Hari-The Primal God of All Cultures pt1

[Guest guest]

Hari / Heri / Heli / Eli and Atenism Explained

An E.O.H.N. Arcadia Pacifica Seminar Paper by

Tridandi Sannyasi Bhakti Ananda Goswami.

Presented at the Pilgramage to the Past/Visit to the Heart of Vedic Egypt

Seminar

 

Forward by Vrin Parker

It is important that the reader understands that this paper is not

supporting the idea that Hari worship originated in one particular

geographical locale but rather proves that Hari worship is the primal root

religion of all Humanity and is the natural state of

existance. We only have the evidence to trace its impact on this planet, but

actually Hari worship is the underlying reality of the whole creation.

 

It is also important to recognize that this research is epoch making and

will be recognized by future generations as such. The fact is. for the first

time in history the evidence proving the Vaishnava conclusion is irrefutable

and is backed up by the research and the undeniable conclusions of the

modern world's leading experts in the various fields of scientific study.

Along with irrefutable archeological and linguistic evidence coupled with

theological, scriptual and ritualistic connections, Bhakti Ananda Goswami

has assembled a three dimensional picture of the past that fulfills all the

requirements of scientific and spiritual conclusions.

 

One question that is often asked is, "Why have past and present scholars not

been unable to recognize Hari worship as the primal root religion of the

world?" There are various reasons but the primary reasons are the

misperception of Vedic Religion to be either Advaitist-Impersonalism or a

purely polytheistic tradition coupled with the belief that all the ancient

world religions were based on polytheism. It is impossible to compare a

traditon of devotional monotheism from the west with the devotional

monotheism of Vedic culture when Vaishnavism has been perceived to be a late

historical post-vedic development.

 

In fact, the key to piecing all this evidence toghether has been provided by

His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's authentic translations

of the Vedic Scriptures (esp the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam). By

providing the true Vaishnava translations of these Vaisnava Scriptures Srila

Prabhupada provided the key to unlocking all the truth that has been hidden

regarding our united human past as Devotees of Lord Sri Hari.

 

This work is therefore humbly offered at the lotus feet of our eternal

Spiritual Master and Personification of Lord Balarama's Mercy, His Divine

Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

OM TAT SAT

 

Abstract

 

‘Voiced’ primarily to Vaishnavas, (worshippers of Hari-Vasu / Vishnu and

Atman) this paper uses evidence from the later 18th Dynasty in Egypt to

introduce Bhakti Ananda Goswami’s 30-plus year study on the global history

of Salvific Incarnational Monotheism. Due to space limitations, he outlines

some of the Western side of the Mediterranean-Vaishnava connections,

assuming that the Vaishnava reader will recognize the common elements from

within their own tradition. His paper focuses on Pharoah Akhenaten’s

religion of Atenism as a revival of pre and early dynastic (2000 years

earlier) Memphite and Heliopolitan Heri-ASU-Atumism. He explains the

theology of this tradition (briefly touching on the subject of ‘Bridal

Mysticism’ and the Feminine Divine) and gives evidence of its profoundly

significant relationship to Semitic Eli-Yahu and European Helios worship

centered in the Minoan Era sect of Kouros and Rhoda / Krishna and Radha on

the Mediterranean Isle of Rhodes. Since there is no evidence of borrowing

(this tradition is found in the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, Europe and Africa

in pre-history) he concludes that Egypt’s Heri-ASU-Atumism represents a

Primordial Trinitarian Salvific Revelatory Tradition shared equally by

Africans, Semites, Indo Europeans and others of the One Human Family. In

summary, he notes that research done in the last 50 years by Indologists,

Heleno-Semiticists, Black Studies and Feminist scholars has successfully

challenged the Anglo-Germanic ethno-centric western academic models of

‘Aryanism’ which previously dominated in the western humanities. This recent

defeat of the racist ‘Aryan’ model of history has now opened-up new vistas

in research, allowing ‘western’ scholars to compare languages, religions and

cultures in ways that were previously taboo. As a result, recent advances in

various fields have confirmed what B.A. Goswami has been saying for 30

years. Using this new interdisciplinary support as a rationale for his own

study, he presents a stunning non-ethno centric picture of our United Human

Past. The result is a completely unique vision of all humanity, at various

times joined in the Communion of God-Who-Is-Love, The Lord of the Heart. Far

from being the benevolent theorizing of a sentimentalist, he describes the

actual sacred social order of this Deity as fundamentally unifying and

opposed to the divisive forces of sexism, racism, predatory nationalism, and

ethno-centric polytheism. This fundamental desire for unity among African,

Semitic, Eastern and European Monotheists devoted to the same Deity, was

embodied in their continual formation of religious and political alliances

with one another. The greatest alliances ushered in ‘Golden’ ages. B.A.

Goswami concludes that this lesson from history has profound importance for

us today, and offers his discoveries as an impetus for inter-faith dialogue

and cooperation embodying the values of this ancient unifying religion of

the Lord of the Heart.

 

THE CORONA OF HARI / HERI / HELI / ELI AND ATENISM EXPLAINED

ã Bhakti Ananda Goswami, E.O.H.N. 4-9-2000

THE RADIANT / RA CROWN OF HELIOS

 

Throughout the ancient world the radiant crown, or circle of light,

identified the personal Creator God whose life-giving presence was

experienced as both natural/outer and supernatural/inner Light. People

experienced both external and internal vision/revelation, and identified

such ‘illumination’ with an external/Transcendent and internal/Immanent

Personal Godhead. Both the hyper/Supreme Person and the sub-scale

living-force Deity were hiding (outside or covering) or hidden (within) to

human perception. The hyp-sub hidden God was outside and inside all things.

His Transcendant Form was revealed in our world through Theophany, actual

Incarnation and inspiration. Thus, in the middle (intermediate, mediating)

realm of human experience, the Holy One was revealed Incarnate in Name and

Form, audible and visible to us through our senses. The Transcendent,

Mediating and Immanent Deity was One and simultaneously Three. His ‘Second

Person’ mediated between the worlds of absolute Being and the worlds of

birth and death. He manifest all variety, both spiritual-eternal and

temporary-material.

If we understand that the one God appeared in the infinite variety of

perceivable Nama-Rupa (Name & Form) in His ‘Second Person’(Madya / Media),

then we can appreciate the actual monotheism of ancient traditions devoted

to this Triune Deity of Life and Love. God as Love was considered the

creative force of the cosmos, the Lord of the heart. Love is the Lord of all

times and places. Hari as Kana was not a mere sun god. He was Supreme

because He was the Lord of all hearts.

The Inner Light of Love, Lord of the Heart.

The Heliopolitan and related so-called nome gods of Egypt and Greece were

not separate deities, but local manifestations of the same Deity, Hari or

Vasudeva. The Minoan and Greek Helios, or Eros, was the Egyptian HR-US and

the Semitic Eli-Yahu. Hebrew theophoric by-names identify Eli-Yahu with

Hari-Vasu, HR-US, and Helios.

Hari-Vasu / HR-US / Eli-Yahu was not just a solar Deity. Although HR / Hari

was worshipped in His Golden Form (as in the ‘solar’ Gayatri) within the

heart of the sun, (His ‘solar’ aspect), He was worshiped equally as

Transcendent and within the heart of all beings. In fact, ‘heart’ derives

from ‘hrid’ in Sanskrit, just as cordia (Lat.) and kardia (Greek) derive

from Sanskrit Hridaya. Both hrid and hridaya for ‘heart’ in Sanskrit are

contractions of Hari-Daya meaning the seat or throne of Hari, God-Who Is

Love.

See “Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary...” (Oxford, 1983) for the root

meaning of ‘har’ as Love and its associative and derivative uses, page 757

“Qar (Har), to love.” See also page 714 for Horoz [Horus, Eros, Helios

etc.] and Hora as the masculine Lover and feminine Beloved (Kouros and

Kore, Hari & Hare). ‘Daya’ is related to the Persian ‘divan’, (diwan or

diyan) which the word ‘dais’ comes from. A ‘dais’ is a raised seat, throne

or couch, a platform which the king sits on ‘in state’ as he judges, applies

the law, and excercises his powers of justice and mercy. Thus, the heart or

Hari-daya is the throne room of Hari, God-who-is-love, and the seat of our

conscience, the Holy Spirit / Paramatma who compells us to goodness and

convicts us of evil.

 

Trilok Atma; The Adi, Madya and Anta and Outer, Middle and Inner Godhead

 

The Immanent form of the Vaishnava Triune Deity (1.Bhagavan-Hari,

2.Samkarshan-Vasu-Deva and 3.ParamAtman) is ParamAtman or Atman, the Lord

of the Heart. In pre-dynastic North Egypt the ‘hidden’ form of Helios /

Horus was Atum. In S. Egypt Atum was Amen. The comparative theologies of

Atum and Amen were explained as ‘Atum is Amen’... as in the Vedic formula

“Atman is Brahman”. Atum (Aten)-ism always remained personal, tied to the

strong personalism of Heliopolis, which was later revived at Armana and

flourished in Jerusalem. However, Amen-ism repeatedly devolved into

polytheism and pantheistic impersonalism (‘mayavadi’ philosophy), and tended

to support corrupted moral theology and ‘left-hand-tantric’-like sorcery and

superstition. Pure Amenism was originally the S. Egyptian regional

development of Atumism. Both Atum and Amen were identified with ‘Ra’ (Hari)

and ‘Hapi’ the Transcendent and Immanent ‘Persons’ of the Triune Godhead. Of

course, the Incarnation (Basileo or Vasudeva) king was the Pharoah

(Per-Ahu, Per-Asu), Purusha (or Osiris) as the incarnate Hari. Thus,

Hari-Purusha and Atman were worshipped as Heru-Perasu (Pharoah) and Atum.

This is also the Christian Trinity and the Pure Land Buddhist Tri Kaya of

the Transcendant Deity, His Incarnation-King and Pervasive Spirit.

 

The ‘Solar’ Hari / HR / Heli / Eli and feminine Shakti / Sekhet / Hekate /

Shekinah.

 

Modern scholars have mistakenly assumed the Egyptian Deity HR (Heru, Hor

etc.), the Greek Heli and Jewish Eli to be merely ‘solar’ demigods exalted

to monotheism through the syncretism which was a product of empire building.

Secular ‘Vedic’ scholars (and indologists) have similarly reduced Hari to a

mere solar deity. In fact, several important symbols have been used to

identify this ‘sun god’ and have led to a general identification of Helios

with Surya, Hari and the Pure Land Buddhist’s Amitabha (whose seed-mantra

name is Hrih). Some of these symbols are the ‘solar’ circle, [radiant crown

or corona] eagle or hawk (Garuda, Garutman) the lotus or other heliotropic

(or circle and ray shaped) flower, the lion, the mineral gold (and color

gold or yellow), and the four horse chariot or quadriga (see Helios Quadriga

and Krsna Partha Sarathi). Today, all sacred art traditions derived from the

worship of this one Deity still use His nimbus, aura, halo, radiant / ray /

Ra crown or corona in some form to identify him. His ‘aura’ as masculine

generation is identified with His Second Person. Thus, Hari’s effulgence,

the Brahman ‘light’ or energy, is an attribute of Samkarshana or Balarama.

The cobra is always closely associated with Hari / Heri’s disc of light,

because Balarama’s alter-form is the Ananta cobra. As Feminine ‘energy’, the

discus light is interpreted as Shakti (Sanskrit) or Shekinah in Hebrew /

Jewish mysticism. Sekhet is Heri’s (Hari’s) feminine energy in Egypt. Sekhet

/ Shakti / Shekinah is associated in Greece with the feminine ‘consort’ of

Helios named Hekate. It is the late corruption of Hekate worship which is

associated with the deviant sects of Kali in the East. The worship of

‘Hor-Aten’ or Eli-Adon as His YHVH Presence on the Simhasana (lion or

cherub throne) or mercy-seat Ark is always connected to the doctrine of His

feminine Shekinah.

 

Kouros and Rhoda, Krsna and Radha as Origin of All the ‘Gods’ and

‘Goddesses’

 

Just as all the so-called ‘nome gods’ were considered forms of Heri, so too

all the (Tyche-Fortuna) city ‘goddesses’ were forms of Shakti. Helios Kouros

(Youth, Juvenalis, Yauvana) and His Shekinah Rhoda in theocentric Polieus

(Purusha) cities were considered the origin of all the forms of the Deity

and His Shakti. The pairing of God the Giver (masculine Purusha) with the

feminine Receiver forms of Shakti / Shekinah reflected the ‘Bridal

Mysticism’ or Hierogamos heart of Greco-Egyptian & Judeo-Christian

monotheism. Thus, Rhoda & Kouros were worshipped at the core of both

‘western’ & eastern Bhakti traditions. ‘Expansions’ or incarnations of

Helios Kouros and Rhoda were depicted with determinatives like the Vasu (WS)

septre, the hawk etc. or the HR circle glyph or ‘solar’ effulgence. Saints

were also surrounded by Rhoda-Coronis / Harini’s aura or corona of holiness.

In Catholic art symbolism there is a theology of the specific ‘halos’ used

for the Persons of the Trinity, Mary and the saints. For instance, the

whole-body corona or envelope of light is called a mandorla. It is usually

used around the cosmic/universal form of Jesus Christ, where it is thought

by some to represent the ‘shell’ of the cosmos/universe. Compare the

Christos Mandorla to Purusha Mandalas. Present day Vaishnavas, Shaivites,

Pure Land Buddhists, Christians and even Muslims and others use the halo to

represent divinity. When “Mohammed” is not depicted, a firey ring represents

him. In ancient Egypt, the circle glyph represented the deity ‘Heru’. It

said His name, HR. Scholars speculate about the vowels. Since ‘ee’ is the

second sound in related names in Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean, Hurrian &

Sanskrit, I prefer to use it. The first vowel is most commonly a short ‘e’

or ‘a’ in the Mediterranean region. So, to distinguish the Egyptian HR from

the Sanskrit Vaishnava Hari, I write Egyptian HR as Heri in this paper.

 

The Ray-Hands of Karana Malin Krsna-Vishnu-Aten / Atman

 

Conclusive identification of the Egyptian Heri with the Vedic Hari/Suri can

be made through the Names associated with His discus. In Sanskrit, (the

Vaishnava and Shaivite sacred language of the Vedas), ‘kara’ means both ray

and hand. Krsna or Hari, and Vishnu, His emanating and incarnating 2nd

Person, are both called Karana Malin. Malin is ‘one who is garlanded’. So

Hari (Krsna)-Vishnu is the One ‘garlanded with ray-hands’. The English word

for God ‘Creator’ is related to Krsna’s (Hari-Vishnu’s) name Krita, from the

root ‘Kara’ for hand - the hand is the ‘creator’. The Supreme reveals

Himself as the doer of all creative activity in the spiritual and material

worlds. Kartri is another form of Hari’s name Creator. Hari is sometimes

called Krita Krita or ‘Creator of Creators’.Now, as we analyse the Egyptian

iconography of the Amarna period and ‘Aten’ worship, we see that the (cakra

/ kyklos ) circle hieroglyph for the name Heri (Hari) is actually garlanded

with ray-hands. Furthermore, these hands lovingly create, nurture and

protect the natural world & mankind, and deliver all spiritual and material

good to us. The Creator is Providence. His supreme gift is life itself, and

eternal life, both of which are represented by the Ankh Cross, which

Heri-Sesha extends to his beloved children/creation. The modern word corona

derives from Karana Malin. Studying Vaishnava and Pure Land Buddhist Murtis

or Icons of Hari or Amitabha Buddha, we can readily find these ‘solar

deities’ surrounded by not only a simple halo or corona, but by actual

garlands of radiating ray-hands! In both Vaishnava and Pure Land Buddhist

iconography (sacred art) the universal Cosmic Creator Form of the so-called

‘solar deity’ may have 1008 or 1108 (or ‘infinite’) arms or actual ‘rays’

extending from His body. These entirely surround Him, forming a garland of

ray-hands which hold symbols of life, blessing, revelation, (scriptures),

creation, elemental and spiritual powers and other attributes of the Deity,

(which may include a small handheld solar discus). The hidden Bija or

seed-mantra Name of the original Transcendent Saviour Deity Amitabha Buddha

(HR-PTAH) is Hrih. Thus in all three salvific so-called ‘solar’ traditions

of Egyptian Atenism, Indian Vaishnavism and Asian Devotional Buddhism, we

find the Deity Heri, Hari or Hrih garlanded with ray-hands. The Creator,

Sustainer and Savior God and later His beatified beloved are depicted with

His sacred radiant halo, discus / circle or garland of ray-hands. The common

Egyptian form is merely an ‘Aten’ period iconographic short-hand, whereas

the Eastern Traditions represent the Deity in full bodily Form (Rupa) with

either ray-hands or actual ray-like numerous arms.

 

E.O.H.N. Ramanujacharya’s appearance day, Christian Era, 2000 – PO Box 863

Coquille, OR 97423 USA

 

____

Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com