In our earlier article 5) Vedic mysticism and Indian Trinity, we have very briefly touched upon six keys that unlocks the Vēdic wisdom. In this article let us quickly go through the same in some depth.
Any wisdom is encoded by some coding mechanism. Be it Vēdās or Testemants or Egyptian book of Dead or Chaldean book of Numbers or Kabbalah. This is to protect the wisdom from falling into the hands of the profane. When morals are at their lowest, if someone discovers the formula of E=mc^2, what happens? The inhumane usage of it in producing atomic bombs happens. We, as a race of humanity, are not ready in present ages to completely utilize the hidden secrets of nature. They are secrets only to the mundane. But they are facts to those who realize. A great example is BREATH. A breath is meditated upon by a yōgi, to transcend the world of mundane and enter the spiritual domains. But, how often do we notice that we breath, let alone realizing the hidden aspects and secrets of breath? So, the breathing that happens daily is a grand secret which is right in front of us and yet is completely invisible to us. That is the nature of a secret.
All that any GURU or ancient wisdom tries to teach is to unlock this “awareness” in us, provided we have passed certain stages of evolution. In essence, the wisdom is right within us. It is only certain situations that bring “out” the wisdom in the form of some associations to that situation. No new input can be given to us if it is not really in us. All one can do is to give us certain ways to orient the chaotic knowledge into harmonious wisdom. For example, if some one has to tell you “Niagara is splendid”, you must have already known what “Niagara” is, what “is” means and also what “splendid” means. You must also know the tone in which the speaker is speaking (sarcastic or intense). So, did he really impart a new information to you? What if you did not know one of the three entities of the above statement? The conveyor is helpless. So, WISDOM is right in us and we just need to awaken it. This is the key principle of “INITIATIONS” of the ancient lore.
If the wisdom is right in us, why do we have difference in levels of intellect or perceptions? This is related to KARMA and layers of ignorance. Let us for now accept that each individual is in a different class of the ONE school of Eternal LIFE. Instead of passing and going from class to class by default, we are being naughty kids and failing our classes and thus repeating the same class (sometimes even demoting ourselves into lower classes) and slowing the process of graduation. Seers are those who have graduated. Yōgīs and Masters are like seniors in our school of life. The teachers are these masters and seers, while the education we get is verily the GOD, belonging to the plane of experience through life events.
Now, to impart right wisdom into a student and to protect other class students from peeping, because they would then wrongly utilize the knowledge, a strong coding mechanism is necessary. Well, all that seers do is follow the NATURE. Their wisdom is not theirs, but HIS, the GOD’s. So, observing the NATURE in and around us – both physical and non-physical, the seers made a structure to the process of squeezing the wisdom and distributing it to the students of the school of LIFE, with proper protection.
This encoding happens in 7 ways. These are called 7 keys to the wisdom. They are applicable to all the wisdom lore of the world, because, WISDOM is impersonal and hence, the whole world had to perceive the same. May be the clothing is different, but not the essence. At any rate, let us concentrate on Vēdic system in this article. The keys themselves have seven more subsets i.e., each of the seven keys applied to each other. This is according to the law of nature – “Sapta Sapti”, meaning the nature acts in multiples of 7×7. Seven rays, Seven musical notes (Sapta Swarās), Seven groups of elements in periodic table, Seven Dhātūs in our body, Seven planes of existence (Bhu, Bhuvah, etc.), etc. Among these seven, SIX are the keys and the SEVENTH one is verily the lock as well as the key. It is our own self. So, SIX keys when applied to the seventh, unlocks the all permeating omniscience. These six keys are called ṢAḌAṂGĀS.
The six keys are as follows:
This is the key of intonation. This strongly depends on the state of vocal utterance. In nature, we see different birds chirping and animals roaring. The ancient work on Indian musical treatise (Saṃgīta Śastra) suggests how, each and every element of nature has its tone related to one of the seven swarās or fundamental tones (Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ni). For example, the thunder of a cloud in the sky (Gaganaṃ)is related to ‘Gāṃdhāra’, or the roar of a bull (Vṛṣabha) as ” Ṛṣabha”, etc. But, each element or NATURE can utter only one tone as its main tone (other tones are very dull or little used). But, a human, having been evolved through all the kingdoms (minerals, plants and animals) in the past, he has the past associations in him. HE is a blueprint of complete nature. That is why, he can utter all the seven tones.
These seven tones can be uttered in three stages by us. Each stage is symbolic to the three fundamental planes of our existence (Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ and Suvaḥ). They are as follows:
This ability is used by the seers to encode the wisdom. How? When a same word of a vēdic mantra is uttered with different swarās and diffenet sthāyīs, it will have a different meaning and effect. But, this is not man-made. One must realize that in a state of highest bliss, a seer utters a mantra as a revelation. This takes form either in one tone or another. When we meditate the same and utter the same, in exact same tone, we will be pulled into that state. This is the funda behind Japa or Mantra utterance. This is very important to unlock vēdas. Every one knows that Rig Vēda is mother of Sāma Vēda’s contents. But Sāma is sung unlike RIK. So, this singing changes the meaning and perception even though the mantras are borrowed from Rig Vēda. That is why the two vēdās are different, even through their mantrās are same. This key of utterance is called INTONATION-KEY or ŚĪKṢA.
An example would be the Śīkṣāvalli of Taittirīya Upanishad. At the start itself it suggests that “Varṇa Swaraḥ Mātrā Balaṃ”. It means, the uttered syllable ‘Varṇa’ is verily the swara/tone and its Mātra or the property of uttered syllable (like its duration of utterance, etc.) are the strengths of the utterance. So, if one does not know the properties of utterance (like duration and sthāyi) the utterance of a vēdic mantra will be not understood in its complete glory.
This is a ritualistic KEY. As we have seen in earlier articles that a ritual (vēdic or ancient) is a depiction of divine drama on a physical plane. The whole of Yajur Vēda is dedicated to this key. That does not mean, Yajur Vēda is full of fire ritals or animal sacrifices. This will be the state of modern scholars who does not equip themselves with the proper key of ‘KALPA’ and approach the Vēda.
A KALPA is that key which offers a ‘link’ between the drama happening in the prescribed ritual, which may be physical or internal and the properties of nature associated with that ritual. For example, in a fire ritual, say they arrange the bricks of altar in the order of three boundaries of seven bricks each. This gives the formula of 3×7 = 21. This is related to mean the permanence of septenary principle in three states of existence. The same is extolled in Purusha Sukta as — “SaptĀsyāsan Paridhyaḥ Trisapta Samidah Kṛtāḥ”, meaning PURUSHA has three layers of seven bricks each, making 21 bricks or fire sticks in total. So, the seven dhātūs in three planes of physical, subtle and causal is what we are composed of. So, a ritual having this is a direct hint for us to contemplate and associate the aspects of ritual to our body.
In the same ritual, there will be four priests among whom, one is the main one and is called BRAHMA. HE sits on East. So, this is symbolic to SUN rising which again is symbolic to awakening of our consciousness. The other priests represents three other points of Noon, West and Nadir. The mantrās uttered by each priest describes the splendors that happen at every stage of SUN’s path or at every stage of our consciousness travelling daily from wake to sleep.
In KALPA itself, we have what we call KALPA SŪTRĀS which describe the geometry of altars. You can see many interesting stuff like Pythagorean theorem, magic squares, etc. This geometry is actually not only physical but spiritual. For example, a point is considered father, a line as mother and the triangle thus formed as the union of point and line which is child. Such depths when understood, one will really unveil a different dimension to the geometry of creation.
So, equipping ourselves with KALPA will attune ourselves in accord to divine drama. Only in that state of resonance, can we unlock the Vēdic ritualistic wisdom.
Without these keys, we can not wipe the layer of mist, that hovers our notions, and we can not clearly see through the glass of our perception (cover pic). In this article, we have seen two of the six keys. In the next article let us explore the remaining four keys. So, please stay tuned! Thank You.
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PhD (Quantum Physics), M.Sc. (IIT Madras), B.Tech. (LNMIIT).
Bridging the depths of Science and the wisdom of the Vedas
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