The Serpent Power. Arthur Avalon

      II. CONSCIOUSNESS AND ITS POWER (SHIVA-SHAKTI)

      The bases of this Yoga are of a highly metaphysical and scientific character. For its understanding there is required a full acquaintance with Indian philosophy, religious doctrine, and ritual in general, and in particular with that presentment of these three matters which is given in the Shākta and Monistic (Advaita){122} Shaiva Tantras. It would need more than a bulky volume to describe and explain in any detail the nature and meaning of this Yoga, and the bases on which it rests. I must therefore assume in the reader either this general knowledge or a desire to acquire it, and confine myself to such an exposition of general principles and leading facts as will supply the key by which the doors leading to a theoretical knowledge of the subject may be opened by those desirous of passing through and beyond them, and as will thus facilitate the understanding of the difficult texts here translated. For on the practical side I can merely reproduce the directions given in the books, together with such explanations of them as I have received orally. Those who wish to go farther, and to put into actual process this Yoga, must learn directly of a Guru who has himself been through it (Siddha). His experience alone will say whether the aspirant is capable of success. It is said that of those who attempt it one out of a thousand may have success. If the latter enters upon the path, the Guru alone can save him from attendant risks, molding and guiding the practice as he will according to the particular capacities and needs of his disciples. Whilst, therefore, on this heading it is possible to explain some general principles, their application is dependent on the circumstances of each particular case.

      Veda says: “All this (that is, the manifold world) is (the one) Brahman” (Sarvvam khalvidam Brahma).{123} How the many can be the one{124} is variously explained by the different schools. The interpretation here given is that of the grand doctrine underlying and contained in the Shākta Tantras or Āgamas. In the first place, what is the one Reality which appears as many? What is the nature of Brahman as it is in itself (Svarūpa)? The answer is Sat-Chit-Ānanda—that is, being-feeling-consciousness-bliss. Consciousness or feeling, as such (Chit, or Chaitanya, or Samvit), is identical with being as such. Though in ordinary experience the two are essentially bound up together, they still seem to diverge from each other. Man by his constitution inveterately believes in an objective existence beyond and independent of himself. And this is so as long as, being embodied spirit (Jīvātmā), his consciousness is veiled by Māyā. But in the ultimate basis of experience, which is the Supreme Spirit (Paramātmā), the divergence has gone, for in it lie in undifferentiated mass experiencer, experience, and the experienced. When, however, we speak of Chit as feeling-consciousness we must remember that what we know and observe as such is only a limited changing manifestation of Chit, which is in itself the infinite changeless principle which is the background of all experience. This being-consciousness is absolute bliss (Ānanda), which is defined as “resting in the self” (Svarūpa-vishrānti). It is bliss because, being the infinite all (Pūrna), it can be in want of nothing. This blissful consciousness is the ultimate and real nature or Svarūpa, as it is called, of the one reality, the own form or the propria forma of the scholastics. Svarūpa is the nature of anything as it is in itself, as distinguished from what it may appear to be. This supreme consciousness is the Supreme Shiva (Parashiva). It never changes, but eternally endures the same throughout all change.

      But if this be so, how is it that everything we see is associated with apparent unconsciousness? Our mind is evidently not a pure, but a limited consciousness. What limits it must be something either in itself unconscious or, if conscious, capable of producing the appearance of unconsciousness.{125} In the phenomenal world there is nothing absolutely conscious nor absolutely unconscious. Consciousness and unconsciousness are always intermingled. Some things, however, appear to be more conscious, and some more unconscious than others. This is due to the fact that Chit, which is never absent in anything, yet manifests itself in various ways and degrees. The degree of this manifestation is determined by the nature and development of the body in which it is enshrined. Spirit remains the same; the body changes. The manifestation of consciousness is more or less limited as ascent is made from the mineral to man. In the mineral world Chit manifests as the lowest form of sentiency evidenced by reflex response to stimuli, and that physical consciousness which is called in the West atomic memory. The sentiency of plants is more developed, though it is, as Chakrapāni says, in the Bhānumatī a dormant consciousness. This is further manifested in those micro-organisms which are intermediate stages between the vegetable and animal worlds, and have a psychic life of their own. In the animal world consciousness becomes more centralized and complex, reaching its fullest development in man, who possesses all the psychic functions, such as cognition, perception, feeling, and will. Behind all these particular changing forms of sentiency or consciousness is the one formless, changeless Chit as it is in itself (Svarūpa), and as distinguished from the particular forms of its manifestation.

      As Chit throughout all these stages of life remains the same it is not really developed. The appearance of development is due to the fact that is now more and now less veiled by mind and matter. It is this veiling and projection by the cosmic consciousness (Shakti) which creates the world. What is it, then, which veils consciousness and projects the world-show?

      The answer is Shakti as Māyā. Is Shakti the same as or different from Shiva or Chit? It must be the same, for otherwise all could not be one Brahman. But if it is the same it must be also Chit or Consciousness. Therefore it is Sachchidānandamayī{126} and Chidrūpinī.{127}

      And yet there is, at least in appearance, some distinction. Shakti, which comes from the root Shak, “to have power,” “to be able,” means power. As She is one with Shiva, She as such power is the power of Shiva or Consciousness. There is no difference between Shiva as the possessor of power (Shaktimān) and power itself. The power of consciousness is consciousness in its active aspect. Whilst, therefore, both Shiva and Shakti are consciousness, the former is the changeless static aspect of consciousness, and Shakti is the kinetic active aspect of the same consciousness. The particular power whereby the dualistic world is brought into being is Māyā-Shakti, which is both a veiling (Āvarana) and projecting (Vikshepa) Shakti. Consciousness veils itself to itself, and projects from the store of its previous experiences (Sangskāra) the notion of a world in which it suffers and enjoys. The universe is thus the creative imagination (Srishtikalpanā, as it is called) of the Supreme World-thinker (Īshvara). Māyā is that power by which things are “measured”—that is, formed and made known (Mīyate anena iti māyā). It is the sense of difference (Bhedabuddhi), or that which makes man see the world, and all things and persons therein, as different from himself, when in truth he and it and they are the one self. It is that which establishes a dichotomy in what would otherwise be a unitary experience, and is the cause of the dualism inherent in all phenomenal experience. Shakti veils consciousness by negating in various degrees Herself as consciousness.

      Before the manifestation of the universe, Being-Consciousness-Bliss alone was—that is, Shiva-Shakti as Chit and Chidrūpinī respectively. Consciousness not exercising its power, Consciousness alone changelessly was. In this the quiescent state of the Ātmā or Self, Shakti being latent, is one with it. The Devī in the Kulachūdāmani Nigama{128} says: “I, though Prakriti, lie hidden in Consciousness-Bliss.” Rāghava Bhatta says:{129} “She who is eternal (Anādirūpā) existed in a subtle state, as it were Consciousness, during the great dissolution.”

      This is Parashiva, who in the scheme of the thirty-six Tattvas is known as Parāsamvit. This is the perfect experience and perfect universe.