What is the Impact of Witnessing an Eclipse?

What is the Impact of Witnessing an Eclipse?

[00:45] Parashara Saṃhita

Jai Guru Deva. With the upcoming eclipse, and indeed all of the upcoming eclipses, because they’re regular phenomena, I’ve been asked, “What is the impact of witnessing an eclipse versus deciding not to witness it?”

And for this I’m going to draw from a body of knowledge referred to as Jyotish. J-Y-O-T-I-S-H, an aspect of the Upaveda. Upaveda means subordinate Veda. Upa is U-P-A, Veda of Rig Veda. Rig Veda is the encyclopedic Veda.

Jyotish was first recognized by the Rishi, Parashara. Maharishi, great Rishi Parashara of ancient times, some eight and a half thousand years ago.

Parashara Saṃhita. Parashara, P-A-R-A-S-H-A-R-A, Parashara. Saṃhita. S-A-Ṃ, the Ṃ has a little dot under it, H-I-T-A, Saṃhita.

Saṃhita, it means, a dissertation a Saṃhita. Parashara Saṃhita.

Parashara Saṃhita is the cognition of Maharishi Parashara and it is one of the aspects of that branch of knowledge from the Veda known as Ayurveda.

[02:40] Self-referral Consciousness and Object-referral Consciousness

There are two ways of experiencing the world. One is self-referral consciousness and the other is object-referral consciousness. And we have a way in modern scientific psychology to define these things as well. The terminology in psychology is someone who is “field independent,” which is self-referral consciousness, someone who is “field dependent,” which is object-referral consciousness, and of course these things are not black and white as ever.

There are varying degrees of percentage of to what extent one considers the world to be the governor of what it is I’m experiencing versus I, the Knower, capital K, Knower, the deep inner Self, am the governor of what I’m experiencing.

And so the entire thrust of the Vedic worldview is, while acknowledging all of the behaviors of the relative world, relative world means that aspect of Unified Field which is manifest, which is ever changing, which involves laws of Nature that are creating a storyline, then, with full acknowledgement of all of that relativity, what is it that defines me?

What is my definition? What is it that actually is my self definition? If my self definition is things that are going on in the outside world, let’s put it this way, instead of saying if, we’ll say to the extent that. To the extent that my sense of what I am, my sense of well being, my sense of capability, my sense of invincibility is governed by events in the outside ever-changing relative world, to the extent that that’s true, then, to that extent, I am field dependent. 

I have an externalized locus of control, locus, L-O-C-U-S, that is to say, the point of reference from which I determine my beingness, my externalized locus of control. It means that I, the individual knower inside, I am a lowercase k, the knower, lowercase k, that is to say I am defined by whatever are the changes within the relative world outside me.

Internalized locus of control is the opposite of this. Self-referral consciousness, self-referral. I am. The Knower, capital K, I am the experiencer whose backdrop is Totality. I am that Totality experiencing the relative world issuing forth from Totality.

[05:59] What’s in the Sky and What’s Not in the Sky

All right, so let’s get into the eclipse. According to Jyotish—Jyotish means light and it has to do everything with light, the light and frequencies of light that are emitted by different planets—different planets and the Sun have certain frequencies and these frequencies have an impact on individuality. That individuality is made up of the kinds of frequencies that were present at the moment of nativity.

So, when one emerges from mother’s womb, or if, like me, you are a cesarean section, one emerges from mother’s abdomen, at whatever point you are no longer in the protective encasement of mother, and you are exposed to the canopy of the sky then what’s in that canopy of the sky imprints on that neonate, the newborn.

What is absent in the sky also imprints on the newborn. So what is absent in the sky? That means things like planets that have moved beyond the horizon and are no longer in the canopy of the sky. Therefore the absence of certain planetary influences and the presence of certain planetary influences, and stars, of course, as well.

And so these things are imprinting on the neonate, and this is what creates sensitivity to those things that were present in the canopy of the sky at the time of birth and those things that were not present in the canopy of the sky at the time of birth. This is what we refer to as Vedic Astrology.

Vedic is the very important part here because it’s very different to Western Astrology. It has completely different principles and looks at the Zodiac in far more modern terms. The Zodiac of Western Astrology has not changed in thousands of years, and yet the stars and the planets have all changed and moved.

And so from the Vedic perspective, the Western Astrological Zodiac is out of date. The Vedic Zodiac, that is to say the positions of stars and planets and their movements are kept up to date.

This creates quite a different roadmap of the sky, the zodiac, from which a Vedic astrologer determines things.

[09:00] Who are You and What are You?

So then, as ever, in Vedic science, instead of asking the question, well, what’s the effect of an eclipse? We have to ask the next question, which is, who’s asking?

In other words, who are you? We have many different things to consider. One is, what are the particular influences of the starry and planetary world on your individuality? And we summarize all of this because it can be printed out as a “chart.” What is your chart? So that’s going to be the relativity of you.

And then we have to ask the next question. Not just who are you, which might be in your chart, what are you? What is the nature of this Knower? If I am Totality, if in Sanskrit we would say Aham Brahmasmi, Aham Brahmasmi. Aham means I am, Brahmasmi means I am Brahman, Brahman means Totality.

To the extent that Totality consciousness has awakened inside the individual, then the individuality no longer is the primary governor of experience.

And so what’s an eclipse going to do? Well, who’s asking? What’s an eclipse going to do? What is asking? And so under certain conditions, eclipses may have, a solar eclipse, for example, may have one particular set of influences and have some kind of defining effect on the individuality.

But from the perspective of Aham Brahmasmi, “I am Totality,” there’s nothing in the relative world that either can describe me or can define me. I can’t be limited by anything. I am the unboundedness.

[11:10] What is the Nature of the Knower?

And so where some people may, at the time of a solar eclipse, may sequester themselves, you know, behind closed curtains and doors and wait for it to be over with because they don’t want the, what might be considered, in certain readings, a negative influence from a solar eclipse.

All right, well, that’s very interesting. What would be the effect on somebody who is in the highest possible state, Brahmastiti Chetana? Brahmastiti Chetana means, it’s the Sanskrit word for someone who is established in, Brahman Consciousness, Totality Consciousness. There’s no effect.

And so what is the effect of a thing? Who’s asking? What is the nature of the Knower? We would have to look at all of these things in order to come up with an answer. And I think you can see, as we say in the modern parlance, where I’m going with all of this, we need to become more self-referral and less object-referral.

To the extent that I’m running around like a rabbit, hiding from this influence and frantically engaging that influence and frantically hiding from that influence, then to that extent, my life, my beingness is governed by relativity, by things that are ever changing.

My identity is ever changing and is kicked around like a football by whatever things are going on in the outside world. These things define me, these things describe me. To the extent that I am established in Being and my inner awareness identifies with Totality Consciousness, I can take note of these relativities.

[13:15] Degrees of Suffering

Certainly, one would not intentionally engage in something which was uselessly toxic for oneself. In fact that wisdom that you have when you’re established in Being is a very good preventative for you, from you engaging in things which are unsustainably toxic for you. And that’s the better way of looking at things.

We take our cues from the deep inner Self and from the state of Being, because that is our inner nature, innermost, most sustainable nature, rather than I take my cues from what all the relativity is up to these days.

So one’s form of living will yield self-referral happiness, baseline happiness, where my happiness is determined by the baseline I have of what I am and who I am. Being, Totality Consciousness. “I am That out of which this entire relative world issues forth.” This is the statement that could be made only in that state of Unity Consciousness.

Not in Unity Consciousness, on our way to Unity Consciousness, ever-increasing percentage of that, so 20 percent Unity Consciousness would have 80 percent, the relative world is determining what you are and what you’re experiencing and 20 percent you have that Beingness determining what you’re experiencing.

50 percent Unity Consciousness, well, half of your experiences are given over to the relative world, stylizing you and causing you being the cause of your experience. 50 percent of you is stable in the underlying field of Being and witnessing all that.

75 percent Unity Consciousness. 75%, “I am the one indivisible, whole consciousness field,” and 25 percent, “There’s some relativity here that is fluctuating of which I’m aware.”

And like that moving in ever-greater percentages toward Unity Consciousness, the hallmark is degrees of suffering versus no suffering. Suffering is caused by inadvertently allowing the knower and its quality to be determined by relativity, by the known . And suffering is caused by then not being able, accurately, to understand and adjust one’s expectations in the relative world to what’s actually going on.

[16:23] Reinforcing Totality Consciousness Through Vedic Meditation

When we have inaccurate expectations because our deep inner Self was relying upon the relative world to generate happiness for us, but we got things wrong and the relative world didn’t generate happiness for us, then we suffer because we have to adjust our thinking from what turned out actually to be the truth, and move a long way from that, to what was the truth.

So, when we have inaccurate expectations, we end up inadvertently violating the laws of Nature, and we end up suffering. As we grow in the Unity Consciousness value, the capacity to suffer decreases and decreases in exact proportion to how much of that Totality Consciousness has become our deep inner reality.

So through our practice of Vedic Meditation twice each day, we reinforce the Totality Consciousness. We take that tendency to have an externalized locus of control, to be a field-dependent person, and we take it into the deep inner Self, and we adjust the point from which we’re experiencing everything, from which we gain perspective, we take our locus of control inward, and we make the locus of control the Self, capital S Self, the Beingness.

And then one becomes less and less hypnotizable. One becomes less and less suggestible. And let’s get right down to the street language, one becomes less and less gullible. And so living a gullible life is living a life in which your reality is suggested to you by the relative world and you conform, rather than leading a life of self-referral nature, in which you are not hypnotizable anymore, and the relative world may make a suggestion to you, about what you should be experiencing, but you don’t conform. You conform to what you’re experiencing from deep inside.

[18:58] A Little Bit of a Muddying Effect

So this is a very good example question about eclipses because it leads into this entire philosophy of what is it that is actually the governor of experience? What’s governing our experience? Then that question, “Who are you and what are you?,” needs to be asserted, and once that question is answered, we can have an answer.

If you are merely a pile of relativity and not experiencing yourself as Totality, I don’t suggest that you engage in eclipses. But if you are Brahman and Totality, then eclipses may be a delightful thing to witness. It’s just one of the aspects of Nature’s behavior, and, you know, some mud gets thrown on you, it rinses straight off again. What is that? Nothing.

You can’t afford to get muddy if you’re going to stay muddy for the rest of your life. If you’re standing under a shower continuously and someone throws a spoonful or two of mud on you, it’s kind of fun. On comes the mud, watch it wash away. No problem. And so, you know, eclipses in general are considered to have a little bit of a muddying effect, but when you are in Totality Consciousness you’re standing under the shower. Nothing can stick to you.

Jai Guru Deva.