Sacred insights from the Tripura Rahasya

Inspired by Chapters 1 & 2 of Tripura Rahasya [THE MYSTERY BEYOND THE TRINITY]

Srinivasa looked up to the presence of the Lord within the sacred shrine of his home. How beautiful He looked, how completely divine in the presence of these white jasmine flowers that garland His being. How pure does He shine in the light of this ghee lamp. Srinivasa sat back contemplating for a few minutes, his mind relaxed, his eyes glowing in rapture and his hair stood on end as if his ecstasy could not be contained within his being... he was in complete union with divinity.

It may have been just a few moments but they were profound, immersed in deep bhakti he looked up to the shrine in surrender, imbibing the complete moment of spiritual rapture he had felt within his being. He then prostrated on the floor bowing to the shrine. He had tasted the elixir of spiritualism, the sweet fruit of his worship and now he wanted to be in its presence for as long as he could. He realized the beauty of selfless worship and thirsted to practice this ancient sacred lore as much as he could. He went round and bowed to the sacred shrine hoping to relive this moment of rapture again.

Srinivasa now commenced his worship, reciting verses from the sacred texts, following every ritual prescribed and keeping every step clear in execution and yet he didn't completely understand the method itself or the meaning of the ritual worship he had been performing all these years. What had this worship have to do with the workings of the greater universe? Where does it start from and where does it end in all its grandeur? The worldly happenings seem so strangely permanent and yet they are considered not to be so. He sat back thinking, taking his own example...he remembered nothing of his childhood, he was different in his youth, and he is different in his manhood and in this way his life constantly changes. And therefore what is the result of these changes? What is the purpose of this change? It didn't make no sense to him.

The end justifies the means adopted by the seeker according to their temperaments. Are we really happy? Well then, having gained one purpose why do we look for another? Therefore is the only real purpose the accession of pleasure or the removal of pain? Therefore does the purpose drive the incentive for the effort to last. How then is a beggar any different from an emperor, he labors for happiness as much as an emperor does. Each of them having gained their purpose feels happy that they have been blessed as if they have reached the goal of their lives. And I too have been unwittingly imitating them, like a blind man who follows another. How completely stupid is this way of existence!

Srinivasa, sat in deep thought, he now wished he could cross this deep ocean of doubt with the teachings he had gathered. He now knew, his only way was to mentally surrender to the supreme. He realized his happiness lies in the constant moment of rapture that enveloped him while he worshiped the Lord. He wished this moment to be unbroken and undisturbed.

Prayers to God are selfish in the beginning, yet they not only fulfill one's desire but they also purify the mind. Devotion now grows in intensity and the seeker so desires nothing more than the presence of the Lord himself. If lucky, the Lord's grace is shown upon him in the manifestation of a Guru, who comes to his doorstep more by the play of circumstance than his very own search.

Misery is not the absence of happiness, but the limitation of it, for when happiness recedes, misery flows in. This is not the only miserable result of action, but worse than this is the fear of death which cannot be mitigated by any amount of action. How can transient mental concepts of devotion produce permanent results of higher truth? More over these practices are continuous and there seems to be no end to obligatory duties in one's life. How does one free himself from these obligations and seek real happiness, and yet great souls do so!

But when they do, they laugh at the ways of the world, they walk up the road of fearlessness with no concern at all, just like a majestic elephant refreshes itself in a pool of melted snow when the surrounding forest is on fire! They are completely happy and are free from any sense of obligation**. How does one reach this state? How does one escape from the jaws of Karma. As long as a man is afraid of his obligations, so long must he placate it or else he will not find peace. Similar is the fate of people who in the quest of happiness fall into the trap of action. One should not be in this state of distraction.

The only salvation to get out of this state is contemplation, the need to investigate and realize the purpose of one's existence. Can the sweet waters of dew ever collect in the sandy desert which are already scorched by heat? When the Goddess, Devi, is pleased with the worship of the devotee, she turns into Vichara** in him and shines as the blazing sun in the expanse of his heart.

Vichara is the only way to attain higher good. Vichara is the only weapon to fight the overpowering disease of ignorance. If vichara takes root the higher good for all practical purposes has been reached. So long as vichara doesn't take root, one's life remains barren and therefore useless. The only fruit of life is vichara.

Srinivasa thought, a man without the sense of vichara, is like a frog in the well that doesn't know anything, either of good or bad, and dies in the very same well of ignorance. If we forever continue to run away dispassionately from misery and seek the depths of pleasure, we can never escape from the cycle of birth and death just as a jack-ass pursues a she-ass even if kicked a hundred times by her.We will therefore never give up our thirst and ignorance will continue to prevail.

Srinivasa collected himself. There was only one way forward - contemplation on the self and the purpose of one's life in this sea of obligation within the darkness of ignorance.

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**Free from obligation doesn't mean that it is not performed, it is performed but with no attachment to the act or the fruits of its result. As the Gita rightfully says, we cannot escape action or inaction, but we can escape its karma by the detachment from the obligation itself.

**Vichara - Discrimination, investigation, deliberation, judgment 

Maya, an Integral part of Shakti

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.

To Mother Durga and Kali I pray

From the clouds of the heavens descends the all-encompassing strength of the universe, of all the Gods. A fury within the mind, vigor in the heart that crashes through space and descends into the battlefield of desire and illusion now almost clothed in a veil of death and gore of the self. One form of strength is the tiger* that growls, thundering through and is almost deafening to the ears. The other form of strength, is within those eyes* that see just one form to destroy that is the demon of desire. And yet a third form is that of my fortress*, the walls so thick that no evil can penetrate when I surrender to Her.

She is all power, She is potency, and She is energy in a feminine form, for all to see, feel, experience and worship. It is an enchanting moment when the silent energy of Lord Shiva now takes form, bringing down grace, beauty, power, goodness, warmth, faith, trust and surrender to this earth. It’s like the first raindrops on dry parched land that almost dies waiting, for the Lord’s grace to wake its soul and bring life to it.

The earth tremors to escape the gaping moment of doom, when the Mother descends to protect the world. The conqueror of desire, She rages ahead gracefully to protect our souls and destroys evil demons with one slash to tear up their very beings, to see Shumbha, Nishumbha, Mahishasura and Dhumralochana fall dead at Her merciful feet.

This glorious moment She presents when She yields Her trishul to dig it into the heart of Maya and destroy it forever, relieving us from this never ending cycle of misery called life.

To the Mother I play, to the Mother I offer myself, who saves me from the demons of my own mind that claw at me every moment through the waking hours of my day. Oh Mother, who protects the weak, who takes me as a child in her arms and destroys every form of misery that stops me from merging into You.

So small am I, so feeble is my being, so lost is my mind that I do not know what to feel even when You hold me in your arms. To me You show the world of green, of flowers and life, of peace and victory over the desires of my mind, and yet my miserable self fails to see Your ever shining grace on me. I pray to You O Mother, save me and grant me victory over this misery called me.

Ma Jayant Jayanti Jayanti

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*Tiger - Her Vahana, * Eyes - The powerful eyes of the Goddess, *Fortress - The very name Durga stems from the word Durg which means the fortress that protects the Self from the demons of desire.