Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

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Page 658
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me). Then I enjoyed the fruit of Sivanubhava (the plantain fruit is the spiritual gain).
The symbolic twilight language of the Tamil Siddhas has the advantage of precision, concentration, secrecy, mystery and esoteric significance in that symbols are objective shortcuts to subjective states of bliss. The symbols at the hands of the Siddhas, become a form of artistic expression into their unexpressed reference. The use of the symbolic language is not merely a protection against the profanation of the sacred by the ignorant; but also suggests that language however enriched, is incapable of expressing the highest experience of the spirit. In Sufi technology, any attempt to convey the inner meaning of one's spiritual experiences in a conventional language is like 'sending a kiss by a messenger'. Conclusion:
We may conclude our understanding of the nature and significance of symbol in spiritual enterprise by quoting a passage from Mircea Eliade20: "Finally it is necessary to underline the existential value of religious symbolism, that is the fact that a symbol always aims at a reality or situation in which human existence is engaged. It is above all this existential dimension that marks off and distinguishes symbols from concepts. Symbols still keep their contact with the profound sources of life; they express one might say the "spiritual as lived..."
This is the why symbols have, as it were, a "numinous aura": they reveal that the modalities of the spirit are at the same time manifestations of life, and consequently they directly engage human existence. The religious symbol not only unveils a structure of reality or a dimension of existence, by the same stroke it brings a meaning to human existence. This is why even symbols aiming at the Ultimate Reality conjointly constitute existential revelations for the man who deciphers their message. ...because of the symbol, the individual experience is "awakened", and transmuted into a spiritual act. To 'live' a symbol and decipher its message correctly implies an opening towards the Spirit and, finally access to the universal."
Notes:
1. Tirumandiram, 293. 2. Hariprasad Shastri, Buddha Gan 0 Doha.
3
Vidhushekara Bhattacharya (Sastri), "Sandabhasa",Indian Historical Quarterly vol IV, 2, pp 287-296.
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