The Serpent Power. Arthur Avalon
seed ripens in Consciousness. Consciousness has thus a twin aspect: its liberation (Mukti) or formless aspect, in which it is as mere Consciousness-Bliss; and a universe or form aspect, in which it becomes the worlds of enjoyment (Bhukti). One of the cardinal principles of the Shākta Tantra is to secure by its Sādhanā both liberation (Mukti) and enjoyment (Bhukti).{148} This is possible by the identification of the self when in enjoyment with the soul of the world. When this seed ripens Shiva is said to put forth His Shakti. As this Shakti is Himself, it is He in his Shiva-Shakti aspect who comes forth (Prasarati) and endows Himself with all the forms of worldly life. In the pure, perfect, formless Consciousness there springs up the desire to manifest in the world of forms—the desire for enjoyment of and as form. This takes place as a limited stress in the unlimited unmoving surface of pure Consciousness, which is Nishkala Shiva, but without affecting the latter. There is thus change in changelessness and changelessness in change. Shiva in His transcendent aspect does not change, but Shiva (Sakala) in His immanent aspect as Shakti does. As creative will arises Shakti thrills as Nāda,{149} and assumes the form of Bindu, which is Īshvara Tattva, whence all the worlds derive. It is for their creation that Kundalī uncoils. When Karma ripens, the Devī, in the words of the Nigama,{150} “becomes desirous of creation, and covers Herself with Her own Māyā.” Again, “the Devī, joyful in the mad delight of Her union with the Supreme Akula,{151} becomes Vikārinī”{152}—that is, the Vikāras or Tattvas of mind and matter which constitute the universe appear.
The Shāstras have dealt with the stages of creation in great detail both from the subjective and objective viewpoints as changes in the limited consciousness or as movement (Spanda), form, “sound” (Shabda). Both Shaivas and Shāktas equally accept the thirty-six categories or Tattvas, the Kalās, the Shaktis Unmanī, and the rest in the Tattvas, the Shadadhvā, the Mantra concepts of Nāda, Bindu, Kāmakalā, and so forth.{153} Authors of the Northern Shaiva school, of which a leading Shāstra is the Mālinīvijaya Tantra, have described with great profundity these Tattvas. General conclusions only are, however, here summarized. These thirty-six Tattvas are in the Tantras divided into three groups, called Ātmā. Vidyā, and Shiva Tattvas. The first group includes all the Tattvas, from the lowest Prithivi (“earth”) to Prakriti, which are known as the impure categories (Ashuddhatattva); the second includes Māyā, the Kanchuka,{154} and Purusha, called the pure-impure categories (Shuddhaashuddha Tattva); and the third includes the five highest Tattvas, called the pure Tattvas (Shuddha Tattva), from Shiva Tattva to Shuddhavidyā. As already stated, the supreme changeless state (Parāsamvit){155} is a unitary experience in which the “I” and “This” coalesce into a unity in which neither are perceived as such.
In the kinetic or Shakti aspect, as presented by the pure categories, experience recognizes an “I” and “This,” but the latter is regarded, not as something opposed to and outside the “I,” but as part of a one self which has two sides—an “I” (Aham) and “This” (Idam). The emphasis varies from insistence on the “I” to insistence on the “This,” and then to equality of emphasis on the “I” and “This as a preparation for the dichotomy in consciousness which follows.
The pure-impure categories are intermediate between the pure and the impure. The essential characteristic of experience constituted by the impure categories is its dualism effected through Māyā—and its limitations—the result of the operation of the Kanchukas. Here the “This” is not seen as part of the self, but as opposed to and without it as an object seen outside. Each consciousness thus became mutually exclusive the one of the other. The states thus described are threefold: a transcendent mingled “I” and “This,” in which these elements of experience are as such not perceived; a pure form of experience intermediate between the first and last, in which both the “I” and the “This” are experienced as part of the one self; and, thirdly, the state of manifestation proper, when there is a complete cleavage between the “I” and the “This,” in which an outer object is presented to the consciousness of a knower. This last stage is itself twofold. In the first the Purusha experiences a homogeneous universe, though different from himself as Prakriti; in the second Prakriti is split up into its effects (Vikriti), which are mind and matter, and the multitudinous beings of the universe which these compose. Shakti as Prakriti first evolves mind (Buddhi, Ahangkāra, Manas) and senses (Indriya), and then sensible matter (Bhūta) of fivefold form (“ether,” “air,” “fire,” “water,” “earth”){156} derived from the supersensible generals of the sense particulars called Tanmātra. When Shakti has entered the last and grossest Tattva (“earth”)—that is, solid matter—there is nothing further for Her to do. Her creative activity then ceases, and She rests. She rests in Her last emanation, the “earth” principle. She is again coiled and sleeps. She is now Kundalī Shakti, whose abode in the human body is the earth center or Mūlādhāra Chakra. As in the supreme state She lay coiled as the Mahākundalī round the Supreme Shiva, so here She coils round the Svayambhu Lingga in the Mūlādhāra.
The Mantra evolution is set forth with great clarity in the Shāradā Tilaka, wherein it is said that from the Sakala Shiva (Shiva Tattva), who is Sat-Chit-Ānanda, issued Shakti (Shakti Tattva); from the latter Nāda (Sadākhya Tattva); and from Nāda evolved Bindu (Īshvara Tattva),{157} which, to distinguish it from the Bindu which follows, is called the Supreme Bindu (Para-Bindu). Nāda and Bindu are, like all else, aspects of Shakti, being those states of Her which are the proper conditions for (Upayogāvasthā) and in which She is prone to (Uchchhanāvasthā) creation. In those Tattvas the germ of action (Kriyā Shakti) sprouts towards its full manifestation.
The Tantras, in so far as they are Mantra Shāstras, are concerned with Shabda or “sound,” a term later explained. Mantra is manifested Shabda. Nāda, which also literally means sound, is the first of the produced intermediate causal bodies of Shabda. Bindu, which has previously been explained, is described as the state of the letter Ma before manifestation, consisting of the Shiva-Shakti Tattva enveloped by Māyā or Parama Kundalī. It implies both the void (Shūnya)—that is, the Brahman state (Brahmapada)—in the empty space within the circle of the Bindu; as also the Gunas which are implicitly contained in it, since it is in indissoluble union with Shakti, in whom the Gunas or factors constituting the material source of all things are contained.{158} The Parabindu is called the Ghanāvasthā state of Shakti. It is Chidghana or massive consciousness—that is, Chit associated with undifferentiated (that is, Chidrūpinī) Shakti, in which lie potentially in a mass (Ghana), though undistinguishable the one from the other, all the worlds and beings to be created. This is Parama Shiva, in whom are all the Devatās. It is this Bindu who is the Lord (Īshvara) whom some Pauranikas call Mahāvishnu and others the Brahmapurusha.{159} As the Commentator says, it does not matter what He is called. He is the Lord (Īshvara) who is worshipped in secret by all Devas,{160} and is pointed to in different phases of the Chandrabindu, or Nāda, Bindu, Shakti, and Shānta of the Om and other Bīja Mantras. Its abode is Satyaloka, which within the human body exists in the pericarp of the thousand-petalled lotus (Sahasrāra) in the highest cerebral center. The Shāradā{161} then says that this Parabindu, whose substance is Supreme Shakti, divides itself into three—that is, appears under a threefold aspect. There are thus three Bindus, the first of which is called Bindu,{162} and the others Nāda and Bīja. Bindu is in the nature of Shiva and Bīja of Shakti. Nāda is Shiva-Shakti—that is, their mutual relation or interaction (Mithah samavāyah){163} or Yoga (union), as the Prayogasāra calls it.{164} The threefold Bindu (Tribindu) is supreme (Para), subtle (Sūkshma), and gross (Sthūla).{165} Nāda is thus the union of these two in creation. As the text says (v. 40), it is by this division of Shiva and Shakti that there arises creative ideation (Srishti-Kalpanā). The causal Bindu is from the Shakti aspect undifferentiated Shakti (Abhedarūpā Shakti) with all powers (Sarvashaktimaya); from the Prakriti aspect Trigunamayī Mūlaprakriti; from the Devatā aspect the unmanifest (Avyakta); from the Devī aspect Shāntā. The three Bindus separately indicate the operations of the three powers of will (Ichchhā), knowledge (Jnāna), and action (Kriyā), and the three Gunas (Rajas, Sattva, Tamas); also the manifestation of the three Devīs (Vāmā, Jyeshthā, Raudrī) and the three Devatās (Brahmā, Vishnu, Rudra) who spring from them.{166} It is said in the Prayogasāra and Shāradā that Raudrī issued from Bindu, Jyesthā from Nāda, and Vāmā from Bīja. From these came Rudra, Vishnu, Brahmā, which are in the nature of Jnāna, Kriyā, Ichchhā, and Moon, Sun, and