Culture and Delusion
Culture is a delusion that we have everything under control. But it’s a delusion that can never be satisfied, so we fear its unravelling. We try harder, then, to define everything that is ‘in’ and everything that is ‘out’, fuelling our fear, stifling our empathy, turning imagination into stifled literalism.
Shiva is not just the epitome of dis-attachment, needing the passion and dynamism of Shakti to connect to worldly endeavours. But is also seen as the god of unruliness and a frightening level of uncouthness. This, however, is not due to being a rebel, but simply through ignorance of cultural norms. Shiva can’t see the need or the relevance of cultural rules and regulations.
The recent Kumba-Mela is a reminder that there are still many Naths out there following the Shiva path, covered in ash and little else. Frightening and really inappropriate for day to day life. Sati, in Eastern mythology, tries to domesticate Shiva, “Behave as they wish you to. Indulge them so that they acknowledge and accommodate you.” This attempt at compromise partly works, but only partly. For Shiva can never be fully domesticated or he will be neutered, just as culture without space for the ‘other’ will be anodyne.
It is worth remembering that Shiva is indiscriminate in bestowing boons, blessings and in accepting ALL within their fold. Culture excludes. Shiva does not. Equally, while all are accepted, there is a detached unconcern. If our structures and technologies should lead to our destruction, Shiva knows that if we humans destroy ourselves Prakriti (creative force) and Purusha (cosmic consciousness) will still survive.
So, while Brahma wants freedom from fear through control, as noted in Empathy and Darshan, and Vishnu wants freedom from fear through their influence on culture maturity. Shiva, meanwhile, simply waits for us to outgrow out animal nature; that is, shifting from the lower mind to the higher mind, the wisdom mind that can only happen when we start to look at ourselves ‘with our eyes wide open’, seeing beyond our delusion.
That is, bringing discrimination to bear, where our left eye, right eye and 3rd Eye work together. Something that currently can’t work within the bounds of culture, which is fixated on ‘distinction, demarcation and hierarchies’.
Bringing it all together
Shiva shuns culture as an irrelevance, while Vishnu celebrates it as a stepping stone of evolution. Either way the questions raised are; Why should culture stay static? Why should it not change as a our gaze changes? How might we start to look at ourselves ‘with our eyes wide open’, seeing beyond our delusion? And this is Yoga; self-enquiry; the practice of Darshan.
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