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Saundarya Lahari

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 27

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

 

VERSE 27

KEY VERSE

REVERSIBLE RITUALISM
ONE-ONE CANCELLATION OF RITUALISTIC ENSEMBLES
THE SUM AS CONCEPTUAL COUNTERPARTS
PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL ADORATION
HOMOGENEITY BETWEEN BRUTE ACTIONS AND THEIR TOTAL
 
 
जपो जल्पः शिल्पं सकलमपि मुद्राविरचना
गतिः प्रादक्षिण्य-क्रमण-मशनाद्या हुति-विधिः ।
प्रणामः संवेशः सुखमखिल-मात्मार्पण-दृशा
सपर्या पर्याय-स्तव भवतु यन्मे विलसितम्
 
 
japo jalpah silpam sakalam apimudraviracana
gatih pradaksinya kramanam asanadyahutivihih
pranamas samvesas sukham akhilam atmarpanadrsa
saparya paryayas tava bhavatu yanme vilasitam
 
Incantations, mutterings, ritual acts, hand-gestures, gait,
Circumambulation, food-offerings, inclination, adoration by lying down;
All such enjoyments, as coming within the scope of self-surrender
And thus synonymous with worship of you: let such be what from me might shine forth.
 
Worship is a form of self-surrender. Such self-surrender yields joy to the person thus surrendering. Thousands of temples in this world, especially those based on ritualistic idolatry in South India, have various forms of ritualistic activities which could all be thought of as belonging to one ensemble of ritualistic actions, in the same way as Wittgenstein would bring all aspects of logical discourse together under one reference, and allude to them as "word games". Sankara wants to find a synonym which will all-inclusively cover the whole range of possible ritualistic actions that an elaborately trained Tantric priest might employ before an idol within the sanctum of a temple, under the inclusive reference of a saparyaparyaya ("synonymous with worship of you").
 
The synonym and antonym could then be cancelled ontologically into the joy of self-surrender, which would then be an absolute value. What shines forth from the supplicant is to be cancelled ontologically against the value-significance emanating from the idolatrous presence within the temple. When subjected to this double process, we get a reversible equation or reaction which is to be imagined as taking place between the idol and the worshipper prostrating before the idol.
 
The items that express self-surrender in one form or another could be as varied as the outward forms of expression of devotion. But if we should put a circle around all of them, amounting to the same joy of self-surrender vis-à-vis the Non-Self value of the idol itself - treating the former as an inclusive ensemble representing an experience of joy in the act of worship - a fully cancellable situation results.
 
The Self is equated with the Non-Self and vice-versa. Sankara refuses to take any notice of the individual gestures, mudras or attitudes, however varied they might be. He, as an Advaitin, is not interested in Tantrism for its own sake. He has his own correct methodology, by which he would find the synonymous counterparts capable of reduction logically, semantically or even mathematically, into terms that could cancel out into the pure value-notion represented by the Absolute. In the light of such a cancellation it is easy to see that the authorship by Sankara of a Tantric text - which has been treated as questionable even by such scholars as Woodroffe and Brown, not to mention later Tantric commentators of this text - does not present any problems to us at all. Sankara is not interested in Tantrism at the expense of Advaita. On the contrary, Tantrism is revalued and restated, as is so clearly evident in this verse, to serve the purpose and heighten the doctrine of pure Advaita Vedanta, for which Sankara has always taken a consistently uncompromising stand.
 
It is because many scholars, both Indian and Western, have failed to see how Sankara's proto-linguistic, non-verbose approach presented here is fully compatible with the more verbose or metalinguistic version of Vedanta found in his Bhasyas (great commentaries), that the whole suspicion about his authorship of these verses has arisen. While all the evidence taken together tends to suggest Sankara as the only possible author, punditry and pedantry at present have conspired to call into question such clear indications as presented in this verse because of their own inability to recognize the same doctrines as those of the Bhasyas, presented here in a proto-linguistic form. The difference between these two forms of expression is ignored by the large majority of pundits even to this day. The available editions of the "Saundarya Lahari" do not succeed even in giving us a bare gist of the sense of these verses, whether for genuine appreciation or at least in the name of academic or artistic dilettantism.
 
We have said that, as far as the authorship of Sankara is concerned, the allusion to dravida sishu (Dravidian child) in Verse 75, leaves no room for vain speculation, except when pseudo-orthodoxy enters into the picture to complicate matters beyond simple recognition. In our comments we have tried to take a simpler view without getting lost in the great forest of words, which Sankara himself takes care to warn us against in his "Vivekacudamani" (Verse 60).
 
When it is stated in Verse 8 that the gods become the legs of the couch of the Devi, there is evidently a challenge staring us in the face. The pictorial representations by Mogul or Rajput schools of painting, printed in the edition by Prof. Norman Brown of Harvard, do recognize that the transformation of the gods into the legs of a cot is meant seriously by Sankara, but to this day no justification of such a transformation has been suggested, at least to the knowledge of the present writer. The latter believes that only through a proto-linguistic structural approach could such a transformation be barely understood. In Verse 27 we can see how Sankara takes care to reduce Tantrism to an equation between two aspects of the Self, exactly as in the case of the mahavakyas (great dicta), which together constitute the keystone of the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta. The purpose of Sankara in this verse is patently clear, and also puts beyond all dispute the question of his authorship, which remains to this day so disputed in the world of punditry and pedantry. This is too precious and valuable a work to be lost to the disrespect of pundits and scholars.
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(Vivekacudamani, Verse 60: "A net of words is a great forest where the fancy wanders; therefore the reality of the Self is to be strenuously learned from the knower of that reality." ED)

 

 

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.

 

Physical and metaphysical adoration are cancelled when treated as one-one ensembles.
 

 

WORD FOR WORD
Japo jalpah - mutterings and incantations
Silpam sakalam api - ritual acts
Mudra viracana - hand gestures
Gatih - gait
Pradakshinya kramanam asana adyahuti vidhih - circumambulation, burnt ritualistic food offerings
Pranamaha samveshaha - inclinations, prostration
Sukham akhilam - all such preferences
Atma arpana drsha - treated as coming within the scope of self-surrender
Saparya paryayaha tava bhavatu - let them be synonymous with worship for You
Yanme vilasitam - what from me might shine forth.
 
Circumambulation (from Latin circum around + ambulātus to walk) is the act of moving around a sacred object or idol.

 

.

 

All of the acts of Puja (ritualistic worship) are here enumerated.
.

.
 
 
Sankara says: "do not treat these as separate items, but as all coming from the Self as a form of self-surrender; let this Puja be brought under the aegis of "Self-Puja"; the whole of this shining thing, let it be related to the Numerator Non-Self".
.

 
.
.
.
This is an equation of Self and Non-Self.
"Let this all be one master-worship".
.

.
 

.
.

 

-
.
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Whatever you do as Karma (action) is to be put together and seen as worship of the Devi.

(The ritualism of the tradition of the Vedas is classified traditionally under Karma Kanda - the domain of action - as opposed to Jnana Kanda - the domain of wisdom, which is Vedanta. ED)


It is an equation between Self and Non-Self.

In the usual temple there are various acts, signs, pujas etc.
Take all of these and treat them as a synonymous of worship. The priest can do as he likes - they have no meaning in themselves.
They must be cancelled with their own Numerator.

 

Put a circle around all the possible rituals of temple worship and equate that totality with its Numerator.

There are various aspects of ritual; they are to be considered as all being the same.
(The Guru speaks about the pundits, they will not see properly because of their vested interest in ritualism.)

There are here listed six or seven actions which a priest will do in an orthodox Devi temple; bells, flowers, camphor etc. are involved.
Treat all of this, circled in its totality, as a Denominator aspect of the noumenal - it means adoration of the Devi.

Do not tell the priest that he is wrong, tell him that you understand it all:
"Of course I believe it all - it is a protolanguage"

 

(In the terminology of Nataraja Guru, the term "protolanguage" is used differently from its usual definition in linguistics: the structural methodology used throughout his works is protolanguage. The Cartesian co-ordinates are protolinguistic in essence; so also are the longitudes and latitudes of maps. Symbols are protolinguistic; signs are metalinguistic. Alphabets belong to metalanguage and geometrical elements such as angles, points, lines or concentric circles can be used protolinguistically. ED)
 

Treat it as one bundle of adoration - mark it down in your account book as adoration of the Devi.

The conventional man will be bothered about the details of the ritual and say "Oh, he left out the fifth motion in the ritual".
- never mind, it just means adoration of the Devi.

All intelligent people can underline this and accept it.

 


Action is a Denominator; cancel it out with the light of intelligence which is the Numerator aspect of the Absolute.

 

Another version:

TRANSLATION
- Incantations, mutterings
- Gesture (acts) and all
- Making of finger signals
- Ambulation (movement)
- Clockwise circumambulation
- Obligatory rituals such as (what has to do with) eating.
(By way of fire-sacrifice offering.)
- Prostrations and lying prone (six (?) limbs offered to the Devi by lying prostrate.)
- Joy, everything (which is experienced in worship)
- Viewed in the context of self-surrender (to the Devi or Non-Self)
- As synonymous to worship ( they have only linguistic status,
and are synonymous to worship)
- To You let this become ("You" means all wise readers)
- That which manifests from me (by way of my behaviour or attitude)


Let all wise men understand this puja, not ridicule the man who
does it: he is trying to adore something.

 

This is the highest point to which culture can attain.
Let it have this meaning and no other, to all wise men.
"That which by itself has shone from me - take it as one total monomark, cancelling out with the Numerator factor."
This all in adoration of the Absolute.

.

Culture cannot go any farther than in this verse.
When examined critically, in the light of Philosophy, this verse still stands.

.
The Devi is saying: "That which has emanated as light out of me - this is the Denominator".
The understanding is the Numerator.


These have been beautifully brought together.
This is also an equation between the Self and the Non-Self. "This dry world of convention is a dead world of Pharisees! Who wants that?"

(This with regard to pundits who interpret these verses conventionally. "I hate that" - the Guru.)

 

"Beware of 1) Those who talk too much. 2) Those who put religious marks all over their bodies. 3) Women who peek out of their saris." - Ramakrishna.

 

Not that he has done this act consciously:
"When I stand in worship of the Absolute, treat my actions as the only language I am capable of using to adore the Absolute".

This verse treats worship as integration of the Self with the Non-Self.
Sankara treats the whole of ritual, puts a circle around it and treats it as the Non-Self of the Devi; as Her counterpart.

.

 

The intention is to establish a link or equation between the Self and the Non-Self - the aim of all prayer.
The equation is reversible and cancellable, leaving only the Absolute.
A man does ritual worship of many kinds, with many actions
- it is all to establish the link between the Self and the Non-Self.

 

 

Another version:

TRANSLATION
- Incantations, mutterings
- Acts of worship and all
- Hand gestures
- Circumambulant ways
- Such as eating, all obligatory ritualistic offering
- Salutation
- Lying down
- Pleasurable experiences
- All
- Under the aspect of self-surrender
- As the equivalent of the worship of You
- Let it be
- Whatsoever emanates from me (shines forth from me)

 

I am an Advaitic philosopher and I treat this list of actions as a whole, as a synonym for self-surrender.

 

The Devi says: "Put a circle around what emanates, then equate that with me";
An equation and a cancellation are involved here.

What I do and what I am are dialectical counterparts to be cancelled out.
Numerator should become Denominator and vice-versa.
They are interchangeable.

-

 

Subject and object are a reversible equation and the object is an ensemble.
("In the universe there is Krishna, in Krishna there is the universe", as the Gita states.)
Also a comparison is made between the micro- and macrocosm.
It resembles Planck's quantum mechanics, also implosion and explosion, entropy and negentropy.
 
 
TO SHOW THIS IN A FILM:
Show the logarithmic relationship between the image in the microscope and in the telescope.
c.f. conversation with Maitreyi and the Hermetic secret.
 
(Maitreyi was a female Vedic philosopher from ancient India. She was the second wife of famous sage and philosopher, Yajnavalkya, the first being Katyaayanee. Maitreyi was well-versed in Vedas and associated scriptures and was called brahmavadini or "an expounder of the Veda" by people of her time. About ten hymns in Rig Veda are accredited to Maitreyi. ED)
 
 
 

(Above are some illustrations of Hermetic mysteries. We must confess that the reference is not clear to us. ED)
 
A conversation between father and son: "I love my father, I love my son."
There is between them a love with a capital L.
Cause and effect become the same.

 

VERSES 26, 27 and 28 are to be taken together.

VERSE 26: Surviving evil by double assertion. He survives without double negation.

VERSE 27: the equation of Self with Non-Self. This is a neutral position or matrix - use the crystal here, to show equalization.

VERSE 28:  double negation - "Not, not" is more affirmative than a mere "Yes".

 
Begin with Verse 27 as in notes on previous page, then go to Verse 28

Double Negation - show a man in a well kicking his feet in the water and saving himself.
Let it be Eros: show the milk ocean churning and the drinking of poison.

 

These are sets or ensembles - see Cantor.
There is one-one correspondence.

Physical and metaphysical adoration are cancelled out, when treated as one-one sets.
There is one-one correspondence between acts of worship and cybernetic language.
Actions concentrate the mind and establish bipolarity between subject and object - achieving homeostasis.

 


Waving lights is a figure-eight = cancellation.
"From me..", "with you.." - cancellation of the Self with the Non-Self.
Ritual is intentionality

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 28

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

 

VERSE 28

THE NOUMENAL STATUS OF SHIVA

THE DIGNITY OF THE FOURTH DIMENSION
RENORMALISATION
 
सुधामप्यास्वाद्य प्रति-भय-जरमृत्यु-हरिणीं
विपद्यन्ते विश्वे विधि-शतमखाद्या दिविषदः ।
करालं यत् क्ष्वेलं कबलितवतः कालकलना
न शम्भोस्तन्मूलं तव जननि ताटङ्क महिमा
 
sudham apy asvadya pratibhaya jaramrtu harinim
vipadyante visve vidhisatamakhadya divisadaha
karalam yat kevalam kabalitavataha kalakalana
na sambhos tanmulam tava janani tatanka mahima
 
Even on partaking of nectar, so potent against fear, old age and death -
They reach their doom, all such gods as Brahma and Indra.
On even swallowing that terrible super-poison, for Shiva, time's functioning is not operative;
The source here being the power of your marital string.
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Time or duration is the central concept on which the status of Shiva is brought into relief as an eternal principle - beyond the reach even of the process of becoming - in his pure personal value, as against other gods who are all subject to nominal factors in a graded epistemological order. Magnetic fields operate on lesser levels with other dimensions than that of high voltage electricity. Shiva's function could become still more absolutist and cancel further vestiges of duality, until immobility and mobility exist together, beyond the taint of the weakness of the human mind to create its own paradoxes. Paradoxes vanish when pure absolutism becomes possible to the human mind, when it becomes as far removed as possible from relativistic and hedonistic considerations of visible or intelligible values. Shiva represents this high point where he reigns eternally supreme, for himself, in himself, by himself and through himself. This is the Advaitic doctrine that is intended to be underlined in this verse with the help of the different functionaries or demiurges, who also belong to the same setup when viewed from a perspective of lesser voltage, as it were, than what applies to Shiva himself.
 
The first two lines take cognizance of Brahma and Indra, the most flagrantly vitalistic demiurges, to whom good nourishing food and tonics are very important to make them continue in vitality and normal health. One can become sleek by drinking meat broth, but the next fever might wash down the drain all the health thus gained. Life has within its core a source of energy which can defy doctors' prescriptions and assert itself in spite of the grave mistakes that doctors may commit. In this sense, we could say that the patient continues to live in spite of the havoc caused by pills or medicines.
 
Nectar is the natural nourishment of the gods, but Shiva is capable of surviving even a super-poison and remaining in a fully operative form, according to his own function, which is a vertical and not a horizontal one. Transporting a lorry-load of building-stones from one place to another is an example of horizontal function, while the electromagnetic transmission of signals from ship to ship is an example of vertical function. The first must be kept up by crude fuel in a combustion engine, while the other belongs to a fourth-dimensional order. Between these two extremes of horizontal and vertical functionings we have to postulate the ordinary Shiva, of the same demiurge status as Indra or Brahma, to understand why the power of the marital string confers the final absolute status on Shiva, who would have evaporated had he only represented his usual function as a fourth-dimensional principle of positive becoming. But, by a process of double negation, operative at the positive limit, he is not only a "mover", but an "unmoved mover", as in the philosophy of Aristotle.
 
It is herein that lies something that counters the exaggeration of ascent by making Shiva again descend from his high world of intelligibles to a more normal position at the core of the total value-situation, represented here by the Devi. Normal food would represent negative entropy; this guarantees the neutralization of too rapid a metabolic process which would, in the case of childbirth for instance, kill the mother. Entropy has to counter negentropy to establish equilibrium, as in thermodynamics. In this sense the entropy of the universe tends to be zero. The total energy of the universe remains a constant according to the law of the conservation of energy. Here physics speaks nearly the same language as this verse. Killing human beings by too rapid a process of change through time is the function of the God of Death, called Kala, personifying Time with a capital letter.
 
Shiva represents a principle or a parameter cutting across the horizontal principle of death. He is beyond the reach of paradox as an "unmoved mover". It is in this sense that time is non-operative in the case of the absolutist Shiva.
 
If becoming is vertically positive, then its opposite, non-becoming, countering its own mobility, is a function having its reference at the negative vertical limit. Such a negative limit is the proper domain of the Goddess, although for normative purposes we could locate her position at the central O Point. Just as Shiva can ascend or descend from his normal position, Parvati can also ascend or descend between the O Point and the Alpha Point. When Shiva and Parvati operate as complementary, compensatory and reciprocal functions, they properly cancel each other out into the value implied in this verse. The power of the marital string, placed on the neck of the Goddess, has reference to its opposite whose source lies in the kind intention of Shiva and has a one-to-one correspondence with it. It represents a potent factor of intelligent function and whether the function is in the head or in the legs is not important. The limits of double negation could be at a level where it could operate most effectively. In respect of the Goddess, the lower limit is more intuitive and more effective than the functions that could be attributed to the head of Shiva. The one-to-one correspondence between the two opposite tendencies has to be respected, whether placed in the neck or in the feet. Duality is abolished where they are correctly cancelled out against each other. Topsy-turvydom, at first confusing to the beginner in structural language, has already been explained under Verse 8. How Shiva swallowed the super-poison is found in the story of the churning of the milk ocean, wherein also the female form of Vishnu, called Mohini, acts as a saving factor. Here, it is the marital string which is the principle of normalization.

 

(Entropy is a rough measure of randomness and disorder, or the absence of pattern in the structuring of a system. Negative entropy, or negentropy, roughly refers to the degree of order or organization within a closed system. ED)
 
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.

 

A woman's negative pull saves Shiva; he needs no nourishment.
(The Devi provides vertical cancellation, rather than horizontal food. ED)

In soap manufacture - the flow of soap is Shiva, cutting of flow into separate bars of soap is the Devi or Shakti.
(In other words, the Devi cuts the vertical flow of Shiva into horizontal slices. ED)
A quantum is formed.
Half-life is the Devi's trick
 

 

WORD FOR WORD
Sudham api asvadya - even on partaking of nectar
Pratibhaya jara amrtyu harinim - so potent against fear, old age and death
Vipadyante- they reach their doom
Visve - all
Vidhi satam akhadya - Brahma, Vishnu and others
Divishadaha - the gods
Karalam yat kshvelam - that fearful poison
Kabalitavataha - even on swallowing
Kala kalana na - time's becoming is not operative
Shambhoho - for Shiva
Tanmulam - the root of which
Tava janani tatanka mahima - (is ) Your marital string
.
The greatness of the Devi's neck-thread (a symbol of marriage - the equivalent of a wedding-ring in European culture.) saves Shiva, even when he drinks poison - even though the gods die, even when drinking only nectar.

Shiva does not die, nor does he die when drinking poison: this is double negation, a negation of a negation.
 
(According to myth, Halāhala is the name of a poison (as per Hindu mythology) created from the sea when Devas (Gods) and Asuras (Demons) churned it (see Samudra manthan) in order to obtain Amrita, the nectar of immortality. Shiva chose to consume the poison and thus drank it. His wife Parvati, alarmed, stopped it in his throat with her hands, thus earning him the name Viṣakaṇṭha (the one who held poison in his throat). ED)

The source of this negation is the Devi, with Her thread, representing ABSOLUTE Negation.
.

 

The sacred thread saves Shiva.
This is double negation of evil by an essentially negative Goddess.
The power is at the Alpha Point.

 

Even after taking nourishing ambrosia, which keeps the gods from old age and fear, they have come near to danger; Indra, Brahma and all - they are subject to destruction - their functions will cease in the alternating creative - destructive phenomenology.

That dangerous poison-like thing - the most dangerous of poisons - is a negative factor.
Shiva takes it, but does not die, for the process of becoming does not cease, even when the peripheral functions are all destroyed.
 
"The force of becoming for him does not cease and for that very reason - because it did not defeat Shiva - You also, because You are the principle of motherhood, which is negative vertical, are not affected by the flow of time which cannot be reversed".

"O Goddess, the strength of Your sacred thread (which means that You are married to Shiva - in other words, You have a vertical relationship with him) is the greatness which allows You to continue, because Shiva cannot be destroyed".

Shiva, here, is seen as the one who swallowed all the poison of the world.
Time's arrow cannot be reversed, even scientists admit.
The vertical is like electricity, the horizontal is like magnetism.
.
Because the Devi is affiliated to Shiva, She has to continue to function as the counterpart of the Numerator.
There is a very, very thin logic regarding the black thread around Her neck.

The point of this verse is this sacred thread around Parvati's neck: a perfect example of complementarity and reciprocity.
 
(Ambivalence - the first level, the actual, Subrahmaniam and Ganesha are ambivalent.
Reciprocity - the second level; Saraswati and Lakshmi.
Complementarity - the third level, the Devi with callosities - she wants to establish the final cancellation with Shiva, here, she is his complementary counterpart.
Cancellation - the fourth level, the final operation - Shiva and Shakti are united.
Parity - refers to the horizontal alone; bilateral symmetry. ED)
.
The strength of the Devi's thread - it cannot be broken - is the greatness which allows Her to continue.
.
Shiva has not died from the poison: and so, since he exists, Parvati must also continue to exist, because Shiva must have his counterpart in the Absolute.
We can also say that Shiva exists because he has his counterpart in the Devi. Each is necessary to the existence of the other.
The sacred thread is that which ties them together.
.
The thread around the Devi's neck is the factor which shows that She is Shiva-Shakti.
In India, this thread is only broken at the death of the husband - but the "strength" of Her thread is such that it is not broken.
The one depends on the other, but the Devi "has" the thread.
 
This verse has its key in the black thread around the Devi's neck.
"That thread links You nominally with Shiva, Your counterpart": this is the most important part of the verse, that is why it is saved until the last line.
.
Even though they take nectar - luxurious numerator food - Brahma, Indra and others are destroyed at the time of dissolution.
Shiva, however, drinks the poison which threatens the universe and has only the blue lines on his neck as a result.
These lines are like the lines of a spectrum.
.
Shiva and Parvati represent the vertical version of the universe, with the lines of Shiva's neck being something like the spectrum contained in the white light.
They are beyond good and evil - like Nietzsche.
Shiva here is not a goody-goody drinking nectar; the poison does not defeat him.
His power does not come alone - it is due to Parvati consenting to wear the sacred thread.
.
The Devi is saying: "At our very core we are one, it is great for You to be a tragic hero, but how could You do it without my support".
He is powerless without the support of the negative side.
Without the "little correction" of the negative side, he is only dancing like a fool.

The author is extolling a principle of the Absolute here - a philosophical truth.
Without transcending good and evil, there is no Absolute.

 

Another version:

TRANSLATION
- Manna (nectar) having been eaten - (Numerator food)
- Countering fear, old age and death by cancellation (these foods of the Vedic gods make them immortal)
- Attain to ultimate (extreme) danger (all of them are subject to the ultimate danger of death)
- All inclusively
- Brahma, Indra and others (only Numerator gods of the bright side)
- The bright ones (You have to distinguish the bright gods - Vedic)
- That which is of tragic portent
- Great poison (so powerful in its death-dealing effect)
- One who has imbibed - (Shiva)
- There is no functioning of (mechanistic) time (not pure time)
- To Shiva (he is not in the process of becoming - he is absolute.)
- Because of this (there is no change in him, no becoming, although he has taken the poison.)
- Therefore, for You, o Mother (potentially, powerful to give birth)
- The greatness of Your sacred thread

"If You do not go to bed and weep over this, then You do not yet
understand this, You are still learning." Guru.
 
Denominator value is the value of the square root of minus-one.
Shiva is here contrasted to all the other gods; they drink nectar and die, while he drinks poison and is immortal.
This is due to the marriage thread worn on the Devi's neck, through which she is related to Shiva.
The bottom half of the vertical axis has a great value.
(This is the negative side represented by the Devi. ED)
 
Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
- Even after partaking of ambrosia (nectar)
- Potent against fear, old age and death
- They reach their (respective) doom (s)
- All
- Brahma, Indra and others (Vidhi, Satamakha)
- Gods (the bright ones of the Vedic heaven)
- That terrible
- Super-poison having swallowed
- Time's becoming is not operative
- For Shiva (Shambho)
- Having that as its source (or basic character) (i.e. the fact that he does not die)
- Yours, o Mother
- The glory of Your marital string

 

Shiva will not die, because there is a delicate, bracket-like relationship with the Devi, at the Alpha Point.
The poison is by double negation absorbed by the body of Shiva.
Shiva has the "no, no" of the negative limit, (neutrons) as well as the "yes, yes" of the positive (electrons).

 

Just as electrons will evaporate without the neutrons, the structure of the universe has the Devi at the negative point and Shiva at the positive point - between these two limits we find the value.

Beauty is the value and it will not disappear.

There must be value in existence, even when everything else is abolished, and that value is beauty.

The negative limit is operative mathematically on the positive limit.
This tatanka (marital-string) is the symbol of an agreement in principle of an absolute relation between husband and wife.
 
(It is a vertical axis, like the Susumna Nadi of Yoga, or the fine filament of the lotus stalk, the Mrinala Tantu - they hold the universe together as the link between Shiva and the Devi. ED)
.
The Devas, the other gods like Brahma and Vishnu, are respectable people who have their tea at four in the afternoon; the hippies are like Shiva, rolling on the ground after taking LSD.
.
The process of becoming does not affect Shiva.
The neutron keeps the electron and the proton from evaporating.
 
(The marital thread keeps Shiva from evaporating upwards into the world of ideas. ED)

Shiva is always ready to abolish himself, but the marriage thread prevents this.
This thread is like Max Planck's "H" - a constant.
 
 
Double negation - "Not, not" is more affirmative than a mere "Yes". Begin with Verse 27 as in the notes above, then go on to Verse 28.
Double Negation - show a man in a well kicking his feet in the water and saving himself. Let it be Eros: show the milk ocean churning and the drinking of poison.
 
(In propositional logic, double negation is the theorem that states that "If a statement is true, then it is not the case that the statement is not true." ED)
Woman's negative pull saves Shiva, he needs no nourishment.
This is like, for example, the manufacture of soap: there is a continuous length of soap on the moving carpet which is cut into individual bars - the flow of soap is Shiva, the cutting is Shakti - a quantum is formed.

Half-life is the Devi's trick.
 
(We are aware that this commentary repeats itself - this subject is so difficult that some repetition is not wasted - even after studying this for 45 years, as is the case with ED.)

The Devi does nothing, the string is a contract respected by Shiva.

The status of Shiva is the thinnest of parameters - other gods have phenomenal status, nourished by negentropy (food).
Shiva is noumenal, he can feed on entropy.
 
(The Editor does not understand this statement. The structure below MAY be correct. ED)
 
 
NECTAR           >< POISON
NEGENTROPY >< ENTROPY
 
(The Editor thinks that the structure below is correct - maybe not.)
 
Shiva transcends the duality between these two.
The light of Shiva shines by double negation, like shining black polished shoes.

Scientists seem to have discovered that time can be reversed.
Shiva can even immobilise a sense of duration.
 
(Our universe appears to have a space-time structure in which all of time is laid-out in a "block universe", i.e., there is no actual "flow" of time, no movement of a "now" point. ED)

The marital string is a contract - like Max Planck's "H" - it keeps the world together
It is the negative side of the parameter.

This is Brahman normalised - sthanam.
Maya is no longer operative - balance is the main teaching of this series of verses.

By "H" or by half-life, nature never allows complete evaporation.
A certain quantum is preserved - a regulating principle of nature.
The fire of doom is on the Numerator, beyond the Devi, it will descend to cancel with the highest Denominator.
 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 29

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

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VERSE 29

 

THE DEVI HAS ALSO A NOUMENAL STATUS, THOUGH SHE IS FEMININE
ASCENDING TO OMEGA DIGNITY
POSITIVE CANCELLATION BY INTENTION ONLY
 
किरीटं वैरिञ्चं परिहर पुरः कैटभभिदः
कठोरे कोठीरे स्कलसि जहि जम्भारि-मकुटम् ।
प्रणम्रेष्वेतेषु प्रसभ-मुपयातस्य भवनं
भवस्यभ्युत्थाने तव परिजनोक्ति-र्विजयते
 
kiritam vairincam parihara kaitabhabhidah
kathore kotire skhahalasi jahi jambhari makutam
pranamresvetesu prasabham upayatasya bhavanam
bhavasya bhyutthane tava parijanoktir vijayate
 
Remove Brahma's crown from before; and of him called Vishnu,
You are going to hurt his hard headgear; bypass Indra's crown
As, inclining in front of you, they remain at that very moment for him on his homecoming,
You are about to rise, such words of your retinue, they do ring supreme..

 

Verses 29 and 30 represent two more normalized versions, before the punctuation between sections of ten verses passes over to another aspect of the Absolute as a significant value. We have to imagine here the same beautiful palace with its groves and gardens and flowering trees on a gem-island; first mentioned in Verse 3, and further developed in Verse 8, with the Goddess sitting in full imperial glory within a Mandala in an architectural motif both circular and square. She sits in the centre, evidently, enthroned in all her absolutist beauty and magnificence. We can put into this same picture all the lesser Shiva agents who belong to her personal retinue, on one side of the total situation. On the other side there are the female attendants who are maidens-in-waiting for the private requirements of the Empress herself. We can also imagine armed guards for her protection, distributed more peripherally within the four walls, or even outside. The central room represents the sacred sanctuary where the Goddess of Beauty presides, commanding the total and complex setup of her retinue. We could imagine the three demiurges, who have figured consistently in many previous verses, in the act of inclining in one of the two alternate manners depicted in Verse 25. The vertical version is the one where the three modalities are transcended. The horizontal version is where their crowns are going to be hurt, as the verticalized phase is likely to be induced at a given moment, when Shiva should be imagined as being sighted by the retainers outside as about to visit the Goddess in all her normal glory. Fanfares, trumpets and kettledrums could all be inserted into the picture as we like, according to personal taste, but the essence of the occasional moment is what is to be intuitively caught and understood here.

 

The first three lines of this verse are to be taken as the words coming from the mouths of the retinue surrounding the Goddess, who are concerned that proper dignity and importance be given to the Devi above all others. It is not the horizontal setup of the Goddess that counts, but the words that ring above the situation as a warning and an important directive, although only intentional in status or import. The words rise above the totality of the important occasional moment to be placed in an eternal present.

 

The three gods wear crowns of different degrees of hardness or objectivity on the side of effects, which is a form of the second degree of objectivity. The conical crown generally has a gem marking its terminal point in the case of each of the gods, whose functions we already know. Vishnu's headgear is the hardest to transcend. Brahma can be asked to take his crown away from where it can come to clash with that of the Devi, who is fully intending to rise but not actually doing so, still anticipating the homecoming of her lord. The headgear of Indra is to be more lightly bypassed because he has only the status of a demiurge among demiurges. He is not an Ishvara, but only a Deva, still steeped in the world of hedonistic values. All these gods can be thought of as bending over the crown of the Devi herself in such a way as to obstruct the vertical path that the Devi's own crown-tip might have to cross vertically in its ascent. It is her verticality that is to be given primacy on this occasion, and the armed guards are in charge of precautions against possible untoward events. The demiurges might intrude their crowns (representing their pride) and obstruct the free passage of the absolute principle as it passes vertically when she rises to receive Shiva, who descends from the heights of his own mental horizon. The verticality attains its maximum when both are fused together into one parameter, touching both the higher and the lower limits on the very occasion or moment of the eternal present wherein absolute beauty is about to triumph in its full glory. Intentionality is here as good as an accomplished fact, so one should not ask whether the Devi actually rose from her seat or not. This is the perfect picture of absolutist occasionalism in which no brute event really takes place.

 

(The demiurge is a concept from the Platonic and Neo-Platonic schools of philosophy for an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. The term was subsequently adopted by the Gnostics. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily thought of as being the same as the creator figure in the familiar monotheistic sense, because both the demiurge itself plus the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are considered either uncreated and eternal, or the product of some other being, depending on the system. ED)

(The Lord or Ishvara is not always identical with the Absolute (Brahman), and very often has only a secondary position. The word derives from the root Ish, which means to control, to govern, to rule, to command, to be master or lord of, etc. Isha means one who controls, governs, etc. Ishvara and Ishvari, in turn, mean the higher controller, higher governor, etc. The word deva derives from the root div which means to shine or to be bright. Deva then mean one who shines, or one who is brilliant, or a being of light. Devas often have a merely relativistic status. ED)

 

 

 

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.

 

In this verse we are in the Eternal Present in which Shiva and Parvati are equally dignified by cancellation in a world of intentionality (he is "about" to come): both their dignities cancel out.
 
WORD FOR WORD
Kiritam vairincam parihara purah - remove Brahma's crown from before
Kaitabha bhidaha - of him who is called Vishnu
Kathore kotire - his hard headgear
Jahi jambhari makutam - bypass Indra's crown
Pranam reshu eteshu - they remain as inclining in front of You
Prasabham - at that moment
Upayatasya bhavanam - for him, just then coming home
Bhavasya abhyuttane - as rising for Shiva's approach
Tava parijanoktihi - the words of Your retinue
Vijayate - they ring supreme.
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A popular print depicting the Devi and Her court.
 

 
 

 
 
.
The attendants, soldiers etc. have different functions. Generally speaking, this verse shows an ascent from the immanent to the transcendent with three possible obstructions from hypostatic gods.
 
("Hypostatic" is obscure to ED. "Hypostatic" would seem to imply that they are on the positive side. Are they? We may just be being stupid. A lot about this verse is still not clear to us after 45 years. ED) )
 
A momentary total situation is revealed.
 
(It should be kept in mind that the three gods represent the creation, preservation and of the horizontal, phenomenal universe. ED)
 
This verse describes the Devi arising from Her seat. Sankara asks Vishnu and Brahma to remove their crowns, because She is "about" to rise on the entry of Shiva.

Why? Because Her crown will strike against the crowns of the rivals: Vishnu and Brahma. (Actually Brahma's is blocking her vision)

"About to rise" : she does not rise, because she is a lady - but she is about to rise out of respect for her husband.
(See:" The Pageant of Indian History" by Gertrude Emerson Sen)
 
 

-

Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
- The crown pertaining to Brahma ("the Lotus-Seated")
- Remove in front (remove that first - "in front" of the Devi, and hiding her glory - and her vision)
- Of (him) who is called Vishnu
- Against the (diamond ) hard crown
- You hurt (Devi is hurting the crown of Vishnu with her own)
- Transcend the crown of Indra (with his erotic preoccupations).
- As these remain in a recumbent posture (the three gods).
- All of a sudden (quickly) (applies to Devi, not Shiva)
- Returning home (Shiva is returning home, in a loin-cloth)
- As You rise in honour of him (suddenly about to rise, these warnings of Your entourage should be heeded)
- The utterings of Your entourage (or attendants)
- Reigns victorious (these warnings are to be heeded)
 
The Devi is about to rise, the attendants say that Brahma should remove his crown because he is obstructing the vision of the Devi or of the entering Shiva; that the crown of Vishnu will be hurt; (by the tenderness of Her feet, She might be hurt; or Her crown, like a hydrogen flame, might melt his crown)
(This is purposely left vague by Sankara, re Vishnu's crown)
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Then one of the female attendants says to the Devi that she had better transcend the crown of Indra.
These three things are said by the attendants.
Brahma is to be removed from below, Vishnu (horizontal) is to be avoided as far as "hurt" is concerned. Indra is to be transcended.

Shiva is returning home and as She is about to rise, the attendants give out certain cautions to avoid disasters.

Victory applies to the Beauty of Devi, who is about to rise; and the less significant values of Brahma, the harsh one of Vishnu and the shoddy erotic values of Indra are all to be dealt with: removed for Brahma, for Vishnu, looked out for and transcended for Indra.
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-

 
You are asked to appreciate a situation in which these instructions are given in order to protect the beauty and dignity of the Devi for the triumph of the Absolute.

Brahma is told to remove his crown, as it is blocking the Devi's view of the front door.

She is warned not to hurt Herself - or the crown of Vishnu; She should avoid the harsh horizontality of Vishnu.

If the Devi has to attain the height of the Absolute, She might rise when Shiva returns.

She should transcend the erotic Indra.

There are three attendants:
1- one who thinks of the frontal view.
2- one who thinks of the value-encrusted view or aspect.
3- one who thinks of transcending Indra (the hypostatic counterpart of water).
 
The Guru finally decided that these warnings of the entourage were general in nature and direction.
It was thus left vague whether the attendants are addressing the three gods, the Devi or neither or both.
Anyway it doesn't matter. The point is that the warnings reign victorious.

Also left vague (purposely?) by Sankara is the question of whether it is Vishnu's crown or the Devi's feet which will be hurt as she rises.
We may assume that both are possible consequences.
 
(Ambiguity is a constant factor in these verses, both or several interpretations may be valid. ED)
 
To the Guru's mind, this verse seems to be a revaluation of the Vedic context - subordinating the pleasure-loving, hedonistic gods to the all-inclusive Absolute.

But not, of course, excluding them; for, as we have already seen, the real puja (worship) is that puja which the gods are perpetually doing to the footstool of the Devi. And in this verse, too, we find the line "as these remain in recumbent posture". ("Inclining in front of you." ED)
 
Here we have occasionalism, general intention, a phenomenological epoché.
A cross-section view must here be taken of the Devi's throne room.
 
(Epoché, Greek -  epokhē,  "suspension") is an ancient Greek term which, in its philosophical usage, describes the theoretical moment where all judgments about the existence of the external world, and consequently all action in the world, is suspended. One's own consciousness is subject to immanent critique so that when such belief is recovered, it will have a firmer grounding in consciousness. ED)

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(The above structural diagram shows the three gods on the numerator, hypostatic side, and thus resolves our quibble in an earlier comment of ours - however we still do not understand WHY they are hypostatic in this verse.  This is despite the fact that the Guru says that " this verse seems to be a revaluation of the Vedic context - subordinating the pleasure-loving, hedonistic gods to the all-inclusive Absolute." ED)
 
The Devi is about to rise in honour of Her husband, who is about to enter.
Brahma, Vishnu and Indra are notified by the Devi's attendants that something great is about to happen.
 
(We must remember that, beneath the imagery of a Goddess in a queenly court etc. , this verse is describing the final cancellation between the positive and negative poles which makes this universe burst into existence and is the essence of the ultimate delight - Saundarya Lahari - the "upsurging billow of ultimate delight" - which is what this poem is all about. The three gods and their subordinate functions of creation etc. are all secondary to this final cancellation. ED)
Remove these three crowns, which are in the way when the Devi wants to rise.
These are three types of holiness which are obstructions to the plus and minus joining together into absolute value.
Absolutism triumphs over the relative values of religion (represented by the three relativistic gods. ED).
 
(Yet again, here we have relativistic ritual Vedism and absolutist vertical Vedanta - Karma Kanda and Jnana Kanda. ED)
 

This is meant as an occasion, with a general intention.
Shiva is here an abstract principle who will descend on a situation.
She is about to rise and She is to avoid coming in contact with the crowns of three Vedic gods.
The attendants warn of three possible accidents:
1- Brahma's crown is obstructing the Devi's vision.
2- She might hurt the hard crown of Vishnu.
3- Surpass the ordinary crown of Indra.
The intention is on the part of the Devi's retinue - soldiers and ladies.
They are anxious and victorious.
When the Devi and Shiva meet, the Absolute triumphs, so it is an important occasion.

Another version:
TRANSLATION
- Brahma's crown (pertaining to)
- Remove (withdraw, clear)
- What is in front
- Of he named Vishnu
- Hard crown
- You hurt (Devi will hurt)
- Transcend the crown of Indra
- As they remain recumbent (in respect of the Absolute)
- At that moment
- Of coming home
- On the arrival of Shiva (bhavasya)
- The sayings of Your retinue
- Reign supreme
Purposely vague is who is standing and who is arriving.
This may be a trick of Sankara : bhavasya. (This is not clear to ED)
"On Your rising" or "on the arrival of Shiva"
This is the world of intentions - like that of the modern phenomenologists.
All the theological gods are swept away; what is left is an epoché, or mental state.
This is an eternal present in which Shiva and Parvati are equally dignified by cancellation in the world of intentionality - he is "about" to come.
Both their dignities cancel out.

The Goddess here is NOT mathematically thin, there is a horizontal content also - soldiers, royal pomp, attendants.

Shiva is coming, She is about to rise.
Brahma, Vishnu etc. are existential gods - hence the hard crowns,
bypassed by verticalisation from the negative side.
This is a moment of intentionality
- the event takes place above the horizontal in the world of concepts.

They are "about" to meet - there is an intention
- this is a vertical participation without carnality.
- Shiva can be Ardhanarisvara (half-male, half female)
- copulation is not necessary, it passes vertically through the whole situation.
 
 
 
A popular print of Ardhanarishwara.
 
 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 30

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

 

VERSE 30

 

A KEY VERSE

 

A REVERSIBLE EQUATION BETWEEN WORSHIPPER AND WORSHIPPED, SUPERCEDING HEDONISM

 

THE REVERSIBILITY OF PSYCHIC DIGNITY
RELATIVISTIC RITUALISM IS TRANSCENDED
VERSE 23 IS REVERSED
 
स्वदेहोद्भूताभि-र्घृणिभि-रणिमाद्याभि-रभितो
निषेव्ये नित्ये त्वा महमिति सदा भावयति यः ।
किमाश्चर्यं तस्य त्रिनयन-समृद्धिं तृणयतो
महासंवर्ताग्नि-र्विरचयति नीराजनविधिम्
 
svadehodbhutabhir ghrnibhir animadyabhir abhito
nisevye nitye tvam aham iti bhavayati yah
kim ascaryam tasya trinayana samrddhim trnayato
mahasamvartagnir viracayati nirajana vidhim
 
Out of the rays arising from your proper body, representing psychic powers such as atomicity,
For one who contemplates these in terms of oneself,
What wonder for him that all the benefits from the Three-Eyed One should only be worth rejection
And that the fire of doom should perform for him (in turn) the light-waving rite?
 
The ritualistic supplicant of this verse gets a reward which is much more than what he could expect from the standpoint of ordinary Tantrism, for he is able to place himself before the absolute principle of these verses, in keeping with the Advaitic attitude in which the worshipper and the worshipped are treated as interchangeable terms in the context of the Self and the non-Self. The tables are turned unexpectedly and completely in his favour and the worshipper, instead of worshipping, is himself worshipped. Ordinarily, a believer in the efficacy of Tantric ritualism places himself before an image which is thought of as a presence. By concentrating on this presence, the worshipper will begin to participate in certain values radiating from the body of the Goddess, represented by the image being worshipped. Favours are involved in all worship except the Vedantic one. Such favours could include very base ones, such as praying for the defeat of a particular enemy, or praying for riches; not to speak of attracting women in order to make them obedient to one's wishes. These are lesser benefits which could apply, at best, to one or other of the two schools of Shakti worshipers in the context of Tantra, Mantra and Yantra. These schools are the Kaulins and the Samayins, the former more left-handed or ordinary than the latter. Even if such worshippers should belong to the most respectable of the Shakti cults, we cannot imagine them as seeking benefits which only Upanishadic wisdom could make them aspire to. Even groups of believers belonging to a very superior and intelligent order could be expected to pray for those psychic powers emanating from the body of the Goddess worshipped, which are the eight classically enumerated siddhis (psychic powers), starting with anima (minuteness or atomicity).

 

The Nyaya and Vaisesika systems of Indian Philosophy begin with the paramanu (an infinitesimal particle or atom) and not with the Absolute, as the first category of significance in their system. We have a series of other values which could be built up in an ascending order with this atomic particle reality as its starting point. Smallness would at once suggest largeness. Brahman is neither great nor small, but both at once. Lightness and heaviness can also be treated as the next pair in an ascending series of benefits known to anterior schools, lesser than what is represented by Vedanta, the final crowning position among them all, as established elsewhere by Sankara .The four other psychic powers are classically recognized and mentioned even in the "Amarakosa" lexicon. They are not peculiar to the Tantric world but acceptable to Indian Philosophy in general.

 

In the first line of this verse, the Devi's body is represented as the seat from which these psychic powers radiate as their common source. They are like graded rays of light covering a broad spectrum of benefits which the worshipper can acquire for himself by continued meditation on the Devi. These powers are the highest point attainable by an aspirant seeking success in this world and importance in the eyes of his fellow men. This would apply to one who has not risen to a consciousness of the need for detachment or renunciation - as is normal to an aspirant who has had a Guru who makes him interested in self-knowledge and emancipation through it, as proper to the Upanishadic teaching. One step less than such an Upanishadic ideal would lead him into the world of personal benefits, which at best would only apply to some form of success in the public eye. The world beyond would be excluded, and although the gates of heaven might be open to him, the gate of salvation would be closed against him. One has to be able to contemplate values originating from the person of the Goddess, not only of a bodily order, but from a presence that combines and cancels physical and metaphysical values into the unitive terms of one absolute value. The psychic powers are attendant upon the person of the goddess, biased somewhat on the physical side, to the exclusion of the psychic side of the personality. The prayer is thus for unilateral benefits which are only applicable to life here and not to the hereafter.

 

The fully instructed Advaita Vedantin, however, is able to take the revised position indicated in the second line. He does not think of psychic powers that will enhance his value as a spiritual man in this world. He takes the bolder and more correct stand of Vedanta, which gives primacy to the Atman - the Self - rather than to miscellaneous benefits, such as the siddhis, however rare they might be. He thinks of establishing an equation with himself as one pole and the absolute eternal Goddess as his counterpart. Thus, in terms of the self or Atman, there is established a bipolar participation between its further subdivisions, which are here the self of the devotee and the self that the Goddess herself represents. When these attain to homogeneity of status by continued contemplative wisdom-disciplines in keeping with Upanishadic teachings, there is no violation of any principle if we should turn the tables to say that the worshipper becomes himself worshippable to his own non-self counterpart. Any one of the mahavakyas ("great sayings") of Vedanta can do this trick of turning the tables completely in favour of the worshipper. When such a radical change takes place, the Vedantic supplicant would not be attracted any more by benefits for himself, however great, which even Shiva, on the numerator side of the gods, could deign to confer on him. It is not the body, but the positive counterpart of the body of the Goddess, represented by Shiva, that can confer other-worldly benefits which are more spiritual than benefits proper to the body of the Goddess herself. These latter concern only the ontological self, as psychic powers that apply to life here. There is a corresponding series of these psychic gifts of a more spiritual order, which Shiva can confer on behalf of the Devi from his own non-self side. They have a one-to-one correspondence with the former series, starting with minute particles, which still refer to matter only. The benefits from Shiva can range upwards instead of downwards. He is interested in conferring salvation and not heaven.

 

The third line, therefore, rightly underlines that the intelligent Advaitin will not care for anything less than salvation, which is far beyond heaven. If by mistake Shiva should confer a benefit within the scope of heavenly values only, the superior and proud Advaitin would naturally reject it, and one should not be surprised if he does so. He prays for no sugar-coated benefits, but wants the last benefit of all on the positive side at the Omega Point, which is that intense zone where the powers of doomsday are concentrated, possibly at the top of the crown of Shiva himself. It is that tragic doom that he prays for, not for any benefits at all, and the person able to take such an absolute, firm and radical position, himself becomes the equal counterpart of what that doom represents. Instead of waving lights to the combined presence which includes the Devi as well as the doom of Shiva, when looked upon as representing her full stature of combined bodily and mental aspects together - the self of the worshipper attains to such an exalted dignity that the numerator doomsday fire would wave its lights in turn to propitiate the denominator side, represented by the full-fledged Advaita Vedantic supplicant. Self and non-Self, in other words, are interchangeable in the highest context of Advaita.

 

Annotations:
The words "attendant on you" (nisevye) mean that the siddhis, or psychic powers, are not intrinsically of the nature of the Goddess, but of the nature of epiphenomena. This phrase clearly states that the siddhis are like servants to the Goddess. The absolute Goddess is not directly interested in conferring siddhis. To pray for them is not respectable enough in her eyes.

 

The reference to the "Eternal One" is intended to mark the transition from a lower goddess, represented as being within the scope of the three gunas (nature modalities), to one who is more eternal and independent of time and place.

 

The phrase "in terms of oneself" (aham iti) constitutes the pivot around which the turning of the tables may be said to take place. The Self and the non-Self are involved directly here, without the question of benefits coming to mind at all. The natural pride of a superior Advaitin would make him reject the highest of benefits of a hedonistic order, because without renunciation the self-realization which is the only benefit of Vedanta cannot accrue to anyone. The three-eyed Shiva is still a divinity to be propitiated, and not the complete counterpart of the devotee's own self, when fully abstracted and generalized. Further, it is to be understood here that, when subjected to abstraction and generalization, the deity loses his theological status and becomes the counterpart of the self of the supplicant, so as to cancel himself out in the totality of the unity of the Absolute.

 

The reference to the "fire of doom" (samvartagni) is intended to match the top limit of a numerator value against the bottom limit of a denominator value as its counterpart, as implied in the person of the supplicant himself.

 

In conclusion, we have shown how the structural and methodical requirements are seen to be fully respected here. Inversion, one-to-one correspondence, self/non-self dialectics, theological worship - both in ascending and descending order, also with one-to-one correspondence between them - and above all, how hedonistic values are only worth rejection, are all to be noted here as being conducive to Sankara's task of re-evaluating Tantric worship in terms of a fully-fledged Advaitic one, which is seen to be clearly undertaken in this and many other verses of this series.
.

Siddhi: Attainment. Certain supra-mundane attainments gained through certain yogic practices. Eight such attainments are referred to by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. (Nataraja Guru)


We reproduce here some interesting definitions of siddhis from the Sanskrit-English dictionary of Monier-Williams:
Siddhi: The acquisition of supernatural powers by magical means or the supernatural faculty so acquired (the eight usually enumerated are given in the following sloka:

 

anima laghima praptih prakamyam mahima tatha isitvam ca vasitvam ca tatha amavasayita
Sometimes 26 more are added, e.g. dura-sravana, sarvajnatva, agni-stambha etc.
  1. anima : the superhuman power of becoming as small as an atom.
  2. laghima : a kind of siddhi or supernatural faculty of assuming excessive lightness at will.
  3. prapti : the power of obtaining everything.
  4. prakamya . irresistible will or fiat.
  5. mahima : the magical power of increasing size at will.
  6. isitva : superiority, supremacy, one of the eight attributes of Shiva.
  7. vasitva: the supernatural power of subduing to one's own will, mastery of one's self, command.
  8. kamavasaya: the power of suppressing desire (one of the eight supernatural faculties of Shiva).
dura-sravana: hearing from afar, sarvjnatva : omniscience, agni-sthamba : the (magical) quenching of fire etc.etc.

(An epiphenomenon (plural - epiphenomena) is a secondary phenomenon that occurs alongside or in parallel to a primary phenomenon. ED)
 

 

 

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES.

 

In this verse, Self and non-Self have reciprocity in attaining psychic powers - the worshipper is worshipped.

 

WORD FOR WORD
Svadeho bhuta bhih - arising out of Your own body
Ghrni bhih - from the rays which are
Anima adhya bhih - psychic powers such as
Abhito nishevye - atomicity attendant on you
Nitye tvam - o eternal one
Aham iti sada - in terms of oneself eternally
Bhavayati yaha - one who contemplates
Virachayati -
Nirajana vidhim - by light-waving rite

 

There is reference here to the devotee being identified with Brahman.
 
(Advaita Vedanta's fundamenal premise is that the Self (The devotee) and the Absolute (Brahman) are one. This is expressed in different ways by the Mahavakyas.

According to the Advaita Vedanta tradition the four Upanishadic statements indicate the ultimate unity of the individual (Atman) with the Absolute (Brahman).

Some of the main Mahavakyas are:

  1. prajñānam brahma - "Prajña is Brahman", or "Brahman is Prajña" (Aitareya Upanishad 3.3 of the Rig Veda)
  2. ayam ātmā brahma - "I am this Self (Atman) that is Brahman" (Mandukya Upanishad 1.2 of the Atharva Veda)
  3. tat tvam asi - "Thou art That" (Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 of the Sama Veda)
  4. aham brahmāsmi - "I am Brahman", (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 of the Yajur Veda
ED)

Animadhi means siddhis such as materialisation, prophecy etc.
Animadhi siddhis refer to the properties of matter: becoming light, becoming heavy, becoming large, small etc..
Vedanta does not concern itself with these.
 
(They are irrelevant. Vedanta seeks only wisdom. ED)

 

Another version:

TRANSLATION
- From Your own body
- The rays of light
- All the accidental attributes of manifestation of Your body
- At the core
- You are unchanging
- As I myself think, for him, all the powers of Shiva become as straw
- In comparison with the fire that burns everything

 

To the man who can think of this truth :" I am that Goddess"- when Shiva destroys the world - to this man the flames of universal destruction are just the waving of camphor lights - a lesser light being waved in adoration of the Absolute - subject and object are one.

This verse contains the high water mark of speculation.
 

 

THE FIRE OF DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD BECOMES THE WAVING LIGHTS OF PUJA FOR THAT MAN WHO CAN SAY OF THE DEVI: "I AM YOU".

What remains after the destruction of the universe is Yourself.
 
(What remains is the Self - in the Self there is no distinction between you and the Devi. ED)

When this is understood, then the philosopher - king will secure peace for the world.
The philosopher - king is one who wants nothing.

 

Here, even the beauty of the Devi is cancelled by the descending Omega Point of the fire of destruction of Shiva.
This is seen as the waving of puja lights for the man who realizes that what is left after this destruction is his own self.

THIS IS PERHAPS THE BOLDEST STATEMENT EVER MADE IN RELIGION.
 

Even Shiva is not as great as you when you understand.

This is the highest water mark. You can abolish Shiva and the Devi.
You are worshipped by the fire of Shiva and Parvati put together.
You understand Brahman and that is all, You become Brahman.

THERE IS NO BIRTH, NO DURATION OF LIFE, NO DEATH
THESE ARE ONLY NAME AND FORM.
IT SAYS ONLY THAT YOU ARE THE ABSOLUTE.

 

(REPEAT THIS 100 TIMES)

 

"Teach the truth and want nothing" - this is the greatest thing.
Attain to absolute Brahman - You become Brahman.
Even Shiva's attributes are like straw for such a man.
If you are conscious of the trials and sufferings that poor humanity has gone through in the name of religion - then you will always weep when you understand this verse which elevates the human soul to a level higher than that of the gods.
(In Indian Law, a disciple can call himself equal to God.)

 

The psychic powers are in the rays emanating from the core of the Devi.
The centre is the Devi, the periphery is the siddhis (psychic powers).
These siddhis are abolished as the voltage is increased, like the filament in an electric light-bulb.
 

Another version:

 

TRANSLATION
- Originating in Your own body
- Of rays
- Of psychic powers such as anima (smallness, largeness, heaviness, etc. - these are only considerations coming from differences of intensity of light.
- Closely waited upon all around (these rays are servants of the Goddess, waiting around.)
- O eternal, thee
- Always as myself (I place myself inside You, as having the same soul-content)
- Who imagines (or creatively appraises)
- What wonder (is there?) (rhetorical question)
- For him
- (That) the plenitude of the three-eyed one (Shiva)
- Treating (it) as a piece of straw (as nothing, negligible)
- The great all-consuming fire
- Should perform (or make)
- The ritual act of waving flames

 

There is an agent of action and all psychic powers and Siddhis are simply a result of rays of light radiating from the core of the Devi (the agent of action).
She is waited upon all around by the rays, which are simply acting as servants for her.

"What wonder is there that for him who places himself within You as being of the same soul, he should regard the plenitude of Shiva as a piece of straw?"
The great fire of Shiva, resulting from the negative Devi (presiding) uniting with the Numerator of Shiva - is considered by the devotee to be as of straw - for the devotee is the Absolute and the fire is simply the waving of Puja lights in honour of the devotee himself.

 

THE DEVOTEE HAS REALIZED THAT HIS SOUL IS THE SOUL OF THE DEVI
THEY ARE ONE AND THE SAME.

He is as great as any god.
No other religion will teach this.
This is the ultimate teaching of Vedanta.
"It is more precious to me than the Taj Mahal"

 

The Guru speaks of Voltaire on the burning of Lisbon in "Candide": "Lisbon is in flames: what is so great about Your God?"
- only Rousseau answered this question.

No theologian in the West has succeeded in explaining why God burned Lisbon. But here is a real answer to the question. ("God is not good, He is goodness"- Newton)
("Goodness" is substantive "God is good" is predicative)

Explaining away evil does not work - it must be cancelled with good and then transcended to the Absolute (God).

The worst aspect of life, represented by Shiva's destruction, is here cancelled by beauty and kindness (motherhood) and in the resulting Absolute the devotee must exist.

This is the term of Vedanta: "You are that".
("Tat tvam asi" in Sanskrit; one of the Mahavakyas; "that" being the Absolute. ED)

Beyond relativism is the Absolute: anything can happen to the world, but not to the Absolute.

The key to high voltage intelligence is renunciation. (See Chapter V of the Bhagavad Gita. ED)
 
This verse is about reversed worship - an inter-physical and trans-subjective relationship.
This is again a verse where the worshipper is worshipped.
Instead of the Devi being worshipped, she worships the worshipper.
The lights originate in the Devi (multiplicity and plurality) and are waved as one light in the Numerator.

 

Another version:

 

TRANSLATION
- Arising out of Your proper body
- By rays
- Such as anima (one of the psychic power series - eight aishwarya siddhis) (aishwarya means "wealth" ED)
- Around You in attendance
- O everlasting one, You
- As I am always (the equation between self and non-self)
- He who (always) contemplates
- What wonder is there (there is no wonder)
- For him
- That full benefit to be derived ( from the worship) of the Three-Eyed One
- The great fire of doom
- Performs
- The rite of light waving

 

structure slg2-p84-v30

 

 

The Devi represents probabilities, Shiva represents possibilities
- there are 64 of them indicated in this verse

.

VERSES 30 AND 31

.

 

("Pujari" is the person who performs a ritual or "puja". ED)

 

Another version:

TRANSLATION

Out of the rays arising from Your proper body, representing psychic powers such as atomicity (Anima):
Attendant on You, o Eternal One, one who contemplates these in terms of oneself,
What wonder for him that all benefits from the three-eyed one should only be worth rejection,
And that the fire of doom should perform for him in turn the light-waving rite.

 

Here Self and non-Self have reciprocity in attaining psychic powers.
The worshipper is worshipped.
This is fully Advaitic - it transcends Tantra.
Psychic powers are relativistic and worth only rejection.

 

The Devi gives sayujya - identity with Herself.
The rays are powers that arise from Her psycho-physical body.


The psychic powers - the siddhis - are accidental attributes - but She is "eternal" or Absolute.


"In terms of oneself" - put yourself on the Denominator side
and the Devi on the Numerator.


The fire of doom is in the future, apocalyptic and Numerator
- it will come to the Advaitin who cancels the Self and the non-Self.

Relativistic or material benefits are the result of relativistic worship - asuddha nirvana.


(This is "impure emancipation"- see Chapter 10 of the Darsana Mala by Narayana Guru) - it is "of this world".

 

Darsana Mala, X, 1:

1. nirvanam dvividham suddhamasuddham ceti tatra yat
suddham nirvasanam tadvadasuddham vasananvitam


"Emancipation is of two kinds -
What is pure and what is impure.
What is without incipient memory-factors, that is pure,
Likewise, what is qualified by incipient memory-factors is impure."

 

The fire of doom is the Omega Point - beyond the Goddess.
Shiva  is hot, She is cool.

 

Sadhya, Sadhana, Siddhis.
End, Means, Result. These are triputi.

(Triputi: the tri-basic prejudice of seer, sight and seen, or the division of subject, object and meaning which is responsible for our wrong appraisal of reality.

Literally: "Having three bases". A technical term in Vedanta referring to three aspects of cognition, namely: the subjective, the objective and the process itself. The knower of the pot and the object called the pot and the knowledge of the pot would illustrate the three ways by which the same cognition could be viewed. Absolute knowledge is without this triple-based difference. ED)

 

The world is evaporating upwards - She brings it down and holds the universe together like Max Planck's "H".

 

There is a dialectical relationship between entropy and negentropy, evolution and involution, implosion and explosion.


The universe is kept in equilibrium by cybernetic feedback.
The Devi is entropy.

 

"Free expertness" means "belonging to the Self".

Paratantra is objective.

(Svatantra and paratantra are technical terms meaning impulses of an ascending or descending order, referred to as "overt psychic powers" when applying to Shiva, and as "free expertness" when applied to the Devi. Although the functions are ambivalent, it is the linking parameter represented by the Shiva-principle that is the agent for the world to descend again after its dissolution. ED)

 

The traditional four "life-purposes" or purusharthas are artha, kama, dharma, moksha (wealth, pleasure, obligation and emancipation).

 

By comparison, below is a structure from Verse 23, which is the reverse of the present verse.

 


.


Do not be surprised, I am going to say that all of Shiva's wealth is as a piece of straw to the devotee of the Devi.
When Shiva burns the three worlds, that fire is merely as Puja lights being waved for the Devi.

Sankara is saying, "I have transcended all the siddhis (psychic powers) which surround the Devi.
I am not worshipping the Devi; I am equating my Self with the Devi (who is the non-Self). I have no other object than that equation."

Then the burning of the worlds is as the waving of Puja lights to the devotee.

He is saying, "I want only Tat tvam asi ("That You Are" - "that" being the Absolute)"
.
The worshipper himself is worshipped.

He is a Paramahansa; the white swan who rises to the Numerator side, drinking from the milk-ocean, leaving behind the water and rising above the ocean of birth and death (Samsara).

-

 

 

 

 

.

-

 

SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 31

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

VERSE 31 

A SERIES OF MONOMARKS FROM VERSE 31 ONWARDS

A NEW SECTION

TRANSCENDENCE BY IMMOBILITY

64 KNOW-HOW FACTORS OR TANTRAS

THE CROSS-SECTION OF A CONE
RIVAL COSMOLOGIES 

 

catuh sastya tantraih sakalam atisandhaya bhuvanam
sthitas tat tat siddhi prasavaparatantraih pasupatih
punas tvan nirbandhad akhila purusarthaika ghatana
svatantram te tentram ksititalam avatitarad idam 

 

By sixty-four know-how factors, each capable of generating its own overt psychic power
Transcending the whole world while remaining immobile
The Lord of Beasts, again by your insistence, by that free expertness of yours
Caused this firm earth to be brought down for the unified fulfilment of all life purposes. 

 

This verse has given room for much speculation among authorities on Tantra. The edition of Sir John Woodroffe; that by Professor Norman W. Brown of Harvard, and the one by Theosophical scholars S.Subrahmanya Sastri and T.R.Srinivasa Ayyengar, have all been consulted by the present author in order to fix the meaning of the reference here to the "sixty-four Tantras". None of these English editions are able to give an adequate explanation of this notion. Neither do the Malayalam editions of orthodox pundits of Kerala - where Tantrism has traditionally prevailed - like that of G.S.Srinivasa Iyer of Palghat or that of K.Mahadeva Sastri of South Travancore, shed any light on the obscurity of this reference. Srinivasa Iyer even says that this reference must allude to degenerate schools which are not influenced by the Vedas, but this cannot be taken into consideration by us at all. Various doubtful enumerations of these sixty-four items suggested in other books reveal at first glance that they refer to disreputable benefits which could be considered as subdivisions of the eight main hedonistic items of benefit called the siddhis, with their counterparts, which we learned to recognize in the previous verse. Eight plus eight would normally yield sixteen, but it is permitted to think of further ramified subdivisions of the same, such as 8 x 8 = 64, which could be divided into 32 upward and 32 downward-radiating rays. 

 

This division into 32 + 32 fades away into unimportance if we treat Shiva and Shakti as making up one unit including both the plus and minus aspects. Whatever the content of these 64 items, it is enough for us to know that they are either of a positive or of a negative order. The Kaulins, the Samayins and the other schools that think in terms of psychic benefits could fill the content of these 64 items as they like, according to the value systems that each of them is committed to. What is more important for us is to see their structural features and dynamism only in the broadest of outlines, so that, interested as we are in Sankara's revalued version of all Tantric schools, we can get an idea of what Sankara himself is interested in, rather than what an endless number of anterior Tantric experts might have left behind in the form of a veritable forest of literature. 

 

Viewed from this revised perspective, we can recognize certain features of the modus operandi of the powers of the mind that could be cultivated by anyone, not as ends in themselves, but as coming within the scope of an overall Advaitic understanding of esoteric Tantrism, restated in terms as exoteric as possible in order to present to our view the structuralism and dynamism implied therein, revealing to us a closer vision of the Absolute with the help of such details. 

 

One of the siddhis refers to making a man go to sleep in spite of himself. Ramakrishna Paramahansa once remarked to a man who claimed to be able to walk across the river Ganges that this power only saved him a quarter anna (less than a penny) at the ferry. All the trouble he took in gaining the siddhi was therefore of negligible worth. The question of siddhis, therefore, is to be bypassed by us. We have merely called them "know-how factors".

 

The third line of this verse reveals the delicacy of the regulating mechanism which, like a cybernetic retroactive principle, operates at the very core of the set-up in the functioning of these know-how factors or Tantras. Shiva here remains the agent for both the svatantra and paratantra functions of the 64 factors which we are concerned with in this verse. Svatantra and paratantra are technical terms meaning impulses of an ascending or descending order, referred to as "overt psychic powers" when applying to Shiva, and as "free expertness" when applied to the Devi. Although the functions are ambivalent, it is the linking parameter represented by the Shiva-principle that is the agent for the world to descend again after its dissolution. 

 

Thus there is an alternating process of creation and dissolution that takes place throughout eternity. The regulating principle is of a very subtle cybernetic order within the total mechanism. It keeps on establishing a cybernetic equilibrium between opposing tendencies so that human life activities could have a chance to continue unhindered. This offers human beings a terra firma on which to stand and fight their various battles for the fulfilment of their life purposes, called purusharthas, which are four in number. 

 

They are:

  • dharma (correct life expression),
  • artha (wealth),
  • kama (desirable items of fulfilment) and
  • moksha (salvation).  

Cybernetics is also familiar with this double-sided regulative principle, from which the very word "cybernetics" is derived. This principle is a mechanistic parameter which passes through the details of the complex, horizontal, mechanistic aspects of the machine itself. 

 

This parameter itself does not act but, like a catalytic agent, it can cause the subtle conditions favourable to both action and retroaction. Such is the two-sided regulating mechanism to be recognized as belonging to Shiva. Parvati has an equally subtle function which is referred to here as "insistence" only, and not as interfering with, or countering what her husband has sanctioned in principle. The thermostat, so to speak, automatically changes its phase by the simple insistence of the Goddess, exerted equally subtly on the functioning of the cybernetic parameter, to create retroaction rather than action. If Shiva's action points upward to the dissolution of the universe; the Devi's retroactive force makes the world descend into existence once again, as if by her magic touch. A split-second activity is to be imagined here, and the resulting universe instantly created and recreated affords humanity a sufficiently firm ground, standing on which, men could fight their battles or fulfil life purposes according to each person's deserts or necessity. 

 

The "unified fulfilment", in the last line, cancels the multiplicity of the 64 items of intelligence (tantras) in the first line. A priori synthesis and a posteriori analysis belong together within the scope of the Absolute. Shiva's function is analytic, while the Devi's function is synthetic and a priori. The analytic function leads through thinner and thinner nominalism to nothingness on the positive side, but, as the Lord of Beasts, Shiva does not lose his ontological foothold. It is at this point that the negative principle intervenes and retroaction succeeds in bringing the nominalistically evaporated world back into reality again for the fulfilment of pragmatic life purposes. When life purposes are treated together they form one bundle at the source of life, like a sheaf of corn tied together. The terms svatantra and paratantra, which we have translated as "free expertness" and "overt psychic power", respectively, make up the two limits of the amplitude within which cybernetic information circulates, establishing equilibrium, positively or negatively as required, for the overall benefit of mankind. As parents of the Universe, both Shiva and Parvati are interested in keeping the game going. 

 

The Sanskrit expression tat tat siddhi prasava paratantraih, which we have translated as "each capable of generating its own psychic power", not only clearly states that the siddhis or psychic powers are the subject here, but also suggests, with the word prasava, a positive process of becoming.

 

Paratantra also points to a transcendental rather than an immanent value. As against this paratantra, we have its counterpart in the svatantra, which refers to a freedom in itself and for itself and not outside itself, because of the word "sva" which has a subjective immanent import. Each psychic power has its own source or origin on the plus side, where Shiva's Tantra is concerned. Individual expertness of this pluralistic kind does not apply to the domain of the Devi, where it has the status of being bound together into one (eka ghatana). All these indications have been carefully taken into account in choosing the corresponding words in English while avoiding being too technical. We prefer a common-sense approach in the name of easy readability, without deflecting from the meaning of the Sanskrit as intended by the author. The expression avatitarat (caused to descend) still refers to the function of Shiva. It is to her husband, Shiva, that Devi is affiliated, without any dualism in their respective functions. Parvati caused the world to come down by insistence, but she will not take the initiative. Pluralism tends to refer to the Numerator, unity to the Denominator. 

 

Shiva and Parvati are participating in the vertical axis only. As the wife, Parvati can function in a zone that is neither his nor hers - nor of the two together as a compromise, but the same. The Shiva-Parvati samvada or dialogue makes a pointed reference to the difference between svatantra (independent) and paratantra (dependent). She wants for herself the corresponding power which is negative in its essence. Devi says: "tell me something of a relativistic and non-relativistic character, representing a Tantra (know-how factor) to counteract all the numerator Tantras attributed to Shiva". The "Vamakesvara Tantra" contains a reference to just this counteracting factor of the parameter of Shiva in terms of the Devi's svatantra, which is absolutist in character.

 

 

 

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS WITH STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMS RELATED TO THIS VERSE FROM SAUNDARYA LAHARI/NOTES..

 

WORD FOR WORD
Catuh shashtya tantraih - by 64 know-how factors
Sakalam atisandaya bhuvanam sthitah- transcending the whole world while remaining immobile
Tat tatsiddhiprasava paratantraih - each capable of generating its own psychic powers
Pasupatihi - the Lord of Beasts
Punas tvanirbandhat - by your insistence
Akhila purushartaika ghatana svatantram - by that free expertness of yours
Te tantram kshititalam avatirat idam - caused to be brought down this firm earth for the unified fulfilment of all life-purposes
 
 
An early image of Pashupati, the Lord of Beasts, from Mohenjo-Daro.

Two opposite universal functions are here brought into the picture.
Mantra is Numerator.
 

Yantra is the means of implementing the 64 Tantras (know-how factors)
 
 

Examples of Yantras.
 
Shiva disperses, the Devi brings together.
Each of these 64 generates a specific power or siddhi.

Siddhis (psychic powers) are for Shiva;
the life aims of mankind (purusharthas) are for man.
.
-
.
.

 

The above structures show the two sets of Tantras: svatantras on the negative side and paratantras on the positive side of the structures.

 

Two rival sets of expertise - to unmake and remake - are referred to here.
It offers a firm ground to those who want a chance to work out their salvation.

Shiva evaporates everything in the form of effects.
The Devi provides some firm ground, some reality, by creating a cross-section to the general flux of life.
She is providing a horizontal axis.
 
 
The 64 Chakras (Tantras) are meditated upon by Shiva:
He knows all the mechanical devices of the Tantra.

 

Another version:

TRANSLATION
- By means of 64 techniques (each having its corresponding Siddhi) (each its own specific power generating)
- Having transcended (meditated away) the world
- Remaining in this fashion
- The Lord of Beasts (Shiva)
- Again, by your insistence (by the Devi's insistence)
- Capable (or free) to bring to get Her all aims of man
- Such, your technical know-how
- The stable surface of the earth (world)
- Made to descend into being
 
Each of the Chakras has its own siddhi (psychic power) in one-to-one correspondence.
 
Shiva's function is to abstract and generalize the 64 Tantras.
The Devi insists that he not go too far on the plus side.
There is an ascending function - Shiva - and a descending - Devi - function.
 
Here the negative descending force counters the ascending tendency, thus calling the world again into existence.
 
Whatever aims man is capable of bringing about - he must have food and philosophy and love and salvation (Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha - the 4 goals of life according to tradition).
 
The Devi has the freedom of bringing together, by her expertise with technical aspects of the universe, all the things that were evaporated by Shiva.
 
She will provide a stable ground so that mankind may pursue righteousness.
She has a power equal and opposite to Shiva's, and through that power She makes it possible for humanity to pursue a purposeful existence.
 
This stable surface of the world is the horizontal principle.
This world has come down onto a horizontal base on which mankind can pursue existence.
 
"Already brought into being" means that She has already provided this base.
Shiva can destroy only after creation has taken place.

 


 

The Devi says:" Why do you want to ascend so high - don't you know that men and animals must have a base on which to live?"
Shiva is conceptualizing the 64 Chakras, each of which gives birth to its corresponding siddhi or psychic power..

This corresponds to an explosion, to a centre-directed process of becoming.
(X and X', Y and Y' and X' and Y' are not interchangeable.).
.

 
 
This force or tendency is opposite to that of the Devi,
which can be called "implosion". (The "sva-" in svatantra means "one's own)
.

 
 
The ability to generate these powers through his savoir faire is the power of Shiva - and so, one who meditates on the Chakras ("Chakras" or "Tantras"? This may or may not be an error of the note-taking student. ED) will simply stay at that point - with the power of the siddhis (psychic powers).

The Devi has the opposite ability or function.
But these two must be meditated upon by the devotee as functioning together as parts of the same whole - the Absolute.

Paratantra (Shiva) and svatantra (Devi) are here represented with their opposite functions and attributes: the Immanent and the Transcendent.
 
His perfected way of dealing with this world is toward the numerator side - this is paratantra.
This is made to descend by the Devi - this is svatantra.
 
("The Malayalam commentary to this verse seems to suggest that it is all right to kill as a sacrifice to the Absolute. This is not Vedanta, we shall go into this commentary in detail, and it seems the pundit is a Rao (a type of Brahmin)".)
 
The Gita says that every act is binding, except that act which is dedicated to the Absolute.
(We can accept this in principle, but this does not mean, for example, that you should eat an animal which has died.)

Why is Tantra Shastra so linked up with Malayalam, the language of Kerala?
This is due to the influence of educated Hindu women under the Muslims who found their way to the Kerala coast.

The pundit seems to think that the Vedas sanction some of the 64 Tantras and not others.
 
(The Guru uses the two words "Chakra" and "Tantra" interchangeably in his commentary on this verse. This seems to equate the two to the extent that they are both stable points or nodes on the vertical axis. This is speculative on our part and not our finalized opinion. It requires more study. ED)

This is not even anywhere near the truth.
Which book is the custodian of Vedic dogma?
The smritis (works concerning obligatory action) perhaps; but not the Vedas, which are sruti (wisdom texts) - sruti means "what you hear" - there are no laws in the Vedas.

Smritis are tradition, and thus may dictate morality, the Vedas do not dictate morality.
 
(The Vedas are sruti and are concerned with wisdom, not action in the physical world - Jnana Kanda as opposed to Karma Kanda. ED).

The 64 Tantras refer to techniques, expertise or savoir-faire.
Shiva is enjoying the freedom of this savoir-faire.
The universe is a matrix without crystals - to get crystals, it has to be arranged structurally in terms of the Tantras.
 
(The Tantras organize matter, just as crystals do. A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents, such as atoms, molecules or ions, are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure. ED).
 
 
 

Having meditated upon these 64 - Shiva sits as an Omega Point, thinking the 64 as a totality and transcending them.

He is not doing anything, he has "thought away" the world.
To think means to conceptualize; to nominalize - to evaporate the world.
Having conceptualized all this, Shiva remains.

He is the numerator side of the denominator beasts. He is called "the Lord of Beasts" (pasupati) in this verse.

"It is you, the Devi, who insists, by way of fulfilling necessities..."
The Devi is in charge of affording man the opportunity of fulfilling his functions. Svatantra is the Devi's function.

This world is brought into being by the descent of the Devi (descending dialectics), which counteracts the upward movement of Shiva.

In this way, She brings into existence the real stable surface of the earth.
 

-

The Devi exerts a negative influence on the positive evaporating tendency of Shiva: "by your compulsion".
This compulsion is to be avoided only by normalization or neutralization.
Whatever is flying off to the Non-Self, She normalizes by turning towards the Self side.
 

Another version:

TRANSLATION
- By 64 know-how factors (Tantric: operational, functional, technical, ritualistic.)
- Remaining still (The unmoved mover, transcending paradox) after encompassing the whole world
- Capable of giving birth, each to its extrinsic psychic powers (siddhis)
- The Lord of Beasts (Pasupati)
- Again by your compulsion
- Capable of bringing into unified operation all laudable purposes of human life (righteousness, wealth, passion, and salvation)
- Your know-how
- This surface of the earth
- Brought down to be
 
The Devi is capable of bringing cosmic order, providing the firm ground for people to attain their salvation.
An empty vacuum is brought down to firm ground.
 
Some significance, in terms of human value, is necessary for any conversation to take place.
Sankara said to the Buddhists that if all there is is nothingness (sunyata), they should keep quiet and let him talk to his disciples.

So, by the Devi's compulsion in the negative direction, the dispersive forces of the Numerator are normalized and ordered, so that the purusharthas - the purposes of human life - may be acted out.

 

VERSES 30 AND 31

 

Sankara rejects relativistic benefits; his position is "Tat tvam asi", You are that (the Absolute)"
(He wants no reward; he only wants to be the Absolute. ED).
Puja (worship) can be done to Sankara himself, because there is an inter-physical and trans-subjective transformation.
(Sankara can be worshipped because he is the Absolute itself. ED)
 
In Verse 91, the Devi  imitates the "jhang" sound of the anklets with Her voice: this is Numerator, (while the sound of the anklets themselves are denominator. ED)
The medium is the message.


 

THERE ARE THREE LEVELS OF WORSHIP:
These are three grades of spirituality:
1) Doomsday dissolution
2) Shiva confers siddhis (psychic powers)
3) The Devi confers anima (psychic power)

"Life purpose" means fulfilling Dharma.
"Know-how" is Tantra.
 
(The Sanskrit word Tantra is related to the concept of weaving and expansion- it derives from 'tan', meaning to expand, spin out, and weave.
The Guru would say that Dharma is Karma verticalized. ED)

 

Shiva's Tantra is turned upwards
The Devi's Tantra is turned downwards.
 

 

 

Food and honour are two domains.
Psychic powers = Numerator - 64 rays.

-

 

"The Lord of Beasts" is Shiva at the Omega Point.
"Causes to be brought down" - the hypostatic is brought down to the hierophantic.
 
 
 
 
The firm earth comes to be so that humanity can work its salvation out on horizontal terra firma.
The firm earth is needed for this to take place.

 

Here there is upwards and downwards becoming.
There are 64 know-hows (Tantras) and their negative counterparts for life-fulfilment.

 

The 64 Tantras are technical know-how.
Mantras are the software.
Yantras are the hardware.

 

This may be compared to jnanam, jneyam and parijnata. (knowledge, knower and known)
Aksharas are letters, as in the Panchakshari Mantra, etc.

(Panchaksari means five-syllabled, representing the five elements; it is often used in mantras. ED)

Each Tantra makes a siddhi or psychic power.

 

There are four siddhis on Shiva's side
There are four siddhis on the Devi's side

 

Two forces acting in contrary directions.
64 = 8 x 8 - the directions of the compass at 8 levels.
 
.
AN EDITORIAL NOTE ON THE 64 TANTRAS:
There are numerous references to 64 Tantras in the more or less respectable forest of texts on the subject, most of them of dubious authorship and even more dubious authenticity. Less open to doubt is their contribution to the sum of human knowledge on the subject, which ranges from the minimal to the non-existent. They seem to consist of endless subdivisions of the Siddhis or psychic powers, surrounded by a mass of verbose predicative representation. Here are some examples:

http://vedakalpataru.com/?page_id=112

 

http://www.slideshare.net/Metaplume/the-yoni-tantra-unveiling-a-key-tantrik-sexual-ritual

 

http://www.shivashakti.com/kulintro.htm

 

http://www.shivashakti.com/kulintro.htm

 

http://www.indiadivine.org/audarya/shakti-sadhana/123130-64-tantras-te-tantram.html

 

http://www.gobookee.org/64-yogini-mantra-tantra-rahasya/

 

 

  1. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 32
  2. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 33
  3. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 34
  4. SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 35