THE TEN SPIRITUAL CONQUESTS OF THE SOUL

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THE TEN SPIRITUAL
CONQUESTS OF THE SOUL.
(DASA KARYANI)
Apropos of the degree of sanctification attained by Master Srikantha, the saintly
scholiast on Badarayanas Sariraka sutras, the great Appayya remarks in his
Sivarkamanidipika that the Master became a competent spiritual exponent of the real verities
by reason of his being well established in Daharavidya or dahara upasana. This Dahara
upasana is the door way to the highest stage of godly experience attainable by man, an
experience, the blessedness and peace of which is often described by Christian mystics as
Fellowship with god. The essence of dahara upasana is Siva darsanam, Brahmadarsanam,
or Seeing god. Dahara vidya is knowledge of the mystery of godliness, knowledge of
the spirit, and Dahara upasana is worship in spirit and in truth, waiting on god, Dahara
means subtle, spiritual, the subtlety and spirituality here having chiefly to do with the
attainment of that knowledge or degree of sanctification whereby one can transcend his
senses and thought. The Upanishads proclaim that within the Cave of the heart is the
subtle expanse, and in it abide the whole universe (Chhandogya Upanishad, VIII,I,3). This
subtle expanse is known as Dahara akasa (the Ponnambalam of the Tamil mystic literature)
and by many another name. But none of these terms are to be understood in their material
sense, representing as they do living facts of consciousness only to such as have become
qualified by due culture to enter upon the Path of Light, but mere symbols to others. To give
up the objective world is infinitely more easy than pacifying thoughts, or quieting subjective
activities. When the mind can maintain its one pointedness (ekagrata) for some little time, it
is next trained to drop the object (bija or lakshya) and remain in a condition of absolute calm.
This is a very trying exercise accompanied by obscuring sleep or swoon, and the greatest
aloofness is necessary to hold up the consciousness until a more vivid bhumika rises to view.
As Patanjali ordains, the posture adopted in spiritual communion should be easy and pleasant.
The Atma darsanam, and Brahma darsanam are only possible in that silence in the interior of
ones being, a sweet silence which invariably supervenes when thoughts run down to a calm,
a calm which must be absolute and complete. That silence is neither the obscurity of sleep,
nor the hush that is occasionally super induced when the warring senses are overawed by a
passing wave of strong emotion. It is a silence that is only too audible because of the
inaudibility of the senses and thoughts. The various stages in the inner progress of the souls
culminating at last in face to face fellowship with God are well analysed and summed up in
the dasa karyani of the Saiva Siddhanta. The expression dasa karyani means the ten
achievements which fall to the share of every Arurukshu engaged in Atmoddharana before
he arrives at the luminous condition known sometimes as sahaja Samadhi or ceaseless
walking with God waking or sleeping. These ten spiritual experiences, which according to
one set of Jnanis, are further resolvable into thirty Erscheimungen, occur to the soul only
during its five amalavasthas, but the ne plus ultra of the spiritual pilgrimage is the Bhuma
glorified in the Chhandogya Upanishad, vii, 23, or the Saynjya siva bhoga. The Lord (Siva) is
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described as sat chit ananda, which is the same as saying that He is Life, Light and Love, and
no better characterization will do justice to His supernal nature.
Mention is made of the stages of this dasa karyani in the great Jnana sastra, the great
Siva Jnana bodham (Instruction in the knowledge of the spirit) which is an episode of the
great Raurava agama. We have 28 Agamas or Sivagamas attached to the mystic philosophy
of the Saiva Siddhanta, and they are the revealed truth treating of the science and art of
purging the soul of its cankering impurities, and enabling it to behold god in all His glory,
while yet tabernacle in the flesh. They are thus listed in Trilocharas Siddhanta-Saravali.

vv. 3 and 4 in Charyapada. The Rauravagamas thus Raudra, i.e. to say the system of mystic
instruct on embodies therein is adapted to these souls who are not yet healed of their
Anavamala, the Subtle Corruption which is the earliest to adhere to the soul and the latest to
leave it. If an Agama be classed as Saiva in the mystic terminology of the Saiva-Siddhanta,
the meaning is that it is applicable to such Vignanakalah (=Vignanakevalah, according to
Tattva-prakasa an authoritative treatise on Agamic mysticism) as are already rid of the
Anavamala. The terms Vijnanakalah and Vijnanakevalah indicated a class of souls in whom
the only remaining taint is the Anavamala. Sivajnanabodham is held to be the cream of the
Rauravagama, and has recently been edited in Sanskrit with a commentary, in the pages of
the Pandit, Benares.
What constitute the dasa-karyani we will now see: the following are their names in
ascending order. (1) Tattva-rupa, (2) Tattva-darsana, (3) Tattva-suddhi, (4) Atma-rupa, (5)
Atma-darsana, (6) Atma-suddhi, (7) Siva-rupa, (8) Siva-darsana, (9) Siva-yoga and (10) Siva-
bhoga. The experiences or achievements herein formulated appertain to the five states of the
soul, detailed in the Karna, Svayambhuva and other Agamas, to the five Suddha-avasthas
comprising Jagra, Svapna, Sushupti, Turiya, and Turiyatita. These conditions of the soul are
mentioned also in Iraiyanarakapporul under the names kurinji, palai, mullai, marutam, and
naital. The Suddha-avasthas are also known as amala and nirumala, in reference to those
pure states of the soul, when it becomes capable of shining radiant in its investment of purity,
even as a crystal column, while under the full blaze of the sun in the zenith (cf.
Tiruvarutpayan of Umapati, v. 67). In the Upadesa-kanda of the Siva-purana (lxxxiv:vv. 59
and 60) the five avasthas enumerated above are said to belong equally to the kevalavastha,
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Sakalavastha, and Suddhavastha, while the Mandukyopanishad falls short of even these five
avasthas, by mentioning four. It is probable, however, that the turiya of the Mandukya
includes the turiyatita, and the four avasthas have reference to the amalavastha. The dasa
karyani of the Siddhanta system, which are achieved by the soul only during the five states of
the Suddhavastha, includes the twelve karyas beginning in the Pancha-bhutadhikkarna, and
ending with the chaitanya-darsana, as well as the eighteen karyas beginning in the jnana-
darsana and ending with the Paramanandavasa, and consequently thirty triumphs in all. All
these karyani (achievements by the soul) and avsthas (states of the soul) are to be realised in
Samadhi or spiritual communion.
Tirumular devotes a large portion of his mystic instruction (Tirumantiram) to the
dasa-karyani, and Siva-jnana-vallalar does likewise. Kumara tevar takes his cue from the God
taught wisdom of the Saiva darsana, and endues the intellectual Advaita-vedanta with a
mystic cult, by speaking of a so called Vedanta dasavastha, and Vedanta-dasa-karya. The
total number of avasthas as realised by the Agmaic-jnanis in whom the kingdom of Heaven
was fully established is eighteen. There is no doubting the fact that Kumara tevar was a
sanctified soul, but in his hands the presentation of the advaita vedanta has assumed a
complexion which shows it to be indebted to the Saiva siddhanta, in a real spiritual sense.
There is always a danger for those who are intent on cleansing their souls and
knowing the true methods of finding God, when they have recourse to books for spiritual
instruction, which are written by men who never enjoyed Atma-puranam. Such books
explain truths as revealed by the dry light of the intellect, and never as they are in their real
nature. It requires the most penetrating mind to distinguish works recording the godly
experiences of real Svanubhuti, from those that are misleading parodies of such. Intellect is
mischievous, unless the Light of God shines through it freely and without stint. On this object
Swami Vivekananda adds (Raja-yoga, p.70) Read only those books which have been written
by persons who have had realization. The Agamas are never tired of adding a similar
warning against reading books written by those who are not of God but who affect by the
power of their intellect to be of God. It must of course be confessed that till a man has entered
the Path of Light, he cannot always successfully distinguish the utterances of a saint from
those of the worldly that are perhaps drawn, or fell perhaps drawn, to the reality of the
unseen.
St. Tirumular, the Anointed of God, thus sums up the great verities underlying the
actual Godly Experience of Jnanis (the Seers of God).
L[@G_
lL_
lG@Lu
@_.
v.3, of the 1
st
Tantra.
Of the three that are styled Pati (God), Pasa (primeval corruption, sin), and Pasu (sin-
bound soul), Pasu and Pasa are as eternal as God Himself, but Pasu and Pasa cannot contact
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Pati, as they disappear on nearing Him. This novel relationship between the three is brought
out again under a different analogy:-
@[@@@_@u
@[@@_@L
@[Gl__
[G_@_0.
v. 5. Ibid.
Here, the @[u ( burning glass) is the soul under corruption, the @_@
(the surrounding cotton, the enshrouding lint) is the three sorts of corruption which enchain
the soul, and the @[G (Sun) is God in whose presence or when He becomes manifest, the
[Qu (the burning down of the three strongholds of corruotion) occurs. The three
species of corruption, the removal of which is known as Pasa-kshaya are Anava-mala, Maya-
mala, and Karma-mala, the nature of the different malas being of an intricate character. And
about the glory of Illumination (Orison or Luminous Sleep) the sage goes on to say:-
0M[@u@u
0M[@u@u
0M[@u@u
0M[0 O.
v. 7. Ibid.

lu
lu
lLGG_@L
l@ GL_
v. 19. Ibid.
The last verse records an experience the true meaning of which is better felt than
explained, as the Saint himself says a little previously (v. 17) that it baffles description. In the
same connexion he says also
[0 [[
@u @Qu u@LM[
[ [ [ u
@[ @@0 @L.
v. 13. Ibid.
@Lu u @l
Llu|Q@
L[ 0M_ G|
L[ [@.
v. 14. Ibid.
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The Saint here gives expression to the greatest of truths in soul-culture which is
within the actual experience of those who rest in God. Such souls swallow up
(LM[) or extinguish the operations of corruprion in the 36 rudiments
(Galatians IV.9) beginning with the grossest evolute (@Q=Prithvi) and ending with
the finest or subtlest evolute (u=u), and dethrone death. They have crossed the
3 wastes (@L@0) and become indistinguishable from God (cf. @@[ 8-
u u, v. 374). In Tamil mystic literature _ is the name given to that critical state
which marks off the shading of one sort of consciousness into another. The crossing
(0) has reference only to successful crossing, whereby the critical state which
usually robs a man of continuity of consciousness between one kind of Anschauung and
another, is rendered proof against stupefaction. The ordinary man cannot with the best of care
and diligence carry with him his so-called waking consciousness into dream or sleep. But
when the soul is cleansed of its impurities, sleep in the ordinary sense becomes a thing of
the past. And the degrees of illumination or sanctified perfection are sometimes classified as
those of The Knower of God, The Seer of God, The Rester in God, and The Walker
with God.
[ G@[ 0[
|[ llG[u [LG
[ @u * * * * * * * * * * * v. 94,
lLu,
.

Kaivalya-navanitam of Tandavarayasvami is an able summary of the Vedanta of
Sankara in Tamil, but the mysticism which imparts the greatest interest to that work is drawn
unreservedly from the Jnana-sastras which form the bulk of the Saiva-Siddhanta literature.
Our observation will find its justification in the commentary of Ponnampalasvami on
Kaivalya-navanitam, entitled Tattvarthadipam, in which all the mystic experiences and truths
detailed in the Text, are illustrated and explained by apt quotations from valuable sacred
books of the Saiva Siddhanta, such as those of @@[, M[ and the like. There
is a living mystic tradition, kept by regular spiritual successions of Masters in
u of , elsewhere, Masters who draw their inspiration from the
Jnana Sastras of the Saiva-Siddhanta and to whom the pure in heart flock when seeking the
true light of Illumination.
The relation between soul and God, which finds such perplexing apparently and self-
contradictory albeit fine, expression, amongst Sankarins cannot be better put than in the
following words of Tirumular:-
Ll|_[G u0
LL[_ @OQ@
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Ll|_ G@ _
Ll|_ G u 0@.
v. 24, of the 1
st
Tantra.

In the highest sense, therefore, that relation reminds us of the brine in sea-water and
the peculiar intimacy attaching between the two. That relation is the crown and glory of the
toilsome march which every godly soul feels necessitated to undertake, in order to work out
to emptiness, in tears and tribulation, the various samskaras and vasanas which it has
inherited from an infinite past. And the march is described in Agamic Mysticism in terms of
avasthas and karyas, whose meaning was previously explained in a measure in a different
connexion.
The dasa-karyani may now be considered in detail. It goes without saying that they
are associated with the Jnana-pada or Vidya-pada of the Agamas, and hence are sometimes
comprised in the term Agamantam (in contradistinction to the intellectual Vedantam which is
only a theoretical and summary formulation of the highest spiritual truths). To show how
sacred and God-leading the Agamantam has been deemed by the God-taught Mystics of the
Maha-pasupata order, who are the chosen seed of God amongst the Vaidiks, a quotation
from the Skanda-purana will suffice:-

Consequently, the dasa-karyani of the Agamanta stand revealed only to the duly
initiated in the mysteries of the Spirit, who are thenceforward recognised as the fit heirs to the
Kingdom of Heaven.
The first change that comes over the soul is known as Tattva-rupam which means the
apperception of the form or actual constitution of the Tattvam. In Agamic Mysticism,
Tattva is used in the sense of an evolute of Matter. The Thirty-six Tattva which are said in a
sense to sum up the various modifications of Matter, constitute the Road of Matter, the
Way of the Flesh, the modes of Old Adam, or in fact, the so called Tattvadhvan. These
Tattvas eventually drop off one after another leaving the soul pure and serene, and fit to work
grossest evolutes of matter or the most obscuring veils of the out its salvation, under the
gracious mercy of the Lord. The soul are designated Atma-tattvas or tattvas for the salvation
of the soul par excellence, which are twenty-four in number. The earliest evolute of these is
the Mula-prakriti, Sthula prakriti or Prakriti simply. The terms mean the rudiment of
gross matter or its equivalent. Pasusjkara, an Upagama of the Paramesvara, thus describes
the evolution of the Mula-prakriti:-

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The three gunas which are nothing else than affections, phases or modifications of the
Mula-prakriti brought on by a change in the motion (kshobhana) of its particles, are the real
cause of the apparent cumbrousness which enshrouds the Web of Matter, and of the glamour
which the prapancha assumes for the man in the street. Hence, to dethrone effectively the
fascinations of matter we should get to understand its real springs of mischief and
blandishment. And the springs are to be found on that plane of matter where the gunas take
their rise from the Mula-prakriti. The first step in the unravelling of the mystery of the flesh,
and of the souls bondage to it is the Tattvarupam of the Dasa-karyani. When this stage is
attained the soul is able to look behind the glamour of the Atma-tattvas, right into the cause
of the tides known as the gunas, is able, so to say, to understand the genuine
enlightenment, now understands the relation of the three gunas to its salvation by the
operative agency of the karma-mala, and their exact significance in the Divine Dispensation.
V. V. Raman.