Earlier published in PGurus.com
and
At a time Nature-induced unprecedented tragedy is
sweeping across both human and divine abodes in Kerala, the question in the air
is whether this is the result of the wrath of the deity at Sabarimala for interfering
with the rules of the temple and taking it to the court to decide. The judges
of the Supreme Court had reserved their orders, but did Lord Ayyappa deliver
his judgement by making His abode inaccessible to all?
This is not the first time we are hearing this kind
of justification for natural calamities. When the temple of Sri Raghavendra
Swamy at Mantralaya was submerged by the floods of Tungabhadra in 2009, many
people wondered whether it was related to the dismantling of the temple of
Manchalamma, the family deity of Sri Raghavendra Swamy to provide place for his
Brindhavan.
Similarly when a deluge struck at Kedarnath temple
in 2013 caused by a cloud burst, many people attributed the resultant
destruction to the wrath of Dhari Devi whose image was removed from her shrine just
the previous day for the purpose of facilitating water storage for Alakananda
dam under construction.
Linking natural disasters to the so-called ‘wrath’
of the deity is certainly disquieting in this age of reason. It also throws bad
light on the deities in general and on Hinduism in particular. It raises many
questions on the very concept of deities as benefactors and the way they
‘behave’ much like human beings in retaliating when things go wrong for them.
The ultimate question is whether this is what Hinduism seeks to convey. This article
is an attempt to answer these questions through two concepts, the concept of
portents and the concept of deities as living consciousness.
Portents.
Portents are signs or omens that are supposed to
indicate a calamity. Ancient sages of India had studied occurrence of such
portents and found a link between an event and a violation or an event and an
after-effect. Varahamihira in his treatise called Brihad Samhita had compiled
the portents taught by sage Garga to sage Atri in the 46th chapter
of this book. These portents are basically related to the deities in the temple
and the natural calamities caused by fire, rainfall, water (of the rivers) and
wind that foretell the hardships to the people at large. According to the Vedic
sages, they do indicate the displeasure of the deities. This concept seems to
have thrived in the Hindu society for all these ages.
But this doesn’t clear the sullied image of the
Hindu deities as angry ones and those who can be displeased. Are these deities
ordinary mortals who show their displeasure when things don’t happen in the way
they like, is the question that comes to our mind. Without stepping into
theological realms, we can answer this by visualising the relationship between
the deities and human beings in the same way how different elements of the
earth behave.
The earth behaves like a single unit or a unitary
cell. Whatever happens in Nature in one part of the earth has its impact in
another part of the earth. The wind, the heat, the ocean currents, the
atmospheric changes and the like do behave as parts of a single cell and
interact and influence each other with the final result sinking on the earth
impacting human life at some place in some way. This concept is almost accepted
by the scientific community.
Our Vedic sages had gone beyond this level of
understanding and treated the earth, the atmosphere and the stellar space as
one unit- Bhu, Buvah and Svah – because
whatever happens at one impacts the other. A 4th component ‘Mahat’
was discovered by sage Mahachamasya, that encompasses all the three (Taittirya
Upanishad 1- 5.1). This fourth component is known as Brahma or Atma or we can
name it as consciousness for our understanding.
This consciousness pervades all the three levels
starting from the earth in the same way how our consciousness pervades our
physical, vital and mental state of our own existence. Anything that happens in
any part of our body would send a signal throughout the body and different
parts of our body would react accordingly. This concept is applicable to our
larger frame of existence, constituted by Bhu-Bhuvah-Svah. In this larger
frame, every entity including human beings, animals, birds and even natural
forces react or adjust with each other to attain a state of equilibrium – which
at times appears as portents.
Consciousness as
binding factor.
Though Hinduism is vast
source of theological concepts on Gods, the underlying feature is that deities
are living consciousness. The installation of the consciousness happens in two
ways. The Universal consciousness is installed through mantra, yantra and tantra
in temples. The consciousness of those who once lived in flesh and blood is
also installed by the same means. This is based on the logic that nothing
ceases to exist in Nature. The feeling
of I-ness, emotions, aspirations and thoughts that were very much real while
alive cannot disappear into nothingness. All these as part of the consciousness
are expected to live in a place while deified.
This is the idea behind
many deities of Kerala, village deities and roadside deities who are supposed
to guard from accidents those who seek blessings from them. These deities were
once real persons who died while saving someone from death. Until a century ago
this practice of deifying someone who died under distress was in vogue.
Lord Ayyappa was a
historical person who has been deified due to the exemplary nature exhibited by
him while alive. A major difference between Lord Ayyappa and other deities is
that strict discipline is maintained both in the case of upkeep of temple and
also in the lifestyle of the devotees who plan to visit the temple. This
creates a kind of entanglement between the deity and the devotees in such a way
that if anything upsets the equilibrium, it gets a reactionary manifestation somewhere.
A comparable incident
can be quoted from Silappadhikaram, the Tamil Epic on Kannagi who lived 2000
years ago. It tells about a time when the door of the Durga (Meenakshi) temple
at Madurai could not be opened. This was perceived as the anger of the deity
and a search was on to find out the wrong committed. It was found out that an
innocent Brahmin was wrongly confined and only when he was freed, did the
temple door open automatically.
This shows that the
stronger the power of entanglement between the deity and the devotee, instantaneous
would be the result of the violation committed to anyone one in the
entanglement.
These nuances help us
to answer certain questions before us.
1. Many mistakes and
wrongs are reported in many temples. But nothing of the kind of
‘wrath-manifestation’ happens in those places. So the whole idea of Lord
Ayyappa showing his displeasure is wrong and silly.
Loads and loads of
violations and wrongs are being done in most temples. The sanctity of those
temples is definitely afflicted. This is certainly in contrast to Lord Ayyappa
temple where strict adherence to discipline is followed. When it is violated,
it is immediately detected through Prasna and rectified. This temple stands on
a different plane.
2. Floods and natural
calamities are seen in many other places too. Which deity is responsible for
those calamities?
A deity is primarily a
manifestation of consciousness of high level. This consciousness is present
everywhere, even in the natural forces around us. When we are upsetting their
equilibrium, they pay us back. The environment pays us back. Which deity was
responsible for the Chennai Floods of 2015? It was the environment that showed
its fury. As part of the environment we failed to act in unison with Nature as
collective consciousness. The closing of waterways and damage to land paid back
as ‘anger’ or ‘displeasure’ of the deity (Nature).
3. Kerala is in the
front of receiving excessive rainfall all these years. It always stands the
risk of floods and devastation caused by floods. Why connect such a natural
occurrence with a deity?
Kerala had been
receiving incessant rainfall almost on all years. But never in the known past
of 100 years was a devastation of this extent experienced. When it happened, we
look out for the causes. And there exists a cause now in making a tradition and
discipline of this temple subject to judicial scrutiny. Never in the past had
anyone dared to question the tradition of this temple. When it was questioned,
a calamity broke out. This is as simple as that.
However the liberals
would not take any of these ideas. Our only word for them is that at least by
thinking in these lines people get awakened to a collective conscience of a
responsibility towards our environment. Hindu Thought dictates that everything
in the environment – including animals like cows are part of the entanglement
of the consciousness. Let people awaken to the consciousness in everything,
both sentient and non sentient and be aware of their right to existence and
their right to their own tradition and not just the right to one’s own self-interest
3 comments:
Madam you’re thought about this article
https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/20180910-rakhigarhi-dna-study-findings-indus-valley-civilisation-1327247-2018-08-31
Read that article. Its funny. The writer tries to twist the study to justify AIT whereas, Witzel the messiah of AIT rejects the study on the ground that it is based on just two samples. Why they work at cross purposes? Let the author get his stables in place before writing such funny pieces.
I very much wish that comments are posted under relevant articles. My article on Rakhigarhi is here http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2018/06/rakhigarhi-was-aryan-mr-witzel.html
Temple is situated n one of biological hotspots of the world , you still have tigers over which lost it's 98% of orginal range,rules were in place considering wilderness of the place, toughness of travel , protecting wilderness of the place, iit would be a stupid idea to allow females to that place, i went there when i was 12 years old quite long back, there re many restrictons fr construction near temple,duno how it is now,we journey of 50 ppl lterall slept out in open near the temple,that was the only time i did,allowing female means they need more security in place, more reasort, more busness , but to do that an important biological hot spot will come to threat,there more important things to do fr nation and we have stupids who are indulgent on these issues, most seems to be funded by church org...
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