Tuesday 2 April 2013

Religion and Magic


Issue 2 - July 2002

Religion and Magic

Magic is not prior, chronologically to religion, nor an earlier stage in the evolutionary scale as assumed by Hegel or supposed by Frazer in his famous book Golden Bough. Both of them run side by side in the history of religion.
Written by SIRDAR KAPUR SINGH

Astapadi V-8
Sukhmani Sahib
karo benti parbrahm sabh janai
apna kia ap manai
apih ap api kart nibera
kisai dur janawat kisai bhujavat nera
opava sianap sagal te raht
sabh kich janai atam ki raht
jis bhavai tis lai lad lai
than thanantar reha samae
so sevak jis kirpa kari
nimakh nimakh jap nanak hari
Octonal V-8
I pray to the God-Absolute, who knoweth all.
And He exalteth all creatures of His.
He Himself alone chooseth (His own)
To some He maketh Himself appear
as away, there and to others,
as near, here.
He is immune to all techniques
and the know-hows.
And He knows the secret
workings (behavior) of all minds,
Whomsoever he pleaseth, his hand
He holds to guide.
He permeates through all places
and all spaces.
He on whom He confers His
grace, he worships Him.
Nanak advises man to remember
God continuously.
kisai dur janawat kisai bhujavat nera: In this verse Guru Arjan is not laying down the doctrine of predestination, according to which whether a man shall be saved or consigned to eternal Hell has been predestined by the Will of God, immutably. This is the Christian doctrine of Calvinism. It is also the sad-vaisnava doctrine of Madhvacarya, with its pancabheda,the Five eternal distinctions of the Being, and its tribheda, three distinctions of the souls, the latter of which postulates that,
(i) some souls are destined to eternal bliss,
(ii) some others to eternal transmigration, and
(iii) the remainder tending ever downwards, doomed to eternal Hell.
There is further, the orthodox interpretation of the Qu’ran according to which God misleads sinners, decrees their evil deeds and punishes them in Hell for the same. It was against this orthodox Islamic doctrine that the Mutazila heresy arose in the early centuries of the Hajira.
Our text is not to be confused with any of the above, Christian, Hindu or Islamic doctrines, for, it is, in fact, an exegesis of the famous statement made by Guru Nanak in Japu: gavai ko japai disai dur, gavai ko vekhai hadrahadur, that is, “some adore God as He appears to them a Transcendent God, and others, because He appears to them as Immanent.”
opava sianap: opava (upaya), that by which one reaches one’s aim, means or strategem. sianap is technique or know-how. Technically upaya means a ritual efficacious for producing certain desired results. It is an integral part of the practices of the Vedic-cum-tantric religion, the latter being essentially magic and not religion proper. Magic is not prior, chronologically to religion, nor an earlier stage in the evolutionary scale as assumed by Hegel or supposed by Frazer in his famous book Golden Bough. Both of them run side by side in the history of religion.
Magic aims at controlling the power of nature, directly, through spells and enchantments, and this is the technical sense of upaya. Religion believes in a Power or powers external to man and the world and aims at beseeching them through persuasive methods of sacrifice and prayer.
One is dictatorial, the other persuasive.
Magic depends on the way in which certain things are said and done for a particular purpose (upaya), by those who have the necessary knowledge and power to put the supernatural forces into effect, (sianap). The doctrine of (upaya) in magic leads to the existence of esoteric body of knowledge, guhyamusht (the closed fist secrets), and the necessity of sianap leads to the existence of priests of religion who are equivalents of medicine men of voodoo.
But a religion proper is not primarily concerned with mundane affairs, and it, therefore, needs no upaya, and since it is essentially personal and supplicatory, it needs no know-how technicians, the priests.
For this reason there are not any formulae of upaya in Sikhism, and nor does Sikhism countenance a priestly class. Our text, by implication, brings out and stresses the essential difference between magic and religion, by saying that ‘God is immune to upaya and sianap, both.’
http://sikhspectrum.com/2002/07/religion-and-magic/

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