Vidhis: Use of Ashes (Meanings and Metaphors) and Nudity

According to Kaundinya Vidhi or behavior constitute those activities which bring about merit (dharma). That is to say that yoga cannot be attained only by gaining knowledge but a certain course of action has to be followed by the aspirant to make him realize the fruits of yoga.Vidhi is of two orders, the principal comprising of direct religious practices “carya” and the subsidiary one comprising of purificatory rites.

Bhasmana trisavanam snayita (Pasupata-sutra 1.2)

One must take bath by ashes in three periods of a day

Bhasmani Sayita (Pasupata-sutra 1.3)

One should lie down in ashes

Anusnanam (Pasupata-sutra 1.4)

Re-bath (with ashes)

Use of ashes in initiation ceremonies can be seen in Kanphata yogis who after first stage of initiation are besmeared with ashes to signify their death to the world and their rebirth in the new order.

Mention of ashes is found from KM^[1] (4.3) while describing the form of Lakulisa;

Drtyagnopavitam cha mekhalabhasmasanyutam/
Prahastmanassarve nityam protphullocanam//

He (Lakulisa) was seen adorned with a yagnopavita, mekhala and had ashes smeared all over. He had beautiful eyes like blossoms and was seen running

Hara^[2] believes that the importance of use of ashes is fundamentally based upon the ancient Indian belief that attributes special cleansing efficacy to the ashes, which are the remnant of all burning fiery energy.

Regarding the nature of ashes commentary on Pasupata-sutra 1.2 says^[3] : (p 56)

Here ashes mean the object which is given to Vama (Pasupati) and which is produced by fuel set on fire.That is made by others, it is an earthly food and shining. Ashes should be acquired like alms from the villages.Because ashes are helpful to the observances of bath, lying down and rebath, they must be taken and because they have nothing to do with injury they are the purest and best things and they should be taken profusely as the means of spiritual rise……`

Interesting reference can be found from Caryapada by the Sahajyana siddha Kanhapada (Krsnapada or Kanu-pa).Equating himself with a Kapalin and explaining the essence of a true kapalin Kanha says^[4]

“the yogin Kanha has become a Kapali, and has entered into the practices of yoga, and he is sporting in the city of his body in a non-dual form ……..The ashes he smears on his body are the ashes of passion(raga), aversion (desa,dvesa), and attachment (moha)……

Here one is reminded of the story of sage Mankanaka narrated twice in and is repeated in important texts like Skanda Pu, Padma Pu., Vamana Pu, and Kathasaritsagar. Here the sage Mankanaka having performed austerities for many years accidently cut his finger on a blade of grass. Instead of blood he saw vegetable sap flowing from the wound. The sage became ecstatic and began to dance at his achievement and power developed by years of penance. To teach him a lesson Siva dressed as a Brahmin came to him and tapped his fingers together and they were turned to ashes. When the sage saw such a miraculous feat he realized his vanity and base passion. The fact that “One’s own body is only made of ashes” dawned upon him completely and he went back to his penance. Such successes as Sukumari Bhattacharji^[5] observes belong to Yoga as a discipline. Thus Siva’s feat is indicative of attaining higher success for ashes in this context symbolize the complete mortification of the flesh, the triumph of the spirit over the physical world and also the supreme detachment. In short Siva is seen here as a supreme sage–a Yogisvara and in this aspect he reflects the Samkhya concept of inactive Purusa as well as “Avyakta” of Svetasvatara Upanisad. Hence the yogic aspect is somewhere linked with inactivity but at the same time this period of inactivity raises the potential of Siva as a creator.

The symbolism of ashes does not end there. The enigma of the symbolism of ashes is brought out very well by O’Flaherty^[6] in these words which reconcile both erotic and ascetic aspect of Siva.

On an explicit superficial level, the ashes are ascetic, disgusting (being the ashes of corpses), and simply anti erotic. But, for all their apparent loathsomeness, the ashes assume an erotic and creative significance upon Siva by their association with the burning and resurrection of Kama and Sati.

This contention is further substantiated by the passage given in Hathayogapradipika which mentions that the ashes were used in rites of expiation and were used in place of sandalwood paste upon the bodies of a couple who had performed Tantric ritual intercourse. While on one hand they always reminded the aspirant of the universal truth i.e “Everything is ashes”, on the other they were used for their practical antiseptic value too. Rather the practical value has been presented in a garb of metaphysical expositions to stress on the importance of the ashes. By this logic ashes assumed the symbol of sin-destroying object which Siva grants to his worshippers.

This can be better understood in context of Pasupata concept of Sauca (Purity) as mentioned in Pasupata-sutra.

As seen above the Lakulisa-Pasupata’s had invented a new set of Niyamas in which they included rites and practices realted to ashes in a big way.Hara^[7] believes that ashes were used by the ascetics of this order primarily for cleansing and purification purposes.

Kaundinya too suggests the importance of this concept in his commentary on Pasupata-sutra 1.2,1.3 and 1.4)^[8]

“Purity (Sauca) is established in the system (tantra). How? Because we have the teaching (in our scripture) that one should bathe with ashes (bhasma snana). Again this purity is of three kinds: purity of body (gatra-sauca), purity of mind (bhavasauca) and purity of soul (atma-sauca)…

Ashes burn all those defects which are born of company, which owe their origin to parents, which are due to food and drink, which are caused by cross-breeding and which resort to the body, bones and marrows. And again it is said–The good thinkers say that the impure food caused by hairs and worms becomes eatable, if it is only touched by ashes”.

The fact that bathing with ashes is classified along with purity of mind by removing desires and purity of soul by courting dishonor points at its importance as a major purificatory rite. This triple division of purity is also seen in the Ratnatika on Ganakarika by Bhasarvajna though he uses the words kaya sauca, antahkarana sauca and atman sauca instead of the ones used in Pasupata-sutra.

This purificatory device is taken to a metaphysical and mystical level can be seen in this passage again cited from PBh which quotes from scriptures from other orders^[9] :

He who drinks wine, approaches the wife of the teacher, steals and kills a brahmana; is released from sins, when he besmears himself with ashes, lies on the heap of ashes ad reads the chapter on Rudra. He who is self controlled and who always takes to bath by fire (ashes), saves twenty-one generations and goes to the blissful state.Thus in other scriptures also bodily purification by ashes is reputed

Daily practices:

After initiation and being marked with ashes Pasupata-sutra recommends that the ascetic aspirant should live in a temple, cave or natural ghettos and perform daily rituals

Ayatana-vasi (Pasupata-sutra 1.7)

(A resident in a temple) (chakroborti p 59)

Pancharthabhasya elaborates^[10] :

.. The aspirant should live in that house made by others an so he is the resident an takes the house. He lives in a place on earth, in the sky (in caves or upper floors?) in the root of a tree or goes on wandering at large anywhere……It has been said “If there is any holy place (a temple) of Mahesvara in a village or a forest, that is the residence of the virtuous and that is the grandest spot for spiritual success..

Apart from following the ash rites and other rites of purification some special functions had to be performed in the temple by the aspiring ascetic practioner.

These have been mentioned in both Pasupata-sutra and Ganakarika

Hasita-gita-nrtta-dundunkara-namaskara-japyopahareno patisthet (Pasupata-sutra 1.8)

(One should worship with laughter, songs, dance, sounds of dum-dum, salutations, mutterings and presents)

Laughter is the first of six forms of worship that are to take place in the temple. The character of each is explained in both Pasupata-sutra and Ganakarika and compiled in these points by Collins^[11] .

- Laughter is a wild loud laugh, with the throat and lips wide open (Pancharthabhasya).

- Song is performed according to the rules of the Gandharvasastra and in which, in public hearing, the names of God, those which derive from his qualities, his substances, and his acts are called to mind (Pancharthabhasya) while singing, the adept rises to his feet (Ganakarika Ratnatika)

- Dance is what is performed according to the rules of the Natyasastra and consists of all possible motions of the hands and feet: upward, downward, inward, outward and shaking motion (Pancharthabhasya). Both Pancharthabhasya and Ganakarika Ratnatika mention that this dance should be accompanied by a song “Whatever is sung in Sanskrit or Prakrta in ones own composition or others” should be sung”

- Dumdumkara [Huduk-kara as per Ganakarika] is the sacred sound like the bellowing of a bull, produced by the contact of the tongue-tip with the palate (Pancharthabhasya) GanakarikaRatnatika elaborates that this is to be performed after the dance when the devotee has again sat down and is still meditating on Siva.

- Inner worship or Namaskara is to be done mentally (Pancharthabhasya)

- Japyam means the concentration of an idea with mind on the lines of the mantras known as Sadyojata etc

Ganakarika Ratnatika notes that laughing, singing and huduk-kara are verbal activities, dancing is a bodily one while Namaskara and Japa are mental.These six modes of worship or offering as they are called (upahara) are done in front of a image of Daksinamurti, the ascetic-teacher form of Siva.It further continues that after the sixfold worship is completed, one meditates on the God and declares that he will perform the avabhrthasnana or purificatory ablution.He also pays homage to the teachers of the order and then he then departs, making obeisance to the lord and after that slowly circumabmbulates the image or the shrine while praying. Then he performs certain meditative practices outside the temple. This completes the prescribed regimen for the first religious stage.

Nudity:

The aspect of nudity is explained and advocated in sutras 1. 10 and 1. 11 as an important step to detachment from the worldly desires

Ekavasah (Pasupata-sutra 1. 10)

[Having only one garment]

.. by the significance of this sutra only,all objects being rejected, the disciple should be initiated to possess only one garment. The question is–when will he have the removal of shame? The answer is–by knowledge and sinlessness

Hence it is stressed that once the true knowledge dawns upon the aspirant all sense of shame and desires are lost completely and he moves to the stage when he can be roam about naked and feel no embarrassment.

Avasa va (Pasupata-sutra 1. 11)

[Without any garment]

He should live without clot, naked as he was born and without any possession…For the sake of living without accepting and for the exposition of something not good–these two needs should be marked.

And naked is how he is supposed to enter the villages and approach people for alms and ashes but at this stage he has to be careful not to talk to women and low caste people as the former can re-ignite the worldly passion which the aspirant is trying to conquer. If by any chance such an encounter is made the aspirant is supposed to smear himself with ashes perform breath control exercise, japa and wander around to control his mind and to wipe out the sinful thoughts.

When these jealousy and other thoughts do not rise, the seed being destroyed, then that should be taken as the highest purity of thought.

Once the mind is calm and all base emotions and feelings controlled then the aspirant gains Yoga and various miraculous powers like power of seeing,hearing, thinking and knowing from a distance, power of omniscience, swiftness of thought, power to assume forms at will, faculty of expatiation and in short becomes a Siddha.

Regarding such a yogi Kularnava Tantra^[12] says:

A Kula yogi may dwell anywhere, disguised in any form, unknown to anybody. Such yogins in diverse guises, intent on the welfare of men, walk the earth unrecognized by others. They do not expend their self knowledge at once. In the midst of men they live as if intoxicated, dumb, dull…..Adepts in Kaula yoga speak in the manner of the uncivil, behave as if ignorant; appear like the lowly. They do so in order that men may ignore them and not flock to them; they talk nothing at all…Such a yogi lives in a way that this world of men may laugh, feel disgust, revile and seeing, pass at a distance leaving him alone. He would go about in different guises, at times like one worthy, at times like one fallen, at times like a ghost or a demon

The method of worship of Pasupati by the Lakulisa cult is described in the commentaries of the Sarvadarsanasamgraha and Ganakarika in detail and has been summarized here.

An aspirant is supposed to perform panchagnisadhana. After cleaning his feet and teeth and performing ablutions in the morning, he smears his body with ashes and meditates on Siva. At noon and in the evening, a similar procedure is prescribed. After his bath he proceeds slowly to garbhagrha. On the right of the image, he kneels on the ground and placing his hand on his chest,visualizes Siva and meditates. While meditating on Siva, he laughs loudly; then he sings and dances.He then sits in the manner prescribed above, meditates on Siva,voices hudukkara three times,does namaskara six times and performs the japa. While coming out of the garbhagrha he salutes three times and goes around the deity also three times while continuing the japa. While bathing in a lonely place he pays homage to all the Tirthesas from Lakulisa to Rasikara, and then does one pradakshina around the deity.The place selected for meditation is examined in the morning and cleaned of dirt and impurities.When darkness descends the site is again cleaned with the end of a piece of cloth ad purified with ashes. He stays there until he is tired and overpowered by sleep. He thereupon gets up and spreads the ground with plenty of bhasma (ashes), then sleeps and when on awakening repeats the procedure. When he obtains jnana, with the permission of the guru he performs krathana, spandana and mandana in the midst of the people.

Besides these Pasupata ascetics are advised to act in asocial manner e.g, pretend to sleep when they are not actually sleeping, shaking their legs as if suffering from a paralysis attack, walking like a lame man and exhibiting signs of lust at the sight of young beautiful women. The above description leaves no doubt that they are supposed to make themselves repulsive to the society in general.

If one sees such irrational sounding behavior in the light of philosophical position of the order and in light of material furnished by various texts, it starts assuming a coherent meaning.

This nature is succinctly explained by Eliade^[13] in these words:

“Pain exists only to the extent to which experience is referred to the human personality regarded as identical with purusha, with the Self. But since this relation is illusory, it can easily be abolished. When purusha is known, values are annulled; pain is no longer either pain or nonpain, but a simple fact; a fact that, while it preserves its sensory structure, loses its value, its meaning. This point should be thoroughly understood, for it is of capital importance in Samkhya and Yoga and, in our opinion, has not been sufficiently emphasized. In order to deliver us from suffering, Samkhya and Yoga deny suffering as such, thus doing away with all relation between suffering and the Self. From the moment we understand that the Self is free, eternal, and inactive, whatever happens to us sufferings, feelings, volitions, thoughts, and so on no longer belong to us.”

Such observation is corroborated by Vatulnatha Sutra^[14] which comprises of thirteen esoteric aphorisms dealing with abstract Saiva thought. It is believed that it was penned down by Siddha Vatulanatha, who was a Kaula Siddha and probably lived in 12^th CE.

Vatulnatha-sutra 12 states:

Mahabodhasamavesat Punyapapasambandhah

The literal translation would be:

By entering in the state of Supreme God Consciousness one totally surpasses the limitations of good and evil

The Sutra has been explained by Swami Laksmana Joo^[15] to mean that in our mundane lives it is very important for us to know what is right and wrong, otherwise there will be a total degradation. But for a realized soul who is established in GodConsciousness all sort of dualities vanish. So what is considered bad or shameful for a lay person will have no such meaning for a true ascetic.

Irrespective of all the seeming irrational behavior such ascetics have been part of Indian folk culture since ages. The figure of the jogi with all his idiosyncrasies appeared persistently and ubiquitously in Sanskrit as well as regional literatures and various folklore genres of India. Although a renouncer of the world and worldly pleasures, he often interfered in the affairs of the householders to whom he went for alms, helping them to solve their problems or to have their mundane wishes fulfilled through his mysterious supernatural powers. These included, among other things, the powers to bestow a child, more often a son, to infertile couples and to restore the dead to life. In many folktales related to the Jogis, we see those performing miraculous feats in a matter of fact manner, which made them favourite characters of the common people.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Patel H. H.S. Ed. Shri Kayavarohan Tirth no Itihas, Ahmedabad, 1964 p.23

[2]:

Hara Minoru. Pasupata Studies ed by Takashima Jun, Vienna, 2002,p.61

[3]:

Pasupata Sutra with Panchartha Bhasya of Kanundinya Trans. by Haripada Chakraborti, Academic Publishers, Calcutta, 1970, p.56

[4]:

Lorenzen David N, The Kapalikas and Kalamukhas: Two lost Saivite sects, Delhi, 1972 p.69-70

[5]:

Bhattacharji Sukumari, “The Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puranas, Calcutta, 1978 p.200

[6]:

O”Flaherty Wendy, “Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva, London.1973 p246

[7]:

Hara Minoru. Pasupata Studies ed by Takashima Jun, Vienna, 2002 p.57-60

[8]:

Pasupata Sutra with Panchartha Bhasya of Kanundinya Trans. by Haripada Chakraborti, Academic Publishers, Calcutta, 1970p.72-73

[9]:

Ibid. p.75

[10]:

Ibid p.59

[11]:

Collins Charles D, “The Iconography and Ritual of Shiva at Elephanta., SUNY Press, 1988 p.135-137

[12]:

Kularnava Tantra: Introduction by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), Readings M.P Pandit, Sanskrit Text: Taranatha Vidyaratna, MLBD, Delhi 1965.P 67,68

[13]:

Eliade M, “Yoga, Immortality and Freedom p.28

[14]:

Vatulnatha Sutra with an exposition of aphorisms in English by Swami Laksmana Joo, Ed by N.K Gurtoo and M.L. Kukiloo, Ishwar Ashram Trust, Kashmir, 1996

[15]:

Ibid p.24