Sexuality is an essential aspect of human life and has been a recurrent theme in literature, art, music, and mythology since ancient times. Many religious traditions have used metaphors and symbolisms to describe human beings' relationship with divinity and their journey towards it. One such metaphor is "ascent" and "descent," which conveys the idea that human beings can ascend towards divinity through spiritual practices and rituals and descend back into the material world after reaching it.
These metaphors also encode sexual imagery, particularly in Hinduism, where they are closely related to eroticism, fertility, and procreation. This essay will explore how religious imagery of ascent and descent encodes sexuality in Hinduism.
The Upanishads, one of the earliest texts of Hinduism, describes the human being's spiritual path as an ascent from ignorance to knowledge and liberation. In this context, the body is seen as an obstacle to transcendence, while the mind is the vehicle for achieving enlightenment. The physical senses, including touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing, and thought, must be controlled to attain higher states of consciousness. This process involves withdrawing from external stimuli and focusing on the inner self, leading to a state of pure awareness beyond the physical world. The metaphor of ascent connotes the human being rising above mundane desires and attachments, purifying the body and mind through various rites and practices.
This process is not merely intellectual but also sexual. The Upanishads describe the god Shiva as the supreme reality and the source of all creation, embodying both masculine and feminine principles. He is said to have a lingam or phallus symbolizing his creative power and a yoni or womb symbolizing female energy. The union between Shiva and Shakti (the divine feminine) produces the universe, representing the act of creation itself. This union occurs at the highest level of consciousness, where there is no distinction between subject and object, male and female, and the individual self dissolves into the cosmic whole.
The Hindu deities are often depicted in sexual positions, such as the copulation of Shiva and Parvati. These images encode fertility and procreation, emphasizing the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. They represent the continuous flow of energy within the universe that sustains all forms of existence. At the same time, they suggest the need for progeny and offspring to carry on the tradition and perpetuate the cycle of creation. In some instances, these figures represent the ascent and descent of souls from one realm to another, suggesting the interconnectedness of the spiritual and material worlds.
Religious imagery of ascent and descent encodes sexuality in Hinduism by linking it with spiritual transcendence and liberation. It suggests that human beings can rise above their physical desires and attachments through various rites and practices, leading to a state of pure awareness beyond the material world.
This process is not merely intellectual but also sexual, emphasizing the importance of procreation and fertility in sustaining the universe's cycles. The metaphors of ascent and descent convey the continuity between the spiritual and material realms, suggesting the interdependence of all things and the need to balance them for harmony and balance.