Welcome to my blog which hopes to attenuate a rather dull week by entertaining me with jewels from the Shaivite texts as delivered by the highly laudable (can you be lowly lauded?) Jaideva Singh. The titles of his books on their own make me drool.
Pratyabhijnahrdayam: The Secret of Self-recognition
The Yoga of Delight, Wonder, and Astonishment.
Thakur Jaideva Singh (1893–1986) was a renowned musicologist, connoisseur of classical music and a great scholar of Indian Philosophy and Kashmir Saivism. He was a versatile genius and a rare combination of philosopher, Sanskritist and musicologist. He was a lecturer of Philosophy and English in the D.A.V.College, Kanpur. In 1945, he was appointed Principal of Yuvarajadutta College, Lakshmipur–Khiri. As the Chief Producer in All India Radio (1956-1962) he contributed a great deal to the uplift of classical music. He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1974 as a mark of recognition of his outstanding scholarship and was awarded honorary D.Litt. Degrees by the Banaras Hindu University and Kanpur University. Thakur Jaiyadeva Singh wrote many books, important among which are Kabir Vanmay in three volumes (editing and commentary), and English translations of Pratyabhijnahridaya, Buddhist Concept of Nirvana, A Brief History of Indian Music, Vigyanabhairava and Shiva Sutra. The last six years of his life were spent working on ‘The Secrets of Tantric Mysticism’ by Abhinavagupta. His shaivite guru and teacher was Laksman joo.
For a long while I wondered if the poetry and the sounds of the translations of these works were inherent in the work or the contribution of the translator. Having now discovered Jaideva’s pedigree, I suspect his contribution is immense. It has been said ‘the discussion of shaivism always brings joy’ (Muktananda) so in time when the mundane world’s glitter is being tarnished by talk of austerity and suffering (which, not let us forget, has always been there for the majority) let us take a walk in Shiva’s garden with Jaideva Singh. For this we will need shiva drishti, the outlook of shiva. And this is?
Verse 65 (Dharana 42) of the aforementioned Yoga of Wonder and Astonishement, or the Vijnanabhairava, recommends this meditation as a hint:
Sarvam jagat svadeham va svanandabharitam smaret
Yugapat svamrtenaiva paranandamayo bhavet
The yogi should contemplate the entire universe or his own body simultaneously in its totality as filled with his (essential spiritual bliss). Then though his own ambrosia-like bliss, he will become identified with supreme bliss. Then through his own ambrosia-like bliss, he will become identified with the supreme bliss.
There’s a lot of bliss in shaivism. They are an enthusiastic lot these primordiasl. You would want to perform to them.
Kuhanena prayogena sadya eva mrgeksane
Samudeti mahanando yena tattvam prakasate
O gazelle-eyed one, by the employment of magic, supreme delight arises (in the heart of the spectator) instantaneously. (In this condition of mind), Reality manifests itself.
This is dharana (meditation) 43. The explanation that follows is: When a spectator beholds some wonderful magical performance, his ordinary normal consciousness is raised to a plane where there is no distinction between subject and object, where it is freed from all thought-constructs and is filled with reverential awe, with mute wonder and ineffable joy. At that plane of consciousness is revealed the essential nature of Bhairava. This is only one example. When by contemplating on any scene – vast, awe-inspiring, deeply moving, the mind is thrown into ecstasy and mute wonder, it passes into nirvikalpa (thought-free) state, then that is the moment when suddenly and instantaneously
Supreme Reality reveals itself.
It’s a subtle business translating from Sanskrit, especially the sutras, because there is so much double and triple meaning. This same dharana can read; ‘O gazelled-eye one, by tickling the armpit, there occurs instantaneously great joy. If one contemplates over the essential nature of joy , Reality manifests itself.
I remembered this book, Vijnanabhairva, last week after writing about Avatar being ‘about the scenery’ because many of the drills are done outside, particularly the ‘feel-it’ exercises which I suppose I’m not allowed to tell you about because of copyright reasons. Eldon M Braun in his avatarlite ‘The Source Course,’ refers to ‘grokking’ an object. This word comes from Robert Heinlein’s book ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’.
‘Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthling assumptions) as color means to a blind man.’
What I mean is more to do with direct apprehension than intellectual understanding. Palmer calls it ‘extended feeling’. We don’t necessarily understand our own bodies but we inhabit them so thoroughly and identify with them so completely we are hard pushed not to think we are them. I’m not a good actor but I imagine if I had to play the role of a stone, or a tree, or a bird, or a person or a sky, I’d imagine inhabiting the form, the body, first and feel my way in like that.
I struggled and fretted my way through these feeling drills until one day I began to notice I was getting somewhere in that I knew that if I wanted I could switch into this other mode in which I’d somehow be both more present and less involved. The world around me would seem more like a painted picture than a solid reality. It isn’t that I could then vouch for the following sutra but I began to have an inkling of the actual experience of something I had long contemplated:
Verse 100: Dharana 77. The same self characterized by consciousness is present in all the bodies (forms); there is no difference in it anywhere. Therefore, a person realizing that everything (in essence) is the same (consciousness) triumphantly rises above transmigratory existence.
More to the point, I also realised that this ‘feeling’ mode could calm my mind and, if I let in, bring me into the present. It is similar, maybe, to a glass of wine or a joint after work in that there is a shift of perspective, a crossing of a threshold, and you sort of push the world picture a little bit away from you so that you can focus better. I implied in my last piece that I preferred this sort of open-eyed meditation as opposed to eyes shut contemplating inwards. Of course they are both part of the same spectrum or continuum so preference doesn’t really come into it. What I’d forgotten was the outdoorsness of many of the tantric dharanas in the Bhairava, many of which are concerned with empty space and boundlessness. As I have already used up my words for the week I will leave you with some delectable dharanas. Next week I’ll write about dead catholic priests and writing. See you then. Be happy.
A yogi should cast his eyes in the empty space inside a jar or any other object leaving aside the enclosing partitions. His mind will in an instant get absorbed in the empty space (inside the jar). When his mind is absorbed in that empty space, he should imagine that his mind is absorbed in a total void. He will then realise his identification with the supreme.
If one making himself thoroughly immobile beholds the pure (cloudless) sky with fixed eyes, at that very moment, O goddess, he will acquire the nature of Bhairava (pure consciousness)
In the same way, at completely dark night in the dark fortnight, by contemplating for long over the terrible circumambient darkness, the yogi will attain the nature of Bhairava.
The last meditation i'll mention is for my 18 month old grandson Ralph who hates getting out of the swing.
O goddess, owing to the swinging of the body of a person seated on a moving vehicle or owing to self-caused swinging of his body slowly, his mental state becomes calmed, then he attains divyaugha (spiritual insight) and enjoys the bliss of supernal consciousness.
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