I wanted to know what is the purpose of the Gayatri mantras for Individual deities ( Pratyaangira, Varahi etc) how are they different from their Mula mantras?. Will chanting the gayatri mantras give the same rewards as mula mantra?. Do these gayatri mantras protect the sadhaka from side effects? Will chanting the gayatri mantras lead us to spiritual growth like mula mantras? do these individual deities gayatri mantra also require purascharana? need your inputs thanks

Namaste Wide awake. "Śara" means all of the individual subjects in the universe. "Bha" can be taken in two ways, but these compliment each other nicely. One is "bhāsa", meaning light. which in this case refers to the supreme reality. The other is "bharaṇa", sustenance. So, Śarabha is the luminous supreme reality which sustains all beings as their ground and essential nature. The reality He represents should thus be clear. Moreover, He is Pakṣirāja whose two wings are Pārvatī and Kālī. Depending on the source, the exact identities of these deities may be different. But in any case, one is more benign and one is more wrathful. This is ancient Kaula symbolism. The benign Goddess represents fullness, creation, and immanence, while the wrathful Goddess represents emptiness, withdrawal and transcendence. Often, the former is represented as having the body of a young woman, while the latter is horribly emaciated. It is said in the Kaulasūtra: "Bhairava is present in the center of the Voluptuous and Emaciated Goddesses." That is to say, the supreme reality is beyond the duality transcendence and immanence even as it manifests them from itself. Therefore, the yogi must situate himself between these two. This was revealed directly to one Niṣkriyānanda by Bhairavī Herself using the imagery of a palm-leaf manuscript with two cover boards: "The exhale with its seven flames is said to be the upper board, and the lower board has the form of the inhale. In reality, I abide as these two flows. These two boards are also taught as the unfolding of the sequences of immanence and transcendence, and as immersion into the activated and and quiescent expansions. Above is the expansive, full-bodied Power, whose nature is unfolding. Below is the one whose body is emaciated, the sovereign Power that devours all. Break open these two boards, and through the power of your awareness behold in the Center the Supernal Void beyond the Great Void, free of the transient and the eternal, contactless, the Supreme Spaciousness, unlocalizable and unsurpassable, transcending all! It is unmanifest yet eternally exists in everything, free of all veils, the supreme end of the process of Creation, Stasis, and Dissolution, the devouring of Time itself—your own inner nature, and the scope of all your activity." For one who has accomplished this, these "flows" are revealed to be nothing more than the unitary resonance of consciousness. Maheśvarānanda says in his Mahārthamañjarī: "Like a bird whose wings on both sides are not different, from where does this fiction arise that the yogi is qualified as introverted or extroverted?" Likewise, Kṣemarāja says in his Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam: "The Goddess, known as the Fourth State, is the ground and unified flow of this process of withdrawal, stasis, and creation; She is constantly pouring forth and reabsorbing the differentiated realities of the threefold process. She remains constantly full and constantly empty, both and neither, vibrating in absolute simultaneity." Moreover, it is said in the Manonuśātarastotra: "Verily, swans spread their wings widely and fly everywhere in the sky. O Swan of the sacred lake, O my mind! Your marvelous flight takes you to the farthest reaches of the sky when you deploy your two allies: 'emptiness' and 'momentum'." Here, "emptiness" means entry into thoughtlessness and "momentum" is the dissolution of thought constructs. With these, the yogi enters into the sky of consciousness. The Kaulasūtras: "Due to the consumption of the three (i.e. the unification of all triads in the oneness of consciousness), the net of the extensive fat of illusion melts away, and the disappearance of the bonds expands as the effulgence of the Heart. Otherwise, there is no flying up from the trap of the poison of illusion." All that being said, how does this relate to Narasiṁha and Aṣṭamukha Gaṇḍabheruṇḍa? It is not entirely clear. In the context of the narratives to which we are referring, it should be kept in mind that Vaiṣṇavism was often considered to be inferior by Śaivas. Often times, Viṣṇu was viewed as a godly being who ruled over a particular domain of worldly reality, and as such was definitely not all-powerful, etc. In the narratives of Śarabha, the trouble caused by Narasiṁha (and sometimes also Varāha) could very well be taken to suggest the vanity of the contracted self, perhaps implicitly emphasizing the state of those who are attached to "lower" spiritual traditions. I think it parallels in a way the narrative of Brahmā and Viṣṇu battling for supremacy, and then when the Jyotirliṅga appears Brahmā rides his sawn up to find the top, while Viṣṇu assumes a boar form to find the bottom. It reminds me of the aforementioned two Goddesses/boards, the oscillation of the two breaths around the central channel. In this analysis, Śarabha subduing him would be enlightenment. With Aṣṭamukha Gaṇḍabheruṇḍa, it becomes even less clear. Depending on the story being told, it is Pratyaṅgirā who stops them. The name Pratyaṅgirā means "response" or "retaliation", referring to Her ability to stop the effects of negative influences. However, it is said in the Jayadrathayāmala that She "devours both the active and quiescent states." The "active and quiescent states" are more or less descriptions of the same oscillation of consciousness I've already talked about. In other words, Pratyaṅgirā is the forceful dissolution of these dualities into the oneness of consciousness. She halts the "black magic" of Māyā. This is explained in the Svabodhasiddhi: "‘I venerate that pure consciousness that has devoured both active and quiescent states, the knife that alone can cut through the heart’s knots of ‘my’ and ‘I’." The supreme reality is essentially beyond them even as it appears as both. It is both and neither, as Kṣemarāja says. Are these Narasiṁha and Śarabha? It is difficult to say.

Namaste Dylan ! Can you differentiate between ashtamukh gandberunda , nrsimhabhairav and sarbeswar ? As to which one represents which tattva and im still confused as to why this episode happened ( clash of gandberunda and sharabha) It may be termed as divine leela but theres always a greater reason . If you could clear this?

Just have a small doubt anyone who has knowledge about this please clarify if I'm wrong ,hadi vidya is like adhara shakti like stability and kadi vidya is like pure force and energy so I think we shouldn't drop into kadi directly without knowing ourself,my doubt is if any one has problems in life and he doesn't know how to come out of it I think it's because he doesn't realise the capability of himself which is indirectly related to hadi vidya like whatever problems he's facing by himself to make right decisions to come out of problems first he should realise himself which is related to hadi vidya indirectly I think the mantra given by tivra will solve this issue ,my only doubt is there is a long talk going these days that mahavidya mantras especially more letter mantras will cause problems spiritually and materially like for example I heard that mantras will cause lose your family members death and make you detached and make you realise then is this really true??will mantras like this also exist even though we are doing at good intention anyone please clarify??please signify the role of mantra chanted by Shiva tivra ji.

Namaste Yasuo. To begin with, I think it is necessary to explain the nature of purification and impurity. What veils the nature of the supreme reality is nothing other than the supreme reality itself. The Trikasāra Tantra says: "Without a doubt, when the Lord creates the world, He covers Himself by Himself, independently of any cause, with many forms of dharma and adharma, form the hells up to Śiva. In this same way, the God of gods covers Himself with His powers, and so both binds and liberates Himself. He Himself is the enjoyer of worldly experience, Himself the knower, He Himself contemplates reality, and He Himself is worldly enjoyment and liberation." Indeed, there is none else that could possibly do so. If Brahman is the sole reality, there is nothing else to which the veil of ignorance could apply itself. Moreover, if Brahman is the sole reality, what else is there that could conduct the veiling of its true nature, and what else could that veiling be but its own power? But one should certainly not make the mistake of thinking that this veiling is absolute in its scope. The light of consciousness illumines all things. Were it to be truly extinguished, not even ignorance would be manifest. Ignorance is thus not a total lack of knowledge, but contracted knowledge wherein the fullness of one's true nature is not discerned, though it is of course always present. Thus, not even ignorance can escape the light of consciousness. As the venerable teacher Kṣemarāja says: "If ignorance is unknown, knowing alone remains. If it is known, then because it is a part of our knowing, knowing alone remains." It is also taught in the Niśāṭana Tantra: "In reality, the soul, which is essentially pure, has no impurity at all. The impurity presumed to be in the soul is said to be due to the impurity of one's own mind. Only stupid people are afflicted by their mistaken notion of Māyā and impurity. O Beloved! What can a speck of dust on a crystal do to it? Impurity is only ignorance. Knowledge is pure by its very nature. He whose consciousness is pure can never be bound. The impurity of the one whose nature is consciousness is like the blue color of the sky." This being so, what is the difference between the saṁsārin and jīvanmukta? The Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā explains: "The liberated soul looks at the 'common' cognizable reality as being undifferentiated from himself, like Maheśvara; the bound soul, on the contrary, looks at it as absolutely differentiated." The actual nature of reality is always the same, but the jīvanmukta discerns this reality, whereas the saṁsārin only sees the forest for the trees, as it were. In liberation, the jīvanmukta is freed from both bondage and liberation on account of the realization that the pure light of consciousness alone exists. The Kaulasūtra says: "Repose in consciousness occurs in the lower and higher conditions of the Great Fear of Death and the Great Wrath when they finally come together in one place." For this reason, the rites of purification do not involve a true change in the nature of something: from impure to pure. Everything is already "pure" in essence because all things are of the nature of consciousness. The Vīrāvali Tantra says: "Nothing is impure. Everything is established in Śiva. Whatever is devoid of that becomes, for that reason, impure." In other words, "impurity" is nothing other than the non-discernment of the fullness of Śiva-nature everywhere. Hence, "purification" is ultimately nothing more than discernment of the already present, but veiled, reality. The act of bathing, for instance, is understood in the following way by Śrīvidyācārya Amṛtānanda (14th century): "Encompassing the ocean of the nectarean essence of nonduality with the shoreline of one's innate awareness is the sacred bathing place. According to this method, immersing oneself in such a tīrtha, which liberates one from the three impurities such as the contraction of consciousness, is the true ritual bath." Likewise, Śrīvidyācārya Śivānanda says: "I perform the ultimate ritual bath in which my entire body is drenched in the drops of essence from the waves of the ocean of pure nectar, the bliss of consciousness." This is what one should contemplate when performing snāna. Nyāsas and the installation of mantras onto ritual objects accomplishes a similar unfolding of awareness. Nyāsa is the divinization of one's body/awareness in the sense that one discerns and recognizes one's innate divinity which is the all-encompassing nature of consciousness which brings about all things as its recognitive apprehension. The objects are likewise purified through the recognition that they are in essence nothing more than that same supreme reality appearing as them. The act of dispelling obstacles, accomplished by first striking the ground with your left heel, then clapping, then casting an upward glance, is explained by Śivānanda: "I clap three times with the beneficial goal of dispelling those obstacles that can be characterized as duality of the worlds beginning with the nether regions." In Śrīvidyā, Jvālāmālinī is invoked and visualized as a wall of fire which protects the sādhaka from obstacles. As the previous verse from the Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā suggests, even if one is in the midst of worldly existence, it is still possible to be situated firmly in one's true nature on account of the realization that the former is in essence nothing but the latter. Such a one remains situated in the fire of consciousness where duality cannot reach him. The Spandakārikā says: "Of the Spanda principle, two states are spoken of: the subject and the object. Of these two, the object is subject to decay, but the subject is imperishable." Hence, even though one is in the midst of the constantly shifting reality of worldly life, one does not fall from his essential nature. The blazing fire of his awakened awareness protects him like a wall of flames. The Spandakārikā: "Since the individual is in actual fact identical with the whole universe, inasmuch as all entities arise from him, and because of his identity with all subjects, there is nothing which is not Śiva, whether in word, object or thought."

If possible tivra ji can you also say how it differs from tirumoolars 51 letter mantra and navakkari mantra from your experiences the mantra which combines hadi and turiyambas shakti.

thank you dylan, i would now like to invite your to expound on what Tantra tells about purification (physical, mental, and soul purification). what are the purification rites/techniques are required? from what i have read and understood, it seems that when veils that hide the Fire of Consciousness can be burned away by that very Fire of Consciousness - i am aware that this is a big topic, but please expound on this kindly. thank you

Namaste Tivra ji can you please share the greatness of this mantra ha sa ka la hreem hasakahala hreem sa kala hreem ha sa ka la hasa ka ha la sa ka la hreem which was given by you ,you said it is father na mah shivaya how does it differ from panchakshari mantra??can this mantra solve all problems in persons life whether it's material or spiritual??please share much more about this, I heard panchakshari mantra experiences from people it also solved also problems in people's live when chanted for a particular amount is this mantra also the same??what is the potency and efficacy of this mantra in present age of kaliyuga I really need your,also people who already chanting the mantra given by tivra ji please share your experiences.

Namaskar tivra and Krishna and many others for this wonderful treasure I have some doubts please clarify. 1.krishna ji in which order should we start from starting to end the order I'm getting confused 13-17b can you please specify the order with deities please in a short form. 2.tivra ji such a wonderful article I could relate this with nabhi vidya by lopamudra where kadi and hadi is combined but there kadi is used first then hadi what's the reason??they were so brilliant to combine kadi and hadi but sadi is not used there why?? 3.since this is kaliyuga spiritual practices must be done more to please god compared to others but other yugas had time but in this yuga lifespan of people is decreasing so it would take procedures for mantras to awaken like doing nyasas and all would take time and other procedures are also there for it to awaken and this yuga since time is very less and people are jumping from mantras to mantras and not sticking on a single mantra it's like throwing stone at a different sides they would not benefit from it for mantras to succeed they should focus on it at a long time without thinking about other mantras my exact doubt is since there is nabhi vidya and this is also there which one to follow doing single thing only takes so much time having mantras power to awaken is little difficult in this yuga but I think grace of mantra will be achieved so its my humble request tivra ji like a single mantra whose concious is already little evolved or already in a spiritual practice for those give some greatest single mantra which you have known so that they can benefit like they should realise their soul also they should come out of their problems whether it's material or physical and it should have a immediate effect for problems because there are already some mantras it definitely gives results but it takes much time suddenly for an upasaka can't rely on it for immediate help if the mantra hasn't shown grace on him so only asking,mantra which is also potent and powerful,you have already given mantra which is chanted by Shiva will it satisfy the needs of people in this yuga?? or there is any other single sri vidya mantra or any mantra which can satisfy these conditions please please provide it's my humble request.

Namaste Prince. Rudraśakti is the empowering vitality of awakened awareness by means of which mantras become efficacious. As this vitality is essentially nothing other than the Self, it can sometimes come about without recourse to a human teacher or formal initiation. This is attested in the Parātrīśikā Tantra: "Whosoever thus knows truly the Seed of the Heart (referring to the mantra of that scripture, but also implying meaning the vitality of mantra as a whole) even if he has not seen the maṇḍala (a reference to the classical ceremony of dīkṣā wherein the guru would draw the tradition's maṇḍala on the ground and show it to the initiate), he enjoys the success of perfection eternally. He is a perfect yogi, he is really initiated." Note that dīkṣā does still technically take place even in this case, because in essence dīkṣā is an inner transformation, not reducible to just a ceremony. And this inner transformation is the unfolding of Self-realization, like the planting of a seed which will grow. If this happens, then it is entirely possible that someone could read a mantra from somewhere and it becomes empowered without recourse to formal initiation. The common dictum that one should not take mantras from books is based on the fact that this doesn't always happen (in fact, it's relatively uncommon). Devoid of their inner vitality, they are nothing more than empty sounds. To be clear, if this DOES happen, it will be obvious - no room for any doubt whatsoever. Human beings are very easily prone to cognitive biases of various sorts, so one should exercise discernment. The Brahmayāmala Tantra also talks about such "uninitiated initiates": "The Goddess said: What should be done if the adept has not achieved success even though he has served his teacher with a mind free of thought and doubts? Bhairava said: He should initiate himself through the progressive development of insight into his own nature, so that mantras may acquire the effulgence of consciousness, by virtue of which he attains the goal." To explain, the knowledge of the Self which is directly intuited is the cause of liberation. Everything else is ancillary to this. It is said in the Kiraṇā Tantra: "Śiva should be known from the teacher, the scripture and oneself." Of these three, oneself is primary precisely because the liberating insight which teacher and scriptures help to cultivate is that of the direct knowledge of the Self. Therefore, even without recourse to the first two, this knowledge and insight can still arise for some. The Lord, enacting His power of grace, assumes the forms of both the disciple and teacher, reflecting on a mundane level the self-referentiality which is His essential nature. The Self of both is one and the same, only it is operating in the guise of the appearance of two entities. The teacher-student relationship is just a form of the same thing as taught in the Parātrīśikā and Brahmayāmala, the difference in this case being that Self-knowledge does not arise of its own accord and so instead operates through this dynamic. Now about free will. The tradition states again and again that the individual subject, consisting of the phsycial body, mind, vital breath, etc., is insentient. That is to say, it has no inherent existence or ability of its own. It is entirely dependent on the light of consciousness. The philosopher Utpaladeva says this in a short treatise called Ajaḍapramātṛsiddhi: "There is no establishment of things in the limited knower consisting of the vital breath, etc. because in such a knower there is a restriction of 'I-hood'. For 'I-hood' is declared to be the repose of awareness in itself. That rest is also said to be agential autonomy, because it is not restricted by dependence on anything, and to be primary agency and Lordship." Conversely, as the Virūpākṣapañcāśikā explains: "You whose 'I-am-ness' refers to the fleshly body can, through mere intention, strike your two insentient arms together. Just so, I, whose 'I-am-ness' refers to the universe can, through the force of that intention, strike together even two mountains." Causality can be divided into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary causality is the activity of consciousness which brings about its result, and this is the ultimate and true cause of everything. As Kṣemarāja says in his Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam: "Awareness, free and independent, is the cause of the performance of everything." Secondary causality is based on the principle of causal necessity and invariable concomitance between cause and effect. In other words, at the level of worldly, transactional existence, the nature of the effect has to correspond to that of its cause. For example, fire produces smoke, but water does not. A potter produces a pot from clay, not a cloth. But secondary causality, which is the scope of the operation of "free will", is ultimately subsumed by the primary causality of the Lord's activity. Put another way, it is said in the Spandakārikā: "That principle should be examined with great care and reverence by which this group of senses, though insentient, acts as a sentient force by itself, and along with the inner group of senses, goes towards objects, takes pleasure in their maintenance, and withdraws into itself, because this natural freedom of it prevails everywhere. The empirical individual cannot drive the goad of desire. But by coming into contact with the power of the Self, he becomes equal to that principle." In other words, what power the individual - or indeed anything at all - possesses is really that derived from the Self. It is said in the Vīrāvali Tantra: "Nothing is impure. Everything is established in Śiva. Whatever is devoid of that becomes, for that reason, impure." The meaning is that all things are enlivened by the light of consciousness. The mistaken perception that this is not so (i.e. duality) is "impurity", that is, saṁsāra. The saṁsārin, believing himself to be nothing more than the body, etc. does not discern primary causality, even though it is still always operative. He mistakenly feels that he (i.e. the body-mind) is the true doer and the fruits of his actions belong to him. This is the sense of what Virūpākṣa was saying. One who is liberated in life, however, does discern this. It should be noted, however, what is meant by "agential autonomy" is not the supernatural empowerment of the psychophysical organism. Abhinavagupta explains: "Śiva's state is that of the perceiving subject. Here that is called the freedom of Śiva's agency. However, this agency is not like that of a potter. That is not the main form of agency, because it is sustained by Śiva's universal agency. Knowing this, one must not adopt the limited notion that 'if I am Śiva, how is it that the universe does not follow my will?' Things would follow one's will if what shone in his awareness were to be Śiva, the Supreme Lord. However, it is not. What shines in the individual's awareness is the body and the like, which is created and so is limited and insentient. Such is Śiva's experience, by virtue of which the body is such as it is, and is created by You, O Śiva. What else could His embodied condition be? Thus, what could be the ground of this objection?"