Editing Carl Jung (section)

====India====
[[File:ETH-BIB-Jung, Carl Gustav (1875-1961)-Portrait-Portr 14163 (cropped).tif|thumb|left|upright|Jung in about 1935]]
In December 1937, Jung left Zurich again for an extensive tour of India with Fowler McCormick. In India, he felt himself "under the direct influence of a foreign culture" for the first time. In Africa, his conversations had been strictly limited by the language barrier, but he could converse extensively in India. [[Hindu philosophy]] became an important element in his understanding of the role of symbolism and the life of the unconscious, though he avoided a meeting with [[Ramana Maharshi]]. He described Ramana as being absorbed in "the self". During these travels, he visited the [[Vedagiriswarar Temple]], where he had a conversation with a local expert about the symbols and sculptures on the [[gopuram]] of this temple. He later wrote about this conversation<ref>"When I visited the ancient pagoda at Turukalukundram [''sic''], southern India, a local pundit explained to me that the old temples were purposely covered on the outside, from top to bottom, with obscene sculptures, to remind ordinary people of their sexuality. The spirit, he said, was a great danger because ''Yama'', the god of death, would instantly carry off these people (the "imperfecti") if they trod the spiritual path directly, without preparation. The erotic sculptures were meant to remind them of their ''dharma'' (law), which bids them fulfil their ordinary lives. Only when they have fulfilled their dharma can they tread the spiritual path. The obscenities were intended to arouse the erotic curiosity of visitors to the temples so that they should not forget their dharma; otherwise, they would not fulfil it. Only the man who was qualified by his ''karma'' (the fate earned through works in previous existences) and who was destined for the life of the spirit could ignore this injunction with impunity, for to him, these obscenities mean nothing. That was also why the two seductresses stood at the temple entrance, luring the people to fulfill their dharma, because only in this way could the ordinary man attain higher spiritual development. And since the temple represented the whole world, all human activities were portrayed. Because most people are always thinking of sex anyway, the great majority of the temple sculptures were of an erotic nature. For this reason, too, he said, the ''lingam'' (phallus) stands in the sacred cavity of the ''adyton'' (Holy of Holies), in the ''garbha griha'' (house of the womb). This pundit was a Tantrist (scholastic; tantra = 'book')." -- C. G. Jung, from {{cite book |last=Segal |first=Rober A. |date=1992 |title=The Gnostic Jung |location=New Jersey |publisher=Princeton University Press|page=86 |isbn=978-0-691-01923-9}}</ref> in his book [[The Collected Works of C. G. Jung#Aion|Aion]].<ref>Also published in his [[The Collected Works of C. G. Jung|Collected Works]] as a footnote to paragraph 339 in chapter 7.{{cite book |last=Jung |first=Carl Gustav |date=1989 |title=Aion - Beiträge zur Symbolik des Selbst |edition=7 |series=C G Jung Gesammelte Werke |volume = 9/2 |at=para. 339 |location=Olten und Freiburg im Breisgau |publisher=Walter Verlag |isbn= 3-530-40798-4| chapter=VII-Gnostische Symbole des Selbst}}</ref> Jung became seriously ill on this trip and endured two weeks of [[delirium]] in a Calcutta hospital. After 1938, his travels were confined to Europe.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bair |first=Deirdre |title= Jung: A Biography |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-316-07665-4 |pages=417–430|publisher=Little, Brown }}</ref>