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Shaivism - Concepts and symbols - Intelligence hierarchy and Great Work
Identifier
022479
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Shatapatha Brahmana, XII,7,3,20
Rudra lives in forests and jungles. He is called Pashupati, Lord of the wild beasts
Danielou, Alain – Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus – Living in harmony with the systems of the universe
Shiva's flock comprises all living beings, including man. The difference between beasts, men and gods is only one of role and level in a continuous hierarchy. The various aspects of being are present in varying degrees in all forms of existence. No god is without animality, no animal without humanity, no man without a part of divinity. Three components are distinguishable in all men:
- pati,
- pashu and
- pasha.
Those in whom the pati (master)element is dominant are the wise who are close to the gods, understand the rules of divine activity and creation, and take part in it. Men in whom the animal element predominates are called pashu (cattle).
The abstract element, pasha (bond or snare), expresses the unity and interdependence of all forms of life. Pasha, the bond, is the body of laws connecting the various elements of matter and living being bound up in creation.
There is no morality other than that of respecting the pasha, or bond, meaning the interdependence of the animal world, the divine and ourselves, and of realizing the place we occupy in the overall plan of the divine work, the affinities which bind us to the animal and vegetable species and the responsibilities which are implicated thereby.
Pasha may be defined as the natural law, which is divine law. All other moral law is only social convention, which can have no value on a universal level. All true morality must conform to these basic laws on which creation is founded. Social conventions established by human laws have nothing to do with religion. Wherever the influence of the Shiva-Dionysus cult has spread, great importance is given to the animal and vegetable world. This aspect of religious history seems often to have escaped modern scholars of the ancient world.
The source of the experience
ShaivismConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
DestinyFunction
Function dependency
Good and evil
Great Work, the
Higher spirit
Intelligence hierarchy
System