Monday, September 27, 2010

36 Elements of Kashmir Shaivism





Namaskar!


Today’s topic is 36 Elements of Kashmir Shaivism.

When I started reading Kashmir Shaivism the first thing that struck to me was that it was like diamond coming in my hands. The diamond has many facets. In Kashmir Shaivism if we see, the different facets throw light on to different aspects of objective world as well as subjective world. That is how it makes your understanding complete. So we have got this diamond in our hand and all the new facets are coming in front of us every time when Sir is speaking. That is how the understanding is becoming complete. Now we will start with today’s topic of 36 elements.

When we speak about 36 elements, they are basically the fundamental building blocks of creation. Shiva decided to create the Universe from his Iccha Shakti, It is Lord Shiva’s will, so it is independent and unlimited. It is Shiva’s Svatantrya Shakti. Thus out of his independent will, he decided to create the Universe because he wanted to experience what is it to be in various forms of creation - and through them, have the enjoyment of different experiences. So he decided to create the Universe. When he thought of that, the first thing that happened was he started expanding. When we say Shiva, it is Param Shiva - the Supreme Subjective Consciousness which is all pervading and absolutely inert. From any inert thing, the creation cannot emerge. So the first thing that started was Shiva started expanding. When he started expanding Shakti came out of it. Shiva is the first element in Kashmir Shaivism and Shakti is the second element. Now Shiva and Shakti are inseparable. Shiva is the consciousness aspect and Shakti is the bliss energy aspect of the same thing. They are together and unless they are together further things cannot happen. Only Shiva or only Shakti alone is incapable of creating anything. So Shiva started expanding. From that emerged Shakti. In Shakti Shiva is very much there. It is the expanded Shiva.

Shiva decided to have this Universe and how this Universe will be? It is the reflection of Shiva in his own nature. It is not that the mirror is different and the object is different and the object is getting reflected into that mirror. No! Shiva himself is the mirror and he decided to reflect the Universe in his own nature. So in the process of expansion Shakti came. To make the understanding of 36 elements easier we can see it this way - it is actually the process of creation of anything that gets created. Whether it is the creation of Universe or creation of any other thing like you are starting a factory or it is a creation of the movie, any process of creation goes through this. To make the understanding easier let’s take an example. When you think that I want to start a factory does the factory manifest on its own? No, there is a process through which it goes and the work happens in phases. The work does not happen overnight. The first thing is the will that you have to start something, then you start getting the knowledge of what all possibilities are there. When you have the knowledge then you start thinking that if I have to do then how will I do? In creation when it is going to start it goes through this.

In the same way Shiva decided that if the Universe has to come into existence, then there has to be energy which will work for him. From Shiva, the energy of consciousness Chit Shakti emerged Shakti which is the energy of bliss and they are in bliss. Chidanada they were in that blissful consciousness state; but again for the universe to get created what was needed was Iccha Shakti, the power of will to create the Universe. Iccha Shakti is not translated as power of desire. It is the power of will. It’s the inner will which is Iccha Shakti. From his nature first what he created was Iccha Shakti. If he has the will to do something only then that thing can happen. If that inner will is not there then that thing will not happen. First Shiva created will in the form of energy of will, power of will which is called Iccha Shakti. Thus the third element was created which is called as Sadashiva – the power of revealment of Shiva. It says “I am the Universe”

From that he further expanded and created Gyan Shakti that is the Energy of Knowledge. The fourth element got created, which was Ishvar - the Power of Concealment of Shiva. If you want to create something unless you have the knowledge how will you proceed further? So it is the Gyan Shakti, the Energy of Knowledge that is created. Now Shiva expanded into that, he did not create it, he expanded into that aspect of creation and there he says, “This Universe is Me”.

So first came Shiva, then the second element Shakti, third Sadashiva, fourth Ishvar. That is From the Pure Subjective Consciousness, Paramshiva, first emerged the Energy of Consciousness, Chit Shakti. Then it expanded into Energy of Bliss, Anand Shakti. Further it gave rise to Iccha - the Energy of Will. Further Shiva moved and created Energy of Knowledge. which is the Gyaan Shakti, the Energy of Knowledge. You may have the knowledge but will the things happen? No, unless you start working on it things cannot happen. For that what you need is Kriya, the Energy of Action. There are lots of big project we see. If they remain in the mind will the manifestation happen? It cannot happen. So you need to have the plan of action. Thus came the fifth element Shudhhavidya, the Energy of Action of Shiva. Now the next phase starts. These are the five Shuddha tattvas,

Here the action has not yet started, the plan has just manifested in the mind of Shiva. It has not yet manifested in the objective world. Shiva is the Subjective Consciousness, it has decided to experience what it is to be in a body and he wanted to experience the creation, So the Objective Consciousness is the objective world and Shiva is the Subjective Consciousness. From there it is coming down now. Till now all these were the Pure elements.

If we have pure gold and when we try to make ornament out of that pure gold, we first have to add impurity and only from that impure and hardened material the ornament can be made. And this process is applicable in creation of anything if you want to have a sustainable creation, when the impurity is added the action starts. A pure element is an inert element. It does not act. When the impurity is added to it, the action can be started. So further to these first five pure elements starts the next phase.

It is actually a phase. I will tell you about a further chapter of The Secret Supreme, which is about Shadadhvan which tells about different phases and different paths and how in each phase this work is carried out.


Next phase is he wants to become a Jiva. From here the phase of adding the impurity begins. Here Shiva has all the unlimited powers and with those unlimited powers, he will not be able to become a Jiva, that is a Limited Being. So in order to bring Himself into a limited form, what he does is he first creates the veil of Maya – the illusion. So the next element is the element of Maya, the power of illusion. Why is it needed? If you are unlimited how will you become limited and experience it. Illusion has to be created. With the unlimited power of will that is Svatantra Shakti he decided that he wants to become limited and he wants to experience it - so this veil of Maya! Thus by coming under the veil of Maya and wearing five jackets of limitedness, the five Kanchukas, now Shiva becomes Purusha which is the limited being. How does he become that?

The first thing is the limited aspect of creativity. Nature of Shiva is Sarvakartutvam that is unlimited creativity. He can do anything that he wants to do and His Svatantrya Shakti is such that there is nothing to oppose it. Whatever he wants to do he can do it. Here first aspect of limitedness comes. Limited being can do something but that will be limited because Shiva has created this veil of Maya under which Shiva thinks that only limited things can be done. But it is Shiva only. All through these 36 elements this aspect has to be kept in mind that it is the Shiva who is descending. That means all these basic 36 elements are not separate from Shiva. Shiva himself is descending through these 36 elements.

The first aspect which comes is the limited aspect of creativity that is Kalaa. When we say “Chandra ki Kala”, it is a phase, a part of moon. Normally Kalaa word, we use in context where we mean any art form. But these art forms also why we started calling Kala? It is because it is the limited aspect of entire creativity. That is why we call music as Kalaa, dance as Kalaa because it is just one part and not whole! Thus from here only this word Kalaa has got attached to performing arts. So Kala is the limited creativity. Let us take the analogy of starting a factory or a film production. You can have limited products. You cannot produce unlimitedly.

Proceeding further on the analogy that I gave you if you start thinking, you will understand the further aspects and you do not have to mug up the elements. You have decided to create, it is going to be limited creation, so you have to know in that limited aspects what all things could be created or how to create them. So the third element Vidya tattva comes into picture - the limited power of knowledge in the sequence of Pure-impure elements. Here Shiva’s capacity is Sarva-jnananatvam – all knowing! From that Sarvajnananatvam, coming under the veil of Maya he decides that I can know only limited. So the aspect of limited knowledge - Vidya tattva emerged. How are these limitations felt? You always feel that I want to know this I want to know that too. Only learning this is not sufficient; let me learn that too! Ultimately you feel that there is a limitation on what all you can know. Why does one feel that way? It is because under the veil of Maya and in the effect of Vidyaa tattva it is the Shiva who is saying that I can know limited. So whatever I can know will be limited. So this vidya tattva keeps on telling you that you will know limited.

These are the Shuddha-ashuddha tattvas or the Pure-impure elements that we are discussing. First is Maya under which the five Kanchukas or jackets come. The first was Kalaa tattva, after that was Vidya.

Now the third is the Raaga tattva, the limited attachments. Purna madaha, Purnamidam, Purnaat purna mudachyate. Purnasya, purna maadaya Purna mevaavashishshyate – a Wholeness, completeness! That is Shiva’s real nature which is Purnatvam - completeness. But when it comes to limitedness it says that something is lacking in me. If I get this I will become complete. Something lacking in you, this feeling is given by Raag tattwa, the power of Limited Attachment! You cannot attach to infinite things. This limited attachment makes you think that I have only limited things and if I have this I will become complete, this purnatvam of Shiva has got converted into Raaga tattva which is the limited aspect of it.

From this the next thing that comes is Kaal. Shiva’s nature is Nityatvam. Shiva is eternal. That eternal being when it wants to come into that limited aspect, it will be for a particular duration and that is from where comes the Kaal tattwa which says that today I am sitting here, yesterday I was there and tomorrow I will be there. Aspect of today, tomorrow, yesterday came from this Kaal tattva because of this limitedness of time. Otherwise Shiva is eternal! Tomorrow, today these aspects are not there and that is where this aspect of aging also comes into picture. If there is Nityatvam will there be concept of aging? It won’t be there because we are eternal. But we say, “I am 47 years old or 54 years old or whatever! Aging came from the limitedness of time which tells you that you can live only for a limited span of life. That is why when Sir Keeps on explaining about the immortal Masters, it is this aspect that they have gone beyond, that is why they have become immortal. They don’t have the concept of 54 years old and all that. They are eternal, their existence is eternal. They have crossed this aspect, they have gone beyond Maya and they have beyond this tattva also.

On the basis of same analogy, you have decided to create say a factory. For the same limited aspect now you have got the knowhow. Further you decide only these products can be manufactured. Next is this much time is required for the production to come into existence. Next is where it will be? It cannot be everywhere, it is limited thing that is going to come up, so it will have a particular place and that is Niyati, the destiny – the limited aspect of Space. This is the limited aspect of Shiva which tells that it is the limited aspect of space. Sarva-vyapakatvam is the quality of Shiva which means all-pervading. From there it has come to the tattva which is the limitation that is Niyati. That is why we say that I wanted to go there but I could not because I cannot be at two places simultaneously. I can be only at one place at any given time. The Jiva when it comes into the body says that I will be at one place at any given time. That is how the Niyati Tattva came. These are the Shuddha-ashuddha tattvas. Thus coming under the veil of Maya and wearing the Panch kanchukas of Kalaa, Vidya, Raaga, Kaala and Niyati now Shiva has become Purusha, the Limited Being.

Purusha is the ego which is connected to subjectivity. It has still some connection with Shiva; it has not yet entered the world of pure objectivity. You can say that these Pure-impure elements were the management level. Earlier Shuddha tattvas or the Pure Elements was the director level. Now comes the production level where Purusha and Prakriti are there. There Shiva and Shakti they were inseparable, here there is Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha responds to Prakriti and Prakriti takes charge of the creation. The first five elements are Shuddha elements, the next seven elements are Shuddha-ashuddha elements with veil of Maya with five Kanchukas which the Purusha wears.

The phase of Impure Elements begins now. Now the creation enters into the actual objective world. From here Shiva through Prakriti tattva starts manifesting in the objective world. When you want to make something you have to know what are the ingredients required, what are the things that are required for the project. There comes the aspect of ashuddha tattvas, the 24 impure elements from where the objective world is created. It is the pure subjectivity which through this process is experiencing objectivity. Through Prakriti now Shiva has now started its further phase of creation. Here we will start from the lowest tattva.

In the process of creation also you see it always comes this way. First the idea is conceived at, and then the plan becomes ready in mind. There you come from higher level. But when the actual manifestation has to happen you have to start collecting the ingredient which is the lowest phase off the ladder of creation. In these 36 rungs of ladder, the lowest rung is that of Earth element. Panch Mahabhutas or the Five Great Elements come on to the lowest five rungs. Panch mahabhuttas are the Earth, Prithvi tattva – that which gives rigidity or solidity. Then Jala, Water – that which gives fluidity, followed by Agni or Tejas tattva - Fire – which has two aspects, lower heat aspect and higher light aspect. Next is Vaayu tattva - the Air and last Akaash tattva - Ether or Space element. These are the Panch Mahabhutas. Why are they called as Panch Mahabhutas? We call this world as “Bhautik Jagat”. From these Panch Mahabhuttas this world is made up and that is why it is called “Bhautik Jagat”- manifested world.

These Panch Mahabhuttas have association with Panch Tanmatras, the residence of the five sense perceptions. We can say Tanmatras are the abodes of sensations.

Tanmatra associated with space or ether element is Shabd. Rather than going step by step into these things let us first have overall view of the whole thing. We have panch Jnanendriyas – the five sense organs of perception and Panch Karmendriyas – the five organs of action. Panch Gyanendriyas what do they do? Constantly the inputs are coming to them. They are sensing the inputs and these inputs have reflection in your consciousness and they are stored as psychic impressions in your memory. How does this process happen? The outer reflection of the Shabd tanmatra is in the ether, space and the inner reflection of that is in the ears. Gyanendriya which is associated with the shabd tanmatra is Shrotra or ear and the element which is associated with the shabd tanmatra is Aakash or ether.

This way if you correlate you will understand the whole thing. Next is the air element, for air element Sparsh or the touch is the tanmatra because it is the movement of air which creates the sensation of touch. Air is the element, touch is the tanmatra and it is reflected in Gyanendriya or organ of cognition on Tvak or skin. Next is fire. Why are you able to see me or why am I able to see you? It is because of the light. If the light is not there we won’t be able to see. So the form which we see is because of the light. That is why Fire or Agni is the element, Roop is the tanmatra. The Form that you see is the tanmatra and with what you see, eyes or Chakshu is the Gyanendriya. Next element is Jala or Water. For water the tanmatra is Rasa or the taste and the Sense organ is tongue or Jnanendriya is Rasanaa. Many times we say that the food there is very tasty because the water there has a taste. It is different. So it is the water that gives the taste and that is why Rasnaa or the tongue is the Gyanendriya. This tongue is always kept wet by saliva. Whatever you eat if that does not melt into the saliva you will not be able to taste anything. Tongue does two jobs that is of speaking and second is of tasting. Last element is Prithvi - Earth, Ghrana or the nose is the Gyanendriya and Gandha or the smell is the tanmatra. When we say that there is a flower and the fragrance of flower is coming, actually what happens is that the molecules of that flower travel and reach the nose and only then can we smell. If you understand the correlation then you don’t have to remember the tanmatras and Gyanendriyas.

Now we have this picture of Panch Mahabhuttas and Panch tanmatras and Panch Gyanendriyas. In between from lower side after five elements and the tanmatras come Panch Karmendriyas or the five Organs of Action. When you have the perception at the same time the action also has to be there otherwise if there is no movement in this world you will not be able to have different perceptions. There come the organs of action or Karmendriyas. These Panch Karmendriyas are Vak, Pani, Pada, Payu and Upastha. Vak or the tongue is the first karmendriya. Again Vak means Speech and is related to tongue. If you see further chapters there these things are explained that basically the five energies of Shiva – Chit Shakti, Ananda Shakti, Iccha Shakti, Gyan Shakti and Kriya Shakti, these five energies are percolating up to the lowest element Earth and they are creating this entire universe. For your own reference what you can do which I did and my understanding became complete, I made a table for all these things. Right from Akasha element to earth element write the associated tanmatras and in the first column you write the five shuddha shaktis - Chit Shakti, Ananda Shakti, Iccha Shakti, Gyan Shakti and Kriya Shakti. Then you will see how these are created from those five energies. These tables I will give you soon.

The first karmendriya is Vak which is the tongue, Pani or hand which is the Organ of Giving, the job of hands is to give or Aadaan. Pada means leg and movement, vihar or moving around is the job done by legs, Payu is the Organ of Excretion. Upastha is the Sex organ and its job is procreation.

Panch Mahabhutas, Panch tanmatras, Panch Karmendriyas and Panch Gyanendriyas make twenty tattvas. Now four more impure elements remain in which uppermost is Prakriti. Under Prakriti is the Ahankar tattva or the ego, under which is Buddhi tattva or the intellect and under that comes Manas or mind. and the twenty fifth tattva of Purusha goes above and comes under Pure-impure elements. If you start seeing from Ananda Shakti, all these are made up with the help of Gyan Shakti. Kashmir Shaivism is all about experiencing, it is not just about knowing intellectually. There is one more chapter in ‘The Secret Supreme’ which tells you that there are two types of Gyanas, one is Paurusha Gyan and other is Bauddha Gyan. Bauddha Gyan is the intellectual knowledge and Paurusha Gyan is the experiential knowledge, only experiential knowledge is not sufficient. With experiential knowledge you will be liberated - but after death! And what will happen is if you have the experiential knowledge and don’t have the understanding of it, the bauddha knowledge of it, slowly you will start forgetting and the knowledge will fade out. Unless you give the expression and tell others about it that knowledge will fade away and you won’t have anything to tell for the next generation and that is why always experiential knowledge has to be accompanied by the intellectual or the Bauddha knowledge. But only intellectual knowledge if you have that is not going to liberate you and will not serve any purpose. With that the ego becomes strong and you keep yourself away from actually experiencing all these things. That is why Kashmir Shaivism all the time stresses on the practices and the intellectual understanding of the experiences. Through practices you will be experiencing something and those experiences if you want to express to others you have to have proper terminology.

When Kashmir Shaivism came in my hand I thought that in TAO too many programs have happened and through those programs we had so many experiences; but those were tit bit experiences, some experience here, some experience there but when the entire Jigsaw puzzle comes in front of you, you start understanding which is the missing link. This Kashmir Shaivism is the map which unfolds the entire jigsaw puzzle with each and every piece in it to understand.

We were talking about Purusha, Prakriti, Buddhi, Ahamkar and Manas. Manas, Buddhi and Ahamkar together are called as antahkarana. ‘Karana’ in Sanskrit means organs and ‘antah’ means inner. These are the three inner organs. Manas does the job of Sankalpa nirmana, it is a thought creating factory, whether it is necessary or not. When I look there I think that this is the chart. Is it necessary to think that? No, but mind will go on doing its job ceaselessly; constantly it will go on creating thoughts. It is Manas which creates the thought so it predominantly contains Kriya Shakti and it is manifested from Gyan Shakti. This correlation you can find in the chapter on Matrikachakra in “The Secret Supreme”. So if you get the knowledge of how these thoughts are generated, then through that you can understand the Manas tattva. Manas constantly creates thoughts; but for taking any action these are referred to the higher agency of Buddhi tattva or intellect. For knowing what is right and what is wrong. There should be some agency which will tell you what is right and what is wrong for that the reference is buddhi, the intellect. The intellect tells you right or wrong, the discrimination aspect. Next comes the ego or Ahankar tattva. Purusha again is the ego but is associated with subjective consciousness; here Ahankar is also ego but associated with the objective world. Ego says I like this or I like that and these tags are put by the ego which is associated with the objective world. It also creates the separateness. I am different than others. Predominant Iccha Shakti when combined with Gyan Shakti creates ego. How does the ego work? “I want” to do this. It is your limited Iccha Shakti and that too in ashuddha tattvas from that comes the ego element, the Ahamkar tattva. If you have the knowledge or Gyan of that or understand how your will is trying to operate through you in limited way, then you understand the Ahankar tattva.

Next up on the ladder is Prakriti tattva which is predominant Ananda Shakti. It is the natural state of object which is created but because of further things which add the impurities, in the process that nature is lossed and that is why Prakriti tattva is also known in English as nature. The nature of any being is to be happy, but here again in limited sense. If you understand that then you understand the Prakriti tattva which functions in the sphere of impure elements. On the higher twenty fifth rung of the ladder, next to Prakriti tattva comes the Purusha. Purusha and Prakriti they are together and inseparable. So there are 24 ashuddha tattva, Shuddha-ashuddha tattvas are seven – Purusha with the covering of five Kanchukas with one blanket of Maya. The five Kanchukas you do not have to mug up, just try to understand, it is the limited creativity which is Kalaa tattva, limited knowledge is Vidya tattva, limited attachment is Raaga tattva, limited time is Kaala tattwa and the final is the limitation of space, Niyati. Sarvakartutvam, Sarvagyanatvam, Purnattvam, Nityatvam and Sarvavyapakatvam, they are converted into limited aspects of kalaa, vidyaa, raaga, kaala and Niyati. These are the five Kanchukas and Purusha wearing these five Kanchukas and the blanket of Maya is the limited being. So when we start understanding, then we enter from Shuddha tattvas to Shuddha-ashuddha tattvas, experientially how do we start understanding these things?

Experientially when you start feeling the limitation, like you say I am here but I could have been there. then when you start pondering over that, when you meditate upon that then you come to understand that it is the limitation which is being felt by the Jiva. I have the unlimited choice of being anywhere at any given time but because of the limitedness of space that I feel, I choose to go to one particular place at any given time. That is how Niyati functions. When we start understanding the limitedness of our being and accept it because as long as Shiva is operating through the body this limitedness is going to be there, when you understand this through practices or through inner understanding then you come to a point from where you can enter into the experiential aspect of Shuddha tattvas. If you keep struggling into the limitedness you will remain into Shuddha-ashuddha tattvas. That is what limitedness takes you to, the Shuddha-ashuddha tattvas. If you want to go to the Shuddha tattvas from there you have to accept this limitation and then go beyond.

There are different practices, different upaya or means of realization like Anvopaaya, Shaktopaaya, Shambhavopaya, etc. Sambhavopaya is at Iccha Shakti levels, Shaktopaya is at Gyan Shakti levels and Anavopaya is at kriya Shakti level. when you start practicing all these things you start experiencing these aspects, your limitedness, you go beyond the veil of Maya and from there one experiences Shiva through these 35 elements, Shiva is the 36th element. So Param Shiva through these 36 elements became Jiva and now through the limitedness of the Jiva he is experiencing what it is to be limited and he again wants to go back and experience His real nature of unlimitedness. Again he goes up the rungs of ladder and climbing these thirty six rungs he again becomes Shiva.

In Kashmir Shaivism there is description of descending paths and ascending paths. In Kashmir Shaivism this is known as adhvan. There are six paths through which this process can happen and these six paths are such that there three higher paths are from the angle of subjective consciousness, from Shiva’s angle, those are called as Vacakadhva path. Vacaka means the one who sees, who observes, who creates. Shiva is the one who observes, who creates, who sees and these are the paths seen from this angle. Vacya means that which can be read, which can be observed, so it is the objective world. This entire Trika Shaivism philosophy is based on Trika, the three. What are the three? They are the observer, the means of observing and that thing which is being observed, the object. The paths which are from the angle of observer are called vacakadhva path and the paths which are on the object side they are called as vacyadhva path.

There are three vacyadhva paths one is called as bhuvanadhva, the path of worlds. Yogis in their meditation experienced that there are 118 worlds. That is - how we have our world, we have our solar system, we have our galaxy, the same way there are 118 such worlds. If one traverses these 118 worlds then one can reach the level of creator, the Shiva. That is one path which is called bhuvanadhva path which goes through the worlds. The second path is called as tattvadhva path. Through these 36 elements which are described above, from earth or Prithvi tattva to Shiva you can go in ascending order and you can experience the subjective consciousness. This is the path of tattvas which is called as tattvadhva path and the third path is kaladhva path. As I told you in the beginning, the creation happens in phases. Take for example the ashuddha tattvas or Shuddha-ashuddha tattvas you cannot go on experiencing one by one because they are all interconnected and their interplay is going on all the time. If you can understand the entire phase of creation of the ashuddha tattvas it will be easier.

So came the subtlest of objective paths, kaladhva path which says that there are five enclosures in which these 36 elements are enclosed and the creation happened in those enclosures, in those kalas, in those phases. The last stage of creation is called as Nivritti kala. Nivriti is the word that tells you where the full stop is put and you come out of that activity. That is indicated by the word nivritti. So under nivritti kala comes only the earth element. When everything manifests completely and Shiva decides that it is time to put a full stop and come out or to become nivrita. So in the nivritti kala comes only earth element that is the grossest, so the experience of that can take you to the further higher subtler aspect of understanding. Next phase is called as Pratistha Kala. Pratistha means that which comes into manifestation or Pratishtha means to establish, the phase in which establishment happens is Pratishtha. In Pratistha kalaa 23 elements i.e. from water element to Prakriti come. That is where the gross manifestation happens. If you understand these you go beyond that.

Next kalaa is vidya kalaa. Purusha, Panch Kanchukas and Maya they come under Vidya Kala, in this kalaa comes the knowledge which tells you how the creation in the objective world is going to be. If you want to understand the Shuddha-ashuddha element, together you can understand if you know this vidya enclosure, vidya kalaa. Next is Shanta kala. These are four Shuddha or pure elements except Shiva. Those are Shakti tattva, Sadaashiva, Ishvar and Shuddha Vidya, these four tattvas. The associated energies created by Shiva in which Shiva himself has expanded. those four they are not actually working. If you see in the whole creation these four energies are not actually participating, those energies are silently working and making the manifestation happen. If they start actually participating, then there will be no one to watch how the game is going on. These energies are passively involved in the creation. That kalaa is called as Shanta kala. Shanta Kala consists of Shakti tattva, Sadaashiva, Ishvar and Shuddha Vidya . e. Kriya Shakti, Gyan Shakti, Iccha Shakti and Ananda Shakti.

Finally comes the innermost core, Shantatita kala, the one that is beyond Shanta also. It is the basis of the entire creation. it is the Chit Shakti or the Shiva element which comes in Shantatita Kalaa. If you go in phases like this, understanding the tattvas and their role in creation becomes easier. Amongst three Vacyadhva paths, bhuvanadhav is the grossest path. if your awareness has to travel through all the 118 world, how much time will it take to experience and understand and what level you must reach to for understand these things. Bhuvanaddhav is the grossest path, subtler than that is the path of elements, tattvadhva path. But still it is gross, it is about knowing each element, rather than that if you can understand the entire creation in phases, if you know the working of the enclosures, you can cross and go directly into the higher levels, kalaaddhva is still subtler path from which the Jiva can realize what Shiva is.

If you start reading,you will see the Sanskrit words chosen for describing all these things are so beautiful and apt. if we start understanding the meaning of the Sanskrit words, then half the job is done. Then Kashmir Shaivism is not that difficult. Second thing is we have all experienced these things some time or the other through different workshops which are carried out by Sir here. That experiential knowledge is there in the background. So when this further knowledge of paths and malaas and upaayas comes, you can actually relate to those things because you have the experience. That is how this beautiful diamond which has come in our hand i.e. the diamond of Kashmir Shaivism, we all must go into the depth of it, into the vastness of it, Shiva is unlimited. Whatever one can experience one must experience and the Mastery is that the Shiva has come down to the level of Shiva so he goes on understanding and goes on ascending from the lowest element to the highest element, the Mastery lies in again coming down to the lowest element and your awareness is able to settle in any of these states. Are you comfortable in any of those states keeping your awareness. That is what Mastery is about.

When we come here and start talking, have we really understood, are we able to communicate that to others, this we understand and we start going deeper into our own self. The swadhaya begins. Your own chapter opens up and through that you start understanding these things. When that happens i.e. when your own chapter opens and this understanding starts flowing out then it becomes your own understanding. Then you don’t have to search for the words, you don’t have to mug up the things, nor do you have to refer to anything and Kashmir Shaivism gives ‘n’ number of ways of understanding these things. States of Pramatri or the perceiver, the states of being, stages of Turya, Malaas, Upaayaas from every angle you can see. You come to know where exactly you are and where next you will go. Not only that, why it is called as Master’s scripture is that when one becomes the Master one has to help the disciple, while helping that disciple if you know what level Shiva is experiencing through that disciple it becomes easier to lift that disciple to the next level from where the journey becomes much faster. A beautiful diamond has come in our hands and we must make the best use of it, go to the depth of it.

Dwarahat Shibir is waiting for all of us for beginning of practical aspect of it, when I read all this I knew why Lakshman Joo Maharaj is the last person to give this oral tradition. It is so difficult to understand. But that Master was so great that he compiled all this knowledge in English. Otherwise if this would have been in Sanskrit and I don’t think anyone of us would have been able to understand that. It was because of his disciple John Hughes who spent the prime time of his life with Maharaj ji and that too as early as when his first child was two years old, he went to Maharaj and he stayed with Maharaj. Then he compiled all these things in English. Because such great Masters had such great disciples and they had done such great work, all these things could reach to us in palatable form. This knowledge is so subtle that even if you read it in English also, you still feel that you are reading in Sanskrit. But through Master like Sir, we are getting it in a ready to serve manner. The knowledge if taken at the intellectual level is not graspable you have to go through the experiencing part of it and there the Master will put you into the situation where you will experience it. Such Masters unless they are there we will not be able to understand the scriptures even if it is put in the silver platter and gold platter and given to you, you will not be able to eat it unless there is someone to tell you how you can digest it.

Thank you Sir, Thank you Lakshman Joo Maharaj and Thank you to all the earlier Masters who have given this way of scientific spirituality to us. It is a real scientific way of understanding. If A does this, this way and if B does this, or C does this the same way, let it be A, B or C or anybody as long as they do it in that scientific way, they will experience these things because it’s a proven science. Here in TAO we have always been following the path of scientific spirituality. This is the ultimate scripture of scientific spirituality which has come into our hand that will give proper understanding to all the budding Masters. Thanks to all of you, thanks to all the Masters. Om shri Guruye Namaha.


Q. What are the vacakadhva paths.

A: The explanation comes in the third Chapter of Matrikacakra. The path which is from the subjective consciousness side is Vacakadhva Path. We say that the vedas have come in which way ? The seers saw them first, then they came in the syllables, then the words were formed and then the mantras were formed and out of the mantras came the Richas and thus Vedas. vacakadhva path is exactly that. The subtlest of that is called as varnaadhva, verna means the syllables the alphabets, the next is padaadhva which is the path of words and next to that is mantraadhva is which is path of sentences. These are the subtler paths. To traverse on to that we need subtler knowledge of all other things that is why it is known as vacakadhva path. Matrikacakra chapter if you read these explanations have come that ‘a’ and ‘aa’ are Shiva and Shakti. We will do this chapter later on because if the power point presentation is given then the understanding will be much easier.

Here I would like to share one experience that I had. In 2002 or 2003 when we used to have Shakti Sadhana at Solegaonkarji’s terrace. We used to have the regular Navratri sessions where all the nine days we used to have Tavariyaji’s excercises followed by meditation.That was Shakti sadhana. It used to be early in the morning. At sunrise time we used to be there on the terrace. Around that time the exercises were over and we were just breathing on twelve cycles rhythm of Tavariyaji. Suddenly I happened to open my eyes. I saw the rising Sun and I went on seeing because it was so beautiful and automatically after some time my eyes closed. That state was a beautiful meditative state. My eyes closed and in front of the closed eyes I saw the reflection of Sun on the inner screen and on that screen I saw the entire manifestation of Aum. How the Aum comes into existance and that is the secret of creation which I understood when I read matrikacakra, till then I was thinking that it is one bindu which split into two dots and the two dots started spreading. The entire description is there, how these different shaktis, the first shuddha elements, they are not created energies, they are called as swellings of the heat of Shiva. They are actually Shiva’s expansions only. How that happened, I have actually experienced through that Omkar. But I had not understood the meaning of it till I read matrikacakra. When I read matrikacakra I understood that. That is also one of the paths to understand the creation. It needs different kind of experiences and more of elaborated academic study of all the scriptures also.

Q . How can one go about understanding experientially the Manas, Buddhi and Ahankar tattvas. Should one go in sequence or how should one proceed?

A: these three together form antahkarana, three inner organs and that is why I told you about understanding in phases. Here also you have to understand three things together. As I told you Manas is the constant factory where the thoughts are manufactured, those thoughts when they go to Buddhi and refer to it, the good and the bad part of it and all, memory is created, the impressions, the word used in Kashmir Shaivism is not memory, it is impressions, impressions are stored and that makes the ego and when buddhi says do this or do that it is the discriminating intellect which gives the options that this is good action and this is bad action; but Ahamkar depending on the karmamala decides what is to be done in that particular moment or what the Ahankar thinks is right and wrong in that moment. If we start understanding first the working of mind, how these thoughts are created, then it becomes easier to proceed further. That is why practice of Chakrodaya and Ajapa gayatri is given in Kashmir Shaivism, if we start practicing that, we start seeing the thoughts. Otherwise the Manas element is the chaotic area where seeing it becomes difficult, where understanding it becomes difficult but if we start practicing Chakrodaya and ajapa gayatri and start getting into the sandhi aspect of it then we can go into the sandhi of thoughts as well from there we can see how buddhi and ahankar is connected to manas and understanding all three together this way will help you transcend it.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Trika Shaivism: Malas and Upayas

Namaste!

Today we will discuss few basic aspects of Trika Shaivism also known as Kashmir Shaivism. First let us understand the meaning of the word “Trika”. The word comes from the three energies of Lord Shiva. The first energy is called Para Shakti; the second is Para-Apara Shakti and third is Apara Shakti. Para Shakti means the subjective energy. Para-Apara Shakti means the cognitive energy and the Apara Shakti means the objective energy. During the last talk on 30 States of Being we understood that a common man who is in Jagrut avastha is lost into objectivity and becomes one with the object and the subjective energy is just not there. That aspect represents Apara Shakti. It is pure objectivity. Gyani who is in absolute state of consciousness, fully aware represents Para Shakti, pure subjective energy and a seeker, a sadhak, on the way, who is walking the path of spirituality, sometimes getting glimpses and coming back to the world of objectivity, that is mixture of both Para-Apara Shakti and that is cognitive energy. So, you must understand three levels of energy of Lord Shiva - Para Shakti, Para-Apara Shakti and Apara Shakti, subjective energy, cognitive energy and objective energy. The word “Trika” means these three energies and these three energies are ONE only. It is Shiva only. That is the real meaning of the word “Trika”.

In Apara Shakti that is objective energy, there is sadness, agony, there are troubles, there is experience of pleasure and pains, there is duality and the individual soul called Jiva is caught into the wheel of birth and death and that is why all the troubles are there at the level of Apara Shakti, objective energy. The root cause of this is ‘Mala’ – the impurity. The impurity of avidya which comes from the Mayiya mala makes the individual soul, Jivatma associated with sansara and it gets caught up in the circle of birth and death. That is the fundamental and basic trouble of the world. Lord Buddha said that there is Dukha in sansara, there is misery in life. The reason for this is that the person is caught up in the objectivity. That is the root cause of Dukha, the misery of the sansara.

In Kashmir Shaivism it is said that you have to use the cognitive energy, the Para-Apara Shakti and move towards the Para Shakti, the subjective energy. If you reach the subjective energy by taking help of the cognitive energy, you can drop out of the wheel of birth and death, you can go beyond the Dukha, the misery of sansara and you can become Jeevan Mukta. This is the meaning of the Fundamental word “Trika” and the “Trika” system gives you the proper map of moving from the objective energy to subjective energy by using cognitive energy. All the great Masters of the world are in a way talking of the same thing but in different language that is why we do not understand. Why I love Kashmir Shaivism is because everything is so very clearly defined, it’s a proper shastra, a proper map where every individual is taken care of. In certain Master’s system only certain type of people are taken care of. In another Master’s system another type of people are taken care of, in Kashmir Shaivism everybody is taken care of. You will understand at what level you are, what type of person you are and what type of sadhana is required for you and accordingly you move faster.

Your individual sadhana will depend on what your capacity is, at what level of awareness you are and that will decide what type of sadhana you should do and the beauty of our Indian Scriptures is that they start from the highest and then they come down. If you don’t understand then you come down. Patanjali also talks about Samadhi right in the beginning and if you don’t understand then you come down. If you are a capable person and if you are at that height, you need not come down.

So in Kashmir Shaivism also, you start with Sambhavopaya. Sambhavopaya is for those people who have the highest level of awareness. Those whose awareness is high, they can go for Sambhavopaya, it is also known as Icchopaya because it is based on Iccha Shakti and in this Sambhavopaya you attain to God consciousness without doing anything. There are no efforts required. Only requirement is you should always remain into that thoughtless awareness of I consciousness, the universal I consciousness, in the “I am”- ness. If you remain into that the individual “I” consciousness, ego dissolves and with the Grace of the Master you attain to liberation or Jeevan Mukta State. Without you doing anything, it happens. Only requirement is that you are able to sustain that thoughtlessness and you should be into that awareness of I am ness, the universal consciousness and with the Grace of the Master, instant Jeevan Mukta state is available.

In this upaya, Sambhavopaya, you really don’t have to work. Master has to work a lot. It is the Master’s Grace that liberates you. The last step, liberation happens as a Grace and that is true. In this body also the liberation happened because of the Guru’s Grace. That last thing you can’t do on your own because if you are the doer, the ego is there. The total annihilation of the ego happens only with the Master’s Grace. Guru kripa hi kevalam! If you don’t like the word Guru Kripa say Ishwara Kripa, say Grace of Lord Shiva, whatever you like, but it is Grace and not your individual doing. So at the level of Sambhavopaya you don’t work because whatever you can do you have already done, your level of awareness is high. You have learnt to sustain the thoughtlessness and you are aware of that thoughtlessness. First you are able to maintain your nirvichar stithi, the state of thoughtless mind, you are consistently able to maintain that and you are aware in that, for example in deep sleep state also you are thoughtless but there your awareness is not there. Here the requirement is you are able to maintain the thoughtlessness but you are also aware of that thoughtlessness. If that is possible for you then that is very high level of your ability. If you have that high degree of ability of maintaining that I consciousness then you are fit for Sambhavopaya. You need not do anything, only requirement is that you are there in the presence of the Master. In the presence of the Master Grace happens; instant liberation happens. That is called Sambhavopaya, the first type of upaya for the highest level of seeker.

The second level of upaya for the medium category people is called Shaktopaya. It is based on Gyan Shakti that is why it is also known as Gyanopaya. Sambhavopaya is based on Iccha Shakti and Shaktopaya is based on Gyan Shakti. This is for the medium category people, those who are seekers, those who have done lot of sadhana and those who have not reached to the level of maintaining thoughtless awareness continuously but they are getting glimpses occasionally, those are the people at the level of Shaktopaya. A Shaktopaya criterion is one-pointedness. At least you are able to contemplate on thought given by Master and you are able to focus on to the gap between the two thoughts. That is the minimum requirement. If you can see the Gap between the two thoughts then you are at the level of Shaktopaya and that one pointedness of seeing the gap between the two thoughts is the requirement for the Shaktopaya. If you can do so, here your efforts are higher, Master cannot do because you have to learn with your own practice and come to a point where you can sustain your thoughtless state with awareness that is called thoughtless awareness. If you can sustain the thoughtless awareness then you have come to the level of Sambhavopaya, then Guru can work. Then Guru’s Grace can liberate you instantly. But you have to come to that. So, at the Shaktopaya level you have to learn to capture the gap between the two thoughts. If you can do so you will get into the transcendental consciousness or God consciousness with your practice of capturing the gap between the two thoughts. As you go deeper the gap will widen, over a period of time you will be able to sustain your thoughtless awareness. When you are able to sustain your thoughtless awareness, just with the presence of the Master you will be able to catch the flame and the liberation happens instantly. So Shaktopaya will lead you to Sambhavopaya. Liberation will happen only with Sambhavopaya.

Those who are not able to get into that also then we have one more upaya called Anavopaya. Anavopaya is for the people who have no capacity to capture the gap between the two thoughts. They cannot see the thoughts. The aloof attention, sakshi bhava is not yet developed, so they cannot recognize the gap between the two thoughts. They cannot even see their thoughts because the separation has not happened. Lot of work needs to be done. This is also known as kriyopaya because it is based on kriya Shakti. Here lot of work needs to be done by the seeker because it is based on Kriya Shakti and here the Karma mala is very high, so you have to do lot of karmakshalan first. Then you will become little lighter and you will come to the level of Sakshi Bhava, aloof attention and all the practices whether it is watching the thoughts or watching the breath, inhalation and exhalation or mantra, or focusing your attention on some part of the body, specially the chakras, pranayam, all these practices are part of Anavopaya. It starts with Chakrodaya dhyana; you watch your inhalation and exhalation, take help of breath to increase your awareness, at least you come in the present moment as you do so and while doing as you grow into awareness you will be able to catch the turning point of the breath. If you can catch the turning point of the breath, sandhikal jagrukta, with lot of practice you will be able to capture the gap between the two thoughts. If you can do so you have come to the level of Shaktopaya. Then you have to get rooted into that gap and you have to practice how to sustain that thoughtless awareness. If you can sustain that thoughtless awareness you have come to the level of Sambhavopaya and in Sambhavopaya you have to do nothing. You have to just sustain that thoughtless awareness, in the presence of the Master, the flame jumps and instant Jeevan Mukti, the final jump happens. That is the Grace of Lord Shiva.

These three upayas are there. Anavopaya is based on kriya Shakti, Shaktopaya is based on Gyan Shakti; Sambhavopaya is based on Iccha Shakti. So there are three Shakti levels and three upayas and depending upon what type of person you are; what is your ability of maintaining that thoughtless awareness, you should choose one of these upayas. If you are able to sustain thoughtless awareness you need not do any of the practices, that is the fundamental of Kashmir Shaivism. It comes from top and it goes to lower levels. So everybody need not work hard on doing Chakrodaya dhyana and all. You are already able to maintain your thoughtless awareness so there is no need to do Chakrodaya dhyana. You have crossed that level long back. If you are able to maintain your aloof attention then the basic processes is not necessary, mantra is not necessary. What will mantra do if you are already able to get into sandhikal jagrukta? Then mantra is not for you. Then don’t cling on to the mantra. Some people they do that. You have already crossed that level. You don’t need that.

So, depending on what type of person you are, you get the sadhana and every person gets individual sadhana. That is why these three upayas are there and it comes from the top. If you are at Sambhavopaya level you don’t need, if you can’t manage then there is Shaktopaya level. If you have read the books of my Master Shri Dada Gavand, entire philosophy of Shri Dada Gavand is that of Shaktopaya and he does not move from there. He does not come down to Anavopaya at all. He simply talks of watching the thoughts with aloof attention, recognize the gap, go on doing that, increase the gap and it will happen. He does not come down to the level of breath also. There is no Anavopaya in his philosophy. There is only Shaktopaya, Shaktopaya and Shaktopaya. But that is for only one type of seeker and it is for this reason that most of my friends are not able to understand him. You may try hard but you will not understand his philosophy because he is operating only from Shaktopaya. Those who are at the level of Sambhavopaya, they don’t need to do that also. Just be in the presence of the Master and it happens instantly. You just have to be grateful, share the silence and say bye-bye. You may meet again or you may not meet again but the job is done. But the whole world, most of the people exist at the level of Anavopaya. That is why you have to start with watching the breath.

I wonder if the people are at the level of Anavopaya because many people can’t even watch the breath. When they watch the breath for the first time, they say ‘Oh I am breathing’. Even breath awareness is a big thing for an ordinary person. Even with your breath awareness immediately you will come to the present moment. Power of Now, you will understand. You don’t understand the Power of Now also because that is breath awareness that is Anavopaya. All yogasan, pranayam, all that you are learning is Anavopaya only. Because you can’t practice Anavopaya you have to do yogasan. Yama, Niyama, asan, Pranayam is for those people who cannot practice Anavopaya. Ashtang yoga prepares you for that and makes you a sadhak. To become a sadhak you must do these basic practices of Yama, Niyama, asan, Pranayam, Pratyahar and then you are fit for Anavopaya. Quite a long way to go, but it is not as difficult as you understand.

If you are initiated and you do what you have been told to do, you can go through the whole thing in 40 days. That is called Grace of Lord Shiva. If you practice what have been given in initiations, everybody is given different initiation; it is like magic for you. If you do that, even 40 days are enough. Otherwise even 40 births are not enough. That is the power of initiations. That is why in Dwarahat Shibir only those who are initiated are allowed. But what I am seeing right now is that those who are initiated are also not practicing it properly because sometimes the time is not there, or they have forgotten what they got in initiation because you are not supposed to write, you are supposed to practice daily. So those who have doubts, they can meet me today after the session and get it clarified… but do it. Only then you will walk the path. You have to be sincere about the sadhana.

There is one more upaya if you don’t like these three, if you find them difficult, there is one more way and I like it most because there you have to do nothing. Watching your breath is difficult, when you are travelling in train and people are pushing, how can you watch your breath? Watching the breath is difficult. Anavopaya is difficult and lot of hard work is there.

So the fourth type of upaya is called Anupaya. Anupaya means no upaya. You don’t need any upaya, my dear friend, because you are already Shiva. Whether you know it or not what difference does it make? Why do you want to do all these things? You do it to realize your Shivattva, that you are Shiva. But you are anyway Shiva. If Shiva wants to realize the Shivattva Shiva will realize. If Shiva does not want to realize Shivattva, Shiva will not realize. Why should you bother? Be happy. It is called Anandopaya and it is based on Anand Shakti of Lord Shiva. That is the higher level. Lower level is Kriya Shakti; that is the fifth element from the top; that is Anavopaya. Fourth element from top is Gyan Shakti; that is Shaktopaya. Third element from top is Iccha Shakti. That is Sambhavopaya. The second element, that is Shakti, in fact that is the bliss that is Anand Shakti. That is Shiva’s Shakti; that is Shiva only but that is in the form of Shakti but both are one. That is called Anand Shakti. Based on that Anand Shakti, it is Anandopaya.

You stay in the state of bliss because you are Shiva. You don’t need to do anything. You need not go through Anavopaya and all that. It is not for you. You are much evolved beings. You have crossed the level of Iccha Shakti. Many of you don’t have Iccha of doing sadhana which means you have crossed that level. Shiva in you does not have any Iccha of doing any sadhana which means you have gone beyond that level also, that’s a level of bliss that is the level of Ananda, and you need Anandopaya which means doing nothing. Just enjoy your blissfulness, enjoy your beingness. In that beingness, there is joy, there is Ananda, there is bliss and that bliss is called Anandopaya. Swami Harish Madhukarji has said ‘Sada anand me jeena’ that is the ultimate sadhana. He is talking of Anupaya. People did not understand, with long face they listened. Where is Ananda here? If you are living life with a long face, you can’t even enjoy your job. Where is the Ananda? There is Dukha here, what Buddha talks about. Anand means enjoying all the time, there is no seriousness anywhere. There is only the bliss. In a state of being there is bliss and the example that I normally give is the example of Anupaya because I work a lot on Anupaya. The wave and the ocean are the same. What wave needs to do to become the ocean? Nothing! Wave only has to understand that the wave is the ocean. That is all. Have a cup of tea, enjoy, dance, sing and be happy. You don’t need to do anything really. Wave is the ocean. With that understanding live happily, enjoy your life like a normal person but you are rooted into turyatitta, you are a Gyani. You are at the level of turyatitta. Sarvatobhadra – everybody is Shiva. What do you need to do? Nothing! Recognize Shivattva in everybody and be happy. There is only Shiva and nothing else. That understanding keeps you in the bliss state and that is called Anandopaya. That is the ultimate that is possible where nothing is to be done. These are the basic four upayas in Trik Shaivism. We will do five minutes of meditation and allow this knowledge to seep into your system and be very sure which upaya you need and be honest about it so you start walking on the path.

------------------------------------ After five minutes of meditation -----------------------------------

Now we will go into the details of Malas. Mala means impurities. In Kashmir Shaivism we talk about three different types of impurities - Gross type of impurity, subtle type of impurity and the subtlest type of impurity, the Para type of impurity. The gross type of impurity (Sthula Mala) is karma mala. It is the grossest of all because action is involved. The subtle type of impurity is Maiya mala. It is only perception not the action and the subtlest type of impurity, the Para aspect comes into the picture is Anavamala. The individual jiva is anu, small. Shiva has come below the blanket of Maya and is wearing five jackets or Kanchukas, limitations. Because of all these limitations Shiva’s unlimitedness is lost and he has become small, jiva, anu. So the Anavomala is there, that is the subtlest of all.

We need to understand the fundamentals of the malas, the impurities the essential aspects of it. Listen carefully. It looks very simple but if you understand from the higher level, you get the essence of it. The first five elements – Shiva, Shakti, Sadashiva Tattwa, Ishwara tattwa and Suddha-Vidya tattwa, these are called the five purest energies. These five purest energies could not create the world. The manifestation could not happen so Shiva used his Swatantra Shakti and with this Swatantra Shakti he created the magic power in the form of Maya Shakti so that he can come under the Maya and enjoy the diversity of being many different beings. Because Shiva wanted to enjoy the diversity of becoming Jiva, he had to play the trick, he has to use his Swatantra Shakti, create Maya Shakti and then come down under his own Maya Shakti to forget his infiniteness and become the Jiva. So the universal energy which is owned by the Universal being Shiva is called Swatantra Shakti and universal energy owned by individual being, Jiva is called Maya Shakti. Both are same only but that is the trick of Lord Shiva. He used the Swatantra Shakti and he created the magical power of Maya Shakti and then he came down under that Maya Shakti to become the Jiva.

Now where are these Malas? The Malas are not there in the Swatantra Shakti. The malas or the impurities are there only in the Maya Shakti or elements below Maya Shakti. They are not there in the Swatantra Shakti. How do we differentiate between these two? The Swatantra Shakti has got the Swatantra, the freedom of going down from the Shiva element to Earth element and has got the freedom of going up from the Earth element to Shiva element. So Swatantra Shakti is free to be at any element and experience at all levels. It can go up and go down and is free to do whatever it wants to do. That is the power of Lord Shiva. Maya Shakti because of its impurities has the binding effect on Jiva. That binding effect on Jiva does not allow him to go up. So Jiva always remains under the effect of Maya, it goes down but not up. That is the magical power of Lord Shiva. And that is why for a baddhatma, for a Jiva it is so very difficult to breakthrough this Power of Maya because it does not allow you to go up. It only allows you to go down from where you are and that is how this Jiva is caught in this circle of birth and death. Until the Grace of Lord Shiva happens he cannot breakthrough the circle of birth and death on his own. It is only the Grace of Lord Shiva. So, on its own there is no possibility of getting the breakthrough.

You may wonder why Shiva played this trick. There is a reason and that is the whole essence of the whole Kashmir Shaivism philosophy. Shiva played this trick to become Jiva and forgot its own essential nature, the Swatantra Shakti, his own universal beingness because he wanted to experience this joy of re-cognition of his own Swatantra Shakti. So, to experience that joy of recognizing one’s own Swatantra Shakti first he had to forget and then he had to recognize, so he enjoys. Shiva is Shiva only. It’s only for that joy of Re-cognition, realizing, re-knowing, it’s like knowing that you are Shiva; that was the joy Shiva wanted. That is why the whole game of sansara. First come down, forget, suffer as a Jiva, go into the circle of birth and death, do a lot of sadhana and then re-cognize that I am Shiva only. The game is over. It is leela, Shiva’s leela. Come down, forget, be a badhatma, be like a fool and do sadhana and re-cognize that you are Shiva and enjoy. Just for that re-cognition of that Shivattva Shiva played this trick. But to play this trick the element of Maya is wanted and the impurities belong to Maya and not to Swatantra Shakti. These impurities bind you and they do not allow you to go up, they allow you to go down only.

So the grossest impurity is karma mala, the subtler impurity is Mayamala and the subtlest of all is called Anavamala. So we have to start understanding from Anavamala. Shiva used his Swatantra Shakti to create the trick and created Maya Shakti. First he created the Mahamaya. It does not come into the 36 elements but there is the element of Mahamaya. Mahamaya’s daughter is Maya that is the sixth element from top. Only under Maya he could create the limitations so the panch kanchukas come into the picture and under the effect of panch kanchukas comes Purusha. That Purusha with the help of Prakriti created the grosser twenty four elements or twenty three elements if you consider Prakriti as twenty fourth. This is how the manifestation happened. Without these impurities, manifestation cannot happen.

How to understand this? You cannot make ornaments with pure gold. For gold to transform its form; to come to the form of ornament you need to inject some impurity into the gold and then you can make ornaments. Like that pure energy, Universal energy of Lord Shiva called Swatantra Shakti cannot manifest. Of course, it is the same energy that is manifesting but impurity is wanted and that impurity is injected at the level of Maya because it is the Maya Shakti that is able to come down. You can come down only under the effect of Maya, otherwise it is not possible. So the subtler aspect of Mala is Anavomala. How that anavomala has happened? It is because of the panch kanchukas, the five jackets that Shiva wears. After coming down below the blanket of Maya, Shiva puts on the five jackets. Those five jackets are limiting.

We will go into the details of these elements next Thursday. Today you just understand the basics. So under one blanket (of Maya) there are five jackets. After these five jackets he created Purusha. So Shiva is converting itself into Purusha and that Purusha has all these limitations. Shiva has become small in the form of Purusha. Purusha is not virat, Purusha is small, it is called anu and that is why this Anavomala. Effect of Maya and the panch kanchukas is the mala. Now this mala is not real because it is not really at the level of action. Action level is only the karma mala, real mala, this is only the perception error. You believe that you are under the effect of Maya so it is there. If you believe that you are Shiva, you understand that the wave and ocean are one, immediately that is Shiva. It is only at the level of perception. With understanding you are released. Even if you are released, at the physical level you cannot have the infinite physical power, you cannot have infinite time, all those infinite energies are not available and even if you experience turya you will not be able to sustain turya because your capacity to sustain is lost as you have become anu, you have become small. So this Anavomala is the root cause that does not allow you to sustain that thoughtless awareness. The other day many of my friends were asking me that we have understood conceptually, I can see the thoughts, I can see the gap, the gap is there for sometime but suddenly we don’t know what happens, it is not sustained. You are talking about sustaining for 45 minutes here we cannot even sustain for one minute. Suddenly something happens and it is lost. Why is it happening and who is doing it? Don’t worry. It is only Shiva who is playing the trick, playing the trick under the effect of Maya through this Anavomala. Because you are anu, you find it difficult to sustain yourself in thoughtless awareness. That is the perception error that has come. It is the Anavomala that does not allow you to sustain your thoughtless awareness for 45 minutes. If you can, you will become Shiva and you will be out of the effect of Maya and that is the sadhana. That is the sadhana to come to the level of sustaining thoughtless awareness for longer duration. That is the sadhana the Jiva has to do to become Shiva. So this is the subtlest of all called Anavomala.

The subtler aspect, the middle aspect is called Mayamala. Under the effect of Maya you cannot see the things the way they are. This is another perception error. It is because of this Mayamala you see yourself as different, your brother as different, your sister, your wife, your husband as different. You don’t see them as they are because all are Shiva, all are one. From where does that perception error come? That duality enters because of Maya. That is called Mayamala. It is an impurity, a mala. It is because of that impurity, that duality comes into picture, advaita is lost and dvaita comes into picture. For Dvaita Maya is required. Only under the effect of Maya you feel you are different and the other person is different and duality is there. Actually it is not there. This is called perception error. So what is the way to come out of this thing? Remove this perception error, see Shiva, God in everybody and you are out of it. That’s all. That is why so much of importance is given to this understanding, and then you really don’t need to do anything. It is just a perception error. It is like there is darkness and there is a rope. You think it is a snake and you fear. What do you need to do to protect yourself from the serpent that is not there? It is just a rope. This is called perception error. Under the effect of Maya you feel you are different and other person is different. It is just a perception error. You really don’t need to do anything. Moment we put on the light, you see that it is a rope, the fear is gone instantly and then you laugh at it saying like a fool I have been afraid of a rope. Actually it is a rope and not a serpent. It was just a perception error. This also is perception error and it has entered into our system because of what is known as Mayamala. It is the Mayamala which creates this perception error and creates the duality.

Anavomala and Mayamala, Anavomala is the subtlest, Para and Mayamala is the subtler aspect of it and both are perception error. The real trouble which is the grosser aspect of Mala is Karma mala because action is involved. In the other two it is only the perception. Perception error can be corrected in the presence of the Master just by understanding. If you keep yourself awake and understand, then it is gone instantly. You really don’t need to work because it is not there. You just need the light, just get rid of the darkness and serpent becomes the rope. It is rope only, it is only the perception error, and you need the light to recognize that.

But karma mala is not like that. Karma mala is actually the grosser aspects of your own doings. Once the Jiva comes under the effect of Maya, ego building happens and that ego has its own power, however anu, however small, it has its own doership and under that doership he does the karmas and karma mala is real at that level. It is gross. If you have killed somebody you have to undergo the effect of being killed. If you have hurt somebody you will have to necessarily undergo the effect of being hurt by others. Law of karma is amazingly true under the effect of Maya because the actions that you do are real. In Kashmir Shaivism we do not consider this sansara as unreal. This sansara is real, your action is real. So action, karma mala is also real and is at the grossest level that needs lot of cleansing. That is why karmakshalan is so very important. Without karmakshalan, in reality, tangible changes do not happen.

Few years back, in 1996 I understood this without Kashmir Shaivism. Kashmir Shaivism came to me only in 2007 but in 1996 this understanding happened to me with the Grace of Lord Shiva and from then onwards I started creating the technology of Karmakshalan. This was the insight I got in 1996 that unless you remove the effects of karma mala the real growth of sadhaka cannot happen. That is why so many people do so many practices and they do not get the results. There are so many sanyasis who wear saffron robe and do their kriyas and prayers, why everybody does not get breakthrough? Why only few people get breakthrough? The reason is unless you go through karmakshalan, because it is a real impurity, gross level impurity, you have to unburden yourself of it. That is why these three sciences become important, the science of Seva, the science of Meditation and the science of Antahkarana.

Science of Seva is at the level of Karma mala, it is the grossest of all, so at the grosser level you have to serve humanity unconditionally, that seva aspect, the unconditional seva, you go out of the way and help. The person may even talk ill about you and still unconditionally you serve humanity. That is the way you will delete your karma. Karmakshalan kriyas are there, sadhanas are there, talking out, and many other ways of karmakshalan are there. That is a must because it is actually there, it is real. Unless it is deleted that perception error cannot go that easily because you are actually caught up in grosser level of mala, the impurity; karma mala. That is the reason, even if you listen for hundred times that wave is the ocean, you may give lecture on wave is the ocean but still from inside it will not click. The perception error will remain because it is not intellectual. Karma mala is real because it is at the level of action. Of course from the ultimate view point it is not real, nothing is real that is vedantic point of view. But in Kashmir Shaivism if Shiva is real then Shiva’s creation which is sansara is also real and your karma is also real and your karma mala is also real and that is the reason why you cannot recognize Shiva without deleting your karma and this sounds more logical, more genuine, more closer to the truth as it is experienced. That is why karmakshalan is so very important. Once the karmakshalan happens and you are little out of this binding of karma, then be with the Master your perception error can go and the growth can happen very fast on the path of spiritual journey. Without karma delete exercise perception error cannot be removed. So science of service comes into picture to delete your karmas.

Then science of meditation comes into picture. If you keep watching your thoughts, your thoughts will subside and you will be able to capture the gap between the two thoughts and when you get rooted into thoughtless awareness, that is the time you are out of the bindings of Mayamala. That is why Shri Dada Gavand’s Philosophy of Shaktopaya and that is the way to come out of Mayamala. And Anavomala, that anu, smallness aspect is there as long as you are there in physical body. Even if you are rooted in tattvatitta, even a Gyani has his own limitations because of the body. That is gone only at the time of death of the Gyani. When the Gyani dies that last limitation is gone, he becomes universal in the true sense but as long as the body is there, the bodily limitations exists even with the Gyani. For example a Gyani person like Shri Ramana Maharshi also will feel hungry. That hunger is felt by the body because that is the need of the body. Gyani will also go for urination or toilet because that is the function of the body and the body level limitations will remain but Gyani will not have unnecessary fears, he will not have unnecessary worry, undue thoughts, that aspect will not be there because the perception error is not there. But nevertheless the body is the anu, the binding aspect is there and only at the time of death it is gone, with this we complete the chapter of impurities - the Malas.

Next Thursday we will go into the details of 36 elements, at every level we will understand from Earth element to Shiva element and from Shiva element to Earth element. Swatantra Shakti says that you should be able to go up and you should be able to come down and go to any level at your will. That is the beauty of Kashmir Shaivism and that is meant for grihasthis. Kashmir Shaivism is the ideal Map for grihasthis because anybody can practice. You don’t need to take sanyas, you don’t need to drop out, practices are very simple and you don’t need to give too much of time. It is more of practices and lot of understanding. You don’t have to slog and this map has simpler aspects, the limitation of caste, creed, color, gender, sex is just not there. It is universal and it is for everybody. Every human being can follow Kashmir Shaivism. It is for all. It is kind of Universal understanding, Universal religion, Universal practices. It is for all and absolutely for grihasthis because here sansara is real. If you say brahma satya jagat mithya then you feel like going away from jagat, going away from sansara and you take to saffron and become a Swami or sadhu or a sanyasi. There is something wrong in that understanding and it becomes right and correct understanding because of this very beautiful map of Kashmir Shaivism. Even sanyasis can practice, everybody can practice, it is for all.

Kashmir Shaivism has four schools of thought even though all four are one only they are all under Kashmir Shaivism but the approach is little different, they are focusing on some particular aspect. The first school of thought is known as Pratyabhijna system or school of thought. Pratyabhijna system says that the world, the sansara is not unreal; it is not mithya even though Pratibimbavadah is there. There is a real moon and then there is the reflection of the moon in the lake water. The reflection is not the moon because the reflection is there it is indicative that the moon is also there. This is called Pratibimbavadah, but the reflection of the moon is in the lake water or you see your own reflection in the mirror, it is not in that sense. Here the understanding is, the reflection of the energy of Shiva is within the consciousness of Shiva only. The Sansara or the creation is not like the reflection of the moon in the lake water, it is the reflection in the consciousness of Shiva only that is why it is true and not mithya and they say that it is not the mirror; it is like the two cups reflecting, so reflection is within oneself. So Shiva’s energy is reflected into the consciousness of Shiva and this reflection is not untrue, the reflection is true. If Shiva is true, that Chaitanya tattwa, the truth is there and this is also the truth because the creation of Shiva cannot be untrue. So Brahma satya, jagat also satya. That is the major difference between the vedantic understanding and Kashmir Shaivism understanding because the reflection is in the cup form, it is called visarga (:), the two dots. The upper dot is called Shiva and the lower dot is called Shakti and the Shakti creates the sansara and the reflection happens in the consciousness of Shiva only. This system of understanding is called Pratyabhijna School of thoughts.

The second aspect is called Krama school of thought. Krama means sequence, step by step, one by one. There is time, there is space, and there is form. You have to use time, space and form and you have to go systematically, kramawise, sequentially you have to go and you have to do sadhana for going out of this krama which means going beyond time, space and form. But this is a system because you are caught you have to start from where you are and then you have to go beyond. You are normally caught into time, space and form, you go beyond this the time becomes timeless, the space becomes spaceless and the form becomes formless and you get absorbed into that niraguna, nirakara, the ultimate God consciousness but you have to start from where you are. That is the krama system, a new way of looking at it.

Then there is Kula system. Kula means individual family, there you have to recognize your individual energy that is the Jiva part of it and then you have to recognize the Universal energy that is the Shiva part of it. So you start from your Kula, your own individual energy, do sadhana and see from the Shiva’s point of view, the Universal energy, and you are absorbed into the God consciousness with that understanding. That is the Kula system, the third one.

The fourth one is called the Spanda system. Ultimately you can come to the level of Devi, Shiv-Shakti aeikyarupeni that is where the experience is. That experience is the effervescent silence. That effervescent silence is not the dead void. That effervescent silence has the vibratory aspect where the vibrations are not there. This is little contradictory but it is so! If the vibrations are there it is not called spanda, it is called Spandana, that ‘na’ is negating the spanda, that Spandana is vibration. But before the vibration becomes the vibration what was there? Whatever that is that is called Spanda. Kinchit kalata is the first sutra of that school, about to vibrate. It has not as yet vibrated, it is about to vibrate, potentially vibrating, started vibrating. Where is your thought before it becomes the thought? So you have to go one step further. Like that what was there before the void, the dead silence? Before the dead silence there is effervescent silence, so you have to go deeper. That effervescent silence is the Shakti, bliss, Anandopaya comes from there. Experience of that is the experience of Spanda, Kinchit Kalata, about to vibrate, beautiful school of thought that is called spanda.

These four schools of thought are there and all four focus on different aspects but they are very much the part of Kashmir Shaiva darshan. Same philosophy is looked from different angles by different Masters and that is the beauty. It is a very rich system. So Kashmir Shaivism has got all these four systems. In 2007 also I talked on Spandakarikas, this year we will cover up all. There are beautiful scriptures that are available. In December when you have 8 days residential retreat we will elaborate more on this, get little more glimpses from each school of thought and see overall how beautifully the Kashmir Shaivism flower blooms in your consciousness. Shiva recognizes Shiva and feels ecstatic! The whole game ends there. So if you want to end your game Kashmir Shaivism is the beautiful way.

We stop here. Next Thursday we will discuss 36 elements. Thank you very much.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

32 STATES OF BEING

Namaste and a very Good evening to you!

The topic of the evening is 32 states of being. This is in continuation with what we discussed last Saturday on 4th Sept 2010 in the lecture series on Kashmir Shaivism and this will be good preparation for our Dwarahat Shibir. We have decided to go to greater heights in understanding Kashmir Shaivism in Dwarahat. We need to understand few basics of Kashmir Shaivism to prepare ourselves for Dwarahat Shibir. This is the third topic in the series. The first topic was seven states of Turya; the second topic that we discussed last Saturday itself was different types of Kundalini awakening and today is the third topic ’32 States of Beings’. In Dwarahat our job will be to experience these states. That is why we need a residential retreat. Knowledge sharing can happen in lectures like this. But experiential understanding comes only through certain practices; that is why we need residential retreats. In Dwarahat Shibir we will try to arrange the practices of Kashmir Shaivism in such a way that you actually experience these 32 states of being. This is considered to be secret knowledge and one of the rarest of knowledge because not many people have idea about 32 states of being. So be very attentive and listen carefully, how these 32 states of beings are to be experienced.

In general most of the scriptures are talking about five states of being; it is called individual subjective body that experiences various states. In Hindi it is called ‘Avasthaon ka Gyan” and it is supposed to be a very secret topic. So these basic fives states of being that we normally understand and we do experience also the common names for these states are the first is Jagrut avastha (wakeful state), second is swapna avastha (dream state), third is sushupti avastha (deep sleep state). Common man experiences only these three states. That is why the common man’s version beyond the three is the fourth; that is called Turya. In Sanskrit Turya means the fourth. So that is the fourth state of being and there is something beyond fourth that is turyatitta. So these are the basic five states of being – wakeful state, dreaming, deep sleep, Turya and turyatitta.

Now we will go into greater details of understanding each of these states. Let’s go into the details of the first state, Jagrut avastha, the normal wakeful state. In the Pratyabhijna system of Kashmir Shaivism, Abhinav Gupta has given the name to the state as bahirvrutti because our attention is out, it is in the objectivity. Bahirvrutti is the indicators of this state. So when there is vividness of objectivity, we are caught up in the objective world in this state and the subjectivity is totally lost or ignored. So it is a complete objective state. Here the individual subjective body travels in the world of objectivity and it becomes the object and it ignores the subjective consciousness completely. That is the reason there are various names in Kashmir Shaivism we are going to discuss at a later stage. What we call as Jagrut avastha is “absolute unawareness of subjectivity” because you are completely in the objective world and you become one with the object. So Jagrut avastha and jagruk avastha are totally opposite of each other. In Jagrut avastha you are lost into objectivity, in jagruk avastha you know your conscious awareness. You are aware of your consciousness or you are conscious of your awareness. Whichever way you understand but you know your true self. There is awareness of your true self in Jagruk avastha. But the awareness of the true self is completely lost in Jagrut avastha. So what we say Jagrut is basically total unawareness of the real sense. That is the normal state, first state.

The second state is Swapna avastha, dreaming state. Sankalpa nirmana is the name given by Abhinav Gupta. Here the vividness of the objectivity is shaky and unsteady because it comes and it goes. So the vividness of objectivity is there but it is not as steady as it is there in the normal wakeful state. It is very shaky and unsteady. In this state the individual subjective body travels in the cognitive world of samskaras and impressions. All the samskaras and impressions that are there they come forward in the dream state. All these impressions are of the objective world and again it becomes one with it and loses consciousness of the subjectivity all together. So here also the conscious awareness of the true self is not there, you are lost in the objectivity but here it is the cognition of the impressions but the subjectivity is not there. This is called the dream state.

The third stage is sushupti, deep sleep and Abhinav Gupta’s word for this state is Pralayoupamam, if you understand in Kashmir Shaivism the word Pralayakal is used for sushupti where everything is lost, you are completely ignorant of the objective world. Everything of the objective world is lost. So Pralayopamam is a very beautiful word which indicates sushupti. Vividness of objectivity is gone completely because you are absolutely ignorant of the objective world in deep sleep. In this state the subjective individual body travels in subjective world without being conscious of that and becomes one with unconscious subjectivity. So the objectivity is not there, conscious awareness of subjectivity is not there. It’s a complete unconscious, unaware state of being. That is sushupti.

The fourth state is Turya avastha. Super observation is found by some observing agency. That is the description which means somebody is observant, observation is there, aloof attention is there. Individual subjective body travels in absolute subjective consciousness and it becomes that subjective consciousness. This is exactly opposite of the first Jagrut avastha. In Jagrut avastha individual subjective body travels in the objective world and becomes one with the object. That is totally unaware state. In turya avastha individual subjective body travels in absolute subjective consciousness and it becomes that subjective consciousness which means it is fully aware state. You are totally aware and observant of everything that is happening around, which means you are aware of your subjectivity. That is called the fourth state.

The fifth state is Turyatitta - beyond the fourth. Objective individuality is dead and is found full of life in totality. Individual objectivity is dead completely and fullness of life in totality is there. That is turyatitta. Individual subjective body established in the subjective consciousness completely, fully established not moving from there. In turya also it is there but it is still moving, while in turyatitta it is completely established in subjective consciousness hundred percent. That is called turyatitta avastha.

These are the five basic avasthas – Jagrut avastha, swapna avastha. Sushupti avastha, turya avastha and turyatitta. These are the basic five states of being as discussed in Vedanta, as discussed in Kashmir Shaivism. Definitions vary a little but overall concept is the same everywhere because these are the five states in which your being can exist. All of us are experiencing this. First three are experienced by everybody. Those who are developed in sakshi bhava, aloof attention, they understand what turya is. When you go deep into meditation, in the state of non thinking, in the state of no-mind that is turyatitta, when you are firmly established in no-mind which is not that easy, is called turyatitta avastha.

Beyond these five, the most secret knowledge starts from here. The basic five avasthas are known. But the real secret knowledge starts from the sixth state. There are many states created because of the various combinations of these five states. Now let us discuss how the four states of an individual that is jagrat, swapna, sushupti and turya are found in each of these four states. Each state is found in other four states. Leave aside turyatitta because that does not come into this, it is not even discussed as a state. It is beyond that. But these four states are available in each other and that creates a very beautiful combination of states of being. Let us get into details of each of these states in a very detailed and systematic manner.

The first combination that we discussed is the jagrut-jagrut avastha, wakefulness in the world of wakefulness. In this state the state of complete objectivity is there which means absolute unawareness and the word used in Trik Shaivism is abuddhah, absolute unawareness. Nowhere close by to buddhahood, absolute abuddhah. That is total unawareness of your subjective self because you are absolutely lost in the objective world.

The second interesting combination is in Jagrut-swapna which means dreaming in the state of wakefulness. You may not understand at the first glance of it but it is quite common. It is called day dreaming. Most of the people do day dreaming, lost in thoughts and impressions. A very strong thought possesses you and you are lost into that thought or you are fanaticizing or imagining something about the future or you are caught up into very special memory of the past, but you are lost. That is called Jagrut-swapna avastha. And the word of Trik Shaivism is Buddhah avastha. This Buddhah avastha you do not equate with Buddhahood in English. There is a big difference there. The original words of Kashmir Shaivism are very apt because that Buddhahood in English is not Buddha avastha. But why this is called Buddha avastha you will understand as we progress.

The third interesting combination is Jagrut-Sushupti. You may wonder how that is possible but it is very much there. Deep sleep in the state of wakefulness, it looks contradictory but it is not so if you understand the meaning of Jagrut-sushupti. If you understand the meaning of the word Jagrut-sushupti it will not sound that contradictory. Here you are not aware of objective world, you are not aware of impressions and you are not aware of subjective self also. It means that this is the state of unawareness but as you move towards this you are moving closer towards the silence state. Even though you are not conscious of your true self but because you are not into the state of subjectivity, you are not into the state of objectivity it is definitely closer to your Buddhahood. You are inching towards your Buddhahood and it is the first state where the positive word is used called prabuddha. Prabuddha is not Buddhahood but you are closer to Buddhahood you are moving towards that because here at least the objectivity is not there, you are not caught up into objectivity; you are not caught up in impressions, sanskaras, memory. It means you are closer to yourself that is why this avastha is called as prabuddha avastha. Many public speakers use this word in Hindi ‘yeh prabuddha janata’. Literal meaning of that is a person who sleeps while listening to the lecture that is Jagrut-sushupti that is prabuddha. The literal meaning is quite interesting but that is the meaning of the word prabuddha. Anything where the word Buddha comes you think it is buddhahood, it is not. There are so many layers. You are approaching there but there are many junctions on the way before you reach Buddhahood. So prabuddha is definitely closer to Buddhahood. You are on the way but not very far off from the Buddhahood.

The fourth interesting combination that comes in Jagrut avastha is Jagrut-turya. The fourth state is the state of wakefulness that is called Jagrut turya. Here individual subjective body travels in objective world and at the same time resides in self consciousness. It means you are aware of your true Self and you are also moving in the world of objects because you are Jagrut and in turya both. This is full of awareness state; the real aware person will stay into this state. That is why it is known as suprabuddha. It means that you are closer to Buddhahood. You are in the conscious world of objectivity and also conscious of your true Self. So you are suprabuddha in this state. So these are the first four combinations.

Now we will discuss the combinations possible with swapna avastha. In swapna state, the state of dreaming when you travel only in the states of impressions, the four states of Jagrut, swapna, sushupti and turya are to be found. Swapna avastha is not only the dreams, actually when you are lost in your memory that is also swapna avastha. You are caught up in images, impressions that is also called swapna avastha. Madness is swapna avastha and intoxication also leads to swapna avastha. The person who is drunk, he is in the state of swapna. The whole thing looks like a dream to that person. So swapna avastha comes into all these categories. So, let us go into the details of it.

The first combination consists of Swapna-Jagrut. It is a very interesting thing. Now you will understand day dreaming, astral travel and all these things. There is a very particular name for everything. Swapna-Jagrut means wakefulness in the world of dreaming. Many people ask how you can be wakeful in the state of dreaming. Either you are wakeful or you are dreaming. Those who are meditators, those who are astral travelers, those who understand lucid dreaming will understand very clearly that this possible. It is very much possible but here you have to understand the meaning from the Kashmir Shaivism point of view and not from common point of view. In Kashmir Shaivism Jagrut avastha means fully unconscious. Understand this. If you remember that you will have no problem in understanding further things. Jagrut means fully unaware state because in Jagrut avastha you are lost into objectivity. Here it is Swapna-Jagrut. Jagrut means you are lost, unaware and that unawareness is there in swapna avastha. Here the individual travels in the waves of impressions and objectivity. There is a wave of swapna that comes and it goes, again it comes and that is called in Trik Shaivism ii is called gatagatam, which means it comes and it goes. That is the state of Swapna-Jagrut. Dream comes, dream goes, little bit of awareness is there to the extent to know that gatagatam is happening.

Second combination is Swapna-swapna, you are dreaming in the state of dreaming. In this state the individual travels in the waves of impression without the least awareness of their connections to one and another. What is dreaming in dreaming? You get a dream of a cat and then immediately there is tiger and there is dog and the awareness is just not there so you don’t understand also why this dog is converting in to tiger and the tiger is converting into lion and the lion will convert into the tree, even that awareness is not there. It means an absolutely unaware state you are dreaming in dreams. Here the consciousness is absolutely dispersed and the beautiful word for this dispersed consciousness is suvikshiptam. Vikshiptam means dispersed, higher degree of that is suvikshiptam, absolutely dispersed consciousness. Even the minimum awareness that this is happening is not there. That is called suvikshiptam.

The third combination of swapna avastha is Swapna-sushupti, deep sleep in the state of dreaming. It is a beautiful combination, please be attentive to understand these things. Individual travels in the world of thoughts and impressions, naturally it is a swapna avastha so you are travelling into thoughts and impressions, becomes little aware of subjectivity on and off which means now you are slowly moving towards awareness but here awareness is on and off, sometimes it is there, sometimes it is not there. You are dreaming and then you are getting into the deep sleep, again you are dreaming and then getting into deep sleep and there is a little bit of awareness so that you know that this is happening and that you know in an indirect manner not in a direct manner. That is called sangatam. This beautiful word sangatam has come because here at least little touch of consciousness is there to the extent that you know. But this is also passive knowing, there is no full bloom consciousness of this but passively little bit touch of that consciousness has happened which gives you little bit of awareness that dreaming to deep sleep is happening, that recognition is there. It is indirect recognition, passive recognition, under current of the recognition is there.

The fourth combination of swapna avastha is called Swapna-turya, the fourth state in the state of dreaming, the consciousness of dreaming that ends into Samadhi. Those who know lucid dreaming, those who know astral travel, if you are aware of your dream, when you are dreaming you are conscious of your dreams and you are conscious of your dream ending means you are entering into sleep with conscious awareness and the sleep with conscious awareness is Samadhi. That is why entering into sleep state with awareness is the best experiment one can do which will lead to ultimate state of Samadhi. Here you are conscious of your dreaming and you are conscious of when your dream ends, when your dream ends you are into deep sleep but you are conscious which means it is a Samadhi state and you get touch of Samadhi but it is on and off, that does not last long. Then from there onwards you go into sushupti. But because the awareness is there the beautiful word of Kashmir Shaivism here is susamahitam. Here you are full of awareness but that awareness is not sustained awareness.

The next stage is various combinations in sushupti avastha.

The first combination in sushupti avastha is sushupti-jagrut, wakefulness in the state of deep sleep. Again this sounds contradictory but it is not so, try to understand. In sushupti-jagrut avastha you lose all impressions and thoughts and remain in absolute void called shunya avastha. Here you are not aware and you do not taste the joy which means bliss is not there. But here you are not into the state of objectivity, you are in the void, you are in shunya avastha and when you are in shunya avastha at that time you don’t know about it. When you are in deep sleep you are fully ignorant of the sleep, only when you wake up then you can talk about that state, that I was asleep and I observed nothing but this statement you make when you wake up from the sleep, you cannot make this statement when you are in deep sleep because you are in the void state, shunya avastha, and you are absolutely ignorant. That is called sushupti-jagrut. You are not jarut in sushupti. Only when you wake up you talk about it. In Jagrut avastha you are talking about sushupti that you did not notice anything. In Trika Shaivism the beautiful word given to this state is Uditam which means full of rising. It means now you are becoming aware and you start rising towards Shiva, the ultimate state. The very fact that you know you are not aware, is a good beginning of rising. But this awareness is there only when you wake up and not when you are asleep and it is called Uditam. You have now started waking up to the fact that you are unaware. That is a good beginning and that is why it is called Uditam.

The second combination in sushupti is called sushupti-swapna avastha, dreaming in the state of deep sleep. While in sushupti there is absolutely no awareness but in this state there is some cognition of some impression remaining in that subjectivity. Even though the impressions are there, the cognition of the impression is also there, it means little bit of awareness is there though not much and you know that it is there. That is called sushupti-swapna. In the previous state there was absolute unawareness, here there is little more awareness in sushupti, only because it is sushupti-swapna, because you are becoming aware occasionally, little bit of awareness is there. Some conscious awareness in the background, passive awareness tells you that you are in the state of sleep or you are in the state of dreaming if at all there is an impression. That state is labeled as vipulam and this is the most nourishing state. You get nourished. Awareness that you are travelling in the world of subjective consciousness gradually becomes stronger and stronger. You are nourishing your awareness in this state. That is why it is known as vipulam. It means now deeper level of awareness is possible to grow, it is possible to make it stronger from here onwards that is why it is known as vipulam, nourishing your awareness.

The third combination is sushupti-sushupti, deep sleep in the state of deep sleep. If you understand these combinations, as you go further your awareness increases. Here very subtle awareness or passive awareness, that this is a world of subjective consciousness remains in the background in uninterrupted continuity. You are in deep sleep but some passive awareness tells you that you are in deep sleep but there are no impressions, there is no mind in that state. It means that the ripples in the field are gone completely and this is what we normally call as deep peaceful sleep where agitation is just not there. This state is known as shantam which means peaceful because objective world is not there, impressions are not there, and thoughts are not there. It means there is nothing which is disturbing the field of pure potential, of pure awareness but here awareness is not aware of itself but it is undisturbed that is why it is known as shantam, peaceful sleep. It is called sushupti-sushupti.

The fourth is sushupti-turya. This is a very beautiful combination. The fourth state in the state of deep sleep; here individual subjective body is travelling in subjective consciousness. The objectivity is lost in any case. In deep sleep the objectivity is just not there but the subjective consciousness has arisen now and you are travelling in the world of subjective consciousness. Objectivity is lost completely but subjectivity has awakened that is what that sushupti turya avastha is. Turya means that awakened state is there. Here you are travelling into subjective consciousness, you are aware of that in continuation in background and experience bliss of the state. In earlier level the bliss was not there only passive awareness was there, now conscious awareness is there, active awareness is there and that is why the bliss is there. This state sushupti-turya state is full of bliss. It means that you are fully aware of your deep sleep, in true sense this is Samadhi avastha and it is full of bliss that is why it is known as suprasannam. It’s a state of bliss. You actually experience the state of bliss in sushupti turya, because it is sushupti the objectivity is completely gone. Because it is sushupti turya, you are fully in the state of subjectivity and because you are fully aware that is why you experience the bliss and this bliss is the bliss of Samadhi. So sushupti turya is full of bliss but not fully aware of that bliss. That is the only difference, in the higher levels you become aware of that bliss. At this level you are full of bliss but you are not fully aware of that bliss. Awareness is there that is why the bliss comes but you are not fully aware of that bliss which you are enjoying because it is still sushupti. It is a very beautiful combination.

The best of the three are these – turya-jagrut, turya-swapna, turya-sushupti. There is a very interesting combination of what is possible and what is not possible.

The first in the last three is turya-jagrut. Consciousness of turya is not vividly manifested. Turya is there but Jagrut means unawareness which means consciousness of turya is not vividly manifested. Here the consciousness of turya is in subconscious state which means not developed yet, not conscious yet but it is there at the level of sub consciousness. So beyond the span of the mind that is there and the Sanskrit word for that is manonmanam. Turya-jagrut is beyond the state of mind but in that beyond you are not fully conscious because that has not still manifested but you are not in the mind. It is moving towards beyond the mind but not fully conscious of it. You are unconscious of it. That is the turya-jagrut avastha. The mind has taken rise in mindlessness but the awareness of that is not there. Mindlessness is there because it is turya but it is Jagrut which means unaware of that. So the mind has risen to mindlessness but you are not fully conscious of it. That is turya-jagrut.

Second combination is turya-swapna avastha. Consciousness of turya is little more vividly manifested. So in this state the consciousness of turya is stronger compared to the previous state. Here unlimitedness of the self is there that is why it is known as anantam because you have started experiencing the un-limitedness aspect but it is not very strong, it is milder version of that, so this is the state of unlimited being.

The third combination in turya avastha is turya-sushupti. Here the consciousness of turya is most vividly manifested and consciousness of turya is strongest in this state, Un-limitedness of the self. But still even though you are unlimited yet there exist here all the limitations of the universe. It is not a totally unlimited state even though unlimited of self but the limitations of the existence are felt as existing and the word given to this is sarvartham. It is a beautiful state but you can’t say that it is ultimate. Limitations are still there and you have to cross these limitations also and there is a much deeper aspect of this.

When you go beyond four there is what you call turyatitta. The turya-turya combination is not there, it is turyatitta, beyond the four. This is the state of absolute fullness of self. Here that conscious awareness is not at all shaky. Here you are absolutely established into that awareness, fully established, that is turyatitta. You find this state not only in Samadhi but also in every activity of the world. If you find that peace only in Samadhi, only when meditating but it is lost when you come out of meditation, then that is not turyatitta. If you are fully established, your state of meditation, your state of full awareness is not lost when you come out in the active world, it means that you can do your normal activity and your full subjectivity is there. It means that you are fully established into that conscious awareness, that is turyatitta and that is the aim. Fully established into that and that subjectivity is not lost as you are doing the normal duty in outside world. This is definitely much better state one can aim at. This should be the aim - turyatitta. That state is just not lost whatever you may do. Now if you have reached this state there is no need to do yoga, because yoga has some future, future in the sense there is some ambition, there is some achievement, you want to achieve something. The state of yoga come from yuja, joining, but here it is already joined so now yoga does not come into picture. Here you don’t have to sit for meditation, what are you going to gain by sitting for meditation and what is that you have lost? You are already established into that. So now yoga, meditation and all that loses its significance, beyond this state and not before that. To go beyond this state you all have to get into all these things. This is the state what Masters say ‘nowhere to go, nothing to achieve’ because you are already that, what you are and you are fully into that so that there is nowhere to go, there is nothing to achieve that is turyatitta. Fully established in the Self and that is not lost even when you do your normal mundane activity. Turyatitta is a wonderful state.

We will now understand five different states as perceived first by common man and second as perceived by yogi and third as perceived by Gyani. See how these three different level people perceive the same state in three different manners. There is a very beautiful understanding of Trika Shaivism. This very understanding can put you in the state of understanding of where you are stuck, at which level you are and where you need to go further. Everybody goes to a level and then you don’t know what is the further level and then your progress does not happen. If you know what is there ahead, you move faster. That is why this understanding is very important.

Common man says Jagrut avastha but Gyani says it is ajagrut avastha. See how the meaning of word changes. There are layers of understanding. What a common man calls Jagrut, a yogi will say pindastha which means becoming one with whatever you perceive. You are in the objective world and you are absolutely ignorant of your subjective reality, you are one with the object. But then Gyani will understand it differently. Gyani is the one who is established in turyatitta. It means that his Samadhi is not lost when he does his mundane activity in the world. From Gyani’s point of view it is sarvatobhadra. Bhadra means goodness, auspiciousness, sarvato means everywhere. Gyani perceives everybody as Shiva, ajagrut Shiva but nevertheless they are Shiva. Sarvatobhadra, everywhere there is only auspiciousness, everywhere there is divine, so Gyani sees that divinity everywhere. Common man may not understand but from the view point of Gyani, common man is full of divinity even though he is unaware of that divinity because he is in Jagrut avastha and Gyani is in turyatitta avastha. From that avastha if you look at Jagrut avastha, it looks full of divinity because that is the truth, even though the common man is unaware of that but the Gyani knows that everybody is Shiva. That is why this beautiful word Sarvatobhadra. You see divinity everywhere! In this state, Gyani feels that the being of Shiva has expanded his body of consciousness in names, forms, space and times. For a Gyani even a stone is full of divinity, tree is full of divinity, birds are full of divinity, animals are full of Divinity, Sarvatobhadra - everything is full of divine, there is only Shiva. There is divine auspiciousness everywhere. Everything is divine that is Sarvotobhadra. So what we say Jagrut, yogi says pindastha, Gyani says Sarvatobhadra. See how the meaning changes as your state changes, your understanding changes, and meaning of the state changes to such a great extent. Gyani travels in absolute consciousness and that consciousness is not lost when he does the normal activities. That is the beauty of the turyatitta states.

Now let us understand Swapna avastha from three different angles. What a common man says as dreams, yogi looks at it in a different manner. It is not just dreaming. Here you are established where you are. When you are dreaming you are established in dreaming and at that time you don’t know, only when you wake up you know that you had a dream. In dream you are lost in it means that you are established in the dream. From the view point of understanding by a yogi the beautiful word for that is padastha, you are established there. But the swapna avastha if you see from the view point of Gyani, all objects of dreams are existing in their own self, the self is much bigger, all the other objects of the dream that you see are existing in the beyond, in the true self, it is called Vyapti from the Gyani’s point of view the dream state is a state of Vyapti because all the thoughts and impressions and objects that you get in the dream is also Shiva, only that is true self. So everywhere it is there. It is Sarva-vyapta; that is why Vyapti word is used. It is in the Self only and Self is not affected by the dream, by the objects of the dream, the impressions and all, that Vyapti is very much there. A person who is established in turyatitta does not get dreams (the way a common gats dream, but if at all he gets dream, he understands that it is in his Self), please understand that, but this is the view point of Gyani for the dream, so it Vyapti only.

Sushupti state from the point of view of a common man is deep sleep. Pralayopamam. This definition is very beautiful, everything is lost, you have forgotten your name, your relatives, your bank balance, there is no objectivity whatsoever. Everything of the objective world is lost, you get into Shunya, void. You have lost subjectivity also because in the deep sleep you don’t remember your subjectivity. That is common man’s understanding. So there is no objectivity, no impressions because you are not even dreaming. In the dream world the impressions are there, in sushupti there are no impressions. There is only absolute silence, it is called Tasnimbhava. It is a nourishing state where you are in deep sleep where there are no impressions and there is no cognition whatsoever of the objective world and that is why you feel so fresh when you have deep sleep. It is nourishing. Your being is rejuvenated that is why sleeping is so very important. If you do not get deep sleep you will not feel rejuvenated next day morning. But when you get proper deep sleep where no disturbances are there, it is a very nourishing state and that nourishment is wanted. That is why it is called Tasnimbhava, the nourishing state. But this is common man’s understanding.

Yogi understands sushupti avastha at a different level. Here you are established in one’s own self or consciousness because you are not into the objective world; you are not into impressions which means Self is established in itself even though the Self is not aware of itself but the Self is established in itself because you are not into the objective world, you are not into impressions, that is why the word used is roopastha, You are established into that, in your swaroopa. So you are established in to the Self in sushupti avastha from the yogi’s angle. It is called roopastha, established into one’s own form.

But a Gyani will look at it in a different manner. Gyani looks at sushupti as Mahavyapti. The earlier word was Vyapti; here it is Mahavyapti – the great pervasion. No limitation of objectivity or impression is there. Gyani is fully aware in that state and the limitation comes because of objectivity or impression. Objectivity means normal Jagrut avastha, outside world, impressions mean the swapna avastha from where the impressions arise. Here because there is no Jagrut avastha, no swapna avastha, only sushupti but fully aware which means Mahavyapti. The Self is pervading everywhere. What a wonderful way of looking at sushupti. But that is how Gyani looks at sushupti – Mahavyapti, Self pervading state, the Self is pervading everywhere without any limitation of objectivity or impressions. This Mahavyapti is also Mahasamadhi. Fully established into that, absolutely no ripples but fully conscious of that state. So Gyani’s sleep is Mahasamadhi. There is absolutely no objectivity or impressions. There are no ripples in that field but the field is filled of fully conscious awareness. That is Mahavyapti, we should aim at that. These are the states worth praising; all other states are on the way, not getting stuck at any of these states but going to the ultimate that should be the end, that is why we are discussing this in different ways.

In Dwarahat Shibir we will understand proper methodology of getting into these states and practicing it. This is the understanding part. The real thing is practicing certain spiritual practices and meditation techniques of Kashmir Shaivism, getting into that and knowing first hand, that this is so. With the aura workshop, astral travel workshop, lucid dreaming and all, most of you have now understood and many of these states you have already experienced. But there is a methodology by which in one day’s time you can experience all these, it is not that you need a very long time. Only you have to understand the methodology of experiencing these things with conscious awareness. There are processes for that, there are meditational techniques for that; do those things and immediately you will have experiences. There are many people who sleep with open eyes during the lecture. When they close the eyes only then I come to know that they are sleeping. Some people they sleep with open eyes, they are in Jagrut sushupti avastha. Some students are expert in that. Their eyes are open but devoid of objectivity, eyes are open but no subjectivity. So you see, you do have experience of these things, not that I am talking something imaginary! Many of you have experienced during lectures these states. If the lecture becomes too heavy you get into one more state, it is called sushupti-sushupti. But if you are listening with meditative awareness, you get into turya-sushupti. Various combination of turya is possible right during the lecture. You get into all these states right in front of me!

In Dwarahat shibir we are going to practice this. Discussing part I am doing here because we need projector. For right understanding, you need repetition also. I have just talked about it once and I don’t expect you to register all these. If you register all this then you are Gyani, then you don’t need it. But you know that there are various combinations possible. In this field repetition is a must. When you keep on repeating you keep going deeper and deeper. But when you understand experientially everything is realized. That is why meditational practices are wanted. Information sharing to certain extent is good, not much of that is wanted. It has to be combined with the meditational practices so that you experience these states. Once you have that experiential understanding, your job is done. So we have to go through this experiential understanding of these 32 states of being. If you have understood these 32 states of being experientially your job is done. This is the reason, why we need residential retreats. In our 8 day retreat we are going to experience 36 elements and 32 states of being. If you experience these it means that you are in Gyani state. If you experience and understand all these things then it is the ultimate that is possible. Then you can go up to the level of Shiva, from earth element to Shiva, all the 36 elements you can travel but that is not considered to be an expertise in Kashmir Shaivism. In Kashmir Shaivism they say that the expertise is when you come down from Shiva to earth element and you do normal activity like an absolutely ordinary person but you have not lost that state. That is called expertise! You can go up and you can come down or you can go to any of the levels and you are still the same person and nothing is lost. That is called fully established into turyatitta and it remains even when you do your normal activity like an ordinary person. That is the Mastery in Kashmir Shaivism. Going up is one aspect but coming down is another aspect and more difficult aspect.

We have lot of glamorization going on in the name of meditational experiences. They say that person gets into a trance state; according to Kashmir Shaivism he is not mature that is why he is getting lost in the trance state. In Kashmir Shaivism mature state is going to the Shiva level and you are fully conscious and you come down like an average person, doing your normal activity and still you are into that, you are not lost into trance state. The bliss is there and you carry the bliss as you do your normal activity. That is called Mastery. Getting lost into trance state, not able to recognize people because you are into that subjective reality is kaccha-pucca! It means that you have not properly understood. If you have understood it properly and if you have practiced it properly then you can go from Earth to Shiva element and you can come down from Shiva to Earth element and nothing is lost. That is the beauty of Kashmir Shaivism!

36 elements and 32 states of being, all these things are to be experienced from within that is why Dwarahat shibir is going to be a landmark in our growth and understanding because experiencing all this is what we are going to do. All this preparation is going to be necessary for that and those who are going to miss Dwarahat Shibir, for them we have planned eight days residential Shibir on Kashmir Shaivism during December end. All these explanations will be given and then practices will be there. Everybody will be able to come to that highest level, the level from where you cannot fall back. From the level of Turya you can fall back but from level of turyatitta you cannot fall back. Everybody has to go to the level of Gyani. Yogi can fall back, Gyani cannot fall back. If somebody falls back, he is not considered as Gyani. Gyani is fully established in “Awareness and Understanding” that is never lost. Falling back is impossible. That is state of attainment otherwise you get a glimpse and you come down again, you get a glimpse and you come down, you can’t carry that as you are working. It is about absolute awareness of the Self, even for some of you breath awareness is difficult to maintain when you are working. When you are meditating you can have your breath awareness, if you are regular meditator, otherwise even that is difficult. But you can start with that. As you are working, as you are talking, as you are listening doing your normal routine work become aware of your breath, that will be the beginning of that. These are not just theoretical states, these are all practical states, it is possible to live life like that and there is no end to that. You can go much deeper in each state. That is what we are aiming at.

Let’s understand the fourth state, the Turya state from the view point of common man. Common does not understand anything more than Jagrut, swapna and sushupti. That is why the word itself is the fourth. What is that? The word turya has come from the view point of common man. It is something more than what one does not know that is why the Fourth. But the Yogi uses the word Roopatita. The meaning of the word Rooptita is – as this state has crossed the touch of oneself and is establishment of one’s own Self. Sushupti is Roopastha, established in one Self but there is a touch of that thing. Here it is Roopatita, it is beyond that. It means that your self is really established, that is what turya is. But Gyani will understand Turyatitta from different angle. Prachaya is the word used by Gyani which means multitude. Entire universal existence is found collectively as undifferentiated in the state of totality. This is the way turya is understood from the view point of Gyani. All undifferentiated energy is one only; that is what Prachaya is about. Diversity, multitude is all one. All different types of energies gain power from this state. Even though different energies manifest in different manner but they are one. That multitude is there but because they gain their power, the real power, the essence comes from there only, that is Shakti of Shiva only and Shiva is all pervading that is called Prachaya, the multitude. This is the understanding of a Gyani.

Penetration of all energies simultaneously, not in succession (i.e. one by one) but simultaneously that is what turya avastha is - Penetration of all the energies happening simultaneously. They are all together without distinction because all the distinction disappears in turya avastha. It is an un-manifested field without any ripple of objectivity, without any ripple of impression, so all becomes one! There is another view point also to look at the same thing it is called savyapara. It is the energy aspect what we discussed. All energies get their power to function in turya that is why from Gyani’s point of view it is also known as Savyapara because all the energies get power from that. There is one more way of looking at the same thing from the Gyani’s point of view. This is un-manifested and un-agitated field of consciousness, there is no objectivity and there are no ripples, it’s an absolutely un-agitated field of energies. The multitude of energies become one and absolutely un-agitated, one more beautiful word from the Gyani’s point of view is anamaya – un-agitated field, pure field, full of consciousness, full of bliss but no objectivity, no impression, that is that beautiful field. This is way Gyani will look at Turya avastha.

We need to discuss one more thing that is turyatitta. From the common man’s point of view turyatitta it is beyond the Fourth. There is no understanding that is why the words have come like that. Even the fourth is not understood so turyatitta is something which is not understood and is beyond the fourth. Instead of calling it as fifth it is said beyond Fourth. That is turyatitta as per common man’s understanding. Yogi does not understand and if he starts understanding then he becomes a Gyani! So there is no word for turyatitta by Yogi. But Yogis have knowledge. They know that something is possible through their intellectual understanding and inference or using the power of imagination or using the power of language that something more can be described or through guesswork, they have given a name which is none of their experience but still they have given the name – satatoditam. It means the state which has no pause, no breaks. It is like a stream of oil which is different from that of the water. It means that continuity of the state is there. It means that the Yogi is doing some guesswork, imagining. One gets the glimpses at the level of Yogi but if somebody is all the time there that is satatoditam. It is not the experience of the Yogi, if Yogi gets the experience the yogi becomes Gyani.

From Gyani’s view point if turya is known as Prachaya, turyatitta is known as Mahaprachaya. It means unlimited and unexplainable supreme totality. It is unlimited, it is unexplainable but it is multitude which means Supreme totality, everything is there into that. That is called Mahaprachaya. Turyatitta avastha from where the Gyani is, from his point of view it is Mahaprachaya – total unexplainable reality, every multitude is there, everything is included, everything is Shiva only, that understanding is called Mahaprachaya. That is the ultimate that is possible.

By now you would have understood that Yogi sees from objective point of view while Gyani sees from Subjective point of view! That is why so many different words to describe similar states but as it is seen from different point of view, they are considered as different states.

Who is a Master? - One who has actually experienced these states and through one’s own experiential understanding, who has the capacity to explain to others, one who the capacity to take others to this and helps one sustain that even when one come down, from where one cannot fall. That is the definition of a Master in Kashmir Shaivism. How difficult!! You must have experiential understanding, you must be able to communicate and explain to others, not only that you must be capable of taking them and putting them in to experiential understanding, so that the knowledge transfer is at experiential level and explaining to them how to sustain it so that they do not fall when they go back to the sansara again. Now you understand why so much importance is given to Kashmir Shaivism?

As a Grihasthi you have to continue doing your normal work, it is not that after enlightenment you drop out and go to the jungle. Your family members will not allow you to go! Even if you go they will find out and bring you back. Better to learn Kashmir Shaivism and even with all these things you are not lost. That is the real Mastery, if you are going away from sansara if you are opting for Sanyas, you cannot become the Master. Being a Master means experiencing all these things and doing your normal duty as you are doing that now and not losing that state, that is a real Mastery and that Mastery comes by actual experiencing of 36 elements and 30 states of being.

Is eight days a long time for this? I think eight days is nothing! With this we complete this topic.

Thank you very much.