need to read that again and maybe again and again...very elaborate hypothesis...

your splitting of the word swadishthana struck me...any reason for it being treated differently in the formation of its sandhi?the normal sandhi with my limited exposure to sanskrit could have remained swaasthana instead of swadishtahana...i could be wrong...though no expert on such matters, to me , mooladhara has always qualified as the root of the self...and the addressal of primal fear rooted there...from where all conflicts etc emerge.please shed light from your perspectives.

Sundar

Indeed elaborate and then again quite consistent within a certain framework. This is a larger work of Yin/Yang drawing from the various mythical forms contained both within the scriptures and the folklore. On the blog however one can only offer an abbreviated version and hence maybe it is too condensed and complex here. Just thought of throwing in some seeds to see how they take root in such a forum.
On conjunctions if you check all the names you find like mool+adhar(essential root) have been formed by conjunctions- asthana and sva are the only 2 root words this can be broken into because disthana makes no sense and swad(is not an orginal sanskrit root word). However I will check a new sanskrit thesaurus I have recently acquired and let you know.

Meanwhile I have only taken this meaning from others who have interpreted (like Dr Chopra)it as Abode of the Self. Based on the other energies centred at this point, the presence of ojas etc the Tantric view of the power and mystery of the sexual chakra makes it all the more consistent.

tx jasjit.

great post!!!!!
it gives a new dimension to Indian mythology as i know...
but i hav always failed to understand how the celibate body reaches a higher spirutuality than un-celibate ones...the mind plays a bigger role ..and i always used to feel tht denying the soul of the union with another human being actually limites the consciousness ......

Amazing.. need to read and absorb over and over gain..at a complete loss of words Jasjit ! Esp in the context of experiences over the past few days... beyond words.. this is a post one will revisit again and again, until the full import of the express becomes understanding and therefore a signpost.. akin to a colloquial term back home.. saraswati aapke swar se bolti hain.. She takes her seat in Vak.. the word.. the expression.. her blessings and grace manifest in your words.. subtle, ever flowing..

Beautiful, powerful post Jasjit. I never thought of Saraswati as the most subtle stream of feminine wisdom. That which is the inexpressible and yet you have managed to capture both its power and subtlety through your expression.

I remember a long time ago I was lamenting being stuck in a bad friendship with another friend when she turned around and said "what do you think in you attracts such people to you". I was stunned into silence and immediately convinced that indeed there was something in me which must be attracting certain kinds of personality types to myself. Truly the state of our own yin/yang determines what and who we attract to ourselves.

Thanks for an extremely enlightening post.

Preethi

Celibacy is an unscientific concept as understood by most. That is why there are more examples of its 'violation' than 'success' even in the traditional lore. The sexual is an integral part of man's play and through it (not without it) man's gateway to transcendence.
The point is that in ancient times man's mind was not developed enough to grasp subtlety.He/she could not be pointed into the essential Yin/Yang confluence needed within by experiencing/understanding the sexual. Therefore great denial was the only way and hence all older traditions carry a plethora of austerities. Obviously celibacy is suppression and can never complete the rise to consciousness.
Monotheistic religions (Islam/Judaims/Chsitianity) damned the sexual to sin and that was there way. Not surprisingly the wolrd grew with a million sexual distortions. It is Tantra primarily within Indian thought, which actually unveils the power and mystery of the sexual.
SO no celibacy is not the way but fulfillment can only lead to transcendence. However the point I am making is that since the sexualization of most (nearly all) men and women is so negative/full of guilt/shame/violent plesaures/distorted fantasies acting them out only manges to depress this chakra in unimaginable ways.
Now for all who seek transcendance it is critical to understand that without the purification of the Swadisthana it is NOT possible. And purification requires going deep within one's own desire and fantasy. Cleaning out the ugly power/maniupulative/aggressive selves. Only then will you attract and generate a wholesome wonderous sexual space.

And dear Preethi that is a long and arduous road. Most people who have dressed up their language as caring, gentle etc also don't understand how they conceal under it, obsessions of power and conquest through the sexual. Only the most ardent surrender to cleansing and the ability to face one's inner truth makes this possible.

Takes a while to absorb it all :). I am still in my thoughts.....

What a wonderful link made between Saraswati and Sexuality (Yin/Yang)!

Sundar
Here's the sandhi you ask about. The conjunction is between Sva (Self or prana) and Adhisthana (Dwelling Place). Here's a few root connections:
Svadana- what belongs to one or one's own due
Svadhipatya-own supremacy, sovereignty
Svadisthana-one's own place-the home of Self

tx jasjit.interesting facet , this...stimulates some explores for me...

Jasjit, your article set me thinking about something that had bothered me when I was doing my fieldwork on boys who go to the local clubs in the suburbs of Calcutta.

A very fascinating thing that I found there was that it was an age old custom to give young boys/men the responsibility of making all the arrangements for the three main rituals- Saraswati poja and Durga puja and Kali puja. Now for the boys responsibility was one of the keys to attaining manhood or adult masculinity. So I deciphered that giving the responsibility of conducting the ritual was one of the ways by which young boys were initiated into manhood.

But what always struck me was why were younger boys of 10-15 years given the responsibility of conducting the Sarwasti puja and the older boys the Durga and Kali puja? The reason that the younger boys were trying to invoke creativity, wisdom etc because they were school going didn't make sense to me because even the older boys were pursuing studies.

Your theory has answered my confusion. These clubs are masculine spaces, young boys spend a lot of their time here, girls are not allowed, lasting friendships are built here, the bonds that the boys build here help them through their growing up years whether its to do with love, family, career, queries about sex etc. Its a space which allows for the formation of the Yang in these boys.

But to balance this strong development of the Yang development of the Yin too has to be brought about. Here's where the connection between the different age groups and the invocation of the different Goddesses can be found. For the young boys invoking Sarswasti is the first step towards bringing out the invisible sexaul self which is full of 'creative potential'. Invocation of Durga and Kali, the more sexaully potent goddesses, by older boys is a way of awakening the stronger Yin in them.

Hi Jasjit beautiful words on Saraswati. Never saw her in so many ways. Don't understand the sexual chakra bit though ....have never really heard about these things I guess. So I sent your post to an uncle who's a Sanskrit scholar. Here's what he said, 'Brilliant rendition of the Goddess & unusual take on her powers. Few will understand the depth of what is being said. I hope to read her complete work. Do send it to me'
So my question is where does this chakra theory come from and why aren't we taught it instead of all the mantras we don't understand?

Jasjit,

Amazing, amazing post. I felt the power in it as i started reading it. But i confess i must read it a few more times to understand the contnent thoroughly.

but the vibrations emanating from it were very powerful.

preethi,

in answer to your question, the spiritual texts deem the celibacy of the body also as important as that of the mind because they give an example of an elephant entering a dilapated hut or a small lake.

there is intense commotion and the hut is destroyed or the lake is demmed restless. but if the same elephant entres the ocean , there is but a ripple.

the yoga books talk of "calming" the nerves through various spiritual practises including celibacy to tune them to receive the "elephant" of gigantic spiritual emotion.

Chaitali

Interesting connection. Have never thought about this apsect but your conclusion sounds very plausible.

Radhika
Thank you and your uncle for the kind words. Hopefully soon the work will be ready for publication. The chakra theory comes from Vedant (the concluding texts of the Vedas) and is in effect a scientific blueprint of the energy circuit within the body, a fact now being discovered by modern day science. It divides the body vertically into 7 chakras and explains the function and power of each. The chakras form the central meridian of conectivity of both our materialistic and spiritual construct and if examined deeply shows a fascinating relationship between the two. Vedant is basically a compendium of do-it-yourself techniques to access the mystery of existence. There is a lot of information on the chakras both on the net as well as many books are available on the subject.

I agree that if this basic science was taught to us from childhood rather than wrapping us in the complexity of esoteric mantras, humanity would make a quantum leap in exploring its core. Unfortunately that is the modern way, piling us deep with knowledge of superficial use and side-steppping the actual art of living.

jasjit, the creative metaphors flowing out of you is indeed a joy to behold in the matrix of possibilities.as our scriptures point out,all rivers wherever they emerge wend their way to the ocean through routes of unique express.

in the context of your post, one little known facet of The Lalita Sahasranamam, an invocation to the Divine Mother(includes, i believe, invocations to the chakras) common to most south Indian households, is about its proven efficacy even in colluquial instances of impotency and other sexual maladies.As with all shlokas , the meanings acquire different hues and dimensions depending on the evolution of the recitor....and sanskrit with its' capacities of multi-level syntaxes allows for this conveniently.
Glad that chakras are recently acquiring their rightful places again in human consciousness through so many interpretations,understandings and developments in their space.

hello jasjit, saraswati, to me, would represent journey from self to self.

since realization of self is the highest knowledge, no wonder saraswati is also called the goddess of knolwedge. but since not many can attain this highest knowledge saraswati ended up being woshipped by all those on the way to this knowledge by various routes.

since saraswati emanates from self or one it takes the form of manifest or yin leaving the remaining half unmanifest or yang.

leaving self saraswati passes through four forms/phases of matter before merging again into self. the first two forms coming in the realm of manifest are comparatively coarse, in which the unmanifest or yang is latent, while the later two phases are comparatively subtle (virtual) in which rather yang comes into the fore and saraswati or yin goes latent in it.

the first two phases are represented by the white part of the yin/yang figure (yin is white while black yang is hidden behind it or is latent in it). similarly, the last two phases are represented by the black part, in which white yin goes latent in black yang. it is just as in the day night is latent in it and in the night day is latent in it.

the yin and yang meet once after the first two phases (which can also be called the phases of senses and emotions as also of childhood and youth in terms of humans and their knolwedge) to realise oneness or self and this is represented as well as achieved through sex. and they meet once again after the last two phases (also called the phases of intellect and intelligence as will as middle age and old age)to realise oneness or self once again, which is represented by love.

as the game of life is in eternal cycles, from love side we go to sex side from sex side we go to love side. which is why some first fall into love and then have sex and others first begin having sex through arranged marriges etc and eventually end up falling in love to the extent they can fall.

despite what the modern MYSTICS like DR deepak chopra say(since when mystics began to be known as doctors and began writing books?), myths do NOT represent or are NOT the invocations of collective ideals/intentions/desires. they represent intuited truths which reason had yet not reached to explain, more so because, because of the same reason suitable words had yet not been coined. so they were described/explained in symbolic language.

note: mystics belong to the intelligence realm while writing books belongs to intellectual/ego realm. at the most mystics can write in verse form. or better they can only speak spontaneoulsy while those around will make books of those speeches. as mystics themselves have no 'point', read ego, they cant have a point of view...they just speak in a flow while writing can never come like that. no wonder no known mystics such as socrates, buddha, lao tze, osho, krishanamurti, ramana, ramakrishna wrote books.

harb - one book short of mystics...lol. ( i can still remember, saying to myself in youth...i dont want to be known as Engineer so and so...not even by my name - obviously harbhajan singh - but what i really am...i may not have been able to realise that state but one can have an idea from it what a real mystic would be like...

jasit, well said about the chakras...on the species or earth scale clay, minerals, plants, animals, apes, man and finally coming superman or bodhisattva would represent those seven chakras.

harb

Good Morning Harb

For me the mystic is a bit more amorphous than what you think him to be. Especially so in the modern times I feel a complete disengagement form the old Way and mystical icon is to be expected. Dramatically so. If one looks a little carefully that is exactly what is happening. Osho was a mystic, spiritual teacher, preacher no? Many people are still pissed of with his 'Way' and either go careering off to his Rolls Royce's, Silk dresses, diamond watches, stunning communes, sexual discourses etc etc to decry how his was not the Way. And yet none has seemed more like a Buddha, a Krishna a Nanak or a Kabir to me. So I must disagree from where I experience reality. While Osho never WROTE books his greatest following comes from those who READ his discourses. In fact, as you had asked earlier, this is a place to start explaining his concept of Zorba the Buddha. He more than anyone else spoke exhaustively on the New Man (as the new Buddha and mystic)who would be an amalgam-the scientist and the spiritualist, the Samsaric and the Nirvanic. Zorba the Dionysian character who could dance on the beach, sing in the rain, drink wine and PLAY in the great play. Osho said. "In the East people have condemned the body, condemned matter called it maya and denied the world. Therefore the East is plagued with poverty, starvation. The west has denied the inner and is focussed on the outer. Hence they are spiritually empty and lost. Both are half and no man who is half can be content. You have to be whole, rich in body, rich in science, rich in meditation and rich in consciousness. Only a whole person is a holy person. I want Zorba and Buddha to meet together. The new Man. This is my contribution to humnaity: the whole person."

Today is the world of science of letters, of internet a world where the Yang is sophisticated enough to grapple with the uninterrupted continum of human wisdom right down from the ancient times. He has a modern metaphor to cull out the traditions and that must be the Way. Books, words are integral. Deepak Chopra has made a huge contribution to marrying this potential for modern minds. As someone who has watched his journey for the last few years let me assure you his mystical self is quite unarguable. And as medical doctor in the west I cannot imagine why his Dr would rankle you. Strange isn't it Harb for one whose greatest cosmic experience is captured in a 'book' you would fail to make that connection.

I am one who searches for truths outside any pens. So I am afraid definitions based on how Socrates or Lao Tze behaved can be signposts but do not circumscribe my reality to what confers a mystical journey on one or not. If this fundamental of spiritual 'evolution' was denied the mystic what worth would there be to push your own fronteirs. 'Kill the Buddha' if you meet him carries this very same, haunting truth.

As for what you call inutited truth and what dr chopra calles collective intention/desires is only a slight terminology thing. I prefer the latter for its brings together the critical mass theory in very well and also connect human consciousness in desiring and aspiring to integral ideals. That can only be a relevant explanation on why the myths are timeless and yet OPEN to deeper interpretations. If every cycle of humanity cannot relate and go deeper as collective consciousness becomes subtler, how would the myths be relevant? They would fossilize and die out.

i agree with whatever osho did and it IS the mystics way...but not with your interpretation of deepak as mystic. i cn well see one acting from beyond ego and the other from well within the go...

Harb

We shall just agree to disagree. I feel it is more important to contemplate one's own ego than see it in another. I am not here to convert anyone's opinion but like you many find it easier to see the mystical in the dead rather than the living. For me it has been a mystifying experience that many I see who claim to have subtle understanding find umpteem reasons to judge and comment on how others negotiate the 'Way'. Its quite a common pattern. And for me no matter how strange or different I find another mystic's approach I find theirs is just another 'experience' and has worth and relevance in this huge, varied cosmos.
Like Kabit said "bura jo dekhan mein gaya, bura na milaya koi, apan ander jo dekhya to mujhse bura na koi.'

jasjit, i agree with every word osho has said and every action osho has done. in fact if anybody could see i myself am much near to what he has been describing.

i only differed with him on the interpretation of myths and that does not make him the less of a mystic.

but i see deepak no where near osho or any other real mystic for that matter. I see osho and deepak as different as chalk and cheese. i can say many things but there is no use everybody will see things according to their own depth of vision.

and i did not say anything about reading books only about WRITING. because i know mystics cannot write books, ego is necessary for that. l know because i know what i went through while writing my single book. and why i cant write even one more. i know what difficulty i go through even in responding here, that is, without the presence of the actual person before me in which case words will flow on their own ACCORDING TO THE NEED OF THE PERSON listening. i carry on because i think it must be there in my sot because of that book which forceably got written through me in the first place.

i dont think i fail to make a connection in case of dr chopra, i rather see the connection and because of the same reasons.

whenever i make a point it is either because of, i try to go AGAINST YOU, TEST YOU, OR SOMETHING RANKLES ME. i dont agree with such interpretations.

often one book - like darwin's, like marx's - comes to give a new direction to hisitory. it comes through a particular person, possesses a person for its own purposes, forces itself out of him, but many books just explain in more and more detail what is already there, what is already known. i do not deny deepak's contribution in the sot, but i see it in this later light and not as either a mystic or as path-breaking some one. i could only browse through his one book 'ageless body timeles mind' and found near the end that he was waiting what i would rather call my book. actually he was waiting for a theory of everything or some thing like that.

to me he may be a spiritualist, even a msster of spirituality, but not of the WAY. to me, where science ends philosophy begins where philosophy ends spiritulity begins where spirituality ends the WAY begins. such a person would not be goody goody/ usual spiritual type, he can well act like osho with his 95 cars, he can well elope with a pros like lao tze, he can well divuldge the secrets of duryodhana to bheema to kill him without any pang of conscience like krishna, you cannot pinpoint/analyse/anticipate his actions, no formal spiritual head like even dalai lama, pope and all those can reach his stage. he is a rare free bird while all those are bound by one thing or the other.

i never said in my book that it will give wisdom, i only explained the sot, no book can deliver wisdom, hence no internet, no modern means of communication. this is information or knowledge culled out of it by making more nd more permutations and combinations of that wisdom but not wisdom, wisdom erupts/flows from within when its time comes and not by reading books or collecting information from the nets.

i too am asking to 'kill the buddha' in my own way if you will rightly understand what i am saying. you are rather making buddha of everybody not to talk of killing one.

your last para negates what you already said as "everything is within," "we are always there". this critical mass thing is activism of an other sort. eventually all have to come back to themselves. all these things are means to achieve recognition a quest which will only end when you will have found/seen everything within you, that is, the person seeking the recognition and those who he supposes will give him that recognition. someday, he/she will definitely find the outer WOMAN/MAN within him/herself. recall what we both agreed upon in an other thread. that love is for particular man/woman while recognition is the same thing for general man/woman, that is, for shiva for parbati and parbati for shiva...and that is finally found within.

bon voyage!

yes i agree to disagree, i had not read your last post while replying...

and as for your last line...there is a difference between an active action and a passive reaction...at least the latter cannot be said by any stretch of imagination to 'burra dekhan gaya'...or trying to convert anybody to his view point.

how osho's mycticism is of the dead rather than of the living or even of the celebration of life? one's approach is from the poit of view of freedom other's that of bondage to name, fame, fortune...the boot is rather on the other leg...bound can never be alive...free can never be dead...

sorry to continue but i read that post later...

Harb

All is as it should be.

Ananda Anandam

of course, jasjit...

ananda anandam!

Dear Jasjitji
In this article you have mentioned that we are the sole masters of how we purify these powers. Again according to you it is hidden under the mists of our ignorance. So is there anyway other than rituals ( as you told) for the common people to come out of this ignorance and master the purification process?

Love
Buas

Dear Buas

Good to hear from you again :)

We are sole masters of our being-pure/impure- whatever it maybe only we have the power to be what we wish to be. Rituals, prayers, mantras etc have powers to aid the purification/strength/courage that we seek. In the absence of our clarity on where wish to go, they indeed become mere rituals with no powers.

The mists of our ignorance begin from not knowing that we have immense/absolute/manifold powers to be what we wish to be and that the body contains mysterious powers which lie untapped. So in that we are neither common nor uncommon. We are equally gifted/blessed with the same power to know and be the ultimate.

Like I said in my piece the immortal Vedic indication of 'Atmanam Viddhi' was merely pushing us to look within at which ever aspect of our being troubles/confuses us. We need to contemplate its various streams (that is in fact what dhyana or meditation is) understand how our fears, desires, shame and guilt got seeded. Stepping into each, forgiving ourselves and others for the fears/guilt that lie trapped, letting go of the anger and pain and healing each emotion is where the answer lies. I guess it is really important to constantly remind yourself that you are the incorruptible fragment of the Divine, there is nothing irredemable and all pain/suffering is connected to the illusion of this world. Using this elemental faith in your being can help you release yourself from numerous fears and confusions.

And once you make even one small step in 'understanding' and freeing yourself of a fear you begin to taste the truth of being your own Master.

Hope this helps :-)

Dear Jasjitji
Thanks a lot.
I have got it.

Love
Buas