Power: Part IIJames Santucci

Department of Comparative ReligionCalifornia State University

Fullerton, CA

gveda

• Universe is conceived from the standpoint of human experience

• Interconnection of individual, society (community) and nature

• There is a mutual sharing of the the powers in the universe. Therefore,

• The human body is a manifestation of divine energy and substance

Vedic India

• The links between individuals, sacrifice or ritual, and cosmos are the powers that manifest themselves in both nature and the human realm

• The knowledge about the powers was a means of controlling the powers

Connections: Power and Knowledge

• AV 11.8,32: All divinities have their abode in purua, as cows in a cow-pen. Therefore, one who knows man, thinks this is brahman.”

• The body is the abode of all the manifestations of the creative principle and other powers.

Vedic India

The Theme in the gveda is

POWER,

Or what might be termed

MANA

The efforts of the is were designed to obtain power in one form or another.

POWER

• In the Veda, it is both– Impersonal potency (Ger. Daseinsmacht)– Personal (as a divine person)

• Every superhuman potency has these two aspects

• There are sentient and rational beings possessing, supervising, and representing powers

Power

• The connecting link between the individual, sacrifice (ritual), and cosmos)

• Cosmos was not only full of living beings and substances but also full of powers which manifested themselves in both nature and the human realm.

Power-substances

• The line between impersonal power-substances and personal power is not strict or divisive:– Innuit sila- ‘universe, weather, intelligence;

Silap Inua ‘Lord of the Universe’

–V: Agni may be the sacrificial fire, or be the god of fire; rj- “vigor, strengthening power’’ may also be a person (V I.119,2: Goddess rjn).

Power

• Other examples:– manyu ‘fury’; also personified as Agni, Kma,

or as a Rudra.– Soma: as a god, plant, or purified (filtered

juice).

Power

• To be ‘real’ power must always be authenticated or verified empirically

• In this mode, power is concrete and specific, not abstract or non-specific

• That which is concrete is capable of affecting the emotions and mind

Power as Authentic

• Reality does not underlie ‘powers’• ‘Powers’ are ‘reals’• In this context, there is an “I-Thou

Relationship”• Everything is considered alive in the

cosmos• Implicit in this viewpoint is an

anthropomorphic view of the world

Powers as ‘Reals’

• Manifestations of powers involves the presence of the numinous and the mysterious.

• Often, powers as numinous are incomprehensible, but the interaction of human perceptions and interpretations lend an individuality, a name and form

Manifestation of Powers

• What makes powers ‘real’ is its manifestation

• Manifestation often assumes a mysterious, numinous quality or activity

• Power is regarded as extraordinary, not supernatural

• When persons or objects are endowed with this potency they are known as sacred.

‘Powers’ as ‘Reals’

• Powers are confronted not rationally, but from the emotional or reactive perspectives, i.e. from its numinous aspect

Powers as Confronted

• “Gods” are often viewed as little more than names for functions

• An example is Net- ‘Leader’ (5.50), one who is invoked to lead the worshipers to wealth.

Powers as Specified

• Specific manifestations or exhibitions of power lead to specific identification:– the power that establishes everything (*dh)

is personified as Dht- ‘The Establisher’, whose function is intimated through the aid of the root *dh

– eyesight (cákur-) is possessed by humans (V 10.158,3). This is not a process, however, but a power

Examples of ‘Powers’

• Tva- “The Builder” or “Workmaster” is the artisan or artist among the gods, who is himself omniform (vivarpa-).

• He gives beings their shape, and as such he presides over generation and bestowing children (V 3.4,9)

• Beasts belong to him (B 3.7.13,11; 8.3,11)

• He produced and nourishes creatures

Power as nomen agentis

• A numinous figure of whom the first may have originated in the whirlwind or tornado as a numinous event

• Many theories on this figure– The storm (aja- = driver): Roth– The unborn mysterious deity of the isolated world:

Bergaigne– Lightening the “goat” (alluding to its swiftness in the

cloud-mountains), and the one foot to the single streak which strikes the earth: Macdonell.

Aja Ekapd:“The One-footed Goat”

Ahi Budhnya:The “Snake of the Deep”

• A numinous being born in the waters, in the deep darkness

• Sitting in the bottom (budhne) of the streams in the spaces (7.34,16); 10.93,5) suggests the atmospheric ocean.

• Implored not to injure his worshipers

• Perhaps a connection with Vtra, for he enclosed the waters and lies in them or at the bottom (budhna-) of the air (rajas-): 1.52,6

• Often, the function of a god is more important or prominent than the person of the god.

• The poet is more concerned with giving a description of the power, the functions, and the beneficial activities, not the attributes or description of the being.

Function and Person

• The name is a condensation of a numinous feeling with regard to a divinity.

• The name refers to the individual existence of that god

• This is important because one must have an understanding of a power which is experiences

• This is most effective and natural by deliminiting this power from other powers.

• Assigning a name is the main means of delimitation.

The Name

• The name describes a distinct picture of a man, animal, or theme.

• The sound possess, a part of the whole

• Names of divinities will be changed to fit the changing conditions

• To have many names indicates great might

The Name

• The essence is hidden in the body of the bearer. Example

• Anumati: “Agreement, Concurrence, Assent” (AV 7.20,4) gives wealth and saturates the ritual with her easily-invoked, approved, and generous name.

Name as Essence

• AV 7.20,1: Let Anumati assent (anu *man)today our sacrifice among the gods...;

• Vs. 2: “May you, O Assent (Anumate) assent, and make fortune for us”

• Vs. 3: “Let him, assenting, assent to wealth rich in progeny”

Name as Essence (2)

• The name of a god often points to function.

• Bhaga “Share, Good Fortune, Luck, Success in Love”

•V 7.41,2: “We will call Bhaga, the mighty (ugra) conqueror in the morning (prtar-jit “winning early”

Name as Essence (3)

• “Bhaga, the leader, Bhaga the true giver (satya-radha), the one possessing the true or real gift” (7.41,3)

• Bhaga is what he does.

Bhaga

Powers Possessed by Beings

• Divinities give powers that they possess and represent.

• Demons of sickness are conceived as possessing the characteristic of torment or suffering

• This same torment and suffering is brought to others (the afflicted), for it is their frightful characteristic.