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Voice of Jammu & Kashmir
No. 12, Feb-Mar 1996
How deep are the Hindu roots in Kashmir?
- Exiled Hindus seek to preserve Kashmir Shaivism
By S. N. Tikku
Most of the Shiva shrines are situated on the shores of Dal-Lake in
Srinagar e.g., Jaishthethwar (Presently Zeethyar Shrine), Sarveshwar
(Presently Sarishwar), Sarsheshwar, Mahadev etc. Actually the entire
Kashmir valley is Lord Shiva's Abode. Not only this the Gupt Ganga or
Ishvihar (Presently Ishwar), Gupt Teerath (Presently Gopi Teerath) and
Shat Dhara Teerath are also connected wilh Lord Shiva. Space does not
permit mention of Rural Kashmir.
Shiva Sutras:
In early 800's, Vasugupta was living on Mahadeva Mountain
in Srinagar-Kashmir. Tradition states that one night Lord Shiva
appeared to him in a dream and told him of the whereabouts
of a great scripture carved in rock. Upon awakening, Vasugupta
rushed to the spot and found seventy seven terse sutras etched in
stone, which he named the Shiva-Sutras.
Vasugupta expounded the sutras to his followers, and
gradually the old and lost philosophy once again spread.
On this scriptural foundation arose the school known as
Kashmir Shaivism.
How old is Shaivism?
Sages say Lord Shiva has neither a beginning nor an end.
Shiva idols and emblems of very ancient times have been
discovered thus far in almost all countries of the world
which include America, Africa, Australia, Europe and
Saudi-Arabia. There are about fifty thousand Shaivists in Russia
even today. The author of this paper is in touch with the chief
contact person and some in Australia who prior to 1990 used to
visit India on pilgrimage to Shri Amarnath Ji Cave in Kashmir.
According to biblical chronology the present creation took place a
mere thousand years ago (4004 B.C.). Since Maxmueller and others
were good Christians but bad Vedists and Shaivists they naturally
fitted
the Vedas down that biblical time schedule at the 1500 B.C.
Consequently all historians and even Sanskritists of the Maxmuellerian
stamp still silently cling to that primitive biblical notion of the
beginning of the universe.
Today's scientists using radio-active-dating techniques have
established that the Earth is much older, in fact it is about 4,600
million years old. Radio-active-dating is considered to be
a very reliable technique since Radio-Active decay proceeds
at a constant rate and is not affected by surrounding physical or
chemical conditions.
Shaivism, therefore, is as old as the mankind.
What is the relevance of dreams?
Danish Nobel Prize winner Niel's Bohr (1885-1962)
is on record to have related how the idea of the atom
model he had sought for many years occurred to him. He
dreamt that he was sitting on a sun of burning gas. Planets
seemed to be connected by fine threads to the sun around
which they revolved.
Suddenly the gas solidified, sun and planets shrivelled up
and became motionless. Niel's Bohr said that he woke up at
the movement. He realized at once that what he had seen in his
dream was the atom model. In 1922 he won the Nobel prize for
his dream.
An engineer of the Bell Telephone Co. in the U.S. read reports of
the bombing of London in 1940. They upset him badly. One night he
dreamt he was drawing the design of an apparatus that could train
anti-aircraft and ensure that their shells would hit the aircraft at a
specific
point regardless of its speed. The next morning the Bell engineer made
a
sketch of what he had already drawn in his dream. He finally build a
set
in which radar was used for the first time. The celebrated American
mathematician Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) was incharge of the project
for manufacturing it commercially.
Abraham Linkoln's dream coming true is a historical fact so are
countless
other examples but the fact remains that 99% dreams are just
dreams to be forgotten next morning.
In the case of Vasugupta's dream, the Shiva Sutras, discovered by him
carved in the rock are still there even today, though difficult to
decipher
because of unfamiliarity with the old language.
What is the teaching?
Kashmir Shaivism provides an extremely rich and detailed
understanding of the 'Cosmos', creation and the human psyche besides
the
most fascinating knowledge of Kundalini - the goal of
self-realisation.
In its history the Kashmir Shaiva tradition produced numerous Siddhas,
adepts of remarkable insight and power which include Kallata (850-900)
Somananda, Utpala (900-950), Abhinava Gupta (950-1000) - the top
raking luminaries to name a few.
The highest aim of the Saivists, Vedists, Buddhists and Taoists is to
become aware of the unity and mutual inter-relation of things, to
transcend the notion of all isolated individual self and to identify
themselves with the ultimate reality.
The emergence of this awareness - known as "enlightenment" is not
only an intellectual act but also an experience which involves whole
person and is religious in its ultimate nature.
In light of this view-point, the division of nature into separate
objects
is not fundamental as such objects have a fluid and ever changing
character. The Cosmos is seem as one inseparable reality-for ever in
motion, alive, organic, spiritual and material at the same time.
Since motion and change are as essential properties of things, the
forces
causing the motion are not outside the objects but are an intrinsic
property
of the matter. Correspondingly, the Shaivite-Hindu image of the Divine
is not that of a ruler who directs the world from above, but a
principle
that controls everything from within.
Here is a quote from Brihataranyaka upanishad 3.7.15 which
explains all this and something more in just seven sentences.
He who, dwelling in all things
Yet is other than all things,
Whom all things do not know,
Whose body all things are,
Who controls all things from within,
He is your soul, the inner controller
- The immortal.
Shiva abides in all that exists including the hearts of all creatures,
causing them to revolve according to their Karma by his illusive
power.
Shiva is both immanent and transcendent, both creator and creation,
manifest and unmanifest, dual and nondual, within us and without us.
Kashmir Shaivism is purely the pristine Sanatana Dharma of the Vedas.
Kashmir Shaivism is Indian thought.
If we turn to the atomic structure, we get this fact in nucleus
(proton and
neutron). Positive charge creates such atmosphere in which electrons
in
different orbits move around the nucleus.
Break the matter (solid, liquid or gases) you get fundamental
particles
electron, proton and neutron. Just as Tridha-Sakti-Brahma, Vishnu and
Shiva or Mahesh. Matter, energy and space are three parts of this
universe,
like Sat, Cit and Ananda are the three parts of the supreme Brahman.
Electron a tiny wave like mass is very powerful for creation. It works
with negative charge. With the help of proton it moves and moves
around
the nucleus as Brahma sitting on the Nabhi Kamala (naval lotus) of the
Lord Vishnu.
Proton is positively charged particle. Only positively charged proton
is enough to move electron like omni presence of Vishnu is enough for
creation of this universe to Bhrama.
A neutron is the Shiva, the annihilator of the worlds-the God of
Samahara. Just like neutron it plays important role is nuclear fission
or
fusion.
The Radio-active energy released by Neutron is opening of the third
eye
of the Lord Shiva.
The Scientific attitude:
The mystics and physieists to a Shaivist are two different but
complimentary approaches to the realization of any aspect of Reality.
For the modern physicist, Shiva's dance is the dance of sub-atomic
matter.
Hindu artists of yore created visual images of dancing Shivas in a
beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the
most
advanced technology to portray the patterns of the Cosmic dance. The
bubble-chamber photographers of inter-acting partlcles, which bear
testimony to the continual rhythm of creation and destruction in the
universe, are visual images of the dance of Shiva equalling those of
the
Hindu artists in beauty and profound significance. The metaphor of the
Cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern
physics.
In the west there has been constant opposition to science from
religion.
Galileo was tortured for advocating the Copernican theory that earth
moved round the sun and not sun around the earth. On February 17, of
1600 A.D. Bruno was tied to a pole and burned alive in Rome at the
Pope's
order because he had proclaimed that our globe was not the centre of
the
Cosmos and that Cosmos contained many stars with own planetary systems
like our own. These are just two examples. There are countless cases
where astronomers, mathematicians, physicists had to face inquisition
for
expressing what they had observed in their sincere effort to know the
truth.
The creation:
The first Book of the Bible (Genesis) tells us that God said "Let
there
be light, and there was light". Here light is given an existence
independent
of any source of light such as the sun or stars.
"And God divided the light from the darkness." It is interesting to
wonder why the light did not completely dispel the darkness and God
found it necessary to divide the two so they did not get mixed up
together.
Then God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night, and
there
was evening and morning the first day. So, apparently, it was the
creation
of day and night that was being described. This is interesting, for as
yet there was not so much as a sun in the sky or even a heaven.
On day two and day three God tells dry land to appear and bring forth
vegetation of course without a sun.
On day four we are told that God made the sun and moon "and the stars
also." No mention of universe with its galaxies of stars. One would
think
that the creation of millions of suns immensely larger than ours and
certainly surrounded by worlds like our own, would warrant great
attention. It should also be noted that the creation of the Earth has
proceeded that of the Solar system and also the entire
universe. It would also appear that the creation of sun, moon and
stars
was unnecessary since day and night and light and darkness already
existed having been created on day one.
On day five God is said to have created all animal life in the air and
sea. On the sixth day God created animal life on the land, including
mankind.
In Genesis 2 God (Yahwah) creates a man before either plants or
animals.
What is of significance is that ancient Hindu computation about the
present creation (4.3 billion) with the computation of modern science
(4.6
billion) should show how close science and ancient most religion is in
its
effort to know the truth.
Darwin believed that a tiny spark of maner turned into a protoplasm
and
later evolved into various beings. European physicists on the other
hand
explain material creation in the opposite fashion namely that a huge
fire ball was blown into bits to form uncountable millions of little
big worlds.
Both these views implicitly admit God 's (or Nature 's) inexplicable
magic in creating diverse forms of life and matter. If that is so, why
pin down God's workmanship to start from a tiny atom or a gigantic
fire-ball?
Instead the Vedic or Shaivist view is more realistic and rational. It
says that God (or Nature) created the material universe and
populated it with every kind of life which included trees and seeds
eggs and chicken and men and women, young and robust to begin
the game of procreation. This is the view point of the Institute of
Rewriting World History (Pune) but during the recent talk with Swami
Nityananda Ji, senior monk of International Chinmaya Mission
this scribe was told that Hindus were Darwanian's 2000 years
before Darwin because it was closer to truth according to learned
Swami
Ji.
Vivekananda was hailed when he sang the vedic dictum "Suns and
Moons the Lord created like Suns and Moons of the previous order."
This
present creation is not the first creation and its subsequent
destruction
will not be the first one in cosmic time.
Living American astro-physicist Dr. Carl Sagan did well to proclaim
that Hinduism is the only faith in which the time scales correspond...
to those of modern cosmology.
The existence of worlds outside our solar system was known to the
Vedic-Saivist seers from times immemorial. To establish connections
with them is the target of the Saivist, Vedist mystic as well as the
modern
scientist. There has been such a contact in the past.
Erich Von Daniken a renowned Swedish scientist on his visit to Kashmir
discovered abundance of metals beneath the Martend temple in ruins
in Kashmir with a band of radio-active waves. He arrived at this
disovery
with the help of special metal detectors and other equipment. He
described the place a megalithic site of pre-historic times and many
Indian
and foreign researchers whom the author of this paper accompanied to
the
site during the course of 1960's-1980's described it as launching pad
by ancient asronauts as also another place at Hawal Srinagar converted
to a mosque called Hazrat Bahav-ud-din Sahib.
Prof. Fida Mohd. Hussanan Ex-Director Research and Libraries,
J&K, Govt. Srinagar has referred to space flights in Kashmir in his
famous
publication "Hindu Kashmir."
Ishwara Ashram:
In any reference to Kashmir Shaivism mention of Surgiya Rajanak
Lakshamana is very essential. The learned Saivist scholar and mystic
popularly known as Swami Lakshaman Joo taught 'Kashmir
Shaivism' at his beautiful 'Ishwara Ashram' on the banks of Dal Lake
in
Nishat Srinagar for half a century. This ashram attracted students
from
many parts of India and abroad.
The author of this article had the good fortune of introducing several
students of Indian thought from America, Rome, Canada and France
to the Ashram. Few stayed there for years and others for weeks and
montks till all were hounded out by Islamist zealots in 1990.
The Kashmiri disciples of "Swami Lakshaman Joo," probably
last in thc race of mystics of highest calibre" have now established a
magnificent Ashram in the memory of the great Master in Jammu where
studies and research in Kashmir Shaivism continues. The scholarly
disciples functioning against over-whelming odds in exile, strive to
create
active educational programmes rather than dry transmission of facts.
>From them the message goes to the mankind that there is still
something
as good, love and redemption.
Bibliography:
1. India/International Edition of 'Hinduism Today' volume I Novemher 6
1994.
2. Annual Research Journal (1995) and Personal Letters from Prof. P.N.
Oak from time to time.
3. Kalyan Kalputra
4. 'A critical look at the theory of divine inspiration' by D.J.
Taylor.
Humanist Society of Queensland.
5. Godsfrom outerspace Corgi Books Publishers.
6. Beyond the tenth by Lobsang Rampa.
7. The Tantric Tradition by Agehanda Bharati.
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