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VEDA
Siva, the cosmic dancer, the divine lord of destruction, is described at once as the model of ascetic fervor and as the type of the frantic lover and faithful spouse.12 The Alexandrian Greeks recognized in him the Hindu form of Dionysos, and in their typical Western way depicted their own god as having triumphantly entered and conquered India. But we know that the Brāhmans had been giving praise to the dynamic, dionysiac aspect of the universc long before the vinc-wreathed, Thracian "Twice-born" entered the vales of Greece with his wild bandto the consternation and scandal of the world-directing, sober personalities of the orthodox Greek Olympus.
The devotee of such a god is asked to adore, not the names and forms (nāmurūpa), but the dynamism-this torrential cosmic stream of flceting evolutions, which is continually producing and wiping out individual existences (this Niagara, of which we are the drops), as it seethes in a roaring, tremendous foam. Such is the attitude that comes to the fore decisively in the Tāntric period of Indian thought: the mortal individual identifies his mind with the principle that brought him into existence, that hurls him along and is to wipe him out, feeling himself to be a part of that supreme force as its manifestation, a part of its veil and play. One submits to the totality. One at: tunes one's ears to the dissonant as well as to the consonant strains of the cosmic symphony, regarding oneself as a brief passage, a momentary melody, now raised, but soon to fade and be heard no more. Thus compre:ending his part and sunction in the everlasting, joyful-wocful song of life, the individual is not melancholy at the prospect of the pains of death and birth, or because of the frustrations of his personal expectations. Life is no longer evaluated by him in terms of sorrow. Both the sorrows and the joys of the round are transcended in ecstasy.
"Who seeks Nirvāņa?” The comprehension of the life-patterns that unfold with varying degrees of intensity from the
12 Cf. Zimmer, The King and the Corpse, pp. 264-816.
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| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |