(15) Shiva Linga Beliefs in India: The Hindu View of Sexual Love in which Phallic Beliefs are Still Venerated

(15) Shiva Linga Beliefs in India: The Hindu View of Sexual Love in which Phallic Beliefs are Still Venerated

Previous Article(14) [Caution for minors] Visiting the World Heritage Site of Khajuraho - A Feast of Beautiful Tennyo! Thinking about Sex and Religion"In this article, I would like to talk about the Hindu Shiva Linga faith, as I talked about at the end of

The Shiva Linga is absolutely unavoidable when considering the Hindu faith. As we saw in the previous article, this Shiva Linga sits as an important presence in Khajuraho as well. It would be significant to study this Shiva Linga for comparison with sexually stoic Buddhism.

I will now refer to the book written by Noboru KARASHIMA and Yasuaki NARA, which I introduced in my previous article.A World History of Life 5: Faces of India."The book is called.

Let's take a quick look at the description of Shiva Linga.

The combination of sex and religion itself is not unusual, nor is it limited to India. The combination of agricultural festivals and orgiastic rituals and the worship of sexual organs are examples. It is also found in many parts of Japan, and is practiced everywhere in the world, spreading the smell of the earth among the people.

However, it is only in Hinduism that such a combination of sex and religion has escaped from the position of a folk belief and has come to the surface of a culture, where it has become an extremely open form of everyday life. The example of Shiva-Linga (phallic) worship in Hinduism can be cited there.

Lingua is an Austro-Asiatic word, and therefore was not brought to India by the Aryans. Currently.The Rig-Veda."strictly shuns phallic worship.

However, as we have seen earlier, as Shiva absorbed a wealth of indigenous beliefs and grew in power, Shiva and Linga came to be combined. Shiva was originally a god of destruction. However, destruction leads to creation. Linga, on the other hand, is a symbol of production and rebirth, which is the same everywhere in the world. The two are naturally linked, and are often used in epic poems.'Mahāpārata'.describes the union as early as in Thus, the origin of the Shiva-Linga dates back to pre-A.D.

Since then, the Linga has been widely adhered to as the most important body representing Lord Shiva, and has reached the present day. It is the most common and dominant object of worship in Hinduism.

*Some lines have been changed to make them easier to read on smartphones and other devices.

Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Noboru Karashima and Yasuaki Nara, A Global History of Life 5: The Face of India, P239-240

It is true that phallic and genital worship is not limited to India. Japan also has a variety of objects of worship, such as a rich harvest and the earth mother goddess.

However, as explained here, it is hard to imagine it coming to an everyday position. After all, there is something about the country of India that brings it to the mainstay of life.

The life of Buddha (Shakyamuni) as seen through local photos] ⒁The historical background of India, where Buddhism was born: the history and worldview of the ancient Indian religion of Brahmanism. And a word about the caste system."As I told you in the article "The Dravidian People and the Aryans who invaded from the direction of Afghanistan and Iran", there existed in ancient India an indigenous people of India, the Dravidian people.

These invading Aryans spread throughout India and ruled the land. The hymns to the gods they worshipped became the Brahmanic "Rig Veda," a sacred text.

However, the Aryan domination of India did not mean that all the indigenous people were gone. Over time, the mixture of races and cultures continued to grow.

That is the process of Shiva Linga generation that was explained above.

In other words, the religion of the Aryans who ruled India, Brahmanism, was only for the Aryans. So it tended to dismiss indigenous things. That is as explained above.

But eventually, as it became associated with indigenous religionsOnly the Aryans.instead ofReligion of the Indian people as a wholeHinduism is a religion that has spread throughout India. Hinduism thus spread throughout India. Thus, Brahmanism and Hinduism are truly one and the same.

Shiva is the god of destruction and the god of yoga and dance. Shiva is the master of meditation and the god of dancing, destroying the world and bringing about re-creation.

The rebirth of all things must be preceded by destruction. Destruction is not always a bad thing. Destruction renews a stagnant, dark world and brings about a new world. Here exists a circular view of time that differs from the Christian linear view of history.

In Christianity, history proceeds in a straight line from the beginning of the world to the final judgment. In the Indian view, however, time is not a straight line, but a circular cycle. It is a loop that keeps going around and around. Shiva in the upper right photo is a perfect example of this image. It is Shiva who dances at the center of this cycle of time and turns the circle.

Shiva Linga is the perfect combination of this destruction, rebirth, and life force. This is far beyond the level of mere phallic worship. It may even be called a cosmological faith.

Let's continue to look at the explanations.

Unlike Buddhism and Christianity, Hinduism has no specific doctrines. It has a high level of existential concepts and practices, as well as a variety of folk beliefs and rituals, such as ancestral spirit and demon worship, rites of passage, and witchcraft.

There is no distinction at all as to which of them is the essential part of Hinduism and which is the corrupted part.

Therefore, beliefs that people in the original religions such as Buddhism and Christianity would be forced to shun become a major part of Hinduism if they are practiced in a normal way. Linga worship is an example of this, and it is not a question of good or bad.

*Some lines have been changed to make them easier to read on smartphones and other devices.

Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Noboru Karashima and Yasuaki Nara, A Global History of Life 5: The Face of India, P240-241

This is another important commentary. Hinduism does not have a single absolute doctrine.

What this means is that there is no such thing as orthodoxy in Hinduism to begin with. In other words, anything goes. And yet, despite the fact that anything goes, Hinduism is a unified religion. There is infinite diversity, and yet there is unity. This is one of the interesting aspects of India.

In addition, the name "Hinduism" itself means "Indian religion," and its meaning is completely different from that of Buddhism or Christianity. In Japan, Hinduism is like "Japanese religions" all together.

In Japan, there are various religious sects such as Buddhist sects and Shintoism, and the same is true in India. Broadly speaking, there are two schools of Hinduism: Shiva and Vishnu. In reality, however, the distinction is blurred, and the Hindus cherish both deities, as well as many others.

Now that we have learned about the diversity of Hinduism, let us finally get to the core of the matter. From here, we will look at the deeper significance of Linga worship. And this is directly connected to the image of Mitna in Khajuraho.

Linga" is phallic, and therefore, in and of itself, it is about sex. Linga worship, however, is not necessarily about sex.

For example, the linga is usually shown and worshipped in union with the yoni (female yin). From the perspective of the modern general public, this should give a sense of lewdness. Dosojin, a deity seen in Japanese farming villages, is also generally perceived as a kind of lewdness. Also, in Aichi Prefecturerice field or paddy fieldtraditional square-shaped collar (of some traditional Japanese clothing)The shrine festival is a rite that uses a phallic model, but traces of the orgiastic rituals of the past, such as the dark festival, may still be seen here.

There is no sense of being subjected to the Linga Yoni statues of India. Even young girls are not afraid to touch the statues with their hands, offer flowers and oil, and worship them. This is not a matter of mere habituation, but has to do with the content of the Linga Yoni images.

A fundamental Hindu conception is that all things, human and natural, are essentially derived from the One Absolute. Therefore, when the diversity of the phenomenal world converges on the One Absolute, all discrimination and diversity are first grouped into two opposing ideas: yin and yang, woman and man. Yin and yang, woman and man, and so on. And when these two are further fused and merged into one, the manifestation of the Absolute is symbolized.

And in Hinduism, these two are often symbolized as man (male principle) and woman (female principle).

Although other cultures have presented all phenomena in terms of the male/female principle, India stands out from the rest in terms of the method and degree of its presentation, as well as in the wealth of philosophical and religious practices based on it. This may have something to do with the fact that Hinduism has few prohibitions against sexuality.

Anyway, the fundamental idea of tantrism, which I will discuss later, is to show the entire phenomenal world through the male and female sexes and their relationship to the Absolute.

He also called Shiva "Half man, half woman Lord.Arda Naly IshvaraThe same is true of the term "Linga Yoni" and the way it is illustrated in the diagram. The Linga-Yoni union is also based on this worldview. It is not a symbol of concrete sexuality, but of the fundamental reality of the whole universe.

*Some lines have been changed to make them easier to read on smartphones and other devices.

Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Noboru Karashima and Yasuaki Nara, A Global History of Life 5: The Face of India, P241-242

The largest temple in Khajuraho, the Kandariya Mahadevi Temple, which I discussed in my previous article, has Shiva Linga enshrined at its very center.

The ultimate meaning of this Shiva Linga was also a symbol of the whole world, as explained above.

The erotic image of Mitna in Khajuraho was also depicted as a mystical experience leading to union with the Absolute. This upside-down connection between a man and a woman is not mere sexual love, but a yogic practice.

In Hinduism, there was a sect that considered yoga through such sexual acts as the ultimate state of being. This is called tantra (or tantrism). Tantra was even introduced into Buddhism, especially esoteric Buddhism. This is how important sexual love is to Hinduism.

However, it is difficult to say whether Tantra was the mainstream of Hinduism, as evidenced by the fact that these images of Mitna account for less than 10% of all Khajuraho. It would be wiser to say that there was a culture that was tolerant of sexuality enough to give birth to Tantra. The very existence of such a culture is, from our point of view, astonishing enough.

Thus, Khajuraho was a temple complex on a terrifying scale that was more than just a place of sexy sculptures. It was an opportunity to reaffirm the significance of sexual love in religion.

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