Hearken, O Mādhava, what more can I say?
Nought can I find to compare with love:

Though the sun of the East should rise in the West,
Yet would not love be far from the worthy,

Or if I should write the stars of heaven on earth,
Or if I could pour from my hands the water of all the sea.

-- Vidyapati

I feel my body vanishing into the dust whereon my beloved walks.

I feel one with the water of the lake where he bathes.

Oh friend, my love crosses death's boundary when I meet him.

My heart melts in the light and merges in the mirror whereby he views his
face.

I move with the air to kiss him when he waves his fan, and wherever he
wanders I enclose him like the sky.

Govindadas says, “You are the gold-setting, fair maiden, he is the
emerald”

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows – then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason.”
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, – then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion.”
And since you are a breath in God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion
.

-- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Open your eyes ...

Open your eyes ...

Mirror-pond of stars …

Suddenly a summer

shower

Dimples the water.

-- Sesshi

He who has been instructed thus far in the things of love, and who has learned to see the beautiful in due order and succession, when he comes toward the end will suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty(and this, Socrates, is the final cause of all our former toils)—a nature which in the first place is everlasting, not growing and decaying, or waxing and waning; secondly, not fair in one point of view and foul in another, or at one time or in one relation or at one place fair, at another time or in another relation or at another place foul, as if fair to some and foul to others, or in the likeness of a face or hands or any other part of the bodily frame, or in any form of speech or knowledge, or existing in any other being, as for example, in an animal, or in heaven, or in earth, or in any other place; but beauty absolute, separate, simple, and everlasting, which without diminution and without increase, or any change, is imparted to the ever-growing and perishing beauties of all other things. He who from these ascending under the influence of true love, begins to perceive that beauty, is not far from the end. And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is.

“This, my dear Socrates”, said the stranger of Mantineia, “is that life above all others which man should live, in the contemplation of beauty absolute.... But what if man had eyes to see the true beauty—the divine beauty, I mean, pure and clear and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality and all the colours and vanities of human life—thither looking, and holding converse with the true beauty simple and divine? Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.Would that be an ignoble life?”

-- Plato, Symposium

Friday, January 27, 2023

Note on Previous Post (Thoughts on the connections between India and Hebrew, Greek & Egyptian cultures)

The question arises: if “Indians” – for the lack of a better term – were the first settlers in Egypt, why didn’t they take the horse with them?

The horse was introduced much later, into Egypt.

The only plausible answer is that the first few waves of immigrants didn’t travel on horseback.

This immigration took place thousands of years before the Pyramids were built.

To the objection that they came from the south of Egypt, it can be said that they went by sea — to Africa — and landed somewhere in present-day Ethiopia, and made their way north.

It’s not absolutely necessary they went by land, like the imaginary “Aryan” hordes cooked up in the 19th century.

Indeed, if they came from Indonesia, it is possible they came directly by sea, and never came to India at all.

Apart from whatever archaeologists & paleontologists might have discovered, I see no reason to think that the Egyptians who developed their own high civilization came from Inner Africa.

They’re dark reddish-brown folk.

Indeed, their coming by sea seems to be rather a good theory, because the boat – and not the chariot – is their most important symbol of transportation.

We find neither the horse – nor the elephant – nor the tiger – nor the rooster – nor the peacock – nor the rhinoceros – nor the swan – playing any significant role in Egyptian culture or mythos.

This significantly weakens any influence from Europe, or the Middle East.

And while it maybe said Indian influence appears to be as unimportant as that of Mesopotamia, we may say it displays insignificant influence from Inner Africa too.

These are people who’ve left their original homeland a long time back, and have definitely adapted to their new environment.

They’ve taken up the animals from their immediate environs with great ingenuity – the bull, cow, deer, lion, cat, ibis, baboon, ram, hippopotamus, jackal/dog, scarab, rabbit, vulture, ostrich, serpent, sparrow-hawk, goose, crocodile, etc.

Influences on & from the Middle-East or Mesopotamia, over the 3rd and 2nd Millennium BCE, are known to all, if not clearly measurable.

The Indian connection has to be worked out, or inferred, and is not necessarily evident.

So, for instance, take the strange symbol of the Ankh – the key-like “cross & circle” object held by almost all Egyptian gods.

Isn’t the Ankh very similar to the loop or loop-knot held by Indian gods – which is undoubtedly related to – and sometimes the same as – the noose, or the pāśa?

The Ankh isn’t as much a cross as it is a knotted loop.

The ankh appears to serve a similar function as the Indian pāśa, the crook held by Osiris, or the was-sceptre, being akin to the Indian akuśa.

{May the Egyptian was be connected to the Sanskrit vaś?

The was” sceptre seems to be a variation of the staff, the sceptre, the crosier, the shepherd’s crook – also the rule or the “daṇḍa” – its shape is reminiscent of the Indian akuśa.

I must add that the was-sceptre has some similarities with the plough, or “hala”, held by Balarāma too – but I wouldn’t push that idea.

I think it’s safe to say that they all denote the beast-herder, or beast-controller, or beast-tamer.}

The Ankh represents binding i.e. to bindknotting i.e. to tie in a knot or to tie a knotholding togethertyingclasping, & attaching.

Crossing & circling also have the same, or similar, significance – but the Ankh’s primal root seems to be the loop or circle – hence, to form a loop, or to encircle.

I detect etymological connections with Sanskrit, but will come to those sometime later.

We can see both the elephant-goad and the loop in the arms of this stunningly beautiful Sarasvatī from the Hoysaleshvara Temple at Halebid {image taken from Wikipedia}:




Here the fundamental structure of the objects is overlaid with intricate ornamentation.

But reduced to their basic forms, I do see striking similarities between the elephant-goad of the Indian deities, and the crook held by some Egyptian figures, especially Osiris.

The pāśa can be the noose or the loop.

The noose is not identical with the loop – but they’re similar & related objects.

Varua, for instance, holds the noose – but many deities hold the loop, which is sometimes a triple-loop.


...

BTW, a few days back I read in Aeschylus’s play The Suppliants, that Egypt was also called “Aeria”.

Aeschylus was one of the greatest dramatists of Greek culture, and was born in the 6th century BCE.

Why is Egypt called “Aeria” in this play?

Is there any connection with the word Ārya” or “Arya, or is it the diminished form or permutation of some other word?

Aeria seems to be the name of many places in the Ancient World.

...

The connection between India & Meso-American cultures has been noticed and commented upon, by many intellectuals who’re not a part of the mainstream.

The official intellectual elite seems to be completely silent on it.

I think I get part of the reason: the truth may be highly discomfiting because of the utter brutality of the Meso-American civilizations & their cruel rites – which cast a disturbing shadow on the Ancient civilizations of Asia & Africa.

If the Mayans were so cruel, were the Cambodians equally pitiless?

This is a much more serious issue than we can comprehend.

Is it possible to be so intellectually advanced, and yet have such blood-curdlingly brutal rites, like those practised by the Aztecs & Mayans?

But the relatedness of the cultures – especially with the Hindu-Buddhist South-East Asian cultures is indubitable – and – mind-boggling.

This is a whole universe of fascinating intellectual exploration in itself.

The primordial world-civilizers – from Indonesia or from India – might have reached the American continents either through Polynesia, or via China, or both.

I do not intend to delve into that territory, as of now.

But I do recognize the civilizations are intimately associated with the Indian and SE Asian, and it’s a matter of time that the “truth will out”.