The Tamil Hermeneutics and Metaphysics - Part 30

 On Disconstructing Marxism

Marxism, if I am not mistaken arose through despiritualising the essentially spiritual metaphysics of Hegel. 

His dialectics of thesis antithesis and synthesis was replaced with the dialectics of material forces with its consequent result of looking at history in terms of class wars, bourgeois vs the proletariat. 

The spiritual oneness of mankind was also reunderstood in terms of egalitarian principles and that have become the main aspect of their philosophy that has been immensely appealing throughout the world. And within the background of the caste-promoting Brahmanism, it will continue to be attractive as there is something deeply true and perhaps also deeply spiritual about it. It stands for the equality of mankind in some sense mostly economic and political.

But should spiritual foundation of existence be beyond the rational mind? I don't think so. Once we look at EXISTENCE and analyze it along the lines of Hermeneutic Science and as an exercise in which we GAIN an understanding of existence with INTERPRETING what is available there and this without quoting the scriptures the rishies, acharyas and so forth, we can secure the essential spirituality of existence.

The clue is provided by the following verses of Arunandi from his massive Civanjana Cittiyaar.

He notes the element of LOVE between a man and a woman is essentially spiritual and in this he is helped immensely by the detailed and empirical analysis of LOVE life of Tolkaapiyar and also the Kaamatup Paal of Tiruvalluvar and a host of other such texts in ancient Tamil.

In this there is an interesting theory of evolution which should be termed Disclosive- Evolution as distinct from the Adaptive-Evolution or Emergent-Evolution of the West. The Disclosive Evolution notes that there is a kind of cosmic dynamics where the hidden and concealed, those that lurk in the depths surface to the fore and become the phenomenal. Like the famous box of the Chinese, as you take out one box there is another in it, and another in that and so forth.

The dynamics of LOVE life which is phenomenal and universal, at least among the human beings, has as its Deepest Structure, not the mechanisms of physical, biological, sexual, psychological and so forth but the the spiritual -- BEING differentiating into the MALE and FEMALE and maintaining LOVE as that which binds them. There is LOVE in the world, as the phenomenal presence at least among the human beings only because at the deepest level, there is the WOMAN and MAN in LOVE with each other; the human love life is the Dance of Civa-Sakthi in union with the Civa tatvas - Natham and Bindu.

Perhaps in the disconstruction of the Marxism and the dry materialistic secularism these views of Arunandi, his Disclosive Evolution may be of some use, I think.

46

kaaraNam avaiyenRatu ennai
kadaati pool nikaz kaariyam
neer aNaintu camaintu ninRidum
enpatum neerkiloom
poor aNaintidum onRoodonRu
poruntumaakil varuntiyum
niir aNaitoru tiiyin ninRatu
kaNdataayin nikazttidee

Meaning:

Lokayata! You maintain that it is unnecessary to say it is BEING who feeds the Karma in accordance with the actions effected and because of which we have sexual differences among the creatures and reproductive processes along with it, and maintain that like pots and pans, the reproductive processes are physical in that the basic physical elements come to mix in appropriate measures and emerge as a creature. But however this NOT something observable in the world. Furthermore you maintain that physical elements are attracted to each other by gravitational forces and mixing thus create the offsprings . But again this is unacceptable for we do not see Fire attracting Water and water standing in some combination with Fire. If you have seen instances such as these, let us know.


47.

puutameevum puNarcciyee puri
kaaya kaaraNamaakumeel
kaatal aaNodu peNNum meevu
puNarcci kaaraNam aavaten
aatiyee ulakattil aaNodu
peNNumaay aNai kaariyam
naatan naayakiyoodu kuudi
nayanta kaaranam enparee


Meaning:

Lokayata ! You maintain that reproduction of creatures take place on account of the gravitational pulls the basic elements have for each other and because of which they combine in various ways producing the offsprings and so forth. Then how to explain the fact at least among the human beings this is not so and that sexual arousal that leads to conjugational activities that brings about regeneration of the species take place only on account of LOVE as such. To explain the sexual union of a male and female the wise say all these things are real in the world only because BEING, as the Androgynous Reality has a Male Aspect and a Female Aspect and there comes to be LOVE as such only because the Male looks lovingly at the Female


Notes:

AruNandi is at great pains to point out that the element of LOVE that exists among human beings and which underlies sexual union between a male and female ( possibly also among lower creatures) cannot be explained in terms of gravitational pulls that exist among the brute physical elements or even in turns of psychophysical processes underlying the biological and sexual. The world process is basically physical but written into it is the biological and in it the sexual and psychological.

The biological contains within itself the sexual differentiation. However we have now another reality -- the PSYCHOLOGICAL -- and within which emerges LOVE as such and along with it, the higher plane of existence, the SPIRITUAL.

Love between man and woman, as already studied in great depth by Tolkaapiyar, is NOT any rule governed behavior and, which woman will love which man remains immensely mystical -- always transcends any rules that we can concoct in terms of psychological or sociological principles. Finally it is concluded that LOVE between a man and woman is a matter of aruL, something that happens only because it is willed so by BEING, or as Tolkaappiyar would say 'paalatu aaNai", i.e. happens only in accordance with the DECREE of BEING.

There is LOVE in the world only because at the deepest metaphysical level there is LOVE between BEING-as-Male and BEING-as -Female, the Saivite Adam and Eve. Thus LOVE as such is not even psychical, it EXCEEDS it and because of it rather spiritual. 

The most spiritual remains manifest and phenomenal in the LOVE between a man and a woman.

ULLAGANAR

( Editing and re-paragraphing by his student )

The Tamil Hermeneutics and Metaphysics - Part 29

 IraavaNaa : He who Transgresses Ethics

Mythology is NOT simply a communicative devise the intelligent njanies devise to educate the intellectually incompetent.

It is a language by its own that embody AXIOMATIC TRUTHS, the piramaaNas in the sense of Meykandar that even the most intelligent entertain. It is dumb and mute but precisely because of that, immensely communicative of TRUTHS beyond the cluster of words and clangs of mantras.

The myths encrypt a deep truth that require deciphering and understanding and this can take the whole lifetime but even then there is no guarantee that the truth will be grasped. Like the Athicudi of Auvaiyar who invented the strategy to teach moral principles along with the Tamil alphabets (like 'aRam ceyya Virunbu" : you should love to do the good), a person learns as a 5 year old child these aphorisms only to ponder over them for the rest of his life to understand them.

The myths stay in the mind of both the njanies and the commoners flashing out INSIGHTS into the workings of the world and thereby LIGHTING UP UNDERSTANDING so that existence becomes something they understand.

IraavaNaa has figured more in the hymns of Nayanmars than Rama . This is specially so in the hymns of Appar where in almost every patikam there is a verse concerning defeat of IraavaNaa in the hands of Civa. Thus this mythical theme must have been something enormously MEANINGFUL and certainly something to do with Bakthi.

IraavaNaa, among other things is also the one who ventured to SHAKE the foundations of World Process itself, the Kailash where resides Civa with His beloved Parvathy. IraavaNaa is a prototype for anyone who, feeling mighty powerful on his own, cannot stand any CONSTRAINT whatever for his actions, someone wants to be a foundation unto himself and becomes the arch dissenter, the destroyer of whatever that stands as an authority.

But of course EXISTENCE has its own ETHICAL constraints and no matter how powerful an individual is, he too is bound to live by these elements of Dharma, and any attempt to throw them out or transgress will only result in losing everything, including the good health.

So reasons Appar in the following verse.


Appar 144

kadukiya teercelaatu kayilaaya miitu
karuteel un viiramozi nii
mudukuvatu anRu tanmammena ninRu paakan
mozivaanai nanRu muniyaa
viduvidu venRu cenRu viraivuRRu arakkan
varaiyuRRu edukka muditooL
nedunedu viRRuviiza viraluRRa paata(m)
ninaivuRRatu en tan mananee


Meaning:

Thinking that there should be NO rivals to him, including the Godhead, IraavaNaa dared to visit on a chariot Kailash itself where resides Civa with Parvathy and to shake it down destroy. The charioteer noting this with regret advised IraavaNaa saying that no chariot can ever enter Kailash and also such an act would be supremely unethical, IraavaNaa nevertheless urged on further being also very angry with him. On reaching the mountain he bent down to shake the foundations but Civa noting this pressed a little with his toes whence IraavaNaa's crown as well as the body shattered to pieces. Unable to bear the pains he cried loudly. The feet of Civa that made IraavaNaa cry thus is something I recall now in view of the current circumstances.

Commentary:

In almost every patikam Appar never fails to recall IraavaNaa and how he was humiliated by Civa and made submissive to him. Perhaps in the personality of the Mahendra Pallava, the mighty emperor who persecuted him, Appar saw the presence of IraavaNaa, the archetypal figure, the embodiment of the Evil and Unethical and in this a Saivite Anti-Christ of a sort. IraavaNaa, as the archetypal figure is something that all us are capable of becoming and hence something deep within us and hence something that can erupt into our consciousness and take possession of us
and transform our personality into something evil and of course extremely arrogant, a ten-headed fierce figure.

IraavaNaa wants to shake the very Kailash where resides Civa with his Parvathy, the WOMAN who is His equal half. Residing there HE RULES the whole universe making sure the Tanmam or Tarumam (Sanskrit Dharma), the ethical principles are NOT violated but adhered to.

Everything in the world is ruled by ETHICS with a stubbornness that we cannot overcome and hence be free. No matter how powerful politically we are, finally there is the transpersonal ETHICALITY of the actions we do and hence ultimately we are accountable to BEING in terms of the actions we do. We CANNOT transgress the ethical regulation of our praxis and which is NOT purely a matter of economical issues or even that of sharing political powers and so forth. The Ethics is there guiding our journey into the metaphysical realms and finally the Kailash , the Saivite version of the Paradise the mythical rendering of CiRRambalam, Citambaram or Tillaiampalam , the realm of absolutely Pure Consciousness and where shines Civanjanam.

IraavaNaa in the Tevaram corpus is the prototypical figure who DARES to challenge even this ethical foundation of existence itself and after destroying it rebuild it as HIS OWN, i.e. Displace Godhead and emplace himself in His place so that his will become that which is GOOD for everybody and hence that which is ethical. In other word, IraavaNaa becomes the prototypical figure of a man who would, instead of approaching BEING with genuine Bakthi, would try to become God Himself -- saying or implying "I am God" , "I am the Way" etc.

But of course IravaNaa is taught a lesson -- though mighty as an Emperor but in comparison with BEING who has the Cauldron of Power itself, Parvathy, as His equal Half, his is infinitesimal and on account of which Civa just has to press a little the hill with his toe to destroy everything that is the source of power for IraavaNaa.

He loses his crown i.e. all his political powers. And on top of that he loses his mighty shoulders, that which stands for the extremely strong physical body. For the body can become weak through diseases and old age which begin to afflict a person if he is arrogant and UNETHICAL. 

What is IMMORAL elicits the aaNavam the poison that kills if not regulated and kept under control by the Dancing Feet of BEING as Civa Nadarajah. Diseases that make a person shudder with fear and lose all the bodily strength is what comes to prevail when the ethical principles are violated.

ULLAGANAR

( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )

The Tamil Hermeneutics and Metaphysics - Part 28

 Sutarsan and the Destruction of Ego-inflation

Genuine mythologies are different from mental fantasies that border science fictions of a kind, a product of cognitive processes gone cancerous, fantasies produced without any control. 

Genuine mythologies as products of transductive perceptions painfully gained by gifted individuals and they EXPLAIN the historical phenomena so that we have a better understanding of it. This means that they allow interpreting them and relating them to the natural or historical. Genuine mythologies in Hinduism are of this sort though it is intermixed with so much that are pure fantasies that disclose no meanings except a certain kind of bizarre fertility of the mind.

In the following verse Appar attends to the cases in which a person can become tyrannical when he gets initiated into the metaphysical realms, the realms of the night journeys where the hidden and the concealed are disclosed and the person who experiences this becomes somewhat TRANSPERSONAL and sometimes ego-inflated because of that. The Asura who lurks in these realms of the night journeys is called Calantaran , meaning he who lurks in the waters, here the paaRkadal, the ocean of milk over which lies the Atisesha and over which sleeps Thirumaal or Vishnu.


It is a Saivite mythical theme in which Vishnu figures but drives in the point that Sutarsan is the weapon that can kill Cantaran, a mythical theme hermeneutically very significant. Sutarsan is a symbolically a disc but the meaning indicates that it is the Vision of TRUTH that can kill Cantaran, the Asura of Ego-inflation.


More analytical comments below.

143

tadamalar aayirnagkaN kuRai onRataaka

niRaivenRu tan kaN atanaal

udan vazipaadu ceyta tiumaalai entai

perumaan ukantu mikavum

cudaradiyaal muyanRu cuzalvittu arakkan

itayam piLanta kodumai

adalvali yaazi aaziyaan avanukku aLitta

avanaam namakor caraNee

Meaning:

Tirumaal, one of the root archetype of BEING is said to sleep over the KundaliNi snake over the ocean of milk. When such a BEING was disturbed by an evil force, Calantaran, Tirumaal to combat and defeat him, began to worship Civa to procure the disk, Sutarsan , as a blessing from HIM. When he started his worship with a thousand flowers and when he noted that one was missing, he plucked out one of own eyes with that as flower and completed the prayer. Civa pleased with it generated the disc by creating a whirlpool of light with his brilliant feet and granted to him. This disc, the Sutarsan, a powerful and terrible weapon which split open the chest of Calantaran and killed him. This Civa who is capable of this is really our recluse.

Commentary:

Now Appar takes up the problems men face and sometimes even become tyrannical as a result of what can be called the night journeys, journeys into the Depth Psychological World, the metaphysical realms and which world is said to be ruled by Tirumal, or Maha Vishnu, He who is known as the archetype of aRituyil, the false sleep in which seeing continues however. This seeing is NOT the ordinary seeing with two flesh eyes but rather the Third Eye, the eyes of night dreams, and lucid dreams, visions of transductive perceptions that erupt in the case of some individuals and catches them by surprise and where the world of unconscious becomes visible for the first time.

Such experiences emerged when the soul is possessed or taken over by this Tirumaal who is said to govern this world. He is said to operate sleeping over the coiled thousand hooded SNAKE, Atisesha and over the Paarkadal, the ocean of Pure Milk, mythic themes that need to be interpreted and understood. The Snake, Atisesha is the Coiled Power, the Kundalini, the enormous psychical ENERGY that is required for enjoying and persisting in the realms of transductive perceptions. It lies on the PaaR Kadal, the ocean of Pure Milk and which means Pure Consciousness or some kind of deep metaphysical understanding. Thus it explains the PRECONDITION for an individual to be blessed with the grace of Tirumal and hence gaining illuminations about the concealed metaphysical realms.

However even here emerges the evil force Calantaran, which literally means "he who resides in the waters". For sometimes individuals forgetful of BEING and that whatever extraordinary metaphysical illuminations that they enjoy are actually gifts of BEING and that there can be many such individuals, in fact anyone who satisfies the preconditions can enjoy it. Such individuals become EGO-INFLATED and begin to think that they are UNIQUE and SPECIAL and hence someone like a messiah who has come to rescue the whole of mankind and so forth.

Though the metaphysical journeys have the capacity to destroy all the mental constraints and delimitedness of understanding, and changes the personality in the direction of transpersonality, but sometimes it so happens that they become intoxicated with such revelations and mesmerized by such visions, begin also their political activities in which they seek to REALIZE the new image they have of themselves. They become like a politically ambitious warriors who set out to conquer the whole world and bring it under his ONE umbrella and hence messianic individuals of a kind who set out to conquer the whole of the Spiritual World so that the whole of humanity become submissive to him and ONLY to him. In fact he makes people FORGET the true source of all greatness -- BEING Himself -- and worship also becomes displaced, from being unto BEING ONLY to the messiah-like individual.

This is being possessed by the Evil Force Calantaran and about which Tirumal cannot do anything. For it requires someone TRANSCENDENT to the realms of  the Night Journeys, transcendent to the world of the transductive persons. Tirumal knowing this, prays to Civa, who is noted here as BEING itself, the Absolute that beyond and above which there is NOTHING. He has a prayer and with sacrifices appropriate to the boons that he is praying for, the Disc of Cutarsan. But for this he has to give up one of his own eyes and which means that he has to give up being caught up in the world of Night journeys and look BEYOND and ABOVE with the understanding the realms of night journeys do NOT exhaust the WORLD as such.

The word "sutarasan" means sudar - tarisanam, the witnessing of BEING as Radiance or su-tarisanam , authentic seeing or Truth-Seeing. It is forged by BEING Himself out of a whirlpool created by the DANCE of His feet of Light, sudar adi. And this means that the WEAPON that can finally KILL ego-inflation and thus reduce such paranoiac individuals to become REALISTIC and humble is the vision provided by sutarsan, the vision of TRUTH as such, that which makes an individual truly mystical and at the same infinitely humble and gentle and of course a True Bakta.

In the iconography of Tirumal we have this Disc on the left shoulder and Conch on the Right. The conch stands for CALLING people unto to metaphysical world through the art of Upatesa, metaphysical discourses. But now he is also endowed with Sutarsan which means that Upatesam is combined with search for TRUTH, it is organized so that it ceases to be purely imaginary, a flight into the world of fantasy but rather a meaningful delving into the depths always mindful that only TRUTH must be sought and that one should NOT be misguided on the way into becoming the messiah and so forth.

ULLAGANAR

( Editing and re-paragraphing by his student )