Self-help Guide into

Cosmology of the TankaTibet

The circumstances of my visit to Tibet started with the coincidence that helped me connect to my place in this Universe…..

Several years ago while working on a concept for a mobile app I got introduced to the Vedic cosmology. The app we were designing was to become a replica of ancient Tibetian board game: space travel device where the player could navigate through different planetary systems of the universe and generate karma points through interacting with it’s residents. It was so exiting to find out that ancient cultures knew so much about space travels and saw the Universe as densely populated.

Looking for original game and people who would teach me how to play it, I ventured on a voyage to TIbet. My intention was to seek any sources of information on the game. The original game was said to be more than 3 000 years old and was designed according to the oldest astronomical scriptures in the world Jiotish. I decided to go into the monasteries of Tibet and seek for what was preserved of that knowledge.

Travelling through the foothills of Himalyan mountains we found an ancient monastery. Our research indicated that there was a Tanka there that showcased the perfect mapping for the ancient scriptures. The driver was hesitant to take the car on a windy road and after spending the day hiking up the trail on short-legged mules, we finally reached the destination. Even though we were arriving unannounced we were greeted by a group of monks. “Please come and stay with us, - we were advised by a senior monk, - The teacher send for you.” And the chain of happy events just continued to unfold revealing us more and more about incredible the world around us could be.

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Cosmology of the tanka

Tanka consisted of a round Wheel of Samsara in the gripping hands of Goddess of Death Mara. To the top right you could see the gateways into the world of matter, from which the soul would enter into the world of birth and death, to the left there always remained an open exit, available to those desiring liberation.

Traveler would enter the rotating Wheel and found himself on one of the 108 planets within the cosmos of matter. He would learn something about the place he entered and meet a local resident, that will pose a philosophical question. Based on the answer given, the traveler would acquire karma points and will be sent to the next destination in the universe. After recycling for so many lifetimes and gathering enough wisdom accountable in karma points, the soul would then become eligible for the liberation from the hands of Goddess Mara and would exit the Wheel of Samsara and attain liberation.

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The outer Wheel of Samsara circle

This circlce consists of 12 sections divided according to the phase the soul would go through,while on the ride of the Wheel

• Blind Man: represents Ignorance. Driven by unnatural desire to experience temporary we come down from the spiritual world of transcendence.• Potter that is busy performing karmic actions. Once inside the spinning wheel we are forced to activity. Driven by the 3 modes of material nature: ignorance, passion and goodness everyone gets entangled into activities. • Restless Monkey of material consiousness. Like a busy primate our false mental state

keeps us occupied by the search of sensual enjoyment.• Two Man in a Boat are just like Soul and the Supersoul within one body. Being of

Transcendence the soul always feels like a rider inside the covering of body. Never alone, the soul always have the line of communication with the Divine Consciousness open, that guiding ray of Superconsiousness always there to shine upon the boatman. • Vacant House with the doors and windows open is there to remind us of the material body hosting the soul for a short stay. The openings of the House are in the number corresponding to the 6 senses and the mind. • Embracing Couple. When the senses come in contact with the objects and ideas of this world, the soul gets tightly embraced by the grip of matter.• A Man with an Arrow in the Eye. To believe that we can achieve enjoyment from temporary matter we need to have serious defects in vision. Being blinded by the arrow of sensual pleasures, the soul forgets it’s ability for self-contained inner satisfaction.• Thirsty Man suffering from Desire. Material thirst never satiated. In fact it is not nourishing to the soul, and ever demandsincrease in quantity for it to remain appealing.• A Man Plucking Fruits. Inspired by urges of the senses, desires force us to grasp things. We go on enjoying the fruits of the material garden.• Pregnant Woman indicates Becoming. Being engaged in activities of this world we produce by-products and expand.• Woman Giving Birth is there to show us how after death there is another birth. • A Man Carrying away a Corpse. Everything of matter dwindles and dies, but dead ashes are being carried away by the soul that is eternal and undying.

Totaling in 108 planets-destinations, the game would divide the materialCosmos into main categories as follows:

• Devas: following the path of the Sun.Human like residents of this heavenly realm are characterized by piety and acceptance of austerity. Ascending by the path of the Sun is chosen by seekers of spiritual knowledge and those desiring elevation.• Devas: following the path of the Moon.Being the utmost planet for sensual enjoyment, the Moon offers it’s denizens a wide variety

of material happiness. Denizens of this heavenly realm are known for drinking intoxicating elixir allowing them to increase their control over matter.

• Humans: Being the middle grounds of the Universe, Earthly realms are inhabited by 400 kinds of human beings. As the enjoyment and suffering here is somewhat balanced and presented

in equal opportunity, human birth is considered as the most convenient for focusing on achieving enlightenment.

• Ghosts: Not possessing the gross material body of matter these beings have only the subtle covering of the mind and senses. Not being able to interact with the world of matter directly ghosts can either turn into disturbance or become guardian angels. • Hellish Planets: One of the Upanishads states that a person should only accept things that are set aside for him as a quota, and should not use what is not designated for him. Hellish planets are those places where transgressors are put through experiences similar to the ones imposed by them on others.• Animals: there are 8 million species of animal life that are manifested through different planetary systems and time cycles.• Asuras: similar to the Devas, these human-like beings have very developed bodily and mental abilities. Being demoniac by nature self-centered asuras are destructive and consider their sensual satisfaction as the ultimate goal of life.• Transcendentalist: being in this world, but not of it, these spiritualists are never touched by contamination of association with matter. Some choose to become prophets, others withdraw into seclusion.

9 Types of Existence within the Wheel of Samsara

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Coming down from the world of transcendence, the soul falls into the spinning wheel of birth and death.

Being dissatisfied by temporary nature of material cosmos the soul achieves liberation from false identity of material ego.

Being the center axle of the spinning Wheel of Samsara, the 3 animals represent qualitative forces of rotation: goodness, passion and ignorance.

Goddess of Death Mara has the rotating wheel in her tight grip.“ As sure as Death” is a common saying of her residents.

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Atma: the eternal soul

Atma or the spiritual “ atom” is the soul’s eternal form of existence, that permanently consists of four essential qualities:

• Eternality ( Sat ): The soul is beginningless and unending, was never created and can never die. Once coming into touch with matter the soul experiences illusions of material birth and death, however it’s eternal existence cannot be extinguished but only suspended into experiences of Void or Merge.• Knowledge ( Cit ): The soul is fully cognizant and knowledgeable about the world around. The understanding of the truth comes as a built in quality of atma and can only be covered by material illusion temporarily. “Cit “ is not knowledge that comes from outside to inside our awareness, only the knowledge of matter needs to be learned at every birth, spiritual experience always stays with the soul from birth to birth and onto transcendence.• Bliss ( Ananda): The soul is by nature blissful and is designed to be in the state of constant pleasure, unaffected by the temporary nature of matter. Being opposites, the static material cosmos is designed to remind and push us towards ecstatic nature of atma. • Individual Form ( Vigraha ): The soul’s eternal nature has a permanent identity, that is not dependent on matter for it’s expression. Our material incarnations are just perverted reflections of that eternal spiritual identity.

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Timescale: Where we are now?

Unlike time in both Judeo-Christian religious tradition and the current view of modern science, Tibetian and Vedic time is cyclic. What goes around comes around: the Universe passes through repetitive cycles of creation and destruction. During the annihilation of the universe, energy is conserved, to manifest again in the next creation.The Vedic system of the four yugas presents the lengths of the ages as 4/3/2 and 1 times an interval of 432,000 years.

- Satya yuga 1.728 million years, The crown of material existence, the best of times, Paradise Lost.The minds of people are self-effulgent : brilliant in clarity and spiritual perception. Humanity delights in spiritual knowledge and austerity. People of this age live long life, they are peaceful, sober and tolerant.They take their pleasure from within and see all things equally. The majority of population are paramahamsas, elevated transcendentalists above the social structure.

- Treta yuga 1.296 million years, This age fosters devotion to colossal rituals of sacrifice and extraordinary austerity. Most of the population are brahmins: religious intellectuals. Transcendetalists are no longer the numerical majority, though their effect still predominates. The mode of passion begins to gain the upper hand and the complete Vedic social system for progressive development unfolds. Vedas separate into branches. Population is free from excesses of lust and anger, but not from the desire for prestige.

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- Dvapara yuga 864 thousand years: The third age brings about glory and nobility, with all the accompanying excesses of passion. In addition to religious intellectuals, the population also contains large numbers of martial and administrative class. People devote themselves to Vedic study as well as extraordinary wealth, fame and power. Large families are common. Greed, selfishness, false pride, dissatisfaction and envy become visible.

- Kali yuga 432 thousand years: Seen from the Vedic perspective, this age is the most perverse, the diametric opposite of the Golden Age of Truth. Whereas in previous ages, either transcendentalists or religious intellectuals or noble statesmen predominated, in the Iron Age, what the Vedas consider the mentality of crude laborers and barbarians becomes the norm. “Religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength, And memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the Age of Kali.”

( Srimad Bhagavatam 12.2.1)

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The Four Directions on a Journey.

As every action is motivated by belief that we are moving towards destination, it is important to have a vision for the ultimate purpose of the souls travel. In order to better understand the meaning of the game and Tanka of Cosmology let’s examine the categories of consciousness that motivate us to move in a certain direction.

• Matter: there is no other realm than the visible kingdom of matter, our consiousness is a random by-product of material elements, there is no soul or the Creator of any kind.

There are no superior experiences other than the pleasure of the senses, no long-term karma.

• Emptiness: the world manifested from the state of void or emptiness and somehow produces the illusion of being. Travelers on this path seek to extinguish that individuality of the soul and merge into the state called Nirvana, or complete emptiness, ceasing both reincarnation and existence. There is no God or higher purpose in existence.

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• Merge: spiritual destination that takes the traveler to a spiritual condition free of qualities of material Cosmos. The ultimate existence considered to be merging into Brahman, or the white effulgent light free of any qualities. There, achieving eternity, the soul loses all desires for personal existence and form.

• Bhakti: pure desires and personal relationships extend beyond the temporary into the Spiritual world, that is full of variety and interactions. The soul remains individual even after achieving liberated condition, and is designed to be complete in it’s eternity, knowledge and happiness.

The Creator is considered to be a Supreme Person and the ultimate happiness of the soul is to experience loving exchange and service with Him, or Bhakti.

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Lifetime of our Universe equals to the Lifetime of Brahma,

Rotation of 4 yugas = 1 Divya yuga cycle.1000 Divya yuga cycles = 1 day of Brahma = 4.32 billion years.

360 days of Brahma = 1 year of life of BrahmaLifespan of Brahma = 100 years = 311.04 trillion years.

Where we are now in the timescale of the Universal clock? If the duration of the Universe would be compared to a 24 hour clock,

we would be in about high noon.Kali Yuga started midnight of 18 February 3102 B.C., when all

seven planets were invisible, so we are:

5000 years into the Age of Kali,28 Divya yuga cycle in the day of Brahma

Who is about 50 years old.

The first living being within Universe, the forefather of all living entities, the manifester of species of material cosmos and the passion of creation.

Vedic times calculated in rotation of 4 cycles:Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali.

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Spending several days at the remote monastery we have learned a lot about the ancient Cosmology and were able to reenact the process of the board game. One evening as we were sitting in a small room surrounded by several monks helping us read the diagrams written in ancient scribbles. The monotonius humming of monks downstairs chanting, the dimmed with the lights of the oil lamps, and the heavy schented sweet fragrance were making me feel otherworldly.

I draw the number and move my peg to a new destination on the map. As I picked up the card and read a question from an Avadhutta, resident of Satya-Loka I saw monks exchanging meaningfull glances:

From where we are in our journey we are always trying to decide where to go next, material nature will force us to move. As explained in the Tibetian scriptures, spirit soul is eternal by nature, but by coming down into the world of matter it becomes conditioned. It does not looses it’s immortality, but becomes illussioned. Ancient called it the Wheel of Samsara.

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- Within the repeating yuga cycles, - read the inquiry- what is the one that is the shortest and more difficult for a spiritualist? Glancing through multiple answers below I picked out one that made more sense: the Age of Iron. The eyes of the senior sparkled with satisfaction and he nodded in approval.

He then leaned forward and said something quite softly, his younger appraintance translating:- Soon the Wheel of Samsara will complete it’s turn and this planet will see the new beam of enlightenment. It will be difficult and glories times, so many now have forgotten why the time is spinning like it does. Wait for that turn and after Rahu will cross the path of the Sun in eclipse, share this knowledge with whoever seeks it, it has been long waited for. He touched my head in a gesture of a blessing and then rose and left the room. I remained stunned, trying to tell where the game ended and real life started.

It does feel that the modern world got a little dizzy with excessive materialism, not sure, may be because of the constant rotation of the Wheel of Samsara. I hope you will take part in this game and reconnect with the Universe within while getting ready for interstellar voyages awaiting.

Copyright © 2012 by Vedic Renaissance Productions

Cover design by Ananta Govinda das & DG Avatar

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Printed in the United States of America

First Printing: July 2012

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