Mysticism is an ocean of unexplainable phenomenon... well what can I say about it, except that the ingredients are different, the rules are different, the results are different and the acceptance of it makes the world look very different.
Rahasya is a beautiful word. It describes the law of the divine system of the Gods, and the inner meaning and powers and the benefits there of. The power of the Sri Chakra is one such rahasya. Puja is a beautiful system which defines the rules of adoration with the elements of sound, divine geometry that is interwoven with the very being of the worshiper. The art of Yantra Puja, brings a balance between the energies that surround the outer world around the devotee and that of the inner world within them.
Once the association of the devotee starts with the Sri Chakra, the central Bindu of the Yantra maps with the center of the devotee's own inner being. The center of the Universe that are centered around this mandala represent the energies of the psycho physical constitution of the devotee concentrated within. This is the journey of all the forces that are currently diffused to be concentrated towards the center of the being. From here on, with little or no attachment they begin their journey to the center of their own universe. This universe is defined by the same concept that pronounces the journey one makes from the entrance of the temple right up to its main sanctum in its structure, or the movement from the outskirts of a great ancient kingdom to its inner palaces or from the outside world of Maya to the inner realm that lies dormant within oneself.
In this realm, two things play a strong role, that of consciousness and that of energy, both of which are available to the devotee in abundance. Consciousness is the "Shiva" element within the mind of the devotee while energy is the "Shakti" element. When a devotee settles down to Yantra Puja, and gets into the state of divine dialog with the Sri Chakra, they begin to give up the external world around them and start to drift towards the realm of the inside. From here on, what appears to the outside world as "peace of mind" actually is the starting of a whole new life that is defined by the very Yantra that they worship, within which divinity has been brought to reside.
The Yantra is the very nature of the worshiper and breathes life giving energy into the realm of the worshiper thereby bringing harmony and wealth and prosperity as perceived by the outer world. But in the mind of the devotee what matters is the mysterious world of which they have now become a part. Here the rules are different. There is no transaction, there is just divine love, faith, surrender, cause and effect. Here there are just states to be in and each state has its own characteristics. Here society and order have no room. This is the inner realm of the being, of the self where only divine reality matters.
In this world, the Yantra becomes and active player, the life giving source of all energy and with every passing worship it makes the devotee stronger in their zest for life and for death. Life and death appear like two parts of the same reality, life being one state that transits into another that is death. The mind experiences a lot more magic, unexplained and yet spectacular. The signs are all over the devotee's mind. Its a moment of awakening when the devotee realizes that ancient symbolism was not really a creation of man's imagination, it was a gift of the Gods that got left behind as visual proof, the source and logic of which is still being rediscovered. In this state Lord Shiva and Goddess Tripura Sundari are more real that the people who are part of one's external reality.
The Sri Chakra begins to breathe life into the devotee's world. The gates to heaven open in all the four cardinal directions, the 16 petals of time bloom and all the stars begin to let go their clutches, their influence on the devotee's life. The great guardians open their inner gates and the attendant yoginis come alive to dance and worship the great goddess within. The inner world awakens, each divine being in their respective Koshas, display the extravaganza of their nature, waking up this inner world, of beauty and divinity to the devotee. This is the divine realm, of silence and pure sound, of light and powerful energy that awaken within the physical mass of the human mind. At last, the inner world comes into divine reality, the four great pillars of life, of direction signified by Brahma[North East], Vishnu [South East], Rudra [South West] and Isana [North West].
This journey is powerful, different and once its started there is no going back. In the language of spiritualism this is termed as realization, an irreversible process within the mind. At the center of this experience is the Anugraha form of the Goddess, that of Sadashiva and Kameshwari represented by the color white and that of color red. This is believed to be at the peak of Mount Meru, at the sacred uppermost peak within the human being at the Sahasrara Chakra. This world is illumined by the subtle beauty of the crescent moon, by the brilliance of the sun and by the burning desire of agni within the mind of the devotee. This is divine union a smaller representation of which in the outer world is the miracle of child birth in our reality.
To the divine parent I pray
Who reside on my fore
Who awaken the crescent moon of my being
Who are at the epicenter of my Bindu
Who breathe life into me
And produce the sacred sounds of divine life at the Nada
I pray to you, O divine parent,
Bless me with a life
Complete with my earthly duties fulfilled
And lead me back home
To the divine realm of your world
In this hope I continue to live
To catch a glimpse of thee
From within the limits of my finite self.
Related Posts:
Bindu Visarga - A drop of moon on the crown of Tripura Sundari
Maya, an Integral part of Shakti
Sri Chakra Yantra - From Sri Nagar to Ujjain
Chandra Yoga - The moon light, a drop of immortality
Sound, stone, darkness, light, water, flowers, incense, and most importantly the very sacred shrine that resides deep within the temple brings a glimpse of that mystical world that is fast leaving us.
Mysticism, is in that energy that we believe we derive our peace of mind from.
Mysticism is in that energy that we cannot explain even if we feel it.
Mysticism is in that energy that is charged when we mix sound with fire and water on material like stone and metal with a drop of color.
Mysticism is in that change in the environment that takes place after the ritual is performed.
Is there any equation in current day science that we are so strong in believing that can define this theory:
Sound + fire + water + stone/metal[prescribed] + fragrance + oil/ghee[natural extracts] = energy unknown but profound!
The constant in this equation is line + conductor of electricity[veins/nerves] + mind [Bhakti/concentration/meditation].
The catalyst in this equation is mollusks + color + fruit + cow + location
The result is the generation of an energy of such a kind whose nature cannot be defined by language as we commonly know it.
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Equation:
Sound - as defined by beeja mantra, small capsuled syllables that have been predefined and are not part of regular spoken language.
Fire - as defined by the oil that holds the flame in a lamp or as defined by the fire that is worshiped during sacrifice [homam/havan]
Water - as defined by an integral methodology of bathing the concerned element that holds the energy
Stone/metal/mud/wood - as defined by the stone [marble/stone from riverbed/black stone] or metal [gold/silver/copper/brass/iron - panchaloham idol] or [yantras of deities on metal plates] or mud/wooden idols
Fragrance - as defined by flowers and fruit and other offerings like incense
Extracts - as defined by oil/ghee/honey
Constant:
Lines - As defined by the mystical diagram representing a deity, encompassing their nature within it
Conductor of electricity/charge - As defined by the wiring within us [veins/nerves/blood]
Mind - The machine that keeps this experiment running constantly, should it have enough input in terms of Bhakti/concentration.
Catalyst:
Mollusks - Offering of water through sacred shells taken from the depths of the ocean
Color - The color depicted in matter like kumkum, ash, sandalwood, the dress color of the idol in worship [Devi is red]
Fruit - The essence derived from natural bodies for this experiment to sustain
Cow - A strong catalyst that delivers greater results with offerings of milk/ghee/curd/urine/excreta in certain prescribed ways.
Grass - As represented by Kusha or Darbha, to keep the purity of the location
Location - should be ideally remote/hill top/river side/lap of nature.
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Result of the experiment if performed continuously in the form of "ritual" or prescribed methodology has a good chance of rendering the human being energized, peaceful. If performed at certain times[Purnima/pradosham/Ammavasya] in long duration can charge the body further to be able to evolve into a greater realm of states that are yet to be discovered.
Seat of the experiment in material form - Divinity within a shrine
Seat of the actual experiment in the formless world - In the Mind of the person performing.
Should we agree to accept this process as a scientific theory yet to be realized[by us of course] we might just respect our ancient system a little more than what we do mechanically at the moment.
This is serious methodology and not a superstition whose results are yet to be gathered and believed in. The methodology is called Puja in lay man language.
Vaishno Devi Shrine
The Thirumanthiram quotes:
"From thence evoluted Maya
Latent in Shakti like lustre in crystal
Mighty its power
Beyond power of speech to recount."
There is such beauty in this line. Isn't it our perception that rules us more than what really exists in reality?
This is a small example of how our own perception can imprison us into this web of Maya that we make judgments based on our own futile ignorance. I visited the doctor recently for a minor checkup. As I discussed about my ailment to the doctor, I noticed a skull kept high up on the wall that immediately took my fascination. I requested the doctor to allow me to hold the skull in my hand. It was an amazing feeling, to hold something so remote, so feared, and so repulsed. I looked closely at it and imagined myself at a shamshan ghat holding the same thing by night, near the fire and sprinkling mantras to the air calling the Goddess Kali to my doorstep. I smiled and kept it back.
When we reached home later, I raised this subject with my mother, who had also visited the clinic with me. She seemed very comfortable with me holding this skull in my hand at the clinic, but she had no idea about my thoughts :). I asked her the question again. It was so peaceful, and so harmless to hold this skull in the doctor's office. But if I had worn an orange or red outfit, smeared large amounts of Kumkum on my forehead, held this very same skull in my hand in the darkest of nights at a different location, a shamshan ghat for example, and done nothing else, how would she have reacted to it? It was equally harmless there too, and I am calling no Goddess or indulging in any malevolent practice and yet I would have looked deadly, scary and mystically more powerful than ever.
Isn't this perception? Isn't this the description of a mind working overtime, with biased information already fed in; that anyone in this attire in this time of the night holding such objects is "evil" or "scary" and better off left alone? But should I walk into a doctor's office and wear simple clothes and a much smaller Kumkum, in light, I would appear so much more friendly! And yet... the "I" is missing in both these perceptions.
None of these two perceptions describes my personality. None of these two perceptions looks at me the human being and my nature of what I am, but both focus entirely on the exterior of what I wear and how I appear. In short both the perceptions are deceived by my "luster" and none really look at the quality of the "crystal" within me.
Similarly, in this beautiful poetic verse described by the great sage Tirumular, Maya is described as the perception we have of the Goddess and not the Goddess herself. Maya, with all its complications is but a figment of our imagination. It’s an illusion we simply love, are too familiar with and do not want to get out of, so much so that we make it difficult for those who want to try.
Maya, is such a thick cloud of illusion that it doesn't let our mind, or senses even seek that which is in our subconscious. It is so full of deceptive action that we spend our waking hours, our concentration, our time, and our energy trying to live in that illusion without even realizing we have spent so much wasted effort in the wrong place. Maya is that barrier that exists between our consciousness and the world that lives in our subconscious and that glimpse is best found in its purity when we try to seek it within ourselves.
If we were to live this verse as sung in the Thirumanthiram, then we need to be aware of the conscious world, and not let it affect us, making it insignificant enough that it has little or no value in the world that lies within us in our subconscious. The Goddess to whom we have given form and color and power, is that inner energy that we still fail to realize is lying buried within us, unknown and we still remain enamored by the luster of life, of Maya.
Shakti is that which is beyond the Maya as we know it, Shakti is described as that which is beyond the life as we define it and Shakti is that which we experience when we attempt to take a dip into the subconscious world we have built within ourselves. We still remain blindly disposed to the luster of life, we barely even know where the crystal is to be found. The real beauty is within and we so don't have the power to conquer it for we fall to its luster, to its Maya, to its glitter, to our perception of it.
In the darkness of the subconscious, beyond the illusive light of this luster, lies the power of Mata, of the Goddess that remains untouched. She sits there silent, in darkness, in her reddish sheen so subtle that we do not know how to define and perceive her beauty. She is pure, sacred, and formless but her presence is experienced in her warmth as a beautiful Goddess, shining bright as her golden halo radiant with life, the crescent moon glows like a drop of amrita that rests on her all divine self. This is her all encompassing self that is so beautiful to experience, that even words fail to break the barrier of speech to describe her.
She is silence, She is void, She is light, She is beauty.
The only way to reach her is to bring the mind under control, with repeated thoughts focused on her such that we breath, think and live with thoughts only about the Mother and nothing else really matters. At the end of some time, the conscious state tunes itself to the same depth in thought to the subconscious so much that there is really no difference between both the worlds. This is when a thick cloud of illusion becomes a thin line and perception is now as pure are real.
Mysticism is an ocean of unexplainable phenomenon... well what can I say about it, except that the ingredients are different, the rules are different, the results are different and the acceptance of it makes the world look very different.
The Sri Chakra begins to breathe life into the devotee's world. The gates to heaven open in all the four cardinal directions, the 16 petals of time bloom and all the stars begin to let go their clutches, their influence on the devotee's life. The great guardians open their inner gates and the attendant yoginis come alive to dance and worship the great goddess within. The inner world awakens, each divine being in their respective Koshas, display the extravaganza of their nature, waking up this inner world, of beauty and divinity to the devotee. This is the divine realm, of silence and pure sound, of light and powerful energy that awaken within the physical mass of the human mind. At last, the inner world comes into divine reality, the four great pillars of life, of direction signified by Brahma[North East], Vishnu [South East], Rudra [South West] and Isana [North West].
