Hi all, I would like to share something truly heart-breaking with all of you. It may not seem like a spiritual issue at first, but it is to me and it affects me very much. I have a plant and there are many measly bugs (pests that drink the sap of the plant), and I almost sprayed pesticides on to my plant to kill them. But then i stopped and i could no longer bring myself to do that. I don't want to hurt that poor creature and be a murderer. It may be a small thing for most people, but recently i have develop feelings for all creatures (visible creatures at least) hence I never brought myself to do it. But then now I am in the great dilemma of whether saving my plant of murdering the bugs. It had really affected me a lot as i am looking for a solution that will save both! I don't know how to deal with this. Has anyone faced a similar situation before, and how did you handle it ? I remembered Vallalar's teaching of not to murder, and i couldnt bring myself to do it, even if its a tiny bug. please guide me sincerely.

hi all, I have a very technical question to ask. as we are aware during the sri-chakra puja, we invoke the avarana-yoginis one by one, in a certain krama as per the khadgamala. However, we are also aware that all deities reside in the sri-chakra, such as bhadrakali, siddhilakshmi (amnaya nayika) and the 10 mahavidyas (as per the description of ratna-dwipa. Then why are they not invoked in the sri-chakra khadgamala archana ? I was guessing that the yoginis reside within the intersections (i.e. within the triangles, within the petals, in the case of bhu-pura, within the lines), while the deities reside at the intersection of lines, corners of the lines, and the tips of the lotuses to be exact. it could be also that the different combinations of yoginis bring forth all gods and goddesses. I am not sure. please help me. (I sincerely apologise if i had made a distinction between goddesses and yoginis -please forgive me)

Bhairavat, I will tell you that such texts do exist, although perhaps not necessarily describing a step by step method. They teach "easy" methods of realization. I put easy in quotes because it is more complicated than what one might think. They are "easy" in the sense that they are very direct, requiring no rituals, japa, meditation, or anything like that. Liberation is "easy" in that it is really the result of only one thing: knowledge. The numerous practices taught in the scriptures, the teacher, philosophical inquiry; these things are technically only secondary causes that serve the purpose of aiding in the attainment of knowledge. However, at the same time. liberation is very difficult. The fact is that knowledge (technically called pauruṣa jñāna and bauddha jñāna) and liberation is not reducible to a straightforward process that can be attained through following a series of established steps. The Lord's grace operates in a wide variety of ways. Sometimes it is immediate, a sudden intuitive realization that takes place without need of sādhana, a teacher, or scriptures. Sometimes one has this realization simply by interacting with a teacher: through sight, speech, touch, etc. But for the most part, it is a gradual unfolding that makes use of these means of knowledge. Grace is nothing more than the revelation of one's true nature, and it is a purely divine act that operates without any consideration whatsoever of any external factors. It is the Lord's spontaneous will. So, the manner in which it unfolds is unpredictable. You cannot assume that because someone has lots of meritorious karma, is pious or virtuous that they will "receive" grace ("receive" in quotes because ultimately it is only Śiva doing this to Himself), or even to a greater or lesser degree than others because of such factors. I will show you the first verse of one such "easy method" texts, the Vātūlanāthasūtras: mahāsāhasavṛttyā svarūpalābhaḥ: "One's true nature is attained by the dynamism of the Great Audacity." What is meant by the "Great Audacity" is the sudden, spontaneous surge of awakened awareness which is absorption into the supreme reality. The instruction is literally to just... let this happen. Beats spending the rest of your life doing arduous sādhana, right? It is remarkably easy, and yet it is likely to be the most difficult thing you will ever do. If you wish to try your hand at these sorts of texts, I will tell you some of them: Vijñānabhairava Tantra, Vātūlanāthasūtras, Chummāsaṅketaprakāśa, Svabodhodayamañjarī. If you read these, you will find that a lot of what they have to teach seems deceptively simple. No deities, no mantras, no pūjā, no japa. But, if a powerful descent of grace has touched your heart, they will reveal an incredible beauty. I also want to tell you something about the kinds of practices most people are used to. These practices are external, in the sense that they pertain to and are performed with objective realities, which are both "external" (i.e. ritual objects, yantras, mālās, etc.) and "internal" (i.e. pertaining to the mind and yogic body). The supreme reality, which is itself liberation, is not like this. It is beyond the world of transactional objectivity. Knowledge thereof is the cause of liberation. In which case, how could these practices possibly be effective towards that end? The means do not correspond to the subject; you are effectively trying to use a candle to illumine the sun. But that is really only true if to you that's all these practices are: external. The Gama Tantra says: "Yoga (i.e. union/liberating knowledge) does not differ from action and action does not differ from Yoga. The insight that, mounted up through the metaphysical principles, serves to quell the latent impressions in one's mind, is termed action." Here, the specific example of dīkṣā (the purification of the tattvas through dissolving them into the supreme reality) is used, but this really applies to all practices. The purpose of this ritual is to create pauruṣa jñāna, but this is inseparable from the act of dissolving the metaphysical principles. Jñāna and kriyā are never separated. Thus, the practices are, when applied properly, knowledge. The Trikasāra explains what happens when this is not contemplated properly, using the example of mudrās: "The wise man is always marked with the higher modes of mudrās that arise from the body. He alone is the true holder of mudrās; the rest who only maintain certain gross poses of the hands and the body are merely holders of bones." Still, the sort of contemplation which acts through and as these practices is conceptual. But there are two types of conceptual knowledge: vikalpa and vikalpana. Vikalpa is object-oriented awareness, firmly placed in the domain of Māyā. Vikalpana, however, is conceptual knowledge which is established in the pure subject. It is a "pure thought" in which the object of conceptualization (i.e. "this") is established in the higher reality of subjectivity (i.e. "I"). Hence, it is often referred to as the state of awareness in which "I am this and this I am." The practices that you, the egoic personality, have the capacity to do are meant to develop this vikalpana. But, as the supreme reality is beyond ANY type of conceptualization, what do this "pure thought" do? It displaces and obliterates vikalpa, purifying the intellect. The obstacle to liberation in life is the impurity of the intellect in the form of vikalpas. Even if one has received initiation and thus has had the non-conceptual pauruṣa jñāna destroyed via union with Śiva, so long as embodiment persists this is as if absent. It is non-conceptual, which is difficult to perceive when consciousness is firmly established in the activity of the intellect on account of life. Moreover, the intellect is covered in vikalpas which create a woefully incomplete and incorrect picture of absolute reality. The development of vikalpana serves to purify the intellect, making it transparent to the light of pauruṣa jñāna. This is the condition of liberation in life. It is not that conceptualization, even as vikalpana, causes the supreme reality to show itself, for obvious reasons. Rather, it clears the way for its clear perception. But, as I explained, this can only really happen when one understands (either intuitively through practice or through study, or both) that practice is primarily contemplation and acts accordingly. The various common practices have inner meanings, which you can learn about at the end of the Vijñānabhairava, after the enumeration of the 112 practices, and in the Cidvilāsastava. The Mālinīvijayottara Tantra thus states that "right reasoning" (basically synonymous with vikalpana) is THE limb of Yoga. The other limbs are only efficacious to the extent that they serve that end; the same applies with other practices. I can tell you that when I realized this myself, the course of my own practices changed considerably. The Yoginīhṛdayam teaches three modes of worship: 1) supreme, which is more or less just the sort of "easy", spontaneous practice previously explained, 2) lower, which is generic external ritual worship, and 3) middle, which combines the inner with the outer. Interestingly, Bhairava says: "The second one, the worship of the Cakra, is ceaselessly performed by me." Amṛtānandanātha explains that Bhairava is suggesting that, even when done in light of inner contemplation, external worship serves the purpose of reinforcing the vikalpana that there is no real difference between the external and internal, and so the practitioner should not feel ill of it. The immanent and transcendent realities are one and the same. Action is knowledge, remember? The Mahārthamañjarī says quite beautifully: "Like a bird whose feathers on either side are not different, from where does the fiction of the qualification of the yogi as introverted or extroverted arise?" To reiterate, the supreme reality can manifest itself through external practices by penetrating them, as vikalpana or non-discursive knowledge (the latter being the ultimate goal), but the reverse is not true, that is, external realities in and of themselves cannot reveal the supreme reality on their own. This is probably the most practical thing I can give you, but remember that your path is your own. Of the three primary means of knowledge - teacher, scripture, and oneself - it is one's own direct knowledge which is the most important. Knowledge can be attained by means of the teacher and scripture, but ultimately that knowledge rests in you. You are the one who is bound and you are the one who is liberated. Without competence on the practitioner's part, the scriptures and the teacher can accomplish nothing. You have to figure out over the course of your entire life how to make that work for you.

Namaste Dylan, I find myself still having trouble cognizing this unstruck sound in normal waking state. Would it be possible to continue expounding on this matter? perhaps I hope there will be some words that start to make it click for me.

here is my WhatsApp number, best way to reach me: 2487296668. I don’t want to get your hopes up, ishta is elusive and extremely meaningful. I’ll ask you to use two ayanamsa, one traditional Lahiri and one that might be called a hybrid or rectification. Then you’ll have to look at major aspects of these charts, sun sign moon sign ascendant maybe certain yogas etc, along with the karakas (which is where the biggest divergence will be between the two systems), and you would analyze which system seems more fitting to you, and then we can go forward using those respective karakas. So a normal jaimini chart calculator, and the vaultoftheheavens one. In my little experience, I’ve only noticed that one or the other seems to fit people much better, in a clear fashion, while the less fitting one sheds some light on the planetary effects as well. Not to make it too confusing. I am a total novice and this would be fully a learning experience for me. I will make errors but if you are interested, I am honored to try to be of service. Here is the alternative system that sometimes shows great promise and others times seems to miss the mark: https://vaultoftheheavens.com/VOTH_ChartCreator/Welcome.aspx Let’s use prokerala for the traditional lahiri ayanamsa, iirc the degrees are clearly shown, along with the major life and personality indicators: https://www.prokerala.com/astrology/birth-chart/ I must emphasize, this is new ground for me, and it will surely take experimentation and a lot of internal searching form you, before you can be confident in some things. There may be risks to such experiments of sadhana, and I am no guru, and I wouldn’t know what to do if anything goes wrong. My advice would be to try what Tivra has graciously shared, panchakuta Bhairavi vidya. While that is happening, we can try to uncover your ishta as well. That I think would be safest and most effective. The Mahabhairavi practice very well may shine the most light. If you like, send screenshots of those two charts on WhatsApp

Namaste Kartikeyan Generally the syllable count is very important. The mantra has sixteen in the name. In other mantras there will be a space for atma bija that is typically held by om until a guru provides the initiation and special seed. But the syllable count stays constant in these cases. There are some famous mantras people get only the faintest drops of benefit from, or nothing at all, because they try to append om and break the Chandas. Namah Śivaya is the most famous, chandi navakshari is another that comes to mind. I have personally experimented with adding om or hrīm, against guru’s guidance because I was stubborn and very immature. Nothing at all happened, except I wasted many, many hours. Maybe there was a subtle result or something that will carry over to a future birth, but maybe not. I could’ve caused damage as well. It’s a rarely ever a good idea to modify and add or subtract seeds. The power and mystery of the mantra or vidya lies very much within the meter too. Changing the meter means the deity in subtle form is not invoked, or at least that is my impression. This is definitely a question to put to a guru who initiates you.

Namaste Rook, Yes it is just that one, with the recording provided. I found the more i read and re-read Tivra’s posts about it, the more my heart began to feel like it would overflow. This mantra really seems like a perfect one to let permeate the mind throughout each day’s waking journey as well. Let it be the most real thing in each day, and perhaps it will begin to show effects even sooner. As you may have seen in Kapil’s recent comment, Ravi Guruji taught that panchadashi mantra can be recited (always mentally) throughout the day, while keeping the mind predominantly on Lalitambika. I think the case would be the same for Panchakuta Tripura Bhairavi. This vidya really looks like a perfect form for the human being. Will reply to your other post shortly, apologies for delay

To this, I would like to add some things. The energies of the phonemes are pure cognitive consciousness, and as such are the basis for grosser forms of cognition as seen in the mind and language. As a word is formed by the succession of various phonemes, yet remaining whole, so are the various aspects of cognition unified in the pure cognitive consciousness of the varṇādhvan. Put another way, the relationship between the knower, known, and knowledge is grounded in a unitary awareness which grasps them all at once. For this reason, this pure cognitive consciousness appears as the diversity of grosser forms of cognition while remaining essentially pure. The various aspects have no inherent relation to one another; they are in and of themselves split off from each other. However, cognition as it pertains to the knower, known, and knowledge is precisely the relation between these. The object has to rest in the subject, whose defining feature is precisely the perception of the object: “I see this.” An experience, by definition, requires an experiencer. The link is the varṇādhvan, pure cognitive consciousness. Letters/phonemes by themselves have no meaning. Their meanings are established through linguistic convention. Yet, they are the basis of the intelligibility of language. Likewise, the pure cognitive consciousness of the varṇādhvan is not some particular awareness of a particular thing, hence it is “pure”. Yet, it is the basis of subject-object referentiality. It is intuitive, not of the nature of convention. Language is not merely the expressed languages that are spoken by people. It is essentially referentiality. Hence, even babies and animals, who have no knowledge of linguistic convention, are able to form intelligible representations of themselves and their environment. This is varṇādhvan. Moreover, it is because of this that linguistic convention is able to take root. There are two ways in which the meaning of a word (or, in a more general sense, intelligibility of oneself and environment) can be understood: directly and indirectly. Indirectly here means learning the meaning through another word. For instance, one may learn what ‘jar’ means because it is synonymous with ‘pot’. This is how dictionaries work, for instance. However, a problem arises here. If words are only ever learned indirectly, then to understand the meaning of ‘jar’ through ‘pot’, I would have to know what ‘pot’ means through another word, and so on and so forth ad infinitum. The result would be that there is no stable ground of intelligibility, and we would be none the wiser as to the meaning of ‘jar’ in the end. Pure cognitive consciousness is that basis, the a-priori knowledge by means of which we can directly, that is, intuitively, know things, including at the indirect level. Even if one were to say that babies and animals are able to understand themselves and their environment because of their karmic impressions, those too would ultimately have to be grounded somewhere. The various great Goddesses are understood to be the “body of letters”. Kuṇḍalinī is taught to be the of the form of the phonemes, the Womb or Matrix of energies. Speaking of Tripurasundarī, the Nityāṣoḍaśkārṇava says: “I give homage to the Queen of all – the Goddess who is the sacred alphabet of great splendour, and I give homage to the triple worlds beautified by the moonlight of Her syllable. I give homage to Her who is the sacred alphabet and on whose letters the three worlds from Brahmā to the lowest infernal region are threaded as on a great string.” That the three worlds are “beautified” by “Her syllable” is explained by Jayaratha: “She gives life to all things which fall under the categories of knower, known, and knowledge, and who is addicted to the sporting play of the variety of perceivers.” Hence, She is the “Beautiful one of the Three Cities”. She is, in that respect, THE Phoneme. It is said in the Svacchanda Tantra: “The God who resides in the chest of all living beings spontaneously utters the Mantra not uttered by anybody and that none obstructs.” Note here that by “Mantra” here is meant the Unstruck Sound of pure consciousness, not any specific mantra (although mantra japa is aimed at attaining precisely this). Likewise, in Tantrāloka: “There is just one Phoneme, which is Sound, that is undivided in all the letters and common to all of them. It never ceases, and so is Unstruck Sound that arises here.” This is the ajapājapa of Haṁsa, but back to the point. Mantras are composed of phonemes, and the phonemes are of the nature of Śakti. As you can imagine given everything I have already said, this is in fact always the case, whether in ignorance or liberation. However, for one caught up in the bondage of ignorance, this pure cognitive consciousness serves to throw one about in the net of words and meanings, consciousness directed at “another” (yet, ultimately, it is only ever directed at its own nature. How curious!). Kuṇḍalinī, in the form of the vital breath, is thus Mahāmāyā, throwing the bound soul about in the spiraling motions of the left and right channels; the Moon and Sun of the known and knowledge. Some masters even suggest that the pulsation of the inhaled and exhaled breaths – SA and HA – is the Unstruck Sound of consciousness specifically at the level of the bound soul. However, being pierced by the vitality of mantra, one is thus able to turn consciousness back on itself. When the oscillation of the left and right channels are united in the central channel; or, from a cognitive perspective, when the known and knowledge come to rest in the subject, one taps into the underlying potency of Mantra, which is not concerned with objective referents, consciously (not “unconsciously” as in the aforementioned oscillation, which is just another form of the same thing). The Haṁsaparameśvara Tantra says: “Mantras recited in a fettered state of consciousness are nothing more than mere articulated sounds, but those recited in the central channel become all-powerful.” As a result, even the dualistic thought constructs that mantra japa serves to quell are recognized to be ultimately nothing other than this Great Mantra and so cannot bind the practitioner. Hence, all things become (or, more accurately, are understood to be) Mantra for such a one. This is the meaning of the verses from the Ūrmikaulārṇava and Svacchanda Tantras from my previous comment.

Thank you very much Seongsoo and Dylan. You are very kind, but the extent of my ignorance exceeds the measure of your compassion. It seems to me that you only hint at the most important concepts, but do not give direct instructions that one could grasp and use as a support for the mind. If I were a deity, or a realized siddha, I would write a fundamental text of the highest truths, where each shloka would be like a step for ascent to the highest liberation. Perhaps such scriptures exist and I just do not know about them. The texts of Kashmir Shaivism are many sublime and inspiring ideas and what you have written is very consonant with the Trika Teachings. I will reflect on what you have written and most likely will ask more questions in the near future.

thank you dear dylan