INTRODUCTION + POETRY + MUSIC + ESSAYS + TRAVEL + FICTION + TEXTILE ART
The Primordial Scene
Shiva, like Yaweh, is an unutterable name
Already at One-one we have
seven synonyms:
Siva
Agni
Raudra
Vastospati
The
Father
The Wild God
Raudra Brahman
"His presence is in these
words"
At the world's dawn
The black cow of cosmic night lies
With the ruddy cow of morning
The Father rapes his virgin
daughter
Agni (raudra brahman), the hunter, shoots his
arrow
The
Father, a frenzied foaming bull, runs
Spilling his seed upon the
ground
The daughter runs south.
Ripened by Agni, the progeny's
patter begins.
"Fire is a hunter."
It sustains and
destroys.
Vastospati,
Guardian of sacred order, lord of
vastu,
Guardian of the dwelling, site, house,
sacrifice
Manifests.
The fallen seed, the birth of humankind, the
poem
Begin
Howling
Engender form.
The rhythmic structure, the wild creation
The unnamed god evoke the
scene, consciousness
wakes. Time begins. Patter patter. Rhythm prevades the cosmos.
More synonyms, Om Namah: Rudra
Rudra-Siva, Father Heaven
Prajapati,
black antelope
Lord of Generation
The Archer
Pasupati, Pasupa,
Pasuman
Frightener of gods
Lord of the Animals
Agni
Cruel and
Wild, Kind and Tranquil
The apalling Hunter, The
Roarer/Howler
The Dawn has one name: Usas
One shape: antelope
"...Rudra himself is Agni."
Homology (sameness of
form/nature)
Fissiparously (reproducing by fission)
super-active,
wild wilderness, untamed world
identity
with celestial
intelligence, Vastospati
The fiery seed of Prajapati is pursued by
himself, the avenger
Time does not yet exist
As Agni, he prepares
the seed
As Rudra, he destroys his own creation
He creates in order
to destroy
An orgy of inexhaustible renewal
Creation is the answer
to destruction
The Terror of Creation is a poem
Destruction is the
answer to creation
Why did the Hunter pierce the Father at the
procreative moment?
The seed of the Lord of Generation fell on the
earth
The gods created a god, a symplegma of horror, to destroy
creation
The seed of Homo sapian sapian, intrusive creature, time
creator
whose works of art imitate the work of the gods.
Mahadeva's sign is the bull
The pride of a bull
The lord of
bulls
The horns of the bull
The bull of bulls
The mark of the
bull
Siva's animal
The bull Nandi is
Delight
Cosmic
order
Righteous performance
The buffalo is power in
potentiality
The bull is power in
manifestation
Agni
Indra
Soma
Varuna
Are invoked as
buffaloes
Less frequently bulls
Asura is bull and
cow
Visvarupa, omniform
The Lord of Yoga
Bovine featured
Penis
erect
Crossed heels against testicles
In siddha
asana
Crowned
with horns
Tiger and Elephant to the right
Rhinoceros and buffalo to
the left
Two antelopes before his throne
worshipping
Urdhvaretas
The ascent of the semen
Control of passions
Desirelessness
Rudra is Agni and Agni is Rudra
The Wild God, luminous, wild,
tremendous, is in the fire
In the waters, in the plants, in all
beings
He devours flesh, blood and marrow
He is Agni
Pasupati,
Lord of Animals
Sarva, the Archer,
Bhava, Existence
Agni is
Rudra's mildest form
Secretly he went away and entered the waters and
the plants.
Then Yama, mortal man, saw his splendor shining in the
waters
The 3,339 gods enticed him
He became the sacrifice
The
Wild God defends the uncreate
Incestuous intercourse is the essential
rite
The Father sheds into creation the substance of the
Uncreate
Agni' concern is the life of humans
Rudra's concern is
freedom from the contingencies of life
Fire is born from
fire
Three-mothered Agni is the father of the Gods
He is the son
of the gods
He is child of himself
The
bull-cow
Androgynous
First-born
Rudra exceeds him in
intensity
Agni betrayed the trust of the gods
Stole their
wealth
Cried
Humiliated, he became
Rudra
Frightful
Terrifying
Fierce
All pervading
Rudra holds the world in his power.
He prepared seed for the Father
He inflamed the Father with sexual
passion
He shot the Father
To stem the course of events
To
stop
Eternity flowing as time into a world of contingency
When the
semen of the Lord of Generation touched earth
It became a lake of
fire
Out of nonbeing came being
Out of the darkness covered by
darkness
Father Heaven vaulted over the first Dawn of the
world
In its precosmic, preconscious totality everything is
contained
Including consciousness and nothingness
Which did not
cease to exist
It is not subject to time
Cruel and wild --
Rudra
At peace within himself and kind -- Siva
The animals are the
passions
Peacefully, calmly they encircle the Lord of Yoga
Gross
bodied men cannot understand
The primeval creation that is celestial
and mysterious
The Uncreate is male and female
Agni is a
bull-cow
"Daksa is born from Aditi (boundless femininity),
Aditi
from Daksa (competent male potency)"
The Daughter was one with the
Father before he knew her
Ardhanarisvara, Lord Siva, is male on the
right side and female on the left
"Siva...divides himself into god and
goddess
Siva and Siva"
Their love is not considered
incestuous
Prajapati became Orion, The Daughter became
Aldebaran
The Hunter became Sirius, The arrow became the belt of
Orion
Written in the stars, the gods made a poem of the one
self-begotten, begetting entity
Brahman (a chaos that lacks
disorder), samadhi (at-onement)
Moksa (release),
nirvana (extinction), sunyata (emptiness)
"...existence is a danger zone between eternity and the passing moment."
The Archer
Unremembered Krsanu, a Gandharva, guardian of Soma
Elixir of immortality
Elixir of
inspiration
Defender of the cosmos as it was meant to be
Shot the falcon-thief,
Indra
Cosmos creator
Who stole Soma for Manu, man,
The sacrificer
Indra feared
Krsanu
Krsanu's arrow
Missed its mark
But caught the falcon's wing
Became a
serpent
Its vehemence a second serpent
Its flash a third
Vrtra, the cosmic serpent, a
brahmin,
Guardian of the namelesss, formless plenum
Curled around the unmanifest cosmos
Kept the waters from creation
Indra, the brahminicide, smote him
Rudra's arrow,
Krsanu's arrow, flew in the opposite direction
Of the father's generative
emission
(urdhvaretas)
Semen flowing upward
= Samadhi = oneness = the
uncreate
The wound remains, festers,
Vrtra lies at the bottom of the abyss,
Danu's
body, his mother's body, covers him
The sun rose for the first time
Creation departed
perfection
It is flawed
And redeemed by the Gods who
From the substance and
rhythm of their words
Fashioned Vastospati, a poem, human rites
The mother lies atop the
son
The father rapes the daughter
Creation manifests
Rudra is Sarva; sarva, from saru, means arrow
It's three parts are joined
with Kalagni, the fire of destruction
Agni-Rudra-Sarva are one power, twin of
Indra
Prajapati, the Lord of Generation is its essential target
After Prajapti's
procreative act, the arrow can be directed
Downward toward creatures
Act of revolt, act
of involvement
All gods but Manyu, wrath, abandoned Prajapati
OM is the bow,
Atman (the self) is the arrow
Brahman (the absolute) is its
target
Carefully, violently
The arrow is united with its target
Rudra, fierce
Sarva, cuts off life or spares it.
As Pasupati, he spares the animals
At Rudra's
favorite haunt
-- A crossroads --
Rice cakes, one for each descendent of the sacrificer
(man),
One for the yet unborn
These offerings, commended to Visnu
--
Wide-striding, protective -- by Agni
Belong to Rudra
Who, in his grace-tempered
fierceness, unstrings his bow
A piece of each cake is offered to Rudra
At tree, post,
pole or anthill
For his journey to reed-growing Mount Mujavat
The unborn's cake is
buried in a mole hill
Rudra, greedy for embryo flesh, is given no part
The mole becomes
Rudra's victim
Rudra, born on earth, is first named Bhava
-- Existence, king,
ethical discrimination --
Second, Sarva -- hunter
No name alone comprises the totality
of Rudra
In the beginning, at the moment of horror
The gods created "that god"
Having
put all that was cruel in themselves into
Two earthen bowls (sarava), Sarva-Rudra was born
A thousand eyes, a thousand arrows
Dreadful Rudra inflicts wounds
Heals
Rudra, the
wild god, Siva, the kind god
Archer, healer
The initial rupture in wholeness was not
healed
The burning arrow remains stuck in Prajapati
Avenged, never redeemed
Rudra
creates herbs, plants and waters
Irradiated through his presence
Jalasa (urine)
heals.
Rudra's remedies heal the ills, wounds
Rudra inflicted/inflicts
Krsanu,
ineffectual guardian of immortality's plant
Failed to prevent the falcon bringing
Soma
Soma/Rudra dual divinities
Soma, bestower of seed, Agni, begetter of
offspring
All Siva cooperate
With Rudra/Siva in healing a world not meant to
exist
Time did not exist
Between arrow and target
Intent and act
Time
began
The moon vessel changes shape
Cyclically
The crescent moon, Siva's
tiara
Represents renewal, time, death's abode
Siva Bhiksatana, penitent
beggar
Extends the healing plant to the sacrifice
(The antelope)
Cast into the
stars
The hunter, the antelope and the arrow
Three stars in Orion's belt
Shine
The
moon fills and empties
A vessel from which the gods and the dead
Drink Soma
Rudra's, the hunter-healer's, gift
Soma
Raped by the falcon
And semen
Spilled by the Father
Raping his daughter
Have the same fate
Destination
From
semen: life on earth
From soma: inspiration
Visions
Of the many
paths of ascent
Preforming
sacrifice
Realization
Chants
Works of Art
Time
Rudra became
the arrow shooting star
Vedic Mrgavyadha (Sirius)
Avestan Tistrya
(Sirius)
The Hunter of the antelope
Also
Pusya (Sirius)
E
Cancri (Sirius)
Dog Star (Sirius)
Before Time, Beyond Time
Before
the Sun
Rudra the hunter
Prajapati the antelope Mrga, Mrgasiras
(Orion)
Rohini the daughter (Aldebaran)
The gods watch the drama
enacted in the sky
By sun and stars
In spring the sacrifical
year begins
Shockingly
The year's commencement
The vernal
equinox
Moved
From Sirius to Orion to Aldebaran (c. 3400 B.C. to
2210 B.C.)
Rudra avenges the rape of the Daughter by the Father
The
father (stag) becomes the daughter (doe)
The Hound of Heaven (Vastospati) becomes the Doe
Sirius
The Dog Star
Glitters
Watchdog
His teeth glisten like
darts
Silver-golden he guards the
Gate to the nether world
His
name is Vastospati
Guardian of the Dwelling
Rudra
In the sky is
Sirius
The moon, too
Is called the Heavenly dog
And the
sun
Sarameyas
Sons of Sarama
Bitch of Indra
Watchdogs
Sun
and moon devour the life of humans
The hunter of the antelope
And the hound
Are not envisioned
Simultaneously.
Vasistha,
the poet seer, son of Varuna
Invokes
The hound, the ruddy
boar
To bark away the thief, but not the poet
Varuna ordained the
laws of the universe
From his boat, the sun, cresting the celestial
ocean's waves
He let Vasistha see into
The marvels of the
cosmos
From zenith to nadir
Into the abyss
Where the sun is
imprisoned in darkness
While the thousand-horned bull rose
Vasistha
left Varuna
He found his way, poet, seer
Into transcendency
Into
the Devayana
The path that the gods take
Vastospati, the Lord of the Dwelling
Vastospati
Guardian
of Varuna's House
The starry dome of the
universe,
Mrgavyadha,
Hunter of the antelope
Watches the
Thousand
Gated mansion
Perennially
There is no trespass and
no
escape.
Vastopspati
Made of a brahman
A "word of
power"
Uttered by the gods
As the seed of the Creator
Fell on
earth
Multiform counterpart of Pasupati
Rudra, both and
each
Vastospati
Pasupati's alter ego
Pasupati's seed
In
the horror
Of the primordial dawn
Could not undo or mitigate
The violence
Did counterbalance the disruption of
wholeness
Prajapati made the Wild Hunter desist
That god, as
punishment for Prajapati
Was given lordship over the
animals.
Vastospati
Nor Pasupati
Became Rudra
Agni
prepared the seed
For the Father
The seed was shed
Rudra was
born
In a world where the sun had not yet
Risen
The primordial
scene is prelude
To the birth of Rudra
The Gods'
Creative intuition
Varies.
They see as their seers
see.
The antelopes, Prajapati and Rohini (to be),
Father and
daughter, in sexual congress
Were beautiful. But
The Gods saw
that
Eternity would change
If creatures, henceforth would
Live
and die.
The Gods,
In horror and fear,
Took the dread
forms
Of their own fright, and
Asked these forms to pierce
Prajapati.
He, Prajapati, or they, the gods,
Granted the forms the
powers of
Wild Hunter,
Lord of the Animals, Pasupati,
Vastospati.
The Gods
Filled with horror
At the spilling of
the seed
Caused Prajapati/Pasupati
To shoot (himself)
To become
Mrga, the antelope
Mrgavyadha, the pursuer
Rohini, the daughter, the
star.
The semen raining upon earth
Became a lake
Which
The
Gods
Feared might waste or spoil
Before humankind could be.
Agni
fired the lake of heavenly seed.
Out flew the sun, Bhrgu, the Twelve
Adityas,
The charred residue became dark animals,
The baked earth
became red animals.
That God, nameless, Rudra, of gruesome
powers,
terrifying shape, Prajapati, created by
The Gods, having lost
pre-existential wholeness,
owning conflagration spared the residue, the seed.
At another time,
After another sacrifice
Held by
the Angirases,
Primordial fire priests,
Seeking their way to
heaven,
Their efforts proving futile,
Nabhanedistha,
Youngest
son of Manu (man),
Urged by his father,
Offered help.
He
offered a sacred formula
Urged by his father,
A spell,
A
brahman.
The Angirases, reciting, went
To Heaven and
left
Their thousand pieces of cattle to Nabhanedistha --
as
substitute for the property
His father had not given him.
A large
man, a stranger from the north, in black, appeared,
He said: "This
is mine; mine is what is left at the site."
Nabhanedistha acknowledged
his claim.
Nabhanedistha asked his father.
The father said the
black-clothed stranger's claim was true.
Nabhanedistha, "nearest
relative," earning his patrimony,
Acknowledged this to the
stranger.
Hearing this truth,
And the truth that had acknowledged
him
As the raudra brahman, "song of the seed" itself,
The
stranger, knowing himself,
And being recognized, seen, relinquished
his claim.
This first daksina (gift) (south)
-- "The
South is the region of death." --
Was given by
Rudra-Siva,
Daksinamurti.
"In his images as Daksinamurti, Siva
imparts
To the sages
The gnosis
That was his gift
To
Nabhanedistha."
The knowledge of transcendency, music, art,
yoga, science, the means of overcoming death, the mortal condition.
And fearing the shape of their own horror,
The Gods
excluded Rudra, That God, Pasupati
From the sacrifice.
Without
right they gave Rudra's portion to Nabhanedistha,
Already excluded
from his father's property.
Rudra gave to or exchanged his portion,
the cattle, with Nabhanedistha
for the vastu,, the remnants,
the milk and barley.
Rudra accepted humiliation as an act of
asceticism,
detachment, accepted abusive treatment as a
coronation,
as an exercise of his power.
Ominous,
inappropriately dressed in black,
The power of life and death in his
hands,
Appeased by the Satarudriya, the hundred oblations,
And at
crossroads, with rice cakes or the foam of cooked rice,
Rudra accepts
libations unfit for other gods.
Invoked as Tryambaka, son of three
mothers:
Heaven, earth, and air, he is asked to go away to the
north.
Anger subsiding, the Gods cut
Rudra's arrow from
Prajapati's flesh,
Offered as sacrifice, this morsel,
charged with
devastating power.
Offerings made to Rudra include
Refuse,
rice cakes, cattle, human lives, royal blood.
He offers all creatures
and himself as universal sacrifice.
He is the sacrifice, the sacrifice
is him.
He is an outsider. The north is his direction.
The east is
the direction of the other gods.
In the primordial scene Rudra
appeared from nowhere,
From the Uncreate.
He rose with the sun. He
gave the animals life.
He, Sarva, Bhava, Pasupati, Rudra, Agni
let them live.
Leaving Rudra alone on the site of the
sacrifice,
The gods were embarrassed.
Having cobbled together from
the remnants, vastu,
An offering, their priest offered it to
Agni.
Agni is Rudra.
The Vedic gods had carved Rudra-Vastospati
From their poem, the raudra brahman.
The unnamed god was
made of mantra,
the potent creative word.
Lord of the
Animals,
He guards the meanings of vastu.
(vastu),
Rudra-Pasupati became
Vastavya.
The remainder (vastu)
Is the part of the
sacrifice
Left after the oblations have been made.
To
Rudra-Pasupati-Vastayva
Belong both the site and the
remnant.
Nothing else belongs to him.
He dwells in the vastu.
He has no possessions.
In this abject state,
As
Vastayva, the vastu is his residence.
At the beginning of
things.
He pierced the sacrifice (Prajapati)
With his
arrow,
This reverse echo
Of the primordial drama,
Not
forgotten by the Gods,
Is relived at the sacrifice of Daksa.
The
contrived vastu , offered into the fire
To Agni, allowed
Rudra to ascend.
The gods of the raudra brahman,
Blessed with creative intuition,
Had quickly turned
The
Wild Hunter, Pasupati
Into Vastospati.
Rudra accepts any
offering,
Even the humblest
Even offered via Agni
Into the
fire.
The gods fear the shape of horror
They gave to
him.
The Gods of the Satapatha Brahmana,
Conventional, a little mean,
Considered nothing but the
remainder
Of the sacrifice, good enough for Rudra,
They
reconsecrated remnants.
Had there been nothing to offer
To Rudra --
Vastospati is Rudra --
The Fire, becoming Rudra,
Would leap after
the sacrificer
And slay him.
"The residue of the sacrifice is a potent substance."
Is a hymn to the residue,
The leavings of the
sacrifice,
The remnant,
The ucchista.
It sings of the
birth of joys,
Delights, the Gods
From the
ucchista.
Fire, ashes, leftovers
In the house,
Within the heart,
On the vastu
Belong to
the ritual of living,
Are protected by Vastospati-
Vastupa, "the
lord of one who is left or deserted."
From the conflagration of the
lake of seed,
From this earth, the ground of existence,
From the
still-glowing coals,
Rose the fire priests and Brhaspati,
Teacher
of the gods.
The sacral aspect of the earth,
The site of the sacrifice, the vedi
Is regulated by the cycles of the stars,
Sunrise and
sunset,
Solstice and equinox,
The mystical marriage of sun and
moon.
Cyavana, old, decrepit, left behind on the vastu,
Abandoned by his kin,
Sings the mantra, the
brahmana of Vastupa
Vastupa-Vastospati, sustainer of
man,
Rescues Cyavana, restores his youth and potency.
Vastospati, numinous (Rudra -- the word)
Guardian of sacred order
(vratapa),
Protects the ordered field of power,
The order of
the cosmos,
Rudra, originator and best of all artists,
Protects
the house built by man,
Its plan and orientation conform
To the
laws of the cosmos,
Its model is the House of Varuna.
Vastospati,
as Vastospati-Rudra, hound of heaven,
Lord of the Dwelling, guards -- the house built by man.
Appears like lightning
Not necessarily visible
or as known,
But unmistakeable as concept or figure
His names and
forms actualize his presence.
Hymns to Vastospati were sung two
millennia
Before architectural texbooks
recorded
Vastupa-Vastospati's story.
Rudra-Shiva confronts
himself in opposing roles
In the architect's text:
He is the
great God and Vastupa the goat-headed demon
Who manifests
when Bhargava, Kaya Usanas, son of Bhrgu
Sprung from the flaming
seed of the Lord of Generation,
Enraged at the demons' defeat by the
gods,
Offers a goat in sacrifice.
Heated by the flames and his
fury, a drop of Bhargava's sweat
Falls on the goat which becomes a
goat-headed demon,
Filling the world. The gods have nowhere to
go.
They take refuge in Shiva.
Fire from Shiva's third eye
burns the goat demon.
Bhargava flees, but finding no refuge in the
three worlds,
He enters Shiva's body by Shiva's ear, wanders within,
And leaves as Shiva's semen
Becoming both seed and Sukra
(semen),
The morning star (Venus), and Shiva's son.
Sukra asks
grace-giving Shiva, who has given him asylum,
For a boon for the
disembodied goat-headed demon.
The phantom demon asks to dwell
(vas) on earth with the gods.
Shiva grants him residence
(vastu) on earth,
Names him Vastupa,
And allots him
the plan of sacred sites,
The sacred geometry of the
vastu-mandala,
In the form of the fallen demon,
The magic
diagram for the building of temples and houses.
Others say the drop
of sweat came directly from Siva.
God or demon, the fallen being,
Partakes of the darkness (tamas)
Of Shiva's
nature.
On this demonic substratum the gods
Have their
Siva-apportioned places which constitute
The paradigmatic ground
plan of Indian architecture.
INTRODUCTION + POETRY + MUSIC + ESSAYS + TRAVEL + FICTION + TEXTILE ART