The Serpent Power. Arthur Avalon
spanda), issuing in clearly articulate speech (Spashtatara spanda). The inner movement has outer correspondence in that issuing from the lips by the aid of Dhvani. This is but the Mantra way of saying that the homogeneous Consciousness moves as Shakti, and appears as subject (Shabda) and object (Artha) at first in the subtle form of mind and its contents generated by the Sangskāras, and then in the gross form of language as the expression of ideas and of physical objects (Artha), which the creative or cosmic mind projects into the world of sensual experience to be the source of impressions to the individual experiencer therein. It is true that in this sense the letters, as hidden speech or the seed of outer speech, are in the Chakras, but the allocation of particular letters to particular Chakras is a matter which, if it has a real and not merely symbolical significance, is explained in my “Shakti and Shāktā.”
In each of the Chakras there is also a Bīja (seed) Mantra of each of the Tattvas therein. They are the seed of the Tattva, for the latter springs from and re-enters the former. The natural name of anything is the sound which is produced by the action of the moving forces which constitute it. He therefore, it is said, who mentally and vocally utters with creative force the natural name of anything brings into being the thing which bears that name. Thus “Ram” is the Bīja of fire in the Manipūra chakra. This Mantra “Ram” is said to be the expression in gross sound (Vaikharī Shabda) of the subtle sound produced by the activity of, and which is, the subtle “fire” force. The same explanation is given as regards “Lam” in the Mūlādhāra, and the other Bījas in the other Chakras. The mere utterance,{303} however, of “Ram” or any other Mantra is nothing but a movement of the lips. When, however, the Mantra is “awakened”{304} (Prabuddha)—that is, when there is Mantra—chaitanya (Mantra-consciousness)—then the Sādhaka can make the Mantra work. Thus in the case cited the Vaikharī Shabda, through its vehicle Dhvani, is the body of a power of consciousness which enables the Mantrin to become the Lord of Fire.{305} However this may be, in all cases it is the creative thought which ensouls the uttered sound which works now in man’s small magic, just as it first worked in the grand magical display of the World-creator. His thought was the aggregate, with creative power, of all thought. Each man is Shiva, and can attain His power to the degree of his ability to consciously realize himself as such. For various purposes the Devatās are invoked. Mantra and Devatā are one and the same. A Mantra-Devatā is Shabda and Artha, the former being the name, and the latter the Devatā whose name it is. By practice with the Mantra (Japa) the presence of the Devatā is invoked. Japa or repetition of Mantra is compared to the action of a man shaking a sleeper to wake him up. The two lips are Shiva and Shakti. Their movement is the coition (Maithuna) of the two. Shabda which issues thereform is in the nature of Bindu. The Devatā thus produced is, as it were, the “son” of the Sādhaka. It is not the Supreme Devatā (for it is actionless) who appears, but in all cases an emanation produced by the Sādhaka for his benefit only.{306} In the case of worshippers of Shiva a Boy-Shiva (Bāla Shiva) appears, who is then made strong by the nurture which the Sādhaka gives to his creation. The occultist will understand all such symbolism to mean that the Devatā is a form of the consciousness of the pure Sādhaka which the latter arouses and strengthens, and gains good thereby. It is his consciousness which becomes the boy Shiva, and which when strengthened the full-grown Divine power itself. All Mantras are in the body as forms of consciousness (Vijnāna rūpa). When the Mantra is fully practiced it enlivens the Sangskāra, and the Artha appears to the mind. Mantras are thus a form of the Sangskāra of Jīvas, the Artha of which manifest to the consciousness which is pure. The essence of all this is—concentrate and vitalize thought and will power. But for such a purpose a method is necessary—namely, language and determined varieties of practice according to the end sought. These Mantravidyā, which explains what Mantra is, also enjoins. For thought, words (gross or subtle) are necessary. Mantravidyā is the science of thought and of its expression in language.
The causal state of Shabda is called Shabdabrahman—that is, the Brahman as the cause of Shabda and Artha. The unmanifest (Avyakta) power or Shabda, which is the cause of manifested Shabda and Artha, uprises on the differentiation of the Supreme Bindu from Prakriti in the form of Bindu through the prevalence of Kriyā shakti.{307} Avyakta Rava or Shabda (unmanifest sound) is the principle of sound as such (Nāda mātra)—that is, undifferentiated sound not specialized in the form of letters, but which is, through creative activity, the cause of manifested Shabda and Artha.{308} It is the Brahman considered as all-pervading Shabda, undivided, unmanifested, whose substance is Nāda and Bindu, the proximate creative impulse in Parashiva and proximate cause of manifested Shabda and Artha.{309} It is the eternal partless Sphota{310} which is not distinguished into Shabda and Artha, but is the Power by which both exist and are known. Shabdabrahman is thus the kinetic ideating aspect of the undifferentiated Supreme Consciousness of philosophy, and the Sagunabrahma of religion. It is Chit-shakti vehicled by undifferentiated Prakriti-shakti—that is, the creative aspect of the one Brahman who is both transcendent and formless (Nirguna), and immanent and with form (Saguna).{311} As the Hathayogapradīpikā says:{312} “Whatever is heard in the form of sound is Shakti. The absorbed state (Laya) of the Tattvas (evolutes of Prakriti) is that in which no form exists.{313} So long as there is the notion of ether, so long is sound heard. The soundless is called Parabrahman or Paramātmā.”{314} Shabdabrahman thus projects itself for the purpose of creation into two sets of movement—namely, firstly, the Shabda (with mental vibrations of cognition) which, passing through the vocal organs, become articulate sound; and, secondly, Artha movements denoted by Shabda in the form of all things constituting the content of mind and the objective world. These two are emanations from the same conscious activity (Shakti) which is the Word (Logos), and are in consequence essentially the same. Hence the connection between the two are permanent. It is in the above sense that the universe is said to be composed of the letters. It is the fifty{315} letters of the Sanskrit alphabet which are denoted by the garland of severed human heads which the naked{316} mother, Kālī, dark like a threatening rain-cloud, wears as She stands amidst bones and carrion beasts and birds in the burning-ground on the white corpse-like (Shavarūpa) body of Shiva. For it is She who “slaughters”—that is, withdraws all speech and its objects into Herself at the time of the dissolution of all things (Mahāpralaya).{317} Shabdabrahman is the consciousness (Chaitanya) in all creatures. It assumes the form of Kundalī, and abides in the body of all breathing creatures (Prānī), manifesting itself by letters in the form of prose and verse.{318} In the sexual symbolism of the Shākta Tantras, seed (Bindu){319} issued upon the reversed union{320} of Mahākāla and Mahākālī, which seed, ripening in the womb of Prakriti, issued as Kundalī in the form of the letters (Akshara). Kundalī as Mahāmātrikāsundarī has fifty-one coils, which are the Mātrīkās or subtle forms of the gross letters or Varna which is the Vaikharī form of the Shabda at the centers. Kundalī when with one coil is Bindu; with two, Prakriti-Purusha; with three, the three Shaktis (Ichchhā, Jnāna, Kriyā) and three Gunas (Sattva, Rajas, Tamas); with the three and a half She is then actually creative with Vikriti; with four She is the Devī Ekajatā, and so on to Shrīmātrikotpattisundarī with fifty-one coils.{321} In the body, unmanifested Parashabda is in Kundalī Shakti. That which first issues from it is in the lowest Chakra, and extends upwards through the rest as Pashyantī, Madhyamā, and Vaikhari Shabda. When Shakti first “sees”{322} She is Paramakalā{323} in the mother form (Ambikārūpā), which is supreme speech (Parāvāk) and supreme peace (Parama shāntā). She “sees” the manifested Shabda from Pashyantī to Vaikharī. The Pashyantī{324} state of Shabda is that in which Ichchhā Shakti (will) in the form of a goad{325} (Angkushākāra) is about to display the universe, then in seed (Bīja) form. This is the Shakti Vāmā.{326} Madhyamā Vāk, which is Jnāna (knowledge), and in form of a straight line (Rijurekhā), is Jyeshthā Shakti. Here there is the first assumption of form as the Mātrikā (Mātrikātvam upapannā), for here is particular motion (Vishesha Spanda). The Vaikharī state is that of Kriyā Shakti, who is the Devi Raudrī, whose form is triangular{327} and that of the universe. As the former Shakti produces the subtle letters or Mātrikā which are the Vāsanā,{328} so this last is the Shakti of the gross letters of words and their objects.{329} These letters are the garland of the Mother issuing from Her in Her form as Kundalī Shakti, and absorbed by Her in the Kundalī-yoga here described.
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