Namaste Seongsoo. Unlike men, women have yoni (vulva) and liṅga (clitoris). Every Śrīvidyā practitioner knows that the Bindu and the entire Śrīcakra are contained in the Bhūpura (physical body or Sthulaśarīra) and that is why Haṭha Yoga and Kriyā produce the fruits of Śrīvidyā even without the use of mantras. So the body of a woman and a man do generate differences. This has always been hidden from women. Women do not need initiation into any mantra, only the right attitude, because they have yoni (vulva) and liṅga (clitoris). There is also a left-hand practice where you can obtain everything simply by worshiping the vulva and clitoris of a woman as the Divine Mother Herself. The entire Śrīcakra is in the woman’s Yoni, and that which is beyond the Śrīcakra is in the woman’s clitoris. The human body is a mirror of the Śrīcakra, and it has always been hidden from women that they have much more advantage than men in elevating themselves spiritually. In fact, the bodies of women and men were once one fused thing (androgynous); and the separation of these bodies has made things more difficult. For example, if all women decide to worship Chinnamastā, women will soon no longer see any use for men, and there will be no more children and society will die. The potential of women has been hidden since the past because if they discover it, society will end.

Namaste Michael. (I’m going to give an answer from a place of very incomplete knowledge, so please don’t weight any of it too much.$ That is a good question. In the tradition of those books and Vallalar, Arut Perum Jothi (all-gracious infinite light), is the utterly supreme form with Grace Sakti (Aruļ śakti). Everything is part of them and nothing is beyond them. It’s a very specific belief structure, and notably, many of the characteristics of these beings, cognizable as the true and ultimate Divine Mother and Divine Father, are purely supramental, which may be to say, utterly beyond human language and cognition and processing as it is known. So all the ways we try to describe them or grasp them, besides what is revealed in their names, may only ever be scratching the surface of an infinite ocean, until the evolving soul reaches a certain point of evolution, which perhaps frustratingly is largely beyond relatability without direct experience. It may be possible to understand a bit more by becoming like the Grace Sakti and All-gracious Infinite Light are described, in one’s heart and deeds and thoughts. This is a strikingly unique system so much so that it is sometimes hard to relate it to other paths of belief, even the more similar ones.. In the descriptions of Arut Perum Jothi on this site, we can see him being described as so vast and ungraspable, that not only is a Lalita or Guhya Kali (deities sometimes described as primordial to or beyond even the supreme Parabrahman, although this may just be a method of poetic device to reach an inkling about their primacy), just a speck of dust to the feet of Arut Perum Jothi and Grace Sakti, or not even a speck. This is quite something and very different from anything in Vedic or tantric beliefs or their hybrids like Brahmanical Śrī Vidya cults. So regarding Arut Perum Jothi being a form of Nataraja, it seems likely that while Nataraja could be a descriptor, and in that belief system surely Nataraja is a component of Arut Perum Jothi, as would you and me and all the theoretically infinite number of Sivas across the infinite creation be. Interestingly, in the tradition of those books, us humans would have more potential to become like Arut Perum Jothi than any of those component Sivas (unless they earn human births, and tangentially, you may be one of those Siva avatars in this very birth). It’s a very different cosmology and ontology than other Indic beliefs for sure, so it may be especially elusive to perform the usual syncretic theorizing about the various names and titles. I hope this didn’t meander too much. I kept getting phone calls so if it’s non sequitur gibberish, I beg your pardon.

Namaste Raman, I really enjoyed reading what you graciously shared about Devi Atharvaśīrsha. A very fascinating theory that in my experience has more than a few similar theories in other esoteric tantric lineages, and certainly a lot in various modern schools of esotericism than deeply analyzed the nature of human mind and consciousness in that light. It is very good that all sorts of positions are being presented on this wonderful forum for seekers who desire truth and reality more than human traditionalism and biases typically allow. Regarding your question, as you surely know, you’ll get various confident responses coming from various subjective traditions that won’t acknowledge the other theories and positions that differ, instead they will mostly answer you with certainty due to an implicit assumption that we are all on pretty similar same page about reality and cosmology and theories of being and salvation and existence and so and so forth, even though a casual look through the last four years of the comments reveals this is not at all the case, and that the commenters most praised and lauded by the site runners and Ravi Guruji in fact are very heterodox and go against the grain of mainstream textual Hindu all of the time, such as was the case with Tripurghna, Jothi Agaval, and Tivra. So I am just cautioning my friend, something you already surely know, which is to not to bestow anything you hear here which speaks in absolutes with too much value. You are clearly an adept and effective seeker with a properly opened mind, so keep on this path of asking good meaningful questions, and save the responses you get from many varied sources as data to accompany your praxis and the utterly essential experiential realizations that go with understanding reality more holistically or deeply. Regarding your question, my two cents would be, it may be the case that mantras are naturally more active or already awakened for women due to their natures. This would plausibly relate to the many superstitious restrictions placed on women, which rapidly took on tones of purity and impurity and sexism, but may initially have come from a sense of care about the very substantial innate and cyclically ebbing and flowing power of women. Such stuff also found in an inverted fashion, where by certain kaulic and tantric cults will have women engraving and activating their yantras at the exact opposite of the periods main stream temples request they not enter. Not to get too diverted, but I was thinking that the importance of an initiating guru with proper wisdom and knowledge may be just as high for women even with what Tivra said, or perhaps especially. Because if one is indeed an embodiment of Shakti in the way he describes, then wouldn’t it make sense to pay special care to not hazard causing harm or generating karmic trouble from mishandled power?

Hello Everyone ! I just have a short question, or better a request on clarification of a few things regarding: "Arut Perum Jothi" and his Wife "Grace Shakti" So, if i understand that right, in the book: "Arut Perum Jothi and Deathless Body vol.1" Arut Perum Jothi is a very, very high form of Shiva (even much higher than Parashiva), then in the book the Name of "Cosmic Dancer Nataraja" appears...so is "Lord Arut Perum Jothi" Lord Siva in the Form of "Lord Nataraja" ? Or is this something completely different ? Also, is there any more Information on Grace Shakti ?? Is there any prayer, mantra, yantra....anything ? (and for "Lord Arut Perum Jothi" too...any way to approch him ?) Thank you very much for your very precious time ! Sincerely, Michael

Ladies must of course receive initiation just like anyone else. Just being born in a female body does not exempt them from the need for a Guru. Smt. Rajamma Suryanaryanan for example, she was a great Upasika of Sri Vidya under the Guhananda Mandali and was a master in knowledge of all forms of Agamas and shastras. Though being a woman, she still had to receive initiation by Sri Chidanandanatha according to the Krama of Sri Kula and was taught accordingly. There are others too in history like the Mahasiddhas Kanakhala and Mekhala, sisters who first had to receive initiation from Kanhanatha. Lakshminkara, and many others as well.

Is David Frawley also an author? That name sounds very familiar. I’m in US midwestern US most of the time. Regarding the mantra, which I pursued somewhat recklessly, it coincided with abrupt changes and shift in my life’s trajectory. Work, health, education, living situation, travel, home life. All Had jolts and moments of tension, but within a few weeks to a few Months, everything straightened out for the better and I was in a much better place by time I had done 1 lakh of japa. It could all be correlation and no causation. My personal feeling is that I got lucky that nothing went really wrong. When I finally found a guru to initiate, he analyzed my details and recommended instead Shri vidya path and I began with Bala etc. These mantras, aligned properly with my karakas although I as not aware of that system or jataka tantra at the time. But the harmonious sadhana using one’s karakas (which is elaborated upon in some good detail in the past 4-8 weeks of comments here). Tangentially regarding self-initiation that I attempted, opinions vary a great deal on its efficacy but surely it is better to find a human guru. There are more than a few guides from lamas of Dzogchen and Mahamudra, as well as tantric Hindu exegisis, which emphasize that in this yuga where time is short, their are alternate ways to work with the power of mantras due to necessity and other reasons, one of the more famous guides of the pracites of Vajrakilaya (often regarded as the tantric Buddhist , counterpart of Kartikeya), all the mantras are given with very detailed instructions of meaning and visualization and human psychology, and this is strongly emphasized by the lamas being this text as sufficient for initiation and access to the current of the mantra in this time. However, that is a very controversial statement, even when given hundreds of pages of enlightened commentary and mesdiative steps. For this Rahu mantra, there’s just one short guide that I am aware of, iirc upasana parijata, and it is not readily available in English or even Hindi (maybe Hindi, I’ve only seen a Telegu version). My point is, while I think self initiation can be possible, and there also a strong motivation for millennia of gurus to emphasize their necessity, it is also typically much more viable and effective to seek an authentic human guru. If you choose to attempt the self initiation procedure found on this website, coming from experience trying it several times with the Rahu mantra until I felt something, besides the given instructions, I would recommend doing as much japa before dakshinamurthy as you can stand during the 13th tithi, if you can find a properly installed vigraha or enlivened yantra it’s much better too. Mainly the intention has to be clear, so whatever it takes to harness the will with clarity and a present, quieted mind (for me it’s ice baths then wim hof breathing before beginning a ritual or japa, and sometimes fasting and sprint drills / HIIT to exhaustion and something like a mild runner’s high), take all steps you can to achieve that. This I think is especially true if you’re trying to connect to some current or update your energetic body / subtle body by starting from scratch without a human intercessor Who already holds the current through extensive practice and typically a lineage. More than anything regarding effectiveness of this mantra for you, I think the only way besides finding a genuine guru, is to examine your birth chart, specifically with jaimini system to find the karakas of your cakras. I would suggest trying this option, as there a several variations in chart calculations that usually lead to a same or similar place, except for a few things such as karakas, which involve properly finding the degrees of each plant in its respective house. Being born in a northern latitude, I would even more strongly recommend this chart calculator: https://vaultoftheheavens.com/VOTH_ChartCreator/Welcome.aspx

Dear Dylan, I would like to pose a question on the works of Thiruvarutprakasa Vallalar Chidambaram Ramalingam Peruman. It was said that the Great Lord Arut-Perum Jothi is always ready to bestow the three immortal bodies to a person given that they have matured their body and soul. Please elaborate on why is this? How do we go from unprepared bodies and souls to matured bodies and souls which are capable of receiving the Lord's Grace ? Given that our lifetimes are relatively short, what happens when we achieve partial grace (such as receiving 1 or 2 immortal bodies instead of the complete 3)? Again given that our lives are short, what happens when we are in practices of Suddha-Sanmarga and we die before receiving any body ? Please guide me Dylan and everyone.

sid. No one (human) has perfected these Mantras to this day. And those spiritual beings who have perfected these Mantras have little power over this Material Universe. If a Guru has ever said who has the Siddhi of these Mantras, it is a lie. These Mantras lose strength in the Material Universe because gross matter is something more advanced and stronger than these Mantras. Kali Yuga has also ended a long time ago. There are no more Yuga systems here because this Universe is currently uncontrollable. If these Mantras worked here, the Gurus would have already put order on this planet and dominated everything. No human to this day has been able to see what happens when this Mantra is perfected by a soul in a physical body - because it is possible, at least for now. In my comment on another post, I said that this Material Universe is like a "car without a driver" because no one can control this Material Universe, only influence it in a timid way - even the Gods. I challenge any Guru to try to command this simple Planet through Mantras to see if he can. Even the Supramental beings cannot rule over this for now (in the future they will). Why do you think Vallalar had to dissolve his body to enter all the bodies and try to bring more people to the light? It is because only a large number of supramentally realized human beings can rule over this Material Universe. I challenge any Guru to rule over just this small one through Tantras or other scriptures. People have not understood that no one can control this Material Universe at present, even the Gods; they only generate some small influence as "invisible hands". I have explained in another post about this. Humanity as a whole needs to unite in the right direction.

Namaste Raman. The Self is one and the same in all. In that respect, no one possesses any inherent competence over anyone else for spiritual practice and knowledge. Maheśvarānanda says in his Mahārthamañjarī: "Regarding the one who is known even to the ignorant and to water-carriers, to whom alone homage is given, the Lord of the energies, who would not consider His existence to be obvious?" This is a more philosophical statement, namely, that the Self is one and the same to all and always present to all. It is the fundamental ground of all that exists and is itself all things. A similar sentiment is found in the Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā: "What intelligent being could ever deny or establish the cognizer and agent, the Self, Maheśvara, established from the beginning?" The point is that consciousness as such is self-established. Being aware necessitates awareness of awareness; you know that you know. There is always a self-referentiality to awareness, which means that it requires nothing else to make itself known, like a lamp which produces is own light and is thus visible of its own accord. Even awareness of objectivity requires a locus of subjective self-referentiality: "I know this". Experience necessarily requires an experiencer. To attempt to establish or debunk one's own self-awareness is contradictory because the very fact of attempting to know anything establishes said awareness by implication. This is explained in Tantrāloka in a somewhat amusing way: "It happens in this way to everyone whose capricious nature is to deny everything, namely that he experiences that: 'this negation of knowledge, oneself and the object manifests to me.'" Literally everything that exists in any perceivable or conceivable way is predicated on this a-priori knowledge. From this, Maheśvarānanda makes a point which relates to your question: "Some think that the ineffable Self is defined through distinctness; for those who thus turn away from the Self, let there remain in them the error of separating those who are 'privileged' from those who are not." In other words, considering some people to be more worthy than others is only admissible in the logic of dualism (i.e. the Self's "distinctness"). However, for the reason previously established, the unitary Self of all is accessible to all. Indeed, it is everyone's true nature to begin with from which they are never truly divorced. It is taught in the Yoginīhṛdayam: "Since luminosity is the state of things that are luminous and also that of those that are dark, there is therefore a necessary and essential connection between the universe and the highest reality." What is meant by "luminosity" here is knowledge, which has already been explained. It is the source and nature of what is luminous and what is dark, that is, being and non-being; existence and non-existence. What is suggested here is that there is no such thing as total ignorance, a total lack of knowledge. Bondage in the form of ignorance (e.g. "I am finite", "I am separate and what I perceive is division", "I am the doer of meritorious and demeritorious actions") is itself a sort of knowledge, just one that is imperfect and contracted. Were it not so, it would simply be nothing at all. Non-existence is, for this reason, existent. Take a dream, for instance. We say that dreams are unreal in reference to waking life. However, the dream as an object of awareness in and of itself is quite real. Otherwise, we would not even be able to speak of such a thing of which we have no experience whatsoever. This is what the Yoginīhṛdayam means when it says darkness has the state of luminosity. Or, to put it another way, the Śivadṛṣṭi says: "Those perceptions that could be conceived of as erroneous cognitions are found to be capable of manifestation in consciousness. That constitutes reality; and that reality in turn is the Śiva-nature that exists even in these 'erroneous' perceptions... Objection: How can a distinction exist that is based on erroneousness, etc.? Reply: That type of distinction serves mundane activity, and it is not the case, by contrast, that reality is not found in mundane activity." I bring all of this up to point out that the supreme reality is always and everywhere self-established, and for that very reason is in essence always accessible to all. However, not everyone ends up doing so, obviously. Even among those who try, it does not always come about, and it comes about easier for some than others. This is the result of Śiva's grace in varying degrees. In the nondual view, "grace" is not something that a distant deity bestows upon a lowly mortal for some particular reason (i.e. good karma, piety, virtue, etc.) Rather, it is Śiva's act of self-revelation. Even though the Self shines eternally, it is not discerned as such due to His act of veiling His own nature to manifest the aforementioned incomplete, contracted experience of reality. Conversely, reversing this process, He performs grace. Given that He alone is the object of His own activity, there cannot be any special requirement on the part of the "individual" for receiving grace. It is the Lord's Will alone; external factors can have no bearing on the spontaneous, blissful activity of the Lord. After all, He is the ash-smeared ascetic who does not abide by worldly norms. And it is precisely this grace which prompts one to develop a sincere interest in spirituality and to seek out a teacher. Dīkṣā is, understood properly, the dissolution of pauruṣa ajñāna, which is, to put it very simply, the state of contracted awareness at the fundamental, non-conceptual level. It is because of this that mantras and other practices become efficacious for the purpose of dissolving the other type of ignorance that prevents direct intuitive knowledge of that which becomes available through initiation. Otherwise, it would be like learning all there is to know about oranges, yet without actually tasting it you would be none the wiser even after all that effort. And that pauruṣa ajñāna is shared by everyone, regardless of any external factors whatsoever. I will say that there is much, much more detail and nuance about all of this, but I hope that the most basic details I have been able to fit in a small comment will help somewhat.

Perhaps a question you may still have is: "Why am I here?" You won't remember this, but you were already perfect before diving into this creation, an atom of light from the Supramental. You won't remember, but it was you who chose to dive into this problematic Creation of Brahma. Why did you do this in the past? Out of Love and Compassion for this fallen Brahma. You couldn't contain yourself because you were pure compassion and love. You dove into this flawed creation to heal it and save this Brahma who had gone mad. Even instrumental beings like Vishnu, Shiva and other Gods dove into this creation to help. This Brahma has no soul and was mad. His first "clones or attendants" had no soul and detestable beings of the worst kind emerged. You and other atoms of the supreme being had to start "incarnating" into these beings that Brahma created, otherwise the situation would get completely out of control with beings of incalculable evil nature. These soulless beings from the beginning of this creation had to be completely destroyed. Brahma’s creation of our Universe did not have souls like yours in the beginning. Everything that is soulless and out of control in this Universe needs to be destroyed quickly. But things were worse than we imagined before we plunged into this creation. The result? We all went mad from the poison of this creation; even the Gods went mad. They all forgot. Almost everyone forgot the original reason we came to this Universe; even the Gods forgot and started playing with each other. There are other Universes that are not physical (not supramental); but this Physical Universe is Supramental, but incomplete; that is why you are involved in it, as a perfect atom of this God who is pure Light, Grace and Compassion infinite. You have come to heal this Universe; that was the original plan. Perhaps your last question is: why doesn’t this Supramental God do something? He has been doing it for a long time; your soul is an atom and a child of this God and you have come to intervene for that purpose; He also already knows that this Universe will be what Brahma planned from the beginning (Supramental), sooner or later - only the route changes, this destiny does not; all the pain involved is as little as possible so that everything goes as planned in the end. Something that he must do soon is grant the fruit of a long time of Sadhana even to those who do not practice it, on a large scale, when the time is right. This God is different; he does not want anything from you; he just wants you to remember why you came here; the rest he gives everything for free; by pure grace, even if you do not deserve it, he opens all your Chakras and elevates your soul to the heights he wants; he just wants you to remember the reason that made you dive into this creation. The other God called Shiva is called "Adiyogi" because he is a God who dived into this Universe and tried to "help" with the best of his abilities, but he ended up poisoned too and this was reflected in the knowledge he transmitted, where he preaches "running away" from this Universe instead of healing it. These Gods do not do this out of malice; they truly think of helping, but they cannot do so satisfactorily; they do not have great power and influence over the physical and gross matter because this is Supramental and above them, even if it is incomplete. But the fact is that you have never been truly hurt because you, as a perfect atom of the Supreme God, remain untouched since the beginning. It is our instruments that cause us pain; a pain that will unfortunately be part of the process. But it was you who chose to immerse yourself in this Universe; perhaps you do not understand the size of the love and compassion that you truly have as an atom of the Supreme God. You cannot measure the size of your true love and why you were moved to come here to this Universe; when you remember the size of your love, this God will give you everything for free, anything. He does not want anything; he does not need anything and he does not think that you should pay for your sins. You need the right attitude to let him forgive all your sins. Because you are equal to him in power and greatness, he can only intervene if you have the right mentality and feeling. The situation is not so easy to intervene in free will because of the greatness of these atoms or souls that have greatness and power like their Father. The quickest intervention depends on the correct mentality of these souls. After everything I have said, you will feel compassion even for the bad ones because you will see that it is not their fault. The worst pain for a soul, which is the atom of the supreme, is having to attack and destroy brothers in order to continue its journey thinking not only about its own well-being, but about the healing of this Universe. This hurts because this evil person came to heal this Universe too, but he forgot. So we have the situation where brothers who came to heal this Universe attack each other. All the people on this planet are atoms of the supreme; there are atoms of the supreme even in animals.