Priestcraft, Money & Power
Inspired by 'Shaivism and the Phallic World' by B. Bhattacharya
In the Satya Yuga we would have all known that we are the One. Therefore
this business of priestcraft holding us captive in fear, while engaging in
the extortion of our worldly wealth, could not have existed. Inevitably as
the frequencies of Time moved ever further into their descent and the
solidification of matter (as Rene Guenon terms it), we humans became trapped
in dogma in the clutches of greedy unscrupulous priests. Consciousness as
Truth went the proverbial six-ways-from-Sunday!
I have often wondered what happened in India during the middle ages as the
frequencies of Time in this current Kali Yuga continued in bringing human
consciousness into its ongoing descent and fragmentation. When I read what
follows from Volume II in 'Shaivism and the Phallic World' by Mr. B.
Bhattacharya, I was keenly impressed by his understanding of the
relationship between priestcraft and worldly power — the way "money lends
power, and power demands respect."
Throughout written history this fact of life has never changed; and even now
we see the arrogance of the powerful today whose monumental and yet fragile
egos demand respect and adulation bordering on worship. Fame is a ravenous
state. I would venture to compare today's financial wizards with the priests
of ancient times. Priestcraft has its time-honored patterns, which are
intentionally obfuscated in arcane technical terms. The impenetrable use of
inscrutable terms in language is little more than a complex shell game used
to prohibit the ordinary common man - who is often just desperate to keep
food on the table, in fear of debt and losing their jobs - from ever really
understanding how they are being deceived, used and robbed.
Thus I have copied these pages for you to read, not only because they give
us real scholarly insight into India's history
— but also serve as an exemplary template for priestcraft and greed
in any time or any country. Jesus threw the money lending banksters out of
the temple. Think of the cathedrals that were built all over Europe — and
the indecent behavior of priests with innocent children in the west even
today. The names and flavors may be very different, but the forms are the
same.
B. Bhattacharya:
"We shall see that with the passage of time the Vaishnavas [who worshipped
Vishnu] had split into two main sections ... Ultimately ...under the dynamic
leadership of Ramanuja (1017-1137) ... The growth and development of the
Sri-Vaishnavas had been fantastically rapid and total. The personality and
devotion of Ramanujacarya [acarya means teacher], his devotional and
spiritual impact had been able to take over from every other sect the
leadership for the Vaishnavas, finally and most convincingly.
"There was no acrimony, bloodshed, fight or war. The transfer of leadership
was effected by the intellectual acumen of Ramanuja, which had almost
dislodged the monistic Vedantism of Sankaracarya, looked upon as a back-door
admission of Buddhism, from popular affection.
Kings required influential Gurus
"The southern peninsula of India was at the time divided into a number of
kingdoms ruled by various powerful rulers. Each of them vied with the other
in expansionism, in which the emphasis on the religious forms, with the
support of an influential Guru, came most handy.
"Each King appeared to have his patron saint; and chief minister, or very
much like one. All of these Kings were made to grant huge property rites and
holdings dedicated to the patron saint and his temple. These properties had
their own system of management and administration, which continues to this
day.
"Kings have been dislodged by an independent [democratic] India; but neither
the priests, nor their property-rights carried in the name of the deities
[have been dislodged]. The common man so educated and following the lead
from the royals, made tremendous sacrifices in making their utmost offerings
to their beloved deities.
"The way these deities 'lived' within their temples proved to be much more
lavish that the ways of the royalties. Their temples were destined to be the
treasury of the nation in terms of gold, jewelry and precious stones.
Temples of gold, supported on golden pillars were not uncommon in those
days, and are not totally absent even now.
"It could be surmised how tempted any foreigner became to ravage such dead
treasury enmassed at a centre; and through this senseless accumulation of
material glory much of India's later and continuous hardship under foreign
domination was actually brought upon her people. ..."
[Interesting that here the suggestion is made that these vast accumulations
of treasure actually brought about the invasions and conquest of India.]
"Naturally, all this property, endowments, cash and commercial interests
called for efficient management. The priests became more powerful than the
Kings; temples looked substantially more solvent than the rulers of the
land, who were often found to be the debtors to the credit-lending temple
gods.
Money lends power, and power demands respect.
"Under the circumstances the position of the priest was held in greater
respect than that of the king. Money lends power, and power demands respect.
A king could be changed, even executed — not a priest. Not only he, but the
entire Brahmana class stood absolutely secured against any form of extreme
punishment, which remained the share for the poor laboring multitude.
"In thinking of the priests and the temples of this period of history of
India (the
author says:
and to a very significant extent even in modern India!), one could be
reminded of the Babylonian society in its decay... 'Babylonia remained in
effect a theocratic state, always under the thumb of the priests ... Certain
lands were made to pay tribute... Priests were also the greatest financiers
in Babylonia.'
"From age to age the wealth of the gods tempted again and again devastating
attacks, followed by holocaust. The gods, temporarily done to death, came
back in other forms; so did the priests. The cultures too died — but their
shadows...revived other cultures.
The unchallenged right of
controlling the assets
"Ramanuja's intelligence at once grasped the potential power underlying the
concentration of human will around the temple. A good hold on the temples
would give his organization the real hold needed for the propagation of his
religious ideas. Thus through his tremendous organizational skill he took
over almost all the religious properties and holdings with the unchallenged
right of controlling the assets.
"But he left the area of worship and worship alone, within the temple and
its sanctum sanctuary, to the charge of the Vaikhanasas [who focus on ritual
and the worship of Vishnu], thus acknowledging their superior rights as
guardians of the deity. They still conduct the worship...but little is known
of the Vaikhanasa priests who are studiously kept within the precincts to
conduct the actual service within the nave of the temple."
***
"Thus worship and humble attention to the god's imaged form through worship
(Arcâ), and submissive total dedication are the basic contribution of the
Vaikhanasas.
"Although the Vaikhanasas attribute their scriptures and canons to such
authorities as Bhrigu, Marici, Atri and Kashyapa...it appears that Atri
himself has other thoughts:
— When Veda decays, people depend on the Smritis ['remembered' meaning the
wisdom that was held in memory - as opposed to the 'directly heard' of
Shruti]: when they fail even to conform to the Smritis, they fall on the
Puranas; falling short of the demand of the Puranas, they become attached to
lands and commerce; when they fail even to remain straight in this, then
they take course to the Bhagavata Dharma (Vaishnavism). —
"Bhagavata Purana itself speaks scurrilously of the way of worship (Arcâ) in
IV.29.22: 'I am in every being, all the time; yet people ignore me, the
Self, and depend on worship for their Liberation.' This is indeed pouring
butter into ashes."
***
B. Bhattacharya: "It was a fatal day for the people, and for the popular
interest to have chosen for the instant sweets of compromise on the basis of
an instant religion of commercial give-and-take arrangements with the gods.
The ethics of Vedic times, the ethics of Yoga and Vedanta, the ethics of
bygone sacrifices and trainings of generations were all washed away,
gradually, but surely, in the interest of class and clan."
Shyam Ghosh
In 'Rigveda for the Layman' the author Shyam Ghosh documents the decline of
the original Wisdom Knowledge encoded in the Rigveda and directly
experienced by the Rishis. Shyam Ghosh states that the dilution of the
wisdom thoughts in the Rigveda were caused by the Yajur and the Artharva
Vedas, and further "confounded by the several Brahmanas [the
Satapatha-Brahmana, etc.], which made the reality more and more difficult
for the common man to comprehend as time passed by, and particularly when
the priests began exploiting the common man's ignorance for their own
benefit century after century." [For example no lower castes were permitted
to learn Sanskrit.]
It was the Upanishads and the Aranyakas that sought to preserve the sublime
pure thoughts of the Rigveda. Shyam Ghosh feels that the Bhagavad Gita,
which is the distillation of the Upanishads, "presents the thoughts of the
Rishis in a most understandable form."
Ghosh says that the decline continued as the succeeding generations of
Brahman priests claimed to be the only knowledgeable persons and "began
creating a mystic and fanciful picture of the Rigveda thoughts in order to
keep the layman happy and ignorant. They deviated more and more from the
sublime and abstract ideas as expressed by the Rishis, and concentrated more
and more on rituals and idol worship." In others words they created a
lucrative business for themselves, just as the priests in the west demanded
payment in the form of indulgences which were said to expiate sin.
Muni Narayana Prasad
Interesting that Muni Narayana Prasad states something very similar in his
book 'Karma and Reincarnation' as he elucidates the origins of the notion of
karma. When those who were ignorant, meaning they did not remember that they
themselves were the One expressing in this universe, persisted in asking
what happens after death — Muni Narayana Prasad says this:
"To pacify them [the ignorant], the Rishis [gurus] of India gave answers to
the question which could be understood by those who are in the world of the
unreal [the temporal illusory hologram]. The stories in scriptures
concerning life after death are to be taken as belonging to the world of the
unreal. None of them forms part of the teaching proper of the scriptures."
The Brahman priests of course required payment for the elaborate rituals
they performed. All priestcraft east & west relies on fear to maintain and
assure job security.
"A swarm of evils..."
Shyam Ghosh continues to observe the decline: The allegories in the
Brahmanas led to the "further dilution of Rigveda thoughts when the priest
created and recreated a host of deities to suit the prevailing mood of the
ignorant laity. Thus misinterpreting many of the Rigveda hymns, they
introduced the notion of castes, animal sacrifices, widow burning, and a
swarm of other evils that bedevil the Hindu society today."
Ghosh notes that these priestly perversions are a global phenomena and the
priests in the west were "equally eager to exploit the ignorance of others
and thus gain power for themselves. There also, the priests created all
kinds of personified figures and recommended to the ignorant mass several
rituals...the Western priests too developed their own power and then began
dominating large populations."
Ghosh mentions the fact that it was the Popes who initially ordered the
Crusades and suppressed all heresy by means of the Inquisition, by which any
man or woman could be arrested and in a secret trial "tortured to extract a
confession before being condemned and burned to death...The Inquisitions
were responsible for thousands of deaths of innocent men and women."
KK Nair
The brilliant scholar KK Nair, whose pen name is Krishna Chaitanya, has this
to say about Ramanuja and worshipping deities in 'The Betrayal of Krishna' —
he quotes the
Bhagavata Purana, III.29.22:
"Stupid
and foolish is the life of the man who worships idols forgetting deity who
indwells all things."
KK Nair prefers Ramanuja to Sankara. Ramanuja has 'human warmth in this
thinking and ardor in his faith,' as opposed to Sankara's bookish and cold
approach; and Ramanuja sees the world as real and does not indulge in the
romantic sexual fantasy of the 6th century Alvar poets or the Bhagavata
Purana. But in KK Nair's view, Ramanuja does not understand Krishna's
message of self-reliance to Arjuna.
Ramanuja from Sri Bhashya II.3.40-41: "... action is not possible without
permission on the part of the highest Self. ... The Lord, recognizing him
who performs good actions as one who obeys his commands, blesses him with
piety, riches, worldly pleasures, and final release ..."
As Nair says, 'Ramanuja's thought has already begun to adjust to
conventional religiosity which expects rewards for virtue and abstains from
transgression only due to fear of punishment.' Of course the argument has
always been made that this is the only kind of religion that the so-called
common man can understand. But this is not what Krishna says and it is his
subtle and elusive thinking that has made the Bhagavad Gita endure and
remain a monument to the dignity and inherent potential greatness of all men
- and of course, women!
Even
the worst can cross over...
"Vyasa believes in man's ability to defy deity and also gain the insight to
align with him." According to KK Nair, we do have free will. Perhaps God
wants to be recognized and loved in the same way that so many of us dream of
finding the perfect love. Is it not logical that our deepest dreams would in
some way reflect our Creator? God cloaks and veils Itself in Forgetfulness,
the miasma of amnesia and delusion, as us — for the adventure of finding
Itself once again.
But Ramanuja has left us to the whims of a deity who rewards and punishes
and worse, needs ritual sacrifices. Here come the priests! "... ritualism
returns in a flood. Sacrifices are claimed to be the means for a steady
remembrance and ultimate knowledge of deity; sacrifices performed day after
day..." — while Krishna in the Gita is happy with the smallest offering, a
leaf or a flower, and is critical of those who sacrifice for reward. Krishna
sees knowledge as the greatest sacrifice and through such knowledge asks
Arjuna (BhG 4.36) to "see all creatures without exception within yourself
and then within him, as the Creator that dwells in the Heart."
KK Nair: "A great text...is being changed into a primer for pious,
conventional religiosity..."
Even Ramanuja himself questions the concept of the world as sport and
writes:
Ramanuja also accepted the idea of grace as a kind of 'divine absolutism'
and 'even the love for God does not emerge spontaneously in man...deity will
decide on granting or withholding grace...and deity seems to demand abject
surrender.' This is not consensual partnership and forgets Krishna's saying
that man redeems himself by himself, man is his own sole redeemer, for
oneself alone is one's friend or enemy.
"Ramanuja transfers the entire work to deity" by interpreting the verse
where Krishna tells Arjuna to abandon all works and come to him (Bh.G.
XVIII.66) as meaning the abandonment of all action. But KC/KK Nair explains
that there is a difference between the abandonment of action, and Tyaga
which is 'the surrender of personal advantages from action, and even the
expectation of the sure fruition of action as basis of motivation.' In fact
Krishna tells Arjuna that to renounce any action that should be done because
it is painful or difficult is not right and is Tamasic delusional
(Bh.G.XVIII 7-9).
God as our best friend!
Shaivism and the Phallic World, Volumes I & II, by B. Bhattacharya;
Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1993.
This is a two-volume set that was first published in 1975 by Oxford and is
now out of print. I believe it is still available at amazon. Mr. B.
[Brajamadhava] Bhattacharya is one of my favorite Indian scholars. He has
been a great teacher for me personally, thus I honor his wisdom and
knowledge. Thank you!
The book cover says he was born in 1910 in Varanasi and did his M.A. from
Allahabad University. He spent the best period of his life as a teacher in
Guyana and Trinidad, the West Indies. His work of "The World of Tantra" is a
unique contribution to Tantric traditions. He also wrote a wonderful book on
Bhakti Yoga. Bhattacharya has been a reputed writer in Bengali prose and
poetry, novels, stories, travelogues (30 titles).
***
Rigveda for the Layman, A critical Survey of One Hundred Hymns of the
Rigveda, with Samhita-patha, Pada-patha and Word-meaning and English
translation, by Shyam Ghosh; Munishiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,
2002.
Karma and Reincarnation, by Swami Muni Narayana Prasad; D.K. Printworld
Ltd., New Delhi, 1993, 2006.
The Betrayal of Krishna, Vicissitudes of a Great Myth, by Krishna Chaitanya
[KK Nair]; Clarion Books, New Delhi, 1991.
[KK Nair excerpts from]
http://metaphysicalmusing.com/articles/early_articles/betray4.htm
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