14 - Love abiding in stone

Summary

In one of his provocative aphorisms, Canetti says: ‘Human beings can only be saved by other human beings; therefore God dresses up as man.’ The types of religion we are exploring at present, namely Indian theism and monotheism, certainly share his sentiment. But when we look at the range of forms this ‘dressing up as man ’ may take, a number of surprises are in store for us. The love that is perceived to pervade the cosmos, to constitute the relational dimension within the divine, and to possess there its transcendental foundation does not stay abstract and impersonal. The divine has to im-personate and in-carnate itself to communicate to man its nature and its loving intentions. In terms of our formula of subject-desire-object, the previous pages have already shown to what extent this abstract ‘object’ itself is a loving subject, internally and in relation to man. From such a transcendental subject flows forth beauty and grace, but also power and even aggression (I am thinking here particularly of the Goddess), which aims at subjugating man. However, this is still a one-sided description. Logically we can ask, how can man know of such a transcendental reality which is at the same time the object of his desire and the subject of his salvation? Our traditions agree that pure logic, speculation, or inference alone cannot tell us about Bhagavān. It is only because he chooses to reveal himself that our logic can complete the drive in our hearts that aims at a non-transitory object of our desires.