Thinking especially the disconstructive form has a place in tempering the emotions or in other words reason must be promoted to temper the passion of emotions. We must always remember our psycho-emotional make-up - both reason and emotions are important - a balance should be preferred.
This is a huge problem, that of tempering and culturing the emotions and for which purpose Agamism cultivates the fine arts as an integral part of Temple Culture that we see so abundantly even in Sumerian culture.
The music and dance , certainly of various qualities, can be tuned to become an art that refines the mind and purifies the soul. All goes to show that AESTHETICS is more fundamental than REASONING including even the dialectical and disconstructive varieties. Deep inside the heart of all there is a need for being BEAUTIFUL psychically and this brings in the dimension of CUTTAM, that of being CLEAN and which means being FREE of dirt. This notion is also available in all other religions sucxh as in the form of 'paricutta aavi", the "genuinely pure soul" and so forth.
But becoming PURE or Cuttam is something, more than aesthetics, more than what can be attained by merging the soul with the mantric melodies of dance and music. And it is here that I see the metaphysical relevance of SUFFERING as such and the consequent Tiikkai , the inward burning or tapas that siege the dirt within as highly relevant.
We suffer all kinds of mishaps in the world. The world process contains within itself elements that induce tremendous PAIN and ANGUISH in our heart . In the ancient times there was the Deluge in which only Jivasudra ( Noah) survived. And throughout world history there were wars and wars and recently the first world war, the second world War and now the Third World War of a peculiar kind -- barbaric and inhuman terrorism arising from some kind of fanaticism. Certainly there will be a retort, a reply causing further bloodshed along with reducing many countries into desolate landscapes and the world process continues thus and it has done so in the past. Such events along with natural disasters, diseases, dry spells, earthquakes and so forth generate PAIN and ANGUISH in the heart of all, even among hard hearted.
Appar returned to Saiva way of life after his misadventure into Jainism and what brought him back is the excruciating PAIN and ANGUISH that he suffered on the onset of what he calls Cuulai Nooy, a kind of disease that burns the intestines and made him fall to the ground and cry out with unbearable PAIN and suffer also ANGUISH in the face of impending death.
Such events in the personal life of individuals and world history are metaphorically understood as the Dance of Destruction of Civa as Rudra, or Civa as KoRRavai, the Kul-kul-amma of the Sumerian times.
But what is the metaphysical significance of PAIN as such? Of tremendous mental ANGUISH as such?
The mind can trap itself in FALSE METAPHYSICS, the metaphysics of mental creations and which are attempts at RATIONALIZING and JUSTIFYING one's own DESIRE , or borrowing a term from Nietsche, as expressions of WILL to Power. There is a tendency in all of us to be aggressive , defeat all others and become the HERO who is worshipped by all, expressed collectively and individually. Tolkaappiyar would put this kind of tendency as one that falls within the Paalaith ThiNai, the ThiNai of desert landscape, the interior ecology that inclines one towards DESTRUCTION and turning the world into a desert both physically and psychologically.
We should view the function of unbearable pain, the fear of death and the anguish that it generates against this background of various kinds of false metaphysics within which man can trap himself. For PAIN and so forth cannot be wished away, one cannot conclude that they are just Mithya Jnaanam, Aroopitam, mental projections and addhyasa, superimposition and supremely inconsequential. The unbearable pain and immense melancholy that swells the heart in the face of disasters PULLS us away from WISHFUL thinking and enclosing ourselves within all kinds of false metaphysics. It forces us to acknowledge REALITY and think about it as it is, understand the world as it is from within itself, as it shows itself from within itself i.e. objectively - uLLatai uLLavaaRu kaaNal, as said in Tamil.
This ushers in thinking hermeneutically and phenomenologically - that of seeing the world as it is and understanding as to why it is so especially about the presence of PAIN producing events as part of the world process. And it is in the course of such thinking that man discovers the presence of EVIL in the world, the dark demonic forces in the world AND in oneself. This insight is most consequential for from the burst of this understanding man begins to see that he is a real filth, a very lowly kind of person, capable of all kinds of evils and that he can rescue himself only by seeking the presence of BEING within. For only BEING, assuming various types of the destructive archetypal forms can destroy the demonic and devilish forces within oneself and in the world. This realization makes us really humble by making us egoless. Not only that - it makes us OPEN up the heart for the engracing blessings of BEING and in order to be fit for it, become PURE at heart.
It is this point that bakthi bursts forth and establishes existence. I must mention here that bakthi is really very ancient and integral to all human beings. The extremely beautiful metaphysical poetry of Enhudu Anna, Sirbiyam ( 2200 B.C.) is one of the most beautiful bakthi poetry to have come from the ancient world. The Agamism is founded upon and fosters Bakthi. The sacred lore of the Tamils, from the Cangkam Paripaadal to Theevaram , Divviya Prabantham and so forth are perhaps the very excellent expressions of genuine bakthi.
It may be possible that what is called FAITH in other belief systems is the same as Bakthi in Hinduism. However I am not sure, despite this possibility, whether there is a complete overlap of meaning. For genuine bakthi is one of the products of UNDERSTANDING and hence disconstructive thinking. It must be recalled here that genuine disconstructive thinking does NOT have other authorities except that of TRUTH, it does not have any scripture as solely authoritative for if it does, disconstructive thinking cannot be practiced everywhere.
ULLAGANAR
( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )
( picture taken from https://www.dingtwist.com/ with thanks )
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