Some Additional Themes (to add to James’

typology of mysticism)• Learning, spiritual pathway, difficulty (like seeing the sun the first time, it takes getting used to and focusing your goal – a.k.a. telos)

Some Additional Themes (to add to James’

typology of mysticism)• Mysticism of ascent – process includes rigor, intellect, rationality– Diotima– Virasaivas

Some Additional Themes (to add to James’

typology of mysticism)• Gender equality/equity

– Spiritual experiences in general, and mysticism in particular in the literate traditions, tends to be an equal opportunity experience! (Diotima, AkkaMahadevi, Julian of Norwich)

– This can extend to issues of class, education, etc.

Some Additional Themes (to add to James’

typology of mysticism)• Unconventional nature of spiritual experience– Questioning convention– Questioning the status quo– Questioning the nature of reality itself (i.e. the images in the cave are not real)

India: Hinduism Basics

Indian Sphere of Cultural Influence

Indian Diversity

• There are 16 official languages in India (English not shown)

• Basic division between Sanskritic and Dravidian language groups

• Sanskritic languages are Indo-European (ex. Hindi); Dravidian languages are not (ex. Tamil)

• Multiple scripts create need for transliteration - systems for consistently transcribing words between writing systems

World Religious Systems

• There are three widespread cosmological frameworks – as mentioned before

• Indigenous polytheisms and nature-based religions (includes Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Germanic and Celtic)

• Monotheism directed through revelation (Abrahamic religions of the book: Judaism, Christianity, Islam)

• Karmic religions rooted in meditation & ignorance/knowledge paradigm (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and most forms of Confucianism and Taoism)

Karmic Cosmologies• Karma literally means “action,” implying that all actions, and their consequences, are ultimately balanced. All action, though, embeds one in a dangerous web…

• Karma creates the wheel of samsara: the cycle of birth-death-rebirth-REDEATH

• The wheel of samsara is a bad loop; like Groundhog Day, the repetition of lives is a vicious cycle one should want to escape

Ignorance and Knowledge

• What those in the west would call “sin” (and “sinfulness”) is understood in karmic cosmologies as “ignorance.”

• When you put your hand on a hot stove, is that a sin, or a mistake?

• If you burn your hand, you learn not to touch such places again: you’ve moved from ignorance to knowledge.

• To paraphrase the great medieval Indian philosopher, Sankara, Action cannot destroy ignorance, only knowledge can

Ignorance and Knowledge

• Take the same principle in relation to murder. Is murder a sin, or a mistake?

• Even though your punishment for the mistake of murder might not be as immediate as a burned hand, that punishment is certain in a karmic cosmology (in which no one gets away with murder). It may take many lifetimes. But you will be punished.

Ignorance and Knowledge:Cultivating Knowledge

through Discipline• When you understand

this principle, you will want to escape the wheel of samsara. To do so will lead to enlightenment.

• Yoga is a form of discipline that uses knowledge and control of the body to dispel ignorance

• This is a contemporary sculpture of Siva as the original practitioner of yoga

Indus Valley

Civilization• 3000-1500 BCE

• Urban river culture

• Culturally static

• Evidence of yoga, zoomorphic dieties

• Mohenjo-daro and Harrapa principal cities

• Conquered by nomadic Aryans

Indus Valley

Civilization

Daily bathsat public pool

Small sealsare the artform mostrepresentedfrom IndusValley

DancingGirl

Yoga in the Indus Valley

• Yogic positions have been found on seals from the Indus Valley

• Both male and female yogi-s were present

• Male yogi-s shown with erect phallus, indicating combination of ascetic and erotic

Aryan Invasi

on

• Nomadic people from steppes of Asia

• Trade routes existed between Indus Valley and Mesopotamia

• Most likely an invasion

Indo-Aryan Culture and Nomadic Societies

• Not much visual art work• Religious abstractions and rituals valued

• Military success, and blood rituals involving animal sacrifice, are documented

• Sacred books, called the four Vedas, are primarily concerned with ritual

Indo-Aryan Vedic Dieties

• Deities often are meteorological or astrological in character

• Disproportionate representation of male deities in pantheon

• Indra = wind god• Surya = sun god• Sarasvati = originally a river goddess

• Gods are not often represented visually at this time period

Caste System

Caste system may have been based on racial distinctionsCaste system homologized to the hierarchy of the body

Two Versions of a Hindu Trinity

• Brahma - Creator god

• Visnu - Sustainer god• Siva - Destroyer/Creator God

• Devi - a.k.a. Durga/Kali/Parvati - The Goddess - Sakti, energy

Brahma• Creator deity, does not receive much explicit worship (fewer than five temples in all of India)

• Attributes - number of heads, instruments held in hands

• Spoon/scepter for pouring holy oil; prayer beads for measuring time; small jar for water as essence of creation; copy of the Rg Veda; four heads (a fifth burned off); four arms

Visnu (Vishnu)

• Visnu is the deity who sustains the world

• Appears in an embodied form when demons have gained too much power

• These embodiments are called avatar-s; there have been nine so far, with one more enroute

• Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is one of those avatar-s

• Rama, Sita, Laksmana, and Hanuman

Visnu

• Visnu’s standard attributes include an umbrella of cobras, conch-shell trumpet for battlefield leadership, spinning discus representing time being sustained, lotus flower representing the ever-emerging life, and the mace to represent discipline and strength

Siva (Shiva)

• Combines opposites: Erotic/Ascetic

• Destroyer of the world, often seen as both creator and destroyer

• Most famous iconic representation is Dancing Siva

• Cosmic fire circle surrounds image

• Fire = destruction; drum (damaru) = creation (time)

• One hand signals “do not fear,” while the other points to the demon of ignorance being crushed underfoot

Ganesa

• Elephant-headed deity

• May demonstrate continuity with Indus Valley

• Auspicious for new enterprises

• Remover of obstacles• Unites opposites• Attributes: Saivite forehead markings; bowl of sweets; an ax to cut through obstacles; hand raised in gesture of peace; opening lotus; and most famously, a mouse vehicle

Durga

• Other gods are so scared, they are hiding in the clouds!

• This nine-armed goddess holds weapons and attributes

• Note how her arms form a circle of movement

Durga

• Form of Devi, the Goddess

• Manifested to slay Buffalo Demon

• She and her lion mount remain calm while the demon and its buffalo are slain - and achieve enlightenment

Iconic Imaginat

ion

• Devi/Durga appears to Siva, Visnu & Brahma, + sages

• Powers of multiple limbs

• Iconic yet active - Hindu paradox of erotic / ascetic

Kali

Name cognate with “time”Necklace of skullsNecrophiliaDescribed as the Mad MotherRepresents confluence of birth and deathRepresents absolute power of divineShe is, as a deity, a focus of death meditation for her devotees

Ramayana

• One of two great Indian epics

• Rama, Sita, Laksmana in the forest exile

Ramayana

• Building the bridge to Lanka• Rama, Laksmana, Hanuman and the other monkey leaders

Vira-saiva movement

• Vira-saiva, lit. heroic, militant faith in Siva

• Kalyana - city in Karnataka where Vira-saiva-s met

• Allamu Prabhu - leader of Vira-saiva• Basavanna - “older brother,” most talented poet and organizer of group, important civil leader as well

• Anubhavamantapa - The Mansion of Experience where the Vira-saiva-s met

Saguna and Nirguna

• Terms from Sanskrit

• Saguna - conditioned

• Divine has attributes, characteristics

• Personal divinity

• Nirguna - unconditioned

• Sacred is abstract, conceived philosophically

• ImpersonalBoth are necessary to experience infinitude within any given religious system

AkkaMahadevi (ca. 1135-1160)

Famous Vira-saiva saint and poetAfter leaving marriage, she wandered in search of other Vira-saiva-s, clothed only in her long hair

Reaching Kalyana, she and Allama Prabhu engaged in a poetry contest to test her validity as a mystic

She became an honored member of the Anubhavamantapa; the name “akka” is an honorific bestowed by the community, meaning “older sister”

In the poems that follow, “Cennamallikarjuna,” “Mallikarjuna,” and “Lord White as Jasmine” are all synonyms for Siva

AkkaMahadevi (ca. 1135-1160)

All the Vedas, scriptures andSacred lore, canons and codes,Are but grist and husk ground in the mill.

Why grind this, why winnow?When you behead the mind thatFlows here and there,O Cennamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender,

There remains eternal space.

Look at love's marvellousways:

if you shoot an arrowplant ittill no feather shows;

if you huga body, bonesmust crunch and crumble;

weld,the welding must vanish

Love is thenour lord's love

Love’s Marvelous Ways

Linga imagery

My heart is pierced with Linga ecstasy:How, then, can IBe part and parcel of Thyself?How, then, O Lord, can I unite with Thee?Tell me, O Mallikarjuna, whereI can attain the Absolute,With my heart full and overflowing withThe peace that comes of the supremest bliss.

Panentheism & material immanence

When I didn't know myselfwhere were you?

Like the colour in the gold,you were in me.

I saw in you,lord white as jasmine,the paradox of your beingin mewithout showing a limb.

The notion that 'I know' must miss the point,

As sod kicked by the foot must swerve aside.

The heart, forgetful of the world, engrossed

In Linga, is sickened of all circumstance.

Does arrow burnt in fire sport its feather?

One must unite with Lord Cenna Mallikarjuna,

As the wind blowing wantonlyAbsorbs the scent.

The Notion that ‘I know ’ -

another AkkaMahadevi vacana