Hermeneutics of the Lotus
The Fusion of Theories of Consciousness and Deity Conceptions
in
Indian Thought
A Brief Commentary
on Opening Lines of the
Yogini Hrdaya, The Heart of the Yogini
Within an Autobiographical and Philosophical Context
Illustrated
Part 2
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Abstract
An account of my contemplative explorations, under the inspiration of Indian and Indian inspired thought, complemented by other ideas, of my own consciousness as reflecting human consciousness in general, and of the Hindu text the Yogini Hrdaya, The Heart of the Yogini, as exemplifying the correlation of theories of consciousness and deity conceptions in Indian thought and bodies of thought it has influenced. The symbolism of the lotus is the unifying motif of the two parts of the essay.
The Emergence of the Cosmos in the Yogini Hrdaya, Heart of the Yogini
The ultimate Śakti, by her own will assumed the form of the universe, first as a pulsating essence.
This pulsating essence is the dot, the bindu.
The bindu is situated on a dense, flowering mass of lotus petals, and is self-aware consciousness, the citkalā.
The bindu expands into the geometric form the Sri Yantra.
The yantra corresponds to dharma (law), adharma (the opposite of law), and ātma, the four levels of the Self as consciousness, from the Absolute to the living being, which also correspond to prāmatṛ (subject), meya (object) and pramāśa (knowledge). the knower, what is known and knowledge.
The Self as consciousness and the sequence of knower, knowledge and known make up the whole of cosmic manifestation.
Within the bindu is the quivering union of Śiva and Śakti which gradually creates the nine different maṇḍalas of the Śrī Yantra, its nine intersecting triangles, representing Śiva and Śakti and the different letters of the Sanskrit alphabet.
The yantra is thus a ninefold womb, the womb of the universe. It is immense, a compact mass of consciousness and bliss.
Those lines from the Indian Hindu text The Yogini Hrdaya,The Heart of the Yogini, integrating a translation from Mike Magee's Shiva Shakti Mandalam site and Andre Padoux and Roger Orphee Jeanty's translation of the same text and commentary on it, are a masterpiece of Indian thought, particularly, and Hindu thought, generally.
Their power consists in unifying the empirical reality of the abstraction that is consciousness with concrete imagery invoking deities in humanoid form, the male deity Śiva and the female divine identity, Śakti, as well as aspects of the natural world, the lotus, and what are conventionally understood as forms of human culture, the letters of the alphabet.
A central thread in Indian thought, from its earlier classics to later works such as the Yogini Hrdaya is a focus on consciousness in relation to conceptions of deities.
How did a unification of sensitivity to the empirical reality of such a foundation of human existence as consciousness, abstract yet immediate, persist in relation to conceptions, represented by deity ideas, that are far from such empirical reality and may be understood as fruits of the imagination which the human being has chosen to understand as having a reality beyond the human mind?
The emergence of the cosmos, according to the Yogini Hrdaya, occurs when Śakti, the feminine principle constituting the cosmos in the Srividya school of Śakta thought and action, Goddess centred spirituality, first assumes the form of the universe, flashing forth as a pulsating essence, an essence assuming the form of a bindu, a dot embodying self-aware consciousness, a dot at the centre of a mass of flowering lotus petals, the brilliant colour of the flower surrounded by the petals being a central image of the unfolding of existence, in general, and consciousness, in particular, in Indian thought, in particular, and Hindu and Buddhist visual symbolism, their iconography, religions originating in India and spreading beyond the country.
This self-aware consciousness represented by the bindu embodies the spectrum of possibilities of consciousness-the knowing subject, the object of knowledge and the knowledge gained.
Framed within a personalistic depiction of cosmic process, in terms of an identity demonstrating will, and in relation to the image of beauty in nature, a conception of consciousness is thereby presented as being at the heart of the cosmos as its first expression and primary identity.
The lotus in Indian thought and in schools of thought influenced by Indian thought symbolises the universe as well as human and divine mind. It pictures the cosmos and the human being, particularly the human mind, along with divine mind, as glorious forms, magnificently structured beauties, akin to the magnificent symmetry and luminous beauty of the lotus.
The ''Shiva Tandava Stotram'', for example, salutes the God Śiva as he ''whose mind is the fully opened blue lotus that is the cosmos".
In some schools of Hinduism, such as Trika, Śiva is understood as both the essence of the cosmos and the essence of the human being. ''Becoming Śiva'' in that context, as described by Abhinavagupta in his Tantraloka, Light on the Tantras, is equivalent to entering into the lived awareness, the experiential understanding, of oneself as Śiva.
The human being may also be visualized in terms of the delicate yet forceful beauty, the lyrical architecture, of the lotus. The flower at its centre may evoke the sense of self consciousness, the petals the other constituents of the mind constellating round that core of awareness. The flower may also be seen as the mind and the petals as the human body.
The universe may be visualised in terms of a core of consciousness constituted by the flower at the heart of the lotus and the other forms constituting the cosmos as the petals of the flower, organised round that ultimacy of awareness, the cosmic core of consciousness.
Central to these correlations between mind and lotus is the idea of unfolding, of the creative potential of the mind or the universe being actualized through a process akin to the unfolding of the lotus to reveal an aesthetically luminous core. Through such correlations the human being and universe may be perceived as unfolding their potential across time.
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