Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(week seven)
*translations by Christopher Tompkins 2011, www.shaivayoga.com
From his Svabodhodayamajar, The Flowering Forth of Ones Own Enlightenment. Vmana,
a.k.a. Hraswantha, is the 3rd master of the Krama lineage of Kahmiri haivism, who flourished
in the early 10th century.
the [defiled body] has fallen, he becomes hiva alone. Thus, how can there be
bondage for a person who is alive but has been released from it?
[The term] undoubtedly [liberated] refers to those act which burns up
[bondage], namely the ritual of initiation and those which follow. Liberation
comes through faith in the guru, and from faith in oneself when cultivating
knowledge through engagement in [daily yoga] practice.
NOTE: the fire of wisdom (vijngni). This is a technical term for the culmination of
the daily yoga ritual of internal worship, performed after all five elemental mantras
have been raised into the crown lotus (ucchra), in KRAMA #5-6 (see Overview of
Tantrik Yoga Sdhana handout, from week 6). Also known as the fire of time (klgni),
the practice refers to the final immolation of the tainted subtle body (KRAMA #7), after
which the sonic nectar of immortality (amita) is drawn down from the crown lotus in
order to create a pure mantric body for the yog, within which his soul, now fused to
Lord hiva, is placed, upon a mantric throne (yogapha) within the heart lotus (see
KRAMA #8, same handout).
KHEMARJA
Here in this verse it is connoted that One who worships hiva becomes hiva.
Thereafter [the surge of hiva consciousness] is felt in ones awareness,
meaning in ones own tangible experience, as derived from the reflection that
there is no reality othernthan hiva.
The following affirmative statementhiva is a mass of blissful consciousness,
perceived as identical to the embodied universe! I can only be hiva! bestows the
reward [of liberation] upon that one who can [affirm this] without the arising of
residual mental pre-occupations [stemming from less than 100% belief in this
truth]. Ones focused attention [when this affirmation is made] is on the
mantra-deities. Truly, how could [hiva] not appear right before the one who
devotedly adheres to the gradually arising realization, that there is no duality
within He who contains all that there is?
As was proclaimed by my great-grand teacher (Utpaladeva)
O Lord! O Beloved One! You are clearly present as the entire field of this subtle
world (i.e. body)! Where in this sacred space will a mantra not bear fruit for
those who are devoted [to you]?
KEMARJA
So in approaching [the subject of] immortal nectar from the standard point of
view as it is presented in all of the tantras, the Svacchandatantra it says
Thus through contemplating that immortal nectar, one becomes victorious over
death, which is associated with time. Svacchanda Tantra 7.226a.
KHEMARJA
Now what it means to really acquire that [nectar] is conveyed in the next
statement [the second half of the Svacchanda verse]
That is to say, one who is established in the Supreme reality is not constricted by
any trajectory of time. Svacchanda Tantra 7.226b.
KHEMARJA
The central message [of the second half of the Svacchandatantra verse is that] one
should realize that hiva and hakti constitute the universe. Only one who
maintains this conviction is liberated while living (jvanmukta). Time can never
disturb one who constantly meditates on hiva [in this way]. The Yog actively
participates [in life] independent [of the delusion of time and its psychological
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[During this fusion,] the Supreme Lord, who has entered the body of the Yog,
manifests in the transitional opening (equinox) at the phase [in the breath cycle]
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NOTE: Nda, Bindu, and the internal flow of the Breath Goddesses.
When Kualin or Par (Supreme) hakti, the source power of hiva who
resides at the crown lotus (chakra), commences the act of creation, that is to say
when the life-giving subtle inhalation first descends from the crown of the
head, she morphs into Kriy-hakti, the power of activation, who descends as
Nda (inarticulate sound resonance). At the palate, she meets with inhaled air,
and descends further into coils into the heart, as the tangible inhalation. Once in
the heart, hakti coils up again into a seed point (Bindu) in preparation for the
exhalation. This is the visual counterpart of Kualin, who is the mother
(mtk) of all sounds and consciousness. She briefly coils in the heart before
springing upwards via the out-breath, governed by Jna-hakti (the power
that discerns an objective universe), out of the Bindu (seed point) when we utter
letters or words. The Bindu is the seed of Lord hiva, who sprouts in the fire
that is kindled in the heart by the fusion of the moon and sun breaths in that
location during breath retention (kumbhaka).
Par hakti.
In the culmination of the daily prescribed Tantrik yoga ritual of internal worship,
once the rising mantric power ascends into the crown lotus, the Goddess appears
in her supremely beautiful form, literally as Par (supreme) hakti, who
resembles the light of the moon, of immortal nectar. Par is also known as She
who is beyond peace (hntyatt) and the Pervasive One (Vyp); see notes
from the week 6 handout. This same highest power is Kualin, who uncoils
or emits the immortal nectar of hiva consciousness down into the body through
the suhumn (instead of the n) from the crown lotus in the final phase
(KRAMA) of yoga practice, as mentioned above (see Overview of Tantrik Yoga
handout, revised and sent this week). The following drawing was taken from
prescriptions given to the artist, Ekabhumi, from the Mlinvijayottara Tantra (ca.
7th century A.D.)3--
Ekabhumi (ekabhumi@gmail.com)
Par hakti.
hakti
Luminary
location
State of
consciousness
apna
Kriy-hakti
Moon
Jagrat
downward
inhalation
(Power of
activity)
(lunar breath
course)
(lunar channel)
(waking)
pra
Jna-hakti
Sun
pigal n
Svapna
reversing
exhalation
(Power of
discernment)
(solar breath
course)
(solar channel)
(dream)
Moon-sun
fusion (haha)
suhumn
n,
into a coil of
fire (kualin)
at heart
Fire
ascending
suhumn
n,
samna
Icch-hakti
centering of
the 2 breaths
(kumbhaka)
(Power of
volition) a.k.a.
kualin-hakti
udna
Icch-hakti
(Power of
volition)
Rekhin-hakti4
vyna
Par-hakti
amita
descending
pervasion of
amita
(Pervasive
one), a.k.a.
Kualin-hakti
suhumn
n,
(immortal
lunar nectar)
crown of the
head into body
Suhupta
(dreamless
sleep)
Tury
(4th state)
heart to crown
Turytt
Rekhin means She who forms a straight line, that is to say the upward uncoiling via the
suhumn of her initially coiled form (kualin) when the yog releases the mantra vocally
through the udna vyu (ascending vocalic wind) powered by the coil of fused breaths (sunmoon).
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KHEMARJA
5
Note that CTs 8 week tele-course on the Vijna Bhairava is now available for download at
www.shaivayoga.com/offerings.
6
He quotes VB 75 in his commentary to verses 3.1-2 of the Spanda Kriks.
7
He quotes VB 75 in his auto-commentary to his Mahrthamajar, verse 71.
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[back to comments on SK 32-33>>] Thus in accordance with this teaching [of the
Vijna Bhairava], the Sustainer (hiva) appears in the suhumn channel in the
center [of the body, i.e. the heart]. He manifests in a clearly discernable form,
arising out of the yogic sleep of the [yog] whose continual devotion doesnt
desist, meaning to say of the one whose focus toward the Lord does not waver
as his awareness is drawn towards the initial emergence [in the heart of that]
akti who embodies [pure] consciousness [Icch-akti, as she] emerges from the
fire stick (arai) when both the emitter (in-breath) and the devourer (out-breath)
are held together [in the heart, during internal kumbhaka].
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The term emitter refers to the inbreath because it generates new life with the
oxygen that is taken in; the exhalation is called the devourer (grsa) because it
devours up the span of ones life. But taken yogically, the term devourer is
used positivelyfor example, Kl is called Klasakari, She who devours
time. So the point of Khemarjas allusion to the fire-stick is to show that the
subtle fire generated in the heart during the fusion of the moon and sun in
breath-retention creates therein a concentrated vibration of mantric power that
coils (kualin) all of the bodys vital energy (pra-vyus) to itself in the heart.
This forms the fire of hiva (Bhairava), of the Supreme Goddess (Par). When she
uncoils in an ascending trajectory, the Goddess, surging upward as a sacred
syllable, rises as a column of subtle fire, devouring all of the impurity (mala)
stuck in the granthis along the central channel that creates debilitating,
contracted, time-bound egoic awareness that obscures our own hiva
consciousness.
KHEMARJA
Appearing in the suhumn, in the dream state, [hiva] bestows the rewards
desired, to a yog whose mental mirror has been polished by the rasa of
immersion [into hiva, according to whether] it is a minute immersion (ava), an
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experience of the Goddess] places the common person as well as the yog into
that [painful] pit of sasra.
Note: Here sasra, transmigration, or circularity, refers to the average mental
state of most people, i.e. one that is governed by the constant, circulating chatter
of thoughts (citta-vitti) that comes from constantly judging the physical world
perceived by our senses, as well the subtle (but still objective) world of our
emotions and thoughts. It is thus citta-vitti which obscures ones highest, hivaSelf.
Contemplation: What happens to my mental experience of sasra when I am
engaged in a peak experience? What is a peak experience, and where is it coming
from?
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