Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

INTOXICATION

A symbol of the stupefying of the lower nature by an influx of the higher nature for which it is unprepared

"And Noah began to be an husband man and planted a vineyard and he drank of the wine and was drunken" - GENESIS ix 20 21

The Self as the individuality is likened to a husbandman a cultivator of the ground or lower nature The rearing of the grape is comparable to the gaining of experience and the culture of the spiritual nature which intoxicates the lower self and renders it for a time impotent

Enter into my heart and make it drunken that I forget my wickedness and embrace Thee as my one possession say to my soul 'I am thy salvation' - ST AUGUSTINE

Lord tell me says the Servitor what remains to a blessed soul which has wholly renounced itself Truth says When the good and faithful servant enters into the joy of his Lord he is inebriated by the riches of the house of God for he feels in an ineffable degree that which is felt by an inebriated man He forgets himself he is no longer conscious of his selfhood he disappears and loses himself in God and becomes one spirit with Him as a drop of water which is drowned in a great quantity of wine For even as such a drop disappears taking the colour and the taste of wine so it is with those who are in full possession of blessedness All human desires are taken from them in an indescribable manner they are rapt from themselves and are immersed in the Divine Will If it were otherwise if there remained in the man some human thing that was not absorbed those words of Scripture which say that God must be all in all would be false His being remains but in another form in another glory and in another power And all this is the result of entire and complete renunciation - E UNDERHILL Mysticism p 507

The true wine is that which containeth the true Name Man is known as properly intoxicated when he obtaineth a place in God's court Guru Nanak - MACAULIFFE The Sikh Religion Vol I p 261

Some of the relatives of Krishna celebrated a festival in the Mountain Raivataka to which both Arjuna and Krishna went There they saw Balarama elder brother of Krishna in a state of intoxication - MON WILLIAMS Indian Wisdom p 391

At an auspicious occasion in the soul's progress the higher qualities were assembled with the indwelling Self Krishna and the disciplined personality Arjuna Balarama signifies the Individuality the same as Noah and the intoxication means the quelling of the lower self which proceeds from the Individuality the lower self being its partial and upon the imperfect manifestation lower planes

See Also

BALARAMA
BLANDISHMENTS
CRATER
DIONYSUS
DRUNKARD
GRAPES
HUSBANDMAN
NOAH
SATYRS
SILENUS
VINEYARD
WINE