Apas, Embodying the Intelligence of Water

Artwork: By Bahar Acharjya, Apas, watercolor & colored pencil on paper, 2021.

© 2026 Bahar Acharjya. All rights reserved. No reproduction, copying, or use in any form—digital or physical—without prior written consent

Apas means waters. In the Vedic tradition, Apas refers to the intelligence of water itself, not merely as a physical element, but as a generative, purifying, and life-sustaining force. Water in this sense is not passive. It carries coherence, adaptability, and creative potency. Apas is described as a source of inner strength that arises through softness and purity, an intelligence that nourishes vitality, creativity, and the capacity to move through life without rigidity.

To embody the energy of Apas is not to worship a deity, but to integrate a specific quality of consciousness within the body. This integration supports flexibility without weakness, strength without hardness, and influence without domination. It cultivates the ability to respond to life fluidly, to lead through resonance rather than force, and to remain open while maintaining coherence. In this sense, Apas represents the intelligence of life that moves, adapts, and renews itself continuously.

In my painting, the source of the divine waters emerges from the womb. This source represents Soma, or Amrita, the self-replenishing essence of life. Soma is not a substance, but a state of refined vitality, the regenerative intelligence that restores coherence to the body, the nervous system, and the energetic field. In its etheric sense, water represents the flow of this intelligence through existence, nourishing everything that is capable of receiving it.

The Vedic deities are not personalities or anthropomorphic beings. They are expressions of natural and cosmic forces that predate form, race, or even celestial hierarchy. They are universal intelligences that existed before the emergence of species, cultures, or mythological structures. Form is used only as a means of relationship, a way for the human nervous system to perceive and integrate forces that are otherwise too vast to grasp directly.

The energies I work with arise from a time when these intelligences were directly embodied on Earth, during what is often referred to as the Golden Age or the time of Lemuria. This was not a mythical paradise, but a state of coherence in which human bodies were capable of holding subtler frequencies of consciousness. My painting does not attempt to represent Apas in totality. That would be impossible. It offers a partial translation of a universal intelligence into a form that can be felt, related to, and embodied.

This principle applies to all avataric embodiment. It is not possible to bring the full magnitude of a universal intelligence into physical form. Avatars represent the maximum degree of embodiment that Earth’s energetic capacity allows at a given time. Figures such as Rama and Krishna were not exceptions to nature, but expressions of it, embodiments of specific frequencies of consciousness aligned with the Earth’s capacity during the Satya and Treta Yugas. They carried the essence of these intelligences in forms that could be lived, sustained, and relational.

As the Earth’s frequency continues to shift, the conditions for embodiment are changing again. What once required rare circumstances is becoming increasingly accessible. The return of these intelligences does not occur through descent from elsewhere, but through the body’s renewed capacity to hold them. In this context, ancestry, star lineages, and cosmic origins function not as literal identities, but as ways of describing frequency, memory, and informational transmission.

This version of Apas, which carries a resonance similar to beings associated with Vega, reflects the water intelligence as it was embodied during the Satya Yuga, when human life operated in greater coherence with planetary and cosmic rhythms. At that time, the body itself functioned as a conduit for these forces rather than as a barrier to them.

As we move toward what is often described as a New Golden Age, more individuals will begin to embody these intelligences naturally, not by belief or imitation, but through direct integration within the body. Apas will no longer be recognized as a deity to invoke, but as a quality of consciousness to live. Water will be remembered not only as an element we depend on, but as an intelligence we are capable of becoming.

Featured Artwork Apas, watercolor and colored pencil on paper, 2021,

Reference27 Stars, 27 Gods: The Astrological Mythology of Ancient India, DICARA, VIC, Kishor, Vraja

— Bahar Acharjya

 Artist and researcher

2022