While the Gods Play

by Alain Daniélou

  15. THE VENERATION OF THE LINGÄ

  "Everyone, man and woman, must venerate the phallus, image of Shivä, have a Lingä installed in the household, and practice a Pujah, a daily rite of veneration, with flowers, incense, offerings, and Manträ(s). One must wear a Lingä on one's person, and also a rosary of 108 Rudrâkshä seeds used for the reciting of Manträ(s). Alternatively, one can venerate the Yoni, the female organ, or the Shälagrämä in the form of an egg, or invoke the goddess, the Shakti, under the form of the Shrî Yanträ. The shakta rites, addressing Prakriti, the principle of matter, require sacrifices and demand a particular initiation.

  "The goddess is present in numerous forms; her main aspect is Klî, the principle of time and of death. It is under the aspect of the mother, and not of the partner, that one invokes the goddess."

  16. FUNERAL RITES

  "One must observe funeral rites, and not seek to imprison the spirit of the deceased; one must neither remove any organs nor freeze the body. One must dispose of the body at the last possible minute, either by placing it directly in the earth or by incinerating it. Avoid coffins and sepulchers."

  "By observing these rules of conduct, the being of flesh finds again his place in creation and can live in harmony with the world. Gradually, he becomes qualified to be a receptacle for the teachings of the possessors of knowledge. It is then that initiation (dikshâ) becomes possible.

  "It is neither in the pious and puritan Vaishnavism of the commercial and political classes, nor in the ashrams, nor with the Brahmans, that one can encounter the joyful and relaxed atmosphere of the Shaiva people, so gay and tolerant. The ash-covered ascetics who live in brotherhood with trees and animals have remained close to the mysterious world of spirits and gods and know the rules of life that can delay the fearful events that will destroy mankind at the end of the Kali Yugä."

  PART FOUR

  SOCIAL MAN

  1

  The Individual and the Species

  THE LIVING BEING IS A PREDATOR THAT SURVIVES ONLY by devouring other living beings, to become, in its turn, food. "The living 'I' is that which devours and which is devoured," says the Chhândogyä Upanishad. This destructive/destructible function, being synonymous with impermanence, can only take place in relative time. The living being might seem to be merely a digestive system, but it is also the bearer of a message or plan, issuing from Purushä, which it can transmit either through cellular division or through the sexual act.

  The individual is but a transitory moment of the species, which is a permanent reality. It is the species that represents one aspect of the divine game (lîlâ) of creation. Although insignificant as an individual, the living being is necessary as a link, as one ring in the chain that continues through the generations from the birth of a species until its extinction. Each species evolves as a living entity: it passes through childhood, the prime of life, and the decline of old age.

  The individual is similar to one of the relay runners carrying the Olympic torch. He is the conveyor of a model, of a permanent code that is carried on from individual to individual. It is the ability to reproduce and to perpetuate and transmit oneself that is the characteristic of life. The complex of forms and abilities characteristic of the individual is given continued life through procreation. A species evolves through thousands of generations. Man is called Lingä-dharä, the "bearer of his penis." His individuality is of no importance except inasmuch as it adds something to the code received by him at birth and which he must pass on within the framework of the species to which he belongs.1

  The duration of our species depends on the way in which we behave as links in one of the varieties of that species with respect to the law governing our raison d'être on the physical, social, and moral levels.

  The progress of the human species rests on the increasing usefulness of each of its elements and varieties; a man progresses by carrying out the role that nature has given him; he degrades himself if he abandons that role. The perfect man, the harmonious man, the useful man, is the man who, like an actor, plays to perfection the role assigned to him.

  The Clan (Jâti)

  ALL living species, so long as they are not drawn from their assigned role, observe a set of innate behavioral laws. They reproduce only within their own group. The same is true of the human races that are not debased. This is why mankind is divided into tribes or clans (Jâti), which correspond to genetic models, within which marriage is acceptable. Each type of person has a role to fulfill in a complex society, just as each type of cell in a living body has a different function. A cancer is the result of cells developing the urge to proliferate freely and breaking free of the organic role assigned to them. The same is true of society. In the plan of a species, each individual has aptitudes that correspond to a predetermined role. If he ceases to perform this function, he becomes a social cancer.

  The beauty and richness of creation rests in the variety of species, in their purity, their diversity, and their perfection. This is why the problem of the transmission of life must be resolved carefully. There is no transmigratory body that is not linked to a particular type of man and a lineage that personifies it. The transmission of the Lingä-Sharirä, the genetic code inherited from the ancestors; its planting in carefully chosen ground; and the transfer to a new being of the ancestral heritage comprising the archetypes issuing from divine thought constitute the most important act in the physical being. It must be carried out in a ritual form that takes various factors, including astrological ones, into account in such a way that the new bearer of the flame is perfectly adapted to its role, and in such a way that the species fashioned through the long ancestral line is not degraded or extinguished.

  The child, the receiver of the code, must as far as possible be the image of his father, and his continuator in the evolutionary scale.

  When the genetic code is transplanted into unsuitable ground, as is the case of the intermingling of castes or races, it becomes confused, and the resulting offspring do not have the necessary qualities to transmit the ancestral heritage of knowledge. It is in this way that civilizations die.

  The modern idea that genetic mingling improves a species is only true on a superficial level, taking no account of the psychological facts or the hereditary abilities of the harmony between the physical and intellectual aspects of a being. Moral characteristics become disconnected from physical ones and in time come into conflict. Progress rests on the accentuation of diversity; in any domain a leveling is the prelude to death. A mingling of races or species leads to regression in the evolutionary plane. The more the sexual partners belong to the same stock, the more the race that they represent is refined, is improved, and progresses. We are well aware that this is the case for animals; we tend to forget that it applies to humans just as much.

  In intermingling societies, the son no longer resembles his father; he is no longer the continuation of his father. The ties that bind them are loosened, and the family dissolves. In hybrid societies, the roles are poorly distributed: warriors lack courage, intellectuals are irresponsible, merchants are thieves, and artisans have no love for their work. Deprived of their proper function and place in society, heroes become gang or guerilla leaders, intellectuals disseminate aberrant doctrines, merchants seize economic power and enter into conflict with the artisans who detest their work. This state of affairs, which is due to the mixing of races, must take place at the end of the Kali Yugä.

  Physical illnesses bring about physical degeneration and can cause a break in and destruction of a genealogical chain. But illness of the mind—the deformation or incorrect usage of inherited knowledge—deprives the human being of his essential role.

  In animals, sexual energy emerges at precise moments for the purposes of reproduction, each within its own species. Cross-breeds never occur in the natural order of things.

  Mankind's double nature, however, has led elsewhere. The being of flesh will use this energy in order to reproduce; the being of knowledge will cultivate
it as a fuel to develop his intellectual and magical powers. The most varied sexual stimulations will therefore be useful to him in the development of his mental and spiritual self. Moreover, he must control, and indeed limit, the use of his semen when he is engaged in reproduction.

  Marriage is not simply a license that legalizes sexual relations, as it tends to become for the frustrated in puritanical societies. It is a responsible, ritualized act whose purpose is the creation of a new link in the line representing one particular human type, that is, one of the variants of the divine thought. Marriage between individuals belonging to different ethnic or racial groups is seen as an outrage against the Creator's plan and harmony of the world. If sexual encounters take place between partners belonging to different groups, it is considered essential to ensure that they remain unproductive, whether through contraception or abortion.2

  Procreation

  THE rites of procreation are described in the Tanträ(s) and in several works related to the Yogä. They include the veneration of the sexual organs, the images of the divine principles, which will join together to bring about the miracle of life. There is a fundamental difference between, on the one hand, sexual play, which is part of the art of living, of the divine experience of pleasure which concerns the individual alone, and, on the other hand, the ritual union whose purpose is procreation and which therefore concerns the species. The problems are different for man and woman, for the one who provides the plan and for the one who brings it to fruition. There cannot be identical rules for these two functions.

  The procreative act is the most important of the rites; it represents participation in the process of creation. All the other rites are the symbolic reflection of this union. Agni, the god of fire, the male principle, appears in the Kunda, the hearth on the altar, image of the feminine organ. The Upanishad(s) explain all the aspects of the ritual of sacrifice in terms of the different stages of the act of love.

  Woman is the hearth, the male organ is the fire; the caresses are the smoke, the vulva is the flame, penetration is the brand, and pleasure is the spark. In this fire, the gods receive the offering of semen, and a child is born. [Chhândogyä Upanishad, 5,4–8]

  The summons is the invocation of the deity; the request is the first hymn of praise. The act of lying next to the woman is the hymn of glory; meeting her face to face is the chorus; the height of passion is the consecration; and the separation is the final hymn. He who knows that the hymn to Vâmadevä (the god of the left hand who represents the Tantric aspect of Shivä) is woven upon the act of love, re-creates himself in each act of union. His life will be long; his descendants and his livestock will be numerous; his fame widespread. [Chhândogyä Upanishad, 2, 13-1]

  On the fifth day after a woman's period, copulation leads to the birth of a child through the union of the woman's lunar (left) subtle breath and the man's solar (right) breath. Once the necessary purifications following her period are completed, the woman should drink the juice of a plant called Shankhavalli (in the shape of a conch) and then accept the gift of man's sperm at a moment when elements of earth and water are flowing in her veins.... If earth predominates, a daughter will result; if water dominates, a son will be born; if, however, the element of fire prevails, the pregnancy will end in miscarriage; and if the element of ether is dominant, the child will be a homosexual. [Shiva Svarodayä, trans. Alain Daniélou (Milan: Arche, 1982), pp. 44-65]

  In the course of the sexual act, the Sâdhakä (the adept) should recite to himself a special Manträ, a formula that evokes the nature of Shivä in order that the sexual act might be identified with the union of Shivä and Shakti. Orgasm is thus assimilated into a sacrificial rite.

  According to Bharati (The Tantric Tradition, p. 264), the formula would be: "AUM. Light and ether are my two hands, Dharmä and Adharmä are the ingredients. With the sacrificial ladle I pour this oblation into the sacred fire. Svâhâ!" Other formulae exist, however. The Shaktä should chant mentally the goddess's Manträ.

  The Castes (Varnä)3

  MAN is a social animal, which is to say that the human species forms a whole, an organism, whose various cells have their own distinct functions. This is why the different lineages of mankind exist. The qualities and abilities of each improve over the generations so as to form an efficient, harmonious society that is capable of carrying out the role assigned to the human species in the plan of creation.

  In the same way that the different organs of the body have different functions, even though they originate in similar cells, so in the plan laid out for the species there exist particular lineages that are more adapted to certain functions and whose abilities, once they are recognized, encouraged, and developed, become hereditary. Each human grouping, each race, each family, must seek to uphold its integrity, to improve its particular speciality, and to play the social role corresponding to its nature, and above all else to preserve and transmit its own special genetic and cultural heritage.

  Our virtues are to a great extent transmissible, being connected to aspects of character that can be inherited. This is why they must be cultivated and improved so that we may play our role to the full in the brief span of our existence.

  There is thus for everyone a "natural law" (Dharmä) that regulates the use and development of mental and physical characteristics, inherited at birth, together with the gift of life itself, so that we may play to the full our part in the evolution of our lineage.

  Ancestor worship involves above all else the respect and transmission of our double heritage, genetic and cultural.4

  Each being is born unique. In the almost infinite number of possible combinations of the elements that constitute the living being, it is beyond belief that the same arrangement could be repeated, that two beings could be absolutely identical, with the same nature, appearance, function, and station; nevertheless, the human types defined by heredity can be classified. In order to achieve his physical and spiritual destiny, each individual must establish his basis; determine the class to which he belongs, the duties and qualities inherent in that class, and its unique characteristics so that he may make them productive; and, eventually, go beyond them. Everyone must achieve the perfection of a social or exterior role before he can perfect his personal or interior role. The two roles can be vastly different and even contradictory; thus, we see that men from the artisan castes can earn their living in their humble professions and yet can at the same time be philosophers, holy men, and artists before whom kings and Brahmans bow with respect.

  The circumstances of our birth correspond to the level of development of our own lineage and to the conditions in which we can best progress. Each of the links in the lineage is found at a particular stage of the evolution of that species—in its youth, maturity, or decline. This is why individuals of different races are not at the same level in their evolution.

  There is no advantage to anyone in wanting to change one's situation or function, nor in wanting to perform the duties of another. Thus, except in very rare cases, one does not change one's sex, species, race, or caste during one's life. The external hierarchy of beings and things is often the opposite of the interior order. This is the reason why, during the Kali Yugä (the present world age), it is most desirable to be either woman or worker (Shudrä), for through mere humility and devotion to their role or work, these people can attain exterior perfection, which in turn permits the interior development that frees them from the weighty chains of life and leads them effortlessly toward the higher spheres of knowledge. The state of prince, or Brahman, noble and magnificent though it may seem, is disastrous in the dark age, for the discipline that they demand is so severe and the virtues so difficult that failure is almost certain.

  It is not at all by chance that for nearly the last thousand years, almost all the great mystic poets and holy men of India have been men of humble birth who could so easily free themselves from their social and ritual responsibilities and devote themselves to their inner life.

  An organic societ
y can only exist on the basis of a division of powers and functions.

  With the appearance of urban societies at the dawn of the Kali Yugä, a system developed in India whereby the different groups were able to intermingle and collaborate; each group was able to maintain its own identity, traditions, and knowledge, while at the same time cooperating in the development of a common civilization.

  Ancient cities were divided into four parts, separated by avenues in the shape of a cross; each part was reserved for one of the four functions: priest, soldier, merchant, and artisan. The word quarter is the remnant of this division.

  The Lineage (Goträ)

  THE development of the different genealogical lines adapted to essential functions is linked to the cycle of the four Yugä(s), the four ages that mark the development and decline of the human species. They represent the peoples of the Golden Age, living like animals on nature's bounty; the nomadic warriors of the tribal period; the peasants and sedentary merchants of the agricultural age; and the artisans of the industrial era. A lineage (goträ) is thus a group of individuals transmitting a special genetic code that evolves as it passes through innumerable carriers. Each lineage is an organ of the social body, and it is the social body as a whole that maintains the culture or civilization, which, in turn, allows the development and transmission of knowledge.

  The functional hierarchy that assures the transmission of knowledge and rites has been maintained in the framework of Shaivism and Tantrism among non-Aryan populations, even though reduced, without distinction of rank, to the position of slaves by the Aryans. Even today, "in the Marhatta lands the Aryan Brahmans do not officiate in temples where the Lingä is worshiped. There is a separate caste for that, called Guravä, of Shudrä origins" (P. Banerjee, Early Indian Religions, p. 41). In the temples of Orissa, such as the Lingärâjä of Bhuvaneshvar, the Brahman and non-Brahman priests alternate in the performance of services.