I'm in India in my state, Tamil Nadu.
And for the past few days, there has been
an uprising of students, school and college
students, over a particular village sport
where their village youth are involved in
a gaming where they go and control the bulls.
It's a bull sport or game which you find elsewhere
also in the world.
And there was a supreme court order banning
this for some reasons.
I am not going to go into that.
But this is the first time that there has
been a very significant uprising of the student
community protesting for putting back this
game and remove the ban.
I just wanted to reflect on it, not from a
judicial or from critical kind of view because
that that's not my domain.
And I have kept thinking about it and reflected
on it as a phenomenologist.
A phenomenologist is one who looks at the
phenomenon by itself without reducing it to
politics or ethnic or traditional categories.
So just as a phenomenon, — why are these
people together -- the students and then,
of course, the the general public are also
joining this big movement to put back this
bull sports back and that.
Why are they interested?
Or why is there so much interest in the bull
sports.
So as a phenomenologist, I want to look at
it from an angle that will be very helpful
for you to understand.
I'm going to show you two pictorial representation
of the Bull as the Bull is associated with
Lord Shiva who is the major God in the Hindu
tradition.
And the bull although is considered a vehicle
or a Vahana is also a God; the bull is a god
Himself.
And then when you look at this bull cult all
over the world, the bull has always been worshipped.
In Egypt for instance the bull is called Apis,
the God Apis and while he was living and then
later on he was called Osiris and he was also
called the God Ptah.
And then there are a lot of common characteristics
between the Egyptian concept of the bull as
well as the Indian concept of the bull.
The bull belongs to the collective unconscious
and this is there.
It makes sense that why so many people are
interested in bringing back this bull fight
or bull sports because it is there is a collective
unconscious necessity to bring it back which
is so fulfilling to people.
And Carl Jung who has introduced this Collective
Unconscious concept has made it very clear
in his book, ‘Man And His Symbols,’ where
he says that these symbols come back again
and again.
But Jung’s interpretation, although it was
very valid and he has done very good representation
of it for the academic 
psychoanalysis community.
But, if you want to understand it fully well
we have to go through India where, as I just
showed you, the bull is associated with Lord
Shiva as a Vahana, it is the vehicle.
Vahana is literally the vehicle through which
you can feel God.
So, the fight to remove the ban on this game
has some Divine component backed up by the
unconscious, collective unconscious need to
fulfill the psyche.
The psyche demands that.
And that has potential to a lot of factors
unknown to common people.
See, for instance the bull cult or the Nandi
cult.
Nandi is called bull in its divine aspect
is very, very relevant.
And also still contemporary.
Every fortnight, the 13th Moon, the bull cult
is actively celebrated and this is also in
a phenomenon that became more prominent about,
say, I would say about 20 years prior to that,
it was not, 20-25 years prior to that, the
bull cult, it was not celebrating the bull.
On 
the 13th Moon, all the temples, all the Shiva
temples, at least most of them celebrate this
during the time before the sunset.
It’s all charged with very significant spiritual
undertones that will help human beings to
evolve into a higher state of consciousness.
The students and those who support the students
are simply here expressing this need for restoring
divinity on the one hand.
And also restoring Dharma – Dharma is righteousness.
And if you look at what’s happening in India
with the demonetization of the currency about
a month ago, or 2 months ago, the Government
introduced the demonetization and said that
the old currency are no longer valid just
to put an end to black money in India.
So, what is happening in India is there is
a Divine intervention, and that is going to
be a great thing for India for reformation.
And the Nandi Tradition or the gaming of the
bull, it’s also called Jallikattu in Tamil
has tremendous amount of significance as far
as I am concerned from strictly from spiritual
point view of a culture that is going back
to its roots of the wisdom tradition.
The tradition of India is not simply a tradition
of intellectual, rationalistic ratio scenario
approach to knowledge and seeking.
It is rather not knowledge, but wisdom.
There is wisdom in relating to the bull itself.
So, I have been watching the television and
in the television I found that the villagers
take the bulls to the temples.
And from that, you know, they are well-built
bulls and with the permission of the Goddess
and after a little puja or ceremony, which
is a prayer, they are let out.
And then the youth in the village and then
they just go and control the bull – it’s
a sport, a sport that has tremendous amount
of meaning.
Now, I want to say a few things about the
symbol of the bull itself.
The bull symbolizes vitality and also on the
one hand animal nature that needs to be controlled.
The game symbolizes that of human nature taking
over them and nature.
But that is as I said is one aspect of it.
The other aspect of it, the bull itself is
a God giving you a higher state of consciousness.
He is the God of wisdom.
Nandi, which is bull, in Tamil and Sanskrit
represents a God of wisdom with super normal
powers.
That’s why Shiva keeps him as a door keeper
and also a vehicle through which His wisdom
flows through.
I will tell you what I did yesterday or the
day before yesterday – I went to a Bull
Temple; it’s near Trichy called Thirumazhapadi
– it’s a temple dedicated to the bull.
And the Siddhas who built the temple had put
bull Nandi everywhere in the temple.
And in one place where I saw a very meaningful
placement of 4 bulls each facing the 4 directions
put in a square used for occupying an angle.
And then they represented the 4 Vedas, scriptures
that deal with divine wisdom.
So, I offered some prayers and then I meditated.
I thought that’s a good sign.
So, one symbol or one of the most important
symbol of the bull is that it represents the
wisdom.
And then Nandi also is a term that represents
the Guru, the teacher.
And Nandi is often considered the Supreme
Teacher.
And He is also the Army General, but the Army
General with tremendous amount of supernormal
powers.
So, if you want more info on Nandi, there
are lot of places where you can look at within
the mythology of Hindu Mythologies on Nandi,
or the bull.
Yet another point I want to mention is the
coming back into prominence of Nandi or the
bull cult is the restoration of order or Dharma
which has been lacking because of corruption
and politics and social life for so long.
So, the innate interest of the students in
the bull to me symbolizes the restoration
of Dharma.
The Mythologists say that the bull is Dharma.
Dharma means righteousness.
So, righteousness is going to come back.
So, I particularly wanted to do this video
so that at least some of the students who
want to understand mythology beyond the narrative.
There is a narrative which is a story level.
And understand it from the point of view of
phenomenology and also the collective unconscious.
There is tremendous amount of benefit for
you.
So, I thought that I would put this out for
you so that you can understand what it means
to you and then grow more deep into that.
The bull cult beyond its sports, as significance,
it is simply not just sports.
It is restoration of Dharma.
It is also bringing back the wisdom tradition
beyond science and technology.
Because Nandi as a Supreme Teacher gives you
super-normal wisdom that goes beyond human
mind.
I think it will be a little more off the wall
for people who are not willing to go beyond
the rationalistic interpretation, but this
is a very valid approach.
And this is how India can benefit from the
game
that has become so valuable to the Indian Tradition. God Bless.
