Book Title: Development of Hinduism
Author(s): M M Ninan
Publisher: M M Ninan

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Page 575
________________ PURUSHA SUKTHAM However in the Gnostic view, the emanations from the ultimate God, of the higher realms,- the gods - began to create. Because they themselves are finite, this would mean the creatures created by the gods are flawed. The basic Gnostic myth has many variations, but all of these refer to Aeons, intermediate deific beings who exist between the ultimate, True God and ourselves. They, together with the True God, comprise the realm of Fullness (Pleroma) wherein the potency of divinity operates fully. It is this picture that we see in the rest of this Upanishads. In the verses seven to eighteen of Purusha Suktha, the creation Yajna is not done by the Purusha but by the gods. They tied the Purusha and killed him and dismembered him. Out of this dismemberment came the lower worlds. Evidently these are flawed. To worship the gods of cosmos, or nature, or embodied creatures is thus tantamount to worshipping alienated and corrupt portions of the emanated divine essence. However these can lead to temporary gains such as wealth, health, healing etc. But the ultimate salvation comes only through knowing the ultimate. One of the aeonial beings who bears the name Sophia ("Wisdom") is of great importance to the Gnostic world view. In the course of her journeyings, Sophia came to emanate from her own being a flawed consciousness, a being who became the creator of the material and psychic cosmos, all of which he created in the image of his own flaw. This being, unaware of his origins, imagined himself to be the ultimate and absolute God. Since he took the already existing divine essence and fashioned it into various forms, he is also called the Demiurgos or "half-maker" There is an authentic half, a true deific component within creation, but it is not recognized by the half-maker and by his cosmic minions, the Archons or "rulers". It is not difficult to see how the teachings of Gnosticism is reflected almost exactly in the latter part of the Purusha Suktham. "Gnostics do not look to salvation from sin (original or other), but rather from the ignorance of which sin is a consequence. Ignorance -- whereby is meant ignorance of spiritual realities -- is dispelled only by Gnosis, and the decisive revelation of Gnosis is brought by the Messengers of Light" I have added the Hindu and Gnostic world view as given by the Theosophy as addendum and one can see the identity through it all. Evidently Thomas ministry followed by the Manichaen ministry changed the Christian model into the Hindu model by subtle manipulation and the gradual take over of the Brahmins as the head of the society. It was probably a political manipulation than intellectual where myths replaced reality and symbols replaced wisdom. 571

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