The Eastern Vision of the Universe - Part 7

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Dear All,

 

Part 6 of The Eastern Vision of the Universe ended with:

 

Later, in the tenth book of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna speaks of the whole

universe being in himself. " I shall reveal to thee some manifestations of my

divine glory. For there is no end to my infinite greatness. I am the beginning,

the middle and end of all that lives. " (Bhagavad Gita 10:19-20) Krishna is the

source, the middle and the goal to which all is tending, the all-pervading Lord.

He then gives various mythological accounts of all these forms which are in him.

Then in the eleventh book, the book of the great theophany, Krishna reveals

himself to Arjuna as the Lord in whom the whole creation exists. (p.74} The text

says, " Then Krishna appeared to Arjuna in his supreme divine form ... and Arjuna

saw in that form countless visions of wonder. He saw in that radiance the whole

universe, in all its variety, standing in a vast unity, in the body of the God

of Gods. " (Bhagavad Gita 11:9,13) The whole creation in all its variety and yet

in its unity was revealed within the body of the Lord, the Lord who sustains the

whole universe and carries it in himself. But he has made it clear that, while

he is immanent and sustains all, he is also transcendent and beyond all. The

vision of Krishna as the Lord is a wonderful theophany. Arjuna bows in adoration

before him and says, " I have seen what no man has seen before. I rejoice in

exaltation and yet my heart trembles with fear. " (Bhagavad Gita 11:4-5)

 

Here then, is the final, Part 7, of the " Eastern Vision of the Universe " by Bede

Griffiths.

 

Enjoy!

 

violet

 

 

 

The Eastern Vision of the Universe

 

(Part 7)

 

 

(P.74) A further stage in the development of the idea of God is found in the

Tantras. This was a very important movement. So far we have been considering the

Vedic religion in its original form, but now it seems quite clear that as the

Aryans came down through India from the North to the South more and more of the

indigenous people, basically Dravidians, were drawn in to this religion. The

history of Hinduism is the history of the gradual assimilation of the different

peoples of India into the Vedic world. It seems clear that Shaivism as a whole

derives from the indigenous Dravidian religion. Shiva is still the great God in

the South, while Vishnu is more popular in the North. There has been mixing, but

it is clear that the former derives from the ancient matriarchal religion.

 

The earliest Tantric texts date from the third century AD but Tantrism goes back

beyond that. At first Tantra was an undercurrent and is not documented among the

Dravidian peoples much earlier than the third century. It belongs essentially to

the world of magic and of myth. At this stage the Tantra begins to enter the

main stream of Hinduism and a new development takes place. So far the aim had

always been to go beyond the physical and beyond the psychological to the

Supreme Reality, and to see everything in that light. (P.75) In practice that

entailed a strong tendency towards asceticism, which prevailed in Hinduism as a

whole. Leaving behind the body, the soul, the mind and all its activities, the

aim was to unite oneself with the supreme 'brahman', the supreme 'atman'. That

is the basic movement of sannyasa, renunciation. The Tantra arose in opposition

to that, to assert the values of nature and of the body, of the senses and of

sex. All that world which tended to be suppressed in the other tradition now

comes to life. This is why Tantra is particularly important today. There is a

great revival of Tantrism taking place at the moment. The late Swami Muktananda

of Ganeshpuri in Maharashtra, for instance, was one of the great exponents of

it. People are discovering this other side of nature, the side represented by

the mother, and are coming to appreciate the Great Mother, the earth mother, who

nourishes us all, from whom we all come and from whom we all receive our bodily

existence and the power of the senses.

 

A key doctrine of the Tantras is, " that by which we fall is that by which we

rise. " In other words, as we fall through the attraction of the senses, through

sex, passion and desire, so we have to rise through them, using them as a means

of going beyond.

 

[break Quote]

 

[Folks, perhaps the author's meaning is similar to our understanding that we

have to transform ourselves from the lower self to the Higher Self or Spirit and

not that 'sex, passion, desires, or the senses' are the actual stepping stones

themselves, but just that we have to arise by means of higher spiritual awarenss

from the lower desires of the flesh to the Higher Desire of the Spirit. In its

dormant state, the Kundalini Energy lies asleep in the Sacrum Bone (Sacred

Bone), which is located in the body above the organs of sexual function. Shri

Mataji made it very clear to SYS that, as this is the case, it also means that

Kundalini Awakening has nothing to do with sex, which is a physical function.

Shri Mataji has told us that if people use 'tantric sex' to awaken the Kundalini

Energy, that the " Holiness Principle " within us, of Shri Ganesha, gets very

angry at such 'unauthorised attempts' to awaken the kundalini energy. She says

that the heat people feel with that, is Shri Ganesha's fury. Shri Mataji very

much denounced such 'tantrikas' and said they were the work of evil, of the

devil, and that they were acting against the sanctity of the Mother, the Holy

Spirit.]

 

[Resume Quote]:

 

The Tantra has the marvellous vision of the whole cosmos in terms of 'shakti'.

'Shakti' is energy. This is where the link with the contemporary world is so

fascinating because, in the tradition of Tantra, Shakti is the source of the

universe and she is the mother, she is feminine. Whereas the other religions are

patriarchal, Shaivism stems from the matriarchal religion where the mother is

the source of all. The mother goddess (devi), is 'shakti', energy. In Shaivism

Shiva is normally considered to be consciousness or spirit, and Shakti is his

energy, his power. The world comes into being through 'shakti', through energy.

Iconographically Shiva is portrayed in deep contemplation, surveying the

creation, while Shakti, his consort, moves the whole universe. (Pg.76} With this

there is the beginning of a new understanding of the universe as a form of

energy. Tantra was explored deeply and its teaching brought to light by Sir John

Woodruffe, a British judge in Calcutta in the last century.

 

Of particular interest is the tantric conception of 'bindu'. 'Bindu' is a point,

but a point in which all the energy of the universe is concentrated. 'Bindu' is

said to be the origin of the universe, the whole energy of the universe

concentrated in a single point. From that highly concentrated point, energy

expands outwards. That is very near to how we today conceive the origin of the

universe. All the energy seems to have come out from a point, from nothing, in a

sense. It is interesting that in the Tantra the energy is understood to come out

of the 'bindu' in mathematical form, in triangles and squares, for instance.

Galileo also had this idea that the geometrical forms come out from the original

matter. So there is this concept of original matter exploding, as it were, into

the forms of the universe. The universe was considered to be in the form of a

'yantra'. A yantra is a structure, a kind of diagram or picture, composed of

triangles and squares. In that 'yantra' all the powers of the universe are

concentrated. Again the practice associated with this comes very near to magic

at times. If one constructs a 'yantra', it is accorded tremendous power. Still

today in a Hindu temple, in the inner sanctuary there is often a yantra which is

held to have this magical power in it. There can be real power in those yantras

because they are designs in which, as it were, the power of the universe is

concentrated.

 

In Tantra it is understood that everything comes forth from the 'bindu' and it

structures itself in the physical universe in a mathematical form. The yantra,

is a representation of the structure of the universe. By meditating on the

'yantra' one unites oneself with the whole universe.

 

The universe is composed of centres of energy known as 'chakras'. Out of the

'bindu' come all the 'chakras', each of which is a centre of energy - we would

speak in terms of atoms, molecules, cells, organisms. The whole universe comes

forth in these centres of energy, culminating in the highest human centre of

energy, the human consciousness. The important point here is that, as the

universe comes forth from the 'bindu' and structures itself around the person,

so the same power is present in one's own body. One's own body is a microcosm:

the whole universe is within.

 

This idea is particularly worked out in Kundalini yoga, where the understanding

is that Kundalini is the serpent power. The serpent was always the symbol of

this earth power. That power is supposed to be coiled up like a serpent power at

the base of the spine and is understood to be the source of all psychic energy.

That energy, 'kundalini', rises up through seven 'chakras', or energy centres,

from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. As the Kundalini, which is

really the goddess Shakti herself, rises up through the body the whole being is

gradually transformed, from the physical, through the psychological, until

finally spiritual evolution is attained. It all takes place within, and what

takes place within is reflecting and resonating with what is taking place in the

universe outside. The whole process is conceived as the marriage of Shiva

(consciousness) with Shakti (energy).

 

That is the vision of the universe in the Hindu tradition, in which there are

many similarities with the vision of the Western scientist and philosopher

today. Western science, having lost itself in materialism, is discovering its

mistake and is opening itself now to the ancient wisdom, and East and West are

beginning to come together.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs. 74-77