The great revulsion that Chowq’s homebred Islamphobes have displayed over the years correctly prompted me to dig deeper into a culture that I once thought was perhaps unfairly attacked, destroyed, and ruled over in the remote past. I am grateful for the attacks and insults of the Chowq interactors of the Indus-ian kind who helped me understand things better; their loss is my gain.
The picnic site
Pack your baskets because we are going for a picnic to Khajuraho, a very popular tourist (read that: adult education) site located in Chhatarpur District, about 385 miles (620 kilometres) southeast of Delhi, the capital city of India, in Northern Madhya Pradesh.
The name Khajuraho (ancient ‘Kharjuravahaka’ is derived from the Sanskrit word kharjur meaning date palm; Urdu: khajoor). Khajuraho is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, enclosed by a wall with eight gates, each lined by two golden palm trees. There were originally over eighty Indu temples, of which only twenty-five now survive over an area of about eight square miles (21 km²).
Bit of history
In the 27th century of Kali yuga, the Mlechcha invaders started attacking North India. The Bargujar Rajputs moved towards east to central India, and lived as vassals of the Gurjara-Pratihara Empire of North India, which lasted from 500 C.E. to 1300 A.D. At its peak, the major monuments were built over a span of 200 years, from 950 to 1150.
Being Shiva worshipers The Bargujars also built the Kalinjar fort and Neelkanth Mahadev temple similar to one at Sariska National Park and Baroli. The city was the cultural capital of Chandela Rajputs, an Indu dynasty that ruled this area of India from the 10th to the 12th centuries. The political capital of Chandelas was Kalinjar. When the Chandela capital was moved to Mahoba, Khajuraho continued to flourish for some time. Khajuraho has no forts because the Chandel Kings never inhabited their cultural capital.
When between 950 and 1050 AD, Khajuraho's temples were built, each was dedicated to a different deity. The Chandela kings were followers of the Tantric cult that believed gratifications of earthly desires led towards attaining the ultimate liberation (moksha). Their undying love for fleshy liberation probably invited the early Muslim invaders between 1100 and 1400 AD, and who took the meaning of the word (moksha) quite literally in the religious sense. Muslims, never known in history as patrons of naked idols, either disfigured the sculptures or destroyed them.
A few of the temples stand in dedication to the Jain pantheon and the rest to Indu deities: the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and various Devi forms. The sculptures reflect society in an age free from inhibitions, in short, shamelessness, the path that leads to destruction of entire nations as explained by all revealed monotheistic religions of the world. While the sculptures express the celebration of all human activity, they openly display the core nature of Induism itself, a genuine love of life. One only has to ask Hughes Hefner of Playboy magazine what love of life means.
Worship turns into leather industry
Some have compared Indu temples to Soho phone-boxes due to their shockingly erotic nature. The temples of Khajuraho are no exception, being most explicit with statues of naked females—with Miss Universe figures—freely doing impermissible things with men not obviously from their own families but rather paying customers. Pornography has been a religion in history.
Let is stop now to look at the standard Indu apology for this nudity:
'Induism harnessed sex in the service of mysticism, but we scientists are materialists and we distrust spiritual accounts.'
How do anthropologists explain pornographic places of worship? From Robert Carneiro in his paper, A Theory of the Origin of the State, comes the following conclusion:
'The first states were created by despots, who exploited the introduction of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. Human tribes, Carneiro observes, have fought each other for millennia, but when human beings were still hunter-gatherers a battle led only to the dispersal of the defeated, who melted away.
After agriculture was invented, some 10,000 years ago, a defeated tribe could not afford to disperse: it had become dependent on the food of its farms. So, if defeated in battle, agricultural tribes would collude with their victors, producing food in exchange for quarter: “Ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food" (Genesis 47). The first states, therefore, were cruel places, which exploited men—and women.'
In her book, Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History, Laura Betzig noted:
‘How similarly the early emperors—whether in Africa, Asia or America— behaved, suggesting that traditional empires can best be understood not historically but biologically, having been moulded by coalitions of dominant males to propagate their genes. All the emperors had harems, for example, and the Indian Udayama’s 16,000 women were used similarly to the thousands owned by the Inca Sun King or the Chinese Emperor.’
Here we must stop and assess if accusing God's Prophets of having many wives is fair, and if limit set God’s permission to marry up to four women (4:3 ‘but if you have reason to fear that you might not be able to treat them with equal fairness, then [only] one’) appears excessive specially under trying circumstances ( aftermath of war when not many males might be left, and when poverty might drive women into considering immoral means of survival)?
Consequently, DNA testing has confirmed that upper-caste females in India are not genetically different from lower-caste females. Pretty girls have always been imported into the palaces by the upper-caste males of India—who being the descendants of the Aryan conquerors of 5,000 years ago—never allowed male low-wage earners to marry their daughters. They have always retained the spoils of conquest for themselves and their sons in order to remain genetically distinct.
One telltale sign of imperial despotism is the restriction of trade. Evolutionist Charles Darwin in, The Voyage Of The Beagle, wrote:
‘Trade is a human instinct. Even the primitive natives of Tierra del Fuego had a fair idea of barter. I gave one man a large nail (a most valuable present) without making any signs for a return; but he immediately picked out two fish, and handed them up on the point of his spear.'
Traditional empires being despotic restricted trade to the palaces and temples, forbidding the common folks from trading or travelling. Only a few privileged ones traded and travelled. And one lucrative trade that the priests and princes often monopolised was the oldest and most despotic of all, prostitution. Hence, temple prostitution was a profitable feature of Induism and other imperial cultures.
I will postpone discussing until a later date, how the revealed religions—whom the uneducated label as the ‘moon goddess cult’—condemn reprehensible practises inside places of worship introduced by the minority priestly cast and whom the misguided majority blindly ape.
To help see the issue at hand with greater clarity, take for example, the Rajarajesvara temple in Tanjore in the 11th century where four hundred women remained on the payroll, all acquired by priests who combed the land looking for beautiful young girls to keep the entire immoral ruling elite happy. Theology of mysticism seduced the poor females, just as it did the 'suttee' women who threw themselves on their dead husbands’ funeral pyres believing they were attaining spiritual purity. There is label for all this: satanic deception.
The Indian press repeatedly reports how widows are discriminated against both in the society and in temples. See http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/71089/30139 and http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/71098/30139 for recent occurrences.
Back to the Playboy mansion now.
The statues on the temple walls provide a candid picture of what was happening then: economics in the garb of female exploitation. The sculptures are arousing even today, perhaps more explicit than the photos in today’s telephone booths. Apart from the usual worship ritual, a millennium ago the temples of India were brothels too that advertised their merchandise as brothels always have. The erotic temple statues of India clearly indicate that the majority of kings and priests, like politicians today, are despots.
The temples serve as examples of the explicit depiction of the traditional way of sexual life during medieval times. Locals living in the Khajuraho village always kept up the temples as best as they could until they were pointed out to an Englishman in late 19th century when the jungles had nearly covered the entire complex of monuments.
I will add here that David and Solomon—whom earlier distorted scriptures depict as magicians and womanizers—are treated with utmost respect as Prophet-kings, in the final Book for mankind.
Modern sex-worshipping apologists
Today, many men and women point out 'that the temples do not contain sexual or erotic art inside or near the deities but only as external carvings'. Whatever the apology, there are many interpretations of these carvings.
Such apologists insist that 'to see the deity, one must leave his or her sexual desires outside the temple; the divinity, such as the deities of the temples, is pure like the atman, which is not affected by sexual desires and other characteristics of the physical body.'
At a deeper level, these sculptures suggest tantric sexual practices. In his history of the Kamasutra, James McConnachie describes the Khajuraho sculptures as ‘the apogee of erotic art’:
'Twisting, broad-hipped and high breasted nymphs display their generously contoured and bejewelled bodies on exquisitely worked exterior wall panels. These fleshy apsaras run riot across the surface of the stone, putting on make-up, washing their hair, playing games, dancing, and endlessly knotting and unknotting their girdles....Beside the heavenly nymphs are serried ranks of griffins, guardian deities and, most notoriously, extravagantly interlocked maithunas, or lovemaking couples.'
The word tantra, often refers to the set of techniques for cultivating a more fulfilling sexual or love relationship. There are also some scholars and teachers in the field of this version of modern tantra who believe 'sex and sexual experiences are a sacred act which is capable of elevating its participants to a higher spiritual plane that raises Kundalini energy by worshiping the divine feminine, activating the chakras to experiencing full-body orgasms.'
I will take a short spiritual break. Do not go away; I will return after prayers to curb excess sexual energy. In the meantime, please read: A Tribute To MKG http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/70869/30139
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho)—the Transcendental Meditation (TM) New Age movement’s leading teacher who was accused of swindling Americans of money—used his version of tantra in combination with breathing techniques, bio-energy, yoga and massage in some of the groups at his ashram.
Author of many books on meditation, taoism, Buddhism and mysticism, and at least six on tantra, he advocated yogic flying (an advanced version of Transcendental Meditation) in which the meditators hop around the room while sitting cross-legged. This practice, he said ‘sends out powerful positive vibrations that reduce stress, crime and violence. With hundreds of people doing yogic flying in 3,000 different ‘peace palaces’, peace will break out all over’.
See David Lefler’s Chowk article recommends such yogic practices to the Pakistani leadership (A proven approach to make Pakistan’s defence impregnable): http://www.chowk.com/articles/15366 . Also read my response to him at: http://www.chowk.com/interacts/15366/1/0/56#409101 (interact #60).
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s students continue to develop his concepts. One of his students is Margot Anand, who founded a school called Skydancing Tantra. She is the author of dozens of books including the Art of Everyday Ecstasy and the Art of Sexual Magic.
Another modern tantrika is Daniel Odier who believes that desire can be a valid pathway to transcendence. He has translated and interpreted the yoga spandakarika, and has written books on tantra, buddhism, kashmiri shaivism, and meditation.
A Buddhist who also trained in Indu Tantra, writes in the epilogue of his book, Tantra: Path of Ecstasy:
'Many are attracted to Neo-Tantrism because it promises sexual excitement or fulfillment while clothing purely genital impulses or neurotic emotional needs in an aura of spirituality. If we knew more about the history of Tantra in India, we would no doubt find a comparable situation for every generation.' He goes on to say, 'Today translations of several major Tantras are readily available in book form... This gives would-be Tantrics the opportunity to concoct their own idiosyncratic ceremonies and philosophies, which they can then promote as Tantra.'
See my Chowk I-log photos at: http://www.chowk.com/gallery/1432/30139
Finally, Muslims have not and cannot derive any spiritual benefit from nude art or condemned ascetic practices. Such art and practices will continue to do brisk business until the Final Hour is upon us; it must not distract any true believer.
I beg your leave now. Someone is calling me from the nearby minaret and it is time for the divinely recommended spiritual exercise.
Indeed purity and truth always prevail over moral decadence and evil.
Post Script
Originally conceived as an article, I decided later to reduce Chowq's workload by posting this as an I-Log.
The picnic site
Pack your baskets because we are going for a picnic to Khajuraho, a very popular tourist (read that: adult education) site located in Chhatarpur District, about 385 miles (620 kilometres) southeast of Delhi, the capital city of India, in Northern Madhya Pradesh.
The name Khajuraho (ancient ‘Kharjuravahaka’ is derived from the Sanskrit word kharjur meaning date palm; Urdu: khajoor). Khajuraho is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, enclosed by a wall with eight gates, each lined by two golden palm trees. There were originally over eighty Indu temples, of which only twenty-five now survive over an area of about eight square miles (21 km²).
Bit of history
In the 27th century of Kali yuga, the Mlechcha invaders started attacking North India. The Bargujar Rajputs moved towards east to central India, and lived as vassals of the Gurjara-Pratihara Empire of North India, which lasted from 500 C.E. to 1300 A.D. At its peak, the major monuments were built over a span of 200 years, from 950 to 1150.
Being Shiva worshipers The Bargujars also built the Kalinjar fort and Neelkanth Mahadev temple similar to one at Sariska National Park and Baroli. The city was the cultural capital of Chandela Rajputs, an Indu dynasty that ruled this area of India from the 10th to the 12th centuries. The political capital of Chandelas was Kalinjar. When the Chandela capital was moved to Mahoba, Khajuraho continued to flourish for some time. Khajuraho has no forts because the Chandel Kings never inhabited their cultural capital.
When between 950 and 1050 AD, Khajuraho's temples were built, each was dedicated to a different deity. The Chandela kings were followers of the Tantric cult that believed gratifications of earthly desires led towards attaining the ultimate liberation (moksha). Their undying love for fleshy liberation probably invited the early Muslim invaders between 1100 and 1400 AD, and who took the meaning of the word (moksha) quite literally in the religious sense. Muslims, never known in history as patrons of naked idols, either disfigured the sculptures or destroyed them.
A few of the temples stand in dedication to the Jain pantheon and the rest to Indu deities: the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and various Devi forms. The sculptures reflect society in an age free from inhibitions, in short, shamelessness, the path that leads to destruction of entire nations as explained by all revealed monotheistic religions of the world. While the sculptures express the celebration of all human activity, they openly display the core nature of Induism itself, a genuine love of life. One only has to ask Hughes Hefner of Playboy magazine what love of life means.
Worship turns into leather industry
Some have compared Indu temples to Soho phone-boxes due to their shockingly erotic nature. The temples of Khajuraho are no exception, being most explicit with statues of naked females—with Miss Universe figures—freely doing impermissible things with men not obviously from their own families but rather paying customers. Pornography has been a religion in history.
Let is stop now to look at the standard Indu apology for this nudity:
'Induism harnessed sex in the service of mysticism, but we scientists are materialists and we distrust spiritual accounts.'
How do anthropologists explain pornographic places of worship? From Robert Carneiro in his paper, A Theory of the Origin of the State, comes the following conclusion:
'The first states were created by despots, who exploited the introduction of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. Human tribes, Carneiro observes, have fought each other for millennia, but when human beings were still hunter-gatherers a battle led only to the dispersal of the defeated, who melted away.
After agriculture was invented, some 10,000 years ago, a defeated tribe could not afford to disperse: it had become dependent on the food of its farms. So, if defeated in battle, agricultural tribes would collude with their victors, producing food in exchange for quarter: “Ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food" (Genesis 47). The first states, therefore, were cruel places, which exploited men—and women.'
In her book, Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History, Laura Betzig noted:
‘How similarly the early emperors—whether in Africa, Asia or America— behaved, suggesting that traditional empires can best be understood not historically but biologically, having been moulded by coalitions of dominant males to propagate their genes. All the emperors had harems, for example, and the Indian Udayama’s 16,000 women were used similarly to the thousands owned by the Inca Sun King or the Chinese Emperor.’
Here we must stop and assess if accusing God's Prophets of having many wives is fair, and if limit set God’s permission to marry up to four women (4:3 ‘but if you have reason to fear that you might not be able to treat them with equal fairness, then [only] one’) appears excessive specially under trying circumstances ( aftermath of war when not many males might be left, and when poverty might drive women into considering immoral means of survival)?
Consequently, DNA testing has confirmed that upper-caste females in India are not genetically different from lower-caste females. Pretty girls have always been imported into the palaces by the upper-caste males of India—who being the descendants of the Aryan conquerors of 5,000 years ago—never allowed male low-wage earners to marry their daughters. They have always retained the spoils of conquest for themselves and their sons in order to remain genetically distinct.
One telltale sign of imperial despotism is the restriction of trade. Evolutionist Charles Darwin in, The Voyage Of The Beagle, wrote:
‘Trade is a human instinct. Even the primitive natives of Tierra del Fuego had a fair idea of barter. I gave one man a large nail (a most valuable present) without making any signs for a return; but he immediately picked out two fish, and handed them up on the point of his spear.'
Traditional empires being despotic restricted trade to the palaces and temples, forbidding the common folks from trading or travelling. Only a few privileged ones traded and travelled. And one lucrative trade that the priests and princes often monopolised was the oldest and most despotic of all, prostitution. Hence, temple prostitution was a profitable feature of Induism and other imperial cultures.
I will postpone discussing until a later date, how the revealed religions—whom the uneducated label as the ‘moon goddess cult’—condemn reprehensible practises inside places of worship introduced by the minority priestly cast and whom the misguided majority blindly ape.
To help see the issue at hand with greater clarity, take for example, the Rajarajesvara temple in Tanjore in the 11th century where four hundred women remained on the payroll, all acquired by priests who combed the land looking for beautiful young girls to keep the entire immoral ruling elite happy. Theology of mysticism seduced the poor females, just as it did the 'suttee' women who threw themselves on their dead husbands’ funeral pyres believing they were attaining spiritual purity. There is label for all this: satanic deception.
The Indian press repeatedly reports how widows are discriminated against both in the society and in temples. See http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/71089/30139 and http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/71098/30139 for recent occurrences.
Back to the Playboy mansion now.
The statues on the temple walls provide a candid picture of what was happening then: economics in the garb of female exploitation. The sculptures are arousing even today, perhaps more explicit than the photos in today’s telephone booths. Apart from the usual worship ritual, a millennium ago the temples of India were brothels too that advertised their merchandise as brothels always have. The erotic temple statues of India clearly indicate that the majority of kings and priests, like politicians today, are despots.
The temples serve as examples of the explicit depiction of the traditional way of sexual life during medieval times. Locals living in the Khajuraho village always kept up the temples as best as they could until they were pointed out to an Englishman in late 19th century when the jungles had nearly covered the entire complex of monuments.
I will add here that David and Solomon—whom earlier distorted scriptures depict as magicians and womanizers—are treated with utmost respect as Prophet-kings, in the final Book for mankind.
Modern sex-worshipping apologists
Today, many men and women point out 'that the temples do not contain sexual or erotic art inside or near the deities but only as external carvings'. Whatever the apology, there are many interpretations of these carvings.
Such apologists insist that 'to see the deity, one must leave his or her sexual desires outside the temple; the divinity, such as the deities of the temples, is pure like the atman, which is not affected by sexual desires and other characteristics of the physical body.'
At a deeper level, these sculptures suggest tantric sexual practices. In his history of the Kamasutra, James McConnachie describes the Khajuraho sculptures as ‘the apogee of erotic art’:
'Twisting, broad-hipped and high breasted nymphs display their generously contoured and bejewelled bodies on exquisitely worked exterior wall panels. These fleshy apsaras run riot across the surface of the stone, putting on make-up, washing their hair, playing games, dancing, and endlessly knotting and unknotting their girdles....Beside the heavenly nymphs are serried ranks of griffins, guardian deities and, most notoriously, extravagantly interlocked maithunas, or lovemaking couples.'
The word tantra, often refers to the set of techniques for cultivating a more fulfilling sexual or love relationship. There are also some scholars and teachers in the field of this version of modern tantra who believe 'sex and sexual experiences are a sacred act which is capable of elevating its participants to a higher spiritual plane that raises Kundalini energy by worshiping the divine feminine, activating the chakras to experiencing full-body orgasms.'
I will take a short spiritual break. Do not go away; I will return after prayers to curb excess sexual energy. In the meantime, please read: A Tribute To MKG http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/70869/30139
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho)—the Transcendental Meditation (TM) New Age movement’s leading teacher who was accused of swindling Americans of money—used his version of tantra in combination with breathing techniques, bio-energy, yoga and massage in some of the groups at his ashram.
Author of many books on meditation, taoism, Buddhism and mysticism, and at least six on tantra, he advocated yogic flying (an advanced version of Transcendental Meditation) in which the meditators hop around the room while sitting cross-legged. This practice, he said ‘sends out powerful positive vibrations that reduce stress, crime and violence. With hundreds of people doing yogic flying in 3,000 different ‘peace palaces’, peace will break out all over’.
See David Lefler’s Chowk article recommends such yogic practices to the Pakistani leadership (A proven approach to make Pakistan’s defence impregnable): http://www.chowk.com/articles/15366 . Also read my response to him at: http://www.chowk.com/interacts/15366/1/0/56#409101 (interact #60).
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s students continue to develop his concepts. One of his students is Margot Anand, who founded a school called Skydancing Tantra. She is the author of dozens of books including the Art of Everyday Ecstasy and the Art of Sexual Magic.
Another modern tantrika is Daniel Odier who believes that desire can be a valid pathway to transcendence. He has translated and interpreted the yoga spandakarika, and has written books on tantra, buddhism, kashmiri shaivism, and meditation.
A Buddhist who also trained in Indu Tantra, writes in the epilogue of his book, Tantra: Path of Ecstasy:
'Many are attracted to Neo-Tantrism because it promises sexual excitement or fulfillment while clothing purely genital impulses or neurotic emotional needs in an aura of spirituality. If we knew more about the history of Tantra in India, we would no doubt find a comparable situation for every generation.' He goes on to say, 'Today translations of several major Tantras are readily available in book form... This gives would-be Tantrics the opportunity to concoct their own idiosyncratic ceremonies and philosophies, which they can then promote as Tantra.'
See my Chowk I-log photos at: http://www.chowk.com/gallery/1432/30139
Finally, Muslims have not and cannot derive any spiritual benefit from nude art or condemned ascetic practices. Such art and practices will continue to do brisk business until the Final Hour is upon us; it must not distract any true believer.
I beg your leave now. Someone is calling me from the nearby minaret and it is time for the divinely recommended spiritual exercise.
Indeed purity and truth always prevail over moral decadence and evil.
***
Post Script
Originally conceived as an article, I decided later to reduce Chowq's workload by posting this as an I-Log.
2 comments:
I have read this same article posted elsewhere. Is this post a rehash from elsewhere? While I sympathise with it's Muslim views (I am not Muslim but live in Madhya Pradesh and enjoy working with Muslims in Bhopal) it has some errors. Osho was not the guru of the Beatles - that was Mahariahi Mahesh Yogi.
May I suggest you read Devangana Desai's Religious Imagery of Khajuraho which can be downloaded as a pdf.
Thanks for your comments, Brian. The correction has been made.
As you know, these roving 'holy men', these darlings of the west are much loved by the beguiled locals too who want quick and easy fixes to their problems.
When I posted this as a blog on 'Chowk', providing all the references was not possible then, the 'heat was on'--if you know what I mean.
Those who openly abuse God and His messages still do so over here as remnants of 'Chowk'. I know their true faces through their hate-filled comments. In all these years, I have NEVER abused my opponents, who mostly hail from India.
I've downloaded that pdf-document you suggested and will read it one of these days. Stay well, and do visit this space for serious laughs.
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