Where is the Grail? Mircea Eliade, in his study of “The Symbolism of the centre,” recalls the legend of the medieval king who holds the secret of the Holy Grail. He is ill with a paralyzing, mysterious illness, and the entire kingdom suffers with him: “everything around him is falling into decay: palace, towers, garden. The animals no longer breed, the trees do not bear fruit, the wells are drying up.” Doctors fail to heal the disease, visiting knights ask solicitously after the king’s health—but at last one poor, unkown knight asks instead “Where is the Grail?” In an instant, everything is changed. The King rises from his bed of sickness, the brooks and fountains flow again, plants begin to grow, the castle is miraculously restored. Parsifal’s words were enough to bring all Nature to rebirth. Those few words contain the central question, the only one which should arouse not only the Fisher King but also the whole Cosmos: where is the supreme reality, the Holy, the Centre of life, the source of immortality? Where is the Holy Grail? No one, before Parsifal, had thought to put the central Question—and the world was dying of this metaphysical and religious indifference, lack of imagination, lack of desire for reality. Romanian Mircea Eliade is author of Yoga: Immortality and Freedom In this landmark book, first published in English in 1958, renowned scholar of religion Mircea Eliade lays the groundwork for a Western understanding of Yoga. Drawing on years of study and experience in India, Eliade provides a comprehensive survey of Yoga in theory and practice from its earliest antecedents in the Vedas through the twentieth century. t.co/IGjy3IoeH6
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 19:58:02 +0000
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