Dipavali and Calendar - K.Chandrahari

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Dīpāvali – Worship of the Yogic Power, Kundalini

 

Dipavali today has innumerable legends associated with it as are the

innumerable lamps getting lighted all over the Indian subcontinent.

India, having one of the most antique heritage and a living tradition

traceable to the 3rd and 4th millennium BC has a way of life carrying

the signatures of these old Ages and shares the features of what may

be described as the cultural ruins of a far more creative and

different phase of human activity. One of the hallmarks of this

ancient civilization as can be gleaned from ancient literature that

have survived the onslaught of time had been an obsession with time as

to worship it as a Great God – Mahakala and Mahadeva of the ancient

Tantra who is a personification of the stellar reference (Star Mūla)

of the computation of time vis-à-vis the marker of the New Year.

According to the modern Christian calendar Sun transits over this

point around 16th of December which is nearly 45 solar days after the

Dipavali celebrations of 2005 and this difference is a consequence of

the loss of the true rationale of the festival as well as the

luni-solar calendar. Actual day of Mula_samkrama when macrocosmic and

microcosmic Prana will be in concordance shall be 18:09 IST on 16

December 2005.

 

Deepavali originally symbolized the Kundalini who resembled an "array

of lights" and as Sun transited the Muladharam, Mahakundalini became

active and kindled the inner light of all. It also marked the

initiation day in Tantrik tradition and the lighting of lamps

symbolized the same. Some of the customs related to Deepavali

celebrations – Yama trayodasi celebrations meant lighting of the lamps

for Yama's dogs, Syama and Sabala to transcend `apamrtyu' can be true

only if Deepavali is celebrated as Mula_samkrama. Preta Chaturdasi or

Naraka_Chaturdasi is also related to the representation of Naraka and

Nirrti etc by Mula star. Siddhas plucked medicinal herbs on the

Chaturdasi as the solar transit is believed to infuse in them the

potency of Mrtasanjeevani. Oil bath and fasting from Krishna-trayodasi

to Sukla dviteeya, Vidyarambham etc have been steps enunciated to take

full advantage of the astronomical positions that invigorated the

Prana in both macrocosm and microcosm.

 

Astronomical Rationale

 

Festival derived its rationale from the new moon and the first tithi

of the bright half that coincided with the solar transit over Mūla,

which marked the New Year epoch of the worshippers of Lord Siva. In

calendar terms Mārgasīrsha sukla-pratipada coinciding with the solar

transit over Mūla was the original Indian New Year, which is described

in purānic literature as Bali-pratipada, in the name of the Great King

of Asuras viz., Mahābali who ruled over the region surrounding the

Narmada. Star Mūla also received personification as Kāla – the lord of

death, described also as Yama in the terminology of Yoga. End of the

year on Kārttika Krishna 30 and New Year of Mārgasīrsha

sukla-pratipada marked the Solar transit over the Mūlādhāra of

Kālapurusha – the seat of the occult power "Jyoti" (light) or

"Mahākundalini" of the Universe. It is this basic astro-tāntrik

rationale that led to the celebration of the New Year by lighting lamps.

 

2400: Death Point on Zodiac: Mūlādhāram: Kālalingam:

Mahākāla and

Mahākāli, Yama.

Jyoti: Flame of Kundalini – Jyotihsastra, the science of Kundalini, in

terms of celestial lights and their rhythms

 

2400 and the Mūla star also signify the abode of all spirituality and

the source of Kundalini – Man's transcendence of disease and death as

Yogi, Pasupati, Mrtyunjaya.

 

Another reason behind the lighting of lamps may be the beginning of

Pitryāna with the solar transit of Mūla whose deity is mrtyu or

Nirrti. The basic identification of the Kārttika Krishna 30 with Yama

or Narakāsura had its genesis in the tāntric conception of time as

Mūlādhāra Cakra over which the star Mūla marked the death

point – the

netherworld or Naraka or the seat of Yama. Mūla marked the beginning

of Pitryāna at the point where Ākāsa Ganga crosses the ecliptic

and

this feature led to the ancient notion that the Ganga formed the

boundary of the world of humans and the Pitrloka. It is important here

to note that the special location of Mūla also led to its

personification as Mahākāla and the tāntric worship of Time as

Linga.

 

…Not the figments of one's imagination….

 

What I have stated above are not simply the figments of imagination.

The legend regarding churning of the Ksheera Sāgara or Milky Ocean

(Akāsa Ganga) is an allegory that refers to the original epoch at

which the Zodiac was given a mathematical formulation. Mūla,

personified as Mahādeva or Gangādhara was at the place ecliptic

crossed Akāsa Ganga. Vāsuki who served as the rope was the celestial

equator of a few thousands of years before the present. Legends had

personified Dhanu rāsi as Siva, Simha rāsi holding the pole of the

ecliptic (around which Dhruva had its slow revolution) as Vishnu, and

the Kanyā rāsi as many Virgin goddesses. Glimpses of this great epoch

is apparent in Rāmāyana and Mahābharata too in allegorical terms

such

as "Nirarteya Rāvana"(Mūla star on the equator - Lanka), Rāma &

Sita

(Sun & Moon), "matsya-kanyā", "Gangadutta", etc, characters of great

antiquity who had their roles described in the epic in terms of the

calendar conflicts of later epochs before the complete extinction of

the Saivagama based civilization.

 

Evidences supporting the antiquity of the worship of Mūla star as Siva

include the worship of time as genitals and astronomical

interpretation of Sivas iconography that survived the eons of time. It

is worth noting that at Prāg- Jyotishpura or Kāmākhya – in the

city of

Narakāsura – Devi is worshipped as genitals installed on the banks of

Akāsa Ganga and at the Navagraha temple all the nine Grahas are

worshipped as Linga. Purāna authors have described Narakāsura as the

son of Earth in view of the personification of Tāntrik Mūla having

equator over it.

 

I am to conclude for the present that a chapter of Hindu antiquity

remains unearthed even today and the consequent incompleteness of

history is the basic reason behind many ambiguities and confusions

about Indian history.

 

K. Chandra Hari