Śrīṃ: Structure, Meaning, and Goal

 

First, let’s talk about Śrīṃ. It consists of “Śa” “Ra” “Īṃ.”

“Ī” is a fourth letter, fourth sound, in A, Ā, I, Ī—the fourth letter. It represents the transcendental state Turīya. It’s also called Mahā Gupta Saraswatī bīja. It is a hidden reverse flow called Saraswatī, the seed of flows of knowledge.

“Īṃ” is connected with “Śa.” “Śa” is a symbol of auspiciousness and “Ra” is fire. An auspicious fire leading to an infinite expression of the flows of energies flowing in the Cosmos. That’s what the meaning of Śrīṃ is—the shorthand form of the entire thing.

Śrīṃ is our goal. That’s why we call it Śrī Vidyā—auspiciousness—where everything is collapsed into a point. You can think of Śrīṃ as collapsing the entire Cosmos into a single point. It is Mahāsamhāra. It eliminates all distinctions, all attributes. It even kills Viṣṇu, Brahmā, Śiva. It is that powerful. And that is the center of that Vidyā, the antarmukha sādhana.

So that’s why Śrīṃ is so important for us. Only there all of us become one. It’s our goal. It’s our aspiration—that we reach that primordial state, which is unchangeable. Where there is no birth, there’s no growth, there’s no death.

Punarāvṛttirahita purasthāyai namo namaḥ.

We want to reach that state. That’s why Śrīṃ is our goal—the deepest goal—and a goal where we do not feel that we are annihilated. We are still alive, but attributeless.