The Greek Civilization: The dark side (I)
Before addressing the subject of ancient Greek civilization and its religion, let us point out some notes that explain its general characteristics. We start exposing some aspects of the dark side of this civilization that corresponds to its Antlantidean component. This preface is necessary considering that these features have negatively influenced the whole Western civilization until contemporary times. Afterwards, the prestige of Greek civilization has spread all over the world on the wave of global modernization, contributing profoundly also to the change of mentality of non-European cultures.
However, in the next articles we will describe the bright side of the Hellenic Tradition of Hyperborean origin.
Individualism: The main feature of Greek people was individualism. From the earliest times, this behavioral tendency became a true general ideology applied not only to individuals, but also to various social groups, including the State. Incidentally social groups belong to the individual domain, being the communities formed by masses of individuals, even if some modern ideologies -particularly diabolical as Marxism- theorize that society transcends the individual. Greek individualism has been originated by the loss of the concept of a unique and non dual Principle present in the heart of every living being. This loss can be traced back to the earliest Greek literary sources, like Homeric poems (⁓1000 B.C.). Only in the initiatic sādhanās, or among some philosophers who were sādhakas of the Mysteries such as Pythagoras, Plato and Neoplatonics, the consciousness of this transcendent principle was maintained alive. But most of Greek philosophers and thinkers were definitely naturalists, agnostics if not atheists.
Libertinism: Individualism led Greeks to an idolatry of freedom in the most arbitrary and libertine sense, to self-complacency and unlimited satisfaction of passions and vices. For this reason, having lost the symbolic meaning of their myths, they also attributed all the whims and perversions possessed by themselves to their Gods. Well before the present-day moral degeneration, Greeks publicly practiced homosexuality and attributed the same behavior to Gods. Similarly they shamelessly described their Gods as cheaters, liars, traitors, adulterers, envious, greedy and narcissist, projecting their own defects on the divinities.
Aestheticism: The first effect of libertinism has been the birth of hedonism, self-satisfaction and aestheticism. The cult for the beauty of human body, universally admired in Hellenic art, had these small-minded motivations. Observing a Greek artwork we realize that beyond the refined forms there is no spiritual or symbolic significance: there is only a sensual attraction (rāga) for an enjoyment object (bhogya). In art, Greeks infused all their instincts of asmitā, the triumph of aham and mama. Similarly they gave birth to philosophy, which is nothing but the individualist thought of every single philosopher, devoid of any spiritual inner experience (anubhava), of any initiation, of spiritual path: it is only mental elucubration.
Particularism: Greeks were never able to create a nation; the individualism of the people was translated into the particularism of the cities. Every Greek city (πόλις, read pòlis 1) was armed against another Greek city and every city was internally divided in litigious factions. Even in the epic tale of Iliad, the Greeks employed ten long years to conquer Troy city because of the constant quarrels and feuds that arose among them. At the same time, they were convinced of their superiority over all other people. The term they used to define a foreigner was barbarian (βάρβαρος, read bàrbaros). This word soon assumed the meaning of “uncivilized, coarse, savage, brutal”. In this way Greeks expressed their diversity with other people.
Historicism: When the absolute vision (pāramārtika dṛṣṭi) is lost, it is evident that the only reference point remains the becoming (saṃsāritva). History is the mere annotation of chronological events. In itself it is not harmful, even if only of archival and jurisprudential utility. Instead, Historicism is an ideology: Historicism is the idea of attributing meaningful significance to a historical period, to a peculiar Civilization, to a series of events and characters, following pre-set parameters and providing an interpretation based on certain ideological dogmas. All this happens by proclaiming the “scientific” objectivity of the method. Thus, a system was created for the falsification of the events through the flexible tool of interpretation. For example, according to their historians, the great Greek victories on Persians (499-479 BC) would have liberated Greece from Persian domination forever. That’s what we all have studied at school. But it’s a historical fake one. It is only with a treaty (343 B.C.) agreed with Philip II, that the Persian Emperor gave over his sovereignty of Greece to the King of Macedonia. Greek historians, to justify this incoherence, claimed that Philip the Macedonian, in any case, was a Greek. But in their treaties, they call him Philip the Barbarian! However the assimilation to the Greek nation of Philip II and his son Alexander the Great has been shamelessly proclaimed by many historians. The Greeks boasted in many books that “the Greek Emperor” Alexander the Great would have conquered India. Our respectable Indian readers well know that this episode was so irrelevant that it did not appear in any Indian text. Therefore Historicism has been invented by the Greeks long before the European Renaissance. In the same way, European and World History of the last centuries have been thoroughly falsified. We can see the devastating effects of today’s falsifications created by increasingly sophisticated multimedia.
Euhemerism: Euhemerism is a theory maintaining that religion in general and mythology in particular narrate stories and historical characters that really happened and lived in a given period and place. Later, those people and events would have been imaginatively idealized and transformed by the irrational mentality of ancient people2. The birth of philosophy would have made the gift of rationality to the mankind; since that moment the civilized man has been able to recognize that mythology is only the ancient story told in an imaginary form. The rationalization of myth is the effect of historicism and rationalism, denying the existence of any reality different from the empiric one. This theory fatally leads to naturalism3 and materialism, because the only reality is reduced to bodily existence. Euhemerism, attributed to the philosopher Euhemerus, but much older then him, has been a tool to cut the Greek religion’s roots, spreading the secularist and agnostic antireligious mentality. The influence of euhemerism was deffused everywhere: even the insistence on the historicity of Jesus Christ, fascinating the modern Catholics, has euhemerist sources. Euhemerism has been abundantly used by European Indologists to invent the “aryan invasion of India”: they arbitrarily interpreted hindū myths as if Devas were “arians” and Asuras the original inhabitants of India
Rationalism: All the trends we have described converge into rationalism. It is a philosophical field that considers the reason as the primary source of cognition. Human mind uses logic as the unique tool to explain the world. The five senses are considered fallacious and so it is the mind which corrects the information coming from the outside world through logic. In other words, if I look at a rope and I see a snake, the mistake is not located in my mind, but in my eyes! Moreover, rationalism claims to be able to investigate the metaphysical Truth, which is beyond the rational investigation, with the mind. This philosophical movement was supported first by the Sophists, and later by Aristotle, the greatest logician.
D. K. Aśvamitra