Śiva-Śakti, Śrī Vidyā and the path to liberation.

This is the last article that Shri Ravi ji shared with a few of his direct disciples. My personal gratitude to Shri Jayanth Chandramauli for compiling the same and giving me the honour to share with everyone.

One’s spiritual life begins at the end of ritualistic life. Spiritual life culminates in pursuing silence and meditation. No mantra will lead to Liberation, which can only be attained through our mind. But there is a path to Liberation. It begins with religious activities, ritualistic worship and finally ends with meditation. This is a small write up on Liberation.

ALL ABOUT LIBERATION

The most revered, admired, perplexed, incomprehensible and secretive form of the Divine Couple, the confluence of Śiva and Śakti. The universe is created, sustained, dissolved, and re-created by them at their will that is indentured by the law of karma.

Saundarya Laharī (verse 1) says, “Śiva becomes capable of creating the universe, only when united with Śakti, otherwise He is incapable of even a stir (known as spanda).” Śiva is also known as Parabrahman and Śakti as ParāŚakti. Parabrahman is the static energy and is niṣkāma (devoid of desire, disinterested and unselfish) in nature. The nature of Śiva is explained in Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (7), which says, “It is neither consciousness of what is happening within nor the consciousness of what is happening externally. It is not conscious of all objects, and it is not unconscious either. It is beyond perception of any organ, beyond thought and sound. In it there is only consciousness of the Self and there is a total cessation of the world as such. It is the embodiment of peace and all that is good. It is without a second.” This is the typical explanation of the Brahman that is preternatural and interpenetrating.

Śakti is the primordial and latent energy of Śiva that alone manifests as the universe, its sustenance and disintegration and recreation. The consciousness referred by Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad is nothing but the domain of Śakti. That is why it is said that Śakti is the primordial and latent energy of Śiva. She exists along with Śiva and cannot be separated. If Brahman and consciousness are discriminately differentiated out of nescience, the question of creation and existence does not arise. In reality, such differential existence does not prevail. But for easier understanding of the complex issue of creation, Śiva and Śakti have been perceived as two different aspects of the same entity. One cannot segregate the heat produced by the fire from the fire itself. The heat of the fire is primordially present in the fire. Neither fire, not heat can be of any use, unless they subsist together. This is a typical example showcasing Śiva and Śakti, the one without the other remains only inert.

Śiva is Self-illuminating. Without His existence, the universe will be plunged into darkness. Śiva is present in prakāśa (illuminating) form. Prakāśa can be explained as visible, shining, universally noted, brightness, lustre, splendour, etc. Prakāśa also refers to Śiva and the Brahman. Śakti is His vimarśa form. Vimarśa can be explained as reasoning, knowledge, consideration, reflecting etc. Despite Śiva being the grandeur amongst the cognized existences, He cannot realise His own incomparable splendour without something that is able to reflect His grandeur. This is like a human not able to see his own self without an object that is capable of reflecting his image. Śakti acts like a reflecting mirror where Śiva is able to realise His Reality, like a mirror reflecting the image of a person who stands before it. Pure consciousness is Śiva and realising the pure consciousness is Śakti. If Śiva is not present, the consciousness itself does not exist. If Śakti is not present, the presence of consciousness cannot be realised. In the state of prakāśa ‘I’ and ‘This’ stand united and in the vimarśa aspect ‘This’ is separated from ‘I’. Therefore, prakāśa aspect is ‘I + This’ and vimarśa aspect is ‘This’ alone. ‘I’ is the origin of the universe and ‘This’ is the expansion of the universe. Śiva is cit and Śakti is citi. Cit means foundational consciousness and citi means the consciousness that brings about cognitive operations. Śakti segregates I and This. Without Śakti this vital segregation cannot take place. Śiva causes the initial pulsation for creation that is carried forward by Śakti.

Śakti pushes forward the throb created by Śiva through different principles or tattva-s (thirty six) and sustains it through Her māyā or illusion. Māyā is the sole factor that separates a soul from the Brahman. She is the manifested conglutination of Śiva and Śakti and therefore She is both the seed and the sprout. This also drives home the point that for creation, two objects are required. For example, a soul alone cannot be born on its own. It has to come into contact with prakṛti or Nature in order to manifest. Procreation is not possible without conjoining of masculine and feminine energies.

Moving on from the perceptible to subtle, a lot more is said about Their subtle conjugation. They are referred as two bindu-s (dots), white and red, denoting Śiva and Śakti respectively. These two bindu-s, in mutual conjunction expand and contract. When they expand, the creation takes place by means of vāc (word) and artha (lit. meaning). Vāc means the Śabda Brahman and artha means thirty-six tattva-s or principles. These two bindu-s which enter one another are known as Kāma-Kāmeśvarī. Śiva, the Supreme is in the form of the first alphabet of Sanskrit A (अ), is the cause of all sounds of Veda-s. He attains the form of a bindu after having entered His own vimarśa form, Śakti, in whom the entire universe is dissolved. Like prakāśa form of bindu entering the vimarśa form of bindu, vimarśa form of bindu also enters prakāśa form of bindu, which is already within it. As a result of this conjugation, a third bindu called as miśra bindu is born. Miśra means combined. Now there are three bindu-s, white, red and miśra. These three bindu-s form a triangle, red and miśra are below and the white bindu is placed above them causing a perfect triangle. The miśra bindu has all the tattva-s or principles within itself and is the cause for further creation. This is the innermost triangle of Śrī Cakra. When these three dots are connected, the three connecting lines represent all the triads such as three guṇa-s, three stages of consciousness, icchā, jñāna and kriyā Śaktis, etc. This triangle becomes the cause for creation beginning with Brahma, Viṣṇu, and Rudra. These three dots are also referred to as sun (top), moon (right) and fire (left). There is an inverted triangle below the three dots. The three connecting lines of this lower triangle represent three kūṭa-s of Pañcadaśī mantra (nāmā 89). The upper most bindu (of the upper triangle) is the face of Śakti (the third eye, denoting dissolution, the two lower dots represent Her bosoms (representing nourishment or sustenance) and the inverted triangle below mean Her procreative organ (representing creation). This is known as kāmakalā and is considered as the most secretive principle of Śiva-Śakti union.

The explanation provided in Varivasyā Rahasya, the treatise on Pañcadaśī mantra, corroborates with the explanation offered for Kāma Kalā Vilasa, yet another treatise on Śrī vidyā. Varivasyā Rahasya (verses 69 to 72) says, “Śiva and Śakti embrace each other. The Brahman (Śiva) with the desire to create glanced on His other half, His consort and assumed the form of a bindu (referring to male procreative fluids), into which Śakti enters assuming the form of another bindu (representing female procreative fluids). The mixture formed by their aggregation is known as aham or I, the ego.” This is the subtle form of the union of Śiva and Śakti.

One more interpretation is possible for this most secretive nāma of this Sahasranāma. The scene goes like this. Śiva is sitting alone meditating, His usual posture. Śakti enters the place of Śiva. Śiva wakes up. First, Śakti sits next to Śiva. Later on, She moves to His left lap and finally occupies His entire left side, blessing the universe with their Ardhanārīśvarā form causing creation and sustenance. When Śakti moves away from Śiva, He starts His cosmic dance, causing annihilation. Śakti witnesses His cosmic dance (nāma 232 and 571).

Saundarya Laharī (verse 34) says, “I consider your pure frame to be Śiva. Hence the relationship of the principal and the accessory exists in common among you both who as transcendent bliss and consciousness are equipoised.”

This nāma salutes Her undifferentiated form from Śiva, that is inseparable eternally. Their union is also known as Śiva-Śakti sāmarasya, the identity of Consciousness, where identical state prevails in which all differentiation has disappeared. Practically speaking there is no ninth āvaraṇa, which is the Bindu (bindusthāna), as this is within the innermost triangle. Ninth āvaraṇa (navamāvaraṇa) has myriad significances. It is also known as sarvānandamayacakra. Sarvānandamaya means Absolute Bliss, which cannot be explained at all. It is very important to note that Śrī Mahātripurasundarī is the Cakreśvarī of this āvaraṇa. This is because She presides over Bindu, where Śiva is seated. This subtly conveys how meticulously She takes care of Her Consort. Sarvayoni is the Mudrāśakti and Parāparāti-rahasya-yoginī is the Yoginī (Parāparāti-rahasya means extremely secretive). Nobody has access to this Bindu except Parāśakti. All the acts of Divine originate from this Bindu, as only here the Divine procreative union of Śiva and Śakti takes place. The principal acts of Divine are creation or sṛṣṭi (LS 264) (LS refers to Lalitā Sahasranāma), sustenance or sthiti (LS 266) and destruction known as saṁhāra (LS 268). There are other two acts, which are also equally important and they are annihilation (LS 270; this is also known as tirodhāna which means concealment or disappearance) and recreation (LS 273; anugraha or recreation out of compassion). This is explained in Lalitā Sahasranāma LS 905, as Baindavāsanā (baindava means bindu and āsana means seat.) All these five acts originate from this Bindu, go towards the outer triangle and from there various energies are diversified and creation is completed at the entry point of Śrī Nagara. From this entrance point, manifestation of the universe is completed. This procedure is with regard to creative aspect or sṛṣṭikrama. The reverse process is known as saṁhārakrama. At this point, let us understand that sṛṣṭikrama refers to our birth and saṁhārakrama refers to our liberation.

In the ninth āvaraṇa, union of Śiva and Śakti happens. Their union varies according to the krama. If it is sṛṣṭikrama (creation), their union is different and if it is saṁhārakrama, their union is on different plane. Saṁhāra here refers to liberation and now, we are only discussing about liberation. During sṛṣṭikrama, during their union, both of them alone remain. But during saṁhārakrama, we are also present along with Her. It is like a mother holding the hands of her child and handing over the child to the child’s father. During sṛṣṭikrama, She attains the form of Kāmakalā (Lalitā Sahasranāma 322 Kāmakalā rūpā) and their union is symbolized in the form of a Liṅga, where the bottom portion represents Śakti and the upper portion represents Śiva.

At the end of eighth āvaraṇa, we continued to remain in Her lap and we refused even liberation, the ultimate goal of anyone’s life. But She takes pains in explaining to us the importance of liberation. She told us about the pains of birth and death, how we have worked hard in our sādhana (spiritual practice) to reach this level, etc. She also told us that Her Consort will be more compassionate and more lovable to us. Reluctantly we agreed to Her sermons. In any moment from now, we are going to be liberated.

She is now raising up from Her throne (LS 3) and by holding our hands, She enters into the Bindu. Bindu is full of Splendorous Light and in the midst of blinding light we could not see anything around. The place is full of Divine Fragrance. We could not move any further as the Light was so blinding. We have read in Upaniṣad-s, how this Light would be. But we have an opportunity to personally experience this Light now. When She moves towards the Light, the blinding white Light gradually turning red and Śiva is revealed to us, who is fully radiant, in crystal complexion, extraordinary brilliance throughout His body. He cannot be explained at all. The energy from Him is so powerful and we feel as if we are being pushed towards Him. This is what is known as the energy of liberation, which is explained as Mahā-grāsā (LS 752). Kaṭha Upaniṣad (I.ii.25) says “the best among all people are like food to the Self. Death overcomes everyone, yet even death is a mere condiment for the Self.”

Parāśakti is now seated by Śiva’s side. The crystal complexion of Śiva now looks like the colour of the rising moon on a full moon day. We now understand that this is the Bindusthāna, the place from which the universe originates and dissolves. As we have almost lost our consciousness, nothing goes into our minds. We have lost our mind, intellect, consciousness and ego. All the four components of antaḥkaraṇa are already annihilated when we entered the eighth āvaraṇa. At this point where we are now, our body, mind and soul are completely purified. We have read that merger into Brahman cannot take place unless these are purified. What we have read once, we are experiencing now. For any experience, knowledge is very important and without knowledge, spiritual experiences cannot be explained or defined.

She now asks all of us to come near Her and She makes us sit on Her lap again. By sitting on Her lap, we can have close darśan of Śiva. He smiles at us and then He looks at Parāśakti. Now, She begins to move slowly towards Śiva and ultimately, She merges with Him. Now we understand what is really meant by Śiva-śakty-aikya-rūpiṇī (LS 999). We are now inside Śiva and we are liberated, not to be born again!

As far as ninth āvaraṇa is concerned, there is an additional procedure for those who are initiated into Ṣoḍaśī. The mantra for Ṣoḍaśī upāsaka encompasses everything that is possible in this universe. She is worshiped as Prakāśa Vimarśa sāmarasya rūpinī. Prakāśa refers to Śiva, (prakāśa means Light, principle of Self-revelation, by which everything else in the universe is made known) and Vimarśa is Śakti (vimarśa refers to that part of prakāśa, which makes the worldly objects visible, the state of manifestation of the universe) and sāmarasya is the procreative union of Śiva and Śakti (sāmarasya is explained as the identity of Consciousness, in which all differentiation has disappeared).