Shiva and Shakti

(by Mark Dyczkowski)

As do the Tantras that are their original source and inspiration, all Kashmiri Śaiva traditions speak of God as an inconnumerable and perfect Identity between two contrasted principles, distinguishable in all composite things, but coincident without composition in the One Who is everything. Encompassed by the vision of Śiva’s all-embracing consciousness, all contrasts and contradictions are resolved in the harmony of opposites. This unity is the Wholeness of the All in which the opposites are transfigured into a divine polarity, each member of which fully represents the absolute through its inherent identity with its opposite counterpart.

In the Hindu tradition this primal opposition and its reconciliation in the unity of opposites is understood as the intimate, inner relationship between God and His omnipotent power. God is the formless and transcendent unity Who as, and through, His power manifests diversity. God and His creation are not two contrasting realities. Intimately bound together as heat is with fire or coolness with ice, Śakti—God’s power, and Śiva—its possessor, are never separate. Even so, if we are to understand their relationship we must provisionally distinguish between them in the realms of manifestation. First, we have the finite vision in which they are seen apart and then the infinite vision in which we realise their unity. Without the experience of duality that of unity would have no meaning. Unity is not mere negation of distinction, but the absence of difference in diversity. The realisation of unity (tādātmya) consists of the insight that apparently different things are identical.

As expressions of this polarity, the Doctrine of Vibration focuses on the continuity and change which characterize every experience. Accordingly, Ksemarāja represents the primordial couple as Śankara and His Spanda energy. Spanda is the immanent, actively emergent aspect, while Śañkara, although ‘one with the Spanda principle and never otherwise’,  is the pure, unchanging experiencer Who represents the element of continuity—the passive, quiescent aspect of consciousness. In the Trikakula school the latter is called Bhairava and the former His emission (visarga):

“Bhairava and His power of emission,” explains Abhinava, “constitute the couple (yāmala). One member (Bhairava) rests in His own eternal, unchanging nature, and is therefore called ‘repose’ (viśrama). [anuttaravisargātma viśramevayāyamalaṁ] The other is His primordial vibration (prathamaspanda) and is therefore called ‘emergence’ (udaya).” [Paryantapañcāśikā 30]

The opposites separate and merge in rhythm with the pulsing union of Śiva and Śakti. This play of opposites is itself the absolute, the supreme form of Spanda. [yo'nuttaraḥ paraḥ spando yaścānandaḥ samucchalan -Tantraloka 3.93b] When Śiva and Śakti unite, the universe, formerly experienced as a reality set apart from consciousness, ceases to exist. When they separate, it is once more created. The eternal rhythm of cosmic creation and destruction is consonant with the pulse of their union and separation. Spanda is the blissful relationship between these two aspects through which the universe unfolds.[yāmalam prasaram sarvam] The emission of cosmic manifestation (visarga) pours out between these two poles. It is the result of their conjunction, just as through the bliss of orgasm (visarga) the male and female seeds mingle, and man—the microcosm—is born. The yogi who witnesses this union experiences the birth of a higher level of consciousness within himself. He recognises the all-powerful pulsation of his consciousness as it moves between Śañkara’s transcendental bliss and the radiant emission of His immanent power within Himself. One fixed and the other moving, these two poles are like firesticks that, rubbing together, generate within Śañkara His pure Spanda energy. In the bliss of self-realisation, the yogi experiences this as the simultaneous unfolding of cosmic consciousness and the pure undifferentiated consciousness of the absolute. He experiences them together as the universal vibration of the supreme subject beyond all contradictions and distinctions. Abhinava instructs:

śrayed-vikāsa-saṅkoca-rūḍha-bhairava-yāmalām |
ekīkṛta-mahāmūla-śūla-vaisargike hṛdi || 60
parasminneti viśrāntiṃ sarvāpūraṇayogataḥ |

"Just as a female ass or mare [in orgasm], enters into the [delight of her own] Abode, the Temple of Bliss repeatedly expanding and contracting and is overjoyed in her own heart, so [the yogi] must establish himself in the Bhairava couple, expanding and contracting, full of all things, dissolved and created by them again and again [Tantraloka 5.60-1a]

Jayaratha explains that the contraction of Śakti marks the withdrawal of the universe and the expansion of transcendental Śiva- consciousness. Conversely, the contraction of Śiva-consciousness marks the expansion of Śakti as the cosmos. The yogi attains the supreme state of consciousness by experiencing the pulsing rhythm of this divine couple (yāmalabhāva) through which he realises that the absolute is at once both Śiva and Śakti and yet neither of the two:

kramatāratamyayogātsaiva hi saṃvidvisargasaṅghaṭṭaḥ |
taddhruvadhāmānuttaramubhayātmakajagadudārasānandam
no śāntaṃ nāpyuditaṃ śāntoditasūtikāraṇaṃ paraṃ kaulam |

The couple (yāmala) is consciousness itself, the unifying emission and the stable abode. It is the absolute, the noble cosmic bliss consisting of both [Śiva and Śakti]. It is the supreme secret of Kula [the ultimate reality]; neither quiescent nor emergent, it is the flowing fount of both quiescence and emergence. [Tantraloka 29.116-7b]:

Both Śañkara and His Spanda energy have two aspects. Śañkara is Spandaśakti, the active aspect, as well as being Śañkara, the passive aspect. Equally, Spanda is Śañkara, the passive aspect, as well as being Spanda, the active aspect:

anavacchinnaṃ dhāma praviśedvaisargikaṃ subhagaḥ |
śāntoditātmakaṃ dvayamatha yugapadudeti śaktiśaktimatoḥ || 29-119 ||

rūpamuditaṃ parasparadhāmagataṃ śāntamātmagatameva |
ubhayamapi vastutaḥ kila yāmalamiti tathoditaṃ śāntam || 29-120 ||

“These two aspects, passive (śānta) and active (udita),” explains Abhinava, “arise at the same time in the power and its possessor. The active passes from one domain to the other, the passive is confined within the Self [the essential nature of both]. But even so, in reality, each of them form a couple (yāmala). Hence the emergent is the quiescent.” [Tantraloka 29.119-20]

Despite the one aspect being the other, Spandaśakti is still the active aspect and the cause of creation:

śaktistadvaducitāṃ sṛṣṭiṃ puṣṇāti no tadvān |
śāntoditātmakobhayarūpaparāmarśasāmyayoge'pi ||

"Even though the awareness proper to these two aspects, passive and active, pertains to them equally, nonetheless it is power, not its possessor, that nurtures His emission (visarga). "

Maheśvarānanda explains the manner in which we can perceive Śiva and Śakti as a gestalt. It is like a picture of a bull and an elephant drawn together in such a way that we see either one or the other depending on the way in which we view it. There is a movement (spanda) of awareness from one to the other as Śiva becomes Śakti and Śakti becomes Śiva. They are reflected within one another like two mirrors facing each other. Exchanging roles repeatedly, they penetrate each other in the intimacy of their union. In this way consciousness contemplates itself as both Siva and Śakti simultaneously. In other words, the moment in which it is aware of itself as transcending all things, it is also aware of its immanence. These two moments of transcendence and immanence imply one another while remaining distinct.

The Play of Passion and its Power (Kāmakalāvilāsa), a text of the Śākta Śrīvidyā tradition explains the dynamics of this process in some detail. Siva and Śakti are represented in this work as the universal subject and His cosmic object. Their infinite nature is symbolized by two transdimensional points of absolute consciousness (bindu). Siva is represented by a white point (śuklabindu) and Śakti by a red point (śonitabindu): both expand and contract. ‘White Śiva’ penetrates ‘Red Śakti’. This results in the creation of the universe and Śiva’s transformation into Śakti and Śakti’s transformation into Siva. Śiva becomes ‘Red Śiva’ and acts as the supreme reality and transcendental ground of ‘White Śakti’—the manifest universe. Then ‘Red Śiva’ penetrates into ‘White Śakti’ and ‘White Śiva’ withdraws from ‘Red Śakti’. This phase of their pulsation marks the moment of transcendence and the withdrawal of the universe. ‘White Śakti’ is retransformed into ‘White Śiva’ and ‘Red Śiva’ into ‘Red Śakti’. Śakti then merges in Śiva as the introverted awareness He has of Himself as pure transcendental ‘I’ consciousness. They thus exchange roles. When one comes to the fore and becomes manifestly apparent, the other recedes into the background as the unmanifest, inner nature of the other. The two moments of transcendence and immanence, Śiva and Śakti, thus imply one another.

The two points make up the two aspects of Visarga—the last member of the vowel series, written in Sanskrit as ‘:’and pronounced "h" This is the form (svarūpa) of Kāmeśvari —the Mistress of Passion Who is the power of reflective awareness (vimarśaśakti) through which the absolute unfolds and withdraws its cosmic form. She is called ‘Kalā’—the ‘Divine Power’ of consciousness manifest as the incessant transformation or Spanda of Śiva and Śakti. When Śiva and Śakti, the two aspects of the pure vibration of consciousness, are understood as one reality, their symbol is a single dot (pronounced ‘m’) called a ‘mixed point’ (miśra-bindu). It represents both the integral unity of the absolute and the fertile potential of consciousness which, like a seed, is swollen (ucchūna) ready to germinate into cosmic manifestation. This ‘mixed point’ is the seed of consciousness known as the ‘Sun of Knowledge’. It is Kāmeśvara—the Lord of Passion. He is the Self worshipped by yogis as the highest reality and the form or body (pinda) of the absolute symbolized as the sexual embrace of Śiva and Śakti, the Divine Husband and Wife. He is called ‘Passion’ (kāma) because His state is sought and desired (kāmyate) by great yogis.

Śiva is symbolized in the mystic alphabet by the first letter—‘A’— which stands for the absolute. Śakti is represented by 'H' the last letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, which symbolises the ongoing emanation (prasara) of the universe. Each letter of the alphabet stands for an aspect or phase in the cycle of cosmic manifestation and withdrawal. ‘A’ and ‘H’, Śiva and Śakti, the two ends of the cycle, are united by their ‘Passion’ (kāma) in the totality of ‘Aham’ (‘I’ consciousness). This pure ‘I’ is the universal vibration of consciousness which embraces the universe in its nature. It is Kāmakalā sometimes called the ‘Supreme Power’, and at other times the Supreme Śiva. The identity and distinction between them is thus reiterated in different ways at higher and lower levels of consciousness in more or less comprehensive terms.

Despite their essential identity, the Śaivite stresses Śiva’s superiority over Śakti and the Śākta that of His power. Thus, although all schools of Kashmiri Śaivism are essentially Śaivite, some tend to emphasise the importance of one or the other. The Spanda school, however, maintains that power and the power-holder are equally important. Śañkara is the source of power and so is, in this respect, superior to the Goddess Who is its embodiment. On the other hand, this power is the means by which we can discover our authentic identity to be Śiva—the power-holder. The flow of the supreme power is Śañkara’s path. Herein lies Spanda’s importance; while Śañkara is the goal (upeya), Spanda is the means (upāya). We must recognise the activity of Spandaśakti in every moment of our lives. By knowing the divine energy which creates and animates the world, we know ourselves to be its possessor. Only through Spanda’s power can we realise our identity with Śiva. But it alone is not enough; power without a power-holder to regulate its activity is blind and potentially destructive.

Śañkara

The Spanda yogi experiences the absolute in intimately personal terms as an infinite and perfect divine Being. Although not an object of thought, and hence, Nameless (nirnāma), this divine reality is present in all named things. It is the Nameless Whose name is All-Names. It is man who gives It a name to aid in his quest for enlightenment and endear it to his own heart. As a male deity Vasugupta and Kallata call Him Śañkara, Śiva, Vlreśa and Bhairava. His commentators add to this list common synonyms of Śiva such as Maheśvara, Parameśvara, Iśa, Śambhu, etc.. Of all these names for Śiva, ‘Sankara’ is the one preferred by the teachers of the Spanda tradition. Intent solely on gracing man in every way, Śañkara is so-called because He bestows the best of things (śam). Like the Wishfulfilling Gem, He gives man all he desires. As Abhinava says:

parameśvaratālābhe hi samastāḥ saṃpadaḥ  tanniḥṣyandamayyaḥ saṃpannā eva, rohaṇa lābhe ratnasaṃpada iva | pramuṣitasvātmaparamārthasya hi kim anyena labdhena

Once one has achieved the Supreme Lord’s state (pārameśvaratā) all the good things that came from it are automatically attained just as all the jewels [in the world] are acquired by acquiring Rohana, the Mountain of Gems. Other achievements are vain if one has missed the supreme reality, the Self. But once one has attained this reality (paramārtha), there is nothing left one could desire. [Iśvarapratyabhijñāvimarśinī I ]

Through Sankara’s grace man overcomes all the limitations that contract his consciousness and he comes to recognise that it fills the entire universe. Encompassing all things in itself it is blissfully at rest. Ksemarāja says: "We praise Śañkara Who is one’s own nature. He bestows the grace to recognise the total expansion of one’s own consciousness which is the non-duality of Supreme Bliss wherein all troubles cease."

Śañkara bestows both the peace of liberation from suffering (apavarga), and the delight (bhoga) of recognising all things to be nothing but Śañkara Himself. Man achieves liberation (moksa) and becomes tranquil through Śañkara’s gracious withdrawal (nimesa) of the binding activity of Māyā. Through the concomitant expansion (unmesa) of his consciousness, he enjoys divine bliss (bhoga) in countless forms, even while delighting in the world. Ksemarāja quotes Utpaladeva as saying:

duḥkhāny api sukhāyante viṣam apy amṛtāyate |
mokṣāyate ca saṁsāro yatra mārgaḥ sa śaṅkaraḥ || Siva-stotravali 20.12

“This is Śañkara’s Path wherein pain becomes pleasure, poison turns to nectar and samsāra becomes liberation.”

As the innate nature (svabhāva) common to all (sāmānya) phenomena none equal Śañkara nor are like Him (nihsāmānya). He is the supreme good realised at the ‘summit of all summits’. None is greater than He along the scale of Being and so can only be discovered at the very peak of man’s spiritual endeavour:

vairāgyasya gatiṃ gurvīṃ
jñānasya paramāṃ śriyam |
naiḥspṛhyasya parāṃ koṭiṃ
bibhratāṃ tvaṃ prabho prabhuḥ || 73 ||

O Lord, those who have achieved the supreme path (gati) of renunciation, the supreme wealth of knowledge and the supreme summit of desirelessness, bear You, the Lord, [always before them] [Stavacintāmaṇi 73]

The gods who rule ever the worlds pale before Śiva’s glory; they are like mere bubbles in the vast ocean of His consciousness. The many powerful gods, including Visnu and Brahmā, reside within the sphere of Māyā and owe their divine status to a mere spark of Śiva’s power. Arranged in order of precedence, the gods are like flowers in bloom on the creeper of Śiva’s power. They all aspire to attain Śiva’s abode and race along the garland-like ladder of yogic practice (karma) in their attempt to reach it. Again, while they have fixed forms, Śañkara appears to us in whatever form we worship him, like a Wishfulfilling Gem which appears in any form we wish it to assume. Śiva, the source of all the powers, becomes manifest through them and is worshipped in various ways, according to the form we conceive Him to have. Yet, as Bhatta Nārāyana says: 

citraṃ yaccitradṛṣṭo'pi
manorathagato'pi vā |
paramārthaphalaṃ nātha
paripūrṇaṃ prayacchasi || 96 ||

O Lord, even though You are seen and desired in various ways, You bestow the wonderful (citra) fruit of Supreme Reality in its entirety!

The names and forms of God may vary but ultimately all the forms in which the Deity may appear, or names that it may assume, are expressions of the radiant pulsation of man’s own consciousness (svātmasamvit-sphurana). Ultimately the most authentic form of God and the object of worship is the Self. Maheśvarānanda asks [In Maharthamanjari]: “Abandoning their own consciousness, what lifeless [object] should they worship?" Again: "Those Who meditate on other deities abandoning attention to their own nature [although] possessing great wealth, go begging. And even when they have begged [their food, still remain] hungry".

In reality, both the worshipper and the worshipped, the bound and the released, are Śiva:

 asmadrūpasamāviṣṭaḥ svātmanātmanivāraṇe |
 śivaḥ karotu nijayā namaḥ śaktyā tatātmane || 


May Śiva Who has penetrated and become one with me, worship Himself thus by means of His own power that He may Himself reveal His own nature! [Sivadristi 1.1]

The basis of Śañkara’s divinity is His Spanda nature. Spanda converts the cold, impersonal absolute of monistic Vedānta into Śañkara, the warm, worshipful absolute of Kashmiri Śaivism. An impersonal absolute is unsatisfactory on metaphysical grounds, and fails to satisfy man’s deepest need for devotion and grace. Ksemarāja quotes Bhatta Nāyaka as saying: 

napuṃsakamidaṃ nātha paraṃ brahma phaletkiyat |
tvatpauruṣī niyoktrī cenna syāttvadbhaktisundarī ||

O Lord, how fruitful can this neuter Brahman be without the beautiful female of Your devotion which makes of You a person?

Through its divine power the Self assumes the form of a deity man can contemplate and venerate, even though Śiva, the pure subject, can never in fact be an object of meditation (adhyeya). Until we realise our true identity with Śañkara, He is worshipped and conceived to be a reality alien to ourselves. While we are in the realm of creation, He too is a creation or mode or appearing of the absolute, manifest to us in meditation, through His freedom as an eternal, omniscient being. There is no gulf between the created and the uncreated creator:

pūrṇasya vedyatā yuktā parasparavirodhataḥ |
tathā vedyasvabhāve'pi vastuto na śivātmatām || 10-120 ||

"Nothing in reality, although an object of knowledge, ceases to be Śiva: this is the reason why meditation [on this or that aspect] of reality bestows its fruit." [Tantraloka 10.120]

The world of the senses and mind appears to the Well Awakened (suprabuddha) as a theophany, an eternal revealing of God in His creation. The Doctrine of Vibration declares that “there is no state in word, meaning or thought, either at the beginning, middle or end, that is not Śiva.” To utter any word is, in reality, to intone a sacred formula. [kathā japah - Sivasutra 3.27] Every act is a part of Śiva’s eternal cosmic liturgy, every movement of the body a ritual gesture (mudrā), and every thought, God’s thought.

kaḥ panthā yena na prāpyaḥ
kā ca vāṅnocyase yayā |
kiṃ dhyānaṃ yena na dhyeyaḥ
kiṃ vā kiṃ nāsi yatprabho || 22 ||

By what path are You not attainable? What words do not speak of You? In which meditation are You not an object of contemplation? What indeed are You not, O Lord? [Stavacintāmaṇi 73]

Spandaśakti, which accounts for the appearing of all things, is also the means by which Deity in its many varied forms appears to man. Ksemarāja concludes: "The ultimate object of worship of any theistic school differs not from the Spanda principle. The diversity of meditation is due solely to the absolute freedom of Spanda"

Śañkara is not only the supreme object of devotion; as the static polarity of the absolute, He is the inner reality which holds together its outer manifestations. Phenomena are patterns of cognitions projected onto the surface of self-luminous Śiva-consciousness. There they become apparent, directly revealed to consciousness according to their manifest form. Śiva is accordingly symbolized as the ground or surface of awareness, smooth and even like a screen (samabhittitalopama). Inscribed on this screen (kudya) are the countless manifest forms which appear within it rendering it as diverse and beautiful as a fossil ammonite (śālagrāma). Śiva is the sacred ground upon which the cosmic mandala is drawn, the absolute surface of inscription which bears the mark (cihna) of the universe. Abhinava writes:
 
The variety of this world can only be manifest if the Highest Lord, Who is essentially the pure light of consciousness, exists; just as a surface is necessary for a picture. If external objects were perceived in isolation then, because ‘blue’ and ‘yellow’, etc., are self-confined and the perceptions [we have of them] refer to their objects alone and so are insentient, mute and dumb in relation to one another... how would it be possible to be aware that an object is variegated? But just as depths and elevations can be represented by lines on a smooth wall, and we perceive [a female figure and think], ‘she has a deep navel and upraised breasts’, similarly it is possible to be aware of differences in the variegated (contents of experience) only if all the diverse perceptions are connected together on the one wall of the universal light of consciousness [comm. on Iswara-pratyabhijna 2.3.15]

Śiva is the perfect artist Who, without need of canvas or brush, paints the world pictures. The instant He imagines it, it appears spontaneously, perfect in every respect. The colours He uses are the varying shades and gradations of His own Spanda energy and the medium His own consciousness. The universe is coloured with the dye of its own nature (svabhāva) by the power of Śiva’s consciousness (citi). Rājānaka Rāma says:

likhate jagattritayacitramadbhutapratibhāparisphuritaśaṃsi te namaḥ |
susitaikasūkṣmanijaśaktivartikāracitāvabhāsaśataśobhi śaṃbhave ||

"Homage to Him Who paints the picture of the Three Worlds, thereby displaying in full evidence His amazing genius (pratibhā); to Śambhu Who is beautiful with the hundreds of appearances laid out by the brush of His own unique, subtle and pure energy."

Analogously, at the microcosmic level, all the cognitions and emotions, etc., which make up the individual personality form the outward flow of essentially introverted consciousness. They are specific pulsations (viśesaspanda) or aspects of the universal pulsation (sāmānyaspanda) of pure consciousness. At the lower level, within the domain of Māyā, they represent the play in the fettered soul of the three primary qualities (gunas) or Teeling-tones’ which permeate to varying degrees his daily experience. These are: 1) Sattva—the quality of goodness and luminosity which accompanies blissful experience both aesthetic and spiritual. 2) Rajas— the passion or agitation which oscillates between the extremes of ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ and characterises inherently painful experiences. 3) Tamas—the torpor and delusion which accompany states of inertia and ignorance. The liberated soul recognises that these three are the natural and uncreated powers of pure consciousness. For him they are manifest respectively as: 1) Śañkara’s power of knowledge (jñāna)—the light of consciousness (prakāśa); 2) the power of action (kriyā)—the reflective awareness of consciousness (vimarśa); 3) the power of Māyā— which does not mean here the world of diversity, but the initial subtle distinction which appears between subject and object in pure consciousness.

On the lower level, the power of awareness (citiśakti) is disturbed from its self-absorption and begins to generate thought forms (vikalpa) within itself. Consciousness devolves and becomes the thinking mind (citta). Śañkara assumes the form of a human personality (māyā- pramātri) residing in a world of limitations and diversity. His consciousness is extroverted and generates out of itself a subtle body (puryasfaka) consisting of the three components of the inner organ of mentation (antahkarana3 and the five subtle essences (tanmātra) of taste, touch, smell, sound and sight. Residing in this subtle body, consciousness transmigrates from one physical organism to the next and is seemingly affected by Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. The higher stage represents a state of introversion when the subtle body, with its transient emotions and cognitions, is withdrawn into ‘I’ consciousness and dissolves away. Śañkara is both these aspects simultaneously. Ksemarāja criticises the Mīmāmsaka who believes that the Self is pure being alone, only accidentally associated with transient perception. He explains that this is true only of the functions of the subtle body (puryastaka) when experienced as independent of consciousness. According to the Doctrine of Vibration, the momentary, transient nature of the object, whether mental or physical, does not affect the eternal stability of Śañkara, the Self. The Fully Awakened (suprabuddha) recognises this truth, while the unenlightened are always caught in the outward flow of events. The Fully Awakened yogi identifies himself with Śañkara, the universal (sāmānya) Spanda nature, and experiences the universal flow of consciousness in all the opposites. The unenlightened, however, who wrongly identifies himself with the body, is caught by his fascination for the individual pulses of emanation, dispersed and separated from each other by the tension of the opposites.

"Thus, these particular pulsations are to be totally avoided; they are present in the body, etc., which is other than the Self and arise by mistaking [the body, etc,] for the Self. [The particular pulsations of consciousness] are the fields of sensory operation (visayā) of the phenomenal (māyiya) subject. Each is distinct from the others as ongoing fluxes (pravāha) of perceptions (pratyaya) of the type (guna) 'i am happy’ or i am sad’, which are the causes of transmigratory existence". [Spanda-karika-vivritti p.64]

However, these perceptions can in no way ‘be an obstacle for the enlightened’.78 Right and wrong, pleasure and pain, merge and all distinctions disappear in the universal vibration of Śiva’s consciousness. Thus we read in the Stanzas on Vibration [Spanda Karika 19-20]:

guṇādispandaniḥṣyandāḥ sāmānyaspandasaṃśrayāt |
labdhātmalābhāḥ satatam syurjñasyāparipanthinaḥ ||

aprabuddhadhiyastvete svasthitisthaganodyatāḥ |
pātayanti duruttāre ghore saṃsāravartmani ||

"The streams of the pulsation (spanda) of the qualities and the other [principles] are grounded in the universal vibration [of consciousness] and so attain to being; therefore they can never obstruct the enlightened. Yet for those whose intuition slumbers [these vibrations of consciousness] tend to disrupt their own state of being (svasthiti) casting them down onto the terrible path of transmigration so hard to cross"

The universal vibration of consciousness understood as Śiva’s perfect egoity is contrasted with the fettered soul’s conceived notion of himself as the body. The latter’s ego is a thought-construct (pratyaya) and hence limited and artificial. It consists of particular pulsations of consciousness. Śañkara’s ego consciousness, on the contrary, is complete and integral (pūrna). Reflecting on Himself, He is aware that “I am pure consciousness and bliss; I am infinite and absolutely free.” Immersed in this contemplative state (turīya), Śiva delights in the awareness “the universe in all its diverse aspects arises out of Me, it rests within Me and once it disappears, nothing remains [apart from Me].”[Tantraloka 3.287] Thus, this self-awareness is the universal Spanda of consciousness.
Rājānaka Rāma explains that the alert yogi in the course of his meditative practice gains an insight, by Śiva’s grace, into the manner in which the particular pulsations (viśesaspanda) of his consciousness arise with their consequent effects. He constantly exerts himself to experience the pure universal vibration of his authentic ‘I’ consciousness and so free himself of the disturbing influence (ksobha) the pulsations have on him. He is always on the alert to discern universal Spanda. Thus reflecting on his own nature as the pure awareness that T am’ (aham), he distinguishes between the particular and generic vibration of consciousness. While the unawakened is constantly subject to the ups and downs of these individual pulses of consciousness, the awakened, on the contrary, turns even more resolutely to his true nature whenever he observes their activity within himself. Thus, for him, they serve as a means to liberation.

Śañkara is the ground of both the particular and universal aspect of Spanda. Through the discrimination (viveka) born of the intuition (pratibhā) of the universal pulsation of ‘I-ness', contemplative souls discover Him to be their own pure subjectivity (upalabdhrtā) which, as the source of all the individual pulsations of consciousness, is their ultimate reality (paramārtha) beyond all subject-object distinctions. Reality cannot be discovered if we think of it as a ‘something’ of which we are ignorant but may come to know through practice. Reality is an experience—the experience of the fully enlightened.

The Nature of Śakti

Inherent in Śiva is His infinite power. Essentially one with Him, His power represents the freedom of His absolute nature from the limitations of the finite, and the freedom to assume the form of the finite while abiding as the infinite. Freedom from limitations implies the capacity to become manifest in countless diverse forms. Ultimately, it is Śiva’s freedom alone which unfolds everywhere as all things. The universe exists by virtue of His power which is at once the universe itself and the energy which brings it into being. Thus Abhinava says [Iswara-pratyabhijna-vimarshini 1.5.15]:

"The Lord is free. His freedom expresses itself in various ways. It reduces multiplicity into unity by inwardly uniting it and of one it makes many. ... He is therefore described as the knowing and acting subject, perfectly free in all His activities and all-powerful; this [freedom] alone is the essential nature of consciousness"

This freedom is also the inherent nature of the Self—man’s authentic identity. Perceiving nothing but itself in all things, the Self requires no external aid in order to manifest itself in the sphere of objectivity. The ego, confined to the physical body and fashioned by the thought-constructs generated by a form of consciousness whose focus of attention is (apparently) outside itself, is not free. It is a ‘non-self’dependent on outer objectivity. However, even in this condition destitute of power (śakti’ daridra) the fettered, individualised ego-consciousness partakes of the autonomy of the pure conscious Self. One’s own authentic nature (svabhāva) is independent of objectivity and so must necessarily objectivise itself for the world to become manifest without impinging on its freedom.

Thus the perfect autonomy of the Self is also its universal creativity. Absolute independence implies more than a transcendental, autonomous state of aloofness. It requires that this autonomy be creative. This is the freedom which is Śiva’s power to do ‘that which is most difficult’ (atidurghatakāritva). His capacity to accomplish that which would be logically impossible (virodhate) in the domain of the empirical (māyā), governed by the principles of natural law (niyati). In order for Śiva to manifest as the diverse universe, He must deny His infinite nature and appear as finite entities and “what could be more difficult than to negate the light of consciousness just when it is shining in full?” Thus, negation or limitation is a power of the absolute. Śakti is the principle of negation through which Śiva conceals His own undivided nature and becomes diverse.
As the source of diversity, Śakti is the absolute’s creative power of Māyā. Due to Māyāśakti, an initial contrast emerges within universal consciousness between the conscious (cit—subject) and the unconscious (acit—object). This split goes on to develop into the innumerable secondary distinctions which obtain between specific particulars. The one power made manifest in this way appears to be diverse due to the diverse forms of awareness the subject has of the many names and forms of the object. There is no object or event that does not disclose the presence of Śakti. “The universe,” says the Śivasūtra, “is the aggregate of [Śiva’s] powers.”[śvaśaktipracayo'sya viśvam - 3.30] Each power is a means, channel or outlet (mukha) through which Śiva, though formless (anaipśa) and uncreated, becomes manifest in a particular form. The very Being (sattā) of an entity consists essentially of its capacity to function (arthakriyā) within the economy of consciousness. All things are endowed with Śakti in the form of their causal or pragmatic efficacy (kāranasāmārthya). It is on the basis of an entity’s causal efficacy that we say that it is what it is and not anything else. Thus, there are innumerable powers in every object. Although these powers cannot be known directly, they are inferred from their effects.

Change is the coming to prominence of one power at the expense of another. When a jar, for example, comes into being, the pragmatic efficacy of the clay ball is superseded by that of the clay jar. In this way the abiding fullness (pūrnatā) of the one universal power, in a sense, alters as one aspect ‘expands’ and comes to the fore, while another ‘contracts’ or recedes into the background. Śakti is, in this sense, in a state of perpetual pulsation (spanda), expanding and contracting, assuming now this, now that form. Thus, this one power appears to be many due to the diverse results of its activity. [phalabhedād aropitabhedah padārthātmā śakti]  Although reality is one, it performs many functions. Various aspects of the one universal potency appear in each individual entity as its specific functions and so the ignorant wrongly assume them to be divided from one another.  The enlightened, however, discover the universe to be power and thus undivided and at one with Śiva, their authentic nature as the possessor of power.

Thus, Śakti is both immanent when actively giving rise to its effects, and transcendent when considered to be the source of its many powers. Spanda is both the universal vibration of energy (sāmānyaspanda) and its particular pulsations (viśesaspandā). Every power is like a pane of coloured glass through which the light of the absolute shines and assumes the form of the sparkling variegations of the manifest universe. The principal forms of power can be classified into three basic categories according to the sphere in which they operate, namely:

1) The Sphere of Śiva-Consciousness. The powers here include: a) Siva’s Divine Attributes. These divine attributes are five: omnipresence, eternality, freedom of will, omniscience and omnipotence. They correspond to Śiva’s powers of consciousness, bliss, will, knowledge and action.
b) Śiva’s Cosmic Functions. These cosmic functions are also five and are implemented by Śiva’s five powers to create, maintain, destroy, conceal Himself and grace by revealing Himself.
c) Śivas Creative Energies. The principal creative power in the sphere of manifestation is Śiva’s power of Māyā, which is an aspect of His power of action. Other aspects of His power of action are Nirmānaśakti, the power to fashion particular entities out of His own undifferentiated consciousness, and Kālaśakti, the power of time through which Śiva creates the temporal order and hence the universe of change and becoming.

2) The Sphere of Cognitive Consciousness. The preceding sphere can be said to have two aspects—inner and outer. The former corresponds to Śiva’s divine attributes and the latter to His cosmic functions and creative energies. Similarly, at this level, the inner aspect is mental in which operate the power of cognition and memory along with the power to differentiate individual perceptions. The outer aspect corresponds to the powers of the senses.

3) The Sphere of Individualised Consciousness. In the individualised consciousness sphere the power of consciousness operates through the individual subjects and objects it engenders. The inner aspect corresponds to the many experiencing subjects, all of which are forms of the power of self-awareness. In addition, we have the waking and other states which, as modalities of consciousness, are also powers. Again, there are the forces which help to elevate the soul and develop his consciousness to a more expanded state as well as those that, on the contrary, restrict it. To the outer aspect of individualised consciousness corresponds external objectivity, which includes the categories of existence, worlds and cosmic forces that bind them into a coherent whole. Belonging to all three spheres both in their inner and outer aspects is the power of speech. At the highest level it is the pure awareness Siva has of His own nature. In the lower spheres it is the silent inner speech of thought as well as the manifest articulate speech of daily life. Thus, Śakti manifests as everything that can be denoted by speech as well as every form of speech.

Para, Parapara, Apara

These three spheres correspond to three aspects of Śakti: Supreme (Para), Middling (Parāparā) and Lower (Aparā). Worshipped as three goddesses in the Trika school, this Triad is one of the most essentially defining features of this form of Śaivism and its earlier prototypes in the Āgamas. Ksemarāja sees in this Triad aspects or phases of Spanda. Accordingly, we turn now to a brief description of these three important energies.

The Supreme Power (Para śakti). This energy operates on the Supreme Summit of Being (parakāsthā). There consciousness reflects upon itself as the universal ego (pūrnāhantā), which is the ultimate ground of all things and abode of rest, where everything is one and beyond all relative distinctions. Knowledge and action, unsullied by their objects, abide here as Light and awareness. At this level, awareness (vimarśa) includes the Light of consciousness (prakāśa) and they are one. Consciousness and its content merge like water in the sea or a flame in fire. We can distinguish between two aspects of this energy corresponding to two aspects of the supreme state: The first aspect is the supreme power unsullied by the products of its activity. This is the pure freedom of consciousness. It is the pure intention (icchāmātrā) through which the absolute affirms its absolute Being unconditioned by the cosmic Totality generated by it. As such, it is the primordial vibration (ādyaspanda) of consciousness free of all restrictions on its activity. It generates and contains within itself the innumerable Benevolent (aghora) powers of consciousness that bestow the fruits of realisation to the enlightened yogi. ii) The purely transcendental state of the first aspect turns to immanence when this will is disturbed and aroused out of its quiescent state. The emanation of Totality dawns on the horizon of consciousness as its potential goal and the will to existence spontaneously presents itself as the exertive force that actuates it. It now acts as the Lordship (īśikā) of consciousness which governs the universe held within it. For the awakened yogi it operates as the actuality of a conscious exertion to make the oneness of the absolute apparent. Thus it sets into operation all its Benevolent (aghora) powers to guide the yogi’s way along the path to realisation.

The Middling Power (Parāparā śakti). The Intermediate level is that of unity-in-difference, between the lower level of the awareness of division (bhedadrsti) and that of unity (abhedadrsti) at the summit of consciousness. Here the universe is experienced within consciousness as one with it while maintaining itself distinct from it, like a reflection in a mirror. The form awareness assumes here is ‘I [am] this [universe]’ (ahamidam). Subject and object are equal in status; they are distinct but not divided and experienced as the two aspects of awareness, namely, knowledge and action.
This level is the point of contact between the absolute and its manifestations. It is the sphere of relatedness. Practical life is based on the relationship between immanence and transcendence and that between the elements of diversity. Thus the energy which operates at this level is also the basis of all empirically definable experience. By the power of awareness in this intermediate state we can make contact with the undivided unity of pure consciousness while we are on the level of diversity. However, the power of awareness operating here can also generate the Fierce (ghorā) energies of consciousness that block the path to liberation by engendering attachment to the fruits of action, whether good or bad. If through this power the yogi realises the oneness of consciousness and its manifestations, he is elevated, but if he fails to do so, this same power throws him down. Thus the Intermediate power plays a dual role by illumining both the ‘Pure Path’ to liberation and the ‘Impure Path’ of bondage. This ambiguity reflects the paradoxical nature of the absolute’s knowledge of the universe it has willed into existence, as either one with it or separate from it. From the point of view of the absolute these two are complementary modes of experience, but from the point of view of the relative, knowledge of difference is binding, while knowledge of unity is liberating.

The Inferior Power (Aparā śakti). This energy operates in the Root (mula) of consciousness where objectivity predominates, and the inner awareness (Jñāna) of the Self takes second place to outer activity. This is the level of diversity where the beauty of the world picture, charming with its many details, is fully displayed: The lower (aparā) level corresponds to the extension of relative distinctions (bheda) which, like a [fine crop] of tender sprouts, are born of the potency of the Supreme Lord’s contemplation (vimarśa) of His transcendental Light. It is the illusion of daily life (vibhrama) embossed with this cosmic multiplicity, pleasantly various like a work of art.

Limitations which the Sun of consciousness imposes on itself shroud it like dark storm clouds. Subjective awareness (ahamvimarśa) contracts, conditioned by the body in which it has taken up residence and perceives particulars (both individual subjects and objects) as cut off from one another and from itself. Even so, the awareness it has of its own nature abides as the Lower power, pulsing and brilliant like a streak of lightning.  For those ignorant of its true nature this power operates as Māyā and generates the ‘Extremely Fierce’ (ghoratara) energies of consciousness that lay hold of the soul and throw him down to its lower levels. However, to one who experiences the infinite consciousness of his own nature and Māyā as its eternal freedom, it bestows both yogic power (siddhi) and liberation (mukti).

The Stanzas on Vibration explain [Spanda Karika 48]:

seyaṃ kriyātmikā śaktiḥ śivasya paśuvartinī |
bandhayitrī svamārgasthā jñātā siddhyupadādikā ||

This, Śiva’s power of action, is binding when residing in the fettered soul (paśuvartinī); [but], when [its true nature] is understood and it is set on its own path it bestows success in Yoga (siddhi).

According to the Doctrine of Vibration, the soul is liberated  by recognising that ‘the whole universe is the result of the activity of the [Spanda] principle.’ Conversely, by being ignorant of this he is bound. Failing to contemplate his own Spanda nature, its activity functions as this Lower power and engenders gross action. This breaks up the unity of his consciousness, splitting up and obscuring it by the tension between the contrasting responses to what he seeks to acquire (upādeya) or give up (heya). The universal act of self-awareness (pūrnāhantā) assumes the form of a ‘drop of egoity’ (ahantāviprut) which animates the gross and subtle body. In this way Aparā śakti pervades the vital forces (jīvakalā) operating in the body. Once the ignorance of Māyā has been overcome, the yogi recognises his oneness with Śiva by the  power of his own self-awareness (svasamvedana). He ascends to the plane of the Well Awakened and, having achieved all that is to be achieved (krtakrtya), attains both the supreme perfection (siddhi) of the realisation of his own Lordship and the lower perfections (aparasiddhi) of all the yogic powers (vibhūti) that accompany it. He recognises that even his lower embodied awareness is Parā, the Supreme Goddess Who contemplates the pure non-dual consciousness which is the innate nature of all things, and the Light of the Supreme Lord. Pervading Śiva, this power pervades the universe. The yogi thus experiences Śiva-consciousness and cosmic consciousness simultaneously and this power is then said to be ‘set on its own Path’. In other words, it resides in one’s own Śiva- nature, on the plane of absolute unity (atyantābhedadaśā) where awareness no longer moves to any other object (visayā). The Lower is then one with the Supreme power through which all things are experienced in their true universal (sāmānya) nature as pure consciousness.

The harmonious union (sāmarasya) of these three planes are Bhairava’s supreme glory, the radiance of the fullness of His power (pūrnaśakti)which fills the entire universe. Together, this triad constitutes the Deity’s universal experience (bhogya). By sharing in it the yogi comes to realise the unsullied bliss of the absolute (anuttaraananda), the supreme form of Spanda.