The Veda of Unity

I’ve been a little busy recently, partly in testing a video conference setup for a day retreat or satsang that took place last Sunday. Not as nice as being in person, but a step up from a conference call. Cheaper than flying back east. And the power of the group was enough to trigger growth. For me another opening with deepening.

Photo by Astrid Photography

I have heard often of the deep knowledge contained in the Rig Veda, one of the oldest surviving spiritual texts in the world, carefully preserved from prior oral traditions. There has been a great deal of academic study of the text and it’s context. It predates India and Hinduism, arising in the prior Vedic civilization.

Some of the original Vedic translations were done by a German fellow named Max Muller, who sums up a common sentiment that it’s composed of a series of myths and fairy stories, told in hymns to gods.

Indeed, if you are to read a decent translation, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense even as stories. Partly this is in the difficulty of translation. For example, the Sanskrit word for cow is the same as light. Many of the stories have layered meanings, so is this one about farming or celestial experiences? Perhaps celestial while farming?

There are several aspects missing in common understanding. First is that unlike English, Sanskrit has a direct relationship between the sound and meaning of a word. The vibrational characteristics of a word match the vibrational characteristics of the object it describes. The word in effect can elicit the object.

On a subtle level of consciousness, there is a direct relationship between “name and form”. If we are able to listen to the words on that level, the experience of the author can be replayed within. In other words, the verses are codified experiences. I explore this more here.

We may then ask what sort of experience does this encode? Several times recently, I have heard that the Rig Veda encodes the stages of development of Unity Consciousness. That each mandala describes another stage.

I have been speaking here recently of the growing need for more detail on the process of establishing Unity. It has become more common for people to make that switch. Over on After Unity, I touch on this development after the second awakening.

Photo by gin_able

But the Rig Veda goes much deeper. It lays out the 10 stages of development of Unity. From first Unity right through to the development of what has been called Brahman Consciousness. You will not find this from reading the text. This is not a book describing things in the usual sense. Remember – these are encoded experiences, not about mind.

This is about the complete unification of the Self with the contents of that, the world. Now it is true that in Unity, the guru is awake so there is not the same need for any external instruction. But as reality is continuing to unfold, context and verification remain allies.

Recently, I was privileged to hear a rare review of these stages. That may give you an idea of the development taking place in people these days, that this needs to be spoken. There is little value in going into the steps in great detail here. That is just a bunch of meaningless concepts. But in brief, here are the stages.

Keep in mind there is no individual here. This is about merging. And this begins with the second waking, well after self realization.
Mandalas:
1 – stirring the aliveness, the liveliness of silence.
2 – deeper, aliveness seen in objects
3 – observer moving into the flow
4 – witness engages in perception
5 – deepening on level of energy
6 – space seen on surface
7 – cosmic mind
8 – cosmic intellect
9 – cosmic intelligence, mechanics of soma
10- Purusha, Brahman Consciousness

This is quite different from what you might find at, for example, Wikipedia. And it’s a ways from a casual listen to a a DVD such as you might find with Adyashanti’s Journey After Awakening. But it does illustrate how the knowledge is already there and is revealing itself as we reveal ourselves to ourselves.
Davidya

PS – No, soma is not a magic mushroom. It is produced by the human physiology when it is refined enough.