The Illustration above is Nandalal Bose's beautiful depiction of Siva drinking the World Poison that rises to the surface of the Cosmic Soup. However, this provoked some reflections of mine ....
Isn't it high time Hindu intellectuals and politicians stopped being obstinately Universalist in the narrow sense? As if Siva were the only person to drink the world's poison! So did Avalokitesvara; he drank every last drop of the poison, assimilated it and transformed it. Thus one should go beyond the narrow, limited spiritual vision of Alara Kalama and Udagga Ramaputta, the first teachers of yoga to Siddhartha, the sage of the Sakyas, who became the Buddha. In any case, one should try to see the truths and the falsehoods in all religions.
Is it not possible to imagine the re-education of the whole of India? Isn't this what Dr. Ambedkar envisaged? The West is gradually being emancipated from God-centred consciousness, why can't superbly rational, IT-trained Indians be freed from Brahman-centred consciousness? Sat-chit-ananda is all very well, but it's impermanent and does not solve the problem of human suffering. "That thou art", says the Hindu sage; the fact is, thou art, at least potentially, far more than 'that'! Mankind is evolving, mentally and spiritually. He continues to evolve, or else he perishes.
The myth of the Divine Being drinking the poison that rises to the surface of the primordial Cosmic Soup possibly pre-dates all organised religions. What is its meaning? It is the myth of the emergence of truly individualised consciousness from the great mass of group-mind during the Axial Age (800 - 300 BCE) described by Karl Jaspers, the great German philosopher. It is the consciousness of the great Upanishadic sages, of the Hebrew Prophets, of Lao Tsu, Socrates, Confucius, the Buddha and other great individuals. Each of these men realises that evil arises not just from outside, but also within one's own mind. It has therefore to be assimilated, 'swallowed' and transformed if the merely statistical individual is to become emancipated, free from psycho-spiritual suffering, and become a true individual.
Who is it who keeps the narrow Hindu Universalism going, universalism in the sense of Brahman-centred consciousness? That consciousness is one of the poisons. Myths are powerful, but not all-powerful. Siva himself is one of the myths of the human mind, not of any other mind. The Christian God is a product of the human mind ... and so on.
The rectification or clarification of the nature of myth is necessary for the emancipation of society. That is the sort of thing that Confucius, Kant and Dr. Ambedkar would surely have said too.
Isn't it high time Hindu intellectuals and politicians stopped being obstinately Universalist in the narrow sense? As if Siva were the only person to drink the world's poison! So did Avalokitesvara; he drank every last drop of the poison, assimilated it and transformed it. Thus one should go beyond the narrow, limited spiritual vision of Alara Kalama and Udagga Ramaputta, the first teachers of yoga to Siddhartha, the sage of the Sakyas, who became the Buddha. In any case, one should try to see the truths and the falsehoods in all religions.
Is it not possible to imagine the re-education of the whole of India? Isn't this what Dr. Ambedkar envisaged? The West is gradually being emancipated from God-centred consciousness, why can't superbly rational, IT-trained Indians be freed from Brahman-centred consciousness? Sat-chit-ananda is all very well, but it's impermanent and does not solve the problem of human suffering. "That thou art", says the Hindu sage; the fact is, thou art, at least potentially, far more than 'that'! Mankind is evolving, mentally and spiritually. He continues to evolve, or else he perishes.
The myth of the Divine Being drinking the poison that rises to the surface of the primordial Cosmic Soup possibly pre-dates all organised religions. What is its meaning? It is the myth of the emergence of truly individualised consciousness from the great mass of group-mind during the Axial Age (800 - 300 BCE) described by Karl Jaspers, the great German philosopher. It is the consciousness of the great Upanishadic sages, of the Hebrew Prophets, of Lao Tsu, Socrates, Confucius, the Buddha and other great individuals. Each of these men realises that evil arises not just from outside, but also within one's own mind. It has therefore to be assimilated, 'swallowed' and transformed if the merely statistical individual is to become emancipated, free from psycho-spiritual suffering, and become a true individual.
Who is it who keeps the narrow Hindu Universalism going, universalism in the sense of Brahman-centred consciousness? That consciousness is one of the poisons. Myths are powerful, but not all-powerful. Siva himself is one of the myths of the human mind, not of any other mind. The Christian God is a product of the human mind ... and so on.
The rectification or clarification of the nature of myth is necessary for the emancipation of society. That is the sort of thing that Confucius, Kant and Dr. Ambedkar would surely have said too.