Posts
Monday, December 26, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
The Genesis of Brahma I: The Two Religions
In theology all the major religions of the world can be traced to two sources - A-brahamic (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and Brahminic (Hinduism and its various sects) and those related to it (Buddhism, Jainism). The Abrahmic religions have scriptures that carry a lot of minute details, and are prescriptive in nature. It is easy to get lost in them so much as to not realize that all three are the same. On the other hand, the texts of Brahminic religions are abstract, descriptive and possess such perplexing ambiguity and variety that they have coalesced into one organism - Hinduism.
Christians, Jews and Muslims all trace their lineage to Abraham (or Ibrahim in Quran). He is the father of mankind. It was in the fertile valley of the rivers Euphrates and Tigres, in the land of Jerusalem that all the mythological drama took place. God created Adam and Eve - the first man and woman, who were thrown out of the Garden of Eden for eating the forbidden fruit. The three religions offer different versions of this same narrative. Then came Moses and delivered the Jews from Egypt. When Moses died there was a prophecy that a new prophet will be born, a son of God, who will deliver them from their miseries. The difference between the three religions is this: the Christians believe that that prophet is Jesus Christ, the Muslims believe that that prophet is Mohammad, and the Jews believe that that prophet has not yet been born.
Back here in the fertile valley of Indus (Sindhu), and Ganga another mythological show was on. Hundreds of tribes fought for the resources of the fertile land and the dense tropical jungle that was most of the Indo-Gangetic valley we see now. It is difficult and preposterous to form an exact narrative, but it is not difficult to see that the different castes and sub-castes that exist across the sub-continent owe their origin to different tribes who had different religious beliefs. There are 330 million deities in India. The deities vary, suited to the environment - Elephant God (Maharashtra), the Dark Mother Goddess riding a tiger (the jungles of Bengal), and the rain god Indra (in the monsoon irrigated Indo-Gangetic plains). These were independent tribes, who were brought together, in the largest social experiment ever, into the fold of one religion in order to control the constant bloodshed. That social experiment was the Varna (caste) system. It makes eminently more sense to think of the caste system not as division of society of one religion for efficient economic allocation (as religious hardliners and Hindu apologists believe) but as a union of a society of many religions to control constantly warring factions.
This process of ideological integration and philosophical ascendancy over the years can be seen in the structure of the Sanskrit Vedic tradition. As one moves from the Samhitas to Brahmanas to Aranyakas to the Upanishads to Vedanta one sees a transition from mechanical prayers to demi-gods such as Indra for materialistic gains (a society struggling for survival) to a very conscious effort to transcend from worshipping the Devas (the givers) to searching for the Divine (Brahmna) without by the Atma (the self) and to the point where the Divine is realized within ("Aham Brahmasmi" - I Am Brahma). Thus the demi-gods were first acknowledged and then slowly rejected. This process allowed the assimilation of the various sects into one Brahminic fold.
This social and philosophical integration reached it peak during the writing of the Mahabharata, composed by the same Ved Vyasa who also compiled the Vedas into one corpus. In Mahabharata, Krishna (Vishnu) makes a mockery of Indra and asks the villagers people not to pray to Indra but to cows, the mountain Gowardhana and the trees. In the divine song, Geet(song)-a, Vyasa makes Krishna declare that the caste system is created by Him and it is He who is the supreme of all supremes. He details the Yogas - ways of attaining liberation - Prema (love), Karma (action), Dharma (duty) and Gyana (knowledge). Out went Yagna (outwardly mechanical prayers to the Devas for material gains), and in came Yoga (disciplining of the self for liberation of soul - moksha). The various sects were free to pray to anyone they liked, but it was not to be forgotten that Narayana was the supreme lord, and all must bow down to the Brahmins, the favorites of Narayana as Krishna says, the keepers of religion, and the guardians of this social order. Thus the social structure was firmly established- one Brahmin religion that superseded all local or tribal sects under the aegis of the caste system.
It is not difficult to see, linguistically speaking, that "Abraham" (and his consort Sarai) and "Brahma" (with his consort Sarai-swati) are two different forms of the same underlying word. Both are said to be the fathers of mankind. There are many other similarities, in the narratives and the linguistics which point out to the fact they are one and same. Perhaps both derive from the same master religion which has now been forgotten. Perhaps there was an effort to integrate the two religions before, which has now been erased from the memory of the civilization. Whatever it may be, it is certainly not a co-incidence.
Christians, Jews and Muslims all trace their lineage to Abraham (or Ibrahim in Quran). He is the father of mankind. It was in the fertile valley of the rivers Euphrates and Tigres, in the land of Jerusalem that all the mythological drama took place. God created Adam and Eve - the first man and woman, who were thrown out of the Garden of Eden for eating the forbidden fruit. The three religions offer different versions of this same narrative. Then came Moses and delivered the Jews from Egypt. When Moses died there was a prophecy that a new prophet will be born, a son of God, who will deliver them from their miseries. The difference between the three religions is this: the Christians believe that that prophet is Jesus Christ, the Muslims believe that that prophet is Mohammad, and the Jews believe that that prophet has not yet been born.
Back here in the fertile valley of Indus (Sindhu), and Ganga another mythological show was on. Hundreds of tribes fought for the resources of the fertile land and the dense tropical jungle that was most of the Indo-Gangetic valley we see now. It is difficult and preposterous to form an exact narrative, but it is not difficult to see that the different castes and sub-castes that exist across the sub-continent owe their origin to different tribes who had different religious beliefs. There are 330 million deities in India. The deities vary, suited to the environment - Elephant God (Maharashtra), the Dark Mother Goddess riding a tiger (the jungles of Bengal), and the rain god Indra (in the monsoon irrigated Indo-Gangetic plains). These were independent tribes, who were brought together, in the largest social experiment ever, into the fold of one religion in order to control the constant bloodshed. That social experiment was the Varna (caste) system. It makes eminently more sense to think of the caste system not as division of society of one religion for efficient economic allocation (as religious hardliners and Hindu apologists believe) but as a union of a society of many religions to control constantly warring factions.
This process of ideological integration and philosophical ascendancy over the years can be seen in the structure of the Sanskrit Vedic tradition. As one moves from the Samhitas to Brahmanas to Aranyakas to the Upanishads to Vedanta one sees a transition from mechanical prayers to demi-gods such as Indra for materialistic gains (a society struggling for survival) to a very conscious effort to transcend from worshipping the Devas (the givers) to searching for the Divine (Brahmna) without by the Atma (the self) and to the point where the Divine is realized within ("Aham Brahmasmi" - I Am Brahma). Thus the demi-gods were first acknowledged and then slowly rejected. This process allowed the assimilation of the various sects into one Brahminic fold.
This social and philosophical integration reached it peak during the writing of the Mahabharata, composed by the same Ved Vyasa who also compiled the Vedas into one corpus. In Mahabharata, Krishna (Vishnu) makes a mockery of Indra and asks the villagers people not to pray to Indra but to cows, the mountain Gowardhana and the trees. In the divine song, Geet(song)-a, Vyasa makes Krishna declare that the caste system is created by Him and it is He who is the supreme of all supremes. He details the Yogas - ways of attaining liberation - Prema (love), Karma (action), Dharma (duty) and Gyana (knowledge). Out went Yagna (outwardly mechanical prayers to the Devas for material gains), and in came Yoga (disciplining of the self for liberation of soul - moksha). The various sects were free to pray to anyone they liked, but it was not to be forgotten that Narayana was the supreme lord, and all must bow down to the Brahmins, the favorites of Narayana as Krishna says, the keepers of religion, and the guardians of this social order. Thus the social structure was firmly established- one Brahmin religion that superseded all local or tribal sects under the aegis of the caste system.
It is not difficult to see, linguistically speaking, that "Abraham" (and his consort Sarai) and "Brahma" (with his consort Sarai-swati) are two different forms of the same underlying word. Both are said to be the fathers of mankind. There are many other similarities, in the narratives and the linguistics which point out to the fact they are one and same. Perhaps both derive from the same master religion which has now been forgotten. Perhaps there was an effort to integrate the two religions before, which has now been erased from the memory of the civilization. Whatever it may be, it is certainly not a co-incidence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)