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Post by Bhakta Dharma on Jul 8, 2008 5:47:37 GMT -6
MYSTICAL LOVE CHESS
The history of chess is tied up with India, China and Persia. One route chess took from these lands into Europe is through Byzantium. And there was another place it came too named Cordoba in southern Spain. It passed through trade routes that linked Europe with the near and far east by land and by sea. Whether or not it is ultimately India, China or Persia that chess traces its source in this realm remains to be seen, there are many arguments for and against. It is a wide field of study. I personally feel that it is in India and China wherein the game’s mysterious origins can be seen to have survived in the most deeply and fascinatingly ways. In India, we see that the number system and symbolism within chess is found there in a most varied, elaborate and detailed way and linked to ancient traditions of old. In China, we also see greatly elaborated wisdom in regards to the underlying number structure within chess. Although some say that Indian chess first influenced China, suffered a decline within its own lands and whilst this decline to decay and disappearance was rolling downwards, at the same time the Chinese had taken inspiration from India’s chess of old, had developed this chess further, and preserved it. Therefore, whilst chess disappeared in India, it survived in China, and in turn, this chess developed in China later came to influence India once again. In other words the absence of chess boards and pieces, or textual traditions on the game before the Chinese and Persian chess historical source do not exist. This India to China and back again belief amongst some maintains the Indian origin of chess, as Indian influences upon China in ancient times are very strong and diverse. But this there and back again theory with India as source central, in the light of absence of texts, archeologically dated boards and pieces and other such evidences, isn’t the only theory.
Another is that absence of boards and pieces means absence of boards and pieces made with those materials used in the Chinese and Persian chess game playing traditions, wood and stone. Furthermore, as Indian tradition contains the underlying chess number pattern as sacred, the using this pattern of 8, 16, 32 and 64 as a game, could have been used in different ways besides having a board made of wood and stone, flanked either side by players who played for idle amusement to pass the time. The chess number pattern in India, as we shall see, was associated with game playing, but in a different way, a way most curious indeed. This playing without wooden board and pieces was a game of love and this Indian game of love that we shall shortly see, after first looking at the Grail-chess game of love of the isles of the roses, the western worlds of Europa. After this, then we shall turn back to India.
In medieval times, there were clerics who identified losing chess as analogous with losing to sin. We can assume if certain of them thought this, then winning chess, in their eyes, would equate with conquering over sin. St Teresa of Spain actually identified love of God with the checkmating of the black king.
The black queen was associated with the black and dusky maiden of the Song of Songs, a sacred scripture of great import, of great matter and depth. This association with our black Lady chess queen was by a Jew named Bonsenior ibn Yehia who was writing in the 1100s. He associates the chess queen with that what we know as Lady Wisdom or Sophia, mentioned within scripture, namely in the book of Proverbs. Lady Wisdom in these Biblical traditions is also known as the Jewish Sabbath ‘Shekinah’ of deep wisdom, a wisdom passed down orally, named the ‘kabalah’, which is primarily a tradition which survived in its most richest flowering, in Spain. This oral tradition was finally codified into a sacred text named the Zohar, a classic of kabalistic lore and Biblical exegis. Chess in the mind of ibn Yehia was used as an allegory of spiritual love, reflected in the wider perception of the chess queen, as this black Sheba Sophia Shekinah, in those quarters of Yehia’s religious traditions of Jewry inherited. Yehia did not make this up and he was one of many who associated the chess queen as such.
St Teresa of Avila, associated chess play with love of God, and was a contemporary of another saint, St John of the Cross. Both were Christian mystics of that land of the kabalah, of the Zohar, medieval Spain. Both she and St John of the Cross experienced and wrote on the mystical relationship with God in a bride-bridegroom relationship. This Christian conjugal mysticism is akin to that of another saint, St Bernard of Clairvaux too who took it in his own orthodox way too. And it was by no means simply confined to Catholics but also later on those curious fringe Protestants too, those traditions of Sophian devotion as we have already seen in connection to Jacob Boehme and Claude de St Martin. The pinnacles of this bridal mystical light is also found within the devotional currents of Radha Krishna in India too. This we shall see more on later.
Unlike St Bernard, who forbade the monastic warriors, the Knights Templar (who were allied to his order), to play chess, the other saint, St Teresa, seems to not have shared this negative proscription, at least in regards to love chess. In such a simple way, the example of St Teresa’s mystical contemplation, revealing love of God as analogous to the check and checkmate within chess, is such a telling example of the divergent views even within Catholic mystics in regards to chess. Chess had an ambivalent relationship with church orthodoxy, some accepted some rejected, later more and more accepted until it was finally totally accepted. Chess can either be seen as an analogy of love of God, an allegory of the structure of feudal society, a mere frivolous game of idle amusement forbidden to the monk and clergy. This was not so with the Troubadours.
The Troubadours, bards of songs and poetry, in the regions of the south of France were chess players of the game of love. Besides their songs of love they are reputed for their ability as chess players and in them we see that the two, the song and the game are linked in love, at least within their minds. They combined imagination, verse, song, poetic innovation and improvisation within their minds, which were also familiar with chess, amongst their interests in puzzles, conundrums, ciphers, and playful multi meaningful words, acrostics and such things. They spoke in a tongue what some deemed amongst some of them, to be the language of the birds, echoed in their involvement with their minstrels and music makers whom they were in charge of. Music and word combined as in the best of traditions. They played with innovative pattern making matches and harmonious interweaving, in the quest for the improvisatory new discoveries. The language of birds, birds of the Holy Spirit, whose wings cut the pleasant air in patterns of flight was the spirit of the ages, the re-emerging and dawning of the sun of the modern literary mentality. The Troubadours are thus an important part of the lodge of the founding fathers of all modern literature, poetry and song in the realms of the rose, and more importantly they are bards of love, song makers of sophisticated charm and wisdom. They are co-creators with Lady Wisdom, the true bird of love, whose true skies are also those of akasha, who cruises through the realsm of storylands ancient and modern, famed and isolated. Furthermore, we must not forget that the Troubadours adoption of, and play of, and promotion of chess, was an important part of their culture, and is an aspect which has received little attention. Troubadours travelled with chess sets, along with their retinue of song singing paraphernalia and their poetic craft making in devotion to the Lady, hidden in their baggage.
Chess came to these Troubadours from Spain, from over the great hills and the mounts of the Pyrenees, a land rich on either side of places dotted around with Black Marian traditions. Chess thus appears on the stage out from Pyranean mists, mists of historical timelines and events, times in and before the 1000s AD. There is a will dated to 1008, to be precise, where a chess set is given to the church of a Saint Foy in Nimes, in those regions wherein later Troubadours near the Pyrenees strolled. In the book about the miracles of St Foy, there is a youth carrying a chessboard to her sanctuary in the mountain at Conques as a token of thankfulness for her miracle in releasing him from prison. The cage of the flesh perhaps? Thus a chess set and board, of some import in the traditions of St Foy, a facet of the tradition of our Lady Wisdom, Sophia, in this realm of earth history of Pyrenean fame, may be involved here, with the theme of the release from tomb-prison, which we have already seen as associated with chess. This theme of prison, common to various saints for certain reasons, links towards the post crucifixion’s death, buriel and resurrection garden tomb theme in the Gospels, as a theme reflected in saint story history. St Foy traditions herein link up to those of the Charlemagne Cologne murdered architect theme, as we have seen. It is not known if this tradition of St Foy links directly to a Troubadour tradition, though it is certainly a tradition within their region’s past history, a tradition which could easily have been known to them.
This reveals that chess was around in the southlands of tale, before the Troubadours had begun to speak the language of the birds, and that chess was also, in these regions, associated with release from the tomb theme, death and resurrection, imprisonment and release as it was elsewhere. Yet the Troubadours speak not of chess associated with the death and resurrection, with imprisonment or other, but they speak of chess, as St Teresa, as ibn Yehia, in relationship to higher love.
Troubadours used chess analogies in their interpretation of courtly love. Thus to Bernard de Ventadour, a most famous Troubadour, the hopeless love towards a Lady who has wounded his heart by her indifference is the equivalent to a lost chess game. To certain Troubadours, as seen indicated by this example, to be defeated by Lady love, Lady Wisdom Sophia, was akin to losing chess. Troubadours were expected to not only to be proficient in lovemaking, song, poem and music, but also chess playing and above all winning, but there is sweetness within their defeat too, a sweetness of melancholia they only knew too well. In Troubadour minds, both games, courtly love and chess were seen as combatory, between two players within a context of ritual complexity and rules.
In the language of the Troubadours, Provencal, the word for ‘checkmate’, ‘matz’ relates to the word ‘amor’ or ‘love’. The Troubadours extended the association of two chess players, to that of the male and female lover, as lovers also played chess in their times too, in certain circles. Also it was a game involved in fraternal relationship between males who were similarly both on this path of love of the Lady. Thus, when the two players were males, they were friendly rivals in love, in the mood of good sportsmanship, competing to win the hand of Lady Wisdom, by playing winning chess. The more religious and esoteric amongst them could easily have seen it as a game of love of God, reflected in this conjugal and friendship play. Two players, playing their best against the bad chess playing of sin, in order to reveal how true love of God develops and consummates, reflected in the example of real chess players of day to day life seems to have been in the minds of the times. One can either defeat God with one’s love or one can be defeated by God’s love when one either wins or loses chess. This love analogy with God and chess can be extended to love of the Lady Wisdom, Sophia, within another plateu of God love. Chess is a template for the many spectrums of love, from the spiritual romantic to spiritual comradeship, between God and the soul, between folk of the world. Also, in the Troubadour game of love, in this love game and competition with rules, rules applied with great devotion and skill, the protecting and hanging onto ones chess queen was equivalent to hanging onto and protecting ones lady-love against the rival. Chess can thus be about holding ones own distinct indentity, in order that love play can be continued.
The art of these times also showed chess being played by lovers of the upper classes within gardens and bowers, amongst flowers, birds and other such natural phenomena. The Troubadours were the sources of and promoters of this erotic aesthetic chess amor, which we see develops more and more.Also the storyland regions of the day chess and courtly love combine. Chess is a strong feature of their Tristan and Iseult cycles and traditions of Breton story matter, a story which links, in it’s theme of ‘adulterous love’, to the illicit love of Radha and Krishna, one which I should rather say was ‘adulterous’ in the eyes of a society steeped excessively in roles position rank and flank that is. In these cultures of both east and west, adulterous love symbolised a love that was a real true and hallowed love, which defied all the boundaries and rationality of fixed and arranged marriage systems. Chess was used in many artistic expressions of this story depicting the ‘adulterous’ true and honest love between the tragic Tristan and Iseult, and in the actual story itself they both play chess together. In the period of the 1300 and 1400s, when the Troubadour crest wave rolled on, chess played by two lovers, was a love talisman. Woodcuts and prints appearing in the first printed books of Europe preserve from old, this chess amor theme. These pictures off the first prints, would indicate that the book they were illustrating contained the subject of amor, or love, even though there was no mention of actual chess play in the books themselves. Stained glass windows featured the amor chess couple. It appeared also in other artistic mediums of the times. Here chess is a symbol that evokes love blessings. Chess is thus inextricably tied up with love and becomes more detailed in such a meandering of Holy Spirit in the bowers of chess play.
There was an anonymous poem wrote around 1370 called Echecs Amoureux (Chess Amor) which has links with the other late medieval period, the highly famed work of the day, ‘The Romance of the Rose’. Both literary traditions share the same literary garden in story realm and stand in the Troubadorian stream. In Echecs.., Venus’s son Deduit has a garden wherein a special lady is found by the narrator of the poem himself. He finds this lady after searching for her, due to a mission given to him as such by Venus herself. When finding each other in this garden they play chess wherein each move is associated with a detailed symbol of their love for one another. Various creatures of the ‘heraldic bestiaries’ appear here in ‘Echecs…’, along with the rose, gold and precious stones. The gold and the rose within the Order of Rosicrucians has its precedents in the symbolism of these traditions and others, traditions of red-gold, here and there, before its entrance into history’s pages.
The symbols in Echecs Amoreux are various insignias attached to the chess pieces and are the actual pieces themselves, at the same time. There is a lot of chess love symbolism elaborated and encoded therein and this work was commented on in a prose version by Evrart de Conty in his ‘The Edifying Book of Erotic Chess’ of around the period of 1400. By 1495 there existed a beautiful French manuscript of de Conty’s work adorned with 24 (8x3- the number of the Greek alphabeta and Christ the Word) miniatures by a bibliophile who was also a painter, a son of a chancellor of the French regions of Bourgogne in the Hainaut, Maitre Antoine Rolin. De Conty’s speciality was myth, image, symbol associated with heraldry, classical stories and astrological-atronomical and cosmological qualities. He was a physician into the healing arts too. He thus linked chess with the esoteric subject matters quite familiar with the Rosicrucians. Here we see then that chess is the west associates with love, but in this it does not stand alone.
THE CHESS NUMBER STRUCTURE IN THE RADHA AND KRISHNA TRADITION
The devotional tradition of Radha Krishna, a big branch of religion in India, is a devotional, theistic, esoteric, and philosophical one, and it is one of India’s mainstream branches of art, drama, dance, music, literature, poetry, and song. Its time of arising was also the times of the arising of the early western literary tradition too, of love chess and the Troubadours. Its spiritual practice is singing, dancing and chanting the Holy Names of God-Krishna. The number pattern in chess is symmetrical and identical to the main number structure found within the traditions of Krishna, especially as found within the Chaitanya Krishna traditions of West Bengal, Jagannatha Puri and Vrindavana, especially amongst the Goswami disciples of Chaitanya. Chaitanya was considered the golden incarnation of Krishna, who appeared in Bengal, at the time the alchemical, hermetical and kabalistic traditions as found hidden in tarot card art and the literature of the day, flowered during the Rennaisance. It is a tradition within India of old anyway, to have its scriptures containing verses with exactly 32 syllables each. The Bhagavad Gita, a great scripture of the Krishna tradition has this 32 syllabled verse structure, as do many others. It was a common occurrence from Vedic times of old. The Krishna-Chaitanya tradition uses this chess number, amongst also the other numbers, in association with love too. In the west, the chess number structure, directly via chess itself as a symbol, as we have seen, associates with love. In what follows, the chess number structure itself, apart from chess, associates richly with love too. Conti’s heraldry stands parallel to something most sublime indeed.
The highest and most sublime and powerful mantra of the Krishna Chaitanya tradition is composed of 32 syllables. In the tradition, all the central and more obvious number features of chess (8 pieces and pawns, 16 each side, 32 piece total and 64 square board) are prominent exactly and quite similarly placed together, within this 32 syllable Hare Krishna mantra. It contains the 3 names of God; Hare, Krishna and Rama, combined according to that same pattern as found exactly within chess as one could if one wanted, place each syllable on either side of a chess board and each half section of the mantra, would actually stand facing each other. Furthermore, Krishna’s land in the tradition, is placed exactly upon a 64 squared grid!
Ha-re Krish-na Ha-re Krish-na,
Krish-na Krish-na Ha-re Ha-re/
Ha-re Ra-ma Ha-re Ra-ma,
Ra-ma Ra-ma Ha-re Ha-re.
If we look closely, we see 2 sets of 8, 2 sets of 16, 16 Divine Names in total and 32 syllables in all. You could place a chess piece upon each syllable and they could play the game of love. Furthermore, there are 4 x ‘Krishna’, 4 x ‘Rama’ and 8 x ‘Hare’. Thus a fourfold enclosure like a chess board is also being pointed too also. Furthermore, there are 4 rows of this mantra verse, as layed out upon the chess board, and if chanted 4 times we have 16x4 making up the number 64. Most curious indeed. Fourfold enclosures are the fences around any patch of land which is sought to be alchemically transformed and Krishna’s land is one such purificatory grid in more ways than one. This mantra is the life and soul of the many Krishnaites of Chaitanya, and all the branches of its wisdom is seen as limbs, emanating and extending from this mantra.
It is mentioned in certain strong regions of the tradition as beneficial to chant this mantra on a round of 108 beads (mala) 64 times daily, some say other numbers of times round daily, some say 4, some 8, some 16, some 32, always those number multiples of 4 and 8 which is also the chess game play pattern. This mantra is said to evoke love of God and to establish one in the kingdom of God, liberated from the ‘wheel of re-incarnation’. Furthermore, it is said to give freely to all, love of God in various tints, shades and hues and corresponding emotions under the names rasa, bhava, and other such names. This schema of the science of emotional and divinised rasa, of spiritual aesthetic emotional qualities, this pattern of love, shares also exactly these chess numerical features too. The chief mantra is associated with 64 various states of spiritual and emotive qualities of rasa and qualities of Krishna, and the main and central rasa the conjugal rasa, named shringara rasa, is divided into 32 componants! The structure of the science of rasa is tied up with the central mantra and Krishna’s Holy Land, and also with chess! This whole matrix of rasa and mantra chant is the central stem and trunk of the tree of the Chaitanya tradition, but of course this central number system contains within it, unlimited unfoldings and permutations, or Krishna’s Holy acts of love, which evoke, inspire and sustain the infinite eternal interplay of rasa states, of which the entire creation reflects.
It is also traditional to divide Krishna’s associates into 8 groups. There are 8 principle gopīs or cowherdess-maidservants, emanations of the Godhead Krishna through His Radha, who is His principle ‘emanation of emanations’ so to speak, the Rasa of rasas. Radha is the Indian equivalent of Lady Wisdom, Sophia, in the Upanisadic and Vedantic tradition too, a tradition so akin to Christian philosophical and creedal Orthodox Christianity. These 8 principle gopīs are the inner circle of this tradition of geometrical lore of love’s pastimes unlimited, and arrayed according to traditions, like petals round a lotus, with Radha Krishna at the centre. There are also 8 flowers which decorate Radha’s and Krishna’s crowns, 8 dearmost male friends of Krishna, 8 gopīs who are expert at cooking milk preparations, 8 who make nectarean beverages, and so on and so on. There are major and chief sets of 8 and lesser ones too in other words many different chess sets of the Divine game and play of love. Similar things can be said about the numbers 16, 32 and 64 too which are the numerical structure of the various aspects of the Divine Drama, Play, or Lila of Radha and Krishna, who embody all the rasas chiefly expressed. There are no other numbers with as much significance as these within these spiritual love traditions of Radha Krishna and their golden love incarnate as Chaitanya. The Krishna tradition is thus a kind of rasa aesthetic chess heaven of many boards and many sets, reached within the inner depths of games, games and plays of sportive of love! A lila of jy upon a 64 kroshas, for the pleasure of the Lord of the 64 qualities!
One of these major sets of 8 curiously resembles one of the principles inherent in chess play. There is a group of 8 gopīs who arrange the political alliances involved in the diplomatic manoeuvring within this Radha Krishna love play game, traditionally named lila, which translates as ‘playful pastimes’, ‘sportive acts’, ‘pastimes’ and other such phrases and words. This chess like quality of combat and manoeuvring appears here in this over arching chess like quality of playful pastime. One instance is that one follower of the 8 principle gopīs is described as being expert in Radha Krishna diplomacy especially in the 6 diplomatic acts, especially the 4th one (and thus we see here a 6 and a 4 coming together, numbers which constitute the chess number of 64). This 4th act of the 6 diplomatic acts of love is described as that act of being patient and waiting for the ‘enemy’s next move’ in regards to the enmity which sometimes arises within this transcendental divine love play game. She also has 8 most important friends. Thus we see intimated herein an allusion to this game of gopi love of Radha Krishna equating to making chess moves too, exactly that which happens in the chess game play mentality even.
It is said that out of 100, 000 000 there are 800,000 eternally perfect gopīs and these are headed under the principle 8 gopīs under which all the others group. Furthermore, Krishna was born an 8th son on the 8th day of the moon cycle. His principle emanation Radha also incarnated on the 8th day of the moon at another time. Thus, they incarnate within the 8 and in their combinations within love play, there is in fact 16, or 2 highest sets of 8 principle gopīs, which sometimes vie with each other, and all in all there are actually 64 who are considered the most important. They are all aspects of Sri Krishna’s energies expressed through Radha who is His shakti or expressive power. Thus, God and Lady Wisdom here in India is the transcendental chess game play, which operates as that principle which is reflected within the creation of the Vedantic universes with their own particular plays and also within the games of chess played by the teams of this world, if we take this as above so below maxim of Radha Krishna philosophical symbolism of the tradition into account. It is not that the transcendental chess play of Radha and Krishna is a reflection of the universal laws as one would assume or as a reflection of chess. According to tradition it is the other way around in that the 8, the 16, 32 and 64 of chess, or within the world of matter (numbers do in fact appear within nature to), are but reflections based upon this universal love game of Radha and Krishna. And furthermore, according to this perspective, this love game is deep within the heart of the creation of the millions of universes, reflections of this spiritual universe of chess number patterns of rasa and forms to contain them. And this abode from which the chess number pattern has said to have been derived has been revealed through India’s divine metaphysics of love directly from the highest plane in the visions of celestial yogis and authorities of days of yore. This is how this matrix of chess like numbers stand in relation to Radha Krishna’s love play as seen within the tradition.
Krishna in His play with the gopīs is described as being an eternal youth who remains 16 years old. Krishna has 16 items of paraphernalia too as well as 16 ornaments. And Radha has 16 ornaments too. And they are both pre-existing the creation of matter and they are both eternal forms and paraphernalia that exists after matters’ ends. Each gopī is expert in various activities in the service of Radha and Krishna, services such as gathering herbs, astrology, reciting and composing verses, songs, music, poems, stories, philosophical debate etc etc. They are also in the main expert in dealing with the sacred love quarrels between Radha and Krishna. Thus, chess and this transcendental love game upon high is interchangeable with alchemical symbolism too in regards to herbs, flowers and astrology and also chess as we see it in this book. These gopis are also wise in regards to the properties of stones, gems and metals too in the service of the transcendental play of the chess of the love game.
There are 32 associates of Krishna’s paternal and maternal grandmothers when He reveals Himself into the world, incarnating for the delight of His dearmost, and also relieving the earth from her burden of demoniac influence. Thus there are 2 groups of 32, thus 64, all within the complete feminine side of Krishna’s background as He incarnates into family setting of the earthly Vrindavana, a step towards the spiritual home of Goloka Vrindavana on a higher plane. Krishna’s Holy Land, wherein the love play or game of love is enacted, Vrindavana, consists of 64 crores, a traditional measurement. Krishna also has 64 different Divine qualities. Rama too, Krishna’s other previous incarnation, whose name we also see in the chief mantra, is the hero King of ancient India, Rama, whose glorious acts are recorded in Indian traditions within the great scripture, the Ramayana. He also lives in an 8 x 8 land, this time not a place of bowers, groves and forests, but a city called Ayodhya flanked with gardens and beautified by Rama’s Radha, consort Sita. Thus many kingdoms and their games, many bowers and their games dance upon the chess board of spiritual life, a tradition well fleshed out in Indian through the times and the climes. The origin of chess game playing at least in concept must have originated in these traditions found later in Bengal India. Found also in other places of India, found also outside of India.
And thus of course this transcendental love play is all topped by the fact that Radha and Krishna, in the tradition are depicted as playing chess together. Others in the tradition played chess too, not just Radha and Krishna. Krishna’s friends as well as certain devotee warriors in Krishna’s kingdom are an example. Krishna’s brother played chess. In this way we see that really chess is a debate within a Divine lovers drama wherein there is sometimes quarrel. In fact according to mathematics and science there are more possible chess moves, or combinations as there are particles in the world of science’s known number of atoms within the universe! It really is a vast and deep subject matter this chess game and the cult of devotion to Radha and Krishna, whose pastimes are considered as unlimited and above the empirical mind.
In the Radha Krishna traditions we see sacred love arrayed within a main number matrix exactly the number matrix of chess. Furthermore, these numbers indicate spiritual rasas, embodied in forms in a great and active play of love. For it is a part of the tradition to internally visualise and set down in poems and drama Radha Krishna’s love play as it is revealed within, thus the tradition is unlimitedly ongoing and unfolding as if many people are continuously unfolding out games, poetic visions and composing dramas of Divine love pastimes. For dramas have been wrote upon Radha Krishna, unique in and of themselves, novel and new from all that has gone on traditionally before. There are many examples of this innovative and new unfolding Radha Krishna traditions which is ongoing and includes the lives of the practitioners within it. The traditional practise of lila smaranam, meditation upon Radha Krishna’s pastimes within a set of 8fold visualisations through the day, which although fixed in certain places to bound traditional patterns, also allows the scope for free experience of the improvisatory nature and newness of them. Thus in these branches of the Gaudiya tradition we see the ongoing play of spiritual love chess unfolding even till this day and revealing new things.
THE SONG OF THE BRIDE OF THE SYRIAN CHURCH
Within the Acts of Thomas there is a curious song dedicated to the Divine wedding of the Bride and the Bridegroom. It is called ‘The Song of the Bride’. It was very important to Syrian Christians in the early years of Christianity. It can be considered as a Syrian Christian extension of the Song of Songs of Solomon with Gnostic overtones similar to that as found in the Gospel of Thomas. It must also be kept in mind that Syrian Christianity was also based in the lands wherein Knights Templar and other monastic knights had connections. Yet it was not only based in those lands wherein Tyrian architects and carpenters of old built King Solomon’s temple under Hiram Abiff too for it spread far and wide. Neither is this traditional Christian tradition, with links to Essenes, Zadokites and other such desert hermit communities with beliefs as found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, scrolls found by the aid of Syrian Christianity too, based only in the lands wherein the alchemical and hermetical Arabs passed on the riches of the wisdom of the east. Syrian Christianity was not only confined to these lands but to other lands, secret lands of Jews and Christians of old, of Zadokite Essenes branched out, lands including those of South India. In addition, those places in South India were places of great import to the Chaitanya Krishna bhakti traditions, with its chess pattern rasa play of spiritual aesthetics, and were of great import to other mainstream and other hugely popular traditions of bhakti of the Indian continent. Back to this curious Syrian song we shall go.
Therein Lady Wisdom is described as the ‘daughter of light’ and on her ‘rests the proud glory of kings’. Her sight is said to delight the beholder when she shines ‘with radiant beauty’. Her garments are associated with ‘the flowers of spring’, from which emanate ‘a sweet fragrance’. The love between Radha and Krishna is also richly and profusely associated with spring and summer time imagery, imagery which is seen as spiritual substance in and of itself of a purifying power to all who appreciate and meditate upon it. Such poetic vocabulary, which describes Lady Wisdom is similar to the vocabulary used to describe the qualities of the ‘Lady Wisdom’ of the Krishna tradition, Radha, yet more a Radha in Her regal aspects, which usually go under the names of Rukmini and Laxmi. The Krishna tradition teaches that Radha is the source of these regal aspects, in a sense they too are Radha, they are seen to be separate aspects as well. As all trace to Radha and for the sake of convenience I shall simply use the name Radha, as the name of comparison, rather than keep referring to Her other names forms and aspects.
This Syrian equivalent of Sri Radha has Her divine counterpart, the God of Jesus who is one with Jesus himself, as the Bridegroom Himself, described as a ‘king’ seated on ‘the crown of her head’. Starting from the head we are took downwards to ‘her feet’ which ‘radiate joy’. Within Indian devotional traditions of Radha and Krishna and texts wrote by Indian Sufis under traditional Persian poetical influences, there is this meditation upon Divinity using a head to toe or toe to head description. And here it is also much earlier, in Syrian traditions. In times before these poetic traditions of head to toe, or in the Radha Krishna traditions, toe to head structure was established within the Bhakti traditions, we have something similar in Syria. In fact, this toe to head and vice versa poetical tradition of description of divinity can also be found in the Song of Songs of the Old Testament as we shall see.
In this ‘song of songs’ development of the Thomas tradition there are 32 mysterious singers said to ‘sing her praises’. Thus, the number of 32 appears herein the central crux of the song! 32 is the number of the maha rasa, sringara rasa, the highest rasa, which has 32 componants as we have seen. 32 is also the number of the syllables in the highest mantra chant of the Krishna tradition also, not to mention one of the important numbers of a group of gopis. Of course it also the number of the chess pieces, also the 32 Vedic Deities of great import to the early tradition and also of the pathways and spheres upon the tree of life in the kabalah. And it is here where is evidence that ches number is also a major part of Christian conjugal mysticism, and this number within chess, here associated with love, can be found within the Bible, but more on this shortly.
This chess number love structure, in a snese, is a root axis of the real and specific perennial philosophy, in certain regards, and in this, the Krishna tradition is the one with the greatest abundant symbolism and elaboration of it, in much much detail. It would seem that spiritually what the Krishna teaching teaches in regards to the 32 componants of the highest rasa, the highest plateau of love of God is that which is also latent within these 32 singers singing those conjugal songs of spiritual love of God in Syrian Christian traditions too! And there is more.
Her ‘two hands make signs and signals’ that ‘announce the dance of the blessed Aeons’. The Radha Krishna tradition teaches about the great Lila or cosmic dance. Radha Krishna and the circle of gopis dance the essence of all dances in the spiritual sky beyond the millions of universes. These universes of matter stand as reflections in their own lower vibratory dance. The Krishna bhakti movement is also associated with the Tantric tradition, which is the Vedic equivalent of the alchemical, kabalistical, hermetical western occult Christian, Judaic and Islamic traditions and not to mention their architectural-mandalic veins too. Within both India’s dramatical dance and general orthodox and heterodox tantric traditions, various hand signals, called mudras, are used. They are of use in the dancing tradition too, as signs, which reveal the story as the dance unfolds. In the major traditions of dance in India, such signs are a language that speaks of the various stages of the drama, which the dance illustrates, which is usually the drama of Radha Krishna. Within the bhakti tradition, these dances are a big part of the tradition, and are sometimes highly theatrical, with many costumes and much great sophisticated music, which has its own rasa networks of emotive qualities. These mainstream dances of India arose in those various areas associated with Syrian linked Thomasite Indian Christianity too. These hand signs are also in the Indian artistic depictions of Deity-Godhead and various demigods and demigoddesses in various shapes and forms in temple architecture, paintings, weavings etc. These mudras also associate with the various stages of consciousness attained by various rites and initiations which are also similar to the Freemasonic tradition of various hand shakes and hand signals and are also found in certain Johnnite sects in the Middle East who combine different hand signals with stages of baptismal rites. These Baptist cults of the Middle East are also associated with those regions this Song of the Bride comes from, Syria. In Freemasonry there is an elaborate system of hand sign symbolism but it finds a great root and complement in India’s mudra traditions which are far more advanced and elaborate and richly representative. Furthermore, aeons, emanations of God, are the Gnostic equivalent of Radha’s gopis too.
This Syrian Christian and Judaic Lady Wisdom Radha, with her overtones of the dance of the 32 aeons, is associated in the song with those plants associated with her in the Middle East and within the Biblical traditions generally. Here she has her own distinctive features and symbols of the land. She is extolled amongst these specific local references with the vegetation of other lands too. Thus, she is extolled with vegetative symbols such as ‘balsam and every spice’. India was the king of spice lands, and ‘spices’ in the days when the song was wrote, was a blanket term for herbs and medicines, incense, oils, even certain foods. India is important for the ingredients within the Magdalene spice jar Grail, which in turn is important for the alchemical elixir tradition also as we shall see later.
This kind of regal Queen of the heights with Her 32 aeons is also rustic and like Radha in this sense. She is decorated with ‘myrrh and leaves’, ‘branches of myrtle’ and all kinds of sweet smelling flowers’. Balsam, myrrh and myrtle associate her with the Holy Land and the ‘spices’ and ‘all kinds of flowers’ and ‘leaves’ associate her universally, globally, India included, of which at the time the song was revealed, India would be of great importance in all this. Radha and the gopis are associated with herbs, flowers, trees etc in great depth, great variety of species and related details including alchemy, as we have seen.
She is not only surrounded by the 32 singers but also 7 ‘groomsmen’ and ‘8 bridesmaids who form a chorus before her’! Clearly now we see that the overlap is beyond doubt, perfect and exact. Radha’s 8 principle gopi maidservants aspects and expansions of herself are also found here too. These 32 and 8 aspects of Lady Wisdom, the Syrian Sophia, the Bride, derived from the Biblical tradition, appears also together combined with the traditional Biblical 7. These 8 bridesmaids are thus the 8 principle gopis of Krishna in the Syriac Christian setting and the gopis are also these 8 bridesmaids in an Indian setting but one developed much more richly, more elaborately and more poetically much later on. And in regards to the 7 groomsmen, if we also include their chief we would also have 8 also, a bit like the seven days of creation in Genesis, with the 8th days inherent and a pivotal link to the next cycle of 7 but yet transcendent to it to in this way, even though involved with it. This 7 going to 8 and the 8 containing within it the 1 of the next 7 cycle is found in the traditional kabalistic understanding of the creation in Genesis as well as the Bible itself. This 8 within which is the 1 of the next cycle which links one set of 7 with another is the reason that circumcision takes place on the 8th day. It is also why the 50th day is hallowed as a Jubilee, as it is the 1 above the 7x7 cycle of 49, and the 50th day is a great Jubilee, a release of debts etc etc. 8 is thus kabalistically and anciently in Bible tradition the number of release, of salvation. The Greek numbers in the name of Jesus Christ also add to 888, and the Alpha and Omega, of whom Jesus is mentioned as being is traditionally divided into three sets of 8 too.
Another number in the song there is the 12 ‘of those who serve her’ who are also the constellations and thus in the song not only to combine with the chess numbers, but also with the 7 the planets, 7 heavens, 7 days of creation, 7 angels etc etc. The 7, and the 12 along with 3 are the kabalistic numbers and also the division of the Hebrew alphabet, 7 single letters, 12 double letters and 3 mother letters. Thus, here we see that with 32 and 8 have a kabalistic alliance, at least in a hermetical alliance of synthesis, with the main kabalistic numbers, and two of the numbers associated with chess and Radha Krishna are seen to be bridging the links between conjugal love of the soul for God.
These 8 in India embody the dance, the rasa lila in the forest bowers of the sweetest love of Krishna. And thus the previous phrase of the ‘dance of the blessed Aeons’ can be seen in a new light, in this song, where the dance of a 32 and 8 fold aspected Lady Wisdom with various hand signals combined, within Syrian traditions associated with South India, sheds much light upon in the rasa lila dance of Radha Krishna too. Who borrowed from who or who did both draw from, or what is that exact reality both point towards, perhaps discovered in their own ways? The lila of India shares the same number pattern with chess and the western conjugal traditions, traditions furthermore, wherein the Troubadours drew from, as we have already seen in regards to chess amor. Templat Troubadour lands also linked up to Syrian traditions as we shall see later.
This numerical array in this Syrian mystical love canticle is made up of followers who ‘gaze upon the Bridegroom so that through this vision they may be enlightened’ and ‘be with him in that eternal joy’. Here we see the joy and the bliss of ananda, of Krishna. The abode in the spiritual sky, or the heart of hearts within which Radha and Krishna sport and play and dance with their 8, 16, 32 and 64 fold array of Gopi maidservant aspects of Radha, with all their countless assistants and friends, in playfully infinite combinations, is described as an abode of joy and bliss within Indian poetic tradition. Furthermore, it is considered an abode of joy achieved after liberation and enlightenment beyond the merging into the impersonal bright light of the absolute, the brahmajoyti. Thus in this Syrian song of embodied joyful light of Lady Wisdom the souls are described furthermore as being ‘present at that wedding feast where the great ones will gather and where the eternal ones will be counted worthy to rejoice for ever’. Thus as Radha and Krishna’s eternal spiritual abode of joy and bliss is attained by the eternally liberated from the coverings of the universe and the bright light of the absolute beyond it so the joy is discovered here also in eternity. There these principle souls ‘put on royal robes and wear bright rainment’. In Radha Krishna land the principle expansions, themselves and all those spirit souls who serve them in the pastimes of innocence and love have eternally blissful spiritual and clothed forms which they don through meditative and ritualistic practise and various stages of realisation of love of God, each richly symbolic in their own rights. This paralells mention elsewhere in the Acts of Thomas, a text of Thomasite Indian Christians, alluding to this spiritual form, alongside intimating what is known in bhakti as lila, Krishna’s transcendental pastimes, acts or sports;
‘….who art not seen of our bodily eyes, but art never hidden from the eyes of our soul, and in thine aspect art concealed, but in thy works art manifested unto us: and in thy many acts we have known thee so far as we are able…’
Souls with eyes who are immersed in the acts of Christ is thus similar to the spiritual eyes of the spiritual body of the spiritual forms serving Sri Krishna in his acts or lila, usually translated as sports. In fact, it is meditation upon the acts of Krishna, which are a main limb or mainstay of the devotional tradition and a great source for purification and blessings. And we have seen these acts are a multi branches tree of 8, 16, 32 and 64, as they are too in the west!
Earlier on at the beginning of the song, the ‘great ones’ at the sacred wedding are said to have been fed ‘ambrosia’ and later there are those who are accepted to the wedding to receive it. All are said to receive ‘ambrosial food’ a food ‘which will never run out’ and which is associated with ‘wine’. Ambrosia is a popular term, which describes the love between Radha and Krishna. Ambrosia is a westernised version of amrta in the Sanskrit as used by the Greeks in their contact with India. In the language of sacred Radha Krishna devotion amrta, or nectar, is used a lot in reference to experiencing the taste, or rasa of their love. In addition, all this Holy Communion in this Syriac vision of the sacred bridal chamber, tinged also within a different kind of Gnosticism as commonly known, is finally said to be taking place between the ‘Father of Truth and the Mother of Wisdom’. Thus here we have Lady Wisdom or Lady ‘Sophia’ (Greek means ‘wisdom’) specifically named.
The Radha Krishna traditions of Chaitanya are from a land traditionally associated with the twin brother of Jesus, Thomas. In a way this Indian Radha Krishna divine metaphysics of love is parallel, like a twin too, to the Syrian one of Jesus Christ within India and the lands of the middle-east. Another way of seeing this is the rasa tradition is a more pastorally extended and less regal and greatly elaborated version of that tradition also found more archaically in the regal Syrian Bridal stream. The same thing but in diffent keys, different plateaus of love, one rustic and playful, the other this but tinged with the stately and regal aspects of loving God, both within the same universal numerical pattern which they stand as the source of. Furthermore, this Thomasite tradition relates and entwines with that of the Grail as we shall see as does chess too. Twins and parallels are thus here in all this in more ways than one.
THE ACTS OF THOMAS AND THE BHAGAVAD GITA
The Acts of Thomas within which the song to the Bride of the Bridegroom and its historical and meta-spiritual amor symbolism is a part, is also an interesting text of the Syrian tradition and fleshes out this conjugal east-west link. In the Acts of Thomas, there are intimations of those teachings, which were the same as those of Krishna. The Bhagavad Gita which Krishna spoke to his devotee and friend Arjuna was spoken on a chariot which, He, Krishna had lessened himself to become the charioteer of his friend and devotee. This in the Krishna tradition usually reveals Krishna’s desire to serve His devotees, it is also the humility of God Himself. Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot is a very popular symbol and repeated in many artistic depictions. Usually in the usual yoke of love of God it is we who should be the chariot driver, serving by driving for God, also taking control of our senses, and here the roles are reversed. And it is also on the chariot, as it is in the Acts of Thomas, where bewilderment takes place. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna being downcast refuses to fight and thus the entire discourse of Krishna on the spirit and soul and devotion, takes place to alleviate this downcast feeling. We see an intimation of all these points in these verses in the Acts of Thomas;
68 The apostle therefore went forth to depart on the way: and they all escorted him, weeping and adjuring him to make remembrance of them in his prayers and not to forget them. He went up then and sat upon the chariot, leaving all the brethren, and the captain came and awaked the driver, saying: I entreat and pray that I may become worthy to sit beneath his feet, and I will be his driver upon this way, that he also may become my guide in that way whereby few go. 69 And when they had journeyed about two miles, the apostle begged of the captain and made him arise and caused him to sit by him, suffering the driver to sit in his own place. And as they went along the road, it came to pass that the beasts were wearied with the great heat and could not be stirred at all. And the captain was greatly vexed and wholly cast down, and thought to run on his own feet and bring other beasts for the use of the chariot; but the apostle said: Let not thine heart be troubled nor affrighted, but believe on Jesus Christ whom I have proclaimed unto thee, and thou shalt see great wonders.
And thou, because thou art Lord of all, hast a care for the creatures, so that thou spreadest over us thy mercy in him who came by thy will and put on the body, thy creature, which thou didst will and form according to thy glorious wisdom. He whom thou didst appoint in thy secrecy and establish in thy manifestation, to him thou hast given the name of Son, he who was thy will, the power of thy thought; so that ye are by various names, the Father and the Son and the Spirit, for the sake of the government of thy creatures, for the nourishing of all natures, and ye are one in glory and power and will; and ye are divided without being separated, and are one though divided, and all subsists in thee and is subject to thee, because all is thine.
Here we see the form of God is made of wisdom in this little condensed Bhagavad-Gita like teachings of metaphysics in the early centuries AD of the Thomasite tradition. Thus the template of Lady Wisdom is at heart being discussed in those various categories as she appears as the son. And this spiritual form of Wisdom as a son of God, has a name given to him by God, and this ties up in the Trinity. Lastly, there is mention of the philosophical mainstay of the Chaitanya Krishna tradition, acintya bhedabheda tattva, or the truth or teaching of simultaneous oneness and difference, which is one of a variety of interpretations of the bhakti schools of Vedanta, who offer various shades and nuances of this oneness and difference. Most of these bhakti schools of Vedanta consider as most authoritative, the Bhagavad Gita.
THE SONG OF SONGS AND THE CHESS NUMBER STRUCTURE
Even more ancient than the acts of Thomas and found at the heart of Lady Wisdomry of the Troubadours in Europe as well as within the bowels of classical Christian mysticism, is the Song of Songs of the Bible. The Song of Songs is sacred also to Jews and Muslims. It predated the rise of early Christianity. Contemporary love poetry and songs of the near east at the time when this love canticle was crafted, usually portray love as songs or poems, depicted from the mouth of the female. The Song of Songs however is not just a part of this genre of western love currents, only butone with a difference. For instance even though love is depicted by the mouth of the female traditionally, it is not only her lips alone, which spread the expressions of experience of divine love in this Canticle of Bridal mysticism, by tradition, associated with Solomon. For divine love is spoken by the lips of the Bridegroom as well, and this makes this a different to the convention school of love mysticism BC than the others of its kind. Both bride and bridegroom speak the songs of love between them both in this what has been described as the ‘Holy of Holies’ of scripture by some within Jewish tradition. This uncommon feature to those other near eastern equivalents, is a yin and yang interplay of love quotations, a love deemed sacred and spiritual and yoked to the biblical story and associated with God and the soul God and Israel, God and Lady Wisdom, Jesus and the Church, Jesus and the Virgin, Jesus and the Magdalene, Solomon and Sheba and no doubt others. It would seem a universal framework upon which one could hang any of aspects of the Divine Androgynous in God or in God’s chosen. Whomever is associated with the twin speakers of love in this canticle what is the case is that it is the love between the soul and God and most agree on this. The love that is androgynous and divine is here also the interplay of the one within the two perhaps from the perspective of an ultimate asexual hermaphroditic truth of God.
This spiritual love canticle refers also to a lotus in its text, a flower that features centrally in the spiritual love traditions of India too, which finds its conjugal heights in those of regions of Radha Krishna. In fact, certain scholars of the text have detected an actual Sanskrit loan word also in the text, one which usually translates as one of the various types of incense, mentioned in this incense and flower rich symbolic text of the Biblical canon.
This love drama-ritual-wedding song-divine love message and poetic vision rich in spring time imagery, speaks through the lips of the daughters of Zion-Jerusalem too, as well as through the mouth of the bride and bridegroom. God and his messiah (who are one and thus attribution of these speeches may be interchangeable- a poetic device that can allude to two things at the same time on different levels) is the Bridegroom, according to Christian tradition. According to Jewish tradition, the Bridegroom is simply God. For the Christian the Bride is the ecclesia, the church, the congregation of believers and for Jew likewise, except it is the congregation of believers as Israel, God’s elect, who is always personified as the Female Bride in this spiritual canticle in Judaic lore. Early Christians had alternate views, some had seen Her as the bride of God, Mary Magdalene, but it was later and more common to see the Bride as the Virgin Mary in the form of the ecclesia or church congregation inside building. Those early Christian traditions which were not Gnostic, who interpreted the bride as Mary Magdalene, furthermore interpreted the Bridegroom as specifically God only rather than as Jesus, but as in their tradition Jesus is one how could this rule out the Bridegroom being Christ? It was however, implied indirectly in this only, and certainly not mentioned externally. Gnostics would have interpreted the Bridegroom solely as Christ, perhaps others divine in their traditions and the Bride would have been not just Mary Magdalene but others too. These Gnostics would have inherited an earlier orthodoxy which they branched off from too. In the Noachite traditions of the Rosicrucians, all aspects of Lady Wisdom applied as the Bride and the Bridegroom subsumes all interpretations and understandings of the male aspects as well as God, Christ, David and Solomon and others, a multifaceted uniderstanding, universal too. These Rosicrucians, being Noahites taught by Jewish Syrian Indians, who were Syrian Christian friendly, charitably took in Radha Krishna into the equation as well. In order to become good operators of the chess stpry machine, they were taught thus many different things in regards to the pinnacles of love. This is wherein I too have also become taught, in those pinnacle heights of teachings of love strung upon various instruments of the Lord, tuned into varying different degrees and keys.
It is interesting that Lady Wisdom in the Song of Songs is associated with a tower, a migdol, as Mary Magdalene is too, as Magdalene is a translation of migdol, or ‘tower’. Magdalene can thus actually mean ‘tower’. This tower feature also features in the cult of the Virgin, also in the traditions of various saints such as St Barbara, the patron of soldiers, stonemasons and soldier monks like the Templars and others. Some of them would have no doubt known of St Barbara and her tower that she was rescued from. And to add to this we have Rapunzel in the land of fairy lore too. Here we have a meeting between the spiritual theme of the conjugal mystical tradition ancient and modern with storyland symbolism in the realm of traditional tales and of itself related to the Sophia-Lady Wisdom Sheba in this ancient Hebrew love song.
Here we see, like the later Song of the Bride which comes out from the climate of the interpretations of this Song of Song tradition, within the hearts of those interpretations of Jews, Christians and Muslims and others, a head to toe description of the divine qualities of God within this sacred amor of Bride and Bridegroom duality interchange of sung words of scripture. This head to toe depiction, as I have already made mention, is also in the depiction of Radha and Krishna, which is the reverse of this head to toe order. This head to toe is found within the Persian traditions of poetic love, and also in the Song of the Bride as well, and we shall see it again in some oher most curious places. Moreover, this spiritual love canticle also contains within it, when describing the Lady Wisdom Bride a toe to head description too. The Song of Songs contains both the head to toe and toe to head together.
In the nose section of the toe to head depiction, the nose faces towards Damascus, the Syrian capital. Places of history are a part of this meditation upon ascent or descent between the primal androgynous whole of God too. This Syrian capital was a place wherein the scents of the sweet spices of divine love of India, passed through, as it was on the trade route linking the western and near east to the far east. Conversely, the sweet scent of bhakti love of India could have also come from the scents of this place in times mysterious and ancient, or ancient love traditions of India conversely could have passed through this place. This place is alo the Order of Damcar, of which I am a member, whose Rosicrucian grades are those of the relationship between east and west. It is within later Syrian Christian, connected to those of Damascus, where we see those resemblances to Indian bhakti of chess number as we have seen. It is actually Jewish Thomasite Christians themselves who come to Damcar, a secret place within Damascus, wherein Indian wisdom is perused to teach us Rosicrucians things old and new. Lady Wisdom’s nose is associated here with Damascus, but makes no mention of where exactly the crown of the head may be. But we can guess that Damcar being above the nose of the Wisdom tradition, is the crown which is above Damascus, and is where the actual seat of the wisdom tradition itself. These are those traditions beyond Damscus, traditions further east on towards Persia and India, and China, along on the ancient Silk Road.
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Post by Bhakta Dharma on Jul 8, 2008 5:49:11 GMT -6
THE ACTS OF THOMAS AND THE BHAGAVAD GITA
The Acts of Thomas within which the song to the Bride of the Bridegroom and its historical and meta-spiritual amor symbolism is a part, is also an interesting text of the Syrian tradition and fleshes out this conjugal east-west link.
In the Acts of Thomas, there are intimations of those teachings, which were the same as those of Krishna. The Bhagavad Gita which Krishna spoke to his devotee and friend Arjuna was spoken on a chariot which, he, Krishna had lessened himself to become the charioteer of his friend and devotee. This in the Krishna tradition usually reveals Krishna’s desire to serve his devotees, it is also the humility of God Himself. Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot is a very popular symbol and repeated in many artistic depictions. Usually in the usual yoke of love of God it is we who should be the chariot driver, serving by driving for God and here the roles are reversed. And it is also on the chariot, as it is in the Acts of Thomas, where bewilderment takes place. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna being downcast refuses to fight and thus the entire discourse of Krishna on the spirit and soul takes place to alleviate this downcast feeling. We see an intimation of all these points in these verses in the Acts of Thomas;
68 The apostle therefore went forth to depart on the way: and they all escorted him, weeping and adjuring him to make remembrance of them in his prayers and not to forget them. He went up then and sat upon the chariot, leaving all the brethren, and the captain came and awaked the driver, saying: I entreat and pray that I may become worthy to sit beneath his feet, and I will be his driver upon this way, that he also may become my guide in that way whereby few go. 69 And when they had journeyed about two miles, the apostle begged of the captain and made him arise and caused him to sit by him, suffering the driver to sit in his own place. And as they went along the road, it came to pass that the beasts were wearied with the great heat and could not be stirred at all. And the captain was greatly vexed and wholly cast down, and thought to run on his own feet and bring other beasts for the use of the chariot; but the apostle said: Let not thine heart be troubled nor affrighted, but believe on Jesus Christ whom I have proclaimed unto thee, and thou shalt see great wonders.
And thou, because thou art Lord of all, hast a care for the creatures, so that thou spreadest over us thy mercy in him who came by thy will and put on the body, thy creature, which thou didst will and form according to thy glorious wisdom. He whom thou didst appoint in thy secrecy and establish in thy manifestation, to him thou hast given the name of Son, he who was thy will, the power of thy thought; so that ye are by various names, the Father and the Son and the Spirit, for the sake of the government of thy creatures, for the nourishing of all natures, and ye are one in glory and power and will; and ye are divided without being separated, and are one though divided, and all subsists in thee and is subject to thee, because all is thine.
Here we see the form of God is made of wisdom in this little condensed Bhagavad-Gita of the Thomasite tradition. Thus the template of Lady Wisdom is at heart being discussed in those various categories as she appears as the son. And this spiritual form of Wisdom as a son of God, has a name given to him by God, and this ties up in the Trinity. Lastly, there is mention of the philosophical mainstay of the Chaitanya Krishna tradition, acintya bhedabheda tattva, or the truth or teaching of simultaneous oneness and difference, which is one of a variety of bhakti schools of Vedanta who offer various shades and nuances of this oneness and many. Most of these bhakti schools of Vedanta consider as most authoritative the Bhagavad Gita.
THE SONG OF SONGS AND THE CHESS NUMBER STRUCTURE
Even more ancient than the acts of Thomas and found within the heart of Lady Wisdomry of the Troubadours in Europe as well as within the bowels of classical Christian mysticism, is the Song of Songs of the Bible. The Song of Songs is sacred also to Jews and Muslims too. It predated the rise of early Christianity. Contemporary love poetry and songs of the near east at the time when this love canticle was crafted, usually portray love as depicted from the mouth of the female. The Song of Songs however is not just a part of this genre only but has its differences. For instance even though love is depicted by the mouth of the female traditionally, it is not only her lips which spread the expressions of experience of divine love in this Canticle of Bridal mysticism by tradition, associated with Solomon. For divine love is also spoken by the lips of the Bridegroom herein as well. Both bride and bridegroom speak the songs of love between them. This is uncommon in the other near eastern equivalents. It is a yin and yang interplay of love quotations, a love deemed sacred and spiritual. The love that is androgynous and divine is here also the interplay of the one within the two perhaps from the perspective of an asexual hermaphrodite.
This spiritual love canticle refers also to the lotus, a flower that also features in the spiritual love traditions of India, which find their conjugal height in those of Radha Krishna too. In fact, certain scholars of the text have detected a Sanskrit loan word in the text, one that usually translates as one of the various types of incense, mentioned in this incense and flower rich symbolic text of the Biblical canon.
This love drama-ritual-wedding song-divine love message and poetic vision rich in spring time imagery, speaks through the lips of the daughters of Zion-Jerusalem too, as well as through the mouth of the bride and bridegroom. God and his messiah (who are one and thus attribution of these speeches may be interchangeable- a poetic device that can allude to two things at the same time on different levels) is the bridegroom, according to Christian tradition. According to Jewish tradition, the Bridegroom is simply God. For the Christian the bride is the ecclesia, the church, the congregation of believers and for Jew likewise, except it is the congregation of believers as Israel, God’s elect, who is always personified as female. Early Christians had even seen the bride as Mary Magdalene, but it was later more common to see the bride as the Virgin Mary. And those early Christian traditions which were not Gnostic, who interpreted the bride as Mary Magdalene, they furthermore interpreted the bridegroom as specifically God only. Gnostics would have interpreted the bridegroom solely as Christ. In the Noachite traditions of Adam ben Japeth, all aspects applied as the bride and the bridegroom subsume all interpretations and are multifaceted in themselves, and being Noahites taught by Jewish Syrian Indians who were Syrian Christian friendly they would have also charitably took in Radha Krishna into the equation as well.
And here we see like the later Song of the Bride which comes later out from the climate this song’s tradition and interpretations amongst Jews and Christians and others had set, reveals a head to toe description of the divine form of God within this sacred amor of bride and bridegroom duality interchange. This toe to head depiction, as I have already made mention, is also in the depictions of Radha and Krishna and reversed as head to toe within the Persian traditions and the Song of the Bride.
It is interesting that Lady Wisdom in the Song of Songs is associated with a tower, a migdol, as Mary Magdalene is too as Magdalene is a translation of migdol. Magdalene thus actually means tower. This tower feature also features in the cult of the Virgin, also in the traditions of various saints such as St Barbara, the patron of soldiers, stonemasons and soldier monks like the Templars and others. Some of them would have no doubt known of St Barbara and her tower that she was rescued from. And to add to this we have Rapunzel in the land of fairy lore too. Here we have a meeting between the spiritual theme of the conjugal mystical tradition ancient and modern with storyland symbolism in the realm of traditional tales and of itself related to the Sophia-Lady Wisdom Sheba in this ancient Hebrew love song.
In the nose section of the toe to head depiction, the nose faces towards Damascus, the Syrian capital. This Syrian capital was a place wherein the scents of the sweet spices of divine love of India, could well have passed through as it was on the trade route linking the near east to the Far East. Conversely, the sweet scent of bhakti love of India could have also come from the scents of this place in times mysterious and ancient. It is within later Syrian Christianity where we see such resemblances to Indian bhakti. Not only that but if her nose is associated here with Damascus, then what about that vital organ above it, the brain, the seat of the wisdom tradition itself, where would this be situated, north of Damscus, which would lead further east towards Persia and India on the Silk Road? This is a tantalising speculation on some inner historical transmission of wisdom in the ancient near east BC being alluding to in subtle poetic metaphor-matter. The head of the cult of God love could be those regions wherein the cult of love spread on one side to India, to another Europe, the land of the Troubadours and their love chess in their service of the love of the Lady.
In this sacred love text love of all levels material and spiritual is set in an example of the Supreme Soul for the loved one, God. Thus, the soul of souls, the Song of Songs teaches the others how to love God. It has a great place within the church devotional traditions in the grounds of the Academy of Raphael. And this church conducts great singing and dancing, like in certain infamous and clouded from historical view places of Medieval Christendom, certain monasteries wherein the song and dance, the bliss and joyful love of the Maria-Sophian-Christ reverberating, was eclipsed. This church within the akashic grounds of Adam, was appendixed also to a great monastery too, for those who desired the contemplative life of devotion and piety. And this monastery had a most curious abbot indeed, for it was Friar Took himself, from the jolly Greenwood days, more of which we shall see.
The God of the Israelites is in this song loved by Lady Wisdom, Mary Magdalene, Sheba, the Shekinah, the Congregation as Israel, as Church, Sophia and the daughters of Lady Zion not to mention Lady Zion herself. Lady Wisdom therein is the Hebrew understanding of what in India is known as Radha. What is also amazing in all these strong parallels is that there are 27 singular addresses to God as ‘my beloved’ by Lady Zion Wisdom here and a further 5 more singular mentions, ‘your beloved’, by Lady Wisdom’s associates, the Daughters of Zion. Thus we see 32 (27 + 5) therein in this special intimate way, like in the Syrian Thomasite traditions’ 32 in the Song of the Bride. Furthermore, if one can also remember there are the 27 squares covered by the queen in the centre pavilion of the board, which we have seen in relation to the inner kabalistic understanding of chess as found in the Noachite Christian kabala of Adam ben Japeth. 27 is also the number of the points on the backside of the cube of Christ and also the number of points on the front side of the cube of 4x4, as we have seen already in the discussions about the cubes of Christ and Mary in relation to Christian and Templar architectural traditions. There are thus 32 addresses of the souls love for God in the Song of Solomon! Added to this are the 4 plural terms of the beloved, thus fourfoldness is the setting within which the 32 play out their token speeches of love. This number pattern in this Biblical text is thus in harmony with the numbers found in chess too and also the Syrian Song of the Bride and also the Radha Krishna traditions with sources in Syrian Christian places in South India.
Furthermore what is of interest is that the singular term ‘my beloved’, ‘dodi’, which appears 32 times, is linked to the Hebrew term ‘ra-ya’ which God uses in addressing Lady Wisdom 9 times. Ra ya comes from the root r'h which variously means ‘friendship’ ‘companion’ ‘to pasture’ ‘shepherd’ ‘to delight in someone special’. Thus the very most intimate names directed by God to Lady Wisdom and vice versa, dodi and raya have within them by combination those sounds found within the name of Krishna’s lover Radha. What is even of further interest is that the Hebrew name for God being pleased and delighted in those who serve Him, those whom He has graciously favored, received and become friends with is ratzah, usually transliterated as rāsạ̄h. This is a Hebrew sounding equivalent of the Sanskrit sound ‘rasa’! There is another word however resembling ‘rasa’ and this one indicates the wicked and evil tendencies to go away from God into multiplicity, away from unity, away from God’s Divine Law, His Dharma. And yet another word resembling ‘rasa’ is ros which indicates head, chief, or the unity principle which gathers the special together. The chief or centre of the hierarchy of the Baptist cult and the cult of whoever’s founder is refered to in regards to a head, including the Templars. In a sense this is what Radha is as she groups together as the chief or head of her sakhis, her Gopis, a head or chief. And this is also what Mary Magdalene is as the head or chief of the apostles in the Gospel traditions. This word also actually means ‘head’ too, adding credibility to all this, also and thus relates to Sophia, the head of wisdom, which is also found in the Zohar and found encoded within that name associated with the Templars, baphomet. All these words closely resemble the Sanskrit rasa. Thus, the Divine love of Godhead in its most intimate Biblical depths contains the exact same sounds as found in ‘Radha’ not intentionally but by cosmic chance of a universal tradition expressing itself through humans on different sides of the globe and as things which resonate upon harmonious frequency relate also in sound vibration. For orthodox Krishna worshippers, all this would constitute evidence that the Biblical conjugal tradition was derived from the universal Radha Krishna tradition of ancient times, which had become eclipsed and re-emerged by the mercy of Lord Chaitanya in recent times. And for Syrian Christians it could constitute evidence of the influence of Syrian Christianity upon the bhakti traditions. No doubt there will be other ways of seeing this too. And rasa also appears in meaning and concept as the r’h from which ra ya comes can also mean ‘to delight’ resembling rāsạ̄h which resembles rasa as we have seen.
Thus even as ancient as the Bible we get amor tying up with one of those important numbers, 32. And even here we see a further tie with India’s Radha Krishna tradition in phonetic equivalence and resemblence which also shares shades of similar meanings. This song of Scripture is also divided into 8 chapters in the King James Version!
The wisdom of Thomas links to Krishna, whose name is so evocative of the Ethiopian name of Christ, Kristos. The name Krishna is a special name consisting of ‘Krish’ and ‘na’. Krish means the Supreme All Attractive principle, the magnetic principle within all and ‘na’ means the Supreme Blissfulness, the Supreme Joy of all in that contact. Krishna is the ananda or bliss of the Vedantic trinity of sat or existence, chit or consciousness and ananada or bliss or joy. Although He is also existence and consciousness especially in Chaitanya whose name actually means consciousness which incarnates the supreme consciousness of Krishna, the Bliss we are all apart of.
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Post by Bhakta Dharma on Jul 8, 2008 5:50:47 GMT -6
THE TEMPLE OF JAGANNATHA.
In regards to the chess number, 16, we see that inside the temple of Lord Jagannatha, where Chaitanya dwelled many times in ectasy, the main and royal offering is one of which consists of 16 articles of worship. Inside the temple of Lord Jagannatha, there is in the dance and audience hall, the jagamohan or nata mandira with 8 pillars and between these another different pillar singled out and called the Garuda pillar. This pillar is devoted to Lord Vishnu’s great Eagle who is His air vehicle, Garuda, who features within the Indian chess game pieces as what was that Indian version of that piece in Persia which via the Arabs came to us as a rook in our chess. In our chess game, the rook is also a pillar.
Surrounding the temple of Jagannatha are also 8 other buildings dedicated to the various deity servants and associates of Jagannatha. On either side are temples dedicated to the sun god, either side has temples dedicated to the Goddessess Vimala and Laxmi. Next to the Laxmi temple is one dedicated to the goddess Sarasvati Gayatri, brahmas wife. Sarasvati and Brahma are the Indian Sarah and Abraham as the two names are evidence of each other as a common stream.
These five temples of the inner courtyard of the temple of Jagannatha at the centre, are graced by a water play area next to that of a sacred pond of Rohini, Krishna’s brother Balarama’s mother. Thus we have seven sacred sections of the inner courtyard and this is made 8 when we add the final part of the Mukti Mandapa which is where the inner council of Temple authorities meet who number under 16 groups. Thus we see then that the features of 8 and 16 feature thus in this way in the temple of Lord Jagannatha.
Jagannatha is Natha or ‘Lord’ of the Jaga or the ‘world’ or ‘universe’. His form is also black and beautiful, a comely form most indeed. He is the beloved of many hearts steeped in Vedic wisdom, philosophy, ritual, dance, drama, poetry, art, music, architecture, oracles, story, sculpture etc etc.
Indian philosophy or wisdom, India’s Sophia, comes in the form of a rectangular-oval shaped black head, with a red smiling mouth and large round white unblinking eyes with the body of a pillar or bust, based on sacred descriptions drawn from the visions of the wise in traditions old and new. And he is dressed in various veshas, or dresses, corresponding to all the descriptions of the Divine incarnate found in the Puranic tradition. Dressed in these veshas of flowers, crowns and garments of various designs he thus reveals his divinity and how that he is immanant within all of India’s major religious traditions and yet transcends them at the same time. He appears as Ganesh, as each one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu (which are also ten subsects of the Vaishnava faith) such as Vamanadev, Narasimha, and there is a Kurma Deity sub sect of Vaishnavas towards the south of his land. Some see Jagannatha as Shiva, some as even Kaali, the Goddess Herself. He is thus an abstract form which even contains both male and female. He is mainly according to tradition, Purusottama Krishna, the spiritual side of Love Divine, which has a material counterpart in Cupid, or Kama dev, the God of Love. Thus Jagannatha’s cult is of significance to this Troubadorian matter of chess too, as we shall see further.
Moreover Jagannatha’s form is actually of a three, four and five fold aspect. There are the three main and large and central deities of the faith, but they are standing next to a pillar, considerably and stylistically quite different than them. And added to this as a small offshoot we have the large Jagannatha set between two much smaller deities by his side, one of Krishna, another of Laxmi. A little look at Jagannatha’s philosophical side herein will deepen this subject herein towards the levels it represents.
Jaganatha is the primary deity, and indicates the transcendental source of all beyond matter, beyond universes. His separate and related form next to him on the main altar in his temple is his own brother and co-existence, his side Deity Baladeva, or Balabhadra, or Sankarshana, to his right. Baladev represents the plane of the spiritual within matter, within the universe and the skeleton of support it hangs on, on those higher laws and categories on the edges of the known and unknown universes and all their creations, the underlying spiritual strength and support of creation. Another expansion of Jagannatha, which is manifested through this expansion Baladeva, on Jagannatha-Baladev’s left, is Subhadra Durga-Devi, the Goddess of the universe whose domain is the husks and forms of all matter, based upon the laws and inner design of Jagannatha as Baladeva, whom we have just seen. Thus we have a Trinitarian conception which parallels the Christian concept of trinity as understood by the church of Jacob Boeheme and certain Pietist Christians. It also matches the Kabalistic trinity of wisdom, or Jagannatha, black and comely, associated with love and as we shall see, gold. Next in the Zoharic and kabalitic trinity we have understanding, or Baladeva, the plane below divine wisdom and love. Then there is the outer side of wisdom or knowledge, or body of knowledge, Subhadra, who is in a sense central and the actual creator of all these three forms in a visual way so in fact the underlying truths of wisdom and understanding in the spiritual sense, can be depicted. And this matches also the Christian Trinitarian alchemical truth also as attested by the writings of Jacob Boehme, as well as the Christian Trinitarian tradition in essence, albeitly with differences too. But a strong similarity in all this is that the Father, Jagannatha, has a next primary expansion who is all things, like Christ, Baladeva, associated with the plough, with the earth, with dying and resurrecting of life in other words. Not only that but the final aspect of the Christian trinity is also depicted as female, the Holy Spirit, the dove, and thus the connecting link between Father and Son. This too is represented in a way in the figure of the female Subhadra, who stands as the bridge here between Jagannatha Father and Baladeva Son, but here in the Jagannatha tradition mainly brother and brother with sister. Thus the similar truths found in the Christian Trinitarian concept found in another key here in India. In a way thus reflects certain Judeo Christian wisdom in history too, as Sophian thought was in the proceeding times BC sandwiched between the previous monotheistic Supreme Father God age, giving way to reveal the son of God, Logoic age. Thus Sophia, Lady Wisdom of the Bible does indeed stand as in a central position to two brother traditions.
This threefold Trinitarian ideal of spiritual love and wisdom, understanding and knowledge Divine, of transcendence, immanence and the forms this takes, is the central and major tradition, which supports the Jagannatha tradition here by the sea. And thus this tradition stands as a metaphor of form, in song, poetry, in this three form expansion by the sea, a sea port with access to a wider world, here at Jagannatha Puri in the times of the Troubadours and Knights Templar and also of the trade of the Levantine. The lands of the alchemical rose, the ship builders and people of Venetian trades and commerce, could have hid and transmitted things of great import, overseas, for in the times of the Templars, the sea folk of Viennese chivalric connections had links with south India seaports.
This is the main Deity worshiped at Puri, a three fold Vishnu Krishna, Baladeva Sankarshan and Devi Subhadra form of universal tattva, representing three tattvas, or truths of creation, which is all upon the support of the pillar. Is this the antediluvian Enochian pillar too? Jagannatha of course is the highest tattva and represents the transcendental plateau above and beyond the real of all the universes and their outer forms, which is also immananet in all and pokes through into this realm of the Jagan. It is also the plateau of spiritual love and bliss, the abode of love too, the love side of the transcendental immanance, as Baladeva is the lower and powerful and ruling side of this transcendental immanance of love. Subhadra is the abode and formful side, the garments and dresses, the ornaments of this spiritual truth tradition of love. She is the substance of the drama, the Divine Play, the lila, which echoes through times from lands misty and near sea port. She is the forms of the charcters, their dress, their props, and thus clothes their speech, the logos which comes from the inner human heart and mind, soul and spirit, of both sides detached and experiencing this play of form. This is one way of looking at this multiform fold form of Black Wisdom by the sea, it is the trinitarian aspect which stands next to a pillar, the unity, the One. In fact in some rituals to do with Jagannatha, those ancient companions of chess play, dice, were used to indicate the dance, the play of all this creative tattva, on various differing levels. More on this elsewhere though. The Jagannatha tradition is simultaneously a trinity and a quaternity, which co-exists together. Thus Jagannatha appears twice, one as the smiling blissful black, red and white multi vesh form parallel to his immediate expansions and also appears in a more abstract and geometrical and less human shaped sacred pillar form upon which is a sacred geometrical mandala design called Sudarshana. This is worshipped to the left hand side of Jagannatha, the others are to his right hand side. Thus as three are similar, one is different, and is a further extension of the one and is included to.
We thus have a three and one and a three and four fold facet of tattva conjoined. Exactly like the Kabalistic and other such lore which teaches of the Holy Name, the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, which is the symbol of devotion of the Hebrews. For this too is a threefold form, a name consisting of three letters, one repeated twice.This three letters, with one repeated twice tradition, thus making a sacred four is the most sacred name in the Torah, the five books of Moses, and it is sacred to Christians and Jews. In Jagannatha terms this would be Jagannatha-Vishnu-Krishna appearing as the letter He of the Tetragrammaton does, twice. The two fold appearance of Jagannatha is thus one as his smiling blissful black- white and red form, the other, his brother Baladeva in his blue and white form. Between them both they contain the colour of all phases of the sky above, the heavens from the perspective of earth. Thus there is the blue and white of the day sky and the blackness of the night sky which supports the stars. In his form of the pillar Sudarshana with its abstract sacred geometrical aspect, which is one of his attributes associated with creation, Jagannatha here would compare to the Hebrew letter yod of the tetragrammaton. And this would leave the Hebrew letter vav, which indeed being the also kabalistically associatedf with the six days of the multicreation of forms, would be quite fitting Subhadra.
And to cap all this, this multi tattva form of the essence of the creation sits upon the Ratna Vedi, which in the Vedic understanding of Jagannatha is indeed the four Vedas, the scriptures personified as a jewelled foursquare throne. This could parallel that the sacred tetragrammaton sits upon the Torah which are actually five books rather than four as is the number commonly classed as making up the Vedas. But there is an ancient tradition that all other commentaries and later tradition set down in texts constitute the fifth Veda, so really there are five Vedas. And in asnese the last book of the Torah, Deuteronomy, is actually a commentary ad recap on what went on in the previous four and in a sense by this is separated apart. This could be furthermore linked in that the Ratna Vedi has four sides of the four Vedas, and one surface, thus in this way one may see the actual five Vedas of the wider Indian tradition. Thus in all essential details there is a mathematical and structural harmony between the Judaic Torah tradition of the Tetragrammaton and the Jagannatha tradition too as well as the Christian Trinitarian tradition. The numbers, three, four and five are the bases in all cases.
The Jagannatha tradition expresses itself within five tattvas also, there are of course the three Deities, who are all really Jagannatha, the Sudarshana Pillar and the Ratna Vedi throne upon which they sit. There are also the various sets of Pancha, or five categories, which are of great importance also to the tradition. Jagannatha is enthroned upon a land wherein there are five tirthas or sacred places. In later tradition he has five chief devotees, the Pancha Sakhas, who are His friends and each embody five tattvic principles. They are considered by some to be Krishna’s five chief friends incarnate. They are five main rivulets of the devotional wisdom tradition of Jagannatha’s land, Jagannatha Puri, commonly referred to as Puri, and these are embodied in this various five friends of Lord Krishna incarnate as servants and devotees of Lord Jagannatha in the 1400 through to the 1500 period, when Europe was going through its Hermetical, Kabalistic and Alchemical Rennaisance. The sacred number five is thus of much importance within the traditions of Jagannatha, and this also features within the categories of the various numbers and limbs of the ritualistic system of his temple worship. It also features in the land of Puri as well in the five tirthas, or parts of this sacred religious complex.
And the tradition of Chaitanya, the golden incarnation of the black beautiful God of love, Jagannatha, is a main river of the Jagannatha tradition. It arose in the time period just after these Pancha Sakhas, which ran parallel to it too as this Chaitanya and thus Jagannatha tradition extended within Bengal as well as Vrindaban, Krishna’s holy birthplace in north India. Vrindaban as a pilgrimage site was just developing at the time when Chaitanya was in Puri, where he was lost in a trance, dancing and performing congregational dancing and chanting the Holy Name of Jagannatha Krishna, whilst being as his secret beloved source and self, Krishna himself. But Krishna also incarnate with a strange twist, almost as a homage to a spiritual goddess tradition, for he was Jagannatha-Krishna incarnate, in the mood of Krishna’s female consort Radha, experiencing her love for Krishna.
THE TEMPLE OF LOVE OF THE EAST, CUPID AND KRISHNA.
Lord Jagannatha, and His associates Sri Balabhadra or Baladeva and Lady Subhadra. Three facets of the Absolute Truth, along with a pillar named Kalachakra, are the summon bonum of the Absolute Truth of the Indian religious and philosophical traditions.
Here is Jagannatha;
Here is Baladeva;
Here is Lady Subhadra;
Here they are together as usually depicted;
Insert pictures or simplified beautiful illustrations.
Note how they, along with their pillar are a four fold revelation of Absolute truth and each sits upon not only the ratnavedi or throne in the Temple, but also on a Ratha Cart, which is also another fourfold structure. Here we see figured in their wooden forms and descriptive symbolism a three and a one, them and their pillar, and here indeed the pillar actually figures as a one;
Insert picture of pillar.
Their Temple too is based, like Churches and Cathedrals on the figure of the human being, feet, legs, thighs, chest, head as the shrine etc. It is based upon architectural designs steeped in an in depth mystical, magical and religious tradition, complete with a treasure chest of texts and oral traditions.
This Indian tradition of Jagannatha is thus a tradition of a three and one surrounded by a temple whose design is based on spiritual principles. In this bare outline of three and one, and the fourfold principle we see a comparison with the Temple of King Solomon. For at the centre of the Temple of Solomon is the Holy Name of God, the Tetragrammaton, which is actually a three and one making four array also. There are actually three letters in this name but one of hem is repeated twice. In the traditions of Jagannatha the form of the pillar is associated with Vishnu and so is actually Lord Jagannatha Himself too. Thus Vishnu repeats Himself twice and all in all is three; Vishnu-Krishna-Jagannatha as one, Baladeva-Shankarshana-Shiva as two and Lady Subhadra-Shakti-Devi-Durga as three and the pillar being either Shiva or Vishnu or Devi repeated twice according to ones perception. This three and one is thus found in both Temple traditions of the east and the west and both are also associated with the trades of seas and ports too.
Jagannatha Krishna is blackish and beautiful, like the sacred Bride of the Bridegroom in Solomon’s song. In the Song of Solomon there are the mention of the primary colours of the Jagannatha tradition, red, white, black and yellow (which is really golden). These are the colours also of alchemy.
Chapter 5; Song of Songs:
10) My beloved is white and ruddy, the chieftest amongst ten thousand.
11) His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.
Thus in order herein, white, red, gold and black, associated with the Divine just as these colours are in the Jagannatha traditions. It is interesting to note how Baladeva or Sankharshan in the Jagannatha trinity in quaternity is white and red and is associated with Ananata Vasudeva and Seshs Naga whose countless hoods are indeed in thousands and many more. ‘Chieftest amongst thousands’ in verse 10 of the Song of Songs indicates a central point amidst pervading multiplicity just as Narayana is amongst the Shesha Naga serpent god of support. The rest of the chapters verse which follow these two verses of divine colour are also interesting.
12) His eyes are the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.
13) His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies. Dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
14) His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
15) His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebabnon, excellent as the ceders.
16) His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
One can see many comparisons in these verses with the Jagannatha tradition. The washing with milk and water is part of the Jagannatha deity worship. Lilies are the equivalent of lotuses and Jagannatha and co are greatly associated with various numbering systems of petals of the lotuses. Myrrh and spices are part of the incense and food offerings (spices) to Jagannatha, and Jagannatha and co are always associated with other flowers. Gold, beryl, ivory and sapphires also adorn Jagannatha and company and indeed the three Deities of Puri are actually set on stumps or pillars and they are associated with a pillar Sudarshan too. And here this eulogy of Godhead by Lady Wisdom in the Song of Songs associates Him also with the ceder trees of Lebanon. Jagannatha and His folk there in the centre of his elaborate Temple, rituals and stories is also associated with trees as they are all made of wood. Lady Wisdom, the Bride here also associates love in two modes here, one as conjugal by use of the word beloved and the other friendship, which is indeed the two most sacred relationships with Jagannatha-Krishna and His Brother Balarama-Baladev. Thus it all ties up, simultanoeulsy one and different.
The traditions of devotion, of love, which are found specific to the Jagannatha tradition are those of Krishna. They are also those of the Chaitanya tradition which is one major branch of the Jagannatha tradition. Let us take a look more closely at the Jagannatha-Krishna tradition, which was in Puri before the Chaitanya period. This is Puri’s old testament period so to speak.
First we must look at the aspect of Jagannatha which took within it a curious branch of the Krishna tradition. This is the tradition of the Vedic Purusha, or Divine Person. In the early Upanisads, the terms Purusha and Purusottama are found along with the terms Atman and Brahman. It is used in Upanisadic tradition in the sense of a personal and impersonal Brahman, as we as referring to an individual person or the individual soul within each person. It is an important stamen if the wisdom of the older Upanisads, which later became eclipsed by the popularity of the terms Brahman and Atman, the more common staples of later Vedanta. It survived however within the tradition of Jagannatha. Other terminologies in the Vedantic Upanisadic tradition which entwine with the Purusha, Brahman and Atman are also the Jiva, usually considered the individual soul and Ishvara concerning the aspect of the Universal Person as Lord. Sometimes Ishvara would refer to kings and can refer to Christ the King, Yeshua, Ishaya too. Ishvara is the Indian Yeshua-Joshua, which is the mystical and inner geometrical kingship allegory of the Hebrew’s salvation both as a nation and as a spiritual and inner state or level of attainment.
Purusha was earlier on a more pervasive term referring to the same things as Brahman, Ishvara, Atman and Jiva. It was later restricted in the Sankyha schools of wisdom to the meaning of individual soul only. In this particular popular Sankhya tradition of the day, the ultimate truth was simply a plurality of perfected souls. This place of plurality as Divinity was thus the abode of the purushas. This over emphasis on individuality as divinity in and of itself was a reason why Purusha as a term of the Divine Universal and Personal was eclipsed. This along with the fact that standard Vedanta preferred the terms Brahman and Atman, the schools of Nyaya and Yoga preferred Ishvara and Jiva (Jiva-also like the sankhya purush, an individual soul, but usually qualified by an individual under a higher force rather than established in the plural divine as individual perfected god) contributed to its multi valent original use. But the cult of Jagannatha preserved its original multi forms as it was like other groups of the Vaishnava tradition. It was first in the camps of the Vaishnavas who were also steeped in the Vedanta that it got released from it’s Sankhya restrictions and came to be extended into the name Purusottama as standing for the Divine sarguna (with qualities) and nirguna (without qualities) Brahman, rather than individual soul deified and alone. It was devotedly focused on in the Jagannatha tradition and Jagannatha Purusottama is the essence of the Krishna as Jagannatha and Jagannath as Krishna tradition, of which the Chaitanya branch of mainly Bengal, is one of the main branches. Thus Purusha also remains remembered as the Purusottama, the highest Atman, the Supreme Person, the Godhead with personal qualities, similar to how the Atman becomes the Para-atman, the Supreme Atman. Paramatman is another of those Vedantic categories of great significance too and is linked in the Bhagavad Gita with Purusha too.
In the earlier Vedic tradition of the fire sacrifice there was the Purusa Sukta, the famous Rig Vedic hymn to the universal person acting as the supreme sacrifice. In other words God has sacrificed Himself, a bit like the Crucifixion tradition. As Vishnu, an aspect of the Divine associated some way with the sun or a gateway through it within Vedic tradition, is more and more associated with the sacrifice of the Veda, He thus in turn crosses over into the understanding of the Purusha Sukta. Thus the Vedic hymn survives as the great text within Vaishnava or Vishnu worshipping traditions since times BC in India. The Purusha has always been seen as Vishnu according to them, since Rig Vedic times, later scholar argue that it was first the Purusha and the Vishnu concept was later added and the two blended. Thus Purusottama is a very honoured and ancient cult of Vishnu and as Jagannatha is Vishnu, thus also Jagannatha.
The original devotees of Vishnu worshipped Vishnu under the names Bhagavan and Vasudev. This Vaishnava tradition of Vishnu Purusha is very important to the Vaishnava tradition and was mainly cultivated in the lands of Thomasite Christianity, in south India, from which it spread upwards into Puri and other places in India, through different channels.
Related to this Purusha us the body of the Vishvarupa, or universal form which appears in this Rig Vedic hymn where the different parts of the earth and the universe are the limbs of this universal Purusha, who is the foundations of all sacrifice. Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, which is branch of the Upanisadic wisdom, reveals His universal Vishvarupa, and thus Vishnu is here as Krishna who is as the Rig Vedic Purusha. As Jagannatha is the Vishnu Purusha, who is also Krishna, naturally Jagannatha should be seen as some as simply another form of Krishna. To those who Krishna is all in all Jagannatha is Krishna and vice versa. And Krishna is Vishnu, which is commonly accepted by all Vaishnavas and Krishna worshippers and sects.
The Purusottama Vishnu is seen by Vaishnavas as being an aspect of Vishnu, one of Vishnu’s many qualities, names and forms. Purusottama Vishnu was worshipped in it’s own right as say Madhava Vishnu, who was a Vishnu form popular in those regions near Jagannatha too at some stage. Jagannatha however is specifically seen as the Purusottam Vishnu, right from the very start. In fact the first uses of the term Jagannatha indicating a Deity worshipped comes out from this Vishnu Purusottama emphasis in various Puranic literatures, where their sections have been put into separate texts, weaved and elaborated on, called Purusottama Mahatmyas. These are central key texts for the Jagannatha tradition, especially after the later 1000s and early 1100s onwards, when the tradition became promoted as one of India’s main tradition, one amongst a certain limited number, usually four.
It was the Yatra, chariot festival of Purusottama, by the sea shore, refered to in the work Anargharaghava. Wrote by the dramatist Murari estimated by different scholar to be anywhere in the period between 900 and 1135 AD. Herein Purusottam is described as being in a temple by the sea shore and is of a dark blue bodily colour, which is the colour of wisdom, of Vishnu, of Krishna. This colour is said to resemble that of a blue sapphire, which we have seen mentioned also in the Song of Songs just before. This poet dramatist mentions how this sapphire blue Purusottama resides on the shore of the salt ocean in loving sporting pastimes with Kamala His consort, upon whose breasts He draws patterns with musk paste. Presumably these patterns are the geometric designs which underly the creation. The breasts of this Lady Wisdom resemble pitchers, which are vessels, like the Grail in a sense. He is dark blue like the Tamal tree, like Krishna, and He is this blue sapphire as a jewel which is at the crown or placed on the forehead of the entire creation of the three worlds. This court poet and dramatist mentions this Deity by the sea shore being took on His chariot parades by His worshippers. He thus refers to the ancient tradition of Purusottam Vishnu by the sea shore in what later came to be known as Puri. And he indicates that right from this time period, which was the time period just before the tradition of Jagannatha arose in fame under King Chodagangadeva, who is credited with building Jagannatha’s new Temple, the Temple we are all familiar with ever since, Purusottama is associated with a conjugal tradition.
Another early tradition attests in stone inscription that a son of Sarasvati, cursed to take birth on earth, re-enetered the heaven he had fallen down from, through the salt ocean by the side of Purusottama. Thus the waters of the Goddess are in a sense the ends of wisdom and the vehicle through which true and humble jnana, or knowledge, is attained. It is by the sea shore that this fallen son of the Goddess of learning, Damodara, gets a vision of Purusottam and only through this attains the qualifications to return back to heaven. This baptismal like turn from grace and return by aid of water is as a result not only of his pride, but also because he offended Brhaspati, the priest of the gods. He is restored back to grace as the son of the goddess of learning, Sanskrit alphabet and wisdom once again. This story found on an inscription elsehwre in India, in the neighbouring state to Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, in the Maihar district attests to the fame of the Purusottama temple by the sea shore in the middle of the tenth century. In a certain sense then Purusottama Vishnuism by the sea was Jagannathaised especially when in the time period of the building of the present temple of Jagannatha in Puri under the king Chodaganagadeva (ruled. 1077-1147), his son Anangabhimadeva (ruled. 1190-1198) and the son of this son Rajarajadeva (ruled. 1198-1211). Thus the tradition of Purusottama Vishnu changing into Jagannatha Purusottama arose from the same time period, which was also the time of the Templars and the Troubadours, the first stirrings of the rose.
The Saradatilaka of Laksmana Desika of Kashmir, wrote anywhere in that time period towards the end of the 900s through to the early 1000s. It is a hugely popular manuscript found in both Bengal and Orissa, its fame parallels Chaitanya’s fame in those self same regions, but almost half a century earlier. It is a great Tantric work which deals at length with Purusottama Vishnu and His consort Laxmi, who we have seen also in Murali, the dramatists’s example in regards to Jagannatha Puri by the sea. This text is mainly about the esoteric science and meanings and rules etc of the Indian Puja, worship of the images of Godhead in the various temples. It’s section on Vishnuite Deities gathers them together under three forms, Purusottama, Narasimha (Vishnu’s half man-lion Deity) and Vishnu. Under the Purusottama category of Deity it mentions four types. Those of Trailokyamohana, Sridhara, Krishna and Kama. These are all the amorous qualities of Vishnu. Narasimha is the furious qualities of the Deity which destroys evil and the Vishnu are the rest of the incarnations Rama, Hayagriva, Vamandev, Varaha, which make up the other incarnations of Vishnu. But Krishna is in a separate category in the Vaishnava tradition in this Tantric tradition. Sridhar is Vishnu as the consort of Laxmi or Sri. Trailokyamohana, one whose mohan, illusion of love bewilders the three worlds, tri loka. Krishna is the beloved of the milk maids, the gopis, who are facets of the souls on the highest mystical love level. And Kama is Cupid the god of love, whose influences the Troubadours and western tradition were also familiar, not to mention all the great love stories of mortals of yore. Thus Purusottama is the fount of India’s conjugal love tradition and has all sides of love both spiritual and mundane covered herein, including that which is also found in the realm of the rose, in the form of Cupid. Cupid spans east and west in both’s literary traditions. This rising tradition of Purusottama as Sridhar-Cupid-Krishna-Trailokyamohan was also at a time when Vajrayana Buddhism was contemplating its female facets of love beauty and wisdom, bliss and other such nectarean subject matters. Thus Vishnu had His forms which dwelt with such female personifications of blissful wisdom and all her facets in the various forms. Thus each of these Purusottama aspects of the conjugal side of Vishnu was accompanied with various consorts representing stages; levels; expansions etc of them. This was a similar thing happening within Vajrayana Buddhism also and both parallel each other. Vajrayana Buddhism was found at nearby places of Lalitagiri and Ratnagiri. Lalita’s name is so similat to Lilith that we can almost see that Kali, Lilith and Lalita indicate some lila or play herein.
In the Krishna tradition Kama or Cupid is actually the son of Krishna, Pradyumna, and thus spiritual love of God, Krishna, is on a higher plateau than that of cupid, or the love of male and female in the creation, whether of gods-godessess or great kings and queens, princes and princesses. This is mentioned in the Bhagavat Purana, a central text of the many Krishna traditions. Pradyumna is also the name of one of Vishnu’s chief fourfold expansions, along with Vasudev, Sankarsan and Aniruddha, names of the Divinity of Vishnu in the highest. In these Krishna Viashnava tradition Mohani was the female form who enchanted the gods and demons of the three worlds out of the pot of nectar, their grail, when the demons had finally captured it. Of course the gods were finaly happy and the demons were not. Thus the mohan side of Trailokyamohan, is akin the spouse of Mohini- in a certain sense a Mohan and Mohini.
Though dividing Vishnu into these various forms of Purusottama, Narasimha and Vishnu, it doesn’t mean that the conjugal element was only associated with Purusottam, although this was largely the case. No. The sacred eros and conjugal nature was to a certain degree also found in the cult of Narasimha, where in certain regions He was worshipped with Laxmi as His consort as after all He is Vishnu. The cult of Narasimha was popular in the Jagannatha regions too, and part of the Narasimha traditions cross over into Jagannatha worship, especially in regards to certain rituals.
In this Saradatilaka mention is made of meditating upon Trailokyamohan as having Laxmi tightly embraced on his lap, where She has a lotus in Her left hand and Her lovely face is described. In some commentaries Trailokyamohan has His eyes rolling due to intoxication from liquor. This form of conjugal eros on the highest levels of inner creation is to be meditated upon as within a pavilion made of jewels, a mandapa, with four decorated doorways. The Divine couple are seated under a kalpavrksa tree and surrounded by various flower beds, dancing peacocks and singing cukoos. They in this posture are sat on the back of their Divine eagle carrier Garuda within a red lotus flower. Thus within this red flower, the eastern rose, the essence of love is enshrined and worshipped with mantras and gives out the particular blessings in association with love, spiritual as well as mundane. Their sacred diagramme for meditational focus and contemplation is an eight petalled lotus, with them at the centre and with each petal as one of eight female attendants in this particular aspect of Vishnu amor. In the centre is wrote a special manta and on the eight leaves
Are the names of these eight facets or female attendants of this conjugal essence. Also eight various weapons are mentioned too in relationship to each of these eight qualities, which qualities of the active and protective side to this spiritualisation of love and blessing of love mundane simultaneously. This aspect of conjugal Vishnu Purusottama is also worshipped with moon flowers (sasiprasuna- could be lilies or jasmine according to some), red lotuses, the flower karavira, bel fruits, twigs of asvatta in the attendant fire sacrifice which stands at the centre of this worship.
Srikara worship is of a more regnal and universal love worship, where at the centre of the eight petalled lotus, upon which stand the four fold aspects of Vishnu in His most majestic and regnal (Vasudev, Aniruddha, Sankarsan, Pradyumna) and their consorts. Within the centre of this lotus He stands with His four armed form, carrying his club or mace, chakra or disc, His lotus and His conch shell. And He is worshipped with milk, rice, clarified butter (ghee), durva grass, lotus petals soaked in ghee amongst other things.
Kamadev, Cupid is worshipped as a red youth with four arms, like Vishnu of whom he is a part, within each one is a goad to attract and pull all and direction them in the play of love, a bow made of sugarcane whose sting is thus so sweet and whose after effects makes one ill. Another of his four hands holds the flower arrows he shoots with his arrow and the other a noose with which he binds all in love. He is meditated as being within a lotus with an inner circle of eight and an outer of sixteen petals or qualities or female consorts. His consorts on the inner petals are actually two associated with each petal and thus sixteen in total are actuall associated with the inner eight. And in regards to the outer of sixteen there are another set of female consorts, whose names and qualities are composed of adjectives and nouns. They all different shades and degrees, aspects of the game of love. There are thus thirty two composed of two sets of eight and one set of sixteen in total. Thus we see here all of the important chess numbers featuring in the mandalic array of the rays and spokes of the wheel of love. This geometric flower visualisation of love’s qualities of Kama dev matches also the same structure when one meditates upon Subhadra, who stands in between Jagannatha and Baladev on the altar at Puri. Subhadra is meditated upon as being surrounded by these various eight and sixteen qualities with minor differences and many similar names used. Both the mystical diagramme of contemplation of Subhadra and that of Kama are built, despite their slight variants as on the same portal of contemplative meditation and ritual. However research has determined that it is the Subhadra diagramme, which is based on and a variant on the earlier one of Kama. Now we shall come to that principle which Kama and Subhadra are subordinated, which is Purusottama as Krishna, that tradition which was fully developed by not only by Chaitanya, but also the nature of the Jagannatha tradition generally of which Chaitanya was a main branch.
In this meditation of Purusottama Krishna He is meditated upon in the centre of a star of David, around which is a ten petalled lotus. Krishna in this tradition is worshipped using mantras with various different syllables, as in the others also. These syllables of Krishna mantra in this worship are six sets of 6, 8, 10, 16, 18 and 32 syllables respectively. Jagannatha as Krishna in the temple at Puri, is worshipped with this text, with its elaborate and descriptive accounts on the beauty of Krishna’s form at the centre of this hexagonal and ten fold flower in the Saradatilaka. And yet Jagannatha is worshipped at the centre of an 8 petalled yantra (mystic diagramme), like the others and not a ten petaled around hexagon in Puri.
In the Purusottama tradition we thus see that the chess numbers are of import in this tradition of love of the east of the lotus.
The Purusottam tradition as found within Saradatilaka continued and there was meditations on the amor of Purusottama in Kesave Bhatta’s Kramdipika, wrote in the middle of the 1300s. It is a core text upon which all the ritual manuals of Jagannatha are based on. It’s eight patala or chapter deals with Purusottama Bhuvanamohana (another name of Trailokhyamohan as Bhuva also means loka or planet or world) and His erotic embrace with Laxmi sat upon His lap, clinging to Him in erotic sentiment which goes into some erotic details. He embraces Her with His left arm, She holds on with Her right hand side. His eyes are rolling and His embracing arm contains also a bow of sugarcane, which features usually with Kama. His heart in this sacred eros is in its highest stage of happiness. It is further mentioned hoe this Divine Pair are surrounded by not only the gods but also demons too, all who are drunk on love like they are drunk with liquor. To the author the worship of Purusottam is tied up mainly with Krishna, although ritualistically it is not so important. Also there is mention of a special ritual in regards to the worship of Krishna as Bhuvanamoha-Trailokyamohan for various material benefits associated with love in this world. The daily puja of Krishna as Gopijanavallabha, the darling of the Gopis is performed for otherworldy benefits in the service of love. Thus love both mundane and spiritual is associated with Krishna in these various forms. But the Trailokmohana Krishna is subordinate to the emphasis on Krishna as Gopijanavallabha. This reflected the growing popularity of the Krishna tradition at the time of which the Deity Jagannatha embodied more and more till the Krishna Kama Trailokhyamohan became a side ritual.
The other text which deals with this Krishna Purusottama tradition of amor, eros and amrta, nectar or bliss, ananda is the Gautamiya Tantram which was well focused upon by the early prolific authors and followers of Chaitanya of the first Chaitanya generation. Gopala Bhatta, a premier Chaitanya disciple and one of the famous six Goswami’s of Vrindaban also elaborates on when inspired by this Gautamiya Tantram Purusottama tradition in his Hari Bhakti Vilas composed in 1541. This Tantram text describes Trailokyamohan with the term Jagannatha specifically, and has Laxmi sat on His lap, in His embrace and so on, along with eight petals, eight weapons, rolling red eyes and eight arms to hold each of the weapons. Laxmi, sat on His lap is draped in yellow garments, embracing Him seductively and tightly in spiritual erotic emotions and glances. She is holding a flower in Her hand. This Gautamiya Purusottama Jagannatha tradition is also followed with certain alterations in a Tantric work of Bengal wrote by a Krishnananda Bhattacarya in his Tantrasara, where he describes this form of Jagannatha as Krishna’s sammohana aspect and prescribes a certain mantra as well, a mantra which is used in the worship of Jagannatha in His temple at Puri too.
Thus the Jagannatha temple is an abode of love, moreover an abode where love stands clearly associated with that numerical structure upon which also the play of chess rests.
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