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62 DESIRE

10.130 The Creation of the Sacrifice

1. The sacrifice that is spread out with threads on allsides, drawn tight with a hundred and one divineacts, is woven by these fathers as they come near:“Weave forward, weave backward,” they say asthey sit by the loom that is stretched tight.

2. The Man stretches the warp and draws the weft; theMan has spread it out upon this dome of the sky.These are the pegs, that are fastened in place; theymade the melodies into the shuttles for weaving.

3. What was the original model, and what was thecopy, and what was the connection between them?What was the butter, and what the enclosing wood?What was the metre, what was the invocation, andthe chant, when all the gods sacrificed the god?

4. The G�yatr¯ metre was the yoke-mate of Agni;SavitÑ joined with the UÑ¹i metre, and with theAnuÑÓubh metre was Soma that reverberates withthe chants. The BÑhat¯ metre resonated in the voiceof BÑhaspati.

5. The Vir�j metre was the privilege of Mitra andVaru¹a; the TriÑÓubh metre was part of the day ofIndra. The Jagat¯ entered into all the gods. Thatwas the model for the human sages.

6. That was the model for the human sages, ourfathers, when the primeval sacrifice was born.With the eye that is mind, in thought I see thosewho were the first to offer this sacrifice.

DesireCame upon that Onein the Beginning …Creation Hymns of the Rig Veda

Barbara Mikolajewska

The Lintons’ Video PressNew Haven

1999

62 DESIRE











1999

APPENDIX 61

Copyright © 1997, 1999 by Barbara MikolajewskaAll rights reserved

Technical and editorial advisor: F. E. J. Linton

Published in the United States in 1999 byThe Lintons’ Video Press

36 Everit Street, New Haven, CT06511-2208 USA

e-mail inquiries: TLVPress@ yahoo.com

Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged Third Printing (2006)

Printed in the United States of AmericaISBN: 0-9659529-1-6

9. From that sacrifice in which everything was offered,the verses and chants were born, the metres wereborn from it, and from it the formulas were born.

10. Horses were born from it, and those other animalsthat have two rows of teeth; cows were born fromit, and from it goats and sheep were born.

11. When they divided the Man, into how many partsdid they apportion him? What do they call hismouth, his two arms and thighs and feet?

12. His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms weremade into the Warrior, his thighs the People, andfrom his feet the Servants were born.

13. The moon was born from his mind; from his eyethe sun was born. Indra and Agni came from hismouth, and from his vital breath the Wind wasborn.

14. From his navel the middle realm of space arose;from his head the sky evolved. From his two feetcame the earth, and the quarters of the sky from hisear. Thus they set the worlds in order.

15. There were seven enclosing-sticks for him, andthrice seven fuel-sticks, when the gods, spreadingthe sacrifice, bound the Man as the sacrificial beast.

16. With the sacrifice the gods sacrificed to thesacrifice. These were the first ritual laws. Thesevery powers reached the dome of the sky wheredwell the S�dhyas, the ancient gods.

APPENDIX 61
















60 DESIRE

10.90 PuruÑÑa-SÔÔkta, or The Hymn of Man

1. The Man has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, athousand feet. He pervaded the earth on all sidesand extended beyond it as far as ten fingers.

2. It is the Man who is all this, whatever has been andwhatever is to be. He is the ruler of immortality,when he grows beyond everything through food.

3. Such is his greatness, and the Man is yet more thanthis. All creatures are a quarter of him; threequarters are what is immortal in heaven.

4. With three quarters the Man rose upwards, and onequarter of him still remains here. From this hespread out in all directions, into that which eats andthat which does not eat.

5. From him Vir�j was born, and from Vir�j came theMan. When he was born, he ranged beyond theearth behind and before.

6. When the gods spread the sacrifice with the Man asthe offering, spring was the clarified butter,summer the fuel, autumn the oblation.

7. They anointed the Man, the sacrifice born at thebeginning, upon the sacred grass. With him thegods, S�dhyas, and sages sacrificed.

8. From that sacrifice in which everything was offered,the melted fat was collected, and he made it intothose beasts who live in the air, in the forest, and invillages.

Contents

Acknowledgments 7

Introduction 9

I. Desire Came upon that One in the Beginning Desire and the Beginning of the World 11

II. He to Whom the Two Opposed Masses Looked with Trembling in their Hearts The Creator as Mediator of Desires 25

III. With the Sacrifice the Gods Sacrificed to the Sacrifice The Violence at the Beginning of the World 37

IV. What Was the Original Model, and What Was the Copy? On Generative Violence 49

Conclusions 55

Appendix: Creation Hymns of the Rig VedaCreation Hymn (N�sad¯ya) 57The Unknown God, the Golden Embryo 58PuruÑa-SÔkta, or the Hymn of Man 60The Creation of the Sacrifice 62

5

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Contents

Acknowledgments 7

Introduction 9





Conclusions 55


5

58 DESIRE

5. Their cord was extended across. Was there below?Was there above? There were seed-placers; therewere powers. There was impulse beneath; therewas giving-forth above.

6. Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?The gods came afterwards, with the creation of thisuniverse. Who then knows whence it has arisen?

7. Whence this creation has arisen — perhaps itformed itself, or perhaps it did not — the one wholooks down on it, in the highest heaven, only heknows — or perhaps he does not know.

10.121 The Unknown God, the Golden Embryo

1. In the beginning the Golden Embryo arose. Oncehe was born, he was the one lord of creation. Heheld in place the earth and this sky. Who is the godwhom we should worship with the oblation?

2. He who gives life, who gives strength, whosecommand all the gods, his own, obey; his shadowis immortality — and death. Who is the god whomwe should worship with the oblation?

3. He who by his greatness became the one king of theworld that breathes and blinks, who rules over histwo-footed and four-footed creatures — who is thegod whom we should worship with the oblation?

Acknowledgments

All extracts from the Rig Veda appearing inwhat follows come from the Penguin Classicsedition, in the translation of Wendy DonigerO’Flaherty: The Rig Veda: An Anthology,Penguin Books, London, 1981 (ISBN: 0-14-044402-5), and are reprinted here with thegenerous permission of Professor Doniger.

Similarly, all reference to the writings of RenéGirard focuses on his volumes A Theater of Envy(Oxford University Press, New York, 1991),Things Hidden since the Foundation of theWorld (Stanford University Press, Stanford,1987), and The Scapegoat (The Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, Baltimore, 1989).

Finally, thanks are due to Professors Chandanaand Kisor Chakrabarti, at whose kind invitation apreliminary version of this work was presented tothe Society for Indian Philosophy and Religion atits Conference on Relativism held in Calcutta inAugust of 1997.

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Acknowledgments




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each individual’s personal enemy. This killing isthe original scapegoating. Peace and the creationof the new universe seem to be triggered by thisevent, which provides the model for the mimeticcreation of the divine images of the Creator andof the sacrifice.

The Hymn The Golden Embryo describes theemerging of the Creator in the middle of the warand its violent undifferentiation. The samewomb of violent undifferentiation was carryingDakÑa pregnant with the sacrifice. The Hymn ofMan focuses on the mimetic production of thedivine images of the Creator and the sacrifice bymaking copies of the original violent event. TheHymn The Creation of the Sacrifice points outthe importance of the role the process of makingcopies plays in recreating the ritual of sacrifice.

Introduction

It can sometimes be enlightening to examineone worldview from the perspective of another.In exactly such a spirit, but without taking sides,what follows is an attempt at rereading theCreation Hymns of the Rig Veda from themimetic perspective espoused by René Girard.Whatever actual enlightenment the reader mayinadvertently find in these pages is, of course,purely coincidental.

Girard’s approach to religious texts is that ofa Realist. Religious texts, he claims, makestatements about the reality of social impassesthat arise from the human predicament. Indeed,they develop as direct outgrowths of that reality.They themselves, in turn, foster another socialreality by providing a religious prescriptionagainst these impasses.

Religious texts ultimately refer to mimesis,which is the ancient Greek word for imitationand for creation of images, and to the mimeticcrisis. They also have their beginnings inmimesis; and they try to find a remedy against it.Religious narratives are hidden sources ofknowledge about the paradoxes of mimesis seenas the force that creates and destroys the humanuniverse.

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Introduction




9

10 DESIRE

Mimesis, as inherent in the process of Desire(conflictual mimesis), destroys the universe bythat very process. It implants conflict intohuman interactions. Mimesis creates a newuniverse when it shifts from conflictual toimperative, to the mimesis that provokesharmonious compliance with normativedemands of society (imperative mimesis). Thusmimesis destroys the universe by the process ofdesire, and it creates a new universe when itshifts from the conflictual to the imperative: asuccessful shifting is the new creation. Thisshifting of mimesis is accomplished by means ofwhat Girard calls victimage: the mimeticproduction of divinity and of sacrifice. Howexactly are these produced? They are mimeticcopies of the founding murder. The concept ofthe founding murder refers to a hypotheticalviolent event (scapegoating) that brings to anend the destruction characteristic of the mimeticcrisis brought on by the process of desire.

To create the new universe means to shiftfrom conflictual to imperative mimesis. Who,or what, can accomplish such a radical change?Religions say: this is the work of the Creatorand of sacrifice. Girard says: this is done bymimesis. The Creation Hymns of the Rig Vedaprovide both answers at once.

Conclusions

In my rereading of the Creation Hymns of theRig Veda I have been tracing mimesis. I havefound conflictual mimesis in the Hymn N� sad¯ ya.The Hymn of Man and The Golden Embryo, inturn, refer to the mimetic production of thedivine image of the Creator and the sacrifice.They capture the process of shifting to theimperative mimesis. The Hymn The Creation ofthe Sacrifice is concerned with the imperativemimesis of the mimetic repetition of the ritual ofthe sacrifice.

The Hymn N� sad¯ ya makes a connectionbetween the creation and desire. Desire is able toput into the non-existence the bond of existence.The process of desire, however, is self-destructive. It implants a permanent conflict intohuman interaction and ultimately destroys theexistence it has produced. The process of desireis governed by conflictual mimesis. The HymnN� sad¯ ya also makes a connection between theVoid that was in the beginning and the life forcethat Void contains. The Void can be understoodas the violent undifferentiation, a Girardian termreferring to the last stage of the process of desire.This is the stage of endless revenge. The war ofrevenge is brought to an end by a violent event,which is the killing of a person who seems to befixthisup

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Conclusions



55

Chapter I

Desire Came upon that Onein the Beginning…

Desire and the Beginning of the World

Desire came upon that one in the beginning; that was the first seed of mind.Poets seeking in their heart with wisdom found the bond of existence in non-existence.

The Rig Veda: Creation Hymn (N� sad¯ ya), 10.129, 4

11

Chapter I

Desire Came upon that Onein the Beginning…

Desire and the Beginning of the World

Desire came upon that one in the beginning; that was the first seed of mind.Poets seeking in their heart with wisdom found the bond of existence in non-existence.

The Rig Veda: Creation Hymn (N� sad¯ ya), 10.129, 4

11

12 DESIRE THE ORIGINAL MODEL AND THE COPY 53

The Creation Hymn N� sad¯ ya of the Rig Vedaconnects the creation of the universe with desire.The connection, however, remains for this Hymna mystery, as does the creation of the universeitself. René Girard’s concept of mimetic desireprovides some answers to the questions thisHymn asks.

1. On violent undifferentiation

The hymn N� sad¯ ya, the 10.129th Hymn ofthe Rig Veda, makes three somehow surprisingstatements:

1. It connects the creation of the universe withdesire: (4) Desire came upon that one in thebeginning; … . 2. It separates creation from the gods anddistinguishes it from the creation of the universe:

(6) Whence is this creation? The gods cameafterwards, with the creation of this universe.Who then knows whence it has arisen?

(7) Whence this creation has arisen — per-haps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not …

3. It sees the life force as emerging from thecosmic no-thing-ness (the Void) that was in thebeginning. This Void will stand as the Vediccounterpart of the violent undifferentiation of theGirardian mimetic crisis.

Everything was undifferentiated in thebeginning. There were no oppositions, nodifferences:

out. However, the primeval ritual of the sacrificewas conducted by the gods. The poet asks,

(3) when all the gods sacrificed the god …what was the original model, and what wasthe copy and what was the connectionbetween them?

The primeval sacrifice conducted by the godswas the model for the sages. The poet can see itwith the eye that is mind. But

(6) the primeval sacrifice was born.

Behind the sacrifice conducted by the gods is theMan. The sages just follow the gods in repeatingthe ritual. They cooperate also with the Man intheir weaving of the sacrifice. The poet sees allof this. He sees those who were the first to offerthe sacrifice. Looking back

(7) along the path of those who went beforegives the wise men the power and the vision toknow what must be done, and how.

The poet differentiates himself from thesubject he tries to describe. Seeing with the eyethat is mind (6), he tries to describe the empiricalreality of the sacrifice — its beginning anddevelopment. He is much closer to that realitythan we are. He still can see what we cannot. Hesees mimetic repetition — Girardian doubling —when he looks at this. He sees a model and itscopy. The Creation of the Sacrifice is almost aHymn in praise of (imperative) Mimesis.

















52 DESIRE IN THE BEGINNING 13

3. Seeing with the eye that is mind.

The poet uses the metaphor of weaving todescribe the sacrifice.

(1) The sacrifice … is spread out withthreads on all sides.

It is the Man (see The Hymn of Man) who

(2) has spread it out upon this dome of the sky.

It is also he who

(2) stretches the warp and draws the weft.

Without the Man, the weaving of the sacrificewould be impossible. The sacrifice

(1) is woven by these fathers,

(6) the human sages.

(1) They sit by the loom that is stretched tight.

The sacrifice is

(1) drawn tight with a hundred and onedivine acts.

The sages weave the sacrifice as, with theirmystical vision, they approach (come near) theoriginal model.

(1) The sacrifice … is woven by thesefathers as they come near: “Weave forward,weave backward,” they say as they sit by theloom that is stretched tight.

The Man provides the base for weaving thefabric, and the divine acts keep the threads tight.The sages weave the sacrifice in cooperation withthe Man. It was the Man who spread the sacrifice

(1) There was neither non-existence norexistence then; there was neither the realm ofspace nor the sky which is beyond. …

(2) There was neither death nor immortalitythen. There was no distinguishing sign ofnight nor of day.

(3) Darkness was hidden by darkness in thebeginning; with no distinguishing sign, allthis was water.

However, there was something in thebeginning. There was some action, somethinggot generated:

(1) What stirred? Where? In whoseprotection? …

(2) That one breathed, windless, by its ownimpulse. Other than that there was nothingbeyond.

(3) The life force that was covered withemptiness … arose through the power of heat.

Differences were born from that power ofheat, which means contemplation of the divine,and renunciation of desires: a kind of asceticismdedicated to the gods. We learn about the powerof heat in detail from the 10.190th Hymn of theRig Veda.

(1) Order and truth were born from heat asit blazed up. From that was born night; fromthat heat was born the billowy ocean.

(2) From the billowy ocean was born theyear, that arranges days and nights, rulingover all that blinks its eyes.







It is also he who






The sacrifice is
















(3) The Arranger has set in their properplace the sun and moon, the sky and theearth, the middle realm of space, and finallythe sunlight.

René Girard makes quite similar statementsin his reading of Shakespeare. In Shakespeare’splays a human universe has its end and itsbeginning in this erasing of differences. A newuniverse springs from the resultingundifferentiation; the old one dissolves in it likea river in an ocean. By universe René Girardmeans differential system of culture. The Void,the undifferentiation, is also called the mimeticcrisis. This is the ultimate social impasse, andis suddenly brought to an end by a violent event.Differences are reborn from contemplation ofthis violent and seemingly miraculous event.

Girard speaks of violent undifferentiation.The action described in the Hymn N� sad¯ yaseems to be violent as well. That action wasdone in someone’s protection. What stirred?Where? In whose protection? In the beginningof the universe, then, there was destruction.

But where does this violent undifferentiationcome from? How does it begin?

2. Desire came upon that one in the beginning…

René Girard would find nothing surprising inthat statement of the ancient Rig Veda. Theviolent undifferentiation, the violent Void, hasits beginning in desire. Some questions arise,fixthisup

2. The seven divine sages harmonized withthe original models.

The poet also sees the human sages, thefounding fathers. He perceives their action ofsacrifice too as mimetic. However, their action isnot just a simple imitation of the gods.

(7) The seven divine sages harmonizedwith the original models.

The poet uses the grammatical plural here:models. He refers both to the model providedwhen all the gods sacrificed the god, and to thesupposed original that was the model for the godsas well. The original is not directly known; it isnot even imaginable. Yet, the founding fathers,the seven sages, harmonized mimetically witheverything they could; with the model providedby the gods, and with the original modelprovided to the gods:

(7) The ritual repetitions harmonized withthe chants and with the metres.

The ritual repetitions harmonized with the modelprovided by the gods. However,

(7) the seven divine sages harmonized withthe original models.

The sages’ vision reached beyond the action ofthe gods. The founding fathers, the sages, didnot simply imitate the action of the gods. Theyharmonized with the model provided by the godsand with the original as well. They participatedin the creation of the sacrifice by harmonizingwith the models.


(3) The Arranger has set in their properplace the sun and moon, the sky and theearth, the middle realm of space, and finallythe sunlight.René Girard makes quite similar statements

in his reading of Shakespeare. In Shakespeare’splays a human universe has its end and itsbeginning in this erasing of differences. A newuniverse springs from the resultingundifferentiation; the old one dissolves in it likea river in an ocean. By universe René Girardmeans differential system of culture. The Void,the undifferentiation, is also called the mimeticcrisis. This is the ultimate social impasse, andis suddenly brought to an end by a violent event.Differences are reborn from contemplation ofthis violent and seemingly miraculous event.














The sacrifice as woven by the sages isperceived here as highly mimetic. It harmonizeswith the models provided by the primeval sacrificeand the Man. The poet’s concern about the mimeticdetails signals awareness that the copy shouldperfectly match the original to allow the shift to theimperative mimesis to continue.

1. On making sacrificial copies

The poet,

(6) with the eye that is mind, in thought …sees those who were the first to offer thissacrifice.

And yet he is puzzled; he sees something beyondthem. He sees their action as that of making acopy. The poet, as if with blurred vision,wonders:

(3) What was the original model, and whatwas the copy, and what was the connectionbetween them?

He seems to be unable to distinguish betweenthe primeval sacrifice (6) and the originalscapegoating it copies. The action of the godswhen they all … sacrificed the god was surelymimetic. The poet, however, wants to know theexact details:

(3) What was the butter, and what theenclosing wood? What was the metre, whatwas the invocation, and the chant, when allthe gods sacrificed the god?

however. Whom did the desire come upon? Howdid it begin? In the beginning of what did itcome? Did it come in the beginning of thecreation? If so, what was created?

Girard might advise us to read Shakespeare tofind the answers. Shakespearean characterssuffer from desire. Desire strikes like lightning,and is as contagious as the plague.

3. Desire came upon that one…

Upon whom did desire come? How did itbegin?

How does it ever begin? It does not comeupon one individual but simultaneously uponseveral. Desire is contagious; it spreads toothers. Reading Shakespeare we can observe arepetition of the same desire suddenly strikingclose friends or brothers. How can we explainthis strange property of desire?

An individual experiencing desire is called asubject of desire. However, desire has its sourceneither in him nor in the object of desire, but inthe mimetic relation the one has with the other.The individual subject is a secondary reality.The more primary reality involves two peoplejoined together by mimesis (imitation). This isthe primordial human relation. The human egohas its beginning in its reflection in another’seyes. The being of the other is a primordialdivine. It seems to have a divine value. Anddesire starts almost more with this transcendentalfixthisup




The poet,












16 DESIRE

admiration of the other’s being than with themimesis triggered thereby.

The wish to possess, customarily called desire,is then also a secondary reality. The subjectiveemotional experience of thirst for an object isjust the visible part of what should be calleddesire. Desire should be understood as aprocess. It has its beginning, its middle, and itsend. The process of desire is put in motion bymimesis. It develops because of mimesis;mimesis also will bring about its end. All this isconflictual mimesis, which implants conflict inhuman interactions, and ultimately ends in theviolent undifferentiation of section 1.

4. Desire … was the first seed of mind.

Reading Shakespeare we can trace desirefrom its beginning to its end. We can also traceits products. The process of desire can betriggered by mimesis among childhood friendsor brothers. They form a unit, bound by theprimordial mimetic relation. Growing uptogether they imitate each other’s somehowrandom choices. They are encouraged to do soby their teachers, and by their friendship itself.Indeed, imitation is the very heart of friendship.It also binds society together. Society expectsthe development of desires. Girard assumes wedo not know what we want. We have to learnour desires. Friends follow each other’s choices,and create their first shared divine image. Theypersuade each other that an object is desirable by

Chapter IV

What Was the Original Model, and What Was the Copy …?

On Generative Violence

What was the original model, and what was the copy, and what was the connection between them?What was the butter, … , what was the invocation, and the chant, when all the gods sacrificed the god?

The Rig Veda: The Creation of the Sacrifice, 10.130, 3

49

16 DESIRE





Chapter IV





49


directions, into that which eats and thatwhich does not eat.

Later this image of the Man will develop into theMah� bh� rata’s image of KÑÑ¹a, that avatar of theGod ViÑ¹u, in the context of the endless war ofKurukÑetra. KÑÑ¹a there is a man who will dieas a human, but he is also the god who demandssacrifice from other humans. The human part ofthe dead KÑÑ¹a will remain on this earth. TheMan’s greatness likewise depends on his death asa human. The image of this death is representedby the ritual of sacrifice. This is the death of thescapegoat. Once again we see how the seemingparadoxes, in terms of which the poetic languageof this Hymn describes the image of the Man,may be taken as describing the mimetictransformation of scapegoat and scapegoatinginto divinity and the ritual of sacrifice.

producing symbolic representations of its imageas divine. Friends try to influence each othertowards the same choice: they want to triggermimesis. Mimesis is rewarding. The matchingchoice is a confirmation that the object isdesirable.

In Shakespeare’s plays, the dramatic chain ofevents usually starts with friends whomimetically create the shared divine image of anobject that cannot be possessed by both at once.For example, Valentine and Proteus, thecharacters from The Two Gentlemen of Verona,mimetically create the image of Silvia as divine.Praising Silvia to Proteus, and inviting him tojoin in creating her image as divine, Valentinemanages to provoke his friend to mimesis. Hesuffers from “bawd and cuckold” syndrome,Girard says. This is a widespread illness inShakespeare. Proteus would eventually fall inlove with Silvia. Valentine would becomecuckolded. Proteus imitates Valentine’s choice,as then does Valentine Proteus’s. He inspiresProteus’s choice so as to follow it himself andfall in love with the divine image of Silvia that hecan now see in Proteus’s eyes. The divinity ofthis image of the object of desire sets in motionthe process of desire. It transforms Proteus andValentine into the subjects of desire. Theirprevious unity breaks up into three separateelements: the two subjects before the same divineobject of desire, and that object. These threeconstitute the triangle of desire.



Later this image of the Man will develop into theMah� bh� rata’s image of KÑÑ¹a, that avatar of theGod ViÑ¹u, in the context of the endless war ofKurukÑetra. KÑÑ¹a there is a man who will die asa human, but he is also the god who demandssacrifice from other humans. The human part ofthe dead KÑÑ¹a will remain on this earth. TheMan’s greatness likewise depends on his death asa human. The image of this death is representedby the ritual of sacrifice. This is the death of thescapegoat. Once again we see how the seemingparadoxes, in terms of which the poetic languageof this Hymn describes the image of the Man,may be taken as describing the mimetictransformation of scapegoat and scapegoatinginto divinity and the ritual of sacrifice.



18 DESIRE THE SACRIFICE 47

The object and the subjects of desire acquirenew lives of their own. The divine image sets alltheir minds in motion and starts to fill theirpsyches, motivating their behavior, andemboldening them to create a new external socialreality. Desire is the process of creation andtransformation of both human subjectivity andhuman interaction.

5. Poets seeking in their heart with wisdomfound the bond of existence in non-existence.

What energy is it, that may have put into thenon-existence the bond of existence that thepoets found there? We would say it is the Desirethat came … in the beginning. It does so byimplanting a divine image of an object of desireinto certain subjects of desire. The divine imageof the object of desire puts in motion the processof transformation, which is pushed forward bymimesis. It injects a transforming force into theobject and the subjects of desire. It is imitatedby the object of desire who develops self-love. Itchanges former childhood friends into rivals.They will each continue to imitate the other intheir desire for the object behind the divineimage and in their attempts to overcome eachother as rivals. They become model/obstacle/rival for each other. Girard calls relations of thissort mimetic rivalry. Such rivalry has no end.Not even winning can stop it, for that will onlydestroy the object of desire and the rivalsthemselves. The act of winning the object offixthisup

(1) The Man has a thousand heads, athousand eyes, a thousand feet. He pervadedthe earth on all sides and extended beyond itas far as ten fingers.

(2) It is the Man who is all this, whateverhas been and whatever is to be. He is theruler of immortality, when he grows beyondeverything through food.

(3) Such is his greatness, and the Man isyet more than this. All creatures are aquarter of him; three quarters are what isimmortal in heaven.

Much the larger part of the Man is what is divine(immortal). The Man is also the ruler of thedivine. This power of the Man, however, ispresented by the Hymn as conditional: He is theruler of immortality, when he grows beyondeverything through food. Wendy Doniger, thetranslator, comments that “food” here surelyrefers to the sacrificial offering. Thus the Manonly grows into the ruler of the divine (ruler ofimmortality) through the offerings that mankind’sbelief in the divinity of sacrifice motivates.

The Hymn of Man points out yet anotheraspect of the Man’s greatness. One full quarterof the Man remains on the earth, transformedinto creatures. This quarter, moreover, seems tobe crucial for his transformation into divinity.

(4) With three quarters the Man roseupwards, and one quarter of him stillremains here. From this he spread out in allfixthisup












be interpreted as the mimetic relation betweenthe original scapegoat and its sacrificial copy, thelatter having the character of a machine forproducing the matter that will shape the universe.

The Hymn of Man captures the mimeticrelation between the original violentscapegoating and its transformed copy. Thismimetic relation connects the end of the sort ofexistence produced by the process of desire withthe beginning of the new universe. Mimesischanges the original scapegoating into thefounding murder of the new universe. The Manis the original scapegoat, but the Man is also thelater sacrifice. The notions of scapegoat and ofsacrifice are similar but not identical. Thesacrifice has generative powers of its own; sohas the Man. However the Man, the originalscapegoat, acquires his powers from histransformation into the sacrifice. He is whateverhas been and whatever is to be, all owing to thistransformation. More than just the beginning ofthe universe, he is also its middle and its end.

5. The Man is yet more than this. Allcreatures are a quarter of him; threequarters are what is immortal in heaven.

While praising the Man, The Hymn of Manalso describes the Man’s transformation intodivinity, and the dependence of thistransformation on mankind’s belief in the powerof sacrifice.

desire will eradicate from its divine image itsvery divinity, thereby destroying the object ofdesire itself by removing the implanted modelfor its own self-love. Nor will winning stop therivalry that has by now become the dominatingmodel for interactions. Rivalry might wellbecome the dominating model in the wholesociety. If it starts at the top of the society it canspread especially easily. It kills all a well-organized society’s other models because theylose relevance to reality. Desire is then a processof transformation that ends with violentundifferentiation. Desire introduces into humanrelations a rivalry that ultimately becomes thedominating social model, and dissolves allcultural differences.

This violent undifferentiation is brought to anend by the isolated violent event that Girard callsscapegoating. Even this strange conclusion tothe violence has its source in mimesis. Modelimages of enemies will proliferate. They will beimprinted in the heart of every individual.Ultimately each will choose to fight against thesame enemy whose model has now successfullyspread throughout the whole society. Killing thisembodiment of the enemy’s image will bring thewar to the end. It will remove the pattern ofrivalry from the society. The object perceived byall as a living model of the enemy will be killed.There will be no one else to fight with. Thedemon will be removed. Peace and order will benearly at hand.









6. Their (the poets’) cord was extended across.

We have come as far as the violentundifferentiation and caught a glimpse of itsresolution. Some questions arise at this point.Desire brings about both the creation and thedestruction of the object and the subjects ofdesire. It starts with the mimetic creation ofdivine images. Surely, however, these are veryminor gods at best. What relevance can theyhave to the beginning of the universe and itsCreators? Are there any connections between theprocess of desire and the creation of theuniverse?

The Hymn N� sad¯ ya itself seems to ask thisquestion.

(5) Their (the poets’) cord was extendedacross. Was there below? Was there above?There were seed-placers; there were powers.There was impulse beneath; there wasgiving-forth above.

(6) Who really knows? Who will hereproclaim it? Whence was it produced?Whence is this creation? The gods cameafterwards, with the creation of this universe.Who then knows whence it has arisen?

Their cord was extended across, the Rig Vedasays. Poets have their part in the creation of theuniverse by expressing in their language theirunderstanding of the creation. This also ismimesis. Images, however, are not pure fantasy:they have their reference to reality. (3) The lifefixthisup

which, in turn, represents the result of thistransformation. Such transformed images havethe power to shape living beings. They holdwithin themselves an ability to organize people’sactions and to mediate their desires.

The language of The Hymn of Mandistinguishes between the Man and the mattershaping the universe. The Man provides thematter so long as he is transformed into thesacrifice and the divine. That matter is describedas the remains of the sacrifice: the melted fat. Itis also named Vir�j (or later, PrakÑti). The Manis different from Vir�j, though each comes fromthe other:

(5) From him Vir� j was born, and fromVir� j came the Man.

We can interpret that last line as follows: theMan gives birth to Vir�j because the Man iscopied by the ritual of the sacrifice which is thesource of Vir�j. It is Vir�j, in turn, from whomthe Man comes, because the sacrifice, whichprovides the divine matter, transforms the Maninto divinity. The transformation of the Man intothe sacrifice must continually be repeated if it isto provide the divine matter. The divinity of thematter, in turn, becomes projected on the Manand on his transformation into the sacrifice. TheMan’s divine power comes from his ability toprovide the model for the sacrifice. The powerof the copy, in turn, depends on maintaining theMan’s ability to provide the model. In this waythe relation between the Man (later calledPuruÑa) and the matter (later called PrakÑti) canfixthisup













quarters of the sky from his ear. Thus they setthe worlds in order.

The matter provided by the sacrifice shapesevery aspect of culture. The seemingly strangeview, held by The Hymn of Man, that sacrifice isthe source of human culture, is one Girard treatsquite seriously. Sacrifice really is a machine thattransforms chaos into culture by virtue of itspower to generate imperative mimesis. Thismachine is driven by widespread belief in thescapegoat and in his miraculous power to changethe inescapable war of endless revenge into anew order. Girard finds this strange powerinherent in all such generative violence. TheHymn of Man draws a picture of the transformingpowers of the generative violence of sacrifice. Isit also aware of where these powers come from?

4. The Man, the sacrifice born at thebeginning.

The universe was created because the godsintroduced the ritual of sacrifice and dedicated itto the Man. The generative powers of the ritualof sacrifice come from the mimetic connectionof that ritual with the Man. It is not the Manhimself, however, but his copies, who have thesecreative powers. The Hymn of Man developstwo independent ways to describe the originalscapegoating that concluded the process ofdesire. Like DakÑa, the Man represents both thereality of that original scapegoating and itstransformation into the divine ritual of sacrifice,fixthisup

force, say the poets of the Hymn, was coveredwith emptiness. The Poets too just arise from theemptiness by the power, perhaps, of heat; thebeginning of the universe is a mystery also forthem. They weave the world by focusing theirattention on that mystery.

7. Whence is this creation? The gods cameafterwards, with the creation of this universe.

The Hymn N� sad¯ ya asks about the source ofthe creation, about the place from which itsprings. Whence is this creation? It seems to bea little confused. It sees the creation asindependent of the gods. The gods cameafterwards, with the creation of this universe.

The Poets recognize that desire is the sourceof the creation. Desire was the first seed ofmind. However, they do not understand how theuniverse was created, what the connection isbetween desire and the creation of the universe.

(6) Who really knows? Who will hereproclaim it? Whence was it produced?Whence is this creation?Creation has its source in the mimetic

production of divine images having the power toproduce human subjectivity and humanbehaviors. There is one divine image at thebeginning of the process of desire, and anotherat the end. Desire starts with the divine imageof the object of desire that triggers the process ofdesire. It ends with the divine image of thefixthisup













Creators of the universe and the sacrifice thattriggers the creation of the universe.

What does really happen at the end of theprocess of desire? From the mystery of this endarises the creation of the universe. Without itthat creation would be impossible. The mimeticexplanation of how the violence of the endlessrevenge suddenly comes to an end, and peaceemerges, we have already sketched in section 5.The Hymns, however, preferring a moretranscendental explanation, attribute it to theaction of the gods.

8. Violent undifferentiation and generativeviolence

The Hymn N� sad¯ ya meditates on the mysteryof the creation of the new universe. It makesthree strange findings, as section 1 has alreadypointed out. It connects the creation of theuniverse with desire; it separates creation fromthe gods and distinguishes it from the creation ofthe universe; it sees the life force as emergingfrom the violent undifferentiation. The HymnN� sad¯ ya thus refers to two kinds of creation.One results from the process of desire in all itssuccessive stages. The other has its beginning inthe violent conclusion of that process. Each ofthese kinds of creation is triggered by a shareddivine image and progresses by means ofmimesis. For the first, the divine image is of theobject of desire, while for the second it is thedivine image of the Creator and the sacrifice.fixthisup

Common animals spring from the sacrifice:

(10) Horses were born from it, and thoseother animals that have two rows of teeth;cows were born from it, and from it goatsand sheep were born.

Notice, however, that it is only domestic animals,not wild ones, that The Hymn of Man catalogues,and most of these are, in fact, potentiallysacrificial (Girard would maintain that this focussimply confirms that domestication itself arosefrom sacrifice, or rather, from its requirement ofa steady supply of victims). Even socialstratification receives its shape from the remainsof the sacrificial Man’s body parts:

(11) When they divided the Man, into howmany parts did they apportion him? What dothey call his mouth, his two arms and thighsand feet?

(12) His mouth became the Brahmin; hisarms were made into the Warrior, his thighsthe People, and from his feet the Servantswere born.

Using the Man’s body parts the gods alsoorganized space, or, as the Hymn of Man has it,set the worlds in order:

(13) The moon was born from his mind;from his eye the sun was born. Indra andAgni came from his mouth, and from his vitalbreath the Wind was born.

(14) From his navel the middle realm ofspace arose; from his head the sky evolved.From his two feet came the earth, and thefixthisup





The Hymn N� sad¯ ya meditates on the mysteryof the creation of the new universe. It makesthree strange findings, as section 1 has alreadypointed out. It connects the creation of theuniverse with desire; it separates creation fromthe gods and distinguishes it from the creation ofthe universe; it sees the life force as emergingfrom the violent undifferentiation. The HymnN� sad¯ ya thus refers to two kinds of creation.One results from the process of desire in all itssuccessive stages. The other has its beginning inthe violent conclusion of that process. Each ofthese kinds of creation is triggered by a shareddivine image and progresses by means ofmimesis. For the first, the divine image is of theobject of desire, while for the second it is thedivine image of the Creator and the sacrifice.fixthisup.










to shape living beings. The Hymn of Man treatsliterally what today would be a metaphor for theshaping of cultural meaning by means ofimperative mimesis. The creative power of theremains of the ritual of sacrifice stems from thefact that the sacrifice is a copy of thedismembering of the Man. The ritual killing of asacrificial victim and the sacrificial offering itselfare duplicates of the Man, the original victim.The mysterious authority of the original isprojected on the copies. In the course of thesacrifice everything was offered (8, 9). Nothing,presumably, was withheld or saved aside. Theonly remains were the melted fat. This wascollected and he — who, we would wonder, isthis he? — made it into those beasts who live inthe air, in the forest, and in villages (8). Who isthis he who shapes living beings? Does he referto the original Man, or to one of his ritualisticcopies? In fact he seems to refer to all of these inone. For the Man shaped everything once, usinghis own sacrificial remains. And he did it again,now using the gods as intermediaries. And, infuture mimetic repetition, he will do so yet again,and again.

The remains of the sacrifice are the matter toproduce, to transform — in short, to shape —human culture. From them are born the sacredlanguage, the sacred music, the prayers:

(9) From that sacrifice in which everythingwas offered, the verses and chants were born,the metres were born from it, and from it theformulas were born.

The violent undifferentiation is the last stage inthe process of desire, where the first kind ofcreation has just been destroyed and the other isjust about to begin. These two kinds of creation,triggered by two different divine images, are inopposition to each other; yet, at the same time,the second springs from the first.

The process of desire fills non-existence withthe bond of existence, but, by providing a modelfor revenge and rivalry, it ends by destroying theexistence it has created. A new universe emergesfrom the ruins of the existence desire built. Theviolent conclusion of the process of desireintroduces the mechanism of scapegoating, whichboth ultimately brings to ruin the existencepreviously built by desire and, by providing newmodels for divine and sacrificial images, enablesa new universe to emerge from those ruins. Thisuniverse is a world quite different from that builtand destroyed by the process of desire. It is aworld of normative order and imperativemimesis. Systems of norms emerge to prescribeproper objects of desire and proper actions forthe various categories of people. These systemsare built on the divine authority of both theCreator and the sacrifice, who reveal themselvesat the climax of the violent undifferentiation.







40 DESIRE

imperative mimesis. When the gods carried outthe first ritual of the sacrifice, the receiver of thesacrifice still too closely resembles the sacrificeitself. At the same time he is somewhat different,because he is already divine. The original victim(the model) and the act of sacrifice and thedivinity (the copies) are not well differentiated inthe mind of the poet, nor are they entirely iden-tical. They are at once different and the same.

The language of The Hymn of Man reflects amemory of the empirical reality, a memory freshenough in the poet’s mind to nourish theambiguity. Certainly contemporary readers ofthe ancient text cannot share the same ambiguity.We cannot help but distinguish between thevictim and the divinity, between the divinity andthe sacrificial offering. These are separateconstructs in our language, for we have lost allrecollection of the original. For us thetransformation of the scapegoating into thesacrificial ritual and the divinity has beencompleted.

2. These were the first ritual laws.

The Hymn of Man describes the emerging ofthe first ritual laws, whose source is in thetransformation of the scapegoating into the ritualof sacrifice. This transformation is accomplishedby the gods, for they are first sacrificers, andthereby set an example of proper action:

(16) The gods sacrificed to the sacrifice.These were the first ritual laws.

Chapter II

He to Whom theTwo Opposed Masses Looked

with Trembling in Their Hearts…

The Creator as Mediator of Desires

He to whom the two opposed masses looked with trembling in their hearts, supported by his help, on whom the rising sun shines down —who is the god whom we should worship with the oblation?

The Rig Veda: The Unknown God, The GoldenEmbryo, 10.121, 6

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The Hymn The Unknown God, The GoldenEmbryo develops an image of the Creator.Precisely in that development one sees the processGirard calls victimage, by means of which theshifting to the imperative mimesis isaccomplished. The birth of the Creator thenmarks the completion of this shifting to theimperative mimesis. It is the Creator who has thepower to change chaos into order, to produce theimperative mimesis. The Hymn The GoldenEmbryo explicates the circumstances surroundingthe birth of the Creator, circumstances serving asclues that behind of the image of the Creator isthe mimetic transformation of the original violentevent into the sacrifice and the divine,transformation through which that violent eventbrings an end to the endless revenge. The Creatorcomes into being in the middle of a war betweentwo opposed masses (the endless revenge). Hiscoming unites them and brings an end to the war.He is not, however, born alone. The same waterywomb, pregnant with the sacrifice, carries DakÑa.What directly represents this original event is theimage of DakÑa. The Creator and the sacrifice arepowerful transformed representations thereof.

1. The Creator as Mediator of Desires

The 10.121st Hymn of the Rig Veda, TheUnknown God, The Golden Embryo, describesthe mystery itself of the creation of the universe,the transcendental experience of seeing anddrawing the image of the Creator. With His birththe creation of the universe is set in motion.

sounds too strange, she reiterates: “that is, he wasboth the subject and the object of the sacrifice.”But exactly this idea, that the subject and theobject — the sacrificial victim, and the divinityto whom the sacrifice is dedicated — should beidentical, lies at the heart of the Girardianconcept of the founding murder. Both victim anddivinity represent the same scapegoating, whichthey transform into the founding murder by theirvery merging. In The Hymn of Man the notion ofthe founding murder seems to underlie the textitself. The ritual of sacrifice and the divinity arepresented as emerging from the dismemberedMan. Like DakÑa, the Man represents thescapegoating from which the sacrifice is born.So clearly and directly does its author,presumably a believer in the divinity of the ritualof sacrifice, see and describe the Man, thesacrifice, the divinity, and the transformation ofthe image of the Man, that, almost inadvertently,the Hymn also divulges the mimetic explanationof the origin of these divine images.

In The Hymn of Man the transformation of thescapegoating into the ritual of sacrifice is not yetcompleted. The Hymn of Man cannot free itselffrom the ambiguity inherent in the process ofmaking copies. We can observe mimesis atwork. The original victim (the Man) multipliesinto copies. The ritual of the sacrifice is firstcarried out by the gods, who take as theirauthority for doing so their understanding of thewishes of the Man himself. Doing what theMan expects to be done is the first model offixthisupfixthisup







38 DESIRE THE TWO OPPOSED MASSES 27

The Hymn of Man describes directly whatthe Hymn The Golden Embryo only providedcircumstantial evidence for: the originalscapegoating is transformed into the foundingmurder for the new universe by providing a modelfor the ritual of sacrifice and divinity. This isprecisely what ties the process of desire to thecreation of the new universe. The scapegoatingby which the process of desire is concludedconstitutes the beginning of the new universe.

The Man of this Hymn, like the DakÑa of theHymn of The Golden Embryo, serves asanother representation of the reality of scape-goating. In this Hymn one can see the mimetictransformation of the Man — the scapegoat —into divinity, and of his dismembering — hisscapegoating — into the ritual of sacrifice, which,taken together, provide the foundation for the newuniverse. What explains the effectiveness of theritual of sacrifice as a mechanism for changingchaos into order is imperative mimesis.

1. The founding murder and its copy

In the line

(16) With the sacrifice the gods sacrificedto the sacrifice,

Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, the translator ofthese hymns, must have found the hypnotic three-fold repetition of the vocable “sacrifice” toomesmerizingly puzzling for the Western reader,for she confirms, “The meaning is that PuruÑa(the Man) was both the victim that the godssacrificed and the divinity to whom the sacrificewas dedicated.” Perhaps thinking that stillfixthisup

The new universe begins where the process ofdesire finds its end. The lord of creation revealshimself to two polarized undifferentiated violentsides; presumably during a war: as the Hymnsays, it is

(6) He to whom the two opposed masseslooked with trembling in their hearts.

He is first seen during a paroxysm of war(Girard’s term), the stage of the endless revengesketched in chapter 1, section 5. He is seensimultaneously by both of the opposed masses.They share their feelings before him. Terrifiedby his powers and his grace, they look to him

(6) with trembling in their hearts,supported by his help, on whom the risingsun shines down.

By revealing himself, the lord of creationconsolidates the opposed masses. They areunited by seeing him simultaneously, and bysharing their feelings in front of him. Herefocuses their shared desire for revenge.Nobody is angry with him; he is too powerful.The opposed masses shift their focus from theirrival to him, the lord of creation. They want toworship him, to obey him. They want to learn:Who is the god whom we should worship withthe oblation? They recognize him as themediator of their desires:

(10) O Praj� pati, lord of progeny, no onebut you embraces all these creatures. Grantus the desires for which we offer youoblation. Let us be lords of riches.



The Man of this Hymn, like the DakÑa ofthe Hymn of The Golden Embryo, serves asanother representation of the reality of scape-goating. In this Hymn one can see the mimetictransformation of the Man — the scapegoat —into divinity, and of his dismembering — hisscapegoating — into the ritual of sacrifice, which,taken together, provide the foundation for the newuniverse. What explains the effectiveness of theritual of sacrifice as a mechanism for changingchaos into order is imperative mimesis.


In the line









28 DESIRE

They no longer take it upon themselves to fulfilltheir desires. They delegate this fulfillment tothe will of the god. An exchange with the god isestablished. Oblation is offered to the god inexchange for his granting them their desires.

This entire hymn thus contains all three crucialelements that Girard stresses in his explanationof mythical exegeses of creation. First, it isduring a paroxysm of war, and to a peoplesomehow already prepared to offer sacrifice, thatthe god first reveals himself. Second, byrevealing himself, the god brings about a radicalchange in their feelings, for the opposed massesbecome united at seeing a new Other — Himself— whom they now adopt as their new mimeticOther. The whole rivalric mimetic relationdisappears. Third, the people themselves weresomehow ripe for his coming: they felt hispowers; they saw him, as the Hymn The GoldenEmbryo says, with trembling in their hearts; theywere ready to worship and to obey him.

2. Once he was born, he was the one lordof creation.

With the phrase, Once he was born, the Hymnclearly signals that the one lord of creation wasnot just always there, but had his beginning insomething other than himself: he had first to beborn.

Chapter III

With the Sacrifice the GodsSacrificed to the Sacrifice

The Violence at the Beginning of the World

With the sacrifice the gods sacrificed to the sacrifice.These were the first ritual laws.These very powers reached the dome of sky where dwell the S� dhyas, the ancient gods.

The Rig Veda: PuruÑ a-SÔ kta, or The Hymn of Man,10.90, 16

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THE TWO OPPOSED MASSES 29

What, then, were the circumstances of hisbirth? How was he born?

He emerged from certain high waters:

(7) When the high waters came, pregnantwith the embryo that is everything, bringingforth fire, he arose from that as the one life’sbreath of the gods.

These high waters, this flooding, can clearlybe read as universal allusions to an all-encompassing undifferentiated chaos — perhapseven, in view of its bringing forth fire and of theviolent chaos of the two opposed masses, to aGirardian “paroxysm of war.” This violentundifferentiation, which the Hymn N� sad¯ yaseems to tell us already contains within itself thelife force, was the medium from which heemerged — not directly, of course, but indirectly:out of the Golden Embryo.

The Hymn The Golden Embryo does not muchdiscuss the origin of the Golden Embryo, sayingonly: (1) In the beginning the Golden Embryoarose; and, later, that (7) the high waters werepregnant with it. Still, we see that the life forcehidden in the violent undifferentiation of the highwaters formed itself into the Golden Embryo, andfrom this, in turn, the one lord of creation wasborn.

Not only the one lord of creation, however,was to be born at this moment, but also, andequally indirectly, the sacrifice. For the watersdelivered not only the Golden Embryo, fromwhich the one lord of creation was born, but alsofixthisupfixthisup

THE TWO OPPOSED MASSES 29

What, then, were the circumstances of hisbirth? How was he born?

He emerged from certain high waters:

(7) When the high waters came, pregnantwith the embryo that is everything, bringingforth fire, he arose from that as the one life’sbreath of the gods.These high waters, this flooding, can clearly

be read as universal allusions to an all-encompassing undifferentiated chaos — perhapseven, in view of its bringing forth fire and of theviolent chaos of the two opposed masses, to aGirardian “paroxysm of war.” This violentundifferentiation, which the Hymn N� sad¯ yaseems to tell us already contains within itself thelife force, was the medium from which heemerged — not directly, of course, but indirectly:out of the Golden Embryo.

The Hymn The Golden Embryo does not muchdiscuss the origin of the Golden Embryo, sayingonly: (1) In the beginning the Golden Embryoarose; and, later, that (7) the high waters werepregnant with it. Still, we see that the life forcehidden in the violent undifferentiation of the highwaters formed itself into the Golden Embryo, andfrom this, in turn, the one lord of creation wasborn.

Not only the one lord of creation, however,was to be born at this moment, but also, andequally indirectly, the sacrifice. For the watersdelivered not only the Golden Embryo, fromwhich the one lord of creation was born, but alsofixthisupfixthisup


DakÑa, who would be bringing forth thesacrifice:

(8) He who in his greatness looked overthe waters, which were pregnant with DakÑabringing forth the sacrifice, he who was theone god among all the gods …

Thus the sacrifice was not born directly fromthe waters, any more than was the one lord ofcreation. Rather, the life force hidden in thewaters formed itself not only into the GoldenEmbryo, from which the one lord of creationarose, but also into DakÑa, from whom thesacrifice was born. The one lord of creationcould observe the waters, which were pregnantwith DakÑa bringing forth the sacrifice.

3. He who by his greatness became the oneking of the world.

What are the powers of the one lord ofcreation?

This powerful god came bearing peace. Hetransformed the chaos of war into the order of thenew universe. He structured all of space.

(1) He held in place the earth and this sky.

It was

(5) He by whom the awesome sky and theearth were made firm, by whom the dome ofthe sky was propped up, and the sun, whomeasured out the middle realm of space …

exposition of a metaphysics so comprehensive asto be revealing its own mimetic sources.









It was




the war stops because there is no rival left. Andthis demonized scapegoat then provides a modelfor the images of the Creator and the sacrifice.

Girard assumes that the original violentscapegoating is real. It has its roots in theprocess of desire, of which it is the logicalconclusion. The Creator and the sacrifice are thelingering images of this scapegoating. Theyemerge simultaneously in the individual minds ofpeople unanimously united against the demonicscapegoat. Far from being purely imaginary,these images are the transformed memory of areal scapegoating. Being shared by so manypeople, they become a crucial part of the creationof the new universe: indeed, they become its veryfoundation. They have the power to produce theimperative mimesis. Scapegoating is almostcompletely deconstructed today, but it still existsas a reality of human interaction. It has its rootsin conflictual mimesis and has a mimeticexplanation.

The mimetic explanation of scapegoating,however, is powerless by itself to create a newuniverse. Nor is the original scapegoatingusually directly described by most religiousnarratives, so successfully is it transformed intothe ritual of sacrifice, and the Creator. TheHymn of The Golden Embryo, however, with itsidea of DakÑa, provides a quite complex pictureof the original scapegoating. In DakÑa himselfwe see evidence both of the scapegoating and ofits transformation into sacrifice. Thus, the Hymnof The Golden Embryo would appear to be thefixthisup

He is the center of the universe. His kingdomoriginates in his great powers, for it is

(3) He who by his greatness became theone king of the world …

(4) He who through his power owns thesesnowy mountains, and the ocean togetherwith the river Ras� , they say; who has thequarters of the sky as his arms …

The Hymn The Golden Embryo speaks of thisvery powerful god, this one lord of creation, thisissuer of commands and giver of life, quitesimply as

(2) He who gives life, who gives strength,whose command all the gods, his own, obey;

adding that his shadow is immortality — anddeath, it describes him as

(8) … the one god among all the gods.

4. Chaos, destruction, creation, order.

It may be worthwhile to recapitulate thecentral components of the discussion thus far, inpreparation for a mimetic analysis of them. It ischaos and destruction, expressed by the metaphorof the high waters, in the midst of which, beforethe two opposed masses, the creation of theuniverse began. Chaos and destruction were thewomb from which the lord of creation was born.Chaos it is, also, that the lord of creation has thepower to transform into universal order. But thefixthisup















same chaos, the same high waters, from whichthe lord of creation emerged, were also bringingforth the mysterious DakÑa, from whom in turnsacrifice would be born.

The same waters that brought forth the GoldenEmbryo were pregnant with DakÑa. Both the onelord of creation and the sacrifice thus have theirbeginning inside the same womb. The sacrifice,however, is not born directly from the waters. Itis born from DakÑa. Only DakÑa emergeddirectly from the water. Likewise the one lordof creation was born from the Golden Embryo.This curious indirection with regard to the birthsof the sacrifice and of the god is extremelysignificant from the Girardian point of view. Inthis view, both of them would be transformedrepresentations of the original violent event.Only the image of DakÑa seems to represent thereality of that original event.

There are both mimetic and transcendentalexplanations of the beginning of the universe.The transcendental one is a crucial part of thecreation itself. It incorporates into the creationthe concepts of the sacrifice and the Creator.The mimetic one deals with the question mimetictheory would ask, not about first causes, norabout a historical sequence of events, but thequestion: What was the model for this beginning?The Creator and the sacrifice are the transformeddivine images of something real, Girard wouldclaim, images that become extremely powerful ifimplanted into many individuals. The sacrificerepresents the means of transforming violencefixthisup

into peace. The Creator represents a vehicle forthe fulfillment of human desires.

What, then, is the reality of which both imagesare images? It is the reality of the foundingmurder, Girard would claim. This is one of theThings Hidden since the Foundation of theWorld described by Girard in his book with thattitle. We can infer this reality both from thetransformed religious images and from themimetic logic of the process of desire. In theimages of the Creator and the sacrifice we cansee what today we would call scapegoating,which we try to expose and condemn. Scapegoatis the term for a victim, falsely blamed forbringing chaos, whose death is falsely perceivedas restoring order. This victim might berepresented by sacred images, be they demonicor divine. The Creator is the consecrated imageof such a victim. Sacrifice is the consecratedimage of this scapegoating. The reality of thefounding murder, however, can also be inferredfrom the mimetic logic of the process of desire,according to which the endless cycle of revengespurred by imitation of revenge finally does endwhen the model of revenge is removed fromsociety. This removal is ultimately achieved bythe polarization of the whole society against anindividual victim, who is perceived as anembodiment of the model enemy. The collectivekilling of this scapegoat brings the peace. Thisscapegoat is everyone’s one last rival. As if withone mind, the people are united in their violentaction against this one person. Once he is killed,fixthisup





















































It was











It was



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Chapter III





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The Man of this Hymn, like the DakÑa of theHymn of The Golden Embryo, serves asanother representation of the reality of scape-goating. In this Hymn one can see the mimetictransformation of the Man — the scapegoat —into divinity, and of his dismembering — hisscapegoating — into the ritual of sacrifice, which,taken together, provide the foundation for the newuniverse. What explains the effectiveness of theritual of sacrifice as a mechanism for changingchaos into order is imperative mimesis.


In the line











The Man of this Hymn, like the DakÑa ofthe Hymn of The Golden Embryo, serves asanother representation of the reality of scape-goating. In this Hymn one can see the mimetictransformation of the Man — the scapegoat —into divinity, and of his dismembering — hisscapegoating — into the ritual of sacrifice, which,taken together, provide the foundation for the newuniverse. What explains the effectiveness of theritual of sacrifice as a mechanism for changingchaos into order is imperative mimesis.


In the line





















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25

THE SACRIFICE 41

In framing the ritual of the sacrifice the gods takeas their authority the example of what the Mandid to himself. They just repeat what the Mandid, and they do so for Him. They provide theperfect model of how to follow the Man’sexample in making offering to Him. Thereafter,making offering to the Man is taken for granted,and has its rationale in the example set by thegods.

The gods made such sacrifice the obligatoryway of transforming chaos into order. Theyshow exactly what should be done to get thedesired effects. Dismemberment of the Man isthe first recipe for the desired effects. Anycausal connection linking repetition of this actionto the desired effects, however, seems sounpredictable as to require the mediation of thegods or their representatives for its success.They become the legitimate sources of theauthoritative knowledge as to what behavior isappropriate. They acquire the authority toformulate the relevant laws. This transformationof the original dismembering into the ritual ofsacrifice is the beginning of the imperative order,and of the imperative mimesis which demandsimitative repetition of the patterns laid down by arecognized authority.

3. From the sacrifice in which everythingwas offered, the melted fat was collected.

The ritual of sacrifice is perceived as thesource of the matter (the melted fat) from whichfixthisup

THE SACRIFICE 41

In framing the ritual of the sacrifice the gods takeas their authority the example of what the Mandid to himself. They just repeat what the Mandid, and they do so for Him. They provide theperfect model of how to follow the Man’sexample in making offering to Him. Thereafter,making offering to the Man is taken for granted,and has its rationale in the example set by thegods.

The gods made such sacrifice the obligatoryway of transforming chaos into order. Theyshow exactly what should be done to get thedesired effects. Dismemberment of the Man isthe first recipe for the desired effects. Anycausal connection linking repetition of this actionto the desired effects, however, seems sounpredictable as to require the mediation of thegods or their representatives for its success.They become the legitimate sources of theauthoritative knowledge as to what behavior isappropriate. They acquire the authority toformulate the relevant laws. This transformationof the original dismembering into the ritual ofsacrifice is the beginning of the imperative order,and of the imperative mimesis which demandsimitative repetition of the patterns laid down by arecognized authority.

3. From the sacrifice in which everythingwas offered, the melted fat was collected.

The ritual of sacrifice is perceived as thesource of the matter (the melted fat) from whichfixthisup

















The Hymn N� sad¯ ya meditates on the mysteryof the creation of the new universe. It makesthree strange findings, as section 1 has alreadypointed out. It connects the creation of theuniverse with desire; it separates creation fromthe gods and distinguishes it from the creation ofthe universe; it sees the life force as emergingfrom the violent undifferentiation. The HymnN� sad¯ ya thus refers to two kinds of creation.One results from the process of desire in all itssuccessive stages. The other has its beginning inthe violent conclusion of that process. Each ofthese kinds of creation is triggered by a shareddivine image and progresses by means ofmimesis. For the first, the divine image is of theobject of desire, while for the second it is thedivine image of the Creator and the sacrifice.fixthisup













The Hymn N� sad¯ ya meditates on the mysteryof the creation of the new universe. It makesthree strange findings, as section 1 has alreadypointed out. It connects the creation of theuniverse with desire; it separates creation fromthe gods and distinguishes it from the creation ofthe universe; it sees the life force as emergingfrom the violent undifferentiation. The HymnN� sad¯ ya thus refers to two kinds of creation.One results from the process of desire in all itssuccessive stages. The other has its beginning inthe violent conclusion of that process. Each ofthese kinds of creation is triggered by a shareddivine image and progresses by means ofmimesis. For the first, the divine image is of theobject of desire, while for the second it is thedivine image of the Creator and the sacrifice.fixthisup.

























































































Later this image of the Man will develop into theMah� bh� rata’s image of KÑÑ¹a, that avatar of theGod ViÑ¹u, in the context of the endless war ofKurukÑetra. KÑÑ¹a there is a man who will dieas a human, but he is also the god who demandssacrifice from other humans. The human part ofthe dead KÑÑ¹a will remain on this earth. TheMan’s greatness likewise depends on his death asa human. The image of this death is representedby the ritual of sacrifice. This is the death of thescapegoat. Once again we see how the seemingparadoxes, in terms of which the poetic languageof this Hymn describes the image of the Man,may be taken as describing the mimetictransformation of scapegoat and scapegoatinginto divinity and the ritual of sacrifice.





Later this image of the Man will develop into theMah� bh� rata’s image of KÑÑ¹a, that avatar of theGod ViÑ¹u, in the context of the endless war ofKurukÑetra. KÑÑ¹a there is a man who will die asa human, but he is also the god who demandssacrifice from other humans. The human part ofthe dead KÑÑ¹a will remain on this earth. TheMan’s greatness likewise depends on his death asa human. The image of this death is representedby the ritual of sacrifice. This is the death of thescapegoat. Once again we see how the seemingparadoxes, in terms of which the poetic languageof this Hymn describes the image of the Man,may be taken as describing the mimetictransformation of scapegoat and scapegoatinginto divinity and the ritual of sacrifice.



16 DESIRE





Chapter IV





49

16 DESIRE





Chapter IV





49




The poet,















The poet,













(3) The Arranger has set in their properplace the sun and moon, the sky and theearth, the middle realm of space, and finallythe sunlight.

René Girard makes quite similar statementsin his reading of Shakespeare. In Shakespeare’splays a human universe has its end and itsbeginning in this erasing of differences. A newuniverse springs from the resultingundifferentiation; the old one dissolves in it likea river in an ocean. By universe René Girardmeans differential system of culture. The Void,the undifferentiation, is also called the mimeticcrisis. This is the ultimate social impasse, andis suddenly brought to an end by a violent event.Differences are reborn from contemplation ofthis violent and seemingly miraculous event.














(3) The Arranger has set in their properplace the sun and moon, the sky and theearth, the middle realm of space, and finallythe sunlight.René Girard makes quite similar statements

in his reading of Shakespeare. In Shakespeare’splays a human universe has its end and itsbeginning in this erasing of differences. A newuniverse springs from the resultingundifferentiation; the old one dissolves in it likea river in an ocean. By universe René Girardmeans differential system of culture. The Void,the undifferentiation, is also called the mimeticcrisis. This is the ultimate social impasse, andis suddenly brought to an end by a violent event.Differences are reborn from contemplation ofthis violent and seemingly miraculous event.



















It is also he who






The sacrifice is





















It is also he who






The sacrifice is















































10 DESIRE



Conclusions



55

10 DESIRE



Conclusions



55

56 DESIRE



Introduction




9

56 DESIRE



Introduction




9

Appendix

Creation Hymns of the Rig Veda(in the Wendy Doniger translation)

10.129 Creation Hymn (N��sad¯̄ya)

1. There was neither non-existence nor existence then;there was neither the realm of space nor the skywhich is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whoseprotection? Was there water, bottomlessly deep?

2. There was neither death nor immortality then.There was no distinguishing sign of night nor ofday. That one breathed, windless, by its ownimpulse. Other than that there was nothing beyond.

3. Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning;with no distinguishing sign, all this was water.The life force that was covered with emptiness,that one arose though the power of heat.

4. Desire came upon that one in the beginning; thatwas the first seed of mind. Poets seeking in theirheart with wisdom found the bond of existence innon-existence.

57

Appendix

Creation Hymns of the Rig Veda(in the Wendy Doniger translation)

10.129 Creation Hymn (N��sad¯̄ya)

1. There was neither non-existence nor existence then;there was neither the realm of space nor the skywhich is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whoseprotection? Was there water, bottomlessly deep?

2. There was neither death nor immortality then.There was no distinguishing sign of night nor ofday. That one breathed, windless, by its ownimpulse. Other than that there was nothing beyond.

3. Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning;with no distinguishing sign, all this was water.The life force that was covered with emptiness,that one arose though the power of heat.

4. Desire came upon that one in the beginning; thatwas the first seed of mind. Poets seeking in theirheart with wisdom found the bond of existence innon-existence.

57

58 DESIRE








Acknowledgments




7

58 DESIRE








Acknowledgments




7

APPENDIX 59

4. He who through his power owns these snowymountains, and the ocean together with the riverRas�, they say; who has the quarters of the sky ashis two arms — who is the god whom we shouldworship with the oblation?

5. He by whom the awesome sky and the earth weremade firm, by whom the dome of the sky waspropped up, and the sun, who measured out themiddle realm of space — who is the god whom weshould worship with the oblation?

6. He to whom the two opposed masses looked withtrembling in their hearts, supported by his help, onwhom the rising sun shines down — who is the godwhom we should worship with the oblation?

7. When the high waters came, pregnant with theembryo that is everything, bringing forth fire, hearose from that as the one life’s breath of the gods.Who is the god whom we should worship with theoblation?

8. He who in his greatness looked over the waters,which were pregnant with DakÑa, bringing forth thesacrifice, he who was the one god among all thegods — who is the god whom we should worshipwith the oblation?

9. Let him not harm us, he who fathered the earth andcreated the sky, whose laws are true, who createdthe high, shining waters. Who is the god whom weshould worship with the oblation?

10. O Praj�pati, lord of progeny, no one but youembraces all these creatures. Grant us the desiresfor which we offer you oblation. Let us be lords ofriches.

APPENDIX 59

4. He who through his power owns these snowymountains, and the ocean together with the riverRas�, they say; who has the quarters of the sky ashis two arms — who is the god whom we shouldworship with the oblation?

5. He by whom the awesome sky and the earth weremade firm, by whom the dome of the sky waspropped up, and the sun, who measured out themiddle realm of space — who is the god whom weshould worship with the oblation?

6. He to whom the two opposed masses looked withtrembling in their hearts, supported by his help, onwhom the rising sun shines down — who is the godwhom we should worship with the oblation?

7. When the high waters came, pregnant with theembryo that is everything, bringing forth fire, hearose from that as the one life’s breath of the gods.Who is the god whom we should worship with theoblation?

8. He who in his greatness looked over the waters,which were pregnant with DakÑa, bringing forth thesacrifice, he who was the one god among all thegods — who is the god whom we should worshipwith the oblation?

9. Let him not harm us, he who fathered the earth andcreated the sky, whose laws are true, who createdthe high, shining waters. Who is the god whom weshould worship with the oblation?

10. O Praj�pati, lord of progeny, no one but youembraces all these creatures. Grant us the desiresfor which we offer you oblation. Let us be lords ofriches.

60 DESIRE










Contents

Acknowledgments 7

Introduction 9





Conclusions 55


5

60 DESIRE










Contents

Acknowledgments 7

Introduction 9





Conclusions 55


5

APPENDIX 61
















APPENDIX 61
















62 DESIRE











1999

62 DESIRE











1999

APPENDIX 63

7. The ritual repetitions harmonized with the chantsand with the metres; the seven divine sagesharmonized with the original models. When thewise men looked back along the path of those whowent before, they took up the reins like charioteers.

APPENDIX 63

7. The ritual repetitions harmonized with the chantsand with the metres; the seven divine sagesharmonized with the original models. When thewise men looked back along the path of those whowent before, they took up the reins like charioteers.

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