Download Vira-saiva movement

Some Additional Themes (to add
to James’ typology of mysticism)
• Learning, spiritual pathway, difficulty (like
seeing the sun the first time, it takes getting
used to and focusing your goal – a.k.a.
telos)
Some Additional Themes (to add
to James’ typology of mysticism)
• Mysticism of ascent – process includes
rigor, intellect, rationality
– Diotima
– Virasaivas
Some Additional Themes (to add
to James’ typology of mysticism)
• Gender equality/equity
– Spiritual experiences in general, and mysticism
in particular in the literate traditions, tends to be
an equal opportunity experience! (Diotima,
AkkaMahadevi, Julian of Norwich)
– This can extend to issues of class, education,
etc.
Some Additional Themes (to add
to James’ typology of mysticism)
• Unconventional nature of spiritual
experience
– Questioning convention
– Questioning the status quo
– Questioning the nature of reality itself (i.e. the
images in the cave are not real)
India:
Hinduism
Basics
Indian Sphere of Cultural Influence
Indian Diversity
• There are 16 official languages
in India (English not shown)
• Basic division between
Sanskritic and Dravidian
language groups
• Sanskritic languages are IndoEuropean (ex. Hindi); Dravidian
languages are not (ex. Tamil)
• Multiple scripts create need for
transliteration - systems for
consistently transcribing words
between writing systems
World Religious Systems
• There are three widespread cosmological frameworks
– as mentioned before
• Indigenous polytheisms and nature-based religions
(includes Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian,
Germanic and Celtic)
• Monotheism directed through revelation (Abrahamic
religions of the book: Judaism, Christianity, Islam)
• Karmic religions rooted in meditation &
ignorance/knowledge paradigm (Hinduism,
Buddhism, Jainism, and most forms of Confucianism
and Taoism)
Karmic Cosmologies
• Karma literally means “action,” implying that all
actions, and their consequences, are ultimately
balanced. All action, though, embeds one in a
dangerous web…
• Karma creates the wheel of samsara: the cycle of
birth-death-rebirth-REDEATH
• The wheel of samsara is a bad loop; like Groundhog
Day, the repetition of lives is a vicious cycle one
should want to escape
Ignorance and Knowledge
• What those in the west would call “sin”
(and “sinfulness”) is understood in
karmic cosmologies as “ignorance.”
• When you put your hand on a hot stove,
is that a sin, or a mistake?
• If you burn your hand, you learn not to
touch such places again: you’ve moved
from ignorance to knowledge.
• To paraphrase the great medieval
Indian philosopher, Sankara, Action
cannot destroy ignorance, only
knowledge can
Ignorance and Knowledge
• Take the same principle in
relation to murder. Is
murder a sin, or a mistake?
• Even though your
punishment for the mistake
of murder might not be as
immediate as a burned
hand, that punishment is
certain in a karmic
cosmology (in which no one
gets away with murder). It
may take many lifetimes.
But you will be punished.
Ignorance and Knowledge:
Cultivating Knowledge
through Discipline
• When you understand this
principle, you will want to
escape the wheel of samsara.
To do so will lead to
enlightenment.
• Yoga is a form of discipline
that uses knowledge and
control of the body to dispel
ignorance
• This is a contemporary
sculpture of Siva as the
original practitioner of yoga
Indus Valley
Civilization
• 3000-1500 BCE
• Urban river
culture
• Culturally static
• Evidence of yoga,
zoomorphic
dieties
• Mohenjo-daro
and Harrapa
principal cities
• Conquered by
nomadic Aryans
Indus
Valley
Civilization
Dancing
Girl
Small seals
are the art
form most
represented
from Indus
Valley
Daily baths
at public pool
Yoga in the
Indus Valley
• Yogic positions have
been found on seals from
the Indus Valley
• Both male and female
yogi-s were present
• Male yogi-s shown with
erect phallus, indicating
combination of ascetic
and erotic
Aryan
Invasion
• Nomadic
people from
steppes of
Asia
• Trade routes
existed
between
Indus Valley
and
Mesopotamia
• Most likely
an invasion
Indo-Aryan Culture and
Nomadic Societies
• Not much visual art work
• Religious abstractions and rituals valued
• Military success, and blood rituals
involving animal sacrifice, are
documented
• Sacred books, called the four Vedas, are
primarily concerned with ritual
Indo-Aryan Vedic Dieties
• Deities often are meteorological or
astrological in character
• Disproportionate representation of male
deities in pantheon
• Indra = wind god
• Surya = sun god
• Sarasvati = originally a river goddess
• Gods are not often represented visually
at this time period
Caste System
Caste system may have been based on racial distinctions
Caste system homologized to the hierarchy of the body
Two Versions of a Hindu Trinity
• Brahma - Creator god
• Visnu - Sustainer god
• Siva - Destroyer/Creator God
• Devi - a.k.a. Durga/Kali/Parvati - The
Goddess - Sakti, energy
Brahma
• Creator deity, does not
receive much explicit
worship (fewer than five
temples in all of India)
• Attributes - number of
heads, instruments held
in hands
• Spoon/scepter for
pouring holy oil; prayer
beads for measuring
time; small jar for water
as essence of creation;
copy of the Rg Veda;
four heads (a fifth
burned off); four arms
Visnu
(Vishnu)
• Visnu is the deity who
sustains the world
• Appears in an embodied
form when demons have
gained too much power
• These embodiments are
called avatar-s; there
have been nine so far,
with one more enroute
• Rama, the hero of the
Ramayana, is one of
those avatar-s
• Rama, Sita, Laksmana,
and Hanuman
V
i
s
n
u
• Visnu’s standard
attributes include
an umbrella of
cobras, conch-shell
trumpet for
battlefield
leadership, spinning
discus representing
time being sustained,
lotus flower
representing the
ever-emerging life,
and the mace to
represent discipline
and strength
Siva (Shiva)
• Combines opposites:
Erotic/Ascetic
• Destroyer of the world,
often seen as both creator
and destroyer
• Most famous iconic
representation is Dancing
Siva
• Cosmic fire circle surrounds
image
• Fire = destruction; drum
(damaru) = creation (time)
• One hand signals “do not
fear,” while the other points
to the demon of ignorance
being crushed underfoot
G
a
n
e
s
a
• Elephant-headed deity
• May demonstrate
continuity with Indus
Valley
• Auspicious for new
enterprises
• Remover of obstacles
• Unites opposites
• Attributes: Saivite
forehead markings; bowl
of sweets; an ax to cut
through obstacles; hand
raised in gesture of peace;
opening lotus; and most
famously, a mouse vehicle
Durga
• Other gods are so
scared, they are
hiding in the clouds!
• This nine-armed
goddess holds
weapons and
attributes
• Note how her arms
form a circle of
movement
Durga
• Form of Devi, the
Goddess
• Manifested to slay
Buffalo Demon
• She and her lion
mount remain calm
while the demon and
its buffalo are slain and achieve
enlightenment
Iconic
Imagination
• Devi/Durga
appears to
Siva, Visnu
& Brahma,
+ sages
• Powers of
multiple
limbs
• Iconic yet
active Hindu
paradox of
erotic /
ascetic
Kali
Name cognate with “time”
Necklace of skulls
Necrophilia
Described as the Mad Mother
Represents confluence of
birth and death
Represents absolute power
of divine
She is, as a deity, a focus of
death meditation for her
devotees
Ramayana
• One of two great Indian epics
• Rama, Sita, Laksmana in the
forest exile
Ramayana
• Building the bridge to Lanka
• Rama, Laksmana, Hanuman
and the other monkey leaders
Vira-saiva movement
• Vira-saiva, lit. heroic, militant faith in Siva
• Kalyana - city in Karnataka where Vira-saiva-s
met
• Allamu Prabhu - leader of Vira-saiva
• Basavanna - “older brother,” most talented
poet and organizer of group, important civil
leader as well
• Anubhavamantapa - The Mansion of
Experience where the Vira-saiva-s met
Saguna and Nirguna
• Terms from Sanskrit
• Saguna - conditioned
• Divine has attributes,
characteristics
• Personal divinity
• Nirguna - unconditioned
• Sacred is abstract,
conceived
philosophically
• Impersonal
Both are necessary to experience infinitude
within any given religious system
AkkaMahadevi (ca. 1135-1160)
Famous Vira-saiva saint and poet
After leaving marriage, she wandered in search of
other Vira-saiva-s, clothed only in her long hair
Reaching Kalyana, she and Allama Prabhu
engaged in a poetry contest to test her validity as
a mystic
She became an honored member of the
Anubhavamantapa; the name “akka” is an
honorific bestowed by the community, meaning
“older sister”
In the poems that follow, “Cennamallikarjuna,”
“Mallikarjuna,” and “Lord White as Jasmine”
are all synonyms for Siva
AkkaMahadevi (ca. 1135-1160)
All the Vedas, scriptures and
Sacred lore, canons and codes,
Are but grist and husk ground in the mill.
Why grind this, why winnow?
When you behead the mind that
Flows here and there,
O Cennamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender,
There remains eternal space.
Look at
love's marvellous
ways:
if you shoot an arrow
plant it
till no feather shows;
if you hug
a body, bones
must crunch and crumble;
weld,
the welding must vanish
Love is then
our lord's love
Love’s
Marvelous
Ways
Linga imagery
My heart is pierced with Linga ecstasy:
How, then, can I
Be part and parcel of Thyself?
How, then, O Lord, can I unite with Thee?
Tell me, O Mallikarjuna, where
I can attain the Absolute,
With my heart full and overflowing with
The peace that comes of the supremest bliss.
Panentheism & material immanence
When I didn't know myself
where were you?
Like the colour in the gold,
you were in me.
I saw in you,
lord white as jasmine,
the paradox of your being
in me
without showing a limb.
The Notion that ‘I know’ another AkkaMahadevi vacana
The notion that 'I know' must miss the point,
As sod kicked by the foot must swerve aside.
The heart, forgetful of the world, engrossed
In Linga, is sickened of all circumstance.
Does arrow burnt in fire sport its feather?
One must unite with Lord Cenna Mallikarjuna,
As the wind blowing wantonly
Absorbs the scent.