Namaste Dylan. Please can you tell us about Ucchista Ganapati and his Dvicatvarimsatyaksara mantra? How many letters is this mantra? It has been said by Dakshinmurthy that this mantra is equal to the panchadasaksari mantra. Please can you explain how this is so?

dear Dylan, I would like you to explain to us about the correspondence of waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, and turiya in relation to mahakameswari to Maha tripurasundari. Furthermore a peculiar practice of invoking the 5 mahasamatas (Chinna, Bagala, Srividya etc.) to the 5 sheaths. Thank you

Dylan is it possible to share the details and mantra japa vidhi of Maha Nirvana sundari ?

thank you dylan

How many times are we to recite the Pīṭha sthāpanamantra? Just once also or full mala?

Namaste Yasuo. Mantravidyārahasya is not published I don't think. It is cited several times in Sthaneshwar Timalsina's book "Language of Images: Visualization and Meaning in Tantras." He cites its descriptions of multiple deities.

dear Dylan, thank you for your explanation. May I ask, where does one read the mantravidyarahasya? it would be helpful also if you could introduce this work to us.

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?