Mysteries of a begging bowl

The ancient Tantriks are great followers of the cult of Bhairava, the form of Bhikshatana Shiva, the naked mendicant who walked from one forest to the other, ash clad and pure. Shiva carries a damaru in one hand and a skull cap shaped begging bowl in the other. The Tantriks are the only people today, who are found using a skull cap for a begging bowl, literally mimicking this picture of the Lord, but delivering it in not as much beauty.

Mythology holds that Lord Shiva once cut off the 5th head of Brahma. Thirumular's Thirumanthiram states that Lord Shiva holds the skull cap of Brahma as a begging bowl in order to save it from hitting the earth and perishing, for Brahma is the creator of the Universe and his head signifies all that lives and transitions to the next life after death. Lord Shiva is also known to wear a garland of skulls that belong to great celestials, as he protects them from falling to dust. Hence the idea of holding the skull cap and wearing a garland of skulls has a very profound meaning and is not as gory as perceived by many.

These are not just stories as they hold a great deal of truth and deeper significance and this brings us to the larger question of why is a skull cap a significant depiction of a begging bowl?

Lets take a few steps back and observe another ancient tradition, that of Buddhism. The idea of ahimsa as well as the idea of bhiksha started during the time of Buddha. There is great significance to the begging bowl in Buddhist tradition. When Sidhartha Gautama Buddha reached the end of his journey to enlightenment, he realized his emaciated state was of no help and that he would need food to gather the energy to go through to the other side. It was at this time that a young girl gave him grain in a golden bowl which he divided into 19 parts, one for each day till the day he reached his moment of enlightenment. One he crossed the threshold to the other side; he discarded the golden bowl into the river - a marked significance of detachment from any kind of materialism. The golden bowl marked the catalyst to Sidhartha's transition from one state to the next.

Ancient faith believes that the last segment to divine Nirvana is when the Kundalini energy reached the highest zone, that which is near the Kabala of the human skull. It is also believed that Jeeva enters the body through the Kabalam and if it exits the same way, one is blessed with superior transition at the time of death, it is the perfect death achieved.

Brahma, the creator symbolized the transition of life and death in the hands of the Lord of destruction. Hence the passage of the afterlife and the highest form of realization is depicted through his kabala which is held as a skull cap, a bowl that depicts the last state before one attains the highest form of spiritual bliss.

Both Buddhism and Hinduism tried to depict this great truth in their own ways. While Buddhist belief took a different turn and depicted this truth in a far less violent way, ancient Tantrik cults and Vajrayana Buddhism depicted the ferocity of Kala Bhairava, the Lord of time in their depictions by emphasizing on the skull cap which symbolizes the Bhramaranda zone of the skull, where the essence of Atman remains shrouded in this area and releases the soul upon death.

Such deep significance of life and transition to super death, such profound truth lies embedded in what we perceive as just a skull cap in the form of a begging bowl.

P.S. It would be interesting to note that the Tibetan Buddhist tradition has also devised a singing bowl which reverberates the sound of OM when one plays it while meditating. Could it possibly signify the highest state of bliss when the mind resonates the primordial sound of OM.

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.

Path to Shivahood in the Thirumanthiram

Every seeker wishes to know the way and wants every delusion cleared. Yet there is frustration and lack of knowledge on how one should even proceed in this path. It raises the deep question on why am I born human?

What is the meaning of being human?

The beauty of Thirumular's explanation is that it removes the veil of Maya straight away by presenting this concept to us. Being human is a state, its not me or you, but a state that we have taken on in this birth. This quite simply answers the question - Who am I. Aham Brahmaasmi - That I am/That thou art.

I am not human as much as I am consciousness in this form of a human in this period of time, in this kaal. I breathe because I have taken birth and in this birth my purpose is to raise myself to not just the state of a sidhha or a deva but to raise myself to the state of Shivahood. Is it possible, it is and Thirumular explains how.

Many people center their spiritual progress to offering 5 to 10 mins of puja, offering Archanai at a temple, and/or following few steps to do a parigaram to ward off immediate troubled forces created by planets and yet they wish for wealth, prosperity and progeny. Thirumular attributes all this to the path of Kriya where, though it is beneficial it also accumulates karma. We cannot consider our spiritualism as complete by any of these methods.

Thirumular further goes to explain that the nature of the supreme atman cannot be discovered or experienced by the senses hence it is vain on our part to hope to achieve salvation through our senses. Just as it is in the nature of the sun to rise in the east, one cannot wish it to rise from the west, similarly it is in the nature of the divine to be realized through contemplation and jnana and not just through momentary archanai/puja or action.

The higher form of worship is in the mansion of the mind, our mind, that which only we can control.

Offer oblations in love
Light lamps golden,
Spread incense of fragrant wood
And lighted camphor in directions all
Forget your worldly worries, and meditate
You shall attain rapturous mukti true

Worship is in the consciousness of the mind, where oblations are offered with love, lamp lights appear golden and the fragrance of incense spreads around the Lord. Burn camphor in all the four directions and forget all your worldly worries for a while, this time is for just meditate on the Lord. It is a state of bliss and peace that is achieved over time with practice. Ritual helps us do this with discipline and as one rises in their spiritual curve this turns into a conscious activity in the mind, rhythmic and simple as one tunes in their mind to spend some silent moments with the self.

The beauty of this practice is explained in another passage:

Even when other men's wives approach them
They touch them not
They have mastered passions all
Their mind is preoccupied perpetually
With offer of oblation diverse
They worship prostrating low
Constantly chanting mantra
Thus in the mansion of the mind they abide.

In the realistic world today seduction is an art not just known to women but men as well and these temptations can come from any where, to both genders included. Excluding the chauvinism in the verse that is very male centric, the essence applies to all. When the mind is so deep in the thought of Lord Shiva, in the conscious state it dwells on him in worship, and all passions are mastered and controlled. The mind doesn't waver, and the oncoming temptation doesn't affect it leaving the bhakta far from falling prey to seduction.

Thirumular quotes:

They know not to reach him by jnana divine,
They seek him by ways of senses, in vain
If within you constantly seek him in the right way
You shall indeed be in nadanta

As one rises up the charts of evolved spiritualism, kriya path gives way to that of jnana. Contemplation takes over action.

Bhaktas, yogis and jnanis do not take to kriya path but instead move into jnana and reach the state of Nadanta.

Yourself himself becoming
And himself yourself becoming
And with two none
And as one Shiva becoming
When thus it is,
Those who went the way of kriya
If they take to jnana
They with Shiva one become
They who seek kriya
May but devas be

There is so much inner beauty in this passage. By being in dhyana and contemplating regularly one can attain Shivahood. By mere practice of ritual in momentary intervals one can best hope to reach the state of being Deva. If the mind dwells entirely on Shiva, it entertains no other thought and life's problems appear like states of living without any attachment.

Problems are accepted situations and conscious mind time is spent in single point concentration leaving the mind passionate of Lord Shiva thus elevating the soul to a constant state of Shivahood.
In this state OM rises from under the navel, VA rises from the throat stretched, NA has its seat in forehead and bindu and nada are still placed higher. Nectar or amrit flows from the 7th centre, the bright light of jnana glows at the 8th chakra, in the 11th chakra lies the supreme and beyond it is the void described as the dwadasanta space.

In this world that we live in, in this stressful world that we belong to, time, contemplation, passion and persistence are the possible characteristics that can lead us closer to salvation.

* Dwadasanta is the mystical place 12 units above on the head counting from the region of the third eye between the brow. Each unit is an angula, measuring 1 division on the finger.
Courtesy: Excerpts from the Thirumanthiram written by Sage Thirumular.