The Primal Scene and Radha Krishna

"Primal Scene" Ira Simidchieva, 2019

The other day someone commented on Facebook that one had to come to an accommodation of Superego and the Id, and that this balance was healthy. Other states, in other words, an overbearing attachment to rules and regulations, to various restrictions (i.e., the Superego) or a complete abandonment to the instincts (Id) inevitably result in neurosis. Some kind of harmonious adjustment is needed for a healthy psychic life.

In principle I agree with this, which was in tune with my friend's argument that since bhakti prioritizes the emotions, excessive repression of the emotional life and desires has a counterproductive effect on one's spirituality.

In this way, there are numerous correspondences of Freud's ideas to Vaishnava conceptions and these are worthy of exploration. In this article I would like to talk about his "primal horde" and then his "primal scene."

Typical of the presentation of Vaishnavas in the West to the enviousness of God

Wanting to enjoy Krishna's prakriti. Like when Prabhupada said, "They want to enjoy Sita, like Ravana." The definition of demon is one who wants to enjoy Krishna's prakriti as though it were his own.

Material sexual desire, i.e. lust, is the epitome of our desire to enjoy separately from Krishna. "Rāvaṇa’s policy is 'Take away Sītā from the clutches of Rāma and enjoy her.' This is Rāvaṇa policy. And the Hanumān policy is: 'Take out Sītā from the hands of Rāvaṇa and get her seated by the side of Rāma.' The same Sītā." (lecture Bhagavad-gītā 2.6 -- London, August 6, 1973)

The fact remains, however, that sexual desire is the main way that our root, core envy of the Lord manifests.

This is of course, a neat expression of the Oedipal complex.

Radha and Krishna and the Oedipal complex. Now that I am thinking more seriously about this, since writing to Pavel, it is becoming clearer to me. Norman O. Brown's book, Love's Body ... I pulled it out of the trunk with the other ones I still want to explore publicly. But Brown just whacked me on the side of the head with a whole lot of Freud.

There is a chapter called Representation. It talks about symbols of the collective, the corporation, etc. interesting corporation as person. He turns that around and says that each person (man) is actually a corporation, with the head being the penis (genital). He packs a lot into that chapter But this Oedipal idea...

The primal scene is the child watching the parents make love. The little boy freaks out. Several things happen. "I don't have a penis like that." Father wins. Little boy loses. Down crashes Reality on his magical omnipotence. His parade has been duly rained on.

What to do? How to handle the trauma? Well, just about everything under heaven and earth has been tried, don't you know? The neurotic options are two: self-castration or killing the father. The other is a longer and slower process of identification with the father, in one's own universe.

Now what Brown says is: "All show/performance is the primal scene." I.e., all drama, entertainment, etc., all comes down to the primal scene. Including pornography of course. So, Radha and Krishna is too.

Short and rapid form here: The devotee self-castrates because he doesn't want to enter into competition with Krishna, daddy. So he cannot have sex. But of course, you have to grow up. You don't have the option of being Sanat Kumar.

But how to have sex if all women are your mother? Well, if you always wanted to have sex with your mother, then what is the problem?

Psychologically Freud may be right, but he doesn't have a solution. And certainly those who say, "Well just stop watching that primal scene there, it is going to give you the wrong ideas" are not really helping you grow up.

So the Vaishnavas say, Watch the damn primal scene. Watch it again and again. That is your salvation!

Well how on earth do you figure that? Because it IS primal. Ontologically. It starts from Radha and Krishna, blissfully boinking before there even was the slightest idea of a universe. One day, Radha (silly girl) said, OK Let's have a creation. But you are going to have to drop a bit of your seed.

Krishna probably said, "Actually, your idea was my seed," but whatever. They had a bit of an argument and Radha won, but it did not come from dropping real seed, but from the bindu itself.

The creation came about. And funny thing is, the Divine Couple decided to fill the world with little Radhas and Krishna's all trying to recreate that primal scene for themselves. And everything humanity did, indeed everything nature itself did, was a picture of the primal scene, seen from different blind man points of view.

And so the Vaishnavas said, "Yes, the primal scene IS the ultimate truth. It is that from which everything has come. It is that in which everything subsists. And to that we are all moving as the telos."

Put another way, Radha and Krishna are your parents before they had any children.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Mind! Meditate on Radha's Breasts

Image
Flickr As I go through the dāna-līlā episode of Chandi Das's Śrī Kṛṣṇa Kīrtana , there are many songs in which Krishna describes Radha's beauty, and a regular feature of that includes descriptions of her breasts. In fact, breasts are a subject that is prominent in all Sanskrit poetry, and is even standard in prayers to goddesses. There does not seem to have been any inhibition in talking about breasts in the ancient Indian culture, even though I dare say, there is more of one in the modern society, in spite of Bollywood. There is, however, an apparent restriction in talking about genitals, male or female, in the so-called erotic poetry of India--Sanskrit or vernacular--even when lovemaking etc., is described. Such descriptions would automatically fall into some other genre. In Radha and Krishna descriptions, I cannot recall ever seeing or hearing a passage that mentioned genitals or overt sexual activity. It is nearly always spoken of somewhat euphemistically. I remember ...
Read more

Swami Vishwananda's Bhakti Marga and Parampara

Image
It has been a little strange here at Jiva these past few days. Swami Vishwananda is here with his troupe of disciples, of whom there are a goodly number, perhaps 80 or so. When I arrived in Vrindavan already a couple of weeks back, almost the first thing I noticed at the corner of Mathura Road and the Parikrama Marg was a big billboard with Swami Vishwananda’s charming smile and glowing tilak staring charismatically out at the world and announcing that he would be giving darshan on March 8 at the Jiva Institute. Below him, in a smaller frame was Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji, who besides being his host will be speaking on the Bhāgavatam at the darshan event. This is not the first time that Vishwananda and his group have been at Jiva. Satyanarayana Dasaji calls Vishwananda a friend, and indeed the relations between the two are very cordial. Vishwananda's group is mostly young and enthusiastic, predominantly European (German and points east), who are very enthusiastic about...
Read more

Erotic sculptures on Jagannath temple

Image
This was written on the basis of Sundarananda Vidyavinode's Sri Kshetra and intended for a devotee audience, as it was done on a commission by disciples of Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj. It has never been published. I decided to put this on line since there was a discussion on Facebook on the subject and I thought I would revisit what I wrote here nearly twenty years ago. This is from chapter ten on temple renovations. Please note that I have removed the images that I had found of some of the sculptures. I have been blocked from posting links to this blog on Facebook for some infringement of its "community standards". The only thing I can think of on this blog that might have offended some prudish person in cyberspace is this. I do not have much hope for redemption as it has been over six months since my ban is "under review" and there has been no sign of action. Needless to say, I find this heavy-handed action on the part of Facebook dangerously authoritar...
Read more