Hindu Symbolism - The Cosmic Connections

Hindu Symbolism - The Cosmic Connections The interpretation of ancient religious symbols in the light of modern science has a profound meaning and relation to our understanding of nature and natural phenomenon. Religion as it is practiced, seems to be a pluralistic expression of truth only expressed by its various forms of seemingly contradicting belief systems, traditions, symbols and associated paraphernalia. The Indian religion of Saivism and Vaisnavism reveal themselves as the polar opposites of the same entity called God even in its symbolic representations, much before the foreign invasion to India of the seemingly divergent religions of Islam and Christianity with their radically different cultures as compared to the Hindus. In spite of the external differences, all the religions of the world speak in one language the saga of God. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “denial of God we have known but denial of Truth not.” So, every religion claims its path to be the ultimate path to truth which is God. Even the atheist is seeking truth. The interpretation of symbolism in Hinduism is quite fascinating in itself. It’s about seeing endless patterns of relation and understanding the enigma and allegory contained in our images which symbolically represent the cosmological truths of creation, sustenance and eventual dissolution, valid even in this modern scientific understanding of the universe. Pattern matching of ancient symbols and associated semantics to current understanding of cosmology and philosophy is all there is to it. The word philosophy means the love of truth! Modern philosophers like J.Krishnamurti have said thought creates the thinker. Intellectual knowledge is fundamentally thought. Thought projects the thinker who in turn holds the gained knowledge as memory of person, place or thing. There is considerable delight and value in evaluating the world religions in the light of modern science as science is a unifying field and an abstract language of understanding, atleast within the scientific community. It is indeed a matter of deepest religious concern and scientific significance to do this pattern matching of signs and symbols used in Hinduism to come to any degree of understanding in relating these to a person’s individual life in this grand cosmic connection! ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’ said Albert Einstein. Indeed, the universe is beyond imagination! Using thought to define the Universe is like trying to see our own image without a mirror! As Arthur C.Clarke has said, ‘the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose but it is queerer than we can suppose. By using rational limited thought to define the observable phenomenon in this Universe is almost impossible. That is why physicists use the powerful tool of abstract language mathematics to explain the energetic events of this prodigious universe. Mathematics again is something which only those who are trained in it can dare to understand. Stefan Hawking, in his ‘Brief History of Time’ asks, “What is it that breathes fire in the mathematical equations and makes a universe for the scientists to describe. If we understand this, only then we shall understand the mind of God.” So be it Physics, Mathematics or Philosophjy only the trained people of science can try to understand and wonder in awe at the forces that work in this universe to give it the shape and semblance. In this connection, the limitation for the human mind is to understand this existence and communicate this understanding to others. As a scientist trained in nuclear physics has an edge much above the grasp of the common man, similarly the ‘natural philosophers’ or the ‘sages’ of India, have represented their complex understanding of nature through simple symbolism for the common man. Images that have an enigmatic but esthetic make up with scintillating stories about them, have on the human mind a lasting impression that lasts as long as that mind lasts! Over thousands of years of ritualistic practice the underlying pattern of this grand cosmic connection is forgotten and instead faith and belief takes the place of ecstasy and great joy that may result in worshiping with this understanding in seeing this grand cosmic connection. In Hinduism, the various religious practices involving many signs, symbols, idols and rituals there is certainly a deeper but not quite obvious for the casual observer, relations denoting evolution and connection of the individual observer to this grand relation of the universe. Except a minority of few, rituals are practiced as an act of senseless veneration. It may be fascinating for a person who is interested in the scientific study of religion to study and unravel for himself the hidden mysteries that are so often overseen or neglected as insignificant due to the gravity of tradition by being caught in habitual ritualistic worship. As the words go, ‘familiarity breeds contempt,’ the ritualists mostly do not understand or see the relation of the underlying thought current left for eternity by the sages of the past years to mankind. Perhaps the connections are mentioned in the Vedas but the understanding is certainly not disseminated for the masses as the contained cosmological and philosophical explanations are beyond the grasp of the common man. They are only expressed through the symbols, signs, idols, and the connecting Puranas. The underlying principle is, if you dare to understand, then surrender to God through devotion or pure love. And when you pay that attention, you shall see the connections yourself! There is no authority implied in this. It is there for an individual to see and enjoy, wonder and doubt - that is all there is to it! Now coming to the particular items, Lord Mahavishnu lying on the super serpent Adisesha denotes the all pervading dark space and its inseparable cosmic time! It was Albert Einstein who showed by his mathematical expressions in theoretical physics the inseparability of space and time, at the beginning of the twentieth century. They had to be dealt together as space-time after Einstein. Before Einstein it was thought if all matter had to disappear from the cosmos, space and time would remain while the theory of relativity said that space and time would disappear together with matter! It was seen as a startling discovery and a paradigm shift in the way physicists appreciated the cosmos, time, matter and energy. Well for any suave observer who doubts in order to learn, it would occur to him, why by any chance if Einstein had not picked up a much older idea of the togetherness of space and time. Indeed, look at Lord Mahavishnu lying on his cosmic serpent Adisesha reigning the universe - a much older thought represented symbolically thousands of years before the advent of western civilization and the quite recent post renaissance period development ‘science’ which is only a few hundred years old. Most discoveries are rediscoveries indeed! Brahma the secondary creator emanating from the navel of Mahavishnu lying on Adisesha denotes creation occurs in the matrix of space-time. Brahma sits on a flowered lotus the petals of which denote the many galaxies of this observable universe. His consort is Saraswati representing knowledge. Psychologically, the external world is only a projection of my knowledge. I see a tree. When I recognize that, it exists, otherwise not. “The eyes do not see what the mind does not know – doctors who know this strive to diagnose better.” Saraswati is actually the knowledge of Brahma the creator. He requires this knowledge or the intellect for the projection of the entire manifestation. I had discussed these matters with my old friend Harry Miller, MBE, AIBPP, ARPS, FZS (London), who had worked for the Hindu and the Indian Express many years before his demise in the later part of 90’s. It is only now that I have chosen to pen down my thoughts which I have been nourishing in my mind for almost two decades. In furthering my ideas on Hindu mythology connecting to the ideas of modern cosmology I see the grand cosmic connection in which the individual also partakes in his objective observation. Consciousness the reason why I see and write giving me my Soul feel connects me to this grandeur of nature. I am over whelmed when I see patterns of this cosmic connection represented by our ancient religious symbols. The saneness of symbols and rituals if not understood in a logical manner may be perceived only as superstitious beliefs as indeed they are! In this scenario, faith begins to operate as it is the one that is (with us) when we believe in what is not true or what we cannot understand! Understanding the relationship and meaning of what we see and do does deliver us from the slave attitude imposed by faith and blind belief. Understanding occurs by paying attention to the minutest details which is devotion and it delivers us from our own conditioning and gives us great joy. Lord Krsna dances on the snake Kalinga which poisons the lake water in a Puranic story. He controls and conquers the snake. This is an allegory again representing space and time. Thought which is time is the reason why mind is not still and people seek to do meditation. The villagers telling Krsna of kalinga has a hidden meaning. They only complain to the master of yoga their state of mind poisoned by their endless thoughts which appear and disappear like the waves in the shore of the ocean. Sometimes ripples sometimes giant waves. Thought is the actual reason for the disorder. Time is not appreciable without using thought. Time is thought. Narayana or Krsna the Avatara of Mahavishnu (thought invented space) knows the connections very well. Krsna who knows him as the supreme Brahman Narayana, controls kalinga who is time, by his Sad-Cid-Ananda nardhana. Krsna dances the dance of Enlightenment. Kalinga the ‘thought’ does not intervene after your enlightenment to poison the mind. The interpretation of the Hindu symbolism requires you to do the connections by pattern matching with modern scientific understanding in this observable universe. Modern science has taken objective matter as the centre of its investigation whereas ancient philosophers the Hindu sages had taken the mind as the object of their investigation and had come to the same conclusions which modern science is striving to reach presently. Mahavishnu (Passive Space) on Adisesha (Active Time) has the polar opposites in Saivism as Linga (Active Time) on the Yoni (Passive Space). The Linga and the Yoni also represent the phallus and the chalice denoting the inherent dipoleness helping to evolve the observed universe. All progressive movement forward occurs in the action of the opposing forces of nature. That is the way nature works. The north and the south, positive and the negative, male and the female for the evolution of reproductive sexual live from the primitive asexual reproduction. Looking at the Sri Chakra yantra I cannot help but feebly connect its physical appearance to the four class divisions of society the Brahmins, the Kshatrias, the Sudras and the Vaisyas. A triangular patterns of symbols at the centre of which is a dot representing the deity in the temple around which are layered triangles representing the Bhramanical protective order, followed by the fortified symbols representing the Kshatrias protective order. Around this are the concentric circles denoting the Sudras the worker class and the four squares denoting the four directions in which trade takes place represented by the Vaisyas class of society. These are the four aspects within which any society functions and the classes only seem to represent a protective order of functionality and nothing more. The constellations of the night sky are full of symbols and figures denoting the characters of Greek mythology. If you choose to look carefully you may see they also represent many of the Hindu Gods and there symbols. It’s all disappeared in the Vedas. The knowledge is not available. But see the connections the signs and symbols, figures and associated semantics and connect them into a meaningful language. Parandhama denotes the Sky. Mahavishnu is the great dark space. ‘Sangu – Chakra – Gadayudapani’ denotes the Conch, The Disc and the Mace of Lord Vishnu. These could be found among the constellations of the night sky. For instance, the conch is the northern or southern cross (Trisanku). The Mace (Gadha – representing the cosmic intellect – knowledge is power) is similar to the shape of the constellation Bootes. The disc could be Andromeda galaxy seen from the top of mountain peaks in clear dark unpolluted prehistoric skies – the time of the sages thousands of years before. The Crown represents constellation Corona Borealis whose distinctive crown shape of faint stars surely was unmistakable for the ancient people who laid the foundations of our great religion which has been reduced for the common man into a ritualistic remnant by the passage of time. The modern idea of civilization is only ten thousand years old as per our scientific records. My ideas may be wrong. But no one can be so sure. Doubt is the basis of learning. Indeed we are on sandy foundations. Also, the magnificent constellation Orion the hunter with his dog represented by the constellation Canis Major following him in the east and Taurus the bull in the west seen in winter times high in our night sky is an idea exported from the west. This is actually our own idea much before the Greeks. Lord Siva as Nataraja dances his cosmic dance. This is a cosmological philosophy. This finds expression in our night sky during winter time depicted by the constellation Orion. Orion is Nataraja. The demon on which Lord Siva dances is the constellation Lepus (the Rabbit). During Sivarathri time one can see constellation Orion culminating the meridian late in the evening during worship in the temples. This is not a mere coincidence. What remains with the common man are only the rituals based on the calendar, whereas the original inspiration for the rituals came from careful observations of nature in its vastness by the sages when it was in its pristine unpolluted purity of the past ages much before the advent of the industrial western civilization all over the world. The urbanizing projects proposed and carried out by the governments all over the world in the name of development do actually seem to deteriorate our natural environment in myriad ways. This may eventually lead the succeeding generations into an ecological and global environmental crisis for sure. The only global concern is to contain the exploding population which is the basic cause for the present environmental crisis. We also know the Puranic story regarding the origin of the God Vinayaka or Ganapathy. Lord Siva chops his son’s head and regretting he sends people who heading in the northern direction find an elephant and chop its head to be kept on Lord Siva’s headless corpse of his son. Actually this is an astronomical fact. North of the constellation Orion is the constellation of Auriga the pentagon. Auriga represents the head of the elephant God Vinayaka without a body. The Lion on which Hindus have put their Goddesses is an inspiration from the Zodiacal constellation of Leo / Simha which actually looks like a lion. This is again an equatorial constellation like Orion. Orion the equatorial constellation harbors within its four prominent stars a pattern similar to the structure of our temple Gopuram. Two curved slanting side over which is a flat connecting plane in which are kept the Kalasams (this represents the stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka). The Tamils are the greatest temple builders of the world. And note Orion the inspiration for this is found almost right overhead of the present day tamilnadu. Lord Siva - Nataraja residing inside the grand edifice of the temple whose very entry is the Gopuram. We have the Puranic story that in the kritayuga mountains were flying in the sky. This was terrible for the ancient man. They prayed to Lord Indra who in turn had cut the wings of the mountains and in doing so he contained them much. One mountain mainaka escaped unhurt by hiding in the ocean which helps Hanuman in his journey over the ocean. Now, compare this with the modern fact of colliding meteoroids. Indra the protector (the atmosphere) burns any intruding object due to the high frictional heat generated. The number of meteoroids witnessed by the primitive man has dwindled as time passed. Now, we have only a few of them large enough to be picked up after their burn up in the atmosphere partly. These are collected by meteorite hunters, which are preserved and evaluated scientifically. 70% of the Earth surface is water. Primitive man saw a lot of meteoric collisions on the continents. As time passed, their numbers dwindled. The result, it appeared as though the last of the meteorites had escaped by hiding in the ocean. The probability of impact was more in the water than on the land due to the large surface area of the oceans! Dasavataras, “Macha – Kurma – Varaha – Narahari – Vamana – Parasurama – Rama – Balarama – Krsna – Kalki” as most biologists may know, tally with modern evolutionary order from the primitive ocean borne life to the highly evolved life of the mammals on land along with humans. Again I doubt if Charles Darwin had this knowledge from Hindu mythology. Narasima denotes man from animal. Vamana was primitive man who was of short stature. The later part of it denotes the class divisions of Bhramanical rule taken over by Ksatriya power and finally by the Vaisya and Sudra powers respectively. The Puranic story of God (Narayana) present in a ‘pillar and in a piece of matter’ as contended by Prahalad makes his father Iranyakasipu break the pillar. The result Lord Vishnu came out as Narasima to annihilate Iranyakasipu. This denotes the release of energy contained within atomic matter. Mahavishnu (the great space) had permeated into the matter giving its shape and semblance. The space is the energy. The Universe is full of this dark energy, as physics is finding out. The universe is an expanding universe as space itself is expanding. It denotes atomic energy. E= mc2 was an old idea indeed! It required an Einstein to do the mathematical work! Apart from Hinduism and its symbols and puranas, there are astronomical findings in the Koran and the Bible of which I know but certainly not as much as I do with Hinduism. I am sure, in Hindu mythology, there are many astronomical facts and cosmological philosophy requiring unbiased unexaggerated careful interpretation. So, let us not be caught, in endless arguments whether God exists or not, whether he can be realized only through a particular faith or religion, bet see the pattern of the deeper relations to nature. Certainly, science helps man in his understanding of how nature works, but as the late American Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University, Carl Sagan wrote, ‘scientists find as they climb the mountain of rational thought, the religious people already sitting on top of the mountain!’ The cosmic connections are there to see through symbols, structures, rituals, festivals. And beware it does not mean all rituals and symbols and structures have a deeper meaning and all religious people have this understanding. The genius of the ritualists lies in bringing this cosmic understanding to the door of the intellectuals and the common man alike by stimulating the five senses elevating their minds and hanging their thought process to feel infinity. Let us enjoy our religions by understanding and this is possible only by appreciating the cosmic connections and universe awareness. Majority of the rituals are mundane mumbo-jumbo. The real religion has a cosmic connection which is untouched by thought. (Most of the views expressed above are the authors own interpretations and his current understanding.) Dr.V.Anand.