On 2nd November 2009, I landed in Kolkata for the first time in almost 18 months – my fourth visit to India since 2005 – but this time it had a special significance ever.
That day in April 2008, when I wandered out of the New Delhi railway station just after the theft incident, it seemed that all the Indians gathered around me were my enemies. When I returned to India after a year and a half of peaceful living in Japan, my biggest anxiety was how I would perceive and feel about the Indian world.
But when I passed the first contact at the immigration office without any difficulty, went to the city, got on a bus and found myself all surrounded by Indians (!), the feelings that welled up in my heart were exactly the same as when I returned to India in 2005 for the first time in eight years, or even more nostalgic and touching.
Once I even thought that I might not be able to return to India, but now I am standing on Indian soil again. I am surrounded by the smell of India, surrounded by Indians and showered with Bengali. My feelings and passion for India have been completely revived.
And there was another reason why this journey has unprecedented significance. A few months before I left Japan, I had stumbled upon a crucial keyword at the heart of Chakra Thought. It was an epoch-making breakthrough that took me one step further from ‘The Sacred Stick of Mahatma Gandhi’.
This visit was also a journey to re-shoot all the photographic data lost last time, and at the same time to test a new hypothesis based on the keyword. It was really a discovery born of a common accidental mistake.
One day, I was organising a USB memory stick that had various photo files jumbled together. While mechanically manipulating the mouse to edit the photos, I somehow got lost in my thoughts and realised that I had unknowingly rotated a picture 90 degrees, even the one I didn’t need. The moment I looked at the picture with a wry smile on my face, I couldn’t help but let out a gasp in surprise.
It was a very maniac photo data of a wheel of Shinkansen (bullet train) 0-series, which I had ‘somehow’ saved when I did an internet search for the keyword ‘wheel’ during my previous stay in India. However, the wheel, seen from an unusual angle on the monitor in front of me, jumped strongly into my consciousness as the image of something other than a wheel.
When the picture was rotated by 90 degrees, a vertical axle based on a horizontal wheel appeared. That was a very form of the Shiva Lingam itself.
Shiva Lingam is worshipped as the main deity of Shiva temples throughout India. It is a short cylindrical Linga (representing the phallus) rising above a disc-shaped Yoni (representing the female genitalia) with a Gomukha (cow’s mouth) drain, symbolising the union of the male principle, Shiva, and the female principle, the Divine Consort Parvati (Devi Shakti).
However, having previously assumed that the sacred wheel was equal to the ‘spoked’ wheel, I was completely blindsided by the sight of the yoni, which had no spoke design, is placed horizontally on the ground, and whose impression was altered by the presence of the gomukha.
Was it not only the Nataraja statue but also the title role, Shiva Lingam itself, the manifestation of the sacred wheel? My brain was beginning to run rapidly in top gear as I recovered from my momentary shock and confusion.
In fact, until the moment, I have rarely had the perspective to focus on the axle itself, separate from the wheel. This is because, when viewed as a two-dimensional design, the central axle is hardly noticeable compared to the large, good-looking wheels.
For example, even looking at the Dharma Chakra on the Indian flag above, it is not clear whether the small circle (dot) in the centre is the axle or the hub.
Even if you look at the old-fashioned bullock carts with wooden spoked wheels still in use in the Indian countryside, the axles are almost never seen, hidden by the chassis bed and wheels.
Come to think of it, when I discussed the relationship between the wheel and the lotus flower in Chapter 3 of this book, I spoke of the superposition of the axle at the centre of the wheel and the receptacle at the centre of the lotus flower, but this was only about similarity and homology of form and position, and I didn’t think about the ‘axle itself’ in depth.
For this reason, the existence of the axle was a complete blind spot for me. But the moment the image of the inconspicuous axle was superimposed on the three-dimensional Linga, it began to radiate a tremendous presence.
First of all, what were the properties of the axle in the Ratha chariot system, the origin of the chakra philosophy?
It is an important part of the chariot as it is fixed to the chassis bottom of the chariot and runs through the centre of the wheels, supporting all the loads, including those of the warriors riding on the chariot, and at the same time converting the pulling power of the horses into the turning motion of the wheels. The contact surfaces of the axle and the hub are lubricated, and only when the two are inseparable and work together harmoniously as a single unit can the wheels turn smoothly and the Ratha chariot gallops along.
At first glance, the axle is nothing more than a simple round stick and is almost insignificant in terms of form compared to the spectacularly developed design of the wheel. So, while I have superimposed various religious designs on the wheel, the meaning and importance of the ‘axle’ were almost completely absent from my perspective.
But what would happen if an axle broke or a wheel came off its axle? The wheels would lose their function completely and the Ratha chariot would immediately fail and stop.
It was not an overstatement to say that the axle, literally the central structural axis of a Ratha chariot, was an essential core of the vehicle’s mechanics
The axle, that turns the wheel at its centre. The discovery of the ‘axle’ itself was more significant to me at this time than the discovery that the Shiva Lingam could be a wheel set figure.
Looking back, I have already talked about chakra design in Chapter 3, like below.
‘The radiating design from the one point of the centre represented the providence in which everything in the world unfolded from the very root, God (primordially the Sun). When a man meditates on it, the radial design is turned to reverse, concentrating ones mind, scattered in everyday life, to the very centre, God’.
At that point, I was not even aware that the axle was there, but when I realised and focused on its existence, it was quite natural that in the representation of the wheel, the axle in the centre represents God.
And more shocks followed.
I had a feeling, like a hunch, that something is spot on, so I repeated the previous phrase, “At first glance, the axle is nothing more than a simple round stick” several times, then it dawned on me: if this axle were just “a simple round stick”, when I took it out of the bottom of the car and held it upright in my hand, it could be…
None other than a ‘Danda’!
When examined, the Sanskrit word “akṣa-daṇḍa” means “axle rod”. A stick, which is an axle, is at the same time a Danda. This was the final blow. Isn’t this the true ‘central dogma’ of the Chakra philosophy?
Vishnu was originally the deification of the illuminating light of the sun. Is that not why the axle in the position of the sun in the Chakra design, i.e. a danda, was worshipped as Vishnu’s divine weapon and also as Vishnu himself? Isn’t that why Mahatma Gandhi grasped it in his hands ‘as a deity’?
And because the linga is both an axis and a danda, that’s exactly why, the Shaivite Sadhu also grasps and holds the Danda as the Shiva itself.
In other words, there was a universal idea of ‘the supreme deity (Vishnu, Shiva or Brahma) as the central axle (axis) of the wheel or the world’…
Incidentally, the Indian word ‘aksha’, meaning axle, is also a unit of length, and is said to represent 4 hasta, or approximately 180 cm. This is almost the same as the previously mentioned unit of 1 danda of the Maurya dynasty, and it is possible that the unit of 1 danda 180 cm itself was based on the real axle length of the regularly used Ratha chariot.
As if possessed, I repeatedly hummed the words axle, danda, centre, and so on, and used these new keywords to re-search the vast amount of information I had stored in my brain and on my computer.
Meaning of the chakra design in which the centre is the Supreme God. The axle, which is fixed to the chassis bottom and never moves on its own, and the wheel, which is pierced by the axle in its centre and rotates vigorously. A Danda, that supports the wheel at its centre but is hidden behind it and is hardly visible.
It did not take long for these images to evoke a single memory. That was the idea of the Samkhya philosophy.
The Samkhya philosophy is one of the major six schools of Vedic philosophy, with the Samkhya Kalika, said to be written around 200AD by the holy sage Kapila, as its sacred text. It is closely related to Yoga and Ayurveda and is one of the most important foundations of the Hindu view of man and the world up to the present day.
According to this, the pure spirit or consciousness, Purusha, is itself static and unrelated to the Samsaric material phenomenal world. Unmanifested Prakriti, the fundamental matter or nature, which is the counterpart to Purusha, is the potential developing force of the material phenomenal world, and the world unfolds when these two are united through the contemplation of Purusha. And when the ego-consciousness (our everyday mind), which has evolved from Prakriti, awakens to the Purusha of pure spirit, one will be liberated.
The Purusha is at the same time the Atman=True Self, and when our worldly, therefore many-attached and afflicted mind, then returns to its original pure spirit, the Purusha-Atman, the one is freed from the bondage of samsara and attains true salvation.
And it was the Shakta school of thought, which appeared in Chapter 4, that developed under this Samkhya philosophy.
There, the personal (individual) subject is elevated to a universal (cosmic) perspective, where the masculine noun Purusha is replaced by Shiva and the feminine noun Prakriti by Shakti.
The unfolding of the macrocosm is represented by the union of Shiva and Shakti, and that Shiva, who is essentially Brahman, is impersonal and inactive, can only create the phenomenal world=macrocosm when he was united with the divine consort Devi Shakti, the source of his active power.
‘The static Purusha-Atman is the Axle and the Prakriti is the Wheel that goes round and round like Samsara.’
The Shiva (Linga) is the sober, motionless Axle, and the Devi-Shakti (Yoni) pierced by That is the dynamic, energetic Wheel. And without being connected to the Shakti (wheel), the Shiva (axle) cannot even move!
I wonder If the modelling form of Shiva Lingam was created as the literal embodiment of such an idea…? It seemed a fascinating hypothesis to me.
I went into further contemplation, as if squeezing my brain to the limit.
Prakriti, the Primordial Nature, has three gunas (qualities): sattva, rajas and tamas. Sattva is generally interpreted as ‘pure quality’, whose attributes are balance, order, intelligence and luminosity, and whose essence is ‘maintenance’. Rajas is generally interpreted as ‘intense quality’, whose attributes are strength, vitality, change and passion, and whose essence is ‘creation’. Tamas is interpreted as ‘dark quality’, whose attributes are inactivity, lethargy, dullness, laziness, delay, etc., and whose essence is ‘destruction’.
It is interesting that each of these essences corresponds to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in the Trimurti, but it is also important to note that Sattva is the nature that brings balance, not balance itself. Similarly, Rajas is the nature that brings activity, while Tamas is the nature that brings laziness.
If the aforementioned hypothesis is correct and Prakriti overlaps with the wheel, wouldn’t these three gunas directly apply to the properties of the wheel itself? It was indeed a simple idea. So how did it work in practice?
If we first look at the attributes of the sattva, we realise that it represents the characteristics of the wheel admirably.
Unlike primitive wheels, which are made by laminating wood plates together, spoked wheel is made up of advanced processing technology. The hub, spokes and rim (tyre) are processed and formed separately, and only when they are precisely assembled does the wheel take shape.
It is an elaborate technology that requires a highly mathematical ‘intelligence’, similar to the making of wooden barrels. The shapes grasped by the intellect establish ‘order’ in the disparate pieces of wood.
The wheel thus assembled would only be able to turn smoothly if it maintained a shape as close as possible to a perfect circle and a high degree of ‘balance’ based on strict centrality.
The symbolic design of the spokes radiating out from the centre of the wheel is a true representation of the ‘luminosity’ of the Sun, Surya Chakra.
The appearance of the wheel brought about a major change in the world, and it soon became an indispensable tool in society, a necessity to ‘maintain’ our daily lives. And once started to drive, the wheel has the property of being able to ‘maintain’ its motion with less power due to inertia. This would overlap with the essence of Sattva.
Secondly, the essence of Rajas was ‘creation’. This, too, is a brilliant shot at the true nature of the wheel.
It is generally accepted that living organisms have ultimately failed to acquire a wheel-rotating mechanism as a visible locomotor organ. This is because when a wheel is combined with an axle and kept turning, if the two are connected by blood vessels, nerves or muscles, they will eventually and inevitably twist and cut them apart. In principle, it is almost impossible for an organism to acquire a wheel mechanism as an organ.
In this situation, It was the ‘creation’ of the wheel by mankind that made the impossible possible. Man has achieved many creative inventions by imitating the biological world, but only the mechanism of this wheel was purely original to mankind, it didn’t exist in the other biological world.
The wheel, as an extracorporeal organ. It revolutionised the history of the evolution of life and became the driving force behind a major shift in the subsequent history of the biosphere.
Then, around 2000 BC, a new spoked wheel was ‘created’ by the Aryans. The high-performance, high-tech wheel made long journeys possible and led to encounters with new lands. It was nothing less than the ‘creation’ of a new world. In time, it led them to establish an overwhelming military presence throughout the Eurasian continent, and even here on the Indian subcontinent.
The advent of the spoked wheel was indeed a process of ‘creation’ itself, in a double and triple sense.
And if we look at the attributes of this Rajas, does it not represent the function and action of the wheel itself?
The invention of the wheel brought revolutionary ‘change’ to people’s lives. For those riding on the fast-moving Ratha chariot, the speed of that ‘change’ as the landscape flowed by could only be described as miraculous. And let’s remind the fact, that the wheel symbolised time or ‘change’, through its movement.
The Ratha chariot boasts the speed, but it also has the dangerous characteristic that if it accelerates too much, it can run out of control, even beyond the will of the driver who controls it. In a sense, it can be said to resemble the ‘passion’ that humans possess. And also, the Ratha chariot, equipped with such wheels, was a symbol of the ‘vitality’ of the gods in the Rig Veda.
Finally, let’s look at Tamas.
The rotating wheel is constantly subjected to forces that oppose its movement. These are the load of the entire vehicle body, including the passengers; the grinding friction created where the axle meets the hub; the violent collision with the ground as all the weight is supported at a single point; the resistance on an uphill; the obstacles of the bumpy ground; the headwind; the water in the river to be crossed.
These manifest as ‘heaviness’ in the form of great resistance when the Ratha chariot starts in motion, and they act as counter-forces which constantly try to stop the movement while the chariot is driving. Do these counter-forces not coincide with the qualities of Tamas, ‘inactivity, lethargy, dullness, laziness and delay’?
At the same time, a Ratha chariot, no matter how powerful, is completely useless if it has no brakes. There must be a decelerator (in the case of a Ratha, a bridle to control the horses?) which converts these resisting forces into a useful function. And the essence of this decelerating device is the ‘destruction’ of the Rajasic kinetic energy.
There is another important aspect of this ‘destruction’ that must not be forgotten. It is a historical fact that Indra, who drove the Ratha chariot, was a merciless warrior king of destruction and plunder. In peacetime, it represents the characteristic of ‘maintenance’, but when used in war, it is nothing but the embodiment of thorough ‘destruction’ (although it may be more appropriate to think of the destruction in war as the result of the stampeded Rajas, ’strength, vitality, change and passion’..).
When the wheel (Prakriti) with these three characteristics is set (contemplated) on the axle (Purusha), the Ratha chariot starts to run (although the existence of the horse as a power source is not mentioned here…) and the phenomenal world unfolds and goes round in a Samsara. And the axle cannot move by itself unless it is connected to the function of the wheel.
Are these considerations mere twisted logic? As a non-scholar, I can only leave it to the readers to decide, but my feeling is that this image of Purusha and Prakriti superimposed on an axle and wheel is highly consistent in various aspects.
It is undeniable that even the idea of the Trimurti could have been born out of the association and intersection with the wheel. Saying, that the three deities of the Trimurti are seen as the ‘function’ of the phenomenal world, and a non-phenomenal Supreme is assumed behind them. In this case, the central axle would be the Purusha-like Supreme, the hub Brahma, the spokes Vishnu and the rim (tyre) Shiva?
And there were further deeper signs.
The Hindi word ‘aksha’ shares its origin with Axle in English and Axis Mundi in Latin, but it turns out that ‘aksha’ also means a ‘yoke’ that connects oxen or horses.
It is widely believed that the etymology of the word ‘yoga’ is ‘to connect (yoj) the oxen or horse to the yoke’. If the yoke is another meaning of aksha, then it can also mean ‘connecting to aksha’. If aksha is read as ‘axle’, it means ‘connecting the wheel to the axle’.
The photo above shows an ox cart rather than a Ratha chariot, where the yoke on the neck of the ox is a thick round bar, probably about the same length as the axle. A two-horse and two-wheel Ratha chariot consists of two horses connected by a yoke in the front power unit, two wheels on each side connected to axle in the rear chassis, and the chassis and yoke connected by a shaft that holds everything together. Conceptually, if the yoke is an aksha (axle), it could be seen as a four-wheeled vehicle with front-wheel drive.
If the wheel falls off the axle, it loses sight of its original function and wanders aimlessly. This can be compared to the ego-consciousness that has lost sight of God as its centre. Conversely, if it is firmly connected to the axle, its function is fulfilled and the axle itself is activated at the same time.
Our mind believes that the various phenomena experienced in this world (Saṃsāra) are the essence of the self, and so it becomes attached, distressed and confused. At this time the human mind loses sight of the axle, the pure spirit, purusha, and sees only the Saṃsāric phenomenal world, i.e. Prakriti, the wheel world.
However, by turning away from this delusion and returning (reconnecting) to the Purusha or Atman, which is the true reality (the immovable axle), the path of Yoga to true salvation is opened.
In other words, the logic that can be presumed here is that the everyday consciousness, trapped in the wheel world=Prakriti, first becomes aware (connect=yoga) of the existence of the central axle Purusha, shifts consciousness to it and integrates with it, and then, by freeing itself completely from the bondage of the wheel world=Prakriti, attains true liberation=kaivalya (the Self within the Axle=Purusha alone).
By superimposing the metaphor of “the ox-horse and the yoke” and the metaphor of “the wheel and the axle” into one, does not the essence of the Samkhya Yoga philosophy emerge even more clearly?
In fact, the word अक्ष akṣaḥ=axle overlaps with the words अक्षय akṣaya and अक्षर akṣara. These are often used to refer to the supreme attributes of God, or sometimes to the Supreme God Himself. Their meaning is ‘eternal’, ‘imperishable’ and ‘immortal’.
In particular, ‘akṣara’ is often used in the Bhagavad Gita as an expression of praise for the Supreme Krishna (Vishnu) Brahman, which is very suggestive.
Bhagavad Gita 8. 3
sri bhagavaan uvaacha
aksharam brahma paramam swabhaavodhyaatmamuchyate
bhootabhaavodbhavakaro visargah karma samjnitah // 8.3 //Sri Bhagavan said
eSamskriti
Brahman is the Imperishable, the Supreme. Dwelling in each body, Brahman is called the individual soul. The offering of the oblation, which, brings into existence all beings and supports them, is called action.
Furthermore, the word Akshara also means ‘syllable’, referring specifically to the sacred sound ‘AUM’ itself. This would be some kind of indication that the term ‘axle=aksha’ had a very special place in Indian thought, wouldn’t it?
(According to Sanskrit dictionaries, Aksha and Akshara have different etymologies. It would be helpful to hear a detailed explanation from experts on this matter. However, even if they had completely separate origins and meanings, it is worth noting that ancient Indians often employed wordplay with similar or homophonic words. Therefore, there could have been a conscious connection or overlap between Aksha and Akshara, regardless of their different origins.)
This sacred sound, Aum, is called Brahman in the Kathaka Upanishad as ‘the Supreme One’, which is metaphorically the most prominent pillar of this world. This is also related to the ‘axle’, which will have important implications later on. For if the divine axle were erected vertically, it would become the great pillar of the Supreme (Axis Mundi).
Kathaka Upanishad Chapter 2
Shloka.org
sarve vedā yatpadamāmananti
tapāgͫsi sarvāṇi ca yadvadanti .
yadicchanto brahmacaryaṃ caranti
tatte padagͫ saṃgraheṇa bravīmyomityetat .. 15..
15 Yama said: The goal which all the Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at and which men desire when they lead the life of continence, I will tell you briefly: it is Om (AUM).
etaddhyevākṣaraṃ brahma etaddhyevākṣaraṃ param .
etaddhyevākṣaraṃ jñātvā yo yadicchati tasya tat .. 16..
16 This syllable Om is indeed Brahman. This syllable is the Highest. Whosoever knows this syllable obtains all that he desires.
etadālambanam̐ śreṣṭhametadālambanaṃ param .
etadālambanaṃ jñātvā brahmaloke mahīyate .. 17..
17 This is the best support (pillar); this is the highest support. Whosoever knows this support is adored in the world of Brahma.
Through my considerations up to this point, ‘the axle=Supreme God’ hypothesis was coming much closer to conviction in my mind. But I still had some doubts about the Shiva Lingam. First of all, wasn’t the chakra sacred in India the wheel with the radial spokes? More generally, even though it’s the same wheel, isn’t it too simple-minded to superimpose the Shiva Lingam on the axle of that very specific Type 0 bullet train?
I was almost dizzy with excitement at the newly opened perspective, but I put the matter aside for a moment and focused on my next target.
~to be continued~
INDIA~The Land of Holy Chakra 