Indo-European Mythology and Religion
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Nature (Prakriti).
***
For the total extinction of the cosmos the destruction of
the final crucial knot of Egoity (Ahamkāra) that prevents
individual consciousness from realising its identity with
the Divine perfect Yogic enlightenment is required. Such a
liberation of the individual as well as of the cosmos would
then result in what may be called an ‘Ātyantika Pralaya’
( BP XII,34) – or a dissolution without end.
Life: Symbol of the Centre, London: Thames and Hudson, 1974, p.12.
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III. Sāmkhya-Yoga, Shramana,
Brāhmana, Tantra
The Religious Traditions of
The Ancient Indians
I hail the superhuman;
I call it death-in-life and life-in-death.
- W.B. Yeats, 'Byzantium'
The questions regarding the original
enlightenment of mankind, the race that was first
endowed with a spiritual vision of the universe,
and the beginnings of Yogic wisdom are all obscured
by the mists of antiquity. If we attempt to discern the
spiritual sources of the early Indo-Europeans, of the first
Yogis, the Āryan fire-worshippers and the later Hamitic
temple worhippers, we are forced to rely on—apart from
the fragmentary archaeological and the relatively late
Greek literary evidence—the mythological literature
of the ancient Indians for some clues that may allow a
reconstruction of the development of religious thought
among the various branches of the early Indo-Europeans.
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I. Sāmkhya-Yoga and Shramana
28th Chaturyuga, Treta Yuga
The extraordinary cosmological and philosophical
insights that inform the religions of the ancient world
could have been achieved only through divine revelation
or through the exercise of such techniques of mind- and
body control as developed by the various systems of Yoga.
The probability that Yoga was the source of this wisdom
seems to be confirmed by the Brahmānda Purāna (I,i,3,8),
for instance, and we note that, in the Mahābhārata, XIII
(Anushāsana Parva) 14,156 Shiva himself is constantly
addressed as the “soul of yoga” and the object of all yogic
meditation. Similarly, his son, Skanda (the god Muruga
of the Dravidians) is described as being endowed with
yogic powers in Mbh IX (Shalya Parva), 44. We may
recall also the extraordinary description of the different
forms of primal Light that is to be found in the yoga-
based Mandalabrāhmana Upanishad, II,157 where the
state of enlightenment itself is described in terms of an
identification with the supreme Light:
When the triputi158 are thus dispelled, he becomes the
kaivalya jyotis159 without bhāva (existence) or abhāva
(nonexistence), full and motionless, like the ocean
without the tides or like the lamp without the wind.
156 Cf. MBh VII (Drona Parva), 202, where Shiva is identified with Yoga.
157 The most substantial information regarding the original Yogic system is perhaps that to be gleaned from the yoga-based Upanishads derived largely from the Krishna and Shukla Yajur Vedas (see K. N.
Aiyar, Thirty Minor Upanishads, Madras: Vasanta Press, 1914).
158 Modifications of the mind.
159 The light of isolation [from the phenomenal world].
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The aim of all enlightenment, whether it be through
the fire-worship of the Āryans or the forms of worship
evident in Tantra, is indeed the ultimate identification
of the individual soul, ātman, with Brahman. The term
“yoga” itself means “yoking” and may signify the union
of the individual soul to the supreme which is brought
about through several strict physiological and mental
austerities.160
In all of these ancient religions, the understanding of
the relation between the macrocosm and the microcosm
also seems to be derived from a Yogic source. For instance,
the Tantric Yogic notion of the Kundalini serpent and the
awakening of this serpentine form to the light of Brahman
lies at the basis of the Egyptian drama of Osiris in the
underworld, as well as of the concept of the universal tree
of life which features in the cosmologies of all the ancient
Indo-European cultures.
All of the ancient Indo-European religions are,
furthermore, based on a vision of the Godhead as a
Supreme Soul (Ātman) that manifests itself first as an
Ideal and then as a Cosmic Man, or Purusha. This Purusha
is castrated by his son (Chronos/Shiva/Time), though his
seminal force is restored in our universe as the sun by a
son of Chronos (Zeus/Dionysus/Muruga).161 While this
Purusha cosmology informs all the early religious forms of
the Indo-Europeans, we will see that Brāhmanism and the
160 For the contrasting understanding of Yoga in Jainism see p.82.
161 For a full discussion of this cosmology, based on the literary evidence of the Purānas, the Vedas, the Brāhmanas, the Avesta, the Bundahishn, the records of the religions of Egypt, Sumer, Akkad,
Assyria and the Hurrians, as well as the earliest western Āryan
theogonies of the Hittites, the proto-Stoic and Orphic Greeks, and the ancient Germans, see A. Jacob, Ātman: A Reconstruction of the Solar Cosmology of the Indo-Europeans, Hildesheim: G. Olms, 2005; cf. A.
Jacob, Brahman: A Study of the Solar Rituals of the Indo-Europeans, Hildesheim: G. Olms, 2012, Chs.I-III.
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indo-european mythology and religion
later Tantra employ this mythology in their various rituals
mostly in order to revive both the macrocosm and the
microcosm spiritual y. Sāmkhya-Yoga and the Shramana
traditions following it, on the other hand, use it mostly as
a theoretical background for ethical systems that seek to
escape from cosmic manifestation and earthly incarnation
altogether. In this focus on the escape from the cycle of
birth, death, and rebirth they take special care to stress
the importance of the precept of non-violence, which sets
them in direct opposition to the sacrificial rituals of the
Brāhmans.
As regards the original form of the ancient Indo-
European wisdom, we note that among the Krita Yuga
avatārs of Vishnu listed in the Bhāgavata Purāna I,3,162
Kapila (the name of the historical founder of Sāmkhya
Yoga) precedes Yajna (representing Vedic sacrifice),
who in turn precedes Rishabha (the name of the historic
founder of Jainism). The avatārs of the Krita Yuga are of
course cosmic phenomena rather than earthly, but the
sequence of these names suggests that Sāmkhya-Yoga may
indeed have preceded Vedic Brāhmanism, which in turn
preceded Jainism. At any rate, regardless of the greater
or lesser antiquity of these various traditions, when we
compare the complexity of the rituals in Brāhmanism and
Tantra that seek to revive the Purusha—through fire—
altars, temple structures, idols and the adept's body itself
– with the stark
precepts of saintly conduct and asceticism
162 According to BP I,3, there are twenty-two avatārs of Vishnu, beginning with
[Krita Yuga] Chatursana (the four sons of Brahma), the boar
Varāha, Nārada, Nara-Nārāyana, Kapila, Dattatreya, Yajna, Rishabha,
[Treta Yuga] the fish Matsya, the tortoise Kūrma, Dhanvantari,
Mohini, Narasimha, Vāmana, Parashurāma, Vyāsa, Rāma,
[Dvāpara Yuga] Balarāma, Krishna,
[Kali Yuga] the Buddha, Kalki.
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in the Shramana traditions we may be forced to conclude
that the former have indeed retained more of the original
Yogic, as well as of the original Vedic, spiritual knowledge
than the latter.
Sāmkhya
The theoretical basis of Yoga is Sāmkhya, which is a
dualistic school of thought which distinguishes Purusha as
the spiritual principle from Prakriti, or matter. Liberation
(kaivalya) from matter consists of the disentanglement
of the spiritual principle from the material matrix into
which it has sunk. One of the most principal metaphysical
doctrines propounded by this school is that of the three
degrees (guna’s) of spiritual refinement—or the lack of it—
that characterise any manifest being: sattva (luminosity),
rajas (vigorousness), and tamas (lethargy).
Sāmkhya is general y attributed to the sage Kapila.
Although, as mentioned, there is an avatār of Vishnu
called Kapila who appeared already in the first of the
four ages, the Krita Yuga ( BP I,3,10), in BP III Kapila is described as the son of Kardama and his wife Devahūti.
According to Rāmāyana, Uttarakanda,100, Kardama was
the same as Manu and king of Bāhlika (Bactria).163 The son
of Kardama is said to be Ila, the founder of the Lunar Aila
dynasty.164 The association with Bactria makes it plausible
that the historic Kapila lived in the Treta Yuga beginning
with Manu Vaivasvata. It was he who expounded the
system of Yoga to his mother:
163 Cf. S.B. Chaudhuri, Ethnic Settlements in Ancient India: A Study on the Puranic Lists of the Peoples of Bharatvarsha, Calcutta: General Printers and Publishers, 1955, p.110.
164 See p.92.
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The discipline of yoga of relating to the soul for the
sake of complete detachment from whatever pleasure
and distress, is the ultimate benefit for mankind that
carries My approval.165
In the Baudhāyana Sūtra he is considered to be the son
of the Vaishnava saint and Daitya166 prince, Prahlāda.
He is said to be the sage who created the four orders, or
āshramas,167 of brahmachārya, grihastya, vānaprastha
and sannyāsa in such a way that he extolled the last
ascetic āshrama as superior to the early ones committed
to sacrificial worship. He is also credited with the
propagation of the doctrine of non-violence, which, as we
will see below, is the first of the five abstentions (yama's)
that the Yogic system begins with. Sāmkhya is clearly the
source of the Shramana sects of Jainism and Buddhism,
which are both critical of the Brāhmanical sacrificial
rituals and exhort asceticism as the way of liberation from
the net of samsāra, or the world.
The association of Kapila with Bactria168 is particularly
interesting since there happens to be clear evidence of
Indic settlement in the Bactro-Margiana Archaeological
Complex (BMAC) from 2200-1700 B.C., that is, a little
later than the rise of the Hamitic cultures of Egypt and
Mesopotamia at the beginning of the Kali Yuga. The
BMAC is not far north of Mundigak, where from 3000
B.C. we notice extensions of Elamite culture resembling
165 Srimad Bhāgavatam (tr. Aanand Aadhar), III,25,13.
166 That is, an Asura, or lesser god, born of Diti, the earth goddess, who is the sister of Aditi, the mother of Indra and the solar Ādityas.
167 That the āshrama system is not original y Brāhmanical is probable, since Brāhmanism, as we shall see, focuses mostly on the first two stages and not on the latter two, which are more central to the
Shramana doctrines.
168 Bactria spreads across modern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan.
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that of the Indus Valley.169 It is difficult to determine
whether the Āryan settlements of BMAC represent a
continuation of the early Elamite Hurrians of Mundigak
or are new immigrants from the Andronovo culture
associated with the Indo-Āryans (1800-900 B.C.).170 The
latter is indeed the more probable. The Andronovo culture
is itself derived from the Hut Grave and Catacomb Grave
culture of 2800-2000 B.C.171 and the Sintashta culture of
the southeast Urals (2300-1900 B.C.),172 which is marked
by chariot burials and may have been proto-Āryan rather
than proto-Indo-Āryan. There is also clear evidence of
fire-worship in the BMAC, which suggests that it was the
site of Brāhmanical Āryans as wel . Since there is little
evidence of such fire-worship in Mundigak it is probable
that the former is derived from the Andronovo rather
than from the Elamite colonies – and may have included
adherents of the Sāmkhya-Yoga system as well as of
Brāhmanism.
Yoga
Yoga in its late, classical form (Rāja Yoga) as formulated
by Patanjali (2nd c. B.C.) employs an eight-fold path that
begins with five “abstentions” (yama's): non-violence,
169 Cf. J.P. Mallory and V. H. Mair, The Tarim Mummies, p.45f.; p.262.
170 Andronovo type pottery has been found in the early layers of Margiana (see A. Parpola, “The problem of the Aryans and the Soma”, in G. Erdosy (ed.), The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995, p.363.
171 The Hut Grave culture apparently separated into the Timber
Grave (proto-Iranian) and Andronovo (proto-Āryan) cultures. The
fourth millennium predecessor of the Hut Grave and Catacomb Grave cultures may have been the Yamnaya culture dating from 3500-2800
B.C. ( ibid. , p.356).
172 See J.P. Mallory and V.H. Mair, op. cit. , pp.260f.
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truthfulness, avoidance of theft, celibacy, and avoidance
of covetousness. These abstentions are, as we shall see,
adopted in Jainism too. The next step consists of five
“observances” (niyama’s) which include purity of mind,
speech, and body, contentment, concentration, study and
contemplation of God. These two initial stages are followed
by the more practical ones related to the physical postures
(āsana’s) to be adopted for meditation, breath-control
exercises (prānāyama), withdrawal of the senses from
external objects (pratyāhāra), concentration (dharana),
meditation (dhyāna) and liberation (samādhi).
Yoga seems to have become popular in India
especial y from around the 9th to the 5th century B.C.
judging from the numerous Sanskrit and Prakrit texts of
this period which stress the ideology of renunciation in
which knowledge (jnān
a) is given precedence over ritual
action “and detachment from the material and social
world is cultivated through ascetic practices (tapas),
celibacy, poverty and methods of mental training (yoga).”173
The doctrine of Jnāna Yoga174 is enunciated also in the
'Bhagavad Gita', Ch.II:
The man who, casting off all desires, lives free from
attachments, who is free from egoism, and from (the
feeling that this or that is) mine, obtains tranquillity.
This, O son of Prithâ! is the Brahmic state; attaining
to this, one is never deluded; and remaining in it in
(one's) last moments, one attains (brahma-nirvâ n a)
the Brahmic bliss.
It is repeated in the treatise on ashtanga (eight-limbed)
yoga, Yoga Sūtras, by Patanjali, where the state of
173 G. Flood, An Introduction to Hinduism: The Secret Tradition of Hindu religion, London: I.B. Tauris, 2006, p.81.
174 See p.136.
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yogic beatitude is understood as “the cessation of
mental fluctuations”. The final goal is the achievement
of a “supreme state” devoid of “mental fluctuations”.
Consciousness is absorbed in itself, and the self does not
becomes “identified with” the Absolute, but, rather, is
the Absolute itself, since there is nothing apart from it.
The yogi aims to attain the supreme state, as the Katha
Upanishad, VI, also declares: “That state in which the five sense organs175 ... remain united with the mind, and where
the intuition or the brain remains idle or blank without
any thought is the ineffable, supreme state of bliss”.
The state of yogic enlightement is the same as that of
the Brahmaloka of the Purānas, since the soul is immobile
in its absolute concentration. Once this concentration is
relaxed, it is reborn just as the cosmos too is reborn from a
disturbance of the perfect balance of the gunas in the first
ideal manifestation of the supreme Ātman. The ultimate
aim of Yoga thus is to prevent this relaxation in order
to achieve a “final liberation from the bonds of action
and rebirth”.176 Such a liberation is also described in the
Atharvaveda X,44:
Desireless, firm, immortal, self-existent, contented
with the essence, lacking nothing,
Free from fear of death is he who knoweth that Soul
courageous, youthful, undecaying.