What does it mean, “When you reside in your self, you will reside in this whole universe”? This and the background of the corresponding verse from the Shiva Sutras: The Supreme Awakening – First Awakening is explained here by Swami Lakshmanjoo in this small but potent excerpt.
The Shiva Sutras were “found” by sage Vasugupta under a rock at the foot of the Mahādeva Mountain as revealed to him in a dream by Lord Shiva. He read them thoroughly and exhaustively, concentrating and meditating upon each one, and gained the understanding and knowledge the sūtras contained. He then began to share the theory and secrets of these sūtras with his chief disciples, Bhaṭṭakallaṭa and others. Simultaneously, he revealed the sūtras in a book called Spanda Kārikā. Kṣemarāja further clarified these spanda verses in his work entitled Spanda Nirṇaya.
15. hṛidaye cittasaṁghaṭṭād
dṛiśyasvāpadarśanam //When his thoughts are diverted to the center of God consciousness, then he feels the existence of God consciousness in oneness in the objective world and in the world of negation.
The literal reading is “When all one’s thoughts are diverted to the heart.” Here the word heart (hṛidaye) does not mean our own physical heart. Rather, here the word “heart” means the light of consciousness (cit prakāśa), which is the background, the basis, of the existence of the whole universe. On that basis, everything in this universe is moving, being born, dying, suffering, enjoying, smiling, laughing, marrying, etc. Everything has that center of God consciousness as its basis.
This yogī experiences the oneness of the existence of God consciousness in the objective world and in the world of negation. When does the experience of the negation of the objective world occur? The experience of the negation of the objective world takes place at the time of death and at the time of deep sleep. And, in these states also, the yogī effortlessly experiences the existence of God consciousness. How?
The yogī accomplishes this by collecting his mind and putting it on that point. Although the mind is always flickering and does not exist in one point, through the practice (sādhanā) of one-pointedness, it becomes easy for the yogī to maintain one point. He then discards the differentiation of objectivity and subjectivity and perceives the objective world, which consists not only of external objects but also of his body of wakefulness, his body of the dreaming state, and his body of the dreamless state (nīla-deha-prāṇa-buddhyātmanaḥ), and the negation of these, which is the void state (śūnya), in its real way as the limbs of his universal body. When you make your mind enter into the light of consciousness then your mind feels this whole universe as one with that universal being.
This is said in Vijñāna Bhairava:
O Pārvatī!, the one who, with one-pointedness, directs all his organs including his mind in the voidness of that heart, which is the light of consciousness, and remains in between the two lotuses of this-ness and I-ness, becomes glorified with God consciousness. (Vijñāna Bhairava 49)
By using the word “glory,” this verse indicates that he becomes the ruler of everything that exists. In Svacchanda Tantra, such a yogī is defined as follows:
Such a yogī, situated as one with this whole universe, pervades it. Because he pervades everything which exists, all classes of beings in elements, in the organic world, in animate and inanimate objects, his consciousness is not called God consciousness but rather his God consciousness is transformed into Universal consciousness. (Svacchanda Tantra 4.310)
In the Spanda Kārikā, it is concluded in this verse:
Do not try to dwell in each and every being. Reside in your own self. When you reside in your self, you will reside in this whole universe because your real self is one with the universe. (Spanda Kārikā 3.7)
If you reside and are established in the existence of self, you will already be established in the universal self.
|| End of text for Sūtra 15, First Awakening ||
(source: Shiva Sutras: The Supreme Awakening, by Swami Lakshmanjoo)
All Content is subject to Copyright © John Hughes.
Write a comment: