Dr. Raj Balkaran 0:05
Welcome back to the Indian wisdom Podcast. I'm Dr. Raj Bock, Ron, you, you're looking for inspired insight, everyday life. Today we'll talk about this little thing, speak thing actually called the moon. Wherever a captivating human attention, there's nothing more captivating and present to behold than the full moon. It is, it is a miracle. Actually, when you think about it, consider all of the factors in place, which render the distance from the sun, and the earth and the distance from the moon in the earth, and the size difference between the Moon and the Earth and the Sun. And they all happen to line up so that we perceive the aura of the moon and the orb of the sun to be quite similar, virtually identical. Without which we wouldn't have eclipses just so happens that this has been recorded, just following a lunar eclipse. And there's much to be said about the symbology and perhaps effect of eclipses. What people are probably much more captivated by considering the past Eclipse was just a penumbral eclipse, a partial eclipse. The the other fascination I believe, is the upcoming total solar eclipse of 2024 Global Eclipse, maybe say a bit about that, in the next episode, where we talked about a really fascinating myth of the turning of the ocean. That explains, among other things, the origin of eclipses. But today we turn to the moon itself. Or the inspiration for this was chatting with a client just before, just before now, actually, this happens to be an hour amid a relatively busy zoom day. And we were talking about the moon and joking about lunacy. The idea that think about lunacy, what does the word lunacy or lunatic mean? Well, we know what it means in common parlance. But etymologically it comes from Luna, which is the Latin word for moon because it was thought that the moon, the waning and waxing of the moon, and particularly the full moon paused and it was implicated somehow in lunacy. Now, there's much to be said about that as well. But that's a story for another day. But what we were focusing on in this conversation was the extent to which the moon reflects the light of the sun. Now, Indian Western traditions take the moon, as representative of the Manas, the mind, wherein we find the emotions, the impressions, the habits, the impulses, why do I disambiguate these phenomena? Because there's another portion of what we think of as the mind that is more popularly thought of as the intellect where in we find critical thinking, discernment, wisdom, yes. Because critical thinking within the material realm alone is limited ultimately, according to the wisdom traditions, the ultimate slicing and dicing, parsing of the intellect is to disambiguate and discern the permanent from the impermanent spirit from matter, if you will, consciousness soulfulness from the transient nature of material existence, this is the body okay. So we have the body which is the source of wisdom. And then we have the minus which is the mind that scurries here in there this is, this is the rat race mind. This is the hamster wheel mind. And we find an analog eroded analog, simple, logical analog and in ancient India where we see the god Kenisha Bellefonte headed, yes, for those of you who have a visual of the artwork for this podcast, you'll see Ganesha, the All Wise mode of beginnings, word of wisdom, but of auspiciousness, etc, etc. is V Yeah call his Ivana many of the deities of varnas there, as if totem animals, right. So Durga is Vahana is the lion Kartikeya is varnas that peacock and these varnas indicate something to do with the energy of the day the proper Durga represents sovereignty and, and power so the line Kartikeya is swift and proud and handsome Kamara peacock. Now there's an exception to this rule and Ganesha because Ganesha is Vahana is no sugar, no mouse. He's not very mouse like, elephants aren't actually. This is actually a really brilliant encoding of the human complex, the Omkara the the mental apparatus, where you have the faculty of discernment wisdom Ganesha atop the scurrying monkey mind, the rat race mind the hamster wheel, the rodent aspect, the mouse, and its Kinesia was actually stabilizing. The mouse LCB scurrying here and there and everywhere, and so too, as our faculty of discernment, so to does wisdom, ground and clarify and assuage the incessant sway and movement and scurrying of the emotional mind. Yes. So, this symbology can also be mapped on to certain extent, onto the moon, the moon is said to represent the Manas is very aspect of self. Because much like the mind, it is always changing. In his waxing and waning, it's never in the same place. And it's never the same size. What does it reflect it reflects the light of the sun, and the sun represents the soul itself, the ultimate self, who you ultimately are the atman or in Buddhism, the Anat Minh, however you construe it, it is the same ground of being to which we are called to awaken, to awaken from this dream of material life. Yes, sun represents that self reliant, source of heat light support, which is the Anima Tory principle, which is the Autobahn which is spirit if you will. And the mind reflects a little light of the soul. When does the moon reflect the light of the sun, but one can say all the time, really all the time, because what about on the new moon day when the moon is completely dark, and there is absolutely zero, exactly zero reflection of light of the sun. About when the moon is so close to the sun, that it cannot be seen. There is one moment and one moment alone, when the moon fully reflects the light of the sun. And that is the moment of Ponemah the moment of the full moon. We think of it as a day in Yes. Think of it as a day as a tea as a as a 1/30. of the pie of the sky. Yes, but really, if you think about it, the moon is waxing and waxing and waxing and Alaskan waxing. And the moment that it is fully full directly in alignment with the sun, fully reflecting the light of the sun. The very next moment it begins to wane. And this oscillation
persists, ad infinitum forever, forever and ever. Amen. So the moon is of tremendous fascination, particularly the full moon, but certainly the waning and waxing of the moon. Now, we can think of these two sun and moon that's emblematic of solar and lunar aspects of self which we can loosely think of as feminine and masculine aspects of self beyond physiology, sex, beyond psychology and sociology, gender and gender roles. Beyond relational dynamics, power dynamics, masculine and feminine are considered to abide in all beings in all humans. And their most manifest in a layer of the self called the prana Maya Kosha the energy body so you have a physical self Leanna Maya Kosha you have a mental self, the Mundo Maya Kosha you have an intellectual self manana Maya Kosha, you have a soul, the atman have sort of I would say spiritual or joyful self, that's your unimac ocean. And this layer where the prana with lifeforce flows through you is called the programmatic Kosha. It's like the circuitry of all of the CO shows or layers of your being. And while there are great many channels for the energy to flow, there are two great channels one overall in the right side of the body, that's considered the solar channel and one in the left side of the body, that's considered a lunar lunar channel. And this is why in whenever you see concert deities masculine and feminine concert deities, Shiva and Parvati, Vishnu and Lakshmi, you name it, you will always see Rama and Sita, Krishna and Radha, you will always see the masculine data and the right and the feminine deity on the left. Now, the interplay of the two is crucial, right, these are aspects of self we could think of this solar channel as left brained and the lunar channel is right brained, whether we want to think of that physiologically or metaphorically, one pertains to the solar left brain channel pertains to order structure, stability, rigidity in the lunar feminine channel, pertains to what can be ascribed to a right brain function more so. Creativity, transformation, there is a great deal of misconception to my mind, in search in echo chambers, among Western intellectuals who wish to ascribe order to the masculine and in chaos to the feminine, and that's ludicrous. The masculine has to do with the preservation of the status quo. The feminine has to do with its transformation from the perspective of order. transformation can look chaotic. From the perspective of the masculine, the feminine can look like chaos. But when one relates to a bird's eye view, one sees that both preservation and transformation are required. There is a time for Vishnu the energy of preservation, Vishnu Lakshmi, there is a time for Durga colleague Shiva, deities of transformation. She was also called the destroyer. But destruction amid a cyclical cosmos is ultimately transformation. Yes, they're both required, they temper each other. Ultimately, according to Indic thought, both the solar and lunar channels ultimately, once one is awakened, energy actually abides in the central channel, the Shona where the two modes cooperate, collaborate. If you look at the Great's of various fields, you name it, the greats who have walked this earth with this spiritual or mundane whether DaVinci Mother Teresa unit and you name it, movers and shakers, and they have extraordinary masculine attributes and extraordinary feminine attributes. And they know when to use which God grant me the courage to change the things I can masculine mode. Right. The serenity to accept the things they cannot feminine mode. It so many of us accept things we should endeavor to change. In so many of us try to change things we really should accept. So the third part of this brilliant prayer, the Serenity Prayer is God grant me the wisdom to know and to do which when to strike and when to stay your hand. Yes, so there's a time for the solar and there's a time for the Lunar and this is their time to focus more on the the lunar this this captivating, or that Psalm? Yeah, beautiful Sanskrit word that means benevolent, mild, benign, pleasant to behold. There are some lovely Samia people in my life thankfully. But Sonia in Sanskrit etymologically, pertains literally to Soma. Soma is one of the most popular names of the moon. It actually comes from ancient Soma sacrifice Soma, Bruce sama plant. This this sort of inebriated ecstatic experience that's personified as one of the three most popular deities in the Rigveda humans to Agni, hymns to Indra and hymns to samba, the deity of this lunacy. This this religious lunacy, if you will, is the just serendipitously to take a bit of time, right before this podcast go into grab a coffee, I've got coffee at home, but grabbing coffee gives me an excuse to go and and move. It's a motion in clear the mind. See what bubbles up from from the unconscious. See what inspiration strikes and I typically listen to music as I marched along to grab my coffee in return, and have a playlist of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of musical pieces a variety of genres. One of the genres is classical, Western, classical as well as Indian classical. And it just so happens that up, a number came up, probably obscure you you would recognize it if you heard it, because it's so commonly used for powerful moments in movies and things it's called work is called up Carmina Burana by Carl Orth. And he was so taken with this work, he disowned everything else he composed before it and it was inspired by this Latin poetry that was discovered and this piece is called Old Fortuna very, very powerful piece of music and as I'm sort of thinking and waxing poetically about the moon in my mind, on comes this track. And I thought, you know, there's something about this track. Oh, yes, I remember now with this. I remember what this means. Now. You know, you listen to music and you forget the lyrics to what it means and and it's all for tuna veloute Luna or fortune, like the moon start to variabilities in changeable variable state, simple crosskeys OTIS Gretzky's ever waxing ever waning Vita data stabilities testable life the waxing and waning the rising and falling of fortunes, or Fortuna. Let's just inspired by the waning and waxing of the moon, what a beautiful piece of music with a beautiful piece of poetry. Like some 25 years ago, I used to write much more poetry than I do now. Right scholarly works and I don't know what else I write these days really emails. I remember writing a poem it was just was one full moon night and I was, I think, at the time I there I was studying William Blake for an English degree. It's less than 25 years ago that I ended up abandoning, and I discovered Sanskrit literature a few years later. But it was a tie William Blake's Tiger Tiger burning bright In the forests of the night and I ended up writing this poem along the lines of Luna Luna glowing bright, amid the stars across the night. What immortal hand or I Could frame thy fearful symmetry. And I can't for the life of me remember the rest of that poem? I'm sure it's maybe in some shoebox somewhere if I'm lucky. But needless to say, the moon is a source of inspiration from many. And in the Western traditions, actually, the moon represents creativity and inspiration. A like
a nest of me waxing poetic within the moon. Perhaps I should get to the story proper. Isn't that why you're all here? But you're not all here to hear a story. So the moon god, Chandra, might be the most common name for the moon actually. Moon God was handsome, charming, debonair. You'll see encoded in his description much of the symbology of the Moon was full of light and a joy to be around. is mild, benign temperament was enjoyed by all and he certainly knew how to have fun. He would gallivant around the heavens in his antelope Tron chariot. Breach of whim, Chandra fluttered from interest interest, like the social butterfly, he was I mean, both topical interest as well as personal interest. Yes. I mean, when when is the universe still, but to whom I remember his attention was focused upon he was deeply empathetic, a good listener and a comfort to all. He also had a wild imagination and a profound intuition. But among his many, many qualities, commitment was not when time came to get married, Chandra Well, you know, he's looking around and you know, he was kind of sheepish about maybe settling down to begin with, but it was the thing to do, you know, figured he had to get married at some point, but he needed a random arrangement that would suit his temperament, his whimsical temperament. I'm sure many of you may have non traditional temperaments and marriages and situations and you need to find what works for you. Just so happens that at that time, duck Shah, Sen. Brahma was looking for grooms for whom, for his daughters of whom they were 27 Yes, 27 daughters. Okay. So Chandra comes to meet the potential brides. And he spent some time with all of them. And, you know, he's able to see things from various angles, right? He's always shifting perspectives, and he really got to connect and appreciate the various personalities, all 27 of them. And they were all dazzled by his charming presence. So, they all asked daddy Daksha if they could all be his bride, you know, well, they were all more than willing induction was a bit he was like at a loss at how to proceed, because this arrangement would be unconventional to say the least, but nevertheless, this would save 26 further such processes and you know, why not? Why not multitask, marry them all off, they seem to all connect and they seem to be happy to to be co wives co brides. And so, he reads and the rights to be are absolutely delighted and the marriage is arranged, you know, mesmerized by the moon each bride agreed to be with him for one night each in so suppose perhaps they set up a roster or some such thing. And he wants to spend one night with each of his new brides. And of course, after the 27th night, he will return to the original. Now, for those of you for whom the number 27 or 28 ish is striking a chord Yes, this story is a mythologize ation OH Of The Moon passing through 27, lunar asterisms or nakshatras constellation groups startups, okay. This the system, this nakshatra system is the oldest element of Indian astrology invoke since Vedic times, used at very least for ritual, if not much more. And there's profound and rich mythology associated with each of these stars. The star clusters. Okay. So this is their agreement and flamboyant romantic that he was Chandra was extended to the arrangement, I look forward to connecting with each of his brides on each successive night. But, you know, you know, just like when you have children, you love all of your children, obviously. I mean, there's, it's silly, you know, children always think someone else's favorite, or loved more, and they don't often grok that their love to the same. More often than not, they're, you know, you may like or get along with one of the personalities more than other That's just human nature. There's something about that child more, but there's almost always a favorite in there somewhere on some level and so so to among Dutchess, 27 daughters, there was one name Rohini who was the youngest and fairest of them all. And the moon was quite smitten. Rohini is actually the constellation. That is what let me think about this L Deborah Ron, we have these wonderful Arab names for many of the for many of the stars, because while Europe was in in the dark ages, it was the Arab world who kept alive science and astronomy, etcetera, etcetera. So I'll never run. I'll double run is of very intense Some bright red star reddish dark. And it is in the constellation of Rishabha or Taurus Sagittarius Taurus. In the ancient Indian system, they accounted for the precession of the equinoxes. So that will always be Taurus. The Western system does not account for the precession of equinoxes, so it's about 25 ish degrees off now. So at some point, it won't be Taurus at all. It'll be a whole different sign, etc, etc. But I'll Deborah Ron, or Rohini nakshatra is the eye of the bull of Taurus. And for those of you who study Indian astronomy, astrology, Chandra is understood to be exalted in Taurus. Themes of Taurus and themes of the moon go are quite simpatico in these symbolic systems. And so, the story goes generous favorite wife is Rohini, the youngest and fairest of them all, and he secretly desire her more intensely than all the others. So when it came turn to spend the night with the moon, God brought me in the moon god, they became deeply engrossed with each other, savoring every moment of their passion and tenderness. But that next day came, the moon could not bring himself to pull away from reuveni. And so he stayed with her first second night, matching the moon staying in the same place, which were nights in a row, and goodness with the cosmos not be out of order, and then a third, and then a fourth. And this went on for weeks. Finally, after 26 Nights had passed, and all 26 Of the remaining co wives had been equally snubbed, they all band together and they all sallied forth to daddy Daksha to complain about their plight, and they express their outrage at being neglected newlyweds and so duck, she decides to intervene on his on behalf of his daughters, and he goes down to the pole to the lunar mansion. Unintended of Rohini rings the doorbell perhaps the butler opens the door who knows what that was like. But, you know, he confronts Chandra and says, look like we they what's going on here? Like you had an agreement, this isn't your duty. Your duty is to pay attention at all your wives. And, you know, that reduction system on what's the problem I'm enjoying Rohini she's enjoying me. You know, be that as it may adduction life is not all about enjoyment. We have responsibilities. You have to be there for all of your wives. Ah, surely they knew who they married. They knew what they were getting into. You know, it's it's very free spirit of mine that they love so much in the first place. Furious as that is obstinacy in his egoism. Daksha criticism. He says that you're so satisfied with your own luster, the same luster which blinds you to decency, I expose you to lose your shine. Let's now see how enjoyable your life will be. With that decay immediately departed back to the boat and the moon started to lose its luster. He was beside himself as day after day. He was waning before his very eyes in the eyes of all wallowing in great self pity, pined away day after day losing sliver after sliver until after a fortnight he had lost his luster entirely. The Dark Night of the Soul was painful and disorienting for him indeed know what's a peacock without its tail. difficult as this ordeal was it was also instructive autonomy, humility and respect and how to act that of responsibility and not just desire alone. He spent tonight with each of his wives as well as his husband and duty. Both he and his wife really misses luster and the heavens were not quite the same without it. So Chandra decided to take up pennants to Lord Shiva
after some time, Shiva least with the pennants appeared before him and said, you know, what would you like what can I how can I bless you? Wouldn't it be great to have a god appear before you and say hey, how can I bless you? If you've learned anything from Indian Math, you've learned that you cannot ask your mortality that will not go well. But you know, just about anything else works it seems. So Chandra, the moon god said look, please restore my luster. And Shiva replied You know, my dear Chandra, I can't really be reversed actions curse. I can modify it. Okay, you truly repentant you're truly transformed by your loss of luster. Because of that, I want to leave you without your luster so that you can remain in this wise and transform state but Since many of your fine quality shine for three last year, I want to grant you that as well. And so Chandra said, I don't get it. Will I be dark? Or will I be bright? Which is a Ruby? Yes. Typically an indigo. Is God masculine or feminine? Is it one or is it many? Is it imminent? Or is it transcended? Typically? The answer is yes. Both that both replied Lord Shiva with a twinkle in his eye, all things oscillate to the sway of time and henceforth to so to shall you are a fortnight you will wax in luster until Duchess curses eclipsed by your brightness, and then at the very moment of your fullness, you will again begin to lose your luster of the course of a subsequent fortnight, and this will appear such as curse. And so it shall be fortnight after fortnight, oscillating between waning and waxing for the rest of this creation, until I dance destruction upon the world at the end of this cycle of time, to wonder about deeply before the Lord grateful for his blessing. To this day, of course, the more waxes and wanes, the story was told in the stories behind the poses for or the chandrasekhara or halfmoon copes. What is the halfmoon sublimity Okay, the seven solar lunar configuration, the half moon is the midpoint, a point of balance between the two perhaps equilibrium Okay, and so to is as pose a balancing act, their spiritual gloss and the stories behind the pose is as follows. The waxing moon is associated with outwardness you know joviality social connection, indulging in pleasures or enjoying life and this is not demonizing the tradition indeed, karma or enjoyment is one of the four noble aims of life or indulgence at the expense of Dharma expensive others that's a different question, but pleasure is not demonized at all in the tradition, many will be pleased to learn, everything has its place. While the waning moon on the other hand is associated with inwardness, isolation, sense withdrawal, pennants, perhaps, the new moon can be understood as when our awareness or mental awareness or minus is internalized, perhaps in a meditative state or posture. It was in the state. While he was new, that Chandra was able to commune with Shiva, supreme, Supreme Spirit if you will. When we're able to let go of our ego and sense gratification, we're able to perform our duties and serve others. And yet there's more to life than mere self Abnegation, a number of the podcasts provided. Talk about the wisdom of life affirmation the extent to which life is to be enjoyed, and leveraged as a tool of spiritual awakening. embodied experience is not an obstacle to spiritual awakening. It's actually an instrument of spiritual awakening if you live attentively. In the words of Socrates The unexamined life is not worth living, otherwise put a worthy life is a life of examination. The full moon represents joviality and festivity. This is the energy of social gatherings connections, pleasures in general Jawad Aviv have a joy of life. And so the human experience needs to oscillate between the two to find balance, in some senses might even work life balance for you.
Where are you a lot on the spectrum? Take stock of your life. Where what do you need to do to bring yourself into balance? The exact midpoint is the half moon after which this posture is named, or the Chandra Rossana. Reflect on the story of the moon when engaging this posture for the key to it is finding your balance we need in Heaven and Earth between supine and upstanding pastures. Hope you've enjoyed this, this this lunacy, this lunar wisdom, the wisdom of the waning and the waxing of the moon. And stay tuned for some solar symbology in the next episode, but more so. The profound myth that the mythology rotation of eclipses and the energies and the configurations of eclipses and tailing the sun, the moon Rahu Ketu the god Vishnu trining of the ocean and so much more. If you like this content, please Consider sharing the great for us to get this podcast out to a broader audience who may benefit from this wisdom. The reason I've created this podcast is because I don't want all of the teachings that I have to offer to be behind a paywall. I'd like people to benefit they can in these times. So consider sharing consider giving it a like, you know, pass it on to someone who you think could really use it. And feel free to get in touch with me. If you have requests for future podcasts. By all means, study with me at the Indian wisdom school, perhaps even at some point attended an in person retreat with me. Raj Bock Renault calm or even Western school.com Take good care of yourself until next time. And don't forget to find your balance between new and former phases. No mistake take care
