Ecstatic pantheism

 

This particular YouTuber, Nish the Fish, talks too much in his videos (which are *very* long), but he does say interesting things in this one – if you can spare one hour and a half of your karmically conditioned existence in Kali Yuga to listen and (perhaps) learn. Nish is a supporter of the Ramakrishna Mission, but “spins” Ramakrishna´s and Vivekananda´s message in the direction of Kashmir Shaivism (alias Non-Dual Shaiva Tantra). Or one particular version of it. I´m tempted to call it ecstatic pantheism.

When you realize Brahman through yoga (counted as “jnana” or knowledge), you will realize that the whole manifested world is divine and exists for your aesthetic enjoyment and ecstatic pleasure. Your whole life will then become one long kirtan to the Divine – the same Divine you realize within yourself – and hence resemble bhakti (devotion to a personal god). The point being that true bhaktas often act as if mad or intoxicated. In a sense, then, we´re dealing with a kind of creative synthesis of jnana and bhakti. At least in its modern “Western” form, Kashmir Shaivism strikes me as very yogic and jnanic in character. It also emphasizes the impersonal or formless aspect of God, while Nish (and his role model Ramakrishna) rather prefer one of its personal aspects. Yes, that would be Mother Kali and her play…

Nish also discusses the magical aspects of puja, presumably a “Tantric” take on the matter. The point of puja is to quite literally conjure the deity and make it possess the idol, but also to stop any unwanted presence (demons?) to show up instead. Nish also mentions the more terrifying and esoteric forms of Kali, dancing on the charnel ground. These energies are used to overcome fear (almost through shock therapy) and thereby come closer to enlightenment.

He may say something else, too, but I really don´t remember! 😉