Thule Italia estate2006.indd - thule-italia.org

Book review by
Prof. Manuel Sarkisyanz
Hitler,Buddha, Krishna
esoteric Fascism (p. 463) came about by Fascist imitations
of Tantric categories of Vitalism and Power - which in
themselves had been inherent in Nazi sentiment (not
without impacts from Bavarian folk-vitalism). Even the
famous [Fascist] Tibetologist’s, Tucci’s rhapsodies about
“heroic Buddhism” (p. 193) cannot be accepted uncritically
-just as War Sermons (usually on the text of Christ bringing
not Peace but the Sword) could never characterize
Christianity as a whole. (Logically Fascists have rejected its
message while emulating its institution: the Church with
its Hierarchy and Discipline.) Obviously the SS’s-film about
its expedition to the Dalai Lama’s realm (pp. 155f ) showed
only what its chief desired to be seen -just as the exiled
14th Dalai Lama’s Buddhist messages to the democratic
world leave out what has been undemocratic in Lamaism.
T 0 such present day uncritically unilateral images of
exclusively humanitarian and pacifist Tibet this book is a
most healthy corrective. Thus the authors point out that a
public discussion about the Buddhist Tantrism of Tibet by
the Dalai Lama would prevent its misuse and distortion by
SS esoterics. But they can be easily misunderstood to the
effect that there was nothing humanitarian and nothing
pacifical about the Dalai Lama’s realm, considering that
among his friends was the SS auxiliary Jean Marquès
Rivière as well as Guru Shoko Asahara who (in 1995)
caused poison gas injury to more than 5000 victims in
the Tokyo subway -as sacrifice to Shiva Rudra-Chakrin,
apocalyptic world ruler in the Kâlachakra Tantra (pp.
505, 518). Such an “Aryan Priest-King” of post-war Nazi
mysticism (p. 469f ) -and not the specifically Buddhist
universal ruler (Chakkavattî) is rightly compared with the
Japanese Tenno -and wrongly with the ideal Buddhist
emperor Ashoka of the third century B. C. (pp. 469f ).
Most absurdly, Himmler’s indologist Wüst and the Fascist
Baron Evola as well as protagonists of postwar SS mysticism
saw precisely in Ashoka the great power political model...
of “the Aryan Priest-King”. Their absurdities about Ashoka
should have been contradicted most definitely. After all,
he recorded his unforgettable regret even about “one
thousandth part of those who were slain”. “And this has
been recorded in order that... whoever they may be, may
not think of new conquests as worth achieving... through
arrows.” And that the only “real conquest is a Conquest
through Dhamma [force of MoralitY1.” Ashoka’s pride
was that he “achieved conquest through Dhamma ,... a
conquest flavoured with love” (7). And yet, with Ashoka
remaining unmentioned in the context of oriental ideals of
universal empire, the Chakkavattî/Chakravartin (prototype
of Buddhist kingship) appears under the subtitle
“Apotheosis of the Führer” (p. 328). Among the numerous
references to this Indian embodiment of absolute power
remains unmentioned the Chakkavattî-Sutta, one of the
earliest Buddhist texts, starting that to the Chakkavattî
the East, South, West and North shall submit voluntary:
He shall declare that no living being is to be injured. (8)
In contrast, the Chakravartin meant by the authors is
Kalki from the Brahmanic Vishnu Purana (with reference
to whom concludes Evola’s “Revolt against Modernity”),
Aryan world ruler, symbolized by the Swastika (p. 256).
In reality, Kalki in India and the Chakravartin in Buddhist
Burma had inspired politically opposite phenomena too:
It was precisely from Kalki that same Pariah groups
expected their emancipation against the caste hierarchy.
In same rural areas Gandhi was identified with such a
future incarnation of Vishnu. About the Chakkavattî Sutta’s
description of the ideal future state reminded in 1959 U
Nu (Burma’s Prime Minister 1947-1958 and 1960-1962) -
with reference to his anti-imperialist Buddhist socialism.
(9) In the name of the Chakkavattî (Burmanized as “Setkya
Min”) repeatedly revolted Burma’s peasants (as recorder
after 1837). With this ideal Buddhist ruler was identified
the central figure of the Burmese Peasant War of 1930-
1932. (10)
This shows how much more correctly than by Fascist
indologists and their subsequent esoterics was
Buddhism understood by Hitler’s inspirer, Houston
Stewart Chamberlain, and the Führer’s rival Ludendorff.
Chamberlain saw that Buddhism “was moved by
humanitarian reverie, proclaiming the equality of all human
beings” (10a). Ludendorff reminded that it “preached selfextinction...,
spiritual and bodily disarmament” (p. 295),
both comprehending its ethos better than Himmler’s
Professor Wüst and Mussolini’s Baron Evola. A “Duce from
Bengal” can be seen in Subhas Chandra Bose (pp. 93) only
disregarding that a Soviet alliance would have been his
first choice: As vanished Redeemer he “is biding his time...
Millions of Indians believe... he is hiding in Moscow, being
instructed in the principles of revolution... Eagerly they
await[ed] him...” (11)
And archetypically less remotely from Communism than
from Fascism led historically that “Gnosis”, Satanizations of
which are inherited in Political Science since Eric Voegelin
(and echoed on p. 537): By “Gnosis” is usually meant its
Manichean current. In fact, its vision of all material world,
with all established institutions, being in the power
of Evil, stimulated revolt rather than conservation of
the established order. And that class distinctions and
hierarchies have no meaning at all for the truly Initiated
is among the messages of the Bhagavad Gita too: In the
Brahman and in the [despised] cook of dog meat the wise
ones behold the same. Already here [on earth] is Heaven
won by those whose mind rests upon this Equality... That
they are rich and noble think those blinded by ignorance.
(12)
That the SS Chief invoked one passage from this is no more a reflection upon this scripture (that
was being invoked again and again by India’s social
reformers -not only in pacifist Gandhism (13) but also in
“Hinduized Communism” (14) than the “socialist” name
of Hitler’s party is a reflection upon Socialism. It was
not so much that Savitri Devi found in the Bhagavad
Gita principles that lend themselves for a convincing
integration into SS ideology (p. 360); it was rather that she
insisted on having found them: Her conclusions are not
covered by the texts she quoted (p.357), about fulfilling
duty without regard for the outcome, about a just fight,
about Heaven for the fallen warriors and the Earth for the
victorious ones. Actually, the texts this “Priestess of Hitler”
emphasized lend themselves in general to hopeless,
heroic resistance against powers of this world, resistance
that has been much less offered by Fascists (under whom
the weak had no claim to survival) than by anti-Fascists
with their faith in a world that shall belong to the weak.
(15)
On the other hand, not to every Professor is given the
character of professinq convictions: Thus it is more the
adjustment of certain German indologists to financial
incentives offered by 88 institutions than “affinities” of
the Gita and of Buddhism to Fascism that is proved by 88
appropriations of “Oriental” thought.
The weakest text in the book might be that “a Buddhist
dissolves his Ego for the ‘Liberation’ of all suffering beings
and a National Socialist for , but this
could again and again in the history of Buddhism mean
the precept of killing out of compassion and wisdom”(p.
458).
SOURCE REFERENCES
1) Jean-Michael Angebert, The Occult and the Third
Reich (New York, 1974); François Ribadeau Dumas, Hitler
et la sorcellerie (Paris, 1975); RR Carmin, “Guru” Hitler, Die
Geburt des Nationalsozialismus aus dem Geist von Mystik
und Magie (Zürich, 1985); Jean Robin, Hitler, I’élu du
dragon (Paris, 1987)
2) Hitler’s speech of 28. April 1939: Deutscher
Kurzwellensender; Hitler, Monologe im
Führerhauptquartier, edit. W. Jochmann (Hamburg, 1980),
pp. 48, 62 f.; W. Maser, Das Regime. Alltag 1933-1945
(Manchen, 1983), p. 259; J.H. Voigt, „Hitler und Indien“:
Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte, IX (1971), pp. 33, 49
3) Hitler, Speech of 22. August 1939 to the supreme
commanders; L.P. Lochner, What about Germany? (New
York, 1942), p. 3
4) Gerwin Strobl, The Germanic Isle. Nazi perceptions of
Britain (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 41, 42
5) Heinrich Himmler, Geheimreden und andere Ansprachen
(Frankfurt, 1974), p. 159: Speech of 9th. June 1942
5a). Hannah Arendt, Elemente und Ursprünge totaler
Herrschaft (Frankfurt, 1955), pp. 307, 313
5A). S.B. Dasgupta, An introduction to Tantric Buddhism
(Calcutta, 1958), p. 179 f; John Blofeld, The Way of Power
(London, 1970)
5B) “Die Linke ausgeschaltet, Osterreich eingeschaltet,
die Massenmedien gleichgeschaltet, Deutschland isoliert,
ganz Europa in Spannung versetzt und schließlich den
Kurzschluss erzeugt.“
6) Helmut Hoffmann, Die Religionen Tibets (Freiburg B,
1956), p. 58 ff., 119 f., 163; Hoffmann, „Das Kâlachakra, die
letzte Phase des Buddhismus in Indien“: Saeculum, XV/2
(1964), p. 128
7) Ashoka‘s 13th Rock Edict: D.R Bhandarkar, Asoka
(Calcutta 1925), pp. 300-303; J. Bloch, Les inscriptions
d‘Asoka (Paris, 1950), pp. 125-132
8) Cakkavatti-Sîhanâda-Sutta, Diaha Nikâva, XXVI, 6:
Translation by Rhys Davids, Sacred Books of the East, IV
(London, 1957), p. 63f
Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism. (London,
1889), p. 114; Bharatan Kumarappa, introduction to: M.K.
Gandhi, Hindu Dharma (Ahmedabad, 1950), p. VIII; U Nu’s
Speech of November 16th, 1959 before the Anti-Fascist
People’s Freedom League (Burmese typescript given by U
Nu to the author), pp. 17f, largely reprinted in Bama-hkit of
17. XI 1959, p. 8; Sarkisyanz, Buddhist Backgrounds of the
Burmese Revolution (The Hague, 1965), p. 224
10) Cf. Maurice Collis, Trials in Burma (London, 1938), pp.
129, 273f.
10a) Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Briefwechsel mit
Kaiser Wilhelm II (Munich, 1929), Vol. 11 p.152
11) J. A. Michener, Voice of Asia (New York, 1952), p. 265;
of. NA Chadhuri, “Subhas Chandra Bhose, his legacy and
legend”: Pacific Affairs (1955), p. 356. All italics are mine.