The Archetypal Power of Tyagaraja's Life and Lyrics
The first time I ever heard the sound of Tyagaraja's songs being sung I was struck by a strangely familiar voice; it had an archetypal quality. It was profoundly expressive, almost embarrassingly personal; it seemed ancient and primal, yet also formal, though following rules I did not know. 2 This study is a chance to go back to those roots, so to speak. It is concerned with roots in more ways than one. Since I first started studying Tyagaraja in the late 70s, I have studied other singer-saints and also deepened my understanding of creativity, aesthetics and psychology. In this paper I am exploring Tyagaraja's life and work in relation to psychological concepts from Indian traditions and from Western depth psychology. I want to examine Tyagaraja's life and work for elements that relate to such terms as the "unconscious" or "suprapersonal unconscious," and "archetypes" in this "collective unconscious."
This may seem a difficult endeavor-- to talk about obscured aspects of creative life hidden from the conscious mind. It involves looking into texts for hints of places where a deeper undercurrent or subtext is partly visible. To focus on aspects of Tyagaraja's life and works, which reveal deeper dimensions of psyche, 3 to make ourselves more conscious of things usually left unexamined is rewarding. It takes careful attention to find the right vocabulary. A term like "the unconscious" can be confusing, because in ordinary unreflective parlance we use the word "unconsciousness" for states of non-awareness, being comatose, passed out, or deep sleep. 4 But in yoga and depth psychology the unconscious means subconscious activities of a person's mind, including dreams, fantasies, idea impulses, etc. And the term "collective unconscious" used by Jung has very specific meanings, denoting the shared images, the paradigmatic memories of the human race. Jung speaks of it like this:
This unconscious, buried in the structure of the brain 5 and disclosing its living presence only through the medium of creative fantasy, is the suprapersonal unconscious [which I take to mean the suprapersonal consciousness of which we are usually unconscious]. It comes alive in the creative man, it reveals itself in the vision of the artist, in the inspiration of the thinker, in the inner experience of the mystic. The suprapersonal unconscious, being distributed throughout the brain structure, is like an all-pervading, omnipresent, omniscient spirit. It knows man as he always was, and not as he is at this moment; it knows him as myth. For this reason, also, the connection with the suprapersonal or collective unconscious means an extension of man beyond himself; it means death for his personal being and a rebirth in a new dimension, as was literally enacted in certain of the ancient mysteries. It is certainly true that without the sacrifice of man as he is, man as he was--and always will be-- cannot be attained. And it is the artist who can tell us most about this sacrifice of the personal man... 6
In this view creative persons -- a poet composing, a composer discovering a melody, an artist catching a wave of creativity-- forget themselves, immersed in the realm of archetypal images. 7 The suprapersonal unconscious in this sense gives rise to creativity; the religious imagination phantasizes about the archetypes of the divine. Put in another way "Phantasy [is] the clearest activity whence issue the solutions to all answerable questions; it is the mother of all possibilities, in which too the inner and the outer worlds, like all psychological antitheses, are joined in living union."
(Abhinavagupta similarly states that the imagination (pratibha) is the source of all creative work.)8 Imagination is highly valued; it creatively turns the chaotic flux of life and impressions into stories, meanings involving compelling images, shaping jangling noise into melodies. 9 I believe these concepts can help us appreciate the creative life of Tyagaraja in ways that do not diminish the religious dimension of his art. I will leave the subject of archetypal musical associations of melodies and rhythms, etc., to musicologists who have the necessary expertise in matters of musical dhvani.10 I have always found that listening to Tyagaraja's music puts me in a contemplative mood or state of mind, but as a student of comparative religion I am better prepared to explore aspects of the deep images in Tyagaraja's lyrics, and in his life story, rather than the music. In my previous works on Tyagaraja this was an implicit theme, here I am focusing on it more directly. 11
Speaking about Tyagaraja a rasika said: "The greatness of great people is that they reflect truths [which are] in us. By suggestion, they enable us to see within ourselves. The object ceases to be Tyagaraja, [it becomes] us." How does that response happen? How do certain aspects of his life and work resonate in us? There is something hidden and something shared in the unknown realm of the unconscious. How are we to inquire into the secrets of this long-enduring resonance between the saintly composer and the little-known depths within us? How does a great singer-saint such as Tyagaraja make such a strong and long-lasting impression on so many psyches? 12
As we discuss Tyagaraja's power it will be useful to consider some of the main qualities associated with the terms "subconscious" or "unconscious," "collective unconscious" and "archetypes" and see what they may reveal about Tyagaraja's experiences and artistic expressions still vital in South India today. What do the stories of Tyagaraja and his songs (usually taken at face value) reveal when we focus on them in light of the psychological insights of India and the West 13 regarding the nature of the basic and elusive collective (or suprapersonal) unconscious?
Fancies, Reveries, Dreams and Visions
A key term in Patanjali's Yogasutras is chitta, mind-stuff, both conscious and unconscious. In yoga the subconscious is made up of chittavritti the whirlwinds of consciousness, and these states of mind are said to be of three types: confused, restrained, and mixed. Yoga's practices are meant to remove the confusion. A yogi uses various means to work with the vritti, the mindwhirls. Through samadhi the yogi is said to go beyond human conditioning, from suffering to freedom. Enchained in samsara human beings seek deliverance, through yogic disciplines such as meditation and devotional music. Another way to say this is that if the unconscious is made up of memories, then memories are conditionings which are transcended in processes involving "forgetting," eliminating, purifying, calming the whirling, awakening to the clarity of samadhi.14
Here are some lines from Patanjali on yogic ways of transcending mental agitations: "Mind attains peace, when meditation produces extra-ordinary senseperceptions; or by meditation on the inner light that leads beyond sorrow; or by meditation on saints who have attained desirelessness; or by meditation on the knowledge gained through dream or sleep." 15 Thus, though it is a mystery, the subconscious can partially be discussed by conscious minds, and the mind can be pacified by powerful experiences, including glimpses which come unsubmerged in meditation and dreams. 16
Even in Tyagaraja's earliest biographies dreams play a significant role. His parents' dreams announced his birth, and his father's dream led to the location where the family would settle, in Tiruvaiyaru. It is said that as a baby Tyagaraja dreamily stopped nursing whenever he heard music being played. It is said that while playing with children in the street the child Tyagaraja daydreamed about Lord Sriram. 17
Bhakti is a path of befriending the subconscious with the help of mantra, music and meditation on the beloved. The bhakti practice of repeating the name of one's istadevata, culminates in dreams or visions of one's favorite form of the deity.
In Tyagaraja's case twenty years of repeating the Sriram taraka mantra 960 million times led to his seeing Lord Sriram in dream or vision and receiving inspiration.
Perhaps we can say this spiritual exercise of japa with a target number to precipitate a vision is a conscious experiment performed to know in vision the transcendent in the form of the istadevata in the depths of the suprapersonal unconscious.18 It is believed by many that Tyagaraja composed songs while immersed in a deeper state of consciousness, and that his pupils wrote and learned what he sang spontaneously in that state. A dreamlike state is not always used to describe this, but sometimes it is trance or samadhi, or some higher consciousness beyond the mundane.19 Traditions seem to imply that immersed in bhakti with music as second nature to him, he sang his compositions only semi-aware of the world around him.
Indian artists traditionally have a yogic practice in their artistic process, a way to know directly the divine images they are supposed to depict, deriving them from ideal forms or archetypes. So too, from all accounts Tyagaraja sang out of directly experienced moods the taste of the emotional flavors, conveying them musically by becoming an instrument of bhakti experiences. He was in harmony with the tradition but was carrying the tradition forward rather than merely using conscious musical technique to maniplate the response of listeners.
Another important term in yoga is vasanas, impressions from past experiences. The term itself suggests subtlety "perfumings of the mindfolds" -- odors are invisible yet precise, and they stir memories. ( Samskara is another term for these lasting impressions made in the past.) Hindu traditions try to come to terms with Tyagaraja's extraordinary musical abilities by thinking of him as an incarnation of a previous great devotee, especially Valmiki, voicing Lord Sriram's story in a mode suitable to the times. "Purva janma vasana" means impression from previous birth, memories and tendencies carried over from past life. These are essential in the Hindu explanation for child prodigies, latent talents, and a variety of predispositions and inexplicable abilities. (Since our memories are colored by rasas, ourvasanas, the subtle hidden dimensions of citta, are presumably inextricable from rasas. 20) In the Hindu view each person has different adhikaras, whether from past actions, or from grace or luck, as seen in the common South Indian belief in "headwriting," fate written at birth on the forehead. In the text Sangita Ratnakara the lotus petals of the seven chakras situated along the spine are open or closed to signify a person's karmic talents or disabilities. Obviously a saint's self-aware adhikara s are different from an ignorant criminal's blindly unconscious drives and impulses. The saint's personal unconscious with its compassionate scenarios activated would be more benevolent than the more rebellious archetypes active in a criminal's unconscious. 21 Understanding Tyagaraja in terms of a previous great exponent of Lord Sriram devotion -- Valmiki-- conveys the people's explanation of his greatness, as do the legends that Narada gave Tyagaraja special musical knowledge.
In a Sanskrit account of a poignant moment in Tyagaraja's life we can also see a portrayal of how Tyagaraja's intense personal experiences of Lord Sriram may have seemed dreamlike to ordinary people: The scene depicts the culmination of years of devotion, mantra and meditation. At milking time as Tyagaraja removed old flowers from his home shrine, he was struck by the overwhelming beauty of the images of Lord Sriram and Lakshmana, and he saw a blue river rising like the light of a beautiful blue moon. Lord seem to come to life as twelve year old with mesmerizing features and Tyagaraja stands transfixed as they look at him while "a ray of light filled the four directions with blue and golden beams." Realizing he is in the presence of Lord Sriram, Tyagaraja feels confused and starts to bow, and they disappear. Tyagaraja "covered with darkness" now gets up and looks around bewildered, "losing consciousness." Very sad he searches everywhere in the darkened house and runs out into neighbors' courtyards, hurrying along streets calling his name. Not finding them he keeps exerting himself, with a tearful look on his face. Returning home he hurries in, frantically hoping they're still there. Not finding them he staggers out and asks his students "Where is heroic Lord Sriram? He was just here. You must have seen Him -- answer me! Where are He?" Seeing him so beside himself with agitation the students were saddened. Others seeing him in this mentally disturbed state laughed. His distressed students, unaware of the reason for his bewilderment and anguish followed but couldn't ask him about it.
After a while, still unsuccessful, he returned home, exhausted. 22 The experience thus depicted in these memorializing stories is dreamlike in that Tyagaraja alone sees the divine hero with great splendor and strange lights, while to everyone else he seems to be talking about and reacting to imaginary phantoms. (As the Bhagavad Gita says, the yogi is awake in that which is night to all beings; that in which all beings wake is night to the self-realized sage.) The scene has pathos, and listeners react with karuna rasa, the emotional flavor of compassion.
Another, more mundane example of evidence that Tyagaraja was entranced, his awareness immersed in the depths of the suprapersonal unconscious, is the fact that he was known for his anger. 23 Like Beethoven he is remembered for becoming irritated or enraged when interrupted by intrusions into the process of composing. The episode of a boy walking on drying sesame seeds causing his temper to flair up is an example of this anger at the spell of enchantment being broken. The bhakta immersed in devotion's deeper aesthetic moods prefers inspiration's flow to the rude disturbance of the trivial mundane world making its demands on him. The vivid enthusiasm of the enthralled bhakta's immersion in the religious imagination, the archetypal unconscious makes an incongruous impression on others.
For example, Kulashekhara, an alvar (early South Indian Vaishnava saint) who was a poet and king living in the 9th century, is remembered for listening so intently to, and being so moved by, the story of Lord Sriram, that at one point he jumped up and exclaimed "Come on! Let's go help him fight Ravana!" How could his subjects tell him that the war had been won many centuries before? The forgetfulness of self and surroundings when the archetypal reality in stories and music stirs one dramatically shows the power of images and scenarios brought to life by bhakti arts using rhythmic words.24 Jung wrote "The borderline between conscious and unconscious is in large measure determined by our view of the world." 25 A Kulashekhara, a Chaitanya, or a Tyagaraja seem to be able to experience the hidden realm of suprapersonal consciousness as vividly as they do the obvious world. In India the greatest kavis (poets) are thought of as transcending time—they have a timeless vision, an ever relevant expression of truth so they are placed beyond. Jung's view of the collective unconscious is also outside the limits of the individual person, and ordinary time. Not an ordinary composer, the hermit Valmiki heard the story of Lord Sriram from rishi Narada. Brahma asked Valmiki to write Lord Sriram's story. Valmiki through yoga attained deeper insight into the story, and saw Lord Sriram and Sita in action, the whole story being visualized in his mind. It was after these experiences that he is said to have shaped the great epic in shlokas.
The Archetype of the Cosmic Hero Lord SriRam as Ishtadevata
The traditional Indian conception of a work of art is to make something which is a
"means of re-integration," a samskarana, something sacramental. 33 Such art typically presents archetypal images of the transcendent to which seekers can relate. 34 Adarshamurti ("ideal form") and drashtanta rupa ("a type or pinnacle of personified idea") are terms in Sanskrit with similar meanings to the term "archetype," 35 denoting a symbolic image, representative likeness capable of multiple appearances. The archetypal image is attractive, compelling. 36 Through shared archetypes each life participates in deeper patterns. According to this view humans are endowed with the collective unconscious because (like the memories stored in DNA) it fits a person into the world we all participate in, and it also relates the person to the transcendent. 37 Much in bhakti depends upon activating the religious imagination. The psyche is activated by strong images; archetypes are considered by Jung and Hillman to be "the deepest patterns of psychic functioning, the roots of the soul governing perspectives we have of ourselves and the world." Archetypes are able to set up inclusive patterns, "organizing events from different areas of life in a comprehensive world view." 38 Thus archetypes are called "systems of readiness for action, and at the same time images and emotions. They are inherited with the brain-structure -- indeed, they are its psychic aspect." 39 Furthermore, "all activity of the psyche is an image and an imagining; otherwise no consciousness and no phenomenality of the process could exist. Imagining is a psychic process." 40 In this view soul and images are integral—one and the same. (In the Hindu view the atman is transcendent and samadhi is a state beyond images, of that ultimate formless consciousness.)
"The archetype does not proceed from physical facts; it describes how the psyche experiences the physical facts... and in so doing the psyche often behaves so autocratically that it denies tangible reality or makes statements that fly in the face of it." 41 The central archetype of Lord Sriram, Tyagaraja's ishtadevata, described by Valmiki in the first chapter of the first book of the Ramayana , powerfully embodies the divine ideal of human life:
Lord Sriram is self-restrained, majestic, firm, wise, well behaved, eloquent, charming, able to destroy opponents, with broad shoulders, long arms, expansive chest, a skillful archer, with beautiful head and forehead and attractive stride. He has an agreeable blue color, large eyes, prosperity and is replete with auspicious signs. He is righteous, true to his promises, beloved, concerned for the welfare of his people, renowned, endowed with wisdom, having a holy radiance, dutiful, profound in his meditation. He is the guardian of the world soul, endowed with Dharma's protection, knower of the truth of the Vedas and branches of Vedic knowledge, having the meaning of the Shastras, having the tradition ( smriti). Beloved of all the world he has an un-depressed spirit, is good, wise, bright. Good people approach him as the bestower of blessings, as the ocean is approached by the rivers. Honorable, treating all fairly, he is the one whose darshan is always beloved. He is endowed with all good qualities, multiplies his mother's joy, he is deep like the sea, and calm like a snow-crested mountain. His firmness is like Vishnu's, his anger is like Kalagni's (the fire at the end of the world), in endurance he is like the earth. He is as great in his renunciation as Dhanada, in truth he is like the highest Dharma, he is full of all the best virtues, and has the strength of Truth. 42 Lord Sriram has all the martial and ethical virtues a prince needs, knowledge of weapons, law, truth and beauty, benevolence and honor. He always knows what he must do and is ready and able to do it. He always puts the wishes of others before his own, he is loved by all who know him, and only he can break the bow and win Sita, which enables the marriage of heaven and earth. Lord Sriram linked to greatness and glory, vibhutis, he is divinely noble, the epitome of masculine ideals, as Sita is the feminine ideal.
In some songs Tyagaraja emphasized that Lord Sriram is a rasika, a lover of music. By constant devotion to his ishtadevata Lord Sriram, with mantra and music, meditation and puja, Tyagaraja drew to himself experiences of this archetypal image of God. Archetypes "are complexes of experience that come upon us fatefully, their effects being in our most personal life." 43 By all accounts Lord Sriram was at the very heart of Tyagaraja's life. The world is beyond an individual's control, often even in simple matters, let alone the catastophic famines and wars occurring during Tyagaraja's times.
The focus on Lord Sriram as protector, and the bhakta seeking his protection, is found in the refrain of many songs: " Pahi mam-- please protect us." Bhakti faith can show a kind of magical power in a changing unpredictable world. Tyagaraja's lifelong devotion to Lord Sriram gave him many roles to play and inspiration in the playing of them. There is an innocent unselfconscious childlike quality in surrender to the divine king or in the relationship of a son to a father. There is motivation, striving to live up to high standards in the fulfilling of one's duties as a servant of Lord Sriram. There are sublime possibilities in being the musician praising Lord Sriram. There are deep feelings involved in relating to Sriram as the beloved-- longing, hope, disappointment, grief, exultation, and enthusiasm. Bhakti artists convey these: "The creative process... consists in the unconscious activation of an archetypal image, and in elaborating and shaping this image into the finished work. By giving it shape, the artist translates it into the language of the present, and so makes it possible for us to find our way back to the deepest springs of life." 44 The image of Lord Sriram, needless to say, filled Tyagaraja with finely nuanced enthusiasm, and he sang of their unfolding bhakti relationship.
Reference Notes:
1.The Bhagavad Gita, tr. Swami Chidbhavananda, Madras: Sri Ramakrishna
Tapovanam, 1970, p. 203.
2.When I first heard a Tyagaraja kriti it was chanted without musical accompaniment. It was an a formal setting at Harvard University, and was full of emotion, an ancient voice in the modern world. It was in about 1978; C.V. Narasimhan was singing one night at the Center for the Study of World Religions. Soon after that I heard M.S. Subbalakshmi sing at MIT.
3.We have to admit that since Tyagaraja is not personally here to discuss his own life and work we can only make educated guesses and speculate about some matters. But a work of art is a reflection of the artist and of the artist's vision of the life, world he inhabits. "Only in the image which we create do we ourselves appear. Only in the image which we create do we step fully into the light and become recognizable to ourselves as a whole being. We never give the world any other face than our own, and this is just why we have to do so, i.e., in order to discover ourselves. For above science and art as an end in themselves stands man, the creator of his tools." Carl. G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, Jolande Jacobi, ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1961, p. 248.
4.I have the sense that although "the Unconscious" is very important in Jung's view, to Hindus it may sound like something anchored in the lowest, the hard to control vasanas to which people are ordinarily blindly subject. "Unconscious" sounds like lack of higher consciousness, the tamas or darkness referred to in the Shanti mantra ("from darkness lead me to the light"), but to Jung it means a subtly hidden conscious activity of primordial images. To many people of both East and West the unconscious may be associated with shameful humiliation and confusion, though Jung argues for its great importance as source of all inspiration. To Hindus the "suprapersonal unconscious" might indicate some awareness anchored in the highest-- the ultimate saccidananda -- the reflection of which makes intellect possible. The atman or spirit is trancendent, even when sheathed in bliss, intellect, mind, body, etc., which entangle the soul.
5.James Hillman writes: "Elusive, mercurial, the unconscious is not a place, not a state, but a dark ironic brother, and echoing sister, reminding." "The Unconscious," Eranos Yearbook, vol. 54, 1985, p. 309.
6.Carl G. Jung, Civilization in Transition, Collected Works, vol. 10, p. 10.
7."Through the sacrifice of ourselves we gain ourselves, the Self; for we only have what we give." Carl G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 296.
8.C.G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 12.
9.Abinavagupta similarly states that the imagination (pratibha) is the source of all creative work, in Dhvanayaloka-lochana. Cited in V. Raghavan, and Nagendra, An Introduction to Indian Poetics, Bombay: Macmillan, 1970, p. 64. Albert Einstein famously said:"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination can encircle the world."
10.Dhvani, a term used in Hindu aesthetics, means suggestion, overtone, reverberations in the associative mind.
11.For example in the book Tyagaraja -- Life and Lyrics, I explored a series of archetype-like episodes found in a number of South Indian's singer-saints' lives.
12.Even in our fast-paced and market-driven world Tyagaraja is important to many people. He continues to resonate comfortably among people who are very careful in discerning and appreciating music with spiritual power. Tyagaraja provides an example of spiritual values and experiences powerful enough to communicate to many succeeding generations of musicians and listeners. At the end of a thoughtful letter Prabhakar Chitrapu of InterDigital Communications Corporation, in Philadelphia, raised the question in quotation marks.
13.A Hindu response to this topic: "Superconscious and unconscious and subconscious need to be kept separate. Subconscious has a conglomeration of vasanas, desires for satisfaction of cravings of the ten senses. Superconscious is close to the core of individual-divinity, coiled in illusion of sensual cravings, delusion of doership and false identification with limited self which includes chitta, besides body, mind and intellect. The past samskaras are above vasanas, but closer to delusions [of] deluded perception rather than conception. When one reaches superconsciousness ... one drops the coil of delusion, gets transformed and eventually identifies with the Self. All the archetypes - - of water, Sriram, Beauty, Divinity etc., are but words used to describe one common archetype of Self (which is an ocean of bliss, etc.) There are no adequate words to describe the state of Self, but the yogi, bhakta, poet, musician try to portray the Self with the help of words and images known to common people. It is a communication that helps create communion-- one out of many." Dr. Chandrahas Shah, Arlington, Massachusetts, Feb. 2002, in correspondence.
14.In this sense the unconscious relates to the concept of maya, as a veil of confusion and allurement, clouding by attachments, forgetfulness of divine reality. The process of realizing maya's meaning is like the Purusha seeing through Prakriti's dance and waking to clarity, consciousness.
15.Yogasutras I.35-38.Aphorisms of Yoga by Bhagwan Shree Patanjali, tr. Purohit Swami, London: Faber & Faber, 1938, p. 42-3.
16.Hindu ideas about dreams are found in the Agni Purana, "O thou Lord of all the gods, teach me in dreams how to carry out all the work I have in my mind." (Chapter XLIII) See also Patanjali's Yogasutras I.38, Katha Upanishad V.8, and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.3,9-18. Cited by A. K. Coomaraswamy, The Dance of Shiva, New York: Noonday Press (Farrar Straus), 1963, pp. 27, 175.
17.William J. Jackson, Tyagaraja-- Life and Lyrics, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, p. 4.
18.R.D. Ranade, Pathway to God in Kannada Literature, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1989, pp. 239ff, pp. 265ff, pp. 271ff. Jung writes "Just as the love experience is the real experience of a real fact, so is the vision. Whether it's object be of a physical, a psychic, or a metaphysical nature does not concern us. It is psychic reality, having the same dignity as the physical. The experience of human passion stands within the frontiers of unconsciousness; the object of the vision, however, lies beyond. In the emotion we experience known things but intuition leads us to unknown and hidden things, to things that are secret by nature, and which, if they are ever conscious, are intentionally hidden and secreted away; for this reason there clings to them, from time immemorial, mystery, strangeness, and illusion." Psychological Reflections, p. 178.
19.Paradoxically one of his breakthroughs in this otherworldly state was to perfect the kriti form, known for it's concise miniature make-every-note-and-syllable-
21.The saint has befriended his unconscious, and good works are produced from its workings; the killer is driven blindly in compulsive passionate tragedy. D.T Suzuki has written about the unconscious in Zen. Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D.T. Suzuki, ed. William Barrett, Garden City: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956. "Zen and the Unconscious" pp. 157-226.
33 .Discussed by A.K. Coomaraswamy in Selected Papers , vol. I, p. 145. The term is used in the Brahmanas, for example, Shatapatha Brahmana VI.1.2.29.
34 .Jung writes that mental processes involving primordial images exist at a deeper level than calculative logic. The deeper thinking involves "symbols which are older than historical man, which have been ingrained in him from earliest times, and, eternally living, outlasting all generations, still make up the groundwork of the human psyche. It is only possible to live the fullest life when we are in harmony with these symbols; wisdom is a return to them." Carl G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 42. The story and image of Sriram is such an archetypal symbol.
35 .A likeness to archetypes is found in Book 10 of the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna identifies with the most prominent or renowned of each class of things is held up as the vibhutis or glorious attributes of God. There is an archetypal quality in being Sriram among weapons weilders, Narada among deva rishis, Meru among mountains, the Ocean among bodies of water, Time among reckoners, the thunderbolt among weapons, etc.
36 .There are articles discussing archetypes as strange attractors, a term used in the study of chaotic processes, in mental dynamics. For example, J.R. Van Eenwyk, "Archetypes: the strange attractors of the psyche," Journal of Analytical Psychology , 1991, vol. 36, pp. 1-125
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