Mani/Mantra/and the Garuda-legend-2

[Guest guest]

srimathe lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha

 

Dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s",

 

Before proceeding to explain the "reflexivity principle" involved in

"mantra-prayOga" (invocation/incantation) and "mantra-shakti/phalan"

(phenomenal effect) as referred to in my last post, I want to share with you

all a piece of research-finding in the field of psychology. It is quite

relevant, I believe, to our present discussions on the questions Sri.Mani

raised last week.

 

There is a book written by a world renowned child-psychologist whose name is

Dr.Bruno Bettelheim. He is an Austrian who naturalised in America where he

taught psychology at the University of Chicago in the '70s. (Perhaps he is

still Professor Emeritus there, I don't know.)

 

Dr.Bettelheim is the author of two monumental works on child psychology. One

is titled "The Uses of Enchantment" and the other is "A Good Enough Parent".

(Everyone of you, dear members, who has children should read these two

extraordinary books on understanding children and their minds).

 

Now the first named book of Dr.Bettelheim, "The Uses of Enchantment", is all

about the impact --- direct and subliminal -- that fairy tales have on the

tender psyche of children. In 1997 the book received in the US "The National

Book Award" and "The National Book Critics Circle Award".

 

In "Uses of Enchantment" Dr.Bettelheim describes, through a dozen

fascinating chapters, how age-old fairy-tales like "Little Red Riding Hood",

"Jack and the Beanstalk", "Hansel and Gretchel" etc., when they are read out

constantly to children in their most tender years, have been CLINICALLY

found to wield enormous influence on the growth and development of

children's personality and mind.

 

He describes, too, how fairy-tales help children to cope with a world where

adults make all the rules and where all sorts of formidable dilemmas of

juvenile ethics and morality arise; how the myth and fantasies of such

stories help them to recognize and deal with untold emotions, anxieties and

fears simmering beneath their fragile minds; and how such "enchanting yarns"

help the child to first understand, at a deeply sub-conscious level, and

then come to terms with a vast, strange and fearful world..... a world into

which it has been suddenly born and where the child has no choice but to

"confront and cope daily".

 

Now, it is not my intention, dear friends, to launch upon a full-scale

review of Dr.Bettelheim's work here. (It is far too big a subject and not

directly relevant to the "bhakti-list").

 

All I want to do, however, in the next few posts, dear friends, is to draw a

parallel between Dr.Bettelheim's central thesis on popular fairy-tales of

children and the subject-matter of debate sparked off by Sri.Mani's query as

to why the otherwise lofty truths of our religious literature & faith are

interlaced with seemingly mythical and "fantastic yarns" (like the "Garuda"

legend, for instance).

 

If I understand him right Sri.Mani seems to me to be really asking (and he

can correct me if I'm wrong) :

 

a) "Why is so much of what is sublime in our ancient faith also accompanied

by as much that seems ridiculous and infantile to 20th-century sensibilities ? "

 

b) "What is PROFOUND wisdom doing in the company of fantastic MYTHOLOGY in

our religious literature ?"

 

Now, if you look at it closely, these are very good, very EARNEST questions,

dear friends, and they demand a reasonable answer however inadequate. We

cannot simply dismiss or gloss over them or take umbrage over imagined

slights we presume such questions cause to this "sampradAyam" or that "achAryA".

 

We HAVE to take the question on its merits, enquire into it in a spirit of

humility and dispassion and if it is possible, within our limited capacity,

we must proceed to answer accordingly, shouldn't we ?

 

If you don't mind, therefore, in the few following posts I shall attempt one

more such answer to add to the several other interesting ones our good

members like Sri.Sadagopan, Sri.Rengarajan, Sri.Rangaswamy and Sri.Sagar

already provided in the past week.

 

Ensuing posts on the "principle of reflexivity" and "Dr.Bruno Bettelheim's

thesis" are only meant to reveal one more dimension to the issue of

"mantra"/mythical tales of religious legend.

 

It is not my intention, believe me dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s", to fuel the

debate on "garuda" further ..... except, perhaps, to steer it towards

evermore thoughtful directions.

 

srimathe srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha

sudarshan