Читать книгу Ashtanga Yoga - The Intermediate Series - Gregor Maehle - Страница 42

Aside from imparting a generally beneficial influence, reading sacred texts carries with it a specific and crucially important effect: it is fundamental for realizing one’s ishtadevata, or meditation deity. This is because the sacred texts, in relating the many myths, describe in detail the many divine forms from which your ishtadevata may be drawn. The concept of ishtadevata is for those who want to understand the Indian mind, are interested in Indian spirituality, and want to integrate Indian spirituality into their lives.

The ancient Indian sages recognized that people are very different and that what works for one person does not necessarily work for another. People may have intellectual, devotional, emotional, or physical constitutions. And within these categories we find still many more subdivisions and combinations. Due to this fact, many different meditation images were developed so that there was one to suit each of the many different constitutions. These meditation images have human aspects that we can recognize in ourselves, but they also have divine aspects, which are usually worshiped outside of ourselves.

Meditation deities are derived from the many divine forms called devas. The term deva is often translated as “god,” and as such it has acquired much unfortunate baggage.³ It is best to use the original Sanskrit word, with its far more complex meaning, which has the great advantage of continually reminding us that we may not understand the term completely. The terms divine form and divine image are also acceptable because they are somewhat less loaded than god, although they do not have the richness of deva, with its many nuances.

To understand the significance of the concept of deva, we need to look at the relationship of the many devas (which is a lunar concept born of prana going through the left nostril) to the one Brahman (which is a solar concept born of prana going through the right nostril). The many Indian deities are only aspects of the one Brahman, and thus one is not different from another. The sacred texts that are considered the highest authority (the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutra; collectively referred to as prashthana trayi or the triple canon) all agree that there is only one Supreme Being but that this Supreme Being can be seen or understood in many different ways. For example, in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says, “Whichever deva you worship you will always come to me.” The Skanda Purana states, “Vishnu is nobody but Shiva, and he who is called Shiva is but identical with Vishnu.”⁴ The Varaha Purana says that Devi (the Great Goddess), Vishnu, and Shiva are one and the same and warns that those “idiots” who don’t understand this fact will end up in hell.⁵ These are very strong words, but it is obvious for all those who have truly breathed the spiritual air of India that all divine images are nothing but representations and manifestation of the one Brahman, the infinite consciousness and deep reality.

The Brahman, however, is for most people an abstract and intangible concept that is difficult to grasp. It is much easier to understand deities with forms and particular qualities. Another advantage of representing the Brahman with diverse deities is that it helps counteract dogma. Rather than specifying one correct path for approaching the realization of the Brahman, India accepted all paths as long as they led to divine revelation. How’s that for practicality?