Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity by Algis Uzdavinys & John F. Finamore

Author:Algis Uzdavinys & John F. Finamore
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781597310864
Publisher: Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis
Published: 2014-04-08T22:00:00+00:00

DIVINE BODIES AND REPRESENTATIONS IN INDIAN TANTRISM

The Indian Tantric practices that represent the prolongation and development of the archaic spiritualities (or the so-called Bronze Age metaphysics of the post-Middle Kingdom Egypt, of Akkadian Mesopotamia and Central Asia, including Punjab) may shed more light into the purely documented areas of Neoplatonic-Chaldean theurgy. For example, the Pythagorean equation of agalma (statue, image) with onoma (name) appears to be analogous to the rupa (form, shape) and nama (name) relationship in Indian thought.

Name and form are the two fundamental aspects of divine manifestation, since the primordial unity is differentiated by name and form. Therefore ‘everything has a name and a form’ (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad I.4.7). A. K. Coomaraswamy regards nama as an equivalent of the Idea, the Platonic Form, and rupa as an image, be it the inwardly known form (jnana-sattva-rupa) or the external shape, like a pratima (anthropomorphic icon).

Like the Greek agalma, pratima represents the formless (arupa) deity and is ‘of the same kind as a yantra, that is, a geometrical representation of a deity, or a mantra, that is, an auditory representation of a deity.’36 The Tantric universe is constituted by the basic divine powers, or theophanies, themselves regarded as deities (devata) that can be approached and perceived through words, images, and symbols. The representations of deities through mantras (thought-forms, vocal sunthemata of the Chaldean theology) and yantras (anagogic diagrams, instruments of contemplation and unification) are viewed as more accurate than those executed in the anthropomorphic fashion. As A. Danielou remarks:

Mantras and yantras are therefore the abstract symbols, mudra (gesture) and svara (musical notes) are the subtle representations, and image and myth are the gross representations of the principles known as deities.37

However, the Indian cult statue (though inwardly conceived as a metaphysical formula) is a full-bodied representation (murti) of the god that is made for worship and adoration so that the worshiper may concentrate on the deity in its concrete visible or epiphanic form. At first, the worshiper contemplates the divine attributes manifested in their dispositional forms (bhava-rupa), in asanas (fixed and semiotically meaningful ‘hieroglyphic’ postures), in mudras, visible shapes, and symbols of the deity within the boundaries of the yantra or the cult statue. Then he mediates all these attributes as situated in the various cakras (wheels, formally analogous to the Chaldean iunges) of his own recollected and reintegrated body, like the tokens (sunthemata) of the Mediterranean hierurgy (hierourgia). These sunthemata need to be reawakened and reactivated (to be rotated by the erotic shakti like the wheels of Ishtar’s or Hekate’s elevating energy) in order to accomplish the theurgic energemata.

This is achieved partly by invocation and partly by visualization (which accompanies, to certain degree, the noetic concentration), since the power of the yantra resides in the mantra, regarded as the very body of the deity. The deity presents itself in contemplation together with the special mantra, the vocal-image of the particular noetic principle.

The statues and figural compositions (pratimas) are based on underlying but hidden yantras (like the schemata of Egyptian hieroglyphs, viewed as ‘divine speech’, medu neter).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.