Jack Comstock, Colby College

Date of Award

2001

Document Type

Honors Thesis (Colby Access Only)

Department

Colby College. Religious Studies Dept.

Advisor(s)

(unknown)

Abstract

The mission of Siddha Yoga calls for a dynamic application and renewal of its approach not only to the different generational and socio-cultural contexts it encounters, but also to the changing times of this complex global community. Taking this into account I seek to discover how Muktananda's expression of Kashmiri Shaivism is responsive to such a dynamic application. What I understand the essence of the contemporary gJobal context to be is the growth of a global patriarchal construct of corporatization, consumerism, and the destruction of nature and human ties to nature, replacing these with a technological or artificial world of meaning. I am a spiritual ecofeminist in my understanding of the major issues that face humanity because I see all of these problems stemming from thousands of years of male domination of the human experience. I see the solution to be the restoring of the feminine polarity and recognizing its power to guide us into developing and sustaining a harmonious and fruitful cohabitation on this planet. I bring to my ecofeminist outlook the inspiration of Siddha Yoga and Kashmiri Shaivism as presenting the most direct and accurate reading of the deeper power structures that keep uS from realizing a matrifocal way of life and our own full empowerment as energetic beings. Along with this understanding of what disempowers us, these traditions give us the most natural and celebratory way to fully empower ourselves, they teach us how to live fully and spontaneously, without fear and with the greatest creative power for change and the spreading of love.

Comments

Full-text download restricted to Colby College campus only.

Keywords

yoga -- Siddha -- Muktananda -- Kashmiri Shaivism

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