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Having established the essence of BEING in terms of Metaphysical-BEING
and Phenomenal-BEING that solves the problems of absolute hetereology and
the impossibility of understanding PARAMUKTI without contradictions and
hence a sort of nihilism, problems arise now with respect to essences of
the Being that pertains to the psychic entities that have also been shown
as ANATHI, uncreated , non-originary and just as eternal as BEING itself.
The anma as cat-acat, sonadic-monad, with the inherently unstable DUALITY
of structure or essences and because of which EXISTENCE splits into fundamentally
TWO different kinds, becomes now the focus. The immersing and enmeshing
in the earthly and because of which the anmas are monadic- entities with
pacuviyalbu, and disengaging from all such entanglements through a process
of burning out the chains of care for the worldly and thereby becoming
sonadic or entities with sivaviyalbu, becomes now matters for a deep kind
of metaphysical inquiry.
êÚ êÆ'€À ƒÌ¯¨Å ¦þÆò
Because I assume both the states of illumination and the Darkness of Ignorance (simultaneously?), or Thou who hast seen TRUTH, I am perplexed not knowing which of these I am really. Thou should illuminate me as to my essence with metaphysical explanations that do not deviate from the issue. The real interrogation begins now with recalling what Meykandar has explained probably orally to Arunandi and other students in relation to the behavioral dispositions of the human beings, which, we should note here, are essentially psychological. By psychology we mean here an analytic understanding of human behavior.
˜êÆ Äòì ÀÒ´±ò «™ê
kURiya mUnRu malaththin kuNakkuRi
In explaining how ANavam as a Deep Structure element determines the forms of observable human behavior, Thou hast mentioned the following forms as the evidences: the tendency to differentiate self from others and becoming egoistic thereby, fantasizing and imagining uncontrollably and irrationally, continuos disposition of excessive anger and hatred, irrational and blind infatuations, murderous inclinations, the tendency to oppress and repress and through that exult in creating misery and unhappiness, excessive and groundless self-conceit and finally losing the rational capabilities and becoming insane and abnormal. ¤£'îÅ -º'Ë ÆÑþ× þÀ'Å
anjnyaanam poy ayarvE mOkam
The following seven traits or behavioral dispositions that are irrational
are attributed to maayai, the delusion-producer: the absence of illumination
or ignorance; taking the false as true and having no doubts about it; irrational
passions and unthinking desires; believe in the magical and miraculous;
unquestioning credulity or blind faith; and unnecessary and excessive fear
and anxiety.
iruththalung kitaththalum iruvinai iyaRRalum
To kanmam Thou hast attributed the following dispositions: nonassertive indolence; total disinterestedness and indifference; always bothered with the moral issues in effecting actions; abstaining from doing what one ought to do and enjoying belittling and ridiculing others. ‚›€× °'ñÅ ÿ›'³ òì
It is also said these primordial elements being anati - unoriginated
and intrinsic to the anmas- inhere with the anmas without ever departing,
forever seducing the anmas to their evil ways without ever diminishing
in their nasty hold. If that is case, it appears most certainly now, that
there is NOTHING that can be said to be mine , my way of Being-in-the-World,
a way of living that's peculiarly mine. From the most ancient times itself
I have been totally overpowered by these forces of evil, making me do things
that are unbecoming and evil, they themselves remaining unaffected by all
the earthly struggles of mine.
†ÏÅ þºÏÅ …ÏÚ› -'¯-¥ò
Urum pErum uruvung koNten
Oh! Thou! The Truest among the True! The crest jewel of the Saivite
world and residing in VeNNai NallUr, girdled by river PeNNai! Thou hast
assumed a Name, a Dwelling, and a Phenomenal Form in order to disconstruct
my Name, Dwelling and Phenomenal Form, (I have some questions in the light
of what you have said about the psychology of human beings)
mummalanj chatamena mozin-thanai yamma
In view of your earlier assertion that these three malas, or the deauthenticating powers, are insentient, what now being stated appear to be self-contradictory or deviant and with which I am puzzled. They are said to be INSENTIENT but at the same time ACTIONS are attributed to them as if they are sentient beings. And when I search for evidences for the TRUTH of such claims , I do not see any for actions being effected by the insentient entities such as the pots and cloths; ;إź¨Å
;vitampatum
(As a way of overcoming this predicament) if it is said that they function rather like poison which though insentient but nevertheless efficacious for it enters the flesh and arrest the life processes so that death is brought about, then the poison-like mummalam should also be like it, i.e. SEPARABLE and EXPELLABLE somehow just like it's entry; it should be EXTRANEOUS and hence something extrinsic to the essence of the anmas; ;«›æÅ
;kuNangkaLum
;‡Å€À ×¹°€îÆ´
;emmai van-thanaiyath
ƒÆÖ½ ‡ïí þº''³ ‡òìÅ ÀÆÖ-¥ iyalpu eniR pOkaathu enRum mayalketa Now in order to overcome all these problems, if it is said they are intrinsic to me, they constitute what I am , my essence then that would mean that I must remain forever condemned, eternally damned to be with these evil things; there is no way in which I can be free of them and enjoy purity of some kind. º¹°Å ×¹°×'ì ƒ›
pan-tham van-thavaaRu ingku
COMMENTARY :
2. The truth of Anava Malam has to be established, its symptoms and signs must be pointed out. The <"kuNang kuRi vERu kiLaththal> describes in a nutshell the methodological principles of Hermeneutic Science in which the overt behavior is taken as a TEXT the DEEP STRUCTURE of some elements in it, some kinds of behavior , is the Anava Malam. It is interesting here that the behaviors isolated are related directly or indirectly to that of DEATH. VikaRpam is the tendency to differentiate oneself from others and put
oneself ABOVE others and through that depress them so that their EQUALITY
of status and power is destroyed. It is killing of a kind in which through
a process of marginalisation a person is deprived of his/her social Being,
made to suffer a casteic expulsion, made into an outcaste, an untouchable,
suffer an expulsion from communality etc.
3. <krOtham> is excessive anger that comes along with intense hatred and which lead to murder, manslaughter , social violence, rape , massacre, genocide and similar bestialities. The <kolai> , murder and <anjar> oppression are obviously related to this . A person with these dispositions lacks patience, forbearance, tolerance; bursts out in hatred and intense anger at anything that does not conform to his own notions or not in line with his own lines of thinking and feeling without seeking to understand the sources of the difference. The understanding is not only narrow and extremely finite but also filled with an enormous number of prejudices. There is only narrow SINGULARITY and hence intolerance towards DIFFERENCE . In the thinking of such individuals the OTHER is always an EVIL; purely because it is DIFFERENT it is felt that it ought to be destroyed. Overall there is a readiness to EXTERMINATE anything that is different from what one is. The tendency to exterminate shows the DOMINANCE of Anavam, that which destroys and annihilates. 4. Now <mOkam> is the death of rationality, the ability to judge effectively and behave accordingly. <mOkam> is a kind of <mayakkam> , the loss of reasoning powers so that one is overcome with excessive desires particularly of the sexual kind so that one begins to crave for such pleasures. Desires become untempered with reason , untrammeled by ethical principles. Addictions to drugs and alcohol also belong to this way of Being. One loses the reflective powers and gets seduced by the sexual and emotional so that one becomes somewhat blind to the consequences of one's actions. One loses the balance when overcome with <mOkam> so that one cannot provide reasons for ones actions; in fact an indifference with respect to reasons for actions come to prevail . Since any judgement is made impossible, desires also become irrepressible leading to incest, adultery and such other morally obnoxious behavior. 5. The terms <matham> and <nakai> are related to each other and both are concerned with behaviors that are abnormal, insane and mad. <matham> is madness in which there is no self control and because of which there is running amok, effecting wanton destruction without knowing what one is doing. <nakai> is becoming the laughing stock of the community because of lack of self regulation in social interactions and other behaviors normally requiring adaptation to environmental and contextual factors. One is DEAD to the world outside oneself both the physical and social; there is a fissure of a kind so that the external are cut off from the internal; the external is effaced so that it is not processed at all by the person. In both there is DEATH OF SELF AS TO THE OTHER and because of which the actions are unrelated to the contextual conditions , lacking completely self regulation. The dominance of Anavam in such situations effects a severance of self from the external world so that the person becomes a prisoner of the internal world and that too without any control over them. The self is made DEAD TOWARDS THE EXTERNAL WORLD in some ways though bodily alive. 6. The above are Anavam related behaviors. Next to that we have maayaa
malam which is quite different from Maayai, the root substance of the physical
and nonphysical entities. The Maaya Malam or more accurately malamaayai,
is a factor in cognitive processes that brings about the formations of
illusions, delusions, distortions, misperceptions ; is a factor that effaces
the rational powers of the human mind. These are differentiated into anjnjaanam,
poy, ayarvu, mOkam, paicaasa cUniyam, maaccariyam and payam.
7. The terms <paicaasa cUniyam> and <maaccariyam> are related to each other and pertain to the magical, superstitious and other forms of behavior that are unenlightened , primitive and irrational. There is an absence of the notion of science and the possibility of solving problems in a scientific manner is not entertained at all. Recourse is had towards the magical and superstitious with believe in the existence of ghosts, devils, lower archetypes and such other benign and malignant powers. One seeks to exorcise the evil powers and bribe the benign in order to attain the desired. There is primitivity and savagery in culture with behavior that is dark and unenlightened. The category <payam> that means fear and anxiety, should be interpreted as that which arises because of ignorance. Where there is a lack of understanding, whatever out of the ordinary and appears strange, and there is plenty of it with individuals, is feared as the primitives fear the strange that they encounter for the first time. Whatever is alien is not trusted but feared and hence not welcomed. 8. The karma malam again must be understood as malakkarmam, something pertaining to the activities that shows the presence of Darkness there as well. Such behavious are listed as <iruththal> <kidaththal> <iruvinal iyaRRal> <viduththal> and <paran-inthai mEval>. These categories indicate actions that are immoral and mean as well as deactivation of the individuals so they become indolent. <iruththal> simply means being-there without any concern whatever for anything in a sipirit of total detachment and indifference. <kidaththal> means lying there incapable of any action not because of want of concern and care but because of incapacity to act at all. The person is made to lie down , incapacitated to act. <iruvinai iyaRRal> is excessive concern with the ethical implications of actions, always worried whether a particular action is right or wrong, ethical or unethical and feeling guilty even when the actions effectuated are perfectly alright.<viduththal> is abandoning responsibilities or simply letting things slip by for lack of governance. One is made powerless to change the course of actions and thereby made a slave rather than the master of the situation. 9. With these recapitulations of the essential teachings of Meykandar,
begins Arunandhi; with interrogations that are not deconstructive but rather
disconstructive i.e. removing the reigning notion to let emerge the hidden,
the veiled. The interrogations are meant to unveil that which remains as
the deep structure, still lurking in the depths, unaccessed and articulated
, brought into the light of linguistic description.
10. It may be suggested that these mummalam act rather like the poison which by its biochemical action that is not visible on the surface but nevertheless very effective in bringing about death. The suggestion is of course the invisibility for normal seeing the effectivity of the poison which is one way of overcoming the above objection. The mummalam may be effective in the way the poison is, affect the biophysical , neurophysiological, or the psychophysical and thereby bring about the behaviours noted above. The problem with this explanation is that physical causation is attributed to mummalam and if that were so then they must be such that they can be ISOLATAED and removed or destroyed so that they cease to modify or influence behaviour. The science of personal development is not different from that of medical science in which the causes of diseases are identified and removed by pharmaceutical treatment, surgical operations and so forth. Of course such an explanation is patently false for moral and such other developments of persons do not belong to the province of medical science but rather religion which is distinct. However this line of explanation and its failure does reveal that the way the mummalam are related to behaviour is rather peculiar and that genuine psychology as such is irreducible and cannot made a part of the ordinary medical science that remains mainly physical in its approaches to cure the various diseases. 10. Now begins another line of inquiry. If the presence of mummalam
is not isolatable , if they are present inalienably in the very Being of
the psychic entities, then a question about the ORIGIN of their presence
become a matter for inquiry. This presence of mummalam cannot be something
that is extrinsic to the Being of the psychic entities, somehow they are
ALREADY THERE in the Being of such entities. But then can it be that the
anmas themselves sought them after and implanted them in their very Being
? Certainly this possibility can be ruled out immediately for they are
not sources of hapiness but rather of miseries and death. And furthermore
their implantation cannot be attributed to BEING also because BEING is
absolutely PURE and therefore such impure activations are beyond HIM. The
BEING can only be the source of GOOD and not the Evil and immoral.
The solution to these impasses is contained in the observation: <aruL
munbu n-illaathu atiyERku kaN inRu, iruL kandavaaRu > i.e. One is enveloped
by the Darkness of Mumalam when one fails to stand within the horizon of
the ARUL of BEING. There is a PLAY of light and darkness and when one stands
outside the reach of the natural light, lumane naturale, then the SEEING
becomes cloudied and because of that behaviour becomes evil, immoral and
what not. The mummalams are obscurants of the SEEING so that the seeing
becomes distorted, unclear, confused, limited and so forth. The question
of AGENCY does not arise and neither the psychic entities nor BEING are
responsible for it. The darkness producing mumalam are ALREADY THERE and
when the anmas fall within their reach the SEEING becomes distorted and
so forth and because of which behavior becomes unsavory. We shall attend
to these issues at greater depth now.
Part 2 1.We have to reanalyze to gain a better understanding of the whole issue by pursuing our inquiry without abandoning the insight that was first articulated by Appar ,i.e. there is no seeing if not SHOWN by BEING as such. This notion of seeing because of a pre-existent showing makes the whole philosophy HERMENEUTICAL in essence and we shall endeavor to disclose this now. For this purpose we have to explain some important concepts about seeing
as such in the body of Saiva Siddhanta literature. The first is the notion
of <n-Okkaathu n-Okkal> of Meykandar , a form of seeing that belongs
to BEING as its essence, as how BEING is present in the world. We shall
translate this as SEEING WITHOUT SEEING (Henceforth S-W-S) which is really
a way of seeing without <cuddu> i.e. without referentiallity and hence
without temporality, intentionality and such other finitising factors.
As distinct from this is the normal seeing of the psychic entities or the
sentient beings- the ciththup poruL which sometimes becomes SEEING, a form
of seeing that is cogito in the Descartesian sense, a form of seeing which
breeds consciousness that bring along with it indubitability and hence
apodictic certainty.
2.We should note that unlike in idealism and Husserlian type of phenomenology, consciousness is NOT primordial in S.Siddhanta. What is primordial is the act of seeing and that too because of a pre-existing horizon of showing by none other than BEING itself. It is the seeing that generates consciousness of objects and hence the appearances along with the distinction between appearances and reality that we shall call the Surface Structure and Deep Structure. Since anything in displaying something as visible also points to something else that remains concealed hence demanding interpretations is a TEXT, we can see that though what are seen are objects but they are appropriated in understanding as TEXTS. Phenomenology gives way to Hermeneutics. The being of whatever entity is textual, understanding appropriates whatever it sees as texts of so many different types. And in this, when the ordinary error prone seeing is transcended and the true SEEING as such is accessed, we have a TEXT that is NOT distorted, disfigured, mauled, twisted and so forth and because of which it is understood as RELIABLE, trustworthy, and TRUE to the object seen. Such PURE TEXTS do not create doubts and uncertainties but rather the feelings of indubitability and apodicity . Such a vision is the <maacaRu kaatchi> of Tolkaapiyar and Arunandi himself. In contrast to this is the normal ordinary seeings which are not so and hence DEFILED and because of which arise the distortions of various kinds in the phenomenology of perception. The TEXTS generated are UNRELIABLE and create the feelings of uncertainty, bewilderment, confusion and puzzle. While the SEEING that is free of MACU or MALAM , helps to appropriate a reliable text of an object, the seeing of the ordinary sort is distorted and disfigured because of presence of MACU or MALAM in the seeing itself. 3. This raises questions about the possibility of transforming the ordinary and natural seeings to that of SEEINGS, the cogito that secures reliable texts of objects perceived. We can see that this is possible only when the psychic entities manage to extricate themselves from the MALAM, become PURE and immersing themselves in the horizon of S-W-S of BEING itself at least during those precious moments of seeing an object, see in the light of S-W-S of BEING. Such a seeing is the <vinaiyin n-iingki viLangkiya aRivu> of Tolkaapiyar, a seeing freed of all prejudices, obscurants, delimiters and distorters. It is seeing in the PURE LIGHT of BEING, a light that does not disfigure and distort the act of seeing. The night or the twilight zone of understanding is overcome and the seeing happens within a radiance that is clear LIGHT. No cloudiness, no nocturnal existence, no disfiguring agents of any sort and whatever thus seen is also truth. The articulations of such truths, being genuinely objective i.e. something that is not a projection from self but rather a grasping of what the object in itself is, holds the possibility of being agreed upon by others as well. Such truths are not idiosyncratic, expressions of the will to power or kaRpitam as the Vedanties would say. There are conceptualizations and representations but all are done not only with bracketing off all subjective elements but also violently escaping from them that constitute the essential struggles of man forever in search of truth. 4.It is against the background of such an understanding of consciousness
and how it is related to seeings that the psychological explanation of
behavior is given by Meykandar.
5.When however its presence is thick in the brain functions so that higher level thinking and other cognitive processes are made impossible, we have the primitive superstitious behaviors and frequently the lowly magical. The rational functioning of the human mind is jeopardized so that awe and wonder takes over dulling the rational capacities. Feelings and emotions become very strong with the uncontrollable dominance of base desires. The person becomes virtually blind, totally indifferent to reasons and logic. Uncontrollable frenzy takes over as the essential determinant of behaviour. 6. Now when MALAM stands thick, not only it obstructs vision but in doing so it also makes feeble the presence of BEING itself and hence being pulled unto BEING. The weakening of this psychotropism means absence of interest in anything that is good and noble. The motivational dynamics weakens considerably so that a state of inaction sets in. The person is unable to execute actions and thereby achieve something. On top of that in the face of interesting activities of others, he becomes abusive and insulting in the interest of spreading the cult of inaction amidst others as well. 7. Such a way of analysing behaviour is essentially hermeneutical which is captured by the phrase < kURiya mUnRu malaththin kuNang kuRi vERu kiLakkin>. The kuNangkuRi are surface structure elements that point out the presence of the causal factors in the Deep Structure. Because the observable surface structure features are DIFFERENT, it is said the MALAM too differentiates into the above three. These factors though available as the deep structure elements in the behavior as TEXTS, but since it is the seeings that generate the texts, they are said to be present in the anma itself as it is the anma that sees. And therefore it is not EXTERIOR to the person like some biochemical stuff, like poison, separable by the application of medical technology. They inhere in the deepest recesses of the psychic entities, the anmas are born with them and die with them; no, die because of them. The presence of MALAM is anathi, not something brought about either by the anmas or BEING itself or even the MALAM gravitating itself on its own accord and installing itself in the interior of the anmas. 8. The MALAM is agentive only figuratively. What it does is to obscure
or make impossible the SEEING i.e. the cogito so that clear consciousness
is made unavailable to the psychic entities. Like the distorting and dimming
dirty filters and mirrors and the cloud of dust or twilight nocturnality,
the MALAM assumes different forms for obscuring and dimming the enjoyment
of clear consciousness. The real agency is the PRESENCE of BEING. The DARKNESS
is violated and overcome only by the presence of BEING who brings along
with him CLEAR LIGHT and the anmas that see in this clear light do not
enter into the lowly behaviors. Thus the solution to the problem of evil
in man is made perspicuous now and which is articluted in the verse that
follows this i.e. < Ïè Ãò½ ÖÒ'³ ¦þÆí ¯ ƒòì ƒÏè ¯¥×'ì ‡ò-'Ö aruL
munpu n-illaathu atiyERku kaN inRu iruL kaNtavaaRu enkol> When the anmas
gravitate for some reason or other into the Space of DARKNESS, it sees
only darkness everywhere and no light that secures not only clarity of
vision but also a vision of TRUTH, the GOOD and NOBLE. The immoral and
evil thinking assails one when one unknowingly moves away from the inner
light, lumen naturale, and begin to see things within the twilight zone,
muddied cloudied unclear and distorted. This also provides the REASON and
function of genuine religious life: it is a form of life entered into and
maintained in order to secure the PURE LIGHT so that seeing does not become
distorted but always clear and genuinely objective. In this form existence
one's life becomes established by the VISION OF TRUTH and nothing else.
Such a life is philosophic, metaphysical and genuinely religious.
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