North of the Moon - Old Yule Series

With the holidays approaching, a double announcement is in place. First of all, Uma's new blog: North of the Moon, exploring spirituality, old Nordic and European pagan traditions, the ancient Scandinavian-Aryan connection, and the general mysteries of life.

Second, a series of articles on the Old Yule, the pagan and Aryan predecessor to Christmas, glossing the age-old midwinter festival of fertility and new birth, the Yule observances, the Tree of World, the original Father Yule and a host of angels, goblins and others of old yet remembered. First in the series:

• Old Yule 1: The Mother and the Deadly Midwinter

And good Yule and a happy new year to all!

Sampradaya Sunday

A certain person, in a certain discussion, quoted a classic verse (with typos and all):

sampradaya vihina ye mantraste nishphala matah
atah kalau bhavishyanti chattvara sampradaya
sri brahma rudra sanaka vaishnava kshiti pavana
chattvaraste kalau bhava hy utkale purushottaman.

"If one receives a mantra from someone who has no links to any one of the four sampradayas, then that mantra will have no effect. Therefore there will arise four sampradayas [ Sri, Brahma, Rudra, Kumara ] who will purify the whole world. These four sampradayas will originate from the influence of Lord Purushottama in the region of Utkala."

Stray verses like this are too many to poke my attention. But the simplistic summa summarum thrown at the end got me all going and wild. Hold on to your hats, gentlemen... Tsadada-da-da-daaah:

"So the only means to attain perfection is by following one of these 4 sampradayas, which are all Vaisnava-sampradayas. Sankaracharya didn't follow any of them, so how can he be a bona fide spiritual master?"

I would reply in greater detail if I were not at a net cafe and without my reference library. Bear with the shabby scribblings that follow.

The origins of this verse, attributed to Padma-purana, are dubious at best. As far as I recall, it is partially referenced in Jiva Gosvami's sandarbhas, and in full as above — I believe for the first time — in Baladeva Vidyabhushan's writings in the 1700-1800s. I'd have to look up the references, I remember spending some time tracking down the verse with some of its fellow peculiarities some years back.

Padma-purana itself is a treasure-house of interpolations, its different editions varying widely, and unsurprisingly some editions containing material essential to certain Hindu factions being published almost exclusively by them. Reportedly some renditions now even contain verses penned by Rupa Goswami, a 17th-century devotional theologian.

Let's anyhow accept the verse as valid and worth consideration, just for argument's sake. The four sampradayas there are said to be tied with Purushottama, or Vishnu. It is then hardly surprising if the said sampradayas are Vaishnava-sampradayas, no? Shankara also had a Vaishnava side to his personality, often unacknowledged, as it wasn't as overt as the emphasis of the personalists.

The verse doesn't however say, yasya panthaM, yasya satyaM, yasya jIvanaM vinA kenApi na gacchati, even if it is favorite ammunition among some sectarian Vaishnavas. It is not the way, the truth or the life of all spirituality. It merely attempts to systematize and legitimize the sects of a certain Hindu substratum, and bears little effect for the rest of Indic religious traditions.

A matter of great curiosity is the fact that the Madhva-sampradaya, to which the Gaudiyas profess belonging to, actually hails from the Hamsa-avatara as the root-teacher of their paramparas or disciplic lineages. They indeed would not credit the Gaudiyas as an orthodox branch if were to get down to the details of the Madhavendra-Lakshmipati connection, even if some courtesies are occasionally exchanged between the traditions.

The whole sampradaya and parampara facade is such a bottomless can of worms. It was best put by Todke Baba of Shivapuri when I asked of his sampradaya. "This sampradaya, that sampradaya. It yields but headache, disturbance and quarrels. Men waste their lives away in minute debates of doctrinal sophistry." I heartily agree with him.

If it works, then go for it, and do it. "Just do it." (Nike 3.14) There's little gain in dwelling in a state of spiritual stagnation while making oneself believe one is on a progressive path, clinging to the feeble straw of being legitimized and therefore insured by one's heritage. "Because it says so in the scriptures, and as I go through the prescribed motions, it follows I must be advancing and quite happy." For its not being so, for having to face that it doesn't add up, would amount to an existential crisis of cataclysmic dimensions.

Half-satori

Satori is Japanese for enlightenment. A sudden, intense and radical awakening to reality. There was a time I thought I was almost there. As of late, it is becoming painfully obvious that enlightenment has nothing to do with the kind of furious and uncompromising endeavors that are often associated with a spiritual quest.

Wisdom, the heart of enlightenment, is unfortunately not an asset that can be mechanically produced. It does not automatically follow from any amount of anything you do or abstain from doing. Rather, it springs forth in the brief, silent and still moments when the pullings of the ego cease and existence is observed as-is.

The foundational thusness, the heart nature of all phenomena, is not attained by adopting a certain garb. And I mean a garb in the broadest sense, in adopting certain spiritual-cum-cultural patterns that are associated with traditions of wise or enlightened teachers. I thought it was. Garbs can be just as helpful as they can be harmful.

My path across 12 long years of Hinduism, followed by a burst of effort to employ the same conditioned mental striving-model in the context of Theravada Buddhism, combined with experiences of spiritual practitioners from diverse traditions, has led me to a safe distance from formal religiosity.

I do not mind formal religion. It's essentially a good thing, it serves a purpose. I will joyfully participate in any number of religious observances among adherents of diverse traditions and feel spiritually nourished, tapping into the underlying meta-reality. However, wholly adopting traditions that may not in their entirety match my psychological make-up and the obligations that follow is not something I wish to involve myself with.

And why is that? It is precisely because of a certain sense of fundamental weariness of playing games. Ego-games. From materialism to spiritualism, from a worldling to a spiritual hero, a conqueror of evils, a benefactor of all sentient beings. Or, on a more modest level, a pious adherent who finds solace in his religious observances.

Becoming a high grade spiritualist is wonderful, but you don't really become one by trying to become one. On this path, there is no reaching through walking. To the contrary, there is reaching by stopping. When there is only walking and no walker, motion flows in fullness. When there is only understanding and no understander, wisdom shines in its own right.

I have had blogs in the past. The first one was all about my adventures in the world of Hinduism (Vaishnava / Krishna). The second one, that never really got far beyond the beginning, had a Buddhist focus. They still exist, along with the mind of which they sprang forth, in a state of almost archival quiescence.

Half-satori is not about any of that. It's not about any of you either. It's not about any of me for that matter, the fluid little I that seems to be in a decent state of flux. It's about a free flow of exploration and experience. It's a voice crying in the wilderness, but it cries for none. It resonates in its own essence.

I don't know about the audience of this blog. I don't know that I care either. And I think that's a positive thing, for I am weary of pampering people and socio-religious holy cows. In this blog, I pretty much write about what the hell ever I want, and quite possibly I don't even have a good reason for doing any of that.

This is my personal limbo zone, the half-satori cocoon I find my peace in. It's cozy here, and you're welcome to stick around if you find something of interest.