Yukteswar's Eden Fall

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• Yukteswar's Eden Teachings

Yukteswar's Eden Teachings

Previously

Titian. The Fall. Ca. 1488-90. Section.

A Hindu Story of Creation

Long ago when all things animate and inanimate were lost in one dreadful ocean there appeared a large egg. Lying in this egg, Brahma went to sleep. At the end of a thousand Ages [yugas] he awoke.
      Awake and knowing creation to be lost in this flood, the lord broke open the egg. From it OM was born; then an embryo, called a bubble, became solid. It is known as the sustainer of all creatures. Brahma, Grandfather of the world, arose in the middle of the egg. The placenta is known as Mt. Meru, the afterbirth is the mountains, and the waters of the womb are the oceans and the thousand rivers. The water which surrounds the navel of Brahma is Mahat. In the middle of it a banyan tree [tree of life] stood like a pillar.
      The lotus-born god poured forth all things, representatives of their realms. Having given forth the waters, fire and atmosphere, the sky, wind and earth, rivers, oceans, mountains and budded trees, instants, moments, minutes, hours, days and nights, fortnights and months, half-years, years, ages and so on, all delegates of their domains, again he poured forth the accomplished seers: Marici, Bhrigu, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha and Kratu. From his breath the god Brahma emitted Daksa, Marici from his eye, Angiras from his head, Bhrigu from his heart and the one named Atri from his ears. Dharma, having taken human form in these seers, was set in motion.
      Brahma wished to create in those waters these four: gods, demons, Fathers and men, and he yoked his mind to this task. The demons, his sons, originated first from his buttocks.
      The god took another form having the quality of sattva; thereupon gods were brought forth from his face.
      He took still another form of sattva nature; to him, thinking like a father, were born the Fathers.
      Then Brahma took another body, of the quality of rajas. Human beings arose from this as his passion-ridden sons.
      Brahma poured forth many other beings after that. For example, he sent forth sheep from his breast, goats from his mouth and he fashioned cows from his stomach, and horses from his feet. Likewise from his limbs were formed donkeys and others. Herbs which have fruits and roots were born from his body hair. He devised poetic metres. From his limbs were engendered creatures of all kinds.
      In this manner proceeded the pouring forth of beings from the creating Brahma Prajapati. [Clh, 32-34, abridged]

Comment

The First Bible Chapters

Jan Gossaert. Adam and Eve in Paradise. Ca. 1525 (section) Genesis 1 God created man in his own image ... male and female. [27]       God blessed them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it." [28]       God saw all that he had made, and it was very good - the sixth day. [29] Genesis 2 When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens - [4] no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, ... the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. [5-7]       The Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. [8]       And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. [9]       The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. [15]       And the Lord God commanded, "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when [the same day [TEV], in the day [most English translations], etc.] you eat of it you will surely die." [17]. [Adam lived on for hundreds of years after that.]       The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." [18] [Adam lived on for hundreds of years after that too -]       The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs [9] and closed up the place with flesh - the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. [21-22]       The man said, "This is ...called "woman," for she was taken out of man." [23]       For this reason a man will ... be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. [24]       The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. [25] Genesis 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, "You must not eat from any tree in the garden"?" [1]       The woman said to the serpent, "God did say, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" [3]       "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. [4]       "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." [5]       When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. [6]       Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. [7]       Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. [8]       But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" [9]       He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." [10]       And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" [11]       The man said, "The woman ... gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." [12]       The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." [13]       So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. (etc) [14]       To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." [16]       To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, "You must not eat of it," "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. [17]       It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. [18]       By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food till you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." [19]       Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. [20]       The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. [21]       And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." [22]       So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. [23]       After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. [24]

Yukteswar Interpretation

A - Bible evidence

1 - Yukteswar's lore

THE HUMAN body was ... not solely a result of evolution from beasts, but was produced by an act of special creation by God. The animal forms were too crude to express full divinity; the human being was uniquely given a tremendous mental capacity—the 'thousand-petalled lotus' of the brain—as well as acutely awakened occult centres in the spine.

INFRA DIG (beneath one's dignity) according to the Bible: Man and woman were not "a result of evolution from beasts, but ... produced by an act of special creation".

INFRA DIG AGAIN: Touch sensations were "banned in order to avoid the development of the sex organs". The Bible takes you into this: having sex was not denied them, it was a certain knowledge of good and evil that was denied them then. And that is different.

INFRA DIG, POSSIBLY: "Materialising the bodies of man and woman through the force of his will" - immaculate manner - dual Eden harmony. The Bible says in one of its two back-up stories that man was first, alone and lonely too, but in Eden.

IMPOSING TAMING MATTERS: The Bible does not tell "The 'serpent' represents the coiled-up spinal energy which stimulates the sex nerves." That is another story imposed on what Genesis tells about the birth of man and woman.

2 - Some more points to this

• Adam was to work Eden and take care of it. [Gen 2:15]
• There was no shame in being naked. [Gen 2:15]
• Adam and Eve were to be one flesh and increase in number (through childbirths), it seems fair to say. [Cf. Gen 3:16]
• Most important, the Bible tells Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden because they disobeyed orders, got forbidden knowledge etc, not because they had sex. The guru runs over biblical evidence here too.

Amenhopep 1 with the rearing cobra (uraeus) in his forehead. The uraeus was worn by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt as a head ornament - a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity, and divine authority. The rearing snake represents the Eye - In some mythological works, the eyes of Ra (Sun). In Yoga works, the eyebrow centre is called the Divine Eye.

If balancing work is needed, go deeper: The outlook on balancing reason and feeling is far-fetched. There is reason to say that if deep feelings are snatched away, reason dwindles and dies, because reason is like the surface of inner apperceptions, through which inner perceptions (including attitudes, will forces and feelings) talk. This outlook links up to psychoanalytic findings.
      And the need, then, is to plunge to a level of no pretence, not of doing surfacing balance work. In the common adaptations between husband and wife, coitus helps such plunging, deep, inner feelings at times, and forms the reasons for many things and outlets later. Otherwise, people do not have much of a choice in the long run; lots of emotions cannot be talked to deep or hard enough by reasoning. One gets jaded from much reasoning. One may reach flurries through lots of showed emotions. The jaded and the flurried do not seem to have much of a platform to build further on, and divorces increase these days.

Another round:

B - Bible evidence

Yukteswar's findings

Comment

• Getting naked into the garden of life;
• Growing up into knowledge of good and evil;
• Becoming one flesh;
• Learning to sew and hopefully already knowing how to take care of one's own plot of land before things get serious;
• Childbearing - opening the door to later children - progeny;
• Etc.

Have no obligations from wrong interpretations: Yukteswar's disciple Yogananda next claims a proper filial obligation, due to the discourse that runs over and around good Bible findings. You have to ask yourself how good that is, just as with taking bribes.

C - Bible evidence

2 - Clearing up

God created man in his own image ... male and female he created them. [Gen 1:27]

"The tree of the nervous system bears many enjoyable fruits, or sensations of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. In these, man may rightfully indulge; but he was forbidden the experience of sex, the 'apple' at the centre of the bodily garden." - Yukteswar.

"Genesis ... cannot be grasped by a literal interpretation". - Yukteswar.

1. If you do not stick to the text and base yourself on it, you get tendentious and clownish as an interpreter -
2. If you free yourself from the text that is present (Bible chapters given), you remove yourself from substantiation of your outlooks. A call for more or less wild faith may be next, unfortunately. That sort of faith can run wild. We should work against that, and futility too.

Onword