“True religiosity appears in protecting and caring for the treasures of Nature, the beauty of nature, and respect for Mother Earth. By protecting the beauty of Nature you protect the divine spark that lives in your heart. We get to know the Sage through his life in unity and harmony with Nature, with Mother Earth. The purity of the interior, body, mind and feelings radiates outward as the purity of water, air and soil. Truly religious people know that God lives both in heaven and on earth. Therefore, they respect and protect everything that God has created, including Mother Earth.”
(Guru Ananda Śiv)
VIRĀT is a word of Sanskrit origin meaning Nature – BRIDGE to God. In the teachings of ancient mystics, especially rishis, Nature was considered a bridge connecting man with God. Virāt serves to develop contact with the Divine by developing contact with all manifestations of natural life.
Virāt, in other words, planetary consciousness, the awareness of the planet Earth as the only living organism, a living and conscious entity. It is the awareness of all life as one life on a planetary scale. People are aware of themselves, their family, friends, neighbourhood, village or city, sometimes country or continent. Here we develop towards realizing that the whole earth is one life and that this life is divine (angelic).
Virāt is a spiritual ecology, a path of internal transformation based on mystical elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. The bridge connects the elements within the human body with the planetary elements, as well as the elements of the psyche with the elements of the planetary psyche. In this way, a person can experience the living presence of the planet as a soul or psyche.
Virāt is many small activities that every person can undertake for the good of our planet, which is our family home. Among the Virāt activities one can find mystical exercises and ceremonies constituting spiritual ecology, activities for environmental protection, natural gardening and agriculture, ways of eating for the benefit of other beings, ceremonies from various cultures and traditions recalling the living contact of man with Nature, preferences for all lifestyles in harmony with living Nature, with the Spirit of Nature…
Virāt are activities to cleanse and heal the planet’s aura, designed for all those who want to have clean, pollution-free air, water and soil, as well as their own body. Spiritual development through living, internal and external contact with nature, through broadly understood meditations on nature.
Virāt is a variety of means for such an internal transformation of a person that the world around becomes cleaner. Through the centuries we can see to what condition the earth has been brought by man. What we see is a mirror for humanity and reflects its internal state. The contamination of the earth is the contamination of human hearts and minds. See how poisoned humanity is and cleanse yourself.
Virāt is a tool for arousing mercy and compassion towards the creatures of Nature: plants, animals, rocks and minerals, towards all manifestations of life. Only you can make a decision and do something on your own for the entire Earth, for the entire globe, which in ancient traditions was named after a beautiful goddess. Today, only the hard work of millions of people can restore natural beauty throughout the entire planet. Beauty requires purity, and this means freedom from contamination.
Virāt is a group whose goal is to support the spiritual realization of each individual, as well as our alignment and harmonization with Mother Earth and all beings that live on her. We spread the Message of love, harmony, beauty and spiritual life based on the teachings of laya yoga of the Himavanti tradition. Part of this Message is caring for the affairs of our common Mother, planet Earth, in whose body we live.
Virāt brings a living connection to the world for those of us who realize that we are all part of one human family. It is dedicated to those who raise individual and planetary consciousness by uniting in the bond of love, harmony and beauty, truth, simplicity, light and power of the Universe. The work of Virāt is accomplished by connecting with the Spirit of Life of our planet, which in ancient terms is known as RUDRA, literally wild or wild living, natural.
VIRĀT. MYSTICAL CONNECTION
Persian mysticism uses four names for the four elements, which are sacred names, and the beings hidden under them are archangels (mahādeva) of the four elements. The archangel’s consciousness covers the entire planet and is subject to the hierarchy of angels (devas) of nature, which are local beings.
The archangel of the earth element (soil) is called ARMAITI (Skt. INDRA), the archangel of the water element is ANAHITA (VARUNA), the archangel of flames, i.e. the spirit of the fire element is ATTAR (AGNI) and the air element is called VAYU, which can be understood as wind. For the ancient Persian religion, each of these archangels was a sacred being. All solid and dense substance of soils and rocks is the body of the Earth Spirit, the body of the archangel of the earth element. The spirit or archangel of the earth as a whole planet is named Zamyat (Greek: Gaia), and the element of the earth itself – associated with its surface and land is the archangel ARMAITI. All waters such as oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, rain and moisture in the soil and air are the physical body of the archangel of waters called Anahita. What we call heat or temperature are symptoms of the presence of the fiery spirit – the living solar flame that embodies itself in the flames of fire wherever it is lit. Each natural fire is part of the body of the archangel ATTAR. All atmospheric air is the archangel of air, VAYU, whose physical body is present both in water, in soils and in our human bodies.
Most of the earth’s surface (arch. Zamyat) is occupied by the body of the archangel of water, while the archangel of air covers and protects the entire surface of the planet with his body. Independent entities called air angels live in it, and they have their own characteristic features – these are winds. In the body of the archangel of air, a phenomenon called the blue sky is also created, seen as the sky on a clear day. Rain clouds (Skt. Parjanya) are self-contained entities that are short-lived bodies of rainwater angels in the sphere of the body of an air archangel. All this is a mystic’s view of natural phenomena in their subtle form.
The teachings of ancient Egyptian, Jewish, Persian and Indian mystics agree that the elements have a dense nature (sthula: physical, material substance) and a subtle nature (svarupa: psyche, soul, life). Therefore, they are considered independent entities, forces or angelic (devaic) souls. We use the terms deva and angel interchangeably because they mean exactly the same class of heavenly beings. It can be said that these are beings living in higher dimensions.
The Archangel of Fire, ATTAR (AGNI), has his seat within the planet, in the center of the earth there is a powerful concentration of fire, and volcanoes sometimes remind us of this. The fire hidden in the earth is part of the solar fire, or in other words, we are part of the sun’s body, which is a fiery body. Mystics of various traditions work hard to awaken the inner fire or heat, to awaken the mystical flame (cf. Moses in the bush of fire, Kundalini and the flame of Śakti in yoga). It is worth remembering here the Christian baptism by fire, also called transfiguration. This is a higher stage after the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
The seasons correspond to the activity of the elements, and there may be significant differences in different climate zones. In Poland, the earth element seems to dominate in winter, the water element in spring, the fire element in summer, and the air element in autumn. Accordingly, the first day of winter, i.e. the winter solstice (December 22), will be an earth holiday and the beginning of the reign of this element in nature; the first day of spring (spring equinox – March 21) will be a water festival, which in Poland is reflected in the drowning of Marzanna and other folk customs such as Wet Monday; the first day of summer (June 22), the summer solstice, is a celebration of the spirit of fire and also sunlight, while the first day of autumn (September 23) begins the reign of the element of air and wind spirits in nature, of which autumn gales are wonderful harbingers.
There is also a fifth element, usually called ether, which is considered a higher-order being, a being that has authority and power over the other archangels. In Persian mysticism, this being is called AHURA MAZDA (Skt. AMBARA), which translates as the Lord of Wisdom. Let us note that the Persian “mazda” corresponds to the Polish “gazda”, meaning lord, owner, host. Therefore, the fifth archangel can be called the Owner of Wisdom or the Wise Host. The entire hierarchy of angels subordinate to this archangel are AHURAS (i.e. “Wisdoms” or “Sages”). Ahura Mazda is the All-Pervading and Omnipresent Spirit, bringing Loving Omniscience, that is, Wisdom. Jewish mystics called him by the name Adonai (which means LORD), and he is worshiped by them as the living and true God of Israel.
In Virāt terminology, God is called the Owner of Farm, the Lord of Field (Kshetrasya Pati), that is, the one who rules and manages the entire planet earth, which is His farm, His field. In the Himavanti tradition, there is a whole series of numerous practices and paths (methods) of work related to the lodge of the Lord of Field, with the Great Master of Earth, with Kshetrasya Pati.
From the tradition of Western Vedic (Persian) mysticism comes the invocation to all the powers of nature, including five archangels, the first four of which are visible in their dense bodies as soil (muscles and bones), water (blood), fire (heat) and air (breath), while the fifth is subtle in itself and its body is not visible, therefore it is ethereal. In this sense, the archangel of ether is a spirit that no one has ever seen. There is a similar description of God as a being, a subtle being, in the form of light or ether (Skt. kśa) in the religions of the Hindu, Persian (Mazdaism, Zoroastrianism), Buddhist, Jewish (Mosaism), Christian or Muslim (Islam)… and even Wankan Tanka, or the Great Spirit in the Indian tradition, is of the same nature, independent of the other elements and controlling them so that they have their existence in it. This is truly a cosmic archangel.
Christian mysticism has four archangels in correspondence with the seasons, and so, corresponding to winter, we have Arch. Gabriel – who brings the message, revealing spiritual science in the inner world, and spring is ruled by Arch. Raphael (Raphael), i.e. divine healing, cleansing and renewal at the same time. Summer is the domain of Arch. Uriel – a divine teacher and guide, Arch. of sunlight, while autumn is the time of the strongest influence of Arch. Michael (Michael) – a divine warrior, winner, master of truth.
We can ask what are the connections between these beings, we can ask if Arch. Gabriel and Arch. Armaiti are different names for the same character in different languages from different traditions. After all, it is Nature that is called the Most Holy Manuscript, and Arch. Gabriel is the one who reveals the content of the Heavenly Book, the Law of God, which is also the Law of Nature. The earth element is sort of the material of this manuscript, and the earth spirit seems to bring this natural wisdom. However, these are inquiries for a practicing mystic who recognizes these beings as real beings, experiences their holy names and becomes aware of all mystical connections.
And we will return to the four days that Virāt practically uses as a time for its meetings, usually organizing several-day workshops, seminars or retreats in their area to deepen contact with nature, exchange experiences, common practice, and group healing of Mother Earth. It is the arch. Zamyat (Greek: Gaia) that is called Mother-Earth, the female aspect of God (Shekinah in Jewish mysticism, which is light from the flame of consuming fire, from the flame that is Yahveh).
For the mystic, the planet Earth is the Mother, the symbol, the archetype and the real Cosmic Mother who feeds and raises in her body all humanity, all beings. This Mother has food and water for us and she gives us shelter, and is the source and sustainer of our life. Whatever we have created as humanity – it comes from the body of our Mother Earth. A mystic is a person who cares about this earthly Paradise, about beauty and aesthetics, and about the good of the Mother. As it is said in the Holy Scriptures, “Honour thy Father and Mother.” God is the Father (Host, Mazda) and the Earth is your Mother (Shekinah, Mary). One Mother is earthly from human parents, the other is cosmic, is a planet on which the cosmic Father allowed you to exist. The Father has a more cosmic dimension, while the Mother is closer and real. This puts some distance between the incorporeal ether (MAZDA) and the corporeal body, ZAMYAT.
In ancient mythologies, the Earth was usually a beautiful goddess, and therefore a female element, and the cosmic substance, ether, was a male element, the force directing the movements of planets and stars. This is reminiscent of the Chinese teaching on the Yin – female and Yang – male elements, as well as all divine pairs in the world’s religions. Let us take, for example, the Jewish Yahweh and Shekinah, or the Christian Jesus and Mary, or the Hindu Krishna and Radha, or the very ancient sources of religion: Sita and Rama. This entire rich field of various elements is the subject of the contemplative experiences of the practicing mystic.
We will now arrange in some order the cosmic and terrestrial entities of Nature. In the body of the planet Earth, our Mother, and more spiritually, the archei (female form of the archangel) Zamyat or Gaya, there are four elemental archangels, which in fact constitute elements of Her body: Armaiti, Anahita, Attar, Vayu. Therefore, the commandment: “Honour your Mother” in its planetary aspect means honouring the elements. The commandment “Honour your father” is fulfilled in honouring the cosmic element, i.e. ether, light and spirit, as it is variously defined. This is the Christian Lord, God and Father, who is Spirit and Light as the New Testament teaches. The cosmic law is written in it and the Laws of Nature flow from it. The Indians call Him “Wankan Tanka”. This is the Spirit of Wisdom, or “Ahura Mazda” – the Lord and Owner of Wisdom.
Let us try to delve into the mystical connection between the archangels of the elements and the yogic teachings about TATTVAS, the energies of nature, and Hebrew mysticism and the teachings about the levels of spiritual achievement. According to the science of yoga, we have five tattvas, five forces or powers of the spirit of life, which is the intelligence that directs nature, as one can imagine the entity personified under the name Rudradeva.
The energy of the earth is PRITHIVI in Yogic terms, which corresponds to the energy of NEPHESH among the Jews. It is a psychic force that animates the brain and nervous system. It is called vital or life force and serves to preserve the species (body).
The energy of water is APA or APAS (also called UDAKA), which corresponds to the energy of RUACH among the Jews. It is the power of the soul itself, the power of the senses and desires and passions; one could say the power of personality manifestation, which allows one to see the world in a spiritual way “through the eyes of the heart”, as ruachani.
The energy of fire is TEJAS (or AGNI in the cosmic sense) in Tattva terms, and NESHAMAH in Hebrew mysticism. It is the power of mind and intellect, the power of ideas and ideology, as well as humanitarianism; the energy sphere of humanity, spirituality and transcendental principles. It is the force of the soul itself, the force of reason and principles.
The energy of air is called VAYU – wind, which corresponds to the concept of CHAYA – life, spirit, intuition. It is the power of the emanation of divine origins, the power of bliss and blessing, the power of mercy, discipline and mysticism. This energy brings divine properties and mutual understanding and brotherhood.
The last one is the energy of ether called KŚA in yoga, and YECHIDAH in Jewish mysticism. It is the energy of space, space, helpful in merging with the Absolute Being. It is a force that unites with God, allowing identity with the cosmic archetype of infinity, eternity and omnipotence.
In the mysticism of the elements in yoga, the five gross elements, i.e. BHUTA (Prithvi, Apah, Tejas, Vayu and Akaśa) emerge respectively from the five subtle elements called Tanmatras (gandha – smell, scent; rasa – taste; rupa – colour; sparśa – touch ; śabdha – sound), which gives us an even greater and deeper field to penetrate the subtle nature of the perceived reality. All this shows how rich and deep mysticism based on the elements of nature is in various traditions and gives the opportunity to meet all traditions in Virāt, on this very Bridge connecting man with God, with the Absolute, with the Supreme Being, with the Highest state of consciousness. Isn’t our body itself composed of elements a Bridge to God? How else can we find Him if not through our own interior? The basic form of practical yoga for this purpose is Bhutajaya Yoga, the mystical practice of purifying and refining the energy centres associated with the elements in our subtle body of vital forces called the linga śarira. This is the basic yoga of the cycle called the path of Mahadevi, the Great Mother.
PURPOSE AND TASKS OF VIRĀT
If you want to cleanse or heal the aura of the planet, if you want to have clean, pollution-free air, water and soil, as well as your own body, we invite you to cooperate with Virāt groups. If you feel that your spiritual development needs deep contact with nature, meditations on nature – this is one of the activities of Virāt, which includes all yogic forms of work with bhuta. Each group and each member individually selects and undertakes work through which they feel that in their own way they can best help Mother Nature, the spirit or soul of planet Earth.
Virāt’s work also includes celebrations celebrated on equinoxes and solstices, and during the full and new moons. May Light, Love and Power restore Beauty, Harmony and Natural Order in Nature.
Virāt means Bridge of Nature. In the teachings of the Rishis, Nature is seen as a Bridge connecting man with the omnipresent Divinity, hidden beyond all creatures. It is said that one of the great sages called Rishis, known as Kut Humi Lal Singh, is the spiritual head of the Nature Cathedral in the temple of wisdom in Śigatse. On behalf of the Spiritual Hierarchy of all masters, saints and prophets, he takes care of humanity sending all inspiration to take up the work of protecting Nature. Rishi Kuthumi also supports the yoga of harmony with nature, life and the laws of nature, all yoga of natural wisdom of life. The closer a person is to his own original purity and innocence, the closer he is to all manifestations of life on the planet and the more he is in harmony with the wild and primal spirit of nature, with the Lord of Life, with Chohan Rudra, the deva of the spirit of life.
The task of Virāt is to establish a deep and living contact with what is spiritual and essential in the human interior, in the heart or soul. Mystics of various religious traditions recognize the divinity of the soul, the inner light that leads to understanding the uniqueness of life. A living contact with the depths of the interior allows for a living contact with the forces of Mother Nature (Rudrani). Virāt’s task is to bring order and harmony to Nature, starting from your own microcosm, from your body and mind. A harmonious mind and a harmonious body are a healthy mind and a healthy body, in unity with others.
Virāt can be called an activity aimed at Healing the Planet. At its core, the Virāt dimension, or spiritual ecology, is a dimension of networking of planetary healing work for the New Age and Golden Age that is awakening in the Mahadevi path. Hum!
Many Blessings on your Path to Awakening and Realization!
Om Namaśśivaya! Hum!
Aćaryaćarya Swami Lalita-Mohan G.K.
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