The Lazzari of Naples, Ādi Śaṅkara, and the "Belly" Philosophy
An unexpected dialogue through food
Just as luminol reveals invisible traces in crime scenes, so it is for me to study Vedanta philosophy: it reveals hidden truths about existence. Not only does it reveal invisible traces, but transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, bringing forth a fluorescence of hidden meanings that would remain concealed under the normal light of reason. In this last month, while immersing myself in a varied collection of readings about Leopardi in Naples - critical essays, stories, particular insights, and even a fascinating historical novel - I found particularly inspiring, tasteful, and entertaining "Leopardi a Napoli. Tra sorbettieri, pasticcieri e seguaci della filosofia dei maccheroni" ["Leopardi in Naples. Among Ice Cream Makers, Pastry Chefs, and Followers of the Macaroni Philosophy"] by Carmine Cimmino, writer, professor, and cultural historian.
The essay masterfully explores the poet's Neapolitan period, analyzing the influence of gastronomic culture and local characters on his life and thought, offering an original perspective on the connection between his philosophy and the Neapolitan socio-cultural context. In this tangle of themes - the Lazzari (Naples' urban underclass) revolt of 1799, the influence of French sensism, and the relationship between food, language, and rebellion - my background in Vedanta exploded like a magnifying glass.
Ādi Śaṅkara and the Disguises of Ego: Why Do We Talk About "Bellies"?
Let's start with the necessary context: Ādi Śaṅkara was an Indian philosopher from the 8th century, an era when India was a crossroads of religious and philosophical traditions—from Hinduism to Buddhism, from Jainism to materialistic schools. In this complex panorama, obsessive ritualism dominated, transforming spirituality into a series of mechanical gestures emptied of meaning. Society was rigidly stratified into castes, and spiritual salvation was considered a birthright rather than an inner achievement.
In this context, Śaṅkara emerged as a revolutionary voice. Father of Advaita Vedanta (non-duality), he didn't limit himself to proposing an abstract philosophy but frontally attacked the hypocrisy of his time. Tradition narrates that while in Varanasi, observing a group of scholars losing themselves in sterile grammatical disputes without any concern for spiritual growth, he composed the “Bhaja Govindam”, a didactic hymn that is also a sharp social critique.
The verse "Jaṭilo muṇḍī luñjita keśaḥ... udara nimittam bahukṛta veśaḥ"
translates to:
"Who has ruffled hair, who is shaved, who wears yellow clothes... all these disguises serve only to fill the belly."
Śaṅkara condemns those who use spiritual symbols to hide greed or worldly hunger, who transform the search for the Absolute into a trade for sustenance. But what does this have to do with the Lazzari of Naples?
Naples 1799: Vermicelli, Revolt, and the Language That Comes from the Belly
In his essay, Cimmino masterfully reconstructs how the chaotic energy of the plebeians was a historical constant of the city. The lazzari (desperate commoners) during the Parthenopean Revolution of 1799 became a symbol of anarchic revolt, tied to physical survival. One of their sayings goes:
"'stu maccarone se magagna / guardanno 'ncielo"
["This macaroni is mistreated/looking at the sky"].
What does it mean?
Magagnare (to mistreat): is the violent act of manipulating pasta, a metaphor for attacking the bourgeoisie (the "vermicelli" symbol of the elite).
Guardanno 'ncielo (looking at the sky): alludes to anarchic freedom (the sky as the only roof) and popular spirituality (devotion to San Gennaro).
The Lazzari didn't use abstract theories: their language came from the senses, from the body, from hunger. As French sensism taught (Condillac, Helvétius), an 18th-century current that maintained that ideas derive from physical perceptions. For them, even words had to adhere to reality: no empty metaphors, only what can be touched.
The Naples That Resists: Stone and Flesh Against Dematerialization
In his illuminating essay, Cimmino writes: "Ha scritto Silvio Perrella: Ecco quello che Napoli può ancora insegnare al mondo: il tangibile, carnale, a volte spiacevole e doloroso, ma sempre guizzante e carico di misura, senso della realtà. Di fronte al dilagare della smaterializzazione del mondo, Napoli si pone come baluardo fatto di pietra, un petraio sfavillante di immaginazioni culturali." ["Silvio Perrella wrote: Here's what Naples can still teach the world: the tangible, carnal, sometimes unpleasant and painful, but always darting and full of measure, sense of reality. Faced with the spread of world dematerialization, Naples stands as a bulwark made of stone, a rocky terrain sparkling with cultural imaginations."]
This resistance of the tangible against the abstract deeply resonates with the lazzari's struggle and, paradoxically, with Vedanta's teachings about the need to not mask reality with veils of hypocrisy.
This intersection between Indian philosophy, sensism, and Neapolitan history reveals an uncomfortable truth: We study Advaita to transcend the world, but it's precisely the world—with its bellies, its vermicelli, and the blood on the cobblestones—that reminds us that all spirituality, to avoid being a disguise, must start from below.
It's in this carnal authenticity, in this resistance of the tangible against the dematerialization of the real, that perhaps lies the deepest lesson: the one that Śaṅkara tried to teach by unmasking false ascetics in India, and that Naples continues to embody in its "darting and full of measure sense of reality," where truth doesn't hide in abstractions but pulses in lived life.
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