understand that these seven vesicae piscium are, in their fullness, seven circles, wheels, or chakras as illustrated in the center image below.
The image above-right illustrates the twelve vesicae piscium and their full circles that together measure out the 360° solar zodiacal Vedic Year into its twelve 30° months. The Rishi of Rig Veda 10.114 portrayed these twelve vesicae piscium or circles as twelve chalices of soma wine, equivalent to Amrita. Note that the vesica piscis is repeatedly depicted by the Rishis as the robe or garb of the radius (Agni). In Rig Veda 10.114 Agni is said to put on (i.e. wear) the ordinances or laws of the Vedic Sacrifice, which we can fully understand once we know that the vesica piscis is simultaneously the eternal law and “robe” of the radius that measures out the zodiacal year.
“The Youthful One [Agni], well-shaped…puts on the ordinances [=the laws of the Sacrifice]…. [He] passed into the sea of air: thence he looks round and views this universal world…. Him with fair wings though only One in nature, wise singers shape, with songs, in many figures. While they at sacrifices fix the metres, they measure out twelve chalices of Soma. While they arrange the four and six-and-thirty, and duly order, up to twelve, the measures... [S]even sages lead [the seven-wheeled chariot] onward with their [seven] Voices. Who will declare to us the [tīrthá] Apnana, the path [pathā] whereby they drink first draughts of Soma?.... [4] Vāk [=the sacred cow, word, voice, syllable] spreadeth forth as far as Prayer extendeth. What sage hath learned the metres' application? Who hath gained Vāk, the spirit's aim and object?... Yoked to his chariot-pole there stood the [seven] Coursers: they only travel round earth's farthest limits. These, when their driver [Agni] in his home is settled, receive the allotted meed of their exertion.” – Rig Veda 10.114.5-10 excerpts, tr. RTH Griffith
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“[As] ’twere to war hath Soma Pavamana sped, to test with might within the vats. That he may move, they yoke him to the three-backed triple-seated car by the Seven Ṛṣis’ holy songs. Drive ye that Tawny Courser [Agni-Soma], O ye pressers, on his way to war, Swift Steed who carries off the spoil. Pouring all glories hither, he, effused and entering the jar, stands like a hero mid the kine…. Soma, as leader of the song flow onward with thy wondrous aids, for holy lore of every kind... Soma, true, Pavamana, Sage, is seated in the cleansing sieve….” – Rig Veda 9.62.17-19 excerpts, tr. RTH Griffith
With this simple and eternal geometric key and law of the Vedic Son we can come to a clear understanding of how seven circles measure out and form the seven stages of Agni’s pilgrimage and ascent to his heavenly home (dhāman), also known as the goal (kārṣman, kāṣṭhā, etc.), jar (kumbha), filter or sieve (pavitra), lap (upastha), seat (sadana), and altar (vedi), as well as the center or navel (nābhir) of the world, the center or navel of the 360° Vedic sacrifice or year (nābhiṃ yajñānāṃ), the vault of heaven, heaven’s ridge, and many other names. With this simple and eternal geometric key we can likewise clearly see and understand the Vedic essence and foundation of the seven circumambulations or 360° circles around the Kaaba performed by myriad Islamic pilgrims every year.
Sapta Samudra and the Seven Rivers of the Vedas
In the post-Vedic Vishnu Purana, the Vedic symbolism of Agni’s sevenfold birth as the victorious Sage, Son or War Horse via seven rivers, mothers, wheels, etc., morphed into the mythology of the seven concentric seas—Sapta Samudra—surrounding Mount Meru (aka Sumeru). Note that Mount Meru, like Agni, is characterized as a Cosmic Pillar (=Skambha) or Axis Mundi.
“[Paths] of Order and refreshing viands attend from ancient times the goodly Infant…. He, calling loudly to the Seven red Sisters [=rivers, cows, mothers, etc.], hath, skilled in sweet drink, brought them to be looked on. He, born of old, in middle air hath halted…. Seven are the pathways which the wise have fashioned; to one of these may come the troubled mortal. He standeth in the dwelling of the Highest, a Pillar [skambha], on sure ground where paths are parted….. [In] the highest heaven, in Aditi's bosom and in Dakṣa's birthplace, is Agni, our first-born of Holy Order….” ‒ Rig Veda 10.5.6, tr. RTH Griffith
These verses depict Agni’s (aka Skambha’s) birth to his highest home, given several names here and as per usual. Repeatedly throughout the Rig Veda the vesica piscis is referred to as hill and as a mountain. In Rig Veda 5.54.9 the vesicae piscis that mark the home of the One and the Many gods are referred to as “precipitous the mountains with their running streams.” In Rig Veda 1.168.6, the apocalyptic, sevenfold flood is said to be sent down from the mountain. In Rig Veda 4.40.5 below, Agni is said to be, simultaneously, "born of waters, cows, truth and a mountain."
“[T]he vigorous Courser [Agni] lends new swiftness to his speed. Drawing himself together, as his strength allows, Dadhikras springs along the windings of the paths. The Hamsa [Swan=Agni] homed in light, the Vasu in mid-air, the priest beside the altar, in the house the guest, dweller in noblest place, mid men, in truth, in sky, born of flood, kine, truth, mountain, he is holy Law.” ‒ Rig Veda 4.40.5, tr. RTH Griffith
The only month of the Zodiac that is associated with the symbol of the mountain is the tenth-month of Capricorn which the Vedic heroes must pass through in order to liberate the treasures and sevenfold flood from the mountain. Thus, in my view, the post-Vedic mythology of Mt. Meru and its Sapta Samudra combines in itself Agni’s equivalence to the radius of the Zodiac and his sacred form (mountain)—the vesica piscis. as well as his journey via his seven vesicae piscium to the top or highest degree of the Capricorn mountain – 30° Capricorn, equivalent to 0° Aquarius.
In Rig Veda 6.69.6 and elsewhere in the Vedas, samudra, variously translated as a lake, ocean, reservoir, sea, etc., is entirely equivalent to Agni’s Kumbha or Jar—the gathering place of the seven rivers—which again is one of the many names of Agni’s heavenly home and destination.
“Strengthened with sacred offerings, IndraVisnu, first eaters, served with worship ana oblation, fed with the holy oil, vouchsafe us riches ye are the lake [samudra], the vat that holds the Soma.” – Rig Veda 6.69.6, tr. RTH Griffith
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“Thy birth…is in the falling flood, Agni: as Comrade thou winnest all living things…. Apparent are [Agni’s] lines as he approaches the course is single, but the cars [vahanas] are many, When, Agni, thou, making thine arms resplendent, advancest o’er the land spread out beneath thee. Now let thy strength, thy burning flames fly upward, thine energies, O Agni, as thou toilest. Gape widely, bend thee, waxing in thy vigour: let all the Vasus sit this day beside thee. This is the waters' reservoir [samudra], the great abode of gathered streams. Take thou another path than this, and as thou listest walk thereon. On thy way hitherward and hence let flowery Durva grass spring up. Let there be lakes with lotus blooms. These are the mansions of the flood.” – Rig Veda 10.143 excerpts, tr. RTH Griffith
In Rig Veda 3.22.3 below, this heavenly samudra is called udadhī, variously translated as “sea,” “ocean,” “river,” “water-receptacle” and “cloud.” [5]
“Winner of spoils in thousands, like a courser, with praise art thou exalted, Jatavedas…. O Holy One, and in the waters, Wherewith thou hast spread wide the air's mid-region-bright is that splendour, wavy, man-beholding. O Agni, to the sea [udadhi] of heaven thou goest: thou hast called hither Gods beheld in spirit. The waters [āpaḥ], too, come hither….” – Rig Veda 3.22.3, tr. RTH Griffith
Sindhu is also translated as “sea,” “ocean,” “river,” “stream,” “flood,” or “waters.” And whereas the specific phrase sapta samudra does not seem to be found in the Vedas, we find many instances of the equivalent saptá síndhūn and saptá síndhavaḥ, typically translated as seven rivers, floods, or streams, and not as seven oceans.
“A horse's tail wast thou when he, O Indra, smote on thy bolt; thou, God without a second, Thou hast won back the kine, hast won the Soma; thou hast let loose to flow the Seven Rivers [saptá síndhūn].” – Rig Veda 1.32.12, tr. RTH Griffith
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“Who slew the Dragon, freed the Seven Rivers (saptá síndhūn), and drove the kine forth from the cave of Vala, begat the fire between two stones, the spoiler in warriors' battle, He, O men, is Indra.” – Rig Veda 2.12.3, tr. RTH Griffith
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“Allied with thee, in this thy friendship, Soma, Indra [made waters flow together for Man], slew Ahi, and sent forth the Seven Rivers (saptá síndhūn), and opened as it were obstructed fountains.” – Rig Veda 4.28.1, tr. RTH Griffith
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“Indra with mighty strength cleft asunder the head of Arbuda the watery monster, Slain Ahi, and set free the Seven Rivers (saptá síndhūn).” – Rig Veda 10.67.12 excerpt, tr. RTH Griffith
In Rig Veda 8.34.17 the seven mother-mares—entirely equivalent to the seven rivers, floods, sisters, virgins, etc.—who bear Agni to his heavenly home are specifically said to be resplendent “Like Suns.” In Rig Veda 6.7. Agni, aka the Divine Sage, Seer, or Prophet, and “guard of immortality” is said to have “measured out the realms of air” and “made the lucid spheres of heaven.”
“Him, messenger of earth and head of heaven, Agni Vaiśvānara, born in holy Order, the Sage [Kavi], the King, the guest of men, a vessel [pātra] fit for their mouths, the Gods have generated…. Agni Vaisvanara, no one hath ever resisted these thy mighty ordinances, When thou, arising from thy Parents' bosom, foundest the light for days' appointed courses. The summits of the heaven are traversed through and through by the Immortal's light, Vaisvanara's brilliancy. All creatures in existence rest upon his head. The Seven swift-flowing streams have grown like branches forth, [Agni] Vaiśvānara, who measured out the realms of air, Sage very wise who made the lucid spheres of heaven, the Undeceivable who spread out all the worlds, keeper is he and guard of immortality.” – tr. RTH Griffith
In Rig Veda 9.54.2, the Sage Agni is said to be “like the sun.”
“In aspect he is like the Sun; he runneth forward to the lakes, [along or uniting with] seven currents flowing through the sky.” – tr. RTH Griffith
In Rig Veda 4.6.3 Agni is said to circle, i.e., circumambulate, to the right in conjunction with the lifting or pouring out of the “glowing ladle” which is entirely equivalent to the Kumbha or Jar of Aquarius.
“The glowing ladle, filled with oil, is lifted; choosing Gods' service to the right he circles. Eager he rises like the new-wrought pillar which, firmly set and fixed, anoints the [sacrificial animals].” – tr. RTH Griffith
Sri Aurobindo discussed the various equivalencies of the seven rivers of the Vedas, including the seven cows, mothers, rays, radiances, seats, etc., at great length in The Secret of the Veda. He referred to Agni’s seven mother-cows as “cows of the Sun” or “solar cows”; and noted that the equivalent seven rivers, aka “the divine waters”, carry the light of the Sun and Solar world (Swar) with them.
“The Veda speaks constantly of the waters or the rivers, especially of the divine waters, āpo devīḥ or āpo divyāḥ, and occasionally of the waters which carry in them the light of the luminous solar world or the light of the Sun, svarvatīr apaḥ.” – Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, CWSA, Vol. 15, p. 109
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“[The Vedic Poet] Parashara in his clear and illuminating fashion tells us about the seven rivers. 'The fostering cows of the Truth (dhenavaḥ, an image applied to the rivers, while gāvaḥ or usrāḥ expresses the luminous cows of the Sun) nourished him, lowing, with happy udders, enjoyed in heaven; obtaining right thinking as a boon from the supreme (plane) the rivers flowed wide and evenly over the hill,' ṛtasya hi dhenavo vavāśānāḥ, smadūdhnīḥ pīpayanta dyubhaktāḥ; parāvataḥ sumatiṃ bhikṣamāṇā, vi sindhavaḥ samayā sasrur adrim (I.73.6). And in I.72.8, speaking of them in a phrase which is applied to the rivers in other hymns, he says, “The seven mighty ones of heaven, placing aright the thought, knowing the Truth, discerned in knowledge the doors of felicity; Sarama found the fastness, the wideness of the luminous cows; thereby the human creature enjoys the bliss,” parāvataḥ sumatiṃ bhikṣamāṇā, vi sindhavaḥ samayā sasrur adrim. These are evidently not the waters of the Punjab, but the rivers of Heaven, the streams of the Truth, goddesses like Saraswati, who possess the Truth in knowledge and open by it the doors of the beatitude to the human creature. We see here too what I have already insisted on, that there is a close connection between the finding of the Cows and the outflowing of the Rivers; they are parts of one action, the achievement of the truth and immortality by men, ṛtaṃ sapanto amṛtam evaiḥ. – Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, CWSA, Vol. 15, p. 202-03 [Bold emphasis added]
“Thou, Agni, art a Bull who makes our store increase, to be invoked by him who lifts the ladle up. Well knowing the oblation with the hallowing word, uniting all who live, thou lightenest first our folk.” – Rig Veda 1.31.5, tr. RTH Griffith
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“Sit ever to be chosen, as our Priest, most youthful, through our hymns, O Agni, through our heavenly word.” – Rig Veda 1.26.2, tr. RTH Griffith
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“[By] the Sacred Syllable have I measured: I purify in the central place of Order.” – Rig Veda 10.13.3, tr. RTH Griffith
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“[W]hen the ancient dawns first dawned the Great Syllable was born in the footstep of the Cow.” – Rig Veda 3.55.11, tr. RTH Griffith
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“As Jatavedas [Agni], most excellent Fire, sparkling in the Syllable which is thy mother’s womb, as thy father’s father, seated in the womb of the true order, deliver the child-bearing brahman [=word] which radiates in heaven” – Rig Veda 6.16.35-36, tr. J.A.B. van Buitenen [7] [Text in brackets is mine]
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“He who knows not the eternal syllable [akṣara] of the Veda, the highest [heaven] upon which all the Gods repose, what business has he with the Veda? Only its knowers sit here in peace and concord.” – Rig Veda 1.164.39, tr. Raimundo Panikkar, The Vedic Experience, p. 3
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“[Atri] established in the heaven the eye of Surya, and caused Svarbhanu's magic arts [maya] to vanish. The Atris found the Sun again, him whom Svarbhanu of the brood of Asuras had pierced with gloom. This none besides had power to do.” – Rig Veda 5.40.8-9, tr. RTH Griffith
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“Bearing the Gods' own Eye, auspicious Lady, leading her Courser white and fair to look on, distinguished by her beams Dawn shines apparent, come forth to all the world with wondrous treasure.” – Rig Veda 7.77.3, tr. RTH Griffith
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“The Sage of Heaven whose heart is wise, when laid between both hands and pressed, sends us delightful powers of life. On, onward to a glorious home; dear to the people void of guile, with excellent enjoyment, flow. He, the bright Son, when born illumed his Parents who had sprung to life, Great Son great Strengtheners of Law. Urged by the seven devotions he hath stirred the [seven] guileless rivers which have magnified the Single Eye. These helped to might the Youthful One, high over all, invincible, even Indu, Indra! in thy law. The immortal Courser, good to draw, looks down upon the Seven: the fount hath satisfied the Goddesses [=rivers, floods, mothers, etc.].” – Rig Veda 9.9, tr. RTH Griffith
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“Winning Vivasvān's glory and producing Morning's light, the Suns pass through the openings of the cloth [≈the filter≈kumbha]. The singing-men of ancient time open the doors of sacred songs,—Men, for the mighty to accept. Combined in close society sit the seven priests, the brother-hood, filling the station of the One. He gives us kinship with the Gods, and with the Sun unites our eye: the Sage's offspring hath appeared. The Sun with his dear eye beholds that quarter of the heavens which priests have placed within the [hidden sacred dwelling] [8].” – Rig Veda 9.10.5-7, tr. RTH Griffith
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“Dawn, at her rising, urges forth the living him who is dead she wakes not from his slumber. As thou, Dawn, hast caused Agni to be kindled, and with the Sun's eye hast revealed creation. And hast awakened men to offer worship, thou hast performed, for Gods, a noble service…. Arise! the breath, the life, again hath reached us: darkness hath passed away and light approacheth. She for the Sun hath left a path to travel we have arrived where men prolong existence.” – Rig-Veda 1.113.8-9; 16, tr. RTH Griffith
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“By the eye of [Agni] Vaiśvānara have the backs [=ridges, hills, mountains] of heaven been measured out, by the beacon of the immortal one.” – Rig Veda 6.7.6, tr. Jamison & Brereton
For Thea, it was seeing through the EYE of the 360° zodiacal Circle that allowed her, as a central part of her avataric yogic mission, to open the ancient seals and symbols of the Rig Veda to the extent that she did. For me, was the additional perspective or key of seeing through the EYE of the vesica piscis that opened the long-sealed and forgotten zodiacal geometry by which the many varied symbols of the Rig Veda and the Vedic apocalypse, birth, revelation, and outpouring of gnosis come to make clear, cohesive, and comprehensive sense.
In Rig Veda 1.164.3 Agni’s seven mother-rivers or floods, etc., by which he is purified (whitened) and by which he arrives at his heavenly seat, are simultaneously referred to as seven-wheels of his vehicle as well as seven sisters and seven cows. In verse 48 of the same hymn, the Rishi gives us the crucial key of the twelve-spoked, 360° zodiacal wheel or circle by which the heavily veiled symbols and poetry of the Vedas is unveiled. In this same hymn, we find the equally crucial key of understanding the Vedic poetry and Vedic Victory which is the Rishis’ linguistic trick of giving MANY names or titles “to what is One”. Some of the many names given to Agni’s ONE heavenly home and destination are emphasized in bold text below.
“Seven to the one-wheeled chariot yoke the Courser; bearing seven names the single Courser draws it. Three-naved the wheel is, sound and undecaying, whereon are resting all these worlds of being. The seven who on the seven-wheeled car are mounted have horses, seven in tale, who draw them onward. Seven Sisters [=Rivers] utter songs of praise together, in whom the names of the seven Cows [=Rivers] are treasured. Who hath beheld him as he sprang to being, seen how the boneless One supports the bony? Where is the blood of earth, the life, the spirit? Who may approach the man who knows, to ask it? Unripe in mind, in spirit undiscerning, I ask of these the Gods’ established places; for up above the yearling Calf the sages, to form a web, their own seven threads have woven. I ask, unknowing, those who know, the sages, as one all ignorant for sake of knowledge, What was that ONE who in the Unborn's image hath stablished and fixed firm these worlds' six regions. Let him who knoweth presently declare it, this lovely Bird's securely founded station…. (2-7)
“Yoked was the Mother to the boon Cow's car-pole: in the dank rows of cloud the Infant rested.
Then the Calf lowed, and looked upon the Mother, the Cow who wears all shapes in three directions. Bearing three Mothers and three Fathers, single he stood erect: they never make him weary. There on the pitch (pṛṣṭha) of heaven they speak together in speech all-knowing but not all-impelling. Formed with twelve spokes, by length of time, unweakened, rolls round the heaven this wheel of during Order…. (9-11)
“I ask thee of the earth's extremest limit, where is the centre of the world, I ask thee. I ask thee of the Stallion's seed prolific, I ask of highest heaven where Speech (Vāk) abideth. This altar (vedi) is the earth's extremest limit; this sacrifice of ours is the world's centre [=navel; elsewhere “the world’s summit”]. The Stallion's seed prolific is the Soma; this Brahman highest heaven where Speech abideth. Seven germs unripened yet are heaven's prolific seed: their functions they maintain by Viṣṇu's ordinance. Endued with wisdom through intelligence and thought, they [=the seven germs] compass us about present on every side….. (34-36)
“To what is One, sages give many a title they call it Agni, Yama, Mātariśvan. Dark the descent: the birds are golden-coloured; up to the heaven they fly robed in the waters. Again descend they from the seat of Order, and all the earth is moistened with their fatness. Twelve are the fellies, and the wheel is single; three are the naves. What man hath understood it? Therein are set together spokes three hundred and sixty, which in nowise can be loosened. (46-48) – Rig-Veda 1.164 excerpts, tr. RTH Griffith
From the mythology of Agni’s sevenfold birth or seat, which is depicted throughout the Vedas to be at a great height, far distance, or “extreme limit,” etc., comes the mythology, name, and concept of Mount Meru, which literally means “HIGH mountain.” When we remember the solar or circular geometry of Agni’s seven rivers, stages, cows, mares, etc., within the 360° context of the Zodiac, we tear open for humanity—for the “MAN” of the Zodiac—the seven seals of the holy book of the Rig Veda and can understand its symbols and meaning, and all related post-Vedic symbols in an entirely NEW WAY. We can also see that the post-Vedic Hindu mythology of the seven concentric oceans (Sapta Samudra), encompassing seven concentric continents, all surrounding the sacred Mount Meru—the high home of the Gods—is a symbol of the seven Vedic rivers (Sapta Sindhūn) and the apocalypse, victory, birth, and home of their Sage-Son. We can likewise see that the Islamic tradition of circling the Kaaba seven times is, however unrecognized, the Islamic equivalent and expression of this same victory. The Hindu nuptial tradition of Saptapadi is likewise a symbol of Agni’s sevenfold victory and seat of unity. Saptapadi is enacted by the bride and groom in various ways throughout India, including circling a sacred fire seven times, circling each other seven times, or taking seven steps together.
This much celebrated sevenfold home or divine “meeting place” in the Vedic Year or Yajna marks the point in our individual and collective evolution wherein the human vessel becomes a vessel or kumbha of the supramental Unity consciousness or solar-spherical Sage consciousness, whereby the falsehood and division of our binary mental consciousness is conquered and purified.
***
Note: As I was wrapping up this part of the series, I did a Google search looking to see what, if anything, has been already been noticed and written about the Vedic sense and symbols of the Hajj, and did find a short article entitled “Vedic rituals of the Hajj” by Pradeep Parihar posted on his Hinduism and Sanatan Dharma website. If readers know of or find other such writings or talks connecting the Vedic Sacrifice and the Islamic Hajj or other Islamic traditions, please send links my way.
In Part 3.2 of this series I will discuss the various Vedic Symbols enacted in the course of completing the Islamic Hajj, such as throwing seven stones at three pillars as a symbol of rebuking the Devil.
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Endnotes
[1] Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) wrote The Secret of the Veda between 1914-1920. Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (1938-2016) recognized the ninth and tenth months of the Vedas as the zodiacal months of Sagittarius (Dhanu) and Capricorn (Makar). She saw and discussed the Vedic victory and goal as falling at the 7th Point of the Zodiacal circle (10° Capricorn) in the tenth month rather than all the way through it. [See The New Way, Vols. 1&2, pp. 412-13] As I have discussed at length in my writings, in 2016, 144 years after Sri Aurobindo’s birth and in conjunction with Thea’s passing, via the sacred geometry of the zodiacal circle and its “son” the radius and its “daughter” the vesica piscis, I was shown why exactly Agni’s birth and victory was characterized by the Vedic Rishis as a full passage of ten months, accomplished via seven rivers, mothers, etc., which instantly unlocked what I experienced and consider to be a veritable “Motherlode” of Vedic treasure. This treasure, which Swami Dayananda and Sri Aurobindo understood and began to expose, is the unified and cohesive sense and significance of the Vedic Rishis intentionally puzzling words.
[2] Sri Aurobindo’s footnote: “Adhvara is “travelling”, “moving”, connected with adhvan, a path or journey from the lost root adh, to move, extend, be wide, compact, etc.… The passages in the Veda are numerous in which the adhvara or adhvara yajña is connected with the idea of travelling, journeying, advancing on the path….”
[3] The same supramental orchestration and perfection is found in the 22° Aquarius position of the Mother’s (true) natal North Node, in the 12 February 1969 date of my birth and the 24° Aquarius position of my natal Sun, and in the 24° Aquarius position of Thea’s North Node when she passed in 2016, and event that corresponded with the release of the zodiacal geometry of the Seven Rivers of the Vedas (the Seventh named as Saraswati) in my consciousness and body. Dayananda Saraswati’s birth year preceded Sri Aurobindo’s birth year by 48 years and preceded my own birthday by exactly 144 + 1 years. In the context of the 144-year cycle spanning Sri Aurobindo’s birth and Thea’s passing, 1968, the year of my conception, falls exactly two-thirds (864,000″) into the circle (0° Sagittarius). If we visualize this 144-year cycle as applied to the 144 years before Sri Aurobindo’s birth (1728-1872), Dayananda’s birth likewise falls 0° Sagittarius. In addition to these cosmological perfections, if we multiply the 18 and 24 of Dayananda’s birth year, the product is 432 (= 3 x 144). And likewise if we multiply the 18 and 72 of Sri Aurobindo’s birth year, the product is 1,296. Whereas 432,000″ is the sacred measure of the radius and its vesica piscis, 1,296,000″ (360° x 60' x 60″) is the full measure of the circle. Thus we can marvel at the fact that Dayananda’s and Sri Aurobindo’s birth years, in tandem, contain in themselves the Eternal Law (Sanatana Dharma) and Divine Maya of the Vedic Year by which their cohesive missions were essentially completed in 2016, 144 years after Sri Aurobindo’s 1872 birth, via his extended lineage. The importance of this 144-year cycle in Sri Aurobindo’s avataric yoga is underscored by the fact that his birth year is itself the 13th multiple of 144, and in turn the revelatory year of 2016 is the 14th multiple of 144. Only Time will tell what the year 2160—the 15th multiple of 144 (=432 x 5)—will bring.
[4] I briefly discussed this verse in relation to my own yoga and mission in Seeing in Understanding, Part 10, Endnote 10.
[5] Cologne Sanskrit Digital Lexicon.
[6] The Lost Symbol, Ch. 126.
[7] J.A.B. van Buitenen, “Aksara”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol 79, No. 3 (1959), p 178.
[8] My translation, from padam adhvaryu-bhiḥ guha, which RTH Griffith translated as the “sacred cell”.
[9] See: “The Sacred Measure of 432,000 ⁓ Part 4: The Sacred Syllable of the Rig Veda” (2019).
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