On May 27, 2007, at 2:55 PM, Marek Reavis wrote:
That last paragraph reminded me of a section in Heinrich Zimmer's
"Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization" where he does this
wonderful deconstruction on the image of Kali standing astride the
reposed forms of Shiva/Shava and how that relationship is just one
fractal of the meta relationship it alludes to and how another fractal
is the devanagari transformation of Shava into Shiva.
As I remember it, the image of Ma Kali, resplendent as all of Nature
in her extraordinary fecundity and ferocity, birthing and annhilating
with equal abandon, stands over, and in contact with the form of Shiva
who, though inactive, has an erect phallus, a smile on his face, and
open eyes. He is white with the ashes of the cremation grounds but he
is glowing with vigor.
Shiva's figure rests on another figure in the same pose who is Shava,
the corpse. This figure, which is not in contact with the feet of the
Divine Shakti, looks the same as Shiva but has closed eyes, no
erection, and no expression. He, too, is covered in ashes but rather
than a brilliant white like Shiva, he is pallid and without life. The
philosophical decoction of the image is, of course, the Absolute
(Shava) which is wholly transcendent and quiescent comes alive (as it
were) to Itself (Shiva) when it comes into contact or awareness of its
own Shakti, and It's reflection in That (Ma Kali) is the expression of
Divinity in the world, the Divine Mother. "When Consciousness becomes
Conscious, then Intelligence becomes Intelligent."
Zimmer points out that the transformation in devanagari script from
Sha-va to Shi-va is the addition of an element that changes it without
really changing anything. The same philosophical point, but now
expressed in rules of grammar.
He says it much better, of course, but that's what I remember of it
and your comment (above) reminded me of it. Thanks, Vaj.
You're welcome! Thanks for the wonderful story.
When I studied with a Patanjali pundit and yogi years ago, he taught
us that a number of tantric sayings had hidden yogic meanings (the
twilight language). The old adage you allude to, 'Shiva is shava
without shakti' was one of them and is said to refer to the yogas to
master samadhi which are the yogas and 75 variants of shavasana, the
corpse pose. It is only when the two are "united" that it becomes the
mahashakti, the transcendent power.
It's the same with any bija-mantra. The death of samadhi/deep sleep
and the death of sound are all fractal likenesses.
