204. Sarvamantrasvarūpiṇī
The sounds have forms as forms have forms. The forms of sounds, especially standing wave patterns, can be photographed fairly very easily; with the help of high-speed cameras, the forms of sound wave fronts such as sonic boom can be photographed. The word mantra is derived from “mananāt trāyatē iti mantraḥ”. By constant repetition, it protects.
A rhythmic repetition creates a standing sound wave pattern in the brain of the devotee. This sound pattern evokes certain ranges of experiences in the individual. Then each mantra becomes a channel of communication between the devotee and some information that is described as the form of the mantra.
The meaning of the mantra is the sum total of all experiences evoked by the mantra. A mantra has consciousness. It has a field. It is an alter ego of the devotee. One can talk to a mantra and get replies from it.
When a Guru, the teacher, imparts a mantra to the devotee at the time of initiation, he passes on the sound form of the mantra to the devotee along with his own visual image of it. The image is transcended silently in the following process:
At the time of initiation, the Guru visualises one by one all the seven lotuses from Mūlādhāra to Sahasrāra in the devotee's body. Here the Guru sounds mentally the seed letter of each of the petals of these lotuses, thus resolving one by one the grosser elements composing the student's body, mind and intellect into the Universal consciousness. Having done that, he imparts life to the mantra by visualising the sound form of the mantra, which is called the yantra, and placing the bījākṣaras of the mantra at the appropriate places in the yantra. This yantra then is the conscious force through which the devotee later on gains knowledge and powers. After creating life forms of the mantra through what is called the prāṇapratiṣṭhā, the Guru retraces the steps backwards till he hits the Mūlādhāra of the student. While he is retracing the steps, he removes the ignorant upādhi of the disciple with his own knowledgeable upādhi in the body of the disciple. In effect, initiation is equivalent to killing the disciple and re-imparting the Guru's life into the disciple. The Guru transmits himself to the disciple, and like a light from which another light is lit, the disciple continues with the improved consciousness.
Thus it is that the Guru, the Mantra, the Deity represented by the mantra, and the Disciple all become one and the same. Rare indeed are the Gurus who can successfully do such an initiation. They are the Gurus who are living Gods and Goddesses transmitting Devi’s grace in abundance. They become vehicles for the expression of God.
205. Sarvayantrātmikā
Devi represents all the yantras corresponding to all the sound forms of the mantras.
Yantra means an engine, a vehicle, a seat or a place for an upādhi, where a conscious force can be centered. Śrī Yantra is an upādhi for Śrī Devi to manifest. Durgā yantra is a vehicle for Goddess Durgā and so on. Devi represents all such yantras.
From the definition of a Yantra, it is clear that it is an upādhi. An upādhi is a vehicle of consciousness. Our bodies and minds are vehicles of consciousness. Hence, they are also upādhi, yantras. Devi has for Her body all bodies. She resides in all of us.
In the phalaśruti of Lalitā Triśati, it is written that “śrī cakram śivayo babhuḥ”. The Śrī Cakra is the vehicle, the upādhi formed by the Śiva and Śakti in union, i.e. that such a state of union is the worship of Śrī Lalitā. The Śrī Yantra is formed by four upward triangles and five downward triangles interpenetrating each other. The four upward triangles are the Śivas and the five downward triangles are the Śakti.
The four Śiva Tattvas are Sarveśvara, Sadāśiva, Sarvavyāpaka and Sarvajña meaning controlling all, always present, present at all places and knowing all.
The five Śakti tattvas are grace, projection, creation, maintenance and destruction.
Śrī Cakra represents the union of these five dynamic forces with the four static observers.
Recognition that the body of a devotee is itself an excellent Śrī Cakra has led to the worship of the body in the form of Suvāsinī pūjā and Kumārī pūjā.
Suvāsinī pūjā means worshipping a married woman as a representation, a yantra of the deity.
Worship of the virgin girls is known as Kumārī pūjā.
Both these forms of worship are external modes of worship called Bahya pūjā. Even the worship of a mental Śrī Yantra, an abstract symbol of the union of Śiva and Śakti, comes under the category of Bahya pūjā.
The Dakṣiṇācāra follows the worship of the Yantra as the mental Cakra.
The Kaulācāra follows the method of worshipping the female form as the yantra.
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