Nyāsa Ritual in Kulārṇava Tantra
It is a well-known fact that, despite their unique and
distinctive formulations over
centuries, the tantric systems of the
Indian subcontinent do share in common a sophisticated body of cosmological
literature where we find detailed maps of worlds extending from heavens to the
earth and beyond.[1] A
striking feature of these models appears to be their emphasis on the individual
human body as a kind of microcosm or unity that corresponds in very specific
ways to the larger universe. Classical tantric texts like ’Viśvasāra Tantra’, ’Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam’ of the Kashmiri Shaiva
tradition, as well as the ’Kulārṇava Tantra’, among several others, are
filled with expressed correlations between the physical body and the cosmic dimension. In ’Viśvasāra Tantra’, we
find the statement: "What is here is elsewhere; what is not
here is nowhere" (yadīhasti tadanyatra yannehasti natatkvacit)[2]
and Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam’ contains
the following: "the
(individual) experient ... in whom citi or consciousness is contracted,
has the universe (as his body) in a contracted form" (citisaṁkocitātmā cetano api saṁkuciyaviśvamayaḥ), "one body and embodied really
include all the bodies and the embodied" (vigraho
vigrahī caiva sarvavigrahavigrahī) and "the body is
of the form of all gods" (sarvadevamayaḥ kāyastaṁ).[3] Perhaps it is
in the light of such expressions that John Woodroffe made the following observation:
It is necessary to remember the
fundamental principle of the Tantra Sastra is that man is a microcosm
(kshudra-brahmanda). Whatever exists in the outer universe exists in him. All
the tattvas and the worlds are within him and so are the supreme Shiva-Shakti.[4]
Such
perspectives of radical correspondence and correlation between the human body
and the surrounding universe in tantric traditions opens up a field of
investigation for the modern scholar with several unanswered questions. For example,
how can we envision or imagine the principles of unity and of correspondence to
work in concrete terms such that the differentiations and distinctions expressed
in individual bodies could be consistent
with these on all the levels of cosmic reality? What could be some of the
operative rules of a percieved unity and wholeness ( ’kula’ or ’piṇḍa’) that seems to appear in
every discrete and particular detail of
life? Indeed, what kinds of continuities in the fabric of tantric realities could one suppose to exist that would allow for mobility from the
universal to the embodied particular levels without any fundamental breach or
divide between them?
A
possible way to examine the question of correspondence
between levels of tantric cosmology and
the human body is by examining the subject of ’linkages’ or expressed ’relations’
between them. For example, when we look at a graphic model of the tantric
universe such as the ’ Śri Yantra’, we observe a highly
differentiated pattern of creation emerging from a core point – an indivisible
’bindu’. The ’yantra’ is comprised of multiple lines which intersect and cut across each other at
precise points and intervals and yet each line is recognizably part and parcel
of a larger matrix or web that relates to the point of origin. This has an
effect of suggesting that this principal point is somehow ’carried out’, as it were,
to the rim of the periphery by means of an increasingly complex system of
proportionate lines and their balanced or mutual relations and correspondences.
Everything here can be seen as somehow related to the center or core which extends
itself out and ’opens’, as it were, through a geometrical system of interrelated
lines and linkages. Furthermore, the pattern of lines indicate a two-way mobility: the lines appear
simultaneously as if they were emanating out from the center and yet also
receding back into it. In other words, the links are like ’carriers’ of
movement across planes – by means of the interrelationships expressed in them
one could move back and forth without disrupting the unified pattern and
symmetry of the whole.
In
this paper, I would like to look at a specific tantric liturgical practice or
ritual called ’nyāsa’ where the human body is recognised as a ’yantra’ or
graphic model with systems of complex relations and linkages that establish it
as a distinct microcosm through which ascent and descent is made possible
across levels of reality. The movement, enabled by means of specific links or
correspondences, is seen here as having a purificatory (’śodhana’) and transformative
effect such that the physical body becomes
a container or a vessel for increasingly subtle and more unified realms and for
the deities or ’devas’ who inhabit them – it is ’universalised’ or ’divinised’. I will
try to show how the systems of links and correspondences that comprise the
microcosmic body and relate it to other cosmic dimensions operate largely on
the level of consciousness rather than in so-called ’objective’ terms – in
other words, these links are connections in thought and imagination and operate
by means of such modalities as symbolism, logical relationships such as cause
and effect, and reflection. They do, however, also have objective
manifestations and are expressed in concrete relations between pairs of fingers
on a hand, limbs, etc. In other words, they are like tools of effective meaning
and understanding through which percieved gaps in cognition between levels of reality are bridged and
dissolved. Finally, I will attempt to illustrate the ways in which these
’links’, or correlations, constitute more of a ’process-dynamic’ rather than an
ontological substantiality and that they tend to deconstruct themselves in the course of the ritual towards greater
unity and purification.
Before
entering into the subject of the ‘nyāsa’ ritual, I would like to begin with
some working definitions of critical terms involved in tantric cosmology such
as ‘microcosm’ and ‘macrocosm’ and to distinguish their application in these
contexts from more general usages in systems like the Neoplatonic and Greek,
for example. There seems to be a tendency among tantric scholars to transplant
these concepts from western cosmological models and to use them in the context
of Indian tantric systems without closer scrutiny. In general terms, the
concept of ‘macrocosm’ carries connotations of wholeness, totality, and of a
universal order of containment without exclusion. The concept of ‘microcosm’,
by the same token suggests a smaller replica or version of such wholeness where
all the patterns of the larger ‘macrocosm’ are reflected. Roget’s Thesaurus[5],
for example, defines ‘macrocosm’ as ‘the totality of all existing things’ and
‘microcosm’ as a ‘miniature copy’. The Oxford
Dictionary of Philosophy defines ’macrocosm’ as
’the world as a whole, with a microcosm being one small part of it...’[6].
While tantric cosmological systems
do certainly reflect these general ideas, they also have quite specific
features such as parallelism of ’categories’, or creative principles, like the ’tattvas’,
embodiment and personhood, resonance and subtle sound-patterns, permeability of
cosmic hierarchies, and the ability to expand and contract. In this regard,
Paul Muller-Ortega’s definition of the
dyad ’macrocosm/microcosm’ as ’kula’ or ’family’, ’clan’, and ’unit’ seems
fitting:
‘In the…enormity of Śiva’s game, any
self-contained unit – for example, our universe – may be termed ‘kula’. The
unit is self-sufficient precisely because it is a part that is structured out
of wholeness. Since the kula’s essential reality is finally that wholeness
which it has bodied forth, every unit, or kula, resonates in identity with
every other structure composed of that wholeness. It is in this way that … the
human body, as a kula, resonates in identity with the entire universe.
This
resonance might be explained as a kind of parallelism between a microcosm, the
body, and a macrocosm, the universe itself.’[7]
In
the context of the tantric concept of ‘kula’ or ‘unit’, we note an emphasis on
key ideas of self-sufficiency, containment, and on resonance through
‘parallelism’ between ‘structures composed of…wholeness’. As well, there is the
valuable notion of ‘embodiment’ in tantric cosmological modeling whereby the
macrocosm and microcosm appear as anthropocentric ‘bodies’ with distinctly
human features and attributes. This notion of embodiment in tantra is also
emphasized by Gavin Flood in his book, Body and Cosmology in Kashmir
Shaivism, where he defines the universe as ‘a series of layers that are
manifested out of the original body of consciousness of Śiva’[8]
and where the ‘human subject’ and the ‘structure of the body’ is a ‘central
image…expressing a monistic metaphysics’[9]. Drawing
from these views of the tantric cosmos, one could offer a tentative definition
here of the concept of ‘microcosm’ as a self-contained and embodied unity that
is extensible to, and identified with, a totality and patterns of the greater universe
(‘macrocosm’) which are viewed in terms of a ‘body of consciousness’[10]. Patterns in this universal body can vary
according to different tantric cosmological models, yet the idea of an embodied
universe seems to persist through a majority of available texts.
Tantric
ritual of Nyāsa:
Turning now to the ritual form known as
‘nyāsa’ where the individual human body (‘kula’, ‘piṇḍa’,
‘deha’) is synchronized with the larger cosmos through specific acts of
purification, I will begin with a description from the ‘Kularṇava
Tantra’ (‘The Ocean of Kula’) – a well-known Sanskrit text of unknown
authorship and dated by various scholars between the 11th and the 15th
centuries AD.[11]
In looking at ‘nyāsa’, as it is described here, I will focus on selective
aspects of the ritual such as the use of symbols, analogies, linkages,
correspondences and, above all, on the application of Sanskrit phonemes and
letters – the ‘mātṛkā’ - as soteriological means of self-divinisation and transformation of the individual body into a cosmic body and
consciousness.
Etymologically,
the word ‘nyāsa’ is derived from the root ‘as’ + affix ‘ghañ’ - existence,
presence
- with the prefix ‘ni’
- within, in, into - what produces
literal meaning of the word ‘existence or presence within’. Monier-Williams
defines the meaning of ‘nyāsa’ as 1. ‘putting down or
in, placing, fixing, inserting, applying’ 2. ‘mental appropriation or
assignment of various parts of the body to tutelary deities’. [12]
Apte adds: ‘Assignment of
the various parts of the body to different deities, which usually accompanied
with prayer and corresponding gesticulations’.[13] These definitions do in fact capture the
essence of the ‘nyāsa’ ritual which involves the practitioner touching various
parts of his or her own body and consecrating or purifying it with sacred
‘mantras’ and ‘mudrās’ in a meditative and concentrated frame of mind.
Eliade understands ‘nyāsa’
as ‘a ritual projection of divinities into various parts of the body’ [14]while
Padoux defines it as ‘imposition of mantra’.[15]
According to Agehananda Bharati, ‘nyāsa’ is:
the process of charging a part of the body, or
an organ of another living body, with a specified power through touch….For instance,
by placing the fire mudra [a way of holding the fingers when touching] on the
heart region uttering the fire-mantra 'ram', the adept's heart is made into the
cosmic fire…[16]
Here we see that ’nyāsa’ is a
process of transformation through purification of the practitioner into a deity
or one of ’reaffirming’ him or her as a complete microcosm. This
point is reiterated by Wade Wheelock in
his article on the use of mantras in tantric ritual:
The Tantric pūja (ritual) postulates the ultimate unreality of all
distinctions and seeks to affirm the eternal truth of worshipper’s identity
with the deity... the Tantric liturgy is working to realise the one,
all-encompassing bandhu : god= ritual = worshipper. [17]
Description and Analysis of ‘nyāsa’ ritual:
The fourth chapter of ‘Kulārṇava Tantra’[18]
carries a detailed description of the ‘nyāsa’ ritual through stages of
enactment. This section of the text opens with a dialogue between ‘Śiva’ and ‘Śakti’
where she inquires about a secret ‘mantra’, known as the ‘Śrī-parā-prāsāda’,
which is introduced as the essence of ‘nyāsa’. This ‘mantra’ invokes a
transcendent dimension – the ‘parā’ or ‘kula’ – that is described here as an
ultimate constituent of reality (’tattvarūpatva’), a light that illuminates the
‘Self’ (‘ātmaprakāśana’), a cause of bliss (‘ānandajanana’), elucidater of
‘dharma’ (‘dharmanidarśana’), a granter of fruits (‘phaladāna’) and bestower of
sovereignty (‘aisvaryakāraṇa’).
Having chanted this ‘mantra’, Śiva offers
a description of the ‘nyāsa’ ritual with
preliminary acts of ablutions, prayers, and a ‘yajña’ at a doorway, involving a
banishment of three kinds of obstacles (‘vighnatraya’). This establishes a
bound mesocosm or sacred space (‘digbandha’) into which the practitioner will
now enter to perform self-worship through his or her body.
The
performative part of the ritual comprises a sequence of purificatory practices known
as ‘alpaṣoḍha-nyāsa’ (‘short purificatory nyāsa’)
and ‘mahāṣoḍha-nyāsa’ (‘great purificatory nyāsa’)
by means of which the practitioner will ascend systematically into a fullness
of identity ‘Para Śiva’, a transcendent form of ‘Śiva’, and gain both worldly empowerment
as well as a divinized state of body and mind. The ‘alpaṣoḍha nyāsa’ begins with worship,
through placement or positioning, of Śiva as ‘Pañcamukhaliṅgam’:
īśatatpuruṣāghorasadyojātātmanastathā |
pañcāṅguliṣu vinyasya
mūrtīṃ vaktreṣu vinyaset
|| 17 ||
pañcasu brahmaṇi tathaivāṅgavinyāsamācaret
|
Iśa Tatpuruṣa Aghora Sadyojāta
and Atma, having placed in the five fingers,
the image (one) should place in
the faces.( Place it) in the five ‘brahman’ and
in a similar manner one should place (arrange?) (it) in the limbs of the
body.[19]
The five deities of ‘Iśa’, Tatpuruṣa’,
‘Aghora’, Sadyojāta’ and ‘Atma’, invoked in the opening line of this ‘śloka’,
refer to the form of Śiva known as ‘Sadāśiva’ who is also symbolically
represented as ‘Pañcamukhaliṅgam’. [20]
In this latter form, all the four cosmic directions, including an invisible
fifth dimension, are encompassed within one image that embodies the entire
macrocosm. The names of these five deities correspond to the ‘brahmaṇa mantras’ and
constitute the body of the universe. Their number also corresponds to five-fold
categories, or ‘tattvas’, into which the manifest and physical world is
divided. B.N. Sharma, a student of
Stella Kramrisch, has noted:
Sadāśiva is considered to be a form of Śiva and the
Supreme Being – formless, beyond comprehension, subtle, luminous,
all-pervading. The five faces represent Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vāmadeva,
Sadyojāta, and Iśāna are collectively known as Pañca-brahmanas and they are
regarded as… emanations from niśkala Śiva
(the formless, unmanifested,
Para-brahma).[21]
It is significant that the deity invoked
in the ‘alpaṣoḍha’ is
expressed through symmetries of five: there are five actions of naming five
deities, placing them in the thumb and four fingers of the hand, placing them
in the five faces corresponding to four directions with the fifth, chanting
their five ‘brahman mantras’ and placing the five deities in five parts of the
body. The significance of the number ‘five’ in tantric cosmology is indicative
of totality and wholeness comprising all realms and directions including both
the visible and invisible dimensions.
Stella Kramrisch suggests that ‘five is the sacred number of Śiva’[22]
and as having roots in upanishadic literature. She quotes from PBU where it is
said:
One should
know all things of the phenomenal world as of a fivefold character, for the
reason that the external verity of Śiva is of the character of the fivefold
Brahma.[23]
The performative part of this ‘nyāsa’
involves an identification of the physical body of the practitioner, through
sound and touch, with the macrocosmic form of the ‘pañcamukhaliṅgam’. The
five directions are identified, or linked, with a vertical axis in the body
extending from the head to the mouth and heart down to sexual organs and feet,
thereby creating a symbolic homology between the cosmic form of Śiva and the
individual being. We note that the movement of energy is from the top down to
the bottom – that is to say, a descent of power or ‘śaktipata’. This descent
also constitutes a purification of these parts of the body, which are
reformulated into wholeness. One could also suggest a reverse motion
synchronistically at work here – the individual body of the worshipper is also
being extended and expanded out into the cosmos through all directions
including the transcending dimension. Thus the body becomes an image of Sadāśiva linking
the former to this form through symbolic means.
This
‘alpaśoḍha nyāsa’ is followed by a ‘mahāṣoḍha
nyāsa’ (‘greater purification nyasa’) which consists of six sequences -
‘Prapañcaḥ’, ‘Bhuvanaṃ’, ‘Mūrtīḥ’,
‘Mantram’, ‘Devataḥ’, and ‘Mātṛkā’. These six
sequences involve placement of letters of the Sanskrit alphabet on various
parts and constituent elements of the body together with their respective
deities and cosmological aspects. Each ‘nyāsa’ begins with the letter ‘a’ and goes
through the entire alphabet in sequence ending with the letter ‘kṣa’.
The placement of Sanskrit phonemes in the body is based on a tantric concept of
‘sonic power’ wherein each letter of the alphabet is synchronized with a
vibratory pattern of sound that articulates a particular aspect of reality into
existence. Together, the entire alphabet in this context of creative power is
known as ‘mātṛkā’.
In his book, Vâc, The Concept of
the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras, Andre Padoux has discussed ‘mātṛikā’ in
terms of ‘Vāc’ or the ‘Word’ which he describes as a creatrix or ‘mother of the
gods’, ‘a symbol of …Godhead…(and) the force that creates, maintains, and upholds
the universe’.[24] Padoux goes on to show how this concept of ‘Vāc’ or
‘Word’, expressed in the earliest Vedas and Brahmanas, came to be integrated
into later tantric systems through a set of perspectives involving
‘anthropocosmic correlations’:
All…
developments of the Word… occur homologously within man or the cosmos…Thus…the
creative act (is) an utterance which is a human act…reversing the order (we)
see in this act nothing but the
reproduction at the human level of an archetypal, divine act or process… the
universe emerges within divine consciousness, through… stages or levels of
speech…the categories…of the cosmic manifestation arise concurrently with the
Sanskrit phonemes (varṇa) arranged in their grammatical order, while grammar –
as well as traditional phonetics - will
serve to account for the cosmology.[25]
The Sanskrit
phonemes, or ‘varṇas’, represent sound-elements which
constitute the world of expressed objective forms (‘vācya’) including all the basic
elements and categories of creation from the ‘mahābhutas’ to the ‘tattvas’ of
human senses (‘indriyas’) and inner mental organs (‘antaḥkarana’).
These senses, organs, and the entire human body are recognized as forming a
‘sacred shrine’ (‘pīṭha’) of ‘Mātṛkāśakti’.
The purpose of using ‘mātṛkā’ in a
ritual like ‘nyāsa’, then, is to reverse the current of sound-phonemes from
their dispersion into the fragmented multiplicity of extroverted forms, such as
the human body, and to restore them into the wholeness of their origin.
It
appears that the division of ‘mahāsoḍhanyāsa’ into
six parts has its basis in the concept of ‘ṣaḍadhvan’,
or the six-fold path, according to which the course of sonic manifestation
follows six stages (‘adhvan’ or ‘ādhāra’) of evolution from the most subtle to the most gross.[26] The subtle levels consist of ‘mātṛkā’
and ‘mantras’ and the gross levels consist of concrete and physical matter with
specific limits and boundaries and are known as ‘kalās’, ‘tattvas’ and
‘bhuvanas’. The first stage of ‘mahāsoḍhanyāsa’
consists of ‘Prapañcanyāsa’ and deals with ‘tattva adhvan’. This is the stage
of objective basic elements (‘tattvas’). They are divided into three main
sections and connected to vowels, consonants, and semi-vowels with fricatives.
The first part dealing with vowels opens with this ‘śloka’:
prapañcadvīpajaladhigiripattanapīṭhakāḥ || 21 ||
kṣetraṃ
vanāśramaguhānadīcatvarakodbhijaḥ |
svedāṇḍajajarāyujā
ityuktāste hi ṣoḍaśa || 22 ||
śrīrmāyā
kamalā viṣṇuvallabhā
padmadhāriṇī |
samudratanayā lokamātā
kamalavāsinī || 23 ||
indirā
mā ramā padmā tathā
nārāyaṇapriyā |
siddhalakṣmī rājalakṣmīrmahālakṣmīritīritāḥ |
śaktayastu prapañcānāṃ
svarāṇāmadhidevatāḥ || 24 ||
The physical
world, continents of the terrestrial world, ocean, mountain, city, seat of
śakti, (sacred) district, forest, hermitage, cave, river, cross-road, seed-born,
sweat-born, egg-born, embryo-born beings – these said (places) are sixteen .
Srī, Māyā, Kamalā, Viṣṇuvallabhā, Padmadhāriṇī, Samudratanayā, Lokamātā, Kamalavāsinī, Indirā, Mā,
Ramā, Padmā, then Nārāyaṇapriyā, Siddhalakṣmī, Rājalakṣmī, Mahālakṣmī, they are to be named. These
powers, indeed, are the deities presiding over the vowels of manifestation.[27]
Here,
‘prapañca’ expresses the visible or manifest world with its differentiated
spaces or origins of life from continents to oceans and cities all the way
through caves and rivers to wombs of different species. These are like matrices
or containers where life is nurtured in different ways. Continents and cities,
for example, contain different kinds of living beings while caves and ‘piṭhas’ or
hermitages support meditative energies. These ‘containers’ are linked here with
sixteen feminine deities from Śrī to Mahālakṣmī who carry
life-supportive function associated with Viṣṇu, the
‘Preserver’. Furthermore, these sixteen sources of life are linked to the
vowels of the Sanskrit alphabet from ‘a’ to ‘visarga’ which are recognized as
the primary articulations of sound energies that birth all creation. These
vowels, along with their respective deities and originating spaces, are placed
into sixteen parts of the practitioners’ head. By doing so, these ‘prapañca’
energies are activated within these parts of the body thus aligning it with a
cosmic dimension.
In the next section of the ‘prapañca nyāsa’ we
find that consonants (‘ka’ -‘ma’) are considered to be energies of goddesses
that differentiate temporal order in the cosmos from its smallest units
(‘lava’) to the longest (‘pralaya’). These units of time, articulated as
sound-phonemes, are ritually placed into different parts of the body from the
shoulders to the heart. By doing so, the body is not only being homologized
with the deities of cosmic time, but also being reintegrated with eternity
through a reverse movement starting from the smallest measure of time (‘lava’)
back to the boundlessness of ‘pralaya’:
śaktayaḥ syurlavādīnāṃ
sparśānāmadhidevatāḥ |
etāsāṃ
sthānaniyamo hṛdayāntaḥ samīritaḥ || 30 ||
Saktis are
the presiding deities over the consonants (and) over ‘lava’ etc.
The regulation
of placement of these (śaktis) ending in the heart is told.[28]
The last part of the ‘prapañca nyāsa’
section of ‘Kulārṇava Tantra’ consists of a set of ‘ślokas’
that deal with the constituent elements of the universe. Then ‘ślokas’ offer a
concise description of the rules pertaining to ‘nyāsa’:
pañcabhūtāni tanmātraṃ jñānakarmendriyāṇi ca |
guṇāntaḥkaraṇāvasthā dhyāyeddoṣān daśānilān
|| 31 ||
brāhmī
vāgīśvarī vāṇī sāvitrī ca sarasvatī |
gāyatrī
vākpradā paścāt śāradā bhāratī priye |
vidyātmikā pañcabhūtavyāpakānāmadhīśvarāḥ || 32 ||
vāgbhavaṃ
bhuvaneśīñca lakṣmībījaṃ tritārakam |
tritāramūlīvidyānta māt ṛkākṣarataḥ param || 33 ||
vadet prapañcarūpāyai śriyai
nama iti kramāt |
prapañcādibhirāyojya
varṇāna śaktīrnīyojayet
|
mātṛkānyāsasaṃproktasthāneṣvevaṃ nyaset
priye || 34 ||
tritāramūlasakalaprapañcādi svarūpataḥ |
āyai parāmbādevyainama uktvā vyāpakaṃ nyaset ||
35 ||
Five gross
elements, five senses, sense organs, and organs of action, (three) qualities,
the internal organ, states (of awareness) one should meditate on (them, plus
on) bodily imbalances, (and) ten winds. Brāhmī, Vāgīśvarī, Vāṇī, Sāvitrī, and
Sarasvatī, Gāyatrī, Vākpradā, then Sāradā, Bhāratī, oh, beloved, and Vidyātmikā
are goddesses for meditation pervading those named five gross elements. Vāgbhava,
Bhuvaneśī, Lakṣmī – bīja, Tritāraka
(bīja- mantra), ending with Tritāramūlīvidyā (bīja-mantra) follow after the
letters of ‘mātṛkā’. One should say ‘homage to ‘Śri’
in the form of the visible world’ – in this sequence. Having joined prapañca
etc. (elements) with letters one should join these with the power (śakti). In
the places which were told in respect of ‘mātṛkānyāsa’ one should (perform)
‘nyāsa’, oh beloved. (Starting) from her
own essential nature composed of parts such as Prapañca etc, ‘tritāramūla’
(root- mantra), having said ‘Homage to letter ‘a’ Parāmbādevi’ one should
spread (it) everywhere.[29]
The first two lines of the above set
of ‘ślokas’ are an enumeration of the constituent factors of the human body and
the gross elements, These correspond to ten creative forces of ‘Brahma’
(‘Brahma śaktis’) and to the semi-vowels and fricatives. It follows, therefore, that the body, being
composed of these creative energies, has also a creative potential and can act
upon, as well as influence, the larger universe through its inherent power. We
note, also, here we are being introduced to a third kind of classification of
manifest form in the universe – namely, of elements and constituents of the
human body. In the earlier ‘ślokas’, we were introduced to divisions of space
and of time, but now we find a different kind of division - of elements. The
process of ‘nyāsa’, then, seems to consist of a bringing together, or ‘joining’
(‘yojayet’), these differentiations of parts (‘kalās’) into a surpassing unity
through which a sacred power or primal ‘Śakti’ is evoked. Then, having accessed
the creative ‘core’ or source of the
universe, so to speak, the power can be again re-infused into all the ‘kalās’
which are now not separate parts anymore but correspond to their living spirit
and principal.
The process of integration has a
mathematical form and three-fold structure: we can envision the entire ‘prapañca’
sequence as being composed of three concentric circles which spiral in towards
a transcending point – the nasalized ‘aṁ’ sound or ‘Parādyadevī’.
The outermost ring has all the ‘tattvas’, the entire Sanskrit alphabet, and
their corresponding goddesses or ‘śaktis’. In the next circle, we find three
‘bīja mantras’ - Lakṣmī, Bhuvaneśī
and Vāgbhava who correspond to three domains of space, time and elements as
well as to three cosmic functions of preservation, dissolution and creation.
Furthermore, these three mantras also correspond to three groups of the
Sanskrit alphabet – namely, vowels, consonants and semi-vowels with fricatives.
The third circle is composed of a ‘Tritāra
mūla mantra’ and the graphic equivalent of this mantra is a triangle (‘tritāraka’)
that brings together the three mantras of the previous circle with their
corresponding deities. These three circles, then, spiral in towards an
indivisible point or goddess, the ‘Parādyadevi’, who is expressed as ‘a’.
Meditating on her, the practitioner, reaches the creative source who pervades
(‘vyāpakam’) all manifest forms transforming them into an inexpressible unity.
By entering into the flow of this primal deity, the practitioner’s body is
re-created to the outermost periphery of ‘tatvas’ as universal form. The ritual
gesture in ‘nyāsa’ here is of the practitioner’s hands running over his or her
physical body in a continuing and unbroken movement suggesting pervasion.
The
next ’nyāsa’ takes us beyond ’prapañca’ into the second ’adhvan’ of ’mahāṣoḍha
nyasa’: ’bhuvana nyāsa’. Here
where we find a different kind of cosmology that maps the
universe as a composition of fourteen worlds. In relation to the practitioner’s
body, these have the effect of extending it beyond the terrestrial world and
also beyond the scope of the previous ‘prapañca nyāsa’:
Tritāramūlamantrānte
a āṃ iṃ atalaṃ vadet || 36
||
lokañca nilayañcaiva
śatakoṭipadaṃ tataḥ |
guhyādyā
yoginī mūlaṅeyutantu vadet priye || 37 ||
vadedādhāraśaktyambādevyai
ca pādayornyaset |
ī uṃ ūṃ vitalaṃ
guhyataraṃ cānantasaṃjñakam |
śeṣañca
pūrvavat procya gulphayordevi vinyaset || 38 ||
ṛṃ ṛṃ ḷṃ
sutalañcātiguhyaṃ cāvintyasaṃjñakam |
śeṣacca
pūrvavat procya jaṅghayovīnyaset
priye || 39 ||
(With) Tritāramūlamantra
at the end one should say ‘a āṁ iṁ’ (the world) ‘atala’. After that, one should say, oh
beloved - ‘the portion (occupied by) hundreds of millions of worlds and
dwelling places, primordial secret ‘yogini’, connected with the root’. One
should pronounce - ‘(Homage) to goddess Adhāraśaktāmba (the power of support)’ -
placing at the feet. ī uṃ ūṃ, ‘vitala’ (world which is) more secret and defined as
endless, one should place at the two ankles. The rest is as it has been said before,
oh Devi. ṛṃ ṛṃ ḷṃ ‘sutala’ (world), which is most secret and recognized
as inconceivable, one should place at
the two shanks, oh beloved. The rest has been said as before.[30]
In this
‘nyāsa’ we notice that the presiding deity is Adhāraśaktāmba. She is the
goddess of ‘support’ (‘ādhāra’) and should be mentioned throughout the ritual
as a secret ‘yoginī’, inhabiting innumerable worlds but connected to the root
‘mantra’ which is the source of all the worlds. The course of the ritual is an
ascending order starting from ‘atala’ (the lowers hell) to ‘satya’ (top divine
world). Also, every plane of the universe in order from bottom to top is joined
with the letters of Sanskrit from ‘a’ to ‘ksa’ indicating that the power of
phonemes spreads down to the most gross level.
In the next section, ‘Murti nyāsa’, we find
a three-fold division of ‘nyāsa’ according to the ‘Trimurti’: Viṣṇu, Śiva, and
Brahma:
tritāramūlamantrānte
svarān viṣṇūn saśaktikān |
caturthyā
namasā yuktān mastake cānane nyaset || 61 ||
saskandhapārśvakaṭyūru jānujaṅghāpadeṣu ca |
dakṣādivāmaparyantaṃ
vinyaset parameśvari || 62 ||
kabhādyarṇayutān mantrī bhavādīna śaktisaṃyutān |
pādapārśvabāhukaṇṭhapañcavaktreṣu vinyaset |
daśādhāreṣu brahmādīn
yādi śaktiyutānnyaset || 63 ||
tritāramūlamantrānte śrītrimūrttyambikāṃ vadet |
āyai
parāmbādevyai ca namasā vyāpakaṃ nyaset ||
(Adding) Tritāramūlamantra
at the end, the vowels, Viṣṇus together with their ‘śaktis’ having joined it with
the fourth salutation, one should place at the head and in the breath, and to
shoulders, sides of the body, waist, thighs, knees, shanks, and feet. One should perform ‘nyāsa’ beginning with
right side and ending with left side, Oh Parameśvari. Having joined letters
beginning with ‘ka bha’ etc. with Lord Bhava etc. accompanied by their ‘śaktis’,
one should perform ‘nyāsa’ in the feet, ribs, arms, throat, five faces (places
on the face?). In ten supports one should perform ‘nyāsa’ of Brahma etc.
together with his ‘śaktis’. Tritāramūlamantra at the end one should say
(mantra) of Ambiki, (presiding over) the ‘trimurti’ (Viṣṇu Śiva
Brahma). By paying homage to the letter ’a’ and transcendental Ambā Devi one
should infuse (it) everywhere.[31]
In this
portion of the ‘nyāsa’ ritual, the placement of Sanskrit phonemes and their
respective deities in the practitioner’s body, follows a pattern of three
circles covering sixteen, twelve, and ten, physical parts from the head to the
feet. The first circle relates to Viśṇu and the
order of placement here is from the head to feet. The second circle relates to
Siva and the order of placement here is reversed, proceeding from the feet to
the head. The third circle has ‘daśadhāra’, or ten supports, which refer to Brahma
and these relate to ten subtle centers of the body (seven ‘cakras’ and three
subtle channels or ‘nādis’)[32].
The order here is from the ‘root cakra’ (‘muladhara’) to the most subtle
channel called ‘nādānta’. The deities have subtle forms composed of ‘mantras’[33]
and these are infused into the body of the ritual agent thereby eradicating the
‘pollution’ of individuality possessed by worldly orders (‘bhuvanas’).
This ‘nyāsa’ ends, like all the
preceding ones, with an invocation through the ‘tritāramūlamantra’, to a
feminine deity – the ‘Ambikā Devī’. She is the end point of a complex process
of conjunction between different aspects of deities, their phonematic
composition, and corresponding levels in the manifest world. She reflects a
surpassing reality that is beyond space, time, element, or form, and by
systematically dissolving all these components into her, the practitioner
reaches a stage of unbroken unity and creative power. This power can then be
released into the body of the practitioner which is now infused with her
presence and contains all aspects of the macrocosm in essence. It is interesting
to note that the entire ‘nyāsa’ described in the ‘Kulārṇava Tantra’
has a feminine deity as its ultimate objective of worship and meditation. This
might indicate that the tantra has strong affinities to ‘Śakta’ traditions in
the subcontinent where the highest power of the universe is not envisioned in
terms of a masculine form of Śiva or Vishnu but rather as a goddess ‘Ambā’ or
‘Adyadevi’ and feminine at the source.
The ritual proceeds with ‘mantra
nyāsa’ dealing with ’ṁantra adhvan’:
Tritaramūlam aṃ āṃ iṃ ekalakṣañca koṭi ca|| 64 ||
bhedaśca praṇavādyekākṣarātmākhilamantrataḥ || 65 ||
tato'dhidevatāyai
syāt sakalañca phalapradām |
āyai tathaikakūṭeśvaryambādevyai namo
vadet || 66 ||
ī uṃ ūṃ ādi haṃsāde dvikūṭaṃ pūrvavat param
|
ṛṃ ṛṃ ḷṃ ādi vahnyādi trikūṭaṃ pūrvavat param || 67 ||
ḹṃ eṃ eṃ caturlakṣaṃ candrādi pūrvavat param |
Tritaramūla mantra,
aṃ āṃ iṃ, (mantras) which have only one mark (one syllable)
and are innumerable. After that division of the whole mantra beginning with
‘praṇava mantra’-
(auṁ) having the
nature of one letter
after that -
for the presiding deity who is with parts and giver of fruits one should say: ‘Homage
to the letter ‘a’, and then - ‘(Homage to) Ekakūṭeśvaryambādevi’. After the previous
one - ī uṃ ūṃ, the Primordial
one with two prominent (marks) beginning with haṁsa. After the
previous one - ṛṃ ṛṃ ḷṃ to the primordial one with three (marks) beginning
with fire (mantra). After the previous one ḹṃ eṃ eṃ - the
one with four (marks) beginning with the moon (mantra).[34]
Here
‘mantras’ starting from ’OM’ to one-letter, two-letters, and so on up to
sixteen letters are arranged into parts (‘kalās’). Each part is named in
accordance with a feminine ‘bīja mantra’ and these are linked to phonemes of ‘mātṛkā’. The ‘mantras’
form a domain (‘adhvan’) higher
then ’murti’ as they give rise to deities of ’Trimurti’ empowering them.
Furthermore, the mantras are empowered by ‘varṇa adhvan’ which
resonate with them’.[35]
A practitioner imbibes the powers of the deities by activating
these ’mantras’ and ‘varṇas’ within.
In this way, the above ‘nyāsa’ is a deepened stage.
This ‘nyāsa’ is followed by ‘devatā
nyāsa’, where ‘mātṛkā’ is linked to twenty-
six parts (’kalās’) of the divinity wherein each part refers to a goddess who
presides over families (‘kulas’) of celestial, realized, terrestrial,
and demonic, beings. These are placed on the body parts of the practitioner:
tritāramūlamantrānte aṃ āṃ sahasrakoṭi ca || 78 ||
yoginīkulaśabdānte
sevitāyai padaṃ
vadet |
nivṛttyambāpadaṃ devyai nama ityuccaret priye || 79 ||
iṃ īṁ yoginīpratiṣṭhāṃ śeṣaṃ pūrvavaduccaret |
uṃ ūṃ tapasvi
vidyāñca śeṣaṃ pūrvavaduccaret || 80 ||
ṛṃ ṝṃ śāntaṃ tathā śāntiṃ śeṣaṃ
pūrvavaduccaret |
ḷṃ ḹṃ muniṃ śāntyatītāṃ
śeṣaṃ pūrvavaduccaret || 81 ||
(Adding) Tritāramūlamantra
at the end, one should say (this) part - ‘aṃ āṃ (homage) to the one who receives
service’ with the words at the end – ‘of the family of ‘yoginīs’ which are also
hundreds of millions’. ‘Homage to the Devi’ - the part in relation to Nivṛttyambā (mother of dissolution) – this should be said,
oh, beloved. ‘iṃ īṁ
‘yoginī’ (‘kula’) - Pratiṣṭhā the rest should
be said as before. uṃ ūṃ ascetic’s (‘kula’) and Vidyā the rest should
be said as before. ṛṃ ṝṃ śānta (‘kula’)
then śānti the rest should be said as
before. ḷṃ ḹṃ sir
śāntyatītā the rest should be said as before.[36]
The
link created in this ’nyāsa’ is between’mātṛkā’
and twenty six prominent parts (’kalās’) of creative order represented by goddesses
known as Nivritti, Pratiṣṭhā,
Vidyā, Śanti, Śantyatiata
up to ’Śakti’. These are forms
of Śakti who differentiate creation into parts. For
example, ’Nivṛitti’ (’return’) is a
force that brings solidity into being but when this is reached the movement is
reversed back into involution. This reverse motion becomes ’Pratiṣṭha’
which is a force that forms the basis underlying the physical universe. Then,
we have’Vidyā’ who creates mental space, followed by ’Śanti’
(peaceful).[37]
Finally, ’Śakti’, is the supreme power
of differentiation who also lies beyond it. These ’Śaktis’
are ’kalās’ which belong to subtle stage of ’vācya’ (’signified’) part of the
six-fold path. They are expressions of ’varṇas’
or ’vācakas’(signifier). The ’kalās’ function with ’mātṛkā’
in pair by bringing forces of differentiation into existence and returning them
back to their origins.[38] So, we can see how
a practitioner can follow their current by reversing the cosmic order of
descent into creation and reaching the highest stage.
’Mahāṣoḍha
nyāsa’ is completed with ’mātṛkā
nyāsa’. The practitioner places ’Mātṛkā’
deities and their phonemes together with eight families of beings
(’bhutas’,’pretas’ etc.) belonging to Śiva
in the form of Bhairava:
tritāramūlamantrānte
kavargānantakoṭibhū |
carīkulasevitāyai
āṃ kṣāṃ hi maṅgalāpadam |
ambādevyai
namo brūyād āṃ kṣāṃ brahmāṇyataḥ param || 95 ||
ambādevyai tato'nantakoṭibhūtaṃ kulaṃ vadet |
sahitāyai tato
maṅgalanāthāya aṃ kṣaṃ vadet || 96 ||
aṃ kṣaṃ aśitāṅgabhairavanāthāya nama
uccaret|
(Adding) Tritāramūlamantra
at the end, endless number of beings (who live on earth) (pertain to) ‘ka’
letter group. ‘Homage to the goddess
‘Carīkulasevitā’ (to whom ‘kula’ of inhabiting (the earth beings) serves) ‘āṃ kṣāṃ’, indeed, is the sphere of ‘Maṅgalā’ (goddess)’.
‘Homage to the Ambā Devī’ one should say ‘āṃ kṣām’ Brahmāṇī’ – follows
after this. ‘(Homage) to to Ambādevī’, after that, ‘the family of endless
number of ‘bhūtas’ one should say. (Worshipping) together with her Maṅgalanāthā ‘aṁ kṣaṁ’- one
should say. ‘aṃ kṣaṃ’, homage to Aśitāṅgabhairavanāthā’
- one should pronouns.[39]
The
first three ‘ślokas’ describe two families of ‘Mātṛkās’ accompanied by their Bhairavas who
preside over guttural phonemes. They are served by all creatures inhabiting the
earth and ‘bhūtas’ (‘evil spirits’). The
entire ‘nyāsa’ sequence has eight ‘Mātṛkās’
with their ‘Bhairavas’ presided over Ambā Devī.[40]
These eight groups of deities give rise to eight groups of the Sanskrit alphabet
(Svacchaṇḍa Tantra 1.33).[41]
They are ferocious deities because they create differentiations (’kalās’), or obscuring
forces signifying impurity. They also empower ’varṇas’ with this function. In
this ‘nyāsa’, the practitioner is dealing with the ‘varṇa adhvan’ – the most subtle stage in the six-fold
path. By mastering these ’mātṛikās’, the practitioner gains the
power of liberation that comes from overcoming differentiation.[42]
This ritual stresses the liberating potential
in ‘Mātṛkā’ by activating an embodied
movement whereby all the diverse patterns in the body and cosmos are unified
and reflect one matrix. Then, the body becomes a shrine of ‘Mātṛkā’.
The
entire ‘nyāsa’ ends with a climactic image of an embodied ‘Śiva’ in the form of the ‘guru’ who is contemplated as
residing in an immaculate lotus within the head of the ritual practitioner:
mūrdhnī sañcintayeddevi śrīguruṃ śivarūpiṇam || 117 ||
sahasradalapaṅkaje sakalaśītaraśmiprabham
varābhayakarāmbujaṃ
vimalagandhapuṣpāmbaram |
prasannavadanekṣaṇaṃ sakaladevatārūpiṇam
smaret śirasi haṃsagaṃ
tadabhidhānapūrvaṃ gurum || 118 ||
evaṃ nyāse kṛte devi sākṣāt paraśivo bhavet |
mantrī naivātra
sandeho nigrahānugrahakṣamaḥ || 119 ||
mahāṣoḍhāhvayaṃ nyāsaṃ yaḥ karoti dine dine |
devāḥ sarve namasyanti taṃ namāmi na
saṃśayaḥ || 120 ||
One should think, oh Devi, about ‘śriguru’, the form
of Śiva (sitting) at the top of the head in a thousand-petalled lotus (who is)
a ray of light, bright and cool, possessing parts. The lotus removing fear, pure,
adorned with fragrant flowers, a sight of pleasant face, in the form of a
deity possessing parts. One should remember in the head that ‘guru’, who was described
before, as riding on a swan. Oh, Devi, one really becomes the
Highest Śiva if he performs ‘nyāsa’ ritual
in the aforesaid manner. There is no doubt that he is the master of restraint, kindness and
patience. The one who daily
performs ‘mahāṣoḍhanyāsa’,
all the deities salute him and I (Śiva) salute him, there is no doubt.[43]
These
‘ślokas’ describe the achieved results of ‘sadhana’ as a transcendence-in-immanence:
the human and embodied form of the practitioner– ‘sakala’ – is revealed now as
completely pure (‘vimala’), fragrant as a flower (‘gandhapuṣpāmbaram’), fearless, and as deified.
This image is a complete reconstitution and expansion of the practitioner’s body
and sense of self. The imagined or meditated form of ‘guru’ as a perfected
human being has become concrete reality. Indeed, he, or she, is now recognized
by Śiva as being the ‘Highest Śiva’. The energies that compose the living personality
have been fully mastered so that one becomes capable of restraint, kindness and
patience.
mahāṣoḍhāhvayaṃ nyāsaṃ karoti
yatra pārvati |
divyakṣetraṃ samuddiṣṭaṃ
samantāddaśayojanam || 121 ||
kṛtvā nyāsamimaṃ devi yatra gacchati mānavaḥ |
tatra
syādvijayo lābhaḥ sammānaḥ pauruṣaṃ priye ||
122 ||
Oh. Parvati! Where (‘sadhaka’) performs this ‘mahāṣoḍha nyāsaṃ’ that place and the entire space around it up to a
distance of ten yojanas is considered to be a Divine area. Oh Beloved! After
performing this ‘nyāsa' wherever (‘sādhaka’) goes he obtains victory, benefits,
honor and splendor.[44]
In these final ‘ślokas’, we note
that the energy of sacralisation, released into the practitioner’s body, spreads
out into the atmosphere charging it for miles around. The individual form
becomes capable of unlimited action and achievement – his, or her, sovereignty is
not restricted in time and space for the person is no longer a fragment of
reality but a complete and universal whole.
In conclusion,
we note that the ‘nyāsa’ ritual
described above in the ‘Kulārṇava
Tantra’, offers a unique and
comprehensive anatomy of a process of sacralisation of the human agent from a
limited being to a universal and deified ‘Śiva’. This process is articulated
through distinct stages – like movements of a musical composition – in
increasingly complex and synchronized harmonies of constituent elements of
creation from the limited to the universal. Each portion consists of linking
patterns that bring together divided and discrete parts into more inclusive and
empowered levels of the tantric cosmos such as ‘mantras’ and ‘mātṛkā’.
These are integrated into the individual body and mind of the agent through
meditative absorption and touch wherein their creative energies become
activated thereby transforming the individual on deeper levels of being.
We
have found that this process of integration involves several different kinds of
linking techniques from the use of symbols, numbers, use of imagination, and
subtle resonances of the sanskrit alphabet. These allow for increasingly deeper
kinds of alignments between the larger macrocosm and the body of the individual
practitioner. The ’mātṛkā’ system is the most
significant one in this type of ’nyāsa’
which allows for a direct link to the very creative source of the tantric
universe. As we have seen, it is highly complex with many different layers of
meaning and serves as a tool to reinterpret and recontruct the human body and personality in radical terms. We have also
noted a repeated use of numbers, symmetrical patterns, and proportions, to make
links and connections between the human body and the larger universe. The most
obvious example of this has been analogical links between the fingers of the
hand and a prevailing five-fold division of the universe. Using the
imagination, the ’sadhaka’ conjoins parts of his or her body with the larger
world. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, has been the deeper process of
reflection and correlation between an archetypal model of the tantric universe within
the practitioner’s body and mind leading to a new and inclusive vision of body and personality as a world containing all
aspects of creation. Of these, the ’sadhaka’ is now a master and active agent.
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Kularnava Tantra.
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9.
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17. The
canon of the Śaivāgama and the The Kubjikā Tantras of the western Kaula
Tradition. Mark S. G. Dyczkowski. Motilal Banarsidas. Delhi.
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18.
The Doctrine of Vibration. The Analysis of the Doctrines and
Practices of Kashmir Shaivism. Mark S.G.Dyczkowski. SUNY
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19.
The Triadic Heart of Śiva: Kaula
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20. The
Tantric Tradition. Agehananda Bharati. London. Rider. 1965. pp. 91,
270 273.
[2]Parātrīśikā-vivaraṅa, The Secret
of Tantric Mysticism. Motilal
Banrsidass. Delhi. 1988. Pg.
131.
[3]Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam. The
Secret of Self-recognition. Sanskrit
Text with English Translation notes and Introduction. Jaideva Singh. Motilal
Banarsidas. Delhi. 1998. Pp. 55-56.
[7]The Triadic Heart of Śiva: Kaula Tantricism of
Abhinavagupta in the Non-Dual Shaivism of Kashmir. Paul Eduardo Muller-Ortega. State University
of New-York Press. Albany. 1989. P. 101.
[8] Body and Cosmology
in Kashmir Śaivism, Gavin D. Flood. Mellen Research University Press. San Francisco. 1993.
pp. X.
[11]Date according to Carlstedt. 1974,
p. 66. Reference from Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism: Studies in Honour
of André Padoux. Teun Goudriaan. Chapter II. On purascarana Chapter
15. Gudrun Buhnemann. Sri Satrugu Publications. Delhi. 1993. pg.62.
[14]‘Mantra in
Vedic and Tantric Ritual.’ Wade T. Wheelock. In Mantra edited by P.
Alper. SUNY Press. Albany. 1986. pg.104.
[16] The Tantric
Tradition. Agehananda Bharati. London. Rider. 1965. pg. 91.
[17] ’The Mantra in Vedic and
Tantric Ritual’. Wade T. Wheelock. In Mantra.
Ed. By Harvey Alper. SUNY Press. Albany. 1989. pg.117.
[18]The Sanskrit text is taken from
Kulārṇava Tantra.
With English Translation by Ram Kumar Rai. Prachya Prakashan. Varanasi. 1999.
Pp.: 55-74. In this edition Rai not only translated the whole text (though rather freely) but also he
gave commentaries in Sanskrit where he elaborates the ritual described in Kulārṇava in greater detail. The Sanskrit text was compared to the version
available at ‘Muctabodha digital library’ published by Muktabodha Indological Research Institut. 2005. www.muktalib5.org
[23]Ibid.
[24]Vâc, The Concept of the Word in Selected
Hindu Tantras, André Padoux,
translated by Jacques Gontier. Sri Satguru Publications. Delhi. 1992. Pg. X.
[29]Ibid. Pg. 62.
[33]In Shaktisangam Tantra it is said, “Mantrarupo bhaveddeva” -
deity becomes the form of Mantra. In Gandharva Tantra also said,
“sarveshāmeva devānām mantramādyam sharirakam” - verily Mantra is the primary
body or form of all deities.
[35]Vâc, The Concept of the Word in Selected
Hindu Tantras, André Padoux,
translated by Jacques Gontier. Sri Satguru Publications. Delhi. 1992. Pp.
343-348.
[37]The Garland of
Letters, (Varnamālā), Studies in the Mantra-Shāstra. John Woodroffe. Ganesh. Madras.
1951. Pg. 197.
[38]The Doctrine of Vibration. The Analysis of the Doctrines and Practices
of Kashmir Shaivism. Mark S.G.Dyczkowski. SUNY Press. Albany. 1987.pg. 198.
[40]The canon of the Śaivāgama and the
The Kubjikā Tantras of the western Kaula Tradition. Mark S. G. Dyczkowski. Motilal Banarsidas.
Delhi. 1989. Pp. 45 – 47, 83.
[41] Auspicious Wisdom: The Texts and Traditions of Srividya Sakta
Tantrism. Brooks, Douglas Renfrew. SUNY
Press. 1992. Pp. 143-144.
[42]The Doctrine of Vibration. The Analysis of the Doctrines and Practices
of Kashmir Shaivism. Mark S.G.Dyczkowski. SUNY Press. Albany. 1987.pg. 199.
Similar idea is expressed in sūtra 1.4 ‘jñānādhiṣṭhānam mātṛkā’ of The Aphorisms of Siva.
Pp. 19 – 21.
