Uma Maheswara

BY M. S. GOPALAKRISHNAN, M.A.

THE Hindus are worshippers of images and plates with Yantras carved on them. These seem to express to them some aspect of some deity or other. Though we acknowledge in faith that God is Power beyond the approach of our minds, our endeavour to search in matter a right response to the demands from an invisible source, we think, is a way of learning. It is not to discover any law of nature the Hindu mind aims. It prays before an image–an expression of its own complete force, when it forgets what is base, to become what is incomprehensible to itself. Of the senses I am the Mind, says Lord Krishna in the Gita.

The image of Uma Maheswara is not new to the Hindu priest, prince, and peasant. It is only a symbol of the indirect presence of the Creative Power. This power is a perennial flow in every masculine and feminine seed of cause, which is given attributes. So, that which is devoid of attributes is given attributes to reach its own state of negation. With all knowledge of the ancient texts the Hindu is a victim of superstitions. To annihilate his own doubts and gain his peace he surrenders himself to this image. With eyes fixed on it he answers his own questions. In that state of introspection he admires the glory of creation: himself. Uma is to him the great Mother who is ageless, radiant, attractive, and benevolent. She is the ocean of mercy. Maheswara has given her a part of his own body to reside.

Uma is the expression of imagination, a light by itself in the soul of an artist. The principle of unity in creation, the strength to perceive that abstract principle in the very being of objects animates an artist’s temper. When the artist rises beyond the limits of man he becomes conscious of the power of his own intellect. Intellect gives him the heat essential for creation.

The face of Uma is a representation in matter of human imagination in which the wish and will to save and create is interminable. It is imagination that makes us see what we are; and what we are in relation to our environments either gains meaning or appears stupid.

Imagination is the womb of creative activity. Who is Maheswara? Scriptures say that without Shakti, Siva is a corpse. But what enlivens the corpse? It is imagination. Creative activity commences always in a Silent Land. But how are we to know that there is activity? The very wish to be safe and secure is activity. To perpetuate the greatest happenings visible to the inward eye we strive our best; we look around, we see matter, we give life to it, we are prepared to die.

The mind when it links itself with external objects impels the senses to action. We must seal our senses to apprehend Reality. To create is not easy. Intellect is a check on imagination.

We see the figure of a woman on Maheswara’s knotted hair. The artist has the good sense to conceive intellect as a feminine being. The Eternal Feminine inspires as well as limits activity.

It is said that Maha Rudra inhabits the burial ground. Why? When the rule of the body is over, the inner passive spectator, the soul who is the preserver acts as the destroyer. Cessation of the intellectual and imaginative faculties in the very being itself makes for illumination. “The memory of the eternal illumination,” says Radhakrishnan, “has enduring effects and calls for renewal.”

To say I am Brahman is easy. But how to experience it? Uma Maheswara image is sure to aid discerning seekers. It is to find the presence of the spiritual in the physical, the presence of ends in means, the presence of the Immortal Zero in all that we are, we see, we struggle.

In this land, with the growth of human culture, brute force has not diminished. Although there are works of art to inspire and guide, the questioning tendency of the Upanishadic times has lost ground. In his Epicurean tastes man has missed the brilliance of his own personality. He visits an art-gallery to spend a holiday but cares little to be guided by those wonderful images shedding life and light. We forget that stones have wisdom in them and we have to forgive ourselves for our sins.