Another Danielou book
From another book by Danielou: Gods Of Love And Ecstasy, the traditions of shiva and dionysus.
Another short quote from the foreword to Danielou’s book.
We don’t have to jump into accepting his enthusiasm to revive the unrevivable but the clue to the real history of Indian religion, and that is all it is, a clue to more research, is invaluable.
Few students of Indian religion can seem to get out of the rut of the standard histories (which are baloney)>
This book is not an essay on the history of religions. It reflects my
personal experience of discovering the most fundamental of religions
in that veritable museum of world history which is India. Prior to
Vedic Hinduism, Greek religion, Zoroastrianism and even Abraham,
this early religion is the outcome of man’s efforts since his remotest
origins to understand the nature of creation in its balanced beauty and
cruelty, as well as the manner in which he can identify himself in the
Creator’s work and cooperate with him. This religion is naturistic,
not moralistic, ecstatic and not ritualistic. It strives to find the points
of contact between the various states of being and to seek their
harmonious relationship which allows every man to achieve his self-
realization on a physical, intellectual and spiritual level and to play his
role more fully in the universal symphony.
It gradually dawned on me that all those things which seemed of
value in later religions were only partial and deformed survivals, often
perverted or skilfully disguised, of that ancient wisdom found in the
cults of Shiva or of Dionysus This religion, so often persecuted but
always reborn, appeared to me to still correspond to the deepest needs
of man today. What is usually called “Primordial tradition” can,
ultimately, only be linked to this stream of knowledge the origins of
which go back to the first ages of the world.
Throughout its long history, humanity has inevitably produced
men of exceptional intelligence and it is from their experience and
accumulated intuition that all cultures and civilizations derive.
Humanity begins by using language forms as an instrument, so that
:ymbols and myths express the relationship between man and the
Invisible world of spirits and gods.
Shivaite concepts concerning the nature of the material and subtle
world, as well as the Shivaite methods, such as Yoga, Sankhya
(cosmology) and Tantrisrn, constitute an unparalleled knowledge of
the nature of human beings and of the cosmos. A rediscovery of
Shivaism-Dionysism would allow an effective return to the source
New Man, New Age, New Socialism 