Temple and Existential Psychiatry
Before we pass over, we have also to draw out the implications of the Psychoanalysis of Appar for psychiatry where we take psychiatry as the APPLICATION of psychoanalytic UNDERSTANDING of the mind for solving mental diseases, restoring normality among the abnormal and so forth.
Here we have to note a difference in focus between the Psychiatry of Appar and that of Freud. Appar is also concerned with the so-called normal people with all the social and communication skills intact, like himself for example, besides the abnormal. But metaphysically viewed even such so-called normal people are diseased for they too suffer what is called piRavip piNi, the disease of being born again and again into the world and hence continuously failing in Moksa.
The average individual, even when normal by the average social norms, is DISEASED when looked at metaphysically and against the True Meaning of Existence i.e. attaining Moksa and escaping from the cycle of births and deaths. When the Pharaohs built enormous pyramids to preserve their body, there is this disease for instead of forgetting the bodily existence, it is cherished as eternal. Desiring endless progeny to perpetuate self and with that enjoy a kind of immortality is also part of this disease. When a vain man sets himself up as the Jagadacariya or whatever name you call it, for redeeming the whole of mankind, making people forget God, there is also this disease. In lesser cases whenever a person sets himself up as one who should be worshipped, extolled, submitted to without being questioned and so forth, we have this disease afflicting the soul and hence something very widespread indeed. Each one of us nurture as part of our aims this rising up above the average and become a god-like figure, loved, admired and submitted to by all.
Let us call the psychiatry that cures this disease- the PiRavip PiNi- Existential Psychiatry, notion of psychiatry more inclusive than that of restoring a person to normality. Existential Psychiatry includes this (as dealt by the Tamil Siddhas) as well as the so-called normal people but who are BLIND to their great possibilities for GROWTH as a person and who can raise himself to a condition of being blessed with Moksa. Let us note immediately that not only this notion of “existence itself is a disease” is NOT available either in Freud or Jung, it is also NOT available at all as a fabric of Western Thinking as a whole (as far as I can see). Thus Existential Psychiatry as such is a discipline that is absent not only in the whole of Western Psychiatry but also the whole of Western culture. They are still IGNORANT of the notion of PiRavip PiNi, that this worldly existence they cherish so much and where growth is measured in terms of annual average monetary income of an individual and where social and political success is also measured in terms of the financial reserves hoarded up in the treasury, this disease is active even though as the unconscious.
There are major wars being fought, terrorism of all kinds where huge arsenal and weapons of advanced technologies are made useless, escapism in terms of drug addictions and so forth, pointing out the reality of this disease. The cure to all these is available in noting the possibility that all of us can become what Appar calls ‘aRRu aruL peRRu NinRaar”, or what is the same and as said in KuRaL, “PaRRuka paRRu aRRaan paRRu”, an ideal that would establish us in existential sanity whereby we will not be seeking to become the Pharaoh, Jagadguru and so forth but rather a humble adiyar who would worship BEING and seek His Grace and nothing else. In Existential Psychiatry of Appar what we have is the transmutation of sexual desires, the primordial paRRu or bondage into Universal Love that sees no difference at all among all creatures, the attuviti anbu of Meykandar through destroying alienation (anniyam) from whatever.
Now since the average doctor or professor of Western Psychiatry is IGNORANT of his own diseased nature in this sense , it becomes clear that he is unfit to become the Existential Psychiatrist. The one supremely ignorant of his own condition and blind to the ideal possibility inherent to all and which is as above where sexuality is transmuted into Universal and non-alienating Love, cannot become one who can cure the PiRavip PiNi as such.
This raises the question as to who can in fact be the Existential Psychiatrist. Some would immediately jump to the conclusion that their great Gurus are the only people who can be the authentic Existential Psychiatrists. But noting that there can be corruptions even in this institution where most of the gurus are in fact subtly tyrannical where they want to rule the multitudes as if a Spiritual King, the God on Earth and in Flesh, they cannot in fact be ones who can cure the PiRavip PiNi as they themselves are NOT free of it.
Thus we are to the notion that it is only a TEMPLE and the gods themselves who can be the existential psychiatrists and NOT any mortal man. The temples are the locality where the gods in the depths are somehow visibly present and hence the invisible are made somewhat VISIBLE in the temple though the various representation of icons and where the RITUALS are such that such beings in the depths are made to surface to the fore and be ACTIVELY PRESENT in the foreground of consciousness and hence serving as the eyes of the person. When the SEEING becomes ordained by the deities, it becomes possible to see or at least intuit one’s own IDEAL possibility and hence live an authentic life, a life in the direction of becoming that ideal psycho-dynamics in the direction of Moksa.
This is the substance of the following verse of Appar.
2.
pooz iLaG kaNNiyinaanaip puuntukiLoodum paadi
vaaziyam pooRriyenRu eeththi vadaamiddu aadaa varuveen
aazi valavan ninRu eettum AiyaaRu vawthakinRa pootu
koozi pedaiyoduG kuudik kuLirntu varavana kaNdeen
kaNdeen avar titupaatam kaNdaRiyaatana kandeen
Meaning:
I was coming singing the praise of Civa who as Candrasekaran wears the divided Moon with Uma of flower-silk attire, saying long Live! Praise be to you! and so forth and dancing away moving in circles. Then as I neared the AiyaaRu where stands Vishnu with the Disc on His right hand and praising Siva, I saw on the way, the cockerels coming with the hen having cooled themselves in sexual union. At that point I saw with my mental eyes, the Divine Feet of Siva (where he creates the male and females of all species with agitating the Natam and Bindu). Thus I saw what are impossible to witness with the fleshy eyes alone.
In noting this we also understand why right from at least the Sumerian times the TEMPLE has played such a central role in Agamism or Tantrism. Tantrism is a culture of Existential Psychiatry and hence a scientifically constituted culture where there is recognition that all individuals are capable of Moksa and that it is BEING who can confer this and NO other. We can see that scriptures and gurus are only intermediaries but not absolutely authoritative for none of them can offer Moksa. The temple can in a way do this for in its architecture the idea of deepening and widening the VISIONS of the individuals is incorporated and by the time a person reaches the Sanctum Sanctorum (and always past the Pali Peedam, the sacrificial post), he is led to witness that which is not normally seen, so that he would sing like Appar here “ KaNdariyaatana KaNdeeN’: O I can see now what are normally not possible. Now we can understand why Appar declares:
6: 95-5.
tirukooyil illaata tirvil vuurum
tiruveNNiiRu aNiyaata tirvil vuurum
parkkoodu pattimaiyaaR paadaa vuurum
paaGkinoodu palataLikaL illaa vuurum
viruppoodu veNcaGkam uutaa vuurum
vitaanamum veNkodiyum illaa vuurum
aruppoodu malarpaRittiddu uNNaa uurum
avaiyelaam uurallaa adavi kaadee
Meaning:
The cities that do not have temples with well consecrated icons and hence without the divine Grace; cities that do not have people wearing the Sacred Ash indicating the desire to be Pure in heart and soul; the cities where there are people who are not humble and with genuine Love for BEING do not sing the hymns that melt the heart; the cities where in every street corner there are no simple shrines for people to worship the deities readily; the cities where there are no spiritual individuals who would counsel and with that relieve the confusions of people around; the cities where there are no festivals celebrated with banners and flags raised to create an atmosphere of mirth and joy; the cities where there are people who do not worship the icons with fresh flowers before they eat anything at all - all these cities are NOT genuine cities but simply woods with thick wild growths
The temple, the abode of the Gods in the Sanctum Sanctorum of which resides a deep structure of BEING is in fact an institution of Existential Psychiatry and I believe that when the Western Psychiatry grows and develops it will also become Existential Psychiatry of Appar and so forth and hence the whole of Western culture will become a Temple Culture i.e. Tantric in essence.
ULLAGANAR
( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )
No comments:
Post a Comment