Aspects of Śrī Vidyā

FROM: DEVIPURAM MAHAKUMBHA ABHISHEKAM MALAR (1994)

MANTRAS OF ŚRĪ VIDYĀ

There are 70 million mantras of Śrī Vidyā. It is not possible or useful to record
all of them. We will take up a handful of them and try to understand them in
some measure.
First of all, mantras, yantras and tantras are channels of communication: for
us to know about the worlds of Gods and for Gods to respond to us in
favorable ways. As such, it is not possible to give a precise meaning to mantras.
For example, what is the meaning of a particular TV channel? Or again what is
the meaning of a pigeon hole for keeping your letters? The meaning is variable;
it is the information passing through the channel of communication. In the
morning you may receive or send one program; in the afternoon another, in
the night, yet another. Rarely does the program repeat. Still, it is possible to
distinguish the type of information that comes through; for example, there
could be one channel which broadcasts only music, one only box office
movies; yet again, one of your friends may send you love letters; some legal
notices; some junk mail like me. It is such a istinction that we are trying to
make.

WHAT IS A MANTRA?

It is a word, or sentence of power. It has a bandwidth; which is smaller for a

larger mantra, and larger for a shorter mantra. Single letter mantras have very
wide bandwidth, they allow a very large categories of information to flow
through them.

HOW CAN WORDS HAVE POWER?

Of course, they have. If someone tells you "I love you" you are in the seventh
heaven; if someone rejects you and says: “Don't ever see my face again” then
you are depressed. What is happening is that these words acquire their power
through intensity or feeling with which they are spoken. Words which are
recognizable derive their power through 'feeling' or intensity. Words which
cannot easily be recognized go deeper.
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Why are Mantras said to be composed of seed letters? The essence of any seed
is information. Take for instance, the sperm or ovum. It contains information
on how to construct a human life form. Since mantras can construct divine life
forms, they are constructed out of letters which are seed-like. If you stop to
think how letters were discovered, you will understand that they were
imitations of some sound forms which aroused intense feelings in the
primordial men. When language was not born, some thinker, probably we
should say some ‘feeler', meditated for long on the sounds of water flowing
over rocks, and the imitation probably became the sound 'Glouṁ'. It is not
surprising that most of the letters have deep anthropomorphical symbolisms;
and dealt directly without inhibitions about creation.

WHO CONSTRUCTED THE MANTRAS AND HOW?

Can I construct my own mantra? Yes, you may indeed; but remember, if you
try to go by the meanings of words as you know them, then you are likely to go
wrong. They are best when they appear SPONTANEOUSLY in meditation, out
of feeling, rather than thought; in other words, you must see them or hear
them spoken, and you are not the real author; you are just a medium for a
higher intelligence who is trying to create a communication channel through
you with the linguistic or other tools that are available to you at your level of
evolution. If you are a mathematician, you may receive a theorem which is
true but you don't yet know how to prove; these are intuitions given to you
when you have pondered over a problem for long, and relaxing. It is not a
coincidence that discoveries are made in a relaxed state rather than when you
are struggling. You can be a seer of a mantra if you are a regular meditator. The
tantric diagrams are also mantras having a visual form rather than sound
form; Sri Yantra is such a Yantra, seen in meditation. A picture is worth a
thousand words, they say. This one was worth 70 million channels of
communication So you can imagine the power.

WHAT IS SRI YANTRA?

Sri Yantra is a geometrical star pattern and lotus pattern through which
several divine forces can be marshaled in cooperative and harmonious ways.
We see them through it; they see us through it, giving us their qualities.

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OṀ, HRĪṀ, ŚRĪṀ, AIṀ, KLĪṀ, SAUḤ

OṀ is called the pranava, the unbroken bell like sound heard as if coming
from the heart in the stillness of a tranquil mind. If you listen carefully, you can
hear it any time; except for three days before impending death. As a mantra it
is to be pronounced as an elongated aaaaaaa-uuuuuuu-mmmmmmm ------ the
sound of mmmm continuing to ring afterwards merging into silence. The
sound of aa is the channel for all waking state experiences; sound of uuuu for
all dream states; the sound of mmm for all sleeping states; the ringing
continuing sound is the channel for the state of existence where you merge
into the infinite light, peace and power of God, called the transcendent state.
This is the highest mantra, the universal name of God who encompasses all life
and beyond.
Hrīṁ, Śrīṁ, Aiṁ, Klīṁ and Sauḥ are called the Śakti Pranavas, or the modes of
manifesting God's supreme, power. The supremacy of divine power is this; it
knows all, does all, pervades all space, time and matter.
Hrīṃ is the power of limiting God's supreme effulgence, making a limited
living form. You may compare it to the power that produces a wave or a drop
of foam out of the sea; the wave or drop of consciousness thinks that it is
different from the sea that it sees till it falls back into the sea, and loses its
individuality. Hrīṃ is the individuating, life giving, life affirming channel of
making this world that is confined to a space, time and matter. To us earth
beings, it streams as Surya Kundalini from our star, the Sun; as the creative
power of moods, the Soma Kundalini from our planet Moon; and as the lust
for life from the bowels of our earth, as the Agni Kundalini, the passions we
experience.
Śrīṁ is the opposite of Hrīṃ. What Hrīṃ does, the Śrīṁ undoes it. If Hrīṁ
creates all this world with the stars, moons, earths, and all life, Śrīṁ makes all
these things into the primordial oneness of God. Hrīṁ makes you small, and
so, different from God; Śrīṁ makes you grow into God. Hrīṁ is known as the
seed of shyness, of self-covering, of limitation; Śrīṁ is called the grace of God
which may appear terrible to you because it takes away all that is familiar to
you: your family, friends, this world, even yourself. But it is the Grace which
removes your limitedness and makes you GOD.
OṀ is the whole, the four dimensional sphere, the golden egg which is sexless
and contains in it the seed and full grown form of the world, the heart of all
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things, of life. Hrīṁ and Śrīṁ are the two split halves of it. OṀ is the heart, and
Hrīṁ and Śrīṁ are two breasts of the Divine Mother. They have poles, the
nipples which nourish the separateness in this world through attachments,
and also provide the knowledge by which you overcome these attachments.
This is how the symbol of Puruśa, the whole and Prakṛti, the split halves come
about. The two halves try to complete their incompleteness; and that is the
odyssey of life.
Aiṁ, Klīṁ and Sauḥ are channels for manifesting, sustaining and dissolving
the world, all working under the control of Hrīṁ. The nature of Aiṁ is seed,
whose essence is knowledge hence this Goddess called Saraswati is located in
the face. Klīṁ nourishes the world like a mother nourishes her child with milk
from her breasts. So the seat of this channel is heart, the seat of universal love
that nourishes this world. This power is known as Lakṣmī, the wealth of God.
Sauḥ is the power of action that leads to escape from the cage of body, mind
and thought. It is known as Kundalini, the power of action. It starts from the
source of all things, the womb of the universe and the individual. The function
of Kundalini is to dissolve the world of sensations and limited experiences and
take you back to the source, God. It eliminates step by step the powers of
smell, taste, form, touch, and sound; finally it eliminates time itself. It takes
you to the state of Hiraṇyagarbha, the golden egg of four dimensional sphere,
and collapses it to a point. It starts in the body as a pleasant sensation similar
to an orgasmic release of tensions in the body, allowing you to experience a
glorious climax of a festival of galaxies. Its seat is supposed to be in the clitoris
called the Kumara, the little, all powerful son of Śiva, the linga, the essential
maleness embodied in a linga, the penis.
Aiṁ is the mantra resident on the tip of the tongue. Klīṁ resides in the nipples
and Sauḥ, the Śakti, also called Parvati/Durgā/Bāla Tripura Sundari/Gauri
resides in the womb. We have to meditate with each mantra at a place
appropriate to it, where its energy manifests. Aiṁ Klīṁ Sauḥ is a powerful
mantra.
GLAUṀ, the sound of water flowing over pebbles in a small brook;
overcoming, negotiating difficulties or hardships. There is a hardness
associated with the body which presents difficulties in going beyond it and
realizing the unity of the seer and the seen. There is a very humorous cosmic
intelligence presiding over this transformation called Maha Ganapati. He has a
lovable big tummy which results from excessive indulgence in eating for taste.
He has the head of an elephant which is a symbol of OṀ. He resides at the
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entrance to the womb, preventing the further entry of male generative organ.
Thus he watches over the procreative act and then the creative giving of a life
form.
SAUḤ is sound of a hissing snake; it brings about an upward movement of the
energy of Kundalini residing at the entrance to the vagina. The presiding deity
of this purely sexual energy is Komara, the little son of Śiva, pulsating,
vibrating in the clitoris and the glans penis. While Sauḥ is the upward moving
force which releases the sexual tensions, SAUṂ preserves the tensions and
keeps on circulating them around the genitals. SAUṀ is an essential
component of any mantra connected with Kumara, also known as Kartikeya,
Subrahmanya. Subrahmanya is supposed to have 6 faces. They are the five
sensations (smell, taste, form, touch, sound) and the mind, which grasps them.
That is why he is called Shanmukha, the six-faced. He has two wives: Sri Valli
and Deva Sena. They represent the pleasure consciousness in the labia, left
and right. Neither Ganapati nor Kumara, who represent the awareness in the
cervix and clitoris respectively, can affect penetration, nor procreate. They are
said to be Brahmacharins because of this, yet they are epitomes of bliss of
intercourse. This is what Brahmacharya means for a Grihastha, person having
a family. The sexual tension is not permitted to be released in the physical
sense. If that is done, the desire dies. On the contrary, if the seed is not allowed
to be released, then an upward movement of sex energy has to take place of
necessity, releasing the tensions through mind, at the eyebrow centre. It is
then that the third eye, the eye of wisdom and transcendence opens up. In a
mental plane the body is burnt up, and divine life begins with the realization
that all are one.
SO'HAM, HAṀSAḤ, are the mantras of union of Śiva and Śakti of cosmic
intercourse of yourself with the world. Ha is the sound of breathing out, SA is
the sound of breathing in. Between these two is the Bindu, the mind, the life.
So, both HAṀSAḤ and SO'HAM are recited unconsciously by every breathing
life form, even without initiation. These are the esoteric forms of Gayatri
Mantra which has two other forms called the Prakata Gayatri and the Gupta
Gayatri.
The Prakata Gayatri is the familiar form known to every Hindu. Gupta Gayatri
is given through initiation by a Guru of Śrī Vidyā tradition. The former is
available to those who can study the vedas. The latter is available to all,
irrespective of caste, color or creed. Gupta Gayatri like a high class woman
who can be enjoyed only after proper marriage of initiation; the others are
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available in the market like common prostitutes. Gupta Gayatri is known as
Pañcadaśi, the fifteen-lettered mantra starting with the letter Ka.
When you breathe out your life gets merged with the whole world; when you
breathe in, it comes back to you. Thus you are indeed getting out and getting
in into the cage of the body with every breath, dying and being reborn with
every breath. No wonder your life continues beyond the physical end of the
body.
HA takes away your individuality to make you Śiva, the cosmic phallus; SA
makes you an individual Śakti, the cosmic source. The sound of OṀ connects
these two. It is both a mantra for separation as well as a mantra for union. OṀ
is divided into two parts: O and M. O is connected to S and M is connected to
Ha. This is how SO'HAM is formed.
If you wish to know more about the science of Mantras, you must study Śiva
Sutras, the aphorisms formed by the drum of Śiva. At the end of His great
cosmic dance, Śiva sounded his drum 9 times and again 5 times. These are the
14 drum beats. They are the letter sequences of Sanskrit alphabets, which are
the basis of Yoga, Grammar, Dance, Literature and Music.

AMRITANANDANATHA SARASWATI

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