Guru

Swami Kriyananda offering sweetmeats to Yogananda via Wikipedia

In Hinduism a guru is an esoteric spiritual teacher. It is believed that the guru instructs and purifies disciples with the help of God’s grace and other spiritual elements.

In many cases, the mechanism of purification is said to be karma transfer, where the karmic impurities of the disciple apparently fly from the disciple to the teacher, who then spiritually ‘cleanses’ him or herself through intense devotion or meditation. A similar, although certainly not identical, mechanism is described among Catholic saints when they speak of spiritual intercession and the taking of sins.

Critics of the guru system often claim that gurus try to transform disciples into a carbon copy of the guru—or perhaps into mindlessly accepting the type of spiritual powers mediated by the guru, which arguably are not suitable for everyone (or perhaps only suitable for a certain period in an individual’s lifelong journey of becoming).

Moreover, Rabbi Allen Maller argues that spiritual experience and practice should bring one back to one’s social, interpersonal and personal duties with enhanced spirituality instead of creating recluses and ascetics, as we often find with Hindu gurus. This view of ‘genuine’ spirituality being intimately wedded to worldly action may, however, be critiqued from both Christian monastic and Hindu meditative perspectives.

As politically incorrect as this might seem today, both C. G. Jung and Joseph Campbell suggested that Westerners might lose their unique sense of individuality under the influence of an Eastern guru. Along these lines, some gurus have been accused of brainwashing and manipulating their disciples, usually by concerned family members of the disciples who don’t share guru’s religious beliefs

According to Bishop Kallistos Ware:

There are many false guides. There is no automatic way of discovering a true guide, but there are certain criteria. First, the spiritual father, if genuine, does not automatically impose himself. He doesn’t necessarily hide, but he waits for the others to come. The true spiritual father helps us to develop our own freedom. He does not impose his way on us, but helps us to discover our own way. The true spiritual guide does not promise instant success. In the spiritual life there are occasionally shortcuts, but ones provided by God. In general, what is asked of us is fidelity and the willingness to go deep. Those spiritual teachers who claim to offer us the higher gifts of contemplation through a few simple exercises should be treated with great caution.¹

In religions like Sikhism, the term guru may refer to a great spiritual figure recognized by everyone within that tradition, such as Guru Nanak.

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¹ “Image and Likeness: Interview with Bishop Kallistos Ware” in Lorraine Kisly (ed.), The Inner Journey: Views from the Christian Tradition, Parabola Anthology Series, Sandpoint ID: Morning Light Press, 2006. p. 160.

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Hanuman

Rama and Hanuman fighting Ravana, an album painting on paper, c1820 via Wikipedia

In the Hindu Ramayana, Hanuman is a Monkey-God and a great friend of humanity—at least, that part of humanity concerned to see justice and goodness overcome the forces of evil.

Hanuman accomplishes many heroic deeds. His main feat is to help Rama rescue Sita from the evil demon king, Ravana. Hanuman is also a manifestation of dharma (Skt. = right duty) and of the godhead itself.

Like the ancient Egyptians, Hindus often symbolize God and God’s ethics in animal form.

To this CrippLeD SaM adds:

Though is a Monkey-God, Hanuman is not the Chief of the Monkeys, this is Sugreev. He is Sugreev’s Minister, and some say he is the 11th Avatar of Shiva. As he saved the Life of Ramas Brother Laxman, people call him “Sankatamochana”, the one who takes away catastrophe. Helping him, he teared out the whole Mountain. So he is also the God of strength. If you are interested in Hanuman Pictures, Hanuman Music (Hanuman Chalisa Mp3), Texts and more, you can visit: http://hanumanji.wordpress.com. » Source

A 17th century painting depicting Hanuman worshiping Lord Rama and his wife Sita. Lakshmana is also seen in this painting from Smithsonian Institution collection via Wikipedia

Depending on one’s perspective, representing God as a monkey is either progressive or misguided.

Those who see it as progressive would likely embrace shamanistic cultures where animals are taken as sacred.

Those seeing it as misguided would likely be adherents of the type of monotheism where One God can never be anything less than ultimate (e.g. Islam, Judaism, Sikhism), or they could be believers in the Christian idea of Trinitarian monotheism, where One God exists as three persons in The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

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Jiva

Hindus believe the self or soul (atman) repeatedly takes on a physical body via Wikipedia

In Hinduism the jiva (Sanskrit: “to live”) refers to the individual soul living in a mortal body, subject to the laws of karma.

In contrast to the atman, which has the potential to fully join with the brahman (i.e. ultimate reality), the jiva makes distinctions between subject and object. Because of its dualistic perspective, the jiva is often likened to the psychoanalytic concept of the ego.

In Jainism the jiva is simply a living substance, inherent to all organisms, that carries on after physical death.

On this point, however, Ninian Smart notes that in

Jainism there is a fundamental distinction between life-monads (jivas) and non-living, material world (ajiva)—the latter incl. human and other organic bodies.¹

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¹ See A Dictionary of Comparative Religion, ed. S. G. F. Brandon (1971), p. 376.

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Jnana yoga

Bhagavad Gita, a 19th century manuscript. North India via Wikipedia

In Hinduism, jnana yoga [Sanskrit jnana: the path of spiritual knowledge] is the yoga of knowledge. But this isn’t just bookish, conceptual or intellectual knowledge. Instead, the goal of jnana yoga is to know the true self and, for believers in this path, its identity with the Godhead.

Not to say that Jnana yoga never involves erudition, or intellectual and conceptual knowledge. It certainly can. But these are seen as tools to achieve illumination instead of ends in themselves.

The dharma (sacred duty) of jnana yoga is about overcoming ignorance [Sanskrit: avidya] and clearing the path for true spiritual knowledge. And for believers, this kind of knowledge is nothing less than realizing that this changing world (and all the desires that go with it) are illusory. It also means realizing that the personal ego is not the true self.

When the aspirant reaches this stage of awareness, he or she may be confused and even wonder if they’ve gone insane (as did Sri Ramakrishna on occasion). But a healthy transition means that the seeker eventually understands that the atman and brahman are one and the same.

Diagrammatic representation of absolute and manifestation in Jnana Yoga by Swami Vivekananda - Nvineeth via Wikipedia

In the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu deity Krishna says that jnana yoga is the most difficult of the four central yogas, but also the path dearest to him.

Traditionally associated with the Brahmin caste, the meaning of jnana-yoga would be closer to wisdom instead of erudition. But prominent figures like Sri Aurobindo and Swami Ramacharaka are both quite learned and (allegedly) illuminated.

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Kalki

Stone plaque of Kalki from the 18th century via Wikipedia

Kalki is the tenth and final avatar in Hinduism which believers say is yet to come.

Popular images depict him riding a white horse with wings known as Devadatta (God-given.) In these images, Kalki is brandishing a sword in his left hand and is intent on eradicating the corrupt destitution and debauchery of Kali Yuga.¹

Modern interpreters of the Kalki story tell of various prophecies, often linked with their own particular religious beliefs. But probably nobody knows just what this old Puranic prophecy means, and whether or not it contains more than a mythic significance.

—

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki

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Karma Transfer

your karma is leaking by Robin via Flickr

Karma Transfer is the idea, found especially in Hinduism, that good and bad karma may transfer from one living being to another.

The Indologist Wendy O’Flaherty shows that, in Hindu myth, karma can be tossed about from one being to another.

In the negative sense, another being’s bad karma is like a hot potato, something to be avoided if possible. In the positive sense, purification and grace may occur as a kind of intercession (to borrow from Christian terminology) between one being and another, usually to help lessen the bonds of bad karma of one or both parties.

Karma, good and bad, is not only transferred among human beings. Karma is said to transfer among the gods themselves. Not unlike their Greek counterparts, the Hindu gods often behave in ways deemed unacceptable for human beings.

Moreover, karma can also be transferred between gods and human beings.¹

The transmission of karma among living beings is often complicated and best illustrated within the context of a mythological tale (e.g. Siva and the Pine Forest Sages, where Siva actually temps the sages’ wives to break the sages’ overpowering meditation, which was threatening the spiritual balance of the cosmos).

While some people see karma as a firm, unalterable law, this isn’t really correct. The effects of bad karma can be lessened through God’s grace and personal devotion. It’s also believed that yogis and saints take on a lion’s share of their disciples’ bad karma (again, through a kind of spiritual intercession), clearing a path toward salvation for those who otherwise would be ensnared in interrelated states of ignorance, delusion and evil.

Along these lines, the revered Hindu holy man, Sri Ramakrishna, apparently

had a vision of his subtle body…[with] a number of sores on the back.  He was puzzled by the sight, but it was made clear…profane people had caused the sores on his body. They themselves had been purified, but they had left the suffering arising from their own sins with him.²

This alleged dynamic does not necessarily mean that the guru or saint is a perfected spiritual being, although some, indeed, claim to be.

Implicit to the idea of karma transfer is the belief that, at some stage, all seekers continue to make spiritual progress by suffering for others still in a state of ignorance or bondage. Through suffering the advanced soul is said to become increasingly purified, self aware and less bound by selfish desires.

While Christ and a few gurus claim to be ‘fully realized,’ ‘selfless’ or ‘perfect,’ most religious traditions say that the rest of us ordinary people gradually reach perfection through an interactive process taking place among imperfect human beings.

In general, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and some Christians believe that spiritual perfection or liberation may be achieved on Earth. Catholics, on the other hand, uphold the ideal of perfection but as a rule do not believe that perfection is fully attainable in this world.

As suggested above, a dynamic similar to karma transfer is found in Catholic mysticism, generally framed within the context of the saints, whose prayerful intercession and alleged ‘taking the sins’ of others helps God to redeem souls and thus prepare them for everlasting heaven.

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—

¹ Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Siva: The Erotic Ascetic, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973, p. 183; and The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976, pp. 14-16, 141, 176.

² Swami Tejasananda, A Short Life of Sri Ramakrishna, Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama [Publication Department], 1990, p. 92.

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Linga

Shiva linga at the centre of the universe by Anantashakti (digitally enhanced by MC)

In Hinduism a linga or lingam is a stone pillar or a carving which some say has a phallic shape.

Some scholars associate this with mere sexuality. And the British missionary William Ward forcefully criticized the linga as a sign of a supposedly debauched Hindu religion.¹ For most Hindus, this colonial critique probably would be taken as Ward projecting his own repressed fears and desires onto Hindus and Hinduism as a whole.

Indeed, in Hindu metaphysical thought the linga is said to represent the creative, generative aspect of creation, just as the yoni represents the mysteries of the cosmos and, especially, those of cosmic origins.

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¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingam

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Laxmi (or Lakshmi)

Raja Ravi Varma's painting of Lakshmi, showing the motifs of lotus and elephant via Wikipedia

Laxmi (or Lakshmi) is a Hindu goddess of prosperity and good fortune, worshipped from around 300 BCE to the present.

She’s often portrayed sitting cross-legged on a pink lotus with four arms while gold coins emerge from (one of) her right palms and also from a jar on her left thigh. However, artistic depictions of her vary from the popular to the sublime, with symbolic details differing in each instance.

She’s Vishnu‘s partner and, as the incarnation of Sita, the wife of the hero Rama and also of Krishna, taking the form of Radha.

In India all businesses close in her honor and local merchants close up shop one day every year in October. Likewise, students petition her for good grades in examinations.

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Moksha

Bohr model of the atom via Wikipedia

Moksha is the most noble aim in Hindu and Jain religions. Moksha is the soul‘s liberation or release from the bonds of karma.

Sankara (700-750 CE) envisions the liberated person (mukti) as having no individuality, because he sees individuality as an illusion. In his system the liberated soul realizes its complete identity with the Godhead.

Ramanuja (1055-1137 CE), however, envisions the soul as individual but also dependent on or “resting within” the Godhead.

C. G. Jung champions the Western ego and questions Sankara’s interpretation by rhetorically asking how a person realizes they’re liberated if they no longer exist–i.e. who would be there to experience the liberation?

One reply could be, or course, that the focus or orientation of liberated consciousness shifts from the personal to the ultimate. By way of analogy, consider the Bohr model of the atom. An electron leaps from one shell (quantum level) to another when its energy increases. But it remains an electron. And so it could be with consciousness. Although the scope of conscious awareness increases with liberation, consciousness remains as such.

Ironically, this is the view that Jung, himself, advances. As the Jungian ego expands to learn about and assimilate the archetype of the self, petty desires and difficulties give way to larger concerns.

This is just one example of how Jung’s thought, as insightful as it was, often reveals analytical contradictions. Jungians, however, say that Jung’s approach thrives on the tension and potential synthesis of opposites. For most Jungians, contradictory elements are not really ‘opposites’ but potential complementaries.

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Mandala

Image: Mandala made by Jung's unknown patient before 1929, via Wikipedia

Not to be confused with mantra, yantra or mela, mandala is a Hindu and Buddhist term which in the Sanskrit means “circle.” It usually takes the form of a diagram for mediation.

In Buddhism, especially, this circle represents the totality of all existence. Tibetan Buddhist artworks (tankhas) depict various mandalas containing both gods and demons, encircled around a center point representing the alleged absolute bliss of nirvana. Contemplating these images is said to help the spiritual aspirant attain a supreme consciousness that lies beyond gods (heavens) and demons (hells).

The psychologist C. G. Jung says the mandala is a universal archetype that symbolizes the entire human self.

At times Jung seems to homologize circular Christian and non-Christian symbols, fitting them into his particular interpretation of the mandala, while at other times he differentiates them.

This apparently contradictory nature of Jung’s theory runs throughout his work. But Jung, himself, doesn’t shy away from contradiction. Rather, he admits and embraces this aspect of this outlook.

Jung…notes in Memories, Dreams, Reflections his own inconsistency and suggests that it represents a normal, acceptable human quality. Perhaps the essence of his overall thought is best summed up in this confession:

I had to obey an inner law which was imposed on me and left me no freedom of choice. Of course I did not always obey it. How can anyone live without inconsistency?

As a philosophical argument this itself is inconsistent, for one cannot choose to disobey something which provides no option to choose. On another level, however, the statement is consistent in its admission of inconsistency, much like the coniunctio oppositorum (union of opposites) view of the self which Jung advocates.¹

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¹ See, Synchronicity and Poststructuralism, 1997 (Ph.D. Thesis by Michael W. Clark – pdf), pp. 13-14  http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq21958.pdf

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