On What Are These Things Woven Back And Forth? : Thoughts on Duality.

On What Are These Things Woven Back And Forth? : Thoughts on Duality.

By A.D. Wayman

(A Contribution to the Synchroblogging Project on the topic of Duality)

“He sees, but he can’t be seen; he hears but can’t be heard; he thinks but he can’t be thought of; he perceives but he can’t be perceived. Besides him, there is no one who sees, no one who hears, no one who thinks, and no one who perceives. It is this self of yours that is the inner controller, the immortal. All besides this is grief.”1

Many times in religious literature we find the theme of duality. At times the literature tells us that we may have been cheated or trick out of the solution to the problem from the very start. Eve, being tricked by the serpent, into eating of the tree of “Knowledge of Good and Bad” and being exiled before eating of the tree of life; Gilgamesh falling asleep and having the plant of life stolen by the serpent; Adapa refusing to eat and drink what the gods fed him out of fear, thus missing out on immortality. At times we look for answers to the issue, which religious literature tries to provide. Many times these answers are not answers at all but multiple views on how to enable ourselves to overcome the issue of duality. For some this enabler is Torah, for some Jesus, others it is Atman, and still others may say it is the Buddha in all. Whatever the belief system, many different cultures use theses archetypes, metaphors and symbols to better understand themselves and their role in the world, universe, and society. In this short essay we will discuss a few topics concerning duality. The comparisons are not all that encompassing, but one can get a glimpse, and then pursue the topic in more detail if desired.

In the first example we read some of the conflict that the writer Paul, in the New Testament had to confront. One can almost feel the frustration at the acknowledgement of the polar issues people find themselves consumed by.

“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:15-24 NRSV)

While the above text shows the writer Paul is torn by this inner conflict within himself; another makes good use of the duality and sees both as a complement to one another. In one of my world religion classes I attended the professor brought up a saying that I loved and carried with me. “Neither this nor that, but both and.” In the Tao-Te-Ching we read that such things can compliment each other and that we may have to do nothing at all!

“All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing
this they have (the idea of) what ugliness is; they all know the skill
of the skilful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what the
want of skill is. So it is that existence and non-existence give birth the one to
(the idea of) the other; that difficulty and ease produce the one (the
idea of) the other; that length and shortness fashion out the one the
figure of the other; that (the ideas of) height and lowness arise from
the contrast of the one with the other; that the musical notes and
tones become harmonious through the relation of one with another; and
that being before and behind give the idea of one following another.

Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and
conveys his instructions without the use of speech.” 2

In relation to this we find a saying by the Jewish teachers concerning Torah study which like the above shows a hint of the idea of non-action.

One that sits and studies, the Scripture imputes to him as if he fulfilled the whole Thorah, for it is said, He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. 3 *

Still others question the issue and lash out at the very tools that we were given to combat such issues. It is perfectly human to do this, we find such issues arise in the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna on the field of truth, in the battle of life. The most beautiful exchanges show the weaknesses that arise when the body and mind are under distress. Another example of this would be the text of the biblical Job. In all his anger Job questions his creator and at times entertains the idea of putting the deity on trial. Like Krishna the deity answers back, but with a little more force.

“And the Lord said to Job: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Anyone who argues with God must respond.” Then Job answered the Lord: “See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but will proceed no further.” Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: “Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you declare to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? “Deck yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on all who are proud, and abase them. Look on all who are proud, and bring them low; tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then I will also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can give you victory.” (Job 40:1-14 NRSV)

In the above text we see Job’s response is cowering before the deity and he is plainly saying “Okay Yahweh, I’ll shut my mouth now.” Here Yahweh is frustrated that Job would even try to understand the workings of the gods and the laws of the earth and heavens. It is somewhat humors that here Yahweh seems to tell Job that if he could do better, Yahweh would be more then happy to let him try. On the opposite side however we find a text attributed to Jesus, that the workings have been given to a few, and here Christ explains why he speaks in parables. Like the opening verses that we used from the Upanishads we see the same theme but in a different environment and used with a different metaphoric “enabler”. It appears Christ is frustrated with those who do not understand the self or the living Torah within. Here Christ believes that the “enabler” has been intentionally turned off.

“He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: “You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn— and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it”. (Mat 13:11-17 NRSV)

The concept of duality rages through out literature, gods elbowing one another out of power, heroes overcoming against their counterparts, trips to the underworld, cosmic wars and much more. There seems to be a need for balance; the concept of the Chinese Yin and Yang may somehow come into play. However, with issues of fear and suffering such explanations do not enlighten one to the challenges faced when we find ourselves in the belly of the whale, or swallowed by a Tiamat or Mot. As Bart Ehrman discusses in his book “God’s Problem.” There is no one solution and so one may need to look to more then one enabler or mythology to find our place.

1. Patrick Olivelle, trans., Upanishads, Oxford World’s Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). pg. 44

2. The Texts of Taoism, Part 1: The Tâo Teh King (Tâo Te Ching) of Lâo Dze (Lao Tsu), The Writings of Kwang-dze (Chuang-tse). Translation James Legge. The Sacred Books of the East, Volume 40. F. Max Müller. 1891. From Internet Sacred Texts Archive.

3. Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth) Translated by Charles Taylor [1897]
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm pg. 43 (* For a more in-dept research on this topic see blog Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism and the post http://ejmmm2007.blogspot.com/2008/02/ain-and-yesh-being-and-nothingness-in.html)

Read more on the topic form the other talented participants of the project:

Between Old and New Moons

Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism

Goddess in a Teapot

The Aquila ka Hecate

Full Circle Earthwise News

Mythprint (all the myth that’s fit to print)

Stone Circle

Women and Spirituality

Frontiers of Wonder

Paleothea - Sing, Goddess

Quaker Pagan Reflections

Heart of Flame

Pitch 313

Executive Pagan

Druid’s Apprentice

The Druid Journal

Manzanita, Redwoods and Laurel

Dream Builders: A Figment of Imagination

When Isis Rises

The Battle Within: Embarking On The Hero’s Journey.

The Battle Within: Embarking On The Hero’s Journey.

By: A. D. Wayman

It is interesting for sure on what sort of situation people find themselves in when they realize they are caught in the metaphor and either wile embarking on a mission or finding themselves in the middle of one. Here we will view such an example from Hindu, Judaism and Christianity. Each responds in a different way and each will count the costs of embarking on the Hero’s journey some will be successful and others will not, but all will in the end learn from the experience. Such a journey can be a fair and foul thing.

One of my favorite lines written in the Juan Mascaro’s english translation of the Bahagavad Gita publish by Penguin Classics starts as follows

“On the field of Truth, on the battle-field of life, what came to pass, Sanjaya, when my sons and their warriors faced those of my brother Pandu.”

It seems that all such battles with-in start in such a way and here even at the start of the first lines of the Gita it takes us directly to the place where conflicts arise. Arjuna, sitting between the two lines of friends and family on both sides and one looks this way and that across the divide and falls into despair. For one realizes that the mission you were consumed by or found yourself on will cause great consequences for everyone who meet on such a field. In 1:28-29 of the text we can feel the distress of Arjuna at being in the center of such a conflict, a conflict that we may have found ourselves in at some point in our lives.

“When Arjuna thus saw his kinsmen face to face in both lines of battle, he was overcome by grief and despair and thus he spoke with a sinking heart. When I see all my Kinsmen, Krishna, who have come here on this field of battle, Life goes from my limbs and they sink, and my mouth is sear and dry: a trembling overcomes my body, and my hair shudders in horror.”1

Jumping across the spectrum of heroes we find a text about one who seems something other then such, but it speaks volumes on the different reaction to the journey and the trials that face us. Unlike Arjuna, who is distressed and finds himself in the middle of a conflict we find one who decides that running might be an option. Even though he runs, he is still consumed and is forced to take the journey. The task at hand was only delayed for a short time. In the account of Jonah, from the Hebrew Tanakh, we read of the distress of Jonah from the belly of the Whale that again many of us have found our selves in at some point in our lives. Whether it is represented as death or a whale in literature, it is a long, hard, dark, and frightening path to walk.

“Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish. He said: In my trouble I called to the LORD, And He answered me; From the belly of Sheol I cried out, And You heard my voice. You cast me into the depths, Into the heart of the sea, The floods engulfed me; All Your breakers and billows Swept over me. I thought I was driven away Out of Your sight: Would I ever gaze again Upon Your holy Temple? The waters closed in over me, The deep engulfed me. Weeds twined around my head. I sank to the base of the mountains; The bars of the earth closed upon me forever. Yet You brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God! When my life was ebbing away, I called the LORD to mind; And my prayer came before You, Into Your holy Temple. They who cling to empty folly Forsake their own welfare, But I, with loud thanksgiving, Will sacrifice to You; What I have vowed I will perform. Deliverance is the LORD’s” Jonah 2:1-9 NJPS-TNK

And as we know from this beautiful piece of literature Jonah then completes his mission, although he is unhappy with the results, which in its self might be a great lesson about what, or how we interpret the outcome of our journeys. It may not always make us happy or turn out the way one expects.

Crossing into more modern times we come to the beginning of the text Dante’s Inferno.

“Midway the path of life that men pursue

I found me in a darkling wood astray,

For the direct way had been lost to view.

Ah me, how hard a thing it is to say

What was this thorny wildwood intricate

Whose memory renews the first dismay!

Scarcely in death is bitterness more great:

But as concerns the good discovered there

The other things I saw will I relate.

In the midway of this our mortal life,

I found me in a gloomy wood, astray

Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell,

It were no easy task, how savage wild

That forest, how robust and rough its growth,

Which to remember only, my dismay

Renews, in bitterness not far from death.

Yet, to discourse of what there good befel,

All else will I relate discover’d there.” 2

Many other texts would qualify for such a place here, the Epic of Baal, the Decent of Ishtar, the Decent of Ra, the Odyssey of Homer and many more. What is interesting about Dante however as he presses on to the lower depths, he seemingly becomes less and less afraid of the horrible sights he encounters. Possibly he is becoming immune to the horrors of the under world and is becoming desensitized to its horrors? We find a moving passage near the end of the epic poem when Dante climes out of the pit, after scaling Satan himself. Which at times is where such a journey might lead us.

“I clipp’d him round the neck; for so he bade:

And noting time and place, he, when the wings

Enough were oped, caught fast the shaggy sides,

And down from pile to pile descending stepp’d

Between the thick fell and the jagged ice.

Soon as he reach’d the point, whereat the thigh

Upon the swelling of the haunches turns,

My leader there, with pain and struggling hard,

Turn’d round his head where his feet stood before,

And grappled at the fell as one who mounts;

That into Hell methought we turn’d again.”3

And finally we read of the assent into light, the end of the journey.

“To the fair world: and heedless of repose

We climb’d, he first, I following his steps,

Till on our view the beautiful lights of Heaven

Dawn’d through a circular opening in the cave:

Thence issuing we again beheld the stars.” 4

In other literature some heroes are not so lucky and neither are those heroes in the here and now. Each one of us will have a different outcome; each will have a different wars, whales, or Satans to scale. Some never return and we who are left behind only can say they were brave enough to at least start such an epic journey and be inspired by such acts of heroic deeds. Others after having gone so far to find what we are looking far have it stolen along the way such as in the text of Gilgamesh when the serpent steals the plant of everlasting life. But no matter the outcome we may all be heroes one way or another. But we first have to start the journey.

1. Mascara, Juan. The Bhagavad Gita. Penguin Classics, New York, NY 1962.
2. Cary, Henery F. The Divine Comedy of Dante. Canto I
3. Cary, Henery F. The Divine Comedy of Dante. Canto 34
4. Cary, Henery F. The Divine Comedy of Dante. Canto 34

The Sense to Know God

Here is a good lecture by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

The Sense to Know God

Tasting and talking–two things we do many times a day–turn out to be the easiest and quickest means to God realization. We simply need to know what to taste and vibrate. Srila Prabhupada explains in this lecture delivered in Hamburg, Germany, in 1969.

 

visnu-saktih para prokta ksetra-jnakhya tatha para
avidya-karma-samjnanya trtiya saktir isyate
[Cc. Madhya 6.154]

“Lord Visnu’s potency is summarized in three categories–namely, the spiritual potency, the living entities, and ignorance. The spiritual potency is full of knowledge; the living entities, although belonging to the spiritual potency, are subject to bewilderment; and the third energy, which is full of ignorance, is always visible in fruitive activities.”
This verse from the Visnu Purana states that the energy of the Supreme Lord (visnu-sakti) is originally spiritual but that it manifests in three ways. It is like the sunshine, the energy of the sun globe. The sunshine is one energy, but it manifests as illumination and heat. Similarly, God has one energy, which is spiritual and which sustains His spiritual abode. And that same energy is manifested in another spiritual form, the ksetra-jna, or marginal energy, which comprises us living entities. Then, avidya-karma-samjnanya trtiya saktir isyate: “Besides these two forms of the Lord’s energy there is a third form, known as avidya, or ignorance, which is based on fruitive activities.” One who is influenced by this energy has to experience the good and bad fruit of his labor. This is the material world. The material world is also an energy of Krsna, or God, but here ignorance prevails. Therefore one has to work. In our original state we haven’t got to work, but when we are in ignorance we have to work.
So, Krsna actually has one energy, the spiritual energy. He is the whole spirit, and the energy emanating from Him is also spiritual. Sakti-saktimator abhedah. From the Vedanta-sutra we learn that the energetic, Lord Krsna, is nondifferent from His energy. Therefore the material energy is also nondifferent from Krsna. In another place in the Vedic literatures it is said, sarvam khalv idam brahma: “Everything is Brahman, spirit.” And in the Bhagavad-gita [9.4] Krsna says, maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta-murtina: “I am expanded as this cosmic manifestation, My impersonal feature.” Mat-sthani sarva-bhutani na caham tesv avasthitah: “Everything is resting on Me, or everything is an expansion of Myself, but personally I am not there.”
This is acintya-bhedabheda, the philosophy of simultaneous oneness and difference of God and His energies. Inaugurated by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, although it is there in the aphorisms of the Vedanta-sutra, this philosophy can satisfy the two classes of philosophers who study the Absolute Truth. One class says that God and the living entities are different, and the other philosophers, the monists, say God and the living entities are one. This acintya-bhedabheda says that God and the living entities are simultaneously one and different. They are one in quality, but different in quantity.
Again we can give the example of the sunshine and the sun globe–the energy and the energetic. In the sunshine there is heat and illumination, and in the sun globe there is also heat and illumination. But the degrees of light and heat are quite different. You can bear the heat of the sunshine, but if you went to the sun globe you could not bear the heat there; it would immediately burn everything to ashes. Similarly, Krsna and the living entities are quantitatively very different.
Krsna is infinite, while we are smaller than the atom. Therefore it is not possible for us to know the Supreme Personality of Godhead by our ordinary sense perception. Atah sri-krsna-namadi na bhaved grahyam indriyaih: [BRS 1.2.234]

 

atah sri-krsna-namadi

na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau
svayam eva sphuraty adah

“No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Sri Krsna through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him.” (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.234)1.2.234] “Krsna isn’t perceivable by our blunt material senses.” The word namadi means “beginning with His name.” With our material senses we cannot understand Krsna’s names or His form or His qualities or His paraphernalia or His activities. It is not possible.
Then how are they to be understood? Sevonmukhe hi jihvadau svayam eva sphuraty adah: “When we render transcendental loving service to the Lord with our senses, beginning with the tongue, the Lord gradually reveals Himself.” Our first business is to engage the tongue in the service of the Lord. How? By chanting and glorifying His name, fame, qualities, form, paraphernalia, and pastimes. This is the business of the tongue. When the tongue is engaged in the service of the Lord, all the other senses will gradually become engaged.
The tongue is the most important sense within the body. Therefore it is recommended that if we want to control our senses we should first control the tongue. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has emphasized this. He describes our present conditioned state as sarira avidya-jal: we are packed up in the network of this material body, and we are just like a fish caught within a net. And not only are we caught in this body; we are also changing this “net” life after life, through 8,400,000 species. In this way we stay caught in the network of ignorance. Then, jodendriya tahe kal: our imprisonment within this network of ignorance is being continued on account of our desire for sense enjoyment. And out of all the senses, Bhaktivinoda Thakura says, the tongue is the most dangerous. If we cannot control the tongue, then the tongue will oblige us to take different types of bodies, one after another. If a person is very much fond of satisfying his tongue by eating flesh and blood, then material nature will give him the facility to regularly taste fresh flesh and blood: he will get the body of a tiger or some other voracious meat-eating animal. And if one does not discriminate in his eating–if he eats all kinds of nonsense, everything and anything–then material nature will give him a hog’s body, in which he will have to accept stool as his food. So much suffering is caused by the uncontrolled tongue.
Therefore, this human body is a great opportunity, because by engaging the tongue in the loving service of the Lord we can advance in Krsna consciousness. We can achieve ultimate realization of God just by engaging the tongue in His service. In other bodies–the cat’s body, the dog’s body, the tiger’s body–we cannot do this. So this human form of life is a great boon to the living entity, who is traveling through the cycle of birth and death, perpetually inhabiting different sorts of bodies. The human body is the opportunity for utilizing the tongue properly and getting out of the clutches of the material nature.
If we can keep our tongue always engaged in chanting the Hare Krsna mantra, we will realize Krsna, because the sound of Krsna’s name is not different from Krsna Himself. Why? Because Krsna is absolute. In the material world, everything is different from its designation. I myself am different from my name and from my body. But Krsna is not like that: Krsna and His name are the same, and Krsna and His body are the same. The rascals cannot understand this. As Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita [9.11], avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam: “Rascals and fools deride Me when I appear as a human being. They think I am an ordinary human being.” Param bhavam ajananto mama bhuta-mahesvaram: “These rascals do not know what I am. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme influence over the entire creation.”
Without understanding Krsna, the fools consider Him an ordinary human being. The word mudha in this verse from the Bhagavad-gita means “rascal.” Yet in spite of this warning, there are so many rascals passing as big scholars. When Krsna orders “Surrender to Me,” the rascals comment, “It is not to Krsna but to the unborn spirit within Krsna that we have to surrender.” They do not know that Krsna is not different from His body, that Krsna is not different from His name, and that Krsna is not different from His fame. Anything pertaining to Krsna is Krsna. These rascals are monists, philosophizing about “oneness,” but as soon as they come to Krsna they immediately try to separate Him from His body or from His name.
But the fact is that Krsna’s name and Krsna are not different. Therefore, as soon as your tongue touches the holy name of Krsna, you are associating with Krsna. And if you constantly associate with Krsna by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra, just imagine how purified you will become simply by this chanting process.
Our tongue also wants very palatable dishes to taste. So Krsna, being very kind, has given you hundreds and thousands of palatable dishes–remnants of foods eaten by Him. And if you simply make this determined vow–”I shall not allow my tongue to taste anything not offered to Krsna and shall always engage my tongue in chanting Hare Krsna”–then all perfection is in your grasp. All perfection. Two simple things: don’t eat anything not offered to Krsna, and always chant Hare Krsna. That’s all.
Variety is the mother of enjoyment, and krsna-prasadam [food offered to Krsna] can be prepared in so many nice varieties. How much enjoyment do you want with your tongue? You can have it simply by eating krsna-prasadam. And the more your tongue becomes purified by tasting krsna-prasadam, the more you’ll be able to relish chanting the Hare Krsna mantra. As Lord Caitanya says, anandambudhi-vardhanam: “Chanting Hare Krsna increases the ocean of transcendental bliss.” We have no experience within this material world of an ocean increasing. If the oceans would have increased, then all the land would have been swallowed up many long, long years ago. But the ocean of transcendental bliss produced by chanting Hare Krsna is always increasing.
The great authority Srila Rupa Gosvami says, “What good is chanting Hare Krsna with one tongue? If I had millions of tongues, then I could chant to my full satisfaction. And what good are these two ears? If I had millions of ears, I could hear Hare Krsna sufficiently.” He’s aspiring to have millions of ears and trillions of tongues to relish the chanting of Hare Krsna. This is an elevated stage, of course, when the chanting is so sweet and melodious that we want to have more ears and more tongues to relish it.
At present, however, we cannot know how relishable the name of Krsna is (atah sri-krsna-namadi na bhaved grahyam indriyaih)
“No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Sri Krsna through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him.” (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.234]). With our present senses we can’t understand the name, form, and qualities of Krsna. Therefore if we try to immediately understand Krsna by looking at His picture, we shall think, “Oh, Krsna is simply a young boy embracing Radharani and the other gopis.” Unless our senses are purified, we shall accept the dealings between Krsna and Radharani as ordinary dealings between a young boy and a young girl. Actually, this is not the fact. Their dealings are completely pure.
In the Caitanya-caritamrta, Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami explains that there is a gulf of difference between the loving affairs of the gopis with Krsna and the ordinary, lustful dealings of human beings. He has compared the gopis’ love for Krsna to gold, and our so-called love here to iron. As there is a great difference between gold and iron, there is a great difference between the loving affairs of the gopis with Krsna and the mundane, lusty affairs between men and women or boys and girls. Love and lust are never equal.
Therefore, to understand Krsna as He is we have to purify our senses. And to do that we should carefully follow the principles of sevonmukhe hi jihvadau: first of all engage in chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Don’t try to understand the loving affairs of Radha and Krsna with your present senses, but simply chant Their holy names: Hare Krsna. Then, when the dust on the mirror of your heart is cleansed away, you will understand everything.

Article sent in by: User “Parprakrti” http://www.stickam.com/profile/amjiva

Psalm 28: I would become like those who have descended the Pit

Psalm 28: I would become like those who have descended the Pit

To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, do not refuse to hear me, for if you are silent to me, I shall be like those who go down to the Pit. Hear the voice of my supplication, as I cry to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who are workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors, while mischief is in their hearts. Repay them according to their work, and according to the evil of their deeds; repay them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward. Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, or the work of his hands, he will break them down and build them up no more. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings. The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed. O save your people, and bless your heritage; be their shepherd, and carry them forever. (Psa 28:1-9 NRSV)

In the mentioned Psalm when read we can come to realize that the text has two distinct parts the first verses 1-5 is a personal lament pleading for Yahweh to deliver from impending death. Verses 6-9 is seen as a prayer of thanksgiving for the recovery from a sickness that may have cause death. Verses 8-9 give the illusion that this possibly was prayed by a king. Some believe that this text could be dated to the Second Temple Period.1

This text takes us back to a much older text like that of Job and of the written hardship there. We find Job sitting in the dung pile scraping his sores with ceramic shards saying almost the same types of themes we account for in the Psalm above. However we will leave this scene, and for a change turn to Eastern texts and see if there are any references to such themes as the ones we read here. One text that comes to light is the text of the Bhagavad-Gita or (the song of God). It is thought by some that the text may have been written between the fifth and second centuries BCE.2

The Bhagavad-Gita is relevant here because of the themes it presents. A warrior is on the battle field and knows he may die in that battle along with many others from both sides and results in a conversation between him and his god, Krishna. Krishna addresses his fears and in an act of divine revelation is able to encourage Arjuna to fight. Below we will compare two themes from this text to the Psalm above to bring to light the relationship in a more defined way.

The author of this essay strongly favors the translation by Juan Mascaro for its beautiful wording. For in the first chapter the text in this translation reads: “On the field of truth, on the battle-field of life, what came to pass, Sanjaya, when my sons and their warriors faced those of my brother Pandu? This translation, written in metaphoric terms places the account, as it should, squarely in our lives today. On the field of truth , on the battle field of life. Just like the first verses of the Psalm above we already have a very real and serious issues occurring from the start.3

Let us now look at some other relationships by searching deeper in the Bhagavad-Gita. Below we read the lament of Arjuna to his God:

Arguna said: Seeing these kinsmen, O Krishna! standing (here) desirous to engage in battle, my limbs droop down; my mouth is quite dried up; a tremor comes on my body; and my hairs stand on end; the Gândîva (bow) slips from my hand; my skin burns intensely. I am unable, too, to stand up; my mind whirls round, as it were; O Kesava! I see adverse omens ; and I do not perceive any good (to accrue) after killing (my) kinsmen in the battle. I do not wish for victory, O Krishna! nor sovereignty, nor pleasures: what is sovereignty to us, O Govinda! what enjoyments, and even life? Even those, for whose sake we desire sovereignty, enjoyments, and pleasures, are standing here for battle, abandoning life and wealth-preceptors, fathers, sons as well as grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, as also (other) relatives. These I do not wish to kill, though they kill (me), O destroyer of Madhu! even for the sake of sovereignty over the three worlds, how much less then for this earth (alone)? What joy shall be ours, O Ganârdana! after killing Dhritarâshtra’s sons? Killing these felons we shall only incur sin. Therefore it is not proper for us to kill our own kinsmen, the sons of Dhritarâshtra. For how, O Mâdhava! shall we be happy after killing our own relatives? Although having their consciences corrupted by avarice, they do not see the evils flowing from the extinction of a family, and the sin in treachery to friends, still, O Ganârdana! Should not we, who do see the evils flowing from the extinction of a family, learn to refrain from that sin? On the extinction of a family, the eternal rites of families are destroyed. 4

After much debate on the issue and some most beautiful words and understanding given by Krishna and at the end a theophany experience, like the speech of Yahweh from the whirlwind in the text of Job, Arjuna, is most encouraged and offers a hymn of thanksgiving:

You are the supreme Brahman, the supreme goal, the holiest of the holy. All sages, as well as the divine sage Nârada, Asita, Devala, and Vyâsa, call you the eternal being, divine, the first god, the unborn, the all-pervading. And so, too, you tell me yourself, O Kesava! I believe all this that you tell me (to be) true; for, O lord! neither the gods nor demons understand your manifestation.. You only know your self by your self. O best of beings! creator of all things! lord of all things! god of gods! lord of the universe! be pleased to declare without, exception your divine emanations, by which emanations you stand pervading all these worlds. How shall I know you, O you of mystic power! always meditating on you? And in what various entities, O lord! should I meditate on you? Again, O Ganârdana! do you yourself declare your powers and emanations; because hearing this nectar, I (still) feel no satiety. 5

And later in the last chapter of the text we hear Arjuna say:

Destroyed is my delusion; by your favour, O undegraded one! I (now) recollect myself. I stand freed from doubts. I will do your bidding.6

So as we can see that there are common themes that run throughout the texts. Both cry out to the deity for assistance and both lamenters seem to receive and answer from the deity, followed by a thanksgiving confirming the wisdom, protection, and power of the God. In both cases the writers seem helpless and believe they are at an intersection of their lives and as seen both seem to deal with such issues in almost the same way even though they are from two different cultures and belief systems.

1. Dahood, Mitchell. The Anchor Bible: Psalms 1-50. Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, New York 1968.

2. Bhagavad Gita, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita

3. Mascara, Juan. The Bhagavad Gita. Penguin Classics, New York, NY 1962.

4. Telang, Trimbak Kâshinâth, M. A. The Bhagavadgîtâ with the Sanatsugâtîya and the Anugîtâ Volume 8, The Sacred Books of the East Oxford, The Clarendon Press. 1882. pp.40-42
5. Telang, pp. 87-88
6. Telang, p. 130.

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