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1
Some Additional Themes (to add to James typology
of mysticism)

• Learning, spiritual pathway, difficulty (like
  seeing the sun the first time, it takes getting
  used to and focusing your goal a.k.a. telos)

2
Some Additional Themes (to add to James typology
of mysticism)

• Mysticism of ascent process includes rigor,
  intellect, rationality
• Diotima
• Virasaivas

3
Some Additional Themes (to add to James typology
of mysticism)

• Gender equality/equity
• Spiritual experiences in general, and mysticism
  in particular in the literate traditions, tends
  to be an equal opportunity experience! (Diotima,
  AkkaMahadevi, Julian of Norwich)
• This can extend to issues of class, education,
  etc.

4
Some Additional Themes (to add to James typology
of mysticism)

• Unconventional nature of spiritual experience
• Questioning convention
• Questioning the status quo
• Questioning the nature of reality itself (i.e.
  the images in the cave are not real)

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India Hinduism Basics
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Indian Sphere of Cultural Influence
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Indian Diversity

• There are 16 official languages in India (English
  not shown)
• Basic division between Sanskritic and Dravidian
  language groups
• Sanskritic languages are Indo-European (ex.
  Hindi) Dravidian languages are not (ex. Tamil)
• Multiple scripts create need for transliteration
  - systems for consistently transcribing words
  between writing systems

9
World Religious Systems

• There are three widespread cosmological
  frameworks as mentioned before
• Indigenous polytheisms and nature-based religions
  (includes Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian,
  Germanic and Celtic)
• Monotheism directed through revelation (Abrahamic
  religions of the book Judaism, Christianity,
  Islam)
• Karmic religions rooted in meditation
  ignorance/knowledge paradigm (Hinduism, Buddhism,
  Jainism, and most forms of Confucianism and
  Taoism)

10
Karmic Cosmologies

• Karma literally means action, implying that all
  actions, and their consequences, are ultimately
  balanced. All action, though, embeds one in a
  dangerous web
• Karma creates the wheel of samsara the cycle of
  birth-death-rebirth-REDEATH
• The wheel of samsara is a bad loop like
  Groundhog Day, the repetition of lives is a
  vicious cycle one should want to escape

11
Ignorance and Knowledge

• What those in the west would call sin (and
  sinfulness) is understood in karmic cosmologies
  as ignorance.
• When you put your hand on a hot stove, is that a
  sin, or a mistake?
• If you burn your hand, you learn not to touch
  such places again youve moved from ignorance to
  knowledge.
• To paraphrase the great medieval Indian
  philosopher, Sankara, Action cannot destroy
  ignorance, only knowledge can

12
Ignorance and Knowledge

• Take the same principle in relation to murder. Is
  murder a sin, or a mistake?
• Even though your punishment for the mistake of
  murder might not be as immediate as a burned
  hand, that punishment is certain in a karmic
  cosmology (in which no one gets away with
  murder). It may take many lifetimes. But you
  will be punished.

13
Ignorance and KnowledgeCultivating Knowledge
through Discipline

• When you understand this principle, you will want
  to escape the wheel of samsara. To do so will
  lead to enlightenment.
• Yoga is a form of discipline that uses knowledge
  and control of the body to dispel ignorance
• This is a contemporary sculpture of Siva as the
  original practitioner of yoga

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Indus Valley Civilization

• 3000-1500 BCE
• Urban river culture
• Culturally static
• Evidence of yoga, zoomorphic dieties
• Mohenjo-daro and Harrapa principal cities
• Conquered by nomadic Aryans

15
Indus Valley Civilization
Daily baths at public pool
Dancing Girl
Small seals are the art form most represented from
Indus Valley
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Yoga in the Indus Valley

• Yogic positions have been found on seals from the
  Indus Valley
• Both male and female yogi-s were present
• Male yogi-s shown with erect phallus, indicating
  combination of ascetic and erotic

17
Aryan Invasion

• Nomadic people from steppes of Asia
• Trade routes existed between Indus Valley and
  Mesopotamia
• Most likely an invasion

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Indo-Aryan Culture and Nomadic Societies

• Not much visual art work
• Religious abstractions and rituals valued
• Military success, and blood rituals involving
  animal sacrifice, are documented
• Sacred books, called the four Vedas, are
  primarily concerned with ritual

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Indo-Aryan Vedic Dieties

• Deities often are meteorological or astrological
  in character
• Disproportionate representation of male deities
  in pantheon
• Indra wind god
• Surya sun god
• Sarasvati originally a river goddess
• Gods are not often represented visually at this
  time period

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Caste System

• Caste system may have been based on racial
  distinctions
• Caste system homologized to the hierarchy of the
  body

21
Two Versions of a Hindu Trinity

• Brahma - Creator god
• Visnu - Sustainer god
• Siva - Destroyer/Creator God
• Devi - a.k.a. Durga/Kali/Parvati - The Goddess -
  Sakti, energy

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Brahma

• Creator deity, does not receive much explicit
  worship (fewer than five temples in all of India)
• Attributes - number of heads, instruments held in
  hands
• Spoon/scepter for pouring holy oil prayer beads
  for measuring time small jar for water as
  essence of creation copy of the Rg Veda four
  heads (a fifth burned off) four arms

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Visnu (Vishnu)

• Visnu is the deity who sustains the world
• Appears in an embodied form when demons have
  gained too much power
• These embodiments are called avatar-s there have
  been nine so far, with one more enroute
• Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is one of those
  avatar-s
• Rama, Sita, Laksmana, and Hanuman

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Visnu

• Visnus standard attributes include an umbrella
  of cobras, conch-shell trumpet for battlefield
  leadership, spinning discus representing time
  being sustained, lotus flower representing the
  ever-emerging life, and the mace to represent
  discipline and strength

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Siva (Shiva)

• Combines opposites Erotic/Ascetic
• Destroyer of the world, often seen as both
  creator and destroyer
• Most famous iconic representation is Dancing Siva
• Cosmic fire circle surrounds image
• Fire destruction drum (damaru) creation
  (time)
• One hand signals do not fear, while the other
  points to the demon of ignorance being crushed
  underfoot

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Ganesa

• Elephant-headed deity
• May demonstrate continuity with Indus Valley
• Auspicious for new enterprises
• Remover of obstacles
• Unites opposites
• Attributes Saivite forehead markings bowl of
  sweets an ax to cut through obstacles hand
  raised in gesture of peace opening lotus and
  most famously, a mouse vehicle

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Durga

• Other gods are so scared, they are hiding in the
  clouds!
• This nine-armed goddess holds weapons and
  attributes
• Note how her arms form a circle of movement

28
Durga

• Form of Devi, the Goddess
• Manifested to slay Buffalo Demon
• She and her lion mount remain calm while the
  demon and its buffalo are slain - and achieve
  enlightenment

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Iconic Imagination

• Devi/Durga appears to Siva, Visnu Brahma,
  sages
• Powers of multiple limbs
• Iconic yet active - Hindu paradox of erotic /
  ascetic

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Kali
Name cognate with time Necklace of
skulls Necrophilia Described as the Mad
Mother Represents confluence of birth and
death Represents absolute power of divine She
is, as a deity, a focus of death meditation for
her devotees
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Ramayana

• One of two great Indian epics
• Rama, Sita, Laksmana in the forest exile

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Ramayana

• Building the bridge to Lanka
• Rama, Laksmana, Hanuman and the other monkey
  leaders

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Vira-saiva movement

• Vira-saiva, lit. heroic, militant faith in Siva
• Kalyana - city in Karnataka where Vira-saiva-s
  met
• Allamu Prabhu - leader of Vira-saiva
• Basavanna - older brother, most talented poet
  and organizer of group, important civil leader as
  well
• Anubhavamantapa - The Mansion of Experience where
  the Vira-saiva-s met

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Saguna and Nirguna

• Terms from Sanskrit
• Saguna - conditioned
• Divine has attributes, characteristics
• Personal divinity

• Nirguna - unconditioned
• Sacred is abstract, conceived philosophically
• Impersonal

Both are necessary to experience infinitude
within any given religious system
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AkkaMahadevi (ca. 1135-1160)

• Famous Vira-saiva saint and poet
• After leaving marriage, she wandered in search of
  other Vira-saiva-s, clothed only in her long hair
• Reaching Kalyana, she and Allama Prabhu engaged
  in a poetry contest to test her validity as a
  mystic
• She became an honored member of the
  Anubhavamantapa the name akka is an honorific
  bestowed by the community, meaning older sister
• In the poems that follow, Cennamallikarjuna,
  Mallikarjuna, and Lord White as Jasmine are
  all synonyms for Siva

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AkkaMahadevi (ca. 1135-1160)

• All the Vedas, scriptures and
• Sacred lore, canons and codes,
• Are but grist and husk ground in the mill.
• Why grind this, why winnow?
• When you behead the mind that
• Flows here and there,
• O Cennamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender,
• There remains eternal space.

37
Loves Marvelous Ways
Look at love's marvellous ways if you shoot
an arrow plant it till no feather shows if
you hug a body, bones must crunch and
crumble weld, the welding must vanish Love
is then our lord's love
38
Linga imagery

• My heart is pierced with Linga ecstasy
• How, then, can I
• Be part and parcel of Thyself?
• How, then, O Lord, can I unite with Thee?
• Tell me, O Mallikarjuna, where
• I can attain the Absolute,
• With my heart full and overflowing with
• The peace that comes of the supremest bliss.

39
Panentheism material immanence

• When I didn't know myself
• where were you?
• Like the colour in the gold,
• you were in me.
• I saw in you,
• lord white as jasmine,
• the paradox of your being
• in me
• without showing a limb.

40
The Notion that I know - another AkkaMahadevi
vacana

• The notion that 'I know' must miss the point,
• As sod kicked by the foot must swerve aside.
• The heart, forgetful of the world, engrossed
• In Linga, is sickened of all circumstance.
• Does arrow burnt in fire sport its feather?
• One must unite with Lord Cenna Mallikarjuna,
• As the wind blowing wantonly
• Absorbs the scent.