USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Adeyinka Bello Cosmos and Human and Cosmic Unity in Indian Yantra Aesthetics

                                                                              

                                                                  

       

                                                          The Adeyinka Bello Cosmos

                                                                                                and 

       Human and Cosmic Unity in Indian Yantra Aesthetics

                                                                                    Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

                                                                                                   Compcros

                                                                   Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems 

                                                   "Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

Classical Indian aesthetics uses the geometric form known as the yantra in defining balance in the human being, balance understood as demonstrated in terms of the physical and cognitive aspects of the human person.

These physical and cognitive aspects of the human being are described as constituting a unity. This unity is understood as demonstrating the unity of the cosmos.

The human being, therefore, is a unity within themselves, an intrinsic cosmos, but is also a demonstration of the unity of the totality that is the cosmos.

At each point of their being, the human person demonstrates a point of convergence with an aspect of the cosmos, an aspect, that, paradoxically, contains within itself the totality.

A metaphor helpful here is that of the Net of Indra, spread throughout the cosmos, at each joint of the net a jewel, which itself reflects every other jewel in the cosmic scope of the net.

In a similar sense, each point of the human person is a vertex, a point of convergence of the human cosmos-the microcosmos-and the larger cosmos-the macrocosmos.

This understanding of human and cosmic being is summed up in the geometric form known as the Sri Yantra.

An appreciation of the harmony of the Sri Yantra, and in terms of its relationship to the harmony that is the human being, in relation to cosmic harmony,may be appreciated through the conjoining of the image of the geometric symbol and an image of the Nigerian scholar, activist and politician, Adeyinka Bello.

This particular rendition of the Sri Yantra is chosen for its choice of and uniformity of a few bright colours in balance with each other.

The colour scheme complements superbly the structural sublimity of the yantra and works most admirably with the Adeyinka Bello image.

The colour pattern of the yantra amplifies the evocative powers of the Adeyinka Bello image, as the sheer burst of joy that is the picture of the human being laughing is further projected through the radiance of colour that is the yantra, as bright orange enters into play with sharp purple, the delicate petals within the yantra framing the human being in a manner gloriously celebratory.

The central power of this collage is in the structural coherence its two constitutive images achieve in relation to each other, a spatial unity centred in the positioning on the bindu or dot at the centre of the Sri Yantra at the mid point of the collage, unifying the human figure and the geometric form.

This visual centre, unifying geometric form and human image, evokes the symbolism of the bindu, the dot at the centre of the yantra.

The bindu evokes the metaphysical centre of existence, a zone of possibility beyond time and space, where the polarities that constitute the dynamic equilibrium of the cosmos, as dramatised by the progression of intersecting upward and downward facing triangles that compose the interior of the yantra between the lotus petals and the bindu, are integrated and transcended.

The collage therefore evokes, in a manner more explicit than the abstraction represented by the yantra or the concrete form demonstrated by the image of the human form, even in relation to verbal description of what they represent within this metaphysical scheme, the structural perfection dramatising a unity between self and cosmos that this ideational vision attributes to the human being and the cosmos as co-inherent forms.

Beyond this fundamental achievement of correlation of visual forms in a manner that suggests ideas related to each of these forms, but doing this in a manner more explicit than could be achieved by reference to either of the forms on their own, the collage evokes a further range of qualities in terms of which this metaphysical understanding perceives the human self and the cosmos.

A central quality actualised by the collage is the amplification of the sense of joy projected by Adeyinka Bello's unqualified laughter, focused in the brilliant white of teeth open in joy, their radiance foregrounded by the tender red of lips evoking the rain freshened glory of ripe apples, her neck pulsing with urgent life, a palpitating life force evoked by the strategic position of the crimson necklace at the juncture of the delicate pillar of neck and robustness of body.

The balance of colours, flashing white teeth, light red necklace and earrings, harmonising with deep red coloured lips, this balance of colours rests on the absolute vitality represented by her brown skin, projecting a visual force that radiates outward through the delicate beauty of framing by the lotus petals of the yantra, the concentric circles on which the petals rest, and finally,the lines constituting the square of four gateways that frames the entire tableau.

What this burst of joy within a cosmic matrix suggests to me is the invocation from another school of thought in a different culture from the Sri Yantra, the anonymously written Office of the Holy Tree of Life of the Hermetic Kabbalah:

"Since we were created with a shout of joy, let spiritual happiness and holiness be truly one".

Contemplating such evocations of cosmic unity as the geometric cosmograms known as yantras, of which the Sri Yantra is an example, can inspire an intense sense of bliss. Such bliss is the sheer pleasure of knowing.

This knowing may emerge in relation to an awareness of the cosmic unity the geometric form dramatises.

As this awareness achieves coalescence within the mind, under the stimulation of the yantra, a stream of pure, intense pleasure may arise with it, as I have had the privilege of experiencing.

This bliss may be seen as the nectar of existence, the life blood, the vitality of the cosmos, expressed variously in Indian thought, one form being as satchitanada, the unity of being experienced as consciousness vivified by bliss.

This sense of the vitality of life force expressed as profound pleasure, a relationship between the deepest fulfillment and cosmic being, is also suggested by Jayaratha's quoting of a source in his commentary on Abhinavagupta's Tantraloka Ch. 8, verse 2.

The expression depicts, in terms of the universe, the abstraction that is consciousness as the limpid flow of juice, concrete yet dynamic, evocative of the pleasure of a drink going down the gullet, :

"(I) salute the universe, which is Bhairava's visible body, the condensation of the flood of the juice (rasa) of consciousness that has assumed a defined form".

The cosmic totality is thereby depicted as alive with sentience, purpose and personality, being the body of Bhairava, the condensation of the juice of consciousness as it emanates from Him.

The sense of the creative power of joy is expressed with graphic force through Adeyinka Bello's radiant teeth, mouth open in laughter, her entire form projecting a life enhancing presence, her laughter resonating with even greater profundity within a timeless stillness, in the transfixed moment represented by the photograph.

That laughter, so strategically evoked in the conjoined image, is the creative force of the cosmos, the primal nexus that is as the creator exploding into being in a paroxysm of joy, delight at the stupendous idea that is the cosmos exploding from her as the life force animating the cosmos, manifesting as the white hot heat of exploding matter at cosmic genesis and the vibration of life within being, expressed inimitably within the spark in each human eye.

In travelling inward visually from the exterior of the image to its interior, from the square enclosure to the bindu at its centre, we perform the visual correlate of centripetal motion in terms of cosmic structure, moving from the cosmic circumference in metaphysical terms represented by its material form symbolised by the enclosing square, to the metaphysical centre of the cosmos beyond space and time, represented by the bindu.

In moving outward visually from the bindu to the successive forms that emerge as we approach the outermost form represented by the square enclosure, we perform a centrifugal motion, taking us from the cosmic centre, beyond space and time, a centre represented by the bindu, to the cosmic circumference in time and space, in metaphysical terms, represented by the square enclosure.

In performing this complementary inward and outward motion through the yantra within the context of the image of Adeyinka Bello in laughter within the cosmological form that is the yantra, we also navigate the human being as embodiment of cosmic unity symbolised by the yantra.

We navigate the human being as a materially realized entity whose totality encapsulates the entire schema of correlative aspects of being represented by the various forms that compose the yantra, from the material universe represented by the square enclosure to the timeless, dimensionless centre symbolised by the bindu, and corresponding to the metaphysical roots of human being within that ultimate ground.

Within this metaphysical scheme, we would thus have travelled, in these visual motions, from the spine of the human being, where resides coiled at rest, the serpent fire, the kundalini, the flame of existence coiled like a snake at the base of the spine, a point in the human body representing the material universe, the material universe symbolised by the square enclosure of the Sri Yantra.

When stimulated, the kundalini is described as rising upwards through the various centres in the spine corresponding to various zones of the cosmos.

Each of these centres on the spine and their cosmic correlates is symbolised by one of the constitutive forms of the Sri Yantra, the unity between human form and cosmic being represented by the visual conjunctions of the various forms that compose the yantra.

The upward journey of the kundalini culminates at the top of the head, the point of conjunction between the human being as an embodied entity and the timeless, dimensionless source of being, represented by the bindu of the Sri Yantra.

The climax of the journey of Kundalini is described as a consummation of opposites understood as the union of the deities the male Siva and the female Sakti, the dynamic polarities whose interaction constitutes existence.

This consummation of opposites may be seen as ultimately transcended as the journey moves through the unity of polarities to a zone beyond even conceptualisation, suggested by the circle that is the bindu.

This inward and outward progression in the yantra, evoking motion from the base of the spine to the top of the head, is also suggestive of cosmic involution, a withdrawal of the cosmos into its source at the end of a cosmic cycle, using a term for this process from the painter and Afa thinker Nyornuwofia Agosor in relation to a similar concept of cosmic development in terms of Ghanian Afa cosmology in her Cosmos Series of paintings, to remerge at the beginning of another cycle, in terms of cosmic evolution, suggested by a movement from the top of the head to the base of the spine, from cosmic centre in a dimensionless, timeless zone, to the re-emergence of the cosmos in terms of complementary polarities, ultimately grounded in the material universe of space and time.

The collage integrating the picture of Adeyinka Bello and the geometric form that is the Sri Yantra therefore evokes the possibility of visual and contemplative centripetal and centrifugal motion. It evokes the possibility of visual motion towards or outwards from a centre. This motion is developed in relation to the human image and geometric cosmic form.

This conjunction of human image and geometric cosmic symbol suggests the understanding of to the human being as co-inherent with the form of the cosmos.

The human being, like the Sri Yantra, is also seen as cosmic form, a distinctive manifestation of the totality that is itself as part of that totality.

The human being is the Sri Yantra because every part of the Sri Yantra corresponds to an aspect of the human being.

The human being is the cosmos because every aspect of the human being corresponds to an aspect of the cosmos.

The Sri Yantra is the cosmos because every aspect of the cosmos is expressed by an aspect of the Sri Yantra.

The human being and the Sri Yantra are therefore varying but ultimately unified manifestations of the same phenomenon, the cosmos.

To navigate the human being is to navigate the cosmos.To navigate the Sri Yantra is to navigate the cosmos. To navigate the human being is to navigate the equivalence of the Sri Yantra.

To navigate the Sri Yantra is to navigate the equivalence of the human being. To navigate the cosmos is to navigate its correspondence with the human being who is a manifestation of the cosmos.

To navigate the cosmos is to navigate the Sri Yantra, which is a form of the cosmos. Navigating the Sri Yantra inward and outward is to simulate the process of cosmic involution and evolution.

This inward and outward evolution also simulates an expansion of understanding of the cosmos inn terms of the derivation of all possibilities from its core and interpretation of all possibilities in relation to its core.

This imaginative possibility is expressed, in another context, in terms of an experience of cosmic evolution and involution by the Indian adept Abhinavagupta, in the concluding verses of chapter 3 of his Tantrāloka, as presented in translation by Boris Bhāskara Marjanovic in his Facebook status update of 30.10.2013:

"The entire Universe along with its great variety arises from me; then again it dissolves back into me, so that nothing separate [from consciousness] remains. Therefore, one - who because of the power [of experiencing] creation, maintenance and dissolution as one undivided act – perceives no parts but totality in one point."

Can these conjunctions between human image and geometric form, between the images of Adeyinka Bello and the Sri Yantra, between discrete units and cosmic totality be taken further?

Is it possible, for example, to describe the detailed scheme of the categories of being or tattvas in classical Indian thought in terms of the various activities, encapsulating various aspects of life, represented by the various doings of Adeyinka Olarinmoye on her Facebook photo album?

Can one develop a visual depiction of the fundamental elements of existence in this cosmology from correlations with her images as has been done here in broad terms with one of her pictures and the Sri Yantra in relation to cosmic form?

In other words, can one take this exploration of visual and ideational conjunction further through outlining the details of the journey to and from the cosmic centre through navigating the Sri Yantra with the aid of Adeyinka Bello's pictures understood as depicting the complete scope of human existence in its broad outlines?

I suspect so.

Has one reached the level of interpretive, integrative and expressive power necessary for such an achievement?

How may one get there?

"God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and His circumference nowhere".

May each image of Adeyinka Bello's not be both centre and circumference, a complex of associations reaching from the image beyond itself and back again?

Is each image not thus an odu ifa, a nexus of possibilities that defines the essential character of a possibility of being, adapting babalawo-adept in the esoteric knowledge of Ifa- Joseph Ohomina's description the odu ifa, organising categories and active agents of the Yoruba Ifa system of knowledge, and, in my view, by extension the entire pan and Diaspora African and increasingly global body of disciplines of which Ifa is a variant, from Fa to Efa - as the essential identities, the names of all possibilities of existence, abstract and concrete, actual and potential?

Also published on Facebook.

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