Цитаты из книги Myth = mithya

Нараяна

Нараяна — это Вишну, который спит сном без сновидений. Когда он просыпается, из его пупка прорастает лотос, в котором сидит Брахма. Это делает его создателем создателя. Однако лотос связан с пупком Вишну, точно материнская плацента, указывая на то, что взаимодействия Брахмы с миром, который является Богиней, питают его. Это симбиотические отношения между создателем и творением, Богом и Богиней. О том же повествует Ригведа-самхита: «Он создал ее, и она создала его. Они рождены один от другого».

В назначенный час пришло время Раме умирать. Но Яма, бог смерти, не мог войти в город Рамы, потому что его врата сторожил Хануман, могучая обезьяна. Хануман очень сильно
любил Раму и не хотел, чтобы он умирал. Чтобы отвлечь Ханумана и позволить природному циклу идти своим чередом, Рама уронил свое кольцо в щель в полу и попросил Ханумана его принести. Трещина привела Ханумана в подземное царство, где он нашел бесчисленные копии кольца Рамы. Страж подземного царства, царь змей Васуки, сказал ему: «Когда кольцо падает сюда, за ним приходит обезьяна, и тогда мы понимаем, что пришло время Рамы умирать. Такие кольца падали сюда все время, сколько я себя помню, и будут падать в будущем. До тех пор пока вращается колесо бытия, старые миры умирают и новые рождаются. В каждом мире есть Хануман, Рама и кольцо Рамы».

Savitri’s determination earns her a boon just as Dhruv’s determination earns him a boon. This determination has its roots in desire, the intense craving for something. Desire is a powerful force in Brahmanda, as powerful as destiny.

According to the Veda, before all things came desire. It is desire that caused the restlessness which led to creation. Without desire, God would not have opened his eyes to observe the Goddess. In the Puranas, desire takes the form of a god called Kama. Kama is an archer whose arrows struck Brahma, awakening his senses, making him aware of his daughter and her myriad forms.

Of the three, Brahma is not worshipped. The reasons for this are twofold: one metaphysical and the other historical.

From the metaphysical point of view, Brahma represents jiva-atma, the soul seeking answers, hence unworthy of worship. Vishnu and Shiva represent param-atma, the soul that has found the answer. Having found the answer, Vishnu continues to participate in the world while Shiva withdraws from all things worldly. Vishnu’s eyes are therefore always open while Shiva’s eyes are always shut.

Historically, Brahma represents the earlier Age of Rituals when Hindu society gave more importance to the mechanical execution of yagna. In the Age of Worship, yagna faded into the background and with it Brahma. More attention was given to Shiva and Vishnu. Shiva represents the hermit’s way of life;Vishnu represents the householder’s way of life. In the worship of Shiva and Vishnu, Hindu society was able to resolve its own conflict: to celebrate worldly life or renounce its fettering enchantments.

Ancient Hindu seers knew myth as mithya. They distinguished mithya from sat.

Mithyawas truth seen through a frame of reference. Sat was truth independent of any frame of reference.

Mithya gave a limited, distorted view of reality; sat a limitless, correct view of things. Mithya was delusion, open to correction. Sat was truth, absolute and perfect in every way. Being boundless and perfect, however, sat could not be reduced to a symbol or confined to a word. Words and symbols are essentially incomplete and flawed.

Sat therefore eluded communication. For communication one needs symbols and words, howsoever incomplete and flawed they may be. Through hundreds of thousands of incomplete and flawed symbols and words, it was possible to capture, or at least to indicate, the infinite perfection and boundlessness of sat.

For Rishis therefore the delusion of mithya served as an essential window to the truth of sat.

A Hindu deity may be just a rock in a cave, a tree growing in an orchard, a river flowing down the plains, a cow wandering in the street, or perhaps an elaborately decorated idol of stone, clay or metal enshrined in a temple. Anything can be God. So long as it can respond to the human condition. In many shrines, deities are given human form merely by placing a pair of eyes and a pair of hands on a rock. Eyes represent sense organs and hands represent action organs. This indicates the deity is conscious, sensitive and responsive.

Ancient Greek philosophers knew myth as mythos. They distinguished mythos from logos. From mythos came intuitive narrations, from logos reasonable deliberations. Mythos gave rise to the oracles and the arts. From logos came science and mathematics. Logos explained how the sun rises and how babies are born. It took man to the moon. But it never explained why. Why does the sun rise? Why is a baby born? Why does man exist on earth? For answers one had to turn to mythos. Mythos gave purpose, meaning and validation to existence.