The Light of Ten Thousand Suns

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From the words of the poet men take what meanings
please them, but their last meaning points to Thee.

"Look at God's poem. It neither decays nor dies," says the Veda. Men's thoughts touch only the fringes of God's poem, lacing together this entire universe. The thread of this lace, Sutrama, runs through all souls. Every now and then a bead in the rosary recognizes the touch of the thread within that joins it to other beads. The process of this recognition is called inspiration. The thought then looks for words and becomes a composition.

The compositions presented here do not pretend to be from any specific literary genre. Many Idioms are unfamiliar, many words express thoughts not normally ascribed to them in a lexicon. The metre is not always well measured. But the sense of these words is addressed to those who aspire to transcend the senses. The thoughts here are from a personal diary, as it were, thoughts which have poured our unconsciously and sometimes super consciously. The teachings that comprise the first part of the book are those, by the grace of the Guru, that speak to all aspirants wherever they are on the path to the sun. The second part of the book speaks of despairs and longings, to dark night of the soul and of fulfillment at the touch of light. Although these inspirations and meditations are not chronologically ordered. They were written during three periods. The first group was written from 1954-1965 at the end of which the composition, "I have turned my back to you mother," was completed. Nothing was written until 1970 when Mother finally came where I had least expected her to find me. It was then that the second group of compositions was written, among which were the "Songs of Fulfillment." Other meditations included here were written in 1985-86.

A few words about the sun. This body was seven years old when my father first gave me a book of teachings of Swami Rama Tirtha. The most striking stanza in this book was: "Lo, the sun rises in fear of me." A year or two later I read, at my father's instruction, an article in the yoga issue of a well known Hindi magazine, Kalyan. The article was by one of the most outstanding scholars and sages of this century, Shri Gopinath Kaviraj of the holy city of Varanasi, a man who had been initiated into the mysteries of solar science and the Tantra. He wrote of the whole universe being a solar field, the energies of which form the various levels of tangible and intangible realities. It seemed then that the solar ancestry claimed by the great kings of India and other eastern countries must refer to the fact that the founders had been initiated into this particular spiritual mystery.

A the age of eleven I memorized the hymns to sun and dawn from the Vedas, the texts which have been handed down orally in the Brahmin families of India for thirty-five or forty centuries. Ten years later, Akhenaton s hymn to Ra (from Egypt of the thirteenth century B.C.) seemed to echo in the same spiritual chamber in which the Vedic rishis were singing of him with golden hand, of him who was traversing the paths between with and heaven, the single eye of God watching over all things moving and not moving. Of him who is the infant of dawn who rises after her sister, night, has given way to light. It is of him that the Brahmins of India recite three times a day:

We take unto ourselves and mediate opun
the beautiful splendour of the sun,
May he inspire our wisdom.

It is the initiation into the meaning of this chant that gives them, with the status of the twice-born, the right and duty to study and pass on the sacred texts.

This golden womb alone is said to be the first and for all times the only teacher of Yoga. Light, too has been the preoccupation of the mystics and saints for all the centuries since it was revealed to the vision of the poets who sang three hundred and seven hymns to light in the text of the Rig Veda alone. In the Bhagavad-Gita Lord Krishna shows his universe encompassing form to the wonder stricken Arjuna and his form is "brilliant like can ten thousand suns risen simultaneously in sky." No wonder that Krishna said, "I taught this Yoga to the sun (Vivasvat)," the father of Manu who is the archetypal man and personification of all prayers used for meditation.

Many obscure passages in the Yoga texts speak of the solar branch of Yoga. Little do the scholars suspect that the obscurity was international, and as a child little did I hope, though I wished much, that a ray of solar light in meditational initiations would ever touch this aspiring but unworthy soul. The rest of the story must be left, again, intentionally obscure though I wish for you a speedy coming to the incarnation when your souls unravel this mystery.

It is my master from the Himalayas only whose thoughts have found words here. All that the reader sees as lofty here comes form the sages and all that is faulty is mine.

The inspirations and meditations in this collection are unique. Swami Veda is not only one of the greatest living spiritual guides in the Himalayan Yoga tradition, but he is a formidable Sanskrit scholar. The combination of these accomplishments made bringing some form of order to this collection a delightful challenge. For, though, on the surface, the inspiring compositions included here are beautiful and edifying, they also arise from a comprehensive knowledge of a plethora of Sanskrit text in the Hindu Tradition attested to in the footnotes, which demonstrate the spiritual and scholarly depth of their origination.

The leading image and concept of the compositions, as the preface indicates, is the sun as it functions in the mysteries of solar science and Tantric yoga conjoint with Vedanta philosophy. Swami Veda's introductory composition, "Voices of the Sun," tells us that the inspirations in this collection are literally from the sun, streaming like rays from the sun and only given word and form by Swami Veda. All Vedic paths, whether of solar science, tantra, or any other of the many schools and approaches which have sprung up over the centuries, have as their goal the attainment of transcendental consciousness. The method and means for this attainment are the Yogas.

Part I of this book present, in inspiring prose poetry, time-less teachings, made relevant for us, of the Vedic masters of the sankhya and yoga schools of philosophy, primarily through the five main yogas karma, bhakti, jnana, Kundalini and raja. It is raja yoga, which itself includes aspects of the other yogas, as brought together I the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which forms the basis of the teachings in the first section entitled, "Ember Sparks from Sun Rays." These inspiring meditations will also make evident that Swami Veda and the raja yoga tradition embrace all genuine paths to realization be they Christian, Sufi or Buddhist. "Stories and Parables of Power" continue the teachings, while also giving a sense of how much a part of the ancient Sanskrit texts story telling is. Because meditation is the fundamental method in the tradition in general and in raja yoga in particular-often referred to as the yoga of meditation-some of swami Veda's inspirations that specifically deal with developing the philosophy and practice of meditation have been included under the sections "Mind and Breath" and "Meditation," The section "Marriage of Shakti and Shiva" deals more specifically with the Kundalini teachings in Tantric and raja yoga. The book is made accessible to the general reader through short footnote explanations where traditional or unfamiliar references are made.

Bridging Part I and II, at the center of the book, is the composition "Brahman," Brahman, the supreme Unmanifest center of reality from which the manifest is created and called back again in an infinite circular play of light and energy. This beautiful meditations on creation could just as well be called "Divine Mother" for she is also that divine reality from which all of the inspirations in this book emerge to reflect the energy play of the One, the light of ten thousand suns.

Taken from the beginning of part I through the end of Part II the order of compositions presented offers an archetypically and yet uniquely personal (autobiographical) record of the progressive stages of a swami on the yoga path to realization. The entire book provides an intimate and inspirational teaching guide for those interested in delving into the spiritual path of yoga, in addition to being a collection of unusually beautiful and inspiring writings.

The Light of Ten thousand Suns is a gem of beauty, wisdom and delight. It brings us the truths of life and death, glory and insignificance, defeat and ecstasy – all in light of the vast divine presence surrounding and within us all.

In reading this book of mystical inspiration, remembrance stirs within. Author and holy man, Swami Veda Bharati widens our vision from the tight; concerns of daily existence into the vast illumination of our own divine self.