Well, I revisited some authors, including Oswald Spengler.
Despite his overpowering intelligence and Titanic erudition, Spengler isn’t convincing.
As I noted earlier, an intellectual who discusses European art without as much as mentioning Caravaggio, can’t be considered honest beyond a certain point.
While Caravaggio didn’t develop the chiaroscuro in European oil-painting, he was certainly the first great master to bring it to its full and most beautiful, majestic expression.
There is not as much as a fleeting reference to either the Rāmāyaṇa or the Mahābhārata, in Decline of the West.
How can someone who doesn’t even mention the two definitive epics of India, have any authority to comment about Indian culture?
It’s like talking about Greece, and never mentioning the Illiad and the Odyssey – or Homer and Hesiod.
He does name Kṛṣṇa and Rāma
His knowledge of Buddhist culture is astounding only in its poverty, and the man seems perfectly oblivious to the existence of Borobudur, Angkor Wat, and Konark.
Spengler completely sidetracks Japan – with something bordering on contempt & disinterest – as he does Rabelais and Milton.
{“Puritanism manifests itself in the army of Cromwell and his Independents, iron, Bible-firm, psalm-singing as they rode into battle; in the ranks of the Pythagoreans, who in the bitter earnest of their gospel of duty wrecked gay Sybaris and branded it for ever as the city without morals; in the armies of the early Caliphs, which subdued not only states, but souls. Milton’s Paradise Lost many surahs of the Koran, the little that we know of Pythagorean teachings — all come to the same thing.
They are enthusiasms of a sober spirit, cold intensities, dry mysticism, pedantic ecstasy.”
...
“Puritanism — not in the West only, but in all Cultures — lacks the smile that had illumined the religion of the Spring — every Spring — the moments of profound joy in life, the humour of life.
Nothing of the quiet blissfulness that in the Magian Springtime flashes up so often in the stories of Jesus’s childhood, or in Gregory Nazianzen, is to be found in the Koran, nothing in the palpable blitheness of St. Francis’s songs in Milton.”}
And while forgetting that Victor Hugo existed is a disconcerting mystery in all modern discourse about European literature – Hugo was something of a Giant in the 19th century itself, the Voltaire of that era – Spengler’s unfathomable omission of his existence is all the more enigmatic given that he was much closer to Hugo’s time.
No mention of Les Miserables in 1,000 pages defending & delineating the essentials of European culture?
On the other hand, he treats Matthias Grunewald, and a German painter called Marees, as if anybody knows about them!
The most important point where I disagree, with Spengler, is the fundamental premise of his entire philosophy: the split between “Becoming” and “the Become”.
While his idea of “the Becoming” has real substance to it – his idea of “the Become” is totally unconvincing.
I find it meaningless twaddle, to be honest.
Having fabricated his own dichotomy, he goes about applying his definitions {which he carefully avoids to cast as definitions per se – he rejects all conceptual definitions} to all cultures & situations – and draws all sorts of absurd conclusions from them.
Basically, Spengler is a racist.
He doesn’t see himself as such, and yes, his words may be interpreted differently according to how you employ his vague ideas {try “cosmic flowings”} vaguely – but in the ultimate analysis, he’s just a very sophisticated and sophistical racist, who avoids dragging in skin-color and physical feature in his discussions.
That would be too crass for someone of his lofty, mountainous stature.
It’s not as if there isn’t much to learn from him.
Personally, I do share his taste: his favorite figures from European art are Rembrandt, Shakespeare, Ba
These are my favorites too :)
The man is indeed a mountain-heap of penetrating and very interesting insights and ideas.
There’s much I’m not saying and can’t say, least of all on a blog :)
A lot of it is very relevant, and a lot can be outright rejected.
Some of it is simply very curious.
Any and every Indian intellectual should be conversant with the works of Oswald Spengler.
Let’s just be clear that like most western or western-influenced intellectuals, Spengler is best taken as a passionate & profound interpreter of his own culture – his views about others should be taken, at best, with a pinch of salt – and yet, they are worthy of consideration.
About colour, it’s not as if Spengler spends too much time and energy on this issue.
I, personally, take the issue of colour quite seriously.
We human beings can’t conceive of our existence without colour.
Color is a fundamental, crucial, indispensable, and very profound aspect of human consciousness.
It is inextricably bound to Form, to our perception of reality & ourselves, to the nature of the universe as it is experienced by living human beings, and to our imaginative, aesthetic and creative faculties.
It is impossible to divorce human identity from color.
Color is of central importance in Indian literature & art – only not in the crude, modern racial sense.
We cannot think of Rāma without His being blue {or green}.
Whenever we think of Kṛṣṇa, we imagine him wearing yellow.
I’m not totally sure about North India, but in South India, Pārvatī is almost always portrayed as green.
And whether we allow ourselves to be sufficiently impressed by the fact or not, Shiva’s complexion is repeatedly compared to a crystal, to silver, to a kunda {jasmine} flower, or to something white.
The “Aryan” Viṣṇu is Black – the “Dravidian” Shiva is White – this is already a refutation of the antiquated & oversimplistic “Aryan Invasion/Immigration” Theory {which conveniently ignores the astonishing similarities between Indian, and say Egyptian, philosophy, art and iconography – just think of the importance of the blue lotus in both Indian and Egyptian cultures}.
If colour hadn’t been of high importance to the Indian mind, Kṛṣṇa would have sometimes been dressed in yellow, sometimes in red, sometimes in green, sometimes in black, sometimes in purple, and sometimes in white.
This is not the case.
No, there is no harsh “dogmatic” reductiveness in the choice of symbols & various details in iconography.
There is, infact, fluidity in our imagery – but this imagery is fluid within limits.
Limits imbue the images with individuality, definitiveness, constancy, and uniqueness.
And this is so in every great culture in the world.
Viṣṇu always holds a mace, just like St. Paul is made to hold a sword in Catholic art – while Shiva always holds a trident, just like St. Peter always holds the key.
Similarly, Viṣṇu is always blue {though, as I pointed out, this color-scheme extends to green, brown & black – kṛṣṇa, nīla & śyāma} – while Shiva is always white.
This is not just about Their clothing, but about Them.
Hence, I’m devoting so much space to the notion of color, which is inseparable from all other associated philosophical ideas.
As I’ve written earlier, Red is not the most important or loved color in Ancient Indian thought.
Which is?
I’ll come to that later.
But red is certainly important.
The golden color may be, infact, more important, more pervasive – and because of the same reasons.
Red is, as I noted, related to Fire & the Sun – which, in turn, are associated with the Intellect & Soul, related to Prāṇa & Ātman, to Consciousness {Spengler would probably say “waking consciousness”} & Awareness, to Awakening & Resurrection, to Perception & Knowledge {please note that there are subtle differences between all these entities & ideas: “Consciousness” is not the same as “becoming aware of some-thing” – just as perception of an image within the mind is not the same as Knowledge, per se. Fire as a symbol may be used for all these distinct experiences & phenomena.} – and to many other ideas, besides.
This seems to have been missed out by Spengler entirely.
All he can think of, is: “Red is the characteristic colour of sexuality — hence it is the only colour that works upon the beasts” – which I don’t think is true.
To understand the value – the meaning – of “warm” colours, it is necessary to understand Fire symbolism itself.
I’ve noted that red is one of the most phallic colours.
Fire is indeed connected to the Liṅga, in Indian thought, except that the Liṅga has little to do with the biological, reproductive organ of the male human.
The “sexual” aspect is overridden by powerful metaphysical ideas which have gone largely unappreciated.
In Paurāṇika literature, the Liṅga is depicted as a magnificent column of Fire – unfathomable, limitless.
This column of fire has been described as
· anaupamya, “
· anirdeśya, “
· the source of
è avyakta {the first evolute of Prakṛti from which the whole universe beginning with Mahat, the Universal Intellect, emerges}, &
è viśva {the manifest universe which is apprehensible by the senses}.
{17.35 Liṅga Purāṇa}
To think of this whole conception as a penis, is worse than pedestrian.
This “incomparable pillar”, anupama stambha {17.36 Liṅga Pur.}
– “beyond the range of the senses”, atīndriya {an important point, 7.14 Viśveśvara Saṃhitā, Shiva Pur.}
– this Liṅga is, simply put, the origin of existence itself {17.35 Liṅga Pur.}.
Neither Brahmā nor Viṣṇu {who, in the Shaivite scheme, are subordinate to Shiva-Rudra, and are nowhere to be considered “God”} can determine its crest or its nadir – its height or its depth.
Fire is both Birth & Death, both Kāma-Agni & Kāla-Agni, both Rage & Love, both Creation {the Rājasika Brahmā} and Annihilation {the Rudra-Agni
This is invariably linked to the Liṅga, which ought to be interpreted in a higher, abstract light as a gigantic universal force – rather than the phallus.
This Fire – this force – both destroys & generates – raises & razes.
It is very strange that the quintessential symbol of Power, Force, Energy, Might, and Majesty – Fire-Light – is comprehended so insufficiently by someone like Spengler, who gives such overwhelming importance to the “Will to Power” – to the desire to dominate & conquer & force all life – who glorifies the spirit of conquest & battle-heroism & mastery.
It had been mastered in all its aspects by the Indian mind.
Hence, the importance of red and gold.
Christians understood its importance for power & dominion too.
That’s why Christ is invariably robed in red, in European images of the Last Judgment.
HERE is power – here is Destiny.
The Destiny which cannot be eluded or elided.
Spengler has his own concept of Destiny – indeed, he seems to want to prove that “Faustian” Man has an inbuilt sense of Destiny quite independent of Christianity.
But I find this idea unconvincing: the European-Christian-“Faustian” is – consciously or unconsciously, wittingly or unwittingly, perhaps as a result of 1,000-1,500 years of constant influence – completely shaped by fundamental tenets of Christianity.
In my humble opinion, the sense of Destiny in the “Faustian” Man is largely moulded by the idea of Last Judgment.
Judgment awaits all of us: this is a cardinal concept in Christianity – and this Judgment, this Finality, this Inevitability – is Fate itself.
It is not an open-ended universe of infinite possibilities: it will come to a very specific end.
Fate and Destiny are not the exact same things, but they’re inseparable.
Nobody can escape Judgment Day – everybody is hurtling towards it.
It will come, sooner or later, and sweep everyone up in its terrific, roaring wake.
It’s a flaming whirlwind, or a maelstrom of fire, and we’re like little paper-boats bobbling over the waves, headed towards this inexorable force of doom.
The seriousness with which {at least the Medieval} Christian took this notion – the manner in which it suffused his consciousness with wonder & terror – cannot be quite fathomed or explained by us moderns.
It was a living reality, and shaped the whole of his existence in a peculiar light, & form.
Implacable, resolute, commanding, and calm – Christ sitting in Judgment over humanity is Fate itself – a living image of Destiny.
This has always been one of the most powerful – perhaps the most powerful of all images – to come out of Europe.
This pertains to one aspect of Destiny.
The correlation between Fire & Power has already been pointed out by me.
The most unforgettable vision of this in India is to be found in the Bhagavad Gītā {not taking into account the magnificent hymns of the Vedas to Agni, Indra, Savitṛ, Bṛhaspati, Varuṇa, Sūrya, Soma, etc.}.
In the segment in which Kṛṣṇa gives Arjuna a vision of his param-aiśvara-rūpa – popularly known as the Virāṭa-rūpa – we read the words of an astounded Arjuna {11.16-19}:
“O Lord of the universe {viśveśvara},
O universal form {viśva-rūpa},
I see in Thy body many arms, bellies, mouths and eyes, expanded everywhere, limitlessly.
I see in Thee no beginning, no middle & no end.
Thy form is difficult to behold because of its effulgence, spreading on all sides, like blazing fire or the immeasurable radiance {aprameya dyuti} of the sun.
Yet I see this glowing form everywhere, adorned with various crowns, clubs and discs.
...
I see Thee with blazing fire gushing forth from Thy mouth, burning this entire universe by Thy own effulgence.”
Note how the fire-symbolism pervades this description through & though.
Moreover, it should also be realized that this description is certainly not that of a physical body – which Spengler would like to think all “Classical” peoples, Indians included, were obsessed with.
The words deha, rūpa, śarīra, etc. are all symbolic and abstract, and nowhere to be taken literally.
This form cannot really be put down as a drawing, and cannot be grasped in mundane or ordinary visual terms.
It is pure & vivid & brilliant imagination through & through.
This Being – all Fire –imbued with Infinite Power {ananta-vīrya, 11.19} – terrifies not only the mortal Arjuna, but also all other beings, including the worlds themselves and the gods {11.20-25}.
“O All-Pervading One, seeing Thee touching the sky, many splendoured, with Thy gaping mouths, and Thy great flaming eyes, I, with my inmost self, am perturbed by fear.
I can no longer maintain my steadiness or equilibrium of mind.
O God of Gods {deveśa},
O Refuge/Abode of the Universe {jagan-nivāsa},
When I see Thy mouths terrible with their tusks, like the devouring flames of Time, I lose all sense of the directions, and find no peace!”
We are reminded of Indra from the Ṛg Veda {8.97.14}:
“Thou knowest well, O Shakra,
Thou Most Potent {śaviṣṭha},
With thy strength, Indra, to destroy these castles.
Before thee, Thunder-armed! all beings tremble: the heavens and earth before thee shake with terror.”
The important point here is “devouring flames of Time” – or rather, “the Fire of Time” – kālānala.
The destructive aspect, of both Time, and Fire – and their correlation – is expressed here.
Like Fate and Destiny are inseparable, so are Time and Death – Time and Destruction.
It’s very significant that the Liṅga, which is the foundation of the universe, is compared to the Fire of Destruction.
But perhaps the original text – “kālānala”, “kāla-agni” – did not mean just “Doomsday Fire” – maybe it actually means the Fire of Time – and this is NOT the same as the fire of “final dissolution”.
We read {11.26-30}:
“All the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, along with their allied kings, and Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa – and our chief warriors also – are rushing into Thy fearful mouths.
And some I see trapped with heads crushed to powder between Thy tusks.
As the many torrents of rivers rush towards the ocean, so do these heroes of the mortal world rush into Thy flaming mouths.
As moths rush swiftly into the flame to perish there, so do these men rush into Thy mouths with great speed to their own destruction.
Devouring all worlds on every side with Thy flaming mouths, Thou licketst them up.
Thy fiery rays fill this whole universe and scorch it with their radiance, O Viṣṇu!”
This imagery – this vision – has NOT been surpassed by the “Faustian” soul.
And I say this because Spengler makes it a point to keep glorifying his “Faustian” culture over and above others.
It is of this ananta-rūpa, this supremely glorious form, param-aiśvara-rūpa that Kṛṣṇa says: “I am Time, the Destroyer of Worlds”.
It’s also significant that this phrase has been translated as “I am Death, the Destroyer of Worlds”, which in turn was quoted by Robert Oppenheimer with typical Biblical phraseology, “I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds”.
The original word is Kāla.
Kāla is Time – and the phrase is “I am Time”.
Time is a wider concept than Death, encompassing & surpassing it.
Indians recognized this fully, and there are probably hundreds of passages to this effect.
To quote only one, words spoken by Veda Vyāsa in the Bhīṣma Parva of the Mahābhārata {Chapter 3, Verse 51-51 ½}:
“Without doubt, O king of kings, it is Time that destroyeth the universe.
It is Time also that createth the worlds.
There is nothing here that is eternal {śāśvata}.”
“I see Brahmā sitting on the lotus flower, as well as Lord Shiva and all the sages and divine serpents” {BG 11.15} – so says Arjuna, whilst gazing upon the viśva-rūpa of Viṣṇu-Krsṇa.
In other words, he can see the primal creative power of the universe deep within the glorious form of God.
This is not just about death and destruction.
Arjuna can see all the Devas, Maharṣis, Siddhas, and Uragas, Asuras, and Gandharvas – basically, all the forces of the universe – within this form of Time {BG 11.21-22}.
This vision does not focus on death, or destruction, or the dissolution of all things – but on the grand totality of things.
“Kāla evolves {or develops, in Hindi, vikasita} – everything.
Lord Shiva causes or develops Kāla eternally.” – 11.24 Liṅga Purāṇa
This indicates the creative function of Time.
The Fire of Time destroys – the Cosmic Pillar of Fire gives birth to the universe.
Agni is already the pillar in the Ṛg Veda {for e.g., 4.5.1, in the Wilson translation}:
“How may we present rejoicing (fit offerings) to Agni, the showerer (of benefits); to Vaiśvānara, he, who bright with great effulgence {bṛhad bhāḥ}, sustains the heaven, with his entire vast and insupportable (bulk), as a pillar (sustains a roof).”
One can already see the correspondence between Agni upholding heaven like a pillar, and Kṛṣṇa’s form of supreme glory touching heaven in the Bhagavad Gītā {nabhaḥ-spṛśaṁ – 11.24}.
Agni is called Bharata from his being “the sustainer” – the one who bears, upholds, or supports.
This is Prāṇa, which upholds & sustains all life – 1.5.1.8 Shatapath Brāhmaṇa.
“The other fires are, verily, thy branches;
the Immortals all rejoice in thee, O Agni.
Centre art thou, Vaiśvānara, of the people,
sustaining men like a deep-founded pillar.”
Ṛg Veda 1.59.1, Ralph T.H. Griffith Translation.
Indra is also a pillar, in RV 8.17.4.
In the Liṅga Purāṇa, the Liṅga which appears and disrupts the idle quarrel between Brahmā and Viṣṇu is described as:
“bhāsvara {blazing/glowing/full of light} ...
It had thousands of clusters of flames.
It was like unto hundreds of Fires of Time.
It was stable.
It had no increase and no decrease.
It was devoid of beginning, or middle, or end.”
{17.33-34, Liṅga Purāṇa}
Please note that this Liṅga is almost identical to the aiśvara-rūpa of Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad Gītā.
The Primal Sound “Aum” – the Shabda Brahman – the totality & root of all sounds – the essence of all Speech & Knowledge – and the foundation of the universe of Name & Form itself – manifests from this Liṅga.
Thus, we see Fire in both its creative and its destructive aspects: but in both, it signifies unequalled, surpassing, limitless power.
Fire – Time – Destiny: inseparable concepts.
Time is the ultimate ineluctable aspect of existence – Time is the inevitable.
This Time-Fire is Destiny: it is not just that which annihilates, it also brings into being – it is not only a termination, but also what fulfills.
Time is that which develops, nurtures, decays, tarnishes, ruins.
Time is a blooming, a blossoming, a burgeoning – an ascent, a rise into something – and a descent from that state.
It is a ripening and a rotting – that which flowers & fruits, that which fecundates & fructifies – and that which dissolves or brings decrepitude and death.
As Indra says, in the Shānti Parva of the Mahābhārata {Verses 91-96}:
“Beholding all things in this universe to be fleeting, who is there in it, endued with body, that would venture to repose confidence on either his body or all the objects of his desire?
Like thyself I also know that this universe is not eternal, & that it has been thrown into Time’s conflagration {kāla-agni = the Fire of Time} that is dreadful though hidden from the view, that is continuously burning, and that is truly endless.
Every one is assailed here by Time.
Nothing among beings that are subtile or gross enjoys an immunity from Time’s sway.
All things are being cooked in Time’s cauldron.
Time has no master.
Time is ever wakeful.
Time is always cooking all things within itself.
No one who has once entered the domain of Time which is ceaselessly going on, can escape therefrom.
All embodied beings may be heedless of Time, but Time is heedful and is broad awake behind them.
No one has ever been seen to have driven off Time from him.
Ancient {purātana}, eternal {śāśvata}, and the embodiment of justice {dharma}, Time is uniform in respect of all living creatures.
Time cannot be avoided, and there is no retrogression in its course.”
Basically, Indra is saying: Time is Dharma.
Who is the Master of Time?
He who becomes Time – becomes one with it?
Or He who stands above & beyond it, and controls it?
Are these the same thing, or are there differences?
Spengler chooses to glorify those who are actually subordinate to Time – though he doesn’t see it that way.
Time acts through his heroes, his aristocrats, his conquerors – they do not stand over & above it – they do not stand outside it {which is the priestly ideal, which he treats more or less with derision – this ideal is indicated by Indra’s words above}.
They are the agents of Time – but he doesn’t see Time as separate from them.
This is a very convoluted topic, and I shall return to it sometime later, if possible.
To conclude the topic in a few words: I SEE RED-GOLD AS THE COLOR OF TIME – OF THE INEVITABLE & INELUCTABLE – OF THE BEGINNING, THE MIDDLE, & THE END – FIRE, AS A SYMBOL {applicable to all fire-phenomena, such as the Sun, or lightning, or the Pole Star} – AND RED, AS A COLOR – REPRESENT DESTINY – THE WHOLE PROCESS OF EMERGENCE, SUSTENANCE, AND ANNIHILATION, of birth, manifestation, continuation, and destruction.
If anything, red is not the color of Timelessness – it is the color of Existence.
Apart from that, it’s strange that the ideas of power, force and energy are not understood by Spengler the way just about anybody has ever understood them.
Fire is Energy.
Fire is Force.
Fire is Power.
It was not only Indians who adored and worshipped Fire {though not only Fire, and not as “Fire-worshippers} – but other cultures too, though Fire-symbolism takes center-stage in Indian thought {think of the concept of yajña}.
Take for example, this description of a mysterious god called “Aion” from the 4th or 5th century text known as the “Mithras Liturgy”, which belongs to a Middle-Eastern-Persian-Egyptia
“Hear me, grant me my prayer—
Binding together the fiery bolts of heaven with spirit,
two-bodied fiery sky,
creator of humanity,
fire-breathing,
fiery-spirited,
spiritual being rejoicing in fire,
beauty of humanity,
ruler of humanity of fiery body,
light-giver to men,
fire-scattering,
fire-agitated,
life of humanity,
fire-whirled,
mover of men who confounds with thunder,
famed among men,
increasing the human race,
enlightening humanity,
conqueror of stars.”
In the same text, later, what is interpreted as the “greatest god” is described in these terms:
“Now when they take their place, here and there, in order, look in the air and you will see lightning-bolts going down, and lights flashing, and the earth shaking, and a god descending,
a god immensely great,
having a bright appearance youthful,
golden-haired,
with a white tunic and a golden crown and trousers, and
holding in his right hand a golden shoulder of a young bull:
this is the Bear which moves and turns heaven around, moving upward and downward in accordance with the hour.
Then you will see lightning-bolts leaping from his eyes and stars from his body.”
Compare this with the description of Christ in the Book of Revelation {1.12-16}:
“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me.
And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.
The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.
His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.
In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword.
His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”
Ezekiel’s vision, in the Old Testament, is shot through & through, with the same fire-inspired symbolism {1.4-5, 13-14}:
“... Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures.
... As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures.
The fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightning.
And the living creatures ran back and forth, in appearance like a flash of lightning.”
The Glory of God is described as thus {1.26-28}:
“And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone;
on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it.
Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and
from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around.
Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”
More examples may be given, but would be tedious, and make this post too cumbersome.
Fire symbolism has been used always and everywhere, but it’s usage in India is striking.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Zoroastrians, who are Fire-worshippers, were a community which branched out from the Indian Vedic community.
One sees some change in the great Sufi poets, who tend to distinguish between Light and Fire – or rather, who treat fire emitting copious amounts of smoke as inferior to smokeless fire.
Writes Shabistari in his beautiful poem The Secret Rose Garden:
“The traveller on the path,
’Tis he who knows from whence he cometh;
Then doth he journey hastily,
Becoming as pure from self as fire from smoke.”
Indians thought differently and sang, of Agni {Ṛg Veda 2.4.6} :
“Like one athirst, he lighteth up the forests;
like water down the chariot ways he roareth.
On his black path he shines in burning beauty,
marked as it were the heaven that smiles through vapour.”
Sufis love Light itself.
Even Shabistari weaves rather complex & interesting metaphors using light and fire symbolism:
“Truth’s manifestations
Are wine, torch, and beauty;
Wine and torch are the light and shining of the “knower”,
Beauty is concealed from none.
Wine is the lamp-shade,
And torch the lamp;
Beauty is the Spirit-light,
So bright, it kindles sparks
In the heart.
Wine and torch are the essence of that blinding light,
Beauty is the sign of the Divine.
...
Drink this wine and, dying to self,
You will be freed from the spell of self.
Then will your being, as a drop,
Fall into the ocean of the Eternal.”
And this is correct.
Beauty is a Light.
I’d go ahead and say: Beauty is a Fire.
It blazes forth.
It sends out a light.
Shabistari is right: Beauty kindles sparks in the heart.
It pierces the soul like a lance and sets it on fire.
Sparks, torches, fires, lightning-flashes, shining, glowing, shimmering, stars, rays ... all this is nothing but fire-symbolism, whether you take it to the level of “Pure Light” or simply the fire of which the Vedic seer said: “His fulgent flames run forth like vigorous steeds; all worlds are affrighted when he blazes” {RV 4.6.5}.
All this shows not only the universality of “concepts”, but the universality of feeling, of sentiment, of experience, of intuition, of spontaneous & sustained human vision, of the deep mystic feeling which exists in all humanity.
Spengler wants to focus painstakingly on what makes cultures & communities different – he’s exasperated at any attempt to see the astonishing similarities.
Hence, he thinks Theosophy is a fraud, and keeps showering contempt on Non-“Faustians” despite rather painful, contrived attempts to admire others occasionally.
That Fire-symbolism is completely ignored by him probably stems from this very fact, because Fire is the same everywhere, and human beings have responded to it in amazingly similar ways everywhere, and have written it into their metaphysics & poetry, their spirituality & their art, their spirituality, in same or similar ways.
That said, Fire & Light reign supreme, in Indian psychology, and in a hundred imaginative ways.
This doesn’t mean Spengler’s Faustian “longing for infinite, boundless space” or “for the infinite” doesn’t exist in India.
Anybody who thinks that is simply deceiving himself and others.
But I cannot enter into that subject right now.
Having said all of this, let us not focus on death and destruction, Fate and Doom, the terrible and the intolerable.
Let us see love, beauty, fulfillment, radiance, splendor, strength, and bliss in this Fire which gives birth to the universe in the beginning, impels & urges everything on, and wraps everything in its arms at the end.
Let our prayer always be directed to the indefatigable energy that upholds the All and keeps everything alive and infuses the whole of creation with energy and majesty.
This Agni is called “payasvān”, “full of milk” {e.g. RV 1.23.23} –
this Agni is said to be “viśva-carṣaṇi”, “dear to all men” {e.g. RV 5.14.6} –
this Agni is said to be “trātṛ”, “the one who helps or saves” {e.g. RV 6.1.5} –
this Agni is said to be “tanūpā”, “the protector or guardian of bodies” {e.g. Shukla Yajur Veda 3.82} –
this Agni is said to be , i.e. to have “a mouth full of honey (sweetness)” {e.g. RV 10.118.4}.
This Agni is said to be “King Supreme over all things living” {Shukla Y.V. 26.7}
this Agni is said to be “the Ruler over every thought” {RV 4.6.1} –
this Agni is said to be “dasma”, “the worker of marvels” {e.g., RV 6.1.1}.
This Agni is a “priya mitra”, “dear friend” {RV 2.4.3}
– this Agni is “mandra”, “the giver of delight”{e.g., RV 1.144.7}
– this Agni is “bhiṣaj”, “the one who heals sickness” {AV 5.29.1}
– this Agni is “canohita”, “graciously inclined” {RV 3.2.7}.
He is invoked for dyumna – “splendour, glory, majesty, power, strength, enthusiasm, inspiration” {RV 1.78}.
He is implored for varcas – “vital power, vigour, energy, activity, (esp.) the illuminating power of fire or the sun i.e. brilliance, luster, light” {RV 1.23.24}.
He is prayed to, for sumnāyu – “bliss” {e.g., RV 6.1.7}
He is worshiped for sucetas – “perfect understanding” {RV 7.4.10}
May our prayer always be directed to that Undying, Blissful, Beautiful Fire, as in the Atharva Veda {Hymn 33, Book 4, Ralph T.H. Griffith translation}:
“Chasing our pain with splendid light, Agni, shine thou wealth on us.
His lustre flash our pain away.
For goodly fields, for pleasant homes, for wealth we sacrifice to thee.
His lustre flash our pain away!
...
As ever conquering Agni’s beams of splendour go to every side,
His lustre flash our pain away!
To every side thy face is turned, thou art triumphant everywhere.
His lustre flash our pain away!
O thou whose face looks every way, bear off our foes as in a ship.
His lustre flash our pain away!”
Aum Shānti Shānti Shānti!
