Wednesday, April 20, 2016

USCP: Vajra Panjara Nyasam - the Diamond Cage

The whole concept of the puja is based upon successive transformations. Transformations of your physical body into a yantra, into an external astral body, into the light.Your body is called your sthula sarira. The susksma sarira is the yantra, and karana sarira is the ball of light. . You have the ability to
move through these different levels freely. The ability to do so is attained by the entire procedure which follows.

The first of these things is the identification of your body as the Sri Chakra. The Sri Chakra symbolizes the cosmos as your selfidentity. It is also the connecting link to those things which preserve the idea of your separate identity. It connects all three: your true self, the self you have assumed, and the nature of the connecting link between these two. You have to reestablish the connection between yourself and this lost identity, your real identity which is cosmic awareness.

This identification: your physical form =the physical form of the Devi, the mantra= yantra(Sri Chakra), and Guru =Siva. All these three pairs are to be merged. This sixfold identity has to be established. This is the concept of the puja. You merge all these six into one. The Guru merges into you, the Devi merges into you, the mantra merges into you and the yantra merges into you. This process of merging is called Tantra.

What are Mantra, yantra and tantra? Mantra is the sound form, yantra is the visual form and tantra is the technique which connects these two. How do we connect the mantra to the yantra?

It is usual as the part of your meditative exercise to draw first the Sri Yantra(=Sri Chakra). While you are drawing it you recite the mantra. That is how the identity between these two is established. However, drawing a Sri Yantra is complicated business, and is itself a meditation, like a Buddhist mandala. We will go into this at a later stage. And for a proper Sri Chakra puja the Sri Yantra that you draw is the one to which you do puja.

Let us look at the mapping of body parts to Sri Yantra. Now if I say that I am identical with the yantra, then I must know where all my limbs are located in the yantra. There are nine nyasas which give us this information. Nyasa means paying attention to any particular region. It can be done through touching a part of the body, or merely focussing awareness there.

In each mantra that defines step by step this identification process, there are three bijaksharas or seed letters (apart from the Aim Hrim Srim). The first of the three letters is to be placed inside of you, the second seed letter is to be placed at the connecting point of the Sri Chakra, and the third seed letter is placed in the Icon or the Devi or a living person whom you are worshipping.

1. The first mantra is Am Aam Sauh namah. Am is your feet, Aam is the square enclosure of the Sri Chakra and Sauh is the feet of the Icon/Devi/Person. "A" is negation. It is the Subject lost in Object, and does not exist separately from it. "Aa" is that intention to know itself. It is the connecting link between me and not me. And that manifests as souh the power of the kundalini which resides in the earth. The feet are contacting the earth. So you say, Am Aam Souh= I am connecting to earth at my feet(if standing) or seat (if sitting).

Let us remember that if you have done the Viraja Homam visualizations properly, you are almost floating in space, you have lost your body consciousness already, but now you have to proceed with the puja. So you have to force your consciousness to come back to the body. Therefore there is a little twist here from the normal sequence to Kara nyasa (placing powers in fingers). Now, usually in these nyasas, you start with the 1.thumb 2. forefinger 3. middle finger, 4.ring finger, 5. little finger and 6. front and back of hands.

However, in this particular nyasa with Am Aam Sauh you start with your middle finger. This is to force your attention back to your limited body identity and then to expand it back later, learning to attach and detach from body at will. This is like a musical scale of life. You reset yourself to a thunderbolt in the crown chakra, the Sahasrara, then you bring yourself down to the muladhara to become the body, and then you start moving up again. So, 1.Am madhyama bhyam namah (thumb touching middle fingers), 2. Aam anamikabhyam namah (ring fingers), 3.Souh kanisthika bhyam namah (little fingers), 4. Am angusthabhyam namah (forefingers touching thumbs), 5. Aam tarjanibhyam namah (thumbs touching forefingers), 6. Souh karatalakara prsthabhyam namah (front and back of palms). This thing looks tough, but a little demo from a guru will clear up the matters easily.

Except the am aam souh which are the seed letters, the rest of the sanskrit can be translated into your own language, whatever that is. The seed letters are the part which cannot be translated.

Then you invoke the sixteen petal lotus in the Sri Chakra with aim klim souh Maha Tripura Sundari Atmanam Raksha Raksha. This lotus represents the flow of time through the lunar calendar. Raksha = protection. It means you have to be protected every day at all times. So you say, aim klim souh through the creative, protective and phases you have to be protected.

Mahatripurasundari : maha means the great, belonging to the cosmos. If you take maha and reverse the letters, it becomes aham =I. Aham relates to the inside and maha relates to the outside of our bodies, mind and intellect. Tripura is the three citiesthe waking, dreaming and sleeping states. Sundari=the most beautiful in all these states, relating to to the cosmos. atma, the notion of the ego confined to this body, raksha, raksha -  (may Sundari) protect me, protect me throughout all the sixteen days. The sixteenpetal lotus is identified with protection.

Then you move to the eightpetal lotus where your experiences begin. You have already moved beyond the seven locas (worlds) below. You have moved into the eighth world. That is the Muladhara chakra. That is the eightpetal lotus (in the Sri Yantra).

Hrim Klim Souh. Previously we usedAim Klim Souh. Here we are saying Hrim. Hrim can exist in three different forms. The first relates to creation, the second relates to nourishment, the third relates to the annihilation. Here all the three forms are included in the Earth. You are born out of the earth; you are fed by the things that grow out of the earth; and you are reabsorbed into the earth. Hrim is your mother the earth. Klim is the nourishment, coming from Her and Souh is the reabsorption into that.

This is the nature of Hrim Klim Souh and the Muladhara Chakra. The fear comes when you think you are separate from the earth. Your nourishment , your life relies on seeking things from the earth. The earth does give you that nourishment. Your fears are associated with your separation from your mother. You have lost your connection with your mother, with the earth, and you have to reestablish your connection with the earth from which you are born.

When you say Hrim, Klim Sauh, Hrim is placed in your muladhara chakra. You must know very well these chakras where these chakras are located in your body. When the male and the female are in coitus in the drama of creation, then the glans penis touches the cervix of the female. The cervix is the muladhara chakra in the female, and in the man it is glans penis. But the ejaculation that makes creation possible is energized by the sphincter muscles in male. So the cause for the seed's emission lies in the ejaculatory sphincter muscles, (even more so in the head). That is why in the male, people generally associate the muladhara chakra with the ejaculatory sphincter muscles lying between the base of the penis and the perineum, rather than in the glans penis. Thus muladhara is in the same location for both male and female.That is why when there is a sex change operation, they take the cervix and pull it out to make it the male penis. Thus inside surface of the vagina is the same as the outside surface of the penis, and the sensations there are also identical.

The swadhisthana chakra is the base in the penis and the vulva in the female. Again they are at the same place; the sensations are also similar. Here you see Aim Klim Souh is the repeating pattern, and you are adding letters to it. "h", "s", and "r".

In the swadhisthana chakra the energization is through the fire. The fire is symbolized by lust, the drive behind procreativity, desire. That is what causes the erection of the penis in the male, the clitoris and the nipples in the female. Desire is symbolized by "Ha". The desire for the cosmic union, called the linga of Siva. "Ha" coupled with "aim, klim and souh". That is why you say Haim, Hklim, Hsouh for the swadhisthana chakra. Desire is the power called Kundalini, the desire for creativity, through an orgasmic release from the bondage to earth. It does happen in Sex, but it is short lived. That is its problem. To have a permanent release from all tensions, that is the real aspiration of Kundalini.

The swadhisthana chakra in the Sri Yantra is the fourteen-cornered figure. "H-aim" is placed inside you at your swadhisthana), "h-klim "on the fourteen-cornered figure and "h-sauh" on the Devi's swaddhisthana chakra( vulva/base of penis. This chakra can be that of a person being worshipped, or of the cosmos. (Lalita Sahasram says Devi is Bhagaradhya=worshipped in the vulva as the universal mother).The Svadhisthana chakra of the cosmos is waters: for example, lakes, rivers, oceans, rivers of life.

In the manipura chakra the sounds "ha" and "sa" are joined together. Hs-aim, hs-klim, hs-souh.
Here in the union between the Siva and Shakti, Siva is in yoga. He is not emitting the seed, and the desire is so powerful to make the linga is so erect that it becomes vertical touching the navel. That is where the seat of the fire is supposed to be. The seat of fire is the outer tencorners that relates to the individual. The inner tencorners relate to the cosmos. So Hs-aim, hs-klim, hs-souh are related to the individual. Before you go on to the cosmic figure you have to go through this link . These four centers, muladhara, swaddhisthana, manipura and anahata are known as the placement of Four Seats, Chaturasana Nyasa. To remind ourselves, nyasa means paying attention to your body. Holding the mind in a place or keeping your awareness fixed is called nyasa. The first seat is called Devi Atma Asanaya namah. Devi is residing in the muladhara chakra, and I am residing in the muladhara chakra. The second seat is the Sri Chakrasanaya namah. I am in the security center and so is Devi in the security center. When I am in the swaddhisthana chakra, Devi is in the swaddhisthana chakra. When I am looking for sensations, so is Devi looking for sensations.

The third seat is the seat of power, called Manipura Chakra. When you stand by your values with discipline andyou are prepared to sacrifice your life todo that, then you gain power and you are in the Manipura chakra. The ball of fire is located in the manipura chakra.

The fire exists as desire, lust, digestive fire, external fire, whereever you find fire. It is not just at the navel. It is there at the cooking gas flame, in the thermal power plants, in the volcanoes, in the bowels of the earth. It is all over. So in the cosmic aspect, wherever fire is found, it is part of the Manipura chakra. That is related to power.

The mantra is Sarvamantrasanaya namah -  that which brings all the mantras to you. With the mantras we say "swaha" and offer them into the fire. The seat of all the mantras is fire. This is a very interesting statement. Why is it that people have lost contact with the spiritual world today? Because they are not doing the fire rituals daily. Fire is a beautiful thing. The way it can dance, you cannot dance. It is a beautiful sight. When you are constantly looking at its dance, it invokes that dance in you, the Kundalini , the power to know beyond, in you. And that brings all the mantras to you in to your memory. That is why fire is called sarva mantra asana.

The heart center is the inner tencorners, and it is surrounded by a twelvepetal lotus. The mantra is Hrim Klim Blem Sadhya Siddha asanaya namah. Sadhya is what is to be attained. Siddha is what is attained already. This is the seat where you have partly attained and partly you have got to attain. The part you have attained already is the control over yourself. You have controlled all your passions, and you begin to be nonjudgemental, love others unconditionally,. That is the part you have attained. The part to be attained is the fulfilment in cosmicization of this unconditional love and nonjudgement. You have to attain these attributes in an unlimited sense. Thus the heart center is a mixture of attainment and attempting to attain love of all nature, good and bad included( nonjudging witness).

Now we have gone over six chakras of the Sri Chakra already. The others three are the eightcorners, the triangle and the point. They all relate to the laya, the loss of your individuality totally and your merging into the cosmos.

Merging with the cosmos begins with your expansion of consciousness beyond your body, beyond your love, beyond your attachments. That is why once you have reached the Visshudhi chakra, you will not come back. But if you are in the heart center and then you die, you are likely to return because of your attachment to the people and the good deeds that areyet to be done. However much we say we are un attached, we are attached to goodness. This is love, but it is still a bondage. You must transcend this love to get to the universal self. This is where the Vairagya (detachment) starts manifesting. When your attachment for the universal manifests, your attachment for the local becomes insignificant. This expansion process is to be attained through your understanding of the nature of Saraswati. It is through knowledge alone that we can attain to moksha. It is Saraswati who takes you over from the Visshudhi and Ajna chakras.

The eight forms of Saraswati are none other then the eight groups of the Sanskrit letters -  am - am, im - im, um - um, arum - aroom, alum - aloom, em -  aim, om - oum, ah- ahm.
In the Sri Chakra these are shortened into the unmanifest forms - a, i, u, aru, alu, e, o, ah. You can map them also into the eight groups of letters comprising of both vowels and consonants. You can also think of them as = cosmic resources for matter forming out of interacting time and space.

In the Visuddhi chakra, the seed syllables are Hrim Srim Sauh. Hrim is being looked at as Laya, annihilation now. Srim is is the eightcorners where the eight forms of Saraswati are located and Souh is the sound of a hissing snake. Kundalini power which is taking you through all these things. Once you come to visshudhi you are working with the cosmic form and your nyasa takes on different meanings, moving away from individuation to connectedness. Visuddhi chakra is called the communiccation center for this reason.

 Aim hrdayaya namah. Your hrdaya (heart) is the wind, life breath itself. Klim sirase svaha (the head) is now the outreach of space. Your brain is mapped into the cosmos. Then Sauh sikhayai vasat, sauh kavacaya hum, klim netratrayaya vausat, aim astraya phat. Really all these things are untranslatable. (which means I don't know yet their meanings!)

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