Carl Olson

The conflicting themes of nonviolence and violence in ancient Indian asceticism as evident in the practice of fasting

In many ancient Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist texts, the path of the ascetic lifestyle involves an injunction to practice nonviolence, a requirement that conflicts with the violence that the ascetic inflicts upon him/herself by going naked, clothed in coarse garments made of discarded cloth, tree bark, or grass, excessive limits on food in-take, self-mutilation, sleep deprivation, and practicing various forms of extreme austerities in an effort to gain control over ones body, breathing rhythms, and mind. In spite of taking a vow of nonviolence, many Indian ascetics inflict painful harm upon their own bodies that represents a process of marking their bodies, which enables them to create their own bodies in particular ways that distinguish them from ordinary members of society by means of practicing their regimen of discipline. These bodily marks or characteristics make it easy for people within society to recognize their religious status outside of normal social intercourse and on the margins of Indian culture. A popular method of marking an ascetics body is through extreme forms of fasting, a type of practice pushed to its most excessive extent by the vow to fast unto death by a Jain ascetic. Using fasting as an example of self-inflicted violence by the Indian ascetic, helps us to witness that violence and nonviolence are relative concepts because their degrees of social acceptability differ among religious cultures and even within particular religions. The relative nature of violence and nonviolence can also be traced to its acceptability during changing historical periods and circumstances. Even though violence and nonviolence are relative notions, violence signifies actions that injure, causes harm or pain, or destroys an object, animal, or person, whereas nonviolence is relative to other persons, animals, or things.

Eroticism, violence, and sacrifice: A postmodern theory of religion and ritual

A fascinating and controversial theory of religion and ritual is offered by Georges Bataille, an influential French postmodern thinker and writer In his collected works he suggests that religion, which he identifies with the sacred, can best be understood by the interconnections and workings of eroticism, violence, and sacrifice. The key to understanding Batailles theory is to focus on his concept of eroticism, which was one of his life-long obsessions. According to Bataille, a common feature of eroticism, sacrifice, and religion is violence which represents a danger to overflow at anytime. If eroticism opens the way to death, sacrifice effects it. Unable to reject violence, Bataille maintained that human beings practice both internal and external forms of violence in sacrifice. And because the love object of a sexual encounter and the victim of a sacrifice are stripped of their identity in these respective activities, there is an intimate connection between eroticism and sacrifice. Due to the fact that Bataille does not use ample examples from various religions to support his theory, this paper tests his ideas by applying them to the Sun Dance of the Sioux. This dramatic form of sacrifice enables one to recognize the many deficiencies of Batailles theory.

THEOLOGY OF NOSTALGIA: REFLECTIONS ON THE THEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ELIADE'S WORK

The history of religions is a discipline that Mircea Eliade, probably its best known international practitioner, understands in a very broad sense. It is not only concerned with the interpretation of symbols, myths and various forms of religious behavior, but also represents the occasion for philosophical reflection. According to Eliade, a hidden agenda of his conception of the history of religions is that it embodies a theology. This paper examines what Eliade claims is a camouflaged theology within his work. In his journal entry of November 8, 1959, a note referring to his work Patterns in Comparative Religion, Eliade makes his commitment

The Différance that Makes All the Difference: A Comparison of Derrida and Śaṅkara

This essay compares Śaṅkara and Jacques Derrida on the issue of difference. This hermeneutical dialogue compares the two thinkers with respect to the following items: différance and nonduality; presence and trace; being and alterity; and truth, meaning, and reality. This essay intends to compare Śaṅkara and Derrida on what the latter calls différance because it is a central notion in his postmodern philosophy, whereas nondualism is stressed by the former philosopher. Therefore, this comparison engages two philosophies that move in completely different directions.

Rationality and madness: The post‐modern embrace of Dionysus and the neo‐vedānta response of Radhakrishnan

Abstract Following the lead of Nietzsche, several post‐modern philosophers challenge the Western notion of rationality and its representational model of thought and embrace the Dionysian element in Nietzsches philosophy, which can take the form of embracing madness (Foucault), desire (Deleuze and Guattari), or carnival (Kristeva). This paper will place Radhakrishnan into the context of a hermeneutical dialogue with these figures from post‐modern philosophy, and it will attempt to address the issue of the post‐modem attack on rationality by these post‐modern philosophers by comparing their concept of rationality with that espoused by Radhakrishnan. It will also be demonstrated that for Radhakrishnan reason supplies conceptual clarity, is subordinate to intuition, and justifies the validity of intuition which transcends reason. It will be argued that Radhakrishnan agrees with the post‐modernist that reason is not universal, but he does not share their radical scepticism as his philosophy seeks wholeness, u...

Ontology and the Sacred

While on his quest for the Holy Grail, the heroic Parsifal comes to a castle and asks a single question which turns out to be the right question. According to Eliade, this episode is instructive about the human condition because human beings have a choice: either to refuse the right question or to ask it. An overwhelming number of humans refuse to ask the correct question because they are lost in the labyrinth of history wandering without direction and purpose. Eliade explains: This episode from Parsifal illustrates excellently the fact that even before a satisfactory answer is found, the ‘right question’ regenerates and fertilizes — not only man’s being, but also the whole Cosmos. Nothing reflects more precisely the failure of man who refuses to ask about the meaning of his existence than this picture of the whole of nature suffering in anticipation of a question. It seems to us that we are wandering all alone, one by one, because we refuse to ask, ‘Where is the way, the truth, and the life?’ We believe that our salvation or shipwreck is our concern, and ours alone.1 Eliade asserts that the right question is about the nature of being, an ontological question. The question is primary because it is intertwined with the cosmos and meaning. To begin to find one’s way out of the labyrinth of existence involves asking the ontological question.

The Phenomenon of Power

The concept of power is ubiquitous in the history of religions. In Edward B. Tylor’s Primitive Culture (1871), power is associated with animism, a belief in a spiritual soul animating nature. By 1909, R. R. Maretts work entitled The Threshold of Religion, borrowing insights from the work of R. H. Codrington, rejected Tylor’s rationalistic scheme and advocated that mana, a power believed to be inherent in all things by the Melanesians, was an earlier stage of religion. Other anthropologists discovered power in the tribal religions of North American Indians: manitou among the Algonquian, orenda among the Iroquois, and wakan among the Sioux. Due to the vague nature of these terms, it is not certain to what extent they specifically designate power. As Hultkrantz observes, manitou and wakan are best rendered supernatural, whereas orenda means supernatural power.1

Time and Nostalgia

The ancient Hebrews believed that God intervened at the beginning of time to create the world and its first human couple, whose descendants were to live in the realm of history, a record of God and His creatures. At crucial times God rendered special assistance to His chosen people and saved them from despair. The failure to attain political stability for their civilization appeared, however, to the Hebrews to be so irreconcilable a misfortune that they envisaged God’s final triumph specifically in terms of theocratic nationalism. Since the course of history had begun by a special act of God, history would end by God restoring the kingdom to Israel. This new regime would be presided over by God Himself or by one especially anointed by God.1 The Hebrews understood their history as a unity, which prompted Bultmann to write, ‘Its unity is constituted by its meaning, the guidance or education of the people of God.’2 But what is the significance of the Hebrew understanding of history? For the first time in the history of the world, we find affirmed the idea that historical events have a value in themselves, in so far as they are determined by the will of God. The classical concept of eternal recurrence is rejected, and time is now understood as moving forward. Commenting on the uniqueness of the Hebrew achievement, Eliade writes, ‘It may, then, he said with truth that the Hebrews were the first to discover the meaning of history as the epiphany of God, and this conception, as we should expect, was taken up and amplified by Christianity.’3

Seeking the Centre

The Pima and Papago tribes of southern Arizona on the North American continent conceptualize life as a road that is difficult, painful, sorrowful, confusing and full of conflicts. They envision the road of life as a labyrinth that is symbolically expressed in the following way: ‘It consists of a circle, in the center of which a small circle represents the earth. Beginning a short distance from the earth in the center, four lines radiate in each direction, but they encircle the center in a fashion that concludes with the ends of these lines enclosed within the pattern formed by the other lines.’1 The objective is to find one’s way safely through the labyrinth and secure the centre, the place to which life is originally directed. The complexity of the road of life depicted by these Native American Indian tribes partially resembles Eliade’s view of life. Although Eliade did not conceive of human life as an intricate labyrinth, the unity of Eliade’s life and work suggests that he spent his creative career searching for the centre of his own existence. And this quest for a meaningful centre of existence is a theme that runs throughout his scholarly and literary publications and is the reason for making it the concluding theme of this work. This final chapter, then, is an attempt to tie together the threads of his quest for a centre. In order to accomplish this task, we need to examine Eliade’s conception of life and to see what he discovers at the centre of human existence.

The Fore-structure of Hermeneutics

In Eliade’s novella ‘The Secret of Dr Honigberger’, mystery and its interpretation play major roles in the work. The narrator of the story, a young Indologist, is invited to discuss India with a Mrs Zerlendi, who asks the young man if he is familiar with the life and writings of Dr Johann Honigberger, a Transylvanian German doctor from Brashov, court physician, pharmacist and adventurer. The German doctor is important to the mystery because Dr Zerlendi, as his daughter relates to the Indologist, was busy researching a book on the life of Dr Honigberger when he disappeared from his home without taking anything — clothing or money — with him. Prior to his disappearance, Dr Zerlendi had cut himself off from his family and the world, working in his office simply dressed, and spending time meditating in his bedroom. After accepting the challenge from Mrs Zerlendi to unravel the mystery of her husband’s disappearance, the young Indologist discovers a revealing notebook written in a foreign script, which he successfully interprets to mean that the doctor has found, by means of imitating the yogic techniques used by Dr Honigberger, a method of becoming invisible. The story ends in a surrealistic way. After the Indologist returns to Mrs Zerlendi’s home to convey his discovery to her about her husband, he discovers that neither she nor her daughter recognize him because 20 years have mysteriously passed.