A study of Navajo symbolism - Free History Ebooks

NOTES ON CORRESPONDING SYMBOLS: WHEELWRIGHT 952JFig. 8. Design on wall with Perusha on top. Fig. 9.Idealized form of man.Fig. 7. Ethkay-nah-ashi figures at bottom.was initiated.on the earth. This painting, with the PurushaSuch paintings used to be madeat the top, is very much like the prehistoricPersian symbol of the conventionalized birdof the sky, and is identical with the Navajorepresentation of Dontso, the Messenger.The Guru Bijay Krishna Chatterjee, afterstudying the Navajo sand painting of theCreation, found it absolutely correct and understandable,although he had different interpretationsfrom the Navajo. To him Dontsowas Purusha, the symbol of the spirit or soul(Logos), which was made under a sacred vesselof water during the Puja, or prayer ceremonial.The position with upraised hands ofthis figure is identical with that in Egypt ofKa, who is the spirit form of existing man orof any living substance. To him the rainbowand lightning were sensory and motor activities,the cornstalk equilibrium; the wholepainting; represented development of character.The Ethkay-nah-ashi or Asvins representedhealers and, beyond that, the feminineand masculine form of the breathing and outbreathingof God. By creating all forms ofShaktra, leading up to the gunas, or flowersof corn, which are the qualities of characterdesired, and then up to Hamsa (the swan ofpure spirit level) at the top of the picture,through sensory and motor activities andthrough the corn stalk of direct growth orequilibrium, the whole form represented thebody of man (fig. 7), with matter passing upthrough form to spirit. He laughed with joyat it. He said that everything was done fourtimes in ceremonies; that from his point ofview the colors used by the Navajo in thispainting were correct, except that they hadsubstituted black for blue.The Guru mentioned the legend in theVedas of King Bali to whom God manifestedhimself. God, when asked by King Bali whatHe wanted, said that He wished to put hisfoot (set his seal) on Creation. God put onefoot on the world, one on the spirit, and thenasked King Bali where else to put His foot."On me," said the King, showing his willingnessto be used by God, and was thereuponsent to Amors or Antipolis, to make it alwaysholy. The East Indians think this was America.Swami Nikhilananda of the Vedanta Center