shankaranarayanan - the ten great cosmic powers

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SRI CHAKRA, the king of chakras is a masterplan of manifestation drawn by the divineDraughtsman on the board of the infinite, atranscript of the Transcendent, a symbol-imageof the supernal verities. The spiritual and occulttradition of the worship of the Mother Goddessand the Sadhana of Srividhya are explained insixteen chapters in terms of modern thought andunderstanding. Based on authentic andauthoritative Tantric texts the exposition inEnglish is inspiring and original, almost a classicin the field of esoteric literature.

S. SHANKARANARAYANAN

5th Reprint 2002 Rs. 120/-

SRI CHAKRA

Rs 120/-

THE AUTHOR

Though his academic attainments are inMathematics and his professional inte-rests lie in a specialised field of industrialmanagement, Sri S. Shankaranarayananhas retained his first love for Sanskrit.In his childhood he was introduced tothe ancient Sanskrit lore by his grand-father, Sri S. Narayana Iyer, who washimself a deep initiate in Sri VidyiT,Later he came under the dynamic in-fluence of Sri Kapali Sastriar. Shankara-narayanan cherishes a special regard forthis tradition of the worship of theDivine Mother and his treatises on DeviMaheitmyam-both in Tamil and English- have acquired an authenticity of theirown. The present work on Sri Cakra,revealing as it does the depth of hisscholarship, practical insight and occultknowledge, promises to be a classic onthe subject. Endowed with luminousintellect, well-versed in the modes ofesoteric worship and awake with anactive spiritual aspiration, Shankaranara-yanan is marked out to play a singularrole in the resuscitation of the spiritualand occult tradition of India in termsof modern thought and understanding.

— M. P. PANDIT

BHAVARTHA-DIPI KAJNANESHWARI

Sri Jnanadeva

Sri Jnanadev or Jnaneshwar, Poet and Yogi, Jnani andBhakta, was on this earth for about twenty years, nearlyseven hundred years ago. His brief life was a divine event.

The Bhagavad Gita embodies the essence of the VedicReligion within a short compass and in the most popularform.. That glorious dialogue between Nara andNarayana, Arjuna and Sri Krishna, is aptly described asJnanamaya Pradipa - the Light of Knowledge.

Jnaneswar Mahraj had, at a very young age, a vision ofthat Light and he gave discourses on the Gita which cameto be known as Bhavartha Dipika or Jnaneshwari, bringingto light the deeper meaning and hidden significance ofthe dialogue between the Blessed Lord and Arjuna.

The very original Commentary, long confined to Marathiand a few other Indian languages in translation, was madeavailable for the first time to the world at large by SriRamachandra Keshav Bhagwat in a complete Englishtranslation, published in two volumes in 1952 and 1954.

Jnanadev departs from tradition and views the Gita as abook of two parts, PURVAKHANDA or the first consistingof the first nine chapters and UTTARAKHANDA or thesecond part consisting of the last nine chapters. Hiscommentary on VI. 12 and other verses reveals for thefirst time the process and reality ofYoga fully justifyingthe triple description of the Gita not only as UPANISHAD

and BRAHMA VIDYA but also as YOGA SASTRA.

The Gita may be said to begin, in a sense, with Arjuna'saspiration and surrender to Sri Krishna in a state ofperplexity The Blessed Lord imparts to Arjuna the GreatWord of the Supreme Secret UTTAMAM RAHASYAM.

And the Gita concludes with Arjuna's declaration in thegreatest self-knowledge Karishye Vachanam Tava - Ishall fulfil your Word. May Jnaneshwari invoke the graceof the divine and lead its readers to that Realization.

Long out of print and very much in demand, this spiritualclassic is now issued in a new revised edition incorporatingthe text of the Bhagavad Gita in Devanagari along withProf. S.K. Belvalkar's English translation.

6th Reprint : 2001

Pages XL + 690 Rs. 300.00

Sanskrit Text with English Translation

THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS

(Dada Mahavidyii4

THE TEN GREATCOSMIC POWERS

(DASA MAHAVIDYAS)


SAMATA BOOKS


First Edition: 1972

Second Edition: 1975

Saniata Edition: 1996, 2002

To

SRI KAPALI SASTRIARISBN: 81-85208-38-7

at whose feet

I found the Light

Published by:

Samata Books10 Congress Building573 Mount Road,Chennai — 600 006, INDIAPhone: 91444349216E-mail: [email protected]

Printed at:

All India Press,Kennedy Nagar,P.O. Box 51,Pondicherry — 605 001,E-mail: [email protected].

PRINTED IN INDIA.

PREFACE

In his classic exposition of dri vidyet and the dricakra, Sri Shankaranarayanan has dwelt upon themanifestation of the Primal Divine Shakti in the form ofthis variegated, many-planed Universe. In the presentwork he explains the process of this manifestation. For,as he points out, creation is not a sudden precipitation; itis a graded self-revelation. The transcendent and ultimateMother of the Universe puts out several Powers andPersonalities of herself, each missioned to work out aparticular truth- of her Being. Of these, some are themajor, Cardinal Powers, mentioned variously as Four, Six,Ten, Twelve etc., according to the standpoint of the Seersof old. The Tantra celebrates the Ten as the maid vidyris.Great Sciences, that hold the creation in their celestialgrasp.

What are these maheividyas? Why are they distinguishedfrom one another though they all proceed from and leadto the same one Reality ? The author explains with hisusual lucidity : " Each is a particular Cosmic functionand each leads to a special realisation of the One Reality.The might of Kali, the sound-force of Tara, the beautyand bliss of Sundari, the vast vision of Bhuvaneshwari,the effulgent charm of Bhairavi, the striking force ofChinnamasta, the silent inertness of Dhumavati, theparalysing power of Bhagalamukhi, the expressive play ofMatangi and the concord and harmony of Kamalatmikaare the various characteristics, the distinct manifestationsof the Supreme Consciousness that has made this creation

possible. The Tantra says that the Supreme can herealised at these various points."

The secrets of these vidyas are buried deep in Sastrasand oral traditions. To Sri Shankaranarayanan we owegratitude for his intuitive grasp of these fundamentals,deep learning and conscientious scholarship in working outthe clues and the facility with which he has been able tolink up the dateless past of the mystics with the actualpresent dominated by empirical Science. He also integratesthis Thought of the Tantra with the Doctrine and Practiceof Life Divine as presented by Sri Aurobindo in his Epic,Sli vitri.

It has been more than a delight to follow the authorin his studies of the data mahavidos and I am doublyhappy that with this publication a larger number ofreaders and seekers will share in this felicity.

M. P. Pandit

CONTENTSPAO%

DISCIPLINES OF KNOWLEDGE 1

KALI 11

TARA 19

TRIPURASUNDARI 32

SHUVANESHWARI 43

TRIPURA SHAIRAvi 54

CHINNAMASTA 66

DHUMAVATI 80

BAGALAMUKHJ 92

MATANGI 103

KAMALATMIKA 115

CORRESPONDENCE WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES 125

SADHANA 140

SYrrnmsis 144

DISCIPLINES OF KNOWLEDGE

He had studied the Vedas. Like all vaidiks of histime he took to priesthood and was eking out a living.Driven by poverty he approached some one to teach him aMantra for getting rich quickly. Having got the Mantra,he took his seat in the front courtyard of his house andbegan practising the repetition of the Mantra. Two hourswould have passed and the Vaidik saw a beggar woman athis door. It was not an uncommon thing; he did notattempt to drive her away as he did not want his japa tobe interrupted by some words spoken in between. Thebeggar woman who was in tatters stooped down, patientlyuntied the knots of a bundle of rags, took out the smallcoins kept there and before the Vaidik knew what she wasdoing, threw the coins at his feet. The Vaidik naturallywas taken aback and began to remonstrate. " Why, youhave been asking for this for the past two hours" said sheand went her way. The Vaidik stopped repeating hisMantra in sheer disgust and vowed that never again wouldhe go after such pursuits.

This incident which happened years ago is quoted herefor the flood of light it throws on certain basic principlesof Tantra Shastra. Evidently, the man contacted with thehelp of the formula given to him an entity or a spirit, alow class of deity which caught hold of the human vehicleof the beggar woman and within two hours made her parewith the pittance she had in favour of the man. The deityresponded quickly, as being in the lower rungs of thecosmic ladder nearest to the earth-plane it was within easy

2 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS DISCIPLINES OF KNOWLEDGE 3

reach of human beings ; and its power was limited to grantonly so much of money to the one who called for itsassistance.

The Tantra recognises the one Supreme Deity presid-ing over everything as the Highest, at the same timeadmitting the existence of various Gods and Goddesses.In the words of Sri Kapali Sastriar : " The sages of theTantra do not see any inconsistency in the position, forthey recognise that this creation is not a unitary systembut a gradation of worlds spread over a rising tier ofconsciousness and planes and the various Gods andGoddesses are higher beings, powers and entities. derivingtheir authority from the Supreme to take their part andact or preside over their spheres of domain. There is aregular hierarchy of Gods some of whom are far abovethe highest heavens of human reach. But there are alsoGods and Goddesses closer to the human level. They aremore readily accessible to those who aspire to them andin some cases the seeker on the 'I antric path looks to theaid and lead of these deities in his effort. They areendowed with capacities and powers beyond normal humanpossibility, but they are not all for that reason divine innature. There are higher and lower classes of them, warand kludra Devatas. Those that are nearest to the earth-plane, swarming in the vital world overtopping thephysical, are usually of the latter type. They respondvery readily to the approaches of those who seek theirhelp but they do so mainly for their own purpose, namely,to get hold of the particular human vehicle and convert itinto a centre for their activity on the earth. They mayand do answer the call of the seeker in the beginning butin the end they let him down, rather roughly, once theirpurpose is fulfilled. The seeker is misled, his inner

progress comes to a standstill if it does, not end in disaster.The Kshudra Devatas mislead the seeker with pettyglamorous gifts, induce a false sense of progress and siddhi,prevent the dawn of real Jnana which would expose theirwhole game and succeed in enslaving the man for theirpurpose at the cost of his soul which is betrayed intomisad venture ". 1

But there are also entities of a higher order, benevo-lent deities, Uccha Devatas and as they occupy higherlevels, the seeker has to make an effort to ascend to them.But they take the seeker on the path steadily and safelyand ultimately do him the utmost good. There are stillhigher deities with cosmic functionings nearer to theSupreme Cosmic Godhead who presides over the myriadworlds that arc created. Then at the top of this pyramidalstructure of the cosmos spreading over an ascending tierof consciousness, at the summit of the innumerable levelsand planes of existence there are certain cardinal God-heads, so many facets of the One Truth, the SupremeDeity that correspond to the Brahman of the Upanishads.The spiritual disciplines leading to such cardinal Deitiesare known as Brahma Vidyas. These are also popular asMaha Vidyas, the great paths of discipline or SiddhaVidyas, the lines of quest where fulfilment is assured.

The Sanskrit word vidyii is formed from the root vidto know or to understand. Vidya means learning orknowledge and also denotes the way to understanding, thepath of knowledge, the Teaching. The mystics, all overthe world, in their quest for the highest knowledgefollowed certain pathi, undertook certain disciplines whichwere kept secret and were revealed only in the esoterie

1. Sidelgibti on the Testis by Sri T. V. Kapell Sastriar.

4 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERC DISCIPLINES OF KNOWLEDGE 5

hierarchy of master and disciple. In India, the Upani-shads, the repository of ancient wisdom and secret know-ledge, mention in the body of their texts certain Vidyas,,disciplines of knowledge. It has to be remembered thatthe Upanishads are not merely texts outlining the philoso-phical speculations of our ancient seers, as popularly held,but also manuals of Sadhana, practical guide-books onspiritual quest. These are the records of jottings of theteaching the ancient seekers had from their masters, anaid-memoire to remember the direct realisations they hadin pursuing various disciplines of knowledge in theirSadhana. Likewise in the Tantra which is acclaimed asthe great Sadhana Shastra, a practical manual, we find thegreat disciplines of knowledge, Maha Vidyas, occupyingan important place. Especially where the Supreme isadored as the Great Primordial Goddess, the Tantraclassifies the disciplines leading to the cardinal Deities as.data mand vidos, the ten great paths of knowledge.These cardinal Deities are the ten outstanding personalitiesof the Divine Mother. Their great names are : Kali,Tara, Tripurasundari, Bhuvaneshwari, Tripura Bhairavi,Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi andKamalatmika.

What may be the precise significance of classifyingthe Vidyas into ten will be a difficult question to answer.But we can indicate the following : The Supreme Motheris the Transcendent Absolute ineffable immutable. In theact of creation, she subjects herself to time and space.Though the space is actually one vast stretch, for ourgrasp and understanding, we demarcate the indivisible andinfinite Space into ten directions, east, west, south, north,south-east, south-west, north-east, north-west, above andbelow. Similarly the one infinite Mother is delineated as

ten outstanding personalities. Again, knowledge is oneand the consciousness is one and the same everywhere.But it is grasped and understood in ten different ways bythe ten senses, skin, eye, ear, tongue, nose, mouth, foot,hand, anus and genital. Likewise, the one Truth is sensedin its ten different facets ; the Divine Mother is adoredand approached as the ten cosmic Personalities, DasaMaha Vidyas.

Each of these ten great Vidyas is a Brahma Vidya.The Sadhaka of any one of these Vidyas attains ultimately,if his aspiration is such, the supreme purpose of life,parama puruvirtha viz. self-realisation and God-realisation,realising the Goddess as not different from one's self. Allthese Vidyas are benevolent deities of the highest orderand so do the utmost good to the seeker of the Vidya. Forany one who takes to any of these ten Vidyas, the Sadhanaproceeds on sound lines and is safe and sure. It is notnecessary at the beginning for the aspirant to have as hisgoal the highest aim of life. His aim most probably is thefulfilment of his immediate wants and for that he appro-aches the Deity. Once an aspirant takes to the Deity, theDeity takes upon itself the Sadhana. This is the charac-teristic of these Maha Vidyas. Whatever the seekerdesires the Divine Mother fulfils it. In the process hisdevotion to the Deity becomes stronger and stronger andhe learns to look upon the Deity for even the most trivialthings in life, seeks its guidance at every step and knowsto wait on its grace. There starts a living concourse, aconcrete intimacy between the devotee and the Deitywhich is so absorbing and so enthralling that all desires, .

all aims of the devotee with which he started the Sadhanapale into insignificance. The whole perspective becomesdifferent and there comes about a change in the attitude

6 MB TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS

of the Sadhaka to life and things. There come aboutvisible signs of communion, concrete evidences of contact,irresistible proofs of the Presence and the unmistakabletouches of the Divine's gracious hand in every happeningand in every circumstance. What were at one timemiracles become now common-place things and the wholelife becomes a happy hastening towards the Supreme Goal.

Thus nothing short of Self-Realisation, ötmasdk;atkeira is the goal of these Vidyas. Of course muchdepends on the seeker and on his active participation,But even if the seeker stops in the middle of the path, hedoes not come to any harm. Only his progress is delayed.In the Sadhana there are many pitfalls. The baseremotions may hold sway or the ego may interfere at eachstage. Once an aspirant has taken to any of these tenVidyas, he has to succeed ultimately. He may fail in thepresent, birth. The Vidya will make him take the threadof the Sadhana in the next birth and will continue to givethe necessary push to the soul of the aspirant on its onwardMarch. Even one step forward in the path of these Vidyasgoes a long way towards the Goal. Nothing goes in vain.In fact, the Tantra categorically declares that only thosewho have been sufficiently prepared in the previous birthscan approach the precincts of these Vidyas. For themalone are these well-proven carefully laid-out paths. Theyare the chosen ones, the men with a mission, the indefatig-able toilers on the uphill path of these disciplines ofknowledge.

Because all these Vidyas lead to the ultimate Reality,It does not mean that they are all one and the same.Each Vidya is distinct and distinguishable from the other.Each is a particular Cosmic function and each leads to aspecial realisation of the One Reality. The might of Kali,

DISCIPLINES OF KNOWLEDGB 7

the sound-force of Tara, the beauty and bliss of Sundari,the vast vision of Bhuvaneshwari, the effulgent charm ofBhairavi, the striking force of Chinnamasta, the silentinertness of Dhumavati, the paralysing power ofBagalamukhi, the expressive play of Matangi and theconcord and harmony of Kamalatmika are the variouscharacteristics, the distinct manifestations of the SupremeConsciousness that has made this creation possible. TheTantra says that the Supreme can be realised at thesevarious points. According to one's ability and aptitude,one realises the great Goddess, becomes identified with herin her might, in her striking force, in her paralysing poweror in her beauty and bliss, in her concord and harmony.If one wants to bathe in a river, one cannot bathe in thewhole river ; one has to bathe at a spot. Similarly if anaspirant wants to reach the Divine, circumscribed as he isby his receptivity and capacity, he chooses one particularpath, takes up for adoration one aspect of the Divine. Ashis pursuit is exclusive, his progress is quick and hisapproach becomes direct. Ultimately he attains a perfectidentification with the Divine.

But it is not the intention of the Tantra to limit thecapacity of the individual to a particular realisation how-ever perfect it may be. It is true that there are ten MahaVidyas directly leading to the Supreme Truth, ten chalkedout paths, safe and sure to have an immediate and directapproach. For instance if one takes to the Sadhana of theMaha Vidya, Chinnamasta, ultimately one attains a perfectidentification with the Supreme. All the same it is apartial identification, - or Chinnamasta is one facet of themany-faceted Supreme. Not a particular realisation, buta global realisation is required to attain the Total Divine.Pursuing our analogy of bathing in a river, if one wants to

8 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS

DISCIPLINES OF KNOWLEDGE 9

have a conception of the ebb and flow, the eddies andcurrents of a river one has to bathe at various spots in theriver. This is exactly what one does when one takes aholy bath in a sacred place. For instance, in Kashi, bathsin so many bathing ghats are prescribed in order that thebather may have a full realisation of the grandeur of theDivine Ganges. Similarly in these ten great disciplines ofknowledge, the seeker can aspire for an integral knowledgeand he may, depending on his capacity, come nearer theTotal Divine, by having as many realisations as he can.

In fact, the Tantra which is justly famous as a scienceof synthesis holds that one Maha Vidya leads its Sadhakato another depending on the need and aspiration of theSadhaka. The worshipper of Kali has a unique realisationof the Divine, the Terrible. At the same time, therealisation of the Divine, the Auspicious is available tohim if he understands the concept of bhadra kali. Thenhe goes on to appreciate the correspondence between theother two Vidyas, Tripurasundari and Tripurabhairavi,Tripura the beautiful and Tripura the terrific. In theSundari Vidya itself worship is prescribed for Mantriniand Dandanatha, the attendants of Lalita Tripurasundari.Mantrini is Syamala or Matangi and Dandanatha corres-ponds to Bagalamukhi. Thus the Vidya of Tripurasundaribrings to the aspirant the realisations pertaining to theVidyas of Matangi and Bagalamukhi.

Here a word of caution is necessary. When it is saidthat the Vidyas of Matangi and Bagalamukhi are impliedin the Vidya of Sundari, the human mind immediatelyjumps to the conclusion that the Vidya of Sundari issuperior to the other two Vidyas. The mind of mansubject to the limitations of time and space can understandanything only in relation to time and space. Any new

knowledge is immediately related to the old, classified anddocketed as anterior or posterior, higher or lower. Wereiterate that each of the ten Vidyas leads the seeker to theSupreme Reality. Each is great in its own right and eachis equal in all respects to each of the other nine Vidyas.The practices of certain disciplines are widely prevalent,others are less known. For that matter they are not lessimportant.

Again, an integral realisation is possible in theseVidyas because though they are distinct and unique, theyhave among themselves many characteristics in common.Kali, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati and Bagalamukhi have thecommon characteristics of Power and Force, active ordormant. Sundari, Bhuvaneshwari, Bhairavi, Matangiand Kamalatmika share the qualities of Light, Delight andBeauty. Tara has certain characteristics of Kali andcertain others of Sundari and is correlated to Bhairavi,Bagalamukhi and Matangi in the aspect of Sound-Forceexpressed or impeded. Thus the ten Maha Vidyas fallinto three broad divisions of discipline. The Veda laudsthree Goddesses, producers of delight, tisro devir mayo-bhuvaij. The Upanishads mention the One unborn, red,white and dark ajam ekam lohita dukla krwm. TheTantras speak of Kali, the dark, Tara the white andSundari the red.

In this ancient land, for ages the worship of thesegreat mighty Personalities of the Mother has beenprevalent. The other Vidyas have been practised butthey have not come into the lime light. In the southernpart of India the Vidya of Sundari, Sri Vidya, has beenmuch in vogue. In the far north and north-west, inTibet and in Kashmir adoration of Tara is popular. Inthe north-east parts of the country, especially in Bengal,

10 TIM TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS

the cult of Kali is famous. Thus the whole of India isfull of adoration for the Divine Mother and the spiritof India has been eternally sustained by the Force Supreme.pars iakti. The might of Kali, the wisdom of Taraand the beauty of Sundari have forged and fashioned thisancient race where the first man, the offspring of mann,the thinker, dared to peer with his earthly eyes into theportals of the Beyond.

We shall now take up for study the respective Vidyas.

KA Li

The Supreme Consciousness is the One RealityEternal. At first it becomes conscious of itself, holds allin itself, in essence without reference to time. Thecreation starts with the extension of this Timeless Spiritto bring out what is all along implied in it. This self-extension of the. Supreme, this objectivisation from thesubjective initial state, measured by movement and event,we call Time, kale:. This Time assumes a triple statustredha nidadhe padam for creation and the created beingshave the relative experience of Time as past, present andfuture. The experience is relative because past is what waspresent once, present is what was future before and futureis what will become present and then past after a time.Thus there is a continuous movement, a Time-sequencewhich is an infinite continuum of apparently definite parts.And these parts, definite demarcations in the progressionof successive development are the characteristics of Time.To this characteristic, we give the name Death. That iswhy, in the Sanskrit language Death also is denoted bythe name kola. The Lord of Death is known as yamo,the restrainer, as he restrains the continuous movement inTime, as antaka or kranta one who makes the termination,as dharma the law of this mutable creation.

In the words of Sri Aurobindo : " There is the onefundamental necessity of the nature and object ofembodied life itself, which is to seek infinite experienceon a finite basis ; and since the form, the basis by its veryorganisation limits the possibility of experience, this canonly be done by dissolving it and seeking new forms. For

I I

KALI


the soul, having once limited itself by concentrating on themoment and the field, is driven to seek its infinity again bythe principle of succession, by adding moment to momentand thus storing up a Time-experience which it calls itspast ; in that Time it moves through successive fields,successive experiences or lives, successive accumulations ofknowledge, capacity, enjoyment, and all this it holds insubconscious or superconscious memory as its fund of pastacquisition in Time. To this process, change of form isessential, and for the soul involved in individual bodychange of form means dissolution of the body in subjectionto the law and compulsion of the All-life in the materialuniverse, to its law of supply of the material of form anddemand on the material, its principle of constant intershockand the struggle of the embodied life to exist in a world ofmutual devonring. And this is the law of Death.

"This then is the necessity and justification of Death,not as a denial of Life, but as a process of Life ; death isnecessary because eternal change of form is the soleimmortality to which the finite living substance can aspireand eternal change of experience the sole infinity to whichthe finite mind involved in living body can attain.This change of form cannot be allowed to remain merelya constant renewal of the same form-type such asconstitutes our bodily life between birth and death ; forunless the form-type is changed and the experiencingmind is thrown into new forms in new circumstances oftime, place and environment, the necessary variation ofexperience which the very nature of existence in Time andSpace demands, cannot be effectuated. And it is only theprocess of Death, by dissolution and by the devouring oflife by life, it is only the absence of freedom, the compul-sion, the struggle, the pain, the subjection to something

14 TAB TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS

KALI 15

that appears to be Not-Self which makes this necessary andsalutary change appear terrible and undesirable to ourmortal mentality. It is the sense of being devoured,broken up, destroyed or forced away which is the sting ofDeath and which even the belief in personal survival ofdeath cannot wholly abrogate." 1

To this Supreme Time-force, Shakti of Kala, theTantrics give the name kali. To the Tantrics this creationis no illusion ; it is as real as the Creator, and in theprocess of winning the Godhead they do not lose theworld. Theirs is not a mok,a, liberation somewherebeyond. Following the Vedic and the Vedantic seers,their aspiration aims at a liberation here and now, in thelife itself. But the existence is devoured by Time anddeath is the end of life. In the journey of life, at eachstep, at every moment man is dogged by the shadow ofdeath and all his high aims and noble aspirations arevitiated by this tragic culmination. It is the fear of deaththat makes man mortal. No attempt on the path ofprogress will have meaning, no Sadhana successful unlessand until this fear is overcome. Death has to be faced ;the significance of the Time-concept has to be understood.So the Tantra lays down the adoration of Kali, the Time-force, as the first and foremost of all disciplines of know-ledge.

Death prowls as a hungry beast devouring the wholecreation, sparing none. So the Tantric sees the world asa great cemetry, maha dmadana. In this maha drnaiana,the Divine Mother Kali dances. Her dance indicates theintense activity, the myriad moments of the Time-sequencefollowing in quick succession. She is Death the devourer,

I The Life Divine : Chapter XK.

the ruthless kilter. Mounted on a dead body, terrible isshe with ferocious fangs ; and a derisive laughter marksher face. Stark naked, the Dark One with her lollingtongue has for her garland a string of skulls. She has fourhands; in two of them she has the sword and the severedhead, and the other two, the auspicious Mother keeps forgiving boons and allaying fear. Thus the Tantric con-templates on the dark Mother.' To him two of herpersonalities stand out in contemplation. They aredakFitja kali and bhadra kali.

Both dakfipa and bhadra are Vedic words. A divinediscernment, a right action born out of an intuitionaldiscrimination, an adroitness in execution—these aredenoted by the term Dakshina. It is true that Kali is themight of the Supreme, the stupendous strength of all theGods and she carries in her wake death and devastation.She sweeps the whole existence with her terrible tide ofdestruction, no doubt. But she does this with a divinediscernment. Her act of destruction is a right action asit is done with a purpose. It is not a clumsy executionbut a skilful performance, preparing the ground. So sheis acclaimed as Dakshina Kali. But what is the purposeof this destruction ? What ground does the dark deathprepare ? It is the right creation, all auspiciousness andfelicity belonging to the state of truth denoted by theword Bhadram that is brought about by the death anddestruction. So she is Bhadra Kali the auspicious Kali

vorme nirtitt ttitri argilm Ivgalri romprinKtRzrwri rom4tIiifTSIBKi awn* fOrrirKIR

irrtiPettk wrIemoRnrft4IR

16 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS KALI 17

who destroys in order to create. She cooks everything inthe cauldron of the cosmos pacaka Sakti, she is theeternal energy of evolution, Time the transformer. Forsuccessive deaths are only milestones in the highway oflife. They are the thousand gates that open out to Eternity.The terrible mother lashes the mortal man with thescourge of death towards immortality. Her darkness isthe preparatory time of the night before the dawn.

She represents the evolutionary principle and hercosmic actions work out the gradual unfoldment of thedivine possibilities. In terrestial existence, natural calami-ties like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, flood,pestilence etc., are her actions designed for a quickupheaval. So also are wars, revolutions, riots etc., designedby her to hasten human progress. In the being of theindividual she is the power of transformation ; the dormantdynamism, the potential energy of evolution. She is theblack serpent lying coiled and asleep in the inner body, .

Kundalini Shakti. Under proper conditions this forceuncoils itself, stands up straight like a serpent, spreadingits hood and lifts itself more and more till it meets thedivine consciousness above. When this takes place, theclosed planes and parts of being in man open, there is agradual unfoldment or a speedy transformation towardsthe Yogic consciousness. Whether one consciously makesan effort to raise the Kundalini or not, in all paths ofYoga, at one time or other, the effects of Kundalini's playare experienced in the inner body. Thus the grace of Kaliis indispensable for any kind of transformation or progresswhich is the avowed object of any yoga.

Now let us deal with the worship of this dark Mother.It is said that this self cannot be acquired by one devoidof strength, nayam etma bakihinena tabhyo. The valiant

ones know his source tasya dhiriih parijananti yonim, pro-claims the Veda. Kali the terrible is the Mother of mightand is the deity of the mighty ones strong in mind andbody. The weak and the wicked are awestruck by herpowerful personality. None can face her frontal assault.But she is liked by the brave, by the hero-warrior vira.The path of the Vira, Virachara, is eminently suited forgetting the favour of the Goddess. In occult Sadhana, thecharacteristics of the deity are simulated. The hero-warriorVira repairs to a cemetry, takes his seat on a corpse,fronts all those that are normally feared and attainsSiddhi. All those who are impatient with the tardy pro-gress of life invoke Kali : " for they feel that her blowsbeat what is rebellious in their material into strength andperfect truth, hammer straight what is wry and perverse andexpel what is impure or defective. But for her what isdone in a day might have taken centuries."1

The Mantra of Kali is the seed-sound bijäkyara krim.She is Kundalini in the body expressing herself as activitythrough the Pranic force. The body and the spirit arebrought together by the life-force, the vital, the outwardsymbol of which is the flowing breath, in and out of thebody, all the time. The vital or the Pranic force in theindividual is a replica of the Pranic force in the cosmos,the Time-movement, which is Kali. Through the vital,the Pranic force, the being is transformed and the earthlylife made spiritual. As the vital is the seat of emotions,all swift, straight and frank impulses, all intense feelingsare the movements of Kali. A spiritual Sadhana is pres-cribed to win the grace of Kali. The method is to unite

I Sri Aurobindo : The Mather.


one's consciousness constantly with the inflowing and out-flowing breath.' There is a big difference between breath-ing involuntarily all the time and breathing knowinglyeven for sometime. By uniting one's consciousness ateach step with inhalation and exhalation, one becomesconscious of the Pranic force that sustains one's being andthen the great cosmic Pranic force that is Kali. Adoringthe Time-force thus, one understands that

" All here is a mystery of contraries ;Darkness a magic of self-hidden light,Suffering some secret rapture's tragic maskAnd death an instrument of perpetual life."'

1 SITURIAli flTrarfffrr# fffart zrITTIrjr IWTY Iair g.Ter crfkitmrfa. fftiTZPsTrifffiT4fff Tit II

—Vasishtha Ganapati Muni in umasahasram X. 2.

S Sri Aurobindo : Savitri X. 1

TARA

The second of the Maha Vidyas is Tara. From acomparative study of Tantric books on Tara and theBuddhistic and Jaina literature, some scholars haveadvanced the theory that Goddess Tara is a late andsubsequent addition to the Tantric pantheon and herworship has become prevalent in this land only after theadvent of Buddhism and Jainism.

In the Buddhistic lore, Tara figures as the counterpartor Shakti of avalokitedwara, the Lord who has directed hisglance downwards, lin compassion. In the Mahayanaschool, she is represented as the mother of the Buddhas aswell as Bodhisattvas. At times she is depicted as aBodhisattva, not inferior to any other, rather superior whocould be approached directly without the intervention ofany other power. A goddess Tara figures in the Jainapantheon as well. Hemachandra in his abhidhimacintdmani mentions suteiraka or sutdrd as the ddsanadevatii of the ninth Jina, Suvidhinatha. bhruku;i, a form ofTara in the Buddhistic school has been opted by theSwetambara Jinas as the dOsana devatei of the eighth Jina,Chandraprabha.

The Tantric books speak of Tara as Ugra Tara ; the'fierce Tara, having Akshobhya posited on her head. Theseer of the Mantra of Tara also is Rishi Akshobhya. TheTantras call her prajfid paramita, one who has attained theshore of consciousness. They prescribe mallet cinlicdra asthe method for propitiating her. Now Akshobhya is avery familiar name both in Mahayana and HinayanaBuddhism. It is the name of the Buddha who stood


unagitated, akpbhya against the onslaughts of Mara. Also,prajfla paramitä is decidedly a Bhuddhistic appellation.And Mahachina is Tibet. Ugra Tara, the fierce, can beeasily made out as Bhrukuti, the Goddess with eyebrowsknit in anger. All these go to show that Tara is ofBuddhistic origin, aver some scholars. They also quotesome Tantras to say that Tara belongs to uttaramnaya, thetradition of the North and there is a legend according towhich Vasishtha went to Mahachina to learn the mode ofworshipping Tara from Buddha himself.

From the inscription of the reign of the Chalukyaking Tribhuvanamalla Vikramaditya VI belonging to theSaka year 1017 (A.D. 1096) on a stone tablet bearing thefigure of Tara' one understands that Tara was invokedto allay all kinds of fears arising from lions, elephants,fire, serpents, robbers, submerging waters, ocean andghosts.2 She was the one who quickly granted the desiredends and was called to guard at the cross-roads. 3 One ofthe images of Tara excavated at Nalanda had on the backengraved the Mantra, om tare tuttiire lure swand : tura ortwara, has, always been the quality of Tara and she hasbeen quick in granting favours. Also Tara has beenmentioned in connection with the crossing of waters andnavigation. The famous laghustava indicates that oneshould remember Tara in the upsurge of waters, taram catoyaplave. The Lalitopakhyana mentions that on the way

I Fleet: Indian Antiquity Antiquary-Vol. X, pp. 185 ff.

• f-(16f7fATNIERITTEVeniTffIgikrit74t*TfirdirifTfig giraffe'. ?FR ggf-VZIII

▪ efattuillifsØMMT gTITTI flArt WRIT I

TARA

3


to the mansion of the Goddess Lalita there is a lake ofnectar which has to be crossed by boat. There, presidingover innumerable Shaktis plying the boats, Tara shinescapable of controlling the upsurge of waters.1 Again, inthe eighth century, her worship extended to Java as isevidenced by a Nagari inscription of the remains of aremarkable temple there, recording the date of constructionin the year 700 of the Saka era. (A.D. 778).

From all these historical evidences and mythologicalreferences, the theory has been advanced that by theworship of Tara the Buddhists got over all their troublesand tribulations, got quick success, crossed the seas toestablish their religion in Java ; and seeing their advance-ment the Hindus adopted the goddess Tara in the Tantricpantheon and began to worship her from thence.

There is no gainsaying of the fact that Tara is apopular deity in the religion of Buddhism. But from this,one cannot deduce that Tara is a later accretion, theTantra having adopted her from the Buddhistic canon.And, what is the necessity for Hinduism to borrow analien deity however potent it may be, when its perennialphilosophy has embraced in its stupendous sweep, theultimate Reality with all its myriad manifestations, fromthe lofty Brahma to the lowly ant brahmadi pipilikantam,when its tolerant and vivifying religion has conceived of agalaxy of gods and goddesses to suit the personal need ofeach of its individual followers? It is common knowledgethat Buddhism came into existence as a revolt to Hinduism.Initially built on the solid foundation of negation, to

1 ffifit fff*T4TfifT4t gT51 -4t IFITRofterifT5 ISrErrTiffr arirgirr wohriArgrqgriT 11 —Ch. 31. sl. 17

TARA 23

survive as an edifice, it had later on to add to itsstructure certain characteristics of the Hindu religion.This is how gods and goddesses and Bodhisatvtas began tobe worshipped in a religion preaching absolute negationand having the set goal of nirvana, the extinction ofexistence as its paramount realisation.

The worship of Tara is at least as old as the Vedas.Much is made out of the statement in the Tantras thatTara is a deity of the uttaremnaya, the traditions of theNorth. The worship of the Goddess was almost non-existent till recently,' in the south of Vindhyas: It hasbeen prevalent in Kashmir, Mithila and Tibet, thepopular land of Buddhism. But be it noted that Tibetexisted as a stretch of land long before the advent ofBuddhism and Buddhism did not restrict itself to the northalone. Also the extent to which the worship of a deity isprevalent does not in any way determine the nativity orantiquity of the deity. For that matter, the worship ofmany deities of the Dasa Mahavidyas is not popular orpublicly known.

Again, if we go by legend and tradition, we have toconsider the following account in the todala tantra. Thegods on the one side and the Asuras on the other churnedthe milky ocean in the hope of getting the immortalnectar. When poison, halahala, emerged instead of thenectar, all of them were agitated except the great Lord

t In ramana gita, a compilation of Sanskrit verses of the essentiateachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, the Sage of Arunachala, it is mentionedthat the wife of Sri Vasishtha Ganapati Muni was the first person topropagate the Vidya of Tara in the south of Vindhyas, having obtained itfrom a female Guru of Mithila.

der f4Fszru: eiRerftwirt Nifkffr —Ch. 13

24 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS TARA 25

Shiva who did not lose his presence of mind. He was theone that was unagitated, ak1vobhya, and at the instance ofhis Shakti, he swallowed the poison to save the world.His Shakti is Tara, the Saviour, the one who carried themall to the path of safety.

The Sanskrit word Tara comes from the root tr, totraverse. It is used to denote one who crosses, tarati, andmakes others cross as well, tarayati. Tara or Taraka is theword in Sanskrit to denote a star as it traverses in spaceand acts as guiding light. It is also an appellation for theguiding light in the human eye, the pupil, because of whichthe eye is justly called nayana or netra, that whichleads. A boat is called tari, as it makes one cross thewaters. The image of the ocean and the crossing ofwaters is largely employed in the ancient litanies of theVedic seers. The Veda speaks of two oceans, supercon-scient, and inconscient, one high above and the otherdown below. We can quote many Riks to show that theart of shipbuilding or navigation was not unknown tothem. For instance, in the famous Rik, jatavedashi address-ed to Agni and later ascribed to the Goddess Durga inthe Tantra, the Vedic Seer affirms that Agni carries himacross all tribulations like a ship across the ocean navevasindhum. And the Divine Mother, Aditi, is accosted asthe Divine Ship and the Seer prays : " May we ascendAditi for Beatitude, the Divine ship endowed withquick propellers, faultless, intact without slits, acapable protector, spacious as earth like heaven to

1 WOO' rafTW filff;TTTettrffl fffq411ff kq:rr r: q fa sdfur facer 91k4 Rol ifTmtrriv:

—Rig Veda I. 99. 1.

which no hurt can come, a happy shelter and skilfulcarrier."'

Again, if we study the spiritual tradition that has comedown to us through the ages, we find that Goddess Tarahas been invoked in connection with the acquisition ofknowledge, with the attainment of a potent power ofspeech, with the dramatic display of feats of learning.It is a fact that scholars hailing from Kashmir andMithila, the places where the worship of Tara is veryprevalent, have made no mean contribution to theenrichment of Sanskrit language and literature.

There is thus a seeming contradiction. On the onehand, Tara is connected with saving people from disasters,ferrying them across the waters of troubles and tribulations.On the other, she is connected with speech, with theacquisition of knowledge and her name nila saraswati seemsto stress this aspect of hers. What then is the realcharacter and function of this Deity, acclaimed as thesecond of the Mahavidyas ?

When the Transcendent Absolute desires to manifestout of its own volition, there is a movement, a stir, athrob. This primordial throb adya spanda starts a seriesof vibrations which take the form of sound, nada, whichis the precursor of the creation of objects—artha smithpurvam dabda snlih. This, the Veda calls as the nityavak. Eternal Word, the akfara, represented by thesound-symbal ' Om " For, it is the nearest representativeapproach in the mental and vocal expression to the

M. P. Pandit : Aditi and other Deities in the Veda :

lifeTe errlrket graTrfunifeir gsterlfal iif* mat prfrrwirririrfferktITT vtar Taro*

—(Shukia Yajur Veda, 21. 6)


TARA 27

inexpressible fountain-source of all original rhythms of theSupreme Ether." 1 In the words of Sri Aurobindo, " Thefoundation of all the potent,creative sounds of the revealedword, Om is the universal formulation of the energy ofsound and speech, that which contains and sums up,synthetises and releases, all the spiritual power and all thepotentiality of yak and ,srabda and of which the othersounds, out of whose stuff words of speech are woven, aresupposed to be the developed evolutions All wordand thought are an out-flowering of the great Om,—Om,the Word, the Eternal, manifest in the form of sensibleobjects, manifest in that conscious play of creative self-conception of which forms and objects are the figures,manifest behind in the self-gathered superconscient powerof the Infinite, Om is the sovereign source, seed, womb ofthing and idea, form and name—it is itself, integrally, theSupreme Intangible, the original Unity, the timelessMystery self-existent above all manifestation in supernalbeing." Undoubtedly, it is this pranava, Om that isknown by the famous appellation, tara or taraka. Theforce whose sound-symbol is Om is the great goddess Tara.That which the Vedic seers call as Akshara, the Upani-shadic sages as Pranava and the Puranic bards as theimmaculate white Gouri, that force is the Tara of theTantrics.2 Thus, the Maha Vidya Tara is the primordialnada, the paiyanti yak, the seeing Word perceiving thecoining creation, the sound-substance of all sounds, the

1 Sri Kapali Sastriar : Lights on the Ancients.

2 Milt katiVrriliettlri W41991 . tr: 31111*/ Ig4r4111 inil fkcIfyiiat zIT Elf 9.1.9wwrtirt asW9' WTI' I I

—Vasishtha Ganapati Muni in indrani saptadati 21. (11).

highly praised Pranava, the anujfiakFara, the word ofsanction, the affirmative to the creative Godhead, thesource of all speech and the repository of all knowledge.

And there is no contradiction in the concept of Tarabeing a saviour ferrying the aspirant across troubles andtribulations. For ignorance is the greatest of all troublesthat man is heir to, the direst of all disasters that canbefall him. Tara gives the guiding Word, the Word thatguides creation on its chartered path, grants the ultimateknowledge which roots out all ignorance and ferries theaspirant from non-being to being, from darkness to light,from death to immortality.

The Tantra mentions three of her great Personalities :Ugra Tara, Nila Saraswati and Ekajata. Ugra Tara, asher name indicates, is fierce and like Kali is mounted ona corpse. Hers is the vehement vibration that disturbs theprimordial immobility, hers is the sound-force shatteringthe stubborn stillness, The Tantra says that she gathersall the ignorance of the triple worlds in her bowl madeof the human cranium and then destroys it in a sweep'.Nilasaraswati is the power of the word piercing thetenebrous space, the light of knowledge that pierces throughthe darkness of ignorance. Ekajata is the goddess with asingle matted hair signifying that all the scatteredvibrations of sound are being channelised in the act ofcreation. She is not muktakedi, her hair falling loose, herenergies scattered, but Ekajata her forces moblised in thepurposive act of creation. Tara is also classified asneela and citra. scukla, white, is her immaculate form,pure and unsullied, the"original Word in its pristine glory.neela, blue or dark, is her form when she descends into the

1 A•rzi wileAs NNITfft etp-c.c. f41111 I

28 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS TARA 29

dark womb of creation from the height of her whiteradiance. doe, the multicoloured, is the manifestation ofTara as the many forms in the work-a-day world.

Now, coming to the Mantra of the Goddess, the oneseed-sound which represents her integrally is the akFara,om.It is the sound-symbol used before every other Mantra.To quote Sri Aurobindo, " the mantra Om should leadtowards the opening of th econsciousness to the sight andfeeling of the One consciousness in all material things, inthe inner being and in the supraphysical worlds, in thecasual plane above now superconscient to us and finally,the supreme liberated transcendence above all cosmicexistence". Apart from this, Ugra Tara is worshippedby the Mantra, om hrim strim, hum phat, Ekajata by theMantra, hrim strim hum phat and Nilasaraswati by thethree seed-sounds hrim strim hum. The tradition is that theMantra is propagated by female Gurus. When a child isborn, even before three days are passed, the mother of thechild or some other woman writes with a small shoot ofvaca dipped in honey or ghee on the tongue of the new-born child the three letters of the Mantra of NeelaSaraswati. 1 Thus purified from the very birth by theMantra, the tongue becomes a sure vehicle of superbspeech, articulating in word without any distortion, thenoblest thoughts and the highest inspirations. It is saidthat only on account of this practice prevalent there, inolden days, scholars of great distinction emerged inabundance from Kashmir.

wrffiTmEr ITN% Rarfrftretztrzsr:fwEitmt ferfkitaril ITsw4tTrRt irTic iwzrr II

A special kind of worship is prescribed in the case ofTara, which is known as mahacinacara. This wasoriginally practised in mahacina, Tibet and has been muchmisunderstood. When the Tan tric lays stress on bath,cleanliness etc., the votaries of the Achara ask the question :What is this bath, and for whom is this bath ? kim snanamkasya va snanam. From this it has been hastily concludedin some quarters that this Achara is the practice of thedirty infidels who have no belief in the customs andmanners of the Hindu worshipper. On the other hand, thisis a highly philosophical system. The aim of worship is tobecome the deity and worship the deity, givo bhutva ,s( Namyajet. In that case, where is the question of purity or bathetc.? Again, certain periods of the day or night like theSandhyas are prescribed as auspicious for worship. But inthis world created by God, everything is auspicious. Thereis nothing like an inauspicious moment. 1 Auspicious isthe moment when the thought of God arises. And thethought of God should always be there. Tara is nityäyak, the eternal Word, reverberating without any inter-mission as the underlying sound-substance Om in all beings,the never-ending nada in the hearts of all, the ajapa, thatwhich goes on endlessly repeating itself without any effortof articulation. So in the worship of such a deity, there isno regulation regarding time and place, no restrictionregarding posture etc. There is no prescribed period forjapa, prayer or consecration. Eternal is Tara and constantshould be her worship. No man-made prescription orregulation should be allowed to fetter the free flow of this

1 fr4 TT: wm-). 4rTT) 444 44f4qT fa 't fkarT 1741 9' EfiSEIT/IT 1:14Tre4T II


TARA 31

constant rhythm, this eternal symphony.' This is thedoctrine of mandcinäcdra.

In the Sadhana of this Mahavidya, the aspirantshould be an absolute servitor of Truth. Especiallyin speech he should never allow falsehood, in whateverform to enter. Falsehood drives away the Goddess. Forthis purpose, certain spiritual disciplines prescribe absolutesilence. But this is avoiding the problem. Moderationin speech is much more difficult than keeping silent andthis should be practised. Recital of the Vedas, sticking atall costs to Truth in speech, talking only what ishelpful and necessary—these practices speedily make theaspirant a vehicle for stuklii's manifestation. To realiseclod, the aspirant should treat praise and blame equally,enjoy the underlying sound-sense equally in rhythmicpoetry and in pandemonious noise. He should appreciatethe harmony as well as the discordant note and perceivethe rasa in the songs and cries of people. He should notbe attached to sound, neither should he be indifferent toit. Such a one gets the favour of clod, the multicolouredpersonality of the goddess Tara in the myriad manifesta-tions of the universe.

There is no goddess like Tara in granting favours,nahi tardsamd kacit devata siddhidayini proclaims theTantra. She is the Saviour who assures thus :

" I guide man to the path of the DivineAnd guard him from the red Wolf and the Snake.

fkqWTrffzila ffTifff ffzmnfeffErtft q' iWit W1V5fffzilh' 91qi141 Wfffirlfit I

44Wifff41:1 IS31* AITTFITTI tiTTA ,1

I set in his mortal hand my heavenly swordAnd put on him the breast-plate of the Gods.I break the ignorant pride of human mindAnd lead the thought to the wideness of the Truth;I rend man's narrow and successful lifeAnd force his sorrowful eyes to gaze at the sunThat he may die to earth and live in his soul.I know the goal, I know the secret route,I have studied the map of the invisible worldsI am the battle's head, the journey's star." 1

t Sri Aurobindo : Savitri VII. 4,

TRIPURASUNDARI

The Tantra conceives the Supreme in its dual poise ofprakeida and vimarda. The Supreme as the TranscendentAbsolute is the essential effulgence, prakada. When it isself-moved to manifest something of it, there is a delibera-tion, vimarga, on itself. This deliberation takes the formof an impulsion, an urge, a desire, Mama. Desire comesabout by a division in the being and it is a portion or adigit, kaki. This digit of desire of the Supreme, kamakal a,is the great Goddess Tripurasundari, the third of the DasaMaha Vidyas.

" That moved at first as desire within, which was theprimal seed of mind " says the Rig Veda. " He desired,I would be manifold for the birth of peoples " is theutterance of the Upanishad.2 Desire is the secret of crea-tion. Desire is the root of manifestation. Desire is themainstay of existence. The Divine's desire to extendHimself, in manifestation is transmitted down the line inthe individual being trying to perpetuate himself,aggrandize himself by a process of possession, absorption,assimilation and enjoyment. The desire first takes theform of fragmentation and then a seeking to unite all thefragmented parts in the whole. The Divine desires to

I (Sri Aurobindo's Translation)

wiTrmer TpTartesr Trfft sprri.

—R. V. X. 129fitSIFTIPTff I 45. TO srwririrfa.

—Taittiriya Upanishad.

TRIPURASUNDARI

TRIPURASUNDARI 3534 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS

give himself away in creation and then desires to receiveback the creation into Himself. This twofold desire is thebasis of Love, the vivifying bond that ties the creator andthe created. For love " exists by itself and its movementis free and independent of the objects in which and throughwhich it manifests. Love does not manifest in human beingsalone ; it is everywhere. Its movement is there in plants,perhaps in the very stones ; in the animals it is easy todetect its presence. All the deformations of this great anddivine Power comes from the obscurity and ignorance andselfishness of the limited instrument. Love has no clinging,no desire, no hunger for possession, no self-regardingattachment; it is in its pure movement, the seeking forunion of the self with the Divine, a seeking absolute andregardless of all other things. Love divine gives itself andasks for nothing. What human beings have made of it,we do not need to say ; they have turned it into an uglyand repulsive thing. And yet even in human beings thefirst contact of love does bring down something of itspurer substance ; they become capable for a moment offorgetting themselves, for a moment its divide touchawakens and magnifies all that is fine and beautiful."'According to the Vedic seers, Love is an outflowing of thedivine Delight, the basic Bliss underlying everything. Andwhen. Bliss manifests itself in form, it expresses itself asBeauty. Throned in the Transcendent, Love holds itssovereign sway over the whole manifestation. Feelings ofgoodwill, kindliness, consideration, affection, comradeship,closeness, unity—all are the feeble expressions found onearth of the Divine Love that permeates and sustains it.

Path to Perfection (a compilation of writings of the Mother) :Keshavamurti.

So the force of the first fragmentation, the Digit of theDivine Desire is the great Goddess kamakala. She is theeternal empress of all sovereignties, rdjardjedwari, hermost imperial Majesty, pars bhattarika. She is the Motherof Love, kame.s(wari, the Mother of Grace, /a/ita, theMother of Beauty, sundari.

She is known as tripurasundari. the Beauty parexcellence in the triad. pura stands for city, place or fieldof action and tripura denotes the threefold field. The Vedicseers conceived of the cosmos as a gradation of worlds, thehigher triple consisting of the vyahrtis, janah, tapah, satyam,the lower triple constituted by the vyahrtis, bhutz, bhuvah,suvah, connected by the link world of mahas. TheUpanishadic savants spoke of the threefold Brahman, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Truth-Consciousness-Bliss projecting himselfinto the triple world of annam, prana and manas, physical,vital and mental, through the intermediary Gnosis, vijnana.The Tantric adepts explain the creation as the outcome ofthe impulse of prime Desire which results in a throb,spanda, a vibration, nada, concentrating itself in a pointbindu and then becoming three bindus forming a trianglethat is the source, yoni, of all manifestation. The greatGoddess, the supreme Mother manifesting herself in thethreefold aspect is known as Tripura or Tripurasundari.She is immanent in every triad, the three worlds, the threestates of jagrat, waking, swapna, dream and suppti, deepsleep, the three forces of iccha, will, jfiana, knowledge andkriya, action, the triads, triputis, meina, measure, matt, themeasurer and meya, the measurable, :Mina, knowledge,jfiatr, the knower and jfieya the knowable and so on.She also transcends all the triads. She is a certainfourth, turiyam svid, presiding over and encompassing everytriad. Thus she is famous as Tripurasundari, Sundari,


TRIPURASUNDARI 37

immanent in and at the same time transcending everytriad, Tripura.

Even as Tripura, the Goddess is said to be threefoldtripura trividha. The three Personalities are bald, tripura-sundart and tripurabhairavi. Bala is the little daughter ofthe Divine Mother Tripurasundari, sharing all her charac-teristics and easily accessible to the young aspirant on thepath. Her grace automatically grants the grace of hermother. Tripurasundari is Tripura, the beautiful, whileTripurabhairavi is Tripura, the terrible. They are liketwo sides of a coin, the dual aspects of the great Goddess.Tripurabhairavi is worshipped in her own right as one ofthe Dasa Maha Vidyas.

Tripurasundari is also the supreme sovereign Raja-rajeshwari, her most imperial Majesty Parabhattarika. Allthe myriads of gods and goddesses derive their authorityand power from this great Queen In makireijni andfunction in her name. Many are the Powers andPersonalities of the great Goddess; but three stand out inthe worship of the Divine Mother. They are balq , the littledaughter ; mantripi, the Counsellor and daokineitha, theCommander of armed forces. Mantrini is the minister toRajarajeshwari and noted for her sagacity and wisdom.She is the Matangi of the Dasa Maha Vidyas. Dandanatharepresents the might of the Mother destroying all the anti-divine forces. She is known as Varahi, the great consumerand corresponds to Bagalamukhi of the Dasa MahaVidyas.

The Tantric meditates on the Goddess as one who iseffulgent like the rising sun, having four hands and threeeyes. She is auspicious and wields in her four hands thenoose, the goad, the sugarcane bow and five flower

arrows.' Red is the colour of Desire, of passion, raga, ofrajo glop which evolved from the first activity. And sothe Mother of Love, the Divine Desire, is conceived as redlike the rising sun. Her three eyes denote the perceptionsin the triad, tripura. Her noose is nothing but Love bywhich she binds the whole creation. As long as a being isbound to oneself or to others, it is pc7§a, the noose. Themoment a person binds himself to the Divine, he isliberated. Wrath, the negative aspect of Love is the goadby which the whole creation is spurred into activity. Thesugarcane bow in the hand of the Mother is the mind ofman and the five arrows are the five tantncitreis, sound,touch, form, relish and flavours The secret of theSadhana is that the mind should become a docile instru-ment in the hands of the Divine ; then the mind will nothave a will of its own. The Divine Will will be its will

The Mantra of the Deity is known as In vidyd. sortbeing a prefix used to denote auspiciousness, Sri Vidyameans the knowledge, the knowledge that alone matters.It is the knowledge, by knowing which all other things areknown, the Supreme knowledge that leads to liberation.A liberation not elsewhere, but here and now is the goalof the worshippers of Sri Vidya Mantra. The Tantradeclares that by the mere knowledge of Sri Vidya, allaccomplishments result, drividojwinameitrenasarvasiddhilipraleiyate. Why the Mantra known as Sri Vidya is held insuch high esteem ?

qlopkwir-orrwurt aq,411 fikvs1 .4-41.9.

Errunztvad wict trruut W. IT* IIwrfwvercrivravr wirrimrt-vfrmr-diTrAhrerepetarar qgw;rmirrary II

—Lalita Sahasranama.

38 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS TRIPURASUNDARI 39

It is the realisation of the Tantric seers that theMantra is the sound-body of the deity. It is the deityitself formulated in articulated sound. This sound-bodyhas a remarkable correlation with the form of the deitythat is contemplated in Dhyana. But nowhere theconcordance is so close, the identification so complete asbetween Sundari and her Mantra. Corresponding to thetriple aspect of Tripurasundari, there are three distinctparts, khaticlas, in the Mantra which are also called aspeaks, kiiias. The first kap is her face, the second is theportion below her neck upto the hip and the third kg la isthe portion of the body below the hip. Her body-frameis verily the three kiwis of the Mulamantra, malakulatrayakalevara. The first kuta is known as viigbhava, the sourceof sound, the first vibration ; the second kuta is famed askomaraja, the king of love, the first desire ; the third iscelebrated as aakti, the force, the first activity. These aredenoted respectively by the seed-sounds aim, klim and saute,the precursors and parents of creation. Thus aim, klim,saute is the Sri Vidya Mantra, the special Mantra by whichbola, the young daughter of the Divine Mother' is invoked.These three seed-sounds, bijeikfaras, are amplified, the firstto five letters, the second to six letters and the third tofour letters to form the fifteen-lettered pancadasfi Mantra.With a secret seed-sound at the end, it becomes fociait,the famous sixteen-lettered Mantra. There are manyvariations in the Mantra, different schools of Sri Vidya.The Tantra records the names of Manu, Chandra, Kubera,Lopamudra, Manmatha, Agastya, Nandikesa, Surya,Vishnu, Skanda, Siva and Durvasa as the twelve foremostworshippers of Sri Vidya, each one of them founding aschool of their own. Out of these, the Vidya of Manmatha,beginning with the letter ka (therefore known as kacii) and

the Vidya of Agastya, beginning with the letter ha (and soknown as had° are widely prevalent.

Just as Sri Vidya is the sound-body of the Goddess,Sri Chakra is her form-pattern. It is the basis, foundationand continent of all the other Chakras mentioned in theTantra, is most auspicious and does the utmost good tothe worshipper. It is reputed as the abode of the Goddess,the abode of all her myriad powers, personalities andemanations. The great Goddess abides in the bindu of theSri Chakra, in the point from where the lines of creationemerge, in the jewelled mansion of the illumined thought-mind cinamani grha, amidst lotus groves and kadambatrees which signify the manifold creation, surrounded bythe vast immortal consciousness, sudhii sindhu. The Goddessis seated on a cot, the legs of which are Brahma, Vishnu,Rudra and Isana and the plank of which is Sadasiva. Sheis the one who does the five acts, pancakrtya parayanti,though 13rahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Isana and Sadasiva aresaid to be in charge of the five acts, srsii, creation, sthiti,maintenance, samhara, withdrawal tirodhana, concealmentand anugraha, taking up again in grace the task of creation.They are the five corpses, panca pretas, lifeless inert partsof the cot on which the life of Life, the pure consciousnessKameshwari is seated in blissful union with her LordKameshwara, the two in one in eternal union.

Yes, the worshipper of Sri Vidya cannot think ofKameshwari without simultaneously thinking of Kamesh-wara. It is true that Mahakali has as her consortMahakala, Tara as her consort Akshobhya, Bhairavi herBhairava and so on. But nowwhere the eternal coupleare contemplated as so united as in the Vidya of Tripura-sundari. It is a unique unity, the Two in One, the oneunited with oneself. In fact the worship of Sri Vidya wil


TRIPURASUNDARI 41

bear no fruit if Shiva and Shakti are not identified a s theone and the same. The Mantra consisting of fifteen letter ssaid to be constituted by certain letters pertaining toShiva, certain letters pertaining to Shakti and certainothers pertaining to both of them. The Sri Chakra issaid to represent the one body of the Shiva couple aricakram sfivayor vaputi. The Sadhaka of Sri V idya seesthe whole universe consisting of the mobile and theimmobile carticara as the culmination of the static anddynamic poises of Shiva and Shakti, as the consummationof their consciousness-bliss. To him Shiva is in Shakti andShakti is in Shiva and the whole universe is a standingtestimony to this spiritual fact.

We have said that Tripurasundari is the primeDesire, the Divine Love that vivifies the whole creation,its overflow as the basic Bliss in everything. The visiblesymbol of the Divine in the universe as the light ofknowledge, jfiana, the Tantric holds, is the Sun, while thevisible symbol of the Divine as energising activity, krio isthe fire. The moon is the visible symbol of the Divine asDesire, icchd, as the overflowing love, the sap of life, thebasic bliss in everything. To the Vedic seers also, moon,the purifying Soma, pavamana soma represents the Delightof existence, rasa, the sustaining sap. The Tantric saysthat when the great Goddess subjects herself to Time, shebecomes the fifteen divisions of the Time factor, known astithis which go to make the waxing or waning of the moon.So the fifteen digits, kakis, of the moon form the fifteen-lettered Panchadasi Mantra of the Goddess. She is themoon in her fullness Fops': while the digits are her aspects,tithi nityas. So, in external worship, contemplation of thedeity in the disc of the moon on fullmoon nights is saidto be very efficacious. In the inner worship, the head-

centre, the thousand-petalled lotus Sahasrara, is the seatof the mystic moon, the place of the illumined mind. Itis the sudhii sindhu, the ocean of immortal nectar, themahcipadmavana, the great lotus-grove wherefrom theDelight of all existence, the rasa of the union of Shiva andShakthi surges forth. The Dhyana of the Deity in thehead-centre, in the thousand-petalled lotus is said to bethe highest form of inner worship .

To win the favour of this Goddess of grace andbeauty, one should eschew ugliness in all its forms. Theaspirant should be full of cheer and confidence thatwhatever happens to him would turn out to be for hisbest by the grace of the Goddess. Sundari is the pureconsciousness, the essence of beings, in the microcosm aswell as in the macrocosm'. So, a powerful Sadhanaprescribed to realise Her is to go behind all willings of themind without leaving the grasp in every process ofknowledge and get at Her as the Universal Divineimmanent in all things. 2 Then,

" All here shall be one day her sweetness's home,All contraries prepare her harmony ;Towards her our knowledge climbs, our passion gropes, .

In her miraculous rapture we shall dwell,Her clasp will turn to ecstasy our pain.Our self shall be one self with all through her.

Nut we qiwr srwr gm-457 I—Vasishtha Cianapati Muni in rinfisahasram X. 2.

a tit tit tssmN ErTwftrrfft crwrilmill .

afgrem t arfa et zrimfgarr ffrovsarfa al/ II—Ibid.


In her confirmed because transformed in her,Our life shall find in its fulfilled responseAbove, the boundless hushed beatitudes,Below, the wonder of the embrace divine." 1

$ Sri Aurobindo : Savieri

BHUVANESHWARI

Coming fourth in the list of Dasa Maha Vidyas,Bhuvaneshwari stands for the concept of Space. Kali, wesaid, represents the supreme Time-force, the AbsoluteDivine in self-duration. Bhuvaneshwari is the self-concep-tive extension of the Supreme Being, the Space-concept increation. The Tantrics conceive the Supreme TranscendantAbsolute as prakiida, the essential effulgence. When it isself-moved to manifest something out of it, there is adelimitation, the creation of phenomenon and circumstance.The prakiiia becomes tikiida, the Space, the extendedVastness. The prefix a in Sanskrit denotes dimunition,extension or boundary.' The prakeida, the essentialeffulgence imposes on itself a limitation and becomesökiista, the Space, the Ether, the medium through whichlight moves and extends. is also known asantarikra,the mid-region through which the divine possibilities highabove are effectuated as actual manifestations down below.How does this self-extension take place ? The Divine turn-ing towards manifestation sees himself. tadaikorta-‘jhat saw", says the Upanishad. This self-perception leadsto self-extension as Space, as the worlds of names andforms. From the vision of the Lord, the creation starts;srni proceeds from drni. This perceptive Power isBhuvaneshwari. Perception results in knowledge and so sheis the Jnana Shakti, the knowledge-force of the Supremewi■

MN itrWsrltairr-eil fitstfi--amarakoda


just as Tripurasundari is the Iccha Shakti, the Will-forceof the Supreme. Again, Space is nothing but the extent ofperception. What we call as space is the extent to whichwe can see, the range of our vision. As our vision widens,the Space grows and we are able to realise more and moreof this self-extension of the Divine. The Divine's visionis vast and so is the Akasa, the Primordial Space fro mwhich all the worlds have come into being. The Sanskritword for world is bhuvana, that which has come intobeing, loka, that which is perceived. And so, the GreatMother is called Bhuvaneshwari, the Sovereign of theworlds. As Akasa, she not only creates the worlds but alsoenters into them, sustains them, supports them andnourishes them, jagat dhatri. She is the all-pervasive force,permeating the whole fabric of creation as its warp andwoof.

In the Veda, Bhuvaneshwari corresponds to Aditi, thegreat Mother of the gods. The Vedic seers use threegreat names when mentioning about the Supreme. Theseare satyam rtam brhat. Satyam is what is sat existent anddenotes the essential truth of being. When this truthbecomes organised for active creation, when it isformulated into a law of action, it is known as rtam, theRight. brhat is the vast self-awareness, the infiniteconsciousness through which satyam becomes rtam. brhatis antarikja, the mid-region between Satyam and Ritam,between the upper half pareirdha and the lower halfaparardha. Aditi is this brhat, vast infinite consciousness,aditir antarikfamt, the space, akiida, the Supreme Etherparamam vyoma. She is not only the antithesis of diti, theseparative dualising consciousness, but in her own right

Rig Veda I 89. 10.

e HUVANESHWARI

46 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS BHUVANESHWARI 47

(aditi, from ad to eat, swallow) the all-swallowing existence,the all-enveloping consciousness. The Rishi calls heranarval, without a horse, without a vehicle. Because sheherself is the vehicle, the vehicle through which Satyamtranslates itself into Ritam, the divine possibilities projectinto actual manifestations. That is why she is calledrtasya patni 2, the consort of Rita, that is, the force thatmakes Rita fruitful. Only because of the self-extensionof the Divine as Space ; forms and names are possible.The Space gives a form to the formless Divine. In fact,the Upanishad declares that Space is the body of Brahman,(Valdez dariram brahma. 3 The pure Light pervading theAkasa is the body of Aditi ; so she is full of splendourand possessed of Truth-Light, jyotipnatitt, svarvatile. Shehas herself limited her light as Akasa but nobody canimpair her Light. So, the Rishi accosts her in an imageryas the Radiant Cow that cannot be slain aghnycidhenu4. 6

In the Puranas also, Aditi is the mother of all thegods and her consort is the Sage Kasyapa. Kasyapameans one who sees, one who has the perception, pas'yatiiti kaiyapall. Aditi is the force of perception, as wife isthe Shakti of her husband. Sae is the extent of Space thatis covered in the perception. Thus Bhuvaneshwari in theTantric lore is the same as Aditi, the Mother of the godsin the Vedic and Puranic tradition.

Rig Veda VII 40. 4.2 ritl g ffmt wfffzr crml 3Tqk err

—Yajur Veda 21.5.3 Taittiriya Upanishad.4 Rig Veda 1 136. 3.

Rig Veda IV 1. 6.

Another name for Bhuvaneshwari is moo. Mayacomes from the root, ma, to measure. The immeasurableis measured out as Space. This skill in executing theimpossible, viz. measuring the immeasurable is extolled bythe Advaitins as aghatana ghalana patiyasi. In the Veda,Vishnu has this function of measuring out. He is the all-pervasive Vast (Vishnu, from the root vi es vyaptau, topervade) measuring the cosmic Space with his three strides,trini, pada vicakrame. 1 His step is like an eye, extended inHeaven, diviva cakfur atatam. 2 And in an image of theVeda, Aditii is hymned as the wife of the all-pervadingVishnu. So, she is known as the Yoga maya of Vishnu,the yogic feat of the Lord and is acclaimed as marvellousadbhuta. The skill, the feat implied in measuring theimmeasurable is interpreted as cunning, as magic, by theMayavadins and to them Maya is synonym for illusion.But to the Tantric and the Vedic seer, Maya is no illusion.Maya is the great mother of the gods, Aditi, the vastinfinite consciousness having the power to clothe itself infinite forms—the great sovereign of the worlds Bhuvanesh-wari, the all-pervasive Space creating, sustaining andpervading the myriad worlds that are as real and concreteas their creator. Maya is the measured out Space, theprime Perception of the Supreme, the force of the firstknowledge. It is in the sense of measured out knowledge thatthe Vedic seers use the term. " Maya meant for them thepower of infinite consciousness to comprehend, contain initself and measure out, that is to say, to form—for formis delimitation—Name and Shape out of the vast illimitableTruth of infinite existence. It is by Maya that static truth

1 Rig Veda I 22. 18.9 Rig Veda I 22. 20.

48 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS BHUVANESHWARI 49

of essential being becomes ordered truth of active being —or, to put it in more metaphysical language, out of thesupreme being in which all is all without barrier ofseparative consciousness emerges the phenomenal being inwhich all is in each and each is in all for the play ofexistence with existence, consciousness with consciousness,force with force, delight with delight. This play of all ineach and each in all is concealed at first from us by themental play or illusion of Maya which persuades each thathe is in all but not all in him and that he is in all as aseparated being not as a being always inseparably one withthe rest of existence. Afterwards, we have to emerge fromthis error into the supramental play or the truth of Mayawhere the " each " and the " all " coexist in the inseparableunity of the one truth and the multiple symbol."'

Bhuvaneshwari is also called prakrti, the active Naturein the cosmic creation. Her forms and works are originated,witnessed, supported and enjoyed by the Cosmic Purusha.In the words of Sri Aurobindo, " Prakriti presents itself asan inconscient Energy in the material world, but, as thescale of consciousness rises, she reveals herself more andmore as a conscious force and we perceive that even herinconscience concealed a secret consciousness ; so too,conscious being is many in its individual souls, but in itsself we can expriertce it as one in all and one in its ownessential existence ".°

Thus, Bhuvaneshwari, the sovereign of the worldsthat have come into being is the gaze of the Godhead, theself-extension of the Supreme as Space, the infinite vastconsciousness of the conscious Being, denoted by Aditi,

1 Sri Aurobindo : The Life Divine, ChapterXl II.2 Sri Aurobindo : The Life Divine, Chapter U (Book II).

the illimitable's power of delimitation as forms and names,known as Maya, the dynamic nature-force of the passivePurusha, termed as Prakriti. In the words of the Veda,she, the infinite Space, is all that is born, she is all that isto be born, aditir jiitam aditir janitvam, 1 even as Time, therestrainer is all that is born, he is all that is to be born,yam ha jtito yamo janitvam. 2

Indeed, Kali and Bhuvaneshwari as Time and Space,make the manifestations of names and forms possible.Kali arranges the timing and the sequence, whileBhuvaneshwari orders the event and the circumstance inthe Sadhana. Bhuvaneshwari is the Akasa, the ether,while Kali is its lantndtrd, sound, vibration, the Pranicforce. Bhuvaneshwari acts as a backdrop for Kali's work.She sets the stage for Kali's cosmic dance. Kali with herconsort, the king of dancers, nataraja, dances to the beat oftime in the consciousness-space, cidambara. This ambara,Space, is the sabhä, court or assembly, where all themyriad worlds of name and form are assembled. 3 In themacrocosm, Bhuvaneshwari is the Vast brhat, the Plenum,bhi7mei, the midregion antarikga from which she brings intobeing the worlds. In the microcosm, she is the midregionbetween matter and spirit, the realm of the vital, the littlespace dahara OM of the heart from which she brings intobeing the creatures. The vast Bhuvaneshwari resides inthe little space of the heart of every being, while theeternal Kali acts there in the time-beat of Pranic force.

Rig Veda I. 89.10.2 Rig Veda I. 66.4

3 ambara is a significant name for &cad. Space. ambara, ambu, thelife-giving fostering waters, ambaka, the father, ambilai, the mother—allcome from the same root which means to give life and sustain.


RHUVANESHWARI 51

Sundari is immanent in the worlds ; at the same timeshe transcends the worlds. On the other hand, Bhuvanesh-wari is very much in the worlds. She is the Spacecontaining and sustaining the worlds. She is also likeSundari, effulgent like the rising sun, with four hands andthree eyes. Like Sundari, she wields the noose and thegoad. As she is not transcending the triple world, as sheis not acting from high, above the mind, she does not, likeSundari have in her other two hands the sugarcane bowand the arrows, signifying mind and its faculties. Instead,one hand is raised to allay fear and the other extended togrant boons to the devotees.'

The Mantra of the World-Mother is the seed-soundhrim. The Veda talks of the supernal Ether, paramamvyoma which is the repository of all the Vedic Riks andcosmic Powers. It is the akfara, immutable, the nityd vak,Eternal Word and is represented by the seed-sound AumNow in the Tantra, the supernal Ether is the World-MotherBhuvaneshwari whose sound-body is the bijakpra Hrim.So Hrim is known as Tantric Pranava and enjoys the samereputation in the Tantric tradition as Aum in the Vedicand Vedantic wisdom. Hrim is called hrllekha, the lekhaor rekha from hrt, the streak from the heart. It is theline rising from the heart to join its parent point. Hrllekhaconnects the dahardkdia, the little space in the heart withthe brhat äkiiia, the Vast stretch in Space. With the wordHrim the Vast Mother apportions her vastness in thehearts of created beings. In turn, the hearts yearn to gobeyond the boundaries of shape into the vast immensities.

1 3Qfxwisfew114% lel avIrtat 9.44-4141ThIl II

11741TIVITITilirellffft AR* iar*litli II

The vibrations of Hrim rise in a crescendo in space, breakinto peals of nada, reverberate throughout the worlds andcome back to the Source as a resonance from the heart ofcreation. Hrim is known to the Tantrics as lajja bija.Lajja, bashfulness or shyness is denoted by another wordin Sanskrit hri and so Hrim is known as lajja bija. Alsobashfulness implies a saftkoca, shrinking, closing, not free.Hrim therefore denotes a manifestation which is not yetfull and complete. A manifestation with further poten-tialities is meant. The worlds created by Bhuvaneshwari,are not perfect typal manifestations, they are the worldsthat evolve, where progressive unfoldment is possible.

Hrim, as it is not different from the deity Bhuvanesh-wari, is itself called Maya. This Maya as we have said isthe knowledge that is measured out. In the PanchadasiMantra of Sundari, Hrim is the crowning seed-sound ineach of the three 'cams, peaks of the Mantra. Each Hrimdenotes a knowledge measured out in a particular way, theknowledge about the World, the knowledge pertaining toGod and the World and then the knowledge in relation toGod, World and Soul. Hrim is thus the sound of Space,the word of welkin, the yearning heart-cry of the createdtowards its creator.

Bhuvaneshwari is the Space that contains and sustains,the ddhdra, Support of all manifestations. So her worshipgrants to the Sadhaka immutable Peace, the support andsustenance of all the other spiritual plenitudes that willfollow in due course. To get this Peace, the method is tomake one's consciousness as vast as possible, to extendand expand onself so to say. In this wideness, in thisextension, Peace descends. Or else one can plunge intothe heart and contemplate on the little space daharakaia.An immense Peace envelopes the whole being. Turning


BHUVANESHWARI 53

the eye away from all mutations found in the externalworld, whenever a person sees an object, instead ofconcentrating on the object, he can direct his gaze to thespace between him and the object.' This leads to theexperience of the witness Purusha in oneself. One seeseverything as witness sökfi, assents to it if he approves,anumantci and then in the process becomes the master ofevent and circumstance, escvara. The culmination is whenone develops in oneself a universal consciousness.

As Sri Aurobindo says : " As we are ignorant of ourexistence in Time except the small hour which weremember, so we are ignorant of ourselves in Space exceptthe small span of which we are mentally and sensationallyconscious, the single body that moves there and the mindand life which are identified with it, and we regard theenvironment as a not-self we have to deal with and use :it is this identification and this conception that form thelife of the ego. Space according to one view is only theco-existence of things or of souls ; the Sankhya affirms theplurality of souls and their independent existence, andtheir co-existence is then only possible by the unity ofNature force, their field experience, Prakriti : but evengranting this, the co-existence is there and it is in the endco-existence in one Being. Space is the self-conceptiveextension of that one Being ; it is the one spiritual Exis-tence displaying the field of movement of its Conscious-Force in its own self as Space. Because that Conscious-Force concentrates in manifold bodies, lives, minds

1 TVATT119:, ctfvpirinT ftemr reqi. IzriViZzit 41. gUitfir4 WitTkize. dolt was II

—Vasishtha Ganapati Muni in umäsahasram X-2.

and the soul presides over one of them, therefore, ourmentality is concentrated in this and regards this as itselfand all the rest as not-self, just as it regards its one life onwhich it concentrates by a similar ignorance as its wholeterm of existence cut off from the past and the future.Yet we cannot really know our own mentality, withoutknowing the one Mind, our own vitality without knowingthe one life, our own body without knowing the oneMatter ; for not only is their nature determined by thenature of that, but by that their activities are at everymoment being influenced and determined. But, with allthis sea of being flowing in on us, we do not participate inits consciousness, but know of it only so much as can bebrought into the surface of our minds and co-ordinatedthere. The world lives in us, thinks in us, forms itself inus ; but we imagine that it is we who live, think, becomeseparately by ourselves and for ourselves."' By the graceof this Universal Mother, Bhuvaneshwari, the Sadhakarealises that his body is a limb of the Universal Body, hisvital a portion of the Universal Pranic force, his mind, asegment of the Universal Mind and his spirit part andparcel of the Universal Spirit. He has been all alongthinking that he lives in the universe. He now realisesthat the universe lives in him.

" A vast Unknown is around us and within;All things are wrapped in the dynamic One :A subtle link of union joins all life.Thus all creation is a single chain "2

I Sri Aurobindo : The Life Divine, Chapter XI.2 Sri Aurobindo : Savitri II. 2.

MOW

VIMIMar.

TRIPURA BHAIRAVI

TRIPURA BHAIRAVI

The Upanishads talk of three poises of the AbsoluteTranscendental Divine, the poises which are the precursorsof creation. "He desired, so' Icemayata, that he shouldbecome manifold." This prime desire is Wild iakti, thewill-force, the Tripurasundari of Dasa Maha Vidyas. Thenthere is the second poise : " That saw, tadaikpta". Thisperception determines what is known as Space and resultsin knowledge-force, the jftiina sfakti. Bhuvaneshwari is thename given to this poise. The third is the tapas of theDivine. " He energised himself : sa tapo' tapyata", saysthe Upanishad. This tapas is the action-force kriya s'aktiand is denoted by the great name, Tripura Bhairavi.

What is Tapas? In the words of Sri Aurobindo,"Tapas means literally heat, afterwards any kind ofenergism, askesis, austerity of conscious force acting uponitself or its object. The world was created by Tapas inthe form, says the ancient image, of an egg, which beingbroken, again by Tapas, heat of incubation of consciousforce, the Purusha emerged, Soul in Nature, like a birdfrom the egg." 1 The self-awareness of the Absolute, theforce of consciousness, when it is concentrated on itselfand energised for action, becomes Tapas.

In the Veda, this heat of life, this energy of theDivine Dynamis, this consciousness, Tapas is representedby the God Agni. It is the cidagni, the flame of conscious-ness that burns in every being. All activity is supported

The Life Divine: Chapter XII.

56 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS TRIPURA BHAIRAVI 57

by this first God, the divine power in man, the essentialenergy through which all the gods accomplish theirimmortal work in the mortal. It is this fire of aspirationthat drives man to exceed himself, it is this force ofconsciousness that widens and deepens his being. Agni, asconcentrated consciousness knows perfectly and isacclaimed as jatavedas, knower of all births, all manifesta-tions, the power that leads the aspirant to all the gods,the force that prepares the ground for the birth of thegods in man. The force of Agni is Tripura Bhairavi ofthe Dasa Maha Vidyas, Durga in popular parlance. Thewell-known Vedic Rik jätavedasg. addressed to the godAgni is ascribed to the Goddess Durga in the Tantra. AlsoDurga is known as agnivarto name-hued, tapas(' jwalantiglowing with Tapas, vairocani, the force of the essentialLight and karmaphalesti junta, sought in the fruit ofworks.'

The seat of this Fire is the basic support of all exist-ence, the centre, muleidhara, in the subtle body. There liesthe hidden divinity, the veiled Godhead, the dormantpower picturesquely described as a coiled up serpent indeep sleep. It is the passive power of Tapas, the potentialenergy, the immobility caused by deep concentration, thesleeping Shakti that is termed as Tripura Bhairavi. She isTripura because like Sundari, she is immanent in the triad,the triple existence. She is the smouldering smoky flame 3 in

Rig Veda I. 97.1.

a anrfiK4 1311 T ffT 4-TY.44Y wirrOgiTet k-1.1 IrTuriT4 gq4 llffT41 ff T4 97: 11

3 FlOurT;MlftliFT—Lalita Sahasranama

the prime triangle moola trikona of the Muladhara. Shecommands the physical consciousness and the sub-conscientand appears to be slumbering as a quiscent force in theheart of matter. Why is she known as Bhairavi, theTerrible ?

Tapas, we have said, is a concentration of conscious-ness. When there is concentration, it has to be centredround a particular thing or place, it has to be in a limitedsphere. Otherwise there will be a diffusion. This delimita-tion, demarcation, confining is necessary for creation. Inorder to deliver herself unto creation, the Divine Shaktiundergoes a confinement bearing the concentrated seed ofenergy. When the Supreme does Tapas, energises himselfthere is a self-directing of his force resulting in a concen-trated exclusive action. There is a delimitation of theillimitable, a measuring out of the immeasurable, a castingin finite forms out of the infinite formless, a concentratedactivity employed out of a diffuse all-pervasive deployment.Concentration results in paying attention to the particular,being absorbed in a limited field of working. One isaware of the particular and not so aware of the rest. Thisunawareness, this forgetting of the rest in order to concen-trate on the particular thing on hand is a byproduct ofconcentration. When the Divine, wanting to manifest,exclusively concentrates on a particular aspect or actionof himself, he ignores the rest of himself. This primordialignoring is the origin of ignorance. Thus ignorance is aconcomitant of exclusive concentration, Tapas which isnecessary for manifestation. The Divine has to employthis device in order to -create. And we find this device inall the workings of Nature. Especially in material Nature,there is so much absorption in the working, so muchidentification with the thing, so much self-forgetful


TRIPURA BHAIRAVI 59

concentration in action, that it looks as though thatnothing else exists except that and matter is the only thingthat matters. In fact this self-oblivion and self-forgetful-ness, this exclusive concentration on the particular to thedetriment of the general, seems to be the law of Nature.But ignorance avidy e , is not total absence of knowledge,vidoyeiti abhiivatj, but it is partial knowledge, an incom-plete awareness, wit Find vidyii. As Sri Aurobindo says," the ignorance is a frontal power of that all-consciousnesswhich limits itself in a certain field, within certainboundaries to a particular operation of knowledge, aparticular mode of conscious working, and keeps back allthe rest of its knowledge in waiting as a force behind it.All that is thus hidden is an occult store of Light andPower for the All-Consciousness to draw upon for theevolution of our being in Nature ; there is a secret workingwhich fills up all the deficiencies of the frontal Ignorance,acts through its apparent stumblings, prevents them fromleading to another final result than that which the All-Knowledge has decreed, helps the soul in the Ignoranceto draw from its experience, even from the naturalpersonality's sufferings and errors, what is necessary for itsevolution and to leave behind what is no longer utilisable.This frontal power of Ignorance is a power of concentrationin a limited working, much like that power in our humanmentality by which we absorb ourselves in a particularobject and in a particular work and seem to use only somuch knowledge, only such ideas as are necessary forit,—the rest, which are alien to it or would interfere withit are put back for the moment; yet, in reality, all thetime it is the indivisible consciousness which we are thathas done the work to be done, seen the thing that has tobe seen—that and not any fragment of consciousness or

any exclusive ignorance in us is the silent knower and theworker ; so is it too with this frontal power of concentra-tion of the All-Consciousness within us." 1

But unfortunately, this ignorance, this limitation ofconsciousness imposes on us a fragmentation and aseparation. This idea of separation, this partial knowledgeis the root-cause of fear. If we are able to understand thatthere is only the One without a second, there is no causefor any fear. Fear arises from another ; not from oneself ;it happens when one admits a second other than oneselfdvitiydt vai bhayam bhavati. As the Upanishad 2 says :" When the Spirit that is within us finds the InvisibleBodiless Undefinable and Unhoused Eternal his refuge andfirm foundation, then he has passed beyond the reach ofFear. But when the Spirit that is within us makes forhimself even a little difference in the Eternal, then he hasfear, yea, the Eternal himself becomes a terror to such aknower who thinks not". Therefore, the Goddess who isthe Tapas, the exclusive concentration of the Divine,holding in reserve in herself the manifestations that have tocome about, the divine possibilities that have to unfoldappears as the frontal Ignorance inciting fear and theresultant pain and grief, wrong-doing, discord, evil, as theBhairavi, the Terrible Mother. In the subtle body, herseat is in Muladhara where lies coiled in inconscientslumber the dreadful serpent Kundalini.

But to whom is the Goddess Tripura Bhairavidreadful ? She is dreadful to those who cling to the separateconsciousness, who find pleasure in division and discord,who rest content in -the somnambulistic rounds of the

Sri Aurobindo : The Life Divine, Book II, Chapter IV.a Taittiriya Upanishad II. 7 : Sri Aurobindo's translation.


physical and subconscient activities. For those who strivetowards progress, for those who want to exceed themselvesby their Tapasya, she is the Bhairavi who destroys fear.She is the potential energy in the subtle body, the coiledup sluggish serpent apparently sleeping in the Muladhara.But it will not take long for her to become the kineticenergy, for the serpent to uncoil, wake up, raise its hoodand swiftly shoot upwards,—unfolding the vast illimitablepossibilities, opening out higher and higher vistas, mani-festing greater and greater capacities in the being of theaspirant. Because for any creative action, two powers arenecessary, the passive and the active. When the Goddessreserves her energy, keeps to herself the Tapas, theself-absorbed concentration in her immobile status, she isknown as Tripura Bhairavi. When she releases forth herenergy, deploying the Tapas, the heat of concentration inmanifold movement she becomes Tripura Sundari.

The Terrible and the Beautiful are the two faces ofthe One Divine. They are the obverse and reverse sidesof the same golden coin. Bhairavi and Sundari, both areTripuras, manifest in the triad. The paths of knowledgeleading to their realisation are both known as sfri vidyd.The Mantras of them both are comprised of three portionskhandas or peaks kdtas and are known by the same namesof vagbhava, kedmardja and ,srakti. Both the Goddesses aretwo poles of one being, Bhairavi, posited in mulddhdra,the base-lotus and Sundari seated in sahasrdra, the head-lotus in the subtle body. Between them, they completethe circuit. From the still reservoir of Tapas in theMuladhara course forth channels of energy to the oceanof nectar sudhasindhu, to the immortal consciousness in theSahasrara, which in turn surges forth in million waves ofaction pouring down and filling up the reservoir of energy

in Muladhara. The tapasya of Bhairavi makes the ascentof the being possible ; the responding grace of Sundariaccomplishes the descent of the Deity. The energies thatare derived from the descent are again thrown up in thecircuit and an ascent is again made to bring forth afurther descent. This cycle of ascent and descent goes onbetween the two poles of consciousness, between matterand spirit, between Bhairavi in the Muladhara and Sundariin the Sahasrara centre. The sleeping serpent Kundaliniwakes up, rises its hood, shoots forth, licks up the nectarin the head-lotus, glides back into the abyss of Muladharaand again shoots forth with renewed energy to attaingreater heights. Sundari pours; Bhairavi burns ; ardramjwalati. As the fire of Tapas, as the flame of mountingaspiration, Bhairavi, stricking terror in the hearts of theindolent, burns up all the blemishes and weaknesses andpurifies the being.; then she prepares and perfects andmakes the being ready to receive the rasa, the essentialdelight, the basic bliss, soma that is poured down bySundari. Sundari's is the Tapas released, the concentrationof consciousness deployed in manifold action creating thesap of life, the waves of bliss that surge forth out of themoon-chambers of Sahasrara. The immortal nectar, theessential delight represented by moon, soma, in thehead-centre is the sap and sustenance of all life and so itis known as food, somo Vii annam. And Agni, fire, is theeater of this food, agnir annddan, the consumer of thisDelight. By the interaction of fire and moon, agni andsoma, by the grace of Bhairavi and Sundari, the aspirantenergises himself by Tapasya and receives in himself theout-pourings of the basic bliss in all created things. TheVedic Rishis declared that the soma rasa cannot be pouredinto an unbaked vessel ; the vessel will break. The Ananda


TRIPURA BHAIRAVI 63

of Sundari cannot be borne in a body not baked by thefire of Tapasya of Bhairavi. Soma can be consumed onlyby Agni. The shooting tongues of flame of pure andsincere aspiration alone can taste the dripping honey-blissof immortal delight.'

If it is hazardous to pull into oneself the divinerapture welling from the head-centre without properpreparation effected by the basic centre, what is the safecourse of action? One should undergo an arduous courseof Tapasya and purification. But in spiritual matters,how far can one rely on self-effort alone? Nothing lastingis possible in Yoga without the grace of the Divine.Bhuvaneshwari is the Goddess who arranges the action ofBhairavi and the response of Sundari. Seated in the heartcentre, she brings the matter and the spirit together forfruitful interaction. In fact, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvanesh-wari and Tripura Bhairavi, form the Trinity. Thediscipline leading to their realisation is Sri Vidya ; theiractions are inter-connected and inseparable. The grace ofany one of the deities automatically brings to the aspirantthe grace of the other two deities of the Trinity. In thesubtle body, Tripurasundari is in the Sahasrara, thethousand-petalled lotus, the seat of the moon, the reservoirof Divine Delight ; Bhuvaneshwari is in the heart-space,hrdaya akada, anahata, the seat of the sun, the source ofknowledge ; Tripura Bhairavi is in the basic centre,muiddhura, the seat of the fire, the initiation of activity.From the sun, both moon and fire get the light. It ismeet that the heart-centre governs the head-centre andthe basic centre ; the knowledge in the heart, jficina scakti

This is the esoteric significance of the outward sacrifice, opal:comagrata, prescribed in the Vedas—the ritual of the rapture-flame.

guides the will in the head iccha dakti and the activity inthe lowest centre, kriya ,akti. It is proper that Bhuvanesh-wari arranges for the interplay of Sundari and Bhairavi.How does Bhuvaneshwari arrange this ? She arrangesthrough Kali, the great Transformer. Bhuvaneshwari isin the heart-space as a back-drop to the frontal activity ofKali in the heart. The secret of the Sadhana is to giveoneself completely to the guiding deity in the heart and beguided by it. Then whatever necessary will happen andthe Sadhaka can have a taste of the flaming ecstasies ofBhairavi and Sundari quite safely.

The Mantra of Tripura Bhairavi is comprised of thethree seed-letters—hsraim hsklrim hssraulj. The Deity iscontemplated in Dhyana as one who has the effulgenceof a thousand rising suns, with a red garment on herblood-smeared breasts adorned by a string of skulls. Herlotus-like face bears a nice smile. She has three eyes andwears a jewelled crown with the crest of the moon. Shehas the rosary and the gesture of knowledge ; the other twohands are engaged in allaying fear and granting protec-tion.' The features described bring out the terrible aspectsand the Tripura characteristics of the Deity. But why hasshe got also the characteristics of yak devata, the Goddessof speech ?

Tripura Bhairavi is in muiiidkara which is also theseat of parii yak. The Tantrics classify the yak, the Wordas para, the word which is beyond, unmanifest but turned

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towards manifestation, paiyanti, the word that perceives,madhyama, the word in the intermediate subtle region andvaikhari, the articulated word from the throat. It is in theMuladhara, in the basic centre in the subtle body that theWord as a concentrated consciousness, Tapas, as areservoir of the unmanifested potent power, para yak,abides. And so Tripura Bhairavi is pars yak, just as Tarais the pasfyanti vak. That is why Tripura Bhairaid has thecharacteristics of the Goddess of speech.

Also, Muladhara is the centre of sex-energy. TheWord that creates the cosmos is transmitted as sex for thepurpose of procreation in ordinary life. The Sanskritword brahma, which is Vedic, means the Word andbrahmacarya means 'haying the movement in the Word '.It is for this reason that the same word brahmacarya is usedto denote the conservation of sex-energy as well. Theworshipper of Tripura Bhairavi, by the grace of theGoddess accomplishes the concentration of consciousnessin his mind, speech and body mano yak kaya. In thephysical, he learns to stop the downward course of thelife-streams, conserve the sex-energy in a concentrate poiseand turn it upwards Firdhva retah. Then retas, the sexualenergy becomes ojas, the luminous energy of power andpotentialities. In speech, he learns to go behind the spokenword and arrive at the concentrated poise of pars yak.Thus speech is conserved and turned back to its originpara and held in a concentrated consciousness. Likewisein the realm of mind the aspirant learns to look behind allideas, all thoughts and arrive at the one idea, at the onethought which he learns to hold in his concentratedconsciousness. Thus the grace of Tripura Bhairavi acts inthought, word and deed of the Sadhaka. She removes thefear, destroys the Ignorance, makes the Sadhaka surmount

all difficulties. She is the fiery bridge closing the chasmthat gulfs the narrowness of matter and the immensity ofthe spirit.

This is our deepest need to join once moreWhat now is parted, opposite and twain,Remote in sovereign spheres that never meetOr fronting like far poles of Night and DayWe must fill the immense lacuna we have made,Re-wed the closed finite's lonely consonantWith the open vowels of Infinity,A hyphen must connect Matter and Mind,The narrow isthmus of the ascending soul:We must renew the secret bond in things,Our hearts recall the lost divine Idea,Reconstitute the perfect word, uniteThe Alpha and the Omega in one sound ;Then shall the spirit and Nature be at one.Two are the ends of the mysterious plan." 1

I Sri Aurobindo : Savitri I. 4.

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" Rati and Manmatha, the loving couple, are lying inclose embrace and the Goddess is standing on them. Starknaked, her nudity does not strike the eye as she is robedin dazzling light. She has no head at all. A headlesstrunk with two arms held aloft is her peculiar form. Inone hand, she holds her own severed head and in the othera pair of scissors. From the headless neck three streamsof blood gush forth. The middle stream is drunk by herown mouth in the severed head held in her hand while theother two streams are drunk by two attendants standingon either side of the Goddess."'

Thus the Tantra describes the form of Chinnamasta,the sixth of the Dasa Maha Vidyas. How can a headlesstrunk have life ? How can it hold its own head choppedoff in its hand ? And the ghastly sight of blood spoutingforth and being drunk by the very head that has beencut off and by the two attendants ! How can such a formbe fit for worship? How can it be invoked to elevate andennoble man? All these questions naturally arise in theminds of aspirants. The whole thing is incomprehensible.Whenever- the human mind fails to understand something,it does not admit that it may be due to the thing being

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68 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS CHINNAMASTA 69

beyond the ken of human understanding ; on the otherhand it looks down upon the thing as inferior. Manywise men have classed Chinnamasta as an inferior deity, agrama devata, a Goddess fit to be worshipped by theuncultured village folk. Some, intrigued by the fact thatthe Goddess has been included in the panel of Dasa MahaVidyas, admit her as a vamacara deity, as according tothem, love, blood, mutilated bodies all point to Vamachara.Some others go to the extent of calling the Goddess adurdevata, wicked deity. The Tantra Shastra talks abouther form, about her Mantra, about the method of worship ;it does not throw any light on the esoteric significance ofthe deity. Esoteric significance, of course, there must be ;as how else could this deity have found a place in thegalaxy of the ten great Vidyas ?

It was left to the late Kavyakantha VasishthaGanapati Muni, the Seer-poet of the Umasahasram, todelve deep into the mysteries of the Sadhana of Chinna-masta, to realise concretely in himself by arduous tapasya,the Goddess in her manifold play and to proclaim to theworld through his works the greatness of this particularmanifestation of the Goddess as Chinnamasta, theintricacies of the occult path and the philosophical andesoteric basis of the whole Sadhana. A modern representa-tive of the ancient sages and seers of the land, the Muniwas famous for his rational approach to matters spiritualand for his scientific bent of mind. A versatile genius, hecould straight go to the heart of a subject and have aninstantaneous grasp of the whole matter. Testimonyfrom such a person cannot be slighted. Vasishtha Munirealised in himself Chinnamasta, the Goddess of severedhead to such an extent that his cranium split asundereven as he was alive and thenceforth people could see a

streak of glowing light about the Muni's head, comingthrough an opening at the top of the head, as it were.' Allthese have been recorded and happily amongst us are theremany persons scattered throughout the length and breadthof this country who had the good fortune to see VasishthaMuni—nayana, as they used to call him affectionately—inflesh and blood and to come under the umbrella of hismagnetic personality and unbounded compassion. Let usunravel the mysteries of this deity, with the aid of hisperceptions.

We have said that Light prakiis'a and Sound nada arethe precursors of creation. Prakasa when it becomesdelimited as Akasa, Space, is Bhuvaneshwari. When thedelimitation takes the form of duration, Time, it is Kali.When Prakasa gets involved in creation, when it becomesthe immanent principle in everything, at the same timetranscehding it, it is Sundari. The unexpressed, unmanifestSound turned towards Creation in a concentrated conscious-ness is Bhairavi while the Sound perceiving itself, theSeeing Word is Tara. The interaction of Prakasa and Nada,Light and Sound to precipitate the creation is known tothe Tantrics as the great Goddess Chinnamasta. TheSupreme is Truth-Consciousness-Bliss, sat at ananda andthe Vedic Rishis called these poises of the Supreme as threestates, as three worlds constituting the higher hemisphereparardha. When the Supreme Being extended himself as

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6


CHINNAMASTA 71

creation, his three states, his triple world came down increation as the three worlds prithwi, earth, antarik§am,mid-region and dyauh, heaven—the lower hemisphere,apariirdha. This lower triple is the three worlds of annamphysical präna vital and manas mental of the being evolvingin creation. The interaction of Light and Sound producessuch speed and force that the lower triple is almostprecipitated out of the higher triple. It is almost cutasunder from the original source. The whole purpose ofcreation is for the One to delight itself in separateexistences as the Many. The Many have to be cut offfrom the One to become separate existences. The umbilicalcord connecting the mother and the child has to be incisedto ensure the separate life of the child. The interaction ofLight and Sound is so terrific and violent that it almostcuts off the creation from the creator. That is whyChinnamasta is represented as cutting off the head, rendingasunder the Original Source and the creation which isnothing but the extended enveloping body varpna of thecreator. In the world of phenomena, the interaction ofLight and Sound results in thunder and lightning. Chinna-masta is the thunder-clap and the lightning-flash. ' Shininglike a streak of lightning', vidyullekheva bhasvard, says theUpanishad. That is why Chinnamasta is known as vajravairocaniya. She is the force of Virochana, the speciallyluminous (vis'ecena rocate iti virocanah). Who is thisVirochana ? It is the Supreme himself, the PrimordialPrakasa. Vajra is her power which he wields. We knowthat Vajra is the weapon of Indra. Who then is Indra ?

Indra, in the Veda, is the paramount God. In thePuranas, he has been relegated to a subordinate positionin charge of all the denizens of paradise, the primeportfolio being given to either Shiva or Vishnu. But to

the Vedic seers, Indra is higher than all the cosmosvidvasmat indra uttarah. He is the overlord of our tripleexistence of matter, life and spirit and master of swaywhich is the luminous world of the Divine Mind. He issat of the Supreme self-manifested in the Divine Mind.In the words of Sri Aurobindo, " he comes down into ourworld as the Hero with the shining horses and slaysdarkness and division with his lightnings, pours down thelife-giving heavenly waters, finds in the trace of the hound,Intuition, the lost or hidden illuminations, makes theSun of Truth mount high in the heaven of our mentality".Chinnamasta is the scakti, force of Indra. He wields heras his weapon and smites Vritra who covers with hisdarkness the luminous rays of pure knowledge. He lashesthe clouds with his lightning whip, making them surrenderthe life-giving waters. Chinnamasta is the thunderdestroying all the anti-divine forces ; she is the hiddenradiance in the heart of the cloud. Ruling over the DivineMind, she acts through the human mind and is the sensebehind the senses. There are five senses of action,kartnendriyas and five senses of knowledge jfianendriyas;the mind is considered as the eleventh sense by Indianthinkers. In fact, it is known as antah karana, the innerinstrument through which the eye sees, the ear hears andthe other senses carry out their functions. The Sanskritterm for sense is significant; it is indriya, the power ofIndra, the ruler of the mind. Thus one becomes a masterof his senses by the grace of Indra's force, Chinnamasta.The most powerful activity of the senses is the physicalsensual activity translated in the language of sex. Thegreat Goddess is depicted as trampling with her feet Ratiand Manmatha joined in amorous union. This is thepicturesque and dramatic way of the Tantric to drive r home


the fact that the worship of Indra's force Chinnamastagrants complete mastery over the sex-impulse and otherimpulses of the senses indriyas.'

Chinnamasta represents the indomitable force, thestriking power of the Supreme. What is the differencebetween her action and the action of Kali? Kali's action isfierce and terrible and she is known as Chandi. ButChinnamasta is more terrible than the terrible Kali andtherefore she is known as Prachanda Chandi. Kalirepresents the power of transformation, the force ofevolution in creation. Her action is no doubt strong andswift ; but she works with the aid of Time. Prachanda-chandi is the Lord's weapon, the crash of thunder, Vajra;she does not take time, she destroys instantaneously. Kaliis the vital force prana dakti while Prachandachandi is theelectric energy vidyut ,stakti. Kali is in the heart of beings.She is the power of strong emotions and quick actions.Chinnamasta has her seat in the head, in the place betweenthe eyebrows, in the cijiai centre. She is the power of willand vision.

In the subtle body, the whole nervous organisation ismanaged by electric energy by means of nädis. Thesemidis are represented in the physical body by what we callas nerves but their action is subtle and in the psychic bodythey are channels through which electric energy passes.The Supreme Shakti in the form of electric energy is themotive power of the whole creation, This power oflightning, Vajra Vairochani, spreads herself along myriads

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of channels enveloping the whole cosmos. When a beingis created this energy enters into the being through whatis known as brahmarandhra, the aperture of Brahmanwhich corresponds in the physical to the topmost point inthe head. Having entered the body, this energy againspreads throughout the psychic body by means of Nadis,sustaining and upholding the separate existence of thebeing. Out of these myriad Nadis flowing through thebody, three are important. They are Ida, Pingala andSushumna. Sushumna is the central Nadi in the bodyterminating in Brahmarandhra. It is encased by thebackbone' and the spinal column. On either side ofSushumna flow Ida and Pingala. Their extremities aresaid to be at the root of the two nostrils, the centrebetween the eyebrows. This centre is the djAci centre, thecentre of will and vision where the three Nadis meet.This is the triveni sangama of the Yogis, the place wherethe rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the hidden Saraswati,antarviihini, meet. In fact, the code names in the Tantrafor Ida, Pingala and Sushumna are the names of the riversGanga, Yamuna and Saraswati.

We have said that Chinnamasta is located in the Ajnacentre. She is there in a concentrated form. But heractivity is in the Sushumna where she traverses up anddown as the sustaining current of electric energy andpower. Similarly the forces of her two attendants traversethrough the Nadis on either side, Ida and Pingala.Prachandachandi is the current traversing throughSushumna while the ,charming varnini and the terrific

One can recall with advantage the Puranic story that Indra'sVajrayudha, representing the cosmic electric energy was fashioned out ofthe backbone of the Sage Dadichi.


difkini are the currents traversing through Ida andPingala.' Thus is explained the significance of the threestreams of blood emanating from the headless trunk of theGoddess. The middle stream representing the electricenergy passing through Sushumna is consumed by thehead of the Goddess itself as Chinnamasta is the energy inSushumna. The streams on either side are consumed bythe attendants Varnini and Dakini representing Ida andPingala.

Does a person understand that the same electricenergy Vajra Vairochani which motivates the cosmos,motivates him as well, that he and the cosmos areconnected by myriads of nerve-currents or life-energies ?As the Katha Upanishad says, a hundred and one are thenerves of the heart, and of all these only one issues outthrough the head of a man ; by this his soul mounts up toits immortal home, but the rest lead him to all sorts andconditions of births in his passing."' Thus the Brahma-randhra is the only aperture that connects the flow ofenergy in the microcosm with that of the macrocosm.When a being is created, the Vidyut Shakti enters thebeing through the aperture Brahmarandhra. Then theaperture is closed. Even in the being, there is no freeflow of this electric energy. There are knots granthis inthe Sushumna channel which impede the free flow of

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Shakti. The knots have to be cut asunder, the head hasto be slit open to re-establish the free flow of the divineconsciousness in and out of the separate existence that isknown as human body. This is the significance of theGoddess cutting asunder her own head. With the pair ofscissors which she holds in her hand, she first cuts thecreation away from its Lord. Then with the samescissors, she helps the aspirant to incise his earthlymoorings, cuts the knots of ignorance for him. The headrepresents the summit ; on the one hand it indicates sat theSupreme Existence, the original source from which thecreation has started and on the other it indicates the mind,the transmutation of sat in the lower triple world of ourexistence. Cutting off the head of the Goddess symbolisesthe destruction of mind. By this, one should not run awaywith the impression that rending asunder the head is amere figure of speech. When the mind is annihilated,this happens as a concrete experience to the Yogis. TheTaittiriya Upanishad explicitly mentions this experience inthe words vyapohya dirfa kaprilèl, having removed the twoparts of the cranium. We have already stated thatVasishtha Ganapati Muni had this concrete experience inhis lifetime. Sri Aurobindo mentions about the breakingasunder of the lid of mind. To quote his words : " Ahighest spiritual transformation must intervene on thepsychic or psycho-spiritual change ; the psychic movement

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—Sri Aurobindo's translation.


CHINNAMASTA 77

inward to the inner being, the Self or Divinity within us,must be completed by an opening upward to a supremespiritual status or a higher existence. This can be doneby our opening into what is above us, by an ascent ofconsciousness into the ranges of overmind and supramentalnature in which the sense of self and spirit is ever unveiledand permanent and in which the self-luminous instrumenta-tion of the self and spirit is not restricted or divided as inour mind-nature, life-nature, body-nature. This also thepsychic change makes possible ; for as it opens us to thecosmic consciousness now hidden from us by many wallsof limiting individuality, so also it opens us to what is nowsuperconscient to our normality because it is hidden fromus by the strong, hard and bright lid of mind,—mindconstricting, dividing and separative. The lid thins, isslit, breaks asunder or opens and disappears under thepressure of the psycho-spiritual change and the naturalurge of the new spiritualised consciousness towards that ofwhich it is an expression here. This effectuation of anaperture and its consequences may not at all take place ifthere is only a partial psychic emergence satisfied with theexperience of the Divine Reality in the normal degrees ofthe splritualised mind : but if there is any awakening tothe existence of these higher supernormal levels, then anaspiration towards them may break the lid or operate arift in it."'

And again, " If the rift in the lid of mind is made.what happens is an opening of vision to something aboveus or a rising up towards it or a descent of its powers intoour being. What we see by the opening of vision is anInfinity above us, an eterntal Presence or an infinite

Sri Aurobindo ; The Life Divine : Chapter XXV.

Existence, an infinity of conciousness, an infinity of bliss—a boundless Self, a boundless Light, a boundless Power, aboundless Ecstasy. It may be that for a long time all thatis obtained is the occasional or frequent or constant visionof it and a longing and aspiration, but without anythingfurther, because, although something in the mind, heart orother part of the being has opened to this experience, thelower nature, as a whole is too heavy and obscure as yetfor more. But there may be, instead of this first wideawareness from below or subsequently to it, an ascensionof the mind to heights above : the nature of these heightswe may not know or clearly discern, but some consequenceof the ascent is felt : there is often too an awareness ofinfinite ascension and return but no record of translationof that higher state. This is because it has been super-conscient to mind and therefore mind, when it rises into it,is unable at first to retain there its power of consciousdiscernment and defining experience. But when this powerbegins to awake and act, when mind becomes by degreesconscious in what was to it superconscient, then therebegins a knowledge and experience of superior planes ofexistence. The experience is in accord with that which isbrought to us by the first opening of vision : the mind risesinto a higher plane of pure self, silent, tranquil, illimitable ;or it rises into regions of light or of felicity, or into planeswhere it feels an infinite Power or a Divine Presence orexperiences the contact of a divine Love or Beauty or theatmosphere of a wider and greater and luminousKnowledge."'

Again, Chinnamasta is famous as the Goddese whomanifested in the mother of Parasurama. That is why she

' Sri Aurobindo : The Life Divine : Chapter XXV.


CHINNAMASTA 79

is called saFthi, not only sixth in the ten great Vidyas butalso the force behind the sixth avatora of Vishnu. Thestory goes that at the behest of his irate father Jamadagniwho was dispeased with the misdemeanour of his wifeRenuka, Parasurama cut with his axe, the head of hismother. Then by the virtue of a boon from his fatherwho was pleased with his unquestioning obedience,Parasurama got back his mother again alive. Thismanifestation of the Divine Mother is Renuka. She isknown as Chinnamasta, as her head was cut off by herillustrious son. She is elcavird, the sole warrior, the forcethat is victorious over all that opposes it.

The Mantra of the Goddess is the seed-sound hum.It is known as dhenu bija. It is a powerful seed-sound toget mastery over the senses and to annihilate the mindcompletely. Only when what we call mind is annihilated,we get in touch with the secret principle of mind, the mindof Mind, as the Upanishad calls it.

One effective way of Sadhana is to see the lightinstead of the object. That is, whatever a person perceives,he should not concentrate on the object of perception, heshould concentrate on the Light that makes the objectperceivable.' Another powerful method is to imagine aconstant downpour of lightning from the high skies andsubmit the whole body, mind and self to it in absolutededication and surrender. 2

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Tr/44. fffttcrfsit 4fteis) zuirsawmfava. sreaRr5 u—Vasishtha Ganapati Muni in pracapflacapfli trisati.

Then one can say with the Seer-Poet" In his wide sky she built her world anew ;

She gave to mind's calm pace the motor's speed,To thinking a need to live what the soul saw,To living an impetus to know and see.His splendour grasped her, her puissance to him

clung ;She crowned the Idea a king in purple robes,Put her magic serpent sceptre in Thought's grip,Made forms his inward vision's rhythmic shapesAnd her acts the living body of his will.A flaming thunder, a creator flash,His victor Light rode on her deathless Force :A centaur's mighty gallop bore the god.Life throned with mind, a double majesty."'

Sri Aurobindo: Savitri : II. 3.

DHUMAVATI

" In the beginning Darkness was hidden by darkness,all this was an ocean of inconscience "" declares the Veda."In the beginning all this was the Non-Being. It wa sthence that Being was born " 2 . "Only the Non-Being wasthis in the beginning. That was the Being, That became ""."Here in the beginning there was nought " 4 . These are thevarious affirmations of the Upanishads. Out of the Non-Being, Being appeared and the Being dissolves back againinto the Non-Being. This primal state before creation isalso the ultimate state after the creation is withdrawn; andthat becomes the primal state for the next creation. Thisstate, the Tantrics give the great name, Dhumavati. As sherepresents the first and foremost state before creation, asshe is the one in the very beginning, anterior to the age ofgods, devil-num purvye yuge 5, she is acclaimed as j'yenhu,

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• Dart TSt^c? : fr4WITIa I—Rig Veda X, 72. 2.

DHUMAVATI


DHUMAVATI 83

the eldest. As she is also the ultimate darkness of Dissolu-tion, she is known as dhfimra varahi, the smoky swallowerof the universes.

Now, what is this asat, Non-Being? Is it the Nihil,Janya, the void ? Is it nirvana, the extinction of existence ?How can Being come from Non-Being?

abheiva, Non-Being, is classified as pragabhavapradhvamsabhava and saddbhäva or atyantabhava. prag-abhava is the Non-Being prior to a thing coming into exis-tence. Because Non-Being is always with reference to acounterpart, pratiyogi. The non-existence of the tree in theseed is an instance in point. A non-existence after theexistence is demolished is noted by the term pradhvamsa-bhava. sadabhava or atyantabhava, perpetual non-exis-tence or an absolute non-existence comes about whenexistence is completely incompatible. The horns of a hare,dadavigna, the son of a barren woman, vandhyasuta, aflower in the sky gaganakusuma are the classical examples.These can never exist. But what is not possible in ameasure of time or in a plane of existence may becomepossible in some other plane or dimension. Therefore theclassification as Sadabhava will not be valid when we aredealing with eternal principles not subject to time andplace. Therefore we are left with the first two classifica-tions.

Dhumavati is both pragabhava and pradhvamsabhava,as she represents the Non-Being anterior to Being andalso the Non-Being posterior to Being as a result ofdissolution, pralaya. She is the interregnum of inconsciencebetween successive manifestations. Be it noted that whenthe tree is non-existent in the seed, it appears to be likethat in the seed-form. The potentiality of the tree, the seedholds inside itself. The Non-Being is a non-being only

when we are speaking in terms of time. After a time thetree emerges from the seed. The Non-Being is really theBeing in its potential form. The Supreme Being has a stateof rest, let us say, a quiescent poise, free from all cosmicexistence which is nothing but a conscious formulation ofitself. This state, for want of a better term, we call Non-Being. When the Supreme binds himself, limits himself,there is creation, the Being ; when he is absolutely free, isas himself, there is the Non-Being. That is why thescriptures say that Being was born out of Non—Being.This is possible only when Non-Being holds in its wombthe Being to be born. Dhumavati is the primal darknesshidden by darkness ; but she is not absolutely dark, theTantra indicates. She is of smoky hue, dhllmavati, dark-ness impregnated with the embryo of light, the smokecarrying hidden in its particles the heat of flame. ThusBeing and Non-Being, sat and asat are different states ofthe Reality which is constantly asserted by affirmations aswell as negations neti neti.

In the Veda, Non-Existence, as we have pointed out,is represented as darkness concealed in darkness. It is theVedic Night, ratri jagato nivescanil which holds the worldand all its unrevealed potentialities in its obscure bosom.It is also represented as the deluge, the great flood thatcovers all things, the inconscient ocean apraketam salaam".The Vedic imagery talks of two oceans one superconscienthigh above and the other sub-conscient down below. Inbetween, banked by the two oceans is the conscious life ofthe living beings. It is said that the seers of Truthdiscovered the building of being in non-being by will inthe heart and by the thought sato bandhum asatim

1 Rig Veda I. 35. 1 .9 Rig Veda X. 129. 3.


niravindan hrdi pratigy'd kavayo manior. In the Tantra,Dhumavati is the dark night, the great night, the terriblenight of delusion, kälareitrir, mahareitrir, mohareitriicaBaru a.' In the Purana, she is the nidra, sleep of Vishnu.Inconscience is superconscience in sleep. Vishnu, theall-pervading primordial principle gets free from hismanifestation at the end of dissolution, spreads his couchof infinity, ananta, on the ocean of eternal sweet bliss,kora samudra (milky ocean) and withdraws himself insuperconscient sleep, yoganidra. This sleep will be aprecursor of a greater awakening, this withdrawal will bethe harbinger of a newer projection of the Godhead increation ; this rest will prepare the ground for a furtherenergetic action. Dhumavati holds in her womb all thecreation and helps the world towards manifestation. Sheis the base and support of all the unmanifested worlds.

When Being comes out of Non-Being, when creationstarts, let us not imagine that creation is full of Being andthere is no Non-Being in it. When God created theworld, he also entered into it, tat srgtva tadeva anupravUat. 3 He is the material as well as the instrument,updana and nimitta. Both Non-Being and Being of whichthe Supreme is constituted are found in the creation. Infact, the birth of Being from Non-Being is constantlygoing on in the creation. We have said that ignorance isa partial knowledge, a result of self-limitation, a productof exclusive concentration of the Supreme on itself. Whenthe Supreme wants to create, it concentrates on its Being,so that it may become and ignores its Non-Being. This is

Rig Veda X. 129. 4.2 Devi Mahatmyam 1.3 Taittiriya Upanishad H. 6.

DHUMAVATI 85

the cause of ignorance, inconscience. The Non-Being isdepicted as darkness concealed in darkness. With theNon-Being comes the forces of darkness and division, theoffsprings of ignorance, falsehood, evil, sin, suffering.Thus, like ignorance these have their roots in inconscience ;these are the byproducts in the process of creation.

Therefore, the Veda, when it describes the Non-Existence as Night, makes it clear that it is a symbol ofour obscure consciousness fumbling and stumbling and sofull of evil, duritam, sin and suffering. To bring home thisfact, the Tantra gives a striking description of Dhumavati,the great Goddess of inconscience. She is the power ofperversion, the force of distortion. As such she is depictedas utterly ugly and abominable. Pale in face, long inlimbs, sparse in teeth, breasts sagging, decrepit, uncouth,fickle, bad with dirty clothes and dishevelled hair, shebestrides on a cart with a raven for its banner. Thewidow, with a harsh look in her eyes, has a winnow in herhand ; the other hand, she throws up in the act of grantinga boon.' Corresponding to the Vedic appellation, duritamwhich arises out of wrong consciousness symbolised by evildream, dugvapnyam, the Tantra calls Dhumavati dugg.

It is a general principle in the Tantra that iakti alwaysimplies a iakta. Mahakali has her consort Mahakala,Tara her Akshobhya, Bhairavi her Bhairava. In the cult ofTripurasundari, the dakti and the stakta are so inseparablethat they are considered as the two in one. But Dhumavati

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is the only iakti who is bereft of a lakta. She is a widow,vidhavii, the Tantra declares. When all is inconscience andnon-existence, when the Primordial Purusha is virtuallydead in deep sleep, when the force lies involved, coiled upunused, because of the absence of a wielder of force, theGoddess representing the principle of non-existence iscalled a widow. Only when she plunges into creation,becomes prakriti,' she has a Purusha, a witness, later atolerator of her actions once he approves and then amaster exercising full control, sdko, anumanta and idvara.So, Dhumavati, the inconscience, the non-existence andKamalatmika who is consciousness in full play, the patentexistence are considered to be the antipodes in the processof cosmic creation.

How is Dhumavati different from Kali and Bhairavi ?Bhairavi represents the energy, the heat of Tapas, coiledup, ready for release in action. Dhumavati representsinconscience and inactivity. Kali is the force of transfor-mation in relation to Time ; she is the evolving principle inthe creation of time and space. Dhumavati is the Non-being before creation ; she holds in potentiality the evolvingprinciple.

To quote Sri Aurobindo : " The inconscience is aninverse reproduction of the supreme superconscience ; ithas the same absoluteness of being and automatic action,but in a vast involved trance; it is being lost in itself,plunged in its own abyss of infinity. Instead of a luminousabsorption in self-existence there is a tenebrous involutionin it, the darkness veiled within darkness of the Rig Veda,tama asit tamasti Vidham, which makes it look like Non-

' ST 3111 TfffN iftsE41W: I7E1 Air 4T tt. Sreff: fir srOrm

DHUMAVATI 87

Existence ; instead of a luminous inherent self-awareness,there is a consciousness plunged into an abyss of self-oblivion, inherent in being but not awake in being. Yetis this involved consciousness still a concealed knowledgeby identity ; it carries in it the awareness of all the truthsof existence hidden in its dark infinite and, when it actsand creates —but it acts first as Energy and not as Con-sciousness, - everything is arranged with the precision andperfection of an intrinsic knowledge. In all materialthings reside a mute and involved Real Idea, a substantialand self-effective intuition, an eyeless exact perception, anautomatic intelligence working out its unexpressed andunthought conceptions, a blindly seeing sureness of sight,a dumb infallible sureness of suppressed feeling coated ininsensibility, which effectuate all that has to be effected.All this state and action of the Inconscient correspondsvery evidently with the same state and action of the pureSuperconscience, but translated into terms of self-darknessin place of the original self-light. Intrinsic in the materialform these powers are not possessed by the form but yetwork in its mute subsconscience." 1

And again, " A spiritual evolution, an evolution ofconsciousness in Matter in a constant developing self-formation till the form can reveal the indwelling spirit, isthen the key-note, the central significant motive of theterrestrial existence. This significance is concealed at theoutset by the involution of the spirit, the Divine Reality,in a dense material Inconscience ; a veil of Inconscience, aveil of insensibility of • Matter hides the universal Con-sciousness-Force which works within it, so that the Energywhich is the first form the Force of creation assumes in

1 Sri Aurobindo : The Life Divine : Book H, Chapter X.


the physical universe, appears to be itself inconscient andyet does the work of a vast occult Intelligence. Theobscure mysterious creatrix ends indeed by delivering thesecret consciousness out of its thick and tenebrous prison ;but she delivers it slowly, little by little, in minuteinfinitesimal drops, in thin jets, in small vibrant concre-tions of energy and substance, of life, of mind, as if thatwere all she could get out through the crass obstacle, thedull reluctant medium of an inconscient stuff of existence.At first she houses herself in forms of Matter which appearto be altogether unconscious, then struggles towardsmentality in the guise of living Matter and attains to itimperfectly in the conscious animal. This consciousnessis at first rudimentary, mostly a half subconscious or justconscious instinct ; it develops slowly till in more organisedforms of living Matter it reaches its climax of intelligenceand exceeds itself in Man, the thinking animal whodevelops into the reasoning mental being but carries alongwith him even at his highest elevation the mould oforiginal animality, the dead weight of subconscience ofbody, the downward pull of gravitation towards theoriginal Inertia and Nescience, the control of aninconscient. material Nature over his conscious evolution,its power for limitation, its law of difficult development,its immense force for retardation and frustration. Thiscontrol by the original Inconscience over the consciousnessemerging from it takes the general shape of a mentalitystruggling towards knowledge but itself, in what seems tobe its fundamental nature, an Ignorance." 1

Therefore the prayer rises to lead one from the Non-Being to the Being, from the darkness to the light, from

I Sri Aurobindo : The Life Divine : Book II, Chapter XXIII.

DHUMAVATI 89

death to immortality.' As Being is born out of Non-Being, one method is to see the Being as Non-Being,Non-Existence, that is to think of the Being as though itdoes not exist. This is the basis of maw: vada, to dismissthe whole creation as an illusion, mod or to consider itas a product of ignorance avidya. There is a distinctionbetween mod and avidya. The illusion of the One beingmeasured out as the Many is mayei ; not seeing the One inthe Many is avidya. The second method is to get out ofsuffering, evil and sin rampant in creation by getting intothe very source of these things, that is non-existence. There,one plunges into the Nihil, the Void, the extinction of theentire existence. This is the Nirvana of the Buddha, theextinction of the separative consciousness, the extinguishingof the spark of ego in the original Light.

The Tantra does not believe in the negation of theworld by calling it as an illusion, neither does it advocatean escape from the world by plunging into a Void. Itprescribes the worship of Dhumavati, the Mother ofInconscience. The seed-sound used in the Mantra of theGoddess is dhlim. One is asked to choose a lonely spot ora dilapidated house devoid of human habitation, still one'smind and the activity of the senses and then contemplateon Dhumavati, the Non-Existence. In this the Tantra onlyfollows the path laid out by the Vedic and Vedanticwisdom.

The purpose of Sadhana is to manifest the Existenceconcealed in the Non-Existence, the Consciousness hiddenin the Inconscience, the bliss, ananda, lying dormant in

1 Brihadaranyaka Upanished : I. 3. 28.

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DHUMAVATI 91

suffering and pain, the god masked in the costume of eviland sin. " Manifested, he grows in the lap of their crooked-ness and becomes high, beautiful and glorious " says theRig Veda.' The Upanishad declares that " he who knowsThat as both in one, the knowledge and the Ignorance, bythe Ignorance crosses beyond death and by the knowledgeenjoys Immortality "s. Also, " he who knows that as bothin one, the Birth and the dissolution of Birth, by thedissolution crosses beyond death and by the Birth enjoysImmortality "s. The power of Dhumavati is reflected interrestrial existence as sleep, lassitude, inertness andinactivity. But to the worshipper of Dhumavati, torporis turned into trance, sleep into Samadhi and lassitude, astate of calm repose. In fact, corresponding to themahopralaya, the great dissolution, there is a pralaya oneach day of terrestrial life. Day is followed by night andthe waking state is followed by sleep which resembles inmany respects death and dissolution. Half of terrestriallife is spent in sleep in which happens a definite fall ingeneral consciousness. The being sinks into subconscious-ness and at times loses itself in inconscience. Whatevergain is made in the working state in the level of conscious-ness, it suffers dimunition in sleep and again an effort hasto be made to regain what is lost in sleep and progressforward. This endless struggle is much mitigated by the

I Rig Veda I. 95.5 (Sri Aurobindo's translation).Isha Upanishad (Sri Aurobindo's translation).

3 Ibid.

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grace of Dhumavati. Sleep need not be a break in theprocess of life. Dhumavati makes sleep a period of assimi-lation of what has been gained in the waking state, aground for preparing what has yet to be achieved. Sleepbecomes luminous and conscious and the continuity ofSadhana is maintained in sleep as well. Also, it is thecommon experience of Yogis that there are in Sadhanalike night and day, alternations of states of darkness anddepression and states of light and cheer. At times theperiods are prolonged when there is no progress inSadhana, one feels as though one has come to a dead end.One feels despondent, dejected and depressed. Theseperiods are turned into gestation periods by the grace ofDhumavati. Whatever is achieved in the course ofSadhana is consolidated during this period.

" There in the slumber of the cosmic WillHe saw the secret key of Nature's change " 1

Sri Aurobindo : Savitri U, 8.

BAGALAMUKHI

" Impeded by thy resisting power, the loquaciousbecomes dumb, the lord of the earth becomes a lowlypauper, the fire turns cold, the angry is appeased, thewicked person turns good, the fast trotter limps, thearrogant is humbled, the all-knower becomes anignoramus, 0 Bagalamukhi, the eternal auspicious mother,daily our obeisance to thee". 1 Thus the prowess ofBagalamukhi is lauded by the Tantric.

In this land, the pursuit of knowledge has alwaysoccupied the prime place in human endeavour. Inmeetings, assemblies and concourses, one is honoured forthe knowledge one possesses. And the possession of know-ledge is inferred from its display in public. Votaries ofthe Goddess Tara have always excelled in their dramaticdisplays of learning. The tradition has been for thescholars to vie with each other in displaying their featsof learning. This has led to brow-beating, outwittingone another, arguments and counter-arguments ye-Idaprativada. In learned circles, these displays are alwayswelcomed and encouraged as they improve the skillin debating, the power to put across one's point of viewand the faculty of clear thinking. Much to the delectation of

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B A GAL AM U KM I


the old scholars, philosophical treatises were written in astyle suggesting that they could as well be enacted as livelydiscussions in learned assemblies with their way of present-ing all possible refutations parvapakp to their theories,answering them and then establishing their own wayof approach, siddhanta. All this was very well aslong as discussions were healthy. Many a time thesedisplays of knowledge took an ugly turn, degenerated intoacrimonious debates, futile wranglings vitandd vdda andbecame bitter wordy warfares. It was the tradition toinvoke the power of Bagalamukhi for emerging outvictorious in these battles of wits.

Bagalamukhi is the goddess who stupefies the oppo-nent and paralyses his speech yak stambhanakari. She blocksthe flow of speech and the acrimonious debater is dumb-founded. The derivation of the word bagalamukhi is lostin obscurity. Some say valga, meaning a bridle, hasbecome vagala and then bagala. 1 This is a happy deriva-tion as then Bagalamukhi would mean one who puts abridle in the mouth, signifying the arresting of the flowof speech. She is also known as bakamukhi, one who makesthe opponent duck-faced. In Indian literature, swan whichhas the proverbial faculty of separating the water frommilk is a symbol of critical acumen while duck whichquacks incessantly is a symbol of stupidity. Bagalamukhimakes the swan of an opponent a duck. Let us see howthe goddess is described in the Tantra. She is clad in yellowand has two hands. With her left hand she catches hold ofthe opponent's tongue and strikes him with a mace held

1 Such juxtapositions of letters are not uncommon :

viz. hinisa, shahs: ; pas'yaka, kaiyapd.

BAGALAMUKHI 95

in her right hand. 1 She is the striking force, the paralysingpower, the stupefying Shakti.

Her Mantra is made up of the single seed-soundhlrim. She has to be thought in contemplation as allyellow. Her complexion is yellow, her garment is yellow,her ornaments, garlands are all yellow in colour, pittim-barabharana malya vibhdpangi. The worshipper ofBagalamukhi is asked to be clad in yellow and performthe japa of the Mantra with the help of beads made outof turmeric.' What is the significance of the colour yellowand why is it associated with Bagalamukhi and her worship?The Veda talks of golden light hiranya varna of theSupreme Truth sat or satya. When the Supreme who issat cit ananda descends down in creation he becomes thetriple universe of physical, vital, mental, annam, pramand manas. sat, we have indicated in an earlier chapter,limits itself in creation as the mind, manas. The goldencolour appears in creation in its stifled form of yellow whichis the colour of the thinking mind, in occult tradition.It is the thinking mind in man that arrests thedownpour of intuition, inspiration and other higherfaculties, now appearing to be beyond the reach of man.It is the drab thinking mind that mitigates the intensitiesof higher intimations and keeps the man dwarfed beforehis high aspiration. The golden hue, suppressing itsglow becomes yellow. Yellow in turn deadens the glow ofother colours. It is common knowledge that yellow is

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96 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS BAGALAMUICHI 97

mixed with other colours to mitigate their bright effects.And the Sanskrit term for yellow, pita, is significant—thecolour which has drunk pita, sapped the effect of others.Thus there is every reason for associating yellow withBagalamukhi. Not only with Bagalamukhi, in all occultacts of stambhana, stoppage, the Tantra prescribes the useof yellow colour. For instance in the worship of SriChakra, the occult form-pattern of Tripura Sundari, whena person wants to stop all arguments of the opponents forparalysing their speech, the jnanc7rocava Tantra prescribesthe drawing of Sri Chakra with yellow materials and theworshipping of it with yellow flowers. 1

Yes, Bagalmukhi has close connection with the SriVidya tradition. She corresponds to Dandanatha, theCommander of Armed Forces of Rajarajeshwari. She isthe striking force of the Mother, stifling all movementand activity. She induces sudden immobility in action.While Dhumavati is the immobile inconscient, Bagalamukhiis the immobile consciousness. Then what is the differencebetween her and Tripura Bhairavi? Tirupura Bhairavi isconsciousness concentrated in immobility at the veryoutset of an action. Bagalamukhi is the suppression ofaction after it has begun. It is an intermediate immobi-lity between two stages of action. Bagalamukhi restrainsthe speech of the opponent, not for ever. She restrains itat the crucial moment and allows her victim free flow ofspeech when it is of no consequence. Bagalamukhiparalyses speech. She is also the universal paralysingpower sarva stambhanakari because the Word alone gave

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birth to all these worlds vageva viiva bhuvanani Jajixe.Word signifies expression and so the outward manifes-tation. Bagalamukhi is the power that arrests the movementof manifestation in its course. She throttles the free flowof expression ; she stuns and stupefies the progressingforce ; she paralyses the puissant action

What is the significance of Bagalamukhi in cosmicplay ? What is achieved by this sudden stoppage of move-ment ? When ,a movement of activity is suppressed, thepressure increases the force of activity. In fact, the activityis sustained and the momentum of movement maintainedby alternate currents of status and dynamis. " For allenergy, all kinetic action has to support itself on status orby status if it is to be effective or creative; otherwise therewill be no solidity of anything created, only a constantwhirl without any formation ; status of being, form ofbeing are necessary to kinesis of being. Even if energybe the primal reality, as it seems to be in the materialworld, still it has to create status of itself, lasting forms,duration of beings in order to have a support for its action:the status may be temporary, it may be only a balance orequilibrium of substance created and maintained by aconstant kinesis, but while it endures it is real and after itceases, we still regard it as something that was real. Theprinciple of a supporting status for action is a permanentprinciple, and its action is constant in Time-eternity.When we discover the stable Reality underlying all thismovement of energy and this creation of forms, we doindeed perceive that the status of created forms is onlytemporary; there is a stability of repetition of the kinesisin a same persistent action and figure of movement whichmaintains substance of being in stable form of itself ; butthis stability is created and the one permanent and self-


BAGALAMUKHI 99

existent status is that of the eternal Being whose Energyerected the forms." I

When, for example, a rushing current of water isstemmed, two things may happen. The water, suddenlystopped, whirls and eddies gathering great momentum orit changes its course and flows swiftly into new channels.This is the action of Bagalamukhi, the stunning force inuniversal nature. In fact this is the principle on Which thewhole edifice of Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga is raised. Asis well-known, Asanas and Pranayama play the key rolesin Hatha Yoga. By Asana, we mean various postures ofthe physical body, various attitudes of immobility towhich the body is trained to be habituated. The physicalbeing of man appears to be dense, inert and obscure. Butit is capable of hard work, powerful action and greatendurance. As the solid basis of pre-Ina the life-energy, itis a store-house of power, the primary instrument of actingaccording to one's law of being eidyam dharma seidhanam.It is the material envelope of the Spirit, the crucible inwhich the evolving psychic being is processed. The bodilyenergy is spilt and scattered in a thousand and one move-ments. The purpose of Asana is to induce stillness andimmobility in certain postures of the body and prolong thisstate as far as possible. By constant exercise of stilling themovement and gathering the energy that is normallythrown out, the body becomes supple and loses its rigidity.The very nature of Shape or Form is its set formation, itsrigid outline. The body which gives shape and form tothe Soul which is shapeless and formless has to be cast in aset pattern. The aim of Asana is to give a certain flexi-bility to the rigid set-up of the physical body by the

Sr Aurobindo : The Life Divine : Book II Chapter VI.

alternate arresting and releasing of the movement expressedby it. By this process the body gets the power to resistand throw off disease, decay and the early symptoms ofthe setting in of death. Pranayama, as the name implies,devolves round the principle of the extension iiyama of thepranic energy in the body. The preina or life-energy isnot normally fully used up by the body. The coursing ofPrana has to be extended ; it has to course through all themains or nerve channels of the system. By this, mastery isobtained over the whole nervous system, over the vitaland the emotive faculties. The Hathayogin unlocks thesecrets of the pranic energy that governs his vital beingwith the key of the outward movement of respiration. Byregulation of inhalation and exhalation, the breath isextended and by that means the flow of pranic energy.How is this extension brought about? By arresting theflow of breath for a while. This arrestation, stoppage ofbreath is the device adopted to give more force and pushto the pranic energy each time it is released after astoppage so that it may course through all the nactis.Thus, Pranayama consists of the three acts, paraka,inhalation, kumbhaka, retention and recaka, exhalation.One can suspend breathing also. That is, after fullyexhaling, one suspends inhalation for a time. The breath,instead of being retained within the body is being retainedoutside. This is known as bahya kumbhaka. By masteringthis device a Hathayogin is able to lock himself in anairless space and continue to live for any length of time.

In Rajayoga, Asanas and Pranayama occupy asubordinate position, the prime of place being given to themind and its functions. Patanjali defined yoga as thestilling of the activities of the mind, yogah cittavrttinirodhah. Rajayoga stresses on preliminary purification by


BAGALAMUKHI 101

prescribing five yamas restraints and five niyamas discip-lines such as abstinence from uttering falsehood, frominjury or killing, from stealing etc. Then mental activitiesare stilled, the consummation being the mind losing itselfin communion with the Divine, samadhi. It is normallysupposed that thinking improves the mind and incessantactivity of the mind indicates the proper functioning of themind. On the other hand, mind vastly improves by inters-persed periods of stillness amidst activities. Most of usbelieve that our mind is the originator of all the beautifulthoughts we are proud of. Mostly thoughts come fromoutside ; mind is only a receiving and transmittinginstrument. Just as in Pranayama, there is a mentalpuraka and recaka, inhalation and exhalation. As thethoughts come into the mind, one should still their activity,practise a mental kumbhaka. This is one method. Themore effective and summary method will be to practise thebahya kumbhaka, still the thought-waves outside, beforethey enter the mind. Just as breath is held outside, with-out any inhalation, or exhalation mind is kept empty ofall thoughts by holding them outside, by neither takingthem into nor transmitting them from the mind.

Thus the Tantra declares that one experiences theplay of the Goddess Bagalamukhi by practising Hathayogaand Rajayoga. The method of sadhana is to sit in aconvenient posture, iisana, still the mental activities,practise kumbhaka and concentrate on the seed-soundhlrim. 1 The sadhaka attains Siddhis like anima- etc. andgets absolute control and absolute mastery over theelements. He can stop an impending rain, walk on fire by

1 ai iftW T nsTiun 4Tmt 4-4a I—Vasishtha Ganapati Muni in umasahasram.

suspending the burning quality of fire, remain under waterfor any length of time etc. In all these acts of stambhana,stoppage, the intention is to suspend temporarily theactivities of Nature, not to annul its laws. When cloudshang heavily in the sky and it is threatening to rain, ifthe rain is averted by Yogic means, after the intendedperiod is over it comes down in torrents, with greaterforce.

We said that when a movement is arrested, it maychange its course and flow through other channels. Oneworships the great Goddess, the paralysing power of thecosmic forces, Bagalamukhi to alter the course of one'sdestiny. Destiny indicates the ultimate destination, nodoubt. But the ways of arriving at the destiny neednot be predetermined. The ultimate destiny of all createdbeings is to attain oneness with the creator, from whomthey are not different. This ultimate destiny is decreed.Whether this happens in a single birth or in myriad birthsdepends upon the evolving soul. And in the process thereis freedom to choose the course of action. But how toexercise this freewill so that one may arrive at the destina-tion by the shortest route possible ? One's will should notbe contrary to the will of the creator in the scheme ofthings. " May thy Will be done, 0 Lord, may thy Willprevail " should be the constant prayer. The method isto hold back. For example when under an impulse aperson wants to speak, if he learns to hold back his speechfor a while and then speak, the resultant action will beentirely different. This holding back, this sidestepping,one achieves by the grace of Bagalamukhi. In the midsof hectic activity one learns to pause and step aside in therecess of repose, in the midst of speech one habituatesoneself to hold back and sink in silence, in the midst of

102 THE TUN GREAT COSMIC POWERS

pain and suffering one learns to withdraw and glide intothe gladness within oneself. Then a person is able to getin touch with his true being, know what the Divine hasintended for him and allow the Divine's Will act throughhim.

" They follow the unseen leader in the heart,Their lives obey the inner nature's law.There is kept grandeur's store, the hero's mould :The soul is the watchful builder of its fate. 1 "

Sri Aurobiodo : SaviOri II. 4.

MATANGI

The primordial throb adya spanda which originatesby the self-volition of the Transcendent Absolute, starts aseries of vibrations that take the form of sound nada.This is the word, the Word Eternal nitya yak of the Vedawhich itself became all the worlds, vageva viiva bhuvananiArne. Vak is the creatrix descending with her four cosmicsteps in manifestation. The Veda says that all speech ismeasured out in four steps or planes and these are knownto the knowers of Brahman, impelled by the mind. Thethree are hidden in the secrecy while the fourth step is thehuman speech that is the ordinary word.' What are thesesteps? The step that is visible and palpable to us is thegross, sthilla, the physical substance of matter. Sustainingand circumfusing it is the subtle sakfma, the vital life-force.Supporting and cherishing it is the causal karana, themind-principle. The basis of all these three is the greatcausal, mahalcarapa, the High Supernal where abides theWord with all the original rhythms. These steps corres-pond to the four states of consciousness : jagrat, thewaking consciousness operating in the world of matter ;svapna, the dream-state having its play in the field of thelife-forces; sufupti, deep sleep having its sway over thedivine illumined mind-principle and turiya, the fourth thattranscends these three states of consciousness. " TheTantriks while admitting the principle of the division,apply it for practical purposes, dealing with the subjectfrom a psycho-physical and psycho-spiritual point of view ;

Rig Veda 1, 164. 45.


naturally therefore, since the subtle centres play a vitalpart in their Yoga they locate the Vak of the states in thenervous system. They name it para, pagyanti, madhyamaand vaikhari. The first and the supreme source—theprimordial pant- yak is beyond ; it is unmanifest, but turnedtowards manifestation ; it is the great causal maha-karana.and as such its centre is at the bottom of the spinalcolumn that supports the nervous system. This bottom ismuladhara, the root-centre of the physical being. Next isthe pagyanti vak, the word that perceives, and this is thecausal located in the navel centre ; then is the madhyamavak, the middle, the word in the intermediate subtle regionbetween the navel and throat which last is the region forthe express speech called vaikhari vak." 1

This vaikhari vak, the Word expressed as speech, theTantrics acclaim as the ninth in the Dasa Maha Vidyas,the great Goddess matangi. As Sri Aurobindo says : " Thewords which we use in our speech seem to be, if we lookonly at their external formation, mere physical soundswhich a device of the mind has made to represent certainobjects and ideas and perceptions,—a machinery nervousperhaps in origin, but developed for a constantly finer andmore intricate use by the growing intelligence ; but if welook at them in their inmost psychological and not solelyat their more external aspect, we shall see that whatconstitutes speech and gives in its life and appeal andsignificance is a subtle conscious force which informs andis the soul of the body of sound : it is a superconscientNature-Force raising its material out of our subconscience,but growingly conscious in its operations in the human

1 Sri Kapali Sastriar : " The Vak of the Veda and the Throb of theTantra " in Lights on the Ancients.

MATANG I


mind that develops itself in one fundamental way and yetvariously in language. It is this Force, this Shakti to whichthe old Vedic thinkers gave the name of Vak, the goddessof creative Speech, and the Tantric psychists supposedthat this Power acts in us through different subtle nervouscentres on higher and higher levels of its force and thatthus the word has a graduation of its expressive powers oftruth and vision."1

The unmanifest Word turned towards manifestation,pars yak, is the pent up energy, the concentrated tapas inthe mulddhara centre in the subtle body, denoted byTripura Bhairavi. The seeing Word, the word thatperceives and brings into being the manifestation, paiyantiyak is Tara, abiding in the centre maniparaka. And theexpressed Word, articulated Speech, vaikhari yak, isMatangi posited in the throat-centre, viscuddhi. 2

The word in its pristine sweetness becomes particularlyharsh viderna khara when it has to undergo the effort ofarticulation and so the articulated word is known asvaikhari. To find expression, the primordial Word fromthe high supernal has to descend into the tenebrous wombof matter and so the Goddess Matangi is known as iyamalo,the dark one. She is greenish dark in complexion,marakata dark as an emerald. She is also extolledas bluish dark in hue ; mahendra nila dyuti komalangi, hertender limbs have the glow of sapphire, sings the poet.The Tantra does not stop with calling the goddess dark.It accosts her as crimicai and that too as ucchipla

1 Sri Aurobindo : The Future Poetry.

3 Rea rTU 4111173ETTCociT crqzi* fft Wftrfft WTI I

tiefffErwita7 f‘ireqKsz4 RrIfiftrd AfgraT ?MIT II—Vasishtha Ganapati Muni in umasahasram.

MATANGI 107

In the Mahabharata is mentioned the story of a sageMatanga who was a Chandala by birth, but aspired forBrahminhood and prayed to Indra. The goddess ofexpressed speech manifested herself as the daughter of thesage Matanga and thus got her name ma tangt-matangamunikanyakci. 1 As the goddess took birth as the daughter of aChandala she became a Chandali. This is a satisfactoryexplanation of the appellation of the goddess, no doubt.But there is bound to be in this, something more thanthat meets the eye. Because the Tantra Shastra is justlyfamous for its picturesque speech, for its occult andsymbolic nomenclature. Following the way of the Veda,the Tantra employs an outward common place object orword for clothing the inner significance, presses into servicepopular anecdotes for symbolising profound truths. Theintention is that those who have the vision will see through,cakmmanto' nu paiyanti ; the others who are not yet fit toenter the precincts of knowledge will remain happy at theperiphery.

mati is the thinking mind and mata is thought oridea. Matanga means that which goes to the thoughtmatam gacchati iti. The unmanifest Word perceives itselffor manifestation and then reaches the thinking mind forexpression. This stage of the word is matanga. When theword fashioned by the heart and formulated by the mindis expressed, articulated, it is matangi. From the mightyheight of paramam vyoma, the Word in the course ofexpression descends to the lowest physical level ofarticulation. The great radiance which transcends allcolour schemes becomes coloured when it descends for ,

manifestation. The Word of pristine purity becomes

1 Shyamala dandaluirn.


coloured during expression. The Sanskrit term varnawhich means colour is the term for caste, is the term forthe letters of alphabet. The speech, the articulated wordwhich is raised as an edifice of alphabets, the lowest levelin the involution of Vak is picturesquely described asantya varna, the lowest caste. Thus the Word which iscast out is called the last caste, Chandali.

What is then the significance of the term Ucchishta ?Here we can do no better than quote the luminous wordsof Sri Kapali Sastriar : " The Atharva Veda contains ashort section of verses in which the Abode of the SupremeBeing from which creation proceeds is named with greatsignificance. It is an irony that the term it employs todenote the Supreme Source and mainstay of all creationhas come to mean in later Sanskrit 'leavings of food'ucchina. In the Vedic text, it is used in the sense of 'TheResidual above', ut-dina. Obviously it is so termedbecause any number of creations cannot diminish theinfinitude of the Supreme Being that for ever remainsabove the creation which descends from it. When thesupreme Force, Shakti, of the Infinite Being above deployscertain energies for the creation of the worlds, He remainsstill inexhaustible and rests there forming the foundationabove, upari budhna, for the creation in its downwardcoursel."

Thus the word when expressed does not exhaust itself.There is a vast inexhaustible ocean maho arnah of the Wordhigh above from which a thousand streams downwardflow as articulated speech.' By catching this tail-end ofarticulated speech, one can get at the very source of speech.

1 New Lights in "Sri Aurobindo : Lights on the Teachings."2 This is what is meant by the popular adage that knowledge is the

only wealth that does not diminish by giving away.

MATANGI 109

If the gross is studied properly, it will lead to the subtle,the more subtle and ultimately to the great causal. Theworship of Matangi leads one to the realisation of theResidual Above. This is the import of the profoundappellation ucchina

The term Ucchislita Chandali' calls to the discerningmind a similar term famous in the Man tric lore UcchishtaGanapati'. Is there any connection between the ways ofworship of Ganapati and Matangi?

The Word in the Veda is denoted by the termBrahman. This became in the Upanishads the term todenote the Ultimate, the Supreme Creative Godhead.Later on in the Puranas, the term became Brahma, thefirst of the Trinity, in charge of creation. In the Veda,the creator of the Word is Brahmanaspati. He is alsoaccosted as Brihaspati, the master of the creative Word," the stress in this name falling upon the potency of theWord rather than upon the thought of the general soul-power which is behind it. Brihaspati gives the Word ofknowledge, the rhythm of expression of the superconscient,to the gods and especially to Indra, the Lord of Mind,when they work in man as Aryan ' powers for the greatconsummation." 1 He is one of the Angiras Rishis, attimes their leader, breaking with the potency of his Wordthe rocks of inconscience and releasing from there thewaters of divine knowledge. It can be easily seen how thePuranas absorbed this concept in their system and madeBrihaspati the teacher of the gods, the Prime Minister ofIndra. But what cannot be easily inferred is Brahmanas-pati of the Veda continues in the Tantra, with a changeof name, as Ganapati the foremost of the gods to be

1 Sri Aurobindo : On the Veda.


MATANGI 111

worshipped. The proof conclusive is the Mantra in useto invoke the God Ganapati before beginning any worship,which is the same Rik pronounced by the Vedic SeerGritsamada of yore to call the Godhead Brahmanaspati.

0 Brahmanaspati, the superb lord of the Words superb,we call thee, the master of the hosts superb, the superbpoet-seer of poet-seers, one of excellent hearing, theluminous foremost; hearing•us enter with thy protectionsand increases (our) abode ".1 In this Rik Brahmanaspatiis identified with the master of the hosts superb gatzandmganapati. In fact, in the Veda, it is the master of thehosts of Angiras Rishis, their leader. The Tantra calls thegodhead, borrowing the Vedic name, Ganapati. He isvinayaka, the special leader, dvaimatura, having twomothers (earth and heaven in the Veda). He is the breaker-of barriers, having mastery over them, vighnedvara, vigh-naraja, corresponding to his function in the Veda ofshattering the rocks of inconscience with his luminous cryand winning the sources of knowledge. It has to be bornein mind that the Tantra, while taking the concept fromthe Veda, clothes it in its own imagery. Ganapati isdepicted as a god with an elephant's head. If we studythe common Sanskrit terms used to denote the elephantand its species, we find that they are connected with theconcept of Brahmanaspati. For example, airavata, Indra'selephant, is the offspring of irei vein, possessor of ira or (Id.'

Imre mi. Trtnerfff ¶ vitmiarrssramtm53its-on4 irprrt 3Trq: 3,1049fafir kft4

41'1'19 11—R.V. II. 23. 1.

is usually substituted for r

And Ila is the Vedic goddess representing intuition. sdmajawhich means an elephant is used in the Veda as anattribute to Brahmanaspati, one who is born of therhythmic word soma. Again, there is the word hasti, 1 onewho has the hasta, hand denoting skill in action in the caseof Brahmanaspati and the trunk in the case of an elephant.And the elephant is noted for its sagacity, for its thinkingpower and memory. The words matanga, mdtanga,matangaja (attaining what is thought) are well knownsynonyms for the elephant. Thus we see that Ganapatiand Matangi denote the same concept that is expressed bythe Vedic Brahmanaspati. And Ganapati, as the Word,is fourfold. As pard yak, he is seated in the muladharacentre : his elephant face is in the form of Omkara, theWord that perceives what is to be created padyanti yak; asvaikhari yak, he is ucchina ganapati, the word with theResidual Above. In Sadhana, one should understand thatMatangi is the female counterpart of Ganapati.

Corresponding to Brihaspati being the Minister tothe God Indra, Matangi is worshipped as the Minister tothe great Goddess Lalita, Rajarajeshwari. She is Mantrini,the Counsellor to Her Imperial Majesty para bhandrikaand shares her regal power and splendour. So, she iscalled Rajamatangi, Rajashyamala. The Srividya traditionattaches much importance to her worship. Her favourleads the aspirant to the august presence of LalitaTripurasundari. As counsellor to Lalita, as Mantrini,immense are her powers and there is nothing which shedoes not control. Hence she is acclaimed as sarva vaiankari.

aTr w ripria fa* ftrigur swept dIcrita.

R.V. VIII. 81. 1.


MATANGI 113

Her Mantra is mainly made up of the seed sound aimand the accostations, ucch4la ca n matangi,sarvavaiankari.

Vagvadini and Nakuli are her personalities. " Speak,speak, vada, vada, 0 Vagvadini" exhorts the aspirant withthe Mantra. She is the goddess who gives the vagvi/eisathe fluency and felicity in speech. While Bagalamukhi isthe stifling Shakti, Vagvadini is the Power as Expression.Nakuli is described as the thunderous Word covered by thelips and encircled by the teeth. Sovereign of all speech,she confers charm and finish on one's expression.i Kulain the Tantra represents the base-centre miaddhara whereis dissolved the earth element ku (prthvi tattvam) asminliyate iti kulam. As the seat of fire of aspiration everburning at the root of all, it is kulakunda. The coiled upenergy that lies dormant there is the mystic serpent kulakundalini and the path it traverses from maiddhara centreto the sahasradala centre at the top, the whole of theSushumna channel is known as kula mdrga, the path ofkula. The Word traverses this path kula as Para Pashyantiand Madhyama before finding itself as the formulatedarticulated word. It is known as vagvajra, the thunder-speech as it is born along with the lightning perception.When this word comes to the mouth and is uttered it is nolonger in the kula, it is nakula and so Nakuli is the nameof the Goddess of articulated expression, vaikhari.'

allIsarfcrtitm Tfol. 47-*: ciftpr OW: tfritfer era UT-IT 9'M ITTfirg 41-441.

a The profound imports lay lightly on Tantric words. This is becauseof ordinary terms used and familiar analogies employed. The unexpressedword is the potential power, kundalini serpent ; the expressed word is itsopposite, nakula, mangoose.

The Sushumna channel is encased in the human bodyby the backbone which is picturesquely described in theTantra as veend danda, the stem of the musical instrumentVeena while the network of the nerves is compared to thestrings. So at times Matangi is contemplated as having aVeena in her hand. Her deft fingers move swiftly on thestrings enthralling the whole being in the divine melody.She is the Mother of Music, sangita mdtrkd, the harbingerof harmonies opening the occult ear to the inaudiblecadences. In the being of the aspirant who takes refuge inher there is no discord, no disharmony. He becomes ajoyous instrument in the hands of the Divine Player.

Matangi is lauded as keera /card, having the parrot inher hand. What is the significance of the parrot ? Allbirds, like all animals, make sound : they chirp, twitter,warble etc. They do not speak. Only in the human beingthe sound can be expressed in the ordered form of speech.But a parrot can be trained to imitate human speech. Atany rate, the parrot has not got a developed sense likethat of man ; even so, the sound that emanates from itsbill can evolve into something like human speech withoutthe employment of any of its known faculties. It is appro-priate that the Goddess Matangi who is the ultimateexpression of the Para Vak is depicted as playfullydonning a parrot in her hand.1 It is to indicate that it isalso possible for human beings to express in speech the

1 "The Mantra not only invokes the Presence of the Deity in a subtleway, but there are at times unmistakable physical effects of that Presence.When Sri Kapali Sastriar was doing the upiisana, prescribed adoration ofSri Matangi, the Divine Mother presiding over the harmonies of speechparrots would fly in and settle on his arms. And it did not really surprisehim for Matangi is lauded in the Scripture as holding the parrot in herhands, keera-hasty ".

—M.P. Pandit in 'Life Behind Life


highest intuitions without the employment of any of theirknown mental faculties. In fact the worshipper of Matangiis assured of such accomplishment.. Accomplished writers,skilful orators, inspired poets, marvellous musicians havealways a universal appeal because they are all the myriadrays of the effulgent Matangi in manifestation.

In the upasana of Matangi, one should not be contentwith doing the japa of the Mantra or contemplating onher form as prescribed in the Tantra. One should beactively expressing oneself so as to afford a field forMatangi's manifestation. The person interested in music,while seeking her favour, should be assiduously practisinghis music lessons. He who aspires to become a writershould be engaged in writing. All those who take up theSadhana of this mahavidya should be constantly engagedin self-expression as a part of their Sadhana. Then

" Attention to an unseen Truth they seizeA sound as of invisible augur wingsVoices of an unplumbed significance,Mutterings that brood in the core of Matter's sleep.In the heart's profound audition They can catchThe murmurs lost by life's uncaring ear,A prophet speech in thought's omniscient trance".1

Sri Aurobtado Savitri L 4.

KAMALATMIKA

Kamalatmika or simply Kamala is the last of theDasha Maha Vidyas. This deity has a close connection,almost an identity with the other deity exalted as the thirdof the Dasha Maha Vidyas, Tripurasundari. The know-ledge leading to Kamalatmika is also known as irividyiiand the crowning bijetkpra in the sacred sixteen-letteredMantra of Sundari is the seed-sound of Kamala, drim.The consort of Sundari is Shiva Kameshwara, theauspicious Lord of Love while the consort of Kamala isVishnu, the all pervasive principle of preservation.

As per the later Puranic idealogies and polemics, canwe say that Shiva and Vishnu represent two opposingprinciples, destruction and preservation —atleast twodifferent schools of thought ? But if we look closely, wefind an intimate connection, almost an identity betweenthese two deities. The words hara and hari are derivedfrom the same root hr, only the terminations are different.In the Veda especially, these two deities represent theco-ordinating principles so essential for an ordered creation."Rudra is a fierce and violent godhead with a beneficentaspect which approaches the supreme blissful reality ofVishnu. Vishnu's constant friendliness to man and hishelping gods is shadowed by an aspect of formidableviolence= like a terrible lion ranging in evil and difficultplaces '—which is spoken of in terms more ordinarily appro-priate to Rudra. Rudra is the father of the vehemently-battling Maruts ; Vishnu is hymned in the last Sukta of thefifth Mandala under the name of evaya marut as the sourcefrom which they sprang, that which they become, and


himself identical with the, unity and totality of theirembattled forces. Rudra is the Deva or Deity ascendingin the cosmos, Vishnu, the same Deva or Deity helpingand evoking the powers of the ascent."1

The benign side of Rudra is that after breaking alldefective formations, he heals all wounds and all sufferingswith the balm of love. He is Shiva Kameshwara, theauspicious master of Love. We have said that Sundarirepresents the prime digit of desire of the Supreme,kamakala, which is the basis of Love, the vivifying bondthat ties the creator and the created and which expressesas an outflowing of Bliss and Beauty, the essential con-sciousness, cit, the basic sap of sustenance rasa in all things.As the Shakti of Kameshwara, she is Kamakala, Kamesh-wari, Sundari, Beauty incarnate. She is Tripurasundari,the Beauty in the triad, in the triple words of sat-cii-ananda, annam, prena and manas in all the things that arethreefold. But who makes them threefold ? It is the vastpervasive Vishnu who has taken three strides idamvicakrame tredhii nidadhe padam 2 and in the space hasestablished all the worlds. For the action of Rudra's forceVishnu supplies space, the necessary field for operation.Shiva's force, Tripurasundari, is the Beauty immanent inand transcending the triad ; but it is Vishnu's force Kamalawho provides the necessary field for the expression ofBeauty and Bliss in the universe. The immanent con-sciousness in all things, the indwelling beauty in eachsubstance and in each form is Sundari. The manifestationof the consciousness, the beauty revealed in all its glory,the exquisite charm expressed is Kamala. Bagala stops

1 Sri Aurobindo : On the Veda:1 Rig .Veda 1.22. 17.

KAMALATM IKA

118 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS KAMALATMIKA 119

and stifles while Kamala sets in motion and manifests. Asthe consort of Vishnu, the all pervasive godhead, sheLakshmi, the divine mark lakFma, impressed on all thethings in the cosmos and the degree of whose presencekalif marks out one from the other. Even the mostalluring object will become a thing of disgust if hervivifying kilo were not there.' Everything in the worldhas her portion kaki in some degree or the other. TheSanskrit word for exquisite beauty is supma, that is susama superbly equal. As Sri Aurobindo says : " Thismighty energy is an equal and impartial mother samambrahma, in the great term of the Gita, and its intensity andforce of movement is the same in the formation and uphold-ing of a system of suns and the orgnisation of thelife of an ant-hill. It is the illusion of size, of quantitythat induces us to look on the one as great, the other aspetty. If we look, on the contrary, not at mass of quantity,but force of quality we shall say that the ant is greaterthan the solar system it inhabits and man greater than allinanimate Nature put together. But this again is theillusion of quality. When we go behind and examine onlythe intensity of the movement of which quality andquantity are aspects, we realise that this Brahman dwellsequally in all existences. Equally partaken of by all in itsbeing, we are tempted to say equally distributed to all inits energy. But this too is an illusion of quantity.Brahman dwells in all, indivisible, yet as if divided anddistributed. if we look again with an observing perceptionnot dominated by intellectual concepts, but informed by

1 AelviscdaiTifcEr61galsfq wlawmErr ztzit ferm

—umcisahasram

intuition and culminating in knowledge by identity weshall see that the consciousness of this infinite Energy isother than our mental consciousness, that it is indivisibleand gives, not an equal part of itself, but its whole self atone and the same time to the solar system and the ant-hill.To Brahman there are no whole or parts but each thing isall itself and benefits by the whole of Brahman. Qualityand quantity differ but the self is equal. The form andmanner and result of the force of action vary infinitely,but the eternal, primal, infinite energy is the same in all.The force of strength that goes to make the strong man isno whit greater than the force of weakness that goes tomake the weak. The energy spent is as great in repressionas in expression, in negation as in affirmation, in silenceas in sound."

It is the ego-sense in us that blinds us to the vision ofequal Brahman in all. The ego limits and creates distinc-tions in all this here which are united in a single formulation.But " it is possible by bringing the real soul to the surfaceto replace the egoistic standards of pleasure and pain byan equal, an all-embracing personal-impersonal delight.The lover of Nature does this when he takes joy in all thethings of Nature universally without admitting repulsionor fear or mere liking and disliking, perceiving beauty inthat which seems to others mean and insignificant, bareand savage, terrible and repellent. The artist and the poetdo it when they leek the rasa of the universal from theaesthetic emotion or from the physical line or from themental form of beauty or from the inner sense and poweralike of that from which the ordinary man turns away andof that to which he is attached by a sense of pleasure.

I Sri Aurobindo : The Life Divine, Boot 1, Chap. 9.


The seeker of knowledge, the god-lover who finds the objectof his love everywhere, the spiritual man, the intellectual,the sensuous, the aesthetic all do this in their own fashionand must do it if they would find embracingly the know-ledge, the Beauty, the Joy or the Divinity which they seek":

Thus Kamala is the Goddess of exquisite beauty ;supamd blossoming in everything. What is the significanceof the name, kamala ? ka in Sanskrit denotes the head,the summit, the waters ; mala comes from the root mala,mallet dharane, which means to wear'. So kamaladenotes one who wears the waters as a robe. The Vedahas a significant appellation apovastinti , robed in waters.What are these waters ? Waters apah in the Veda, denotethe movement, the initial movement of creative activity,the vivifying force, the life-giving essence. These are thedivine waters, apo daivih, the head or the summit fromwhich the creation proceeds, carrying in them the luminousknowledge of the solar world svarvaiih apah. This solarworld is the world or plane of immortality full of the vastLight of Truth of Savitr, the creative godhead. So theGoddess is aptly called Kamala, clothed in the waters ofthe creatives consciousness or Kamalatmika, the soul-forceimmanent in all creative activity, manifesting itself. ThePurana picturesquely describes her as arising from themilky ocean when it was churned to yield the nectar ofimmortality and accosts her as the daughter of the milkyocean, kfira sagara kanyaka. Evidently milky ocean is thesymbol of the vast stretch of the all-enveloping conscious-ness, the plane of immortality, the delight of existenceswelling with the honied waves madhuman armih of theVedic bard. So she is Indira, the sister of indu, the moon,

Sri Aurobindo: The Life Divine, Book I, Chap. 23.

KAMALATMIKA 121

the Soma, the delight of existence, the basic bliss in every-thing which also the Purana says came out of the milkyocean. She is the play of consciousness, its display out-side, the sport of the Supreme Lord, rams. As the refugeand support of all existence, as the underlying current ofconsciousness, she is sri.

The age of the Vedas was an age of intuition andinsight and the words in articulated language were pressedinto service to denote these intuitive perceptions of theseer-Rishi. All objects in nature, the entire fauna andflora were used as outward representations symbolisingthe inner perceptions and the occult phenomena. To theseer, the vast stretch of waters coursing everywhere repre-sented the creative consciousness manifesting in everything.And so the root ap to create, from which the Tamil wordapps has come and the root amb to give birth, from whichthe Sanskrit words amba, ambaka, ambi, ambika areformed, were employed to form significantly the names ofthe waters as apah, apah, ambu, ambhah etc.

Likewise, the lotus flower sprouting from the waterswas seen as a living symbol denoting the product of thecreative consciousness. As the flower is surrounded bythe waters, the term kamala, robed in waters, is used todenote it. ' Born of the water', ambuja, .ambhoja, jalajaetc., are the appellations employed for the flower. It is aflower which raises its head along with the rising sun anddroops down with the setting of the sun. It eminently res-ponds to the play of light, symbolising the luminous know-ledge of solar Truth. It has numerous petals latapairant,sahasra pairam, manifold parts and it blossoms opening outpetal by petal, signifying gradual unfoldment of the latentconsciousness in the being. That is why the lotus motif islargely employed in all creative activity, in art, in

122 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS KAMALATMIRA 123

architecture, in sculpture, in poetry, in philosophy andyoga as well. The Purana says that Brahma from whomall these worlds are born is born from the lotus,padmasambbava. Vishnu, the primordial pervasive principleis in superconscient sleep, yoganidrei spreading his couchof infinity, ananta, on the ocean of inconscience, when forthe act of creation, from the nave of the primordialprinciple, from the navel niibhi of Vishnu, the creativeconsciousness gradually unfolding, that is, a lotus shootsforth. Brahma the creator is born from there and he startsthe creation. Similarly the supreme place of Vishnupararnam pada»: is described in the Veda as an eye extendedin heaven, diviva cakpreitatam. And so the Puranaacclaims Vishnu as kamaldksa lotus-eyed, the watchful eyeof preservation luminous with the creative consciousness.Again from the root sad to sit, we have the words sadana,sadma, meaning a resting place, a house, an abode. Like-wise from the root pad to stand on foot, we have the wordpadma meaning a foothold. As a foothold, as a nodus ofthe creative consciousness, the lotus is called by the signi-ficant name padma. And so in Yoga, the centres ofcoasciousness in the subtle body are described as padmas,lotuses. The lotus figure plays a large part in the dia-grammatic representations of the occult forces as chakras.And lotus is a common foothold or seat padmasana,prescribed for gods as well as men on the godly path.

Now the significance of the Goddess Kamalatmikabeing closely associated with the lotus flower in the Tantra,will be clear. She is described as the Lady of the Lotus.She stands on a lotus flower with her two hands holdingaloft two lotus flowers. Her other two hands are engagedin the act of warding off fear and granting the boon.Draped in white silk, her luminous complexion is golden.

She is constantly bathed by four Imp elephants, white asthe snowy mountain, with pots full of the waters ofluminous immortality'. This contemplation of theGoddessas prescribed in the Tantra reveals how the Vedic thoughtis clothed in the Tantric imagery. She is Kamala, robedin waters. So she is described as being constantly bathed.Elephants signify sagacity, wisdom, mental movement andactivity, the creative principle as manifested in thephysical world.

We have already said that the Mantra of the Goddessis the seed-sound grim. She is well propitiated by theSrisukta, a khila hymn in the Rig Veda. It is well tonotice that the Srisukta contains fifteen Riks and theGoddess is no other than Srividya, the fifteen-letteredPaAcadasci Mantra. Kamala is the antipode of Dhumavati•Dhumavati is the first one, jyestha, the non-existencebefore creation. Kamala on the other hand is the con-sciousness in manifestation, the beauty and bliss in expres-sion, in creation. All those who worship harmony andbeauty in everything outside as well as in every inwardactivity, movement and feeling are her servitors. Sheremoves their poverty physical as well as spiritual andendows them with her plenitudes, with her riches, withher opulence. But the Goddess is fleeting by nature andexacting is her Sadhana. Nevertheless, of all the divinepowers, she is the most alluring to man ; and if he succeeds

*Pm wr‘ffufwITt kfffithsrer:qthrteefunrznipEauffrizurrt fir

fwgiurt 4v4a4TIPTIpi fq7.1E1-4774-talsimgfffar4foa-vsfOsat wisewdeqdr5


in establishing her constant presence, he will realise that

" The world's senseless beauty mirrors God's delightThat rapture's smile is secret everywhere ;It flows in the wind's breath, in the tree's sap,Its hued magnificence blooms in leaves and

flowers."'

Sri Aurobindo : Savitri.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH OTHERDISCIPLINES

These, then are the ten great Disciplines, DashaMahavidyas, these the resplendent galaxy of the greatgoddesses in the Cosmos ; each governing a particularfundamental function. Dhumavati presides over the Non-Being Asat. When creation starts, Kali is Time andBhuvaneshwari is Space. The flaming Word Supremeturned towards manifestation is Bhairavi, the PerceivingWord is Tara and the Expressed Word is Matangi. Theprimordial luminous Desire is Sundari while the delightfulBeauty is Kamala. Chinnamasta combines Light andSound in her thunder-clap and Bagalamukhi stifles thefree flow of things. Thus the Tantra portrays the tenfacets of the ultimate Reality.

And it is natural for one to search for the source ofsuch lofty conceptions in the Veda. For the Tantric godsand goddesses are not sudden arrivals in the religious .

scene of the Hindus ; they are, on the other hand, gradualevolutions from the original Vedic concepts of thegodhead. We are not attempting to find exact corres-pondences, perfect proto-types of the deities of the Tantrain the Vedic pantheon. Such an attempt is likely not tosucceed as the Vedic age was an age of intuition, wherefeeling and direct perception played a more important partthan detailed delineation of name and form determined bymental faculties. We have already shown when dealingwith each deity of the Dasha Mahavidyas how certainconcepts and realisations of the Vedic seers find a place in

126 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS CORRESPONDENCE 127

the formulation of the Tantric concepts of those deities.For instance, Agni's power of carrying the aspirant acrossall tribulations and Aditi's faculty of affording shelter as aship are built into the conceptioryof Tara though she ispatently the form of the immutable Akshara in the highsupernals. The primordial darkness covered by darkness,a grand Vedic concept, gives rise to the concept ofDhumavati while the Rig Vedic primal seed of mind,Desire, känia, is amplified as the Kamakala, the conceptof Tripurasundari. The all-pervasive indivisible infinityof the Divine Mother Aditi goes to build the concept ofBhuvaneshwari while the mounting aspiration concentratedat the base of things, flaming forth as Agni is the principleof Tripura Bhairavi. Thus there is no one god or goddessin the Veda corresponding exactly to a deity in the groupof these ten great Vidyas. Yet the Tantra draws itsinspiration from the Vedas and reinforces its perceptionsby resorting to Vedic visions just in the same wayas the Upanishads clinch an issue by declaring that it issaid by the Rik, that it is the perception of the Vedic Seer,tadreibhyuktam, taduktamnigi. Thus, for certain deities,apart from prescribing the Tantric Mantras, the TantricSeers prescribe for worship upeisand, particular Vedic Riks.

From the writings of Sri Vasishtha Ganapati Muni,we learn about the Vedic Riks that are employed asMantras to invoke these ten great Deities.

There is the perception of the daughter of Bharadwajain Gayatri metre about ratri : "The Goddess immortal,she fills the vast, the high and the low places ; she repelsdarkness with light"'. This is the Rik prescribed for the

' armsrr arwail fq -al "taw: qurk ffq:—R.V. X. 127. 2.

worship of Kali. There is also another Rik used in theworship. This is the perception of the Seer SaptavadhriAtreya in Anushtub metre : " 0 Night, disguising thelight, may the lightnings of thy divine cloud pour down IMay all seeds grow ; strike down the haters of theDivine !".l

Tara is appropriately invoked by this Rik : "Fashion-ing the waters, the Radiant Cow of Speech hath lowed,one•footed, two-footed, yea, four-footed. She of eightfeet hath become nine-footed, the thousand immutableletters in the Sky Supernal ".2 This Rik also is used :"The Radiant Cow, the mother of the opulent Maruts, fullof inner hearing, pours her milk. Both the carriers of thechariots are yoked " .3

The third Vidya Sundari has the following Rik for herMantra : " He (the calf) snorts, by whom encompassedthe Ray-Cow makes a bellowing sound clinging to therain sprinkling cloud. She overpowers the mortal with

a ranTret rce 3rwzr rcsff:11TI ear' mmar wfg 11

—R.V. V. 86. (Appendix).

" CIPortzr eromf4 ffezirwit frit wr ‘1670arcergt1 Wie artiq't trprtau qz;150RI II

—R.V. I. 164. 41'

nItizrfa. Trot sa.490-ffr VITqTly. II

—R.V. VIII. 94. 1.


her consciousness and becoming lightning casts away hercovering vesture ". 1

Bhuvaneshwari is identified with the vast infinite Aditiand hence this Rik is employed to Invoke her: " Aditi isheaven, Aditi is the mid-region, Aditi is the mother, thefather and the son. All Gods are Aditi, the fivefoldpeople, Aditi is all that had born, all that is to be born ".3

Tripura Bhairavi is propitiated by the Rik ofKashyapa to Agni " To the knower of all birth, we pressSoma, to him who consumes the knowledge of the enemy.Let Agni carry us across all the obstructions like a boatover the river ". 3 The Rik in the Pankti metre as thevision of Vrishakapi about Indrani is the famous Mantraused in the worship of Chinnamasta. " The ancientWoman knows the united invocation made with one mind.The ordainer of the Law of Truth, the mother of hero-

CORRESPONDENCE 129

warriors, Indra's consort is glorified vastly. Indra is aboveall the cosmos ".1

" Let not evil, from high and low, hard to strike,strike us down. Let it take to heels, along with theavidity "St Saying this Rik for worship, one propitiatesDhumavati.

Brihaddiva, son of Atharvan, invokes Indra thus :" The eldest was that in the worlds from whence thefierce, the mighty one was born ; as soon as born, hedestroys the foes, following him all the protectorsdelight ". 3 This is the Mantra prescribed by the Tantrato invoke Bagalamukhi.

Matangi, the Mother of musical speech is invoked bythis famous Rik on Saraswati " Great waters, Saraswatimakes one conscious by luminous impulsions of knowledge.She enlightens all thoughts ". 4

` arzt firsat z14. ate'fsunfe. urn strumarfirfgrffr

fiT k arm To*fir-vm* srfa. afttR1-0

ftOt fg 911-1 ulT4 trra Trsufa .

irs*TT waw aftfkafiirrA zr@zr4 faimorft7x u-17: It—R.V. X. 86. 10.

2 UT: cIKT47T fT3tfffitiTT witrq—R.V. I. 164. 29. crilaz trsourr ate' II

—R.V. I. 38. 6.•grfgrdil .rffrmirtagikrallffr rr Rai w p:

f tar kirr arftfd: %Norm arrevrfer iTraffr*Revril II—R.V. I. 89. 10.

•wr-ditq4 wIrrritTallml fqzuffftr gqtfur *err miler ffrerreuf9: II

—R.V. I. 99. 1.

sitfrrmr -4ipst zre aw IT vat:wit %Ton* Drfkurrft 419 zi firIratem:

—R.V. X. 120. 1.

ffe tt‘ticil sr*ffErrzt *firfwit farm fwr qfa

—R.V. I. 3. 12.


The last of the Dasha Maha Vidyas, Kamalatmika isthe soul-force immanent in all creative activity ; so she isinvoked by the famous Mantra dedicated to Savitr, theforce of the creative Godhead Savitri. " We hold inthought that excellent effulgence of the God Savitr. Mayhe impel our thoughts

Are these Vidyas mentioned in the Upanishads ?Because Upanishads are not merely philosophical specula-tions about the ultimate Reality, as popularly held, butare manuals of Sadhana, practical guides for the realisa-tion of the Divine. There are many Vidyas mentionedin the Upanishads and these are discussed in the BrahmaSutras of Badarayana. But unlike the later TantraShastra, the Upanishads do not describe the procedure ofthe particular Sadhana or Vidya, neither do they give anydetails. The Vidya is named after the teacher of theVidya or the initiate or its central aspect and a few hintsare given in regard to the object of realisation and itsfruit. We owe it to Sri Vasishtha Ganapati Muni fortracing the Tantric Dasha Maha Vidyas to their source inthe Upanishads. With the aid of his perception, let usgive in some detail the correlation found in the body ofcertain Upanishadic Vidyas.

King Janashruti Pautrayana, having learnt from thetalk of swans flying over his couch in the night thatRaikwa of the cart was superior to him in wisdom, repairedto the lowly Raikwa in search of true knowledge andlearnt from him the Samvarga Vidya. This story isrelated in the fourth Prapathaka of the Chandogya

Upanishad. What is Samvarga? That which appro-priates, absorbs, consumes, takes everything into itself isSamvarga. 1 The Upanishad teaches that Vayu in thegods and Prana in the beings are the two Sarnvargas,Verily, everything is contained in Vayu and in Prana.Vayu is not mentioned in the sense of mere wind, neitherPrana in the sense of mere life. It is the dynamis of theDivine, the Conscious Power permeating the whole spacethat causes all manifestation. It is the Supreme Life thatis the life of all lives making all activity and movementpossible. It is this cosmic force of Prana (Vayu) whichthe Tantric acclaims as Kali.

The Vidya of Tara can be easily traced to theAkshara Vidya mentioned in the BrihadaranyakaUpanishad (M. 8) During the sacrifice of enormous gifts,performed by Janaka, the king of Videhas, RishiYajnavalkya tried to carry away the prize intended for thebest knower of Brahman, whereupon one after another inthe assembly began to ply him with questions. GumVachaknavi asked : " If Akasha is the warp and woof ofeverything, what is Akasha made of, what is its texture ? "." This is verily that immutable " etat vai tadakpram, camethe answer. Affirmed by a series of negations like this isneither gross nor subtle, neither short nor long' etc., thisAkshara Brahman is the immutable Word of perception,the Tara of the Tantrics.

"In all worlds, in all beings, in all selves, he eats thefood." 2 In these terms the Upanishad (Chandogya VI. 11.18.) describes the glory of Vaishwanara Vidya. Vaishwanara

Megitili. 17 .41 k4Fq n'filf451-41 ut q: sTql4ztiq II

— R.V. III. 62, 10.

1 ftai.ffrq 1#11T9147 fialit: I—Acharya Shankara.

a W: Tit at aiq' affff


is the Universal Male, the Purusha, the Universal Firewhich is the self in each and the all. King AshwapatiKaikeya was pleased with the approach of the Brahminsled by Uddalaka who craved for knowledge from him, aKshatriya though he was, inferior to them in social rank.He individually questioned them and learnt that they wereworshipping the parts of the dtman mistaking them for thewhole. He then taught them the discipline of worshippingthe Universal Person, which will lead them to therealisation of the Cosmic Self in each being. The Tantracalls this Cosmic self as Tripurasundari, the beautifulpresiding over the triad, at the same time immanent in thetriad, the universal consciousness immanent as the essencein the microcosm as well as in the macrocosm. TheVaishwanara Vidya of the Upanishad has a remoteantiquity as it is correlated to the worship of Agni Vaish_wanara as extolled in the Riks of the Rig Veda. And theVidya of Sundari having its source in Vaishwanara Vidyais rightly famous as sari vidya, the knowledge, the knowledgeleading to the realisation of the cosmic consciousness ineach and every being.

Bhuvaneshwari, the supreme sovereign of the worldsis the Space that contains and sustains, the goal and refugeof all manifestations. The discipline leading to herSadhana corresponds to the Parovariyasi Vidya of theUpanishad (Chandogya I. 9). Silaka, Chaikitayana andPravahana, all proficient in the lore of udgitha go ondiscussing about successive goals, gati. The goal of Saman,they find is Swara ; the goal of Swara, they realise is Pranaand thus finally tracing the successive goals they arrive atthe supreme, most excellent parovariya, the seniormost ofall, the ultimate goal, the refuge parayanam, the akadaspace which is endless, ananta.

Shandilya Vidya in the Upanishad (Chandogya III. 14)corresponds to the Vidya of Tripura Bhairavi. Shandilyais a great teacher of agni rahasya, the secret of the mysticFire. The mystic Fire is extolled as kavikratu, the seer-willin Rig Veda and the exhortation contained in ShandilyaVidya is that " he should make the resolve", sa kratumkurvita. This resolve is a firm will with a fixed idea andsense of certainty, a concentrated force of energy tapas, anunwavering flame of resolute aspiration. One shouldworship with calmness knowing that all this is Brahmanand all is born from it, merges into it and breathes by itsarvam khalvidam brahma tajjalaniti ganta upasita. In theTantra, Tripura Bhairavi is the fire of aspiration that burnsin Muladhara, the force of concentrated tapas, the resolutewill resulting in action kriy gakti.

In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (Adhyaya IV) we findthe Sage Yajnavalkya communicating the discipline ofJyotirvidya to the king Janaka. " Like the hair athousand times divided there are ?teals (nerve channels)called hitch established in the inner heart. Proceeding bythese nerve channels the food proceeds. There is food moresubtle than that from the body of the soul." I And thenthe soul is extolled as Jyoti, Light. If we recall that inthe Dasha Maha Vidyas, Chinnamasta represents the Lightof the thunder-flash, Vajravairochaniya, the might ofIndra's force spreading herself along myriads of channelsenveloping the whole cosmos and in the human body asthe Sushumna Nadi entering the heart with its myriad

*qt: p- TifITW T4Tifire f r rid'

4ropilsmikit srfelsaaT xaRita . arfm.d ttnr-ggvq-etritm RfaiarTIV to t wafff grmrq 14-iikl‘141 -01"q: I

134 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS CORREPONDENCE 135

branches, we easily see the concordance between the Vidyaof Chinnamasta and the Jyotirvidya.

The first and foremost state before creation whendarkness was covered by darkness and all this was anocean of inconscience is given the name Dhumavati. Thepower of Dhumavati is reflected in ordinary existence assleep, lassitude, inertness and forgetfulness. The worshipof Dhumavati is prescribed so as to ferry across-darknesstowards its shore of light, to wade through forgetfulnessand lassitude to a constant memory and active awareness.The Dhumavati Vidya corresponds to the Bhuma Vidya ofthe Upanishad (Chandogya VII) wherein it is declared thatthe blessed Sanatkumara shows the shore beyond darkness,tamasas pdram dars(ayati bhagaviin sanatkumdran. Therequisite of Sadhana is a strong and constant remembrancedhruvii smrti earned by purification of the stuff of theinstrumental being sattva scuddhi ; then Bhuma, thePlenum, the Infinite Self is realised . 1

The Taittiriya Upanishad (Sikshavalli. 6) impartsthe secret discipline of Indra Yoni Vidya. Describing thePurusha who is all mind, the golden immortal in theheart-space within, it proceeds to explain that the wombof Indra is between the two palates, hanging down likethe breast • of a woman antarena taluke ya epz stanaivdvalambate sendrayonih. To stifle activity, one has toconcentrate on Indra yoni, the effulgent symbol taijasalingam hanging at the root of the tongue. This Vidyacorresponds to the Vidya of Bagalamukhi, the paralysingPower, the stifling Shakti of the Divine, sarvastambhanakart.

1 For an illuminating study of this Vidya and other important Vidyasof the Upanishads, the reader is directed to the writings of Sri KapalSastriar especially to his book " Lights on the Upanishads ".

Matangi the ninth of the Dasha Maha Vidyas, is thearticulated word, the word that is manifested as expres-sion. Her discipline has the origin in the Udgitha Vidyaof the Upanishads. "One should wai, in worship on theletter OM, udgitha" begins the Chandogya Upanishad.Why Om is known as udgitha? It is sung in a high pitchomiti hyudgayati, hence the name Udgitha, says theUpanishad. The Mandukya Upanishad deals with thisextensively. Om is eternal, Om is all this, Om is theword of affirmation, the expression of assent. " With OmBrahma begins creation " omiti brahmä prasauti says theTaittiriya.

Now we come to the last of the Dasha Maha Vidyas,the Vidya of Kamalatmika. Kamalatmika is the con-sciousness in manifestation, the beauty in expression, theunderlying delight and bliss in creation. Her Vidyacorresponds to the Madhu Vidya as detailed in the MadhuBrahmana of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (I1.5) Thisdoctrine of the Mystic Honey was imparted by the sageDadhyan at the risk of his life to the twin Gods Ashwins.Dadhyan who got the teaching from Indra could notreveal it as he ran the peril of his head being cut off. . TheAshwins, the story goes, in order to circumvent this, cutoff at the first instance, the head of Dadhyan, fixed ahorse's head on him and got the Vidya. When Indrasmashed with his thunder-bolt the horse-head of Dadhyanfor breach of promise, the Ashwins promptly restored toDadhyan his original head. The teaching looks uponworld-existence as a creation of Delight, an Existencewhich subsists by interdependence of the whole and thepart, a manifestation which subsists because of theHoney, the Madhu in it, because of the basic blissimmanent in all things.


Having outlined the correspondence between theUpanishadic Vidyas and Dasha Mahavidyas, let us nowturn our attention to the Puranas. In the Puranas aredescribed the various forms, emanations and manifesta-tions of the gods and goddesses. Whenever there happensa crisis of cosmic magnitude, whenever everything that isheld worthy and sacred seems to be lost, when the hostileforces that retard the progress of humanity gain theupper hand and the balance of power seems to be tiltedin their favour, in sheer despair the entire earth aspires,the whole humanity fervently prays and invokes thegodhead. Then in response, the Divine descends, restoresnormalcy and gives the necessary push to the earth andits inhabitants for a better advancement, for a more rapidstride on the path of evolution. This is known as avata-ra,descent. When this happens, there is a general uplift inthe earth's consciousness, a greater progress achieved bythe evolving humanity. Any god or goddess can descendand they do descend for the fulfilment of the cosmicpurpose. But as the world's preservation and main-tenance are in the hands of Vishnu, the all-pervasiveprinciple of protection of the Supreme, his descents areepoch-making and justly famous. A descent of the deityis for the performance of a specific cosmic act and no actis possible if it is not backed up by the necessary force,Shakti. Every Avatara has his Shakti and the avateirakarya, the purpose of the Avatara is fulfilled by the Shakti.As Vishnu's Avataras are famous as ten in number, it isnatural to seek a correspondence of the Avatara Shaktis,the Powers behind the Descents to the ten great cosmicPowers, Dasha Mahavidyas. In one or two Avataras, thePower that motivates is evident. For instance, in theAvatara of Parasurama, his mother Renuka is the decisive

Power, the Avatara Shakti. In all esoteric circles, Krishnaand Kali are identified as the Shakta and his Shakti. Theseed-sound of Krishna is klim while that of Kali is krimand there is very little difference between r and 1—ralayor-abhedati. In the Bhagavata itself it is mentioned that themanifestation of Kali is mistaken to be the manifestation ofKrishna by Kamsa who tries to kill the child. Taking thecue from these instances, some of the Tantras like maga-maid tantra have sought a correspondence between theavaldras and the great cosmic goddesses. Though thecorrespondence of the Vidyas to the Avataras is not in thesame order, it is interesting to note that an attempt hasbeen made to find a correspondence and we shall mentionthese for what they are worth.

Kali corresponds to Krishna's force. Both are dark incomplexion. Krishna's mission on earth was to eradicateall evil forces, force a kuruketra field of action forevolution on a hesitating humanity represented by Arjunaand to open the heart, the seat of true emotion of theaspiring humanity to the godhead who had come on earthto entice the yearning souls by his love, beauty andharmony. Tara was behind the Avatara of Rama. Therama ndma is famous as the a raka mantra, the mystic wordthat makes one cross all the troubles and tribulations inthe world. Rama crossed the barriers of his kingdom,crossed the forests, hills and dales, crossed the ocean. Anexemplar in human conduct, he crossed the conventionsof ordinary humanity. The low caste hunter, Guha, washis friend. Bears, monkeys and birds were his mates. Hemade them all cross from the shore of darkness to thatof light. The Shakti behind the Avatara, Varaha, thedivine Boar that dug deep to uplift the earth on its snoutis Bhuvaneshwari, the Mother of the Worlds, enveloping


the whole earth with her mantle of space. The Shaktimanifested in the Avatars of Nrisimha is the terribleMother, Tripura Bhairavi, the burning energy tapas thatshoots forth and destroys all evil when the pent-up poweris released. Tripura Bhairavi is terrible to the evil doer,but not to the aspirant whose fear she removes. Narasimhaalso was terrifying to Hiranyakasipu, but not to Prahladawhom he came to save. The Avatara as the dwarf-man,Vamana, indicates the quiescent state before the godheadburst forth as Trivikrama, the Vast One with his triplestrides. The Shakti operating through this Avatara isevidently Dhumavati, the state of inconscience, when theBeing is dwarfed and appears to be the Non-Being.Parasurama who systematically cut with his axe thehaughty heads of states, the arrogant k Fatriyas of old, hadbehind him the force of Chinnamasta, the goddess withthe severed head. Chinnamasta descended into hismother Renuka when he cut her head, as the story goes, atthe behest of his father. Kamalatmika, robed in thewaters of consciousness, the beauty and sign of the Divinethat blossom all around is the Shakti behind the AvataraMatsya, the Primordial Fish in the vivifying waters ofcreation. Bagalamukhi, the stifling Shakti, the stillingforce is behind Kurmavatara, the Divine Tortoise that liesstill and motionless withdrawing all its limbs into itself.The word that has been cast out, the Vaikhari Vak, isMatangi ; known as ucchina eantlali. She is the force,the Tantra says, behind the Avatara of Buddha, theEnlightened One who had to come out of the traditionalbeliefs to express and articulate the message of Truth. Inthe coming Avatara of Kalki, the harbinger of harmonies,who will traverse the earth on his white steed of strongplenitudes and swift knowledge, the Tantra acclaims the

force of Tripurasundari, the immanent consciousness in allthings in the triple world, who is famed as irividyd theknowledge, as fociadi, the integral discipline with all itssixteen parts, kakis.'

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SADHANA 141

SADHANA

Under each chapter on the different deities of theDasha Mahavidyas, we have already outlined the particularSadhana eminently suitable to acquire the grace of theparticular deity. Here we shall discuss the general waysof Sadhana that are applicable to all the Vidyas.

The Tantra Shastra takes man and the world as theyare and not as they should be. Man is taken up in histotality and all parts of his being are given their dueshare in the Sadhana. Following the Vedic Seers, theTantra considers man as the offspring of Earth andHeaven, matter and spirit. He cannot deny his parentageeither from the one or from the other. Cultivating asense of other-worldliness and pursuing exclusively thethings of the spirit is not what is sought for. The lifehere has to be accepted and the essential Delight derivedfrom the enjoyment of life has to be sensed. Both bhukti,enjoyment and mukti release are the aims of the Sadhana,Therefore in the path, nothing is excluded, nothing isrejected. Man is accepted with all his Tailings and imper-fections and the very things that degrade him are employedto uplift him in the Sadhana. The Tantra has devisedvarious means of worship appropriate to the nature of theaspirant according to his competence adhikara. Itrecognises man firstly as a padu, the inert unregeneratebeing with animal instincts predominant. Worship isprescribed for such a common man and by the dint ofworship itself, he flowers into the rajasie man, full ofvigour and activity, the hero-warrior vira who proceeds onthe path with his undaunted will. By following the means

of worship suited to his competency, the vira evolves intothe divya, the godman who with his satwic maturity andunfailing power facilitates the advent of the gods on earth.

Basing on such a classification, the Tantra has devisedtwo main margas, two paths of discipline to reach thesame goal vama marga and daksina marga. These are thefamous Left-Hand and Right-Hand Paths or more correctlythe Way of Delight and the Way of Knowledge. It willbe quite misleading to discuss the superiority of one margaover the other, as both are devised to suit the differencein competency, adhikari bedha of the Sadhaka. Fromearly times, both the paths have been treated with equalrespect, though later on vama marga has been muchmisunderstood and maligned. This is not a little due to thevotaries of vama marga who have brought the path itselfinto disrepute by not understanding the symbolic meaningand spiritual significance of the external sensory objectswith which they have to conduct the worship. Only avira, a hero-warrior is competent to follow the vama margawhich is described as perilous as riding on a tiger's back,as dangerous as walking on razor's edge. The leastdeviation from the path is enongh to cause the downfallof the Sadhaka. Rightly practised, vama marga leads onefrom the gross to the subtle, making one sense the essentialDelight in all existence.

In certain quarters, it is customary to classify thedeities of the Dasha Mahavidyas into two families, thosebelonging to Kali and the others belonging to Sri, LalitaTripurasundari — kali kulam,s(rikulam. Deities like Chinna-masta, Bagalamukhi and Dhumavati are grouped withKali, while Bhuvaneswari, Matangi, Kamalatmika andthe like are classified with Lalita Tripurasundari. Thisclassification is based on the grouping of similar cosmic

142 THE TEN GREAT COSMIC POWERS SADHANA 143

qualities represented by the deities of the various Vidyas.It is alright so far ; but when it is said that Kalikulam arethe deities of Vama Marga and Srikulam the deities ofDakshina Marga, it is a gross mis-statement. For onething, the path pertains to the Sadhaka and not to theDeity. It is true that Vama Marga is eminently suited tothe worship of Kali ; but nowhere it is said that theTerrible Mother cannot be propitiated by Dakshina Marga.In fact, in the worship of Lalita Tripurasundari, thereare various names mentioned in the Lalita Sahasranamato indicate that the auspicious Mother of Grace can bepropitiated by both the paths. She is vircirddhyd,worshipped by the hero-warrior ; at the same time she isdakfiti-dakFioriidhya, savyapasavya margastha, propiti-ated by both the left-hand and right-hand paths.

Kali is the dark terrible Mother spreading death anddevastation all around. Sundari is the red beautiful Motherof Grace enveloping the whole existence with her mantleof Love and Delight. Both the deities seem to be sodifferent and it seems natural that the Dasha Mahavidyasshould fall into two distinct groups headed by them askiilikulam and drikulam. But if we are able to go beyondthe appearances, the underlying unity in the concept ofboth the deities is quite staggering.

Kali represents the concept of Time, kola, in thecosmic creation. She is worshipped as the Time-Forceand hence her name kat. Sundari too represents theconcept of Time, the aggregate of the sixteen parts, kalas,from the first day to the full moon—pratipanmukhyariiktinta, the days constantly recurring tithi nityiis. Thesetithi nitylis comprise the fifteen-lettered Mantra, paficadadi,the crowning sixteenth letter, foilaii being Sundari herself,famed as mahanitya. Kali is reputed to be mounted on a

corpse, iavörrifthei. Sundari too is seated on the corpse.Only in the case of Sundari, there are five corpses paficapretdsantisinii. In both the cases, the corpse is that ofShiva or of the five forms, Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Isanaand Sadasiva representing the inert static Brahman overwhich the. Divine Dynamis has its play. Kali, in herferocious form of Chandi is famed as the nine Durgas,nava durga and her Mantra as the famous nine-letterednavakfari. Sundari's Mantra too is composed of only ninedistinct letters ka a i la ha sa res. ardhacandra and bindu, 1

and this navakpari is known as meru, the nine trianglesnavakopa comprising the Sri Chakra.

Kali is terrible, no doubt ; but she has her benign formas well. She is the auspicious Bhadrakali. Tripurasundariis all beauty and grace ; but she has her terrible form aswell. She is the terrific Tripura, Tripurabhairavi. In thecosmic set-up Kali denotes Hunger, Death adanfiya mrtyuisthat swallows up everything while Sundari representsDesire, the motive force that takes everything in itssweep.

Thus, there is an essential unity in the concept of

these two great Deities and both the paths of Left-handand Right-hand worship are equally applicable in the caseof all the ten great cosmic goddesses.

1 The Mantra paneadasi can be reduced to these nine letters, by leavingout the letters that are repeated.

SYNTHESIS 145

SYNTHESIS

It is the Supreme Shakti who is spoken of as the tengreat cosmic Powers just in the same way as the vaststretch of space is described as comprising the ten direc-tions. This does not mean that all these Powers are oneand the same. They are quite distinct and different and atthe same time have an underlying unity. The Many are asreal as the One and it is possible to see a synthesis, aunity in diversity. These great cosmic Powers are so manyfacets of the Supreme Shakti presiding over the variouscosmic functions.

If creation has to start, the Supreme TranscendentAbsolute has to assume certain poises, which become thecosmic Powers effectuating the manifestation. Thesepoises are described variously. It may be a stir, a vibrationa sound nada which is the precursor of creation. Thesupreme stir, ready for manifestation, known as pare; yakis the great cosmic Power — Tripura Bhairavi. When thestir develops and perceives the coming creation aspaiyanti yak, it is Tara and when it is actually expressedand articulated as vaikhari via, it is Matangi. Again, ifDesire is the cause of creation, it is Tripura Sundari.The Infinite when it subjects itself to measurement be-comes delimited by position and event, by space asBhuvaneshwari and by Time as Kali. The stupendousForce that precipitates the creation by almost cutting itoff from the creator is Chinnamasta. When all the powersare held in check, it is the force of Bagalamukhi that is increation ; and when all the powers are expressed inmanifestation, it is the play of Kamalatmika. The state

preceding the creation, Non-Being is Dhumavati. Thus,the ten great cosmic Powers are behind the cosmic func-tions.

One can worship Kali and get to understand the roleof Time. Another can adore Sundari and realise thatDesire is the prime mover in the cosmos. Each disciplineis a Brahma Vidya and leads to the ultimate SupremeShakti. It is true that by means of a particular discipline,one realises a particular facet of the Supreme. But therealisation at one point, does not preclude the realisationsat other points. Realisation through one discipline makesthe knowledge of other disciplines easily available and oneis able to have in course of time a global realisation of theTotal Divine.

Whatever is in the macrocosm is as well in themicrocosm. The different planes from where the cosmicfunctions come into play have their correspondence in thebeings that are in creation. For instance, in the humanbeing, there are different planes and parts, quite distinct,at the same time co-ordinating into a harmonious unit ofthe whole being. These planes are governed by consciouscentres and sources of the dynamic powers of the beingwhich act as focal points for the consciousness to operate.These centres, picturesquely known as cakras, wheels ofpower, or padmas, lotuses, ready to unfold are situated inthe subtle body and are arranged in an ascending seriesfrom the lowest physical to the highest mind centre andspiritual centre. Tripura Bhairavi, the Terrible Mother inthe form of the fiery Serpent Kundalini, the coiled upenergy, the pent-up fire of tapas is realised in thebase-centre muladhara. In the centre of larger life-forces,in manipuraka, the realisation of Tara takes place. Thedynamic play of Kali is felt in the heart-centre in anahata,


the seat of all true emotions ; in the back-ground spaceBhuvaneshwari is ever present. In the throat-centre,viiuddhi the centre of expression and vocalisation, Matangireveals herself. In the centre between the eye-brows, inthe Aim, the centre governing will and vision, Chinnamastareigns and in the centre at the summit, in the thousand-petalled lotus, sahasradala padma are realised the Loveand Bliss of Tripurasundari. Thus all the planes of thebeing are governed by the Cosmic Powers. If these powersare held in check, Bagalamukhi is in operation ; and ifthey are in full play, it is the grace of Kamalatmika.When one is oblivious of all these planes and is steeped inSamadhi, one is in the presence of Dhumavati.

" At the beginning of each far-spread planePervading with her power the cosmic sunsShe reigns, inspirer of its multiple worksAnd thinker of the symbol of its scene.Above them all she stands supporting :all,The sole omnipotent Goddess ever-veiledOf whom the world is the inscrutable mask ;The ages are the footfalls of her treadTheir happenings the figure of her thoughtsAnd . all creation is her endless act." 1

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0- Sri Aurobindlo: Sovitri U. 14.

shankaranarayanan - the ten great cosmic powers

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