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The 8th of August 2024 marks a unique convergence of number 8 and a most powerful number in every human’s life. According to the Greek calendar 8/8/8 marks the day when the brightest star of the day – The SUN; and the brightest star of the night sky – THE SIRIUS; are aligned in a straight line.
In the Indian context, the Sun is the star that inhibits life into every being and the brightest star on the night sky is visibly Dhruva, ranked 50th in brightness. But there is also another Brightest Star ranking first in the list that was mentioned in Rig Veda as the Mruga-Vyadha (the slayer of a deer).
The Vedic Symbolism & Sirius
Sirius has a wonderful connection and interpretation according to the Vedas. There is a wonderful story in the Vedas (Aitareya Brahmana) that explains the Vedic relation to Sirius. Let us know the symbolic story. The Vedic symbol of creative power is Prajapati. Prajapati, the god of Creation/Life. His enemy in the Vedic context is Rudra (Pashupati) (the God of Animals).
Prajapati in the form of deer (Orion Constellation – Mrigashira) does a forbidden deed of desiring sex with Rohini (Aldebaran Constellation). Furious with this intention of Prajapati, the other celestial beings (Gods) with their conjunctive power created Pashupati – Canis Major (The God of Physical beings). It is said that Prajapati, The Mruga (The Deer) was slayed by Pashupati, The Mruga-Vyadha (Sirius). The symbolism here is the cosmic powers coming together to eliminate the limited instinctive qualities and to illuminate the cosmic space with bright divine light.
The Tantric Symbolism
Today is one such day that we humans can take the support of the cosmic powers to enhance our efforts in the path of self-transformation.
In this path of self-transformation, Tantra Yoga plays a major role. I personally interpret and sense that Tantra Yoga symbolically speaks of 8 Portals that every soul should cross for an eternal, unified and unlimited experience of being in a supreme conscious state. On a lighter note, imagine the portals that open just as in the movie Doctor Strange and try to visualize the supreme conscious state that Lucy attains in the Movie Lucy.
These 8 Portals are the symbolic representation of your journey from finite to Infinite, Mortality to Immortality and Ignorance to Wisdom. Let us swim a little deeper to understand these 8 portals better.
The Causal Portal: Naga loka
In Tantra Yoga, the Causal Portal is represented by Nagaloka. This is exactly where the energy of Kundalini resides. Kundalini, often depicted as a coiled serpent at the base of the spine or Mooladhara, is the very foundation of our existence—our DNA. This portal holds the potential secrets of our present life, symbolizing the primal cause of our birth in human form.
Opening this first portal by itself is a yogic journey. It reveals the fundamental reason and purpose of your incarnation. I feel that the very DNA is the bridge, the connection to Nagaloka, the world or dimension of dormant, unmoved or undisturbed cosmic energy. It is the causal portal that anchors and stores an infinite amount of information and mystically guides our life’s journey.
The Physical Portal: The Manushya loka
This is the portal of mutation and multiplication of the very first cell of yours. In this dimension one becomes two and two becomes four. It is because you have opened this portal successfully, that you reside in and as this physical being that you are. The very survival depends on this portal and dimension of existence.
The way the 5 basic elements amalgamates, permutates and combinates as your physical body is the very purpose of this portal and dimension. It is truly extraordinary and unique that no one else shares the same permutation and combination of the five elements as you do in your physical form. Not even the twins.
The Karmic Portal: The Pitr loka
If the Physical Portal determines what you are made of, then the Karmic Portal reveals the essence of who you actually are. This portal is the gateway to the dimensions encompassing all the lives and incarnations your soul has experienced, culminating in who you are today. I can see this very clearly that your active Karmic Portal is the driving force demotivating you or motivating you right now to delve deeper and read further. This dimension holds the secrets of your past, present, and future, storing every memory your cells carry. It is the source of your thoughts, likes, dislikes, feelings, and senses, all patterned and designed within this realm.
Mastering the Karmic Portal means unlocking the ability to become your true self, free from the influence of external forces. By understanding and navigating this dimension, you can tap into the deep reservoir of your soul’s experiences and wisdom, allowing you to live authentically and purposefully.
This mastery grants you the power to align with your true nature and transcend the limitations of what you have unconsciously inherited from your ancestors, parents, society, culture, surroundings and the past karma.
The Instinctive Portal: Gandharva Loka
This portal once tapped will open two huge gateways of the castle of identities and instincts that you own. Not many know the secrets hiding behind one of these gateways that can transform you into an observer of your identities and witness the gameplay happening around it. Rather this portal always is luring you towards the gateway with limited identities, name, fame and ownership.
What you call as individuality, personality, identity including physical existence is all encrypted and coded in this dimension of your existence. The very reason for you to like something and dislike something; Get attracted to someone and go repulsive with someone; Love somebody and hate somebody, is all the outputs of these coding and encryptions within this second gateway.
But the other gateway of this portal, if once chosen by you, will make the whole ride absolutely a very different one. The way you relate with your instincts, impulses, identities and desires will be extraordinarily unique and special for you. You will bypass the dualities and enter a zone to envision every thought, behaviour and action loaded with a purpose and reason for them to be in your life.
The Etheric Portal: The Deva Loka
This is a portal that opens the dimensions that can either limit you, lock you and restrict you from taking a leap towards the subtle, astral and cosmic dimensions of life or it will open all the floodgates that once was restricting you into the mundane and physical dimensions of understanding life and the world around.
You need to learn how to work with this portal just as you learn how to balance yourself in a headstand. Initially it will be a journey through the jungles of fear, skepticism, judgements, misunderstandings, expectations, demands, possessiveness, jealousy, greed, envy, anger and lust. But if you have a mentor, a guru, a traveler who knows how to navigate and guide you through these jungles, then this portal will open a dimension of life and world around you that you seldom have experienced.
The Communicative Portal: Vidyadhara Loka
This portal conceals the dimensions of experiences you’ve been relentlessly seeking, like a hungry bird flying from one source to another. If you can decode the combination and unlock this portal, you will gain access to the treasure trove that holds victory over the cycles of life and death.
In mastering this portal, you’ll acquire the skills to conquer your desires—to possess or release, to indulge or abstain, to learn or unlearn. Your communication frequency will transcend the ordinary, surpassing gestures, sounds, and language. It will move beyond the limitations of physicality and vibrations, reaching a realm of pure consciousness.
The Levitated Portal: Siddha Loka
This portal on one side that you are is a dimension filled with sources of information, knowledge and wisdom. If you carefully look through and open this portal, then the dimension of the abundant intuitive spectrum of cognitive frequencies vibrates with a great resonance within you. You are no longer in need of your body and mind to relate, sense, cognize, communicate, and exist.
Your existence in this dimension is beyond physicality and vibrations. Imagine you no more need sugar to know what sweetness is; you no longer depend on your cognitive tools, thoughts, identities or intellect to relate with yourself and others. This is a dimension that can shift you from dimensions of limitation to unlimitedness. This portal is magical, mystical and easily approachable. This is the portal that masters use to communicate, transmit and transform the way you are as a human being.
The Eternity Portal: Ananda Loka
While all other portals open a dimension related to the microcosmic existence, this portal is the bridge that connects the microcosmic with the macrocosmic, the limited with the unlimited and the human with the divine. The search for eternal happiness, unlimited prosperity and abundance of wellbeing ends here as you are no more in search of it rather you become wellbeing, prosperity and happiness itself.
The Conclusion
These 8 portals of Life are what the yogis, mystics and Vedic scholars named as the journey to become “SAT CHIT ANANDA” (Unlimited Existence, consciousness and Contentment). The experience of opening this portal and being in this dimension, if consciously brought down into your day-to-day life, is what we call a yogic Life or a spiritual Life that Vedanta, Yoga and Tantra deal with.
As you explore these portals, you move from the limitations of the physical world to the boundless realms of consciousness, ultimately achieving unity with the divine. Today, on this auspicious 8:8:8, take a moment to reflect on these portals and the infinite possibilities they hold for your self-transformation.
