ayprT ‘gs Soaffol ' \ husrmpurye wy Ayrponyrsidg pu ayponae:ust asthe mighty Ganges River of northern India emerges from single source high in the Himalayan Mountains and maintains TTT] ‘a central current while being fed by and in turn flowing into nu- merous tributaries, so the Hindu religion has localized origins and core characteristies while being fed by and branching into a multiplicity of interrelated traditions. Hinduism, in one ofits many forms, isthe living faith of over 1 billion human beings, now spread across the globe. What unites these peoples isa sense of cultural and religious identity that links them to traditions that have developed on the Indian subcontinent (now ‘comprising India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka) over the last 5,000 years or more At fist glance, these ideologies and practices appear radically diverse. Some Hindus view this world as an illusion, wheress others see it as the j body of divinity. Some believe in the efficacy of rituals, others inthe impor- tance of family virtue, and stil others inthe importance of ascetic discipline. | ‘Sand Pret. uth Indian dais (Drevin. 00. Tigh with Pare, Sina Similarly, attitudes toward sexuality can difer greatly. Some Hindus se sex- Tere doegh bie itis Date (Orca en pe Swat fr nd ality as an expression of one of the four primary aims of human life— pleasure. Hindu ascetics view sexuality s energy tbe harnessed Trias, a special class of yogic practitioners, view sexuality a a potential means 9 liberation In shor, Hinduism expresses the entre gumot of human atti- tudes toward sexuality. Like the Ganges with is many tibuares, these i- verse attitudes are contined within one greater system, one cultural "ec" siting the diverse lives of Hindus across time and space 103‘Sexuality and the Worlds Religions ‘The Ganges is not simply a useful metaphor in our discussion of Hindu sexuality. The great river is revered by Hindus as the earthly em bodiment of dine ener (at, which ia he enence and sore of sx sal energy. Hindu mythology explains thatthe waters ofthe Ganges orig- iy ore ayes Hore ony King Dai sage in intense ascetic practices to cause the Ganges to fil to earth and bring Back ie his 600 anos woh Bea ced we oe angry sage. King Bhigiatha’s practice was so intense that Lord Siva granted his request that the Ganges fill to earth, Because the river is righty the gods feared tha it would erush the earth, To buffer the weight ofits fill, Lord Siva agreed to catch the river in his hat. As soon a8 the soddess Gata flowed into Sivas hair she fll in love, and the two deities ‘were married. However, Siva agreed tole one millionth ofthe mighty river fal earth (Dimmitt and van Buitenen 1978, 322) Henceforth, the heaw- enly iver has graced the subcontinent. Everyday millions of Hinds bath in and pray to the Ganges, believing that the water is aliquid goddess. ‘The union of Gaiigt and Siva isa union of fuid and fre that serves 4a working metaphor for the tradition’ understanding of the relation~ Ship between sexuality and spirituality Siva is god of fire, who trans- forms sexual desire (Ama) into spiritual heat (taps) through his practice of yoga. Although the inner river of sexual lid normally lows down and out, Siva yogie practice directs the flow of sexuality upward, making it a ‘ising spiritual force. The fourteenth-century Rudiaydmala-Tentra ex plains that che Ganges isin fat the river of Sivas spiritual power, his ‘Sakti, which bas been enhanced by his meditative practice and control over the fies of pasion (ama). Flowing from Siva’s head, the Ganges becomes immortal nectar (amrea) with the power to liberate any Hinds who dies in its purified waters, This ig why, each day, hundreds of dead Hindos are carried to burning ghats (cemation grounds) along the carthly Ganges, where fre reduces their bodies to ashes and the water of the Ganges liberates their souls from the endless cycle of death and re~ birth. To Hindus, the fire of the ghats and the water of the river are catthly manifestations of divine powers. Indeed, in the Hindu universe, there is a direct conrespondence between the body the world, and the di vinity (or divinities) that create all if. In the body is en inner heat ex- perienced as desire, that corresponds to fire. Fie is in tur, a spark or manifestation of divine fre. Similarly, sexual ids within the body cor- respond to geological substances such as water, which corresponds with a divine fuid tha, when combined with fie, produces life 104 A Union of Fire and Water We mentioned sbove that a male god, Sivi is fire, and that a female goddess, Ganga, is watez. However, in the intricate universe of Hinduism fice is also feminine and fluid masculine. As David White has shown (196, 191) in Hindu taditions of alchemy, the sun is associated with sulfur, which is inked to the seal fie and fluid ofthe woman; the moon is associated with mercury and semen. In this complex system of correspondences, the vulva ie a fe pitinto which the man offers his mer- cutial ids during the act of lovemaking, whichis understood asa union of fie and uid, god and goddes. Like the Hindu godhead itself, which, 4s we will ee below, gives rise tothe universe by realizing and uniting its male and female aspects, most Hindus believe that ll individuals contain within themselves the pony of male and female divinity. This chapter discusses some of the numerous, fascinating implications of this belief. ‘Tae ORIGINS oF HINDUISM: A MEETING OF FIRE AND WATER ‘The vast cultural river of contemporary Hinduism flows from at least 5,000 years ago, from religious, cultural, political, and social traditions that began in the Indus Valley (in modern-day Pakistan). The Indus Valley is the site of another important river, called the Sindhu. Hinduism, in Fact, derives fom the Persian word for Sindhu, bind. Hindu was in tially used by Persians to sefer to those communities east of the Indus River. By at least 3,000 .C.f., these communities were thriving in ad- vanced urban centers. Their religious life appears to have focused on the ‘water-based worship of feminine deities. This equation of water with the feminine derives from biologic that is fairly universal. The waters ofthe ‘woman create a nurturing environment in which life develops. Once can surmise that these early communities viewed the Indus and other rivers as feminine deities that made life possible. However, contemporary Hinduism does not arise from the water- based Indus Valley communities alone. Some time around 3,000 years ago, an Indo-Aryan people entered the subcontinent, migrating south~ ‘ward from the Russian steppes. It was one branch of a greater commu nity that also migrated into Persia, Europe, and the Mediterranean ‘world, These people brought with them a religious ideology and practice rooted in the worship of fie. If we can allow ourselves to roughly char- acterize the Indus Valley community as “feminine” and “water-based,” 105