Tripurasundari

Sundari, or Tripurasundari is the flower of consciousness - graceful, harmonizing, joyous, peaceful, bountiful, protective, knowing and powerful - symbolized by lotus of lotuses. She is The Most Beautiful who manifests divine knowledge and love; She knows best how to lift a man from the illusion of bondage to eternal cosmic love and power of the all pervasive. She is Âdishakti, the mother of mothers - Lakshmi, Saraswati and Gowri. They are three emanations from the Adishakti. She is the upward thrust of evolution; not merely of an individual liberation, but for a whole class of classless human beings. She is the great vehicle of vajrâyana of Buddhism in Tibetian mandalâs. She plays with such things as the moon, rainbows, space, the sun. Three is Her abstract symbol in OM, She is Three Pura Sundari, the beautiful girl in all three aspects of creation, nourishment and destruction.

Sundari is the primal power of God, Âdishakti, to see Himself in various forms. The first desire of the Supreme to manifest caused a division in the Being. Sundari is this first desire (Kamakala or Ichcha Shakti). Desire is the secret of creation; it is the root of manifestation; it is the mainstay of existence. The Desire first takes the form of fragmentation and then a seeking to unite all the fragmented parts in the whole. The Divine desires to sacrifice Himself in creation and then desires to receive back the creation into Himself. This two-fold desire is the basis of Love, the vivifying bond that ties the creator and the created. Love exists by itself, independent of the objects through which it manifests. Love has no clinging, no desire, no hunger for possession, no attachment. It is simply the craving for union of the self with the Divine.

Sundari is Hrim, the combination of Hari, Hara, and Virinchi; She is called Vishnu Maya, the great illusion; She is the greatest seductress there is, continuously assuming new forms, and highly procreative and blissful like a sixteen year old girl.

She is described in 108 letters in the three vedas, in a triad each consisting of four lines in anushtup metre as follows:

Tat Savitur varenyam
bhargo devasya dhimahi
dhiyoyonah prachodayat
parorajase savadom (32)
Jatavedase sunavama somam
aratiyato nidhati vedaha
Sa nah parsadati durga naveva sindhum duritatyagnih (43)
Tryambakam yajamahe Sugandhim pushti vardhanam
urvarukameva bandhanat mrityor muksiya mamritat (33) 

The first four lines are known as Gayatri, of four feet. Their purpose is to unfold the divine presence in the aspirants heart. From this chandas or metre is derived the Sri Vidyâ mantrâ of fifteen letters, as will be subsequently explained.

The next four lines are known to unfold the power of God in the aspirant and hence relate to the sakti , the primal power. From this are derived the nine Chakresvari mantras of Sri-cakra, a mandal of divine couples in union. Sexual union is a symbol for an active God- that is, God with his power to act, saktiman, not the inert God who does not even want to see himself.
The last four lines relate to Shivâ, the bestower of immortality, and the conqueror of death.
In these three stanzas the worlds, the realities (Vedâs), the learned books (Shâstrâs), the explanatory texts (Purânâs), the duties, the predictive sciences (Jyotish Shâstrâs) all proceed from the union of Shiva and Shakti, that is an assertion of God.

Now let us go deep into how the panca dasi mantra of Sri Vidya has come to be coded by the God in love with Sakti. From Gâyatri, we shall derive and interpret in three stages the three parts of pancadasi - called the Vagbhava kuta, and sakti kuta. They indeed represent the union of Saraswati with Brahma, Laksmi with Vishnu and Gowri with Siva. First then, the vagbhava kuta, by which will power is generated. Will indeed is the creator; will power is creatix; manifestation is creativity, brahmananda, the bliss of the union of Brahma and Sarasvati. The correspondence of Ka e i la hrim to Gayatri is first indicated and then explained.

Tat Savitur Varenyam = (ka, e)
Bhargo Devasya dhimahi = (i, la)
Dhiya Yonah Pracodayat = the mantra is to be pronounced only mentally, not externally
Paro rajase Savadom = (hrim = will united to power)

Tat: Brahma, the creator, the will is permanent. He is attributeless, blemishless, he contains the womb of power by it, i.e., he can exist independent of it also. When he enters his womb of power, he desires consciousness. He opens the eye of power as it were and projects himself through it and that generates the power of will. By his desire to see, he sacrifices his completeness; so, he sees himself in the sacrifice called the emission of his seed into the womb of power. His desire is the first cause. The desire springs out of desirelessness in a silent will, quite spontaneously, without any prior cause to it. When this happens, he invents a symbolism (series of  50 letters of sanskrit, organised into eight groups; the 16 vowels is the. first group; the 34 consonants divided into seven groups). This is why the lord is known as the God of love, Kama, or the lust of creativity. Manmatha and Ishwara are the two poles of the same reality - a silent consciousness manifesting desire is Manmatha, and a desiring mind wishing for its satisfaction (and thus its elimination) is Ishwara. Thus the essence of consciousness or will is established to be a desire – either more or less of it. But it is desire, at the roots it is connected to eros. Thus the word Tat which means ‘that’ essentially arises out of desire, because ‘that’ will not exist in a non-dual state of total absence of desires, The latter ‘K’ symbolizes the essence of will power; it is therefore identified with 'tat’.

Next consider Savitur varenyam: Savita means the one who gives birth to. Tripura as maha kundalini, light and heat streaming from the Sun, the Savita, interacts with the mother Earth to procreate all the life forms on it. Without light and heat of Sun there can be no life on Earth. Sun is the father and Earth is the mother, and life comes out of their union. What is life? Life is a movement in Consciousness. When consciousness moves in itself, it created a vortex, which enables the trinity: the seer, seeing and the seen to be created. The separation of the seer and the seen creates the act of seeing. This trinity, the triplet, is symbolised by a triangle, since it is a creative triangle which produces life, hence let us call it yoni, or the divine vulva. The divine yoni is to be known as the bhaga or the Sun, the creative power. The letter ‘e’ is the result of union between ‘a’ and ‘i’. ‘a’ is known as the nirguna brahman, and ‘i’ his iksha, or the desire to see; in combination, they become ‘e’, the divine force, the mother of all that is seen, the adi sakti as yoni, the caussless cause.

The word Varenyam, means the best part: the best or the central part of creative power, the enjoyable part, is the yoni. Also, the central part of the word varenyam is ‘e’. Thus the essence of the words savitur varenyam is completely symbolised by ‘e’, the source of all higher forms of vowels. The answer as to which higher forms, is contained in the word varenyam itself. If we look at the letter meanings according to Sivasutras, Va= necrar or the seed of immortality, ra = fire, e = cause, n= taste, ya= air, m = touch or contact. Thus varenyam means that the seed of life is to be placed in the fire of the yoni to taste and touch the current of air, the breath of life, coupled with the dual oriented Brahman, or Kama, the sexual symbolism of ‘e’, the divine yoni, is indeed most appropriate one. ‘e’ is the mother of all life forms, it is the enjoyable or dear form (life is dear to everyone), it produces a continuous current of contact awareness is consciousness; for these reasons the sexual symbolism is not only appropriate but is essential. Thus ‘e’ equals savitur varenyam; and it is to be worshipped as the live giver. It must be remembered that the sexual symbolism works at three levels. At the physical level, ‘e’ means indeed the vulva. At the mental level, ‘e’ means the desire - any desire, not necessarily sexual, which leads one to action, any action. At the spiritual level, ‘e’ means the Connsciousness, which is the source of desire which then is the source of action, which is based on duality and promotes duality. A mature person can deal with the symbolism without getting lost in the mere physical aspect. The one connecting link at all three levels is that Consciousness, desire and an action - all arise from interactions, and all interactions are collectively described as contact phenomena - or referred to as maithuna or coitus.

Next consider Bhargo devasya dhimahi: Bhargo devasya means the central characteristic of the deva, which is immortality. The inmortal, in dying state, the akshara, is the ‘turiya’ fourth last or the state all the other three states of wakefulness, dreaming, sleeping do not affect it, Samadhi
overlaps the other three states of wakefulness, sleeping and dreaming, and is the fourth aksara, the fourth letter ‘i’. The letter ‘dhi’ implies ‘i’, in combination with ‘dha’, for dharana, which means flowing with a particular mode of awareness, God flows the world by his dharana; it is an object of his consciousness, and is subject to the flow of consciousness in dharana. Thus ‘bhargodevasya dhi’ is identified with ‘i’, because ‘i’ is the last of this word, and it overlaps the rest of it as turiya. ‘Mahi’ means the solid state whose weight, solidity and hardness are apparent, It is apparently indestructible, it is a symbol for earth, food and semen; all these meanings are contained in the letter ‘ha’. Hence ‘ha’ implies 'mahi’, the bright spherical object the earth having the oceans, the mountains, the islands, the forests is really one object implied by ‘ha’ in the cosmic form, the food and seed at the physical level.

Dhiyoyonah Pracodayat: Paramatman is an objectless entity. He is established in Sridevi, the divine consciousness that is like the surface on a still lake of the mind, and he floats like a swan on this still lake. The words dhiyoyonah pracodayat mean that may he inspire us towards the objectless intuitive perceptive state of super consciousness, in utter silence of the mind. The net impact on the mantra is that the mantra is not to be associated with any external action like active production of sound or movement of lips or tongue, or mental projections or analysis of sense perceptions, but that the mantra is being spoken by Tripura Sundari, and the aspirant as the paramatman is merely a silent spectator to the show that is put on for his benefit. From this set of syllables then, silence of perception of Brahman is indicated to be taken.

Parorajas Savadom: At the end of silence, which is not inert but full of activity (beyond raja, or beyond all activity), the pure unshadowed light called para samvit is seen in the heat, welling out of the divine consciousness. Since it stays in the heart, it is identified in the matra by the bceja hrim, meaning modesty. A modest girl covers her breasts; locating the heart centre, so heart is symbolised by hrim.

This is the vagbhavakuta revealed to God by Tripura Sundari herself in the first interpretation of Savitur devata in the Gayatra metre. It consists of five letters, representing the five states of matter. Solid state, liquid state (flow), plasma state (fire), gaseous state (air), vacuum state (space)
all these spring out of the mind, and mind springs out of objectless consciousness, of samadhi. This are the seven vyahritis of Gayarri, which are sometimes recited as part of the gayatri.

Now we shall see how the Kamaraja kuta is revealed from Gayatri. The nature of ka maraja kuta is Kamakala - the form of a woman with a circle for the head, the sun and the orbit of moon as her two breasts and fire as the yoni (harartham). 

tat = ha
savitur = sa
varenyam = ka
bhargo devasya dhi = ha
mahi = la 
dhiyoyonah prachodayat  parorajase savadom = hrim


Tat: Tat, or `that' points to perceptionless pure awareness of non-duality that is characteristic of Shiva, symbolized by `ha'.

Savitur: Shiva emits his veerya, or shows his power of divinity as a solar ord which has the Shakti,  the energy, symbolized by `sa'. This Shakti is like a glow of a pearl around it. This creative power Shakti flows from the Sun, through the space, and through the head towards the genitals to manifest as reproductive power; if it can be contained in the head or the heart centers, it will manifest as the creative fury of epic writings and other gigantic artistic expressions.

Savitur Varenyam: The central component of the sun is cool and symbolized by the moon. A cool head  is creative, while a hot head is confused.  When the sun's energy is controlled at the heart center, it becomes creative energy in the man. Creativity is the desire to know, to show, to demonstrate ; it is the potency of libido as such it is symbolized by kâma, or the letter `ka'. The word kama itself means ka = brahman, ma = touch, or the contact interaction with creative brahman. This ‘ka’ means the union of Shiva and Shakti, it is to be worshipped as such. When the utter creativity of the sun is muted with the coolness of the moon, a hamsa is born as the jeeva. Ha is Shiva, the out-going breath and sa is Shakti, the in-coming breath. Bindu between them is a result of their union, the kumbhaka, which readies the mind for concentrated attention. The bindu thus is a symbol for (i) the mixing of the male and female genital fluids (ii) the kumbhaka and (iii) the mind. The word bindu tatparam then has meanings at all these three levels. At the physical levels it refers to the creation of a new life. At the vital level, it refers to the suspension of physical activity, the prelude to perfect concentration occurring in kumbhaka. At the mental level, it refers to clearing up the lake of the mind of all surface waves, leading to the union of jeeva with Paramatman.

Similarly the words nâda and kalâ have meanings at all these three levels. Nada means sound, vibration, rhythm; the rhythm of sex, the vibration of breath,  and the sound charming into silent light as the frequency goes up in the still mind. Kalâ means orgasm, suspended breath leading to a carnival of lights of divine glory in the contact with saguna brahman). Beyond this triad of nâda, bindu and kalâ is the immensity of the wonder of wonders of nirguna brahman which one experiences in nirvikalpa samadhi only. There can be no description possible of this state, because there is none to describe it, none to know it; there not even `I' exists. Is it vacuum? Emptiness? God only knows, and you know it if and when you are God and experience it. That is all that can be said about it.

Bhargo devasya: Bhargo deva means Shiva, sya, The nature of Shiva is to be in continuous abhishekam. There is an abhisheka happening when jeeva merges into paramatman resulting in Brahmânanda. This is a cooling current from head to foot called amritha snanam which cools the 72,000 nerves in the body, clearing away all sins, accumulated karmas, and bondages.

Dhimahi: The earth, by its inactivity demonstrates the ultimate in dharana, a rock-like steadiness of thought flow. La is symbol for earth and is the most appropriate for Shiva because He has indestructible potency for creative orgasmic bliss and still holding on to the form. In the Buddhist parlance this is known as Vajra, representing the indestructibility of egoless bliss.

Dhiyoyonah prachodayat: Silence is once again alluded to.

Paro rajase savadhom: May the rock-like steady flow of awareness move up in space beyond rajas into Sattva. Pure sattva is characterictics of Vishnu. Gopis are the jeevâs, reluctantly but irresistibly drawn by the love of the Lord, dancing to the tune of the Murali of Krishna. The flute of Krishna is the Anahatha in one's own heart, if one listens to it with love, one is invariably drawn to the lord. Thus all the jeevas are women, and the Lord is the only male. When the jeeva mates with the Parmâthman, the resultant is a sexless, objectless subject called Ananda. The symbol for all this Hrim, the essential component being shyness, reluctant to express love, but needing that badly.
This is the Kâmarâja kûtâ revealed by Tripura Sundari as Lakshmi to Her Lord, Vishnu. Love universal and egoless, cosmic in dimension, is what one gets when one concentrates on the heart center. This is where one hears the call of Krishna. In female form Krishna is Lalita, to satisfy all the desires of Her devotees. The integration of jeeva with paramâtman is completed when each person realizes the bisexuality within oneself; when through experience one can express the opposite partner (kundalini) in oneself. Then, having enjoyed the highest union, one no more craves for any physical union as its ability to satisfy is so inferior; moreover it is subject to the costs of bondage.  Desires go away of their own accord, without having to suppress them; because, in a state of oneness with God there is no gap between desire and fulfillment. God is apta kama – he has obtained  all the desires.
Going now to the Shakti Kuta which symbolises the time Kala, in union with his Samhara Sakti, Kali:

Tat savitur varenyam = sa
Bharho devasya dhi = ka
Mahi = la
Dhiyoyonah pracodayat = hrim

Tat Savitur Varenyam: From the best part of creativity is created the space, from that the air, then the remaining three great elements, and the mind, and the ego, called the jeeva. The jeeva is the best part of the creative chain; it deserves the light of the sun, of union with divine at all levels. Darkness is death to it; it deserves to see light. So this refers to jeeva or chit shakti, `sa'. `Sa' is the illuminating consciousness.

Here It must be brought out once and for all the intimate relationship between life and death. Death is the hooded cobra watching the light of life between the eyebrows!

How is light seen? When a photon dies in the retina, a consciousness of light is born. If you are seeing a light continuously, know that billions of photons are dying to maintain the stream of consciousness of the light within. The pleasure one gets of seeing the light is the pleasure of watching the death of billions. That is you, the reader, as Shiva, the Lord of death.

How can life be without death? Something has to die continuously to let life come to existence. So Shiva as Kala has to die continuously so that new time can be born. Without death, there can be no life. Death is Shiva, and life is Tripura Sundari, as KAli. Little doubt then that they are forever inseparably united! The source of life is death, and the source of death is life. The reality is neither this nor that; it is both sides of the same coin! One side is called life, and the other side is called death.

Samâdhi is the union of extinction and awareness. Death is extinction; Life is awareness. In samadhi, one is switching back and forth between extinction and awareness in all the states: waking, dreaming, or sleeping. Every moment, your consciousness of the previous moment is dead and gone, and you are a new you, whether you like it or not. Samâdhi is an eternal property of Godhood. Since you are God, it is your property too.

Eros and thanotos are the life and death instincts. They derive from the same source, called the negation. Negation of life is death, and of death is life. God desires to be born; being born, He desires to die. What is born must die, what is dead must be born again. This is a law of causality. In thuth causality is nothing but a preceding relationship, a well ordeness of in time. Time is causality, time is energy, energy is life; so you seem all is one and one is all, in an endless loop of leela play.

Not only do the erotic and thanatos desire from the same cause; it is most important to know that they are both the same, identical stuff. Hence the attraction for both; the only difference is that one is conscious, the other is unconscious and supressed as fear, but the attraction of fear is
undesirable. Sex sells; so does horror.

What then distingushes whatever something is interpreted as eros or thanotos is really the state one is in. If you are dead the emotion you experience is aros; if you are living , the emotional pull is to thanotos. Here life means you are in contact with Brahman; death means you are not in contacy with it.

Now we are ready for the next letter of the mantra.

Bhargo devasya dhi: The source of cit or consciousness (the best part of creativity) is death; Siva, the great corpse when not connected with consciousness. But when is he not coupled to consciousness? If there exists a time when existence is uncoupled to consciousness, that existence might as well not be there for all one cares; because there is no one to care then. Only in the loving embrace of consciousness, existence has a meaning. Only in the loving embrace of life, death has a meaning. Thus for the divine life, Shiva is the intelligence giver. So bhargo devasya dhi is condensed to `ka', the symbol for Shiva, the nirguna Brahman.
Please note, ‘ka’ is also the symbol for Brahma; thus showing the equivalance of creative and destructive aspects of Godhood.


Creation is the creation of multiplicity through duality; destruction is the destruction of multiplicity to give rise to advaita, a non dual state. Siva, and his samhara sakti Kali, is the proper aspect for worship if one wishes to reach the state of undifferentiated advaita state.

The desire for denial of self is common to both creation and destructive aspects . Brahma and Siva. This is called Yajna, the sacrifice of self. In Yajna these two things are Sacrificed. One is desire, the other is desirelessness. Thus only does Yajna reach completeness and becomes fruitful.

Thus the concept of Yajna becomes identical to living a purposeful life of activity. Sacrificing first the desires, coming from ego, one is then asked to sacrifice desirelessness; meaning, that one should not reject or be averse to what comes one’s way - one enjoys fully, what is available, and what
has come without seeking for it. Thus springs the nishkama karma; do, and enjoy what comes. But dont get despaired if your expectations are not fulfilled, for is that also there lies divine purpose of destroying your ego structure.

Mahi: ‘ma’ is contact, with ‘h’ - siva, ‘I’ - desire to see. This means a detached desire to see and enjoy the lifv, without the notion of identification of oneself with the act. The basic desire to see is still there. It is desirable to see, no to run away from the world. Mahi is `la', the symbol representing the wonderful world, the myriad beauties of nature who is your wife, and the waves in Her ocean of consciousness, and also the procedure to remain blissful forever. The trick is to remain detached, no matter what happens. When death threatens, do not be concerned but observe this the process carefully, enjoy every moment of it. This is the higher moral law, the dharma or the property of a realized soul. He may be a thief, a rascal, a murderer, but if he is detached, he is sinless. Has not Krishna played with 16000 gopis? How come then he is not an adulterer, how come he can tell Arjuna, “I shall deliver you from all the sins?” Think deeply about this and know the truth of it.

“When you are observer”, says Krishna, “You are a witness of murder, but not a murderer, even though that it can be your hand that dealt a death blow. God has sinned, not you! Beware, don’t apply this spiritual law in a human court of law. Use it in the divine court of law. 

Dhiyoyonah Prachodayat: This implies silence, as before.

Paro Rajase Savadhom: Beyond rajas is either satva, or tamas. In the tamasic interpretation as kriya sakti, the integrating, duality, destroying - coitus of Shiva and Shakti is symbolized by third hrim. Ha' is Shiva, `Ra' is is fire, `i' is the desire to destroy all dualities, and `m' is the contact. This is hrim, the fiery contact of destruction  of dualities, the 15-th and last letter of panchodasi mantra. In Kaula mârga, all males are considered Shiva, and all females Shakti. In the knowledge of advaita, their act of voluntary choice and union both mentally and physically become pure and purifying acts. If one does not have this perfection of understanding, it brings immorality and has been criticized on this account. If one acts not out of the knowledge, but for seeking pleasure, not for the urdhvaretas but for casual enjoyment; not out of voluntary acts of testing balance of ego but using force and violence; then these very same acts become not means for upliftment but cause for downfall. Poison in controlled form can give life, but more usually, it kills. Thus there is a necessaty of Guru in liberation. A liberated man sees no distinction between any opposites including good or evil. But this does not mean he will commit evil voluntarily. As a reaction to evil forces, he may and will act evilly – that is not rulled out. But his maturity prowing out of his knowledge of Samadhi leads to yama, niyama.

If he fights, he knows that he is fighting with himself. If he wounds, he knows that he wounds himself. Because there is not object other than himself, whatever he does to himself becomes right and for the good, generally, of his cosmic self. Who wants to wound, hurt himself? To what purpose? He may commit surgery to remove some pus cells or a bad growth. But that is all!
Thus indeed did Tripua Sundari reveal the derivation and significance of pancadasi to her three consorts Brahma, Visnu, and Kala. She is Saraswati to Brahma, Lakshmi to Vishnu, and Kali to Kala. And they are not different from each other. The conversation between Siva and Parvati was rewarded by Ganapati and the Guru-parampara started that way.

From what did all these interpretations come forth? Through consciousness, the sustainer of life. Sustainance is the aspect formed by Lakshmi, the all pervasive power of Vishnu. She is called Sri, the auspicious one, sarva-mangala-karini She is the beautiful one, She is prosperity and well-being, She is enjoyable one, She gives both bhoga and moksha. If you go with desire to Her, She will blend your spiritual progress with material glitter which is imitation jewellery. She shows Herself and Her true riches to the one who is dispassionate, and approaches Her with divine oneness. When the Sri beeja is added at the end of Panchadasi, it becomes what is known as laghu shodasi. She is ever radiant and charming like a sixteen year old girl.  She mothered love God, manmatha; She is particularly pleased by the worship of manmatha by her devotees. Rati is her daughter is law; Rati has to be offered to her as worship.

Lakshmi, Tripura Sundari is an ocean of knowledge. She cannot be exhausted even if one were to write a million volumes about Her. The best thing to do is then do Her upâsana as She directs it. The best form of upasana is to seek the source of knowledge as an observer; by not running away from bondages; by not being attached to the results of actions, but by acting out of divine will. This is the triple combination of bhakti, jnana, and karma margâs.

We will conclude Tripura Sundari upâsana in Her own words:

The more you know,
the more you love,
the more you experience OM.