NARASIMHA is the Lion Of Judah

[Guest guest]

THE LION OF JUDAH

by Bhakti Ananda Goswami

WVA Interfaith Committee

Hare Krishna !

Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga ki jaya !

http://www.vina.cc/stories/PHILOSOPHICAL/2003/5/thelionofjudah.html

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.

 

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