Shiva and Shakti

That eternal immutable existence which transcends the turiya and all other states is the unconditioned Absolute, the supreme Brahman or Para-brahman, without Prakriti (nishkala) or Her attributes (nir-guna), which, as being the inner self and knowing subject, can never be the object of cognition, and is to be apprehended only through yoga by the realization of the Self (atmajñana), which It is. For as it is said, "Spirit can alone know Spirit." Being beyond mind, speech, and without name, the Brahman was called "Tat," "That," and then "Tat Sat," "That which is." For the sun, moon, and stars, and all visible things, what are they but a glimpse of light caught from "That" (Tat)?

Brahman is both nishkala and sakala. Kala is Prakriti. The nishkala Brahman or Para-brahman is the Tat, when thought of as without Prakriti (prakriteranya). It is called sakala when with Prakriti. As the substance of Prakriti is the three gunas It is then su-guna, as in the previous state It was nir-guna. Though in the latter state It is thought of as without Shakti, yet (making accommodation to human speech) in It potentially exists Shakti, Its power and the whole universe produced by It. To say, however, that the Shakti exists in the Brahman is but a form of speech, since It and Shakti are, in fact, one, and Shakti is eternal (Anadi-rupa). She is Brahma-rupa and both vi-guna (nir-guna) and sa-guna; the Chaitanya-rupini-Devi, who manifests all bhuta. She is the Ananda-rupini-Devi, by whom the Brahman manifests Itself, and who, to use the words of the Sarada, pervades the universe as does oil the sesamum seed.

In the beginning the Nishkala Brahman alone existed. In the beginning there was the One. It willed and became many. Ahab bahu syam – "may I be many." In such manifestation of Shakti the Brahman is known as the lower (apara) or manifested Brahman, who, as the subject of worship, is meditated upon with attributes. And, in fact, to the mind and sense of the embodied spirit (jiva) the Brahman has body and form. It is embodied in the forms of all Devas and Devils, and in the worshipper himself. Its form is that of the universe, and of all things and beings therein.

As Shruti says: "He saw" (Sa aikshata, aham bahu syam prajayeya). "He thought to Himself may I be many." "Sa aikshaya" was itself a manifestation of Shakti, the Para-mapurva-nirvana shakti, or Brahman as Shakti. From the Brahman, with Shakti (Para-shakti-maya) issued Nada (Shiva-Shakti as the "Word" or "Sound" ), and from Nada, Vindu appeared. Kalicharana in his commentary on the Shatchakra-nirupana says that Shiva and Nirvana Shakti bound by a mayik bond and covering, should be thought of as existing in the form of Parang Vindu.

The Sarada says: Sachchidananda vibhavat sakalat parameshvarat asichchhaktistato nado, nadad vindu-samudbhavah ("From Parameshvara vested with the wealth of sachchidananda and with Prakriti (sakala) issued Shakti; from Shakti came Nada and from Nada was born Vindu" ). The state of subtle body which is known as Kama-kala is the mula of mantra. The term mula-mantratmika, when applied to the Devi, refers to this subtle body of Hers known as the Kama-kala. The Tantra also speaks of three Vindus, namely Shiva-maya, Shakti-maya, and Shiva-shakti-maya.

The Parang-vindu is represented as a circle, the centre of which is the brahma-pada, or place of Brahman, wherein are Prakriti-Purusha, the circumference of which is encircling maya. It is on the crescent of nirvana-kala, the seventeenth, which is again in that of ama-kala, the sixteenth digit (referred to in the text) of the moon-circle (Chandramandala), which circle is situate above the Sun-Circle (Suryyamandala), the Guru and the hangsah, which are in the pericarp of the thousand-petalled lotus (sahasrarapadma). Next to the Vindu is the fiery Bodhini, or Nibodhika (v. post). The Vindu, with the Nirvana-kala, Nibodhika, and Ama-kala, are situated in the lightning-like inverted triangle known as "A, Ka, Tha," and which is so called because at its apex is A; at its right base is Za; and at its left base Tha. It is made up of forty-eight letters (matrika): the sixteen vowels running from A to Ka; sixteen consonants of the ka-varga and other groups running from A to Ka; and the remaining sixteen from Ka to Tha. Inside are the remaining letters (matrika), ha, la(second), and ksha. As the substance of Devi is matrika (matrika-mayi) the triangle represents the "Word" of all that exists. The triangle is itself encircled by the Chandramandala. The Vindu is symbolically described as being like a grain of gram (chanaka), which under its encircling sheath contains a divided seed. This Parang-vindu is Prakriti-Purusha, Shiva-Shakti. It is known as the Shabda-Brahman (the Sound Brahman), or Aparabrahman. A polarization of the two Shiva and Shakti Tattvas then takes place in Parashaktimaya. The Devi becomes Unmukhi. Her face turns towards Shiva. There is an unfolding which bursts the encircling shell of Maya, and creation then takes place by division of Shiva and Shakti or of "Hang" and "Sah." The Sarada says: "The Devataparashaktimaya is again Itself divided, such divisions being known as Vindu, Vaja, and Nada. Vindu is of the nature of Nada or Shiva, and Vaja of Shakti, and Nada has been said to be the relation of these two by those who are versed in all the Agamas." The Sarada says that before the bursting of the shell enclosing the brahma-pada, which, together with its defining circumference, constitute the Shabda-brahman, an indistinct sound arose (avyaktatmaravobhavat). This avyaktanada is both the first and the last state of Nada, according as it is viewed from the standpoint of evolution or involution. For Nada, as Raghava-bhatta says, exists in three states. In Nada are the guna (sattva, rajas, and tamas), which form the substance of Prakriti, which with Shiva It is. When tamo-guna predominates Nada is merely an indistinct or unmanifested (dhvanyat – mako’vykta-nadah) sound in the nature of dhvani. In this state, in which it is a phase of Avyaktanada, it is called Nibodhika, or Bodhini. It is Nada when rajoguna is in the ascendant, when there is a sound in which there is something like a connected or combined disposition of the letters. When the sattva-guna preponderates Nada assumes the form of Vindu. The action of rajas on tamas is to veil. Its own independent action effects an arrangement which is only perfected by the emergence of the essentially manifesting sattvika guna set into play by it. Nada, Vindu, and Nibodhika, and the Shakti, of which they are the specific manifestation, are said to be in the form of Sun, Moon, and Fire respectively. Jñana (spiritual wisdom) is spoken of as fire as it burns up all actions, and the tamoguna is associated with it. For when the effect of cause and effect of action are really known, then action ceases. Ichchha is the Moon. The Moon contains the sixteenth digit, the Ama-kala with its nectar, which neither increases nor decays, and Ichchha, or will, is the eternal precursor of creation. Kriya is like the Sun, for as the Sun by its light makes all things visible, so unless there is action and striving there cannot be realization or manifestation. As the Gita sways: "As one Sun makes manifest all the loka."

The Shabda-Brahman manifests Itself in a triad of energies – knowledge (jñanashakti), will (ichchha-shakti), and action (kriya-shakti), associated with the three gunas of Prakriti, tamas, sattva, and rajas. From the Parang-Vindu, who is both vindvat-maka and kalatma – i.e., Shakti – issued Raudri, Rudra, and his Shakti, whose forms are fire (vahni), and whose activity is knowledge (jñana); Vama, and Vishnu and his Shakti, whose form is the sun, and whose activity is kriya (action): and Jyeshtha and Brahma and his Shakti, whose form is the Moon and whose activity is desire. The Vamakeshvara Tantra says that Tri-pura is threefold, as Brahma, Vishnu, and Isha; and as the energies desire, wisdom, and action, the energy of will when Brahman would create; the energy of wisdom when She reminds Him, saying "Let this be thus" ; and when, thus knowing, He acts, She becomes the energy of action. The Devi is thus Ichchha-shakti-jñana-shakti-kriya-shakti-svaru-pini.

Para-shiva exists as a septenary under the form, firstly, of Shambhu, who is the associate of time (kala-bandhu). From Him issues Sada-shiva, Who pervades and manifests all things, and then come Ishana and the triad, Rudra, Vishnu, and Brahma, each with their respective Shakti (without whom they avail nothing) separately and particularly associated with the gunas, tamas, sattva and rajas. Of these Devas, the last triad, together with Ishana, and Sada-shiva, are the five Shivas who are collectively known as the Maha-preta, whose vija is "Hsauh." Of the Maha-preta, it is said that the last four form the support, and the fifth the seat, of the bed on which the Devi is united with Parama-shiva, in the room of chintamani stone, on the jewelled island clad with clumps of kadamba and heavenly trees set in the ocean of Ambrosia.

Shiva is variously addressed in this work as Shambhu, Sada-shiva, Shankara, Maheshvara, etc., names which indicate particular states, qualities, and manifestations of the One in its descent towards the many; for there are many Rudras. Thus Sada-shiva indicates the predominance of the sattva-guna. His names are many, 1,008 being given in the sixty-ninth chapter of the Shiva Purana, and in the seventeenth chapter of the Anushasana Parvan of the Mahabharata.

Shakti is both maya, that by which the Brahman creating the universe is able to make Itself appear to be different from what It really is, and mula-prakriti, or the unmanifested (avyakta) state of that which, when manifest, is the universe of name and form. It is the primary so called "material cause," consisting of the equipoise of the triad of guna or "qualities" which are sattva (that which manifests) rajas (that which acts), tamas (that which veils and produces inertia). The three gunas represent Nature as the revelation of spirit, Nature as the passage of descent from spirit to matter, or of ascent from matter to spirit, and Nature as the dense veil of spirit. The Devi is thus guna-nidhi ("treasure-house of guna" ). Mula-prakriti is the womb into which Brahman casts the seed from which all things are born. The womb thrills to the movement of the essentially active rajo-guna. The equilibrium of the triad is destroyed, and the guna, now in varied combinations, evolve under the illumination of Shiva (chit), the universe which is ruled by Maheshvara and Maheshvari. The dual principles of Shiva and Shakti, which are in such dual form the product of the polarity manifested in Parashakti-maya, pervade the whole universe, and are present in man in the Svayambhu-Linga of the muladhara and the Devi Kundalini, who, in serpent form, encircles it. The Shabda-Brahman assumes in the body of man the form of the Devi Kundalini, and as such is in all prani (breathing creatures), and in the shape of letters appears in prose and verse. Kundala means coiled. Hence Kundalini, whose form is that of a coiled serpent, means that which is coiled. She is the luminous vital energy (jiva-shakti) which manifests as prana, She sleeps in the muladhara, and has three and a half coils corresponding in number with the three and a half vindus of which the Kubjika Tantra speaks. When after closing the ears the sound of Her hissing is not heard death approaches.

From the first avyakta creation issued the second mahat, with its three guna distinctly manifested. Thence sprung the third creation ahangkara (selfhood), which is of threefold form – vaikarika, or pure sattvika ahangkara; the taijasa, or rajasika ahangkara; and the tamasika, or bhutadika ahangkara. The latter is the origin of the subtle essences (tan-matra) of the Tattvas, ether, air, fire, water, earth, associated with sound, touch, sight, taste and smell, and with the colours – pure transparency, shyama, red, white, and yellow. There is some difference in the schools as to that which each of the three forms produces, but from such threefold form of Ahang-kara issue the indriya ("senses"), and the Devas Dik, Vata, Arka, Prachetas, Vahni, Indra, Upendra, Mitra, and the Ashvins. The vaikarika, taijasa, and bhutadika are the fourth, fifth, and sixth creations, which are known as prakrita, or appertaining to Prakriti. The rest, which are products of these, such as the vegetable world with its upward life current, animals with horizontal life current, and bhuta, preta and the like, whose life current tends downward, constitute the vaikrita creation, the two being known as the kaumara creation.

The Goddess (Devi) is the great Shakti. She is Maya, for of Her the maya which produces the sangsara is. As Lord of Maya She is Mahamaya. Devi is a-vidya (nescience) because She binds and vidya (knowledge) because She liberates and destroys the sangsara. She is Prakriti, and as existing before creation is the Adya (primordial) Shakti. Devi is the vachaka-shakti, the manifestation of chit in Prakriti, and the vachya-shakti, or Chit itself. The Atma should be contemplated as Devi. Shakti or Devi is thus the Brahman revealed in Its mother aspect (shri-mata) as Creatrix and Nourisher of the worlds. Kali says of Herself in Yogini Tantra "Sachchidananda-rupaham brahmaivaham sphurat-prab-ham." So the Devi is described with attributes both of the qualified Brahman; and (since that Brahman is but the manifestation of the Absolute) She is also addressed with epithets, which denote the unconditioned Brahman. She is the great Mother (Ambika) sprung from the sacrificial hearth of the fire of the Grand Consciousness (chit); decked with the Sun and Moon; Lalita, "She who plays"; whose play is world-play; whose eyes playing like fish in the beauteous waters of her Divine face, open and shut with the appearance and disappearance of countless worlds now illuminated by her light now wrapped in her terrible darkness.

The Devi, as Para-brahman, is beyond all form and guna. The forms of the Mother of the Universe are threefold. There is first the Supreme (para) form, of which, as the Vishnu-yamala says, "none know." There is next her subtle (sukshma) form, which consists of mantra. But as the mind cannot easily settle itself upon that which is formless, She appears as the subject of contemplation in Her third, or gross (sthula), or physical form, with hands and feet and the like as celebrated in the Devi-stotra of the Puranas and Tantras. Devi, who as Prakriti is the source of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh-vara, has both male and female forms. But it is in Her female forms that She is chiefly contemplated. For though existing in all things, in a peculiar sense female beings are parts of Her. The Great Mother, who exists in the form of all Tantras and all Yantras, is, as the Lalita says, the "unsullied treasure-house of beauty" ; the Sapphire Devi, whose slender waist, bending beneath the burden of the ripe fruit of her breasts, swells into jewelled hips heavy with the promise of infinite maternities.

As the Mahadevi She exists in all forms as Sarasvati, Lakshmi, Gayatri, Durga, Tripura-sundari, Anna-purna, and all the Devi who are avatara of the Brahman.

Devi, as Sati, Uma, Parvvati, and Gauri, is spouse of Shiva. It was as Sati prior to Daksha’s sacrifice (daksha-yajna) that the Devi manifested Herself to Shiva in the ten celebrated forms known as the dasha-mahavidya referred to in the text – Kali, Bagala, Chhinnamasta, Bhuvaneshvari, Matangini, Shodashi, Dhumavati, Tripura-sundari, Tara, and Bhairavi. When, at the Daksha-yajna She yielded up her life in shame and sorrow at the treatment accorded by her father to Her Husband, Shiva took away the body, and, ever bearing it with Him, remained wholly distraught and spent with grief. To save the world from the forces of evil which arose and grew with the withdrawal of His Divine control, Vishnu with His discus (chakra) cut the dead body of Sati, which Shiva bore, into fifty-one fragments, which fell to earth at the places thereafter known as the fifty-one maha-pitha-sthana (referred to in the text), where Devi, with Her Bhairava, is worshipped under various names.

Besides the forms of the Devi in the brahmanda there is Her subtle form called Kundalini in the body (pindanda). These are but some only of Her endless forms. She is seen as one and as many, as it were, but one moon reflected in countless waters. She exists, too, in all animals and inorganic things, since the universe with all its beauties is, as the Devi Purana says, but a part of Her. All this diversity of form is but the infinite manifestations of the flowering beauty of the One Supreme Life, a doctrine which is nowhere else taught with greater wealth of illustration than in the Shakta Shastras, and Tantras. The great Bharga in the bright Sun and all Devatas, and, indeed, all life and being, are wonderful, and are worshipful, but only as Her manifestations. And he who worships them otherwise is, in the words of the great Devi-bhagavata, "like unto a man who, with the light of a clear lamp in his hands, yet falls into some waterless and terrible well." The highest worship for which the sadhaka is qualified (adhikari) only after external worship and that internal form known as sadhara, is described as niradhara. Therein Pure Intelligence is the Supreme Shakti who is worshipped as the Very Self, the Witness freed of the glamour of the manifold Universe. By one’s own direct experience of Maheshvari as the Self She is with reverence made the object of that worship which leads to liberation.

Guna

It cannot be said that current explanations give a clear understanding of this subject. Yet such is necessary, both as affording one of the chief keys to Indian philosophy and to the principles which govern Sadhana. The term guna is generally translated "quality," a word which is only accepted for default of a better. For it must not be overlooked that the three guna (Sattva, rajas, and tamas), which are of Prakriti, constitute Her very substance. This being so, all Nature which issues from Her, the Maha-karana-svarupa., is called tri-gunatmaka, and is composed of the same guna in different states of relation to one another. The functions of sattva, rajas, and tamas are to reveal, to make active, and to suppress respectively. Rajas is the dynamic, as sattva and tamas are static principles. That is to say, sattva and tamas can neither reveal nor suppress without being first rendered active by rajas. These gunas work by mutual suppression.

The unrevealed Prakriti (avyakta-prakriti) or Devi is the state of stable equilibrium of these three guna. When this state is disturbed the manifested universe appears, in every object of which one or other of the three guna is in the ascendant. Thus in Devas, as in those who approach the divya state, sattva predominates, and rajas and tamas are very much reduced. That is, their independent manifestation is reduced. They are in one sense still there, for where rajas is not independently active it is operating on sattva to suppress tamas, which appears or disappears to the extent to which it is, or is not, subject to suppression by the revealing principle. In the ordinary human jiva, considered as a class, tamas is less reduced than in the case of the Deva, but very much reduced when comparison is made with the animal jiva. Rajas has great independent activity, and sattva is also considerably active. In the animal creation sattva has considerably less activity. Rajas has less independent activity than in man, but is much more active than in the vegetable world. Tamas is greatly less preponderant than in the latter. In the vegetable kingdom tamas is more preponderant than in the case of animals, and both rajas and sattva less so. In the inorganic creation rajas makes tamas active to suppress both sattva and its own independent activity. It will thus be seen that the "upward" or revealing movement from the predominance of tamas to that of sattva represents the spiritual progress of the jivatma.

Again, as between each member of these classes one or other of the three guna may be more or less in the ascendant.

Thus, in one man as compared with another, the sattva guna may predominate, in which case his temperament is sattvik, or, as the Tantra calls it, divyabhava. In another the rajoguna may prevail, and in the third the tamoguna, in which case the individual is described as rajasik, or tamasik, or, to use Tantrik phraseology, he is said to belong to virabhava, or is a pashu respectively. Again the vegetable creation is obviously less tamasik, and more rajasik and sattvik than the mineral, and even amongst these last there may be possibly some which are less tamasik than others.

Etymologically, sattva is derived from "sat," that which is eternally existent. The eternally existent is also chit, pure Intelligence or Spirit, and ananda or Bliss. In a secondary sense, sat is also used to denote the "good." And commonly (though such use obscures the original meaning), the word sattva guna is rendered "good quality." It is, however, "good" in the sense that it is productive of good and happiness. In such case, however, stress is laid rather on a necessary quality or effect (in the ethical sense) of "sat" than upon its original meaning. In the primary sense sat is that which reveals. Nature is a revelation of spirit (sat). Where Nature is such a revelation of spirit there it manifests as sattva guna. It is the shining forth from under the veil of the hidden spiritual substance (sat). And that equality in things which reveals this is sattva guna. So of a pregnant woman it is said that she is antahsattva, or instinct with sattva; she in whom sattva as jiva (whose characteristic guna is sattva) is living in an hidden state.

But Nature not only reveals, but is also a dense covering or veil of spirit, at times so dense that the ignorant fail to discern the spirit which it veils. Where Nature is a veil of spirit there it appears in its quality of tamoguna.

In this case the tamoguna is currently spoken of as representative of inertia, because that is the effect of the nature which veils. This quality, again, when translated into the moral sphere, becomes ignorance, sloth, etc.

In a third sense nature is a bridge between spirit which reveals and matter which veils. Where Nature is a bridge of descent from spirit to matter, or of ascent from matter to spirit, there it manifests itself as rajoguna. This is generally referred to as the quality of activity, and when transferred to the sphere of feeling it shows itself as passion. Each thing in Nature then contains that in which spirit is manifested or reflected as in a mirror or sattvaguna; that by which spirit is covered, as it were, by a veil of darkness or tamoguna, and that which is the vehicle for the descent into matter or the return to spirit or rajoguna. Thus sattva is the light of Nature, as tamas is its shade. Rajas is, as it were, a blended tint oscillating between each of the extremes constituted by the other guna.

The object of Tantrik sadhana is to bring out and make preponderant the sattva guna by the aid of rajas, which operates to make the former guna active. The subtle body (lingasharira) of the jivatma comprises in it buddhi, ahangkara, manas, and the ten senses. This subtle body creates for itself gross bodies suited to the spiritual state of the jivatma. Under the influence of prarabdhda karmma, buddhi becomes tamasik, rajasik, or sattvik. In the first case the jivatma assumes inanimate bodies; in the second, active passionate bodies; and in the third, sattvik bodies of varying degrees of spiritual excellence, ranging from man to the Deva. The gross body is also trigunatmaka. This body conveys impressions to the jivatma through the subtle body and the buddhi in particular. When sattva is made active impressions of happiness result, and when rajas or tamas are active the impressions are those of sorrow and delusion. These impressions are the result of the predominance of these respective guna. The action of rajas on sattva produces happiness, as its own independent activity or operation on tamas produce sorrow and delusion respectively. Where sattva or happiness is predominant, there sorrow and delusion are suppressed. Where rajas or sorrow is predominant, there happiness and delusion are suppressed. And where tamas or delusion predominates there, as in the case of the inorganic world, both happiness and sorrow are suppressed. All objects share these three states in different proportions. There is, however, always in the jivatma an admixture of sorrow with happiness, due to the operation of rajas. For happiness, which is the fruit of righteous acts done to attain happiness, is after all only a vikara. The natural state of the jivatma – that is, the state of its own true nature – is that bliss (ananda) which arises from the pure knowledge of the Self, in which both happiness and sorrow are equally objects of indifference. The worldly enjoyment of a person involves pain to self or others. This is the result of the pursuit of happiness, whether by righteous or unrighteous acts. As spiritual progress is made, the gross body becomes more and more refined. In inanimate bodies karma operates to the production of pure delusion. On the exhaustion of such karma the jivatma assumes animate bodies for the operation of such forms of karma as lead to sorrow and happiness mixed with delusion. In the vegetable world sattva is but little active, with a corresponding lack of discrimination, for discrimination is the effect of sattva in buddhi, and from discrimination arises the recognition of pleasure and pain, conceptions of right and wrong, of the transitory and intransitory, and so forth, which are the fruit of a high degree of discrimination, or of activity of sattva. In the lower animal sattva in buddhi is not sufficiently active to lead to any degree of development of these conceptions. In man, however, the sattva in buddhi is considerably active, and in consequence these conceptions are natural in him. For this reason the human birth is, for spiritual purposes, so important. All men, however, are not capable of forming such conceptions in an equal degree. The degree of activity in an individual’s buddhi depends on his prarabdha karma. However bad such karma may be in any particular case, the individual is yet gifted with that amount of discrimination which, if properly aroused and aided, will enable him to better his spiritual condition by inducing the rajoguna in him to give more and more activity to the sattva guna in his buddhi.

On this account proper guidance and spiritual direction are necessary. A good guru, by reason of his own nature and spiritual attainment and disinterested wisdom, will both mark out for the sishya the path which is proper for him, and aid him to follow it by the infusion of the tejas which is in the Guru himself. Whilst sadhana is, as stated, a process for the stimulation of the sattva guna, it is evident that one form of it is not suitable to all. It must be adapted to the spiritual condition of the sishya, otherwise it will cause injury instead of good. Therefore it is that the adoption of certain forms of sadhana by persons who are not competent (adhikari), may not only be fruitless of any good result, but may even lead to evils which sadhana as a general principle is designed to prevent. Therefore also is it said that it is better to follow one’s own dharma than that, however exalted it be, of another.