AN INTRODUCTION TO HINDU
SYMBOLISM
BY
I. K. TAIMNI
CHAPTER V
ARTIFICIAL SYMBOLISM
The Symbology of Mahesha
LET US now take up for discussion another symbolic
form in which the Hindu worships
Divinity—that of Mahesha. This form belongs to the
category of artificial symbols in the
sense that the various components of the
composite, integrated image have been chosen not
because there is any natural relationship between
them and the powers and principles which
they represent but because they come nearest to
them in appearance or function. They,
therefore, easily and naturally suggest to the
mind, the inner realities which are sought to be
represented by them. For this reason neither any
component symbol, nor the integrated
symbol as a whole, possesses any special inherent
power or potentiality and whatever power
or influence the symbol may come to possess is
derived from the gradual building up of the
mental, emotional and spiritual links between the
mind of the aspirant and the object of
worship. The worshipper should never forget that
He with whom he wants to commune is
present within his own heart as a conscious
Reality and the mental image which he forms in
his mind and vitalizes with his aspiration and
devotion acts as a real link between him and his
Ishta-devata (chosen deity). Through it he can
establish an ever-deepening relationship until
the barrier between the seeker and the object of
his search dissolves completely and the two
come face to face.
It will be seen, therefore, that a symbolic form
of this type is not necessarily less
effective than the one with a natural
relationship, for, everything depends ultimately on the
will, devotion and intelligence of the aspirant
and not on the symbol itself. A natural basis
merely helps to bring about more easily a rapport
between the devotee and the object of his
devotion but cannot dispense with the factors
which depend upon the aspirant himself.
Practically all the symbols of this nature which a
Hindu worships are human in form—
male or female. Before dealing with the symbology
of Mahesha we might first consider why
these Divine functions and powers—called Devatas
and Devis—are always represented in the
human form. This practice is based on one of the
principles of Hindu symbolism referred to
previously, namely that the thing chosen as a
symbol is one which comes nearest to the object
represented either in appearance or function. A
human being is a manifestation of life which
comes nearest to Divinity. In the human form
consciousness has unfolded to the highest
degree so far. The human individual is a microcosm
in which all the powers, functions and
faculties, which are manifesting in the Universe
on a macrocosmic scale, are present in a
potential form or have been made partially active.
It is the only living form which contains
hidden within it the highest Divine Principle,
Shiva-tattva, which confers on it the capacity of
unfolding ad infinitum until the Divine element
hidden within it becomes united with the
Divine Principle hidden in the whole Universe. It
is, therefore, obvious why the human form
should be chosen as the symbol of Divinity and the
different functions and aspects of Divinity
should be represented in this form by associating
it with various objects.
It may also be mentioned in this connection that
it is only in the human form that the
Divine Life descends from time to time either as
an Avatara or as a great Spiritual Teacher. It
is true that Avataras have taken place in
sub-human forms but that happened before the
human form had been evolved. Besides, the stories
of these Avataras are allegories indicating
different stages of evolution and should not be
taken literally. Hinduism attaches great
importance to the human form and according to it
the final perfection of spiritual life can be
unfolded only through a human body. According to
one of its doctrines even the Devas whose
abode is in the Heaven world have to come down to
the physical world and take a human
body in order to gain the final perfection of
mukti (liberation).
There is one other point which may be cleared up
before we take up for discussion the
detailed symbology of Mahesha. It has been pointed
out already that in the Hindu scriptures
the names, Shiva, Mahesha, Rudra, etc. are used
indiscriminately. But since such a practice is
too widely prevalent and is deeply rooted in our
traditions, all that can be done now is to keep
clearly in one's mind the particular level or
function involved in a particular context and not
mind the particular name which has been used.
Since we have already dealt with the Shiva-
Shakti tattva and its symbol, the Shiva-linga, we
have now to take the next lower level of
Reality, namely the Maheshvara-Maheshvari tattva
which is the basis of all manifested
systems and in its three aspects—Brahma, Vishnu
and Rudra and their consorts—carries on
all the activities connected with these systems.
Every Ishvara of a solar system is a facet and
an expression of the Maheshvara-tattva as the very
name Maheshvara (Maha + Ishvara)
indicates. It is the symbology of this tattva
represented in the familiar human form and also
sometimes referred to as Shiva, Shankara or
Mahadeva that we shall now study.
The symbology of Mahesha, or Shiva as He is
generally referred to, is the richest and
the most profound in the whole field of Hindu
symbolism. It involves practically every
philosophical concept of the highest spiritual
significance and occult truths relating to the
innermost mysteries of life. These philosophical
concepts or occult truths are represented by
different objects and features associated with the
human form which symbolizes Him. So
multifarious are the functions and aspects of His
nature that it is difficult to include all the
symbols indicating them in one integrated image
and it is the common practice to include only
a few of these in one particular representation.
That is how we find the symbolic images
varying somewhat in detail. But there are a few
symbols which are so necessary for depicting
His essential nature that they are generally
included in practically every representation. These
are the Crescent Moon, the Damaru (drum), the
Bull, the Tiger's Skin, the Trident and the
Snake, All these symbols are familiar things of
daily life but they represent the deepest and
most significant truths of the inner life. That is
why this form presents an ever-inexhaustible
source of inspiration and a fascinating object of
meditation. It arouses not only the deepest
emotions of the devotee but also of those who are
on the Jnana-marga (Path of Knowledge),
Even a philosopher like Shankaracharya was a
devotee of Shiva and composed many hymns
which show a marvellous synthesis of knowledge and
devotion.
Let us now take some of these symbols and consider
their underlying significance. We
shall begin with the damaru which Mahesha holds in
one of His hands. It is well known that
in Hindu symbolism, hands symbolize the powers of
the Devata and the object held in the
hand gives an idea of the particular power
represented. That is why a Devata or Devi is
sometimes shown with more than two hands.
The damaru represents one of the subtlest occult
doctrines of Hindu philosophy which
has been wonderfully illuminated by some of the
researches of modern Science. According to
this doctrine the Maheshvara-tattva is a critical
state coming between the Nirguna-Brahman
(attributeless Brahman) or the latent Shiva-tattva
and the Saguna-Brahman (Brahman with
attributes) functioning as Trideva or the Triple
God—or Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. It must,
therefore, combine the attributes of the two
states which are utterly dig-similar or rather which
are poles apart. The Real and the unreal, the
unmanifest and the manifest belong to two
different categories of existence which cannot be
fused into one homogeneous state. If they
have to be brought together they can remain only
in the form of an apparently homogeneous
but really heterogeneous state in unstable
equilibrium. The analogy of the formation of an
emulsion from two immiscible liquids may to a
certain extent give some idea of this state. The
state of emulsion is kept up by agitation or
motion and when there is no agitation the liquids
tend to separate into two separate layers which
serves to illustrate the separation of the Real
and the unreal when the agitations of the mind are
eliminated and perfect tranquillity is
attained. The illustration of the state of
emulsion, though apt in one sense is defective,
inasmuch as it represents a static condition while
the Maheshvara-tattva is a dynamic state.
The best example in the field of Science of this
transcendent state is perhaps resonance.
Resonance, as those who have some knowledge of
physics and chemistry know, is a state
produced by the alternation of two states at a
tremendous speed. The alternation is so rapid
that a third kind of state scans to appear. This
state is a critical dynamic and nonhomogeneous
state, though outwardly it appears to be
homogeneous. Because it is produced
by the alternation of two opposite states it
partakes of the nature of both but is wholly neither
one nor the other.
Now, the damaru produces just such a state in the
realm of sound. It produces
apparently one homogeneous sound which is composed
of two different sounds produced by
the ball striking the two membranes alternately.
It is eminently suited, therefore, to represent
the important function of Mahesha to bring into
some kind of relationship the unmanifest state
of Shiva-Shakti tattva and the manifest state of
Ishvara-tattva represented by Brahma, Vishnu
and Rudra. The suitability of the damaru as a
symbol is due not only to the fact that it
combines two states in one but also to the fact
that it produces sound which in its subtlest
form forms the very basis of the manifested
Universe and is generally referred to as Nada. It
is through this alternating mechanism, if such a
phrase may be used for a purely spiritual
process, that the potential Energy in the
Shiva-Shakti tattva is transformed into the kinetic
Energy required for running the machinery of a
manifested system.
It will be seen, therefore, that the damaru of
Mahesha represents that power of His by
which He maintains a manifested universe in
existence. His consciousness at one moment is
centred within Himself—in His svarupa (own form)
and at the next moment it is centred in
the manifested universe and becomes its indwelling
Reality. When the consciousness is
centred within Himself and He directs His
attention inwards He is the unmanifest Brahman
and the universe disappears because it is based on
His consciousness, and deprived of that
basis, cannot exist. When He directs His attention
outwards and ‘imagines’ the Universe, it
comes into existence instantaneously. It follows
from this that the existence of the manifested
Universe is not a continuous phenomenon. It is
intermittent just as the picture on the screen in
a cinematographic projection is intermittent and
is produced by alternate periods of light and
darkness. This intermittence of the Universe which
should not be confused with the
alternation of srishti (manifestation) and pralaya
(dissolution) is not a mere ingenious
speculation but a doctrine of both Hindu and
Buddhist philosophy supported by occult and
mystic traditions. It was difficult to understand it
so far but the progress of Science and the
discovery of analogous phenomena in the field of
physical phenomena has thrown a flood of
light on this doctrine and transformed the damaru
from a rather mystifying symbol into an
index pointing to the ultimate mystery of
manifestation.
The next important and very significant symbol
associated with the form of Mahesha
is the Crescent Moon. What does a crescent moon
suggest? Obviously, the idea of time. In
fact, all primitive people measure the passage of
time by the phases of the moon and it is only
in advanced civilizations that the solar year is
used. But the crescent moon suggests not only
the passage of time, it also suggests periodicity,
which is found everywhere in Nature. The
passage of time is accompanied by cyclic changes
in Nature, the cycle of day and night, the
cycle of the seasons and the year, the cycle of
the four yugas and the still larger cycle of
manifestation and dissolution. Everywhere we find
Nature working in cycles, smaller cycles
within larger cycles, wheels within wheels. Not
only are there cycles but these cycles are
marked by waxing and waning phenomena as the wheel
of Time revolves and its different
parts go up and come down. In every sphere of life
we find birth, growth, zenith, decline and
death. The human body, the day, the seasons,
civilizations, in fact, all natural phenomena are
subject to these cyclic changes and all these
changes accompanied by waxing and waning are
also symbolized by the phases of the moon. It will
be seen, therefore, that the moon is a very
apt symbol of the phenomenon of Time with its two
important features: duration and
periodicity. Another important point to note in
this connection is that the crescent moon is an
ornament of His body and not an integral part of
it. This symbolizes the fact that Time is not
an essential feature of the Reality which Mahesha
represents, for in Him who is changeless
and Eternal, Time becomes latent. It is only an
ornament which He puts on when
manifestation takes place and puts off when
dissolution follows. The unmanifest Reality
transcends Time.
We now come to another symbol, the Tiger's Skin on
which Mahesha sits or which He
puts, round his loins. This symbol has acquired
added interest on account of the modern
scientific theories regarding the origin of the
Universe. According to Science the Universe is a
vast mechanism which starts with a tremendous but
limited amount of energy which is used
up gradually until the mechanism runs down and the
Universe is dead. In technical language
this is expressed by saying that the entropy of
the system goes on increasing until it reaches a
maximum when the system stops working. The same is
true of the smaller units of
manifestation like a solar system and the
astronomers talk of the dying suns which can be
seen in the heavens through powerful telescopes.
All this is easily comprehensible. But the
question arises: “How did the Universe start with
a vast though limited amount of energy
needed for its running for billions of years?”
From where did this energy come? Science has
no answer to this pertinent and significant
question and all kinds of plausible theories have
been put forward to account for this unexplained
winding up of the clock of the Universe. The
answer of Occultism to this important
philosophical problem is definite, clear and rational.
Commonsense tells us that the material clock of
the Universe cannot wind itself. There must
be some Agent which raises the Universe to its
high level of energy at its beginning. In other
words there must have been a ‘creation’. And
creation of this kind implies the prior existence
of a conscious and powerful Creator who out of His
consciousness can create energy and
everything else needed for the manifested
Universe. It is more reasonable to assume that
consciousness can produce energy than that
insentient energy can produce itself or raise itself
to a higher level.
This explanation, so simple, so compelling in its
reasonableness and having a solid
foundation in the experience of the highest
occultists is not acceptable to modern Science. On
account of its obsession with the materialistic
nature of the Universe and to account for
everything on a mechanistic basis, scientists will
go to any absurd length and give the most
irrational explanations rather than tentatively
accept a hypothesis which not only offers the
most reasonable solution of an insoluble problem
but also gives meaning to life. But let us not
digress, but come back to the point under
discussion.
As has been pointed out before, the energy required
for running the machinery of any
manifested system must come from consciousness and
the ultimate source of this energy is
the Shiva-Shakti tattva. The separation of the two
poles in this Principle which must be a
change in consciousness develops an enormous
potential universal power which can be
transformed through different
mechanisms—spiritual, mental and material—for all the
purposes of all the universes that come into
being. It is useless for man to try to visualize the
nature or the potential of this Primary Source of
Power when he does not know as yet the real
nature of some of its lowest manifestations like
electricity. In the present context it will be
enough to remember that this spiritual Energy is
potential even up to the level represented by
the consciousness of Mahesha. For though He is the
Lord of any manifested system, He is its
base, the hidden source from which everything
needed in the system comes. This potential
energy, like electrical energy in a charged
battery, is ready for any kind of work and it is the
fact of its being potential which is symbolized by
the tiger's skin.
It is well known that a tiger is the vahana or
vehicle of Durga and symbolizes power
in its most concentrated and active form. What
more appropriate symbol could there be for
potential power which is present in the
Maheshvara-Maheshvari tattva than a tiger's skin,
symbolizing inactive or ‘dead’ power. With our
scientific ideas of potential energy this
symbol may appear rather crude, but from the point
of view of an ordinary man who does not
know science there could not be a more apt symbol
of concentrated but potential power.
Just as a tiger is the vehicle of Maheshvari, a
bull is the vehicle of Maheshvara. A
vahana in Hindu symbolism is a vehicle through
which the power of a Devi or the function of
a Devata is exercised. The Sanskrit word for a
bull is vrisha. This word also means
righteousness, morality, justice, and it is this
second meaning which gives a clue to this
important symbol associated with Mahesha. The
beneficent power and grace of Mahesha
manifests only where there is dharma or
righteousness. Where there is unrighteousness there
is not only no descent of His beneficent power
but, on the contrary, that of the terrible wrath
of Rudra which ultimately destroys the unrighteous
and everything for which they work.
A bull is also a very apt symbol of sheer strength
and symbolizes real spiritual strength
which can come only from a righteous life. The
unrighteous, the dishonest, the cruel are the
weakest people really, in spite of their external
haughty demeanour and the positions of power
in which they may be temporarily entrenched. They
not only are weak but feel weak within
their heart of hearts and the outer bluster and
show of strength is merely a mask to hide from
others and themselves the weakness which they feel
inside.
Then we come to another mysterious symbol
associated with Mahesha: His Third Eye.
It is generally believed that the three eyes of
Mahesha represent His capacity to see in the
past, present and future. This interpretation
appears to be only partially correct as the Third
Eye is frequently shown in the Puranic stories to
have an active, in addition to the perceptive,
function. For example, He destroyed Kama Deva or
Cupid instantaneously by the fire
emanating from His Third Eye when the latter
tempted Him. The two ordinary eyes, as
normal organs of sensation in the human body,
represent ordinary sight, but the Third Eye
symbolizes the power of non-instrumental
perception and action which are referred to in the
Vibhuti Pada of the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali.
These spiritual faculties are called Pratibha and
Vikarana-bhava and correspond to Jnanendriyas (the
organs of knowledge) and
Karmendriyas (organs of action) on the lower
planes and to Omniscience and Omnipotence
on the Divine planes. Through this, Mahesha as the
Overlord ‘sees’ everywhere, everything
taking place in His manifested system in the past,
present and future and can bring about any
result instantaneously without the possibility of
failure or resistance of any sort from any
quarter.
We shall consider together, very briefly, two
other symbols associated with the form
of Mahesh—the Trident and the Snake—before we
close this chapter. Both these symbols
may appear rather incongruous in a form which
represents the highest aspect of manifested
Divinity. For, the snake symbolizes evil and the
Trident symbolizes punishment of three
kinds, pertaining to the adhyatmika, adhidaivika
and adhibhautika (Spiritual, Devic and
physical worlds). How, it may be asked, can evil
be associated with Divinity and how can the
Lord of Compassion who is called Shankara wield a
terrible weapon of punishment? It is not
possible to go into this interesting philosophical
question in detail. It will be enough to point
out here that according to Hindu philosophy the
Ultimate Reality which is the basis of the
Universe is Whole, Complete and Perfectly
Balanced. So in manifestation evil must counterbalance
good and punishment must go side by side with
reward. These pairs of opposites must
exist together if the equilibrium of the perfect
balance in the underlying Reality is to be
maintained and it is, therefore, not possible to
have the one without the other. This does not
mean that evil and good stand at the same level
and it is not necessary for the ordinary man to
reject the one and accept the other. What is meant
by the symbolic representation of evil is
that in the consciousness of Mahesha, upon which
rests the whole structure of the manifested
Universe, evil must be present, for, there can be
nothing outside His consciousness as far as
that Universe is concerned. But in the Divine
consciousness evil is harmless and is merely a
force which balances the good, and thus maintains
the harmony of the whole. A snake which
is deadly for ordinary people plays harmlessly
round the neck of Mahesha. The same
considerations hold good in a different way in the
case of the Trident. In a scheme of Nature
which is associated with evolution and in which
spiritual individuals are being evolved who
out of their own free will, will reject evil and
follow good, and not by outer compulsion, evil
must be associated with pain and punishment, and
good with pleasure and reward. This is the
only way in which inwardly free individuals can be
evolved in freedom, and the law of Karma
with its so-called rewards and punishments becomes
a necessary part of such an evolutionary
scheme. And if punishment in the form of pain is
as necessary as reward in the form of
pleasure both must be a feature of the working of
the Divine Will in manifestation. So the
Trident becomes in the hand of Mahesha not an
instrument of cruel injury but an instrument
for bringing people back to righteousness when
they stray from the path of dharma and need a
persistent reminder and a steady prodding for
making them change their Course.
CHAPTER VI
THE SYMBOLOGY OF TRIDEVA
LET US now deal very briefly with the symbology of
Trideva (the Triple God)—Brahma,
Vishnu and Rudra—and Their Consorts, Sarasvati,
Lakshmi and Kali. This is a very
interesting subject but here it is possible to
deal only with a few of the important symbols
associated with these Devatas and Devis. As has
been pointed out in a previous chapter,
everything in the form of a Devata or Devi
symbolizes something. In this chapter we can deal
with only a few salient features of this
symbology. Let us start with Brahma and His consort
Sarasvati.
Brahma is the Creator. How are things created?
Through the instrumentality of the
intellect. Before we create anything we have to have
a plan or form of what we are to create in
our mind. So Brahma represents the Universal Mind
or that aspect of Ishvara in which are
present all the laws, archetypes and plans of the
Universe or the solar system over which He
presides. The Universe is considered to be the
result of Divine Ideation and as evolution
proceeds, the Divine Plan unfurls in the Divine
Mind in terms of time and space at different
levels and the souls which are part of His
consciousness see it as a passing panorama in their
respective minds according to their location in
time and space and the degree of development
which they have reached. Those souls which have
penetrated into the heart of this Great
Mystery see this Universe unfolding in time and
space as the result of Divine Ideation and are
not affected and ensnared by this so-called maya
of Ishvara. They are the Jivanmuktas
(liberated ones) who live and work in this world
and yet are free from its illusions.
Let us take a rapid glance at some of the
important symbols associated with Brahma.
The most prominent feature of the form of Brahma
is His four faces. Faces symbolize aspects
and the four faces of Brahma mean that the
knowledge contained in the Universal Mind is of
four basic types. Since the Universal Mind
contains the archetypes and the Divine Plan for the
whole period of a particular manifestation, it is
not possible for us to grasp the tremendous
scope and significance of this totality of
transcendent knowledge and how it is divisible into
four types. A more comprehensible interpretation
in accordance with Hindu tradition is to
correlate these four types with the four Vedas
which symbolize these four basic types of
knowledge. According to Occultism, the Vedas, as
we know them now, are mere fragments of
a vast and lost literature which embodied, or
tried to embody, the totality of knowledge. What
the original extent and scope of this knowledge
was no one knows except high Adepts of
Occultism, but it must have certainly reflected
the fourfold nature of the Universal Mind. The
four Vedas as we have them now are its mere relics
and reminders of the fourfold nature. This
is too vast and complicated a subject to be
discussed fully here but what little has been said
will help us to get a glimpse into the inner
significance of the four faces of Brahma.
The second symbol which we may take up for
consideration is the Swan, the vehicle
of Brahma. Now, a swan is considered to be a
symbol of beauty in Hindu tradition and its
association with Brahma as a vehicle is meant to
point to the fact that the creative function of
Brahma expresses itself generally through beauty.
We all know that wherever there is real
creative work, it is almost always associated with
beauty. Every work of art is a thing of
beauty. Another quality associated with a swan is
discrimination, the capacity to separate the
essential from the non-essential. Real knowledge
always develops the capacity to discriminate
between the essential and non-essential and the
deeper our knowledge the more easily we can
separate the milk of essential facts and
principles from the water constituting the details with
which the essential is diluted as the proverbial
swan of Hindu tradition is said to do. We
should not, however, mix up this lower
intellectual discriminative faculty which is related to
the intellect with the higher type of
discriminative faculty which is related to the Buddhi, and
which can discriminate between the Real and the
unreal. As is well known the functions of
Brahma are related to the intellect and are
exercised through the instrumentality of the
intellect. The book in one of the hands of Brahma
also symbolizes the same fact, but a book is
a symbol of apara-vidya (the lower kind of
knowledge), which can be acquired from an
external source and which is necessary for creating
things in the lower worlds.
The Consort of Brahma is Sarasvati and since a
Devi represents the power of the
corresponding Devata, the symbols associated with
Her should suggest the ways and means
through which the function or functions of the
Devata are exercised. Now, how is knowledge
represented by Brahma brought into use? Obviously
through technique. When we have to put
any knowledge to practical use we must first
develop a technique for doing so. Whether it is a
question of making an aeroplane or a piece of
cloth or producing music or writing a book or
painting a picture we must first develop and
acquire the necessary technique. The greater the
mastery of the technique the easier the
utilization of knowledge and the more perfect the
production. Creative work presupposes the mastery
of the necessary technique.
Modern Science provides wonderful examples of the
extraordinary and sometimes
miraculous results which can be achieved by
patient and intelligent development of various
kinds of techniques. Some modern techniques are
extremely complicated, and marvels of
human ingenuity and team work. For example, the
production of a bomber plane requires
assembling of its different parts from two
thousand eight hundred blueprints. The highly
specialized and great variety of techniques which
are involved in the production of a
submarine or a rocket stagger our imagination. It
is these infinite number of techniques which
are symbolized by the Vina (stringed musical
instrument) in the hands of Sarasvati. All these
techniques, involved in all branches of art and
science which have been discovered or are yet
to be discovered are part of the consciousness of
Sarasvati, are in fact different expressions of
Her unlimited power which enables Her to translate
into action the will of Her Lord in His
creative work in the Universe.
The symbology of Vishnu is quite different from
that of Brahma because He is the
Preserver. His paramount function is to keep in
equilibrium the infinite number of forces
which by their action and interaction keep the
Universe in manifestation: the forces of
creation and destruction, the forces of expansion
and contraction, the forces of change and
conservation. The four objects in His four hands
give an extraordinarily clear indication of
His over-all functions in the Universe over which
He presides.
The Conch-shell represents Nada which forms the
very basis of manifestation as it is
through its agency that all kinds of forces can be
generated and changes of form can be
brought about. The Pranava (the syllable Om) is
the outermost expression of Nada or that allembracing
subtle vibration from which the infinite variety
of vibrations in the manifested
Universe are derived as the infinite number of
colours are derived from white light. It is the
vachaka (word) of Ishvara. This mean not only that
through its instrumentality the
consciousness of the individual Jivatma (soul) can
be made to merge with the consciousness
of the Paramatma (Universal Spirit) but also that
through its use all kinds of forces and
powers can be invoked by those who have the
necessary knowledge and purity of mind. It is
really an expression on the physical plane of that
fundamental Natural power-through which
the Natural functions of Ishvara are exercised and
the necessary changes in the working of the
Universe brought about. Anyone who has heard the
sound produced by a conch-shell and
observed its resemblance to Pranava will see at
once the appropriateness of this common
object as a symbol of the power which resides in
Nada. It is to invoke this primary divine
power that the conch-shell is sounded in all Hindu
ceremonies and the Pranava is intoned,
before sankalpa, the resolve made at the beginning
of every ceremony. In fact, all Vedic
mantras of high spiritual significance begin with
the syllable Om.
The power symbolized by the conch-shell is the
normal power through which all the
ordinary natural activities and forces are
controlled and regulated. But sometimes these forces
go beyond the limits which are permissible for a
stable equilibrium with the result that the
progress of evolution is seriously retarded and
requires the special intervention of the Lord.
On such occasions His special power symbolized by
His Chakra (discus) comes into play in
order to restore equilibrium. This extraordinary
power is drastic, sudden and irresistible and
accomplishes instantly and completely whatever has
to be accomplished. It may be exercised
on a big scale or a small scale, even for helping
or destroying individuals but whenever and
wherever it is exercised it accomplishes His
purposes without fail. The stories in the Puranas
illustrating the use of this extraordinary power
of Vishnu are allegorical in nature and are
meant to show that when the forces of adharma or
unrighteousness reach extraordinary
proportions and begin to endanger equilibrium in a
particular system, reaction or retribution
comes swiftly and sweeps away everything before
it. History provides some illustrations of
this phenomenon and even in the life around us if
we keep our eyes open we can see Vishnu's
Chakra in action.
The gada and padma or the club and the lotus in
the remaining two hands of Vishnu
symbolize the punishments and rewards which accrue
to human beings from papa (the
misdeeds) and punya (beneficent deeds) done by them
in the course of their life. Gada was a
weapon used in ancient India for punishing a
person and a lotus is a well known symbol of
boon or reward granted by a Devata or Devi. The
Law of Karma which is working in the
realm of human affairs and which automatically
brings about the restoration of equilibrium
which we disturb by our actions is inexorable in
its action. Good actions, emotions and
thoughts in the widest sense of these terms,
called punya, bring experiences to the individual
which are pleasant, while evil actions or papa
bring experiences which are unpleasant and so
not only restore the equilibrium but tend to bring
back the individual to the path of
righteousness and ensure his evolution. Human
beings are destined to follow the Universal
Law of Dharma or righteousness by inner choice as
free individuals and not by outer
compulsion like automatons. So Nature has given
them the freedom to do what they like but
invested every action which they do with an
inherent quality to produce reactions according to
the nature of the original actions. So through
attractions of pleasures and repulsions of pain
man is automatically and inexorably drawn to the
path of righteousness or dharma in the long
course of his moral and spiritual evolution.
Vishnu, being the Preserver, His power is
constantly restoring equilibrium wherever it is
disturbed and the Law of Karma may,
therefore, be considered as an automatic or
natural expression of this power in the evolution
of humanity.
Naturally, the power which enables Vishnu to
exercise His over-all functions and
which is symbolically represented by the Goddess
Lakshmi should be associated with objects
which are indicative of those functions. Let us
take for instance, the power of preservation of
human life. We most frequently and rather crudely
associate this power with wealth because it
is through wealth that we can procure all things
necessary for our preservation such as food,
clothing and shelter. So in our materialistic age
(with its crude ideal of “eat, drink and be
merry” Lakshmi has been almost completely
identified with wealth, and this accounts for the
fervour and devotion with which she is worshipped
at the time of Divali, the festival of lights.
Nobody looks at the jar containing amrita (nectar)
which she holds in her hand as a symbol of
Immortality. For Vishnu is also the giver of mukti
or Immortality and Lakshmi as His Consort
holds the jar of amrita which confers Immortality
and thus gives us immunity from the
bondage of birth and death.
The remaining member of the Hindu Trinity, Rudra,
is related to Mahesha and Shiva
as was pointed out in chapter V. As the
distinction between the functions of Rudra, Mahesha
and Shiva is very subtle and not easy to
understand, and also because these three names are
used almost interchangeably in different contexts
in Hindu scriptures, let us not add to this
confusion by dealing with this interesting
question here. We shall therefore pass over the
symbology of Rudra and Kali.
CHAPTER VII
THE STORIES OF HIRANYAKASHIPU AND BHASMASURA
WE have so far dealt with symbols, both natural
and artificial, to illustrate static symbolism.
A closely allied method of representing truths of
the inner life is in the form of allegories
which are examples of dynamic symbolism. An
allegory is a story which may or may not
have any basis in fact. The Puranas are full of
such stories which sometimes sound quite
absurd when read superficially but fascinate the
mind by their aptness when we get a glimpse
into their inner and true meaning. I shall deal
with two such stories which are meant to warn
people who, drunk with power, tread recklessly the
path of adharma (unrighteousness) under
the mistaken notion that they can somehow, by
their cleverness and ingenuity, evade the
consequences of their evil deeds. Both these
stories are well known though I am doubtful if
many people understand their inner significance.
The first story is that of Hiranyakashipu.
Although the story is well known, let us
recall its main features before we consider its
inner significance. Hiranyakashipu was a king
of the Daityas (demons). fife had a son, Prahlada,
who was a great devotee of Vishnu and
from his earliest childhood showed the
characteristics of a devotee—unceasing devotion to
the Lord and unbounded faith in Him. His father
did not like this at all and tried hard to
dissuade him from worshipping Lord Vishnu whom he
regarded as his enemy. When
persuasion and threats failed to have any effect
on Prahlada, Hiranyakashipu ordered his men
to kill him. They tried to drown him, to poison
him, to get him bitten by deadly snakes and
trampled under the foot of an elephant but all
their efforts failed and they could not do him the
least harm. Then the king himself decided to kill
Prahlada, advanced towards him with his
sword and mockingly asked Prahlada where his
beloved protector was. Prahlada replied that
his Lord was present everywhere, even in the
pillar in front of them. Hiranyakashipu gave a
blow at the pillar and asked in derision: “Even in
this?” At this the pillar burst open and out of
it emerged a strange and terrible figure with the
lower part of the body resembling that of a
human being and the upper part resembling that of
a lion. The roaring form of Nrisimha
(Man-lion) caught hold of Hiranyakashipu, sat down
on a threshold, placed the struggling
body of Hiranyakashipu on his thighs and tore open
his heart with his claws.
Now, the manner in which Hiranyakashipu was killed
is rather interesting. The whole
significance of the story lies in this. After long
and rigorous austerities he had obtained a boon
from Brahma. He could not be killed either during
day or night. He could not be killed inside
a house or outside. He could not be killed on the
earth or in the sky. He could not be killed by
a man or a beast. He could not be killed by any
weapon and so on, and so forth. Safeguards
were requested and granted to provide against all
kinds of circumstances so that it appeared to
Hiranyakashipu that he could not be killed under
any circumstances. On the strength of this
boon and the false confidence which it produced he
started his rule of oppression in the most
reckless manner, the whole life of evil ways
culminating in his determination to slaughter his
own son for no other reason except to prevent him
from worshipping Lord Vishnu.
So the Lord was hard put to it in devising a means
of killing Hiranyakashipu when the
time came for doing so. He had to respect the
promise given by Brahma and fulfil all the
conditions provided in the boon. But nothing is
beyond the Lord's wisdom and ingenuity and
He managed to achieve his object while fulfilling
to the minutest detail all the conditions of
the boon. He took Hiranyakashipu on his lap
(neither on the earth nor in the sky) and sitting
on the threshold (neither outside nor inside the
house) tore open his heart with his claws (no
ordinary weapon) at sandhya (twilight) time
(neither day nor night).
Now, the story may or may not be true. It may have
a historical basis or may belong to
the realm of mythology but what is its inner
significance? The important truth which is hidden
behind this story is meant to serve as a solemn
warning to all evil-doers, especially those who
consider themselves very clever and rely on their
ingenuity to escape Karmic retribution. We
all know how the mind of an evil-doer works.
Persistence in evil clouds his Buddhi and
deprives him of even ordinary intelligence and he
begins to imagine that he can devise
safeguards against all kinds of contingencies. He
may be very clever and may entrench
himself in a position where he outwardly appeals
impregnable, when it appears impossible to
defeat his evil designs. But God can always find a
way of thwarting the most elaborate and
clever designs which any individual, party or
nation can adopt in the pursuit of an evil course
of action, when the proper time comes. And this
time generally comes when things have gone
to the extreme limit.
The most striking example of this kind in modern
times is the defeat of Hitler and the
destruction of the Nazi party in the last war.
Hitler built up a formidable war machine of
gigantic proportions with the aid of German
resources and German efficiency. He became so
drunk with power and so blinded by his obsession
of the superiority of the German race that
he started on a course of world conquest and in
the beginning it appeared that he might
succeed. One of his mad passions, which was
characteristic of his ruthlessness and cruelty,
was the complete extermination of the Jews.
Millions of Jews were killed in cold blood. They
were chloroformed, their bodies flung into
electric incinerators and burnt to ashes. Many of
them were made to dig their own graves and bury
themselves. There is, nothing more
horrible, senseless and cruel which has happened
during the last thousand years than this
wholesale extermination of the Jews by the Nazi
party under Hitler and one could naturally
expect a swift Karmic retribution for this extreme
kind of evil. But Hitler had tremendous
military power and had conquered many countries in
Europe. Many of the countries still
unconquered seemed to be at his mercy and it
appeared as if it was only a question of time
when he would be master of the whole continent.
But there is no power on earth which can
delay the working of the bidden forces and laws in
Nature which always destroy evil when it
reaches the magnitude and involves a very large
number of people. How Nemesis ultimately
overtook Hitler and the Nazi party and destroyed
their cruel regime in spite of its efficiency
and power is a matter of recent history and within
the memory of the present generation. This
should serve as a terrible lesson to those nations
which depending upon their power, their
resources, their vast populations, their
scientific achievements and their military machines
think of embarking on a course which brings untold
suffering to large sections of humanity.
But will it?
It is not only for the evil-doers of the
Hirariyakashipu or Hitler type that this story has
a lesson. The law holds good equally for ordinary
people who may be tempted to do wrong
and tread the path of adharma under the mistaken
notion that they are clever enough to evade
Nemesis indefinitely. Such an individual generally
thinks that either the law of retribution
does not really exist or he can violate it as he
is used to violating man-made laws. This lack of
faith in the law does not give him exemption from
the natural consequences of doing evil. The
ignoring of the law, knowing it, is a part of the
natural process which leads him gradually into
circumstances which bring about his undoing. In
proportion as the enormity or gravity of the
evil increases, the day of reckoning draws near,
more and more swiftly.
It will be seen, therefore, that our only safety
lies in treading the path of dharma or
righteousness consistently, unfalteringly, in
giving no quarter to evil, in constantly watching
our thoughts, actions and motives and freeing them
resolutely from any taint of evil. Let us
not overtook minor propensities for doing evil
such as lying, deceiving people, making
dishonest gains, taking unfair advantage of people
or institutions. These things may not land
us in a jail and yet they are the germs out of
which grow the criminal tendencies which must
ultimately lead us into serious trouble. For,
sooner or later, if we persist in treading the path of
adharma we cross that line of safety where the
capacity to see evil in ourselves is destroyed
and we start running recklessly towards our own
destruction.
How does the law of retribution work and manage to
catch the wrong-doer in the end?
The ways of Providence are innumerable and
inscrutable but there is one obvious method
which is illustrated in a very interesting manner
by the story of Bhasma-sura. Bhasmasura was
another Daitya (demon) who, through austerities,
obtained a boon from Lord Shiva according
to which anybody on whose head he put his hand was
reduced to ashes instantaneously.
Being armed with this novel kind of power he
started destroying his enemies by just putting
his hand on their heads. As his Buddhi became
completely clouded as a result of his evil
deeds, the silly idea came into his mind one day
that if he could put his hand on the head of
Lord Shiva Himself he could destroy Him and become
the undisputed lord of the whole world
including Devi Parvati. So fascinated did he
become by this evil idea that he finally decided to
destroy Lord Shiva and to make the story
interesting it has been described in great detail how
the Lord had to flee from him to save His life
until Vishnu the Lord of Wisdom who works
through Buddhi came to His rescue, Vishnu using
his supernormal powers immediately
assumed the form of a lovely and fascinating
damsel and started dancing in front of
Bhasmasura with exquisite grace and beauty. The
half-witted Daitya was at once attracted by
her charm and came completely under its spell. He
also started dancing by her side, imitating
her and repeating everyone of her gestures. The
thing went on until he, in a semi-hypnotized
condition, put his hand on his own head and
reduced himself to ashes instantaneously.
What does this story seek to convey to the
ordinary man? That when we are treading
the path of evil and the time of reckoning comes
we ourselves do something which brings
about our undoing. The fact is that our Buddhi
becomes more and more clouded owing to a
vicious circle being set up and we start doing
things in an unintelligent manner until we do the
one thing which leads to our being caught and
punished. Most criminals are caught in this
manner, in traps which they generally set for
themselves. All people who, drunk with power,
embark upon a life of oppression, cruelty or
injustice, themselves bring about their own
undoing by taking one foolish step after another.
So great an authority as Mr. Churchill has
said that England was quite unprepared after the
fall of France in the Second World War and
if Hitler had attacked her immediately he could
have occupied the country without much
difficulty. And with the fall of England it would
have been far more difficult to defeat
Germany. But Hitler did not. Then he made his
second great blunder in declaring war on the
Soviet Union against the advice of his generals
and involving the irresistible German army in
the wide expanses and severe weather conditions of
Russia. Both these steps were taken by
Hitler himself and he who had so cleverly built up
the mighty German empire became himself
instrumental in bringing, about its destruction.
These things are of particular significance these
days when, as a result of scientific
and other technical advancements, it is possible
to build up a mammoth governmental
machinery of tremendous efficiency and power and
to inflict unimaginable suffering not only
on other people but also on the very people from
whom the government derives its power and
for whose benefit it professes to exist. As a
result of this wonderful ‘progress’ which
humanity has made we have reached the stage when
on the uncertain and unreliable discretion
of an ordinary mortal depend the lives of half the
human race. He has only to utter one word
and in an hour or so half the people on our earth
will be mercifully transported to the other
side of death, leaving the world in such a
condition that for the remaining half life would not
be worth living.
As if to meet this challenge of the enormous
concentration of power and the
corresponding capacity to inflict suffering on a
colossal scale Nature seems to have devised
correspondingly more powerful instruments of
retribution in the form of the hydrogen bombs
and inter-continental missiles. The lesson which
reason, common humanity and religion could
not instil into our minds is now being learnt
through sheer fear. Let us hope the lesson will be
learnt fully and finally without Nature having to
teach it through an atomic war.
Om
Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My humble Thankfulness to Sri
I K Taimni and Hinduism online dot com for
the collection)
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