Divine madness, also known as Theia mania or Crazy wisdom, is the universal phenomenon of any unconventional, outrageous, unexpected, or unpredictable behavior that is considered to be a manifestation of spiritual accomplishment.

The qualities associated with Divine madness may be seen as a means of teaching by which spiritual masters use esoteric and seemingly unspiritual methods to expand an aspirant's consciousness.^[1] Examples of Divine madness can be found in Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, Bonpo, Taoism, Shamanism, and Christianity.^[2][3]

Phenomenon

Culturally universal

June McDaniel, in her work on the divine madness of the medieval bhakti saints in Bengal, mentions multiple parallels to this phenomenon in other cultures. Plato in his Phaedrus and his ideas on theia mania, the Hasidic Jews, Eastern Orthodoxy, Western Christianity and the Sufi all bear witness to the phenomenon of divine madness.^[4]

Feuerstein lists Zen-poet Han-shan (fl. 9th century) as one of the divinely mad, explaining that when people would ask him about Zen, he would only laugh hysterically. He also counts Zen master Ikkyu (15th century), the Christian saint Isadora, and the Sufi storyteller Mulla Nasruddin among the crazy wise teachers.^[5] Other adepts that have attained "mad" mental states, according to Feuerstein, include the masts and bauls of India, and the intoxicated Sufis associated with shath.^[6]

Divine madness may also be seen in the biography, hagiography, and poetry of the Alvars. It has parallels in others religions, such as the Fools for Christ in Christianity and the Sufis (particularly Malamati) in Islam.^[7][8]

Theia mania

Theia mania (Ancient Greek: θεία μανία) is a term used by Plato and his protagonist Socrates to describe a condition of "divine madness" (unusual behavior attributed to the intervention of a god) in the Platonic dialogue Phaedrus.^[9] In this work, dating from around 370 BC, Socrates' character describes this state of divine inspiration as follows:

In such families that accumulated vast wealth were found dire plagues and afflictions of the soul, for which mania devised a remedy, inasmuch as the same was a gift from God, if only to be rightly frenzied and possessed, using proper atonement rituals." ^[10]

Plato further described Divine Madness as a gift of god, with Socrates stating in Phaedrus, "in fact the best things we have comes from madness",^[11] and expounds upon the concept in Plato's Ion.^[12] In eastern cultures, it has been deployed as a catalyst and means for the deeper understading of spiritual concepts.^[2]

The poet Virgil, in his Aeneid, describes the Delphian priestess (Pythia) as prophesying in a frenzied state:

...neither her face nor hue went untransformed; Her breast heaved; her wild heart grew large with passion. Taller to their eyes, sounding no longer mortal, she prophesied what was inspired from The God breathing near, uttering words not to be ignored.^{[citation needed]}

In the classical world, the phenomenon of "love at first sight" was understood within the context of a more general conception of passionate love, a kind of madness or, as the Greeks put it, theia mania ("madness from the gods").^[13]

Buddhism - Crazy Wisdom

In his book Crazy Wisdom, the Tibetan tülku Chögyam Trungpa describes the phenomenon of Divine madness as a process of spiritual discovery:

Instead we explore further and further and further without looking for an answer. [...] We don't make a big point or an answer out of any one thing. For example, we might think that because we have discovered one particular thing that is wrong with us, that must be it, that must be the problem, that must be the answer. No. We don't fixate on that, we go further. "Why is that the case?" We look further and further. We ask: "Why is this so?" Why is there spirituality? Why is there awakening? Why is there this moment of relief? Why is there such a thing as discovering the pleasure of spirituality? Why, why, why?" We go on deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper, until we reach the point where there is no answer. [...] At that point we tend to give up hope of an answer, or of anything whatsoever, for that matter. [...] This hopelessness is the essence of crazy wisdom. It is hopeless, utterly hopeless.^[2]

Hinduism

The theme of divine madness appears in all major traditions of Hinduism (Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism), both in its mythologies as well as its saints, accomplished mendicants and teachers.^[14] They are protrayed as if they are acting mad or crazy, challenging social assumptions and norms as a part of their spiritual pursuits or resulting thereof.^[14]

Avadhuta and the Sacred Fool

The Sannyasa Upanishads of Hinduism are Sanskrit texts that discussion monastic (sannyasa) life of Hindu sadhus (monks) and sadhvis (nuns). One category of mendicants they describe is the Avadhuta, who is antinomian. The term means "shaken off, one who has removed worldly feeling/attachments, someone who has cast off all mortal concerns". He is described as someone who is actually wise and normal, but appears to others who don't understand him as "mad, crazy". His behavior may include being strangely dressed (or naked), sleeping in cremation grounds, acting like an animal, a "lunatic" storing his food in a skull, among others.^[15][16][14]

Feuerstein frames how the term Avadhuta (Sanskrit: अवधूत avadhūta) came to be associated with the mad or eccentric holiness or "crazy wisdom" of some paramahamsa who were often "skyclad" or "naked" (Sanskrit: digambara):

The appellation "avadhuta," more than any other, came to be associated with the apparently crazy modes of behaviour of some paramahamsas, who dramatize the reversal of social norms, a behaviour characteristic of their spontaneous lifestyle. Their frequent nakedness is perhaps the most symbolic expression of this reversal.^[17]

Feuerstein equates the Avadhuta with the "sacred fool":

The crazy wisdom message and method are understandably offensive to both the secular and the conventional religious establishments. Hence crazy adepts have generally been suppressed. This was not the case in traditional Tibet and India, where the "holy fool" or "saintly madman" [and madwoman] has long been recognized as a legitimate figure in the compass of spiritual aspiration and realization. In India, the avadhuta is one who, in his [or her] God-intoxication, has "cast off" all concerns and conventional standards.^[17]

Bhakti

The bhakti tradition emerged in Hinduism in the medieval era, and in it divine madness is described as a total absorption in the divine, complete renunciation and surrender to divinity and the participation in the deity and divine pastime rather than its aping or imitation.^[18] Though the participation in the divine is generally favoured in Vaishnava bhakti discourse throughout the sampradayas rather than imitation of the divine 'play' (Sanskrit: lila), there is the important anomaly of the Vaishnava-Sahajiya sect.^[19]

See also

• Antinomianism
• Crazy like a fox
• Divine ecstasy
• Heyoka

References

Sources