Tag: maya

What Is Shaiva?

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Theistic Philosophy and Religion

Shaiva is the worship of Shiva as the Supreme.

Shaiva is the religion that worships Lord Shiva. A very old religion in the Hindu family with vivid branches well integrated into the root, it becomes the feast, the oxygen and the life of many philosophers. Its mature philosophies, standing on strong bases, offer its followers the great path to the blissful Supreme called Shiva. Shaivites worship the Supreme as formless, as symbol, and through many forms — all leading to the ultimate Supreme which is without attributes. (adapted from Shaivam.org)

In 1979, the original French edition of Alain Daniélou’s Shiva and Dionysus appeared. It was subsequently translated into English and printed and reprinted in the United States in the 1980s and ’90s, ultimately under the title Gods of Love and Ecstasy (1992). In it, written after the author “spent more than 20 years in the traditional Hindu world,” Daniélou confesses that in India he had discovered “the most fundamental of religions.” By that he means the fundament, the bedrock, the oldest religion on which all later ones were founded.

Gradually, Daniélou became convinced that “all those things which seemed of value in later religions were only partial and deformed survivals … of that ancient wisdom … usually called the ‘primordial tradition’ [sanatana dharma or sanatan dharam] … the origins of which go back to the first ages of the world. … This religion, so often persecuted but always reborn, appears to me to still correspond to the deepest needs of man today.” (Daniélou, 7)

After exhaustive independent research that took me from one tradition to another in search of the original spring, I completely agree with Daniélou’s assessment — Shaiva religion represents the oldest and most fundamental perennial wisdom revealed to humankind, which has been practiced continuously in India since prehistory, probably first arising sometime between the 9th and 7th millennia B.C. (~8,000 to 6,000 B.C.).

Who Is Shiva?

Bhole, Shambhu, Maheshvara, Mahadev — the Innocent Lord, the Simple Lord, the Peacemaker, the Boon Granter — the Great God.

Shiva, the name of the Lord, is a mantra. It is part of the very holy mantra of Shaiva — the Holy Five Letters. Shaiva devotees chant the Holy Five Syllables, Namah Shivaya, for at least five minutes a day and keep chanting it whenever possible throughout the day. This great mantra does not have any restriction on when, where, or in what position to chant, or on who may chant it.

In Sanskrit, the word Shiva means auspicious, prosperous — Mangalam. Other names of Shiva that describe his qualities are Shambhu (Peacemaker), Maheshvara, Mahadev (Great God), Ashutosha (Easily Pleased) and Bholenath (Innocent or Simple Lord). He appears to the one who worships as graceful, blissful, and nurturing. Shiva’s auspicious and graceful forms and names are invoked by the worshiper for upliftment.

When one evolves in the worship of Lord Shiva to be a devotee, the worship is more out of love than fear of a supernatural power. When a devotee experiences the glorious qualities of the Lord, love blooms — and this love, knowledge and experience pave way for spiritual success, and not the fear. The devotee of Shiva can accomplish needs through prayer (kamya puja), and the Lord, as more than a mother, will take care of what is right for such devotees.

The Supreme Lord Shiva is said to remain in a blissful state enjoying Its own Self eternally, without any flaws, its perfection in its completeness. Nothing external is required to make the Self blissful. “OM NAMAH SHIVAYA!” Praises to the Supreme Guru, the Formless, Attributeless and Omniscient Shivam, which presents Itself in the form of the Guide to enlighten beings with the supreme knowledge toward Itself.

The Supreme Shiva who stands beyond immeasurable depth and height, beyond the limits of time, enacting the five deeds (panycha krityam) of Creation, Protection, Destruction, Concealing and Revealing, completely blissful in Itself, uplifting the one who worships, that Supreme God in Its glory is too immense to be described by anybody. It stands beyond the limitations of sex to be described as He, or She, or It. It is the Absolute which is not born of anything (Svabhava, Self-Born). It stands as the pillar of flame with innumerable aspects. (adapted from Shaivam.org)

Antiquity of the Religion

From Daniélou’s Shiva and Dionysus:

According to Indian sources and as confirmed by much archaeological data, it was during the 6th millennium B.C., during the Neolithic, that Shaiva was revealed or codified. … The first true Shaiva images are found at Çatal Höyük in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey, or Türkiye) and date from about 6,000 B.C.

Çatal Höyük itself, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, was occupied continuously for over 2,000 years starting in the Neolithic period, from about 7,400 to 5,200 B.C.

It was during this period, about 4,500 B.C., that the Minoans arrived in Crete, as well as in Anatolia and the islands of Cyprus, Malta and Santorini. Writes Paolo Santarcangeli in his Book of Labyrinths: “The disappearance of the Minoan civilization, the most ancient to have flourished in Europe, is one of the most appalling dramas in the history of Europe.”

The beginnings of Minoan civilization seem to stretch back to the middle of the 5th millennium B.C. and are therefore contemporary with predynastic Egypt. Modern research suggests the monumental temples of Gigantija in Malta date from the 4th millennium B.C. and were built sometime between 3,600 and 2,800 B.C., making them older than the pyramids at Giza. This Mediterranean civilization was thus contemporary with … the greatest period of Mohenjo Daro and the cities of the pre-Aryan Indus civilization, which flourished from about 2,500 to 1,700 B.C. and with which there is an evident relationship.

The greatest period of Minoan art in Crete stretches from about 2,800 to 1,800 B.C. … The Mediterranean population was totally annihilated by about 2,000 B.C. With the disappearance of Minoan civilization, and “until the flowering of the new [now classical] Greek civilization, the continent fell back into an agricultural life without a history.” (Santarcangeli)

We must understand that the same distance which separates the end of the original Minoan civilization from ancient Greece separates us, today, from the height of the Roman Empire. Later, the reappearance of Shaiva as Dionysism represented a return to an archaic and fundamental religion, kept alive underground despite repeated invasions and persecutions. Dionysism was, in fact, none other than the ancient Shaiva of the Indo-Mediterranean world, little by little reestablishing its place in an Aryanized world. This cult of Dionysos, which overturned and renewed the Greeks’ religious experience, had extremely deep roots in Hellenic soil.

Dionysos means perhaps “God of Nysa.” A prime candidate for the city of Nysa can be found in Cappadocia on the Anatolian plateau in central Turkey, a region that features snow-covered mountains, breathtaking valleys, limestone formations, rock spires, carved underground cities like Kaymakli and Derinkuyu, temples carved in living rock — all reminiscent of the Indus Valley civilization, and especially of the Chalukya culture of the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, which reached its peak in the 6th to 12th centuries of the common era.

Daniélou also connects Nysa with a region further afield, placing it in that magical land between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tibet. In that region are located the Swat Valley in Pakistan (called Odiyana or Uddiyana in ancient times); the Hindu Kush mountains; the modern Indian states of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh; and holy Mount Kailash, called Shiva’s abode, the pyramid-shaped mountain in the southwestern Himalayas that has never been climbed.

When the soldiers of Alexander the Great rushed to the Shaiva sanctuary of Nysa, near modern Peshawar in Pakistan, to embrace their brothers in Dionysos, it did not enter their minds that this may have been a different divinity, or another cult. (Daniélou, 30-39)

I found it somewhat astonishing to note that all of these places associated with Shiva worship — Çatal Höyük at 37°; the island of Crete at around 35°; the megalithic temple complex of Gigantija in Malta at 36°; the pre-Aryan city of Mohenjo Daro in the Indus at 27°; Cappadocia in central Turkey at around 38°, including the underground cities of Kaymakli and Derinkuyu at 38° and Nysa in Cappadocia at 38°; Nysa in Lycia at 38°; the Swat Valley in Pakistan at 38°; the states of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh at 33° to 34°; and holy Mount Kailash, found in the Himalayas between western Tibet, India and Nepal at 31° — are all between 27° and 38° of northern latitude.

This indicates to me that whatever culture practiced Shiva worship in the Near East, the Middle East, and in central and southern Asia as far as the Himalayas, in an unimaginably remote period from about 6,500 to 4,000 years ago, called the Primordial Tradition of revealed wisdom (sanatan dharam or sanatana dharma), spread along a definite band of latitude composed mainly of limestone deserts, snowy mountains and unspoiled freshwater valleys. Even more astonishingly, the tradition seems to have spread from west to east — possibly originating in the Mediterranean.

How is it possible that Shiva worship may have originated in or around the Mediterranean Sea? One explanation is that it could have been introduced into Europe and Asia by the surviving former inhabitants of the legendary city-state of Atlantis after it sank into the Atlantic Ocean. These Atlantean survivors may have been eager to spread their culture far and wide to ensure its continuity.

Daniélou has only this to say, quoting a snippet from Mircea Eliade’s History of Beliefs and Religious Ideas (1976 French ed.): “Megalithic complexes must have derived from a single center, very probably in the Eastern Mediterranean ….” (Daniélou, 59) Admittedly, the theory of an Atlantean origin of modern civilization isn’t fleshed out here and requires further investigation, but it caught my attention because of Graham Hancock’s recent Netflix series, Ancient Apocalypse, which is a harvest of pertinent information. I recommend it.

Shaiva Holy Books

Again from Daniélou:

The main texts describing the authentic rites, myths and practices of pre-Aryan Shaiva are found in the Puranas (histories or chronicles), Agamas (traditions) and Tantras (alchemy and magic rites). To these should be added the ancient Samkhya cosmology and texts on Yoga.

The Puranas are enormous texts summarizing oral traditions stretching back into the distant past, at the dawn of civilization. They form a veritable encyclopedia. Thirty-six Puranas exist, with six of the major ones belonging to the Shaiva tradition, the most important of which are the Shiva Purana and Linga Purana.

The Agamas explain the rules of the Shaiva sects according to traditions that have existed since time immemorial. Their content, if not their form, is considered as being more ancient than the Vedas. From the Shaiva point of view, they are revelation [revealed knowledge, divinely inspired].

The Tantras are works of an esoteric nature which deal with all ritual aspects, especially those of the Goddess. They describe the nature of the cosmos and its relationship to the subtle structures of man, an applied method based on the principles of Samkhya cosmology (macrocosmic science) on one hand, and Yoga (the science of the microcosm present in the human being) on the other. It can be said that this collection of rites and magical powers is based on the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. (Daniélou, 42-44)

To that statement could be added that the same principle of correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm is found in other alchemical traditions, such as Hermeticism and its offshoots (“As above, so below.”) and Chinese Taoism, among others, and could even be said to be the foundational principle of alchemy.

Shaiva Morality

Shiva is everything that has been rejected by the moralities of domesticated humanity. Shiva is all the aspects of our development we think we have left behind, but which in reality we are only suppressing.

Another name of Shiva is Pashupati — variously translated as Lord of Animals, Lord of Cattle, and Lord of Wild Beasts — but generally understood to mean the Lord of all living creatures (e.g., in the Marathi language) or of all people (e.g., Kannada language). Hence all creatures are part of Pashupati’s flock and under his protection.

In the Shiva Purana (2.5.9): “Hence all the gods and Asuras became the animals of the lord. Shiva became the lord of animals (pashupati). He is the person who unties the nooses of the animals.” (Ibid.)

The name Pashupati embraces a triple concept: pashu, the animal, pasha, the snare, and pati, the master — or if you prefer, shepherd, flock and the shepherd’s hook (or tether). I think the point is that man is a domesticated creature, poor in spirit, who depends on the Grace of Lord Shiva to loosen his tether, to break his snare and to set him free. As a theistic philosophy and practice, divine grace is operative in the Shaiva family — the self-will “of the proud ascetics who seek to conquer heaven by their willpower” avails nothing. (Daniélou, 55)

Pasha, the bond, expresses the unity and interdependence of all forms of life. Pasha may be defined as natural law, which is divine law. All other moral law is only social convention, which can have no value on a universal level. All true morality must conform to the basic laws on which creation is founded. Social conventions established by human laws have nothing to do with religion. (Daniélou, 52)

According to Daniélou, Shaiva also takes an eminently reasonable view of life after death.

Ancient Shaiva believes only in a relative and temporary survival of the individual, and not in transmigration. [The idea of reincarnation, or a soul’s progress through multiple lives, originated with Jainism, survived in Buddhism, and made its way into orthodox Hinduism.]

Shaiva does not attach the same importance to the individual and believes in his survival only in a temporary and collective way. No one dreams of the survival of each flower, only of each species of flower. The individual is the end-product of his line of forefathers, and himself survives in his descendants. Therefore it is each man’s duty to father a son.

Human individuality is formed by a knot or point [Sanskrit bindu, dot] in which various elements are bound together [the conditions of birth and station, clan, upbringing etc.], assembled from the pool of matter, consciousness and individual intellect [made up of sense impressions, thoughts and personality], surrounding a fragment of the universal indivisible soul. This is like the space enclosed by an urn, circumscribed but not fundamentally different from universal space. At death, the vase breaks, the knot is untied, and the constituent elements return to the universal pool, to be used again in other beings. (Daniélou, 176-177)

The Legend of Shiva in the Forest

Again from Daniélou:

The Purana legends portray Shiva as a libidinous adolescent roaming naked in the forest, charming the wives of the proud ascetics who wish to conquer heaven by their will. Shiva humiliates the ascetics, seduces their wives, and scattering his seed here and there, makes precious stones and holy places appear on the earth [lingam].

“The Lord appeared as a man of low extraction. … He wandered around the hermitages like a beggar. Despite the dark color of his skin, his beauty was astounding. He laughed and sang and threw winks which seduced the women. He who had vanquished the god of love inspired desire by his beauty alone. … The most chaste women were attracted to him. (Linga Purana, I, chapters 29 and 31)

“At his smile, those women who were in front of their huts in the forest, or who dwelt high in the trees, left their tasks. They rent their clothes and let their hair fall loose. Some rolled on the ground. … They made wanton gestures at him, even in the presence of their husbands. The Lord said nothing to them, neither good nor bad. (Linga Purana, I, chapter 29)

“In the meantime, the great sages arrived. … Scandalized, they cried, ‘Who is this? Who is this?’ But the naked one gave them no reply. (Shiva Purana, Kothi Rudra Samhita, chapters 12 and 14)

“The priests and sages used indignant language, but the power of their virtue could not prevail against [Shiva], just as the brightness of the stars cannot prevail against the light of the sun. (Linga Purana, I, chapter 29)

“The sages cried, ‘This Shiva who carries a trident has a body of ill omen. He has no modesty. He has neither dwelling nor known ancestors. … His caste is unknown …. He rides on a bull and has no other conveyance. He lives in the company of evil spirits and goblins. … He has only evil spirits for a retinue. He has poison even in his neck.’”* (Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita, chapters 24 and 27)

The Tamil Kanda Puranam picks up the legend from there:

“Shiva, disguised as a beggar and singing hymns, walked in front of the dwellings of the hermits’ wives. The women came out, excited at seeing him. Beside themselves, they let themselves be stripped of their clothing and their bracelets slid from their arms. The beggar wandered from one house to another; the women followed him and lost their chastity. …

“The hermits, seeing their wives half-naked and without shame in the company of a beggar, were astonished. … Having lectured their wives, they sent them back to their dwellings. … Furious with Shiva, the hermits sought some way of killing him. So they offered up a great sacrifice.” (Tamil Kanda Puranam II, chapter 13)

To paraphrase a bit, out of the great sacrifice first came a furious tiger, but Shiva tore off its skin for a loincloth; then out of the fire came a trident, which Shiva took as his weapon; then snakes, which Shiva used to adorn his headdress; then a lord of demons appeared, but Shiva pacified the lord of demons with a wave of his hand and commanded the demon army to serve him; next a skull came, and the Lord placed it in his hair. (Here is an explanation of the origin of Shiva’s iconography and symbols.)

“The ascetics then offered a new sacrifice, out of which came a powerful spirit called Muyalakan (Epilepsy). They commanded the spirit and the fire to go and kill Shiva. The god seized the fire in his hand, threw the spirit on the ground and began dancing on its back. The whole universe trembled.

“When the dance ended, the hermits of the Taruka forest threw themselves at Shiva’s feet and sang his praises. He commanded them to practice the rites of his cult from then on but to continue their lives of austerity. After that, the Lord set out again for his snow-covered mountain,” his home on Mount Kailash. (Ibid.)

Wisdom of the Legend

The legend of Shiva seducing the sages’ wives in the forest reveals a profound wisdom. His appearance in the Taruka forest demonstrates that the divine can choose to manifest in specific form. Though it is beyond time and form, the timeless and unmanifest can choose to interact with its creation in time and form. If objects and living things are active and manifest in creation, why wouldn’t the divine also have the power to be so?

Shiva dancing on the back of the powerful Muyalakan demon also shows that creation was accomplished through vibration and sound. The idea of creation or destruction through sound and vibration is central to Hinduism in general, as seen in the magical flute of Krishna, symbolizing creative power, in the sacred syllable OM, the primal sound that generates the universe, and as an attribute of Shiva in specific form as the dancing Nataraja figure — literally, Lord of Dance.

Another lesson could be that heaven cannot be taken by force or conquered by willpower alone; the power to conquer heaven requires mastery over male as well as female energies. It isn’t enough to practice austerities or penances or to deny the body its needs in order to gain spiritual power; with his power over women, the singing and dancing Lord proves to be much more powerful than the sages; in the end, he makes the whole universe tremble with his dancing (implying that to move or even to destroy the whole universe is within the power of the Lord). Only in the face of Shiva’s absolute power do the sages finally relent, only when they fear for their own destruction.

It isn’t enough to treat women as a source of labor, putting them back to work when they stray from their tasks, and to deny their power over life and death. In the Shaiva and tantric traditions, Kali, the invincible female destructive principle, wields all the power in the universe; and the female principle Adi Shakti, literally First Power, is Shiva’s whole power to create, maintain and destroy. So we see that Shaiva tradition gives equal status to male and female principles, embracing rather than rejecting creation and the “material” world, in direct opposition to the later, moral religions of self-denial and mortification like Jainism, Buddhism and Christianity.

Shiva is always depicted as handsome and strong — never as a living corpse who wields “spiritual power” — and therefore also restores the proper place of the male principle. In fact, it could even be said that by denying or subjugating the natural female principle — by denying nature itself — man becomes nothing but a living corpse who places his faith in a life beyond death. Instead, why not enjoy and celebrate the life you have here and now? Because it is a sin to do so?

“According to the Shaiva concept, pleasure is an image of the divine state. … The ecstasy of sensual enjoyment (ananda) is a ‘sensation of the divine.’” (Daniélou, 57)

Return to the Primordial Tradition

The Shaiva theistic philosophy and worship of Shiva do not ask their adherents to stand divided against their own nature — to be moral, to be “good,” to be chaste, to be “pure.” Instead it recognizes and accepts a person’s whole nature, which is both kind and cruel, generous and mean, creative and destructive. All it asks of its devotees is that they recognize the primacy of Shiva as the supreme godhead, Maheshvara, and also as the unborn and unmanifest beyond time and form, and to remember to honor him — as Shambhu the Peacemaker, as Ashutosha the Easily Pleased, as the generous Boon Granter, and in all his forms. That’s pretty much all that is required.

Shaiva is not some modern innovation like other religions we could name, but one that has been with humanity through all of its history and still provides for “the deepest needs of man today.” In its view nothing is rejected, nothing excluded, the female isn’t demonized, matter and creation are not feared and reviled. All of creation is celebrated as a form of the divine, and creation is also holy.

We live in a world in which we must come to terms with the gods without cherishing illusions. … In order to have any value, the search for an understanding of the world and the purpose of life can accept no barriers or preconceptions and cannot ignore any aspect of beings or things.

The profound message of Shaiva is that a way is always open for man to return to his proper role of cooperating with the divine plan. We should be conscious of our responsibilities and share them with the gods who conceived the world as it is, not as we believe it should be.

The way of Shiva is the only way by which humanity can be saved. … There is no other true religion. (Daniélou, 9-10)

Ode to Mahadev

Shiva is our history, our legacy, our common human identity.

Shiva is the unborn, the One without a second, the foundation and destruction. Shiva is fire and water, earth and space, time and existence.

Shiva is the lightning, the summer wind, the cloud and the blade of grass. Shiva is the rain that renews life and the fire that preserves life in winter.

Shiva is the unforgiving wind and the mountain that withstands it. Shiva is the snow and ice, and the eagle circling the heights.

Shiva is the light that illuminates the universe and is also the universe itself, the light looking at itself and delighting in itself.

Shiva is joy, delight and bliss, full and overfull and spilling over. Shiva is the canvas and the objects. Shiva is the stage and all the actors. Shiva is.

_________

* A reference to the legend of the Churning of the Milky Ocean to bring up the amrita, the elixir of immortality, which at first churned up the all-destroying poison halahala that threatened to destroy all of creation. To save the triple world, Shiva alone drank the poison but kept it in his throat, which turned his throat blue. (Blue is considered the color of poison in Hinduism — hence the peacock is revered because it turns poison to beauty, while the cobra turns milk to venom, each according to its nature.) Hence Shiva became Neelkanth, the Blue Throated.

Sacred Texts: Shiva Sutras and the Heart of Self-Recognition

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Shiva Sutras

(Revealed by Vasugupta in the 8th to 9th century A.D.)

NAMO.

1. Chaitanyamatma.
(chaitanya{m}·atma)

Unrestricted awareness is the ground of existence.

2. Jñanam bandha.
(jñana{m} bandha)

Knowledge is bondage.

3. Yonivarga: kalashariram.
(yoni·varga: kalā·sharira{m})

The source of the classes of sound: the measure of the body.

4. Jñanadhishthanam matrika.
(jñana·dhishth·anam matrika)

Creating through the classes of sound is the Eightfold Mother, knowledge without understanding.

5. Udyamao Bhairavah.
(udyama{o} Bhairava)

Bhairav* is an upswell gushing forth.

(*the terrible form of Shiva that represents universal consciousness and creative power together, having absolute freedom of knowledge and activity)

6. Shaktichakrasandhane vishvasamhara.
(shakti·chakra·sandhan{e} vishva·samhara)

When all the powers are merged in focused awareness, the universe disappears.

7. Jagratsvapnasushuptabhede turyabhogasambhava.
(jagrat·svapna·sushupta·bhede turya·abhoga·sambhava)

The states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep are grounded in the fourth state, turya.

8. Jñanam jagrat.
(jñana{m} jagrat)

Knowledge obtained through the senses by direct experience is the waking state.

9. Svapno vikalpa.
(svapna{o} vikalpa)

Mental activity and mind constructs are the dreaming state.

10. Aviveko mayasaushuptam.
(a·viveki{o} maya·sushupta{m})

The unconscious, undiscerning state is deep sleep.

11. Tritayabhokta viresha.
(tri·taya·bhokta viresha)

The enjoyer of the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep is master of his senses.

12. Vismayo yogabhumika.
(vismaya{o} yoga·bhumika)

The stages of yoga are a wonder.

13. Iccha shaktir uma kumari.
(iccha shakti{r} uma kumari)

The power of will is the splendour of the bride.

14. Drishyam shariram.
(drishya{m} sharira{m})

Everything visible is the body.

15. Hridaye cittasamghattad drishyasvapadarshanam.
(hridaya{e} citta·samghatta{d} drishya·svapada·darshan{am})

When the heart merges with the individual mind it gives a glimpse of one’s true place.

16. Shuddha-tattva-sandhanad va apashushakti.
(shuddha-tattva-sandhana{d} va apashu·shakti)

When meditating on pure being, the binding power is absent.

17. Vitarka atmajnanam.
(vitarka atma·jñana{m})

One-pointed awareness is knowledge of the Self (Atma).

18. Lokananda samadhisukham.
(loka·ananda samadhi·sukham)

The joy of one’s true place is blissful absorption.

19. Shaktisandhane sharirotpatti.
(Shakti·sandhan{e} sharira·utpatti)

Union with Shakti begets the body.

20. Bhutasandhana-bhutaprithaktva-vishvasamghatta.
(bhuta·sandhana-bhuta·prithaktva-vishva·samghatta)

Joining elements, isolating elements, merging with the universe.

21. Shuddhavidyodayachakrashatva-siddhi.
(shuddha·vidya·udaya·chakra·sattva siddhi)

With pure knowledge arises mastery over all powers.

22. Mahahriadanusandhanam·mantraviryaanubhava.
(maha·hridaya·anu·sandhana{m}·mantra·virya·anu·bhava)

Merging with the Great Heart is the source and strength of all mantra.

23. Cittam mantra.
(citta{m} mantra)

The mind is mantra.

24. Prayatnah sadhaka.
(prayatna sadhaka)

The effort of the aspirant.

25. Vidyasharira-satta mantrarahasyam.
(vidya·sharira-satta mantra·ra·hasyam)

The divine body of knowledge is the secret of mantra.

26. Garbhe cittavikaso vishishtavydiasvapna.
(garbha{e} citta·vikasa{o} vishishta·vydia·svapna)

The mind unfolding from its source is unreal compared to the true knowledge revealed in dreams.

27. Vidyasamutthane svabhavike khechari Shivavastha.
(vidya·samutthan{e} svabhava·avika{e} khechari Shiva·avastha)

Highest knowledge arises as the cream of self-knowledge, the celestial state of Shiva.

28. Gururupaya.
(guru{r} upaya)

By means of the Guru.

29. Matrikachakrasvabodha.
(matrika·chakra·svabodha)

Assembly of mothers its own understanding.

30. Shariram havih.
(Sharira{m} havih)

The body is oblation to be offered.

31. Jñanam annam.
(jñana{m} an·na{m})

Knowledge is food to be devoured.

32. Vidyasamhare taduttha-svapna-darshanam.
(vidya·samhara{e} taduttara{ha}-svapna-darshana{m})

Once true knowledge withdraws, then it is glimpsed in dreams.

OM NAMO NAMAHA.

Shiva Sutras, verses 1 – 32 of 77 (translation only)

1. Unrestricted awareness is the ground of existence.

2. Knowledge is bondage.

3. The source of the classes of sound: the measure of the body.

4. Creating through the classes of sound is the Eightfold Mother, knowledge without understanding.

5. Bhairav* is an upswell gushing forth.

6. When all the powers are merged in focused awareness, the universe disappears.

7. The states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep are grounded in the fourth state, turya.

8. Knowledge obtained through the senses by direct experience is the waking state.

9. Mental activity and mind constructs are the dreaming state.

10. The unconscious, undiscerning state is deep sleep.

11. The enjoyer of the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep is master of his senses.

12. The stages of yoga are a wonder.

13. The power of will is the splendour of the bride.

14. Everything visible is the body.

15. When the heart merges with the individual mind it gives a glimpse of one’s true place.

16. When meditating on pure being, the binding power is absent.

17. One-pointed awareness is knowledge of the Self (Atma).

18. The joy of one’s true place is blissful absorption.

19. Union with Shakti** begets the body.

20. Joining elements, isolating elements, merging with the universe.

21. With pure knowledge arises mastery over all powers.

22. Merging with the Great Heart is the source and strength of all mantra.

23. The mind is mantra.

24. The effort of the aspirant.

25. The divine body of knowledge is the secret of mantra.

26. The mind unfolding from its source is unreal compared to the true knowledge revealed in dreams.

27. Highest knowledge arises as the cream of self-knowledge, the celestial state of Shiva.

28. By means of the Guru.

29. Assembly of mothers its own understanding.

30. The body is oblation to be offered.

31. Knowledge is food to be devoured.

32. Once true knowledge withdraws, then it is glimpsed in dreams.

_________

* Bhairav : the terrible form of Shiva, universal consciousness and creative power together, with unlimited freedom of knowledge and activity.

** Shakti : power ; capitalized, the absolute power present in the universe, the source of all manifestation and activity. As Shiva-Shakti, universal consciousness and creative power together form the indivisible Bhairav who is the ground of all existence.

Pratyabhijñahridayam: The Heart of Self-Recognition

(Short treatise on metaphysics and returning to the source by resting in the center, transmitted by Kshemaraja in the 9th to 10th century A.D.)

1. The divine power of absolute consciousness, Citti (fem.), by Her own free will causes the manifestation, maintenance and withdrawal of the universe. She is the means of reaching Her and the final goal.

2. By the power of Her own will she unfolds the universe upon Her own screen.

3. That the universe is manifold is due to the differentiation of reciprocally adapted objects and subjects.

4. The individual, in whom citti or consciousness is contracted, also has the universe in a contracted form.

5. Citti Herself, descending from the uncontracted state of cetanya becomes citta, individual consciousness, inasmuch as She becomes contracted in conformity with the objects of consciousness.

6. The individual experiencing the sphere of limitation consists of citta, which is also only Citti.

7. And though Cit [masc.], or Shiva, is one, He becomes twofold, threefold, fourfold and of the nature of seven pentads.

8. The positions of the various systems of philosophy are only various roles of that.

9. In consequence of its limitation of power, reality, which is all consciousness, becomes the sufferer, covered by impurities.

10-11. Even in this condition, he carries on the processes of the five acts like Shiva: emanating, withdrawing, maintaining, concealing and revealing, also called Grace — these five.

12. To be a sufferer, a “samsarin,” means to be deluded by one’s own powers because of ignorance of that fact.

13. On acquiring full knowledge of it, citta becomes Citti by returning to the state of cetanya.

14. The fire of Citti, even in the contracted state of citta, though covered, partly burns the fuel of the known.

15. In reasserting Her power, She makes the universe Her own.

16. When the bliss of Cit is attained, there is stability in the identity with Cit even while the body and other objects are experienced. This is the state of jivanmukti, a soul who is liberated while still alive.

17. By the development of the center there is the acquisition of the bliss of Cit.

18. The means of developing the center are the tantric methods: stopping the formation of mind-constructs by becoming absorbed in the heart; withdrawing the senses back into the center; focusing on the center while staring at some object without moving; internal repetition of sounds; kundalini methods such as fixing the kundalini power between the eyebrows; resting the attention at a point between two thoughts; and other methods.

19. By immersing oneself in the center over and over again and dwelling on the bliss of Cit upon returning to normal consciousness, one stabilizes the state of resting in the Self.

20. Then, as a result of resting in the Self whose essence is cit-ananda, consciousness-bliss, and whose nature is the power of great mantra, one attains the powers of Shiva.

The Heart of Self-Recognition (in narrative form)

Absolute Power of Consciousness

            The divine power of absolute consciousness, Citti (fem.), by Her own free will causes the manifestation, maintenance and withdrawal of the universe. She is Her own means of reaching Her and the final goal. By the power of Her own will she unfolds the universe upon Her own screen.

Appears as Many

            That the universe is manifold is due to the differentiation of reciprocally adapted objects and subjects. The individual, in whom citti or consciousness is contracted, also has the universe in a contracted form.

            Citti Herself, descending from the uncontracted state of cetanya, becomes citta, individual consciousness, inasmuch as She becomes contracted in conformity with the objects of consciousness. The individual experiencing the sphere of limitation consists of citta, which is also only Citti.

            And though Cit [masc.], or Shiva, is one, He becomes twofold, threefold, fourfold and of the nature of seven pentads. The positions of the various systems of philosophy are only various roles of that.

            Reality, which is all consciousness, in consequence of its limitation of power becomes the sufferer, covered by impurities. Even in this condition, he carries on the processes of the five acts like Shiva: emanating, withdrawing, maintaining, concealing and revealing, also called Grace — these five. To be a sufferer, a “samsarin,” means to be deluded by one’s own powers because of ignorance of that fact. On acquiring full knowledge of it, citta becomes Citti by returning to the state of cetanya.

Returns to Self

            The fire of Citti, even in the contracted state of citta, though covered, partly burns the fuel of the known. In reasserting Her power, She makes the universe Her own.

            When the bliss of Cit is attained, there is stability in the identity with Cit even while the body and other objects are experienced. This is the state of jivanmukti, a soul liberated while still alive.

By these Means

            By the development of the center there is the acquisition of the bliss of Cit. The means of developing the center are the tantric methods: stopping the formation of mind-constructs by becoming absorbed in the heart; withdrawing the senses back into the center; focusing on the center while staring at some object without moving; internal repetition of sounds; kundalini methods such as fixing the kundalini power between the eyebrows; resting the attention at a point between two thoughts; and other methods.

            By immersing oneself in the center over and over again and dwelling on the bliss of Cit upon returning to normal consciousness, one stabilizes the state of resting in the Self. Then, as a result of resting in the Self whose essence is cit-ananda, consciousness-bliss, and whose nature is the power of great mantra, one attains the powers of Shiva.

F. Max Müller on Vedanta

dvapawisdom on

Vedanta means the completion of the Veda, which was the sacrificial and ritualistic faith of the horse-worshipping Aryans who conquered the Indus Valley around 1,500 B.C.

Friedrich Max Müller (1823-1900) was the first European scholar to publish complete translations of the Rig Veda and the principal Upanishads in English, as well as the Vedanta Sutra of Adi Shankara (8th c.) which finally systematized Vedanta down to its minutest details, and therefore provided Europe with a much more complete picture of this Hindu philosophy and religion than had been available hereto. His influence on Victorian England was huge, and he was instrumental in founding the study of comparative religion as an academic field, and in developing the idea of the inseparable relation of language and culture.

F. Max Müller in middle age, year unknown. Credit: unknown

The brief introduction constructed below was extracted from lectures Müller gave on Vedanta in 1894 and designed to be as brief and pithy as possible. Since this is the dominant system of philosophy in India, and also in yoga and “spiritual” schools worldwide, I present it here in Müller’s own words. As refreshing and liberating as its ideas might seem to a person familiar only with the major monotheistic religions, in my opinion its view of reality is rather primitive and dated. In support of this statement, I have inserted critical comments in brackets throughout.

What Is Vedanta?

In India the prevailing philosophy is still the Vedanta. The most extraordinary feature of this Vedanta philosophy consists in its being an independent system of philosophy yet entirely dependent on the Upanishads — nay, chiefly occupied with proving that all its doctrines, to the very minutest points, are derived from the revealed doctrines of the Upanishads. In these Upanishads not only are all sacrificial duties rejected, but the very gods to whom the ancient prayers of the Veda were addressed are put aside to make room for one Supreme Being, called Brahman.

The same Upanishads had then to explain the true relation between Brahman, Supreme Being, and the soul of man. The soul of man was called Atman, literally the self, also Jivatman, the living self. After the substantial unity of the living or individual self with the Supreme Being or Brahman had been discovered, Brahman was called the Highest Self or Paramatman.

These terms were not new technical terms coined by philosophers. Some of them are very ancient and occur in the oldest Vedic compositions, in the hymns, the Brahmanas, and finally in the Upanishads. The etymology of Brahman and Atman is extremely difficult, and this very difficulty shows that both of these words, from the point of view of historical Sanskrit, belong to a prehistoric layer of Sanskrit (i.e., these terms are older than Sanskrit).

Significance of the Veda

I have often pointed out that the real importance of the Veda will always be the opportunity which it affords us of watching the active process of the fermentation of early thought. The growth of the divine idea is laid bare in the Veda as nowhere else. We see in the Vedic hymns the first revelation of Deity, the first expressions of surprise and suspicion, the first discovery that behind this visible and perishable world there must be something invisible, imperishable, eternal or divine.

[Must there be?]

Nearly all the leading deities of the Veda bear the unmistakable traces of their physical character. Their very names tell us that they were in the beginning names of the great phenomena of nature, of fire, water, rain and storm, of sun and moon, of heaven and earth. We see before our eyes the bright powers of heaven and earth who became the Devas, the Bright Ones.

We see how these individual and dramatic deities ceased to satisfy their early worshippers, and we find the incipient reasoners postulating One God behind all the deities of the earliest times. This was the final outcome of religious thought, beginning with a most natural faith in invisible powers or agents behind the starting drama of nature, and ending with a belief in One Great Power, the unknown.

Philosophy of Vedanta

The fundamental tenet of the Vedanta school consisted in contending that the existence of matter has no essence independent of mental perception, that existence and perceptibility are interchangeable terms, that external appearances and sensations are illusory and would vanish into nothing if the divine energy which alone sustains them were suspended even for a moment. To the Brahmans, to be able to mistrust the evidence of the senses was the very first step in (their) philosophy.

[But why mistrust the senses? Why was this chosen as the foundation of Vedanta “philosophy” — a word whose original Greek meaning is “love of truth”? So Vedanta has postulated a more real world, eternal and unchanging, and has rejected the sensory phenomenal world as “illusory” and unreal, the product of Avidya (ignorance or delusion). And so dualism crept into their thought, about which we shall read more as we progress.]

From the Maitrayaniya Upanishad:

Thoughts alone cause the round of a new birth and a new death. Let a man therefore strive to purify his thoughts. What a man thinks, that he is. This is the old secret. (VI, 34)

Exactly the same idea is expressed by Buddha in the first verse of the Dhammapada (the collected words of the Buddha). Buddha’s hostility toward the Brahmins has been very much exaggerated, and we know by now that most of his doctrines were really those of the Upanishads.

Man is immortal as soon as he knows himself, that is, as soon as he knows the eternal Self within him. Subject, for the Vedantists, is not a logical but a metaphysical term. It is, in fact, another name for Self, or for whatever name has been given to the eternal element in man and God. As soon as the Self is conceived and changed into something objective, Avidya (“absence of true knowledge”) steps in, the illusory cosmic life begins, the soul seems to be this or that, to live and to die — while as subject, it can be touched by neither life nor death, it stands aloof, it is immortal.

If the Hindu philosopher is clear on any point, it is this: that the subjective soul, the witness or knower, or the Self, can never be known as objective but can only be itself, and thus be conscious of itself. We can only know ourselves by being ourselves. If other people think they know us, they know our phenomenal self, never our subjective self, which can never be anything but a subject — it knows, but it cannot be known.

Problems with Vedanta

Soon, however, a new question arose: Whence come all these upadhis or (limiting) conditions, this body, these senses, this mind and all the rest? And the answer was, from Avidya.

The Vedantist sees the work of Avidya everywhere. He sees it in our not knowing our true nature, and in our believing in the objective world as it appears and disappears. He guards against calling this universal Avidya real, in the sense in which Brahman is real, yet he cannot call it altogether unreal, because it has at all events caused all that seems to be real, though it is itself unreal.

[Here the argument starts to fall apart.]

Its only reality (Avidya’s, that is) consists in the fact that it has to be assumed, and there is no other assumption possible to account for what is called the real world (emphasis added).

[Is there no other assumption possible to account for what is called “the real world”? First the Upanishads posit a more real world, eternal and unchanging, but are then faced with the problem of explaining the sensory phenomenal world — the physical world, the world as it is, as we perceive it, the world we inhabit. So the only “assumption possible” is that the world we see and inhabit is not real, in the sense that the “real” world is real (here they qualify it), all the while missing the fact that this “real” world was born as an idea in the mind of man. Without this assumption, the whole philosophy falls apart.

[Because man does not perceive correctly, he misses the real world and falls under the spell of a world he himself creates, the illusory one. This is dualism par excellence, unfortunately found in what is termed Advaita (“without two,” usually translated as Nondual) Vedanta, and its presence in this philosophy is the reason I call primitive and dated. A yet finer conception of nondualism is possible (as we shall see elsewhere), one that does not posit and distinguish between real and unreal worlds.]

Adi Shankara, boy genius, is said to have completed his writings by age 16 and died at 32, having bested in debates the brightest minds of his time. One of India’s most revered saints, Shankara systematized Vedanta in the 8th century. Painting by Srinivasa Rau.

The Triumph of Shankara: Vedanta in a Nutshell

Avidya, however, is not meant for our own individual ignorance, but as an ignorance inherent in human nature — nay, as something like a general cosmic force, as darkness inevitable in the light, which causes the phenomenal world to seem, and to be to us, what it seems and what it is.

Hence Avidya came to be called Maya, original power (also Shakti, “power”), the productive cause of the whole world. This Maya soon assumed the meaning of illusion, deception, fraud — nay, it assumed a kind of mythological personality.

[To me it seems that all the undesirable remnants of this philosophy, such as the “productive power” that leads to deception and fraud, were personified as the female principle (Shakti) and rejected in favor of the male (Brahman).]

However, the word Maya never occurs in the principal Upanishads in the same sense a Avidya, though in some of the later Upanishads it has taken the place of Avidya.

[Maya as a deceptive veil thrown over the world to conceal its true nature, leading to suffering and rebirth, is also a central concept in Buddhism.]

In some places, certain latent powers or shaktis (“powers”) are ascribed to Brahman in order to account for the variety of created things in each period. But this is strongly objected to by Shankara, who holds that the universe, though it has all its reality in and from Brahman, is not to be looked upon as a modification — for Brahman, being perfect, can never be changed or modified, and what is called the created world, in all its variety, is and remains with the Vedantist the result of a primeval and universal turning aside or perversion caused by Avidya.

Brahman, as Shankara says, though ignorantly worshipped, remains unaffected by our inadequate conceptions. He is not tainted by our ignorance, as little as the sun is tainted by the clouds that pass over it. Nay, we may learn in time that as the human eye cannot look upon the sun except when covered by those passing clouds, the human mind cannot possibly conceive God except behind the veil of human language and human thought. The phenomenal Brahman is therefore nothing but the real Brahman, only veiled in time by Avidya.