In ayurvedic philosophy, the eyes are known to be alochaka pitta which means the fire that is projected outwards to convert visual information into intellect. The external world is understood and projected from the internal world itself and the eyes act as the seat of transformation, a sort of mirror that reflects the light on the inside to the outside. However, to many people, it is inculcated into them by religion that the external world is unreal and is to be transcended. It is a misunderstood view of who Mahamaya (The great Goddess that deludes) truly is. Your external world is only as real as the internal world; if you believe that the world is false or fake, then your internal world is also falsified… however, that is not true in your experience.
There’s a wonderful story of a devout Shaiva who did years of penance just to have a vision of Shiva. However, when he saw Shiva, he was annoyed that Maa Parvati was sitting right next to Him. The devotee, trying to please only Shiva, tried to walk between the two. Maa Parvati feeling rejected, sat on the lap of Her husband. The devotee annoyed once again turned into a bee and tried to circumambulate around Shiva alone. Maa Parvati, yearning for union, merged with Shiva and took the form of Ardhanarishwara (Half woman- Half God). The devotee bowed to Shakti and understood how without the presence of Her, there would be no Shiva, for She is the one that gives the vision of the form of Shiva to His devotees. This very vision is known as Shaktipat, or the descent of grace into matter. The spiritual process is essentially just clearing away the different malas (impurities) to allow for a better flow of grace. It is akin to making the mirror of the eyes shiny and transparent until one realizes that there’s no difference between the internal and external.
The three types of impurities we must begin to understand are:
Anava Mala (Anahata chakra): To feel a sense of inherent incompleteness, one often tries to feel ‘full’ or complete by hoarding external objects and achievements and yet they feel like something is missing. Devotion and complete surrender to understanding where does the lack arise from within the mind-body is where one begins to clear this mala.
Mayiya Mala (Ajna chakra): To feel a sense of separation from the external world and feel like the outside is the enemy and needs to be put down if one needs to rise. This feeling hijacks the intuitive feeling of love towards the external world and makes one disconnect from the outside and makes them anxious. Engaging in service and charity helps with this mala.
Karma Mala (Muladhara chakra): Feelings of unworthiness, limited agency and thinking of oneself as small is a strange mala to deal with. It is separate from humility for humility comes from knowing the other is the same as the self and the self is divine in nature. Feelings of unworthiness come from a place of lack and guilt one’s ego feeds off for the ego, loves to be in the state of inactivity and refuses to change. The way to clear this impurity is to have non-attachment from what one is doing in life and not expecting any kind of result.
Shiva and Shakti are known to be the eternal lovers who are constantly in the state of sexual union (kamakala – the activity that induces pleasure or desire) in all of their different forms that exist in the world. Any activity, from eating to sleeping or to meditating and defecating, induce a sense of please within us. Even when something is hurting or making us feel certain difficult emotions are actually being enjoyed by Shiva-Shakti for labels and form to a particular arising of feeling are given by the ego, the small self but for the divine, who is in constant bliss, who is whole and does not attach to the feeling itself, everything is wave of pleasure. Think about the time you wanted to and got to eat your favourite dessert, from the first desire to the satisfaction of finishing the dessert, one is consistently in the state of enjoyment. However, for the ego the enjoyment is not long lasting for it has preference. We only want the good, sexy and luscious because of our own impurities and vasanas (psychological preferences). For God, the pleasure is endless and to identify with the divine is to experience these endless waves of pleasure upon ourselves.
Shiva is essentially formless and like space exists just as He is. This is however difficult to imagine and think of for the second we try to label the experience of formlessness; we actually condense it to Shakti. When we say formlessness is bliss, that is Shakti. When we say formlessness is pure intense light, that is Shakti. The concept of sahasranama (1000 or countless names) of the divine are actually chanted as a reminder that divinity pervades all, from the deepest hellish depravity to the highest form of pure bliss. Shakti is forgetfulness and the remembrance of divinity that happens at such a speed that even Shiva looks at Her in awe and amazement. In Paramarthasara, Acharya Abhinavagupta explains how when Shiva attains a form (due to Shakti’s presence), He touches upon Himself and experiences a wave of arousal to which He does not need a release but realizes that if one form could give such pleasure, multiple forms would give Him endless pleasure and joy. To this Shiva says ‘Vishwam Bhavami’ or ‘I will become everything’. The form we are given is so beautiful and pleasurable to God that we must seek to find divinity in every experience. When Shiva forgets Himself, He becomes Shakti, when Shakti forgets Herself, She is Shiva, they’re forever united like the word and meaning.
In the Sri Yantra which is known to be the mathematically accurate body of the great Goddess, there are 4 upward pointing triangles to represent Shiva and the 4 functions of the divine (creation, sustenance, destruction and concealment) and 5 downward triangles of Shakti to represent these 4 functions and the function of the revealment of the full grace and benevolence of the divinity. Only the Goddess like a mother giving nourishing milk to the crying child gives grace to the devotee and hence She is supreme and incomparable!
The glorious Sri Yantra
'If any one has wish in their mind to pray. “You, Bhavani, my mother, please shower on me, a part of your merciful look”, even before they say, “You, Bhavani”, you my Goddess, would give to them the water, falling from the crowns of Vishnu, Rudra and Brahma, at your feet and grant them eternal life in your world'
-Ananda Lahiri, Verse 21 by Adi Shankaracharya.
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