It is in the Well of the Heart that the Waters of Wisdom are to be found; drinking them, we become wise.

It is in the Well of the Heart that the Waters of Immortality are to be found; drinking them, we become immortal.

It is in the Well of the Heart that the Waters of Unity are to be found; drinking them, we shall become brothers to all men, brothers to all women, brothers to all children.

From the beginning of time, man has been concerned about the way to connect with the Divine, for his well-being. Each society has devised ways of doing so, and little by little these practices have evolved as they adapt to man’s expansion of consciousness, and changes brought about in society.

In its infancy, humanity was guided by divine instructors. Confirming this tradition, Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita that it is he who gave the divine wisdom to Vivaswat, which was passed on to Manu and then to Ikshwaku. Ikshwaku “founded the line of Solar Kings, who in early times in India were men of supreme knowledge. The great body of knowledge has come down to us from gods and demi-gods through great Masters of Wisdom-kings. Pharaohs were the Masters of Wisdom-kings of Egypt. Egypt also had its divine instructors in Isis-Osiris. Prosperity and advancement of Egypt is attributed to Isis-Osiris.

In the beginning, spiritual practices were followed by everyone in society, like in ancient Egypt, for the Earth and life on it were seen as a reflection of the spiritual world; it was therefore necessary to stick to the original model so that life would succeed. Today, we see that man has reached a high enough intellectual level which enables more and more people to think for themselves, and decide what they want to do in their spiritual life.

As spiritual progress has not followed in the same proportion, inevitably, more and more people forget God, as they forget the spiritual model, and live their lives mostly through the brain, and not the heart, which brings them greater difficulties. This is regrettable, but it is also another way of acquiring wisdom: through trial and error, through suffering.

In this study, we will see an aspect of the approach taken by two ancient religions and a recent one with regards to connecting with the Divine. Although methods may vary, what does not vary is the fact that man is Spirit in a physical body, with, therefore, a Higher and lower Self, a Higher and lower Consciousness, a Higher and lower Mind, and that by focusing on the heart – the centre of spiritual consciousness, man can reach the Divine realm WITHIN, and unite both worlds, unite both selves.

The ancient Vedic Hindu religion insisted on the fact that there is only ONE reality – the Self, Brahman which includes everything in God’s creation; and that the aim of life is to to realize that Self which is within us all, God in man; this entails the union of both selves, leading to immortality.

The ancient Egyptians believed in the one Life, the one Truth, the one Reality from which all came, and to which all returned – Osiris, which corresponds to the Hindu Universal Self – Brahman, God, and which is in all beings. They believed that the spiritual world was the blueprint for the physical world. They therefore did all they could to pair everything in society on the material plane with the spiritual model, to unite them, in particular both selves, and so ensure material prosperity and immortality.

And finally, in the Christian religion, the focus is on realizing the Kingdom of God within. Imitating the life of Jesus Christ, the sincere seeker works through his heart, which leads him step by step upon a path helping him to obtain the same Mind (Universal Mind, Holy Ghost, Brahma) which is in Christ Jesus, and immortality – union with the Father in Heaven (Universal Self).

However, when for the first time a disciple resolves to walk the spiritual path, his own evil tendencies, threatened with dethronement, line up as a mighty army in the war, as the Kauravas did against the Pandavas in the great epic of Mahabharata. It is the struggle of man’s good nature against the force of his own evil propensities. All religions try to address this problem. In this study, we will get a glimpse of one aspect in the religion of each of these three groups.

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Uniting the Higher and the Lower – The Vedic Religion

  

The Churning of the Ocean of Milk – A Vedic Tale

In the Vedic religion, there were many aspects in the practice of spirituality. One of them was that spiritual truths were also taught through tales, because tales, especially when used in the right conditions, are an easy way to bring home certain fundamental rules or laws since they reach the subconscious mind where they contribute to the growth of consciousness and wisdom.

At that time, teachings were oral; and the scriptures were written first of all by Divine rulers. That is why in these scriptures were found texts which, when listened to, or recited, penetrated into the heart, and the listener benefitted from both the intellectual understanding and the direct transmission of the inner wisdom of the sacred texts to his consciousness. Here, there is no need for erudition, which could even be a handicap.

In this Vedic tale, the devas (the nobler aspects of man) become weak because they no longer find spirituality important, and so do not follow any regular spiritual practice. They are therefore easily defeated by their rivals, the asuras (negative aspects of the lower self) who gain control of the universe, symbolizing man being henceforth led by his brain and lower instincts instead of the heart.

It is the story of the Higher and lower consciousness fighting to control a person’s being, his life. This is what produces the swing from one extreme to the other – e.g. steady spirituality for several months, then a shift to the opposite, where one plunges into the ocean of desire to seek some worldly satisfaction, then back to spirituality once again… resulting in little or no spiritual progress.

The main idea of the tale is that the only solution is to leave the world of asuras behind once and for all, and live in the celestial realms. For this, both selves must be united; however without help from the Higher consciousness (Lord Vishnu in the tale), it is an impossible task. Lord Vishnu advises the devas to be conciliating and work with the asuras (lower self, weaknesses) to churn the ocean to get the divine nectar, the amrita which confers immortality to those who drink it.

To situate the context, in Vedic times it was taught that the Earth was a copy, or shadow of the spiritual plane, and that the world should harmonize itself at all times with it. Everyone, including heads of state and countries should do so. Today this idea is still alive, but is found mostly among Gurus and disciples on the Path.

“Baba [Saint Sacha Baba Girnari, in 1935] further explained to his Excellency the Viceroy [of Great Britian] that the material world was the shadow of the spiritual world and if it did not harmonize with spiritual forces, all was not going to be well with it.” (Diwakar Singh, his personal secretary, From Mahatma Ghandi to Saint Sachcha Baba.)

The lower consciousness must therefore harmonize with the higher one so that a person can live in peace and happiness, and attain the goal of all human beings – that of union with God. 

First of all, the elements involved in the churning, including the devas and asuras had to be found and put into place – in the ocean, to be dissolved and remade into divine beings. This ocean is a reflection of the Casual Ocean, which lies past the abode of Light outside Vaikuntha and which existed before the Creation. The disciple must first leave the terrestrial waters of desire, and reach the Celestial waters. The universe, the golden egg made up of fourteen planes of existence, floats in the Causal Ocean, the Ocean of Milk, which we see as the Milky Way. These primeval waters are the source of all, and to which all will return at the end of time; these waters of dissolution and creation are therefore necessary for spiritual transformation. The old self dies, dissolved, and a new man is born.

This churning takes a long time – some versions say a thousand years; so life after life the disciple must work steadily towards that goal, through a sadhana in his daily life. Through the purifying process of churning, both bad and good things result – evil propensities rise to the surface in the form of the Halahala poison, but are eliminated by Lord Vishnu, the Higher Consciousness.

The asura who tried to drink the nectar of immortality is decapitated with the Sudarshana Chakra, which symbolises the action of the heart. Not only does the heart create expansions of consciousness, but with the help of the Higher consciousness it clears away obstacles in the path, like the Halahala poison. In fact, in man, the celestial waters of the Casual Ocean are reflected in the well of the heart where all transmutations from the lower to the higher take place. To have access to the Casual Ocean, one must develop the qualities of the heart. Churning the ocean is therefore activating and developing the qualities of the heart, leading to union with God.

A manifestation of Lord Vishnu shown holding the Sudarshana Chakra in his rear right hand. In the other three, he holds a shank (conch), Gada (mace) and Padma (lotus). When Lord Vishnu is seen in this form holding the chakra, he is acknowledged as Lord Sudarshana and is then called the ‘Divine Vision’.

Good tendencies also rise to the surface and are saved by the Higher consciousness, until finally the long sought-after elixir is produced. But the lower self does not change, and as usual tries to cheat the God-fearing ones out of of their hard-earned treasure.

But the Higher consciousness, symbolized by Lord Vishnu watches over those who strive to become one with God, and working through the heart, it does what is needed to neutralize the evil tendencies, thus helping the better side of man to triumph and rule once more over both selves. The devas exile the asuras, meaning that they make them completely disappear from their lives, and then thy regain Svarga: freed of their lower tendencies, they become immortal and live once more in the spiritual realms.

The tale gives us an idea of what is entailed in the search for union with God, and encourages us to persevere in our quest for immortality. We are shown the importance of steady spiritual practice for spiritual growth, for otherwise we sink back into the terrestrial waters of duality and suffering. The heart is the key to it all, and it has to be constantly churned for man to reach the goal.

[To be continued in Part 2]