Kritik am Buch „The Shadow Of The Dalai Lama ... - Neues von Shi De

All of the stories about the Maha Siddhas tell of the spectacular adventures they had to go through to
attain their goal of enlightenment (i.e., the ritual absorption of gynergy). Had they succeeded in this,
then they could refer to themselves as “masters of the maha mudra”. The number of 84 does not
correspond to any historical reality. Rather, we are dealing with a mystical number here which in
symbolizes perfection in several Indian religious systems. Four of the Maha Siddhas were women.
They all lived in India between the eighth and twelfth centuries.
The majority of these grand sorcerers came from the lower social strata. They were originally
fishermen, weavers, woodcutters, gardeners, bird-catchers, beggars, servants, or similar. The few who
were members of the higher castes — the kings, brahmans, abbots, and university lecturers — all
abandoned their privileges so as to lead the life of the mendicant wandering yogis as “drop-outs”. But
their biographies have nothing in common with the pious Christian legends — they are violent, erotic,
demonic, and grotesque. The American, Keith Dowman, stresses the rebellious character of these
unholy holy men: „Some of these Siddhas are iconoclasts, dissenters, anti-establishment rebels. [...]
Obsessive caste rules and regulations in society and religious ritual as an end in itself, were
undermined by the siddhas’ exemplary free living” (Dowman, 1985, pp. 2). Dowman explicitly refers
to their lifestyle as „spiritual anarchism” which did not allow of any control by institutionalism
(Dowman, 1985, p. 3).