Chinnamasta

Guruji: The dramatic imagery of Chinnamasta is an excellent, multi-layered symbol of the basic philosophy of Yoga/Vedanta and Shaktism. Chinnamasta is depicted as holding her own head that she has just cut off. Blood is spurting in three streams from her neck.The central stream in pouring in to Chinnamasta's mouth, while the other two streams on the left and right of the main stream are flowing into the mouths of Chinnamasta's two attendent dakinis or sub shaktis who are on Her left and right. This graphic metaphor shows us how to come to Devi and our true Self.
The head is the center of the activities of the mind. Cutting off the head of Chinnamasta stops the mental activities. Patanjali tells us, "Yoga is restraining the activities of the mind." (Raja Yoga Sutras I.2)

Furthermore, Chinnamasta is dancing the Tandava, the cosmic dance of Shiva that leads to the destruction of the phenomenal world that is the focus of our desires. The sense organs have their focus in the head, so the chopped off head of Chinnamasta represents the stopping of the outward orientation of the senses.

Also, the dance is performed on the body of Kama, desire, having coitus with his wife, Rati. This further reinforces the message to rise above mundane desire in order to encounter Devi. The headlessness of Chinnamasta represents conquest of the senses and the kleshas (ignorance, egoism, attraction, repulsion, and attachment to life) that are the obstacles to spiritual enlightenment.

Her headlessness also represents the conquest of space and time and the triumph over the physical laws that operate therein. People are so attached to a conventional concept of the universe and so attached to looking outward in their interactions with that universe (the veil of Maya) that an arresting image such as Chinnamasta is required to get them to consider other possibilities of existence.

The head of Chinnamasta has been chopped off but still alive. She lives and, moreover, lives as a divine being. The question should arise, "How is Her continued existence possible?" and "What is this depiction telling me?"

The imagery draws our attention to the four other bodies or Koshas that each of us has in addition to the physical body. It is these four bodies (Pranamaya Kosha, Manomaya Kosha, Vijnanamaya Kosha, Anandamaya Kosha) that are responsible for enabling us to reach whatever level of spiritual attainment that we currently enjoy and will enjoy. These four bodies also survive the death of the physical body.

The Chinnamasta imagery reminds us of this. One of these four bodies is the causal body (Anandamaya Kosha), the seat of the soul. So, now we are explicity reminded that each of us has a soul. Furthermore, taking Kundalini up through the major chakras and experiencing the Divine, as represented by the central blood stream, shows that our true identity is that soul, and that what we originally thought of as 'our' soul is actually the same Soul, the same Divinity, manifesting in everything.

The three blood streams from Chinnamasta represent Prana (Ha), Apana (Tha) and Kundalini, the union of Ha and Tha, the prana that is necessary for spiritual enlightenment. It is only Chinnamasta who is drinking from the central stream of Kundalini. Her attendents are not yet fully Self-realized but will be with the help and example of Chinnamasta. The Chinnamasta imagery tells us that instead of looking outward and entertaining ourselves with the vagaries of Maya, we should be looking inward, purifying ourselves, enabling Kundalini to form and rise so that we become living examples of that imagery.

Chinnamasta is the Shakti that takes her disciples away from involvement with the senses and desire, and by Her Grace grants them complete control of over the mind and the primary instincts and gives them the will and vision to come to Her abode in the Sushumna. Then we will see Devi in the world, Maya will be conquered, and we will know our own Divinity. It is only by experiencing the Transcendent Devi that one fully appreciates Devi immanent in the world. As Patanjali says in the Raja Yoga Sutras, "At that time [when the thought waves are stilled], the perceiver rests in his own true nature." (I.3)