The Metaphysical Gynecology of Tirumular - Part 6

Gynecology as Hermeneutic Science

As Tirumular is fully aware, Saivism in contrast to Buddhism, Vedanta and so forth developed the whole range of metaphysical disciplines as different branches of Hermeneutic Sciences and perhaps to this day it is Tamil culture as a whole that remains faithful to this. 

In the verse below Tirumular attends to some of the philosophical issues by articulating the notion of  Agentive Cause as  the essential notion of causality with its attendant synchronicity of Cause and Effect. This notion is intuitable if we look at the fact that an action can be a fact of life only when someone remains its agent - the moment the agent ceases his agency the actions also cease to be there as reality.

This carries along with it the notions of Deep Structure( DS) and Surface Stricture(SS) that Tirumular seeks to communicate with such concepts as akam-puRam , cuukkumam-tuulam etc. This  also brings along with it the notion of TEXTUALITY of understanding - a TEXT as  that which has a SS that shows as its depth the DS and with the same kind of Agentive Causality. The DS is Nimitta KaaraNam for whatever SS features we notice. 

To understand a phenomenon scientifically is to locate the DS that determines the observable features of SS and gain knowledge of the causal linkage that exists between the two.

Thus it is in this vain that human gynecology is seen  by Tirumular as the expression of the Cosmic Gynecology the causal basis of both of which is the SAME, viz. BEING, the Primordial Seed of all.  The creature gynecology is ISOMORPHIC with cosmic gynecology and the various joyous experiences that configure the reproductive processes of creature sexuality are actually something present as cosmic reality and hence everywhere.

9.

1931

அதுவித்திலே நின்று அங்கு அண்ணிக்கும் நந்தி

இதுவித்திலே உளவாற்றை யுணரார்

மதுவித்திலே மலர் அன்ன மதாகிப்

பொதுவித்திலே நின்ற புண்ணியன் தானே

உரை:

அதுவித்தாகிய  அண்டம் பேரண்டம் ஆகியவை தோன்றுதற்கு மூல பரவித்தாகத் தோன்றி, அதன் வழி அப்பாலுக்கு அப்பால் நிற்கும் தூரம் போக்கி ஆன்மாக்களின் அறிவிற்கு நெருங்கி வரும் பரசிவன், உயிர்களை பிண்டப்பொருளாக ஓர் உடம்போடு எழும் ஒன்றாக தோன்றுதற்கு மூலமாக இருக்கும் பிண்டவித்தாக  உள்ள ஆற்றை பலர் உணரார். காமவின்பம் போன்ற இன்பப் புசிப்புகளுக்கு மூலமாக இருக்கின்ற குண்டலினி தரும் பலவகையான புசிப்புகளுக்கு காரணமாய் இருப்பவன், எல்லாமும் தோன்றுதற்கு  மூலமாக இருக்கும் பொதுவித்தாகிய குடிலையில் இலங்குகின்ற அப்புண்ணியனே யாகும், வேறல்ல என்றவாறு.

9.

1931.

atu vittilee ninRu aGku aNNikkum Nanti

ituittilee uLavaaRRai yuNaraar

matuvittilee malar anna mataakip

potuvittilee ninRa puNNiyan taanee

Meaning:

BEING who presents Himself as close to the anmas through serving as the Cosmic Seed for the genesis of the whole of the cosmos, also stands - and many do not appreciate this- as the seed for the genesis of the creatures (with a body and so forth). This seed as the KuNdalini becomes the various kinds of  pleasure producing experiences. Here too we have BEING as the Good One who is also the most universal Seed of all.

10.

1932.

வித்தினில் அன்றி முளை இல்லை  அம்முளை

வித்தினில் அன்றி வெளிப்படு மாறில்லை

வித்தும் முளையும் உடனன்றி வேறல்ல

அத்தன்மை யாகும் அரனெறி காணுமே

உரை:

வித்தாக ஒன்று இல்லையெனில், அதனின்று முளையாக யாதும் தோன்றாது.  இனி முளையாக அரும்புவது, வித்தாக யாதோவொன்றைத் தன் மூலமாகக் கொண்டுதான் உற்பவிக்கும்.  இனி இவை வித்து அழியவே முளை தோன்றும் தொடர்ச்சியில் படும்  எனில், இல்லை, வித்தும் முளையும் இவ்வாறு பௌதிக காரணகாரியமாய் இல்லாது வினைமுதல்-வினைபடுபொருள் என்றவாறு உடன்நிகழ்ச்சி பொருட்களாகும். இவ்வகையில்  கண்டு தெளிவதுதான் சிவநெறி யாகும் - இறைவன் விட்டகலாது உடன் இருந்துகொண்டே உலகங்களையும் ஆங்கு நின்று நிகழும் அனைத்தையும் சேடித்தவாறு இருப்பன்.

10.

1932.

vittilee anRi muLai illai ammauLai

vittinil anRi veLippadu maaRillai

vittum muLaiyum udananRi veeRalla

attanmai yaakum araneRi kaaNumee

Meaning:

There can be no sprouts without seeds. And such sprouts cannot also come into being-there without having something as its seed form. Now on the basis of the notion of agentive cause , both the seed and sprout forms are simultaneously present. This is the  way the whole of causality and the genesis of everything is seen in the Way of Aran, i.e. Saivism

Comments:

Now in these verses Tirumular is at pains to show that the Causal Ground of the cosmos as a whole also serves as the causal basis of the local and individual.  Thus the cause of the macroscopic cosmos is also present as the cause at the microscopic individual level imputing thereby an ISOMORPHISM of a kind. 

This is one of most well known insights of Tirumular where he links the cosmic with the local individual by noting the presence of the cosmic within the individual.

The focus here is the Causal Basis of cosmos and the various  individuals inhering in it and where the notion of CAUSALITY is that of the Hermeneutic causality of Agentive Cause, the Nimitta KaaraNam,  as they say.

The seed and the sprout that emerges from it are brought in to explain some aspects of this relationship.  While seed-sprout relationship explains partly the notions of Cause and Effect, but that it is only at the death of the seed that the sprout emerges is denied here by saying that both are simultaneously present. The sprout is NOT the transformation of the seed but something emerges as there only because something else and which is simultaneously present along with the sprout. Thus what serves as the seed form agentively brings to birth the sprout form remaining there but as the Deep Structure.

Now in these verses Tirumular also descends upon the PHENOMENAL - the LOCAL, the experiences the creatures enjoy, the FOOD-Like pleasures of life and which are central in the reproductive processes that perpetuates the species. 

The gynecological moves of the creatures are ultimately linked to the cosmic - there is the gynecology of the cosmos and creature gynecology is only a local  expression of it.

Loganathan @ Ullaganar