Right from very primitive times Model Thinking in relation to the Cosmos has been a feature of mankind and in which the Cosmos as Mother is perhaps the most ancient. Our anthropologists also mention that the very primitive Mother Goddess figures have very enlarged breasts and groin with the groin part showing also the vagina in the form of a large slit. Many Tantric cults in India promote such models. Some figures also show a child suckling the breasts. Even some animal figures in this form have been given a divine status.
Such primitive and intuitive or unconscious model thinking finds a Metaphysical Explanation in the verse below. The Cosmos is NOT just simply a ballet of lifeless particles, stones and gravitational and magnet forces. Piercing through this crust of materiality is the LIVING Principle, LIFE forces and which demand seeing the Cosmos as a LIVING thing and as a Purusha, Mother and so forth.
Here however Tirumular describes a MODEL of the Cosmos as a WOMAN and all because he wants to make sense of the presence of SEXUALITY and its transmutation into Pure LOVE not just in the creatures but something there in the universe itself and because of which it is also in the creatures. What is not in the cosmos cannot be in the body and which principle is part of the Satkarya Vada, something very central to Saivism.
It is interesting that the FIRE is said to be the parts from the breasts to the groin. The reasons are quite obvious. These are the body parts of a woman that are capable of arousing the sexual desires in man, the most erotic zones in the female body and made to be so only because BEING-as-WOMAN has designed man and woman as such. The breasts are not only for feeding (karumulai) but are also for intense sexual stimulation.
However the FACE is the Pure Space and hence realms of Pure Love. The face contains the EYES and hence represents the SEEING by BEING of all that transpires. When an anma ascends to the level of the FACE and sees that BEING SEES all, and seeks to own the SEEING of BEING as its own seeing, then it transcends sexuality, transmutes it into LOVE.
59.
1974
உரம் அடி மேதினி உந்தியில் அப்பாம்
விரவிய தன்முலை மேவிய கீழங்கி
கருமுலை மீமிசை கைகீழிற் காலாம்
விரவிய சுந்தர மேல் வெளியாமே
உரை:
இவ்வுலகினை அம்மையின் வடிவாகக் காணும்போது, வல்லிதாக உருப்பெற்று எல்லா உயிரினங்களௌம் தங்குதற்கு உரியதாக விளங்கும் இம்மண்ணுலகு, திருப்பாதம் ஆகும். நீர் நிறைந்த எல்லாப் பகுதிகளும் அவளது உந்தி யாகும். பால் ஊட்டுதற்கும் காமவேட்கை எழுப்புதற்கும் கருவியாக இருக்கும் பெருத்து பரந்திருக்கும் முலை தொடங்கி அல்குள் வரை நெருப்பு ஆகும். காமவேட்கை எழுப்பி கரு உற்பத்திக்கு காரணமாகிய முலை தொடங்கி தோள் கீழ் வரை காற்றின் பகுதியாகும். கழுத்தும் முகமும் இந்த நான்கு பூதங்களையும் கொண்டிருக்கும் பரவெளியாகும்.
59.
1974.
uram adi meetini untiyil appaam
viraviya tanmulai meeviya kiizaGki
karumulai miimicai kaikiiziR kaalaam
viraviya cuntara mee veLiyaamee
Meaning:
When we view this cosmos as a WOMAN (and because of the presence of sexuality) we can see the solid Earth (that provides a firm platform for all the creatures) is the FEET. The navel part is the realms of the waters. The parts from the breasts (where the life sustaining milk and sex arousing roundedness are available) to the groin are the realm of Fire. From this breast that are instrumental for species regeneration, upwards towards the shoulders, is the realm of the Wind while the region from the neck to the head is that of Pure Space.
Comments:
Right from Sumerian times the whole of the Cosmos has been seen as huge Person- the Engirsu, the Purusha, the Purushotama, the PerumaaL and so forth. Where the seeing transcends the physicalistic and hence a vision of the Cosmos not simply an astrophysical reality but a LIVING Substance dawns, such articulations also become available. And while Purusha and so forth are masculine, the seeing the whole Cosmos as MOTHER and hence feminine is even more ancient. The Nin-a of the Sumerians, the Great Mother, am-an-ki who has as her daughter In-anna, the creatrix, is an example of this.
But such visions which are in a way anthropomorphic, are precipitated by a certain UNDERSTANDING of the cosmos and here Tirumular notes the presence of SEXUALITY and the species regeneration processes already there as an integral parts of the Cosmic processes.
How to make sense of it against the COSMIC reality? What kind of cosmos is the cosmos in which sexuality and its transcendence is present?
The MODEL of WOMAN presents itself. The solid earth-like realms are her FEET, the watery her navel and fiery from the breast to groins, the windy from the breasts to the shoulders. This exhausts the FOUR butaas or the primordial elements. Then comes the FACE and HEAD as the realms of Pure SPACE.
Here we do not have theorizing that the Brahmanahs emerged from the FACE, the Ksattriyas from the shoulders, the Vaisyas from the belly and the Sudras from the feet and so forth as it is done in Purusha Suktam. What are related to COSMIC WOMAN are the various instincts in all creatures especially the SEXUAL and its transmutation into LOVE. So this is the MODEL of the cosmos to make sense of the presence of SEXUALITY and its transmutation into Pure Love.
ULLAGANAR
( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )
