The Secret of the Dawn

Wisdom Teachings
Spiritual Nature

Sky and earth, day and night, dawn and dusk form part of the universal symbols which we keep on experiencing consciously or unconsciously. Night and day are relative for us, because we are living on the planet. If we leave its realm, there is no more anything like day and night. It is said that they exist then in a fused state. Duality only exists if we descend. The spirit descending into a body gets conditioned, that is limited by it. That’s why as long as we are earthly, there is the interplay of times of light and of darkness. When we rise above it and link to the source from which light and darkness emerge, we can live beyond the alternating cycles.

The key for this is the yoga path. It is not the path of light or of darkness, but the way in-between. Where there is neither day nor night, we have the yogic state. There we are not in the personality, but we also don’t negate it. We permeate the personality with the quality of the soul, and thus spirit and matter fall into a balance. At the dawn, where day and night meet, both agree. The darkness withdraws, but the full light is not yet there, it is something in-between. Therefore it is the best time for all yogic exercises.

The dawn represents the link of consciousness which brings us from sleep to waking consciousness and which also makes man come out from death to life. In the Puranic symbolism this linking consciousness is called “Savitri”, the light which appears after dusk and before dawn. Savitri is the light following the soul which is buried deeply in the night of matter. In a poetic form the story of Savitri narrates that she marries a man named Satyavan (truth bearer), who dies one year later. But Savitri follows the truth bearer and brings him back from the kingdom of death to life. Sri Aurobindo describes this story in his great epos Savitri. The truth bearer is the sun, since he doesn’t represent the truth itself, but holds in himself what is beyond himself. The solar disc is a blind for the Light which is the basis of the entire creation. In the evening hours the truth bearer withdraws into matter and the truth gets hidden. In the hours of the dawn the truth bearer once again rises out of matter and becomes the saviour. Savitri stands for the liberated light of the soul, which is called Savitur in the Gayatri mantram. It is therefore proposed that especially during the dawn hours we contemplate on the sunlight and sing the Gayatri, which through the sound invokes the solar energy into us. We can consciously invoke this energy into ourselves through the ajna centre.

The effect of the dawn on the beings of the earth is not so simple as it seems to us. About 90 minutes before the sun appears above the eastern horizon, a great wave of energy spreads over this part of the planet. About 30 minutes before sunrise a second wave of energy is rushing through the atmosphere, which is even more powerful. Chemical processes in the body and processes in the awareness are set in motion. The atmosphere now contains very much prana or vital force, and it is an auspicious time for working with respiration. If possible we should expose ourselves to the rays of the dawn and use its energies, for they contain the key to life, health and experience.

Unfortunately we often feel sleepy during the dawn hours, because the matter in us is so strong that it refuses to receive the light. The soul would like to get up early, but the personality likes to enjoy the conversation in the evening, and when the alarm-clock is ringing in the morning, the body says, no. Thus the past karma disables us to get up early in the morning. If however we seriously want to conduct a spiritual practice, we have to assimilate the energies of the dawn. If however the dawn already starts at 2 or 3 o’clock a.m., this is difficult. But it is desirable to fix a rhythm and stand up before 5 o’clock.

For preparation it is recommended to clean tongue and teeth and to take a shower, to clear bowels and bladder as well as to put on fresh clothes. During the first time after getting up we should not rush into activity, but maintain a slow and easy speed. If we are inwardly silent enough during the dawn, we can feel how the day is going to unfold, because during this time we receive the seed principle and can realize all that is sprouting out of it: If we understand the micro, we also understand the macro. This kind of working with the law of correspondences is soul work.

The whole mystery of awaking cannot be understood by the objective consciousness completely. Even the most holy scriptures don’t succeed in comprehensively describing the secrets of the dawn; they have rather to be experienced. The great masters of the planet observe the dawn full of awe and are enthralled by its beauty, because every morning the devas of the fifth plane, full of compassion, make a visit to the planet. These devas are also called Manasa Devas, the Kumaras, the Lords of the Flame. They bring along the spiritual as well as the material energies. Through them we get what is needed for the material body and for spirituality. At the first dawn of human life 18 million years ago the mind principle was awakened by them in man. Whenever we think of them, the light of awareness keeps on breaking.

Once a month, during 24 hours immediately after the new moon point, the Kumaras visit us in a greater measure, and then there is the annual visit in the month of Capricorn, the dawn of the year. Thus each time the sun is in Capricorn he brings us very special rays. They help us to make the mind transparent, to rise towards the spirit and to liberate ourselves from matter. Capricorn therefore is called the sign of the birth of the gods, the devas, and the seemingly northward course of the sun starting now is regarded as the upward movement of the spirit. At the time of dawn, starting from Cancer, the material forces increase again. Capricorn is the east, Cancer the west. Astrologers call them ascendant and descendant.

Every year at the solstice on 22nd December, when the sun enters into the sign of Capricorn, the birth of the saviour happens. For this day marks the dawn, and the sun is the saviour of the solar system. In the life of the great master Jesus we find a correspondence with this time key, for according to esoteric understanding Jesus Christ was born at that time. In the New Testament three wise men came from the east and followed the descent of a white, radiant star. They saw how the five-pointed star came down to earth and they have witnessed the birth of a saviour once again. This descent of the five-pointed star is nothing but the descent of the Kumaras, the devas of the fifth plane. People usually don’t know why in the month of Capricorn they prepare a lighting in form of a five-pointed star, but it reminds them of the birth of the light of awareness. For those who are ready, this birth happens daily, monthly and annually.

K.P. Kumar: Hercules. / notes from seminars / E. Krishnamacharya: Book of Rituals. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.