Har Knegarkampanjen tagit över Internationalen?

Framtidens skugga? 

Hmmm...

Som en skugga från framtiden

Out of one, many

 

Brahman-Shakti takes so many forms, it´s almost amazing...

When prophecy succeeds

 

When prophecy succeeds, you have to deny it ever did...

I´m old enough to remember 1990. Nobody back then could have predicted what took place 2016-22. Except maybe...fringe people. 

Or the Illuminati. 

The 1990 card game that "predicted" 9/11, Donald Trump, Covid and the Capitol Riot

Dear utility companies

Credit: Moheen Reeyad

You have energy and money. We need energy and money. Therefore, we´re going to confiscate your energy and your money. And that´s that.

Got a problem with that attitude? Take it up with Bugs Bunny. 

Jerusalem madness

 

Yes, it´s the red heifers. See time stamps 9:46 - 13:35.

And in case you don´t get it, apparently a *perfect* red heifer was necessary for sacrifices in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. That is, a heifer with absolutely no white or black hairs. This kind of heifer supposedly don´t exist anymore, which means that to all intents and purposes, the Temple can´t be rebuilt!

Years ago, I read about a Christian fundamentalist rancher in Texas who tried to breed all-red heifers. This is connected to an idea among certain Christian groups that a new Jewish temple must be built before the Second Advent of Christ. Judging by the broadcast above, this kind of Protestant fundamentalists (who await the return of *Jesus*, remember?) have struck an unholy alliance with Jewish fundamentalists, who also want to rebuild the Temple and hence also need the red heifers.

The problem seems to be that the red heifers currently in existence always grow at least *some* white or black hairs, making them unfit to “purify” the Temple priests. If the particular cattle featured in this TV broadcast will usher in the millennium won´t become clear until next year, when they turn two years old (the age specified in the Torah for said bovids to be acceptable sacrifice).

Somehow, I find it difficult to believe that the works of the Almighty can be thwarted – or forced – by ranchers in Texas manipulating cow DNA, but I suppose the Lord might indeed work in mysterious ways…

Our moral conundrum

 

Makes some people feel good! 

Is objective morality possible without a theist god? It seems that this is not the case. Which doesn´t necessarily mean that objective morality exists (or that God exists). I just don´t see how objective morality can be possible at all without God.

There are two “realist” positions within moral philosophy that argue otherwise. One is known as non-naturalistic moral realism. However, this position is simply theism with a non-theist mask. Perhaps we could call it shame-faced theism? Non-naturalistic moral realism must presumably argue that there are moral principles which are eternal, hyper-cosmic, exists independently of human minds, are nevertheless somehow connected to such minds and are known or communicated mind-wise. What does that sound like you to? Metaphysically, this position must hold that there is a non-material reality “above” the material one, where the moral principles are to be found. What does *that* sound like?

Of course it´s God. I suppose you could argue that on a narrow definition, it isn´t the god of theism, but “the Form of the Good” (Plato). Sure, but the non-material Form of the Good is arguably Plato´s god, the god of the philosophers (moral philosophers, perhaps). And how do humans get to know about the Form of the Good? Most humans don´t seem to know it, after all. So presumably there must be some kind of spiritual technique by which humans (or some humans?) can access the Forms “through the mind”. And such access can´t be strictly philosophical or intellectual, but must entail actually “feeling” or “living” the Forms. That is, really becoming a moral person. But isn´t this very, very close to a form of yoga, mysticism or revelation? Indeed, isn´t such a person a kind of prophet, seer and revelator? Once again, we come very close to the so-called Abrahamic religions (and Zoroastrianism). We´re only one step away from the Form itself telling us that it exists, what it means and what we should do about it…

I know that non-naturalistic moral realists sometimes deny the above. Indeed, the two most vociferous moral realists of this type I´ve come across on the web, both claimed to be atheists! But if you think it trough to the end, I don´t see how a non-naturalistic moral realist can remain an atheist. Once again: aren´t the eternal hyper-cosmic and yet strangely human-relevant and mind-accessed principles really the god of your system? And where do you suppose they originally came from in the first place? And how do you view theist religion? Mustn´t you see it as a kind of imperfect version of your own philosophy? The standard theists see through a glass darkly, but you presumably see…what? Form to form?

Some atheists have rejected non-naturalistic moral realism in favor of naturalistic ditto. Indeed, this seems to be the only possible position for an atheist who wants to believe in objective morality. The most likely candidate for a naturalistic moral principle would be some kind of common human nature. Perhaps there is a contradiction already here, since the mind-independent moral principle would be a fact of…our human mind. Or perhaps not, since I suppose “the mind” as in collective human nature would still be independent of each individual human´s puny little mind. Either way, this position doesn´t seem to work either. The entirety of our mind is a product of evolution. Yes, the things we call “good” come from evolution, but so do the things we call “evil”. Our common human nature is filled with both. So how do you choose between them?

The answer here seems to be, that humans are supposed to “flourish” if they chose the good. A person who chooses the evil in the belief that it will make him flourish is deluded or downright irrational. All rational humans will (of course!) chose the good.

But this is obviously wrong, and bespeaks of a naïve view of humans as “naturally good”, perhaps a product of the Enlightenment? There are many examples of people who flourish just fine while being evil. Jeffrey Epstein was a good example. Sure, he was eventually killed (or killed himself), but maybe that is just an acceptable part of the game? He flourished just fine for decades before that! And in an atheist universe, nobody lives forever anyway.

Both charity and genocide can be “good”. Charity is good in some situations. For instance, you can avoid conflict with neighboring tribes by being charitable towards them. However, you can *also* avoid such conflict by killing them! From an evolutionary perspective, the choice seems purely pragmatic. Please point to a period in human history without armed conflict! Indeed, “good” charity and “evil” genocide often go together. In order to more effectively kill people in a genocide, you need the genocidaires to be charitable towards each other. The Waffen-SS need to bond internally, the better to kill externally. In-group, out-group. Are you telling me a genocidaire can´t flourish? According to who? You and your fake psychological test?

There is another problem here, too. What exactly is the naturalistic moral realist “good” anyway? It seems to be subject to constant change…according to the prevailing secular or quasi-secular Zeitgeist. Is it the Victorian morality of the well-bred 19^th century British gentleman, the libertarian socialism of a rebellious Russian prince, pre-SJW American liberalism, or present-day American liberalism (complete with “trans rights” for children). Maybe tomorrow, it will embrace pedophilia, infanticide or massive scale euthanasia. So there doesn´t seem to be much of *objective* morality here…unless you believe, strange as it may seem, that evolution didn´t give humans the ability to divine (pun intended) their common and unchanging human nature. Curiously, we need an elite of Californian shrinks to tell us what make us “flourish”…

Without moral realism, there is only moral subjectivism. And the only way to make *that* stick seems to be to make it as similar as possible to naturalistic moral realism. Which doesn´t work either.

If God doesn´t exist, atheists better own up to it, rather than pretend that you can just continue as before with bits and pieces of Christian morality (the prevalent position, I presume, before 1968) or pretend that whatever is fashionable at the moment in the Bay Area college milieux is somehow a human universal. If God doesn´t exist, values such as solidarity and reciprocity within the in-group co-exist with brutal attacks against out-groups, both seen as perfectly “moral” things to do. (Ironically, the Bible is a good example of this, at least huge portions of the Old Testament.) That´s how we evolved, after all. And that´s that.

I don´t claim to have a solution to the above at the moment. But at least the question has been posed.

While you were tweeting

A high-ranking Polish politician claims that the United States sabotaged the Nordstream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. Indeed, he *thanks* the US for blowing it up!

Just one more crazy thing this week...

"United States blew up Nordstream, Polish politician says"

International Thugee

 

We found the person who blew up Nordstream 1 and 2. Is anyone surprised?

Thought not. 

The Evil Empire never ended

 

Have we been naïve when it comes to Russia? Maybe Russia simply can´t change, due to reasons of geography and history? For the past 500 years, Russia has oscillated between autocracy and anarchy. Even its short democratic periods have been either more on the chaotic side (Kerensky, Yeltsin) or more on the autocratic one (early Putin). It seems Russia is still stuck in this ever-ending cycle, with Putin now trying to turn the wheel even more towards the autocratic side. Perhaps he will succeed, but another possibility is of course a new “time of troubles”…

Russia´s geography in the geopolitical Heartland of Eurasia makes it fated to come into conflict with essentially everyone else, since the only way the Russian state can break free from these geopolitical constraints is to expand towards the oceans, at the expense of the peoples already living there. Russia also needs to control the habitable zone roughly corresponding to Ukraine, if it wants to be something more than just some isolated (and half-starved) northern polity. Or look at Crimea, since time immemorial an important trade hub at Black Sea! Russia and its neighbors seem doomed to conflict forever. Russia´s most favorable geopolitical position was during Soviet times after World War II (before China broke away from the Soviet bloc).

The authoritarian state is presumably also a product of Russia´s geography. The only way to beat back, control and ultimately suppress the nomadic tribes that has roamed the Eurasian interior since at least the Copper Stone Age (when the horse was domesticated) was to create a highly centralized, militarized and despotic “early modern state” which (surprise) morphed into a even more authoritarian high modern state later on (especially during Stalinist times). Indeed, I sometimes wonder if real Russian nationalism even exist. Isn´t “really existing” Russian nationalism simply loyalty to this bloated state apparatus? Regardless of formal ideology or form of government, the state bureaucracy (and its repressive political police) remains. The apparatus doesn´t even have to be ethnically Russian. It can soak up any group: Frenchmen, Germans, or Scotsmen during Czarism, Georgians and Ukrainians under Communism, various Asiatic groups under Putin. While ethnic Russians of course dominate (at least after the fall of Czarism), the whole thing doesn´t look like a real nation-state (let alone Pan-Slavism). Isn´t there actually something de-nationalized and “universalistic” about the Russian state? The irony! The Alt Right, which claims to support “nations”, are really supporting another version of modern universalism…

The Russian Federation is just a bureaucracy, intelligence service, military and mafia built around Gazprom.

Perhaps this explains the peculiar eclectic character of its official ideology. Putin´s Russia seems to espouse a combination of imitation Communism, imitation fascism, imitation Orthodoxy and perhaps even imitation 50´s America. The entire simulacrum might be on the verge of becoming a vassal to another civilization that constantly oscillates between imperial grandeur and warring states. Yes, that would be China.

The above struck me when I was watching the surrealistic scenes coming out of Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine lately. Obviously fake referendums, soldiers in long lines before busts of Lenin, offices adorned with Czarist symbols and fascistic flags, soldiers forcing voters to tick a “yes” on a ballot at gun point, the Soviet – pardon, Russian – authorities pretending with grave faces that this is somehow “legitimate”, and so on. It looks like a throwback to the absolutely ridiculous propaganda exercises of Soviet times, but above all, it looks artificial and eclectic, as if somebody had randomly throw together elements belonging from entirely different time periods. But perhaps the average Russlander doesn´t see any relevant differences between the Czars, the Reds and the Putinists.

Who knows, maybe they are right. Maybe we have been naïve to think that we could ever strike meaningful agreements with this polity, cooperate with them, or have a balance of power with them. Maybe we should have tried to destabilize them all along. Russia is the Evil Empire that never ended, indeed, the Evil Empire that simply couldn´t have ended.

But there is more. Historically speaking, many European powers have cooperated with Russia. The ever-hypocritical British Empire at some points. France at others. Not to mention Germany! As for Greece and Italy, they seem hell bent on becoming Russian colonies, in the Italian case for reasons best known to themselves. Same with certain irrelevant peoples without history in “Eastern” Europe, such as the brave Czechs. Indeed, all of Europe made itself dependent on Russian gas and oil, while bullshitting about “human rights”, “free elections” and green energy. Many will still do it. Perhaps we have to face the brute fact that in the end, most of Europe simply won´t resist Russia. Geopolitically, only Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic States, Finland and Scandinavia are obviously anti-Russian. The others still feel they can maneuver somehow. We can´t. It´s difficult to maneuver if the geopolitical monster wants to eat you whole. And probably raw, too.

Is there some way out of this impasse? A time of troubles in Russia that lasts forever is one. But then, we might get a whole bunch of neo-nomads on our tail, instead. Or a ChiCom-sphere that extends all the way to Vyborg. 

The other is for Japan to get the bomb and unite with its long lost brethren at the other end of Eurasian space…

The mystery of mysticism

 

Are all mystical experiences on some kind of level identical? Or at least broadly similar? Theistic mystics say that the human soul "forgets itself" when it reaches the highest pinnacle and communes with God. And monistic mystics say that the soul actually becomes (or rather realizes its identity with) God. There is supposed to be some kind of ontological difference between these two states of mystical accomplishment, but what could it possible be? Note also that in both cases, the mystic "comes back down" to the human level again. What is the ontological difference between the two mystics then? 

My own personal take (which could of course be wrong - I´m not a mystic, after all) is that humans can´t just "merge into God". I mean, what kind of megalomaniac notion is that, anyway? Besides, what makes us think it really is "God" up there in the first place? It´s probably just the 5,000th henad down from the real divinity! 

Which doesn´t mean we shouldn´t try reach it. After all, the 7,000th level down isn´t much fun these days, is it now?

NAFO expansion

 

A curious new meme on Twitter...

North Atlantic Fellas Organization (NAFO)

When in Rome

 

No, I´m not worried about the recent election victory of the Brothers of Italy (led by a sister). 

As Italian politics usually work, the new "post-fascist" government will fall within two years. 

Or even faster, if the real Aryans in northern Europe refuse to subsidize Italy´s shitty economy! 

Yes, it´s a crusade

It´s official now.  

Patriarch Kirill says Russian soldiers killed in the war will have "their sins washed away"

Back to Goddess

 

We´re back at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple...

Popcorndödare

 

Men vad fan, högerblocket dödade just hela den svenska popcorn-industrin...

Det var inte detta vi menade när vi röstade för Nasjonal Samling. Eller? 

Come and meet Mother

 

A puja (worship service) at the magnificent Dakshineswar Kali Temple in Calcutta, India. 

This is the famous temple where Ramakrishna spent most of his life. 

I suppose this kind of stuff could rub the modern Western pluralists the wrong way, but that can´t be helped, LOL. 

The stars shine so bright in Moscow tonight

 

Maybe Putin should nuke us, after all...

Becoming sugar

 

Whatever you do, don´t eat sugar if diabetic. A YouTube clip which claims that ISKCON founder Prabhupada essentially lost it shortly before his death, to the point of wishing for World War III to happen! 

He even said that if ISKCON takes power in America, it would use nuclear bombs to force the rest of the world to embrace Krishna?!

No idea if true. Offered here for infotainment purposes only. Didn´t know sweet sugar could have such, shall we say, explosive effects...

"I don´t want to become sugar. I want to taste sugar". 

Sri Yukteshwar strikes again

 

Most of these clips are incomprehensible, but this is apparently the ashram of Sri Yukteshwar, Yogananda´s guru, whom I often mention on this blog. 

Yukteshwar was supposedly resurrected á la Christ after his cremation, but he seems to be gone now! 

It´s not clear to me whether the ashram is independent of Yogananda´s organization (SRF) or a subsidiary of it. 

The Golden Child

The inner sanctum of
Dakshineswar Kali Temple,
home of Ramakrishna.
Credit: Prianxi

I´m rather late to this controversy, but here you go...

Review of "Interpreting Ramakrishna: Kali´s Child Revisited"

Vlad the Slightly Crossed

 

Am I just imagining things, but is there less apocalyptic panic after Putin´s threat to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine and the West, than there was during the COVID pandemic or when Donald Trump won the POTUS elections in 2016? 

In Sweden, the recent election success of the Sweden Democrats seem to trump the Putin-geddon. 

Do the media and our establishment really think Russia is bluffing, or that nukes only will be used against some town in the Donbass the name of which nobody can pronounce (or even memorize) anyway? But if so, why have they been telling us for months that Vlad is literally mad?  

Is this the same establishment that actually imagined that Russia would continue selling them gas and oil for dollars after being hit by economic sanctions (and forbidden from trading in dollars)?

But sure, they do talk about gallopping energy prices and higher interest rates. And Queenie´s funeral.

Yeah, I feel really safe now. 

Waiting to be sacrificed

 

"Dakota of Earth" continues to amaze us in this 15-minute clip from the northeast Indian state of Assam, part of it unnarrated. Dakota somehow managed to enter a Shakta Tantric temple and live to tell the tale. 

Or maybe it´s not that dramatic, since the Kamakhya Mandir in Guwahati seems to be a public place of worship, dedicated to the local goddess Kamakhya, who is worshipped in the form of a stone.

The temple does give a bizarre impression, at least if Neo-Gothic cathedrals is the closest you´ve been to the dark side of the Force. Black or deformed goats roam freely on the temple grounds, at least until they are sacrificed, their blood then used to paint swastikas on the temple walls. Well, at least I think it´s blood! Same procedure with pigeons. The idols look like the ones in Khajuraho.

The Kamakhya Temple is surrounded by smaller shrines dedicated to other Tantric goddesses. There are also weird shops for "puja-related merch", but I´m not sure if the Spiderman toys are really sacrificed to the Goddess, and if so, how!

The clip ends with Dakota gently stroking a holy cow that seems to roam freely outside the temple area. At least this animal seems reasonably safe even in Guwahati... 

Only 10 minutes

 

"Dakota of Earth" is the moniker of an American YouTuber who released a short documentary about the bizarre Aghori sect in 2021. It was shot in Varanasi at the shores of the Ganges. 

In the new clip above, Dakota goes to Assam in northeastern India to participate in the Ambubachi Mela, a Shakta festival held at the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati (apparently the largest city in Assam). Kamakhya is a Tantric goddess. The festival draws a lot of (male) Tantric "babas", including the Aghori, who seem surprisingly calm...perhaps because they smoke a lot of hash!

Maybe just as well, since the Aghori are mostly known for pretending to eat dead people (and threatening to behead the US reporter Reza Aslan - or pretending to do so). Dakota makes no secret of his interest in drugs, and the clip ends with him smoking ganya with the natives. 

Before that, we get to see remains of sacrificed goats, regular Indians who refuse to inhale, and a baba explaining that it only takes ten minutes of intense meditation to see God. And yes, a garland of skulls and Dakota trying to explain the basics of Shaiva theology... 

Not bad for a 10 minute clip, tbh. 

Aghori Mindset

This is apparently how Putin is defending the West (as in the conservative values of the true West). Or something. Or something else. Also, can PM Modi please weigh in on this? What side *are* the Hindoos on, anyway? 

Cannibal killer recruited to Putin´s troops in Ukraine

A different Buddha

 

¨

The YouTube channel "Religion for Breakfast" (well, thanks!) is trying to sort out Pure Land Buddhism, with some side glances at Mahayana in general. 

The emphasis is on the "esoteric" aspect of Pure Land teachings, as in "the Pure Land is within you" or around you, rather than the more "exoteric" understanding of the Pure Land as a separate paradise world somewhere in the West...

I liked the translation of shunyata as "openness" rather than "emptiness", as it opens up more possibilities and doesn´t sound so utterly nihilistic! 

One of the living

 

Here´s a strange co-incidence. For whatever reason, I decided to check up Tina Turner´s supposed connection to the controversial Soka Gakkai organization. And then I read on Wikipedia that Tina had passed away...earlier today?! 

However, it seems to be a hoax...

Still, it *is* a strange chance event, don´t you think? Or a divine calling from the Great Beyond...

"Tina Turner is not an SGI member"

Singer killed by Internet death hoax

The Taoism that can be defined, isn´t Taoism

 

A good introduction to the bewildering Chinese religion or philosophy of Taoism (here called Daoism). Doesn´t mention the quicksilver aspect, though! 

Beyond the mirage

 

"Oh no, it´s that peak oil doomer again!"

John Michael Greer is back in force. 

Neither nuclear power nor "green" energy can save us, fossil fuel production and consumption will continue until the bitter end (despite this or that mostly fake climate protest), the bitter end being "peak oil", the inevitable downfall of modern civilization and its replacement with some kind of post-industrial future on a planet heavily marked by climate crisis...

Still, the human race will survive. 

Beyond the Peak

The Donets is the Rubicon

 

Has Putin finally lost it? He is apparently threatening nuclear first strikes against anyone who threatens "Russia´s territorial integrity". But what does that mean? 

Putin and the Greater Russian nationalists to his right de facto consider Ukraine as part of Russia´s territory. And if the referenda in the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine move ahead, those regions might actually be annexed by the Russian "Federation" (like Crimea). By that logic, any Ukrainian military offensive to take them back would be a violation of Russian "territorial integrity" and hence worthy of a nuclear response...

I haven´t looked at Biden´s UN speech yet, but if I understand the US position correctly, they are moving towards a position of de facto expelling Russia from the UN Security Council. 

Perhaps this is the Rubicon. 

Come at me, Vlad Boy

 

WE DO NOT FEAR NUCLEAR WAR, WE EMBRACE IT!!!

Where the Blonde Beast at?

 

A "Scandinavianist" propaganda poster from circa 1845. Army officers (?) from Norway, Denmark and Sweden brotherly shaking hands, with their respective national flags flying high. 

The poster is well known. However, one thing just struck me the other day. *None of the Scandinavians are blonde*. 

The Dane is obviously black-haired, the Swede might have very dark brown hair, and the Norwegian is perhaps red-haired. They all have matching moustaches, to boot. And while they are quite tall, none of them seem to have bulging muscles or so-called stern jaws.  

So when did the Blonde Beast á la Dolph Lundgren become a Scandinavian stereotype, I wonder? Can some art historian please weigh in on this? 

And hey, don´t tell Bronze Age Pervert!

Realistic Adwaita

 

Swami Medhananda is a scholar and a member of the Ramakrishna Mission. I recently read his article "Cutting the Knot of the World Problem: Sri Aurobindo´s Experiential and Philosophical Critique of Advaita Vedanta". I find it intriguing that a member of the Ramakrishna Order (associated precisely with Advaita Vedanta) would write insightful polemics against it, but there you go! 

Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) was a Indian freedom fighter turned mystic who eventually founded his own ashram, based in Pondicherry (then a French territory) in southern India. The utopian community Auroville, founded by Aurobindo´s spiritual collaborator Mirra Alfassa (The Mother) is still situated there. Medhananda believes that Aurobindo was strongly influenced by Ramakrishna and his disciple Vivekananda (who founded the Ramakrishna Mission). The author has written extensively on Ramakrishna´s mystical-philosophical approach, known as Vijnana Vedanta, which is strikingly different from "main stream" Advaita Vedanta. It is, however, similar to Aurobindo´s "realistic Adwaita" (Aurobindo´s spelling). 

To Aurobindo, the sole reality is the Divine Saccidananda (Sat-Cit-Ananda = Being-Consciousness-Bliss). While this may sound "monist", Aurobindo emphasized that reality isn´t just the impersonal Brahman, but also the personal and dynamic Cit-Shakti (Consciousness-Force), which manifests as everything in the universe. Divine Reality is infinite, both personal and impersonal, both transcendent and immanent. Moreover, the "created" world is real, not an illusion, nor a lower form of reality. Hence the term "realistic (i.e. ontologically realist) Adwaita". 

Medhananda believed that Aurobindo had three sources for his position. First, scriptural interpretation. Aurobindo argued that the Vedic hymns, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita showed that the world was real, not an illusion, and that several different spiritual paths can lead to liberation. Second, philosophical arguments. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Aurobindo´s own spiritual experiences. When studying meditation under an Advaita Vedanta guru, Aurobindo did have a powerful mystical experience of a non-dual impersonal Absolute, compared to which everything in the phenomenal world was merely shadows. Later, however, other spiritual experiences came to the fore, experiences which suggested that there is a dimension higher than "nirvana" or the impersonal Brahman. During one particularly dramatic experience in Alipore jail, Aurobindo saw how Krishna had taken the form of everyone and everything around him: trees, walls, jailers, even the other prisoners! While the nirvanic experience isn´t "wrong", it will eventually give way to an even broader and deeper realization. 

A quote from Aurobindo´s writings: "At an early stage the aspect of an illusionary world gave place to one in which illusion is only a small surface phenomenon with an immense Divine Reality behind it and a supreme Divine Reality above it and an intense Divine Reality in the heart of everything that had seemed at first only a cinematic shape or shadow. And this was no reimprisonment in the senses, no diminution or fall from supreme experience, it came rather as a constant heightening and widening of the Truth; it was the spirit that saw objects, not the senses, and the Peace, the Silence, the freedom in Infinity remained always with the world or all worlds only as a continuous incident in the timeless eternity of the Divine." 

It´s clear that Sri Aurobindo considered his spiritual experiences to be more important than "Shankara´s logic", Shankara being regarded as the main ancient proponent of Advaita Vedanta. Still, Aurobindo did criticize Advaita Vedanta on philosophical grounds, as well. This criticism is the usual one, which I think strikes everyone who studies "pure" Advaita Vedanta: if the phenomenal world is "maya" or illusion, where is "maya" located? Since Brahman is the sole reality, maya must come from Brahman itself, but if so, Brahman can´t be perfect, and might even be "dual" somehow. I noticed that some "mayavadins" try to solve the problem by declaring it unsolvable: "maya" is simply unscrutable, and that´s that! But that doesn´t solve anything, since it still implies that the Divine is imperfect - inscrutably imperfect...

Medhananda believes that Aurobindo´s realistic metaphysics can be used to ground an ecological approach to our current civilizational predicament. Maybe, but the most interesting aspect of Aurobindo´s "integral worldview" is surely the evolutionary perspective, in which humans are just a stepping stone to a higher form of life: Gnostic Man or Overman. If this sounds similar to Theosophy, that´s because it *is* similar to Theosophy. It´s also similar to the idea of resurrection found in Judaism and Christianity! These aspects of Aurobindo´s integral theory aren´t explored by Medhananda, however.

That being said, this is still a very interesting contribution. 

The door of the Dharma has been closed

Can Arya join the Arya Samaj?

A common claim on the web is that anyone can convert to Hinduism. Ahem, I beg your pardon? And, of course, that´s not really true.  At least you can´t do it easily. And most "conversions" are reversions, anyway. 

Becoming a Hindu is not that easy

Purification rituals, chants, and "caste by choice"

Kalle Anka större än EAP...igen

Drottning Elizabeth skrattar åt EAP

Kalle Anka-partiet fick 131 röster, EAP fick 15. Same old story, med andra ord. Walt Disney besegrar Lyndon LaRouche! 

Flopp för småpartier, kollaps för Feministiskt Initiativ

The T-Rex in the room

 

Unite behind the science, guys...

Still not enough to "move the needle", I´m afraid.

Shaivas LARP-ing Leninism

 

Helen Crovetto is an American who describes herself as an independent scholar of religion, studying Tantric movements in India and Sweden. Her article "Ananda Marga and the Use of Force" was published in the journal Novo Religio in 2008. It gives a very curious impression. Back in the days, many scholars of New Religious Movements (NRMs) were pro-NRM. Which frankly means pro-cult apologists. Crovetto´s article can certainly be construed in this way. But perhaps her naïvety is feigned and a ruse to more easily approach Ananda Marga, the object of her studies? Not having read her other scholarly articles, I honestly don´t know. But yes, I do consider the pro-NRM/pro-cult angle "problematic", to use an annoying contemporary word!

I think it´s obvious from her article that Ananda Marga, a supposedly Shaiva Tantra NRM founded in India by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (Sri Sri Anandamurti) in 1955, is a very problematic organization. Corvetto writes that "maybe" a "section" of the membership engaged in violence on behalf of Sarkar during the 1970´s (when the guru was imprisoned in India), most notoriously the Hilton bombing in Sydney, but "independently" of Ananda Marga. But this is unconvincing for many reasons. Ananda Marga is clearly a fanatical cult worshipping Sarkar as God. And terrorists sometimes use fake monikers when carrying out sensitive assignments, to give their main organization plausible deniability. *Of course* herr Anandamurti was behind the violence. The author admits that the violent attacks ceased the very moment Sarkar proclaimed that he would be freed by legal means rather than force, suggesting that his supporters listened intently to his every word. So why is it so hard to believe that he had earlier given an order to *carry out* attacks? One also wonders why Ananda Marga is plagued by constant rumors of murdering ex-members. Or why some ex-members do indeed end up murdered...

Just an unfortunate co-incidence, I´m sure!

Ananda Marga turns out to have two paramilitary wings, VVS and GV, tasked with keeping order at the cult´s public meetings. Weapons training allegedly has taken place at the "European retreats" of these outfits. Well, what else could storm troopers be doing at a summer camp? Drink goat´s milk? 

On 30 April 1982, residents in Calcutta carried out an attack on Ananda Marga members in broad daylight as they were crossing a local bridge. 17 Margis were killed. No arrests were ever made. Ananda Marga blamed the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for the massacre. The locals, in turn, blamed Ananda Marga for "stealing children", often interpreted as an accusation of child trafficking. Judging by Crovetto´s article, the locals may not have been entirely wrong. Ananda Marga runs homes for abandoned or underprivileged children in a number of nations, children who are often indoctrinated into the cult´s message and may even become sannyasins (ascetics, who form the hard core of the Marga membership). In Portugal, Ananda Marga actually refused to give poor children in their care back to the parents when the situation of the parents improved! The good people of Calcutta may have feared similar aggressive missionary tactics, since Ananda Marga deliberately try to increase the number of kids under their care. (This doesn´t contradict the Communist angle, since Ananda Marga and the Communist parties in India have a long-standing feud.)

It´s also obvious that Ananda Marga has a revolutionary philosophy. Indeed, Sarkar´s message sounds like a Leninist LARP around a Shaiva Tantrika core. The more "political" wing of the cult is called PROUT or PROUTist Universal, and calls for a form of socialism. (As far as I understand, PROUT is strictly speaking the name of the ideology, but it seems the organization promoting it is sometimes also referred to as PROUT.) While PROUTist Universal is technically a separate organization from Ananda Marga, it´s hardly a secret that it´s controlled by Marga sannyasins. During Sarkar´s lifetime, the sannyasins of both organizations met together under one roof, taking orders and assignaments from their great leader. Sarkar condemned capitalism, and explicitly called for revolutionary violence to bring down the system. At least on paper, he didn´t call for terrorism, but for mass struggles, and while he hoped for a peaceful transformation, revolution is never ruled out. All this is identical to the Communist position on the topic. Sarkar even believed in a kind of vanguard revolutionary organization, consisting of disaffected intellectuals! While they are apparently enlightened Shaivas in Sarkar´s version, it´s easy to see parallels with Lenin´s "What Is To Be Done". 

More surprising is the idea that there isn´t any utopian-millenarian end goal of the revolutionary struggle. Rather, human history is cyclical and it seems that the cycles are never-ending. While a "shudra revolution" can improve the situation considerably for a time, degeneration seems to be inevitable, necessitating a new rebellion of the shudras in the future. I suppose this could be losely based on the Maoist idea of cultural revolutions, but it´s also possible that it really is an innovation of Anandamurti´s. It gives his message a "fascist" tenor, with existence being a never-ending violent struggle, the only solution to which is presumably liberation and a return to Shiva. 

Maybe it wasn´t Crovetto´s intention, but I certainly didn´t get a more positive view of the Path of Bliss after reading her article...

There is no limit to Goddess

 

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836-1886) was a Indian mystic whose message was popularized in the West (and probably heavily revised) by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), who founded the Ramakrishna Mission. I recently read two articles on the religious pluralism of Ramakrishna written by Ayon Maharaj (also called Swami Medhananda), "Sri Ramakrishna´s Philosophy of Vijnana Vedanta" and "`God Is Infinite and the Paths to God Are infinite´: A Reconstruction and Defense of Sri Ramakrishna´s Vijnana-Based Model of Religious Pluralism". The author´s perspective is similar to that of Swami Tapasyananda, whose work on Ramakrishna I review elsewhere on this blog. 

Strictly speaking, Ramakrishna didn´t have a "philosophy" at all, being an ecstatic mystic who frequently acted in a "crazy" manner. "Officially", so to speak, Ramakrishna was a Shakta and devotee of Mother Kali, literally living in a Kali temple outside Calcutta. However, he also practiced other spiritual paths, both Hindu and non-Hindu, and had powerful mystical experiences of both Brahman, Allah and Christ. From this, Ramakrishna drew the conclusion that all religions are true. But what exactly does this mean? Hindu "pluralism" has often been criticized for being a covert form of Advaita Vedanta supremacism, where all other religions are subsumed under the idea that Brahman alone is real, the gods of theistic religions just being lower manifestations (and ultimately illusions) of a formless impersonal Absolute. How is that *really* pluralist, rather than being a form of Advaita "inclusivism"? 

The author believes that Ramakrishna didn´t fall into this trap. He dubs Ramakrishna´s perspective Vijnana Vedanta, the word "vijnana" translated as meaning "special knowledge" (as opposed to mere "jnana" or knowledge, a term often used by Advaitins to denote the path to realize Brahman). From his higher mystical viewpoint, Ramakrishna realized that God is simultaneously both personal and impersonal, formless and endowed with form. Above all, God is infinite and illimitable. "There is no limit to God" was a favorite saying of Ramakrishna. God is always "more besides". Even the vijnani, the supreme mystic or gnostic of which there are very few, doesn´t come close to realize all of God, although he stands far above the religious and spiritual multitude. Since God is infinite, there are infinitely many ways of realizing Him/Her/It. Ramakrishna recognized many different Hindu paths as valid: Vaishnava devotionalism (in all its forms), Shaktism, Tantrism, Advaita Vedanta, even the modernist-deist Brahmo Samaj. Islam, Christianity and Buddhism were also valid. In context, all these religious traditions were present in Bengal during Ramakrishna´s lifetime. 

The point here is that none of these perspectives is "higher" than the others. This point is apparently somewhat controversial, since Ramakrishna is often cast as a Advaitin (or something to that effect). For instance, he "ascended" to a formless impersonal state for six months, only to "descend" later to the world of form. However, Ayon Maharaj believes that this Advaita-inspired take is a misinterpretation, since the so-called "descent" is the result of realizing that everything is really divine and hence really on the same ontological level as the "ascended" state. Personally, I note that Ramakrishna claimed that he was given a command to leave "nirvikalpa samadhi" by the Divine Mother! Thereafter, he entered the "bhavamukha" state, a unique mode of being in between the relative and the Absolute. 

Since no aspect of God is "higher" than any other, all or most religions are salvific. Realizing "saguna Brahman" (God with form) through intense bhakti is just as much salvation as realizing "nirguna Brahman" (God without form) through meditation. Presumably, salvation through the cross of Christ is just as "true" as salvation through Quranic precepts. Often, Ramakrishna would call on exclusivist traditions to learn from their opponents. Thus, he called on Advaitins and the Brahmo Samaj to learn from the Vaishnava bhaktas. Sometimes, Ramakrishna did say that certain traditions are less good than others. However, this simply means that they take longer time and have more pitfalls. Tantrism and hatha yoga were criticized in this way, Tantrism on account of its sexual practices, which are too dangerous for most people. 

But what about the mutually exclusive truth claims of most religions? Many Hindus believe that there are countless divine incarnations, Christianity hold that there is only one, and Islam says that such a thing is impossible. "Eastern" religions usually believe in reincarnation, while "Semitic" ones do not. How can these differences be reconciled without pluralism becoming incoherent? Maharaj believes that Ramakrishna made a distinction between the formal *doctrines* of various religions (which do indeed clash with one another) and their *salvific power*. Brahmo Samaj didn´t believe that the exploits of Krishna and Radha were real historical events, yet their practices (centered on a kind of Deist personal but formless divinity) could nevertheless lead to salvation for the Brahmo´s adherents. Still, to speed up the process, Ramakrishna asked the Brahmo´s members to at least cultivate the emotional attitude associated with the rasa-lila of Krishna and Radha, even though they didn´t believe the old stories to be literally true. I suppose Ramakrishna would tell modern ultra-liberal Christians to act as if the Gospel stories were real history, even if they don´t think they are! Ramakrishna also taught that all religious paths, including his own, were to some extent erroneous. They are, however, good enough for God-realization at our present state of being.

My impression is that Ramakrishna broke with the perspective "all religions lead to the same goal" in favor of a moderate version of the claim that all religions are true although they lead to strikingly different goals, "moderate" in the sense that ultimately all of these goals really are the same divine reality. In some deeper sense, there is still a "Brahman" that takes many different forms. Or in Ramakrishna´s case, rather a Shakti! An even more radical pluralist would presumably argue that Reality is radically plural, and that *this* fact makes all religions valid, not some underlying unity-in-supposed-diversity. Of course, it could be argued in response that such a pluralism is impossible. 

I don´t claim to be an expert on Ramakrishna, but it strikes me as intriguing that Medhananda mentions the mad saint´s connection to the Kali cult only in passing. The author even insists on calling God "he", while Ramakrishna frequently referred to God as the Divine Mother. Why is this? Here is a wild guess: what if Ramakrishna´s pluralism was really a form of Shakta inclusivism? The Shakti, after all, is a dynamic force that creates constantly new phenomena and hence takes many different forms - a bit like Ramakrishna´s Infinite Personal-Impersonal God, perhaps? 

Maybe this is the real secret of Ramakrishna´s special gnosis: there is no limit to Goddess.     

We have no information

The founder-acharya of ISKCON (the Hare Krishna movement) was notorious for denying the moon-landing, but he had other interesting ideas, too. My source is "Prabhupada in his own words: Biology and Nature" by Willem Vandenberg, unfortunately only available if you register at the site Academia. I didn´t know the swamiji was making contributions to cryptozoology, but there you go!

SB 5.23.3, purport

Regarding the great eagles mentioned in this verse, it is understood that there are eagles so big that they can prey on big elephants. They fly so high that they can travel from one planet to another. They start flying in one planet and land in another, and while in flight they lay eggs that hatch into other birds while falling through the air. In Sanskrit such eagles are called syena. Under the present circumstances, of course, we cannot see such huge birds, but at least weknow of eagles that can capture monkeys and then throw them down to kill and eat them. Similarly, it is understood that there are gigantic birds that can carry off elephants, kill them and eat them.

SB 1.8.34, Mayapur, October 14, 1974

There are very, very big, big birds. They are floating in the air, very, very big eagle. They fly from one planet to another. Their resting place is… They start from one planet, and they go and rest in other planet. And they lay their eggs while flying. That eggs also become a bird simply by air cohesion. That’s all.

SB 6.1.45, Laguna Beach, July 26, 1975

There is a big eagle bird. We have no information. They are very big bird. They are flying in the sky, and their rest is from one planet to another. Just like here you find the birds, they are flying from one tree to another. Similarly, there are so big birds… They are called garuda. So garuda, these birds, they start their flying from one planet and sits in another planet. Just try to understand what is their flying. Not only that, they also lay eggs while flying, and the eggs, while falling down, it becomes another bird. And these birds can pick up elephants for eating. So this is God’s creation.

 

Alla älskar en vinnare

 

Britt-Marie 45 är glad!

Annie Lööf avgår efter Centerns och de rödgrönas nederlag. 

Vilket trots allt förvånar mig, såvida inte C tänker byta kurs och bli mer som L är nu. Alla älskar en vinnare, tydligen. Och vinnaren (eller kanske "vinnaren") heter Ulf Kristersson... 

Om C däremot vill fortsätta som tidigare och vara det borgerliga parti som är mest "woke", borde man såklart ha kvar den främsta ikonen för denna politiska linje.

Efter Annie Lööfs avgång: "Vi kommer att slita varandra i stycken"

"Den breda mitten är en fantasi"

Att äga situationen

Kajsa Ekis Ekman om valresultatet. 

Polariseringen i Sverige är alldeles för liten

Nooshi vacklar

Stödröstar på Miljöpartiet?

Det verkar som att Nooshis strategi inte har fungerat. Den tredje länken går till en artikel från i somras. Lägg märke till den bisarra förklaringen till bakslaget. Det kan knappast vara att industriarbetare stödröstar på Miljöpartiet!

V backar i bruksorterna: "Effekt av stödröstning"

Socialdemokraterna trampade i sin egen råttfälla

Vänsterpartiet backar bland kärnväljarna

Tomten är far till alla barnen

 

Men vad *gör* Churchill på den här bilden, omgiven av druider? Hmmm...

Erratum: Generation Greta finns!

Det verkar som att "Generation Greta" trots allt existerar utanför kultursidorna. Närmare bestämt bland unga kvinnor, som i stor utsträckning fortfarande stödjer S, C och V. Men, intressant nog, inte MP!

Dagens ungdom, vad i hela friden har hänt?

Mänskliga rättigheter och demokrati finns inte

 

Nyheterna på SVT just nu. De visar hur en rösträknare i Uppsala godkänner en handskriven valsedel där det står "Socialdemo kraterna" (särskrivet just så) men underkänner en valsedel där någon skrivit "Mänskliga Rättigheter och Demokrati" med motiveringen att ett sådant parti inte finns.

Inte?

Så hur kommer det sig att jag hittade valsedeln ovan på nätet? Det tog mig fem sekunder...

Partiet MoD kan antagligen polisanmäla valmyndigheten efter detta! 

Generation Greta finns inte

Ingen särskild kommentar...

Högervåg bland Sveriges ungdomar och unga vuxna

Eternal inflation

 

There seems to be some kind of eternal inflation of multiverse theories...

Gadfly Sabine Hossenfelder bravely takes on the multiverse hypotheses (yes, there are a couple) and wins hands down. 

Note what she says about mathematics! 

The erotic sport of transformation

Statues of Chandidas and his female consort Rajakini.
Chandidas was a 15th century Bengali poet
claimed (perhaps wrongly) by the secretive Sahajiyas

Recently, I looked at two relatively short scholarly pieces by Glen A Hayes. One is titled "The Necklace of Immortality: A Seventeenth-Century Vaishnava Sahajiya Text", the other "The Vaishnava Sahajiya Traditions of Medieval Bengal". Why? Well, have you read Hare Krishna founder Prabhupada´s purports? Wouldn´t you *really* like to know who the lascivious sex cultists are, condemned by the very same Prabhupada? Of course you would, and here we are. Ashtar Command Book Blog to the rescue, as always!

The Vaishnava Sahajiya tradition is a highly secretive Tantric tradition in "Greater Bengal" (Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam) that seems to have existed between the 16th and the 19th centuries. Its roots are obscure, and the tradition is highly eclectic in nature. If you´re into these things, you will probably see similarities with Taoist alchemy (not explored by Hayes), but also Vajrayana Buddhism and the Gaudiya Vaishnava movement going back to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Today, no authentic teaching or initiatory lineages of the Sahajiyas are left, and the few people who claim to be Sahajiyas are actually inspired by 20th century literature on the original tradition! 

The secrecy of the Sahajiyas was easy to understand. The sect carried out sexual rituals, and these were supposed to be between a man and a woman that isn´t his spouse. Many gurus in the tradition were female. Orthodox Vaishnavas, including Gaudiya Vaishnavas, were scandalized by these practices, and by the attempts of the Sahajiyas to claim the mantle of Caitanya for themselves. The Sahajiyas simply incorporated the Caitanyaite bhakti as a lower or preliminary stage of their own activities. However, I cannot stop wondering if there is more going on. Gaudiya Vaishnavism have a distinctively erotic-mystical flavor, and while the eroticism is merely "internal" or visualized, the more hands-on approach of the Sahajiyas might be seen as extremely threatening to a puritanical movement that wants to stop the erotic mysticism half-way.

Modern scholarly study of Vaishnava Sahajiya is difficult. For obvious reasons, the gurus wrote under pseudonyms and often used a secret coded language. Many manuscripts are still unpublished, languishing in archives all over West Bengal. Hayes makes a valiant attempt to decode the secrets when translating excerpts from Sahajiya writings. Interestingly, much of the material is in Bengali (the vernacular language) rather than Sanskrit, suggesting that the movement was regional rather than pan-Indian. Hayes also speculates that the frequent references to rivers and lakes are inspired by the Bengal landscape (including the large Ganges delta). 

To an outsider, the esoteric teachings of this Tantrika cult must seem positively bizarre. Every man is "Krishna", every woman is "Radha" (Krishna´s mistress in the myths). The primordial divine unity (Sahaja) can only be reached through a process of bodily alchemy, during which the practitioner creates an "inner" human (a kind of spiritualized body?) which can reach the heavenly worlds - but these worlds are said to exist in some strange sense "inside" the physical body. Part of the practice is to visualize a number of sacred "ponds" inside the body, each one associated with a goddess, one of whom looks like an enchanting 16-year old maiden! Hayes doesn´t say, but could this be Tripura Sundari? The symbolic language is "watery" rather than "fiery" as in most other Tantric or yogic traditions. 

But the most controversial part of the practice is that actual sexual intercourse is necessary for the alchemy to work. During intercourse, the male is supposed to absorb the sexual fluids of the female, while controling his own orgasm, thereby literally filling the "ponds" in his body with a mixture of semen and female fluids. A peculiar feature of Sahajiya is that the scriptures are written from a male perspective, despite many teachers in the tradition being women. While both male and female partners are necessary for liberation to occur, it´s de facto the male that plays the "active" role in the magic. Hayes believes that this tradition has yet another peculiar feature: the magical partners are supposed to arouse each other by various forms of erotic foreplay. This is strange, since the real point of the sex magic isn´t really erotic or sexual, but rather the *control* of passion in order to harness the bodily substances necessary for the divine transformation...

I already mentioned the scandal Sahajiya Tantrism created among the "orthodox" Gaudiya Vaishnavas, something I find ironic, given the peculiar eroticism and gender-bending of the latter. Caitanya was a mad ecstatic (think Hare Krishna on main street but ten times wilder) and his followers regarded him as a double incarnation of Krishna and Radha in the same body! Hayes points out, surely correctly, that this notion is eminently Tantric in nature. I think we´re dealing with the usual conflict here between "Right Hand" and "Left Hand" paths within Tantrism (or religion in general). Gaudiya Vaishnavism took the Right Hand path, where the male mystics "only" visualize themselves as female gopis in eternal love-play with Krishna, while externally keeping to the social norms of Brahminical caste society. Vaishnava Sahajiyas also practice this form of mysticism, but then take it much further, secretely flouting rules of marriage, caste and sexual propriety. As for gender-bending, I originally assumed that this is impossible within Sahajiya, since a physical union of biological male and female bodies is necessary for liberation. But on second thoughts, the gender-bending is surely there: note how the male is "impregnated" and becomes "pregnant" with an inner human! 

With that reflection, I end this highly suggestive posting. You got exactly what you came for.    

Radha Krishna

 

This seems to be a "dual" depiction of Radha and Krishna as one deity... 

Allah save the Maleek

 

So it seems the United Kingdom (and the Commonwealth) can finally get its first Muslim monarch...

Gud ser dig

Den tydligen rätt så försupne högerradikalen Percy Brunström från "Medborgarpartiet" (tidigare "Sveriges Socialistiska Arbetarparti" = nynazister) påstår att Gud ser allt du gör, inklusive att du ansvarslöst röstade på sossarna, och på yttersta dagen kommer en "film" att spelas upp som visar detta?! 

Kommer faktiskt ihåg Brunströms närradiosändningar, exempelvis hans dumheter om att SSAP var en arvtagare till Eva Åsbrinks Nya Partiet (vilket det knappast var) eller att partiets ideologi kallades "borgarsocialismen". Han menade väl nationalsocialismen... 

Det gick förresten ett rykte om att Brunströms mikro-grupp smusslade in sina valsedlar bland SAP:s dito i vissa vallokaler, i hopp om att någon ouppmärksam gråsosse skulle ta fel valsedel (namnet SSAP är onekligen väldigt likt SAP). Socialistiska Partiet fick senare skulden för tilltaget!

Ännu en märklig episod i mänsklighetens historia lagd till handlingarna. 

  

Not enough faith

Theism is just a lack of belief in atheism.