topics: |  india | philosophy | history | art | myth

A phenomenal text, unflagging the restless spirit that underlies the
myths.  A tale of human insignificance in this vast cosmos, a tale that
illuminates the human search for meaning like little else in my reading.

This book, like his other text - the Philosophies of India, was compiled
from Zimmer's unfinished manuscript after his untimely death while
lecturing at Colombia University.  It also provides enormous insight into
Campbell's own work.

Parade of ants : The endless cycle of Indras

Indra slew the dragon, a giant titan that had been couching on the
mountains in the limbless shape of a cloud serpent, holding the waters of
heaven captive in its belly. The god flung his thunderbolt into the midst
of the ungainly coils; the monster shattered like a stack of withered
rushes. The waters burst free and streamed in ribbons across the land, to
circulate once more throughoutt the body of the world.

This flood is the flood of life and belongs to all. It is the sap of field
and forest, the blood coursing in the veins. The monster had appropriated the
common benefit, massing his ambitious, selfish hulk between heaven and earth,
but now was slain. The juices again were pouring. The titans were retreating
to the underworlds; the gods were returning to the summit of the central
mountain of the earth, there to reign from on high. ...

[Indra] summoned Vishvakarman, the god of arts and crafts, and commanded him
to erect such a palace as would be worthy of the king of the gods.

The miraculous genius, Vishvakarman, succeeded in constructing in a single
year a shining residence, margelous with palaces and gardens, lakes and
towers.  But as work progressed, the demands of Indra became even more
exacting and his unfolding visions vaster.  ... he developed visions beyond
visions of new and more complicated marvels Presently the divine craftsman,
brought to despair, decided to seek succor from [the creator god, Brahma].

Brahma [assured Vishvakarman that he would soon be arelieved of his burden.]

The brahmin boy

The next morning, a brahmin boy carrying the staff of a pilgrim, appeared
at the gate of Indra. ... The two retired to the hall of Indra, where the
king asked: "O venerable Boy, tell me the purpose of your coming."

The beautiful child replied with a voice that was as deep and soft as the
slow thundering of auspicious rainclouds.  "O King of Gods, I have heard of
the mighty palace you are building, and have come to refer to you the
questions in my mind. ... no Indra before you has ever succeeded in
completing such a palace as yours is to be."

Indra, full of the wine of triumph, is amused at the mere boy's
pretension to a knowledge of Indras earlier than himself.

"Tell me, Child! Are they then so very many, the Indras and Vishvakarmans
whom you have seen - or at least, whom you have heard of?"...

[the boy says he knew Indras father, Kashyapa, the old Tortoise man, and his
grandfather marIchI, beam of celestial light, son of Brahma.  ..]

"Oh King of Gods, I have known the dreadful dissolution of the universe. I
have seen all perish, again and again, at the end of every cycle. At that
terrible time, every single atom dissolves into the primal, pure waters of
eternity, whence originally all arose. Everything then goes back into the
fathomless, wild infinity of the ocean, which is covered with utter
darkness and is empty of every sign of animate being. Ah, who will count
the universes that have passed away, or the creations that have risen
afresh, again and again, from the formless abyss of the vast waters? Who
will number the passing ages of the world, as they follow each other
endlessly? And who will search through the wide infinities of space to
count the universes side by side, each containing it's Brahma, it's Vishnu,
it's Shiva? Who count the Indras in them all - those Indras side by side,
who reign at once in all the innumerable worlds; those others who passed
away before them; or even the Indras who succeed each other in any given
line, ascending to godly kingship, one by one, and, one by one, passing
away? King of Gods, there are among your servants certain who maintain that
it may be possible to number the grains of sand on earth and the drops of
rain that fall from the sky, but no one will ever number all those
Indras. This is what the Knowers know."

A procession of ants

[The boy continued to speak in this manner while, meanwhile, ]
A procession of ants had made its appearance in the hall. In military array,
in a column four yards wide, the tribe paraded across the floor.  [This sight
set the holy child laughing. At Indra's stammering request, he explains
his action]:

"I laughed because of the ants. The reason is not to be told. Do not ask me
to disclose it. The seed off woe and the fruit of wisdom are enclosed
within this secret. It is the secret that smites with an ax the tree of
worldly vanity, hews away at its roots, and scatters its crown. This secret
is a lamp to those groping in ignorance. This secret lies buried in the
wisdom of the ages, and is rarely revealed even to saints. This secret is
the living air of those ascetics who renounce and transcend mortal
existence; but worldlings, deluded by desire and pride, it destroys."

The boy smiled and sank into silence. Indra regarded him, unable to move. "O
Son of a Brahmin," the king pleaded presently, with a new and visible
humility, "I do not know who you are. You would seem to be Wisdom
Incarnate. Reveal to me this secret of the ages, this light that dispels the
dark."

Thus requested to teach, the boy opened to Indra the hidden wisdom. "I saw
the ants, O Indra, filing in long parade. Each was once an Indra. Like you,
each by virtue of pious deeds once ascended to the rank of a king of
gods. But now, through many rebirths, each has become again an ant. This army
is an army of former Indras.

"Piety and high deeds elevate the inhabitants of the world to the glorious
realm of the celestial mansions, or to the higher domains of Brahma and
Shiva and to the highest sphere of Vishnu; but wicked acts sink them into
the worlds beneath, into pits of pain and sorrow. It is by deeds that one
merits happiness or anguish, and becomes a master or a serf. It is by deeds
that one attains to the rank of a king or Brahmin, or of some god or of an
Indra or a Brahma. And through deeds again, one contracts disease, acquires
beauty and deformity, or is reborn in the condition of a monster.

"This is the whole substance of the secret. This wisdom is the ferry to
beatitude across the ocean of hell.

"Life in the cycle of the countless rebirths is like a vision in a dream.
The gods on high, the mute trees and the stones, are alike apparitions in
this phantasy. But Death administers the law of Time. Ordained by Time,
Death is the master of all. Perishable as bubbles are the good and the evil
of the beings of the dream. In unending cycles the good and evil
alternate. Hence, the wise are attached to neither, neither the evil nor
the good. The wise are not attached to anything at all."

The boy concluded the appalling lesson and quietly regarded his host. The
king of gods, for all his celestial splendor, had been reduced in his own
regard to insignificance.

The old hermit

Meanwhile another amazing apparition had entered the hall.

[An old hermit, his hear piled with matted hair] strode directly to Indra,
squatted on the floor, and remained motionless as a rock.

[When asked, he says to Indra:] "Each flicker of the eyelids of the great
Vishnu registers the passing of a Brahma. Everything below that sphere of
Brahma is as insubstantial as a cloud taking shape and again dissolving."...

Abruptly the holy man vanished.  It had been the God Shiva himself.
Simultaneously, the brahmin boy, who had been Vishnu, disappeared as well.
The king was alone, baffled and amazed.

Indra pondered; and the events seemed to him to have been a dream. But he no
longer felt any desire to magnify his heavenly splendor or to go on with the
construction of his palace. He summoned Vishvkarman. Graciously greeting the
craftsman with honeyed words, he heaped on him jewels and precious gifts,
then, with a sumptuous celebration, sent him home.

Indra now desired redemption. He had acquired wisdom, and wished only to be
free. He entrusted the pomp and burden of his office to his son, and prepared
to retire to the hermit life of the wilderness, whereupon his beautiful and
passionate queen, Shachi, was overcome with grief.

Weeping in sorrow and utter despair, Shachi resorted to Indra's ingenious
house priest and spiritual advisor, the Lord of Magic Wisdom,
Brihaspati. Bowing at his feet, she implored him to divert her husband's mind
from its stern resolve. The resourceful counselor of the gods... listened
thoughtfully to the complaint of the voluptuous, disconsolate goddess, and
knowingly nodded assent. With a wizard's smile, he took her hand and
conducted her to the presence of her spouse.

In the role of spiritual teacher, he discoursed on the virtues of the
spiritual life, but on the virtues also, of the secular. He gave to each its
due.

[Indra ought not to abandon his life, but he most certainly ought to keep
the endless cycles of the universe in mind in order to have the proper
humility and perspective regarding his works in life.

[The vision of the countless universes bubbling into existence side by side,
and the lesson of the unending series of Indras and Brahmas, would have
annihilated every value of individual existence. Between this boundless,
breathtaking vision and the opposite problem of the limited role of the
short-lived individual, the myth effected the re-establishment of a
balance. Brihaspati, wisdom incarnate, teaches Indra how to grant to each
sphere its due. We are taught to recognize the divine, the impersonal sphere
of eternity, revolving ever and agelessly through time. But we are also
taught to esteem the transient sphere of the duties and the pleasures of
individual existence, which is as real and as vital to the living man, as a
dream is to the sleeping soul.]

Tandava: Shiva's Cosmic Dance p. 151-155

Shiva, the lord of the Lingam, the consort of Shakti-Devi, also is Nataraja,
King of Dancers.

Dancing is an ancient form of magic. The dancer becomes amplified into a
being endowed with supra-normal powers. His personality is transformed. Like
yoga, the dance induces trance, ecstasy, the experience of the divine, the
realization of one's own secret nature, and, finally, mergence into the
divine essence. In India consequently the dance has flourished side by side
with the terrific austerities of the meditation grove- fasting, breathing
exercises, absolute introversion. To work magic, to put enchantments upon
others, one has first to put enchantments on oneself. And this is effected as
well by the dance as by prayer, fasting and meditation.

Shiva, therefore, the arch-yogi of the gods, is necessarily also the master
of the dance.

The dance is an act of creation. It brings about a new situation and summons
into the dancer a new and higher personality. It has a cosmogonic function,
in that it rouses dormant energies which them may shape the world. On a
universal scale, Shiva is the Cosmic Dancer; in his Dancing Manifestation
(nritya-murti) he embodies in himself and simultaneously gives manifestation
to Eternal Energy. The forces gathered and projected in his frantic,
ever-enduring gyration, are the powers of the evolution, maintenance, and
dissolution of the world. Nature and all its creatures are the effects of his
eternal dance.

Dance Mudras

Shiva-Nataraja is represented in a beautiful series of South Indian bronzes
dating from the tenth and twelfth centuries A.D. The details of these figures
are to be read, according to the Hindu tradition, in terms of complex
pictorial allegory.

 
Chola Bronze Nataraja, XII-XIV c.

The upper right hand, it will be observed, carries a little drum, shaped like
an hour-glass, for the beating of the rhythm. This connotes Sound, the
vehicle of speech, the conveyer of revelation, tradition, incantation magic
and divine truth. Furthermore, Sound is associated in India with Ether, the
first of the five elements. Ether is the primary and most subtly pervasive
evolution of the universe, all the other elements, Air, Fire, Water, and
Earth. Together, therefore, Sound and Ether signify the first, truth-pregnant
moment of creation, the productive energy of the Absolute, in its pristine,
cosmogenetic strength.

The opposite hand, the upper left, with a half-moon posture of the figure
(ardhacandra-mudra), bears on its palm a tongue of flame. Fire is the element
of the destruction of the world. At the close of the Kali Yuga, Fire will
annihilate the body of creation, to be itself then quenched by the ocean of
the void. Here, then, in the balance of the hands, is illustrated a
counterpoise of creation and destruction in the play of the cosmic
dance. Sound against flame. And the field of the terrible interplay is the
Dancing Ground of the Universe, brilliant and horrific with the dance of the
god.

The “fear not” gesture (abhaya-mudra), bestowing protection and peace, is
displayed by the second right hand, while the remaining left lifted across
the chest, points downward to the uplifted left foot. This foot signifies
Release, and is the refuge and salvation of the devotee. It is to be
worshipped for the attainment of union with the Absolute. The hand pointing
to it is held in a pose imitative of the outstretched trunk or “hand of the
elephant” (gaja-hasta-mudra), reminding us of Ganesha, Shiva's son, the
Remover of Obstacles.

Dancing on ignorance, in the fire of "AUM"

The divinity is represented as dancing on the postrate body of a dwarfish
demon. This is “Apasmara Purusha,” The Man or Demon (purusha) called
Forgetfulness, or Heedlessness (apasmara) [Footnote: the Tamil name,
Muyalaka, means the same]. It is symbolical of life's blindness, man's
ignorance.  Therein is release from the bondages of the world.

A ring of flames and light (prabha-mandala) issues from and encompasses the
god. This is said to signify the vital processes of the universe and its
creatures, nature's dance as moved by the dancing god within. Simultaneously
it is said to signify the energy of Wisdom, the transcendental light of the
knowledge of truth, dancing forth, from the personification of the All. Still
another allegorical meaning assigned to the halo of flames is that of the
holy syllable of AUM or OM. This mystical utterance stemming from the sacred
language of Vedic praise and incantation, is understood as an expression and
affirmation of the totality of creation.

    * A — is the state of waking consciousness, together with its world of
      gross experience.

    * U — is the state of dreaming consciousness, together with its
      experience of subtle shapes of dream.

    * M — is the state of dreamless sleep, the natural condition of
      quiescent, undifferentiated consciousness, wherein every experience is
      dissolved into a blissful non-experience, a mass of potential
      consciousness.

		[Every text is interpreted in the light of the readers' (and
		therefore the period's) consciousness.  This text, written
		shortly after science discovered the distinction of dreamless
		and dream sleep, attributes its concepts and terminology to an
		ancient system that was quite probably innocent of it. - AM]

The silence following the pronunciation of the three, A, U, and M, is the
ultimate un-manifest, wherein perfected supra-consciousness totally reflects
and merges with the pure, transcendental essence of Divine Reality–Brahman is
experienced as Atman, the Self. AUM, therefore, together with its surrounding
silence, is a sound-symbol of the whole of consciousness-existence, and at
the same time its willing affirmation.

panch-kriyA: Five actions

Shiva as the Cosmic Dancer is the embodiment and manifestation of eternal
energy in its ‘five activities' (pancha-kriya)

   1. Creation (sristi)–the pouring forth or unfolding
   2. Maintenance (sthiti)– the duration
   3. Destruction (samhara)–the taking back or reabsorption
   4. Concealment (tiro-bhava)–the veiling of True Being behind the masks and
	   garbs of apparitions, aloofness, display of Maya,
   5. Favor (anugraha)–acceptance of the devotee, acknowledgment of the pious
      endeavor of the yogi, bestowal of peace.

... In the Shiva-Trinity of Elephanta Caves we saw that the two expressive
profiles, representing the polarity of the creative force, were
counterpoised to a single, silent, central head, signifying the quiescence
of the Absolute. And we deciphered this symbolic relationship as eloquent
of the paradox of Eternity and Time: the reposeful ocean and the racing
stream are not finally distinct; the indestructible Self and the mortal
being are in essence the same. This wonderful lesson can be read also in
the figure of Shiva-Nataraja, where the incessant, triumphant motion of the
swaying limbs is in significant contrast to the balance of the head and
immobility of the mask-like countenance.

Shiva is Kala, ‘The Black One' ‘Time'; but he is also Maha Kala, ‘Great
Time', ‘Eternity'. As Nataraja, King of Dancers, his gestures, wild and full
of grace, precipitate the cosmic illusion; his flying arms and legs and the
swaying of his torso produce– indeed, they are–the continuous
creation-destruction of the universe, death exactly balancing birth,
annihilation the end of every coming-forth. The choreography is the whirligig
of time. History and its ruins, the explosion of suns, are flashes from the
tireless swinging sequence of the gestures. In the medieval bronze figurines,
not merely a single phase or movement, but cyclic rhythm, flowing on and non
in the unstayable, irreversible round of the Mahayugas, or Great Eons, is
marked by the beating and stamping of the Master's heel.

But the face remains, meanwhile, in sovereign calm. ...

Shiva is the personification of the Absolute, particularly in its dissolution
of the universe. He is the embodiment of Super-Death. He is called Yamantaka
— ‘The Ender of the Tamer' , He who conquers and exterminates Yama the God of
Death, the Tamer. Shiva is Maha-Kala, Great Time, Eternity, the swallower of
Time, swallower of Ages and cycles of ages.

Shiva is apparently, thus, two opposite things, archetypal ascetic, and
archetypal dancer. On one hand , he is Total Tranquility — inward calm
absorbed in itself, absorbed in the void of the Absolute, where all
distintions merge and dissolve, and all tensions are at rest. But on the
other hand, he is Total Activity — life's energy, frantic, aimless, and
playful.

	His gestures wild and full of grace, precipitate the cosmic illusion;
	his flying arms and legs and the swaying of his torso produce —
	indeed, they are— the continuous creation-destruction of the
	universe, death exactly balancing birth, annihilation the end of
	every coming-forth.

Contents

  I  Eternity and Time
	The Parade of Ants			3	(8)
	The Wheel of Rebirth			11	(8)
	The Wisdom of Life			19	(4)
  II The Mythology of Vishnu
	Vishnu's Maya				23	(4)
	The Waters of Existence			27	(8)
	The Waters of Non-Existence		35	(18)
	Maya in Indian Art			53	(6)
  III  The Guardians of Life
	The Serpent, Supporter of Vishnu and the Buddha		59	(10)
	Divinities and their Vehicles		69	(3)
	The Serpent and the Bird		72	(5)
	Vishnu as Conqueror of the Serpent	77	(13)
	The Lotus		   		90	(12)
	The Elephant				102	(7)
	The Sacred Rivers			109	(14)
  IV The Cosmic Delight of Shiva
	The “Fundamental Form” and the “Playful Manifestations”	123	(7)
	The Phenomenon of Expanding Form	130	(7)
	Shiva-Shakti		    		137	(11)
	The Great Lord				148	(3)
	The Dance of Shiva			151	(24)
	The Face of Glory			175	(10)
	The Destroyer of the Three Towns	185	(4)
  V  The Goddess
	The Origin of The Goddess		189	(8)
	The Island of Jewels			197	(20)
	Conclusion    				217	(6)
  Index 					223	(26)
  Plates 					249