by Dr. Ekkirala Krishnamacharya Book Presentation Overview Wisdom

The beams of the morning sun awakened the tree with its inhabitants. Thousands of birds left their nests and came out fluttering their wings. They chirped in sounds along the three tones and seven sub-tones of the Vedic gamut. At the speeds of the various measures of time, the birds floated in air and exposed their bodies to the golden glow of the morning sun. One bird, golden in colour, sat upon the tree. It had two glittering blue stripes along the margin of the two wings. Its eyes sparkled like two blue diamonds. Its looks glittered like the rays of the morning sun reflected upon the blue of the sea-waves. It moved its wings and dropped its excretes upon the shoulder of an initiate who sat in meditation under the tree after his morning bath.

The disciple noticed it, but was not angry. Instead, he cast his compassionate looks upon the bird. Then the bird spoke in human tongue, “My boy. I am the sage Parasara. This I did only to test your forbearance and compassion. You have come out successful. The previous night was the longest of this year, today being the sacred Sankramana day of Capricorn. Sage Dirghatamas rules the world since he presides over the present day. This divine sage has possessed sage Agastya and wants to express himself through him. Now Agastya lives in the Nilagiris. You go and see him today and seek the astrological wisdom from him. He will clear off your doubts in the science and make you comprehend the whole of the subject. He will fill the missing links in your knowledge and bless you. ”

Saying so, the golden bird floated in air and vanished.

Now the disciple stood before the entrance of the cave of Sravasti. It was not possible for him to walk to Nilagiris and reach there the same day. He has mastered the eight Yogic Siddhis, but he does not know how to reach Nilagiris physically. As he was pondering over the matter, he saw a sturdy young man with a radiant smile coming out of the caves. The visitor approached him greeting, “O, Mahatma ! Are you the sage Jaimini?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Salutations. My Guru Devapi told me that you are here. He ordered me to take you to Nilagiris.”

“How is it possible for us to reach Nilagiris today itself?”

“Yes, we can. First we have to climb up this row of' mountains.”

“May I know your name?”

“I am known as Djwhal Khul. We have to set out immediately. I am very familiar with all the trees of this valley and the bypaths. This tree in flower and fruit is sacred to me, since I received my awakening into a knowledge of my past lives here. When I was sleeping here one day my Guru Devapi gave me the awakening and initiated me into the awakening Mantram of Sreerama, which occurs in the great scripture Ramayana. Since then, I could see my past lives. All through these births my Gurus called me Djwhal Khul. In this birth my relatives know me as Giri Sarma. My mother is the daughter of Sudama.

They advanced beyond the tree talking and they approached a big crevice near the footpath and took a turn towards the rugged rocks that were shaped somewhat like footsteps. After covering some distance, they had to use the roots of big trees as steps to proceed further. At some places they had to hold on to the hanging roots of banyan trees and take a leap by swing. The valley below was unfathomable. What an ant is to a man, man is to that valley below. The ant can crawl without a slip. Nature has given the ant many tiny legs to grip. Man has only two legs. They are not subtle too. All the subtle legs of man cling to his brain in the shape of many opinions and impressions. Man knows not the right use of these legs and hence he walks along the path of life with many slips and falls.

While they are engaged in talk, they crossed one mountain and began to tread the way to another. Independent of each other, the stones stood piled up, awefully rugged. Filled with such piles all over, the whole mountain presented an aerial view of a big ant-hill. It appeared like the head of a family of different hills. Clusters of shrubs with bunches of wild flowers fluttered In the breeze and looked like the many young ladies of the hill tribes, who gather to fetch water from the many streams that flowed down below. The space that filled the valley appeared like a big container. One is reminded of the proverbial “sky in the pot” described by the logician-cosmologist. The enormous volume of space filled the elevations and depressions of the valley and culminated into the absolute sky unbound that shone above the mountains. It is as if a fragment of space, enclosed in a form, entered the ocean of space. The whole perspective shows how negligible the position of man is in the whole creation. Ants keep continuously engaged in moving the grains of sand to pile them up into ant-hills of various magnitudes. So also man is over busy In building up civilisations with the populated cities as grains of sand. Serpents use the ant-hills prepared by their labour. Bigger units of time crawl over the holes of centuries that are fabricated as civilizations by man. Man cannot comprehend the slow movement of the Serpent of Time with its scales as centuries. Man is ever busy with his immediate needs which slyly lead him to death. The flow of the Ganga in the form of many downpours dispersing into various streams suggests many such secrets underlying the mystery of time. Space comes down as the spaces of the valleys on earth in waves. Each wave of the ocean of space comes down as Manvantaras and Yugas that move imperceptibly through man. Each such wave strikes the shores of creation and voices its import. The breaker of the ocean of time liberates centuries, decades, years, months, seasons, noons, nights, days, hours, minutes, seconds and their subdivisions periodically, which again recede into the same ocean of timelessness.

In their conversations Djwhal Khul discussed the astrological wisdom of the seasons, months and half-months. He was happy for the immense wisdom Jaimini had. At the same time he understood that Jaimini paid greater attention to the measures of time than to their import and significance. Jaimini could perceive that the signs of the Zodiac formed in pairs of opposites, casting their influence upon one another. He could measure the lunar mansions also as pairs 180 degrees apart. He could understand how these Nakshatras glance each other. He cared not for the significance of these pairs in fulfilling their mission in creation. Jaimini could understand the whole creation as the expression of the Universal Karma. He is yet to see that discharging one's own duties makes Karma flow as droplets of wisdom through the stream of individual consciousness. Jaimini is trying his best to co-relate Jnana and Karma. He is yet to understand that the two are the wings of the same Bird of Eternal Wisdom, Suparna,

As they proceeded talking, they suddenly saw a very high cliff standing unique. It stood like a bell of bronze well polished. Its head was decorated with a snow cap of the volume of many cubic Yojanas. Myriads of flames red and white appeared to emerge from the cliff and dart down directly towards them. The rays of the noon sun blazed with unbearable glitter. Their bodies grew hot and the blood seemed to boil within. Jaimini could not bear the sight and suddenly closed his eyes with his hands, Immediately he lost his sense of location. With closed eyes he said : “Now it is already noon. When can we reach Nilagiris?”

Djwhal Khul laughed. Jaimini's feet slipped off the path of ice and he glided into the boundless space of the unfathomable valleys. He gave out a big cry and did not know whereto he was falling. He grew giddy and felt that his body rolled in space like a top. Djwhal Khul caught hold of his hand and Jaimini found himself standing, but he stood nowhere! His feet floated in air and Djwhal Khul asked him to open his eyes. As Jaimini did so he found that they were slowly floating in air. Far below towards a little north, he could see rows and rows of the Himalayan ranges.

Djwhal Khul: “Now we are travelling by the sky towards the south.”