Male Homosexualities and World Religions

P. Hurteau

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781137340535
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The interest of this book lies at the very center of a recent deployment of homosexual liberation on a larger scale. The reader will be able to understand how each of the traditions studied articulates its own regulatory mechanisms of male sexuality in general, and homosexuality.

1

HINDUISM

RELIGION

The population of India stood at 1,028,610,328 people in 2001¹ and is expected to reach 1,263,543,000 in 2016.² Here, Hinduism is practiced by 80.5 percent of the population while 13.4 percent are Muslims and 2.3 percent identify themselves as Christians.³ The census figures for 2001 show clearly that Hinduism holds a majority in the whole country apart from a few regions where significant Buddhist minorities (Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Sikkim), Muslims (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Kerala), Sikhs (Punjab), and Christians (Kerala and Tamil Nadu) live. Also worth mentioning is the presence of 4,225,053 Jains, mostly concentrated in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.

In Nepal, 80 percent of the population (23 million)⁴ adhere to Hinduism and in Sri Lanka there are about 1, 329,020 Hindus, mostly of Tamil origin, accounting for 7.88 percent of its total population.⁵ Slightly more than 10 million Hindus reside in Bangladesh, 10.5 percent of its inhabitants.⁶ In Mauritius, half of the 1 million inhabitants are Hindus,⁷ and almost 500,000 adherents live in the United Kingdom⁸ and nearly 300,000 in Canada.⁹

The etymology of the word “Hindu” goes back to the Persian “Sindhu”—used, in the past, to describe the people who lived across the river Sind, better known as the Indus River. Its etymology does not refer to any belief system, though it does refer today to an adept of the Hindu religion. Almost all Hindus live on the Indian subcontinent, more specifically in India, and their belief system and practices are intimately linked to the people living in this geographical area. Hinduism, the largest religious mosaic in the world, has evolved tremendously over the ages, but it is constantly growing by incorporating different beliefs and philosophies. Although there is a chronology of its development, from pre-Vedism to Vedism and then Brahmanism at the time of the Puranas, the newest forms do not always supersede the older ones.

Hindus refer to their religious system by the words sanatana dharma, meaning the eternal law. This conveys the idea that there is an immanent cosmic order that looks over nature and to which humans must conform to live in cosmic harmony. In this sense, dharma rather refers to a lifestyle than to any adhesion to a set of religious beliefs. The origin of this concept is first found in the ancient Vedic concept of Rta. The ancient concept of Rta expresses the idea of a regulative principle in nature and human society. Thus, Rta means that cows give milk, just as the sun rises and sets daily, or that water flows in rivers and streams (Rig Veda Samhita IV.23.8–10).¹⁰ Cosmic energies (Deva)—Agni the fire, Indra the thunder, and the sun Surya—but also hostile forces (Asura)—Vrtra the dragon—and different spirits (gandharva, apsara), all are subject to Rta.¹¹ Men’s action and those of the gods contribute to maintaining the cosmic order in balance through liturgy, especially with the performance of sacrifices and chanting Vedic hymns. Cosmic order is the manifestation of the ultimate reality (Brahman) or truth (satya). The Rig Veda Samhita X (Ch. 85, 1–2) celebrates the relationship between truth and cosmic law; truth sustains all things and the gods are concrete manifestations of the power of this impersonal cosmic law.¹² From the standpoint of ultimate truth, reality is one. A monistic point of view was further developed in the Upanishads. There, Brahman means the vast totality of reality, the One, the reality hidden behind impersonal phenomena. Tat tvam asi—you are also this—this great truth (mahavakya) marks the presence of the divine in everything.¹³ The self, the center of individual personality, the atman is also a spark of the divine, Brahman—ayam atma brahma.¹⁴

The Vedic hymns reflect an older religion, corresponding to mass migrations toward the Indo-Aryan Punjab during the second millennium BC. These migrations probably came from the Sintashta-Petrovka culture of the southern Urals and other cultures from the river Amu Darya in central Asia.¹⁵ These pastoral cultures knew the wheeled cart and had domesticated the horse. They mixed with the urban existing civilizations of the Indus Valley.¹⁶ These pre-Aryan civilizations were probably issued from the Neolithic agricultural settlements established from 7000 BC in the Kachi plain at Mehrgarh.¹⁷ This site was abandoned between 2600 and 2000 BC, as the cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa flourished. The archeological study of all these sites shows that there was continuous development from one site to another, as evidenced by the use of amulets and terracotta figurines, anthropomorphic (mostly women, but also men sitting in a yogic position) or zoomorphic representing bulls, elephants, antelopes, and tigers.¹⁸ Several elements of the pre-Aryan civilization were incorporated into the Vedic religion. The Vedic god Rudra lived in the forest and was honored as lord of the animal life, Pashupati, a title that would later be attributed to Shiva,¹⁹ who is often accompanied by Nandi the bull. Several objects in the form of an erect penis (lingam) or a receptacle recalling the vagina (yoni) were also found in many of these ancient sites. Yet again, the lingam, alone or inserted into the female organ, is traditionally associated to Shiva, the creator, uniting with his consort Parvati.²⁰ The act of copulation is so fusional that Shiva is sometimes portrayed as a hermaphrodite (Ardhanarishvara).²¹ Being the creator, Shiva needs the material energy (shakti) of the Mother Goddess (Mahadevi). Shiva is also called Mahayogi, the great yoga guru wandering naked in the forest. However, he remains a yogi with great sensuality and power of seduction.²² His erect penis, more importantly, symbolizes not generation but voluptuousness (bhogavahamidam lingam) and according to the Shiva Purana, people can attain final release (mukti) by touching it and meditating on it.²³

The ancient Vedic religion focuses primarily on ritual sacrifices, accompanied by hymns and incantations (mantra) to the forces of nature such as the sun, storm, rain, fire, and so on. Offerings are carried to the devas in the ritual of fire sacrifice, an attempt to coax them to do their job of maintaining cosmic order. The Upanishad literature that developed from 800 BC focuses on final release (moksha) of the individual from the cycle of rebirths (samsara). Here, the sacrifice ritual becomes internalized through discipline of the body and mind.²⁴ A new path to the absolute is gradually taking shape, based on renunciation through various techniques of asceticism, including breath control (pranayama), meditation (dhyana), and mind concentration (samadhi).²⁵ These techniques allow the “self” or atman, the inner divine light, to shine in the human body.²⁶ Consciousness of the unity of atman and Brahman is the perfect knowledge, for everything—the gods, human creatures, their perceptions, and feelings are guided by the mind, which is nothing but Brahman (pranayama brahma), the infinite source of life.²⁷ The ultimate reality, the One, transcends any form or attribute (nirgunam Brahman), but may appear in the world in anthropomorphic forms (Brahman or Ishvara sagunam).²⁸ Devi (the Goddess), Shiva, or Vishnu are personal manifestations of Brahman, which remains veiled (maya) while manifested in the world, thanks to its ability to create the illusion.²⁹ The material universe unfolds itself as if it were the stage for a puppet theater on which were played (lila) the adventures of a multitude of gods who embody the divine by appearing in human or animal shapes (avatara). The Upanishadic literature already expresses this idea of a material revelation (Saguna Brahman) of the absolute and invisible reality of all things,³⁰ though it will attain its full growth in Epic and Puranic literature.³¹ Besides the yoga of knowledge (jnana yoga) practiced by the wise ascetics, the idea of liberating the individual through love or devotion (bhakti yoga) to a personal God appeared in the Bhagavad Gita, composed in the second century BC as part of Book VI of the great epic the Mahabharata. Song 12 of the Bhagavad Gita promises release from the cycle of rebirths and unity with the One to the faithful devotee who dedicates his thoughts and actions to his love (bhakti) for Lord Krishna. Verse 5 expresses an essential truth in bhakti movements emerging from the Middle Ages, particularly in South India (Tamil) and Bengal: “Greater is their trouble whose minds are set on the Unmanifested; for the goal—the Unmanifested—is very difficult for the embodied to reach.”³² Bhakti movements will be discussed further ahead.

The Brahmin caste incorporated into Vedic religion non-Aryan cultic elements such as pre-Vedic, proto-Tantric elements in which both eroticism and asceticism found a place. On the outskirts of Aryan society lived beggars who wandered barefoot (vratyas, ajivikas, and yatis) perpetuating the traditions of the Indus civilization. This eventually led to movements known as Shaivism, Shaktism, and Tantrism.³³

Around 500 AD, the Brahmins (priests) systematized the ancient Vedic religion by reacting against ascetic currents and the ideal of renunciation through practices of control of the senses and meditation. Brahmanism was somehow a reaction against new spiritual movements such as Buddhism and Jainism. The orthodox Brahmins then proposed an ingenious system that would address the necessities of life as they evolve through a lifetime, in accordance with one’s social status and one’s duties in society. The idea of dividing society into castes certainly goes back to the Vedic period. The hymn to the sacrifice of the primordial man (Purusha ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction
• 1 Hinduism
• 2 Buddhism
• 3 Judaism
• 4 Christianity
• 5 Islam
• 6 Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Brazilian Religions
• General Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography