1.     ANCIENT RELIGIOUS THOUGHT: INDIAN, CHINESE AND IRANIAN

 

 

  HINDUISM

 

The Hindu religion is a vast ocean of religious thought, springing as it does from the earliest times, long before the dawn of history, and comprises in its multi –colored texture shade after shade, an endless variety of design and pattern as it grew in human mind; from animism to Nature worship, from powers of Nature in the abstract to personified and concretized natural forms, from gods and goddesses to the one supreme God, first personal, and then impersonal; from form to formless. The Hindu pantheon offers a view of a vast and mighty host to the curious inquirer who pierces into the mists of the hoary past.

 

Heliolatry, the worship of Helios or the Sun, was a common practice with the people of the world. Sol or sun has ever been adored and worshiped the entire world over from time immemorial.  The ancient Greeks and the Romans built temples to Apollo or Phoebus as they termed the Sun –God in their own time. In all their temples, the image or representation of the sun- God occupied an important place in their hierarchy. There is a famous Sun – temple in Knar, in south India, and in the historic town of Molten or the land of the sun, in the North. In addition, Jog- Maya or Jot – Maya temples dot the whole Indian subcontinent.

The ancient Greeks also spoke of Shabd. It is written of Socrates that he heard within him a peculiar sound which pulled him a peculiar sound which   pulled him irresistibly into higher spiritual realms. Pythagoras also talked of  Shabd, for he described God was to him, “Abs lute Truth , clothed in light .” when he command an eagle to fly down to him and a bear to stop ravaging Apulia, the wondering multitude inquired of him the source from where such powers came to him. He replied that he owed it all to the “science of Light.”

 

Again, in the Greek language we have the mystical word Logos. It come from the root lego which means to speak and from it we have the common terms, monologue, dialogue, prologue, epilogue and so on. The Logos and stands for the “word” or Reason.” The term Logos also occurs in both Hebrew and Christian philosophy and theology and is used, in its mystic sense, by the Hellenistic and Neo – Platonist philosophers. The Christians use it to denote the second person of the Trinity.

 

The ancients in the West inherited his concept from their ancestors who, thousand of years before the Christian era, had come to acquire a great love and adoration for Surya which they regarded as the be-all and the end –all of all human endeavors in their search for the power of God , and a visible representation to this earth.    They carried this notion along with them wherever they went , Eastward or westward, and composed hymns and chanted psalms in praise of the glorious orb, the source of all life on this solar planet.

 

Those who settled in Iran (Persia ) and came subsequently to be known as Parsees,  still worship the great deity in yet an –other form –fire- which they keep burning all the time in their temples as symbolic of the sacred  flame that burnt in the human heart and always sprang heavenward. Ratu zoroaster, the Iranian prophet of life and light, sang in loving and light ,sang in loving and living faith of the greatness of the God of light and taught the people to do so .

 

To eternal torture. In chapter VI of the chhandogya  Upanishad, it is said to be “ the primeelement whose creation made possible that of other elements, water, earth,”etc.

 

Agni  or fire was a hidden secret  with the gods, who guarded this mysterious power very jealously. It was as the Greek legend goes , stolen by Prometheus and give to man, for which Jupiter, the Father God , bound himThe second brancth of the Aryans which turned eastward into the Indo –Gangetic plain also referred lovingly to Aditya; and we have hymns in theVedas addressed to Hiranyagarbha, savitar and Usha, all of which stand for the One life- sustaining power, the sun. The worshipful Master's of the Vedic age were, one and all, admirers of the purifying and healing attributes of the sun- God, and so no wonder that we see many hymns in the Vedic literature deifying the sun . In Book X, 121, we find:

 

  In The beginning rose Hiranyagarbha, born as the only lord of all created

beings;

 

He fixed and holdeth up this earth and heaven;

What God shall we adore with our oblation?…

What time the mighty water came, containing the

Universal germ, producing agni,

Thence sprang the God’s one spirit into being:

What God shall we adore with our oblation?

 

In another hymn , he is referred to as  “the self- radiant wise Aditya”

In Book I, 113, we have a hymn to Dawn and in it occur, inter alia, the folloing lines:

 

The light is come,  amid all lights the fairest ; born is

The brilliant, far- extending brightness.

Night , sent away for – extending brightness.

up a birthplace, for the morning….

Arise ! the breath, thelife, again hath reached us:

Darkness hath passed away , and light approacheth.

She for the sun hath left a trvel; we have

Arrived where man prolong existence.

 

All this could be taken on the literal plane as little more than Nature- worship an adoration of the sun understandable among a people dependent upon agriculture for their existence. But ancient Indian literture has an elusive quality . It seem to teach us at one level, and when we have adjusted ourselves to it ,  it suddenly shifts us to anther. He who can follow its subtleties finds in it a richness rarely to be met elsewhere. There is multiplicity of meanings, ranging from the physical to the cosmicand the spiritual, and from the literal to the symbolic and esoteric, which challenge us at multiple levels of experience and offer us worthwhile rewards. Thus, when we begin studying these frequent references to the sun, we begin to see that the “ sun ” referred to is not always the center of our physical Universe, which we initially took it to be . Thus, in the Isha are told it to be . Thus , in the Isha  Upanishad, we are told:

 

The door of the True One is covered with a golden disk.

Open that , O pushan, that we may see the Nature of the True One .

After recounting such statements, when we read of Brahman or the supreme One, as being Jyotisvat , full of light, and prakashvat, endowed with splendor, we begin to discover in such terms an  endowed with significance we earlier overlooked. This comes to a head when we read the Gayatri, the tenth mantra of the sixteenth sutra in the third mandala of the Rig veda:

 

Muttering the sacred syllable “ Aum” rise above the three regions,

And turn thy attention to the All- Absorbing sun within .

Accepting its influence be thou absorbed in the sun,

And it shall in its own likeness make thee All- Luminous.

 

This mantra is considered the most sacred, the mool mantra among the Vedic texts, and is taught for recitation among Hindus from an early age. Here, the inner spiritual meaning of the “ sun ”  becomes abundantly clear . The object of veneration is not that which provides us with light in the outside world but it is a principle that transcends the causal , and is the source of inner illumination. This principle is referred to as Aum, a term whose three letter suggest the three phases of human experience: “A” referring to the waking state {Jag –rat ),  “U” THE DREAM STATE (swapna) and “M” the deep sleepstate (sushupti). The ultimate reality includes all three planes, and the three phases of human experience, yet  goes  beyond  then . The silence that follows each recitation of the word Aum  suggests  the state  of Turiya  or Absolute Being , which is the indescribable source and end of everything . It is the  Brahman , the All – transcending One , whose prime attribute is the effulgence, but who is in himself even  Beyond  this effulgence. Hence the mantra in its original Rig Veda form has anther Lord, line added to it, which is given out only to sanyasins and chosen disciples – Paro Raj –asal Savad Aum :  He who tran-scends the effulgence is this Aum .

 

The Gayatri not only clarifies the routine implications of the references to the sun, abundant in the Vedas, but it also highlights another recurring theme in Hindu thought. Its wide imagery and popularity bring us to the question of mantras or verbal formulae in Sanskrit verse or prose are classified into two types: those that are meant simply for recitation and need not be understood, and those that are divine invocations, whose import must be know in order to enable the devotee to keep his attention focused on the divine object. The various mantras each have their individual  benefits . There are those whose mastery or siddhi gives one contact with magical powers of a lower or siddhi gives one contact with magical powers of a lower order ( tamsic ); there are others that bestow strength and courage and power (rajsic) ; and finally those whose sole object is spiritual upliftment (satvic). Among the last , as  we have already seen, the Gayatri is the most venerated.

 

The mode of mantras , since time immemorial steeses the spiritual importance of sound. If the chanting of certain verbal formulae brings magical potential or assists spiritual advancement, then there must be latent in sound itself an esteric power. This is why vak Devi, the goddess of speech, was held in high esteem. Each word has its unique character and place, but of all words Aum is the most sacred. We have already examined some of its is not only a term that connotes the qualities of the Absolute Brahman, but one that also denotes Brahman Himself . In the Rig Veda, we have:

 

Prajapati vai idam agref aseet

Tasya vag dvitya aseet,

Vag vai parmam Brahma. 

 

 

( “In the beginning was Prajapati, the Brahman, with whom was the Word was verily the supreme Brahman.”)

 

This text remarkably parallels the opening of the Gospel according to St. John:

 

In the beginning was the was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

 

Thus Aum becomes Brahman as manifesting Itself in the Word, and in the Taittriya Upanishad, It is referred to as the “sheath of Brahman ,” as something which takes Its life from Brahman and contains Him. This aspect is made even clearer in the Sam Veda :

 

              

Brahman is at once Shabd and Ashabd both,              

And Brahman alone vibrates in space.

 

Another words, the Absolute One is not only inner effulgence but also Beyond it, as suggested in the Gayatri. He is sound and Light are in fact referred to as His prime manifestations,     the Gayatri  recommends that while concentrating on the Divine word Aum, we fix our attention upon the inner sun , whil in the Chhandogya Upanishad, we are told that Naad, or the divine muic, springs from the universe spiritual Sun  (of Brahmand), a secret that was given by Angris Rishi to Krishna,  the darling son of Devki ( III: 17- 6 and 93) .It was this mystic insight to be found in the srutis, the scriptures revaled through inner hearing , that led to the development of the word. The teachers of this path preached that the Absolute was Wordless, imageless, indescribable and unconditioned. When He came into manifestation , He projected Himself    as the Sphota or the word, radiant with Light and vibrating with indescribable Music. The seeker wishing to transcend the relative plane to the Eternal and Unchanging must contact the Sphota or the word power through which he can rise to the Brahman who is certainly not easy. It is difficult to abide by and difficult to cross ; yet it is the only possible Way , for one who is true to his Guru and His cause.

 

Such indeed are the truths that were taught and practice by survived since then ? For the most part we find rituals such as the blowing of conches , ringing of bells, waving of lights, and the worship of the sun. These bear testimony to the mysteries within brought the best of the vedantic teaching to the heart of the common man, religion in India as elsewhere has tended to degenerate into mere caste and ceremony. The light and music outside are worshiped, but the flaming and sounding word within, toward they point , goes unheeded; “the light crieth in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.”