Certain Influences of Shaivism and Tantra on the Islamic Mystics
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Appendix: Certain Influences of Shaivism and Tantra on the Islamic Mystics In order to have an integrated understanding of the S´aivite and Tan- tric influences on certain mystical currents in the Islamic world, it behooves us to consider the need for a future comprehensive volume. This appendix is only a brief introduction to what may be buried or disguised in the memory of the past. The porous borders between the Indian and the Islamic worlds have always created inevitable cross- influences, which can no longer be overlooked. In India, if the Sufis and yogic masters lived side by side, they must have intermingled and influenced one another. Certainly, various Hatha Yoga and S´aivite ideas became manifested in the practices of the Sufis in India as they absorbed non-Islamic elements.1 Chroniclers record that in thirteenth-century Sind some dervish orders would gather in certain S´iva temples.2 Shaivism as a potent spiritual order assimilated many elements from other traditions. The multifaceted nature of some of its practices and universal conceptual ideas meant that S´aiva practices could be car- ried on under other names. And with its syncretic system of practices, Shaivism spread through north India, Central Asia, and Iran, “influ- encing both Qalandars and Sufis.”3 The strength of Shaivism’s his- torical presence was such that the early Kushan dynasty (ca. 80–375), in what is now Afghanistan, adopted Shaivism alongside Buddhism: their coins depicted S´iva on one side and the Buddha on the other.4 The archaeological evidence for the spread of Shaivism into Iran and Iraq is meagre, but it is epitomized by the presence of a S´iva statue in Iraq dating to pre-Islamic times.5 The Qalandars in Iran seem to have come under S´aiva influences, imitating them in wearing earrings and bracelets and behaving eccen- trically; yet, like Muslims, the Qalandars still faced the Ka‘ba in medi- tation.6 The problem has always been when multiple eccentric groups 184 Appendix and individuals with transgressive practices and views within Islamic communities were considered “Sufis” when they were not, when in fact they rejected the Sufis’ conventional religiosity and mundane piety.7 Those who wanted to provide some sort of religious legitimacy for these “non-Sufi” groups—so that the absorption of practices from Yogic, Buddhist, Vedantic, Christian, and neo-Platonic sources could operate behind an Islamic mask, and, to a degree, become “uniden- tifiable”—would create genealogies to trace these groups’ founders back to Mohammad, Abu Bakr, or ‘Ali.8 Some, thus, accepted the “Sufi” label, although the radical mystics such as the Qalandarıˉs in Western Asia did not. In South Asia, various practices of Shaivism, Buddhism, and Tantra became quite prevalent. Bengal, because of the availability of the Sanskrit sources, became a region where the Sufis Islamized some of those practices—and the commonalities between Indian yogis and Sufis became apparent after the Muslim expansion into north India between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.9 In light of rich and intense spiritual developments in Northwest India, Central Asia, and Tibet, the Muslim conquest encountered many Tantric centers, especially in the Swat Valley (then known as Uddi- yana—home of Padma Sambhava, the pioneer Tantric Buddhist who arrived in Tibet in the eighth century).10 The Islamization of these regions in the eighth through tenth centuries did not elimi- nate the antinomian mystics from Muslim culture, just as it later did not stop the Qalandarıˉ and their progenies. Geoffrey Samuel asserts that the antinomian practices of Tantra and Vajrayana Bud- dhism were adopted and continued in the Sufi context as early as the eighth and ninth centuries.11 The practice of yoga by the Shaivites of greater Khuraˉsaˉn, and their intermingling with Muslim mystics, may have influenced what some Muslim mystics called namaˉz ma‘kus (praying by hanging upside down, sometimes all evening or even all night). The renowned mystic Abu Sa‘ıˉd Abul-Khayr (d. ca. 1049) is believed to have done that while repeating zikr (a repetitive chant or prayer), which led to the state of fanaˉ al-fanaˉ (annihilation in annihilation).12 To justify and legitimize this meditational yoga position, the Muslim mystics claimed that the Prophet of Islam was the first to perform it.13 In Tantric yoga, this is considered the union of S´akti and S´iva, or the Sun and the Moon.14 And Rumi, in fact, speaks of prostrating by standing on his head (D: 1603). With his actions, Abu Sa‘ıˉd believed his body had now become qibla (the direction for prayer).15 He set out on a new spiritual Appendix 185 path, dancing and encouraging feasts of sweet meat, roasted fowls, and all kinds of fruit—just what is usually offered in a Tantric feast (ganachakra). —But he had to explain to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni (971–1030), who was informed about his practices, why his sermons did not include the teachings of the Prophet of Islam.16 Abu Sa‘ıˉd lived in the towns of Sarakhs and Mayhana, on the edge of Buddhist and Shaivite territories, and that may be where he learned the art of the spiritual feast, the feast with dance and singing, and other Tantric practices that gradually entered the Islamic territories. The following poem by Abu Sa‘ıˉd (which may actually have been writ- ten by Rumi: see chapter 4) is characteristic of his spiritually fearless and revolutionary attitude toward the religious thinking of his time: Not until every mosque beneath the Sun Lies ruined, will our holy work be done; And never will true Muslim appear Till faith and infidelity are one.17 Abu Sa‘ıˉd’s challenge remained how to explain to his contempo- raries the false human preoccupation with the subject of worshipping God.18 It is asserted that Abu Sa‘ıˉd was heading to Mecca for pil- grimage but along the way was dissuaded by Abul-Hassan Kharaqaˉnıˉ (d. ca. 1033); he then returned to Bastaˉm, the birthplace of Baˉyazid (d. 874).19 Abu Sa‘ıˉd’s approach to loosening the burden of self was to offer meditation on non-self. This insightful meditation, according to him, should result in understanding that all things were created from non-self.20 Abu Sa‘ıˉd preached explicitly against the boastful religious people who would constantly express their personal inter- pretation of things by saying, “I, I . ,” whom he thought were try- ing to escape from reality, an act of self-centeredness that would lead to their wasting away.21 Abu Sa‘ıˉd’s praying upside down, sponsoring feasts, and non-self utterances are the recorded aspects of the outside influences he brought into the Islamic world; what went unrecorded were far more enigmatic interactions between the Tantric world and mysticism in Khuraˉsaˉn. In the Tantric context, it is also not surprising to learn about Kharaqaˉnıˉ (whose words were quoted in chapter 6A) and his two lions. He would ride on the backs of two lions he had domesticated, which was strange and frightening for the people of his village. Lion symbolism may have had a spiritual significance for Kharaqaˉnıˉ,22 and it is common in many cultures and traditions. The closest of these to Khuraˉsaˉn at that time was the Buddhist and Tantric symbolism 186 Appendix of taming a lion through attaining extraordinary power. In the Bud- dhist context, the lion symbolizes both the power of Buddha’s teach- ings and his throne—a precursor to the Tibetan Tantric notion of the “Lion’s Roar” (a fearless state of mind), and the basis for the spread of Tibetan iconography of the lion figure. In Indian Tantric iconog- raphy, a lion (or tiger) is ridden by the Goddess Durga (the personi- fication of Kali, the great Cosmic Power), who is the conqueror of demons and darkness. Again, in Tantric practice, a lion guards each chakra (while each chakra is controlled by a goddess) and does not allow the yogi to access the chakra.23 ‘Attaˉr dedicates over fifty pages to this evolutionary ascetic who seems to have remained at odds with traditional and institutional Sufism (perhaps in favor of a more Malaˉmatıˉ type of practice).24 He left no writing behind except for a handful of poems. ‘Attaˉr states that Kharaqaˉnıˉ’s wife used to call him “an apostate and zindıˉq” because of his unusual and perhaps un-Islamic spiritual beliefs. This may have been because of what she witnessed in his practices, beliefs, and expressions, at least from her own Islamic point of view—she claimed she could not reveal all of them (see M: VI: 1120). Kharaqaˉnıˉ, an extraordinary Sheikh whom Rumi depicts riding on the back of a lion, had a precedent in Baˉyazid, who would also ride on a lion with a snake whip (M: VI: 1123–24).25 Legend also attributes riding on a lion to Khidr, the mystical and immortal prophet, and he was followed by some unknown dervishes and Sufis in India being shown on the back of a tiger or lion.26 In the Shi‘a context, ‘Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet, has often been identified with a lion, sym- bolizing both his ferocity in battles and his astonishing power to tame such a ferocious beast in his native Arabia.27 Lions continue to appear in the iconography of the Bektaˉshıˉ Sufi order in Anatolia,28 as well as in Qaˉdiri order when the portrait of their founder, ‘Abdel Qaˉdir Jilaˉnıˉ (d. 1166) appears with a tamed lion seated before him.29 The Tantric practice of taming and riding on lions has taken root in general Sufism and Shi‘ism, as reflected in poetry, including that of Rumi.