Dualism and the Dark Age
The narrow-minded think
“This person is mine, and this one is not.”
For those of noble conduct the whole world is one family.
Maha Upanishad 6.72
Dualism. Dvaita. The bane of good souls and the people
generally in the Kali Yuga (“the Dark Age”).
“Us vs. Them,” “God vs. the Devil” or “God vs. humanity” and divisions
into binary dualisms generally are, I dare say, the great cause of suffering in
this Age. The proclivity to create “the
Enemy/enemies” else to manufacture a scapegoat is at the social, cultural and
cognitive level perhaps the primary problem proffered humanity in this Dark
Age, the Kali Yuga. The Abrahamic
religions, all three, have proven to fall prey to the bane of dualistic
delusion, and are in fact very much responsible for spreading said
self-destructive and life-denying way of thinking to nearly the whole world in
this Dark Age, the Kali Yuga.
dvaita n. (fr. 1. %{dvi-tA}) duality, duplicity, dualism (cf. %{-vAda}) , doubt (Cologne
Digital Sanskrit Lexicon)[i]
The
Hebrews created a succinct dualism by calling themselves “God's chosen people,”
more than implying that the rest of the world was “not-chosen.” The Hebrews designated all who were not
Jewish as Gentiles, “Samaritan” designating those Israelites who had split off
from Judaism early in the history of Israel and who were generally hated by
Hebrews. In their father Abraham’s break
with his ancestors' and their religion and exemplified by the Hebrew people's
historic practice of killing every man, woman, child and animal amongst their
conquered foes, such as when they returned to Palestine after the “Exodus,” the
Hebrew construction of reality is very much based on a rejection of anyone
“not-us.”
Christians
separate themselves from “God” by their notion of the “sin nature,” and from
the rest of the world by the dichotomy of “the saved” vs. “the lost”—this,
despite the fact that their own scriptures tell that Jesus Himself said He came
to minister to the Jews, not the “Gentiles,” not the rest of the world's
people, as He said “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” (Matthew
15:24, New International Version). His
supposed followers are the ones who decided that Jesus came to save the whole
world, AFTER Jesus had parted from their company. Not unrelatedly, Christianity contends that
only Christians have “the Spirit of God/the Holy Spirit” in their hearts,
whereas according to the ancient teachings that Jesus certainly came to
understand during His studies and practice in India (something I am assuming
throughout the course of this work), Atman, “God’s Spirit,” is extant in
everyone’s heart, “a flame about the size of your thumb” according to the
Upanishads. I dare say, when Jesus
mentioned “the Holy Spirit,” He was talking about Atman as He had
learned of such in India during His “missing years,” and was not referring to
something exclusive to His followers. This is clearly evinced by Jesus’s saying,
“Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me,” and “Whatever you don’t
do to the least of these, you don’t do to me,” from the “Parable of the Sheep
and Goats” (Matthew 25:31-46). In other
words, Jesus was acknowledging that the “Spirit of God”/Atman is extant
in everyone, regardless of their religion or faith, and proclaiming that our
action towards any other is an action done to “God,” the True Self of all. Thus “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” because
they are “thyself”/your own True Self, i.e., beyond the illusion of time and
space, beyond the illusion of maya, we are all That Eternal One.
It also seems
many Christians (though not all, mind you) seem to have more faith in the
existence of evil and “the Devil,” in “the Enemy,” “the Satan,” than in the integrity and compassion of
whatever or whoever is “God,” and in fact thus empower and give license to much
veritable evil and to a great many injustices by their faith in “the Evil One”
and by their animosity towards the rest of the world/non-Christians, as well as
by narrowly prejudiced judgments of any perspective that disagrees with their
own particular dogma. The word satan
is a Hebrew word that means “accuser” or “adversary” (not unlikely derived from
the Sanskrit sapatna m. a rival,
adversary, enemy RV.) and satan is
used in the Old Testament on many occasions to describe adversaries who are not
supernatural, and who were not identified as or with the person later rendered
“the Devil.” As already much noted, “the
Devil” was in fact derived from an inversion of or polemic against the
Vedic/Hindu “Deva” (“God”), as per Zoroastrianism’s opposition to the Vedic
Divine/Vedic tribes, as daeva came to mean “demon” in their scripture
the Avesta, and thus in the Avestan language usage generally.
In the book of
Numbers an “angel of Yahweh” is said to act as a “satan” (an adversary) to the
donkey of Balaam who was on a journey to curse the Israelites (Numbers 22:22). In other words, the “Angel of Yahweh” was a satan
to the donkey who was a satan to the Israelites. The definition and use of the Hebrew word satan
as “adversary” (and Arabic word shaytan as “tempter”), and later
rhetoric against “the Devil” as well as against whatever foe/satan (who is
often as not one of the other Abrahamic religions) betrays the fact that all
three of the Abrahamic religions are built on and too often maintain their
faiths more by their opposition to whatever “adversary” than by their devotion
to the compassion and unity of the Divine. The Abrahamic religions often seem to define
themselves as much by whoever is their “satan” as they do by whoever is
their “God.” Consider the Muslim
Jihadist “Great Satan” to refer to the United States, “Little Satan” as Israel,
and “Lesser Satan” as an epithet for the Soviet Union, a la the late ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini of Iran.
The Hebrews did
not believe in an “Evil One” or “Devil” in Abraham’s time, though there were
various satans as “adversaries” variously mentioned in the Old Testament,
and their later construction of Satan/The Devil was essentially derived from
anti-Vedic Zoroastrian dualism and their evil god Angra Manyu/Ahriman. Christians (and the Abrahamic/Abrahman-ic
religions generally) do eat heartily of “the fruit of the knowledge of good and
evil,” and have spread that mind of “sin” across the span of the globe,
fomenting dualistic delusion, arbitrary hatred, and separation from the Divine,
from Nature and any number of “others” (non-Christians, “pagans,” “heretics,”
etc.) and from what they call “the World” generally, clearly missing the point
of Jesus’s sayings, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and “The Kingdom of Heaven
is at hand,” i.e., here and now. By
their very discursive constructions, God/us vs. “the satan”/i.e., whatever
adversary, the Abrahamic religions show themselves very much dependent upon
having an enemy, a far cry from Jesus’s legitimate teachings and likewise far
from the teachings of the Upanishads—the which very likely influenced Jesus’s
teachings from His time in India.
Upon the
conversion of Constantine, Christianity spread across Europe by the sword and
the power of the Roman Empire, and then after the fall of Rome, by the Roman
Catholic Church, efforts which nigh utterly exterminated the practitioners of
the Old Ways else forced them underground, including the remnant Druids the
Romans had not slain and other “Pagans” who would not convert. Charlemagne continued the persecution of the
people of the Old Ways, meeting a peak of brutality in 782 as he ordered the
death of 4,500 Saxon “pagans” during what has become known as the Massacre of
Dresden. In 1054, the Roman Catholic Church
and Eastern Orthodox Church split from each other, though this division among
the Christians did not lead to any immediate nor general wars. Then came the
Crusades, with Christians attacking the Muslim “others” of the Middle East in
their endeavor to conquer “the holy land,” and thus picking a fight with Islam
that has lasted to this day. During the
Fourth Crusade Roman Christians were diverted from their original goal of
retaking Jerusalem and sacked Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern
church, instead. Though this action did
not have a papal sanction, this offence solidified the break of the Western and
Eastern churches.
Then came the
Inquisition, designed to weed out heretics, “witches” and others who defied the
patriarchal authority of the church. Heretics
began to be executed as early as the 4th century once Rome was
Christianized, with the Inquisition beginning in the 12th century,
with an estimated 5-10,000 killed for being “heretics,” and witch hunts in full
swing by the 15th century, with upwards of 100,000 “witches” executed
or dying in prison. Displaying yet
further penchant for dualistic divisions and propensities to bifurcate,
Christians soon enough began to fight against other Christians as Catholic
versus “heretical” Christians and as Catholic versus Protestant, with 6.5 to 18
million slain on all sides in the “European Wars of Religion.” Once Protestants had won their liberty from
the Catholic church, the dominant Protestant church in whatever region of
Europe began to attack other Protestants (as well as minority Catholics), such
as the Anglican persecutions of Puritans in England and Lutheran persecutions of
groups of the “Radical Reformation,” including anabaptists, Mennonites, etc.,
in continental Europe.
Upon fleeing
Europe and attaining the liberty to practice their religion without persecution
in the American colonies, the Puritans soon began to persecute other Christians
including Baptists, Quakers and Catholics, as well as rendering any who might
practice vestiges of the Old Ways as “witches” to be burned at the stake. These days Baptists (and other
“Evangelicals”), who were among the most persecuted groups of Christians in
Europe and then in the American colonies, are among the most dualistically divisive
of Christian sects, fervently fomenting the dichotomy of “the saved vs. the
lost” and doctrine of “God vs. The Devil,” contending that all religions other
than Christianity are “of the Devil,” sometimes even including Catholicism and
Mormonism, and in the most extreme cases even all other Christian sects as “of
the Devil” in their stark and harsh dualistic judgements and condemnations.
Among the most
recent Christian groups to dualistically divide themselves from other
Christians, the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” i.e., the
Mormons, continued the “us vs. them” practice of Christianity generally in
their break with other Christians, rendered all non-Mormons as “Gentiles,” and
represented themselves as “the Chosen people,” mimicking the Hebrew
construction of exclusivism. Persecuted
by other Christians and sometimes violently provoking “the Gentiles,” the
Mormons were forced to leave their homes back East to escape conflicts with
other Christians, chased from New York to Missouri to Illinois to Iowa by mobs
and assassinations, finally settling in the lands well into the Rocky Mountains
to so far away as Salt Lake to escape other Christians. The Mormons then showed their own penchant
for dualistic violence during “the Mormon War” at the “Meadow Mountains
Massacre,” during which the Utah Territorial Militia and their Native
allies—imitating the Hebrews’ post-Exodus conquest of Palestine—killed every
man, woman and child (old enough to testify) amongst the Fancher Party, a group
of settlers from Arkansas traveling west through Utah.[ii]
The play of
dualistic violence is rife throughout the history of Christianity, obviously
from its inception, as the religion was founded on an act of violence. Christians rapidly went from persecuted
minority to persecutors of minorities in the matter of a few centuries, and are
quite caught up in constructing all sorts of “us vs. them” divisions that have
led them to exact innumerable violences against whatever “others,” all “in the
name of God.”
From their initial conquests, Muslims
separated themselves (and to some degree, the “people of the book,” Jews and
Christians) from “the infidels,” and from all (including Jews and Christians)
who do not accept “the kalima,” the Muslims’ all-important confession of
faith in Allah and Mohammad. Though the
Hebrews eradicated their conquered foes and the Christians try to “save them”
(else eradicate them), the early Muslim conquests only attempted to eradicate
those who would not convert (other than Jews and Christians) amongst those they
conquered. Jewish or Christian cities
that the Muslims had conquered who chose not to convert were granted “djimi”
status, levied a one-percent poll tax and otherwise granted self-rule. Regardless, Islam is still based on a
distinct dichotomy of “us vs. them,” “the faithful” vs. “the infidels,” despite
the less succinct separation they originally placed between themselves and “the
people of the book” (i.e., until the Crusades, European colonialism, and the
establishment of the modern state of Israel in what was Palestine, that
is). Muslims continued their dualistic
divisions by splitting into Sunni vs. Shia and various other “us vs. them”
dichotomies, shedding the blood of millions over their internal “us vs. them”
divisions.
The
Abrahamic religions are all three too much caught up in the fear or pride-based
division/delusion of “us vs. them,” and are thus blinded to the beautiful
Oneness of God, who is certainly transcendent to religion and is all that truly
Is. They “can’t see the forest for the
trees,” blind to the reality that beyond the illusion of time and space,
humanity and all beings are Advaita, literally “not-second,” not other
than the First, the Eternal, brahman, “God,” Nature manifest and
unmanifest, Being Itself/Herself/Himself, ignorant of the religious and scientific
truth that each and all are “quantumly entangled,” so to speak, with every other and Other, that all else is
illusion and delusion, forgetfulness of our true Nature as One with the Divine,
according to sanAtana dharma. In
terms of the purported sayings of Jesus, this would be realizing that “the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15), is right
here, right now, if we would but learn to “Love thy neighbor as thyself”
(Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31), as Atman, to realize that whatever you do
or don’t do to the least of these, you do or don’t do to “God,” to your own
true Self (Matthew 25:31-46). An account
that Ram Dass recounted somewhere (if I’m not mistaken as to the source) said a
Sikh saint once replied, upon being chastened for pointing the bottom of his
feet towards the altar at a temple, “Where might I point the soles of my feet
where God is not?”
advaita mfn. destitute of duality, having
no duplicate S3Br. xiv, &c.; peerless; sole, unique; epithet of
Vishnu; (%{am}) n. non-duality; identity of Brahman or of the Paramatman
or supreme soul with the Jivatman or human soul; identity of spirit and
matter; the ultimate truth; title of an Upanishad; (%{ena}) ind.
solely.[iii]
The
Abrahamic/Abrahmanic religions, all three, thus set about, at or shortly
after their respective inceptions, to construct any number of “us vs. them”
dichotomies and to destroy or hide all evidences of the religious devotions and
philosophies that came before them, else to modify the preexistent religious
practices to fit their new religions.
Thus, a researcher seeking to understand the ancient religion, devotion
to the Horned God/Bull God and the Mother, Vishnu and the Vedic Gods, etc., is
left with very few resources and accepted sources, at least outside of the
religions of “the East.” Merlin Stone notes in the introduction to
her book, When God Was A Woman,
In the difficulties I
encountered gathering material, I could not help thinking of the ancient
writing and statuary that must have been intentionally destroyed. Accounts of the antagonistic attitudes of
Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism (Islam) toward the sacred artifacts of
the religions that preceded them revealed that this was so . . .[iv]
Stephen Knapp, recent
recipient of the Padma Shree, the fourth-highest civilian award granted by the government
of India, is an American researcher who has embraced Hinduism and has authored
several books which generally agree with the theories herein presented. Knapp likewise contends that the Abrahamic
religions, by their very nature, are prone to destroy evidences of the ancient
ways to bolster their spin. Knapp notes
that Christianity and Islam, in their dualistic fervor and historic practice of
conquering to convert, display the same proclivities of those religions to
destroy the truth of the past that Stone notes of the Abrahamic/Abrahman-ic
religions generally.
Another reason why many portions of
history have been forgotten or buried is that it was typical of the conquering
religions that make converts through military force for them to destroy any
historical evidence of the previous culture.
Especially when it displays loftier principles and more advanced levels
of consciousness. So rampaging Roman
Christian and Arab Muslim armies destroyed as much of any remaining Vedic
culture [as] they could. This,
unfortunately, also helped plunge the world into what has been called the Dark
Ages, which included terrible crusades, witch burnings of thousands of innocent
women, and intense torture of any so called infidels.[v]
The Zoroastrian
religion that developed in Persia somewhere around 600-1200 BCE was similarly
constructed in opposition to the pre-existing religion of Iran, which has been
called Iranian Vedism, i.e., the regional practices of sanAtana dharma
as were anciently observed in Persia. The
concept of “the Devil” is derived from the Zoroastrian bastardization of the
Devas, the Vedic Gods, and by their starkly dualistic understanding that the
Universe is the battleground for a good god vs. a bad god, a continuous
conflict that lasts until the very end. As
noted by one researcher regarding the obvious dualistic opposition of
Zoroastrianism to the preexistent Iranian Vedism (or as he posits, in
opposition to a rival tribe of Aryans),
In the field of religion there
are some interesting contrasts. Words
such as devá [that] have the meaning of god in
the Vedas have the meaning of devil in the Avesta. Likewise some names for Vedic gods show up in
the Avesta as evil spirits.[vi]
Quite
like the Abrahamic endeavor to invert or challenge the order of brahman, the
Zoroastrian religion is exemplary of a paradigm that from the outset was
constructed as an antithesis to the preexistent order of the Vedas/brahman
in a very succinct dualistic opposition of “us vs. them,” rejecting the unified
and unifying principle of brahman by their division of Being into a good
god and an evil god, thereby essentially codifying dualism/dvaita as
doctrine. Zoroastrianism constructed a
Universal dualistic conflict with good god Ahura Mazda (from Sanskrit “Asura,”
beings once worshipped alongside the Devas who were later figured as “demons,”
according to the renderings of Hindu mythology) vs. bad god Angra Mainyu, essentially
rendering the nature of Being as conflict, a dualism readily rendered by later
Manichaeans as Spiritual vs. Material, and thus Zoroastrian dualism stands
against the concept of brahman, which does not maintain a veritable
opposite at all, and which does not readily lend itself to the demonization of
material reality.
I might here duly note, however, the demonization of the
Asuras in India as well as the demonization of the Devas in Persia are both
emblematic of the spell of dualism, of dvaita, of the proclivity to find
an enemy or scapegoat in this Dark Age, to miss the integral unity of Being, though
such name-callings and essentializations were not the most ancient recorded
renderings of “the other” in either tradition.
The fact still remains that the Zoroastrian cosmology gives great license
to “evil” by granting tangible power to “the adversary” in the cosmic battle
between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, rendering the essence of reality as
conflict, whereas the Hindu myths generally tell of already vanquished demons
and celebrate those victories over whatever threats once-upon-a-time endangered
the world, and Hinduism generally focuses on peace, good practice, and “knowing
Thy Self” rather than fixating on conflict.
Zoroastrian dualism essentially rendered their version of reality in
opposition to the Old Ways’ recognition of the Unity of Nature and Being, of
the integrity of the cycles of life and death, matter and mind, Soul and
Spirit, Dark and Light, and of the authenticity of the whole world as One
Family.
The “Evil God” of Zoroastrianism, Angra Mainyu, was also known as “Ahriman,” certainly a derivative of else otherwise discursively related to the manufactured dichotomy brahman and Abrahman in some guise or other, a certain statement in this play of words and dance of discourse telling that Zoroastrianism was very much involved in this grand lila of the Age, brahman or Abrahman, “To Be or Not To Be,” despite the remnant of that religion, Parsi, today constituting a tiny minority in India, Iran and the United States. Zoroastrianism essentially inverted the Deva vs. Asura dichotomy that had developed in Hinduism, demonizing Devas like Indra and Rudra (rendered as the demon “Saurva,” not unlikely disparaging Rudra as Shiva) whilst adopting other Devas such as Mitra (who was originally an Asura), rendered as Mithra, and thus following the Abrahamic/Abrahman-ic pattern of adopting what is useful of the Old Ways and otherwise demonizing most of the ancientmost Gods and the Vedic religion—the which was in fact the original religion of Persia, too, before Zoroaster.
The discursive deployal of “Ahriman” as an opposite to the
good/creative divine is something of a sanctification of the oxymoronic
dichotomy Abrahman vs. brahman, and in fact grants figurative embodiment
to Ahriman as an Evil Entity able to harm souls. Ahriman is very likely derived from or
is otherwise related to the Sanskrit Abrahman, rather than, as
some have posited, derived from a demonization of Deva Aryaman, a Vedic solar
deity. Regardless, the Zoroastrian
religion did indeed create a “Devil” (from Avestan daeva, “demon,” an
inversion of the Hindu Sanskrit deva, “God”) when the ancients knew of
no such, thus empowering evil by giving existence to an imagined great and malevolent
enemy rendered as Angra Manyu or “Ahriman.”
“Ahriman,” denoting an arch-evil entity that has the power and desire to
do harm to souls and a want to trap them in suffering, is closely enough related
to the Sanskrit Abrahman.as denoting “not-brahman”/“no-God.” However, by the Zoroastrian rendering of “Ahriman”
as an evil being with veritable existence and hordes of demons to do his evil
bidding, essentially granting cosmic substance to evil, is thus very not like
the Sanskrit Abrahman, a term merely indicating a lack of the knowledge
of and devotion to the Unity of Existence and Being, brahman, as the Old
Ways would have it. And thus,
Zoroastrianism essentially gave birth to “the Devil.” Abrahman as per the Sanskrit
designation is not an evil entity, but merely a designation denoting one who is
not properly devoted to the Divine. Though
I have been unable to locate the exact quote, the which I believe is from the
Upanishads, it is noted, “That which is Abrahman is also brahman,”
discursively shortcutting the error of dvaita by disempowering any
imagined challenge or opposite to brahman, to True Being, Bliss, Purity,
to the fundamental Unity of Being and Eternity, from the get-go.
Zoroastrianism was thus pivotal in the construction of a
starkly dualistic paradigm, providing the Jews, Christians and Muslims “the
Devil” from the Avestan “daeva,” a Zoroastrian inversion of the Sanskrit “Deva,”
“God.” Thus and quite ironically, deva
has been rendered into quite a number of European words for “God” via those
peoples’ ancient connections with “Hinduism,” such as Latvian Dievs, Lithuanian Dievas, Latin Deus, Italian Dio,
Spanish Dios, Portuguese Deus, French Dieu, Corsican Diu, Catalan Deu, Welsh
Duw, Irish Dia, Old Irish Dé and Greek Theos, as well as deva being root
to many European words for “Devil,” such as German "Teufel," Spanish
“Diablo,” Italian "Diavolo," Portuguese "Diabo," Dutch
"Duivel," Danish "Djævel," Swedish: "Djävul," Polish
"Diabel," as well as English “Devil,” etc. “Deva” is therefore root to European names
for both “God” and for “the Devil,” as if the Abrahman-ic religions were
attempting to discursively divide and conquer the Divine.
Indeed, Zoroastrianism shows itself as yet another response
to or to whatever degree inversion of the Vedic brahman in favor of a
stark dualism, choosing the Abrahman side of the question much like
Abraham seems to have done, according to the Abrahamic tellings, upon rejecting
the religion of his ancestors and becoming “Abrahman.” This, despite the Zoroastrians’ seeming
equivocation via their designation of “Ahriman” as the “bad god,” a
transcendent designation that ends up empowering that which is not-brahman,
and thus providing an excuse for bad behavior that is not unlike the Christian
saying “the Devil made me do it.” Yet as
in any dance of binaries, in any play of “self” and “other,” the very dance or
play or bout itself blurs the distinctions and in fact shows the curious and
integral unity of said supposed opposites.
Hindu philosophy generally posits the Unity of Being, brahman, and
that the Divine is inside and out of each and all. Nonetheless, even Hinduism’s Puranic
tradition has been shown prone to such dualistic thinking as is displayed in
Zoroastrianism and the Abrahamic/Abrahman-ic religions, as the dualistic
proclivities of the Kali Yuga do sully even clear views. As Subhash Kak notes, “The Vedic view is to see the
world in triple categories. Later Puranic gloss simplified this into
dichotomies like that of deva versus asura (including rakshasa).”[vii]
I
might also mention, whilst discussing religions devised as antitheses to a
preexisting thesis, the most obvious antithetical response to the Christian
religion, i.e., Satanism, does not solve the issue of the Abrahamic
antithetical response to the preexisting worship of the Horned God and the
Great Mother, of Nature, but in fact merely replicates the discursive ploy, an
inversion of an inversion that doesn’t quite land things to back where they
started, previous to the Abrahamic/Abrahman-ic inversion. The Satanic “Black Mass” is a rather farcical
upending of Catholic rituals, for example, and does nothing to fix the
Judeo-Christian inversion of the ancient ways.
“Paganism,” as is known in today’s popular culture, is certainly less
prone to dichotomizing, largely as Paganism largely endeavors to hearken to the
ancient pre-Christian devotions to the Horned God and The Mother, etc., and
thus is not (so-much) just playing as against another religion. “Paganism” is (mostly) not merely endeavoring
to be an antithesis to another thesis, but rather seems to genuinely seek a
return to the natural flow of the ancient ways, to the pre-Christian devotions
to Nature, The Mother and the Wildman God.
According to sanAtana
dharma, in this last Age of a cycle of four Ages, the Kali Yuga, the “Dark
Age,” our most dumbed-down state, most forgetful of the intrinsic Unity of All
with the Divine (one's True Self/True Nature), a base response to trauma or
suffering is to blame someone or something “other,” forgetting that in truth
there is no real “other,” and certainly no “Other.” People in this Age generally are rather prone
to creating quite terrible and nasty enemies for themselves out of whatever
“other” is available, and too often in the name of “God.”
I ought note,
the political division constructed as the binary opposition “right vs. left” is
a very nasty dualistic manipulation of the people, a spell designed to give
favor to those who are “on the right” or “right-wing” over whatever political
perspective is designated as “left,” “leftist,” “left-wing,” etc., confusing
right as in righteous or correct with a hemispheric designation, “as opposed to
left.” The Sanskrit root Rta
means right as in correct or righteous, not as in “not or against left.” Dualistic delusion and collusion and
confusion play only too well into the hands of the oppressors’ desire to divide
and conquer. Nonetheless, the people
often well enough see through those spells, as exemplified by the adage, “the
right wing and the left wing belong to the same bird.” Though the spell of Dualism has much blurred
peoples’ vision in this Age, at our Core, we all really know better.
Sanskrit dvidha a.
twofold, divided or split in two.
dvidhA adv. in two parts, in twain; double.
English divide
The easiest
division to make cognitively is a bifurcation, to split things into whatever
“this vs. that,” “self vs. other” or “us vs. them” is at hand, the which is
nigh always an error, an error that in most cases leads to suffering and
injustice. In this Age when we're at our
stupidest (compared to the last three Ages, so it is said) such easy
constructions as a simple binary offers are too often the choice of people when
facing conflict, rather than to consider the intricacy and multiplicity of
factors involved in any such scenario, process or set of relationships, and the
intrinsic connectedness if not unity of all things. This is largely the criticism
post-structuralism makes of structuralism in the social sciences generally,
that binary opposition does not properly describe the intricacies of human
behavior, culture and society. As Ram
Dass put it, as told in a 2018 GQ article:
“I know many of you will feel
uncomfortable when I say this, but the hippies create the police as much as the
police create the hippies,” he said, his Kennedy-esque Boston accent still
intact. “That the liberals create the conservatives. The protesters create the
John Birchers just as much as the John Birchers create the protesters. That as
long as you are attached to whatever pole you are representing, the vibrations
which you are sending out are creating its polar opposite around you. If you
can do whatever is your karma—which may be walking in a protest march or
fighting in Vietnam, or being a conservative or a liberal or being a housewife
or being a yogi—and can do it without attachment, and do it fully and
thoroughly but without attachment, then you do not create that karma. You do
not create the polar opposite.[viii]
Inclined
to think in binaries in response to conflict, most in this Dark Age cannot
clearly discern what the Isa Upanishad means by the assertion that “He who sees
all beings in his Self, and the Self in all beings, what fear does he have?” At least a base symptom of the malady of the
Kali Yuga is the proclivity to blame someone else, to construct an “other” as
the enemy or scapegoat or as “the one/ones who need to change,” rather than
recognizing the supposed “other” as like you and even another expression of the
same Divine Being, another player in the Grand Play of life on Earth on a like
pilgrimage through the lila of eternity, another expression of the Guru,
the Teacher. What one has the certain
power and right to change in any given lifetime lived is his or her own self in
relation to the compassionate and eternal Divine that exists both inside and
out, that is Nature/the Nature of Being Him/Her/Itself, and the right to change
one's own life practices and to live compassionately, or no. As Jesus is touted to have said, “Judge not
that ye be not judged.”
Now
mind you, I do recognize that in this presentation of the play of these
religious perspectives I am myself thus constructing a division of us vs. them,
“them” being those who promote the Abrahamic/Abrahman-ic religious
discourse as opposed to “us” who can perceive the delusion of dualism. I suppose I must clarify by noting that as I
am referring to these various religious groups, I am speaking of the general
discourses these groups proffer in general terms, and do not mean to
essentialize all practitioners as fitting within those generalities. There are within all peoples and among all
groups of religious practitioners (and even amongst atheists and agnostics)
some Self-aware individuals, and conversely some Hindus and Buddhists who are
prone to stupid “us vs. them” delusions, despite the very clear precepts of
both religions that teach otherwise, that teach a recognition of the oneness
that binds even enemies, that tout such concepts as ahimsa (non-injury) and
satyagraha (non-violent resistance), and that both believe in
compassionate restraint as the proper response to conflict with supposed
“others” presented us in the midst of this Grand Illusion, the matrix of smoke
and mirrors that is maya, as those others are in truth expressions of
the same Self, or at least the same Divine Nature/Sacredness/Buddha Nature.
To
reify, I do not wish to imply that among the practitioners of the Abrahamic
faiths there are none who are Self-Aware individuals, nor that they should
renounce their religions, nor that those religions are in essence “bad” or
“evil.” I only mean that those
constructions are prone to dualistic renderings of conflicts and interactions
and reality generally, whereas constructions that do not create such stark and
arbitrary separations between “us and them,” “God” and humanity, Nature and
civilization, nor between self and other generally do indeed prove more
harmonious and in concert with what really Is.
Reality is in fact and by any reasonable scientific viewpoint never
truly a binary function of off/on, us/them, self/not self, saved/lost, the
faithful/infidels, black/white, nor even of male/female, and such integrous
worldviews as those which do not promote such ignorant dualistic thinking are
more prone to fomenting peace and genuine prosperity and harmony with nature,
both amongst their own and in the world generally, and are naturally inclined
toward maintaining good relations with the truth of eternity as well as of the
here and now.
The complexity
and intricacy of reality and Being cannot ever quite be fitted to within the
base dichotomy of black and white, save perhaps by tandava. The closest the teachings of sanAtana
dharma seem to come to a black/white or dark/light dichotomy in terms of
cosmology, insofar as I have determined, is in the Dance, the Tandava,
of Shiva and Kali Ma, wherein an Effulgent (though not necessarily “white”)
Dude is dancing with The Black Mama, the two always in motion and thus not ever
quite merely two, but existentially both Many and One. The Great Mama, Dark like the depths of the
Womb and the darkness of space, conveying all the Sensuality and Beauty and
Potency and Nurture of the Feminine, of all mothers and of The Mother, of the
Yoni (Source/Womb), in a passionate dance with the Great Papa, Pasupati Shiva,
the Protector of Souls and Animals and the Source of Light, the Linga (Phallus,
“Cosmic Ray of Light”), together in constant Motion conveying Devotion and Passion
and Playfulness and indeed, Desire, Linga-Yoni, but never quite presenting
merely Two, and never in truth other than One.
Shiva Kali Ma Tandava,[ix]
the Dance of Shiva and Kali Ma (public domain).
Linga-Yoni sculpture in Nepal,[x]
illustration of a black hole and the ray of light that issues therefrom,[xi]
and photo from the Hubble Space Telescope showing galaxy M87 and a 3,000
lightyear long illuminated plasma jet coming from the galaxy’s supermassive
black hole (NASA, ESA, A. Lessing (Stanford University), E. Baltz (Stanford
University), M. Shara (AMNH), J. DePasquale (STScI)).[xii] Shiva lingam is anciently described as the
Cosmic Pillar or Ray of Light.[xiii] The center of every galaxy is a
linga-yoni.
According to
the telling of the Shakta tradition, which focusses on devotion to the Mother,
to Shakti, the Divine Feminine:
Accordingly, as Bhairava teaches
the Goddess about his inner state: “[...] There in the centre [i.e., within the
foundation], O daughter of the mountains, is the supreme light between the two,
being and nonbeing. Within that centre my (energy) abides in accord with (her
supreme) state of being. (She is) Kālī who generates (kalanī) time, she who is
the cause of cogitation (kalpanā). Then that supreme goddess who devours time
issued forth, absorbed in the bliss of her own (innate) bliss, powerful with
the contemplation of (her) own nature. Established on the plane of
consciousness and the unconscious, she is between the plane of consciousness
and the unconscious. (She is) the goddess who is the Great Void, the
Transmental who devours time.”
Indeed
as these various groups, faiths, peoples and lifeways have developed to be
significant factors in this world at this or any given time in this Age, they
are each certainly variously cast to play particular roles in the lila
of this Kali Yuga (or to be more specific, the Gauri Yuga of this Kali Yuga),
roles that coalesce rather naturally to balance threats to the integrity of the
whole show—even as a biological imperative, let alone as an expression of
something like the “collective unconscious” or even “connected consciousness,”
or brahman. The recognition of a
grand play that is tens and hundreds of thousands and even millions and
billions of years in the playing out grants much more room for all the players,
whatever their particular delusions of “self” and “other,” to become
self-aware, and Self-aware, aware of the Unity and interconnected integrity of
Nature and of all which abides in this world and Universe, and of their own
soul with Soul, Oneness with the very Source of Being, in fact, an awareness to
be learned or remembered over the course of however many lives lived. Those who are caught up in dualistic delusion
in any given lifetime almost certainly have many more lifetimes to live in
which they might overcome those misconceptions of reality and Being, many roles
to be played during which they might finally find Unity with “God,” with Being
Itself, and release from the cycles of birth and death. Moksha.
Liberation from the illusion of dvaita/duality. As told by the Katha Upanishad, “Who sees the
many and not the ONE, wanders on from death to death.” (Katha Upanishad 2.1.10)
I
feel it vital to foment this awareness as these are supposed to be Golden times
compared to what awaits as the dualistic, “us vs. them,” darkness that is
characteristic of this Dark Age continues and takes further hold, after the
Golden Age part. If we are to adopt an
apocalyptic mythology, after all, is it not best to believe in one that touts
we are in the best part of the Age? one that encourages a recognition of the
unity of all peoples and all beings and Being in a grand Divine Play, for that
matter? an apocalypse that doesn't happen until a very long time from now,
rather than one that keeps people in fear and distrust of others and with a
constant worry that the “end is nigh?”
If a “God” exists that is involved in the story of humanity, certainly
such a “God” doesn't get off by making people unduly afraid.
Nature,
“God,” and in fact human nature for that matter, are by all accounts interested
in the survival of species, dharma, “keeping things together,” and thus Nature,
“God” and human nature do naturally manifest integrity from apparent disparity
and conflict, and betray an abiding unity behind the veils of disunity. Otherwise, society at the level we know and
have known it would not exist. This
“Divine Love” is what holds things together, even at a quantum level, it might
be said. Dharma is a biological as well
as a “spiritual” imperative, and indeed the Gods are at play, only they are
not-not us.
The
various religious constructions of this world, and in fact all of the broad
arrayals of paradigms and peoples, can be seen as strategically deployed to
create means of transforming the self-destructive impetuses of this Age of
Ignorance, to distribute the cognitive malaise and confusion of reality caused
by the dualistically debased state of human cognition in such ways as such
dimwittedness might cause the least sorrow and suffering, all without violating
the freedom of individual souls and peoples, cultures and societies (nor
whatever “Prime Directive” a la Star Trek, perhaps), almost or exactly as if by
conscious intention, “the Mind of God.”
Dharma, “keeping things together.”
It is not
unlike a board game played with the planet as the field of play, with the
Players being Devas and Devis and other orders of evolved (and less evolved) beings
at play, and by the ancient accounts of many traditions globally,
extra-terrestrials from various star systems that have likewise been players in
many of the acts and scenes across the Ages and play cycles played out via
humans and their tribes and civilizations, nations and religions and
philosophical disputations, at least according to the ancient teachings of
Hinduism and many other (mostly more recent, if still) ancient mythologies that,
sometimes despite themselves, are also expressions of sanAtana dharma. One indisputable evidence that “the gods” are
involved in the nowadays very dangerous politics and play of nations here on
planet Earth, on multiple occasions during tense moments between the U.S. and
U.S.S.R. and since, many former Air Force personnel and others claim to have
witnessed UFOs hovering over nuclear missile silos and temporarily deactivating
the missiles, both in the U.S. and in Russia/the U.S.S.R., a little reminder
that “the gods” are still involved with the play of humanity and planet Earth.[xiv] [xv]
Indeed,
when seen true, the Play and Plays of life on earth are merely a game God/True
Self is playing with HerSelf/HimSelf in this Illusion born of Desire, and we
are That. tat tvam asi. The arrangements and rearrangements of
peoples designed to foment peace and find good balance to the diversity of
peoples and lifeways can be discerned in the Grand Narrative if one shifts
one's focus to include the span of eternity, of forever, and to the entirety
and integrity of the show here and now, and not merely one's own or one's own
people's seeming separate story, but the whole show and all the nata
(actors, players/dancers) integrously dancing towards and as the perfect
bliss and synchronicity that is in truth all that Exists, a Unified Theory that
includes more than just an understanding of the physical properties of the
Universe. Yoga. A “yolk” to “God,” to the true and blissful
Nature of Being, to health both physical and spiritual, to Nature.
Herein
is Yoga:
Yoga
is the alteration of sense vibration
That
therein Pure Consciousness might abide.
Introduction
to The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali (author’s memory from some unknown
translation)
One
clear ancient mythical example of the above theory, of “the Gods” engineering
the development of human civilization, would be the aforementioned movement of
King Bali's Kingdom to across the Pacific at the firm request of Vaman (Dwarf
Avatar of Vishnu), who granted land in “the Underworld”/Patala (the Americas?)
to King Bali to replace his lands lost in a boon he granted Vaman, that Lord
Indra could reign unhindered across Eurasia, i.e., not unlikely to prevent war
between two powerful kings,[xvi]
as well as certainly to fulfill so many subtle intentions of the script of the
Grand lila at play and to set the stage for now, the Gauri Yuga (Golden
Age) of the Kali Yuga (Dark/Black Age).
Traces of Lord Indra's rulership are to be found in the figurations of
very analogous gods like Woden (Sanskrit vendhan, “king”), Zeus, Thor,
etc., and traces of Bali's kingdom in Patala are well enough evinced by the
Saksaywaman Temple in Peru, clearly built to honor Deva (God) Vaman (Vishnu's
fifth Avatar of Ten, DashAvatar), by the place name Bogota (from Muisca
language bacata), as King Bali’s capital in “the Underworld” was called
Bhogavati, “Place of Snakes” or “delightful,” [xvii]
evocative of the local Muisca ancestor/snake cult, by the name of the Andes
mountains, Quechua andi “high crest”, very likely derived from Sanskrit adri
(mountain), and many more Quechua words that are clearly derived from Sanskrit.
A list of dozens of words from the Quechua language that are derived from if
not exact cognates to Sanskrit words is included in chapter 8, “Migrations to
the East,” quoted from Chaman Lal’s groundbreaking work, Hindu America. There are indeed a plethora of linguistic,
written and cultural clues that tell of at least one mass migration across the
Pacific to the Americas many centuries and even many millennia ago, when an
entire kingdom was moved at the behest of God Vishnu as Vaman.
“Queller of Beasts” Indus seal[xviii]
and “Queller of Beasts” petroglyph in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[xix] Note the stripes on the petroglyph cat to the
left. The only striped big cat in the
world is the Asian tiger.
We
are the playthings of the Gods and We are the Gods—if forgetful ones, mind you,
or at least so it seems to me. And more
importantly, we are God, according to sanAtana dharma. Not our individual selves/jiva/souls/egos
else ids, mind you, caught up in karma (action) and kama (desire)
as nigh all are to whatever degree, but our True Self, the Eternal One that
resides in and outside each and every, that resides as a flame in everyone's
heart, a flame about the size of your thumb, the Upanishads do tout (Katha
Upanishad 2.1.12), or as the quiescent bird on our respective branch or tree as
told in the Rig Veda Samhita (1.164.20), the “Spirit of God,” the Source of Being
and of our own selves, already extant in each and all whether they “invited”
such to be there or not; sat cit Ananda, “righteous mind bliss” as what
is Natural and is Nature.
The striving of all the scholars
of Vedanta was, after having learnt to pronounce with their lips, really to
assimilate in their minds this grandest of all thoughts. Again, the mystics of many centuries,
independently, yet in perfect harmony with each other (somewhat like particles
in an ideal gas) have described, each of them, the unique experience of his or
her life in terms that can be condensed in the phrase: DEUS FACTUS SUM (I have
become God).
Erwin
Schrödinger, “What is Life?”[xx]
“Sin Nature” is
not natural, nor veritable. The notion
that we are all definitively tainted by a nature that prefers “sin” is a
terrible lie, a cop-out, a crutch to enable or attempt to justify wrongdoings,
and in fact as such “the sin nature” would have certainly already led to the
extinction of humanity, as any real “sin” is that which is against Nature
Itself/Herself/Himself. People in this
Age are, however, quite prone to stupid “self-other” dichotomies that are
likely to cause them to wrong others and to ignore the Divine within each and
all, but are not by any means bound to a nature that is “sin.” The “sin nature” becomes a ready scapegoat, a
handy clause used to justify actions that those folk know well enough in their
hearts are wrong—not to mention that such is a powerful fear tactic used to
convince others to convert. The
Christians’ all-encompassing answer and justification for their own misactions,
“it’s God’s will,” else “Jesus died for all my sins (i.e., “not yours” if
you're not “saved”), so I'm already forgiven for the wrongs I have and will
do,” as their patsies so they might further make pretense that they are not to
be held responsible for their ill doings.
Indeed,
even the Judeo-Christian understanding that the beginning of sin was “the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil” betrays
that in fact dualism, the propensity to dichotomize, is the real root of
sin. Thus, “the knowledge of good and
evil” can be equated to a cognitive shift toward dualistic thinking, accepting
binary constructions of thought and action such as “self vs. other,” “God vs.
the Devil” or “God vs. humanity,” “us vs. them,” “friend vs. enemy,” “male vs.
female,” etc., without simultaneous awareness of the Unity of Being and of the
very artificial and arbitrary constructedness of those binary categories. Thus it was that Adam and Eve “were ashamed
at their nakedness,” as they had begun to think dualistically and not
Naturally. Even as the Hebrews were
playing Abrahman vs. brahman, it seems they were themselves well
enough aware of the nature of the inversion they were playing as emblematic of
a “fall” from a state of unity with Nature and God. Thus read, it is Dualism that was the “fall
of man.”
In these
dimwitted days of the Kali Yuga, many ifn't most are prone to miss the
beautiful complexity and multifaceted and integrous Nature of what is real and
eternal, and instead are sadly prone to lump things into stupid binaries and
thus to heap sufferings and sorrows upon themselves and others. It's easy to make a scapegoat, but such never
truly serves the abiding good of the people or the planet.
My
wish for the Abrahamic religions, and any crew inclined towards binary
stupidity in an Age beset by said malady (which I should note, too often
includes Hindus and Buddhists and sometimes even scientists, and certainly
computer programmers—if I might digress in jest) is that they become
respectfully aware of the many respective roles to be filled in this Age-long
Play that has scarce begun and that is under the sway of the Divine Director,
of Nature, of Being Her/Him/ It-Self. I
would that they become duly aware that though some of their own presumptions
and dogmas are likely wrong and mistaken, as are some of those of other peoples
and religions, all do fit in the Divine Play or Plan at hand, and all peoples
and their lifeways and religions do contain at least the seed of righteousness,
of the Compassionate and Eternal Divine.
Truly, diversity is vital to life lived, and everyone's own place and
conditions of birth and the practices of their people do somehow fit into the
Grand Play integrously and do provide possible pathways to Divine bliss,
compassion and peace, as it is with all peoples and good practice and well-kept
tellings of the ancient and abiding Story and Stories. To “love thy neighbor as thy Self” is natural
and is Nature, even from the perspective of science and evolution and the
“survival of species.”
This world of ours is a world of
opposites. There is light and shade, there is heat and cold, there is good and
evil, there is God and the Devil. The dualistic conception of nature has been a
necessary phase in the evolution of human thought . . . Monotheism and
Monodiabolism . . . together constitute a Dualism which to many is still the
most acceptable world-conception. Nevertheless, it is not the final goal of
human philosophy. As soon as the thinkers of mankind become aware of the
Dualism implied in this interpretation of the world, the tendency is again
manifested towards a higher conception...[xxi]
Paul Carus, History of the
Devil and the Idea of Evil: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day (first
published 1899)
Requisite
for a well-developed play are variously arrayed characters and groups, factions
and factors well woven together, preferably in such concert as to compliment
rather than to compete or to delve into suffering-filled conflicts, a dance
rather than a battle, though alas, in this Dark Age people are rather more
often inclined towards drama than towards dharma. If one can learn to see the Divine in and
through the whole show, dharma at play in and through the drama, and that when
seen true, other peoples and their gods are true too, all Players in a Game
that includes all people and peoples and times that is already and always under
the sway of the Nature of Being Divine; if one can accept that the Truly
Divine, Compassionate and Great, in whatever varied forms sometimes certainly
maintains Presence(s) by many names and amongst various peoples, and even
amongst the fold of your “enemies”—beyond the “us vs. them”—then, Religion can
be true.
Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti
The Truth is One, the Sages speak of it variously
[i] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from
Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “dvaita,” accessed May 3,
2021, https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.
[ii] “The Mountain Meadows Massacre,” American Experience,
PBS: WGBH Educational Foundation, accessed April 21, 2023,
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/mormons-massacre/.
[iii] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from
Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “advaita,” accessed May
13, 2023,
https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.
[iv] Merlin Stone, When God Was A Woman (New
York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1978),
xvii.
[v] Stephen Knapp, “Vedic culture is the original
ancestor of all religions (Part 1),” Decoding Hinduism: The Vedas and the Birth of Science,
https://www.decodinghinduism.com/2016/02/vedic-culture-original-ancestor-of-all.html.
[vi] Thayer Watkins, “The Relationship of Vedic Sanskrit
and Avestan (Old Persian),” San Jose State University, accessed February 28,
2021, https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sanskritavestan.htm.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Will Welch, “The Unified Theory of Ram Dass,” GQ
Magazine, November 27, 2018,
https://www.gq.com/story/the-unified-theory-of-ram-dass.
[ix] mountain dreams, “Dance of Shiva and Kali Ma,” PIXELS,
public domain, May 1, 2023, accessed September 17, 2025, https://pixels.com/featured/dance-of-shiva-and-kali-unknown.html.
[x] Suraj Belbase, “Shivalinga and shakti yoni statue,”
Wikimedia, CC 4.0, September 7, 2016, accessed November 26, 2022,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shivalinga_and_shakti_yoni_statue.jpg.
[xi] NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, “Swift J1644+57
black hole illustration,” cropped and adjusted, Wikimedia, CC 4.0, August 2,
2012, accessed November 26, 2022,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swift_J1644%2B57_black_hole_illustration.jpg.
[xii] NASA, ESA, A. Lessing (Stanford University), E. Baltz
(Stanford University), M. Shara (AMNH), J. DePasquale (STScI), NASA/ESA Hubble,
CC 4.0 International, Septebmer 26, 2024,
https://esahubble.org/images/heic2411b/.
[xiii] Ca Brij Bhushan Dubey, “SHIVA LINGA MEANS COSMIC
PILLAR OR RAY OF LIGHT OR STAMBH,” Speakingtree, 2022 Times Internet Limited,
November 22, 2014, https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/transformation-of-shiva-linga#:~:text=Rishi%20Atharvana%20described%20that%20God,common%20language%20gender%20and%20sex.
[xiv] “Ex-Air Force Personnel: UFOs Deactivated Nukes,” CBS
News, September 28, 2010, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-air-force-personnel-ufos-deactivated-nukes/.
[xv] Sascha Brodsky, “The Pentagon Is Investigating UFOs
That Possibly Turned Off Warheads,” Popular Mechanics, February 23, 2023,
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a43033115/pentagon-investigating-ufos-nuclear-warheads/.
[xvi] “King Mahabali went to Patala Loka (South America),”
Booksfact, January 21, 2015,
https://www.booksfact.com/puranas/king-mahabali-went-patala-loka-south-america.html.
[xvii] “Bhogavati,” Wikipedia, accessed March 11, 2022,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhogavati.
[xviii] Ismoon, “Indus
valley civilization "Gilgamesh" seal (2500-1500 BC),” CC0, via
Wikimedia Commons, March 26, 2019, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indus_valley_civilization_%22Gilgamesh%22_seal_(2500-1500_BC).jpg
[xix] Jeffrey Charles Archer, “Queller of Beasts Petroglyph,”
Petroglyph National Monument, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2020.
[xx] Erwin Schrödinger, “What is
life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell.
Based on lectures delivered under the auspices of the Dublin Institute
for Advanced Studies at Trinity College, Dublin, in February 1943,” accessed
April 28, 2022, http://www.whatislife.ie/downloads/What-is-Life.pdf.
[xxi] Paul Carus, History of the
Devil and the Idea of Evil: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day (United
Kingdom: Dover Publications, 2008), Overview.
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