by Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar Book Presentation Overview Astrology

Bow and arrow is the glyph of Sagittarius today. Earlier the glyph was a centaur holding the bow and the arrow. A centaur represents a human and the beast intertwined and amalgamated. It is the symbol of a man who is beastly and mundane. It is from the beast, the man arises. In a beast, there is an evolving consciousness from mundanity guided by nature. In man, besides this evolving mundane consciousness, there is a descent of consciousness. This additional descent of consciousness enabled man to be self-conscious.

A beast is not self-conscious. It is guided by nature. It is evolved from the state of mineral and plant into animal. The animal develops the needed memory to eat food, drink water and to protect itself. It has no self-consciousness. Man is the descendent of the heavenly man. He descends into the evolving form of nature. When he descends into the evolved form of a beast, he tends to be a centaur. Eventually through time the centaur form is transformed into a human form.

This understanding is of vital importance. It is here the theory of evolution as propounded by Darwin is disagreed by the knowers. The doctrine of Darwin enunciates that man evolved from the ape. The knowers say that man is a descended one and is far superior to the beast. For the beast is not self-conscious while man is. The beast does not feel ‘I AM’. The beast also does not know that it is a beast. It does not know that it is a cat or a dog, a tiger or a lion and so on. This is because it has no I AM consciousness. Man is I AM consciousness. He takes to forms, which evolved from earth (Nature). Therefore man is called hu-man. ‘Hu’ stands for Humus (a Latin word), meaning mud. Forms are made up of matter or mud. Man entering such forms are called Humans.

Please note that there are two words in English: humanity and mankind. They are not the same. Humanity represents men mixed up with mud, or muddy men. To be more decent one can say they are mundane men. Mankind is a term which has a greater significance – it speaks of the dimension of I AM consciousness. It relates to the man in form but not to the man mixed up in form. Today the word humanity is more used than the word mankind. It speaks of the current state of awareness.

In this context, I would also mention one more expression which is usually used in the world. Generally people express somebody, anybody, everybody and so on. Knowers do not use such words, they say someone, anyone or everyone. Men of the world are focused on bodies or forms. Men of knowledge are focused on the indwellers of the form. “Is anybody at home?” is a very ignorant expression. There may be a body at home but it does not respond. If there is someone in that body, then the response comes. The right question should therefore be, “Is anyone at home?” Bodies are but dead bodies without the indwellers.

A centaur is a situation of man intertwined with a beastly form. Even when human form is gained, the beastly qualities remain. Thus, even among the humans there are many who are beastly. Aggressive and possessive attitudes are but a few to mention of the beastly nature.

The story of evolution is too long and occupies many Yugas, many rounds and many races. What is important to know is that all forms are evolving and into such evolving forms there is a second descent. The descended one is the man with buddhi. The evolving one is man with mind. Bridging the buddhi and mind is the work at hand now, to integrate the evolving one and the descended one. Then man is complete. The descending one prevails over the ascending one and forms himself as a bridge for the descent of higher energies into lower planes and for the ascent of baser energies into the subtle fields. That is where man is seen as the key for fulfilment.