Sattaimuni Macchamuni Konkanavar Kuruvoorar Patanjali

Pabatti Valmiki Goraknath Bhogar

Namuular

Kudambai Thirumoolar Idaikadar Danvanthri

Issue 10 Volumes 1-6 July - December 2009

Nandidevar Sundaranandar Agastiyar Kamalamuni

 Publishers & Founding Editors ISSUE 09 VOLUMES 1-6 JANUARY - JUNE 2009
Robert Moses & Eddie Stern
4 VAIDYA: THE WISDOM OF VEDIC HEALING
Advisors Raja Deekshitar
Dr. Robert E. Svoboda
Meenakshi Moses 8. RISHYASHRINGA & SHANTA
~ A tantric rendering
Jocelyne Stern
Graham Bond
Editors 12 NAMASKAR
Meenakshi Moses THE MEANING AND THE BENEFITS
Eddie Stern Dr. Jayant Athaval©
Design & Production 18 THE SĪTĀ UPANIŠAD
Robert Moses Translation by
Eddie Stern Alain Daniélou
Diacritic Editors 25 REFLECTIONS ON GANGA
Vyaas Houston Rebecca Weismann
Isaac Murchie 32 SVADHYAYA AND THIRUMALAR
Srivatsa Ramaswami
Circulation & Distribution
Youngblood Roche 36 THE SCIENCE OF SYMBOLS & THE
PRINCIPLES OF HINDU RELIGIOUS ART
Assistance from Alain Daniélou
Deborah Harada
44 ON THE ABSTRACTION OF ‘SACRED’
Website Development FORMS IN THE ART OF M.F. HUSEIN
Matt Alexander Siddarth V. Shah
Kendal Kelly 52 A Reader’s Review by Rebecca Weisman
Robert Moses THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI:
A NEW EDITION, TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY:
WITH INSIGHTS FROM THE TRADITIONAL
COMMENTATORS BY EDWIN F. BRYANT
Cover: Eighteen Siddhars, accomplished 56 MAURICE ‘BHARATANANDA’ FRYDMAN
yogis of southern India, mostly in the Abdi Assadi
Tamil speaking regions.
58 A Reader’s Review by Rachael Stark
THE JOURNEY HOME
Autobiography of an American Swami
BY RADHANATH SWAMI

NÄMARÇPA uses diacritical marks, as per the chart shown on the

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
Sri Swami Vishnu-devananda
right, for the transliteration of all Saêskäta words. While many of
the articles do contain these marks, it is not a universal occurrence
in the magazine. In those cases where authors have elected not to use
diacritics, Saêskäta words remain in their simple, romanized form.
Chart by Vyaas Houston.

2 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

 Shiva Natraja
British Museum, London, UK
Photograph Robert Moses
August 2009

अ आ इ ई उ ऊ
a ā i ī u ū
ए ऐ ओ औ
e ai o au
ऋ ॠ ऌ ॡ अं अः
ŗ ř ļ ĺ ał aģ
क ख ग घ ङ
ka kha ga gha ńa
च छ ज झ ञ
ca cha ja jha ña
ट ठ ड ढ ण
ţa ţha ďa ďha ņa
त थ द ध न
ta tha da dha na
प फ ब भ म
pa pha ba bha ma
य र ल व
ya ra la va
श ष स ह
śa ša sa ha
� � �
kša tra ña
July to December 2009 3
 VAIDYA
THE WISDOM OF VEDIC HEALING
RAJA DEEKSHITAR©

O ne of the great Vedic scholars

and saints of the 20th century, the
late Shankaracharya of Puri, Jagadguru
Shankaracharya Shri Bharati Krishna
Tirtha Maharaja (1884‑1960), said of
the Veda

“The very word ‘Veda’ has its derivational

meaning, i.e. the fountain‑head and
illimitable store‑house of all knowledge.
This derivation, in effect, means, connotes
and implies that the Vedas should contain
within themselves all the knowledge
needed by mankind relating not only
to the so‑called ‘spiritual” (or other
worldly) matters but also to those usually
described as purely ‘secular’, ‘temporal’,
or ‘worldly’; and also to means required
by humanity as such for the achievement
of all‑round, complete and perfect success
in all conceivable directions and that
there can be no adjectival or restrictive Mani or gems are used for healing.
epithet calculated (or tending) to limit
that knowledge down in any sphere, any According to some we can distinguish alleviation or cure of disease. It can also be
direction or in any respect whatsoever.” 4 sciences; (1) the Veda; (2) logic used in the sense of tranquility, rest, and
(From ‘Vedic Mathematics’, and metaphysics; (3) the science of final happiness, the emancipation from all
1965, etc., 1998, p XXXVII) government; (4) the practical arts such the illusions of existence.
as medicine. Disease in a human being arises

T he Sanskrit verb‑root vid means

to know, understand, perceive,
and learn. Derived from this root Veda
means literally knowledge, especially
revealed knowledge. In general use it
refers to the four sacred texts, which
constitute the very heart and center
of the spiritual framework nowadays
known as Hinduism. Another derivation
of the root vid is the word vidya, which
refers to learned knowledge or science.
Ancient and traditional medical science
is known as vaidya, a direct derivative of
the word vidya. This shows the intimate
connection between the Veda and this
specific science. To heal, on the other
hand, is expressed through the verb‑root
sham. This root carries as primary
meaning ‘to exert oneself, especially in
performing ritual acts’. But also ‘to pacify’,
‘to destroy’, ‘to sooth’, ‘to hurt or injure’.
The word shama means healing, the
when an imbalance creates a gap or
hiatus within the structure and process
of the organism. This immediately
produces disorder in the human system.
Whether this hiatus is of a physical or a
non‑physical nature is not of immediate
importance. The hiatus will result in an
imbalance in the three Doshas or humors
in the human system. These humors are
the life forces of Vata, Pitta and Kapha.
A physical problem can reveal itself first

4 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

through the mind. And a psychological The Manomaya Kosha is called the in biological gardening and farming.
problem can express itself through the sheath of intellect or will. It forms And even for the expulsion of rats in
physical body. Vedic healing is in the the sukshma sharira, or subtle frame. situations where they form a plague.
first place non‑dualistic and holistic. It can be identified with what in the Sound, the first power principle
Causes and effects need not always be West is sometimes called the astral working in the instrument of mantra,
exactly established, although the deepest body. It acts as it were as a bridge or is called shabda in the Vedic tradition,
possible understanding of the origin and connection between the transcendental which means both sound, word, as
root of a problem will always be helpful and the physical planes of existence. It is well as the cosmic vibration OM. In
to the process of healing. therefore intimately connected with the the mantra shabda or sound takes on
Healing is the recognition of a gap or power and functioning of the principle several aspects. First of all the mantra’s
hiatus and the filling and closure of this of mantra, or sacred sound formula. The functioning as an instrument for the
gap with the appropriate essence. Thus word mantra literally means ‘instrument influencing of consciousness in general,
restoring the organism to the necessary of thought or mind’. In mantra three and as an instrument of healing in
balance and harmony. power principles are integrated or particular is based in the svara or the
Ancient Vedic healing applied three synthesized. These are sound, meter and pitch and the melody of the chanting.
healing principles. They are (1) mani meaning. Here it is the distance between the tones
or gems, (2) mantra or sacred sound
formulas, (3) and aushadha or medicine,
which could be either herbal or mineral.
These three healing principles each
relate to one of the koshas or sheaths,
which according to Vedic doctrine
together constitute the embodiment
of the human being. They are the
Ananda Maya Kosha or causal body;
the Manomaya Kosha or astral body:
and the Anna Maya Kosha or physical
body. We can also relate these three
Koshas to the three planes of being,
respectively the transcendental of pure
consciousness; the subtle or astral of
intellect and thought; and the gross of
the emotional and physical body. Each
of these plane will be affected in their
own way by an imbalance or disease.
The Ananda Maya Kosha can be called
the sheath of bliss. It forms the karana
sharira, or causal frame. It constitutes the
transcendental plane of being, the higher Vedic chanting invoking the festival drum.
self or super consciousness. It is most likely
to be vulnerable to imbalances relating to
the transcendental or divine plane. These
express themselves on the human plane
O ver the past few decades the
vibrations of sound have been
extensively researched in a scientific
or notes, which creates the impact. The
svara or pitch relates to the functioning
of geometrical space through frequency
through the influences of the planetary context for both their positive as well as and wavelength. These affect a
forces, which can be read through their negative influences. For instance mysterious energy for healing.
the analysis of a person’s horoscope. plant growth can be either positively The second aspect of sound lies in
Negative planetary influences have been or negatively impacted through certain the actual phonetics of the syllables and
traditionally subsided with the help of types of music. Classical Indian music words as sound entities. Each syllable of
appropriate gemstones. Each planetary based on Ragas has been shown to the Sanskrit alphabet has its particular
power has its fitting gemstone, according have to most positive influence. deity or power as the principle behind
to color and crystal character. It should be Classical Western music also has a it’s functioning.
worn fitted in the right metal as a ring or positive influence although less notable, The second principle which gives
pendant. According to the individual case whereas modern Western rock music power to a mantra is that of meter
the wearing of a particular stone should has an altogether negative impact on or chandas. Meter creates rhythm,
be advised for certain periods, or on a plant growth. Sound vibrations are expressing the functioning of time.
permanent basis. momentarily also used for pest control Long and short syllable, as well as, once

July to December 2009 5


Spices for cooking and for healing.
again, the space in between, together
bring about particular changes in states
of consciousness, producing the healing
energy.
The third principle lending its power
to mantra is that of meaning. Mantras
are not purely physical sound vibrations
such as the ones used for the repelling
of insects, or the testing of large
constructions. Besides the principles of
svara and chandas the principle of artha
or meaning creates a special higher
dimension to the functioning of the
power of mantra. Meaning functions as
the connection or bridge between the
field of matter (sound, vibration) and
the field of consciousness.
It must be understood that mantra as
a carrier of power through sound, meter
and meaning is always accompanied
by ritual action. We will come back to
the meaning and functioning of ritual
action a little further in this article.
T he Anna Maya Kosha, the sheath
of nourishment forms the sthula
sharira or the gross frame. This is the
physical body. Its healing is undertaken
through the application of medicines,
either herbal or mineral. This is called
aushadha. Herbal medicines are
primarily applied within the traditional
healing system called Ayurveda. Its name
means ‘longevity’. It is considered one
6 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
of the sacred sciences and a supplement
to the Atharva Veda. It contains eight
departments.
Herbal compounds can be given orally,
as pills, tinctures (after fermentation),
or mixed with clarified butter or ghee.
Ayurveda is also well known for the
application of herbal compound oils
through special massaging techniques.
In this the ancient knowledge of the
nadis or meridians, the energy currents
through the body, is essential.
T he second ancient system of
medicine practiced since time
immemorial is that which is called
Siddha. Siddha means first of all
accomplished, acquired, and successful.
It is also applied to certain super natural
faculties which can be attained through
the practice of yoga. But it also means
sacred and divine, and healed or cured.
Siddha medicine is one of the branches
of traditional Vedic alchemy. It traces its
origin to the Rishi Agastya. As Agastya
is strongly identified with the southern
part of the subcontinent it is here that
Siddha medicine is most widely known
end practiced. As it is a science with
its roots in alchemy we find it applies
mostly medicines of a mineral nature.
Whereas Indian Ayurvedic or herbal
medicine knows no contra indications
or other dangers in the application of
the medication, Siddha medicine works
with compounds that can be poisonous,
especially when applied without enough
expertise. A thorough knowledge and
careful, responsible application are
imperative.
H ere we conclude our discussion
of the three basic approaches to
healing as practiced within the ancient
Vedic doctrine. It clearly shows its
non‑dualistic and holistic approach to
the several aspects of the human being,
not only as a physical as well as a mental
entity, but also a transcendental being,
giving attention to the needs of that
part of our essence which we can call
our higher consciousness.
N ow I will turn to a discussion
of another very important aspect
of traditional and ancient Vedic healing.
That is the principle of ritual action or
sadhana. In reality it is not practical
or useful to distinguish too sharply
between different aspects of healing
within the framework of tradition and
doctrine. According to the individual
and his or her problem or complaint
and the particular angle or specialty
of the healer involved, several possible
strategies can be employed which will
almost always involve more than one of
the principles mentioned and described
in this article. And more often than not
the strategy will include some form of
sadhana.
The word sadhana translates literally
as ‘leading straight to a goal’. It is
generally used to denote an instrument
of accomplishment, such as ritual
performance, worship or propitiation.
It is also used in the meaning of healing
or curing of a disease, in the sense of
subduing. Here I use it to denote three
main paths of spiritual practice and
ritual performance included within the
Vedic tradition. These are the Vedic
ritual of sacrifice or yajna, the Agamic
ritual of worship or puja and the
spiritual practice known as yoga.
Although they may seem to have very
different appearance at the outer level, at
their core they are actually rooted in the
same worldview and doctrine and based
on the same cosmic spiritual principle.
Each can be developed or evolved from
the other through the application of the
principles of resemblance, replacement
and correspondence.
All three spiritual sadhanas have as the
core of their functioning the principle of
arohana and avarohana, or ascend and
descend. In a way it can be said that this
is their essential secret and mystery. In
the Vedic sacrifice the sacrificer ascends
to ‘heaven’, but in order to complete
the sacrifice and make it successful it
is imperative that he also descends,
returning to his point of origin after the
transforming experience of the ritual.
The Agamic tradition also incorporates
this same principle through the ascend
and descend of the deities flag in
connection with for instance temple
festivals. The Flag is painted with the
particular sacred vehicle of the deity.
For instance the sacred bull for Lord
Shiva and the lion for the Goddess.
This Flag is hoisted into the Flag mast
of the temple, to be lowered after the
conclusion of the festival.
In yoga, and especially in one of its
branches, Kundalini yoga, we find
once again this same cosmic, spiritual
principle at work. The Kundalini energy,
visualized as a snake curled up at the
root. of the spine, is raised through the
practice of yoga. Eventually it must reach
the seventh chakra or Sahasradara at the
very top of the skull. This establishes the
connection of the human jives with the
transcendental divine cosmic energy.
But to actually successfully complete
this sadhana it is imperative to bring the
Kundalini energy back to its origin at
the root of the spine. It is my personal
experience that this principle is not
well known to many Western teachers
and practitioners of yoga, which leads
to many misunder­standings and even
damage to their well‑being.
We may note here that in the so
called ‘primitive’ religious practice of
the Shamanistic religions the same
principle is at work. The Shaman,
sometimes accompanied by his patient,
ascends to the other world, to ‘heaven’,
communicates with the spiritual powers
which inhabit this world, and eventually
descends again, having accomplished
the objective of his spiritual .journey.
To me this establishes the strong unity
which exists at the deepest level of the
human spiritual experience. It also
shows human spiritual practice did not
have its origin in ignorance, superstition
or fear of the reality, but in deep cosmic
truths which underlie our existence.
F rom a Western, scientific and
academic point of view, we always
have to demand and seek for tangible,
physical proof. In the case of the
application of ritual or other forms
of spiritual practice for the purpose
of healing many will have a skeptical
attitude and will reject such methods
as subjective or even superstitious, and
definitely unscientific. They would call
on the placebo‑effect to explain any
kind of positive effect experienced by
those who have undergone or have been
part of such forms of treatment. I wish
to draw the attention of the scientific
community, to leave their skepticism
behind, and to investigate the impact
and effect of sadhana with an open
mind. With the appearance of modern
non‑intrusive methods of measuring
and scanning it has become possible to
study all kinds of physical and mental
functions in new and more immediate
ways. It would be an important
development if it could be proven that
ritual, spiritual practice, and other
Vedic chanting has healing properties.
forms of traditional healing do have a
measurable impact on the several planes
of being.
The pharmaceutical industry has
already recognized the value of the
indigenous knowledge with regards to
remedies and medicines. Exploiting
the knowledge received from the Vedic
Rishis or Seers and handed down
through the generations to our times for
their profits. Would it be too strange or
unexpected if it turned out that other
aspects and principles of traditional
Vedic healing would be found to be as
applicable and useful in the search for
mental and physical health and well
being for the humanity.
Raja Deekshithar M.A.
Managing Trustee
Shri Sabhanayaka Temple
(Shri Shiva Nataraja Temple)
Chidambaram
South India
July to December 2009 7
 RISHYASHRINGA & SHANTA
A TANTRIC RENDERING
GRAHAM BOND©
The story of Rishyashringa has been widely enjoyed by storytellers across Asia for thou‑
sands of years. It appears in the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Buddhist Jataka
Tales. Sculptures depicting the story which date to the second century B.C.E. attest to its
antiquity and scholars see it as a source for the medieval Unicorn legends.
This is the story of Rishyashringa, who
encountered the urge to love, to experience
bliss, to fully live–the urge behind all
creation which moves the source of fullness
to descend from abstract potential into
manifestation…,
2 sweetness are not different, he wordlessly
F ar into the mountains, protected
from the bustle of everyday life,
lived the austere seer Vibhandaka. His
discipline of mind and body (tapas) had
given him access to the great powers
that pulsate in the time before time, in
the space of supreme awareness.
One day, as he bathed in a pool at the
base of waterfall, he looked up into the
vertigo of falling waters and in its mists
and rainbows had a vision of a heavenly
nymph (apsara) dancing seductively.
Her sensual beauty permeated the
churning waters, thrilling his body, and
with a gasp he emitted his seed, which
was carried on bubbles to settle at the
side of the pool.
At that place a doe was drinking. She
became pregnant and gave birth to a
beautiful boy with a single horn rising
majestically from his forehead. While
walking in the forest Vibhandaka heard
the child crying and with his inner sight
understood what had happened.
He called that radiant and gentle boy
8 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
Rishyashringa and raised him so that he
never knew of male and female, or of
love or desire–nor of any other human
being beside his father.
In the space of unity his unsullied
heart and silent mind never questioned
the oneness of all things. As honey and
moved in harmony with the powers
of nature, and practiced the spiritual
disciplines that arose from the highest
knowledge.
2 remote and forbidding. There are no
N ow in the plains below, years
of summer heat had burned and
punished the mighty rivers of Anga
into subdued trickles. The choking dust
and the cries of the hungry oppressed
King Lomapada who summoned his
counselors to find a way - any way - to
end the drought and the suffering of his
people.
“Sire, only a sage of supreme purity
has the power to restore the balance of
nature and to bring dharma back to
your people.”
“Where can I find such a sage?” King
Lomapada demanded imperiously, as
he swallowed the inference that he had
broken the protective circle of dharma.
“Sire, we have heard of a young
sage called Rishyashringa who lives
permanently in the transcendent (turiya)
state, hardly conscious of his body and
with the purest connection to all the
powers of nature. If he is not simply a
legend, and if he can be brought down
from the remote forests, his presence
would heal Anga and bring blessings
like rain.”
“Summon my army, scour the forest,
then bring him to me in my royal
chariot!”
“Sire, the forest is quite impassible,
roads and our men cannot penetrate it
for long and live.”
“Then send my elephants to break a
way into it!”
‘Sire, gentle hermits would disappear
on hearing their turmoil and would
never be found.”
“Then leave! And for the sake of Anga
don’t come back to me without a plan!”
He swung around to look over the
enervated city and his grieving eyes
moistened. Scenes of his youthful
arrogance welled up: banquets he had
demanded voraciously; derisive laughter
at his counselors; disdain of everything
common and natural…
“If only my tears could fill the river.”
A quiet, cool voice stole its way into
his reminiscing.
“Father,” said Princess Shanta, “This
morning I was meditating. And as I
roamed in the space of the heart, I saw
that forest Rishi high on a mountain.
This is a matter of great subtlety, so let
me devise a plan after consulting your
advisors and the women of the palace.”
King Lomapada chuckled, “Oh? And
what does your innocence know about
the ways of men?”
“But father, this is a matter of the
heart… “
…“And you will soon see how little
a tender heart can do for a drought!
Still… go ahead, my dear! Your firm,
velvet hand has always charmed me. But
remember… This time it’s a matter of
life and death!”
2 to stumble into the clearing as she
S weat dripped from the team of
workmen towing the barge up the
river deep into the forest. Princess
Shanta and her handmaidens began to
doubt their plan and held fast to the
barge as it bumped and jerked over
shallow sections in the river. The shouted
instructions, the cursing as bone slid
against rock, the suppressed resentment
of men toiling for the fantasies of others
all pulled at her.
“Was the vision I had of this Rishi
just another dream? Perhaps my father
was right to doubt, even as he gave me
the resources to support this plan to
bring the Rishi back. After all, what do
I know of the ways of the world?”
But she was the support (stambha) of
this mission. And she knew her patience
musn’t fail if they wanted to see their
vague hopes of success bear fruit.
2 and adore holy beings such as yourself.
Y es! She felt sure this was the
mountain she had seen in her
dream! In the pool near it’s base she
anchored the barge and instructed
skilled workmen to build shelters on
it for the women, in the thatched style
that were typical of forest hermitages.
And because their coarse ways might
disturb the delicate matter at hand,
she instructed the remaining workmen
to go some ways downstream out of
earshot to set up a camp for the men.
In the meantime, her handmaidens
were collecting berries, nuts, and herbs
and exploring ways up the mountain,
excited as sparrows to be released from
the trials of the journey.
2 the intention she had for coming here.
S hanta climbed and climbed with
her basket of provisions, following
a small rivulet coming from the peak
above and soon could smell the fragrance
of burning sandalwood… then came
the tinkling of bells… then a clearing in
which a few cows grazed near a group of
thatched huts built around a fire pit.
A sense of being watched became
a pressure in her head and caused her
called out a greeting. But there was no
answer.
Without conscious planning, she
began to weep piteously, and as she
paused in this melodrama, she heard a
soft voice behind her.
“Don’t be sad. And what has disturbed
you?”
Shanta was dizzy and through here
tears saw only light.
“I have come looking for Rishyashringa
and despaired that my journey was in
vain.”
“I am he, so be at peace. But who are
you? What spiritual practice has given
you such great radiance? And how did
you become draped in these lengths of
cloth more iridescent than a peacock’s
tail?”
With downcast eyes, still dazed by
the light, Shanta replied, ”Sir I am a
student of Yoga in a hermitage not far
from here, and my practice is to serve
Please allow me to render you homage
in the ways my vows require.”
“My father is the sage to be honored
here, and he is currently away….”
”Then please allow me to honor you
in his place or my tapas in coming here
will bear no fruit!”
Lifting her face, she saw a form of
a young man appear out of the light.
His eyes were full and moist, and they
quivered like the dew on a blade of
grass, which threatens to slide away
at the slightest movement. His only
adornment, apart from the horn soaring
upward on his forehead, was a white
loincloth and tiny golden hairs on his
arms and legs.
Shanta was staggered by his inner and
outer beauty and struggled to hold onto
One false move and everything would
be lost…
‘Please, I beg you to allow me to at
least greet you in the way our scriptures
require,” and she gently began to
embrace him.
Rishyashringa stiffened. It was not
fear, but the instinctive shying away
from anything coarse or unfamiliar.
“What kind of teaching makes you
think we are separate and that you must
adore me?”
“Sir, my philosophy teaches me that
only by surrendering to love of one such
as you, will my existence be fulfilled.”
“So consciousness embraces
consciousness. But why this feeling of
separation and duality?”
“Sir, our exploration of the powers
within duality have enabled us to create
wonders such as liquids which cause
laughter, and balls which bounce into
the sky, and radiant cloths like this.”
“And it is a marvel! I can see countless
separate threads make up its glory.”
“And to adore that glory is my passion
and practice,” said Shanta pressing her
lips to his, and bringing from her basket
a bottle of wine and a bouncing ball.
Soon the two were laughing and
falling into each other’s arms, flushed
with wine and the delight of playing
with the ball.
“But I have to go now, as I must return
in time for the evening puja.” And with
swaying hips and coy, backward glances,
Shanta gracefully left the hermitage.
2
R ishyashringa sat in a swoon
quite different from his normal
meditation. And he was jerked from his
reverie by a hand shaking his shoulder.
“Why has the sacred fire gone out?
Has the ghee been churned from the
milk and the sacred vessels polished?
Did you practice merging into the
unstruck sound? What has happened to
July to December 2009 9
 you? Have you gone deaf?”
“Father, today I met another yoga
student as radiant as the moon, with
rare fragrance and clothed in glory
like a peacock. His body was soft with
a slender waist and his laughter is still
ringing in my ears. I know everything is
consciousness, but somehow my mind
is fascinated by the play of feelings he
creates in me. My heart is longing to see
him again.”
“Son, this is one of the tests of your
attainment. Illusory beings like these
come to steal your completeness. They’re
from a realm of tawdry gimmicks,
whose so-called pleasures only result in
pain. And if you venture down below,
you’ll find only wailing and gnashing of
teeth, so hold onto your completeness
and your spiritual practices.”
Rishyashringa was perplexed. He had
never doubted his father, but something
told him there was more to this and he
contemplated as he chewed the gnarly
roots and sour berries his father had
gathered to eat.
“Father, birds and flowers happily
enjoy this paradise of consciousness and
offer their talents and beauty. How can
anyone’s enjoyment lead to separation
from unity-consciousness?”
“How indeed! But son, I promise you
this is what happens. Even though it may
be possible, in that realm the forces are
so binding I fear it will be challenging
for you to hold your attainment.”
But a challenge thrown to a youth is
like ghee thrown on a fire and Shanta
had already kindled a flame. So the next
day when Rishyashringa saw her appear
out of the forest brushing silken hair
from her dusky eyes, he ran to her and
clasped her hand saying,
“My father is out collecting
sandalwood. Please take me to your
hermitage before he comes back, as I
am burning with interest to spend time
with you and to learn of your ways.”
And in the floating hermitage
Rishyashringa was initiated into the
plays of duality: of male and female,
of yearning and passion, of fear and of
courage, of pain and of healing.
2 And each day Vibhandaka was carried
10 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
D uring those heady days of
exploration, the barge was quietly
floated downstream until it emerged
from the forest. There to greet them was
King Lomapada with all his court.
Princess Shanta led Rishyashsringa
out of the floating hermitage and as he
set foot on the plain the heavens opened
and monsoon rains drenched the land.
Soaked and crying King Lomapada
sheltered Rishyashringa with his royal
umbrella and by the time they reached
the palace had already asked him to
marry Shanta.
Those attuned to the sacred felt their
attention drawn inside to soar in the sky
of awareness as bells were rung, lamps
were lit and offerings of gratitude were
made in the temples so that sublime
fragrances drifted throughout Anga.
For the wedding, the city came to life
and girls and boys danced in formation
with colored scarves. All leaden and
depressing thoughts, all unfulfilled desires
of every parent lifted away. And the
very young and the very old smiled and
wandered around in a happy daze as rose-
petals rained down on the new couple.
2 He brought in a golden age and was
A fter the monsoon rains had
subsided and the roads of mud had
become passable, Vibhandaka came
glaring down the mountain to find
his son and to burn his temptress to
ashes. But along the way he was greeted
everywhere by farmers set up by King
Lomapada to lavish him with food and
comfortable lodging.
“Who owns this farm and offers their
hospitality to sages?” asked Vibhandaka
as his weary feet were massaged with
fragrant oil.
“Your eminence, we were dying
of starvation, but your son saved us,
provided us with plenty and instructed
us to honor all righteous people.”
“Is that so? And what of that scheming
wench who stole my son?”
“Venerable sir, you must be speaking
about Princess Shanta whose heart is
full of love and who did whatever she
could for our sake.”
in a more comfortable chariot and
honored with more lavish pujas–all in
the name of his son and his new wife,
until finally he arrived at the palace
to see his Rishyashringa blazing with
power, with righteousness (dharma)
and with abundance. And at his side
Princess Shanta, as beautiful and wise as
a goddess.
At a feast in his honor in which he was
personally served by King Lomapada,
Vibhandaka turned to Rishyashringa.
“It seems that you haven’t forgotten all
that I have taught you, and are shedding
light here in this realm of ignorance. So
be it! Live long and stay here with my
blessings! And when you and Shanta
have children, come back all of you, and
spend time with me.”
And waving aside the comfortable
chariots offered to him, Vibhandaka
grasped his staff and set off on foot
towards his mountain hermitage.
2
Y ears passed by and Rishyashringa
became loved throughout the
land. Spiritual knowledge (mukti) and
prosperity (bhukti) went hand in hand.
invited to officiate at a fertility ceremony
in a neighboring country. There divinity
responded to his sacred presence and
King Dasharatha finally bore children
who became the glorious figures of
Lord Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana and
Shatrughna, as told in the Ramayana.
But that’s another story…
Graham Bond is currently studying
Shaivite Tantra with Paul Muller-Ortega.
He has lived in India seven times and
studied at the Center for India Studies,
Stony Brook University, New York. He
is exploring multi-media as a means to
engage with yoga-bháva.
Worshipper at a tree shrine near Asi Ghat, Varanasi, North India. Photograph by Robert Moses. September 2009
July to December 2009 11

T he word namaskar is derived
from the root namaha, which
means paying obeisance or salutation.
Namaha is a physical action expressing
that ‘you are superior to me in all qualities
and in every way’.
Worldly Benefits
By doing namaskar to a deity or a
saint, their virtues and capabilities
are unknowingly impressed upon
our minds. Consequently we start
emulating them, thus changing
ourselves for the better.
Spiritual Benefits
Increase in humility and reduction
of ego. Enhancement in the spiritual
emotion of surrender and gratitude.
Gaining the sattva component and
faster spiritual progress We receive the
highest amount of sattva component
from the posture mudra of namaskar.
By doing namaskar to deities or
saints we receive subtle frequencies
emitted by them, e.g. frequencies of
sattva or bliss.
12 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
THE MEANING AND THE BENEFITS
Why is it not appropriate to Shake
Hands?
A hand shake tranfers undesirable
raja-tama components! In short, in a
handshake, the raja-tama components
in one person will get transferred to
the other person, thereby lowering his
sattvikta (purity levels). While practicing
spirituality, our objective is to perform
acts which increase our sattvikta.
If at all namaskar is done by merely
joining the palms, it is just a formality.
As the act is not based on faith, the
benefit derived from it is minimal.
Along with faith it is essential that every
religious act be correctly performed
according to the Science of Spirituality,
so that it gives complete benefit.
Understanding the science will help in
strengthening faith in the act. Such an
act correctly performed with faith, will
yield corresponding benefits.
How does one do namaskar to an
individual of the same age group?
When meeting someone of the same
age-group do namaskar by joining the
fingers and placing tips of the thumbs
on the anahat chakra (at the centre of the
chest). This type of namaskar increases
the spiritual emotion of humility in the
embodied soul. sattva frequencies from
the universe are attracted by the fingers
NAMASKAR
DR. JAYANT ATHAVALE©
Editors note: Considering the current
popularity of the word namaste as a
greeting, we thought it would be use-
ful to publish this article on the inner
meanings of this traditional salutation,
and the different ways it can be per-
formed, based on scriptural references.
This article was sent to Nāmarūpa by
a friend. It was originally published
by SANATAN SANSTHA, The Sa‑
natan Society for Scientific Spiritual‑
ity, founded by Dr. Jayant Athavale.
See www.sanatan.org for information.
(which act as an antenna) and are then
transmitted to the entire body through
the thumbs which have awakened
the anahat chakra. This activates the
soul energy of the embodied soul. In
addition, by doing namaskar in this
manner to each other, frequencies of
blessings are also transmitted.
What is correct method & science
of doing namaskar to a god?
A. While paying obeisance to god, bring
the palms together.
1. The fingers should be held loose (not
straight and rigid) while joining the
hands or palms.
2. The fingers should be kept close to
each other without leaving any space
between them.
3. The fingers should be kept away from
the thumbs.
4. The inner portion of the palms should
not touch each other and there should
be some space between them.
Note: The stage of awakening of
spiritual emotion bhav is important to
the seeker at the primary level. Hence,
for awakening bhav, he should keep
space in between the joined hands,
whereas a seeker who is at the advanced
level should refrain from leaving such
space in between the palms to awaken
the unexpressed bhav.
B. After joining the hands one should
bow and bring the head forward.
C. While tilting the headforward, one
should place the thumbs at the mid-
brow region, i.e. at the point between
the eyebrows and try to concentrate on
the feet of the deity.
D. After that, instead of bringing the
folded hands down immediately, they
should be placed on the mid-chest
region for a minute in such way that the
wrists touch the chest; then only should
the hands be brought down.

Underlying science in this action

A. The fingers should not be stiff
while bringing the palms together
because this will lead to a decrease in
sattva component from the vital and
mental sheaths and thus increase the
raja component in them. By keeping
the fingers relaxed, the subtlest sattva
component will get activated. With the
strength of this energy, embodied souls
are able to fight powerful distressing
energies.
B. In the namaskar posture, the joined
fingers act as an antenna to assimilate
the chaitanya (divine consciousness)
or the energy transmitted by a deity.
While joining the palms, the fingers
must touch each other because leaving
space between the fingers will result
in accumulation of energy in that
space. This energy will be immediately
transmitted in various directions;
therefore the seeker’s body will lose the
benefit of this potent energy. and activates the five vital energies situated posture awakens the bhav of surrender in
C. About the space to be maintained there. Activation of these vital energies in an embodied soul, and in turn activates
between the palms: the body makes it sensitive to accepting the appropriate subtle frequencies of
For a seeker at the primary level, it is sattvik frequencies. This later awakens deities from the universe. They enter
advisable to leave space between the the atma shakti (isoul energy). And later, through the ajna chakra (sixth chakra)
palms; it is not necessary for a seeker at Bhav is awakened. This enables the body of the embodied soul and settle in the
an advanced level to leave space between to accept in large measures the chaitanya space parallel to it at the back interior of
the palms. emitted by the deity. the head. In this space the openings to all
D. After joining the palms, bow a little. E. Touch the thumbs to the mid-brow the three channels converge; namely, the
This posture puts pressure on the navel region. (Please see images above.) This moon, the central and the sun channels.

July to December 2009 13

 Due to the movement of these subtler
frequencies in this space, the central
channel is activated. Consequently it
facilitates the speedy transmission of
these frequencies throughout the body,
leading to purification of both the gross
and subtle bodies at the same time.
F. After doing namaskar, to completely
imbibe the chaitanya of the deity (that
has entered the hands by now), instead
of bringing the folded hands down
immediately, place them on the mid-
chest region in such a way that the
wrists touch the chest.
The anahat chakra is located at the
centre of the chest. Akin to the ajna
chakra, the activity of the anahat chakra
is also to absorb the sattva frequencies.
By touching the wrists to the chest,
the anahat chakra is activated and it
helps in absorbing more of the sattva
component.
Effect of this Posture
By doing namaskar in this manner,
the deity’s chaitanya is absorbed to a
greater extent by the body, as compared
to other methods of doing namaskar.
This gives maximum distress to negative
energies. The negative energies that
have manifested in a person are unable
to touch their thumbs at the mid-brow
region in namaskar.
Question
What is the reason for not wrapping a
cloth around the neck while performing
circumambulation, doing namaskar,
ritualistic worship, sacrificial fires, chanting
and while visiting Guru and deities?
Answer
When a cloth is wrapped around the
neck, it does not activate the vishuddha
chakra (in the throat region) and hence
an individual gets less benefit of the
sattva component.
Why should one always do
namaskar to elders?
When an elderly person arrives, the vital
energy of the young person starts rising
and when he gets up and does namaskar,
it returns to normal.
Manusmruti 2.120;
Mahabharat, Udhyog, Chapter
(Section) 38.1, Sr. no. 104, 64-65
Explanation
As the sojourn of the elderly person
is gradually towards the southern
direction, that is, towards the region of
Lord Yama (towards death), his body
starts emitting raja and tama frequencies
on a high scale. When such an elderly
person comes in the vicinity of any
younger individual, these frequencies
start affecting the younger person. A
subtle magnetic field is created between
the two. Consequently, the vital energy
of the younger person is pulled upward.
This way the younger person can suffer
due to sudden momentum to his vital
energy. When this younger person
does namaskar to the elderly person,
some amount of the central channel
of his kundalini system is activated
and the sattva component in it starts
increasing. Consequently the raja and
tama components in him are influenced
by the sattva component and the vital
energy comes back to normal state.
Hence on arrival of an elderly person, it
is customary for the younger individuals
to do namaskar to them.’
Doing namaskar to Elders
Q: When travelling, prior to the
commencement of a journey and upon
returning, why should one do namaskar
to elders in the family?
A: Namaskar to the elders in the family
is one way of surrendering to the god
principle in them. When an embodied
soul bows in namaskar to an elder by
surrendering to the god principle in
him, at that time a sense of compassion
is created in his body. This compassion
percolates right upto his subtle body.
At that time, energy of his mind is
activated and in turn activates the five
vital energies, which are located at the
seat of the manipur chakra (situated
in the naval region). Transmission of
these five vital energies all over the body
then awakens the soul energy. With the
strength of the soul energy, the central
channel gets activated and converts
the expressed energy of spiritual
emotion to the unexpressed energy of
spiritual emotion. With the help of
this unexpressed energy of spiritual

14 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

emotion, the embodied soul, through
the medium of elders, gains the required
deity’s principle from the universe. For
this purpose, while leaving the house on
a journey, the embodied soul should do
namaskar to elders and with the strength
of sattva frequencies has to protect
himself from distressing frequencies in
the atmosphere. Similarly, returning
from a journey, one should immediately
do namaskar to elders and awaken the
god principle in them, which would
disintegrate the raja-tama particles from
the air around him, which might have
been brought along.
What is the correct method of
doing namaskar to saints?
1. The portion of head, which should be
placed at the feet :
We can imbibe maximum chaitanya
through the brahmarandhra (the seventh
chakra of the kundalini system located
in the crown of our head). Since the
brahmarandhra cannot be placed at a
saints’ feet, the part of head beginning
above the forehead is to be placed at the
feet. Due to this, maximum chaitanya
emanating from Their feet can enter
into the one doing namaskar.
2. The exact spot to place one’s head on
a saint’s feet:
The big toes of saints emit maximum
chaitanya; hence we should place our head
on the big toe, than on their foot. If we are
in a position to touch both the toes, then
place the head on the right big toe.
3. The position of hands when placing
the head on a saint’s feet:
A. Some interlock their hands behind
their backs at the waist and do namaskar.
If we are in a position to touch both their
toes, then we should place the hands
one on each foot and the head should be
placed on the big toe of the right foot.
If we are in a position to touch one of
Their toes, then place both the hands on
it and keep the head on the big toe.
B. Some do namaskar by placing hands
on the ground. This is also wrong because
if the hands are placed on the ground then
the chaitanya emanating from the saint’s
feet are absorbed by one and then returns
to the earth through the hands of the one
doing namaskar. Thus the person does not
benefit from it.
C. Some cross their hands and place
them on the feet of saints, that is, their
right hand on the right foot of the saint
and their left hand on the left foot of
the saint while doing namaskar. Instead,
our right hand should be placed on the
left foot of the saint and our left hand
on the right foot of the saint. This is
convenient also. However, if a guru has
started some procedure in a particular
sect, then the hands are to be placed in
that manner only.
D. The hands are to be positioned in
such a way that the palms are placed on
the feet.
How to do namaskar to the
wooden footwear paduka of saints?
The left paduka symbolises Lord Shiva
and the right symbolises Divine Energy.
The left paduka is the unmanifest saviour
energy and the right is the unmanifest
destroyer energy of the Supreme God.
The saviour or destroyer energy of the
Supreme God emanates from the ‘pegs’
of the paduka as per the need. When
we do namaskar by placing our head
on the ‘pegs’ of the paduka, some may
experience distress due to the inability
to tolerate the manifest energy emitting
from it. Hence, while doing namaskar
to the paduka, instead of the pegs, place
the head on the foremost part i.e. the
place where the saints place their toes.
Should one do namaskar to a
dead body?
Q: If this be so, should we do namaskar
to the dead bodies in Kaliyuga only
as a custom? If it is a custom, can we
discontinue it?
A: One can maintain respect for the
dead person by doing namaskar and
in addition set an ideal with regards to
respecting elders. In Kaliyuga one will
benefit from this at an emotional level
and not at a spiritual level. However,
one should not discontinue this custom;
instead one could learn how to get
spiritual benefit from it. Due to the
deterioration of the sattva component
in embodied souls, this practice has
become a mere custom in Kaliyuga.
However, as per the saying, ‘God exists
where there is spiritual emotion’, while
doing namaskar to a dead body if we
have a spiritual emotion that we are
doing namaskar to the god principle
in it, then the god principle in the dead
body awakens and we receive god’s
blessings. This happens because the
god principle is immortal and has no
limitations that a physical body has.
Q: It is said that one should not do
namaskar to a sleeping person. In
Kaliyuga if one does namaskar by
touching the dead body, then are the
July to December 2009 15
 chances of getting distress from negative
energies not higher?
A: Yes it is; but while doing namaskar it is
important that the action be performed
with correct spiritual emotion. Since
namaskar is done to the god principle in
the dead body instead of activating raja,
tama components, it activates the godly
principle in the dead body and bestows
sattva corresponding to the degree of
spiritual emotion.’
‘One hand’ touch to the Temple
Steps
Action: Touch the step with the fingers
of the right hand and move the same
hand over the head.
Science: The area around the temple
is charged with frequencies of deities
which leads to an increase in the sattva
component. The presence of divine
consciousness in the area charges even
the stairs in a temple. ‘Climbing’ steps
is one of the activities, which increases
the raja component in the body. Hence,
the raja component is already activated
in the body of an embodied soul so by
touching the steps with the fingers of
the right hand, the sattva component
and peace from the charged premise,
get transmitted to the body through the
right hand. In addition, from this action,
the activated raja component in the body
can be controlled through the medium
of the surya nadi (sun channel). This
means that, for a moment, the activities
of the sun channel can be stopped. From
this process, the embodied soul learns to
enhance the sattva component through
raja dominant actions. Therefore, it is
very essential to perform the appropriate
sattvik actions at each corresponding
level, hence the method of touching the
steps with fingers of the right hand and
then moving the fingers or palm over
the head. Even the dust present on the
steps is charged with chaitanya and so
we must respect it and derive spiritual
benefit from it. If the embodied soul
harbours the spiritual emotion that ‘the
chaitanya from the steps be transmitted
all over my body from the dust on my
hand’, then it will give increasing benefit
to the embodied soul. In addition if the
ego of the embodied soul is less at that
time then it gives even more benefit.
16 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
When any action is performed devoid
of ego or ‘I’ness it is treated as a ‘non-
action’ akarma-karma.
Do’s and Dont’s while doing
namaskar
Q: Why should the eyes be closed while
doing namaskar?
A: Joining hands while bowing the head
amounts to saluting god or the divinity
in the person in front. The eyes are
closed while doing namaskar to god or
any respected person, to enable one to
have the vision of god within us.
Q: Why should the footwear be taken
off while doing namaskar?
A: While sitting, partaking meals,
sleeping, wishing and doing namaskar to
Gurus and other elderly people, footwear
should not be worn.
Gautamsmruti 9
1. Footwear increases the raja-tama
components in a person.
2. Paying obeisance (namaskar) with
high raja-tama components will not
help in activating the kundalini.
3. The ability to absorb the sattva
component too is reduced, due to an
increase in the raja-tama components,
leading to little benefit from a
namaskar.
4. Doing namaskar to a deity, with
footwear on, may also invite the wrath
of the deity.
Q: Why is it not advisable to hold any
object while doing namaskar?
A: 1. While doing namaskar if an object
is held in the hands, usually the fingers
and their tips are in a curled position
and not straight. As a result, the sattva
component received is unable to enter
the tips of the fingers.
2. The sattva component emitted
towards the seeker, strikes the object
held and bounces back. Also, at times,
instead of the person absorbing the
sattva component, the object may
absorb it.
3. If the object in the hand is raja or tama
predominant, and if it is touched to the
forehead or chest while doing namaskar,
then the raja-tama components from it
mayenter the body of the one who is
doing namaskar.
Q: While doing namaskar, why are
men not supposed to cover their head,
whereas women are advised to cover
their head?
A: One should not do namaskar with
footwear on, covering the head or holding
any objects. (But women should cover
their head with their saris and only then
do namaskar)
Apastamb Dharmasutra 1.4.14.19
While doing namaskar the kundalini
gets activated at the chakra which is
touched by the folded hands. This leads to
the absorption of the sattva component in
greater proportion in the body. Sometimes
due to the activation of the kundalini,
sattva component starts entering the
body through the head. But at times the
distressing energies try to take advantage of
this and mix black energy with the sattva
component. The potential to activate the
kundalini is higher in men as compared
to women. Hence they are hardly affected
by this negative energy. Contrary to this,
as women are more vulnerable, they get
affected by distressing energies to a greater
extent and thus they can experience distress.
That is why, when doing namaskar, women
are advised to cover their head with the ends
of their sari. This creates a barrier between
the head and the distressing energies and
prevents themfrom penetrating the body
of the woman. However, to some extent
this also blocks benevolent frequencies
from entering the women. (Benevolent
frequencies are subtler than negative
frequencies; hence they enter a woman to
some extent even though the sari covers
her head.) However, the proper posture
of namaskar gives maximum sattva
component to an individual and hence
women too get required benefits. This
shows how god takes care of every devotee.
Doing namaskar without these restrictions
is equally effective if the devotee does it
with spiritual emotion.
Rāma, Lakśmana, Sītā and Hanūmān in a temple near Asi Ghat, Varanasi. Photograph by Robert Moses. September 2009

July to December 2009 17

 THE SĪTĀ UPANIŠAD
THE ‘NEAREST-APPROACH’ TO THE ‘DIVINE FURROW’
A ŚĀKTA UPANIŠAD
The Sītā Upanišad is an Appendix to the Atharva Veda
TRANSLATION BY ALAIN DANIÉLOU©
Reprint from the Adyar Library Bulletin, Vol. XIX, parts 3-4
Translated with notes and explanatory interpolations based on the
commentary of Śrī Upanišad-Brahma-yogin.
NOTE: This text (and a number of other obscure texts which we shall
publish in future volumes) was found amongst Alain Daniélou’s papers
by Jacques Cloarec1. He mailed them to Nāmarūpa for publication.

j
O Resplendent Ones! May we, your worshippers,
hear what is good through our ears,
see what is good through our eyes.
May the limbs of our bodies be strong
that you may be satisfied [with our works].
May our life be spent working for the gods.
May Indra, famed as the oldest of the Divinities, protect us.
May the Nourisher Pūšan, who knows all, protect us.
May the Son-of-vision Garuďa who is the brake
on the wheel-of-evil, protect us.
May the Great-Lord, [the Lord-of-Intellect] Bŗhaspati
keep us under his protection.

AUM.
Peace be to the body,
Peace be to the mind,
Peace be to the soul.

1
Jacques Cloarec, first a teacher in France, became Alain Daniélou’s assistant in 1964 and stayed with him until Daniélou’s death
in 1994. He was at his side during the creation of the institutes of musicology in Berlin and Venice where he was in charge of
the technical aspect of the making of the Unesco’s collections of traditional music. In 1980, when Daniélou retired, he helped
him in the pursuit of his written prose. Since Daniélou’s death, Jacques Cloarec has been working on the promotion and diffu-
sion of Daniélou’s prose.

18 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

T he gods spoke to the Lord-of-Creatures asking him: “Who is Sītā? What is her form?”
The Lord-of-Creatures said: “She is the [Divine] Furrow.” 1

Since her form is the root of all natural forms the Tradition calls her Nature Prakŗti.
Since her form is the soul of the syllable AUM, the Divine Furrow is the nature of all. 2

The word Sītā, made of three characters, [S…Ī…Tā] represents the total Power-of-Illusion.
Know that the letter Ī, symbol of Illusion (Māyā), is also the symbol of Višņu, the Pervader, the seed of manifestation. 3

The character Sa is the True, the Immortal. It points to the fruits [of action, of love, and of knowledge].
It is the sacrificial elixir, the Soma [in which unite Śiva, the giver of seed, and his power].

The character Tā stands for the Power-of-Knowledge (Tāra-lakšmī = Sarasvatī), [the strength of Vastness, Brahmā,]
through which the world expands, the body of Cosmic-Man, Virāţ, whose nature is light. 4

The transcendent Power-of-Illusion that is Unmanifest-Nature, whose symbol is Ī,

becomes manifest under the appearance of a brilliant goddess, [beautiful] as the moon, whose limbs are made of Ambrosia.
She is adorned with jewels, with garlands, and ornaments of pearls. 5

Sītā [is shown as the three-fold power of God].

In her first form she is [the Power-of-Knowledge, Sarasvatī] whose substance is the ‘Word’
and whose heart is gladdened when scriptures are studied.
She becomes manifest as everlasting Knowledge.

In her second form, she is [the Power-of-Fortune, Lakšmi, once]

born from the share of the plough in the womb of the land [dedicated in the Sacrifice].1

In her third form she is [the Power-of-Desire, the Fair-One, Gaurī] whose symbol is the Ī,
whose substance is Unmanifest-Nature, Avyakta. 6

It has been said, in the Upanišad of the Śaunaka-s,2 that, being near to Rāma the charming,
Sītā is the pleasure of the world, the origin of all life, its duration and its end. 7

Sītā should thus be known as the root of Nature. Those who tell the [secret of the] Immensity, Brahman,
say that, as the syllable AUM, she is the nature prakŗti [of all things]. 8

1
The Sacrifice offered by Janaka
2
Rāma-tāpinī Upanišad II 2. 7-8

July to December 2009 19

 [She it is] who is spoken of in the aphorisms that begin saying “We desire to know the [secret of ] Brahman”. 9
She, who is made of all Scriptures,
of all the gods of all the worlds,
of all fame and of all virtues,
of all substrata, of all results and causes,
is the transcendent Goddess-of-Fortune,
distinct from the resplendent Lord-of-gods,
yet inseparable from him.
Her nature is [the stuff of ] consciousness and of unconsciousness;
she is the inner self of Immensity
and of the motionless [waste].
She is the manifest in all functions and attributes.
She takes the form of gods, of seers, men, and angels Gandharva-s
of anti-gods Asura-s, demons Rākšasa-s, genii, ghosts and evil spirits.
She is the origin of [all] the elements bhūtādi,
the form of the Elemental-Principles bhūta-s.
She is the [tangible] elements, and the senses
[through which they can be grasped].
She is also the mind, and the breath-of-life. 10

This goddess, made of power, appears in threefold form

as the Power-of-Desire, the Power-of-Action, and the Power-of-Witnessing (or Power-of-Knowing). 11

The Power-of-Desire is threefold,

made of Beauty Śrī, of Earth Bhūmi, and of the Dark-Blue-One Nilā.
[Beauty is] her auspicious form,
the Earth is her sovereign form,
the Dark-Blue-One her form [of enlightenment]
visible in the Moon, the Sun, and the Fire [the three luminaries of the night, the day, and the twilight]. 12

The Blue-Goddess as the Moon Soma

The Blue-Goddess whose body is the liquor-of-the-sacrifice soma

[embodied in the Moon] causes all the plants to grow.
Her substance is that of the tree of plenty,
of all flowers, all fruits, of all creepers and shrubs,
of all the herbs that destroy illness and give health.
To the gods she is the beverage that gives them immortality.
She is the giver of the fruit of knowledge
which is ever near, yet ever transcendent.
With ambrosia she satisfies the gods;
with food and with fodder
all living things and beasts according to their need. 13

The Blue-Goddess as Sun

She gives light to the sphere of the Sun and all the other [spheres].
She is the day and she is the night.
From her radiance appear the divisions of time
beginning with the ‘wink of an eye,’
the hours1, the eight ‘watches’ yāma of the day,
the days and the nights,

1
Ghaţikā-s, periods of exactly twenty-four minutes of which there are sixty in twenty-four hours.

20 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

 the cycles of lunar fortnights,
the months, the seasons, the half-years ayana, the years,
and the cycle of one hundred years
which marks for man the span of his life.
She is spoken of as ‘slow’ or ‘fast,’
as the wheel-of-time that moves with the ‘wink of an eye’
and still turns with the cycle of aeons parārdha.
She whirls as a wheel, the world’s wheel, the wheel of time.
All the divisions of time, all the forms of time, are measured in terms of light. 14

The Blue Goddess as Fire

As the form of fire she is the food and drink of all living things.
She is their hunger and their thirst.
For the gods she is the ritual of sacrifice,
for the plants in the woods she is the cold and warmth
that dwells without and within the trees.
She is everlasting and ephemeral. 15

The Forms of the Power-of-Desire IcchĀ-Śakti

Obedient to the will of the All-Powerful, and to protect the world,

the Goddess-of-Beauty Śrī-devī [who is Power-of-consciousness cit-śakti] assumes a threefold shape.
She is known as Beauty, as Fortune [or Multiplicity Lakšmī]
and as the goal-to-be-attained Lakšyamāņā. 16

The Earth with its treasures, its seven continents and its seven seas,
is a goddess who supports all the fourteen spheres;
although, as the syllable AUM, she is [enthroned] above all things. 17

The Blue Goddess with her garland of thunderbolts becomes the universe,
to unfold and foster all plant life and all living beings. 18

She stands beneath the spheres, as the support of the spheres,

in the form of the [causal] waters, and is thus called [the Power-of ]-the-frog maņďūka. 19

The Power-of-Action and the ‘Primordial-Vibration’ NĀda

Her form is Power-of-Action which, as the Primordial-Vibration Nāda, sprang forth

from the mouth of the Withdrawer Hari.
From the Primordial-Vibration arose the Point-limit bindu [from which the world begins].1
From the Point-limit sprang the syllable AUM,
[that manifests itself as the ego ahałkāra].
And, beyond the syllable AUM, appeared the Source-of-Delight Rāma,
who had taken the form of the hermits’ mountain.
[The trees] on this mountain bear numerous branches
that are the [Scriptures] of [the path-of ]-action and those of [the path-of ]-knowledge. 20

The Vedic Lore

In this [world] the Scripture [source of all the scriptures] is threefold.

It sets forth all that needs be known.
It is called ‘triple’ and it is manifest as the
‘Knowledge-of-Measure’ Ŗk, the ‘Knowledge-of Contents Yajus and the Knowledge-of-Extension Sāma 21

1
Nāda, that is the Great-Principle Mahat, the Universal-Intellect.

July to December 2009 21

 From the standpoint of ritual the Scripture is fourfold so as to show the excellence of the four kinds of priests.
To the Ŗk, the Yajus, and the Sāma [is added the Scripture] of the Ańgirasa-s, the Atharva,
[from which spreads the knowledge of subtle correspondences].
The Triple Veda stands for the three genders1 and all that [is three-fold]
The Atharva of the Angirasa-s [is not distinct for it is made] from the substance
of Ŗk, Yajus, and Sāma together. 22-23

It is said that the Atharva keeps aloof for it contains magic incantations. 24a

The Ŗk forms twenty-one branches.

The hymns of the Yajur-veda are manifest in one hundred and nine divisions.
The Sāma has one thousand branches,
the Atharva has five [times ten]. 24b-25

Among them, the Scripture of the Vaikhānasa-s alone was in the beginning
and is the visible form of the Law that has come to us faithfully transmitted from sage to sage. 26

The six appendices Ańga-s of the Veda-s deal with ritual, grammar, phonetics, etymology, astrology and poetic metres. 27

The supplements Upāńga-s to the Scripture are said to be: the End ayana [of Knowledge Vedānta] the Philosophy-of-Ritual2
Mīmāłsā, Logic3 Nyāya, the Law-of-behaviors, established by the sages, knowers of the Divine-Law, and the Additions-to-the-
Vedic-lore [that deal with the ritual-forms Karma-kāņďa]. 28

All the forms of social and moral sciences Nibandha-s with the codes-of-conduct samayācāra and their many branches, the
Laws-of-morality Dharmaśāstra witnessed by great seers in their minds, the Ancient-chronicles Itihāsa and the Ancient-myths
Purāņa, all these are well known as the ‘Supplements’ Upāńga. 29

The secondary Veda-s Upa-veda-s number five:

Architecture Vāstu-veda,
Archery Dhanur-veda,
Music Gāndharva-veda,
the Knowledge-of-the-subtle-world-and-its-power Daivika,
and [Medicine] the Art-of-long-life Āyur-veda. 30

Thus the Ruling art Daņďa, politics Nīti, and trade Vārttā, and the method of breath-control Vāyu-jaya,
form the twenty-one sciences4 that lead towards the Absolute. 31

The Veda leads to the Immensity

Long ago in [the heart of ] the Seer Vaikhānasa, the word that sprang forth from the Pervader
took shape and, conceived as the triple Veda, unfolded itself in a physical form.
Thus have I told thee without division how, in the form of Wisdom Sańkhyā, the ‘word’ arose
at first in the mind of the seer Vaikhānasa, as the form manifest of the Eternal Word Śabda-brahman
expressed in terms of Power-of-action. 33

The Power-to-perceive Sākšāt-śakti is the awakening

of the divine consciousness
whose nature is to evolve and manifest,

1
According to Upanišad-Brahma-yogin, the word ‘gender’ lińga here refers to the three main elements of expression through
language: the ‘thing to be said’ lińga, the wording vākya and the context prakaraņa.
2
Taught by Jaimini
3
Of Gautama and Kaņāda
4
The Ruling art Daņda is a name given to the four Vedas; Politics Nīti stands for the Vedāńga-s; Trade Vārttā for the Upānga-s;
breath-control Vāyu-jaya for the Upa-veda-s.

22 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

 whose method is to restrict and promote,
whose form is effervescence and calm.
The cause of the manifest and the unmanifest,
it can be shown as a goddess in human form
with feet and other limbs, a face and a color,
multiple and yet one.
She is the eternal power, the consort of the All-powerful.
Taking visible and invisible forms,
she ever accompanies him.
She is sung as the Power-of-vision
for, by opening or closing her eyelids,
she creates, protects and destroys.
She withdraws [creation] or blesses it with life. 34

The Power-of-re-integration Yoga-Śakti

The Power-of-desire is three-fold.

When [the goddess] rests on the right breast of the All-powerful,
in the form of [a lock of hair called] the Beloved-of-fortune Śrī-vatsa,
and feels at peace, the Universe dissolves.
She is [called] the Power-of-re-integration Yoga-śakti. 35

The Power-of-enjoyment Bhoga-Śakti

The form of the Power-of-enjoyment is pleasure.

It shelters in the tree-of-plenty, the Wish-cow, the Gem-that-grants-desires Cintāmaņi,
and the nine treasures, among which are the Conch and the Lotus.
It is the link of love that, sought or unsought,
binds the devotee to God through daily worship and rituals,
through Fire-offerings Agnihotra and other sacrifices,
through the Abstinences and the Observances,
through the Sitting postures and through Control of breath,
through Withdrawal, Concentration, Meditation, and Ultimate-identification.
It links to God the man not qualified [for difficult attempts]
through the [worship of ] the towers of the temple,
of its walls and of its chariots;
through divine offerings and service and adorning of the divine image,
and through its veneration,
through holy baths, through the worship of ancestors,
and even through drink and food,
for all these acts accomplished
for the pleasure of the gods. 36

The Power-of-courage VĪra-Śakti

The Power-of-courage is [shown as] a form of Fortune Lakšmī

four-armed; two of her hands show the gestures
removing fear and granting boons;
two hands hold lotuses; she wears a crown and jewels.
Surrounded by all the inmates of Heaven,
lauded by the gods whom the Creator Brahmā leads,
she stands at the root of the tree-of-plenty.
Four elephants, form the bejewelled urns,
shower on her the ambrosia of immortality.
In her can be seen the rare eight powers,
such as becoming small as an atom.

July to December 2009 23

 In front of her the Wish-cow sings her praise.
Lauded by the Veda-s and all the other scriptures,
she is ever accompanied by Victory Jayā
and other celestial-dancers apsaras.
Two lamps called the Sun and Moon
bathe her with their light.
The celestial bard Tumburu, and Nārada, the sage,
are singing before her.
The Full-moon rākā and the New-moon sinīvālī carry her parasol.
The Power-of-gladness Āhlādinī and the Power-of-Illusion Māyā bear the whisks.
The invocation-to-the-gods svāhā and that to ancestors svadhā wave the fans.
The crack-of-the-ritual-fire Bhŗgu and merit puņya worship her.
She appears on the divine lion’s throne
seated in the posture of the lotus
source of all causes and of all effects,
adorning the various abodes of the resplendent Lord,
motionless, with joyful eyes,
worshipped by all the gods,
she is the ‘Fortune of Courage’ Vīra-lakšmī. 37

Thus [ends] the Nearest-Approach.

Alain Daniélou was born at Neuilly sur Seine (Paris) on October 4th 1907. Living in a mansion on the banks of the Ganges
(Rewa Kothi) in Benares, he discovered the traditional culture of India, into which he was gradually initiated. He was intro-
duced by them to the famous Sannyasi, Swami Karpatri, some of whose writings he translated. Karpatri initiated him into the
rites of Shaivite Hinduism, under the name of Shiva Sharan (protected by Shiva). He died in Switzerland on 27 January 1994.
Overwhelmingly convinced of the importance of culture and religion as presented by Hinduism, Alain Daniélou always con-
sidered himself a Hindu and, in his last interview, declared “India is my true home”. In the recent supplement to his memoirs,
he wrote “The only value I never question is that of the teachings I received from Shaivite Hinduism which rejects any kind
of dogmatism, since I have found no other form of thought which goes so far, so clearly, which such depth and intelligence, in
comprehending the divine and the world’s structures”.

24 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

REFLECTIONS ON THE GANGA
REBECCA WEISMAN
Photographs by the author
A s soon as I arrived at the river
I could immediately feel her pull,
finally Mother Ganga. Up until that
point on our Maha Yatra, I had felt a little
like an imposter. A motto that’s used in
twelve-step programs, “Fake it till you
make it,”, was ringing in the back of my
mind as we moved, no practically ran,
bare-footed among throngs of devotees
from one temple to another, each with
its own deva ‑ Ganesha, Radha, Krishna,
Siva - its own special flavor of darshan.
I got used to the happy pushing and
shoving, the pandits asking for money,
and, despite my Jewish upbringing, it
wasn’t long before I was dropping to
my knees, pressing my forehead to the
wet Lingam and chanting Om Namah
Sivaya. I think I was waiting for some
sort of cultural miracle to happen in
which, if I were only open-minded
enough, I could instantaneously begin
to understand the power of these deities
and the love that is transmuted back
and forth everyday between them and
their devotees. Perhaps it was too soon,
and I was still too much a spectator, or
perhaps I didn’t want it enough. Heck,
maybe it was all that Thou Shall Not
Bow Down To False Idols stuff written
the river. For the first time on the trip
I felt a direct connection to a powerful
force. An iron cage surrounded the ghat
somewhere deep in my unconscious. It as a preventative measure so that bathers
was with this level of curious resignation couldn’t be swept off with the current. I
that I stepped off from the rickshaw in continued down the steps, and, letting
Haridwar and first saw Ganga. my footing go, I let myself get caught
Haridwar, which means “Gateway underwater amongst the thick chains
to God” is a city at the foothills of buoying me and the iron cage to the
the Himalayas, where the Ganga river ghat.
descends from the glacial mountains Belief began to flow more easily after
and comes rushing across the plains that.
at full speed before making it’s way
southeast to Varanasi, to Calcutta and
then out to the Bay of Bengal. I got out
of the rickshaw, dropped my stuff off in
my hotel room and found my way out
on to the marble terrace overlooking
the quick wide brown river. I unclasped
my shoes, stepped gingerly down the
cold wet steps to the ghat, and plunged
my feet in to the rushing water. Jai Jai
Ganga Ma! I could feel the coldness
of the water, the unilateral force of the
current, and the thousands of years
of love, prayer, and devotion that had
been, and continue to be, poured into
July to December 2009 25
 I n Indian philosophy there are two
major systems (among many) that
are at play. The first, to which many, if
not most traditional Hindus belong,
is the Bhakti or devotional tradition.
Whether Shaivite (worshipping Shiva)
or Vaishnavite (worshipping Vishnu
or Krishna), all Hindu devotion
in temples to different deities, or
devas, falls into this category. In this
practice, the deva is a personalized
form of God that is here to enable
us to form some kind of connection
with God. I was able to witness the
essence of this practice in Vrindavan,
Krishna’s birthplace, where thousands
of Krishna devotees had gathered for
Radhastami, the festival celebrating
Krishna’s female counterpart Radha,
and later talking to Radha Sharan
and the members of Krishna Prem
Kirtan. Whenever they would speak
about Krishna their eyes would just
light up like a child’s, full of complete
giddy happiness at the thought of
their beloved. Our kirtan (devotional
singing) sessions always ended in
chaotic dancing and exhaustion.
In contrast the Advaita Vedanta
tradition claims that everything is
God and is thus formless. There is
no devotional focus, but rather a
call to wake up to the reality of this
oneness through direct realization
or meditation. God is not separate
from us or anything outside of us but
is the very nature of all that we are.
Shankara (Robert Moses) who was our
guide and teacher on our Yatra seemed
to suggest that Westerners (especially
heady, intellectual ones such as
myself ) are often more attracted to
the formlessness of Advaita because it
doesn’t offend their Judeo-Christian
sensibilities and is easily adapted and
assimilated. It is certainly less foreign.
Perhaps the abstraction of Advaita,
with its big impersonal language was
what always lured me in.
Yet despite this, I couldn’t resist or
explain the strong pull towards the river
that I felt, especially when compared
with the relatively flat sensation that
lingered after days of temple hopping.
There was something of both these
traditions in this experience. I felt
26 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
the giddy, happy love that I had
seen in the devotees’ eyes and I also
understood the formless awe of that
nameless mystery of which somehow
I was a part. It was undeniable that
the natural aspect had a lot to do with
it, and I was left wondering how this
experience of so-called nature might
compare to other experiences.
A fter a turbulent eight hours
on a bus we arrived at Uttarkashi,
high in the Himalayan mountains.
Here the Ganga was icy cold and
rapidly flowing over large boulders. It
was quiet, and remote, and the channel
that had opened up during my bath in
Haridwar, and intensified during the
Ganga Arati (ceremony for the river),
now became deeper and fuller. There
was time for meditation and breathing
in the cold oxygen as it came right
off the river. There was less pollution
here and less garbage. No open sewers
draining into the river, no industrial
waste, no dead animals (that I could
see anyway). Yet it was different from
experiences at other beautiful natural
environments. Even some of the more
astounding spiritual awakenings I
had experienced in the deserts of
California, New Mexico, Utah, and
Oregon, or the rush of Niagara Falls,
or the forests of Vermont, didn’t seem
to carry the same meaning that this
one river carried. In each of those
experiences I felt I was alone and it
was my isolation that transported me
into an intense contact with what I
perceived as the empty abyss at the
core of the universe. Later I would
interpret this as God. At the same
time the flow or heartbeat that I could
still perceive in a leaf, or drop of
water, or even in some dust circling in
the air reminded me that God was all
around me. Yet this was different. This
was Ganga. This was not an expression
of God. This was God. There was no
representational distance here, and to
my Western Judeo-Christian mind
this came as such a simple answer and
such a relief.
For Hindus, Ganga is a living
goddess. The Ramayana tells of how
King Bhagirathi prayed to Lord Shiva
as penance to wash away the sins of
his ancestors and release their souls
to Heaven. Shiva caught Ganga in
his matted locks as she came down
from Heaven as a gift from the Gods.
Tempered by his locks Ganga came
down to earth washing away all of
the sins of King Bhagirathi’s family. It
is said that Ganga has the power to
wash away the sins of lifetimes and for
Hindus a bath in her water is almost a
spiritual necessity. Every morning and
every night Arati is performed at her
banks and offerings of flowers, candles,
milk and prayers are directed into her.
She is believed to have infinite life-
giving power.
I t is hard to understand then how
the Ganga can be one of the most
polluted rivers in the world. In Varanasi,
one of India’s holiest cities that lies about
800km downstream from Haridwar, I
wouldn’t have dreamed of taking a bath.
This is not to say that people don’t.
Indeed, all day long there is a constant
crowd of young boys splashing in the
water, men lathering up in their trunks,
and women whacking clothing against
the stone edge of the bank. However
nearby, and sometimes only a few feet to
the right or left there would be a stream
of raw sewage running steadily into the
river. Large swaths of beautiful saris are
laid out to dry on the hot stones of the
ghats carefully interwoven around piles
of human, dog, cow, and goat feces.
The cremation ghats burn continuously
and while ashes of the deceased seemed
not so polluting, it is the bodies of
those that aren’t allowed to be burned:
children, pregnant women, criminals
or the sick which are simply disposed
of in the river, that contaminate it. Of
course there is also the constant stream
of garbage that seems to go unnoticed,
and what I had already learned of
industrial dumping further upstream.
Yet despite this, locals will claim that the
water itself is purifying. Ganga water
is powerful and not only will it not
make you sick, it will cure you of any
sickness you might have. Indeed there
are few major outbreaks or epidemics
and while I knew I wasn’t going to test
this theory personally, I wondered what
kind of truth might lie in this belief. Is
the power of belief strong enough that
a devout Hindu wouldn’t get sick from
such water? Have the thousands of years
of prayer and devotion fortified the river
against such pollution or has the prayer
and devotion developed out of such
inherent strength?
There seem to be several explanations
for this magical mysterious property of
the water. Most believe the Goddess
herself purifies and carries away the
pollution. Some scientists have pointed
to very high levels of oxygen in the
water that keeps it from turning fetid,
while others have identified special
bacteriophages that multiply rapidly
due to the high number of human
bodies or hosts they come into contact
with and that eat up all the bacteria.1
I wonder if both of these beliefs could
be true and inclusive, parts of a unified
understanding about the nature of
water. Yet no scientist could argue that
there is no limit to this kind of self-
purifying effect, and certainly there
is evidence that inadequate access to
clean water is a major problem in India.
The World Health Organization listed
diarrheal diseases as one of the leading
causes of death in young children, a
health issue that is quickly diverted
through basic personal hygiene, access
to uncontaminated food and water,
and control of sewage.2 It is impossible
to culturally argue away the real
problems that are both on and under
the surface in India. In looking at the
pollution in just one river, issues such
as access to latrines and toilets, sewage
failure, government funding shortages,
corruption, inconsistent electricity,
overpopulation, caste oppression, over-
extraction of water, and lack of industry
oversight are just a few of the problems
that spring up. In Kanpur, an industrial
city upstream of Varanasi by about 350
kilometers, the few attempts at cleaning
up the river have proved relatively
futile.3 In 1986 the government funded
the construction of a sewage treatment
plant that would keep chemicals
produced by the local tanneries out of
the water. However, there is no money
to keep the plants maintained and when
the electricity fails (which is often) the
sewage backs up and eventually has to
be funneled out to the river once again.
This overwhelming web of challenges
when combined with indifference creates
a chaotic environmental situation that is
difficult to comprehend.
In attempts to understand the
attitude of inhabitants of the river, I
was also trying to understand what
larger concepts and beliefs about nature
are at work in India compared to my
own experiences in the US. It was easy

1
Hollick, Julian Crandall. Weekend Sunday Edition: Mystery Factor Gives Ganges a
Clean Reputation. 16 Dec. 2007. National Public Radio. 17 Sept. 2009.
2
World Health Organization. World Health Statistics 2006. 17 Sept. 2009.
3
Hollick, Julian Crandall. Weekend Sunday Edition: Pollution, Indifference Taint
India’s Sacred River. 2 Dec. 2007. National Public Radio. 17 Sept. 2009.

July to December 2009 27

 enough for me to make a judgment
about the copious amounts of garbage
everywhere, but where does my garbage
go? Just because it is picked up every
week in a truck doesn’t mean that it is
polluting any less. This garbage will end
up in a landfill, in the ocean, or exported
to some other country. On some level
there’s something slightly more honest
about just throwing your candy wrapper
out the window—at least no one has to
hide it or waste lots of energy trying
to move it. Yet it was difficult to see
and understand so much apparent
indifference to the environment. I didn’t
once get a sense that anyone much
cared for nature for its own sake. While
I am continuously challenging these
kinds of conservationist views within
modern American environmentalism
for the first time I had a true gratitude
for organizations and movements that
asked us not to throw our garbage out
the window on the highway or burn
plastic in the backyard.
The struggling Indian environmental
movement is based on what activist
Sunita Narain calls “utilitarian
conservationism” in which peoples’
existence is directly linked to the land
they live on. Any environmental issue can
affect farming practices, water use, and
animals, which has direct consequences
for the people living there, as opposed
to a western experience of nature in
which people are often far removed
from the consequences of environmental
degradation. Any environmental cause
is necessarily a social cause, and it is
through this lens that Narain attempts
to engage the people:
…environmental sustainability de-
mands the construction of a political
order in which the control of natural
resources rests, to the maximum extent
possible, with local communities who
are dependent on those resources.
Decision-making within that
community must be as participatory,
open and democratic as possible. The
4
Sunita Narain, “Changing Environmentalism”, Shades of Green: a symposium on the changing contours of Indian environ-
mentalism, August 2002.
5
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, “FAQ: Post-environmentalism”, Land Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook, ed. Max
Andrews, (London: RSA, 2006) 198.
28 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
environment is not about planting
trees or protecting tigers, it is about
deepening of democracy. It is this
message that the environmental
movement needs to articulate with
greater force and conviction to ensure
that its protest is translated into
effective policy.4
It is clear that forcing a western
conservationist attitude onto the
Indian environment is unhelpful
and undermines the reality of the
average Indian’s difficulty within that
environment.
D uring our days in Uttarkashi
we had satsang with Swami
Janardananda, a resident spiritual
teacher who lives an isolated renunciate
life yet is highly involved with the
community. He spoke about his care
for the environment and his efforts to
educate and mobilize the community
around issues regarding the river:
erosion and deforestation, and the
negative effects caused by construction
of large hydropower plants along the
Himalayan segment of the Ganga.
Yet his perspective seemed primarily
Advaitan in nature, focusing on the
living existence of God in all things.
He stressed the need for people to
realize the interconnectedness of all
life forms through living a spiritual
life. If we are all part of one, part of
Brahman, then the river too is part of
us. Our karma is affected by how we
engage with others and with all things
living. He stressed that a life devoted
to material pleasures and material
gain will only cause unhappiness and
suffering. A spiritual life on the other
hand breeds compassion and care. He
implied that it is almost inevitable
that the need for such environmental
degradation would pass away if we
only advance in a more spiritual
direction.
While these thoughts had all
crossed my mind I had learned to
distance myself from this kind of
thinking. In the west “Spirituality”
often acts as a code word synonymous
with predominately white, upper
class conscience-clearing. Even within
legitimate spiritual practices it is easy
for practitioners to use their practice
to avoid the work that needs to be
done, what John Welwood has termed
a spiritual-bypass. It can seem so
enticing to move to higher states of
consciousness and attain attractive
levels of peace and serenity that one
just passes by the uncomfortable, dark,
difficult places. This is true also when
it comes to our active involvement
with environmental and social issues.
A spiritual practice is empty if the
only goal is liberation of one’s self. In
fact, a practice that is bound by such a
concept of self as distinct from others
entirely misses the point (my practice,
my teacher, my path). Spirituality is
thus often accused of falling into a
mere egoism masked as saintliness, a
role that serves only those who can
afford to participate in such practices
and further alienates and disavows
those that can not.
This kind of cultural placement
leads to a way of viewing spirituality as
a luxury rather than a necessity. Some
environmentalists and social activists
like Shellenberger and Nordhaus
espouse a similar view that “for
people to care about the non-human
world they must first have their basic
material needs met. We can’t expect a
favelado to care about the destruction
of the Amazon if he’s hungry or sick
or fears for his physical safety.”5 From
this materialist perspective basic
necessities like food, water, and safety
are a prerequisite for life itself and the
lack of these things is a crisis state that
precludes involvement in any kind of
“higher” cause. While there may be
truth to Shellenberger and Nordhaus’
view, it seems unwise and dangerous
to make assumptions about the
spiritual or social capacity of those in
material crisis. My experience in India
revealed many instances of people
living incredibly spiritual lives without
many material comforts. Clearly the
question isn’t so straightforward, a
fact that Shellenberger and Nordhaus
admittedly attest to:
A post-environmental politics recog-
nizes that it must work to meet
people’s basic material needs and at
the same time, speak to the universal,
non-material need for fulfillment,
community, love, happiness and
well-being. Post-environmentalism
breaks from the materialist politics of
the past, which today fails to speak
to higher needs, such as our desire to
have a purpose in life and realize our
full potential—both as individuals
and as members of the larger human
community.5
This “post-environmental” perspective is
in line with Narain’s understanding of why
an Indian concept of environmentalism
must be different from a western one, and
why any kind of environmental movement
must directly speak about resources and
how they will be managed and by whom.6
It is also the view that is espoused by
another community advocate and activist,
Wangari Maathai, leader of the Green Belt
Movement. Maathai works with rural
women in Kenya planting trees:
5
Shellenberger and Nordhaus, 198-9.
6
Sunita Narain, “A Million Mutinies”, New Internationalist, Jan. 2009.
7
Wangari Maathai, “Whole Earth Dialogue”, Land Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook, ed. Max Andrews, (London: RSA,
2006) 38.
It is important to recognize that
the Green Belt Movement was a
response to the needs of the local
communities, especially women. The
women understood that deforestation
was causing soil erosion and forcing
them to walk further to find firewood
and water, as well as increasing their
poverty. Therefore they responded
positively to the idea of planting trees
as something which addressed those
needs.7
Clearly this view on environmentalism
is a more holistic approach that
seeks to challenge and expand our
notion of exactly what it means to be
interconnected. It is never as simple as
nature for its own sake. Rather nature,
somewhat paradoxically is both a source
of profound experience and beauty in
life and a resource for our livelihood.
Any helpful view on the environment
must be able to encapsulate both of
these realities.
This question of whether spirituality
or a faith in the natural environment
can lead us to a better material existence,
or whether a certain level of material
subsistence is the precursor for a full,
spiritual, ecologically aware life is a little
bit of a chicken and egg question. If we
pit these models against one another
perhaps we are missing something. In
any given moment we can choose to
move from the inside out, questing
for awakened transcendence and love
of God as a balm for our suffering.
Or we can move from the outside in,
opting to find fulfillment through the
very simple act of trying to help and
provide for others’ basic necessities. In
my own searching I have to admit that I
have found inspiration in both. Swami
Janardananda’s compassionate loving
pleas reaffirmed my faith in spiritual
life as a real, profound blessing that
changes the nature of suffering itself. It
is not a cop-out or bypass but a living
practice of love and compassion that can
significantly alter action. And yet the
call to action from activists like Narain
or Maathai that comes so heartfelt even
amidst chaos, difficulty, and setbacks
tethers us to the world in an entirely
different way reminding us that we are
responsible for each other.
I had been told that India was a
place of extremes and so perhaps I was
better prepared to experience multiple
views of one river. From Uttarkashi it
was another eight hour bus ride, and an
18 km trek through rain, hot and cold
temperatures, and landslides before we
arrived at Gomukh, literally the “cow’s
mouth” where the Ganga rushes out of
a hole in a glacial mountain. This is the
source of the river, one of the holiest
sites in India. The place was barren,
a high altitude desert of rocks, with
snow-capped peaks looming overhead.
After bathing amidst chunks of floating
ice, I collected water to bring with us
to Varanasi. I looked down at the little
water vessel in my hand and noticed how
insignificant it felt to capture the rush
of the freezing water, the desolation,
the painful effort of getting there, and
the prayers of thousands of years of
pilgrims all in that small container.
Later in Varanasi, I would again feel
this insignificance as I quickly threw
my vessel of water on the Shiva Lingam
in the Kashi Vishwanath temple before
July to December 2009 29
 being hurried back outside, and again as
I watched the same water flow by the
ghats this time mixed with garbage,
raw sewage, and discarded remnants of
clothing. I am hoping that being able
to understand contradictions and hold
paradoxes in my mind will continue to
prove to be useful.
Rebecca Weisman lives in Vermont,
studying and practising yoga.
Annotated Bibliography
Andrews, Max, Royal Society of Arts
(Great Britain), and Arts Council
England. Land Art :A Cultural Ecology
Handbook. 1st. ed. London: RSA: Arts
Council England, 2006.
A compilation of texts, interviews,
essays and projects by artists, activists
and scholars discussing the changing
nature of art’s relationship to the
environment. This compilation draws
on a diverse range of practices and
viewpoints in an attempt to broaden
and expand the current notions of art’s
relationship to the environment. It is
a refreshing and necessary examination
of the competing social, political and
artistic issues that are paramount to
engaging the current environmental
crisis.
Hollick, Julian Crandall. “Weekend
Sunday Edition: Mystery Factor Gives
Ganges a Clean Reputation.” National
Public Radio 16 December 2007 to 17
September 2009.
30 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
The fourth installment in a six-part
series Crandall seeks to find the answer
to why the Ganges has a reputation for
being so clean, despite the pollution that
is clearly evident on its surface. What
Crandall finds is that its cleanliness has
both a powerful spiritual explanation
as well as a scientific one. The Ganges
has been a site of devotional prayer
for thousands of years for Hindus
who believe that the river has infinite
life-giving abilities and the power to
clean itself and anyone who goes in
it. Science shows that the river has a
higher resistance to contamination.
These findings will have an effect
on the environmental movement,
influencing decisions about how to
deal with the environmental situation
in the Ganges.
“Weekend Sunday Edition: Pollution,
Indifference Taint India’s Sacred River.”
National Public Radio 2 December
2007 to 17 September 2009.
The second installment of a six-part
series Crandall’s report on the Indian
city of Kanpur reveals an environmental
catastrophe that stems from many
complex problems. He speaks with local
activists to try and understand why the
government’s large-scale Ganga Action
Plan to clean the polluted river has
failed. He addresses the social, political,
financial reasons for the continued
pollution, mostly by the tanneries that
pour industrial chemicals into the river
and like most Indian cities, the raw
sewage that goes untreated. This report
is an important testimony that doesn’t
turn a blind eye to the environmental
degradation that affects India’s holiest
river and the people that live there.
Narain, Sunita. “Changing Environment-
alism.” Shades of Green: A Symposium
on the Changing Contours of Indian
Environmentalism. August 2002.
Narain outlines her views about the
necessity of mobilizing poor rural
communities in India as the basis for a
larger environmental movement. These
communities have a real livelihood that
is bound up with land and how it is
managed and it is at this level (and not
from a top-down governmental policy)
that will change how the environment is
viewed in India. Narain is an important
voice in a movement that many consider
to so far have been a failure.
“A Million Mutinies.” New
Internationalist. 419 (January 2009)
Indian environmental activist and
director of the Centre for Science and
Environment Sunita Narain lays out in
this article her assertions that climate
change and global economic crisis are
not separate issues. Both affect the poor
in India in ways that create a different
kind of environmental political
movement than is seen in the west.
In India the poor, Narain claims, are
so interconnected with land resources
and management that what happens
with the land is of direct importance to
them. It is the poor who make up the
bulk of the environmental movement
and who attempt to mobilize on behalf
of their mostly rural communities. The
solutions to environmental problems
must reflect this situation. Narain
brings a much needed voice to the
table, and shows connections between
land and the people living and working
on it-- connections that could be of use
to the west and the rest of the world.
World Health Organization. World
Health Statistics, 2006. 17 September
2009
A standard on world health reporting
for India and the rest of the world.
Eighteen Siddhars, accomplished yogis of southern India, mostly in the Tamil speaking regions. Agastya Muni is in the center.
Photograph of a wall calendar in a small hotel in Tiruvanamallai by Robert Moses. January 2007

July to December 2009 31

 SVADHYAYA & THIRUMALAR
SRIVATSA RAMASWAMI
S vadhyaya is a Sanskrit word
many yogis are familiar with. It is
a samasa or a compound word. It can
be split into sva meaning ‘own’, and
adhyaya or study; therefore svadhyaya
would mean own study. It is open to
different interpretations. It could mean
study by oneself or study of the Self, or
as my Guru would interpret based on
tradition, study of one’s own scriptures.
In his case it was studying his branch of
the Vedas, or sakha. It was Taittiriya saka
of the Yajur veda, which also happens
to be my sakha or branch of the Vedas.
It became easy to study vedic chanting
with him. The term svadhyaya is found
in the Taittiriya Upansihad and there
is a chapter in the same rendition (in
aranyaka), called svadhyaya prakarana
which extols the efficacy of vedic chanting
especially the venerated Gayatri. Some
scholars refer to svadhyaya with a more
generalized interpretation. Since sva is
own, svadhyaya could mean study of
the Self: or the atma vidya or adhyatma
vidya which is the subject matter of the
Upanishadic portion of the Vedas. It
could include other philosophies which
help to understand the nature of the
Self, like Yoga and Samkhya. Hence
all studies in which the main goal is
realization of the Self or Soul can be
termed as svadhyaya.
Sri Krishnamacharya made it a point
to teach several Upanishad vidyas and
other adhyatma vidyas as Yoga, the Gita,
samkhya etc. But what does Patanjali
indicate by Svadhyaya in the Niyamas?
It is the study and practice of the
devotional rituals of the Vedas. This can
be inferred from the benefits Patanjali
says would accrue by svadhyaya. It is the
communion with one’s own ishtadevata
or personal deity, “svadhyayat ishta
devata samprayogah”.
Sri Krishnamacharya spent a lot
of time teaching the Vedas and vedic
philosophies. Svadhyaya is a perpetual
niyama. So every year on the full
32 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
moon day during the month July15 to
August 14th, orthodox Indians renew
their pledge to study the Vedas, and
follow it up on the following day by the
chanting of the Gayatri mantra 1008
times. They continue the minimum
practice of svadhyaya by chanting
Gayatri every day at least 108 times.
Many chant the Vedas, like the Sun
Salutation mantras or the vedic hymns
of Siva or the Upanishad etc., every
day. This is orthodox svadhyaya which
Patanjali seems to include as a Niyama.
If we take a wider interpretation of
the word svadhyaya to mean study of
the adhyatma vidyas or study about
the Self, we have a number of texts
that compete for the Yogi’s attention.
Apart from the main philosophies like
Yoga, Samkhya and Vedanta on this
subject, almost all the old texts like the
Puranas and individual works have a
portion on Yoga, as “yogic discipline”
was considered a prerequisite for the
study, understanding and meditation
of the Self.
Such texts are many in number.
They are not limited to Sanskrit
alone. In fact there are many classic
texts on spirituality in a Dravidian
language called Tamil Tamizh, which
is my mother tongue. Several Tamil
scholars consider Tamil to be even
older than Sanskrit and it is one
of the few Indian languages with a
minimum of Sanskrit- derived words.
The philosophical works in Tamil
are many. There is a beautiful small
text called “Kaivalya Navaneetam”
or the Butter of Spiritual Freedom.
It indicates that if one studies that
book, spiritual Freedom takes place
instantaneously, like the time taken to
swallow a piece of butter. Or kaivalya
or spiritual freedom will appear to be
as delicious to the spiritual aspirant as
butter would be to a child. Children
love butter and Lord Krishna as a child
was said to be very fond of butter.
P erhaps one of the best known
Tamil works on spirituality is the one
written by a Sivayogi called Tirumular.
He says in his work Thirumandiram that
he was a contemporary of Patanjali and
by implication witnessed the dance of
Lord Siva in Chidambaram. (For the
story of Patanjali please read the chapter
“Story of Patanjali” in my book “Yoga for
the Three Stages of Life”). Some scholars
consider Tirumandiram, the 3000 verse
monumental work, as equivalent to the
works of the Bhagavatgita, Patanjali’s
Yogasutra and another Yoga classic,
Yogavasishta, combined. It is hard to
disagree. Tirumular says: By receiving
Nandhi’s grace we sought the feet of
the Lord. The Four Nandhis (Sanagar,
Santhanar, Sanath Sujatar, Sanath
Kumarar), Siva Yoga Maamuni, Patanjali,
Vyakramapadar and I (Thirumoolar). We
were thus eight disciples. The story of
Tirumular is also interesting. He was a
Sivayogi and a siddha yogi, one who had
attained siddhis—like those that you
find in the Vibhuti Pada of Patanjali’s
Yoga Sutra.
H ere is the story. It is said that
the Siva Yogi, Sundaranatha, who
was one of the eight direct disciples of
Lord Siva, having received the blessings
of Lord Siva and also having become a
Sidhha and being a great Vedic scholar,
decided to visit the South Indian sage
Agastya who was living in the Podihai
mountains of Tamil Nadu in South
India. He worshipped the Lord in
Kedhar and Pasupati in Nepal. He took
a holy dip in the Ganga and proceeded
towards the South. He visited the
mountain range of Shrisailam, on the
banks of the great Southern river Krishna
and worshipped Sivasankara. Travelling
further south he reached Kalahasti,
another venerated hill temple of Siva.
Then he went to the Dancing Siva’s
(Nataraja) temple, Alavanam and then
went to Kancheepuram and worshipped

the Lord in the Ekambresvara temple,
about 50 miles from the city of
Chennai. Then he reached the great
temple in Tillai or Chidambaram and
witnessed the primordial dance of Lord
Siva, the same place where Patanjali also
had the vision of the divine dance. His
heart was full of immense divine joy on
seeing the dance of the Lord. Then he
slowly moved further south and reached
the banks of the river Kaveri. One day,
after taking his bath in the holy river
Kaveri, he went to another Siva temple
in Aduthurai.
He worshipped the icon of the Lord
in that temple and never felt like leaving
the beautiful form and the spiritual
environs of the place. But he collected
himself and started proceeding towards
the Podihai mountains to meet with the
short statured Agastya.
As he was slowly treading along
the bank of Kaveri, he saw a herd
of cows standing around a spot, not
moving, not grazing as expected. He
went near them and saw to his dismay,
the cowherd lying dead in front of
the cows. The orphaned cows which
seemed to be unable to bear the loss of
their friendly cowherd were weeping
with their heads down. It was also
time for the cows to return to their
habitats to be milked and such milch
cows were struggling to stay in place
with their heavy udders.
The Yogi, who considers anbe Sivam
‘Love is the Lord’, took pity on the
cows. He used his yogic powers called
para kaya pravesa and transmigrated
into the body of the cowherd, known
as Mulan. In an instant Mulan woke up
as if from sleep and the cows instantly
looked happy. The Yogi, now a cowherd,
kept his own body aside under a banyan
tree—planning to re-enter his own body
a short while afterwards—and led the
cows back to their habitats. He waited
for the cows to return to their respective
spots and then decided to get back to
the forest where his original body was.
Reaching the spot where he had left
his body, he was shocked to find that his
body was missing. Actually the King’s
servants finding an unclaimed body
decided to dispose of it by cremating it
as per the custom. Now the Yogi who
had renounced everything had now
renounced his own body. Though he
was taken aback by the turn of events, he
realized that the Lord Siva was directing
him to propagate Sivayoga through him
in the Sothern part of India through
the medium of the Southern language,
Tamizh.
Shortly thereafter, some of the
villagers not finding Mula with the
returning cows came in search of him
in the forest and brought him back to
the village and left him in his house.
Mulan’s wife, who herself was an orphan
and childless, found the behavior of
her husband odd. He said to her that
he had renounced the world and would
not come back home and went into a
Mutt (ashram) and remained there for
the night, planning to leave the place
the following day.
Mulan’s wife was restless all night.
She had no relatives or grown up
children to take care of her. Early in the
morning she approached the elders of
the village and narrated her plight and
requested them to persuade Mulan to
return home. The elders, after talking
to him for a few minutes realized
that a transformation had taken place
in Mulan, and that he was not the
illiterate cowherd anymore but an
accomplished Yogi and they thought it
was due to the grace of Lord Siva.
They went back and consoled Mulan’s
wife, telling her that her husband has
transformed himself to a Yogi and she
should feel happy and proud of her
husband. They also persuaded the Yogi
to stay near the village so that his wife
would feel more secure even though he
would be separated from her. The Yogi
sat under a tree and meditated for one
year and at the end woke up from his
samadhi and composed one verse.
Again he went into samadhi and at
the end of the second year he opened
his eyes and composed the second verse
and went on to compose three thousand
verses—it is believed in the following
3000 years!
T hirumantiram ‘the sacred mantras’
became a classic in Siva Yoga and
there is no one who would not be
touched deeply by one verse or the
other. Here are a few verses translated,
pertaining to Ashtanga Yoga.
Certain constraints and prescribed duties
(dont’s and do’s), countless postures, breath
control, sense control, concentration,
meditation, and absorption are the eight
aspects of yoga.
One who is steadfast in Yama, the first
Anga, will never cause injuries to anyone
by word or deed (nor abet). Thoroughly
truthful, he never covets; possesses
exemplary qualities, and is pious.
Modest and neutral he shares his
July to December 2009 33
 possessions with others. Pure he abjures
use of intoxicants.
The Niyamas (vows) are cleanliness,
both outward and inward, compassion,
dieting, forbearance, truth, sensitiveness
and a mind free from lust, greed, or
sadism.
Further, austerity, chanting, contentment,
faith, charity, religiousness, scriptural
study and its propagation, and worship
are the aspects of Niyama.
Asanas are many hundreds. The
important ones are Bhadrasana,
Gomukhasana, Padmasana, Simhasana,
Siddhasana, Veerasana, Sukhasana and
Swastikasana.
By the proper control of Prana
(Pranayama) bliss arises in one
automatically. Why resort to intoxicating
drinks? The gait becomes sprightly and
laziness vanishes. This is the truth, oh
sensible one, of the efficacy of Pranayama.
Usually Prana circulates in the body
without control. If one, by proper practice
purifies and controls it, the complexion
will become golden, grey hair will turn
black, and ultimately/untimely death will
be prevented.
T hirumular indicates that he,
by the aid of Yoga lived long, 3,000
years. Knowledge of life and long life
are essential, he says, to attain spiritual
knowledge. He says “Once I was under
the impression that the body need not be
protected since it is perishable. Of late
I found that something is inside it, and
that something is the all- pervading entity,
which is inside my body as though my
body is its temple. After finding that truth
I have taken a vow to protect and preserve
my body temple and keep perfect.”
H ere is Ganesa Prayer from
Tirumular’s Tirumandiram, which
I usually chant at the beginning of my
Yoga classes:
Aindu karattanai
Aanai muhattanai
Indin ilampirai pondra eyitrinai
34 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
Nandi mahandanai
Jnaanakkozhundinai
Pundiyil vaittadi potruhinrene.
Him, who has arms five, Him, who
has an elephant face Him, whose single
tusk equals the charm of the crescent
moon, Him, who is the offspring of
the Blissful Lord, Him, who is wisdom
overflowing, I worship [by] keeping
His feet in my consciousness [mind].
Here are some gems.
There is but one Race. There is but
one God. The ignorant considers Love
and God as different. And many
consider Love and God separate.
When one finds out Love and God
to be identical One becomes an
embodiment of Love/Compassion.
The entire text has been published.
I think there is a translation of it in
Indian English, with which you are
now familiar. Sri Krishnamacharya
was an innovative yogi. He adapted
yoga, using the physical, physiological,
psychological, devotional and spiritual
aspects to the requirements of
individuals. But these adaptations were
based on solid footing in traditional
yoga. There is a view among a few
yoga practitioners that Yoga is evolving
and so they become inventors of Yoga,
without studying the huge amount of
yogic wisdom already available. My
Guru spent the first four decades of his
life, went around different parts of the
country studied under different teachers
different subjects before settling down
to teach Yoga.
In the olden days, classical subjects
like traditional music, grammar and
literature, vedic chanting, Ayurveda
and Yoga were supposed to be studied
full time for at least seven years before
one can claim to work in that specific
areas. Even in modern times, subjects
like Medicine, Law, Engineering and
others require solid study for a number
of years before one can practice as a
doctor or a lawyer or design a bridge. So
when Krishnamacharya taught Yoga or
treated a patient with yoga procedures,
you could be sure that even as he would
adapt to individual requirements it was
based on solid, thorough traditional
knowledge. He had one foot firmly
grounded in orthodox approach.
He even would exhort his students
to go around villages and approach
agraharamas, elite communities, and
look for works of obscure yogis that
would be available with their families
and bring them out and study them. He
used to quote sometimes from unusual
sources, mainly because he took efforts
to unearth hidden treasures of yogic
knowledge.
I
n Yoga Makaranda you come
across references to many
works which we are not able to
find nowadays, but which he had
studied. Many of the works remained
unpublished like the Yogakuranta, for
instance. So svadhyaya is a vey important
aspect of a Yogi’s development. Without
that, without those moorings, the yogi
becomes rudderless and could waste
perhaps a lot of valuable time either
with ineffective innovations or lopsided
practices within a narrow spectrum. Sri
Krishnamacharya was an orthodox Yogi
with a lot of svadhyaya, conventional,
traditional study and that was the secret
of his innovations. He made the obscure
Yoga of yesteryears accessible to modern
times.
Srivatsa Ramaswami was a long-time
student of the legendary teacher T.
Krishnamacharya. He has written four
books on Yoga. See vinyasakrama.org &
vinyasakrama.com for more information.
July to December 2009 35
 Natarāja, Lord Śiva as The Cosmic Dancer.

36 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

THE SCIENCE
OF SYMBOLS
& THE PRINCIPLES OF
HINDU RELIGIOUS ART
Reprint from The Visva-Bharati
Quartely, May-July 1949.

ALAIN DANIÉLOU©
Born in Paris, the son of a
French cabinet minister,
Alain Daniélou lived in Vārāņasī
for many years, devoting
himself to the study of many
forms of traditional Indian
culture and philosophy.
This text was found amongst
Alain Daniélou’s papers by
his assistant Jacques Cloarec.
Since Daniélou’s death in 1994 Mr.
Cloarec has been working on the
promotion and diffusion of Daniélou’s
works. Photographs are by
Robert Moses taken inside the
British Museum,
London in August 2009

A nanda Coomaraswami once wrote

that Indian Art imitates Nature not
so much in its external forms as in its
mode of operation. This may not be
true of Indian Art in its entirety, but
certainly corresponds to the basic con-
ception of Hindu religious art. The out-
look through which the artist tries to
re-create a world similar to the natural
world, is known as the cosmological
view of Art. Hindu philosophy consid-
ers that a question can be studied from
a number of points of view; each point
of view having its own limitations and
leading to distinct results.

July to December 2009 37

 Among these the naturalistic
Vaiśešika, the cosmological Sāmkhya,
the logical Nyāya approaches, and the
approach through identification Yoga
are considered more important. These
ways of approach are found at the ba-
sis of artistic creation as well as of all
other human activities.
The Naturalistic approach studies
its object on the basis of the data of
sensorial experience. Most of mod-
ern science comes therefore within
the definition of Vaiśešika, as well as
all forms of imitative art. The word
Vaiśešika itself means “the science of
the particular”. The cosmological ap-
proach on the other hand tries to re-
create, starting from its basic elements,
an object similar that of its study, thus
allowing us to understand the process
of its generation.
The logical approach, in connec-
tion with arts, is mainly concerned
with the relation of medium and tech-
nique; but the approach through iden-
tification is given great prominence in
religious art, since it is only after the
artist has realized the subtle shape of
a deity through inner concentration
that he may be able to transpose the
essential characteristics of its shape in
terms of visible form and color.
W estern art, even when abstract,
is almost exclusively naturalistic.
When it gets away from realism it does
not become analytical. It may reproduce
the fantasies of an inadequate perception,
such as may be created by dreams or de-
ficient vision, but it cares little for basic
laws of number and geometrical figures
envisaged as the root of natural forms, as
well as that of aesthetic emotion. An ex-
ception has to be made however as regards
a few Primitive and Renaissance painters,
the main one being Leonardo da Vinci,
who showed a definite effort towards the
Cosmological conception of art. And
this effort, although it remained merely
an attempt, gave very valuable results.
This may explain why the only Western
works of art which convey something
similar to the subtle, undefinable, expres-
sion of Hindu medieval sculpture are a
few paintings of Vinci and even, though
to a lesser degree, of Raphael.
38 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
I ndian art, on the other hand, even
when it imitates nature, closely aims
at creating again rather than merely
translating. The modern, like the ancient
Indian painter tends towards creating
an ideal type rather than reproducing
exactly a particular likeness. He rather
depicts a country and its atmosphere
than a particular tree or landscape. This
conception does not bring painting into
competition with photography as the
Western conception does. Photography
very much disrupted European painting
since it took away the value of one of its
main assets which was a good likeness.
The resulting loss of balance led to the
development of impressionist, and later
surrealist, tendencies.
H indu medieval sculpture represents
a very thorough attempt to make
of the cosmological approach the very
principle of art. It was remarkably suc-
cessful in its application, and the great
mass of sculptures produced from the
9th to the 12th century all over India
seem to have followed very strictly and
in minute detail the canons of theoreti-
cal proportions.
A geometrical diagram which repre-
sents the yantra, that is the mathemati-
cal expression of the divine aspect en-
visaged, was first drawn upon the stone
and made ‘alive’ through the process of
consecration. The image thus had to be
inscribed within its limits. Further all
the proportions of the image itself, vary-
ing according to the symbolic aspect
envisaged, were regulated in minute de-
tails, including the breadth and length
of the figures’ and toes’ phalanxes, the
size of the eyelids and even that of the
nostrils. The detailed canons are still
available today.
It might be thought that too elaborate
rules would have paralysed the inspira-
tion of the artist, create stiff and unnatu-
ral forms. On the contrary they seemed
to generate an ideal, angelic beauty, re-
markably alive and subtle in expression.
In many instances the medieval artist
succeeded in his avowed aim which was
to reveal a celestial beauty of which the
greatest beauty found in human beings
would seem but a pale unfinished copy;
for beauty is divided amongst individ-
ual beings, each of whom owns but a
fragment of it, while all the beauty can
be consecrated in the ideal type built
through a theoretical process.
Canons are a mere abstraction, a play
of numbers. We could make canons for
multidimensional worlds which we can-
not visualize. It is therefore logical to
conceive that forms built according to
certain canons may have a power of sug-
gestion beyond their actual appearance.
This may explain the strange life which
emanates from Medieval sculpture and
architecture.
Hindu religious art is symbolic. Its
aim is to convey to our minds the per-
ception of something that transcends
mere appearance. Just as a word be-
comes symbolic when it is used to
express something beyond its factual
meaning, something which words of-
ten cannot directly express, so also a
sculpture is symbolic when it is used to
represent something beyond the form
it actually represents. In its essence all
art is symbolic, because, the fact that
the mere form or color can be a source
of enjoyment implies that this form or
color represents something which is in-
dependent of its use. All form that can
arouse an aesthetic emotion is in fact a
symbol.
I n the Hindu view of art a symbol
is not a conventional shape used to
represent an abstraction; a true symbol
is a reality. When the laws which rule
the inner nature of thing appear more
transparently in a certain form, this
form is taken as a symbol. Hence a sym-
bol pratīka is defined as a ‘limit’ nidāna.
It is a form which belongs to two orders
of things which is the intersection of
two worlds. According to this definition
a straight line would be the symbol of
a plane for the two dimensional beings
who would live in another plane, since
a straight line is the limit, the intersec-
tion of both. Thus we may discover
that what we perceive of an object may
not be its whole nature. It may be the
section which pertains to the world in
which we live. The very same object
may have further prolongments in other
worlds which we cannot see, although
we may apprehend something of their
Lord Śiva and Pārvātī
July to December 2009 39
 nature through the peculiarities of form
and the behavior of the sections which
pertain to both worlds, and which are
for us the limits, the true symbols.
In music for example it is obvious
that a major chord is joyful and a minor
chord is melancholy. Yet the physicist
will tell us that there is between them
only a difference of ratio, a mere matter
of numbers. The third in one case being
5/4 and in the other 6/5. How is it that
a ratio of the for 5/22 should be joy-
ful and a ratio of the 2x3/5 should appear
melancholy? We discover here a typi-
cal symbol, a link between two orders
of things. And we shall see that these
particular numerical relations have con-
stant applications in architecture, sculp-
ture, painting, medicine, sociology, as-
tronomy and all other sciences.
In the same way at the limit of life we
can observe geometrical patterns which
are the expression of the reality of uni-
versal symbols. Thus crystals will show
regular forms based on even numbers
while most flowers have odd numbers of
petals. But it was not the mere observa-
tion of such facts which led the ancient
seers of India to adopt flowers, conches,
sounds and geometrical figures as sym-
bols. It was rather the knowledge of the
general laws of which these forms and
sounds are but an accidentally obvious
expression. And just as these relations
can allow the establishment of some
correspondence between the world of
forms and sounds and that of our emo-
tions, they can also allow the establish-
ment of contacts between this and other
worlds.
M an is in himself a limit, a being
in whom several worlds which
have no common sense unite. Our mind
is not bound by the same laws of space
and time as our physical senses and
their organs. Further, our inner Con-
sciousness belongs to a stage of being
different from the world of the mind.
Man is therefore a typical symbol and
certain parts of his body or certain of
his actions where the different elements
of his being are more particularly knit
together are taken as particular symbols.
Most of the peculiarities of Hindu ico-
nography become easy to grasp when
40 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
this principle is recognized This can also
help us to understand why the human
act of love and the union from which
life springs are given such a prominent
place in religious symbolism.
Through works of art we can have a
clearer perception of the scheme of na-
ture which art renders apparent while
nature tries to hide it. This is the pur-
pose of the work of art and this is why,
imperfect as it is when compared with
the perfection of nature, it can move us
more than the sight of nature itself, for
it explains to us the beauty of nature.
Modern critics dismiss most of the re-
ligious symbolism as chiefly accidental
and based on crude utilitarian worship.
But this does not explain the relation of
symbolic and aesthetic values nor the
beauty of shapes akin to the human and
yet quite distinct from anything that
can be seen or touched, such as the ideal
proportion of the limbs and the features
of medieval sculptures, or still more of
the beauty of figures with many heads
and arms or partly human and partly
animal and vegetal: Kinnaras, Gand‑
harvas, Kīrtimukhas, Sārdūlas etc. who
crowd the walls of temples.
T he science of symbols or “Sci-
ence of limits”, the “Nīdāna Śāstra”,
is said to belong to the cosmological in-
terpretation of the Knowledge Eternal,
the Veda. It is considered an appendix
of the “Knowledge of Metaphysical cor-
respondences”, the Atharva Veda. The
basic texts of this Science seem to have
been lost—as were most of the ancient
Hindu technical sciences during the
centuries of neglect which resulted from
foreign domination. There are however
still some traditional students of the
Nidāna Śāstra among whom, in the
beginning of this century, was Paņďit
Madhusūdhan Ojhā of Jaipur. Some of
his disciples, particularly Paņďit Motilal
Gauď, publsihed in Hindi and Sanskrit
important, though brief, studies regard-
ing the Nīdāna Śāstra.
T his loss of the main texts of the Sci-
ence of Symbols provoked a sharp
decline in religious art and led to a
marked degeneracy in the style and pro-
portions of architecture and sculpture in
India. Theoretically, inaccuracy in pro-
portions not only hampers the beauty
but destroys the religious, or magic, val-
ue of images and temples which should
accurately represent the ‘limit’, if they
are to be the doors through which we
may make up for this deficiency. In fact
all sentimental religion is usually the last
vestige of a decadent ritual, preceding a
return to a rationalistic approach.
The principles of the Nīdāna Śāstra
found their application in several tech-
nical sciences and crafts. That is why
it is from the treatises of the Śilpa and
Vāstu Śāstra and some technical chap-
ters of the Purāņas and Tantras, as well
as from such works as the Nītisāra, the
Bŗihat samhita, etc. that we may recover
its main outline.
All the images of Hindu deities are
built up as a group of conventional
forms and attributes meant to repre-
sent one aspect or other of the Divine
powers. These forms and attributes are
always the same and constitute the ele-
ments, the words of the symbolic code
or language. They can be grouped in
many different ways. The images which
combine a greater number of distinct
features are considered the main dei-
ties, while images which differ by a few
attributes only are spoken of as minor
deities or aspects of one deity.
To give an example, the 24 different
icons of Višņnu, the All-Pervader, are
differentiated by the position which the
four different accessories (conch, dis-
cus, mace and lotus) can occupy in the
four hands of the god. These aspects of
Višņnu are then called: Nārāyaņa, The
Universal Abode; Mādhava, The Lord
of Knowledge; Govinda, Rescuer of the
Earth; Trivikrama, Conqueror of the
Three Worlds; Śrīdhara, Bearer of For-
tune, etc. These aspects are explained as
follows
The four hands represent the four
stages of human development and the
four aims of life purušārtha, the relative
predominance of which results in the
division of human life into four periods,
of human society into four castes, of hu-
man history into four ages. These four
stages are also symbolically connected
with the four directions of space and
hence with the orientation of images
Lord Višņu The All-Pervader
July to December 2009 41
 and temples. The aspects of knowledge
pertinent to these four aspects of human
destiny are represented by the four Ve-
das.
In all images the Lotus is the tendency
towards light, towards reintegration, the
sātvika or centripetal tendency which
binds the world together. Hence it is
taken to represent “that which rules the
Earth”, meaning both ‘dominion’ and
dharma, ‘Eternal Law’ as well as jñāna,
‘True Knowledge’. It is connected with
the water element which surrounds the
earth and purifies all things. The water-
born lotus is the emblem of purity.
The conch is the tendency towards
inertia, obscuration, dissolution, the
tamas or centrifugal tendency through
which the Universe tends to dissociate
into nothingness. It is associated with
the ether element ākāśa tattva the causal
stage in which all dissolves and which
is perceived only through the spiral of
sound.
The discus, sudarśana, ‘Beauteous
Sight’, represents the third tendency, the
rajas or expanding tendency, born of the
opposition of the two other tendencies
it gives rise to the circular movement of
planets. It is associated with the fiery
principle tejas tattva and thus with the
subtle expanding part of I-ness origin of
sensorial perception.
The mace is existence, life prāņa tattva
the ‘Principle of Vital Energy’ associated
with vāyu tattva, the air element.
We can easily see how the relative po-
sition of these symbols of the life Energy
and of the three tendencies which are the
substratum of all existence in relation to
the four hands that are the four aims of
human life—Pleasure, Prosperity, Righ-
teousness and Final Liberation—can be
taken to represent the different aspects
of Višņu, the All Pervading form of Di-
vinity who, in each of the great periods
of the world’s history, descends as an
avatara to establish the law of righteous-
ness and the way of knowledge suited to
the conditions of a new age.

Visitors to the British Museum

listening to guided tours

42 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

July to December 2009 43
 ON THE ABSTRACTION OF
‘SACRED’ FORMS IN THE ART
OF M.F. HUSAIN
SIDDARTHA V. SHAH©
I n all parts of the world and
throughout history, both religion
and mythology have served as major
inspirations to artists. The art of the
ancient world is filled with countless
representations of deities from
pantheons that have long since entered
the realm of “dead religions”—their
forms and stories are familiar to many
but gone are the days in which they
were honored and venerated. A unique
challenge arises, however, when a living
religion’s mythology is represented in
visual art, particularly contemporary
art; artists often face harsh disapproval
by conservatives who do not wish to see
their spiritual traditions revisioned in a
modern visual language. M.F. Husain,
an internationally-acclaimed painter,
has strived since 1947 to develop an
artistic style that pulls from traditional
cultural materials while commenting
directly on the contemporary world.
My intention in this article is to
address some of the controversies
surrounding Husain’s representations
from the Ramayana and Mahabharata
by drawing attention to the distinct
way in which his works require a
different gaze than that which is most
prevalent throughout the Hindu world
for viewing gods and goddesses. The
mass distribution of images of deities
has been in place for well over 100 years
in India, and the devotional function
of these objects has transformed not
only Indian visual culture but also what
people expect in representations of gods.
1
Diana Eck, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, 9.
44 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
Husain’s work obliges the viewer to look
beyond the blessing potential of a deity
to its basic form, structure, and essence.
Consideration of this conventional
visual culture of India is, in my opinion,
essential to any discussion of Husain’s
work.
O ne of the most important facets
of art in modern India has been the
pervasiveness of bright, colorful images
of gods and goddesses of the Hindu
tradition. Along with popular television
serials and the Amar Citra Katha comic
series, these vibrant representations
have been the primary vehicles of
transmission for Hindu mythology to
millions of Indians today—Hindu and
Muslim alike. While
the subject matter is
most often of Hindu
origin, the deities’
names and tales have
become an integral
part of the larger
Indian ethnography.
The characters are
the great villains
and superheroes at
battle in the psyches
of Indians, their
struggles not so
different from our
own.
As Diana Eck
writes, “In India, seeing is a kind of
touching”, and it is because of this feature
in Indian visual culture that “calendar
art” (thus named as these images are
often found on calendars distributed as
corporate gifts) has been and remains
so overwhelmingly popular. The act
of standing before a sacred image and
being in symbiotic relationship with it
is called darshan, from the Sanskrit root
drs meaning “to see”. Darshan presumes
a transmission of energy or exchange
through seeing a deity with mindful
attention and devotion. In crowded
temples, devotees strain their necks in
hopes of catching a glimpse of the deity’s
face, feet, hands, and adornments. The
eyes are the most important point of
focus, appearing large, lotus-shaped,
and with an intense outward gaze. Icons
may feature wooden or silver sandals,
flowers, or colored
powder. The hands,
two or more, hold
implements of
great beauty and
power. Symbolic in
function, specific
forms of gods and
goddesses have
their own particular
weapons or objects
they wield. Temple
images can appear
heavily embellished
with flowers, gold
ornaments studded
with precious
stones, dressed in vibrantly colored
silk, and this aesthetic is replicated in
much of popular Hindu calendar art.
All these attributes are familiar to the
viewer and their inclusion assists in the
communication of bhava or emotion
through the deity.
With so many posters being produced
and distributed throughout India
over the last century, a popular visual
culture has formed that values images
primarily on how effectively the viewer
experiences a personalized relationship
with the object than by a measure of
conventional aesthetics. Artists often use
the word sajivta, meaning livingness or
lifelikeness, to describe the ideal quality
of a god or goddess in art.2 Yogendra
Rastogi is an artist whose paintings
of Hindu deities have been printed in
millions of posters throughout India.
According to Rastogi, it is essential in
appealing to the public that a deity face
forward and look directly at the viewer.
If this does not feature in the work,
Rastogi states, a viewer will inquire, “if
he is not looking at us how will he bestow
benevolence on us?”. “Behind this,” he
says, “is partly people’s ideology…bold
colors, bold figures, front looking—
these are the most important things”.3
C hristopher Pinney, in his book
on the printed image in India, Photos
of the Gods, refers to this as the triumph
of darshani images that permit mutual
gazing over katha (narrative) images that
have a more pedagogic function.4 While
this may be the preference of the general
public and those with strong religious
sensibilities, there has been a movement
by some Indian artists in contrast to this
tradition, and with various combating
philosophical positions. For some
formally trained artists, this particular
“Indianness” of calendar art does not
show much development or thought
within the work itself or on the part
of the artist. It is limiting, not only for
the artist who must follow this criteria
but also for the viewer who does not
2
Diana Eck, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, 199.
3
Kajri Jain, Gods in the Bazaar: The Economies of Indian Calendar Art, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007, 191.
4
Christopher Pinney, Photos of the Gods: The Printed Image and Political Struggle in India, London: Reaktion Books, 2003, 92.
5
Ibid., 23.
6
Ibid
7
Pinney, Photos of the Gods, 22. Diderot viewed art presuming the absence of the viewer as a “privileged art” rather than a “ritual art”.
8
Ibid., 22
experience other ways of relating to
deity images.
The work of Raja Ravi Varma (1848-
1906) is certainly the most significant
influence on modern calendar art and
he has been lauded by many as the first
modern artist of India. Varma focused
almost exclusively on Indian mythological
themes, portraying deities and scenes from
well-known tales in oil paintings. His
body of work shows a distinct melding
of European medium and style with
culturally Indian subjects.
Late in his career, Varma opened a
printing press allowing him to create
inexpensive reproductions, making
them available in cities and villages
throughout India. Within a short time,
his paintings moved from the sector
of the wealthy and privileged into the
hearts and homes of the common people
with their distinctly Indian sensibilities.
Whereas his mythological narratives were
most amenable to Western art historical
evaluations and favored by his colonial
patrons, the Indian audience was more
interested in the iconic representations
that acknowledged the presence of the
viewer. The viewers valued the blessings
the deities could give them over the
artist’s ability to depict realistic scenes
or place the viewer as active participant
within the composition.5 This preference
dominates even today in contemporary
India where reproductions of Varma’s
darshani images remain far more popular
than his narrative compositions.
The Progressive Artists Group, of
which Husain was a part, sought to
develop a new visual language that
pulled from the cultural materials
of India, communicated in strokes
and marks unfamiliar (and perhaps
unnerving) to the Indian public. They
sought to develop a style that was alive
and original, something born of and
emblematic of Post-Independence
India’s new identity. While they faced
accusations of destroying India’s great
artistic traditions, Husain disagrees,
stating, “Our work was truly Indian in
form, nature, and spirit… We refused to
be realistic, ornamental or imitative.”6
H usain had worked as a billboard
painter in Bombay for several
years before matriculating at the J.J.
School of Art, one of the nation’s
most reputed art institutions. From
their European “masters”, the Indian
art students learned new ideas and
of movements that had developed in
Europe over the centuries. In contrast
to the “idols” of the Hindu pantheon
that saturated Indian culture with their
assumed distance and ritual function,
students were exposed to “privileged
art” with its subtle indirectness and
absorbed figures.7
According to art historian Michael
Fried, the most influential force of
change in European art from the 18th
century to modernity involved the
absence of the viewer; the subjects
depicted in “good art” denied the
presence of the viewer by being fully
absorbed in action.8 To view the
protagonists absorbed in a particular
scene or situation allows for the
viewer to make connections with his/
her own lived experience. The viewer
enters the seen rather than remaining
a passive witness. Such a relationship
to imagery differed entirely from the
darshani relationship to gods and
goddesses, and this inspired the young
artists of the time to incorporate these
European elements into their work.
Furthermore, to use mythological
or religious themes that could also
incite contemporary significance was
considered the most serious form of
painting in the academies of Europe,
and this notion influenced the
Progressives to guide Indian art into a
new direction.
July to December 2009 45
 A s an artist who first gained
recognition in the year of India’s
independence, Husain has consistently
commented on the situations facing his
own nation by executing works pulled
from the abundant wellspring of Indian
mythology. He communicates the
essence of the moral lessons embedded
in India’s ancient tales in his own style
that is markedly Indian while negating
what he considers the unnatural and
manufactured sentiments found within
much of Indian art. Rather than painting
iconic canvases that would uphold the
accepted devotional function of art, he
paints images that allow for the viewer
to make connections between the fate
presented in the work and his/her own.
His intention is to generate a sense of
association or empathy between the
viewer and the dramatic character(s)
depicted that is entirely different
from the sentiments evoked through
darshan.
Perhaps more than any other Indian
artist, Husain has been concerned with
the fate of India in his paintings.9 The
Mahabharata and the Ramayana are
two epics that are the ideal ground
on which to make commentaries on
war, civil struggle, morality, and the
victory of good over evil in Indian
history. The Mahabharata is the great
Indian epic that is, according to scholar,
V.S. Sukthankar, “the content of our
collective unconscious…we must
recognize that it is our past which has
prolonged itself into the present. We are
it”.10 The story is laden with images of
dishonesty, immorality, shady deals, and
a complete disregard for righteousness.
With the climax being a battle between
two rivalling factions, both of the
same blood, the story seemed an ideal
vehicle for Husain to remark on India’s
own internal struggles while affirming
an inclusive, unified, diverse Indian
cultural identity.11
Husain first visited the Mahabharata
as a subject in 1971 in preparation for
9
Indian Art Today: Four Artists From the Chester and Davida Herwitz Family Collection: Laxma Goud, Maqbool Fida Husain,
K.G. Ramanujam, and Sayed Heideru. Washington DC: The Phillips Collection, 1986, 22.
10
Susan Bean and Shashi Tharoor, Epic India: M.F. Husain’s Mahabharata Project. Salem, Massachusetts: Peabody Essex Museum,
2006, 16.
11
Ibid., 28. 12Ibid., 30. 13Ibid., 32. 14Ibid., 32.
46 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
the Bienal de Sao Paolo to which he
had been offered exclusive exhibition
space along with artist, Pablo Picasso.12
Inspired in part by Picasso’s vision of war
and tragedy, Guernica, Husain focused
his energy on approaching the subject
from an absolutely original slant, giving
form to the raw elemental potency
embedded in the Mahabharata through
“cinematic energy” and simplistic
forms.13 In his works he conveyed a
vision of the catastrophic horrors of war
and deception.
The main thing about it was
form…All this philosophy, religion
that was secondary. This is pure
structure…I’m not educating anyone.
It is purely imagery which only such
an epic can imagine. You just look…
you don’t have to ask the question,
what does it mean? The moment
you say this, then you are leaving
the painting…you are reading the
painting.14
He revisited the theme in 1983
when, in collaboration with his
American friend and collector, Chester
Herwitz, Husain created a set of eleven
lithographic prints that followed
the narrative more closely than his
1971 canvases. His characteristic
Cubist style functions to contrast
aspects of individuals or multiple
figures in single compositions. This
style of representation evokes the
many juxtapositions that form the
Indian nation and identity: disparate
religions, poverty and wealth, life and
death, “then” and “now”. A black and
white study opens the series with the
wise teacher, Bhishma, lying on a bed
of arrows pierced through his body.
His character symbolizes the pure
essence of the Mahabharata. He is
the great uncle of the Pandavas and
Kauravas, the two families engaged
in the central battle of the epic. He
embodies dignity of character, a life
of great power and suffering, one who
courageously endures his own karmic
battles. Written on this page are two
quotations: from the Rig Veda, “Let
noble thoughts come to us from every
side” and by scholar, C. Rajagopalachari:
…The persons and incidents
portrayed in the great literature of a
people influence national character no
less potently than the actual heroes and
events enshrined in its history…the
former play an even more important
part in the formation of ideals,
which give to character its impulse of
growth…The Mahabharata discloses
a rich civilization and highly evolved
society which, though of an older
world, strangely resembles the India
of our time…
Husain’s suite of images present
the Mahabharata as an allegory for
contemporary India. The characters of
the drama are molded of thick lines
and a narrow range of tones, their
movement and grace suggested through
sharp, broken planes of solid color.
The great universal myth is conveyed
through faceless universal figures whose
struggles are our very own. Grace and
divine pride are expressed without
the conventional elements used to
evoke a more immediate response
in the viewer. The figures are not
occupied with the viewer at all; they
simply appear and move somewhat
like us, engaged in their own reality
as it unfolds. The traits emphasized in
traditional images—eyes, hands, feet,
and adornments—are intentionally
dis-regarded by Husain in an effort
to present the figures in their most
basic, essential, and raw forms. As
many “modern” artists before him, he
attempts to evoke authentic emotion
or response in the viewer rather than
the contrived reaction produced by
the familiar images found throughout
India.
Lord Śiva and Pārvātī
G anga and Yamuna presents the
two river goddesses in motion,
as if swimming in opposite directions.
Ganga, goddess of the Ganges River
and mother to Bhishma, appears white
in color with a pink lotus placed above
her head. She has the circular mark of
a Hindu woman on her forehead, and
a piece of fabric wrapped around her
waist. Her right arm extends beyond
the visual field, as do her feet. Below
her chest is written, in Devanagari,
‘GANGA’. Yamuna, goddess of the
Yamuna River and sister of Yama,
appears dark in color, swimming away
from Ganga with her left hand extended
out of the river toward the hand of
Ganga as a fish peers its head out from
July to December 2009 47
 the water. One foot is visible, the other
apparently submerged in water. She,
too, appears faceless with the mark
of a Hindu woman on her brow. Her
long, dark hair hangs down her back
and the word ‘YAMUNA’ is written by
her feet. The figures, though somewhat
abstracted, are attractive, naturalistic in
proportion and shape. The elaborate
ornamentation found in conventional
representations is replaced by energetic
lines and very few colors. The curves of
their bodies move in harmony with the
ripples in the water. They appear not as
decorated devotional representations,
but as river nymphs, two magical forms
who seem to materialize out of the rivers
only to dissolve back into them again.
They are the spirits contained within
these sacred waters.
Draupadi, the central female figure, is
the wife of the five Pandava brothers and
appears in two images—Draupadi with
Five Incarnations and Draupadi with
Dice. In Draupadi with Dice, Husain
depicts one of the most memorable
48 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
scenes from the epic. The Kauravas invite
the Pandavas to a rigged game of dice,
resulting in the loss of all possessions of
the Pandava brothers. When they have
lost everything they are coerced into
gambling off their wife whom they also
lose in the game. Draupadi is brought
into the hall where efforts are made to
humiliate her in public by tearing away
her sari in front of the spectators. Having
faith in Lord Krishna, she calls on him to
protect her from disgrace. The more her
sari is tugged off her body, the more silk
miraculously appears covering it. In the
end, she is rescued from embarrassment
and her husband, Bhishma, vows to slay
Dhuryodhana, leader of the Kaurava
clan. As one of the most dramatic scenes
from the Mahabharata, the humiliation
of Draupadi has been depicted in
countless works of art that highlight
Draupadi’s devotion to Krishna rather
than the actual trauma she endures.
Husain’s vision reveals a tormented
figure literally caught within a game of
dice. Colored blocks surround the figure
of Draupadi whose sari is being pulled
off from beyond the visual field. Husain
gives his faceless figure a mouth that is
round, gaping, as if screaming in horror.
There is no reference to her husbands
or Krishna’s divine intervention; the
moment Husain chooses to depict
focuses on the emotional power and
intensity of Draupadi’s experience of
terror and humiliation. This is the very
injustice and immorality that underlies
so many aspects of the epic and
eventually leads to war.
H usain also explores the struggle
between good and evil in his
series based on Hanuman who features
prominently in the epic, Ramayana.
Hanuman is ancient India’s “unlikely
hero”—a monkey who is the perfect
devotee, who forgets his own power,
whose physical strength far outweighs
his intellectual capacity. In the epic,
Rama’s wife, Sita, is abducted by the
King of Lanka, Ravana. Rama with his
brother, Lakshmana, and Hanuman,
Lord Višņu The All-Pervader
embarks on a turbulent journey to rescue
his wife and destroy Ravana. From
violent wrath to simplemindedness and
insecurity, Husain presents Hanuman’s
“human” aspects, expanding the viewer’s
perception of the great immortal hero of
India.
In many ways, Hanuman is an outsider
in the tale of the Ramayana. Hanuman
brings an instinct and knowledge gained
from living in the jungle amongst
other animals and creatures. He is the
perfect devotee whose loyalty to Lord
Rama is unparalleled. He has incredible
strength and an even grander capacity
for greatness but, at various times in the
story, he simply forgets the potential
he embodies. His inner experience is
ironically human; Hanuman second
guesses himself, he is harassed by
self-doubt and must be reminded of
his powers. This is the “humanity”
that Husain attempts to evoke in his
series. Hanuman is the hero that the
human race is waiting for and he is the
revolutionary that all of us have the
potential to become.
The series, also produced in
collaboration with Chester Herwitz,
opens with a frontispiece and features
ten color images presenting Hanuman
in scenes from and inspired by the
Ramayana. While some have criticized
a number of Husain’s works from this
series for not being true to the original
legend, it seems his intention is not
to chronicle the epic in a linear or
logical form. With Rama appearing in
only two of the ten works, the focus is
evidently not to recount the Ramayana,
but to present the essence or energy of
Hanuman through various styles and
depictions.

“S uper” Hanuman with Rama and Sita

in his Heart (also called Hanuman:
The Original Superman) is inspired by the
popular calendar art images of Hanuman
tearing open his chest to reveal Rama and
Sita dwelling inside his heart. Hanuman
is rendered with a strong body, running
against a dark background and simple
landscape. Contrary to many popular
images showing the subject wearing
heavy gold ornaments and precious
stones, Hanuman is completely
unadorned and wears only a small red
garment that evokes the tight underwear
worn by Christopher Reeve in the film,
Superman. Both the original film and its
sequel, Superman II (released in 1980,
the year before Husain completed this
series), were immensely popular in
India where the American concept of a
“superhero” took the nation by storm. In
the early 1980’s, Hanuman was the most
authentic Indian “hero” that inspired
the imaginations of children and adults.
Husain plays with the image of Clark
Kent tearing open his shirt to reveal the
emblematic “S” by depicting Hanuman
in the recognizable pose. Hanuman’s
facial features are clearly rendered with
eyes open and wide, looking off to the
side. There is an air of innocence in
his expression mixed with concern.

July to December 2009 49

 Resorting once again to a simplistic style
of representation, Husain constructs the
figures of Rama and Sita out of minimal
lines. Rama is a faceless figure with broad
shoulders and the suggestion of a dhoti.
He raises his right arm as if to issue a
blessing or call on Hanuman for help.
Sita is also faceless with a knot of hair
atop her head, breasts, and the suggestion
of a skirt.
Dynamic speed and haste are the
energies most effectively transmitted in
this work. Hanuman is shown with his
face in profile; there is no engagement
whatsoever with the viewer as he is
fully absorbed in the task before him.
By intentionally turning the face of
Hanuman away from beholder, Husain
presents qualities of Hanuman that
are perhaps not quite as effectively
conveyed in traditional images. He is
focused, determined, unstoppable in
his concentration. He connects the
ancient figure to the modern world
by presenting him as he might appear
in a contemporary myth of our times.
Hanuman is not a distant or iconic
deity who is beyond humanity or from
another era. He is a determined savior
whose story holds significance today.
Like Clark Kent, he is very much
like all of us and this is what gives
meaning to the modern-day myth of
superheroes. The gods and goddesses
may dwell in realms beyond our own,
but a hero emerges out of an earthly
race. He signifies the power we have for
greatness, courage, and to fight in the
face of terrible adversity.
H anuman Torching Lanka with his
Flaming Tail shows the protagonist
in one if his most triumphant
achievements. After meeting Sita in the
Ashoka grove, Hanuman is captured
and brought before Ravana where it
is ordered that he be paraded through
the streets as a captive with his tail set
on fire. Having received blessings from
Rama, Hanuman does not feel any
pain, shrinks his size and escapes. With
his tail ablaze he jumps from rooftop
to rooftop, setting the kingdom of
Lanka on fire before returning to Rama.
15
Jain, Gods in the Bazaar, 202.
50 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
Husain’s rendition is one of the most
vibrant, energetic images in the series
featuring a golden Hanuman leaping
across a burning cityscape. The flames
of his tail are set against a purple and
orange orb. Hanuman’s mace is raised
up and positioned playfully where
his face would be, his left hand in the
recognizable and distinctly Indian
gesture that accompanies the expression
“vah”, meaning “great” or “splendid”.
He is pleased with his conquest, in a
celebratory mood, and immersed in his
own glory.
Hanuman faces forward as one might
expect in a darshani image but there is
no exchange of gazes between the subject
and the viewer. Husain obliterates the
traditional relationship between deity
and devotee by skillfully placing an
object right in front of Hanuman’s face
in this work. With no access to the
deity’s eyes or face, the viewer is forced
to engage in a different relationship
with the subject that is not obscured by
habitual feelings of piety. The beholder
is driven into considering other
dimensions of Hanuman’s personality
and his role in the Ramayana. The image
clearly displays how much emphasis is
placed on the face in traditional Indian
art while revealing that it is possible
to communicate essence in a more
expressive, basic manner.
H usain may very well be India’s
most acclaimed artist but most
of the attention he has received is not
for his contributions to modern Indian
art. He has been the focus of significant
negative criticism, primarily for his
representation of Hindu subjects. He
has faced legal action for “offending
religious sentiments”, galleries featuring
his work have been ransacked, his
paintings have been destroyed in public
exhibition spaces and his own home
has been targeted by groups seeking
retribution for his actions. There is a
definitive split between those who see
value in his representations and those
who see hatred toward Hinduism. The
crux of the problem, many defenders
of Husain believe, is that he is viewed
first and foremost as a Muslim by
his critics than as an Indian. I believe
this is one part of the issue; some may
presume negative sentiments in his
work informed by the larger historical
conflict between Hindus and Muslims.
At the same time, Syed Haider Raza, an
eminent Indian painter who was also
part of the Progressive Artists Group,
comes from a Muslim background
and paints canvases that pull from
Hindu philosophy and scripture. No
significant cases have been filed against
Raza for being a Muslim experimenting
with Hindu themes so the issue is more
complex than just that.
Beyond the fact that Husain is
Muslim, what troubles most who take
offense at his work is that the most
important and familiar traits of viewing
images of Indian mythological figures
have been abstracted or eradicated.
Husain’s modern visual language cannot
be “read” using traditional methods. In
popular calendar art, an artist aims to
create an image that conveys “the good,
the true, and the beautiful” through
a quality of livingness.15 In contrast,
Husain’s formal experimentation is
viewed as a wicked perversion of the
subject. The obliteration of facial
expressions, large outward-gazing eyes,
elaborate ornamentation, and blessing
hands oblige the viewer to look beyond
the customary attributes for meaning
that comes from a deeper and perhaps
more authentic place. The same quality
of bhava (emotion) that calendar artists
evoke in the eyes and expressions of their
subjects, Husain strives to reproduce in
as basic a visual language as possible. His
work does not seek to be recognizable
or instantly familiar, but rather strives
to communicate essence in a context
relevant to contemporary times. By
presenting his figures as absorbed in
action, Husain strips away the routine
practice of darshan. By severing this
subject-object relationship, Husain
brings the viewer into the realm of these
two cosmic mythological struggles.
When his work can be viewed with
these considerations, one can begin to
understand how challenging it is for an
artist to communicate beauty, power,
essence and unity in a figure without
even a face as a reference point.
The Mahabharata and Ramayana
are amongst the richest and most
important epics in all of human history.
They certainly hold particular religious
significance for Hindus but it is essential
to consider the universal value of what
is contained in them. As cultural
commentator, Chidananda DasGupta,
stated, it is deplorable “that one of the
world’s greatest and most universal
epics should be reduced to the religious
text of a community”.16 In order for
the fullness and power of myth to be
articulated through art, the viewer must
approach the work with inquisitiveness.
One of the qualities of visual art is that
it tends to break from “tradition” over
time; a particular visual or symbolic
language may become outdated, new
thought results in new imagery, art
is in a constant state of being defined
and redefined. The potential conflict
between religion and modern art is
something that necessitates space for
inquiry—it becomes an individual’s
own responsibility to look deeper,
ask questions, reach an essential truth
through personal investigation. As
distinguished artist, K.G. Subramanyan,
states, “All faiths, myths, and institutions
need to be subjected to critical scrutiny
from time to time. To protect them
from this is to undervalue their worth.”17
Out of basic misunderstanding and
misinterpretation, many see hatred,
disrespect, and hooliganism on the part
of the artist. What they miss are the
statements of heroism, service, unity,
diversity, and the triumph of good
over evil expressed in Husain’s works
discussed in this article. What is required
here is an understanding that there is,
indeed, something of great value to be
gained by one who examines Husain’s Siddarth Shah specializes in sacred art
work from a perspective where darshan under the mentorship of Robert Beer.
is not the aim. A new visual language He studied History of Art and Classics
necessarily requires a new way of seeing, at John Hopkins Iniversity and holds a
and it is only by considering this concept Masters degree from the California In-
that Husain’s work can serve a useful stitute of Integral Studies.
function in modern India. www.tantricart.net

16
Bean, Epic India, 24.
17
Sandhya Bordewekar, “Resisting Rigid Controls, interviews with Baroda-based artists following MS University censorship
issue”, ART INDIA, vol XII, issue 03, quarter 03, 2007.

July to December 2009 51

 A READER’S REVIEW
THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI
A NEW EDITION, TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY:
WITH INSIGHTS FROM THE TRADITIONAL COMMENTATORS
BY EDWIN F. BRYANT
North Point Press, 2009

REBECCA WEISMAN©

T he first time I met Edwin Bryant

was at a Yoga Teacher Training
in 2006. When I walked in the room
he was seated cross-legged dressed
in traditional swami gear, his dhoti
wrapped neatly around his legs and the
bag for his tulsi japa beads dangling
from his wrist. When he opened his
mouth to speak to us aspiring yogis
on the matter of Yoga Philosophy, a
difficult assignment indeed, his level
of comprehension on the subject was
immediately evident. His language was
clear and concise with a willingness to
go as deep as the student’s questions
required. His dedication to the subject
was obvious as his eyes, set behind wiry
spectacles, would light up and become
animated at the slightest question.
That first weekend he lectured to
us for hours, revealing a stamina and
tenacity that I’ve come to understand as
his de facto mode of operation. While
he did not hide his personal practice as a
bhakta, devoted to worshipping Krishna,
he was easily able to discuss the finer
subtleties of other traditions: jnana and
raja yoga, Vaisista and Advaita Vedanta
and all the major schools of Indian
thought. It became quite clear that
Bryant was equally comfortable with
acting the part of scholar, speaking to
Western minds with varying degrees of
cognitive dissonance with the material,
as he was with infusing his own practice
with devotion and worship. He was
equal parts academic and yogi, a
balance of approaches that is difficult
to maintain and even more difficult to
communicate.

52 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

I t is not my intention to pit these
two approaches, or frameworks of
knowledge, against each other or to set
up a false binary that in Western culture
can sometimes prove to be divisive and
unhelpful. However, as both an aspiring
yogi and a scholar I have experienced
the difference between learning a
subject from experiential practice versus
textual or didactic approaches. Indeed
there are many ways to study. I can study
yoga through the act of meditating on
the actions of the body in asana (as is
taught by B.K.S. Iyengar) and I can also
study texts, scriptures, and information
passed down through history as a way
of understanding (and critiquing) the
traditions in which I participate.
Recently at a yoga event I had the
pleasure of meeting a fellow yoga
scholar. It was a serendipitous meeting
where I found myself enjoying deli
sandwiches and splendid conversation
with a woman writing her dissertation
on yoga. I had recently tried reading
Elizabeth De Michelis’ A History of
Modern Yoga but had difficulty with
its dry, detached language. Although
self-admittedly a practitioner of yoga,
De Michelis seemed to resist locating
herself and her own experiential
practice within her investigation, and
thus seemed to miss something essential
about the nature and tradition of yogic
knowledge. My new friend, (who also
teaches a course on yoga history and uses
De Michelis’ text in the course) urged
me to try the text again, mainly because
it is a solid source book and unique in
its academic approach and scope. That
being said, we both agreed that an
experiential, phenomenological, and
integrated approach to understanding
yoga is essential.
Bryant is an expert in this kind of
interdisciplinary play and it is this
elasticity that he brings to his current
translation and commentary on The
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Sutras, for
those who have not had the pleasure
of studying them, are an ancient
collection of 195 statements on the
practice of eight-limbed (astanga) yoga
compiled by Patanjali, a sage, yogi, and
grammarian, dated sometime around
the second century B.C. They form the
basic foundational text for the whole
Yoga school, one of the 6 heterodox
schools of Indian Philosophy. The
Sutras are concise, sometimes to the
point of incomprehension for a modern
mind, and contemporary readers rely
on the vast history of commentary
that accompanies the sutras in order
to understand them. Without the
commentaries (most notably by Vyasa,
Vacaspati Misra, Sankara, Bhoja Raja,
Vijnanabhiksu, Hariharanda, and
others) modern readers would have
an impossible time understanding the
contextual and metaphysical basis of
Yoga and the practical instructions that
are laid out by Patanjali.
While in this new translation Bryant
also adds his own commentary I must
underscore the extent to which he has
gone in order to avoid sectarianism. The
history of commentary on scriptures
within any tradition is ripe with texts
spun to satisfy presuppositions about a
given practice. Here, Bryant has done
the work of sifting through sectarianism
to present the commentaries embedded
within their religious and historical
contexts while simultaneously pointing
to where commentators have added
different flavorings and leanings.
Bryant’s clear intention is to “attempt to
bridge…two worlds of discourse” (lvix)
to make the Sutras accessible to modern
yoga practitioners and non-specialized
audiences as well as scholars of Indian
Philosophy. If I can find anything
that is essentially Bryantian about this
commentary it is precisely this ability to
act as a bridge and to allow knowledge to
exist in multiple, parallel, and sometimes
contradictory interpretations.
There are several illuminating aspects
of Bryant’s commentary that elucidate
the practice of Patanjali’s yoga and
are worth mentioning here. As we
learn from the second sutra Yoga is
citta-vrtti-nirodha, the stilling of the
changing states of the mind. Once the
mind is still, purusa, the ultimate self
or soul can be reflected back to itself
rather than be bound up with prakrti,
the material world and all that is in it
including the citta itself. The ignorance
that keeps the self identifying with citta
and with prakrti is avidya, the first and
foremost klesa, or cause of suffering.
The etymological root of the word
yoga is yuj which is often translated as
“yoke” or “union”; the idea being that
through Yoga the self is united with
the absolute, Brahman, God. Bryant
points out in his discussion of the first
sutra that the other meaning of this root
is to “contemplate” and this is a more
accurate etymology in the context of the
Sutras because “the goal of yoga is not to
join, but the opposite: to unjoin, that is,
to disconnect purusa from prakrti” (5).
It is this disconnect, this un-entangling
of purusa from all that it is bound up in,
that is the real goal presented here by
Patanjali. Avidya then is not ignorance
of some higher reality or something
outside of our selves but the inherent
confusion of our own self identifying
with citta or prakrti.
While this nuance may be subtle it
is a bone that Bryant continues to pick
in this work, understandably given
the profusion of diverse terminology
within modern Western yoga practices.
In particular his reading sets Patanjali’s
Yoga as something quite distinct from
the traditions of the Upanishads and the
Vedanta school that is more concerned
with Brahman, ultimate reality. This
distinction is of particular importance
considering the resurgence and recent
popularity of neo-Advaita Vedanta in
which the self is seen as part of ultimate
reality, which in and of itself has no
personal expression. Any language then
of “merging into” or “becoming one
with” some kind of ultimate reality
must be circumspect within the context
of Patanjali’s Yoga. Rather, it is this goal
of disconnecting and redirecting purusa
away from prakrti that is the real focus
for Patanjali.
This is not to say that yoga is non-
theistic, another point that Bryant
makes clear. While modern western
yoga asana practices may be all but
stripped of talk of God or devotional
worship, Patanjali makes it quite clear
in II.45. Here he lists isvara pranidhana,
devotion to God, as the final niyama or
ethical guideline necessary for practicing
yoga and for attaining samadhi. Bryant
points out in his discussion of this
sutra and throughout his commentary
July to December 2009 53
 that although the text does not dwell
extensively on this aspect of Yoga it
is not due to its unimportance but
rather to the very focused intention of
Patanjali’s project. Within the religious-
philosophical milieu of the time bhakti
practices abounded and those looking
for further guidance in this area would
have certainly found it elsewhere. So,
while it is understandable that a modern
reader might disregard isvara pranidhana
as being less vital to the practice, the
context and commentary make it clear
that it is indeed integral.
Also of note is Bryant’s treatment of
the usually elusive parts of the Sutras,
namely the sections in the first pada on
samadhi and in the third pada on the
siddhis. Both of these sections can be
confusing due to a lack of understanding
of Sankhya metaphysics, a vast topic
that Bryant covers well. If at times
overwhelming, his discussion of these
subtleties serves only to help the reader
get a better handle on the complex levels
of samadhi. It is sometimes frustrating
for me as an earnest student that any
discussion of samadhi will inevitably fall
short; it is impossible to put into words
that which is beyond reason, language,
and cognition. Yet the logic behind
what might otherwise seem like an
unnecessary schema of samadhis (there
are seven levels altogether) makes much
more sense given the progression of the
mind and its meditative abilities based
upon Sankhyan metaphysics. This is
even more true of Bryant’s discussion of
the siddhis, or special powers, that can
be attained by yogis after much practice.
Rather than trying to persuade or prove,
Bryant instead takes us step by step
through his explanation of the yogic
understanding of the constraints of
nature and the mind, and its correlation
to the yogi’s ability to learn to push,
pull and move beyond the constraints,
helping to demystify and make accessible
an otherwise unbelievable or confusing
section of the Sutras.
To say something more of Bryant’s
approach, his treatment of the whole
text is quite thorough, exhaustive
maybe for a non-specialized reader,
and indeed repetitive. However, I have
come to view this last attribute as being
54 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
entirely intentional and necessary. The
commentators have interpreted the
Sutras almost quantitatively proportional
to their importance within Patanjali’s
mapping ; in other words, more
important sutras get more air time. So,
what could be construed as repetition in
Bryant’s writing is in fact a continuation
of this tradition. He thus makes quite
clear and unavoidable the foundational
aspects of his treatment, and in the end
the reader will appreciate this clarity. I
would also suggest to readers to read the
entire commentary sequentially—while
the Sutras themselves can be used as
reference, the commentary builds on
itself in a well-constructed and helpful
way.
D espite Bryant’s thoroughness,
I have one major critique of the
text (one that I hope finds its way to
Bryant’s desk by the time the next
edition is issued) and that is the lack of a
comprehensive index. While Bryant has
given us an index of terms found in the
Sutras themselves, there is nothing that
helps the reader to reference his own
commentary. This is especially regretful
considering the contributions Bryant has
made to not just the commentary on the
Sutras but to the whole history of yoga
and its relationship to other schools of
Indian thought (the Introduction itself
is a gem for those looking for a concise
history of yoga). Given the scale of the
text it is difficult for readers without
substantial previous knowledge of the
location of particular sutras and their
commentary to use the text for reference
as it is currently published.
F inally, as a yoga practitioner it
is important for me to be able to
understand the Sutras in light of the
asana-focused practice found in the
West, rather than discarding modern
practices in favor of some kind of
original yoga that may or may not
actually exist in its intended form. For
this reason I particularly appreciate
Bryant’s commentary on sutras I.39:
Or [steadiness of the mind is attained]
from meditation upon anything of
one’s inclination. Can we perhaps
understand asana to be a doorway into
the practice of meditation, an alambana
or support for the mind to enter into
samadhi? Within the tradition of yoga
developed by B.K.S. Iyengar the body is
certainly seen as an object for meditation,
and the practitioner learns to become
more and more refined in sensing the
discreet actions and movements within
the body down to the cellular level. This
kind of observation or meditation, it
could be said, is eventually applied to
the fluctuations of the citta itself and
creates mastery over the constraints of
nature and the mind. Indeed, Bryant
is willing to concede this point in his
discussion on I.39:
Approaching asana in this way—as
a bona fide support for fixing the
mind (and one for which many
people in the West might be best
suited)—is thus fully defensible
within Patanjali’s system, provided
it is performed with this intent
rather than some other superficial
motive.
It is exciting to consider that
contributions can still be made to a
tradition that is thousands of years old,
a fact that Bryant himself must surely be
confident about to attempt to tackle such
a weighty text. His efforts will ensure
that readers can continue to learn and
benefit from the practice of Yoga.
Rebecca Weisman lives in Vermont,
studying and practising yoga.
Lord Višņu The All-Pervader
Creation & Cremation
A l o n g t h e G a Ń g ā G h ā Ţ s i n Vā r ā Ņ a s ī

Coming Soon
A Miscellany in Four Parts
Dedicated to the Gūru & the Gańgā

Part One ~ Location

Locating Vārānasī in Space & Time.

Part Two ~ At Dawn by Foot

Relating to Vārānasī in Space & Time.

Part Three ~ At Dusk by Boat

Observing Vārānasī in Space & Time.

Part Four ~ Connect Yourself

Establishing Vārānasī in Awareness.

NĀMARŪPA
Categories of Indian Thought
Publishers: Robert Moses & Eddie Stern
www. namarupa.org

In collaboration with SOUNDWALK

Stephan Crasneanscki
www. soundwalk.com

Design & Photographs by Robert Moses

Text from Vārānasī the City of Light,
An unprecedented audio guide to spiritual India
by Robert E. Svoboda & Eddie Stern

Vārānasī Ghāţs sketch by Satya Moses

 MAURICE ‘BHARATANANDA’ FRYDMAN
THE GREAT KARMA YOGI YOU NEVER HEARD OF
ABDI ASSADI©
“W e ripen when we refuse to
drift, when striving ceaselessly
becomes a way of life, when dispassion
born of insight becomes spontaneous.
When the search Who Am I? becomes
the only thing that matters, when we
become a mere torch and the flame
all important, it will mean that we are
ripening fast. We cannot accelerate
that ripening, but we can remove the
obstacles of fear and greed, indolence
and fancy, prejudice and pride.”
Maurice Frydman, April 1976
The Mountain Path
Y ou might have come across his
name on the cover of the classic
giant I Am That. He was the man who
tape recorded conversations in the
Marathi dialect with Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj and then translated and pushed
to publish the book. What you might
not know is that he carried out that
deed late in his life after five decades
of service to India directly and to the
world of spiritual seekers at large. The
people that he came across and was in
deep relationship with besides Maharaj
included J. Krishnamurti, Sri Ramana
Maharshi, and Mahatma Gandhi.
Furthermore, he was also involved with
the liberation of India from English
rule in the state of Aundh by writing
the constitution there as well as being
active in the villages of the state. Later
on, he spent years pushing the Indian
government for and receiving land and
money to create the settlements where
thousands of uprooted Tibetans escaped
the Chinese invasion. Maurice Frydman
was born in the Jewish ghetto of Krakow,
56 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
Poland in 1894. Being an exceptionally
bright student, he excelled in school
and studied electrical engineering. He
was fluent in Hebrew, English, French,
Russian, German and, later in life,
Hindi.
H is seeking started at a young age
and involved delving into Judaism
and studying the Talmud. He followed
this by becoming a monk in the Russian
Orthodox church. This path also did
not quench his thirst and he was said
to have been fed up with all dogmas.
His brilliance in his school did pave the
way for him to drastically change his
life from his humble beginning. He had
many patents to his name by the age
of twenty when he moved to Western
Europe for his studies and started work.
During this time he came across his first
teacher, J. Krishnamurti, in Switzerland.
This meeting was prior to Krishnamurti’s
break with the Theosophical Society and
the relationship lasted many decades.
Maurice was known to be a fierce
debater with Krishnamurti whom he
held in high regard. He would organize
meetings for him as well as translate
some of his work into French. After a
period of several years, in 1928 he made
a more permanent move to Paris to start
a job at an electrical factory. In Paris he
came across Brunton’s book on Ramana
Maharshi that ignited a burning desire
to go to India. His wish came true
several years later when, in 1935, he was
offered a job to set up an engineering
firm in Mysore, which he accepted. In
his early years in India in the late 1930s
he found Ramana Maharshi and spent
time with the Bhagavan. As one of the
regular devotees, many of his questions
and the master’s responses were recorded
in Maharshi’s Gospel. Ramana said of
Frydman, “He belongs only here to
India. Somehow he was born abroad,
but has come again here.” Concurrently
he came into relationship with Mahatma
Gandhi and was involved with his
struggle to free India from British rule.
I t was during this time, in 1938,
that he asked the Raja of Aundh
province to help Gandhi’s cause by
freeing his control of a seventy-two
acre village property which the Raja
agreed to. He then drew up a draft of
a declaration of independence which
was given to Gandhi. He in turn wrote
the constitution of the state, giving full
authority to the people of the state, a
rare event in pre-independent India. An
interesting side fact is that during his
time with Gandhiji Frydman worked
on and improved the design of the
cotton spinning wheels that became
synonymous with Gandhi and his
movement. Frydman’s family perished
in Poland during WWII and he never
returned there after that.
A t this juncture in his life he
gave up on his job and worldly
possessions. He took on the robe of a
sannyasi under Sri Swami Ramdas who
named him Bharatananda. He later gave
up the robe as being meaningless while
living the spirit of it to his death. From
this time on, he donated his salary to
the needy around him. He had no room
for symbols and spiritual materialism
that did not reflect true ripeness; he
found them to be shallow and counter
productive. He regretted his inability to
make further use of Ramana Maharshi’s
teachings while the Bhagavan was alive.
He wrote after his death “Now He is still
with us, but no longer so easily accessible.
To find Him again we must overcome
the very obstacles which prevented us
form seeing Him as He was and going
with Him where he wanted to take us.
It was Tamas and Rajas–fear and desire
that stood in the way–the desire of the
pleasure of the past and fear of austere
responsibility of a higher state of being.
It was the same old story–the threshold
of maturity of mind and heart which Maurice Frydman with J. Krishnamurti
most of refuse to cross.”

M aurice Frydman died in

Bombay on March 9th, 1976 with
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj by his side. A
beautiful event ends this incredible life.
During his last days of life Frydman was
visited by a professional nurse he did
not know. The nurse had had a dream
in which an old man in a loin cloth told
her to go and take care of Frydman.
Frydman refused to accept the nurse’s
offer. As the nurse was leaving she
walked past a picture of the old man
who had visited her in her dream. Upon
her telling Frydman this, he accepted
her offer and allowed her to take care
of him. The picture was of Ramana
Maharshi who had left his body over
three decades prior.

Abdi Assadi is a therapist and

acupuncturist living in New York City.

Excerpts taken from: Dr. M. Sadashiva

Rao Vol. 19, No. 5 The Maharshi Apa B
Bant, 1991 Volume of Mountain Path
Maurice Frydman
July to December 2009 57
 Maurice Frydman’s photo in the company of sages and seekers. Wall in Sri Ramana Ashram in Tiruvannamallai, South India. Photo by ©JJ

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July to December 2009 59
 A READER’S REVIEW THE ESSENCE OF GRACE
Mystic yogis, gurus, and an epic quest through Spiritual India
THE JOURNEY HOME
Autobiography of an American Swami
BY RADHANATH SWAMI
RACHAEL STARK©
R adhanath Swami is a diminutive,
gentle, and yet, nonetheless, imm-
ensely powerful man, his appearance at
once illuminating and also beguiling.
Clad in a soft-hued, saffron-colored
robe, his slender frame barely visible
beneath the folds of cloth, he walks
soundlessly, and yet, when speaking to
his audience, addresses each and every
member with conviction.
Recently, Radhanath Swami spoke
in New York City, at the Bhakti Center
and at Ashtanga Yoga New York,
reading from his recent, unforgettable
book, The Journey Home, Autobiography
Of An American Swami. Amid the city’s
bustling activity–the ever-present whir
and rush of the holiday season–in a
biting and deepening cold, Radhanath
Swami delighted and warmed those who
came to hear him, New Yorkers from all
walks of life–devotees of Krishna, yogis,
avid readers, all who could fill the space
and sit in his presence.
Appearing shy at first–having to
lean into the microphone to be heard,
adjusting his cushion for several
moments, and seemingly, with great
effort, transporting himself from a
profound and personal silence before
speaking, Radhanath Swami recounted
the vivid, devotional migration that
transformed him from Richard Slavin,
a suburban Jewish youth lost in the
throes of the 1960s counter-culture,
into a spiritual leader, confiding in
each and every member of the audience
as if we were all participants–intimate
friends sharing the most memorable
of journeys.
60 Issue 10 Volume 1-6
P ut succinctly, Radhanath Swami’s
life has been and continues to be
one of epic dimensions. As a child born
and unwillingly thrown into the malaise
and alienation of suburban Chicago life
in the 1960s, he was much too often a
first-hand witness of and victim of great
injustices. As he quietly recounted in
his lecture and wrote in much more
harrowing detail in his autobiography, he
saw the shame that African-Americans
suffered in the American ghetto in
a “separate” and “unequal” system,
acutely felt the horrors of an unjust
war in Vietnam, and could not comfort
his soul or sense of righteousness with
an easy, material lifestyle and all its
supposed trimmings.
Feeling alienated and alone in his sense
of both loss and indignation, as a frail,
nineteen year-old, the young Richard
Slavin turned toward God. Growing
his hair long in individual protest, “a
statement of discontent,” he marched
with Civil Rights leaders for the ideals
of Martin Luther King Jr. and protested
the Vietnam War at the Democratic
National Convention in Chicago in
1970 only to be the victim of tear-gas
at the hands of the police and the target
of uncontrolled rage as the only “white
man” at an African-American civil
disobedience demonstration.
At times, during this difficult period
of his life he writes in his book that
he felt “like an open target for anyone
suffering from anger or negativity.”
However, what is instrumental was
that he did not collapse into despair.
Turning to the innate majesty and
beauty of nature, to his inner heart, and
to his good friend, Gary Liss, “whose
friendship would become a miracle
in my life,” he resolved: “If only like
the running stream, I just follow my
calling…nature may whisper her secrets
and guide me to my destiny.”
T hus began the first part of Radhanath
Swami’s physical journey which led
him to travel all over Europe with his
friend and ultimately, to sojourn alone
to “Mother India.” In person–as he
spoke to the hushed audience with the
subtle and playful inflections of his voice
and his fluid facial expressions–and in
his autobiography, he described with
humor the most amazing of adventures–
meditating with monks in Rome among
the secret catacombs and remains of the
dead; crashing in a crowded hippy pad in
a church basement in Trafalgar Square;
playing the Blues on his harmonica
next to the legendary Johnny Winter;
ultimately sitting in a cave on the Isle
of Crete where he had his first spiritual
epiphany.
Throughout each and every one of
these experiences, Radhanath Swami,
(aptly nick-named “Monk” in his late
teens–a name that was more a legacy
from the nick-name of his older brother
on the wrestling team and less ironically,
to do with his ultimate destiny) chose
to find out “what can I learn from this?”
Retelling his first pivotal revelation in
front of a live audience and as written
in his book, he continually maintained
a sense of humility and grace during the
most difficult moments.
Radanath Swami at Sri Sri Radha Gopinath Mandir, ISKCON Chowpatty, Mumbai, India September 2009.
Photograph by Robert Moses.
July to December 2009 61
 In Crete, for example, after weeks of
meditation, his best friend Gary one
day confides to him, “Monk, something
amazing happened to me today.”
Radhanath Swami, surprised, replies,
“Something amazing happened to me,
too.” They look at one another in stunned
anticipation. His friend declares, “I…
heard a voice as the sun was setting…
the voice told [me], ‘Go to Israel.’” Alas,
Radhanath Swami, having also heard a
voice, admits to his friend, “‘But Gary,’ I
whispered, my heart pounding, ‘the voice
told me, ‘Go to India.’” And thus, amid
the laughter that erupted as he recounted
the bewildered expression on his best
friend’s face, Radhanath Swami described
his realizaton that his quest was one that
he must undertake alone.
about Swami’s multitude of experiences
in India and ultimately, his evolution
to become a Vaishnava Swami for
the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness.
I n short, The Journey Home:
Autobiography Of An American
Swami, is as much a delight to read as
it is a defining and pivotal literary work
of an enlightened being. Readers of all
ages and faiths will find unimaginable
strength, a wonderful sense of humor,
sheer epic adventure, an outpouring of
compassion, wisdom, and inspiration in
its pages. Not since, Autobiography of
A Yogi, by Paramhansa Yogananda, has
such a vivid, intricately penned tale of
one man’s triumph of the soul been so
beautifully recounted. The only other

T he immensely detailed book,

much like Radhanath Swami’s
journey and his breathtaking lecture,
pleasure is to have the immense good
fortune and grace of being present in
Radhanath Swami’s company–whether
continues to weave Radhanath he is reading from his book, merely
Swami’s quest for spiritual knowledge sitting, or happily recounting one of his
with his steadfast pursuit to reach his stories. As a man of infinite grace, his
homeland. His unwavering intent life and his life story offer all who hear
propels him ultimately to “Mother it, infinite wisdom.
India” with nothing more than the
echo of the voice that commanded Rachael Stark received her M.F.A.
him to go there. Assured he will in Creative Writing from Columbia
find his way despite the fact that he University, has published articles in New
is literally thousands of miles away York City papers and magazines, and is
from his original home and loved an Adjunct Professor of Humanities at
ones, Radhanath Swami arrives in his N.Y.U./Poly.
beloved yet unknown county only to
be told by a border official that he will
not be allowed into India. Glaring, the
official flatly informs him, “We have
beggars enough in India. We don’t
want another one…You will not enter
India. You are rejected. Now go back
to where you came from.” Physically
exhausted, haggard, destitute and
heart-broken, Swami’s only response is
one that has continued to characterize
his life’s work and achievements, “I
knew that I would not turn back…
Never once did I dream that entry to
India would be denied to me.”

N aturally, this conviction was

only the beginning of Swami’s
initiation and movement towards his
unfolding destiny. The book is far
richer and goes into much more depth
Radanath Swami talking to Eddie Stern
at Ashtanga Yoga New York after a book
reading of The Journey Home. Decem-
ber 2009. Photograph by Alessia Elysee.

62 Issue 10 Volume 1-6

July to December 2009 63
 Radhanath Swami signing a copy of his
autobiography The Journey Home, in his
office at the Sri Radha Gopinath Mandir in
Chowpatty, Mumbai. Cow dung, brought
especially by a devotee from Vrindavan, has
been applied to the wall. September 2009.
Photograph by Robert Moses

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