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Subject: Naga Reference Kali Yuga 49950315 |You once wrote that your chosen name "Nagasiva" means "Siva of the |Nagas". Who/what are the Nagas? I usually translate that as 'water dragons', but there is much much more. Here're my latest compilation: "Snakes around Shiva's neck (naga bushana) symbolize death, the power of which Shiva is beyond, as well as time, which is under Shiva's control. They also represent the dormant spiritual energy (kundalini) coiled at the base of the spine, which aids the yogi in the inward journey toward Self-realization." _Jai Shiva! Kirtan For Shivaratri_, by Baba Hari Dass, p. 19. "_Fabulous Beasts_ ...*Naga*: Many-headed snake; guardian of treasures and esoteric knowledge; serpent kings and queens; the life forces of the waters, the swamp-like passionate nature." _An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols_, by J.C. Cooper, p. 64. "_Serpent_.... *Hindu*: The shakti; Nature; cosmic power; chaos; the amorphous; the nonmanifest; the manifestation of the Vedic Agni, fire, the 'fierce serpent'; the dark serpent denotes the potentiality of fire. As Kaliya is vanquished by Krishna, who dances on its broad head, the serpent is evil. The cobra is a mount of Vishnu and as such is knowledge, wisdom and eternity. As the cosmic ocean Vishnu sleeps on the coiled serpent on the primordial waters, the oceanic, chaotic, unpolarized state before creation. His two *nagas*, the intertwined bodies, represent the already-fertilized waters and out of this union rises the Earth Goddess, symbol of both earth and waters. Ananta, the thousand-headed ruler of the serpents, is the 'endless', the infinite and fertility, whose coils encircle the basis of the world axis. Vritra, the imprisoner of the waters, is subterranean darkness which swallows the waters and causes draught; he, like Ahi 'the throttler', is a three- headed snake slain by Indra who releases the waters again with his thunderbolt. Entwined serpents are cthonic. Two serpents with downward and upward movement represent the Divine Sleep and Divine Awakening in the nights and days of Brahma. The Naga and Nagini are serpent kings and queens or genii, often divinities in their own rights; they can be depicted as either fully human, or as snakes, or as humans with cobra heads and hoods, or with ordinary snakes' heads, or as human from the waist upwards and serpentine from the waist downwards. They frequently share the same symbolism as the Chinese Dragon as rain-givers and the life forces of the waters, fertility and rejuvenation. They are guardians of the threshold, of the door and of treasures, both material and spiritual, and of the waters of life; they are also the protectors of cattle. As snake kings and queens they have their images under trees. To drive a snake through a serpent's head is to 'fix' it and at the foundation of a Hindu temple this is to imitate the primordial act of Soma, or Indra, in subduing chaos and creating order. A serpent some- times entwines the lingam of Siva. With the elephant, tortoise, bull and crocodile, the serpent can be a supporter and maintainer of the world." Ibid, p. 150. "_Kundalini_ Symbolized by the serpent which lies coiled at the base of the spine in the chakra known as the muladhara and which lies dormant until awakened by yogic and spiritual practices when it begins to ascend through the chakras, bringing increased powers into play, until it reaches the highest point in total awareness and realization. It is latent energy; unawakened being; the sleeping serpent power; the primordial shakti in man. To awaken and uncoil it is to break the ontological plane and attain the sacred Centre; enlightenment. The symbolism of kundalini is associated with that of the serpend or dragon and the spine, the world axis." Ibid, p. 92. "While the world was submerged beneath the ocean, God lay brooding on Naga, king of the serpents, as Naga floated upon the waters." _The Bhagavatam Purana_ "Nagas are genii superior to man. They inhabit subaquatic paradises, dwelling at the bottoms of rivers, lakes, and seas, in resplendent palaces studded with gems and pearls. They are keepers of the life- energy that is stored in the earthly waters of springs, wells, and ponds. They are the guardians, also, of the riches of the deep sea - corals, shells, and pearls. They are supposed to carry a precious jewel in their heads. Serpent princesses, celebrated for their cleverness and charm, figure among the ancestresses of many a South Indian dynasty: a nagini or naga in the family tree gives one a background. "An important function of the nagas is that of the 'door guardian'.... as such they frequently appear at the portals of Hindu and Buddhist shrines. In this role their proper attitude is one of pious devotion (bhakti), fervent and loving concentration on the inward vision of the god or the Buddha whose precincts they attend. It is extremely interesting and important to observe that the Buddhist and Hindu representations of such popular divinities do not differ from each other, either essentially or in detail; for Buddhist and Hindu art - as also Buddhist and Hindu doctrine - were in India basically one. Prince Gautama Siddhartha, the 'historical Buddha,' who taught in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., was a reformer, a monastic reformer, remaining within, and taking for granted, the context of Indian civilization. He never denied the Hindu pantheon or broke with the traditional Hindu ideal of release through enlightenment (moksa, nirvana). His specific deed was not that of refuting but that of re-formulating, on the basis of a profound personal experience, the ageless Indian teaching of redemption from the toils of Maya." _Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization_, by Heinrich Zimmer, pgs. 63-64. "When the [Buddha], in the last watch of the Night of Knowledge, had fathomed the mystery of independent origination, the ten thousand worlds thundered with his attainment of omniscience. Then he sat cross-legged for seven days at the foot of the Bo-tree (the Bodhi tree, the 'Tree of Enlightenment'), on the banks of the river Nairanjana, absorbed in the bliss of his illumination. And he revolved in his mind his new understanding of the bondage of all individualized existence; the fateful power of the inborn ignorance that cast its spell over all living beings; the irrational thirst for life with which everything consequently is pervaded; the endless round of birth, suffering, decay, death, and rebirth. Then after the lapse of those seven days, he arose and proceeded a little way to a great banyan-tree, 'The Tree of the Goatherd,' at the foot of which he resumed his cross-legged posture; and there for seven more days he again sat absorbed in the bliss of his illumination. After the lapse of that period, he again arose, and, leaving the banyan, went to a third great tree. Again he sat and experienced for seven days his state of exalted calm. This third tree - the tree of our legend - was named 'The Tree of the Serpent King, Muchalinda.' "Now Muchalinda, a prodigious cobra, dwelt in a hole amongst the roots. He perceived, as soon as the Buddha had passed into the state of bliss, that a great storm cloud had begun to gather, out of season. Thereupon he issued quietly from the black abode and with the coils of his body enveloped seven times the blessed body of the Enlightened One; with the expanse of his giant snake-hood he sheltered as an umbrella the blessed head. Seven days it rained, the wind blew cold, the Buddha remained in meditation. But on the seventh, the unseasonable storm dispersed; Muchalinda unloosed his coils, transformed himself into a gentle youth, and with joined hands to his forehead bowed in worship of the savior of the world. "In this legend and in the images of the Muchalinda-Buddha a perfect reconciliation of antagonistic principles is represented. The serpent, symbolizing the life force that motivates birth and rebirth, and the savior, conqueror of that blind will for life, severer of the bonds of birth, pointer of the path to the imperishable Transcendent, here together in harmonious union open ot the eye a vista beyond all the dualities of thought.... "It is said by some that when the Buddha began teaching his doctrine, he soon realized that men were not prepared to accept it in its fullness. They shrank from the extreme implications of his vision of the universal Void (sunyata). Therefore, he committed the deeper interpretation of reality to an audience of nagas, who were to hold it in trust until mankind should be made ready to understand. Then to his human disciples he offered, as a kind of preliminary training and approach to the paradoxical truth, the comparatively rational and realistic doctrine of the [Theravada] division of Buddhism. Not until some seven centuries had passed was the great sage Nagarjuna, 'Arjuna of the Nagas,' initiated by the serpent kings into the truth that all is void (sunya). And so it was he who brought to man the fullfledged Buddhist teachings of the Mahayana." Ibid, pgs. 66-68. "[Vishnu], and the cosmic ocean on which he is recumbent, are dual manifestations of a single essence; for the ocean, as well as the human form, is Vishnu. Furthermore, since in Hindu mythology the symbol for water is the serpent (naga), Vishnu is represented, normally, as reposing on the coils of a prodigious snake, his favorite symbolic animal, the serpent Ananta, 'Endless.' So that, not only the gigantic anthropomorphic form and the boundless elemental, but the reptile too is Vishnu. It is on a serpent ocean of his own immortal substance that the Cosmic Man passes the universal night." Ibid, pgs. 37-38. "Vishnu's shoulders and head are surrounded and protected by nine serpent heads with expanded hoods; he couches on the mighty coils. This multiheaded snake is an animal counterpart of the sleeper himself. It is named Endless (ananta), also The Remainder, The Residue (sesha). It is a figure representing the residue that remained after the earth, the upper and infernal regions, and all their beings, had been shaped out of the cosmic waters; i.e. they balance on the expanded hoods. Sesha is the king and ancestor of all the snakes that crawl the earth." Ibid, p. 62. "In the case of Krishna's half-brother, Balarama, the naga character is strongly emphasized. He is a human embodiment, a partial incarnation, of Shesha himself, and this character is exhibited particularly in the story of his end. He is described as sitting beneath a tree on the shore of the ocean, lost in thought; whereupon a large snake crawls out of his mouth, leaving the human body of the hero-savior inanimate. This is his Shesha-nature, his secret life-essence, going back to the watery deep. As it winds its way in gigantic undulations, serpents sing its praises. The ocean itself arises in the form of a mighty serpent king to salute the great guest, its own higher Self, the serpent of the universal waters. The serpent essence of the divine hero goes back into the formlessness of the Abyss - returning into itself after having accomplished the momentary role of companion and supporter to a human avatar." Ibid, p. 89. ------------------------- compilation ends NocTifer (tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com)
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