Resemblance
1. Correspondences and Connections
a) The movement of the sky is full of signs
(1) There are locations, places
(a) These correspond to sacred geography on Earth
(b) These correspond to sacred personalities whose stories connect earth with heaven
(2) Their interpretation
(3) Storytelling
(a) We can watch the movie in the sky. See the relationship of the three constellations, Mrga, Ardra, and Punarvasu?
(i) The Mrga star, Orion, is a cradle, with three babes.
(ii) Ardra, Betelgues, the brightest star in the constellation Orion, easily discernable with the naked eye, is a gem and is Anasuya, the wife of the Rishi-sage Atri and mother of Dattatreya
(iii) Punarvasu, Pollux, is a house, a hermitage, the ashram of the Rishi-sage Atri
(a) Correspondence of Punarvasu with Rishi Atri’s snowy Himalayan ashram by the source of the river, Airavati
(iv) Sirius the brightest star in front of Orion or Mrga is Atri.
(v) Just near Orion we have Cannis Major consisting of four stars, which are Dattatreya’s four dogs, and further the four Vedas
(vi) Lupus is Dattatreya’s cow, Kamadhenu
b) The movement of the mouth is full of signs
(1) There are locations, places, The Vault of Heaven
(a) Correspond to the marks and movements in the nocturnal skies
(b) Aksharamala – the convenience of syllables
(i) Resemblance in the form of proximity ties each of the syllables to each other to form a chain which emulates like a mirror the chain that is the world
(ii) The Chain of Convenience
(a) Convenience is a resemblance connected with space in the form of a graduated scale of proximity.
(b) The world is simply the universal convenience of things
(c) It forms a chain linking all things
(iii) Convenience – adjacency of places – juxtaposition
(a) Movement, influences, passions, and properties are communicated
(b) In this hinge between two things, a resemblance appears
(c) A resemblance of place
(i) The site upon which nature has placed two things
(d) For the world – a natural container of things, Adjacency is not an exterior relation between things, but a sign of a relationship.
(e) There is a similitude that is the hidden reason for the proximity
(i) Upon that similitude is superimposed a resemblance that is the visible effect of that proximity
(iv) The syllables correspondence with the elements
(v) But syllables don’t exist alone they combine with each other. They are attracted to each other through sympathy, and then their proximity reveals new hidden resemblance. New sounds mark new resemblance.
(vi) A is the beginning, ha is the end, a + ha = aham, the ‘I’ that’s formed of the beginning meeting the end.
(vii) And there is sandhi and inflection, the interplay of sympathy and antipathy.
(2) There are connections – coalescences of sounds
(a) Descriptive rather than prescriptive rules or ordering
(i) Descriptive indicates Infinite universe because Grammar is revealed rather than constructed as would be the case in prescriptive ordering
(3) The operation of Grammar has its correspondences
(a) The Meaning of an articulation and its sound
(b) Syllables
(i) Correspond to place
(ii) Correspond to elements of nature
(iii) Correspond to culture of man
(c) Ordering and articulation of sound
(i) Correspond to storytelling
c) The body has its correspondences
(1) Charaka- Man is the epitome of the universe. There is in man as much diversity as in the world, and there is in the world as much diversity as in man.
(a) Analogy ( as resemblance maintains a relationship between the body and the world) as a location of knowledge
(i) The principals of the sustenance and balance of the world is the same for the human body
(ii) The balance of man is the balance of society, the earth, the world, the cosmos
(2) Charaka- This Ayurveda is declared to be eternal, because it has no beginning, because it deals with tendencies which proceed innately from nature, and because the nature of matter is eternal. For at no time was there a break either in the continuity of life or in the continuity of intelligence…. At no time can it be said that the Ayurveda sprang into existence having been non-existent before, unless the dissemination of knowledge by means of receiving and imparting instruction be considered as creation of such knowledge.
(3) Purusha Sukta – sun came from the eyes of the cosmic person, moon from his mind, fire from his mouth, wind from his breath, air from his navel, the sky from his head, the earth from his feet, etc
B. RESEMBLANCE
1. General Manifestation
a) Resemblance guides exegesis and the interpretation of texts
b) Resemblance organizes the play of symbols, making possible knowledge of things visible and invisible, and controls the art of representing them
c) The earth echoes the sky
(1) Faces seeing themselves reflected in the stars
(a) The signs in the face – how it is seen is reflected in the signs seen in the movements in the heavens
d) Plants hold within their stems the secrets that are of use to man.
e) Painting and sculpture imitate space
(1) Not Nature
f) Representation is posited as a form of repetition
(1) The theater of life
(2) The mirror of nature
(3) The claim made by all language
(a) Declaring its existence
(b) Formulating its right of speech
2. How do things, which are infinite in number, resemble each other?
a) Convenience – adjacency of places – juxtaposition
(1) Movement, influences, passions, and properties are communicated
(2) In this hinge between two things, a resemblance appears
(a) A resemblance of place
(i) The site upon which nature has placed two things
(3) For the world – a natural container of things, Adjacency is not an exterior relation between things, but a sign of a relationship.
(a) There is a similitude that is the hidden reason for the proximity
(i) Upon that similitude is superimposed a resemblance that is the visible effect of that proximity
(4) Body and Soul
(a) Soul had to be made dense, heavy, terrestrial for God to place it in the very heart of matter
(i) Soul receives movements of the body and assimilates itself to that body
(ii) Body is altered and corrupted by desire which results from the union of body and soul
(5) Jivatma, the soul, and Paramatma, Ishwar, God
(a) They are proximate in the Heart
(6) The different beings adjust themselves to one another
(a) The plant communicates with the animal, the mind with the body
(b) The earth with the sea, the teeth with the tongue
(c) Man with everything around him
(7) Resemblance imposes adjacencies that in their turn guarantee further resemblances
(8) Place and similitude become entangled
(a) Mosses growing on shells
(b) Plants in the antlers of stags
(c) A sort of grass on the faces of men
(a) Convenience is a resemblance connected with space in the form of a graduated scale of proximity.
(b) The world is simply the universal convenience of things
(i) It forms a chain linking all things
b) Emulation
(1) Freed from the law of place, is able to function, without motion, from a distance
(2) Reproduce their circles at a distance from one another in accordance with a resemblance that requires no contact
(3) Reflection and the Mirror
(a) Things scattered throughout the universe can answer each other
(i) The human face, fro afar, emulates the sky
(ii) Man’s intellect an imperfect reflection of God’s wisdom
(iii) Man’s two eyes with limited brightness, a reflection of the vast illumination of the sun and the moon
(iv) Jivatman, the Soul, which is minute, and Ishwara, God, the great Who is omnipresent
(a) Also convenience, because they are proximate to each other in the heart
(i) The Heart is/emulates The Cave
(4) The relation of Emulation enables things to imitate one another from one end of the universe to the other without connection or proximity
(5) By duplicating itself in the mirror, the world abolishes the distances proper to it
(a) In this way overcomes the place allotted to each thing
(6) But which is the real thing and which the reflection, the illusion? Which is the original thing?
(7) Emulation is like a natural twinship existing in things
(a) It arises from a fold in being, the two sides of which stand immediately opposite to each other.
(b) Influence
(i) no inert state of opposition between two reflected figures
(ii) one may be weaker therefore receptive to the stronger influence of the other
(a) which is reflected in his passive mirror
(b) are not the stars dominant over the plants of earth, of which they are the unchanged model, the unalterable form, and over which they have been secretly empowered to pour the whole dynasty of their influences?
(8) Like envelops like, which in turn surrounds the other, perhaps to be enveloped once more in a duplication which can continue ad infinitum.
(9) Concentric Circles
(a) Unlike the elements of convenience, the links of emulation do not form a chain but a series of concentric circles reflecting and rivaling each other.
c) Analogy
(1) Convenience and emulation superimposed
(a) Makes possible the marvelous confrontation of resemblances across space
(b) But it also speaks, like the former, of adjacencies, of bonds and joints
(2) The similitudes it treats need only be the subtle resemblances of relations.
(3) It can extend out from a single point to a countless number of relationships
(4) Through it, all figures of the universe can be drawn together
(5) Man: he stands in proportion to the heavens just as he does to
(a) Animals and plants
(b) To the earth
(c) To metals
(d) To storms
(6) Upright between the surfaces of the universe, he stands in relation to the firmament
(a) His face is to his body what the face of heaven is to the ether
(b) His pulse beats in his veins as the stars circle the sky according to their own fixed paths
(c) The seven orifices in his head are to his face what the seven planets are to the sky
(7) Human to Earth
(a) His flesh is the rich soil of the earth
(b) His bones are rocks
(c) His veins are the great rivers
(d) His bladder is the sea
(e) His organs are the metals hidden in the shafts of mines
(8) The Body is a castle
(a) It has nine gates
(i) Eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, anus, and reproductive organs
(9) The space occupied by analogy is one of radiation
(a) Man is surrounded by it on every side; but inversely, he transmits these resemblances back into the world from which he receives them
(b) Man is the great fulcrum of proportions
(i) The center upon which relations are concentrated and from which they are again reflected
(10) The Vedic Sacrifice
(a) “Truly, the dawn is the head of the sacrificial horse; the sun his eye; the wind his breath; the universal fire his open mouth. The year is the body (atman) of the sacrificial horse; the sky his back; the atmosphere his stomach… the stars his bones; the clouds his flesh…” –Brhadaranyaka Upanisad
