I want to bring in the thinking dimension into religion along with faith, the practice of penances etc. I sincerely believe that this is the best way to combat religious fanaticism that exists in all religions in some form or other. In fact I want to bring religious dimensions of human experience itself as part of Depth Psychology especially Agamic Psychology, the roots of which are very ancient.
In fact it goes back to the Sumerian times where we find yoga as part of temple culture and almost every major cultural development was guided by transductive perceptions. There it appears that many people had their third eye open and basically lived by the disclosures of BEING through opening up their third eye. There were the en-kum-ine, those who sat silently in a special chamber but within the temple. This we learn from the Kes temple Hymns of Enhudu Anna. The account of the Deluge, the documents related to temple building, war campaigns against the intruders and so forth mention that they were all guided by transductive perceptions, a capacity we all have but due to historical factors and lack of cultivation we do not enjoy it as much as the ancients did. The organization of religious life for cultivating these inherent capacities and enjoying transductive perceptions and through that experience BEING directly in various archetypal encounters such as those of the Nayanmars and Azwars is the life that constitutes to me, the authentic life and towards which the whole world is moving. I believe ultimately we do not need any intermediaries in any form.
True Yoga Sciences, called now the Inner Sciences by some, such as those of Patanjali, Thirumular and a host of Tamil Siddhas also develop this kind of psychology . With this understanding at the background let me outline my views about thinking and its meaning and how it is related to metaphysical experiences.
1. There are different kinds of thinking, the logical, interpretive, creative, lateral etc. And among these there is the DISCONSTRUCTIVE such as that practiced by Meykandar and later elaborated and applied to various systems of philosophies by AruNandi. Such disconstructive thinking has become an integral part of Saiva Siddhanta tradition by which it distinguishes itself from the Vedantic which are ultimately text based - either the Vedas or the Upanishads. Saiva Siddhanta tradition DOES NOT presuppose the authority of any scripture though it does not deny the reliability and necessity of studies of such scriptural utterances as one of the TOOLS for illuminating oneself. But the central goal remains directly experiencing BEING in whatever archetypal form He chooses to disclose Himself.
But no matter what kind of philosophical understanding or religious faith we have we must articulate the basic principles and DISCONSTRUCT that in order to FREE the mind from possible PREJUDICES that condition our thinking and feeling rather unconsciously.
Such disconstructions are also processes of freeing the mind from what are called "acat aRivu" in Tamil, not false understanding but that which are historical and thus temporal thinking and reflecting disconstructively on such notions will free our mind from the historical temporal forms of knowledge, culturally conditioned precepts and believes and thereby FREE the mind towards enjoying the absolute, the TRUE
2. Thinking in this sense is also reducing the scope of FAITH and making the mind CLEAR so that there is NOTHING in the end that remains still as faith. When we qualify something as FAITH it only means that we have an understanding but still in the UNCONSCIOUS and hence something that has NOT been brought into the 'Iladattaanam', as Meykandar would put it, into the realms of clear consciousness, the "cutta caitanyam" as Akattiyar would put it, so that in experiencing it we are also led to feel the apodictic certainty , the indubitablity in the Cartesian sense. Thinking disconstructively leads us in the end to enjoy pure consciousness, Absolute Understanding, that which in experiencing it also informs from within its absoluteness and hence its indubitablity.
3. Such a kind of thinking is necessary for DEEPENING religious experience itself. As many have observed and as the Siddhas continuously mention it, "vaarttaiyaal onRum illai" -- mere words, a mere study of scriptures are worthless unless the soul is PURIFIED, made Cuttam as the Saivites would say . A soul becomes PURE in this sense when it suffers what are called Tiikkai, literally meaning being burnt singed and so forth. These are the various kinds of sufferings in life that are enacted in fact by BEING for wounding our Ego and making us humble. You can see this in Appar that I just finished translating. He is assailed by a disease that burns his belly and he cries out with unbearable pain and in that also surrenders himself to BEING recalling the Destructive Forms Civa assumes in His world play to combat the evil that is already in the world.
Sufferings that issues forth due to diseases, natural calamities, war and pestilence and now by acts terrorism make us THINK and think disconstructively, see the FAULT in us , the evil propensities that are already there in human beings and think of ways and means to get rid of it, to cleanse the soul with the GRACE of BEING. Disconstructive thinking is then a severe kind of self criticism, standing up to the weakness in oneself and having identified it , get rid of it so that we become converted into a higher kind of species. If all the cultures in the world have this orientation then we can reduce the incidence of barbarism in the world.
Disconstruction of self such as the sufferings in life promote, make it PURER and at the same better fit for the blessings of BEING in the form of the more of the engracing processes within that manifest themselves as deep and profound metaphysical insights, insights that really satisfy the soul and allow it to live in genuine santhi, in real peace.
More in due course.
ULLAGANAR
( Editing and re-paragraphing by his student )
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