Initiation & Divine Transformation in the SupramentAL Yoga

“No one is initiated in this Yoga in any formal way. Those are accepted by the Mother who are found to be called or chosen from within for this path or for Sri Aurobindo’s work. That acceptance is sufficient. Those are considered as called or chosen who can open and be receptive to the Power that goes from her here and can feel its working. If by doing what he is doing now, he can in time thus open and receive and feel the Power that will be a sign that he is meant for this way of Yoga. Nothing else is needed; prayer and aspiration are sufficient, if there is sincerity and a true call within.” ‒ Sri Aurobindo, 23 February 1930, CWSA Vol 34, p. 542, "Entering Sri Aurobindo’s Path"

"The ancient oracles spoke the truth when they commanded the Hero to 'know thyself'. For this was the sole purpose of any initiation. … In Sri Aurobindo's Yoga this same process forms the foundation of the sadhana. The disciple strives to unveil the Divine Shakti in his or her being; and that Power then carries out the transforming processes of the Integral Yoga from within. … I understood that the purpose of an initiation, in the deepest and truest sense of the word, was veritably a beginning. It was meant to set the disciple on the path in a condition which would permit him or her to bear within the absolute certainty of victory." ‒ Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea), The Tenth Day of Victory, Vol. 1, pp. 141-42

The old ways of being initiated into a spiritual practice by a specific person or guru by some series of set of established rituals or mantras do not apply to the Integral and Supramental Yoga. In this yoga, which is a progressive realization or lived experience of the Divine Oneness of the many facets of creation, the process of initiation is a conspiracy of lived experiences which catalyze a real birth or fledgling emergence out of the shell of one’s mental-egoic consciousness into the higher dimensions and potentials of one’s being. This conspiracy of circumstances (however dramatic or subtle) constitute such an obvious and potent display of the divine/supramental force manifesting through one’s life or in the world, that it serves to dismantle the rigidities of one’s mental consciousness and to dismantle whatever barriers (in one’s being and life) that are in the way of truly getting on with one’s higher path and purpose. One is brought to a point of no return, and from that point onward one cannot un-see or go back to the set assumptions of one’s limited mental consciousness and to the comforts of one’s established patterns and structures. One must move forward (move on) with the business of manifesting or fully realizing one’s divine intention, regardless of who or what one has to let go of in order to do so. In this sense, it is a process of purification. It reveals or gives a solid impression of the core truth (the core divinity) of one’s being and one’s becoming (evolution) in the world. It empowers one to proceed with what needs to be done (including whatever needs to be sacrificed) in order to proceed with one’s inner or divine calling or mission.  

It is not empowering in the egoic sense. An proper initiation into the Supramental consciousness demands a surrender to the Truth that the limited mental-egoic self is not the creator, choreographer or architect of our life’s adventure. One becomes fully aware of the limitations of the mental egoic-consciousness and agrees to be transformed (and upgraded) as needed, in order to be useful vessel or instrument of the Divine Will. The essence of this surrender is a sincere impulse or aspiration to know and to be in service of the full integral Truth of existence, wherein there is no separation between the Transcendent Divine and its Individual and Cosmic (micro and macro-cosmic) self-expressions. One naturally aspires to know and to be in service of the Truth, rather than continuing to be in service of the limited, fragmented, self-serving forces of Ignorance in the world. This of course does not by any stretch mean that there is some magical cessation of all ignorance and ego in one’s consciousness, it just means (if the initiation is REAL and not imaginary) that one enters into a conscious agreement, journey or yoga wherein ignorance is gradually or quickly hacked away or dissolved by the emergence of one’s Higher Consciousness in the course of time. Rather than desperately wanting to conserve or preserve or otherwise hold on to the security of one’s ridged, limited and perhaps dogmatic ideas, beliefs, knowledge, conclusions and structures, one actively agrees to and invites the dismantling of these false securities with all possible speed in order to progress in the journey (the Yoga) of establishing Truth-Consciousness in one’s being and on Earth. It is a journey with many stages, and for some, there may be several initiations or initiatic experiences along the way that drive the forward march, and progressive stages of fully manifesting the Light of the Divine Soul on Earth.

One way that I think about being initiated or born into the Integral and Supramental Yoga is that one becomes active (woken up) as a living seed of Unity Consciousness, growing (however slowly) into the full supramental realization or manifestation of THAT wholeness. Once awake, given the right keys of seeing, one learns to see (eventually in the literal sense as well as in the figurative sense) that everything transpires in service of the maturation of this new seed of Truth-Consciousness or Unity Consciousness in one’s being and on Earth. These keys of seeing, as introduced by Thea [as found in The Gnostic Circle], involve orienting oneself in the unified field of Time and Space, and consciously traveling through cycles of Time, building one’s direct lived experience of the divine-supramental perfection that is ever-present and yet rarely seen or felt from the cave of our dimly lit consciousness. This direct lived experience of the divine-supramental perfection involves seeing the sacred geometries, patterns, synchronicities, harmonies and living symbols of one’s own (and the world’s) evolutionary journey or yoga. One begins to see the Divine sense of what has seemed to one’s limited consciousness as mundane, random or inconsequential. Another way to look at it is as a real uplifting of one’s understanding and experience of one’s individual and collective journey. With this direct experience, one is hence-forth permanently relieved of any need for faith or belief in a higher power or order, and of any need for an intermediary priest or guru, etc. to guide one’s path. One simply becomes (increasingly) conscious of being an evolving expression of the eternal Divine, within the unified field of Time and Space. 

“If a spiritual transformation, not a mere illumining modification of our nature, is to be done at all, we must call in the Divine Shakti to effect that miraculous work in the individual; for she alone has the needed force, decisive, all-wise and illimitable. But the entire substitution of the divine for the human personal action is not at once entirely possible. All interference from below that would falsify the truth of the superior action must first be inhibited or rendered impotent, and it must be done by our own free choice. A continual and always repeated refusal of the impulsions and falsehoods of the lower nature is asked from us and an insistent support to the Truth as it grows in our parts; for the progressive settling into our nature and final perfection of the incoming informing Light, Purity and Power needs for its development and sustenance our free acceptance of it and our stubborn rejection of all that is contrary to it, inferior or incompatible.”  ‒ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, CWSA Vols. 23-24, pp 86-87, Self-Consecration 

“The guiding law of spiritual experience can only come by an opening of human consciousness to the Divine Consciousness; there must be the power to receive in us the working and command and dynamic presence of the Divine Shakti and surrender ourselves to her control; it is that surrender and that control which bring the guidance. But the surrender is not sure, there is no absolute certitude of the guidance so long as we are besieged by mind formations and life impulses and instigations of ego which may easily betray us into the hands of a false experience. This danger can only be countered by the opening of a now nine-tenths concealed inmost soul or psychic being that is already there but not commonly active within us. That is the inner light we must liberate; for the light of this inmost soul is our one sure illumination so long as we walk still amidst the siege of the Ignorance and the Truth-consciousness has not taken up the entire control of our Godward endeavour. The working of the Divine Force in us under the conditions of the transition and the light of the psychic being turning us always towards a conscious and seeing obedience to that higher impulsion and away from the demands and instigations of the Forces of the Ignorance, these between them create an ever progressive inner law of our action which continues till the spiritual and supramental can be established in our nature. In the transition there may well be a period in which we take up all life and action and offer them to the Divine for purification, change and deliverance of the truth within them, another period in which we draw back and build a spiritual wall around us admitting through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of the spiritual transformation, a third in which a free and all-embracing action, but with new forms fit for the utter truth of the Spirit, can again be made possible. These things, however, will be decided by no mental rule but in the light of the soul within us and by the ordaining force and progressive guidance of the Divine Power that secretly or overtly first impels, then begins clearly to control and order and finally takes up the whole burden of the Yoga. – Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, CWSA Vols 23-24, pp. 138-39 [All emphasis added]

“All Yoga is in its nature a new birth; it is a birth out of the ordinary, the mentalised material life of man into a higher spiritual consciousness and a greater and diviner being. No Yoga can be successfully undertaken and followed unless there is a strong awakening to the necessity of that larger spiritual existence..... 

“The mere idea or intellectual seeking of something higher beyond, however strongly grasped by the mind’s interest, is ineffective unless it is seized on by the heart as the one thing desirable and by the will as the one thing to be done. For truth of the Spirit has not to be merely thought but to be lived, and to live it demands a unified single-mindedness of the being; so great a change as is contemplated by the Yoga is not to be effected by a divided will or by a small portion of the energy or by a hesitating mind. He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and to God only.... – Ibid. pp. 69-70

“The transformation of our superficial, narrow and fragmentary human way of thinking, seeing, feeling and being into a deep and wide spiritual consciousness and an integrated inner and outer existence and of our ordinary human living into the divine way of life must be its central purpose. The means towards this supreme end is a self-giving of all our nature to the Divine....” – Ibid., p. 89

“This Yoga is a spiritual battle; its very attempt raises all sorts of adverse forces and one must be ready to face difficulties, sufferings, reverses of all sorts in a calm unflinching spirit.” CWSA, Vol. 31, p. 780

Sri Aurobindo’s Initiation into his yogic life and mission came in 1908-09, via his year-long imprisonment in Alipore Jail. This initiatic experience is documented at www.sriaurobindoinstitute.org. 

“It is the Supreme Lord who has ineluctably decreed the place you occupy in the universal concert, but whatever be this place, you have equally the same right as all others to ascend the supreme summits right to the supramental realization.’ There is one’s position in the universal hierarchy, which is something ineluctable – it is the eternal law – and there is the development in the manifestation, which is an education; it is progressive and done from within the being….

“To this has been added a growing initiation into the supramental realization which is (I understand it well now) the perfect union of what comes from above and what comes from below, or in other words, the eternal position and the evolutionary realization....

“The entire world is being revealed in all its organization down to the minutes” details – but everything simultaneously – how can that be explained? It’s not possible.” ‒ The Mother’s Agenda, Vol. 1, 10 Oct 1958

“All is mute in the being, but in the bosom of the silence burns the lamp that can never be extinguished, the fire of an ardent aspiration to know and to live integrally the Divine.” ‒ The Mother’s Agenda, Vol. 1, 6 Nov 1954

“The flame of the aspiration must be so straight and so ardent that no obstacle can dissolve it.” ‒ The Collected Works of the Mother (CWM, Vol. 14, 7 November 1954

“An integral and exclusive aspiration is sure to bring the Divine's response.” CWM, Vol. 14, 31 August 1957

“Aspiration is almost always an expression of the psychic being – the part of us that's organized around the divine center, the small divine flame deep within human beings. You see, this divine flame exists inside each human being, and little by little, through all the incarnations and karma and so on, a being takes shape around it, which Théon called the “psychic being.” And when the psychic being reaches its full development, it becomes a kind of bodily or at any rate individual raiment of the soul. The soul is a portion of the Supreme – the jiva is the Supreme in individual form. And since there is only one Supreme, there is only one jiva, but with millions of individual forms. This jiva begins as a divine spark – immutable, eternal and infinite too (infinite in possibility rather than dimension). And through all the incarnations, whatever has received and responded to the divine Influence progressively crystallizes around the jiva, which becomes more and more conscious as well as more and more organized. Ultimately it becomes a completely conscious individual being, master of itself and moved exclusively by the divine Will. That is to say, an individual expression of the Supreme. This is what we call the “psychic being.”

“Generally speaking, those who practice yoga have either a fully developed, independent psychic being which has taken birth again to do the Divine's work, or else a psychic being in its last incarnation wanting to complete its development and realize itself….

“[T]he psychic being guides your life, and if you let it act freely, it arranges ALL circumstances – it's truly wonderful!... I have seen – not only for myself but for so many people who also had conscious psychic beings – that everything is arranged with a view to... not at all your personal egoistic satisfaction, but your ultimate progress and realization. And all circumstances of life, even those you call “disastrous,” are there to lead you where you have to go as swiftly as possible. .” ‒ The Mother’s Agenda, Vol. 2, TMA 25 July 1962 [link, TM’s journey, initiation]

In the same 25 July 1962 Agenda entry, the Mother described a bit of her own initiation into the Supramental Yoga.

“[A]t a very young age (about eight or ten), along with my studies I began to paint. At twelve I was already doing portraits. All aspects of art and beauty, but particularly music and painting, fascinated me. I went through a very intense vital development during that period, with, just like in my early years, the presence of a kind of inner Guide; and all centered on studies: the study of sensations, observations, the study of technique, comparative studies, even a whole spectrum of observations dealing with taste, smell and hearing – a kind of classification of experiences. And this extended to all facets of life, all the experiences life can bring, all of them – miseries, joys, difficulties, sufferings, everything – oh, a whole field of studies! And always this presence within, judging, deciding, classifying, organizing and systematizing everything.

“Then conscious yoga made a sudden entry into the picture when I met Théon; I must have been about twenty-one. Life's orientation changed, a whole series of experiences took place, with the development of the vital giving interesting occult results.

”Then, a period of intensive mental development, mental development of the most complete type: a study of all the philosophies, all the conceptual juggling, in minute detail – delving into systems, getting a grasp on them. Ten years of intensive mental studies leading me to... Sri Aurobindo.

“So I had all this preparation. And I am giving you these details simply to tell you it all began with consciousness (I knew very well what consciousness was, even before I had any word or idea to explain it), consciousness and its force – its force of action, its force of execution. Next, a detailed study and thorough development of the vital. After that, mental development taken to its uppermost limit, where you can juggle with all ideas; a developmental stage where it's already understood that all ideas are true and that there's a synthesis to be made, and that beyond the synthesis lies something luminous and true. And behind it all, a continual consciousness. Such was my state when I came here: I'd had a world of experiences and had already attained conscious union with the Divine above and within – all of it consciously realized, carefully noted and so forth – when I came to Sri Aurobindo.

“From the standpoint of shakti, this is the normal course: consciousness, vital, mental and spiritual….

“What happened to me in life is extremely logical, very, very logical (it wasn't me, I didn't decide anything – you don't make decisions at the age of five). Each stage was prepared by the preceding one….

“Some receive [the Shakti] from above; for others, it rises from below (gesture to the base of the spine). As I once told you, the old system always proceeds from below upwards, while Sri Aurobindo pulls from above downwards.” 

A fuller account of the Mother's journey to meet Sri Aurobindo can be found in a 24 April 2020 YouTube video, titled "Centenary of the Mother's Return to Sri Aurobindo (1920 - 2020)".

In 1989, Thea was asked about the initiation process by her first student, Barbara White: 

“I don’t think it is wise to call [your experience] that because an initiation proper is something else. Your experiences were certainly initiatory. They were a preparation for future work. Many people who went to the Ashram had initial experiences that either sent them flying or held the key to the role they were going to play there. It is like a ‘seed’ period. From those early days you could gauge what the coming years of involvement in the Yoga would mean for you, and of course what the course of your life as a part of this work would be. But an initiation as such is different. There is almost something of a RITUAL about it, a very clear guidance and some strong occult element. In this light it is more fictitious. The containment concerns a scenario that is usually fabricated in order to create certain tensions. This was also the experience of Castaneda, to a certain degree. The [experience] you write … was not a deliberate ritual to force a breakthrough.

“But this is all just a question of terms. The result of that period for you may have been similar to the result for a person who undergoes some sort of ritualistic initiation. And when I use the term ‘ritual’ I do not mean the lifeless brand of ceremony which is commonly taken for ritual. I mean a process, really, whose nature is sacred and highly occult. In any case, the result was the same: initial experiences which were a preparation….They were more what I would call ‘seed experiences’ because a seed was planted then which has been working in you ever since. There is always a seed experience when people come to this work. The nature of that experience usually gives a good indication of the temperament of the sadhak and the line of development best suited to him or her. Or else his or her place in the work, the role they are going to play.  ‒  Thea, 26 November 1989 [as found in Barbara White’s soon to be published manuscript Experiencing the New Way]

Thea described her own initiation process into the Supramental Yoga (spanning from 1970-71) in full in The Tenth Day of Victory, Vol. 1. It took place as a series of unusual events in Rome, involving her occult relationship with the Mother, which culminated in her (and her soon-to-be 9 year old son) getting on a plane to India in order to be with Mother at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in September of 1971. Regarding this initiation and its culmination, Thea wrote:

“I believed that much of the difficult work was over, but it seemed to be only beginning. What had taken place hitherto appeared to be, in effect, an initiation, a preparation or preliminary purification so that the serious work could begin”. (p. 114)

These two sentences above are key for anyone who has the mistaken idea that an initiation or awakening into their higher nature and higher work is going to mean all that follows will be a bed of roses. It is the very beginning of a new journey, which as Sri Aurobindo wrote, occurs as a battle in terms of its challenges and difficulties. Approximately five weeks after arriving in India, Thea underwent a painful ordeal involving her son, that helped her understand the purpose and function or result of initiation.

“I pondered deeply over this ordeal that had lasted twelve days -- the most painful period I had ever experienced. …  I pondered on the forcefulness of the Gods, to use no matter what, no matter whom to reach the desired end. And I pondered on the formidable, fantastic control of this Power. There was no pity, no sentimentality, no weakness. One had to be a warrior. One had to be made of the fibre of a hero if even once a sincere prayer had been made asking for a total liberation. There was no retreat possible, no going back. Something was set in motion and it would go on and carry one decisively to the goal in spite of all protests, all pleas for our prayer to be retracted. All that we can do therefore is to pray for ' ... the strength to bear the fulfilment of Thy will ... .' 

“I then began to understand the real purpose of an initiation. The ideas prevailing, especially in the West, I realised were so childish, imaginative, devoid of any true substance. The ancient oracles spoke the truth when they commanded the Hero to 'know thyself'. For this was the sole purpose of any initiation. I had become familiar with the Indian tradition of initiation, especially in Tantra. The Guru sets the disciple on the path of yoga by giving a sacred Mantra and a daily practice which the pupil must unfailingly perform. The purpose is to call down the power of the Goddess by these sacred practices, or to unveil that Power within oneself, so that she may carry out the sadhana, much in the same manner as I had done by my prayer in the beginning of the year. That call unleashed a power within that carried out the sadhana in spite of myself. I was, as it were, a mere witness to its determined, deliberate workings. 

“In Sri Aurobindo's Yoga this same process forms the foundation of the sadhana. The disciple strives to unveil the Divine Shakti in his or her being; and that Power then carries out the transforming processes of the Integral Yoga from within. 

"However, what was the purpose of tests such as the one I was made to undergo regarding my own son, where it appeared that he was doomed and no one could do anything to save him? It seemed like such a senseless waste, and grotesque - or somehow a woeful exaggeration. The real possibility of death had never existed, it seems. It was all simply a method to provoke a decisive turning point. But surely there were other means to carry one to that goal of a total surrender...

“Or were there? I understood that the purpose of an initiation, in the deepest and truest sense of the word, was veritably a beginning. It was meant to set the disciple on the path in a condition which would permit him or her to bear within the absolute certainty of victory. 

The purpose of all these tests was not to prove to any higher Power what I was made of and how I would react to the tests. This the Power knew from the outset. It was simply to reveal to myself my true condition. Above all, to know my own boundaries. This was the most essential part. For in this way one is never made to exceed the just limits of one's being and the demarcations of one's destiny. A strength evolves out of an initiation based precisely on the knowledge of that Self. The inner capacity is made known through these tests and one understands just how far one can go on the path. In addition, it is the time that a decisive reversal takes place within and the disciple becomes a warrior of Truth, ever in the service of the Light, and only the Light. One has to battle with hostile forces in such an initiation because that reversal of consciousness depends on this confrontation. But those occult powers which we label 'the dark forces' are our greatest allies on the path since they provide the means to know ourselves in the fullest depths of our being, and to overcome and to conquer. They 'exist' for that purpose, and their elusive hold dissolves the moment the breakthrough is made. 

"Above all, in this initiation I was dramatically shown that presiding over every aspect of creation, the light as well as the dark, was the Divine Mother, that Power of the Supreme. Everything was under her control, the light and the dark. Nothing happened to us without her sanction. Hence we could never really hold anyone responsible for our difficulties and miseries, and must seek redress only through her. This understanding was growing, and it would be tested later. What was by -then thoroughly cemented in my being was the realisation of the measure of my inner strength and capacity to serve the Truth. I knew of what fibre I was made -not as a conscious experience. This was simply a condition of being that would forever after be my foundation. It was the 'seed' and held the key to my spiritual destiny. Out of this a quiet certitude began to develop. It was the beginning of the certitude of the inevitable victory of the power of Truth.…

“Perhaps the most important feature of the initiation was precisely the fact that I realised we are never alone. The Divine is indeed always present and at the centre of our very being. This divine Consciousness was like a luminous Eye, and it was witness and central to everything we did. The lived experience of this inner Divine, ever-present and all-knowing, completely shifted my awareness. It reversed everything.  ‒  Thea, The Tenth Day of Victory, Vol. 1, pp. 141-43, 148 [All emphasis added]

“[D]uring the initiation in Rome prior to my arrival in India, everything seemed to be centred on a purification of the being. It was decidedly a preparation for coming to the Mother, - a beginning and an alignment which would permit the practice of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. There were certain obstacles that had to be eliminated in order for this further development….

“With liberation from that egocentric focus, it was possible to begin the real practice of Yoga.”  ‒  Ibid. pp. 179-80 

“The radical change of consciousness imposed upon humanity today has come through a rather simple occurrence, that of its having received the visual impact of the oneness of the globe. This has played a principal role in the emergence of a consciousness of unity. …. The human being has now psychologically accepted this vision of global oneness and thus a great stirring has begun in his being, for on the one hand he has seen this reality, and on the other the facts of his life on the planet contradict this seeing…. This visual impact of the totality of the Earth can only have the subtle effect of rendering the human being dissatisfied with any solution that is brought before him which speaks of a lesser reality. His eye has now made him see, in spite of himself, that the Earth is One, and though he may be ignorant of the fact, his soul has responded and awakened to the call, because the soul that he is, is one with the soul of the Earth. 

“This is the initiation of today for the masses, just as in ancient Greece the masses were initiated in Eleusis into the Mysteries of Demeter and Kore, the Divine Mother and Daughter, where the culmination of the rite brought the coveted and secret vision of the Daughter, who was the manifestation of the soul of the Earth. Today the masses are passing through the same initiation and are viewing the totality of this Child; and just as the ancient rite brought a change in the consciousness of all those who had the good fortune to participate in it, so today's seeing, this epopteia, as it was called in Greece, has brought the reversal of consciousness which has determined the future course of civilisation. Man may now pass through many decades in conflict due to this seeing-but from it he can find no escape. His cherished scientific research has brought the One World to him, and he will know no peace until this has become the living' reality of his Earth life.” – Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, The New Way, Vols. 1&2, pp. 5-6 [bold emphasis added]

Note: Thea did not specify in this passage whether she was referring to the “The Blue Marble” photo taken by the crew of Apollo 17 in December of 1972 or to the 1968 “Earthrise” photo taken in December of 1968 by the crew of Apollo 8. I imagine she was referring to “The Blue Marble” photo which indeed gave humanity the full vision of the whole body of the Earth; but clearly, even though the “Earthrise” view of the Earth was partial, photograph had a huge impact on humanity and was at least part of the initiation process leading to the full vision of “The Blue Marble”. It seems clear enough that what Thea wrote about this our global initiation into a vision of Oneness, can also be applied towards understanding the Covid-19 Pandemic, which has plunged the world into an unprecedented shared collected experience or experience of Oneness, however negative the catalyst. I think most can feel it in their bones that the pandemic has catalyzed a new collective experience, one that will leave its mark and effect collective changes that cannot even be fully fathomed or predicted at the moment. It has put us ALL TOGETHER into new and unfamiliar territory, especially emphasizing the need to cooperate in order to move forward with the least amount of death and suffering. It seems reasonable at this point to expect that this collective Initiation process may span a few years (with many different “acts”, before the it has done the needful in terms of upgrading our collective consciousness.

My initial initiation into the Supramental Yoga is discussed in Part One of Geometric Keys of Vedic Wisdom, in a chapter called "Remembering the Plot" (pp. 46-55). That initiation process spanned 12.6 years, if counting from my father's suicide in 1988; or 31 years if counting all the way back to my birth in 1969. This initiation process brought me to Sri Aurobindo's yoga, to India and then to Thea's work, culminating in a such dramatic display of the Supramental Consciousness-Force organizing the circumstances of my life, that the reality and truth of this higher consciousness was permanently set in my being, and dramatically altered the way I saw everything, and dramatically altered my path from that point forward.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, writing Part One of Geometric Keys of Vedic Wisdom was itself  part of a second initiation or birth process which in the end opened up into a higher level of my consciousness and work. This birth process fittingly spanned 9 months ‒ the period of human gestation ‒ from 7 February to 7 November of 2016 . This second initiation revealed or birthed-forward the long-lost geometric sense of the Vedic Rivers, the Goddess Saraswati and other central Vedic figures and symbols in conjunction with the week of Thea's passing on 9 October 2016, (during the 2016 celebration of the Vijaya Dashami). This second and unanticipated initiation was an even more dramatic and forceful new birth than the first. It was a torrential descent of ancient gnosis, purifying millennia-worth of seemingly impenetrable Ignorance arranged and delivered by the Supramental Consciousness-Force; and for about a month I directly experienced the truth, bliss and all-harmonizing perfection of the Supramental consciousness of my own Soul. It was beyond the mind's imagination of wonderful (like being bathed in all-purifying, all-soothing divine waters); and once again this divine display and experience, changed everything, establishing the new basis or foundation of my life going forward. I experienced it as the shattering of long-standing collective-ignorance, as well as long-standing self-ignorance, and an entry into a whole new and higher reality, complete with a whole new set of challenges, new things to see and understand based on the new keys of ancient gnosis given, and a seemingly endless TO DO list which I imagine will have to spill over into other lifetimes.