False Asceticism and Human Destructiveness.
As I plough through the Tamil Bakthi poetry especially the Saivite, I begin to understand more and more the meaning of Bakthi. Admittedly this is NOT something specific to the Tamil mind and perhaps universal, showing itself in various forms.
In the Third Millennium B.C. itself, the enormously philosophical Sirbiyam of Enhudu Anna, a Sumerian priestess and the daughter of Sargon the Great is already a beautiful poetry in Bakthi. Somehow or rather this dimension of religious experience has been cultured and developed among the Dravidian folks right from the ancient times and which I suspect is related to the centrality of temple in the religious culture of the Tamils. This may be true of the whole of India as temples are found in every part of India and now even overseas where the Hindu people are taking roots.
This Patikam of Appar is peculiar in that he seeks an UNDERSTANDING of the genealogy of HATRED that underlies the birth of tyrants and terrorists even in the name of religion or perhaps especially in the name of religion. Hence it again shows the HERMENEUTICAL thrust with which comes Tamil Bakthi. We must note that Appar could have become a terrorist for being born a Saivite then became converted to Jainism and then when he returned to Saivism he was persecuted severely by the Jains and the Pallava Emperor of the times who was a patron of Jainism. So he could have become a terrorists of a kind , all the ingredients were there though he did not.
Added to this is that he had a very unhappy family life that drove him to asceticism ( note: valiteen manaivaazkkai: I suffered family life) but however he did NOT opt for violence though he became a crusader of a kind to bring back Saivism and along with it Tamil language itself. What appears to have prevented him from becoming the hater of mankind and thereby the desire to wipe out the whole of humanity that he would have hated so much is Bakthi, pointing out that Bakthi in another aspect of it, though can install asceticism but not hatred, the visvakrasam, hatred for the whole of humanity and false or misplaced asceticism.
In the following verse he analyses the role of the WOMEN in the genesis of hatred of the world and how the desire for Metaphysical illuminations, metaphorically described as the visions of Third Eye helps out in the maintenance of sanity and the recovery of humanity and thus Bakthi itself. He also seems to imply that the third eye must be functioning along with the normal two - the desire for sexual enjoyment and exultations in intellectual pursuits - for the maintenance of sanity among the religious, the potential tyrants
141
nalamali mangkai nangkai viLaiyaadiyoodi
nayanat talangkaL karamaa
ulakinai eezum muRRum iruNmuudamuuda
iruLoodu neRRik orukaN
alartara vanjcimaRRai nayangkaividdu
madavaaL iRainjca matipool
alartaru cootipoola alarvitta mukkaN
avanaam namakoor araNee
Meaning
The WOMAN, the source of all the good things, was amusing Civa with the form of a tantalizing and alluring beauty and immensely pleasing and good natured Angel. But while playing thus she inadvertently closed the two eyes with her hands, and the whole universe became engulfed in thick and growing DARKNESS so that there was NOTHING manifest as there to behold with the eyes. But at that point only the right and left eyes were closed but not the Third Eye, eye on the forehead. But noting this Darkness , the frightened WOMAN saw with the remaining Third Eye and implored Civa and at which point He restored the Left Eye of the Moon and Right Eye of the Sun ( Vintu and Natham respectively) and made her happy. This BEING with the THREE eyes has become our recluse
Commentary.
A very difficult mythical theme, something that is immensely puzzling specially in connection with the general theme of this Patikam, viz. the genealogy of monstrous irrationalities that underlie the emergence of the tyrannical in world history.
To make sense of this myth, we have to note that BEING does not have eyes in the ordinary human sense and also that Uma does NOT play to amuse BEING in the ordinary sense. So these mythic figures are prototypical and say something about the historical man and woman and hence stand for any man and woman just as the Hero and Heroine of the Sangam Poetry stands for the typical man and woman of all times. Thus we have to understand the meaning in terms of Hermeneutic Semiotics, the meaning communicated in the language of mythologies without ridiculing them as senseless and meaningless only because the meanings are not immediately obvious.
All human beings are endowed with THREE eyes, the left eye related to right hemisphere , the right eye related to left hemisphere and one in the forehead to the Deep Brain, the point where the brain stem meets the cerebellum etc., called the localized Citambaram or CiRRambalam by the Saivites. The Siddhas also explain that the right hemisphere of the brain is given over to Vintu and the left to Natham which respectively establish the inner pressures for sexual enjoyment and intellectual achievements. The third eye related as it is to Deep Brain, is concerned with metaphysical desires, that which underlies the birth of the ASCETIC in man ( and woman) and the attaining of Mukti.
The typical man is subjected to TWO different kinds of manipulations by the typical woman, the Play that arouses sexual desires and that which arouses interest in cognitive competencies. These are two fundamental DESIRES that sustain EXISTENCE but which can unfortunately be made UNAVAILABLE under certain circumstances. The Woman can close these eyes of a man and at which point DARKNESS engulfs. What does this mean?
The darkness here means NOT the absence of the world but rather psychological darkness , a total DISINTERESTEDNESS, a metaphorical darkness. The world even if is there, it is made supremely unappetizing and irrelevant and hence psychologically something inexistent. Hence there seems to be NO EXISTENCE as well.
But fortunately even at this point the Third Eye remains open for it appears to be an eye in man that a woman cannot close or shut down with her tantalizing PLAY and which means the pressure for metaphysical desires remains something in man beyond the reach of the sexually and otherwise alluring females. It remains, because of that, forever OPEN and hence that which gives meaning to existence but not the physical but the metaphysical.
Of course this means ASCETICISM, being closed to the worldly and being mindful only of the metaphysical. But why should this be frightening?
It is here that we see the relevance of this mythical theme to the general theme of the Patikam. For such an asceticism can not only generate a blindness to the world and its charms, but also make the person become DESTRUCTIVE towards it. He does NOT have EYES to see them and if it thrusts itself forcibly, will only provoke the desire to ANNIHILATE and turn it really into an inexistent.
Here lies another genealogical account of the tyrannical, the intense desire to wipe out the whole world, to make the whole universe desolate and nothing.
But nothing to fear. The woman learns her lesson and realizes the worldly eyes must NOT be closed and she should not even playfully close them. Once the sexual and intellectual desires are made ABSENT in the world, there is a possibility that TERRORISM would result. There will be the destruction of the world because of monstrously powerful instinct in that direction.
In order to avoid this and for sanity and balance to prevail in the world, the sexual and the intellectual that comes along with it, the right and left hemispherical functioning of the brain must go on.
ULLAGANAR
( editing and re-paragraphing by his student, Ari Marappan )