Agamism 11. The Indaism of the Sumerians and Hinduism of Indians-2
Fortunately for us the Tamil scriptures seem to have retained this ORIGINAL CONCERN of religious life and most of the hymns in Tamil keep on articulating this. The following from Tirumantiram of Thirumular (~6th cent A.D.) is just one of them which I reproduce here along with my commentary.
Upatesam 12.
124.
veLiyil veLipooy viraviya vaaRum
aLiyil aLippooy adangkiya vaaRum oLiyil oLipooy odungkiya vaaRum teLiyum avaree civa cittar taamee The genuinely illuminated Siddhas are those who understand
Beyond any shadow of doubt that Being-with-BEING is like Pure space spreading out within Absolute Space True love getting subdued by Divine Love and Clear Light being subdued by the transcendental Light Supreme NOTES
Metaphysical excursions which is the genuine religious life is a journey, a pilgrimage and because of which pilgrimages to sacred places have become instituted as part of the ritual obligations in all religions. It is a TRAVEL with a destination and it is in the conception and understanding of this , the end point of the travel that there are many differences over which, at least in
Then the question arises: How are we to understand this end state? Thirumular addresses this question in this verse in touching metaphors and analogies to explain the matter, mindful of the hermeneutical foundations within which he moves. Only bounded space can merge and be one with the boundless when the bounding factors are removed. Here the space of the pot becoming the vast open space on being broken is an apt example. But the space of the pot stands for CONSCIOUSNESS of the limited understanding of man which become the SAME as the Supreme Consciousness of ABSOLUTE BEING when the defiling and delimiting factors are removed. There is total merger, the UNDERSTANDING is no more human , that of an anma, but that of BEING.
And now we should note that understanding has TWO aspects to it-- that of SCOPE and that of CONTENT. The above analogy applies to the SCOPE and the analogy of the little light being OUT SHINED by the larger light applies to the content. The UNDERSTANDING of BEING is supremely ILLUMINANT and therefore suffers no development or change. The human consciousness, the Light with which it sees become subdued in the face of the BRILLIANCE of BEING just as the light of stars gets subdued by the brilliance of the sun. The little light is there but it fails to OUTSHINE the larger light; for there is complete WITHDRAWAL.
Such is also the case with DIVINE LOVE where BEING is understood as LOVE itself, "anbee sivam" also articulated by Thirumular elsewhere. Just as goodness can be conquered only by a higher goodness so is with love, the little love can be conquered only by a larger and purer love by putting the former to shame. Just is the case even with the human love no matter how pure it is-- it gets conquered by Divine LOVE, the LOVE that BEING HIMSELF IS as His essence. The human love even of the most saintly person is reduced to NOTHING in comparison to the Divine Love of BEING.
Thus the
The Wounding of the Ego
When the EGO stands strong there is a refusal to LEARN and a RESISTANCE to change and instead DEFEND whatever identity one has acquired by virtue of birth or by a choice of one's own which comes with the logic: it is MINE and therefore I OUGHT to DEFEND it, PROTECT it and PROMOTE it at whatever cost. There ceases to be dialogic interaction but only confrontational encounters where one seeks to DEFEAT the opponent and make him SUBMIT. This confrontational attitude shows itself in the intellectual as well as social level with their attendant "hot wars"
What is also LOST is the REAL concern of Religion, that after all it is simply something that promotes metaphysical journey that WOUNDS the EGO and makes the person PURE by making him EGOLESS but NOT selfless. |
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