By: Harold Sequeira
yogaschoolonline@gmail.com
SYMBOLS AND SYMBOLISM
"What does the symbol Om signify?"
(abbreviation - SBS)
Those who created meaningful symbols, like OM, to communicate deep knowledge, may have reached a certain level or height to create those symbols
The word "symbol" comes from the Greek "symbolon", which means a sign by which one infers or knows a thing. The Sanskrit word for "symbol" is Pratika, which means recalling something by association, or coming near or towards a thing.
In the Egyptian pyramids and their obelisks etc, symbolic and hieroglyphic symbols were used and up to date experts are struggling to decipher them. This was the form of communication of the occult and esoteric to the "Initiates". Later (approx between 2000 B.C) "old" Egyptian language was formulated with what can be called alphabets. Ancient China, Mesopotamia and even the Amer-Indians had somewhat a similar proclivity to symbology, albeit in different modes. The American Indians carved out their symbols on totems. These were carved from giant trees, and specially executed by the Indians of the Pacific Rim area. In the city of Vancouver, Canada, there is a large park with totems which was used to indicate social hierarchy among the Indians of the North American continent.
SYMBOLISM WORLDWIDE
In India in the Vedas and Shastra symbols were used extensively. The Royal swan Hamsa was the symbol for the soaring and aspiring soul. The elephant's symbol was indicative of strength, not muscular, but of strength emanating from gentleness[i]. The lotus (padma)was used as a symbol for detachment even while living amidst the "muddy" world. The sun was used to indicate the splendor of consciousness and the moon for the spiritual awakening. Incense was indicative of adoration. The ascending lines and peaks of the mountain were indicative of the changing perspectives in Yoga, as when one climbed the heights of consciousness through mediation and Samadhi. Night was indicative of Avidya, nescience, or wrong knowledge of who we are. Brahma which stands for expansion was indicated through the "Akasha" or ether of space. The symbol of the serpent indicated emerging energy. The Sudarshan Chakra indicated Lord Krishna's action force. Veena stood for harmony while the dove for peace. Our shastras are replete with symbols and symbolism[ii].
During the last century extensive research work on symbols has been done by Jung[iii], Campbell[iv] and Zimmer[v] in the West and by Ananda Coomarasway in Ceylon and India.
MODERN LIFE AND SYMBOLISM
Modern life would be impossible without symbols. You cross the street and a hand at the red signal stops you as surely as a restraining hand. You go to study music (western) and on the music sheets hundreds of symbols stumble to your perspiring view. You want to study math and there you are confronted with myriad symbols. You are a physics buff and all the movements of energy, be they electric, gravitational, magnetic and so forth are replete with symbols. You go to a"jyotish" to have your horoscope done and he draws symbols over all the houses of the zodiac. Deaf and dumb people can get their daily news from the symbolic language many TV stations use nowadays.
Umberto Eco, Prof. of Semiotics, U of Bologna, 1971. Visiting Luminary of Semiotics, at Yale, N.York and Columbia Universities. His work "How to write a doctoral Thesis is a masterpiece.
SEMIOTICS ? THE STUDY OF SYMBOLISM
The study of symbols is now part of the discipline of "Semiotics", which itself is part of the science of linguistics. The genius of Semiotics is Umberto Eco, who is the guide for those who are doing their PhD doctorates in linguistics at the University of Bologna, Italy. Several years ago, one Australian named Waddick Doyle, a student of Eco had come to study at The Yoga Institute, and do some research on the Gunas and their symbolism and correlate it to Semiotics[vi].
Knowledge and experience have many levels. In Yoga they speak of knowing the external form through the senses, analyze it through the mind, identify with the ego, discriminate through the Buddhi and know it thoroughly through the Soul. Those who created meaningful symbols, like OM, to communicate deep knowledge, may have reached a certain level or height to create those symbols. It is easy to draw the symbol Om; it is equally easy to chant it. But to know what it means and signifies one has to rise himself to the level of Samadhi, or the transcendental experience, states Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra[vii] .
To those who tread the high ground symbols become meaningful.
H. Sequeira, The Yoga Institute, Bombay
Copies to Waddick Doyle, U of Sorbonne, Paris (please edit and return)
[i] also see Yoga Sutra III.23
[ii] Dictionary of Shri Aurobindo's Yoga, compiled by M.P. Pandit, Aurobindo Ashram, p.269
[iii] Carl Jung, (Swiss Psychiatrist and disciple of Sigmund Freud, studied in archetypes and symbology in relation to the unconscious. For Jung symbols were the language of the unconscious and in dream the dynamism of symbols was mare apparent than the use of language
[iv] Joseph Campbell (1904-87), Prof. Columbia U. Author of the nine volume "Masks of God" a seminal study myths and symbols. Campbell was a disciple and later colleague of Heinrich Zimmer
[v] Heinrich Zimmer, author "Philosophies of India"
[vi] Umberto Eco, Prof. of Semiotics, U of Bologna, 1971. Visiting Luminary of Semiotics, at Yale, N.York and Columbia Universities. His work "How to write a doctoral Thesis is a masterpiece.
[vii] Yoga Sutra I.27
Harold Sequeira
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