Human-Centricity of Hindu Theology

A New Light into the Human- Centricity of Hindu theology Kalyanbrata Chakraborty There are three things in the subject under our discussion. First, Hindu theology, second, human -centricity of that theology and third, throwing a new light on that theology. Why a new light is needed to be thrown on that is also an equally relevant point. We think there is a nuance between religion and religious theology. A religion may be based on sheer faith where as theology normally needs a philosophy as its support. If it is said –God has created everything and implicit obedience to God is the summum bonum of one’s life then everything is resolved. No place is left to judge this postulate with acquired knowledge and intellectual pursuit. In all the prophetic religions the sermons uttered by the Apostles of the religion concerned are the highest creed. More or less all the religions of the world have grown on this line. The creator- god has been called by different names such as Ahur Mazda, Yabe, God, Allah and others. But a difference may be found in the Vedic or Brahmanic religion. Brahmanism is based on a theology. Theology is the search to know the essential nature of the ultimate truth. The method of achieving this knowledge is argumentative. Nothing is taken for granted here. Experience and intuition are the two sources of obtaining knowledge. With expansion of the domain of knowledge the substance of theology may of course be changed. In fact the religio-philosophic ideas of the Brahmanic thinkers had undergone several changes through time. Keeping harmony with the change of thoughts the inner meaning of its ritual had also changed. The two in combination created a significant theology. What is that theology? Explanation is needed. The basic difference of Brahmanism with other religions is that Brahmanism is based on nature-study. In the first stage, different powers of nature were looked upon as life-supporting gods and effort was given to propitiate those gods. Among those gods important were Aditya, Usha, Ratri, Visnu,Barun, Hrita, Agni, Indra, Rudra, Parjanya, Prithvi, Soma etc. The method of propitiating the gods was to compose hymns or Riks addressing each individual god and offering oblations of Ghrita, Soma- juice, and other things in fire along with recitation of the hymn. The belief was that Agni, the god of sacrifice, would convert the oblations into sweet fragrance and carry the same to the addressed gods. The god in question would send blessings to the sacrificing people by virtue of which they would get desired objects, such as, son, property, land, cow, good health etc. Performance of yajna or sacrifice was the ritual of the religion. This kind of religion is based on speculation and faith. There is no theology in it. Later on, there was change in the realm of thought. The Rishis could realize that the ultimate power is Ekamevadwitiam, one and the same. That one power has taken different forms in the different agencies of nature. The Purusa Sukta (10thMandala of Rigveda) has called that all-pervading creative energy of nature as Purusa. Purusa has thousand heads, thousand eyes, thousand feet. Pervading the entire world He stays overwhelmingly in a space ten fingers wide, i.e. in human heart. We like to say that behind this realization there is no blind faith, rather the realization had ensued from a scientific nature- study. Human heart is the supreme play- ground of the natural power that remains emanated in all creations. The evolution in the field of nature is easily perceptible, along with that evolution is quietly taking place in the mental world of man and in his intellect. On this observation Brahmanic philosophy has evolved. Although the ritual remained yajna its purport radically changed. Yajna was started to be considered as the source of all creations. Purusa, the unitary creative energy of nature, has been called the source of all creation. But how? How keeping his oneness intact he can expand himself in many? It has been suggested that sacrifice is the mode of it. The unitary Purusa has offered himself as oblation in a Cosmic Yajna where in the process of demolition of a part of him a void is created and immediately that void is filled by a retinue of that unitary power. In that way total identity not being disturbed transformation of the power into many has been possible. From the very beginning new objects are being fashioned through sacrifice and transmutation. This is Brahmanic theology. This is totally compatible with the scientific monism of modern times. Rabindranath, a philosopher poet with a super sensitive mind, has said: Visvadhatar yajnasala atmahomer banhi dhala Jiban jena dei ahuti mukti ashe. (In the world-wide sacrificial ground of the Almighty the fire for self-sacrifice is ever burning. Wish I could offer myself as an oblation for union with the Absolute) A philosophic truth contained in the theology of a religion may not appeal equally to the minds of all its followers. But everybody should have an access to the rite of the religion. Taking advantage of this mindset of the people the class of priests made immense fabrications of the rite of yajna which now touched the different aspects of lives of the followers. That converted yajna into a priestly conceit. Despite this overdoing one has to agree that the exalted theology on which Vedic or Brahmanic religion is based is unique. The theology of Brahmanism, and not Hinduism, has been revealed. Let us now point to the human centricity of this religion. In the Rigveda the all-pervading power has been called Purusa, the Supernal Man. It has been said that the best play-ground of that power is human heart. With this wonderful assertion the world- power has been internalized in man and a fundamental unity of the individual self and the universal self has been established. We consider this as the highest epistemological knowledge of the world. Expansion of thought is always welcome in Brahmanism. The concept of monism is quite ancient in this religion. In later times, i.e. in the Upanisadic period, the idea of Brahman has been introduced. Brahman is one and the Absolute. The cause of emanation of everything is Brahman. May be there may be question if Brahman is the ultimate truth, but there is no help as we know of nothing certain about the ultimate truth. More over, no dispute may logically arise as whatever exists has been called Brahman. Sarvam khallidam Brahman tajjalaniti. Brahman pervades everywhere; everything is born out of Brahman, lives in Brahman and vanishes in Brahman. In other religions of the world the unknown power has been called by the name of a personal god. In Brahmanism the difference is that there is no taboo to see that power as the power of nature. The human-centricity of the religion evinced by the Purusa Sukta has been more clearly spelt in some of the mantras of the Upanisads. We can quote a few. Brihadaranyak Upanisad (4,4,5) has said: sa va ayam atma brahma, vijnanamayo manomayah pranamayascaksurmayah, srotramayah et al. ‘That self is, indeed, Brahman.’ After saying that the different human faculties have been attributed to that Brahman. Does it not speak of the human-centricity of the ultimate power? In the Mandukya Upanisad (2) we get: sarvam hy etad brahma, ayam atma brahma, so’yam atma catus-pat. All this is, verily, Brahman. This self is Brahman. The same self has four quarters. (Visva, the waking state, taijas, the dream state, prajna, the state of dreamless sleep and turiya which is the state of spiritual consciousness). The unity of man with the ultimate reality or Brahman has been more clearly stated in the teaching of the wise saint Aruni to his son when he says: sa ya eso’nima aitadatmyam idam sarvam,tat satyam, sa atma: tat tvam asi, svetaketo. [That which is the subtle essence (the root of all) this whole world has for its self. That is the true. That is the self. That art thou, Svetaketu.] (Brihadaranyak U. 6.8.7.). In addition to these, sayings like Aham Brahmashmi ( I am one with Brahman) or Brahmavid Brahmam bhavati (one who knows Brahman becomes Brahman himself) etc. speak of the unity of the individual self with the Absolute-Self. What has been said so long are all regarding Brahmanism and not Hinduism. Now we shall discuss Hinduism and try to throw new light on its human-centricity. I think all will agree that there is a difference between Brahmanism and Hinduism because the rituals of the two religions are different. The ritual of Brahmanism followed by the Aryans was performance of Yajna while the ritual of the pre-Aryan people of India was performance of puja in a very naïve way which may be called fetish worship and which was very much despised by the Aryans. In course of time, of course, puja or image-worship became the common ritual of both the groups. But that is a mystery which remained unexplored so long. Hinduism seems to be the least understood religion of the world. Even the ardent followers of this religion do not know what is the core reality of this religion. This is possibly because the history of growth of Hindu-Dharma and its connected features remained unknown so long. Recently in two books attempt has been made to discover that history.1 For our present discussion we have to rely on some salient features of that work avoiding the details. First of all we should recollect that a section of the Aryans migrated from the Central Asia to the North-Western part of India and settled there. A group of herdsmen after a few centuries felt interested in agriculture and drove towards the east to capture the fertile land of Ganga-Yamuna basin. The Aryans, who never had a good relation with the pre-Aryan people of India, now engaged themselves in direct hostility with them. They came out victorious because of many reasons the principal among them may be the speed of the horse which they brought from the middle-east and the killing power of iron- weapons which they mastered before the non-Aryans. It can be known from some mantras of the Rigveda that there was big cultural differences between the two groups and the Aryans hated the pre-Aryan people of India particularly for their system of worship. The latter group worshipped phallus (Sisna-deva) and inanimate objects (Muda-deva). This was deprecated by the Aryans who did not perform any kind of puja. Even the word Puja is alien in Sanskrit language. There is no record that in course of time the antagonistic relation between the two groups had improved. In later classified society the pre-Aryan people of India were accepted as Sudras, the lowest of the four classes without any respect in the society. In this situation a paradox can be found in later Vedic literature that the hitherto hated puja of the pre-Aryan people of India had been greeted on the fire-altar of the Aryans and their glorified yajna relegated. This appears to be a most un-warranted incident in the religious history of India. Scholars spoke of cultural synthesis as the reason of this incident which we, on the demeanour of logic, disagree to accept. As an explanation of the above transformation of the ritual of the Vedic religion our view is that, the Aryans did not accept image-worship willingly, rather they accepted it under a tremendous social pressure. If the majority of people are tied down to a position of disrespect over a long time they will surely retaliate and rise in revolt. The principle of historical determinism and sundry circumstantial evidences are in support of this conclusion. The bone of contention of the Sudras was a respectable social status. Now acceding the right of performance of yajna would not appease them because they grudged yajna for many reasons and were intolerant about yajna. Pacification of grievance was only possible by honouring and greeting the hitherto hated puja of the Sudras. Being compelled to accept puja the Aryans were in the soup. Their thoughts and faiths could not approve of worshiping the image of any god. How they can compromise with the worship of the non-Vedic gods like Siva, Parvati, Yaksha, Naga etc. The god of the Aryans at that time, i.e. around the 5th century B.C., was Visnu, the god of sacrifice. Formerly the god of sacrifice was Prajapati. But under a compelling situation Prajapati was bereaved of the power of procreation and the same was now bestowed on Rudra. At the same time Visnu became the god of yajna. The crisis may to some extent be managed if Visnu can be given a worshipful form. But how that can be possible? By a master stroke of intellect the Aryan priests had been successful to conceive of a deity-form of Visnu. As is usual the concept of the supreme Vedic god is based on an exalted philosophy. Like Purusa of the Purusa Sukta of Rigveda the all-pervading power of nature was now started to be called as Visnu. His nature is visnati vyapnoti, that is, something that exists everywhere. It means that the idea of Purusa was now transplanted on Visnu. The god was also called by the name Visnu-Purusa and he was seen as the soul of all living and non-living beings. The question before the Vedic priests was how to give a deity-form to this imperceptible natural energy? A very important clue could be found in the assertion that the best place of living of this god may be noticed in human heart. This has been extolled in many mantras of the scripts. We can give a few examples: Iswara sarva bhutanam hriddese Arjuna tisthati ,or, Angustha matra purusa madhye atmani tisthati. To give a concrete shape to the imperceptible idea of Visnu the philosopher-priests chose the human-heart, the best place of reflection of that idea, as an image of the god. What else could be done? Since it is impractical to start worshipping a live heart as an image of Visnu a very good replica of human heart, Salagrama, has been chosen as a deity-form of Visnu. Salagrama is the fossil of an aquatic creature that lived in the sea during the Jurassic period and have been extinct from the earth about six crores of years back. The fossil is sparingly found in the sea coast and has good resemblance with human heart. By adoption of Salagrama as a deity-form of Visnu, the Supreme God of the Aryans, the human-centricity of the Vedic Religion has been nicely cast in Hinduism the essential feature of which is image-worship. Salagrama worship is virtually self-worship. The dictum of So’ham (He am I) has nicely been maintained and preserved. With an inroad of Vedic theology in Hindu- Dharma with image-worship as its ritual an ideal integration has been made between the religions of the Aryans and the pre-Aryan people of India. The Sudras were now satisfied as their image-worship has been honoured where as Vedic philosophy of human-centricity was also maintained in the new theology of Hindu-Dharma with contrivance of Salagrama-worship. Creation of different sects are later fabrications of the religion. 1 The author’s two books are: Emergence of Hinduism And Human Face of God. Firma K L M, Kolkata, 2007. Vaijnanik Dristibhangite Bhagavat Dharma: Utpatti Vikas ebong Swarup. Matri Prakasani, Kolkata, 2006. 4