The Aura

Roman Altar of Peace

  

In ancient Roman art, divine figures were often depicted with a veil forming an arch around them, as if billowing from a breeze emanating from their own body. This artistic device is called a velificatio, a term related to the word ‘veil’. The velificatio is also associated with rebirth and the vault of heaven.

The Kundalini energy is felt as an inner cool breeze, which not only refreshes and nourishes the subtle body, but generates a protective aura around it. Ancient Indian yoga texts use the term kosha ‘sheath’, and there is no close equivalent of the term ‘aura’.

In ancient Greek mythology, the Aurae were wind deities, who were often depicted with a velificatio, (the device spread via Greco-Buddhist Central Asia as far as Japan). 19th century spiritualists associated the velificatio with the subtle energy field they postulated, and started to use the word “aura” to refer to this emanation.

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has recommended the use of a bandhan, before and after meditation, as a protection. The bandhan is a movement of the right hand in an arch over the body, seven times, once for each of the auras generated by the seven chakras awakened by the Kundalini. It should be performed with the power of the attention, which is purified and strengthened by the Kundalini, the Cool Breeze.

After Louis F Elle the Younger, portrait of a lady as Iris, the messenger goddess, source: Wikipedia

 

The Queen and Governess of the World

A few quotes from the 17th century English Puritan preacher and author Thomas Watson:

"The providence of God is 'the queen and governess of the world.' It is the eye which sees, and the hand which turns all the wheels in the universe."

"Meditation is the saints’ perspective glass, by which they see “things invisible.” It is the golden ladder by which they ascend in holy imagination to heaven. It is the dove sent out, and which brings back the olive-branch of peace."

"The wheels of a chariot are an emblem of contentment: the wheels move, the axle stirs not. When change and motion are around us, a contented spirit remains firm in its centre."

The Wheel of Fortune, from John Lydgate’s Troy Book and Siege of Thebes

 

Mozart as a Child

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Portrait of Mozart, detail

The Chakras As Centres of Influence Through History

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has identified the various regions of the Earth that correspond to the seven Chakras, the Kundalini, and the Void. I noticed that the succession of Empires and cultures throughout history seems to follow a path of ascent through the chakras, but in a serpentine fashion, alternating from left to right. And I thought to make this tentative diagram. I am not making any judgments here about the morality of these empires and superpowers, they each had their day in the sun, then dissolved, though some of their influence continued. The concept of a world government is controversial, I know. I see the final, future Sahasrara stage, not as an authoritarian 'New World Order', but as a spiritual union of equals, various countries and cultures, with, perhaps, a centre of government in the Himalayan region, where the large, populous nations: China, the former Soviet Union and India meet.  

Note: the Left Agnya is on the right side of the head, as the Ida Nadi and Pingala Nadis cross over at the sixth centre. The Australian aborigines did not have an empire as such, but their culture and deep spirituality arose many thousands of years ago, and must have had a subtle influence on the development of humankind. 

Please feel free to share this diagram, but please do not remove the credit. Thanks.

Hildegard von Bingen, Sequence for the Holy Spirit

O mighty course that runs within and through
the all—up in the heights, upon the earth,
and in the every depth—
you bind and gather all together.

From you the clouds flow forth, the wind takes flight,
the stones their moisture hold,
the waters rivers spring,
and earth viridity exudes.

-Hildegard von Bingen, Sequence for the Holy Spirit, excerpt, translation by Nathaniel M. Campbell

Franklin Carmichael 

Exchange between Sri Dnyanadeva and His Teacher

Sant Jnanadeva

 

Nivruttinath says, Oh Dnyanadeva, 

you are purified by Self-realisation.

By understanding the Self, 

you and your devotion have become

one with the Universe. 

The doubts and division 

between you and God 

have disappeared.

Reigning in your mind, 

God has appeared in your heart. 

Now with His omnipresence, 

there is no emptiness.

Nivruttinath says, Oh Dnyanadeva, 

you are purified by Self-realisation.

The brightness of this light of knowledge 

has outshined everything else in this world,

and the flames of desires inside you 

are extinguished.

Nivruttinath says, Oh Dnyanadeva, 

you are purified by Self-realisation.

With the disappearance of these desires, 

the whole world is filled with God’s presence.

Nivruttinath says, Oh Dnyanadeva, 

you are purified by Self-realisation.

Dnyanadeva says, with the ultimate teachings 

of Nivruttinath, 

Dnyanadeva realised complete 

mercy and contentment

Wilderness Awakening

"one day Ross was in a slightly different part of the ocean, swimming on his own. He was on the west coast of Cape Town, where the water is even colder than his usual swimming spot. A huge school of fish swam up to him and circled him. "In marine protected areas, these fish are very calm around people because they're not hunted and they're actually incredibly friendly," Ross says. "I was just totally absorbed in this experience of these beautiful fish just swimming all around me; [I was] quite enchanted." Then the cold started to bite, and he returned to the beach. Sitting there in the sun to warm up, Ross says, "the strangest thing happened, [which] hasn't happened since". "I heard this voice in my head saying, 'Don't be scared'. "And then these waves of flames just came up through my body and straight out of the top of my head. And it was an awakening. I just knew that I was awake now for the first time."" Read full article here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-09/ross-frylink-craig-foster-cold-water-swimming-in-south-africa/100584846

Seeing Swirling Commas of Light in the Sky

Sometimes when we look at a blue sky we can see swirling, dancing commas of light. This is a common phenomenon known to ophthalmologists and is called the blue field entropic phenomenon. We are seeing the white blood cells in the retina. Everything in the physical body has a spiritual significance, and the white blood cells represent what are called in Sanskrit the ganas, or protective beings who defend the body from disease. So in a sense, I guess you could say you are seeing angels. From Wikipedia: In Hinduism, the Gaṇas are attendants of Shiva and live on Mount Kailash. Ganesha was chosen as their leader by Shiva, hence Ganesha's title gaṇeśa or gaṇapati, "lord or leader of the ganas".

Hildegard von Bingen's Vision of the Divine Feminine

She is so bright and glorious that you cannot look at Her face or Her garments for the splendour with which She shines. For She is terrible with the terror of the avenging lightning, and gentle with the goodness of the bright sun; and both Her terror and Her gentleness are incomprehensible to humans . . . . But She is with everyone and in everyone, and so beautiful is Her secret that no person can know the sweetness with which She sustains people, and spares them in inscrutable mercy.

- Hildegard von Bingen’s vision of the Feminine Divine, from Scivias, III, 4.15, translated by Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B. and Jane Bishop

Chakra Scroll

 

Chakra scroll, Kashmir, early 19th century, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The top image represents the state above the Sahasrara Chakra called Pralaya, the dissolution of the universe before it is recreated. 

The sage Markandeya is shown worshipping Lord Vishnu in the form of an infant sucking his toe (symbolising the sweetness of surrendering to the Lotus Feet of the Divine). All that exists is The Self (Lord Vishnu), the ocean of existence (pure undifferentiated being), a banyan tree (representing Self-knowledge), and the sage (the witness).

Other images are of some of the chakras.

The bottom image is of the Kundalini, the coiled spiritual energy which connects us with the All-pervading Supreme Self.

The Lady Truth

Petrarch and Laura de Noves, Ashmolean Museum

“Often have I wondered with much curiosity as to our coming into this world and what will follow our departure. When I was ruminating lately on this matter, not in any dream as one in sickness and slumber, but wide awake and with all my wits about me, I was greatly astonished to behold a very beautiful Lady, shining with an indescribable light about her. She seemed as one whose beauty is not known, as it might be, to mankind. I could not tell how she came there, but from her raiment and appearance I judged her a fair Virgin, and her eyes, like the sun, seemed to send forth rays of such light that they made me lower my own before her, so that I was afraid to look up.”

“it occurred to me this could be none other than Truth herself.”

-Petrarch, Secretus

Milan Cathedral

 

Rose window of Milan Cathedral, with symbols of the Om, Shakti and Heart.

Angelus Silesius

Angelus Silesius was a 17th century Christian mystic, native to Silesia, in what is now Poland, and was known as The Prophet of the Ineffable. He composed spiritual epigrams mostly in the form of couplets written in German, and was influenced by his reading of medieval mystics such as Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroeck. 

Most of the English translations I have seen of his epigrams are very outdated, and sometimes horribly contorted in order to make them rhyme in English. I think Silesius wrote them as rhyming verses, but it's not always possible to translate such concise rhyming couplets into another language successfully. 

Here are some renderings I've made from them, some freer than others in adherence to the originals. They are not intended to be accurate translations, and I didn't try to make them rhyme. I was struck by the similarity of some of Angelus's poems to Indian mystical writing. 

Search within yourself. 

The Philosopher’s Stone, 

the key to transformation, 

cannot be found outside. 

The entire Universe, 

Heaven, Hell and Earth, 

are all within you. 

Whatever you desire, 

you already have. 

The world does not contain you; 

you contain the world. 

You are yourself the world 

and you contain nothing but yourself. 

God is no thing. 

He is untouched by time or matter 

God is heard in silence, 

and is best worshipped in silence. 

The saint does not look forward to a heaven in an afterlife; 

he lives in heaven now. 

You cannot enter heaven; 

heaven is who you are. 

Before there was a sense of a separate I, 

there was only Universal Being. 

And when the separateness disintegrates, 

you will know you are that Universal Being. 

Time is timeless; 

it is only the mind that tries 

to measure what is measureless. 

God is gold hidden in river sand, 

and love is river water, 

washing God into view. 

The rose has no rationale, 

it simply blooms. 

Joy can only be experienced 

by dissolving the sense of ‘I’ and ‘other’ 

in the ocean of Unity. 

Love is a faster way to God than knowledge. 

God pours Himself out into Creation for Eternity, 

yet He is undiminished. 

Without rebirth we are like rivers 

which turn back from the ocean. 

Theologians form different schools to describe God, 

but the school of the Spirit within you teaches you to know God. 

When the human heart becomes attuned to God, 

the whole everlasting cosmos becomes a bell that rings. 

Those who know God’s depths also attain His peaks. 

We think a child foolish for crying over a broken doll, 

but are the things we covet any more alive than a doll? 

When you heart is pulled neither by attraction nor aversion, it rests in God. 

The richness and vastness of God is like an undiscovered continent. 

Even if God was to be born a thousand times to Mary, in Bethlehem, 

it would do you no good if you do not bear Him within yourself. 

The saint knows that all possessions are nothing but himself. 

The owner of the world’s greatest treasure is poorer than a beggar 

if he sees that treasure as other than himself. 

God is one without an other. 

To know God, the knower must know that he is one with the known. 

A loaf contains many grains, 

and the sea countless drops; 

so is God both one and many. 

The All emerges from the One 

and to the One the All returns. 

If you do not become reborn in God 

you do not value His birth in Bethlehem, 

and if your separateness does not die, 

His death at Golgotha will not save you. 

God and Self are one. 

If the Self ceased to exist 

God would cease to exist.

Rose Window, Milan Cathedral

Poplars

Richard Herold, Poplars

Oskar Kaubisch-Cavertitz, Pappelallee am Weg nach Schöna, um 1930

 

The Singular Substance

Spinoza believed that there is only one substance to reality, and that this singlular Substance is God/Nature, the immanent, not the transitive cause of all things’ and ‘absolutely infinite’.

Indian Advaita philosophy also posits that God and the world are one and the same. The Western mind has difficulty with the concept that God is immanent and not separate from world and Self, but Spinoza's Substance Monism gives Monotheism its true meaning: there is no being but God.

Baruch Spinoza

"The more you struggle to live, the less you live. 

Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. 

Instead, surrender to what is real within you,
for that alone is sure….
you are above everything distressing."

- Baruch Spinoza

DADIRRI