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THE LION OF JUDAH
by Bhakti Ananda Goswami
WVA
Interfaith Committee |
Hare Krishna !
Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga ki jaya !
Dear VINA readers,
Please accept my humble obeisances
On the left is one of the scores of jewish-related and
proto-catholic icons that I compared with Vaishnava and
pure land Buddhist icons in my interdisciplinary master's
degree project.
On the right is a Nara Hari Rupa from silpa shastra for
comparison. Their Jewish and Vaishnava names Aryeh and
Haryeh are even related. They are both associated with
the wrathful form of the Lord Eli / Hari as time. One is
the “Lion of Judah” and the other is the Lion
of the Yadus, the wrathful form of Hari / Eli as yhvh tzabaoth
in exodus ! In exodus (in the Christian bible and Jewish
scriptures), the wrathful form of Eli (Hari) as yahu tzabaoth,
the Lion of Judah, intervenes between the forces of the
Pharaoh and the mixed multitude of devotees leaving Egypt.
Like Sri Krishna's wrathful form in the Gita, he is remembered
in the western traditions as the Lord of Time, devouring
the worlds ! One of Nara Hari's names is Kalah ! In the
Gita, Sri Krishna says "kalo smi". "Time
I am, destroyer of the worlds". The lion headed form
of Eli / Hari as time (search art history references for "leontocephalos
time", chronus, saturnus, zervan, apadamek etc.) Was
worshiped throughout the ancient world. I have seen scores
of Narahari murtis from the mediterranean and other non-indian
areas, in museum and other antiquity collections. Do not
confuse the late astrological association of saturn with
the planet, with the earlier worship of jupiter saturnus
as time. In western mythology, all that is left of the
Gita's theophany of Krishna kalah (time) devouring the
cosmos, is the late myth of saturn / chronus (time) devouring
his children. |
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This
particular western Nara Hari is from meroe, a part of
ancient kush in Africa, south and to the south east of
Egypt. He was in the stored (not displayed) meroe collection
of the museum of fine arts, Boston, when i located him
by studying their meroe collection catalogue.
South of Egypt, Nara Hari's meroetic name was Apademak, but he was worshiped
as the wrathful form of Heri-amun ( ra ) at the southern Egyptian capital of
Thebes. I have personally seen this wrathful lion-headed form of the jewish deity
as time, as dozens of mediterranean region temple icons, and on dozens of artifacts
like seals, amulets etc. As the wrathful time form of the southern egyptian Supreme
God Heru-asu as amen-ra, he was Wasu theos, which is Vasu deva ! He was the 'Father
of all the Gods' and there are amazing
icons of him that depict this.
He is at the very top of this stela depicting that he is the adi purusha, and
origin of all the Gods.
Here is a nice site for amen-ra's worship as apademak by the african Pharaohs
of Nubia.
A nice stela
of apademak
The icons compared in this post above include this
one, which i found in the
Boston collection, and sketch-edited for easier comparison.
Nara
Hari kalah in Persia (zervan, zurvan) was also worshiped
as jupiter saturnus in Rome, and Zeus chronus in Greece.
In south Egypt he was amen ra as time and Wasu theos,
and to the jews he was Yahu ( or yhvh ) tzabaoth the
lord of the heavenly hosts, and patron protector of Israel
and Judah. He was always worshiped especially by the
jewish warriors, who often wore amulets for protection
depicting him ! I have see some of these amulets. The
lion headed form of the jewish deity also can be seen
on the official royal state seals of the jewish kingdoms
of Israel and Judah.
This is the best
book on jewish seals.
however it only covers the pre maccabean era, and so it does not have the most
striking of the late pre-christian lion-headed jewish military amulets in it.
It does have lion-headed yahu and yahu-sphinx royal seals in it. The numerous
other Vaishnava symbols on these ancient jewish artifacts are amazing. Jagganatha
(djed djed ntr), sesha nachash (sesha naga ), eli / hari chakra, and padma's
(nymphia's ) lotus and rhodon (rose of rhoda / radha) etc. Are there ! "keel
and Uehlinger's unique study brings the massive palestinian archaeological evidence
of 8,500 amulets and inscriptions to bear on these questions. Vindicating the
use of symbols and visual remains to investigate ancient religion, the authors
employ iconographic evidence from around 1750 b.c.e. through the persian period
(c. 333 b.c.e.) to reconstruct the emergence and development of the yahweh cult
in relation to its immediate neighbors and competitors. They also fully explore
whether female characteristics were present in the early yahweh figure and how
they might have evolved in israelite religion. Keel and Uehlinger's major study
marks the maturation of iconographical studies and affords an exciting glimpse
into the vibrant religious life of ancient Canaan and Israel."
Here is a persian zervan, who was found in italy.
A roman varient form of zervan
The “original'” form of this same Supreme deity was his beautiful
youthful (Kouros) lover form, worshiped with his feminine sekhet / shekinah (shakti)
who was called Rhoda (Radha) on their sacred giant pink lotus (nymphia) flower
isle (dvipa) of rhodes. There Kouros (Krishna) and Bal-dionysos (Baladeva) tended
their sacred white cows, with their expansion cowherd boys, and danced in their
sacred circle-dance with Rhoda and her expansion maidens (korae, nymphs, muses,
horae, graces, charities, houris etc.) This tradition of rhoda-kouros “bridal
mysticism” is the source of the biblical "song of songs," and
the entire divine love mysticism of the judeo-catholic tradition!
For more information on these east-west bhakti tradition connections, please
read my other articles in my column at saragrahi.org :
http://www.saragrahi.org/columns/columns.htm
One faith (see bottom of columns page).
Sri Krishna kalah Nara Hari ki jaya !
Your aspiring servant,
Bhakti Ananda Goswami |
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