The Serpent Queen -Manasa by Anjan K. Nath

THE SERPENT QUEEN - MANASA
By Anjan K. Nath

I.K. Sharma

India at present has scholars of three types: one, those who are more conversant with the western culture and its classics and have only scraps of information about ancient India’s rich and varied culture; two, who have a firm grounding in India’s ancient culture and classics and are quite indifferent to the great strides science has taken during the past few centuries; and three, those who have trained themselves in new branches of knowledge with new tools of learning from all possible sources without losing their moorings. Happily, the author of the book, Dr. Nath, a student of science, medicine, literature and philosophy falls under type three. He is admirably placed to handle this mystery-ridden subject because he is close to places –Ang, Bung, Kalinga and other eastern states –and to people–Khasis, Mishmis, and other hill tribes - who are snake-worshippers.

His book embodies the interesting tale of the Serpent-Queen, Manasa, whose temples are found in many parts of India. No less interesting is the genesis of the book which, according to Nath, had its ‘germinal beginnings’ while he went through the cave scene in A Passage To India. Surprisingly, V.S. Naipaul, in a recent interview, calls this book ‘all lies and utter rubbish’ and adds that ‘Forster didn’t understand what the historical status of those religions was’. Opposed to this view, Forster’s book strikes a kindered note in Nath’s heart and in admiration, he calls Forster a writer blessed with ‘poetic vision’ though he might not have studied and understood Vedic texts. In the body of the cave scene he spotted three significant words related to his theme: ‘the sound’, ‘flash’, and ‘thrill’.

These three words inspired the book. They are associated, in the view of the author, with the Manasa-cult, with the story of Manasa, the Universal Creative Energy which has been profusely eulogized in the Rig Veda, Atharv Ved, and Brahmanas. They have called it Nag-Sakti, the snake-energy. A nag (na+aag) does not let a person move forward once it coils itself round him. Similarly, the invisible Nag-sakti runs round all the items of creation in the world, holds them all together and does not let them fall apart. It suffuses every object of the universe from the highest point in the sky to the lowest end of the earth. Below the earth it is Vasuki, in the sky it is Skumbh (an ethereal wave column). In the human body in its coiled form it is Kundalini. According to the site it occupies it assumes its names. In short, what modern science calls Binding Force, the Vedic seers call nag-sakti, snake-energy.

This primordial energy exists in every atom and it flies out in all directions from the nucleus (Akshar) when an atom bursts. Nuclear scientists have called them proton, neutron, and electron. The seer-scientists of the Vedic period have named them Brahma (one who becomes brhad, i.e. goes on expanding endlessly), Vishnu (from Vidyut), and Rudra/Shiva. (conceived as the primordial principle of sound energy out of whose essence was born the flash of lightning (p.38). Not satisfied with naming only they presented a concrete model before the layman in the form of Shiv-linga- ‘a round stone pillar piercing a circular block of stone and protruding both ways’. Immense amount of misunderstanding exists about this model as a few western scholars have interpreted it as ‘an emblem of phallic worship of aboriginal origin’. Supporters of this view are not wanting in India. The noted social scientist S.C. Dube in his book Indian Society (1996) holds: ‘The Rig-Veda had ridiculed phallus-worshippers and even prohibited their entry into Indo-Aryan sanctuaries (p.17)’. The question arises: what will a person past-seventy attain by worshipping a phallus in a forest, in isolation? If this was all, will the Sivayogis of the status of Sarvajna (Karnataka) and Nath Yogis have any mass following in this country? The whole approach is the brainwave of a pervert.
The people who deified snake-energy were known as the sarpas or nagas and their tenets as Sarpa/Ved. On the same lines developed Pishacha Ved (for Southern country), Asur Ved (for Western country), Itihasa Ved (for Northern country), Purana Ved (for Dhruva and Upper country) etc. The Manasa-cult is thus ‘one of the ancient vedic cults which is based on exposition of theories of nuclear science and seeks to resolve the mysteries and riddles of creation’. In due course, diverse branches of Indian philosophy (Yoga, Mantra, Tantra), according to the author, and Indian literature developed around this cult. Yogis (Nath Yogis) carried the same idea further (through Gorakh Vani) in the medieval period. Scores of Bengali lyrics written in praise of goddess Manasa are prevalent today.

The Riddle of Creation

In Nath’s view several hymns in the Rig-Ved and the Atharv-Ved “have dealt with the riddle of creation of the universe in a truly scientific manner, corresponding closely, if not exactly, with what is now being discovered by modern science. The difference lies in that the technical terms used by the vedic seers were with reference to familiar objects. These scientific theories were gradually transformed into spiritual conceptions and in later times into gods and goddess in the image of human beings, the result being that their scientific values have been over shadowed and to most, either lost or non-existent (p. XIII)”.

“The eternal silence of infinite spaces”, said Pascal, “terrifies me.” So it did to many. But the Vedic seers, on the other hand, pursued this question vigorously in their own intuitive meditative way till they arrived at some satisfactory answer. In the pre-creation stage, they hold, the creative energy is tranquil, non-­expansive and they named it Vindu i.e. a point. The inherent attribute in this Vindu is Manas, ‘a tendency to throw out what is congealed’. Due to fervent heat of its own from the manas emits kama/desire which evolves as vibration. The vibration (sasarpari, serpent - like gliding) starts as a pyramidal cone - like upsurge which is forced up by the heat of the internal energy and the forces of the Manas and Kama. Then there is an eruption through the apex of this cone. Along with the bursting forth evolve sound (Vak or speech) a flash of light and rays of energy in millions and billions which roll round in waves along regulated courses, giving rise to ingredients for the creation of diversified materials in the physical creation.

Surprisingly, on the other hand, a few respectable persons who followed the Bible in the West went so far as to declare the precise date and time of the birth of man. According to Dr. Lightfoot, the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, ‘the creation of man took place at 9 a.m. on October 23’ ‘in 4000 B.C. fixed by Arcbishop Usher.’ The day of the week was Friday since God rested on Saturday. (Religion and Science by Bertrand Russel p.51-52). This kind of pronouncement will leave school children of the twenty-first century gasping.

Allied to the riddle of creation is another riddle that rattles the human mind: Can a person attain godhood or reach godhead? The answer that flows from various cults that flourished in India is ‘yes’ provided the seeker has the will to undergo the hard training it requires. The sages of the Vedic and pre-vedic era devised various means to sustain themselves at a height by practising processes that came to them from their progenitors. Beyond biology they knew the psychology of a practical kind with whose aid they could direct and re-direct the creative energy of the body in any direction of their choice. Hence developed many cults and several schools of philosophical ideas. The major cults are: the Muni cult, the Rishi cult, the Vratya cult, the Mahayogin cult, the Natha cult, the Puranic cult etc. Dr. Nath, in chapter nine that runs into about seventy-five pages, has given a broad outline of the cults and various schools that flourished in India over the centuries. What should interest a modern reader is that the seer-scientists of the earlier era would not accept a statement at its face value. It must be examined closely and be put on trial. Thus the tradition of critical appraisal in the realm of thinking continued for a long time without harming the individual talent. If an Atharva concentrates on ‘the fire in the body by churning the brain’, an Angiras will come up with a special method ‘to force up the heart vibration to the brain’. (Nath ‘has had a personal experience and knowledge of it (p.155).’

Interestingly there were revolutionaries who discarded all that had been going on in the name of the vedas. Such were Dirghatma, Vamdev, Yajnavalkya who spoke defiantly against the ritualists. For his revolt, Dirghatma had to suffer a lot as pioneers in every field did. When Darwin declared that man evolved from monkey, his adversaries cuttingly remarked because Darwin’s face looked like that of a monkey. Even Carlyle called him an ‘apostle of dirt-worship’. Worse than this fate awaited Dirghatma who declared that ‘the main and original Source of the creative energy is congealed in deep darkness in the core (Vama)’. From the rival camp rose the mischievous voice that the poor sage was born blind and was himself steeped in deep darkness (Dirghatma). To cure the malady for all times, the old sage, bound hand and foot, was flung into a river. Though rescued by the king, the episode tells what indignities one has to suffer for being a rebel!

Apart, the study of Manasa, clearly defines scores of words like Indra, Sahaj, Devasur, Madhu, Kaitabh, Jagat, etc. which are often bandied in conversation. For instance, Indra is conceived as a male god who was the chief of all the forces that keep up the machinery of the universe. He was like the fuel (indha) which keeps alive the fire of the forces. He was called Indra - Indho ha vai tam Indra Ityachaksata (p.23).’

In short, this book binds a reader with its nag-sakti that flows without break, from the start to the finish. It illuminates those dark areas which a modern man of science leaves out. Science, according to Aldous Huxley, “concentrated its attention upon such aspects of the world as it could deal with by means of arithmetic, geometry, and the various branches of higher mathematics.” Nath asserts that what vedic seers had intuitively comprehended with their uncluttered brains and unimpaired contemplation touching almost the ‘summits of calm’was/is in every way a larger picture of Reality.

To justify his points of view Nath draws copious references from diverse sources–Vedas, Upanishads, Arnyakas, Brahmanas, the Mahabharat, the Bhagwat Gita, the Bible, popular stories, western authors and a host of other books. The most notable part of the book is the way he has interpreted the stories commonly told in religious gatherings (e.g. Krishna and Radha, Satyvan and Savitri, Pururava and Urvasi, Aniruddha and Usha, Laxmindhara and Behula), unfolded their hidden meaning and linked them all to the central theme of the book. Here we cannot but be under the spell of Nath’s erudition. In his view, our less educated brethren, the primitives, have preserved the core idea of our ancestor’s thinking in the form of rituals and myths. Books of this kind built on the strength of evidence drive us to modify our opinion about the people whom we have come to think of as of no consequence. In fact, they deserve our gratitude. Then forests and deserts will not be mere hunting grounds for the mighty but be a rich mine of secrets that lie untouched beneath the surface of the earth.

2005 is the year of physics. And Kishore Gandhi, the UNESCO Project Director on “Education for Twenty-First Century” writing on Sri Aurobindo observed: “These mystical insights are being significantly recognized by the physicists as more accurate expressions of the real structures of the universe than many of the classical theories of science. The dance of Shiva is providing the new paradigm to physicists for explaining the creation of this world in terms of unified field.” Nath’s book, I am sure, is a good pointer in that direction. Whenever the cow goes barren, they (scientists) can turn to the Bull and draw milk in profusion three times a day.

Lamper Enterprises Co. Ltd., Taiwan, 2003, pp. XXII + 228, US Dollars 15/-