SAUNDARYA LAHARI - VERSE 37

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SAUNDARYA LAHARI

 

 

 

 

VERSE 37

VISUDDHI CHAKRA - MEANS "VERY PURE"
SYMMETRY BETWEEN ALPHA AND OMEGA POINTS

 

विशुद्धौ ते शुद्धस्फतिक विशदं व्योम-जनकं
शिवं सेवे देवीमपि शिवसमान-व्यवसिताम् ।
ययोः कान्त्या यान्त्याः शशिकिरण्-सारूप्यसरणे
विधूतान्त-र्ध्वान्ता विलसति चकोरीव जगती

 

visuddhau te suddha sphatika visadam vyoma janakam
shivam seve devim api shiva samana vyavasitam
yayoh kantya yantyas sai kirana sarupya saraner
vidhutantar dhyanta vilasati cakoriva jagati

 

In your Visuddhi Chakra, crystal-clear and sky-generating,
I adore Shiva and the Goddess also, with a parity of status with Shiva,
By whose combined streaming, moonbeam-like fluorescence,
With banished inner dross, like a female partridge, the world hereunder shines.

 

In coming to Verse 37, we can note in the first place that it is meant to mark a position intermediate between the Omega Point and the O Point. The word "Visuddhi", which means "purity" or "clarity", still suggests a transparency of the spirit. A distinction is made here between bursting or scintillating light and fluorescent light like that of moonbeams. Moonlight is supposed to be watery, because its light seems to be flowing down vertically towards the lower half of the structure. The uniqueness of God at the Omega Point is now seen to be compromised, and we find that the negative aspect of the situation, which belongs properly to the consciousness of the negative self, is attributed to the consciousness of the female chakora (partridge). Without this peculiar literary device, it would be impossible to make the sky-generating light cancel out against its counterpart, which would represent what is of the status of the dream of the earth, here attributed to the partridge.

 

1. "Sky-generating" (vyoma janakam)
The numerator side of understanding refers to hypostatic factors, under which a sky could legitimately be included.

 

2. "Parity of status" (samana vyavasitam)
Two personalities are seen to be introduced at this level. In the text, the phrase samana vyavasitam, where samana means "equal" and vyavasitam means "functioning" justifies our translation as "parity".

 

3. "Like a female Chakora" (cakori iva)
Sankara resorts to the consciousness of a female partridge in order to make it easy for the reader to think of the counterpart of the bright side of consciousness described in the first half of the verse. It is within consciousness, whether of an animal, a bird or a human being, that we can correctly represent to ourselves that cancellable counterpart of consciousness which the numerator is supposed to represent in hypostatic terms. He takes care even to say that it is a female partridge, to show that negativity is more consistent with the feminine than with the masculine consciousness.

 

4. "The world hereunder shines" (jagat vilasati)
The world cannot ordinarily be said to be shining, except in terms of consciousness. Advaita philosophy depends on the cancellation of two selves, the pratyagatma, the negative self, and the atma which is its own mirror reflection (cidabhasa). Whether it is a concept or a percept that looms, the world has to refer to one or other of these two aspects of consciousness to have any reality at all, whether existent or subsistent, or both. When moonlight falls on a seaside village with its white walls, the calm and pleasing scene is not the same village as seen under the blazing noonday sun. The female chakora sees the world as if by moonlight. It does not like the sun. What it sees is thus to be distinguished from what this Chakra implies on its positive side.

 

 

 

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

 

WORD FOR WORD
Vishuddhau te - Your Visuddhi Chakra
Shuddha sphatika vishadam - crystal clear
Vyoma janakam - sky generating
Shivam seve devim api - I adore Shiva and the Goddess also
Shiva samana vyavasitam - with parity of status with Shiva
Yaya kantya yantya shashi kirana sarupya saranim - by whose combined moonbeam-like fluorescence
Vidhuta antar dhvanta - with banished inner dross
Vilasati - it shines
Chakoriya - like a female partridge
Jagati - the world (hereunder).

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Here, the Visuddhi Chakra is clear and shining.
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Here, moonbeams stream downward; in Verse 36 they were radiating.

Again this Chakra is "Yours", (the Devi's).
Visuddhi Chakra comes in at the level of akasha - space or ether.
Shiva and the Devi have final equal status.

The flowering radiance of these two together, a descending light, has a resemblance to the moon - it is subjective, more interior.
There is no inner dross at this level - it is "dusted off".
The Chakora bird (partridge) is the enjoyer of all this, drinking it in.
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This picture flowing and fluid - intended for "those fully dusted of all dross within the mind".
The Chakora is Denominator.
There must be an enjoyer - the Chakora bird "drinks" the moonlight.
The Devi is sitting in perfectly equal status.
 

 

The female partridge is used by the poet to indicate the negative part of consciousness.
Contemplation means a slightly dim or subdued, subjective world.
Visuddhi means pure or clean, but not effulgent, like Ajña.
This light is more subdued, fluorescent in quality; closer to the consciousness of the partridge.
This is 2/2 cancellation instead of the high-pressure 1/1 cancellation of the Ajña Chakra.
Imagine a bird, which has moonlight as an exciting factor in its life.

 

The partridge is excited about the positive part and the negative part of moonlight: the positive part is outside the partridge, the negative part is inside the bird.

 

The Negative Side is the Female Partridge
There are two sides to consciousness.
Without dividing it properly, our understanding will not come to us.
The negative side is the more difficult to know: the side of the Devi's "faded lotus feet" (as in the poem by Narayana Guru) - "faded" means it is suffering.
The Devi is always crying at the corner of her eyes.
 
(The association of Chakora or partridge and the moon  has inspired a number of folk love stories in India. The chakora sometimes symbolizes intense, and often unrequited, love. This is probably the source of the erotic associations drawn by the Guru here. It is curiously also associated with eroticism and mysticism in the Sufi songs of the Turks and others, under the name "keklik". ED)
 

 

A cool lotus-wafting breeze is another secret of cancellation:
you cannot live in twenty-four hours of heat; but you can live nicely in only twenty-three hours, with just one hour of cool at daybreak, like Bangalore.
On a hot day, people drink more tea to make them perspire: hot inside and hot outside cancel out.

The principle of the female partridge is like the sudden change, in Verse 7, where he first compares the Devi's breasts to the knobs on the forehead of an elephant, on the numerator side; then says they are the heavy breasts of motherhood on the denominator side. It changes instantly when it touches the horizontal line.
 
(In the present verse, as well as in Verse 7, there is a contrast - note that below the Guru writes that the female partridge is "the Devi in this verse". This is not a contradiction, any more than the heavy maternal breasts are a a contradiction of the pert, girlish breasts of the Purushika Devi in Verse 7. In this verse, the Goddess who has a status as equally exalted as Shiva becomes transformed into a cute plump little bird, clucking and sipping drops of moonlight, once she crosses the horizontal line and descends into the lower world. This is not a contradiction but a paradox and we should remember that "there is a paradox at the core of the Absolute" in the Guru's words. Understanding this paradox is essential to grasping Erotic Mysticism and experiencing the Lahari or ultimate delight which lies at the core of this work. Similarly, we must bring together the beauty of our girlfriend and the beauty of the sunset; we must bring together the "Queen of the Ultimate Absolute" and "Any woman, just any woman"; we must realize fully that the dwelling place of  "That Shiva Ultimate" in the Ajña Chakra is not just within the third eye of some exalted Goddess, but within that of the woman we love, and indeed within our own. ED)

 

The negative side cannot be derived from the negative side - it must be derived from your consciousness on the positive side; don't try to gradually build up the negative side from the bottom.

Place yourself inside the consciousness of a female bird or of a buffalo cooling itself in the river, as in Kaliedasa's Ritusamhara (2, 27); then you will get a new perspective of cancellation.

Sankara has taken the trouble to indicate all of these mathematical and epistemological secrets.
He reveals a continuum and the interaction (penetration) of time and space.

The five elements, at different levels, become all mixed up in a confusion of Maya.
At the Visuddhi Chakra, in the descending series of Chakras, the perceptual world ends and the conceptual world begins.

Here, Shiva and Parvati are together in the Visuddhi Chakra, which is "purified" ("With banished inner dross") and they are made epistemologically equal.

By the combined brilliance of these two there is a kind of moonlight, which is drunk by a Chakora bird, but remains outside.

This Chakra has risen above the horizontal; there is no dross, no residue of phenomena, it is "purified".
 

 

The Devi shines subjectively, and Shiva objectively.

 

Another version:

 

TRANSLATION
- In Your Visuddhi Chakra (the third from the top)
- Pure crystal-clear
- Intentionally implying open space (or sky)
(So it is a nominalistic point, implying or indicating the next high chakra.
(Its crystal clarity is an anticipation of the sky. This involves ascending dialectics.)
- I worship Shiva together with the Devi
(They have obtained a certain parity of status)
(The integration is begun in this Chakra)
- Ordered with equality of status with Shiva (cancellable)
- Of these two
- By the fluid (flowing) glory (of light) (Kantya Yantya)
- Resembling the streaming of moonbeams
- With wiped-out (or dusted) inner darkness (of ignorance)
- It shines (the triple worlds)
- The three worlds bathed in joy like the Chakora bird

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THE CHAKORA BIRD IS THE DEVI IN THIS VERSE
Shiva is joyful outside.
Devi is joyful inside.

 

She is joyful like the Chakora bird which drinks the moonlight which shines from Shiva.
When thus intoxicated, the colour of both Numerator and Denominator becomes the same magenta.
Only the joy, or value-factor, felt by the Chakora establishes the parity between them.
 
The Chakora bird which drinks moonlight is the image of the Devi in this verse.
Thus the Chakora bird is a very apt description.
There is a parity established in the value world.
Joy is the common factor here. The moonlight comes from Shiva.
 
Inner ignorance is dusted away.
The whole of the secret is found in the analogy of the Chakora .
What is subjectively understood is inside the Chakora.
Objectivity is represented by the light of Shiva.
On a moonlit night, you may find yourself in the Visuddhi Chakra, with clear, transparent thoughts and no sleep.
Then, meditate on a lower Chakra.
If you are sleeping too much, meditate on a higher Chakra.
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After so much moonlight, why this unpleasant erotic Chakora bird?
Because the crystal analogy must be completed by providing the smoky side.
The Chakora is female, and enjoys the moonlight internally.
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Schematically she takes up half the structure - with her neck bent, drinking the moonlight.
This is found in the last line of the verse.
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Thus, the perceptual moonlight and the conceptual moonlight are here shown to exist in the same whole.
The joy outside and the joy inside are not the same.
A bird drinking moonlight (experiencing it) is different from a man seeing moonlight.
Similarly, a professor of Yoga does not necessarily have the experiences that go along with it.

 

In this verse we have parity at the next subdued level: at the Visuddhi Chakra.
Parity is introduced to the picture.
Whenever you verticalize, you get parity.

Philosophy is the universe seen end-on, at a 180 degree perspective - it is vertical.
Science is a cross-section view, a 90 degree perspective - it is horizontal.
 
 
 
Shiva and Parvati have a parity between them.

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Visuddhi Chakra is crystal clear, pure, with a fluid, not a bursting ligh; it is like moonstone.
 
Vertically, there is a parity between the sun and moon.
Horizontally, there is a complementarity between Numerator and Denominator.
 
Sankara has taken great care in forming these Chakras.

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There are certain centres where you can draw a circle and say: "this is a system" - that is, it can be called a Chakra.
This Chakra is like the smoked glass through which we view an eclipse.
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A Chakra is where the mind can find out something : "The human mind cannot live on abstractions" - Bergson.
A synergism, in the most general and abstract terms, is like a Chakra.
The mind is made in such a way that it wants stable resting places, reference points, systems or ensembles.

A Chakra is a synergism or syndrome, a stable set with a consistency between the elements: a gestalt.
 
(The central principle of gestalt psychology is that the mind forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies. This principle maintains that when the human mind (perceptual system) forms a percept or gestalt, the whole has a reality of its own, independent of the parts. ED)

See also Cantor's theory of ensembles - also Hilbert, Kramer and "Number" by Dantzig.

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Another version:
 
TRANSLATION
- In Your (the Devi's) Visuddhi (Chakra)
- Clear as crystal
- Giving birth to sky (the cause of the descent can be said to give birth to the effect - the sky)
- I adore Shiva
- The Goddess also (the distinction is justified because we descend from the Omega Point)
- With parity of function with Shiva
- Of whom (both together)
- By fluorescent glow of which (moonstone-like - the subdued glow from Shiva and Parvati)
- Resembling moonbeams
- Shine with dispelled inner dross ("dusted") (describes the views of someone like Eddington the physicist and philosopher of science.
- Like a female partridge (Chakora)
- In the world (the bird is in this world)

 

MOST IMPORTANT:
The Chakora drinking is complementarity.
Between Shiva and Parvati there is parity.
 
In this world, there is a female bird who can appreciate the numerator luminaries and thus cancel it.
 
The little heart of a bird can contain all of the Numerator.
The delight inside the mind of the bird is to be cancelled against the numerator moonlight concept.
When this is done, you have Absolute Beauty.
 
Let the partridge drink the moonlight like lemonade through a straw; it is filled with light, as a man who meditates is filled.
 
"Sky-generating": this is an ascending Chakra.
The Devi has parity of status with Shiva.
The light is like a fluorescent tube light (moonlight).
The female partridge is the denominator enjoyer of numerator moonlight, with the enjoyment of the bird as a value-factor.
Meditation on this Visuddhi Chakra on the Numerator side gives the Yogi the joy or bliss of the female partridge on the denominator.

Shiva is better when vertical; the Devi is better when horizontal.

In what sense is it "sky generating"? In the sense of Khechari Mudra.
See the Darsana Mala, Chapter 9, Yoga, Verse 9:

"When meditation with gaze fixed between the eye-brows
And the tongue-tip touching beyond the uvula (takes place)
Then happens (khecari mudra) that space-freedom attitude
Of drowsiness - and fatigue - dispelling capacity."
 
It is not sarira that moves the hand but the sariraka.
(Sariraka is derived from the word sarira or "body" by adding to it the suffix -kan which gives a sense of derogation. ED).
 
You just change the perspective, do not take anything away from reality.
The soul of man extends even to the fingernails, there are no grades of reality.
There is only one reality.

Brahma Sutra Shastra (illegible, ED). Take your stand here; first agree that the Rishis cannot be wrong, for they have no axe to grind. They always have their wives near. Their greatness is to want nothing and to live in the forest.
"When people who do not want anything tell you something, you can be sure that it is true."
Imagine yourself as the Denominator partridge enjoying the Numerator moonlight.

 

In the Visuddhi Chakra - the cancellation takes place inside a female partridge.


 

The partridge is female because the female is more negative than the male.
The cancellation here is closer together than in the previous verse.
The moonlight is subjectivized by the female partridge.
 
Partridges are supposed to drink moonbeams.
Visuddhi Chakra is towards the negative side of fluorescent light and diffused moonbeam-like light.
The Devi meets Shiva as parity on the horizontal axis, they have equal status from that point down.
The partridge gets drunk at night on numerator moonbeams - Soma (The sacred drink of Vedic rituals. ED)
 
Visuddhi Chakra has subsistential existence and parity.
It also has existential existence and parity..
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