The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)
that the Devatā is a form of the consciousness of the pure Sādhaka which the latter arouses and strengthens, and gains good thereby. It is his consciousness which becomes the boy Shiva, and when strengthened the fullgrown Divine power itself. All Mantras are in the body as forms of consciousness (Vijnāna-rūpa). When the Mantra is fully practised it enlivens the Sangskāra, and the Artha appears to the mind. Mantras are thus a form of the Sangskāra of Jīvas, the Artha of which becomes manifest to the consciousness which is pure. The essence of all this is —concentrate and vitalise thought and will power. But for such a purpose a method is necessary—namely, language and determined varieties of practice according to the end sought. These, Mantravidyā (which explains what Mantra is) also enjoins.
The causal state of Shabda is called Shabdabrahman— that is, the Brahman as the cause of Shabda and Artha. The unmanifest (Avyakta) power or Shabda, which is the cause of manifested Shabda and Artha, uprises on the differentiation of the Supreme Bindu from Prakriti in the form of Bindu through the prevalence of Kriyā Shakti.¹ Avyakta Rava or Shabda (unmanifested sound) is the principle of sound as such (Nāda-mātra)—that is, undifferentiated sound not specialised in the form of letters, but which is, through creative activity, the cause of manifested Shabda and Artha.² It is the Brahman considered as all-pervading Shabda, undivided, unmanifested, whose substance is Nāda and Bindu, the proximate creative
1 See v. 12 Shāradā.
Kriyāshaktipradhānāyāh shabdashabdārtha-kāranam
Prakriter bindurūpinyāh shabdabrahmābhavat param.
In plain English this meaus, in effect, that increasing activity in the Consciousness about to create (Bindu) produces that state in which it is the cause of subject and object, as mind and matter.
2 Tena shabdārtharūpa-vishishtasya shabda-brahmatvam avadhā- ritam (Prānatoshinī, 13).
impulse in Parashiva and proximate cause of manifested Shabda and Artha.¹ It is the eternal partless Sphota² which is not distinguished into Shabda and Artha, but is the Power by which both exist and are known. Shabdabrahman is thus the kinetic ideating aspect of the undifferentiated Supreme Consciousness of philosophy, and the Saguna Brahman of religion. It is Chit-shakti vehicled by undifferentiated Prakriti-shakti—that is, the creative aspect of the one Brahman who is both transcendent and formless (Nirguna), and immanent and with form (Saguna).³ As the Hathayogapradīpikā says:⁴ “Whatever is heard in the form of sound is Shakti. The absorbed state (Laya) of the Tattvas (evolutes of Prakriti) is that in which no form exists.⁵ So long as there is the notion of Ether, so long is sound heard. The soundless is called Parabrahman or Paramātmā.”⁶ Shabdabrahman thus projects itself for the purpose of creation into two sets of movement—namely, firstly, the Shabda (with mental
1 See Prānatoshini, p. 10; Rāghava Bhatta, Comm. v. 12, Ch. I,
Shāradā.
Srishtyunmukha-paramashiva-prathamollāsamātram akhando vyakto nādabindumaya eva vyāpako brahmātmakah shabdah.
2 Sphota, which is derived from Sphut, to open (as a bud does), is that by which the particular meaning of words is revealed. The letters singly, and therefore also in combination, are non-significant. A word is not the thing, but that through which, when uttered, there is cognition of the thing thereby denoted. That which denotes the thing denoted is a disclosure (Sphota) other than these letters. This Sphota is eternal Shabda.
3 It is to be noted that of five Bhūtas, Ākāsha and Vāyu belonging to the formless division (Amūrtta), and the remaining three to the form division (Mūrtta). The first is sensed by hearing. Shabda is vibration for the ear as name. Agni, the head of the second division, is sensed as form (Rūpa). Artha is vibration to the eye (mental or physical) as form.
4 Ch. IV, vv. 101, 102.
5 Yatkinchin nādarūpena shrūyate shaktir eva sā Yas tattvānto nirākārah sa eva parameshvarah.
6 Tāvad ākāshasangkalpo yāvach chhabdah pravartate Nihshabdam tatparam brahma paramātmeti gīyate.
vibrations of cognition) which, passing through the vocal organs, become articulate sound; and, secondly, Artha movements denoted by Shabda in the form of all things constituting the content of mind and the objective world. These two are emanations from the same Conscious Activity (Shakti) which is the Word (Vāk or Logos), and are in consequence essentially the same. Hence the connection between the two is permanent. It is in the above sense that the universe is said to be composed of the letters. It is the fifty¹ letters of the Sanskrit alphabet which are denoted by the garland of severed human heads which the naked² mother, Kālī, dark like a threatening raincloud, wears as She stands amidst bones and carrion beasts and birds in the burning-ground on the white corpselike (Shavarūpa) body of Shiva. For it is She who “slaughters”—that is, withdraws all speech and its objects into Herself at the time of the dissolution of all things (Mahāpralaya).³ Shabdabrahman is the consciousness (Chaitanya) in all creatures. It assumes the form of Kundalī, and abides in the body of all breathing creatures (Prānī), manifesting itself by letters in the form of prose and verse.⁴ In the sexual symbolism of the Shākta Tantras, seed (Bindu)⁵ issued upon the reversed
1 Sometimes given as fifty-one.
2 She is so pictured because She is beyond Māyā (Māyātitā). She is the “Bewilderer of all” by Her Māyā, but is Herself undeceived thereby. This Kālī symbolism is explained in the Svarūpa-vyākhyā of the “Hymn to Kālī” (Karpūrādi Stotra) which I have published as vol. IX of Tantrik Texts.
3 The same symbolism is given in the description of the Heruka in the Buddhist Demchog Tantra.
that the Devatā is a form of the consciousness of the pure Sādhaka which the latter arouses and strengthens, and gains good thereby. It is his consciousness which becomes the boy Shiva, and when strengthened the fullgrown Divine power itself. All Mantras are in the body as forms of consciousness (Vijnāna-rūpa). When the Mantra is fully practised it enlivens the Sangskāra, and the Artha appears to the mind. Mantras are thus a form of the Sangskāra of Jīvas, the Artha of which becomes manifest to the consciousness which is pure. The essence of all this is —concentrate and vitalise thought and will power. But for such a purpose a method is necessary—namely, language and determined varieties of practice according to the end sought. These, Mantravidyā (which explains what Mantra is) also enjoins.
The causal state of Shabda is called Shabdabrahman— that is, the Brahman as the cause of Shabda and Artha. The unmanifest (Avyakta) power or Shabda, which is the cause of manifested Shabda and Artha, uprises on the differentiation of the Supreme Bindu from Prakriti in the form of Bindu through the prevalence of Kriyā Shakti.¹ Avyakta Rava or Shabda (unmanifested sound) is the principle of sound as such (Nāda-mātra)—that is, undifferentiated sound not specialised in the form of letters, but which is, through creative activity, the cause of manifested Shabda and Artha.² It is the Brahman considered as all-pervading Shabda, undivided, unmanifested, whose substance is Nāda and Bindu, the proximate creative
1 See v. 12 Shāradā.
Kriyāshaktipradhānāyāh shabdashabdārtha-kāranam
Prakriter bindurūpinyāh shabdabrahmābhavat param.
In plain English this meaus, in effect, that increasing activity in the Consciousness about to create (Bindu) produces that state in which it is the cause of subject and object, as mind and matter.
2 Tena shabdārtharūpa-vishishtasya shabda-brahmatvam avadhā- ritam (Prānatoshinī, 13).
impulse in Parashiva and proximate cause of manifested Shabda and Artha.¹ It is the eternal partless Sphota² which is not distinguished into Shabda and Artha, but is the Power by which both exist and are known. Shabdabrahman is thus the kinetic ideating aspect of the undifferentiated Supreme Consciousness of philosophy, and the Saguna Brahman of religion. It is Chit-shakti vehicled by undifferentiated Prakriti-shakti—that is, the creative aspect of the one Brahman who is both transcendent and formless (Nirguna), and immanent and with form (Saguna).³ As the Hathayogapradīpikā says:⁴ “Whatever is heard in the form of sound is Shakti. The absorbed state (Laya) of the Tattvas (evolutes of Prakriti) is that in which no form exists.⁵ So long as there is the notion of Ether, so long is sound heard. The soundless is called Parabrahman or Paramātmā.”⁶ Shabdabrahman thus projects itself for the purpose of creation into two sets of movement—namely, firstly, the Shabda (with mental
1 See Prānatoshini, p. 10; Rāghava Bhatta, Comm. v. 12, Ch. I,
Shāradā.
Srishtyunmukha-paramashiva-prathamollāsamātram akhando vyakto nādabindumaya eva vyāpako brahmātmakah shabdah.
2 Sphota, which is derived from Sphut, to open (as a bud does), is that by which the particular meaning of words is revealed. The letters singly, and therefore also in combination, are non-significant. A word is not the thing, but that through which, when uttered, there is cognition of the thing thereby denoted. That which denotes the thing denoted is a disclosure (Sphota) other than these letters. This Sphota is eternal Shabda.
3 It is to be noted that of five Bhūtas, Ākāsha and Vāyu belonging to the formless division (Amūrtta), and the remaining three to the form division (Mūrtta). The first is sensed by hearing. Shabda is vibration for the ear as name. Agni, the head of the second division, is sensed as form (Rūpa). Artha is vibration to the eye (mental or physical) as form.
4 Ch. IV, vv. 101, 102.
5 Yatkinchin nādarūpena shrūyate shaktir eva sā Yas tattvānto nirākārah sa eva parameshvarah.
6 Tāvad ākāshasangkalpo yāvach chhabdah pravartate Nihshabdam tatparam brahma paramātmeti gīyate.
vibrations of cognition) which, passing through the vocal organs, become articulate sound; and, secondly, Artha movements denoted by Shabda in the form of all things constituting the content of mind and the objective world. These two are emanations from the same Conscious Activity (Shakti) which is the Word (Vāk or Logos), and are in consequence essentially the same. Hence the connection between the two is permanent. It is in the above sense that the universe is said to be composed of the letters. It is the fifty¹ letters of the Sanskrit alphabet which are denoted by the garland of severed human heads which the naked² mother, Kālī, dark like a threatening raincloud, wears as She stands amidst bones and carrion beasts and birds in the burning-ground on the white corpselike (Shavarūpa) body of Shiva. For it is She who “slaughters”—that is, withdraws all speech and its objects into Herself at the time of the dissolution of all things (Mahāpralaya).³ Shabdabrahman is the consciousness (Chaitanya) in all creatures. It assumes the form of Kundalī, and abides in the body of all breathing creatures (Prānī), manifesting itself by letters in the form of prose and verse.⁴ In the sexual symbolism of the Shākta Tantras, seed (Bindu)⁵ issued upon the reversed
1 Sometimes given as fifty-one.
2 She is so pictured because She is beyond Māyā (Māyātitā). She is the “Bewilderer of all” by Her Māyā, but is Herself undeceived thereby. This Kālī symbolism is explained in the Svarūpa-vyākhyā of the “Hymn to Kālī” (Karpūrādi Stotra) which I have published as vol. IX of Tantrik Texts.
3 The same symbolism is given in the description of the Heruka in the Buddhist Demchog Tantra.
No commentary for this page.