The ancient languages never used the world god to refer to this timeless, immaterial, and unmoving principle; instead, they had neutral terminology such as logos, Parä-Brahman (the immenseness of the beyond), or Paramä-Shivä (the transcendent aspect of Shivä).
It is out of the question for living beings, whether men or gods, to reach the Absolute Being by means of rites or prayer. It is quite outside the sphere of religion or mysticism. At the time of the realization of the plan, conglomerations, centers of individualized consciousness imbued with a sense of self, are formed in energetic substance; they will be witnesses observing the apparent structures of the world at different levels. From the point of view of the Conceiving Being, a god, observer of the play of galaxies, is of no more importance than the observer of the beauties of the Earth.
All aspects of creation are based on patterns, formulae, and archetypes which are always the same and which are to be found in all aspects of the world; in combination with each other they form different models and varieties of things. There is no fundamental difference between gods, spirits, men, animals, and insects. They can be compared to spectators seated in the different circles of a theater.
The word dieu (Lat. deus, Gk. theos, Skt. devä) derives from the Indo-European root div, which means "radiant/radiating," an ephithet of the sun. The gods are thus considered to be active principles. The word devä refers to the forms of subtle and active consciousness present at the different levels of creation and thus part of the multiplicity. It is never used to indicate a principle beyond measurement and outside the apparent world. Even before the primordial explosion of energy from which matter resulted, the principle of consciousness known as the Sovereign Principle (Ishvarä) or Supreme Sovereign (Maheshvarä) emerged.
On the threshold between the nonexistent and the existent, Maheshvarä, the principle of consciousness, is doublenatured. One side is compact, without component parts (nishkala) and indivisible; the other is composite (sakalâ) and presents various aspects; it is the composite aspect that is called Universal Man (Purushä), the plan or model of the universe. In the form of Mahat, universal intelligence, Purushä presides over the development of the world. The various aspects of Mahat, called gods or spirits, take part in the organization of the world and rule over the different degrees of the formation of matter and the different types of beings.
The gods are the personification of the forces that rule the universe and control its development, for creation is a living thing which evolves according to a plan contained in its seed. Creation does not take place in an instant, but is rather a long process of growth and decline.
Each sidereal organism, each type of molecule of matter, each living species forms an entity, a unit corresponding to a pattern evolving through the passage of time. There exists a consciousness, a thinking being that presides over the achievement and development of each species, somewhat as each human "I" presides over the countless cells that make up his body.
It is with these aggregate consciousnesses that we make contact when we try to communicate with the supernatural world. These are the ministers who accept the prayers and feed on the sacrificial incense that we direct to the gods. In the hierarchy of creation, there are parallels and connections between the various levels of existence corresponding to the combinations of analogous archetypes. This is why the conflicts between the subtle powers that are the spirits and gods are reflected in the wars of mankind and in the upheavals of matter that give rise to cataclysms. They often occur together and can easily be described in terms of one another. Storms, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions go hand in hand with epidemics, invasions, wars, and massacres. They both reflect and express the conflicts that take place in the parallel world of the heavenly powers.
These subtle beings that humans worship as gods are countless. According to the Lingä Purânä (1.4.443–444): "There are two hundred and eighty million gods and subtle beings who move about in flying chariots. During the Manvantarä, the cycles of humanity, their number increases to three billion, nine hundred and twenty million." Religious, mystical and magical experience enables us to make contact with them.
Aspects of Maheshvarä
FROM the point of view of religious experience, the universal consciousness (mahat), which is the manifest and divisible (sakalâ) aspect of Maheshvarä, is present in all aspects of the world. The divine may be reached through the worship of any form of creation, whether it be an object, a symbol, an animal, a tree, a human, or a spirit. This is reflected in the Purânä by the thousand names of Shivä (Shivä-sahasrä-nâmä).
Shivä, Tamas
THE three tendencies (gunä[s]) of Primordial Nature (pradhânä), endowed with consciousness, are to be found in all levels of the hierarchy of beings. Shiva in the aspect of Tamas, the expansive force which causes the birth of the world, is symbolized at the level of the gods by the Nata Râjä, the cosmic dancer who, in the postures and rhythms of his dance, creates the harmonies, modules, plans, and patterns according to which all structures of matter and life are organized.
In his androgynous aspect (ardhanarîshvarä), he is the life principle, the origin of the species. As Bhairavä (the Terrible), he is the death principle: the image of the impermanence of transitory beings, on which the existence of species rests in a perpetually transforming universe. Shivä is also depicted as Kala, the time principle, who measures the duration of worlds and beings. The Pâshupatä consider Bhairavä, the destructive and terrifying aspect, to be the basis of the other aspects. It is to ward off this aspect that he is called Shivä (the Kindly) or Shambhu (the Peacemaker).
Sattvä, the Goddess, and Vishnu
THE plan becomes reality only when it is realized in matter. Shivä is merely an abstraction until he is united with the energetic principle, Shakti, the substance of the world. Without the "I" which is his energy and the source of his power of creation, Shivä is but a form without life, as inanimate as a corpse (Shavä).
The creation of the world can thus be seen in terms of two aspects, one masculine, the establisher of laws, and the other feminine, the concretizer of those laws.
In the Shaiva pantheon, each aspect of the plan corresponds to a realization represented by a goddess.
The opposition between male and female appears at every stage of manifestation. All atoms, elements, forms, substances, and beings are an expression of it. These two principles are forever united and inseparable, and can only exist through one another, yet they are at the same time utterly opposed, completely contradictory and irreconcilable.
Sattvä, the second of the Gunä(s), the qualities or tendencies of Prakriti, is the principle of attraction 'and condensation, the negative pole. Sattvä corresponds to the feminine principle, as represented by the goddess in her various forms, including a masculine aspect called Vishnu. In the form of Mohini, the Enchantress, Vishnu transforms himself into a woman in order to seduce Shivä. The goddess and Vishnu are protective divinities.
The goddess is called Pârvati, the Lady of the Mountain, for mountain peaks, which manifest terrestrial currents of energy, are the negative pole that attracts the celestial currents apparent in lightning.
The goddess is also known as Sati (Faithfulness), for she is inseparable from the god. She is Kâlî, the Power of Time, for she is the incarnation of its destructive power.
She is Sarasvati (Daughter of the Waters), goddess of the sciences and arts. In this aspect, she appears in the form of the ten Mahâ-Vidhyâ(s), the higher levels of knowledge. She is Lakshmi the billionaire, goddess of wealth and material goods, protector of the family, the home, and the family hearth.
The Shaktä(s), who worship the feminine principle, believe that the aspects of the divine that can be reached through rites are part of the realized plan and not part of the abstract one. It is therefore the goddess and not the god who is the object of worship.
Rajas, Prajâpati-Brahmâ
IN the aspect of Rajas, the principle of gravitation, of activity, and
of the motion that results from the other two tendencies, Shiva is called Prajâpati, Lord of the Creatures. He is also called Brahma, Lord of Spaces. He represents equilibrium, wisdom, and justice. It is to him that the gods appeal to settle their conflicts.
As the creator of the world, he is known as Vishvä-Karmä, architect of the universe.
Many of Prajâpati's aspects, such as the incarnations of the tortoise, the wild boar, and the lion man, were, in later times, attributed to Vishnu. In the Taïttiriyä Brâhmanä, it is Prajâpati who takes the form of the boar Emusa in order to raise the earth out of the primordial ocean. Likewise, it is Prajâpati who takes the shape of a fish at the time of the deluge.1
In trying to define the nature of the divine, in wishing to reach back to what appears to us to be the first cause of the world, we can stop at anyone of the stages of creation. This fact will affect all our religious, moral, social, philosophic, and scientific concepts.
Symbols of the Gods
ALL aspects of creation correspond to basic formulae that can be portrayed by means of geometric or mathematical figures. The formulae of the major gods are portrayed by Yanträ(s), flat geometric figures, or by Mandala(s), designs in space which are used as guides in the building of sanctuaries.
These basic formulae are to be found at all levels of the creational hierarchy. In the field of sound we can trace them in the combinations of sound relationships in music (râgä[s]) or in language (manträ[s]), which, like the Yanträ(s), evoke the various aspects of divinity. These relationships are also to be found in the patterns that establish the nature of beings. They are the key to the nature of animals and plants and their connections with particular divinities.
Each god is associated with an animal called his "vehicle," which is worshiped as his symbol. In the hierarchy of living beings, Shiva is the bull among animals, and the pipal, or sacred fig, among trees. His image among men is that of the Guru or master, the source of knowledge; among the sages he is Yogeshvara (the master of Yogä).
Many spirits exist among the lower divinities: the Yakshä who watch over the equilibrium of nature reside in springs, grottoes, and trees. They are often hostile to men, who seek to woo them with gifts.
The Cult of the Lingä
THE Lingä, or phallus, is the principal symbol of divinity as worshiped by the Shaivas. Maheshvarä, the Great God, is the personification of Purushä, the universal man of the Sâmkhyä. From him springs forth the abstract models, the archetypes which gradually become incarnate in matter originate with them. The semen, or code, incarnating in the egg, finds its substance in the female body. This is the aspect presented by the symbol of a phallus imprisoned in a vulva. When the plan (Purushä) enters matter (Prakriti), the world appears. When consciousness (cit) enters substance (sat), delight (ânandä) appears. The world is nothing other than voluptuous delight. Its splendor, its beauty, and its diversity make the most wonderful of spectacles. It is as illusory, ephemeral, and unreal as pleasure. Yet it is the only reality. It is out of voluptuous pleasure that all living creatures are born. The phallic cult is a reminder that each of us is but an ephemeral being of little importance, and that our only role is to better the chain that we represent for a moment in the evolution of the species, and to pass it on. The cult of the phallus is therefore connected to a recognition of the species's permanence in relation to the individual's impermanence; of the principle that establishes the laws out of which we have emerged (and not of their accidental or temporary implementation) of the principle of life, and not of the living beings; of the abstract and not of the concrete. This concept finds its application on all planes, whether ethical, ritual, cosmological, or societal. To renounce the cult of the phallus, in order to worship a person, whether human or divine, is idolatry and an outrage against the creative principle.
The Assimilated Gods
MANY of the ancient divinities from the Shaiva pantheon have been absorbed into Brahminism (which identified Shaïvä with the Vedic Rudrä). Mayon (the Black God) of Dravidian tradition was somewhat belatedly considered to be an incarnation of Vishnu with the name of Krishnä (the Black One). According to the Vâyu Purânä, Krishnä is a hero who was initiated into the Pâshupatä Yogä by the Rishi Upamanyu. In the Mahâbhâratä, we can see that Krishnä worships Shivä and the Lingä.
Râmä himself is also a pre-Aryan hero. It was he who installed and worshiped the Lingä of Râmeshvarä (god of Râmä) in the extreme south of India.2
Skandä (the spurt of semen), the son of Shivä, was born of the god's semen or Somä, the elixir of immortality, which fell into the sacrificial fire and from there into the Ganges.
The ancient Dravidian Murugan, Skandä is the god of beauty and perpetual youth. He is called Kumârä, the adolescent. Begotten by Shivä alone with no female counterpart, he is hostile to marriage. As head of the celestial cohorts, he has no other spouse than his army (Senä). His cult excludes women. It is he who teaches the sages the bases of knowledge. He rides a peacock.
He is also called Shanmukhan (the six-faced), corresponding to the Sumerian Sanmugan, who possessed the same characteristics (adolescent god, head of the armies, riding a bird).
Ganeshä, the elephant-headed god, is the son of the goddess alone. He represents the seemingly impossible unity between large (elephant) and small (man), between macrocosm and microcosm. Because he is the god of wisdom, he is invoked before anything is undertaken.
Monotheism
THE theologies of the various religions are distinguished by their more or less approximative methods of analyzing and representing the subtle world and of explaining our perceptions of the supernatural. All religions, even those that we term primitive, try to classify and personalize cosmic principles and their relationships with the various levels of creation. The depiction of the gods in anthropomorphic or theriomorphic form is the result of an attempt at classification of animist intuition; this is done by establishing parallels and correspondences between the various hierarchic levels in the visible and invisible worlds.
All religions were originally, and in practice still are, polytheistic; they involve the invocation, through magical rites and prayers, of multiple and specialized entities, whatever the generic name that may be given to them: saints, angels, or spirits.
The ethnological study of religion leads inevitably to the realization that the gods in all religions (or their substitutes: virgins, angels, demons, prophets) have developed from analogous concepts and represent universal principles born of perception of the fundamental structures of the world. This is one of the aspects of knowledge that the simplification of monotheism tends to obliterate.
The principle of self (aham), which developed from Mahat (the universal consciousness), is the basis of multiplicity. It is the opposite of unity. It is nonsensical to imagine the existence of a conscious entity being able to act before "I-ness" came into being. There cannot be an entity who says "I" and issues commands, and yet is not part of a multiplicity.
Monotheism is but the divinization of the stage of I-ness, the Aham in the hierarchy of creation. Monotheism presupposes the existence of a personal god who rules the world as he pleases and who is in fact merely the depiction of the divine according to the human model.
By personalizing the word (logos), by reducing the transcendent hierarchies to a humanlike individual, the so-called monotheistic religions have simplified and falsified all concepts of the cosmos, of the nature of the world, and of the divine; they have also permanently severed theology from science and from mystical experience. Perception of the supernatural appears in many, very diverse forms. The experience of mystics, visionaries, spiritualists, and occultists is in complete contradiction to monist simplification. "The number one is at the heart of error," say the Tanträ(s) (Ekä Shabdâtmikâ Mâyâ). The religions that claim to be monotheistic are in fact always prophetic religions. The abstract god is merely an excuse for the deification of the prophet, whose revelations are presented as the words of God.
Monotheistic religions are, moreover, mutually exclusive, each one receiving contradictory instructions from its god. There is, therefore, in each case, an elected god, which Hinduism calls an Ishtä-devatä. A type of dualism comes into being when the creative principle is personalized and separated from what is created. This leads to contempt for the divine work, which man can then exploit as he pleases, referring to the instructions revealed to him by a fictitious personality, and which in fact are merely the projection of his ambitions, his wish for power, and the subjection of nature to his depredations. "A monistic god paves the way for subsequent productivity and introduces totalitarianism" (Michel Maffesoli, L'Ombre de Dionysos, p. 53).
It is this reduction of the subtle active forces to a single divine being which has allowed the monotheistic religions to become instruments of obscuratism and oppression, culminating in the ridiculous behavior of the religious sects characteristic of modern times, from the Inquisition to Khomeinism. The fiction that is monotheism will allow any tyranny.
The shaman and the medium are quite right to believe that they can receive information from the intermediary powers, whereas the high priest who claims to embody the will of a universal principle outside creation can only be a madman, a liar, or a charlatan.
A denial of a single god by no means includes a denial of the supernatural. Monotheism itself is in fact close to atheism; it prepares the way for materialism by replacing with an abstraction the reality of the celestial powers who are the gods.
While the Gods Play Page 11
