THE CULT OF HINDUISM: SWASTIKAS AND LINGAM (PENIS WORSHIP): “The last state of degradation to which human nature can be driven”लिङ्गं

British missionary William Ward criticized the worship of the lingam (along with virtually all other Indian religious rituals) in his influential 1815 book A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos, calling it “the last state of degradation to which human nature can be driven”, and stating that its symbolism was “too gross, even when refined as much as possible, to meet the public eye.”

The Swastika Symbol

The swastika (from Sanskrit svástika) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form or its mirrored left-facing form. Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments have been dated to the Neolithic period and was first found in the Indus Valley Civilization of the Indian Subcontinent. It occurs today mainly in the modern day culture of northern India, sometimes as a geometrical motif and sometimes as a religious symbol.

In Hinduism, the two symbols represent the two forms of the creator god Brahma: facing right it represents the evolution of the universe (Devanagari: प्रवृत्ति, Pravritti), facing left it represents the involution of the universe (Devanagari: निवृत्ति, Nivritti). It is also seen as pointing in all four directions (north, east, south and west) and thus signifies a grounded stability. Its use as a Sun symbol can first be seen in its representation of the god Surya (Devanagari: सूर्य, Sun). The swastika is considered extremely holy and auspicious by all Hindus, and is regularly used to decorate items related to Hindu culture. It is used in all Hindu yantras (Devanagari: यंत्र) and religious designs. Throughout the subcontinent of India, it can be seen on the sides of temples, religious scriptures, gift items, and letterheads. The Hindu deity Ganesh (Devanagari: गणेश) is often shown sitting on a lotus flower on a bed of swastikas.

The Cult of Hinduism

Although the caste system was abolished by law in 1949, it remains a significant force throughout India. Each follower of Hinduism belonged to one of the thousands of Jats (communities) that existed in India. The Jats were grouped into four Varna (social castes), plus a fifth group called the “untouchables.” A person’s Jat determined the range of jobs or professions from which they could choose. Marriages normally took place within the same Jat. There were rules that prohibited persons of different groups from eating, drinking or even smoking with each other. People were once able to move from one Varna to another. However, at some time in the past (estimates range from about 500 B.C. to 500 A.D.), the system became rigid, so that a person was generally born into the Jat and Varna of their parents, and died in the same group. “The caste system splits up society into a multitude of little communities, for every caste, and almost every local unit of a caste, has its own peculiar customs and internal regulations.” The Rigveda defined four castes. In decreasing status, they are normally:

  • Brahmins (the priests and academics)

  • Kshatriyas (rulers, military)

  • Vaishyas (farmers, landlords, and merchants)

  • Sudras (peasants, servants, and workers in non-polluting jobs).

The Dalit were outcasts who did not belong to one of the castes. Until the late 1980’s they were called Harijan (children of God). They worked in what are considered polluting jobs. They were untouchable by the four castes; in some areas of the country, even a contact with their shadow by a member of the Varnas was considered polluting. Practicing untouchability or discriminating against a person because of their caste is now illegal. The caste system has lost much of its power in urban areas; however it is essentially unchanged in some rural districts. Many Dalit have left Hinduism in recent years. This has sometimes been motivated by a desire to escape the caste system.

The colored dot is variously referred to as a “tilaka,” “bottu,” “bindiya,” “kumkum,” or “bindi.” It is a sign of piety, and a reveals to other people that the wearer is a Hindu. It symbolizes the third eye — the one focused inwards toward God. Both men and women wear it, although the practice among men is gradually going out of style. In the past, many unmarried women wore black marks, whereas many married women wore red. But in recent times, women often wear dots that match the color of their saris.

Hindus organize their lives around certain activities or “purusharthas.” These are called the “four aims of Hinduism,” or “the doctrine of the fourfold end of life.” They are:

  • The three goals of the “pravritti,” those who are in the world, are:

    • dharma: righteousness in their religious life. This is the most important of the three.

    • artha: success in their economic life; material prosperity.

    • kama: gratification of the senses; pleasure; sensual, sexual, and mental  enjoyment.

  • The main goal for the “nivritti,” those who renounce the world. is:

    • moksa: Liberation from “samsara,” the  This is considered the supreme end of mankind.

Cult Beliefs:

  • They believe in the divinity of the Vedas, to be the world’s most ancient scripture, and venerate the Agamas as equally revealed. They believe these hymns are god’s word and the bedrock of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion which has neither beginning nor end.

  • Hindus believe in the repetitious Transmigration of the Soul. This is the transfer of one’s soul after death into another body. This produces a continuing cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth through their many lifetimes. It is called samsara.

  • They believe that the universe undergoes endless cycles of creation, preservation and dissolution.

  • They believe in karma, the law of cause and effect by which each individual creates his own destiny by his thoughts words and deeds. Through pure acts, thoughts and devotion, one can be reborn at a higher level. Eventually, one can escape samsara and achieve enlightenment. Bad deeds can cause a person to be reborn as a lower level, or even as an animal. The unequal distribution of wealth, prestige, suffering are thus seen as natural consequences for one’s previous acts, both in this life and in previous lives.

  • The believe in meditation and it is often practiced, with Yoga being the most common. Other activities include daily devotions, public rituals, and puja, a ceremonial dinner for a god.

  • They believe that a spiritually awakened master is essential to know the transcendent absolute, as are personal discipline, good conduct, purification, pilgrimage, self-inquiry and meditation.

  • They believe that all life is sacred, to be loved and revered.

  • They believe that no particular religion teaches the only way to salvation above all others, but that all genuine religious paths are facets of god’s pure love and light, deserving tolerance and understanding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lingam

“Linga” redirects here. For other uses, see Linga (disambiguation).
“Shivling” redirects here. For the mountain, see Shivling (Garhwal Himalaya).

Traditional flower offering to a lingam inVaranasi

The lingam (also, linga, ling, Shiva linga, Shiv ling, Sanskrit लिङ्गं liṅgaṃ, Tamil லிங்கம் , meaning “mark”, “sign”, “gender”, “phallus”, “inference” or “eternal procreative germ”[1][2]) is a representation of the Hindu deity Shiva used for worship intemples.[3] Whether the lingam symbolizes the physical body of the god or something purely spiritual is the topic of a many century-old debate within Hinduism.[4] The Hindu scripture Shiva Purana describes the worship of the lingam as originating in the loss and recovery of Shiva’s penis[5], though the Shiva Purana also describes the origin of the Linga as a great column[6] . Today most Hindus view the linga as a symbol of divine energy rather than as a sexual symbol.[7][8][9][10][11][citation needed]

The lingam has also been interpreted as a symbol of male creative energy or of the phallus,[12][13] though many Saivite Hindus deny this and do not view the lingam as a phallus.[8][14] The lingam is often represented with the yoni, a symbol of the goddess or of Shakti, female creative energy.[12] The union of lingam and yoni represents the “indivisible two-in-oneness of male and female, the passive space and active time from which all life originates”.[15] The lingam and the yoni have been interpreted as the male and female sexual organs since the end of the 19th century by some scholars, while to practising Hindus they stand for the inseparability of the male and female principles and the totality of creation.[9]

The lingam is described in the Linga Purana as a representation of the beginningless and endless Stambha pillar, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva.[16][17][18]

Definition

Linga-yoni at the Cat Tien sanctuary,Lam Dong province, Vietnam

Sivalingam at the Sri Meenakshi temple in Madurai

The Sanskrit term लिङ्गं liṅgaṃ, transliterated as linga, has diverse meaning ranging from gender and sex to philosophic and religions to uses in common language, such as a mark, sign or characteristic. Vaman Shivram Apte’s Sanskrit[19]dictionary provides many definitions:

  • A mark, sign, token, an emblem, a badge, symbol, distinguishing mark, characteristic;
  • A false or unreal mark, a guise, disguise, a deceptive badge;
  • A symptom, mark of disease
  • A means of proof, a proof, evidence
  • In logic, the hetu or middle term in a syllogism
  • The sign of gender or sex
  • In grammar, gender
  • The genital organ of Shiva worshiped in the form of a Phallus
  • The image of a god, an idol
  • One of the relations or indications which serve to fix the meaning of a word in any particular passage
  • In Vedānta philosophy, the subtle frame or body, the indestructible original of the gross or visible body
  • A spot or stain
  • The nominal base, the crude form of a noun
  • In Sāk philosophy, Pradhāna or Prakriti
  • The effect or product of evolution from a primary cause and also as the producer
  • Inference, conclusion

History

Origin

Lingobhava Shiva: God Shiva appears as in an infinite Linga fire-pillar, as Vishnu as Varaha tries to find the bottom of the Linga while Brahma tries to find its top. This infinite pillar conveys the infinite nature of Shiva.[20]

Anthropologist Christopher John Fuller conveys that although most sculpted images (murtis) are anthropomorphic, the aniconic Shiva Linga is an important exception.[21] Some believe that linga-worship was a feature of indigenous Indian religion.[22]

There is a hymn in the Atharvaveda which praises a pillar (Sanskrit: stambha), and this is one possible origin of linga-worship.[22] Some associate Shiva-Linga with this Yupa-Stambha, the sacrificial post. In that hymn a description is found of the beginningless and endless Stambha or Skambha and it is shown that the said Skambha is put in place of the eternal Brahman. As afterwards the Yajna (sacrificial) fire, its smoke, ashes and flames, the soma plant and the ox that used to carry on its back the wood for the Vedic sacrifice gave place to the conceptions of the brightness of Shiva’s body, his tawny matted-hair, his blue throat and the riding on the bull of the Shiva. The Yupa-Skambha gave place in time to the Shiva-Linga.[17][18] In the Linga Purana the same hymn is expanded in the shape of stories, meant to establish the glory of the great Stambha and the supreme nature of Mahâdeva (the Great God, Shiva).[18]

Historical period

A Shiva lingam worshipped at Jambukesvara temple inThiruvanaikaval (Thiruaanaikaa)

Shaiva siddhanta

A 10th century four-headed stone lingam from Nepal

According to Saiva Siddhanta, which was for many centuries the dominant school of Shaiva theology and liturgy across the Indian subcontinent (and beyond it in Cambodia), the linga is the ideal substrate in which the worshipper should install and worship the five-faced and ten-armed Sadāśiva, the form of Shiva who is the focal divinity of that school of Shaivism.[23]

Sculpture

The oldest example of a lingam which is still used for worship is in Gudimallam. According to Klaus Klostermaier, it is clearly a phallic object, and dates to the 2nd century BC.[24] A figure of Shiva is carved into the front of the lingam.[25]

1008 Lingas carved on a rock surface at the shore of the river Tungabhadra, Hampi, India

Modern period

British missionary William Ward criticized the worship of the lingam (along with virtually all other Indian religious rituals) in his influential 1815 book A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos, calling it “the last state of degradation to which human nature can be driven”, and stating that its symbolism was “too gross, even when refined as much as possible, to meet the public eye.” According to Brian Pennington, Ward’s book “became a centerpiece in the British construction of Hinduism and in the political and economic domination of the subcontinent.”[26] In 1825, however, Horace Hayman Wilson‘s work on the lingayat sect of South India attempted to refute popular British notions that the lingam graphically represented a human organ and that it aroused erotic emotions in its devotees.[26]

Monier-Williams wrote in Brahmanism and Hinduism that the symbol of linga is “never in the mind of a Saiva (or Siva-worshipper) connected with indecent ideas, nor with sexual love.”[27] According to Jeaneane Fowler, the linga is “a phallic symbol which represents the potent energy which is manifest in the cosmos.”[3] Some scholars, such as David James Smith, believe that throughout its history the lingam has represented the phallus; others, such as N. Ramachandra Bhatt, believe the phallic interpretation to be a later addition.[28] M. K. V. Narayan distinguishes the Siva-linga from anthropomorphic representations of Siva, and notes its absence from Vedic literature, and its interpretation as a phallus in Tantric sources.[29]

Ramakrishna practiced Jivanta-linga-puja, or “worship of the living lingam”.[30][31] At the Paris Congress of the History of Religions in 1900, Ramakrishna’s follower Swami Vivekananda argued that the Shiva-Linga had its origin in the idea of theYupa-Stambha or Skambha—the sacrificial post, idealized in Vedic ritual as the symbol of the Eternal Brahman.[17][18][32] This was in response to a paper read by Gustav Oppert, a German Orientalist, who traced the origin of the Shalagrama-Shila and theShiva-Linga to phallicism.[33] According to Vivekananda, the explanation of the Shalagrama-Shila as a phallic emblem was an imaginary invention. Vivekananda argued that the explanation of the Shiva-Linga as a phallic emblem was brought forward by the most thoughtless, and was forthcoming in India in her most degraded times, those of the downfall of Buddhism.[18]

According to Swami Sivananda, the view that the Shiva lingam represents the phallus is a mistake;[34] The same sentiments have also been expressed by H. H. Wilson in 1840.[35] The novelist Christopher Isherwood also addresses the interpretation of thelinga as a sex symbol.[36] The Britannica encyclopedia entry on lingam also notes that the lingam is not considered to be a phallic symbol;[9]

Wendy Doniger, an American scholar of the history of religions, states:

For Hindus, the phallus in the background, the archetype (if I may use the word in its Eliadean, indeed Bastianian, and non-Jungian sense) of which their own penises are manifestations, is the phallus (called the lingam) of the god Siva, who inherits much of the mythology of Indra (O’Flaherty, 1973). The lingam appeared, separate from the body of Siva, on several occasions… On each of these occasions, Siva’s wrath was appeased when gods and humans promised to worship his lingam forever after, which, in India they still do. Hindus, for instance, will argue that the lingam has nothing whatsoever to do with the male sexual organ, an assertion blatantly contradicted by the material.[13]

However, Professor Doniger clarified her viewpoints in a later book, The Hindus: An Alternative History, by noting that some texts treat the linga as an aniconic pillar of light or an as an abstract symbol of God with no sexual reference and comments on the varying interpretations of the linga from phallic to abstract.

According to Hélène Brunner,[37] the lines traced on the front side of the linga, which are prescribed in medieval manuals about temple foundation and are a feature even of modern sculptures, appear to be intended to suggest a stylised glans, and some features of the installation process seem intended to echo sexual congress. Scholars like S. N.Balagangadhara have disputed the sexual meaning of lingam.[38]

Lingam in the cave at Amarnath

An ice lingam at Amarnath in the western Himalayas forms every winter from ice dripping on the floor of a cave and freezing like a stalagmite. It is very popular with pilgrims.

Shivling (6543m) is also a mountain in Uttarakhand (the Garwhal region of Himalayas). It arises as a sheer pyramid above the snout of the Gangotri Glacier. The mountain resembles a Shiva linga when viewed from certain angles, especially when travelling or trekking from Gangotri to Gomukh as a part of a traditional Hindu pilgrimage.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Spoken Sanskrit Dictionary
  2. ^ A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary
  3. ^ a b Hinduism: Beliefs and Practices, by Jeanne Fowler, pgs. 42–43, at Books.Google.com
  4. ^ Wendy Doniger, “God’s Body, or, The Lingam Made Flesh: Conflicts over the Representation of the Sexual Body of the Hindu God Shiva” Social Research: An International Quarterly Volume 78, Number 2 / Summer 2011 p 485-508
  5. ^ Peter Heehs, Indian Religions: A Historical Reader of Spiritual Expression and Experience 210-213 NYU Press, Sep, 2002[1]
  6. ^ Chaturvedi. Shiv Purana (2006 ed.). Diamond Pocket Books. pp. 11. ISBN 978-81-7182-721-3.
  7. ^ Blurton, Richsrd (16 Nov 1992). Hindu Art (Art History). British Museum Press. pp. 164. ISBN 978-0-7141-1442-2. “… an enshrined linga today will be lovingly garlanded and attended by young women and elderly matrons alike, but without any overt suggestions of sexuality. In traditional Indian society, the linga is rather seen as a symbol of the energy and potentiality of the God.”
  8. ^ a b Mudaliyar, Sabaratna. “Lecture on the Shiva Linga”. Malaysia Hindu Dharma Mamandram. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  9. ^ a b c “lingam”. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. “Since the late 19th century some scholars have interpreted the lingam and the yoni to be representations of the male and female sexual organs. To practicing Hindus, however, the two together are a reminder that the male and female principles are inseparable and that they represent the totality of all existence.”
  10. ^ Isherwood, Christopher (1983). Ramakrishna and His Disciples. Early days at Dakshineswar: Vedanta Press,U.S.. pp. 48. ISBN 978-0-87481-037-0.
  11. ^ Sivananda (1996 (web edn. 2000)). Lord Siva and His Worship. Worship of Siva Linga: The Divine Life Trust Society.ISBN 81-7052-025-8. “The popular belief is that the Siva Lingam represents the phallus or the virile organ, the emblem of the generative power or principle in nature. This is not only a serious mistake, but also a grave blunder. In the post-Vedic period, the Linga became symbolical of the generative power of the Lord Siva. Linga is the differentiating mark. It is certainly not the sex-mark.”
  12. ^ a b Zimmer, Heinrich Robert (1946). Campbell, Joseph. ed. Myths and symbols in Indian art and civilization. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 126. ISBN 0-691-01778-6. “But the basic and most common object of worship in Shiva shrines is the phallus or lingam.”
  13. ^ a b Doniger, Wendy (1993). Boyer, L. Bryce; Boyer, Ruth M.; Sonnenburg, Stephen M. ed. When a Lingam is Just a Good Cigar: Psychoanalysis and Hindu Sexual Fantasies. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-88163-161-6. Retrieved 2009-06-22
  14. ^ Subramuniyaswami, Sivaya. “Satguru”. Dancing With Shiva. Himalayan Academy. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  15. ^ Jansen, Eva Rudy (2003) [1993]. The book of Hindu imagery: gods, manifestations and their meaning. Binkey Kok Publications. pp. 46, 119. ISBN 90-74597-07-6.
  16. ^ “The linga Purana”. astrojyoti. Retrieved 10 April 2012. “. It was almost as if the linga had emerged to settle Brahma and Vishnu’s dispute. The linga rose way up into the sky and it seemed to have no beginning or end.”
  17. ^ a b c Harding, Elizabeth U. (1998). “God, the Father”. Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 156–157. ISBN 978-81-208-1450-9.
  18. ^ a b c d e Vivekananda, Swami. “The Paris Congress of the History of Religions”. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol.4.
  19. ^ Apte, Vaman Shivaram (1957-59). The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Revised and enlarged ed.). Poona: Prasad Prakashan. pp. 1366.
  20. ^ Blurton, T. R. (1992). “Stone statue of Shiva as Lingodbhava”. Extract from Hindu art (London, The British Museum Press). British Museum site. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  21. ^ The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and society in India, pg. 58 at Books.Google.com
  22. ^ a b N. K. Singh, Encyclopaedia of Hinduism p. 1567
  23. ^ Dominic Goodall, Nibedita Rout, R. Sathyanarayanan, S.A.S. Sarma, T. Ganesan and S. Sambandhasivacarya, The Pañcāvaraṇastava of Aghoraśivācārya: A twelfth-century South Indian prescription for the visualisation of Sadāśiva and his retinue, Pondicherry, French Institute of Pondicherry and Ecole française d’Extréme-Orient, 2005, p.12.
  24. ^ Klaus Klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism 2007 SUNY Press p111
  25. ^ Hinduism and the Religious Arts By Heather Elgood p. 47
  26. ^ a b p132
  27. ^ Carus, Paul (1969). The History of the Devil. Forgotten Books. pp. 82. ISBN 978-1-60506-556-4.
  28. ^ Hinduism and Modernity By David James Smith p. 119 [2]>
  29. ^ Flipside of Hindu symbolism, by M. K. V. Narayan, pp. 86–87, Books.Google.com
  30. ^ Ramakrishna Kathamrita Section XV Chapter II [kathamrita.org http://www.kathamrita.org/kathamrita4/k4SectionXV.htm]
  31. ^ Jeffrey Kripal, Kali’s Child 159–163
  32. ^ Nathaniel Schmidt (Dec, 1900). “The Paris Congress of the History of Religion”. The Biblical World 16 (6): 447–450.doi:10.1086/472718. JSTOR 3136952.
  33. ^ Sen, Amiya P. (2006). “Editor’s Introduction”. The Indispensable Vivekananda. Orient Blackswan. pp. 25–26. “During September–October 1900, he [Vivekananda] was a delegate to the Religious Congress at Paris, though oddly, the organizers disallowed discussions on any particular religious tradition. It was rumoured that his had come about largely through the pressure of the Catholic Church, which worried over the ‘damaging’ effects of Oriental religion on the Christian mind. Ironically, this did not stop Western scholars from making surreptitious attacks on traditional Hinduism. Here, Vivekananda strongly contested the suggestion made by the German Indologist Gustav Oppert that the Shiva Linga and the Salagram Shila, stone icons representing the gods Shiva and Vishnu respectively, were actually crude remnants of phallic worship.”
  34. ^ Sivananda, Swami (1996). “Worship of Siva Linga”. Lord Siva and His Worship. The Divine Life Trust Society.
  35. ^ Wilson, HH. “Classification of Puranas”. Vishnu Purana. John Murray, London, 2005. pp. xli–xlii.
  36. ^ Isherwood, Christopher. “Early days at Dakshineswar”. Ramakrishna and his disciples. pp. 48.
  37. ^ Hélène Brunner, The sexual Aspect of the linga Cult according to the Saiddhāntika Scriptures, pp.87–103 in Gerhard Oberhammer’s Studies in Hinduism II, Miscellanea to the Phenomenon of Tantras, Vienna, Verlag der oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1998.
  38. ^ Balagangadhara, S. N. (2007). Antonio De Nicholas, Krishnan Ramaswamy, Aditi Banerjee. ed. Invading the Sacred. Rupa & Co. pp. 431–433. ISBN 978-81-291-1182-1.

References

  • Basham, A. L. The Wonder That Was India: A survey of the culture of the Indian Sub-Continent before the coming of the Muslims, Grove Press, Inc., New York (1954; Evergreen Edition 1959).
  • Schumacher, Stephan and Woerner, Gert. The encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and religion, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, Hinduism, Shambhala, Boston, (1994) ISBN 0-87773-980-3
  • Ram Karan Sharma. Śivasahasranāmāṣṭakam: Eight Collections of Hymns Containing One Thousand and Eight Names of Śiva. With Introduction and Śivasahasranāmākoṣa (A Dictionary of Names). (Nag Publishers: Delhi, 1996). ISBN 81-7081-350-6. This work compares eight versions of the Śivasahasranāmāstotra. The preface and introduction (English) by Ram Karan Sharma provide an analysis of how the eight versions compare with one another. The text of the eight versions is given in Sanskrit.

Further reading

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