Saundarya Lahari
Saundarya Lahari
SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 32
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VERSE 32
KAULA MONOMARKS
STRUCTURAL UNITS AND MONOMARKS, WHICH ARE CHARACTERS AS WELL AS FIGURES
शिवः शक्तिः कामः क्षिति-रथ रविः शीतकिरणः
स्मरो हंसः शक्र-स्तदनु च परा-मार-हरयः ।
अमी हृल्लेखाभि-स्तिसृभि-रवसानेषु घटिता
भजन्ते वर्णास्ते तव जननि नामावयवताम्
shivas saktih kamah ksitaratha ravis sitakiranah
smaro hamsas sakras tadanu ca para maraharayah
ami hrlekhabhis tisrbhir vavasanesu ghatita
bhajante varnas te tava janani namavayavatam
Shiva, Parvati, Eros and earth, sun, moon,
God of Love, Swan and Indra; Para, Mara and Hari
With these three sets, with their heart monomarks suffixed
They adore your letters, o Mother, by way of naming your component limbs.
Some clarifications will be needed before the reader can enter into the spirit and full implications of Verses 32 through 35. We know that there were two schools of Tantrism, called the Kaulins and the Samayins. The Kaulins were primarily interested in cultivating a form of absolutist delight or enjoyment through what they understood to be the ontological approach to the absolute source of all delight. Those who practiced this kind of eroticism were not necessarily influenced by the Vedas. They belonged to the ordinary stratum of society. Eating meat, drinking wine of some sort and having sex experiences were to be taken for granted in their lives. They did not feel any guilt in such matters. The Kaula School had two main divisions called Purva Kaula and Uttara Kaula. Purva Kaulins emphasized ontology more than Uttara Kaulins. We could imagine further subdivisions between them. In both, an actual girl of good family was a necessary item in their ritualistic orgies, often conducted secretly in the basements of neglected temples. Although their starting philosophy was something concrete and tangible, they made every effort to rise from Yantra to Mantra through the medium or means of Tantra.
In the South Indian school of Tantra, there is a convention of distinguishing divinities by certain syllables such as ha, sa, ka, la, hrim, srim, aim and klim. By convention, each of these syllables stands for a devata, which is a divinity with a special function within the structural dynamic setup of the technique of Tantra, Yantra and Mantra combined, well known by the overall, though rather vague, term of Tantra.
In the ritual worship of the Kaulins, letters of the alphabet brought to their minds images of these phenomenal functionaries (devatas) in the universe, in theological, cosmological or psychological terms. The first line of Verse 32 lists three distinct sets of such divinities.
The letter Ka represents Shiva, the letter E represents Shakti, I represents Kama, the god of love, and La represents ksiti, the earth. These four form the first group.
Then Sun (ravi) as Ka, Moon (sitakirana) as Sa, smara (the god of love) as Ka, swan (hamsa) as Ha and Indra as La, form the second group.
The third group consists of Sa, Ka and La which represent Para, Mara and Hari respectively.
When we suffix the letter Hrim (in Sanskrit, "hrim" is written with one character or letter. ED), which represents the heart centre, to each of these three groups, it is easy to recognize the favourite conventional fifteen-lettered Mantra belonging to the Adi Vidya called the Pancadasaksari Mantra, which is made up of three sets: Ka, E, I, La, Hrim; Ha, Sa, Ka, La, Hrim; Sa, Ka, La, Hrim. Thus we get a charm of fifteen divinities strung together into an imaginary rosary, and indicated by letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. If the divinities are used as monomarks for purposes of taxonomy, we could also say that the syllables stand for the same divinities understood nominalistically rather than realistically.
It is true that sometimes the sixteen-lettered Sadasaksari Mantra is also conventionally understood. The sixteenth letter is supposed to be a secret one, summing up or cancelling out into a total value having an absolutist status. This final touch cannot be imparted except by a personal guru, acting as an intermediary. This must be due to its very abstract epistemological status. Pancadasaksari Mantra and Sadasaksari Mantra both stand for the same tendency to use letters of the alphabet to represent devatas or divinities, each of whom has his own function in the total setup of the absolute Divinity or principle of beauty. We do not propose to enter into the intricacies of such esoteric technicalities, of which there is no end. The reader is referred to other esoteric books such as the Shakta Upanisads and the Shivananda Lahari, both published by the Theosophical Publishing House.
This particular school of Kaulins, by intending to bring into proper perspective this total setup within the structure of the Absolute, could be said to be traveling from the "Universal Concrete", as in the actual girl involved in the ritual, to the utmost limit of nominalism, by attempting to raise themselves through aksara. Aksara means values resulting from the fusion of alpha and omega in the alphabet of any language; A being the starting vowel and Ksa being the last consonant in Sanskrit. Aksamala means a rosary of beads which, when understood in the context of Rudra (Shiva), is called a rudraksa mala. In Verse 33 also, the same kind of values are strung together into two rosary-like formations: one as an actual rosary of beads and another as a rosary of oblations of clarified butter derived from the celestial cow.
In this verse we can see clearly how Sankara is thinking of this Pancadasaksari Mantra of the Sri Vidya. The tendency of the Kaula Tantra, as we have said, is to ascend from the realistic upward towards the nominalistic, with iconographic divinities used as monomarks which have corresponding lettered syllable combinations with a one-to-one correspondence between the monomarks and the names more symbolically understood. Evidently the pre-Vedic Kaula School of erotic Tantrism is the subject of this verse. For Sankara, the overall purpose or raison d'etre of this kind of Kaula Tantrism is to meditate realistically on the Goddess of Absolute Beauty: first with monomarks, and finally with names applied to each element that might contribute to the beauty significance that the Devi is here meant to represent. It is important to give a name as well as a function to each component element so that the totality might effectively loom into the contemplation of the worshipper, whatever school he might accidentally belong to. Even a wrong worship could be made right by the light of its correct intentionality, according to the Bhagavad Gita (IX:29 - 31). God accepts everything according to the calibre of the person involved. The attitude concerning worship is a catholic one. A man is saved by his intentions only; for his actions in this world may not have amounted to anything, due to uncontrollable circumstances.
The three sets of devatas in this verse have each to have the syllable Hrim suffixed. The heart is the centre, which is both a monomark and also something that can be understood by a syllable. It is easy to see the need for suffixing the heart monomark, because the heart refers back to the self at the centre of one's own consciousness, to which all things must refer. When we add the letter M at the end of a syllable like Hrim, we are reminded of the syllable Aum, which also ends in M. The letter A of Aum is an open sound; the letter U is a half-open sound; while the letter M is fully closed. The syllable composed of these three letters suggests the base, sides and apex of a triangle respectively, within the totality called Absolute Beauty or Absolute Value-Significance in human life. We are asked in this verse to recognize three rosary-like garlands adorning the totality of the structure of the Goddess. Between the open syllable and the closed syllable there is implied a cancellation between horizontal and vertical values. When we are able to place properly the three sets indicated, as complete garlands within the total frame of reference represented by the Devi here, we could be expected to have understood Her complete value under three main sets of categories, making up fifteen elements, each based on monomarks and spelled out by letters of the alphabet.
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Bhagavad Gita, IX,
29
I (regard) all beings equally. To Me there is none hateful
or dear. They however who worship with devotion, they are
in Me and I too am in them.
30
Even if one of very evil actions should worship Me with a
devotion exclusive of all else, he should be accounted to be good
all the same merely by the fact that he has a properly settled
determination
31
Instantaneously he becomes established in his own right
nature and enters into eternal peace. Believe Me in all
confidence, 0 Son of Kunti (Arjuna), that one affiliated
to Me with fidelity knows no destruction.
In this verse, we have three sets of monomarks with limbs, as related to the heart.
(The Guru uses the word "monomark" to mean something like the use of letters of the alphabet to identify points etc. in geometry eg.: "The line L joining the two points A and B". ED)
Shiva shaktihi kamaha - Shiva, Parvati, Eros
Kshitih atah Ravih - the Earth, then the Sun
Hamsa shakraha - swan and Indra
Para mara harayah - Para, Mara and Hari
Ami hre lekha bhih tisr bhih - with the three heart monomarks
Avasan eshu - at their terminals
Ghatitah bhajante - they adore as joined
Varnaste - these letters (monomarks)
Tava janani - as Yours, o Mother
Namavayavatam - they worship
You can schematize and generalize the Devi, using letters as monomarks for each of the schematic sections.
This is taxonomy - a nomenclature of categories structurally understood and named with letters for each - in groups of three, punctuated by hrim (heart).
The whole of Beauty is contained in the totality of "Your component limbs".
To keep them all in mind, the factors are given letters as monomarks, then placed in Mantras corresponding to figure-8's - this is Sankara's revaluation. This is the Dravidian approach.
Rituals with yantras and recitation of mantras.
The dynamisms between the elements named in groups of three form figures-of-8, horizontally and vertically.
An example of degenerate religiosity - animal sacrifice.
Hamsa and Sakra, Para and Mara, Hari and the Hri-Lekhas".
This verse is concerned with numerology and nominalism.
(In this verse, Sankara is revising and revaluing the Tantric use of these "Bija Mantras" which are used as monomarks in their rituals. To a certain extent, they are a kind of schematism or structuralism. Each of these syllables is a meaning signifier or "sememe". A sememe (from Greek σημαίνω (sēmaínō), meaning "mean, signify") is a semantic language unit of meaning, correlative to a morpheme. The concept is relevant in structural semiotics. A sememe is a proposed unit of transmitted or intended meaning; it is atomic or indivisible. ED)
crystals, conics, plane, solid and analytic geometry, 3-dimensional space, structural space, crystalline structure in chemistry, flower structure in biology, colour language, colour harmony, letters and numbers.
Numerology, semantics, mathematics etc. can all be seen in terms of the quaternion structure.
This quaternion structure, as a normative reference form, will lead man from discovery to discovery.
सर्वं ह्येतद् ब्रह्मायमात्मा ब्रह्म सोऽयमात्मा चतुष्पात् ॥ २ ॥
sarvaM hyetad brahmAyamAtmA brahma so.ayamAtmA chatuShpAt ||2||
Everything here (sarvaM etad) is certainly (hi) (brahma). This Atman (ayam AtmA) is brahman (brahma). This very Atman (saH ayam AtmA), is four-limbed (chatuShpad = chatur + pAda). ED)
Knowledge of the structure of the mind helps man to keep from making mistakes in speculation.
This verse is concerned with taxonomy, as also with the science of sounds in semantics; it is concerned with determining meaning.
Semantics, cybernetics, and logic: these are all various components, combining with logic, which go to make up structuralism.
Microcosm and Macrocosm are dialectically related.
Planck and Einstein, concerned with particles and galaxies respectively, still use the same structure.
Narayana Guru said a universe is contained in a particle of dust and many particles of dust make up the universe.
(Now we will be going into a treatment somewhat akin to the Pythagorean Tetraktys and numerology.)
(The tetraktys is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row, which is the geometrical representation of the fourth triangular number. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the secret worship of the Pythagoreans. ED)
This is nominalism in excelsis.
(Nominalism is a metaphysical view in philosophy according to which general or abstract terms and predicates exist, while universals or abstract objects, which are sometimes thought to correspond to these terms, do not exist. ED)
Pierre Abelard was a nominalist philosopher, the lover of his student, Heloïse, and who was castrated by her relatives because of it.
Heloise asked him to show her at least the attention he gives other disciples.
He was a nominalist: Vedanta is also nominalist.
Taxonomy is the science of giving names - of nomenclature.
Kratylos is the chapter of Plato's "Republic" which deals with names.
See St. Thomas Aquinas on the origin of divine names.
This verse deals with nominalism - the giving of names to the various aspects or limbs of the Devi.
Another version:
- Shiva, Shakti, Kama (vertical, horizontal, desire)
- Earth, then Sun (enumerating a list of nominalistic factors)
- The cold-rayed one (the moon)
- Vishnu
- Swan (Hamsa)
- Sakra
- Para, Mara, Hari
- These triple heart-marks (4, 5, 3, divided into 3 sets)
- At their terminal points
- As joined they meditate (they meditate as joined)
- These consonants
- For you they become, o Mother (of the Universe)
- By way of name
The twelve items named have to be divided into three sections - not necessarily 4, 5, 3 - this is the pundit's idea.
These are the names of the components of the Devi: Shiva, Shakti, Kama and Kshiti, Sita-Kirana, Smara, Hamsa, Sakra, Para, Mara and Hari.
2) Shakti
3) Kama
Sun
Moon
Earth
4) Kshiti
5) Ravi
6) Sita-Kirana
7) Smara
8) Hamsa
9) Sakra
10) Para
11) Mara
12) Hari
These are tentative divisions.
They are divided into three distinct sets; the exact division into sets is not imporant.
In every country, one philosopher gets an idea about nominalism, for example, and other unqualified men try to explain it.
Each philosopher will use categories which have a name and a structural position.
So, the Devi twelve limbs: the Guru arranges them in his own way.
These twelve names are all monomarks.
This is Nominalism.
Whatever way you group these, it really does not matter.
There are three groups, punctuated between them with hrim (means "heart") - a heartbeat.
"Renormalization" means naming the categories schematically.
This is a renormalized taxonomic nomenclature using monomarks for ensembles.
Three ensembles are mentioned here, they have to be placed properly in the structure.
Another version:
- Shiva, Parvati, Eros (Shiva, Shakti, Kama)
- The Earth, then the Sun
- The Moon and the God of Love (Smara)
- Swan (pure spirit), Indra (powerful god)
- The ultimate source thereafter
- The tempting factor and the saving Vishnu (Marah, Harih)
- With the three heart monomarks
- Suffixed
- As united they adore
- The letters these
- Yours, o Mother
- As names for your component limbs
Ravih (sun), Moon, Smara, Powerful God, Hamsah, Para (source), Maraha (temptation),
Hari - The negative side of the vertical axis.
This is a picture of the total mathematical world.
"They adore" refers to the relativistic Kaulins who worship the Devi.
Sankara is telling them that this is the proper way to use Tantra Shastra to adore the Devi.
There are three ensembles, their components being the elements or "limbs" of the Devi.
This must be the underworld, and Sankara has entered into it in order to revise it.
He has taken an element of Tantra Shastra and brushed it up.
He is putting order into the Kaulist religion.
There is no distinction between man and woman, both are together in one seed.
There are two value factors: numerator beads and denominator ghee (clarified butter, used as offering).
Bring in double correction, back-to-back, the Upanishadic bird whose head is light and whose tail is Brahman, whose right wing is one thing, and the left wing another.
Also bring in some other attempts to show the same thing as is being presented in this verse; the hanged man of the Tarot etc.
What is the methodology? Examine the epistemology. Distinguish properly the lines (structure), and the names (categories) for branches of knowledge.
c.f. Bourbaki, de Broglie, de Touche Ferrière etc.
The Goddess is the totality of the Absolute.
What you ask for, you receive.
There are heart monomarks: all of them meet in the heart.
Each drop of ghee is a bead.
2) Ha Sa Ka Ha La Hrim
3) Sa Ka La Hrim
Ha is Hara
Hrim is the heart
After each series, the hrileka (hrim) is attached, making three garlands.
Maha bhoga rasikaa (...seekers of great enjoyment...) - enjoyment - Lakshmi, Yoni, Eros.
The Kaulins are non-Brahmins.
"Naming Her component limbs..." (? ED)
Water is feminine
Together they cause fecundation.
There is a circle of peripheral letters, with the heart in the middle.
Visible monomarks and letter monomarks.
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1) Set - Vakbhava - all prosperity at a hypostatic level.
2) Set - Kama - the horizontal level of desire.
3) Set - Shakti - brings into being.
(We cannot discover the precise meaning of "Vakbhava". "Bhava" has several meanings, "god" being the most likely here. "Vak" is the Sanskrit word for "speech", from a verbal root vac- "speak, tell, utter". Personified, Vāk is a goddess, often known as Vak Devi; in the Veda she is also represented as created by Prajapati and married to him; in other places she is called the "mother of the Vedas" and the wife of Indra. In Hinduism, she is identified with Bharati or Sarasvati. We are not sanskritists, so we are probably missing something obvious. ED)
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some worshippers (Kaulins) think of three sets of Devatas (gods) and try to understand Your limbs and give them names:
Hrim, Klim etc. - they end in "M" like a triangle.
"Limbs" means the total structure is important - the limbs are given certain names.
The gods are used as monomarks (devatas): all are placed as small pictures on certain Chakras or Yantras - they denote relationships - mesure mesurante and mesure mesurée (these are not to be confused).
Names also are given, as in algebra and geometry one uses letters, e.g. "The line X, between points A and B"; one is visible and one invisible or numerical - Kshara and Akshara.
You can use both, but do not mix them.
dvav imau purushau loke
ksharas chi 'kshara eva cha
ksharah sarvani bhutani
kutastho 'kshara uchyate
There are two Persons in the world, the Changing and the
Changeless; the Changing comprises all beings, and the
mysteriously-fixed is called the Changeless.
ED)
Do not mix:
- substance with thinking
- thinking with subject
- Kshetra with Kshetrajna (the Field with the Knower of the Field).
(Ksetra-ksetrajna: the Field and knower of the Field. The Field or ground can be psychological or spiritual as well as actual. These terms correspond to the actual and perceptual aspects of reality. The entire Chapter XIII of the Bhagavad Gita is devoted to this discussion, and the distinction between these two aspects of field and knower, in itself constitutes one of the central problems of philosophy. ED)
The Samayins relate Tantra with Gayatri Mantra: the Kaulins use other Mantras.
Shiva, Shakti, Eros - one group, the Samayins, is Brahminical Vedism; the other, the Kaulins, is South Indian
- both are Mahabhogis (great enjoyers).
Each garland has "Hrim" (heart) linked to it. It originates in the heart.
"Charm" = mantra
The charm can be the Absolute Principle of Beauty.
Lesser benefits are also conferred by the Devi.
The lesser benefit does not contradict the greater.
O lone and eternal one, innumerable seekers of great enjoyments
Adore you, telling beads of philosophers' stone, ever sacrificing into the fire of Shiva
By hundreds of streaks of clarified butter oblations from the celestial cow.
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The Devi brings down.
2nd set - the horizontal level of desire - KAMA
3rd set - brings into being - SHAKTI
SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 33
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI
SAMAYIN MONOMARKS
GARLANDS OF MONOMARKS
IN VERSES 33 TO 35, THE ADHARA IS THE RESULT
OF THE CANCELLATION OF COUNTERPARTS
VERSE 33
STRUCTURAL DYNAMISM STUDIED WITH MONOMARKS
स्मरं योनिं लक्ष्मीं त्रितय-मिद-मादौ तव मनो
र्निधायैके नित्ये निरवधि-महाभोग-रसिकाः ।
भजन्ति त्वां चिन्तामणि-गुणनिबद्धाक्ष-वलयाः
शिवाग्नौ जुह्वन्तः सुरभिघृत-धाराहुति-शतै
smaram yonim lakshmim tritayam idam adau tava manor
nidhayake nitye niravadhi mahabhogarasikah
bhajanti tvam cintamani gunani baddhaksavalayasa
sivagnau juhvantas surabhigrtaa dharahutisataih
Eros, Source, Wealth; this triplet placing first within your charm
O lone and eternal one, innumerable seekers of great enjoyments
Adore you, telling beads of philosophers' stone, ever sacrificing into the fire of Shiva
By hundreds of streaks of clarified butter oblations from the celestial cow.
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It is not difficult to see that this verse is dealing with the Samayins, as there is reference to the sacred cow (kamadhenu) and the Vedic ritual of the fire sacrifice (shivagni). We are called upon to use two degrees of abstraction in order to grasp the meaning of the situation described. We have to think of thousands of spoonfuls of ghee (clarified butter), derived from a celestial cow, being poured as offerings into a fire.
In performing this ritual act, the spoon, which contains the ghee, circles a thousand times in the hands of the Vedic votary. When abstracted, this circulation will resemble a rosary, but with the ghee as its value factor instead of the usual rosary such as one made of rudraksa beads, which is natural to the context of Shiva worship. As noted previously, the word aksa is made up of the first and last letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. An aksamala is a rosary, with the help of which votaries of divinities - whether in India or elsewhere - repeat mystical syllables, each representing a divinity, symbol or monomark. Instead of the A and Ksha, we could think of Alpha and Omega. An aksamala then, can be seen as a rosary consisting of some sacred items of value in the form of a "universal concrete", but derived from letters or syllables made up of signs of the alphabet. The first and the last, when fused together, would represent a value resulting from the reciprocal cancellation of counterparts.
If Verse 32 was nominalistic in its intention to name the various limbs of the Goddess in order to understand her both realistically and in an abstract form; then Verse 33 tends to be hedonistic rather than nominalistic.
Ancient Vedism was characterized by its love of the "good life". The drinking of Soma juice and the sacrificing of calves to propitiate one god or another was a natural form of behaviour to the Aryans. Later Vedism, however, began to eschew the infliction of suffering (himsa) and the shedding of blood as impure and unvirtuous. The Buddhist and Jaina doctrine of ahimsa (non-hurting) must have had its share in shaping this revised way of life through the ages.
Whatever their historical origin might be, Brahmins of the present day, at least in South India, do not lend their support to those items which are distinguished as the vamachara (left-handed) features of Tantrism. As a dialectical revaluator, Sankara evidently wishes to recognize the claims of both the Samayins and the Kaulins by treating them as representative rival schools and accepting what is laudable in each of them, so as to present them both without partiality, but in a form slightly revalued and restated. By this unitive approach, both these forms of prevailing spirituality can be brought into line with his own fully Advaitic standpoint. The Bhagavad Gita even speaks of the Vedas as being under the sway of the three Gunas (traigunya visaya veda) (II: 45).
Hedonism, relativism, ritualism and negativism are not defects in themselves, but they are capable of being revised in the name of a fully unitive absolutist standpoint. Clarified butter and the wish-fulfilling cow of heaven, kamadhenu, are natural to the Brahminical world of values. Pouring ghee into a "Shiva-fire" instead of into a "Brahman-fire" is to be understood as a slight concession made in this verse to the Shiva-Shakti context of South India, to which Tantrism must necessarily belong. There is no Tantrism that can be called purely Vedic and the conflict between Vedism and Tantrism is clearly evident in many parts of the pre-Vedic literature, as revealed in the writings of Sir John Woodroffe and others. Verse 32 represents an ascending movement from the actual or "universal concrete" to nominalism through conventional syllables applied to divinities used as monomarks, in the interest of taxonomy or nomenclature of the various aspects of the Goddess, as is usual in Tantrism.
Conversely the movement in Verse 33 is clearly one of descent from the value represented by the celestial cow toward actual benefits here on earth, in the name of bhoga, or enjoyment. By clarifying or enhancing the path of hedonism, Sankara here refers to bhoga in revised terms, as mahabhoga (great enjoyment), as seen elsewhere in Vedantic literature, such as the "Yoga Vasishta".
If bhoga is derogatory, mahabhoga is not so, because the word maha (great) lifts its meaning to a status sub specie aeternitatis, or "within the scope of the eternal", thus taking away any stigma that might be attached to enjoyment as a brute reality in life. In other words, mahabhoga is not to be treated as just bhoga. Verses 32 through 35, when read together in the structural perspective we are presenting, reveal two opposite movements between positive and negative counterparts in the context of the scrutiny, analytic or synthetic, of the same high value of absolute beauty which is always the subject matter or object matter of these verses. When we give primacy to effect, as in Verse 34, a new element is introduced into beauty. When we give primacy to cause, as in Verse 35, our reference is to the source of all things, already existing in the past.
The reference in the second half of Verse 35 is to a simple wife of Shiva, although it is to be understood in the light of the rightful dignity of an eternal feminine principle. We find that the body of Shiva referred to in Verse 34 has the epithet "new" applied to it. By this attribute, one has to understand that it refers to the effect side and not to the cause side of the total situation.
The double movement in these four verses taken together will be progressively abolished in purer epistemological terms of non-dual cancellation. In the coming verses, which refer to the actual Chakras, such as Ajña and so on, we will find the principles of compensation, reciprocity and complementarity (or milder forms of ambivalence and parity) presented in a certain epistemological and methodological sequence by Sankara. Verses 32 through 35 are meant to reveal the structural dynamism before the same stands revealed in its fully revalued Advaitic form, from Verse 36 onward.
Samaya is the conventional name applied to the Vedic Goddess as implied in the revised Tantric context, while the term Kaula would suggest a more popular approach to the Tantrism of pre-Vedic times. On final analysis, whether we employ an ascending or a descending dialectical approach, it is the same Sri Chakra that is implied in both the movements, positive and negative. Advaita Vedanta does not admit of any duality between part and whole, cause and effect, substance and attribute. Unitive vision, at whatever level, refers to one and the same Brahman. All references to higher and lower Brahman have to be left behind when the doctrine is to be stated in its finalized form.
What is gained on one side is lost on the other, as between immanent and transcendent values, leaving behind a constant always to be understood under the aegis of the same absolute self-hood. Neither epistemological, methodological nor axiological duality is to be allowed to taint, even in the least, the status of the non-dual Absolute. This is required by Sankara's position as an Advaita Vedantin.
Narayana Guru endorses this in Verse 60 of his Atmopadesa Satakam:
"Even when knowledge to egoism is subject in any predication
And one is unmindful of the ultimate verity of what is said,
Yet as with the truth however ultimate, such knowledge
Can never fall outside the scope of the knowing self."
The language of abstraction and generalisation has various degrees and dimensions, always within the scope of the four states of consciousness as described in the Mandukya Upanishad - the gross, the subtle, the causal and the "fourth" (sthula, suksma, karana, turiya).
Hedonistic motives might be reprehensible ordinarily, but as we have pointed out already, the qualification maha added to bhoga rasikah, which all together means : "lovers of great delights", absolves the devotee from any charge of hedonism. Also, when the duality between ends and means is abolished, his worship becomes at least as dignified as the kind of worship envisaged in the previous verse.
In these two verses, 32 and 33, Sankara succeeds in revaluing and restating both the Kaulin and Samayin ways of worship without detracting anything from either of them, by giving them their full status in the light of the intentionality natural to Advaita Vedanta. If intentions are good, the actions themselves have also necessarily to be good , according to the doctrine of the Bhagavad Gita (IX:31). There Krishna says: "My disciple will never perish, because his intentions are good". This doctrine of grace is the most touching thing a god can say to a human being. This is not found in Buddhism. If you are dedicated to Brahman (the Absolute), ends and means will cancel out by your intention.
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Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II
45
traigunya vishaya veda
nistraigunyo bhava 'rjuna
nirdvandvo nitya sattvastho
niryogakshema atmavan
The Veda treats of matters related to the three
gunas (modalities of nature); you should he free
from these three modalities 0 Arjuna; free from
(relative) pairs of opposites, established ever in
pure being, without any yoga (discipline) or well-
being (as dual factors, but remain) one (unitively)
Self-possessed (atmavan).
Bhagavad Gita, IX,
31
kshipram bhavati dharmatma
sasvachchhantim nigachchhati
kaunteya pratijanihi
na me bhaktah pranasyati
Instantaneously he becomes established in his own right
nature and enters into eternal peace. Believe Me in all
confidence, 0 Son of Kunti (Arjuna), that one affiliated
to Me with fidelity knows no destruction.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
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Smaram yonim lakshmim - Eros, source, wealth
Tritayam idam - this triplet
Adau tava mano nidhaya - placing first within Your charm
Eke nitye - o lone and eternal one
Niravadhi maha bhoga rasikah - innumerable seekers of great enjoyment
Bhajante tvam - they worship You
Chintamani gunani baddhaksha vilayhi - telling rosaries of philosopher's stone
Shiva agnau - into the fire of Shiva
Juhvantaha - ever sacrificing
Surabhi ghrta dhara ahuti shataihi - by hundreds of streaks of clarified butter oblations from the celestial cow (Surabhi)
The ritualistic Vedic worshippers go to the Denominator, worshipping the Numerator with the milk of Kamadhenu, the celestial cow.
The Agnihotra (fire-sacrifice) is for enjoyers of life (Vedic Brahmins).
This Brahmin described in this verse wants maha bhoga (great enjoyment), making hundreds of offerings and always telling beads.
Maha bhoga is great enjoyment; if the ritualist has attained maha bhoga, then he is not all bad.
Maha bhoga is Absolute. Put the Numerator and the Denominator together.
The message of this verse could be described as: "How to be a Vedic ritualist on Absolutist lines."
Certain ones, o Eternal One, those who are capable of enjoying endless happiness, they serve you - as if they possess a rosary string of valuable gems (a value-string of gems from contemplation).
In the fire of Shiva, they are sacrificing the ghee (clarified butter), which is made from the milk of Kama Dhenu, the wish-fulfilling celestial cow.
Make a bursting flash of light in praise of the Absolute.
Certain people think there is a difference between Vedism and the esoterics of South India.
They amount to the same thing in the totality of the Absolute.
This is a kind of mocking: "some people" are not approved of by Sankara.
Those who tell beads are doing the same thing as those who pour ghee into the fire.
Both of them are hedonistic ritualists seeking enjoyment.
The Vedic context has a wish-fulfilling cow, Kamadhenu, bestowing benefits (milk) from the negative hierophantic side.
The negative side is the side of Necessities - it is the ghee from this cow that is referred to.
Then there is a garland of beads, each bead being the result of Kaulist speculation - representing a string of values.
This is not Vedic. Their speculations are on the Absolute.
Each bead represents a value in the Absolute.
But each kind of devotee is concerned with benefits - in terms of a graded set of values. They are concerned with some joy or other.
He damns both with faint praise, indicating that both are hedonistic and relativistic.
The Guru tells the story of the son of a servant woman who went to a guru and said that he did not know the name of his father, and the cart-driver sage who called the king a sudra (low caste person). (This reference is obscure, except inasmuch as it is meant to illustrate the unimportance of caste. ED)
Sankara contrasts both the Vedic worshippers and the Kaulists against those who realize the totality of the Absolute.
shrim - Lakshmi
hrim - Feminine source, (unclear in the original. ED)
Another version:
- Eros and feminine source (or female organ)
- Lakshmi (goddess of wealth)
- These triple factors
- First into your mantra placing ("aim", "shrim", "hrim")
- O eternal (one)
- Many enjoyers of great benefits (enjoyments, boons) (there are many who place these first in mantras)
- They praise you (by the telling of beads with syllables as above)
- With collections of philosopher's stones strung on a rosary (they pass in review various grades of values)
(She is the eternal Goddess)
(These values are at least strung together, he is thinking of integrating all the values together as eternal)
(Guru withdraws the charge of sarcasm in this verse)
- Into the fire of Shiva (as a numerator aspect)
- Sacrificing ( the act of pouring ghee)
- Ghee of Kamadhenu (the cow who gives unending milk)
- Streak (unbroken) (indicates a never-ending function)
- In a hundred acts of sacrificial offerings. (forming a streak)
(why a streak? Because they are strung together, as a string of beads are strung together.)
He is saying that one is just as orthodox as the other. Do not make a distinction based on superiority.)
Lingam worship or puja.
Both sides are thinking of a hundred values which are united into one value (which is the Absolute. ED).
One side is numerator, and the other side is denominator.
Because of the word "maha" the Guru retracts all of the commentary up to the word-for-word translation.
But, without "maha" which indicates that the totality is recognized, then we would have relativism and hedonism.
The phenomenal world of waves on the ocean can be cancelled with the noumenal side of the world.
This verse provides a Vedic Numerator for a Kaulist Denominator.
Kama Dhenu is the appropriate numerator to cancel with - it is of the same quality or status in the Vedic context as the denominator rituals of the Kaulins.
So, Sankara is correcting a one-sided approach.
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Layer 2 - Vedas (Kama Dhenu)
Layer 3 - Nitya ("eternal") (Vedanta, thinking)
Layer 4 - Maha Bhogya, the Absolute, absolute enjoyment.
A worshipper goes through four stages, from Kaulin to Vedic, to Vedantic speculation, to Absolute Maha Bhogya (great enjoyment)..
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The fire of Smara is horizontal.
Kamadhenu, the heavenly gift-giving cow, provides the corrective touch to avoid a break in the continuous flow of culture.
Sankara stands for the synthesis of all forms of worship or ritualism into one culture.
Pouring ghee one hundred times is the same as telling one hundred rosary beads.
These are particular instances of worship in general.
Eros must be placed on the horizontal because he is real.
Another version:
- Eros, Source, Wealth (principles) (Smaram, Yonim, Lakshmim)
- This triplet
- Placing first as your mantra (charm) (numerator)
- O, one and eternal (eke nitye)
- Innumerable great enjoyers of benefits
- Adore you
- With rosary strung together with philosopher's stone beads
- Into the fire of Shiva
- Sacrificing (offering into the fire)
- Hundreds of streaks of oblations from the heavenly cow
Here again there is a cancellation with the two sides held together in the source at the centre.
Put the three words in your charm, "O lone and eternal one.."
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Attaining to pure Vedanta is like having the philosophers' stone. (Everything turns into gold (the highest value). ED).
The Brahmin keeps on praising the Devi with Numerator mantras and pouring Denominator ghee to get benefits from her.
"Mahabhogya" - the greatest delight is copulation.
Thus there is participation between Numerator and Denominator at the O Point.
They are continually praising and ever-sacrificing, meaning that they are sub specie aeternitatis, or under the aegis of the Absolute.
Sankara is telling us how to make the Vedic ensemble acceptable: "Try to include all and exclude none".
The Gita tradition accepts worship in all forms.
Note the overlapping levels of abstraction and generalization:
from stone to spoon to cow to ghee to beads to letters to mantras.
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(All values, from the taste of a banana to the joy of the Absolute, have their place on a vertical scale of values, from the most negative and concrete to the most abstract and numerator. Cancellation takes place at every level between the Self and the non-Self, and cancellation is cancellation, at whatever level. ED)
Show a man meditating with a rosary on the Numerator, and an Agnihotram (fire sacrifice) and a cow on the Denominator: there are two circulations, merging into a greater over-all circulation. The Maha Bhogi (great enjoyer) thus involved, even unconsciously, participates in the over-all value. Karma and Jnana (wisdom and action) are put together without contradiction.
Abolish the cow and the rosary, and let the flame come into the forefront, then show magenta glory and a repetition of the theme.
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Laksmi and Eros are on the numerator side.
Wealth (Lakshmi)
Source
Eros
Lakshmi.
Kama Deva (Eros) tempting Shiva by firing his arrow.
Kama Deva.
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"Seekers adore you..."
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Sankara recognizes this attitude but damns it with faint praise.
These are the dynamics of hedonistic ritual.
A figure-8 is produced from the cow - it is eternal enjoyment.
VERSE 33 - Maha Bhoga (great enjoyment) - acting under the aegis of the Absolute and sacrificed into the fire.
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 34
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI
VERSE 34
A VERTICAL PARTICIPATION
CANCELLATION AT THE HYPOSTATIC LEVEL
THE RECIPROCITY OF BODIES
शरीरं त्वं शम्भोः शशि-मिहिर-वक्षोरुह-युगं
तवात्मानं मन्ये भगवति नवात्मान-मनघम् ।
अतः शेषः शेषीत्यय-मुभय-साधारणतया
स्थितः सम्बन्धो वां समरस-परानन्द-परयोः
sariram tvam samboh sasimihira vaksorhayugam
tavatmanam manye bhagavati navatmanam anagham
atah sesas sesity ayam ubhayasadharanataya
sthitas sambandho vam samarasa parananda parayoh
You are the body of Shiva, having Sun and Moon for twin breasts,
Yourself, I surmise Goddess, as a new sinless self;
Therefore, by mutual complementarity, the relation remains one of common reciprocity
Between you two, participating on equal terms of transcendent bliss.
Verses 34 and 35 require a special epistemological and methodological approach before they could make sense to the modern reader. It is only in the light of modern phenomenology, or of intentionality as understood in the philosophy of Brentano, that we can give even a barely justifiable meaning to these two verses. Phenomenological terms like "noetic", "noematic" and "eidetic presentiment" are the only notions in modern philosophy which resemble the treatment that Sankara adopts here. There are different degrees of abstraction and generalization implied when we represent an object, pronounce a judgement on it, or evaluate it. Shiva, as understood here, is only a thin, mathematically understood entity, without any concrete or tangible body of his own. The very first verse of this work presupposes this, when it states that Shiva is incapable even of pulsation without being joined with his own counterpart, Shakti. If mathematics has a teleological status at the positive limit of the vertical parameter, then ontology could be said to mark a point lower down in the vertical scale of intentions or values. Viewed in the light of such a perspective, there is no duplication or conflict between any rival bodies, as between those of Shiva and Parvati.
We suggest that Verses 34 and 35 be scrutinized together because we find a secondary goddess introduced in each of them. The first goddess, in Verse 34, has the status of parity with the numerator value called sambhu (Shiva), while the secondary goddess, found in Verse 35, is not an equal to Shiva in the same sense, but prefers to be his wife in a more negatively feminine manner. In reading both theses verses, we have to keep in mind four degrees of abstraction and generalisation. Sex might be a "fact truth" but it is not a "logic truth". Similarly, the relationship between "Shivahood" and "Parvatihood" could have parity or ambivalence, complementarity, reciprocity or compensation, consistent with the four degrees of abstraction and generalisation, which we could summarily distinguish as first-, second-, third- and fourth-dimensional, based on the principle of the quaternion. We have had occasion to explain this principle many times elsewhere, as in our "Search for a Norm in Western Thought". Basically, these four dimensions are not different from the four states of consciousness described in the Upanishads. The Mandukya Upanishad (See bottom of page) calls them sthula (gross), suksma (subtle), karana (causal) and finally turiya ("the fourth"), which has a fully absolutist status. The numerator aspect has to be further distinguished from its own denominator aspect, because there is a tragic line that separates name and form (nama-rupa) which correspond to conception and perception, respectively. These epistemological, methodological and axiological considerations have to be remembered together if some of the major enigmas of these two verses are to be clarified. We could put our finger on each of the ten distinct enigmas in these two verses taken together. The first seven are in Verse 34:
1. "You are the body of Shiva" (sariram tvam sambhoh)
Shiva has only a thin mathematical status, placed as he is at the extreme positive (Omega) limit of the total situation to be kept in mind here. Thus, at a lower level, tending to be ontological rather than teleological, we are asked here to think of a goddess who still has a hypostatic or positive dignity attached to her body. Such a body is not to be treated as physical in the ordinary sense, but may be said to belong to the world of intentionality, whether subjective or objective. Such notions are also found in Phenomenology, as in the terms "noetic", "noematic" and "eidetic presentiment". The body of Shiva, has therefore, an epistemological status of its own.
2. "Sun and moon for twin breasts" (sasi mihira vaksoruha yugam)
The sunlight and moonlight of spring and summer both have their respective parts to play in making a tree put forth its fresh sprouts and blossoms. How the sun and moon cooperate in such a task has to be intuitively imagined, as when we understand that the twilight periods of both sun and moon, rising or setting through the 365 days of the year, are likely to have some kind of psycho-chemical influence on the growth and metabolism of a human being, especially in a woman. The breasts of the Goddess represent the source of life for all children born anywhere, at any time. There is then nothing too far-fetched implied when it is suggested here that the breasts of the Goddess are derived from the two celestial sources of light that we call the sun and moon, which weave a logarithmic spiral within the individual mind or psycho-physical setup, contributing to the status of the person of the Goddess.
The sun dominates the active daytime, while the moon is most beautiful in its thinnest, crescent-like virtuality, presiding over the subconscious innate world of dreams and reveries. We have already indicated that, if we should abstract and generalize the twilights of the sun and moon rising or setting together, we could derive a vertical parameter as a reference for the alternating influences of sun and moon on the consciousness of the contemplative. When fitted into the overall scheme in terms of a logarithmic descending spiral, it would be possible to justify this reference as implying both a horizontal parity and a vertical reciprocity between them.
It is important for the revised structuralism proper to the value of beauty, as presented to Sankara after his revaluation of Kaulin and Samayin Tantric traditions (in Verses 32 and 33), that the breasts of the Goddess do not have merely an earthy reference. This kind of revaluation was also clearly underlined in Verse 19.
3. "A new, sinless self" (navatmanam anagham)
As we have already indicated, in Verse 34, we are still thinking of the numerator aspect of the personality of the Goddess. If cause is old, effect is new. Causes have a negative ontological reference and effects have, on the contrary, a positive hypostatic or teleological reference. To give a very concrete example, a mango tree displays fresh reddish green sprouts every year in the flowering season. This tender magenta foliage could be compared to the new body rising out of the old body that the tree would otherwise represent. It is the new side, which is an effect in the personality of the Goddess, that is to be understood here. If we now ask about the old aspect of the same personality, which is on the denominator side of the cause and not on the numerator effect side, the answer will be found in the very next verse which views the same complementary, reciprocal and compensatory relationship in a revised and more negative perspective. Sin is always associated with things that are "of earth, earthy". Concepts cannot be associated with sin, because sin can adhere only in the world of percepts. In this sense, the hypostatic aspect of the self of the Goddess, or of anybody else, has to be thought of as removed from all taint of sin.
4. "By mutual complementarity" (sesah sesi)
The complementarity referred to here could only be between the higher body, having a thin mathematical status and the body of Parvati which is more actual, though still hypostatic and pure or celestial. As between any two levels in the vertical parameter, there must be a complementarity between the positivity and the negativity implied between them. In the next verse, however, there is another complementarity between the two denominator aspects of the same principle of Absolute Beauty, which is neither male nor female, nor both indifferently.
5. "Relation of common reciprocity" (ubhaya sadharanataya)
In the original expression in Sanskrit ubhaya means "participating both ways" and sadharanata means "having a common feature". Our translation thus correctly corresponds to the meaning of the original Sanskrit.
6. "Participating on equal terms" (samarasa parayoh)
The Sanskrit term samarasa, meaning "equality of bliss or joy" sufficiently justifies our rendering. The joy refers to the transcendental bliss which we now discuss under No.7 below.
7. " Transcendent bliss" (parananda)
Bliss could be either immanent or transcendent. Consistent with the numerator status of the two partners in this verse, we can see how the transcendent bliss, parananda, applies more aptly here than immanent bliss, which would properly belong to the context of the next verse.
The object of Sankara in Verses 34 and 35 will become all the more evident when we remember that he shuns the technicalities of Tantra and Yoga when they are used too conventionally and out of relation with the realities of everyday life. We even find the name of the Anahata Chakra which is evidently implied in Verse 38, to be omitted by Sankara. Anahata means "not struck" and implies a state of nature. It does not, according to Sankara, call for a special technical term to distinguish it amongst the Chakras. For the same reason, we find that Sankara does not have any use for the terms so inevitably used in Yogic and Tantric literature, such as ida, pingala and susumna. Esotericism for its own sake, like scholasticism in western thought, only detracts from the scientific status of a work of the kind that Sankara intends this present one to be.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
Shariram tvam shambhoh - You are the body of Shiva
Shashi mihira vaksho ruha yugam - having sun and moon for twin breasts, shoulder-borne
Tava atmanam manye bhagavati - Yourself, I surmise, o beneficent goddess
Nava atmanam anagham - as a new and sinless self
Ataha - thus
Sheshah sheshi iti ayam - by mutual complementarity this
Ubhaya sadhara nataya - by common reciprocity
Sthitaha - they remain
Sambandho - the interrelation
Vam - of You two
Sama rasa para ananda parayoh - on equal terms of transcendent bliss
The Devi is the body of Shiva - he is purely mathematical and numerator.
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Sun and moon are principles in the Numerator relation-relata complex.
"By common features, you participate mutually".
Another version:
- You are the body
- Of Shiva
- Having twin breasts for moon and sun
- Your self
- I consider
- O, auspicious one
- As a new self
- Sinless therefore
- As what remains itself and as its counterpart
- By way of having common factors between the two (i.e. by complemental reciprocity).
- The two remain
- Bound together
- For you two
- Having equality of status in terms of transcendental bliss (You have the same status in the Absolute).
How can Shiva's body be said to have two bulging breasts?
Because it is a purely conceptual body - the real sun and the virtual moon are also conceptualized breasts.
This body belongs to Shiva as your counterpart.
Shiva has only a conceptual body.
The sun and moon are not physical but conceptual breasts - the real breasts would be below the horizontal line.
"Yourself, I consider to be a new self, without sin".
The Denominator could have sin, not the totality.
These could be defined as remainder and remaining: Spinoza, Leibniz and Descartes knew the difference between them,
"Mesure mesurante et mesure mesurée " ("The measure which measures and the measure which is measured"), as Descartes calls these two factors.
The remainder is a noun, it is quantitative, substantive.
The remaining is a participle, qualitative, predicative; it is "the quality of remaining".
Read more : http://www.ehow.com/info_8619096_difference-between-remainder-remaining.html
The "new Self" is an emergent Self: a combination of the Self or Devi, and the non-Self, or Shiva; as a result of the merging or reciprocity of the two.
This verse does complete justice to the Devi.
Sankara is saying exactly the same as Narayana or Nataraja Guru.
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(See Lacombe : "L'Absolu selon le Vedanta")
Transcendental bliss - Shiva and Parvati have between them a parity and a one-to-one correspondence.
(See Bergson: the relationship between Peter and Paul, as described in "An Integrated Science of the Absolute", on this website. ED)
This is too high-class: I have given you the translation.
It is a question of the interpenetration of two aspects of the Absolute, called Para Brahman and Apara Brahman, the immanent and transcendent Absolute.
Between the two there are cancellable relations, implying compensation, complementarity, reciprocity and parity.
Alternatively, the relationships could be described as: complementarity, compensation, cancellability and reciprocity.
These are all dealt with in this verse, which is representative of the ultimate of culture, literature and philosophy. (Shankara should be given a Nobel prize for this).
The basic structural terms assigned to their respective levels:
Ambivalence - the first level, the actual, Subrahmaniam and Ganesha are ambivalent.
(A sample definition of ambivalence from the Glossary on this website is: "The principle of harmonization is very much like a principle of ambivalence going from plus to minus and arriving at a neutral point of homeostasis. The overall science dealing with this is Yoga - always with a middle ground. There are many levels of finding such homeostasis, such as between the spiritual and the social, in which the middle ground is morality; crime and punishment in which the middle ground is therapeutic correction. A similar ambivalence is between the psychological and physiological, in which the middle ground is awareness of harmony and a sense of ease." ED)
Reciprocity - the second level; Saraswati and Lakshmi.
(As always,when dealing with structural methodology, simple definitions are inadequate, but examples will give some definition to these extremely subtle terms. The interested reader should pass in review the various places in these verses - too numerous to enumerate - where the relationship between Saraswati and Lakshmi is described. The same applies to all these terms. The dictionary definitions do not help much. ED)
Complementarity - the third level, the Devi with callosities - she wants to establish the final cancellation with Shiva, here, she is his complementary counterpart.
(There is a reference here to Verse 82. ED)
Verse 82.
By thighs and by knees having goodly callosities, due to daily devotions
To Your Lord, even the twin frontal knobs of the heavenly elephant
You outdo, o Mountain Daughter triumphant."
Cancellation - the fourth level, the final operation - Shiva and Shakti united.
(There are so many verses dealing with this cancellation that it would be futile to try to enumerate them. ED)
Parity - refers to the horizontal alone; bilateral symmetry.
- You, the body
- Of Shiva
- Having sun and moon for (twin) breasts (parity)
- Your self
- I consider
- O beneficent Goddess
- As a new self (suggests complementarity - revision)
- Sinless
- By virtue of this (juxtaposition of values)
- With mutual complementarity these
- By being reciprocal, with common features
- Stands (the relation stands)
- The relation
- Of you both
- As (twin) participators on equal terms in transcendental bliss (cancellable)
The ontological vertical axis is not enough: that is only an Aphrodite, a relativistic Goddess.
Sankara is saying: "But you are the body of Shiva, and the new Self is the Absolute.
You are both participators in some kind of colour".
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Shankara wants to cancel the lower eroticism with a higher one.
He has first proven in the two previous verses, 32 and 33, that he knows the secrets.
Between matter and mind, positive and negative, there is a neutral Truth.
In this sequence, the previous positions have been given, now comes Shankara's revaluation.
They have perfect reciprocity, complementarity etc.
Above, the vertical and horizontal versions exist without contradiction, the bilateral symmetry of the two breasts is not contradictory to the sun and moon, which have a vertical status: turn them 90 degrees and make the Devi with an actual body.
Let her lower half be purified by a figure-8, becoming wholly illumined, then show an amethyst quartz with light and dark sides cancelling out into neutrality, finally becoming grey.
Both persons become equally immersed in transcendent bliss.
(Keep in mind parity, reciprocity, complementarity etc.)
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Show the interference of two wave-lengths, making various figure-8´s, finally merging into one.
You can show an embrace from Kalidasa's "Kumarasambhava" here.
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Shiva and Parvati.
The Goddess confers on Herself hypostatic status and cancels Herself against Shiva.
The hypostatic side is "sinless".
At the other side of this is double negation
There is a"new body" on the numerator side.
Shiva is bodiless.
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The Devi is the body of Shiva - he is purely mathematical.
Verses 32 and 33 revise Kaula and Samaya: here, Sankara states his own position and links them together.
The breasts are hypostatic - they are sweat glands that turn into milk, which comes from the skin, not from the stomach, in a way resembling photosynthesis; thus the sun and moon mentioned here.
"Sinless" - the breasts are Numerator and of a pure order.
THE MANDUKYA UPANISHAD
Translated from the Sanskrit with brief notes by Nataraja Guru
This short Upanishad is worded with great precision although, when cast in modern language, it may be read somewhat cryptically in certain parts, due to the omission of explicit references through relative pronouns. We have tried to supply in brackets the original Sanskrit expressions wherever the translations are likely to seem too original or different from the text.
If we add too much explanation, the Upanishad would lose all its delicate flavour and the correctness of its construction as intended by the author. Verse 8 is an example of the precision employed. The letters A, U, and M are symbols that could apply as a complete syllable 'AUM' (pronounced as the last two letters of the English word 'from' or singly Ah! Ooh! Mmm!) to aspects of Self-consciousness, whether considered as matter, substance or entelechy, (as Descartes, Spinoza or Aristotle would have named this) or whether considered in terms of pure conscious states, after Plato's manner. Verse 8 starts a new section which is more Aristotelian as compared with the section starting with Verse I which was conceived more Platonically.
Put together, the method and theory of Self-Realization, with values of a personal order implied in each aspect of the Self, have been covered masterfully by this antique seer.
1
That (eternal) syllable, AUM, is all this;
its further elaboration, past, present, and future, all is this AUM indeed;
even what is beyond, transcending the three times, that too is AUM:
2
All here is the Absolute (Brahman) indeed;
this Self (Atma) is the Absolute; this same
Self (he) is four-limbed
3
In the waking state, (he is) overtly-conscious, having seven parts and nineteen faces,
nourishing himself on the concrete the Universal Man the first limb.
4
In the dream state (he), the inwardly conscious, with seven parts and nineteen faces,
nourishing himself on the well-selected is the luminous one the second limb.
5
That (state) wherein, on falling asleep,one desires nothing at all,
that is the well dormant (which), attaining to a unitive status,
filled even with a knowing-content, made of bliss,
nourishing himself on bliss of a sentient mouth, is the knower, the third limb.
6
This is the Lord of all, the all-knower; this the inner negation-factor;
this is the source of every thing, and the beginning and end of beings.
7
As not inwardly conscious, not outwardly conscious, as not filled with a knowing content,
not conscious, not unconscious, unseen, non-predicable, ungraspable, bereft of quality,
unthinkable, indeterminate, as the substance of the certitude of a unitive Self,
as the calmer of the unmanifested, tranquil, numinous, non-dual, is the fourth limb considered to be.
He is the Self, that is to be recognized
8
The same Self treated as the AUM is substance
State is substance and substance is state, under letters A, U, and M.
9
The 'A' stands for waking state where the Universal Man is the first substance
because of obtaining or being the first.
He obtains all he wants and becomes first too, who understands thus.
10
The 'U' stands for dreaming state, which is the luminous one, the second substance,
because of superiority or from being intermediate.
He leads wisdom
(VERSES MISSING)
SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 35
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SAUNDARYA LAHARI
VERSE 35
THE REVERSE OF VERSE 34
THE CANCELLATION OF COUNTERPARTS AT A NEGATIVE LEVEL
DESCENDING TO THE FIRST DIMENSION
THE ALPHA - OMEGA LINK IS PRESERVED
त्वमाप-स्त्वं भूमि-स्त्वयि परिणतायां न हि परम् ।
त्वमेव स्वात्मानं परिण्मयितुं विश्व वपुषा
चिदानन्दाकारं शिवयुवति भावेन बिभृषे
tvam apas tvam bhumis tvayi parinatayam na hi param
tam eva svatmanam parinamayitum visva vapusa
cidanandakaram sivayuvati bhavena bibhrse
You are the water, as well as the earth; apart from your manifest form there is nought else indeed!
You, in order to manifest your own self, taking a universal form
Of mental bliss substantial, do assume the role of Shiva-bride, and thus triumphant rule.
This finalized description must refer to the various grades of horizontalization involved in the process of creation or becoming. A ripe mango can be said to have reached its final limit in the process of becoming mature, in itself, by itself and through itself. This process of becoming is not to be confused with the process of evolution as between different species of animals, which is another subject altogether. It is to be understood in the same sense that twilight can be seen as a maturation of the light of noontide. As everything has to be comprised within the scope of the two parameters, vertical and horizontal, the statement here that there is nothing left out of the picture is quite justified epistemologically.
Horizontal becoming has primacy in this verse over the vertical becoming of Verse 34. Pushing abstraction and generalization to its final limits to arrive thus at the notion of the horizontal parameter, always to be understood in just and proportionate relation with its own verticalized relational counterpart, gives us the universal form that is under reference here. Although it is to be understood philosophically, when applied to the personality of the Goddess for purposes of contemplation, it is not repugnant to the spirit of this verse to say that the Goddess became a pleasing and beautiful young wife for the sake of Shiva, whose love must necessarily control and condition the universal form.
It is of the essence of womanhood, which is negative in its import, to establish a reciprocity between the eternal feminine principle within herself and the eternal masculine principle, represented here by Shiva at the Omega Point. This reference, then, to a beautiful young bride triumphantly ruling at the opposite limit from that of Shiva is quite justified.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.
.
Manas tvam - the mind You are
Vyomah tvam - the sky
Marut asi - the wind You are
Marut sarathir asi - the charioteer of the winds (You are)
Tvam apaha - (you are) the water
Tvam bhumihi - the earth
Tvayi parinamayitum na hi param - apart from Your manifest form there is nought else indeed
Tvam eva sva atmanam - You, in respect of Your own self
Parinamayitum - in order to make manifest
Vishva vapusha - by means of a universal form
Chid ananda karam - of mental bliss substantial
Shiva yuvati bhavena - You assume the role of Shiva-bride
Bibhrse - and thus You triumphant rule.
.
It is a series of values representing Chakras.
The Alpha Point link to the Omega Point is here preserved and a cancellation of counterparts occurs, both vertically and horizontally at the level of each Chakra.
Here the Denominator is filled with Shiva Kanyas (Shiva-maids).
The best among poets, exercising their fancy, somehow created Brahma and others;
Eager your beauty to see, heavenly damsels (Shiva Kanyas) somehow attain to
What is hard even for ascetics to gain; the state of union with Shiva". ED).
The Devi is always manifesting horizontally, having an extreme lower limit, and the young women have their place here as the Devi's attendants.
But there is no Brahma Parinama.
In this section of the Saundarya Lahari, Section 4, comprising the verses from 31 to 41, the main elements of each of these verses are:
32) Monomarks and letters
33) Garlands of monomarks
34) Vertical participation
35) Descending set of values
36) Ajña Chakra
37) Visuddhi Chakra
38) Anahata Chakra
39) Swadhisthana Chakra
40) Manipura Chakra
41) Muladhara Chakra
Here there is a descending dialectical movement within the consciousness of the Devi, without losing absolute parity with Shiva.
Shiva descends without changing status.
He descends within Her consciousness, without losing Absolute content.
"You, the Devi, are dominating as the ruler of the world, certain Shiva Kanyas (maidens created by You) are there to help You."
Brahman does not evolve - this is a prime presupposition of Vedanta.
However the word "evolution" (parinama - translated as "manifest") occurs here - in what sense?
(Parinama means literally "change, transformation into"; encountered in the context of a material cause in which the effect is a transformation from its cause as opposed to simply distinguishable from it, e.g. butter made from milk as opposed to cloth made from cotton. ED)
This is evolution in the Vedantic sense; something is evolving in relation to itself - in itself, by itself, for itself.
When "evolution" here complies with these three sets then it is not evolution, but "creative evolution", as in Bergson's work.
Without compromising Her absolutist status, the Devi evolves into many Shiva Kanyas (damsels).
This manifestation or change is not fundamental; the Absolute Numerator has a parity with the Absolute Denominator - this parity is not spoiled by the manifestation of the Devi as "mental bliss substantial".
The change does not refer to anything outside the Devi.
You must transcend paradox to explain creative evolution: here it is in itself, by itself, for itself and thus absolute.
This verse contains a great secret which puzzles even the Guru.
These elements: "in You having matured - there is nothing other than You, nothing transcendent to make it evolve; having the universe as its body."
"You are not transcendent, there is only a change in appearance". this is the Vedantic view of "evolution". The world consists of one universal stuff - this "neutral monism" is between mind and matter. (See Descartes, Spinoza, Russell, Kant, Leibniz, etc.)
They have been grouped together by their followers.
Where, for example, did Locke get the idea of the Tabula Rasa?
- this is justified by certain delicate corrections applied to relativity.
The pundits will ask: "What? Corrections within the Absolute, which is supposed to be perfect?
Another version:
- You, the mind
- You, the sky
- The wind you are
- You are the charioteer of the wind - (fire - the beginning of intelligence; in the Upanishads, the chariot is the psychological aspect.)
- You are water
- You are the earth
- In you who are evolved
- Not transcendent indeed
- You yourself
- Your own self
- To cause to evolve
- With your universal body
- In the form of mental bliss (chidananda)
- As Shiva-maid (young maid with the quality of Shiva)
- You rule
"Evolves" refers to theoretical or negative evolution.
He has written this to bring out the proper epistemology; it is like saying that the magenta colour rules the world.
If you incorporate the husband's functions into the wife, what are you cancelling?
The key here seems to be that She is evolving by Herself.
The mind is at the top, and the earth at the bottom - this is descending dialectics.
The mind has positive consciousness; the earth has negative consciousness.
When you put vertical and horizontal together, you get a substance.
The top accentuates thinking, the bottom accentuates substance.
2) The principle of compensation is applied at any level.
Here, the two aspects are brought together, with emphasis on the negative.
Numerator and Denominator are corrected at any level of the ascending or descending process, by double correction.
.
You cannot "believe" in a hypostatic entity - but the beautiful woman is real and substantive, on the hierophantic, negative side.