The Individual and the Species
THE LIVING BEING IS A PREDATOR THAT SURVIVES ONLY by devouring other living beings, to become, in its turn, food. "The living 'I' is that which devours and which is devoured," says the Chhândogyä Upanishad. This destructive/destructible function, being synonymous with impermanence, can only take place in relative time. The living being might seem to be merely a digestive system, but it is also the bearer of a message or plan, issuing from Purushä, which it can transmit either through cellular division or through the sexual act.
The individual is but a transitory moment of the species, which is a permanent reality. It is the species that represents one aspect of the divine game (lîlâ) of creation. Although insignificant as an individual, the living being is necessary as a link, as one ring in the chain that continues through the generations from the birth of a species until its extinction. Each species evolves as a living entity: it passes through childhood, the prime of life, and the decline of old age.
The individual is similar to one of the relay runners carrying the Olympic torch. He is the conveyor of a model, of a permanent code that is carried on from individual to individual. It is the ability to reproduce and to perpetuate and transmit oneself that is the characteristic of life. The complex of forms and abilities characteristic of the individual is given continued life through procreation. A species evolves through thousands of generations. Man is called Lingä-dharä, the "bearer of his penis." His individuality is of no importance except inasmuch as it adds something to the code received by him at birth and which he must pass on within the framework of the species to which he belongs.1
The duration of our species depends on the way in which we behave as links in one of the varieties of that species with respect to the law governing our raison d'être on the physical, social, and moral levels.
The progress of the human species rests on the increasing usefulness of each of its elements and varieties; a man progresses by carrying out the role that nature has given him; he degrades himself if he abandons that role. The perfect man, the harmonious man, the useful man, is the man who, like an actor, plays to perfection the role assigned to him.
The Clan (Jâti)
ALL living species, so long as they are not drawn from their assigned role, observe a set of innate behavioral laws. They reproduce only within their own group. The same is true of the human races that are not debased. This is why mankind is divided into tribes or clans (Jâti), which correspond to genetic models, within which marriage is acceptable. Each type of person has a role to fulfill in a complex society, just as each type of cell in a living body has a different function. A cancer is the result of cells developing the urge to proliferate freely and breaking free of the organic role assigned to them. The same is true of society. In the plan of a species, each individual has aptitudes that correspond to a predetermined role. If he ceases to perform this function, he becomes a social cancer.
The beauty and richness of creation rests in the variety of species, in their purity, their diversity, and their perfection. This is why the problem of the transmission of life must be resolved carefully. There is no transmigratory body that is not linked to a particular type of man and a lineage that personifies it. The transmission of the Lingä-Sharirä, the genetic code inherited from the ancestors; its planting in carefully chosen ground; and the transfer to a new being of the ancestral heritage comprising the archetypes issuing from divine thought constitute the most important act in the physical being. It must be carried out in a ritual form that takes various factors, including astrological ones, into account in such a way that the new bearer of the flame is perfectly adapted to its role, and in such a way that the species fashioned through the long ancestral line is not degraded or extinguished.
The child, the receiver of the code, must as far as possible be the image of his father, and his continuator in the evolutionary scale.
When the genetic code is transplanted into unsuitable ground, as is the case of the intermingling of castes or races, it becomes confused, and the resulting offspring do not have the necessary qualities to transmit the ancestral heritage of knowledge. It is in this way that civilizations die.
The modern idea that genetic mingling improves a species is only true on a superficial level, taking no account of the psychological facts or the hereditary abilities of the harmony between the physical and intellectual aspects of a being. Moral characteristics become disconnected from physical ones and in time come into conflict. Progress rests on the accentuation of diversity; in any domain a leveling is the prelude to death. A mingling of races or species leads to regression in the evolutionary plane. The more the sexual partners belong to the same stock, the more the race that they represent is refined, is improved, and progresses. We are well aware that this is the case for animals; we tend to forget that it applies to humans just as much.
In intermingling societies, the son no longer resembles his father; he is no longer the continuation of his father. The ties that bind them are loosened, and the family dissolves. In hybrid societies, the roles are poorly distributed: warriors lack courage, intellectuals are irresponsible, merchants are thieves, and artisans have no love for their work. Deprived of their proper function and place in society, heroes become gang or guerilla leaders, intellectuals disseminate aberrant doctrines, merchants seize economic power and enter into conflict with the artisans who detest their work. This state of affairs, which is due to the mixing of races, must take place at the end of the Kali Yugä.
Physical illnesses bring about physical degeneration and can cause a break in and destruction of a genealogical chain. But illness of the mind—the deformation or incorrect usage of inherited knowledge—deprives the human being of his essential role.
In animals, sexual energy emerges at precise moments for the purposes of reproduction, each within its own species. Cross-breeds never occur in the natural order of things.
Mankind's double nature, however, has led elsewhere. The being of flesh will use this energy in order to reproduce; the being of knowledge will cultivate it as a fuel to develop his intellectual and magical powers. The most varied sexual stimulations will therefore be useful to him in the development of his mental and spiritual self. Moreover, he must control, and indeed limit, the use of his semen when he is engaged in reproduction.
Marriage is not simply a license that legalizes sexual relations, as it tends to become for the frustrated in puritanical societies. It is a responsible, ritualized act whose purpose is the creation of a new link in the line representing one particular human type, that is, one of the variants of the divine thought. Marriage between individuals belonging to different ethnic or racial groups is seen as an outrage against the Creator's plan and harmony of the world. If sexual encounters take place between partners belonging to different groups, it is considered essential to ensure that they remain unproductive, whether through contraception or abortion.2
THE rites of procreation are described in the Tanträ(s) and in several works related to the Yogä. They include the veneration of the sexual organs, the images of the divine principles, which will join together to bring about the miracle of life. There is a fundamental difference between, on the one hand, sexual play, which is part of the art of living, of the divine experience of pleasure which concerns the individual alone, and, on the other hand, the ritual union whose purpose is procreation and which therefore concerns the species. The problems are different for man and woman, for the one who provides the plan and for the one who brings it to fruition. There cannot be identical rules for these two functions.
The procreative act is the most important of the rites; it represents participation in the process of creation. All the other rites are the symbolic reflection of this union. Agni, the god of fire, the male principle, appears in the Kunda, the hearth on the altar, image of the feminine organ. The Upanishad(s) explain all the aspects of the ritual of sacrifice in terms of the different stages of the act of love.
Woman is the hearth, the male organ is the fire; the caresses are the smoke, the vulva is the flame, penetration is the brand, and pleasure is the spark. In this fire, the gods receive the offering of semen, and a child is born. [Chhândogyä Upanishad, 5,4–8]
The summons is the invocation of the deity; the request is the first hymn of praise. The act of lying next to the woman is the hymn of glory; meeting her face to face is the chorus; the height of passion is the consecration; and the separation is the final hymn. He who knows that the hymn to Vâmadevä (the god of the left hand who represents the Tantric aspect of Shivä) is woven upon the act of love, re-creates himself in each act of union. His life will be long; his descendants and his livestock will be numerous; his fame widespread. [Chhândogyä Upanishad, 2, 13-1]
On the fifth day after a woman's period, copulation leads to the birth of a child through the union of the woman's lunar (left) subtle breath and the man's solar (right) breath. Once the necessary purifications following her period are completed, the woman should drink the juice of a plant called Shankhavalli (in the shape of a conch) and then accept the gift of man's sperm at a moment when elements of earth and water are flowing in her veins.... If earth predominates, a daughter will result; if water dominates, a son will be born; if, however, the element of fire prevails, the pregnancy will end in miscarriage; and if the element of ether is dominant, the child will be a homosexual. [Shiva Svarodayä, trans. Alain Daniélou (Milan: Arche, 1982), pp. 44-65]
In the course of the sexual act, the Sâdhakä (the adept) should recite to himself a special Manträ, a formula that evokes the nature of Shivä in order that the sexual act might be identified with the union of Shivä and Shakti. Orgasm is thus assimilated into a sacrificial rite.
According to Bharati (The Tantric Tradition, p. 264), the formula would be: "AUM. Light and ether are my two hands, Dharmä and Adharmä are the ingredients. With the sacrificial ladle I pour this oblation into the sacred fire. Svâhâ!" Other formulae exist, however. The Shaktä should chant mentally the goddess's Manträ.
The Castes (Varnä)3
MAN is a social animal, which is to say that the human species forms a whole, an organism, whose various cells have their own distinct functions. This is why the different lineages of mankind exist. The qualities and abilities of each improve over the generations so as to form an efficient, harmonious society that is capable of carrying out the role assigned to the human species in the plan of creation.
In the same way that the different organs of the body have different functions, even though they originate in similar cells, so in the plan laid out for the species there exist particular lineages that are more adapted to certain functions and whose abilities, once they are recognized, encouraged, and developed, become hereditary. Each human grouping, each race, each family, must seek to uphold its integrity, to improve its particular speciality, and to play the social role corresponding to its nature, and above all else to preserve and transmit its own special genetic and cultural heritage.
Our virtues are to a great extent transmissible, being connected to aspects of character that can be inherited. This is why they must be cultivated and improved so that we may play our role to the full in the brief span of our existence.
There is thus for everyone a "natural law" (Dharmä) that regulates the use and development of mental and physical characteristics, inherited at birth, together with the gift of life itself, so that we may play to the full our part in the evolution of our lineage.
Ancestor worship involves above all else the respect and transmission of our double heritage, genetic and cultural.4
Each being is born unique. In the almost infinite number of possible combinations of the elements that constitute the living being, it is beyond belief that the same arrangement could be repeated, that two beings could be absolutely identical, with the same nature, appearance, function, and station; nevertheless, the human types defined by heredity can be classified. In order to achieve his physical and spiritual destiny, each individual must establish his basis; determine the class to which he belongs, the duties and qualities inherent in that class, and its unique characteristics so that he may make them productive; and, eventually, go beyond them. Everyone must achieve the perfection of a social or exterior role before he can perfect his personal or interior role. The two roles can be vastly different and even contradictory; thus, we see that men from the artisan castes can earn their living in their humble professions and yet can at the same time be philosophers, holy men, and artists before whom kings and Brahmans bow with respect.
The circumstances of our birth correspond to the level of development of our own lineage and to the conditions in which we can best progress. Each of the links in the lineage is found at a particular stage of the evolution of that species—in its youth, maturity, or decline. This is why individuals of different races are not at the same level in their evolution.
There is no advantage to anyone in wanting to change one's situation or function, nor in wanting to perform the duties of another. Thus, except in very rare cases, one does not change one's sex, species, race, or caste during one's life. The external hierarchy of beings and things is often the opposite of the interior order. This is the reason why, during the Kali Yugä (the present world age), it is most desirable to be either woman or worker (Shudrä), for through mere humility and devotion to their role or work, these people can attain exterior perfection, which in turn permits the interior development that frees them from the weighty chains of life and leads them effortlessly toward the higher spheres of knowledge. The state of prince, or Brahman, noble and magnificent though it may seem, is disastrous in the dark age, for the discipline that they demand is so severe and the virtues so difficult that failure is almost certain.
It is not at all by chance that for nearly the last thousand years, almost all the great mystic poets and holy men of India have been men of humble birth who could so easily free themselves from their social and ritual responsibilities and devote themselves to their inner life.
An organic society can only exist on the basis of a division of powers and functions.
With the appearance of urban societies at the dawn of the Kali Yugä, a system developed in India whereby the different groups were able to intermingle and collaborate; each group was able to maintain its own identity, traditions, and knowledge, while at the same time cooperating in the development of a common civilization.
Ancient cities were divided into four parts, separated by avenues in the shape of a cross; each part was reserved for one of the four functions: priest, soldier, merchant, and artisan. The word quarter is the remnant of this division.
The Lineage (Goträ)
THE development of the different genealogical lines adapted to essential functions is linked to the cycle of the four Yugä(s), the four ages that mark the development and decline of the human species. They represent the peoples of the Golden Age, living like animals on nature's bounty; the nomadic warriors of the tribal period; the peasants and sedentary merchants of the agricultural age; and the artisans of the industrial era. A lineage (goträ) is thus a group of individuals transmitting a special genetic code that evolves as it passes through innumerable carriers. Each lineage is an organ of the social body, and it is the social body as a whole that maintains the culture or civilization, which, in turn, allows the development and transmission of knowledge.
The functional hierarchy that assures the transmission of knowledge and rites has been maintained in the framework of Shaivism and Tantrism among non-Aryan populations, even though reduced, without distinction of rank, to the position of slaves by the Aryans. Even today, "in the Marhatta lands the Aryan Brahmans do not officiate in temples where the Lingä is worshiped. There is a separate caste for that, called Guravä, of Shudrä origins" (P. Banerjee, Early Indian Religions, p. 41). In the temples of Orissa, such as the Lingärâjä of Bhuvaneshvar, the Brahman and non-Brahman priests alternate in the performance of services.
The institution of royalty appeared in the Tretâ Yugä, the second age of mankind. There are certain sciences and arts that are distinctively royal and warlike. The Râmâyanä describes the education of Râmä and his brothers, typical of pre-Aryan warrior princes. The anointing of kings and their power of healing are the remnants of the initiatory traditions of the Kshatriyä, the warriors' traditions as distinct from those of the priests. It was a legendary hero, Parashu-Râmä (Râmä the battle-ax wielder), later thought to be an Avatârä of Vishnu, who rooted out the order of the Kshatriyä (i.e., the warrior tribes of the Tretä Yugä) from India, to the benefit of the sedentary populations of the Dvâparä Yugä.
The lineages of farmers and merchants first appeared during this third age. They are the ones who produce and accumulate food and wealth, and who thereby provide the financial resources for cultural and religious institutions, and indeed the resources for the power of states. It was not only urban civilization and seaborne commerce that developed thanks to them, but also the organized urban religions, which, being ritualistic, moralistic, puritanical, and restrictive, will henceforth enter into conflict with the unfettered Dionysiac Shaivism.
Jainism, the atheistic religion of the commercial classes, first appeared in the Dvâparä Yugä, the Age of Doubt. Sentimental religiousness and puritanism would remain characteristic of the merchant caste, and these tendencies are for that matter clearly present in modern Vaishnavism.
The Popular Framework
THE popular and artisanal classes often formed a protective shell that allowed the occult tradition to be maintained. The common people remain attached to those external aspects of the tradition which are regarded as superstitions; they believe in spirits, magic, fate, and spells, in pilgrimages, idols, sacred places, and the seasonal festivals, thereby forming a defense against the intellectualism and tyranny of the urban religions.
A part of the occult tradition is transmitted within the framework of the ritual festivals and through the worship of objects, images, and holy places that never change no matter what name or justification is given them, and through the orgiastic, ecstatic, magical, and mystical practices which make up popular religion and which remain untouched by the ambitions of urban society.
It is in these popular arenas, those of the artisans and peasants, always in reaction against bourgeois civilization, that the traditions of sacred knowledge were able to find refuge in India in periods of crisis. These traditions are carried on by the wandering initiatory orders, the mysterious Sannyâsi, who, even in modern Hinduism, transmit the highest levels of initiation, closely connected to Shaivism, Tantrism, and Yogä. The word pagan (paganus) in fact means "peasant," for it was in the popular classes, Western as well as Indian, that these traditions, patterns of thought, and millennarian beliefs were sustained while the bourgeoisie lost touch with the ancient knowledge and rites.
Coexistence
EVERY society must make way for invaders and migrants. In this way, linguistic, religious, and professional groupings develop. These must be recognized and linked to the four principal groups, even while maintaining their separate identity, solidarity, and the means of defending their cultural uniqueness.
Besides a few exceptional individuals, who are mutants and therefore tend to associate together in a kind of parallel society, the problems of individual freedom in relation to social order are the concern of groups rather than of individuals. Every caste or ethnic, religious, or professional grouping tends to establish rules appropriate for itself, building up codes of behavior that cannot be generalized.
Rules of morality that imply codes of honor regulate the activities of each group. If these rules are not followed, the groups self-destruct. Immigrants belonging to a foreign culture will alter the social order if their autonomy is denied and they are forced to assimilate.
The hierarchy of the caste system allows for the coexistence and collaboration of human groups even though they belong to different levels of evolution. Attempts to bring about equality are destructive of the individuality of the person and of the group. Coexistence demands respect for all the differences and varieties in human beings. In this sense, traditional Hindu society is fundamentally antiracist. It rejects the colonialization through assimilation that the current Indian government, infected by Western ideas, is using to assassinate the primitive tribes left over from the Satyä Yugä and totally unable to adapt to the ways of life of the modern world. The government claims that these groups are the backward elements of a single population; but one cannot respect and protect the various human societies by refusing to acknowledge their very existence, autonomy, importance, rights, and uniqueness. Every group has its usefulness, a role to play in the balance of nature and society. The caste system tries to determine this role, stabilize it, and make it easier. The abilities, duties, virtues, and rules of each group are different: it is impossible to establish behavioral laws that would apply to all.
A division into castes, whatever may be its defects, is essential to the smooth running of every society. If, as a consequence of ill-considered intermingling, a society no longer has these distinct categories, they will tend to re-form, slowly but inevitably, just as a wound heals over: the social framework is its own healer. According to the Manu Smriti, the codified laws of Manu, abilities and talents should then be the basis on which to reestablish castes. There is a similar idea behind the modern I.Q. tests. However, we do not have the established corporate bodies that could make these abilities productive and provide a way of life, security, and a social family for those oriented toward a particular vocation. All this is crucial for the well-being of any society. The Western world's vanity (the implicit belief by which Westerners consider themselves a superior species) is revealed in its determination to impose upon all peoples its languages, beliefs, and social and moral concepts, in the belief that these represent progress.
Those attached to Indian culture liken themselves to the Aryan Brahmans, whose rites they pretend to practice and whose codes of behavior they claim to follow. This has cut them off from the other brands of Indian tradition.
The study of Shaiva tradition has been neglected to the point that most of the Westerners who claim to study India and its rites, customs, and knowledge have not even the slightest idea that there are other strands besides Vedic Brahmanism, even though it is these strands which are most suited to their own needs. Why does a Westerner who, at home, would study architecture, medicine, music, or perhaps astrology, alchemy, or magic, ignore the related fields which in India carryon similar traditions, with their particular initiations and rites, and which continue to teach the related religious and philosophic concepts?
The few Westerners who have really been able to enter the Hindu world are those who have taken an interest in the study of the crafts (music in particular) and have been accepted into an artisanal group. Others, in investigating religious or magical practices, have been able to find a place for themselves in the Tantric world that has opened before them. Such was the case of Sir John Woodroffe for Tantrism or Verrier Elwyn for the Munda tribes.
There are no exclusions in Shaivism and Tantrism concerning religious and ritual practices.
Tiruvallur, the author of the Kural, the most venerated work in Tamil literature, was of very humble origins. He wrote: "All men are equal. The differences between them come about through their occupations.... Even today, a pariah who has undergone the Shaiva initiation (Shivädikshâ) can transmit it to a Brahman and thus become his Guru" (Sakhare, History and Philosophy of Lingayat Religion, p. 175).
From the point of view of the social framework, the abilities and moral qualities of individuals are part of the genetic heritage of their lineage, and are generally related to the family's occupation. Just as there are game dogs and sheep dogs, each genetic code is adapted to particular functions.
Woman
THE division of the sexes implies separate functions as well as different natures. Since they have distinctly different abilities and roles, men and women form a double caste. They are closely interlinked and interdependent; they are different but complementary except where one or the other develops androgynous characteristics. It is only when they follow their separate behavioral patterns that these two halves of humanity achieve their purpose and are equal.
The masculine nature's principle is characterized by odd numbers; the female's is characterized by even numbers. This is why the nature and the function of woman is twofold: she is at the same time humble yet exalted, slave and goddess, submissive lover and all-powerful mother.
As lover she represents the creative power; without her the male principle is sterile. She is the image of Shakti, the power of the gods who without her have no reality.
It is in the mother's womb that the transition from nonexistence to existence takes place. It is the place where the Creator does his creative work; it is the point where divinity and humanity meet, and is therefore the most sacred of sanctuaries. The mother goddess is the source and principle of life itself. It is thus in her role as mother that woman gains divinity and is worshiped. The mother is without artifice, without makeup (nirañjanä). She is the comfort of man wandering in the deserts of the world. She is forgiveness, charity, and limitless compassion. As the image of Prakriti, woman is the incarnation of the nutritive principle, which is the basis of material reality.
She is the guardian of the hearth, the priestess of Agni, god of fire. It is she who maintains the home, the center of family life. She is the axis of society, the center of each of society's cells, and hence is at the center of the social unit's stability. The original Shaiva society was matriarchal: women ruled in the home, the interior and concealed social cell, the sanctuary, of which she was the goddess. The father may have performed the rites of initiation for his sons, but it was the mother's blessing which was needed before he could enter the secret path of Sannyâsä, or renunciation.
In India, as elsewhere, the nomadic, patriarchal invaders (Aryans, Parthians, Scythians, Mongols, Semites, and finally Europeans) tried to overturn these ancient social institutions. In the artisanal castes, which remained faithful to Shaivism, the female predominates in the realm of the esoteric. In the public corporative rites, however, in the dances, ceremonies, symbols and invocations, the male aspect of divinity is to the fore: the symbolism is phallic.
The Family (Kulä)
IN India, the family group is under normal circumstances an extended one, stretching out over several generations. The women and children form the central, closed, cell. The pubescent males join the external cell, open to the outside world.
Although the choice of sexual partners is in principle exclusive for genetic reasons, man and wife do not formally live as a couple. The idea that the couple is the basis of social stability is a pernicious concept bearing no connection with the nature of man, and makes of the family a kind of prison.
It is the familial grouping (kulä) that forms the family. It includes brothers, uncles and their wives. The sexes live apart.
Hindu marriage is arranged in childhood according to very precise genetic rules concerning caste (varnä), clan (jâti), and lineage (goträ), which are similar to those we use for breeding animals or flowers.
Infidelity within a clan is not regarded as serious: a certain tolerance exists in fact, if not in theory. A married woman who has sexual relations with other men of her husband's family, stepbrothers, or cousins is not necessarily turned out, for the genetic code is not affected.
A woman who has had relations with several men of varied origins is no longer a suitable channel for the perpetuation of a genetic code. She is removed from the family, to become part of a new social grouping called the "servants of the gods" (devä-dâsï[s]), whose task it is to perform the arts of love, music, and dance. These servants of the gods have an essential part to play in the transmission of part of the cultural heritage.
The prostitution of women allows men to have sensual fulfillment while preserving the family's integrity; it also allows those who have devoted themselves to study and spiritual concerns to maintain their balance without taking on the social obligations and limitations that are part and parcel of marriage. The woman who devotes herself to the arts, to pleasure, or to a spiritual quest finds herself in a similar position to the servant of the gods: her work is incompatible with the reproductive function and therefore with marriage itself. There is always a connection between the erotic pursuits and mystic ecstasy: the paths of love are no obstacle to intellectual or spiritual achievement. The Dharmä, the ethics of these women, is described in the Matsyä Purânä (see Alain Daniélou, La Sculpture erotique hindoue, pp. 71–33).
Her obligations include making herself available without payment to wandering ascetics and feeding them. Once the great temples housed these women, who devoted themselves to dance, music, and the erotic arts, often in connection with mystical experience. Even today, the greatest singers, musicians, and dancers belong to this much-honored group, now considerably reduced in numbers by Anglo-Saxon prudishness: the very institution of Devä-dâsï was prohibited as immoral, to the very great detriment of the arts. It is not only in India that the theatrical and dancing professions were closely connected to that of the courtesan.
Women who follow the ascetic path, or that of pleasures of the flesh, cannot achieve success unless they renounce procreation.
The quest for knowledge, the experience of Yogä, attracts many women; yet the path of detachment and personal fulfillment is compatible only with difficulty with the role of mother, wife, and manager of the home. Thus, women choose the solitary, monastic path, the path of the wanderer. Indian mystic history mentions many Yogini(s), female Yogi(s), who practiced unbelievable austerities, and holy women who wandered from temple to temple singing the praises of a god.
Mirâbaï, a great poetess of the Hindi language, was a Rajput princess who abandoned palace, honor, and wealth in order to lead the life of a mystic wanderer, singing her marvelous poems in the villages as she begged for her food.
Ânandä Maï, who recently died, was very well known. She had many disciples and had a most beneficial influence. Extremely beautiful, she abandoned while still young her profession (as a teacher), husband, family, and children, in order to follow her destiny.
There are also women who have been exceptional by their wisdom and their knowledge, while other have been great warriors: for example, the famous Rani of Jhansi was a great military chief.
The modern woman who wishes to be simultaneously an object of pleasure, a mother, and one who takes part in man's futile activities is a destructive anomaly in society. For men, the home ceases to be a welcoming refuge where the mother is the protective goddess. Delinquency, violence, and social disorder often result from the lack of this refuge, the protective hearth over which women reign supreme.
The Third Nature (Tritîya Prakriti)
THE three Gunä(s), the three fundamental tendencies of Prakriti, are to be found in all that exists. All aspects of the divine are reflected in creation. The primordial impulses are expressed in the masculine aspect (Purushä-Shivä), substance in the female aspect (Prakritti-Vishnu ). The resulting principle is neutral. It is represented by Brahma, the world's artisan, or by Shiva in the aspect of the primordial androgyne. Once a certain level of androgyneity develops in living beings, it is called the Third Nature (Tritîya Prakriti) or the nonmale (napunsakä).
Everything that lies between the poles of absolute masculinity and femininity derives from both. Everything is imbued to some extent with this double nature and is thus both male and female. The differentiation between things and beings arises from the degree of masculinity and femininity of their composing elements, with the result that in the complex relationships of the formal world, each aspect or being is male or female in relation to another aspect or state of being. When applied to human society, this principle means that each hierarchical level is masculine with regard to the superior or inferior levels. Thus the king is feminine in relation to a priest and is therefore subservient to him; the merchant is feminine in relation to the king and owes him obedience; the artisan is feminine in relation to the merchant and serves him as a slave. All living beings, stemming from Prakriti, are basically feminine. The adolescent male is feminine in relation to an adult man and only achieves stability as a male when he realizes his identity with the mature man.
It is the degree of femininity or masculinity in each person in relation to others that determines his role and function. In order to achieve his potential, everyone must establish his position in relation to those with whom he comes into contact, and thus realize his nature (his Dharmä, a word that basically means "conformity with that which one is"). The task of the man eager to free himself from the slavery of existence is thus, first of all, to know himself and conform to his own nature in order eventually to liberate himself from it.
The ascetics and wise men who saw the god-hero Rama in the forest obtained from him as a reward for their sacrifices the right to be reborn as gopis (female cattle-herders) so that they could be his lovers when he returned to earth in the form of Krishnä, the incarnation of love.
Men and women who are marked by sexual ambivalence have a role other than the transmission of the genetic code, and also have special functions within society. It is largely from among this class of people that shamans, magicians, wandering monks, initiates, holy virgins, priestesses, and also creative artists are recruited. To turn this androgynous aspect to full account, the shaman will dress as a woman and will eventually take a husband. The priests of Cybele dressed as women; some underwent castration, the better to identify themselves with the goddess. Etruscan priestesses wore phalluses.
In modern times, Râmäkrishnä (founder of the monastic order that bears his name), a worshiper of the goddess Durgâ, wore feminine clothes for many years as part of his Sâdhanä (his method of spiritual fulfillment). The adoption of female dress by male shamans and priests is a worldwide phenomenon.
Some Chukchee shamans wear women's clothing and even marry other men; the Akkadian priests of Ishtar wore female attire. The Tantric term Vamachara, the "left-hand way," literally means "the woman practice." According to the Achârabhedä Tanträ, "The ultimate female force is to be propitiated by becoming a woman" (McEvilley, An Archeology of Yogä, pp. 71–72).
Intersexuals, in whom certain male and female aspects are combined, are considered holy because they evoke the primordial androgyneity, the wholeness of principles. Corresponding to the neuter principle represented by the god Brahmâ, the creator in the cosmic trinity, they are particularly adapted to artisanal or artistic creation. In all societies intersexuals play an important part in literature, poetry, and the arts.
In their sections on fertility, the practical works on Yogä, such as the Shivä Svarodayä,5 explain the psychological, physical, and astrological circumstances that give rise to intersexuals. They speak of fourteen nonreproductive categories (napunsakä), outlined by V. S. Apte in his Sanskrit dictionary. Castration, impotence, continence, and homosexuality are various forms of exclusion from genetic continuity which affect man as an individual, but even more as a link in the genetic chain, for these traits break the continuity of that chain and destroy one of the prime functions of the being of flesh. Nevertheless, this break in the chain is also part of the plan.
The Greek word corresponding to napunsakä is eunychos, meaning "he who guards the marriage bed"; that is, he who protects the virtue of women while the menfolk, the warriors, are absent. There is no implication here of the emasculation involved in the modern term eunuch. It was thus a misrepresentation of the Evangelist's words (Matthew 19: 10–12) to use the word eunuch (in place of homosexual) when Jesus said, "There are those who have been born eunuchs, others who have been made eunuchs, and others who have chosen the path in their wish for the solitary life, and who are not suited for marriage."
The early Christian Gnostics attached great value to non-reproductive eroticism. It was only in the fifth century that these practices began to be condemned.
The common rule of all the Gnostics was the refusal of procreation; those who advocated continence or the abolition of marriage did so with that in mind; those who did engage in sexual relations made them infertile through contraception or abortion.... The ritual orgy was an ostentatious means of collectively reinforcing this rejection. [Alexandrian, Histoire de la philosophie occulte, p. 63]
Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia (Cyprus), relates in his Panarion (written c. 370) his experiences in Gnostic orgies (see Alexandrian, ibid).
Since they are not involved in reproduction, and since this breaks the genetic chain, homosexuals fall outside the castes. One of their functions is to establish links between the different castes and races, and also between men, spirits, and the gods. They playa key part in magical practices.
As it has no genetic consequences, homosexuality should be considered a harmless erotic and sentimental pastime: the Kâma Suträ and other works on the arts of love all include it.
Male prostitutes (shand) and transvestites (kanchukin), nowadays called Hijrâ or Laundâ, have a recognized place and enjoy a similar status to the Devä-dâsï in traditional society. They are a separate social group under the direction of a Guru who enjoys certain privileges, particularly in the field of holy spectacles. Even today, the presence of a male prostitute in female dress, the last vestige of the androgynous shaman, is a good omen in a marriage ceremony.
The influence of Anglo-Saxon puritanism has meant that the anglicized groups in modern India pretend that they do not know of the sacred aspect of the Third Nature and homosexual practices.
The absence of a third, neutral gender—the essential complement of the masculine and feminine—in a language such as French indicates a mental limitation with psychological and social consequences.