Mātṛkācakrasambodhaḥ मातृकाचक्रसम्बोधः (sūtra II.7 – part 2.) 

Śiva at this stage is said to be in the eunuch state as He has the imbibed feeling that due to His apprehended thought that His capacity to create may be lessened. But on the contrary, Śiva is full of knowledge and bliss and His splendour can never be lessened. His splendour can neither increase nor decrease. He is beyond changes and modifications. He now begins to feel that if He does not create now, he would be discredited. In order to establish His Supreme authority, He makes His eleventh movement. This movement of Śiva is more powerful than His previous movements. He now mixes His power of creation with His will to create thereby making His free energy to act. This movement of Śiva is represented by four letters e, ai, o, au (ए ऐ ओ औ), the highest intensity being au. These four letters mean the levels of His kriyā śakti. At this stage Śiva has all the three śakti-s, icchā, jñāna and kriyā. These three śakti-s form a triangle. Now, He chooses to energise this triangle with His first moves anuttara and ānanda and as a result of which, the triangle transforms into a hexagon. The triangle containing anuttara and ānanda unites with the triangle of three śakti-s and the hexagon is formed. This hexagon is known as ṣaṭkoṇa. From this ṣaṭkoṇa manifestation begins to unfold. The process up to this stage was represented by the first fourteen vowels, leaving only the two vowels, aṁ and aḥ (अं and अः). These two vowels are known as anusvāra (after sound, the nasal sound which is marked by a dot above the line, and which always belongs to a preceding vowel) and visarga (letting go factor, marked by a : after letter).

Anusvāra typically means a bindu or a dot. This bindu represents the true glory of Śiva, expanded in the form of the universe. The entire creation originates from this bindu and dissolves into this bindu. Bindu is nothing but the expanded nature of Self. This expansion appears as if something exists. Whatever that exist is nothing but the expanded splendour of Śiva, expressed as interactive force of both internal and external energies. Internal creative force is realised by mind and external creative force is revealed through senses. This aspect of Śiva is represented by visarga, which is nothing but the summing up of both creative and limitative dynamism. This is where the entire manifestation is let loose. The visarga is the culmination point of five energies of Śiva discussed so far. They are cit śakti, ānanda śakti, icchā śakti, jñāna śakti and kriyā śakti. In each of these energies, the other four also co-exist. These śakti-s are so called because of the predominant nature of a particular śakti. The subtlest of these five energies is cit śakti, from which the five gross elements ether, air, fire, water and earth are created. Śiva always moves from subtle to gross and gross to subtle. Therefore, at the end of all the sixteen vowels, perception begins to happen.

Perception is of two types. One is internal or subtle and another is external or gross. The internal perception arises purely from His cit śakti and external perception happens when cit śakti conjoins ānanda śakti, as a result of which five gross elements, tanmātra-s (smell, taste, form, touch and sound), karmendriya-s (organs of action), jñānendriya-s and five psychic apparatus viz. mind, intellect, ego, prakṛti (Nature) and puruṣa (the soul) arise. Thus, there are twenty five elements that originate, each representing one consonant.

Up to this point, sixteen vowels and twenty five consonants have been discussed, leading to the origination of twenty five principles. Deliberations on this sūtra will be concluded in the next posting.

(to be concluded)