Siva Sutras - The Supreme Awakening

[jonesboy]

Original thread here:

I am starting this thread to share and discuss the 'Siva Sutras - The Supreme Awakening by Swami Lakshmanjoo'. Go through the sutras sequentially and share what I found interesting.



Here is the link to the text for anyone that is interested:

https://ia801902.us.archive.org/30/i...akshmanJoo/The Siva Sutras The Supreme Awakening - Swami Lakshman Joo.pdf

Sutras are a form of short cryptic aphorisms that are part of the Hindu scriptures from the Vedic times. Since there was no paper or any form of writing in the ancient days, those who authored these sutras wanted to keep them very short, cryptic and at the same time convey the entire meaning that they wanted to convey. Since they are cryptic, a direct word by word translation may not be helpful with these. A commentary by someone who knows understands and experienced what is stated in the sutras are essential. This is where Swami Lakshamjoo's commentary on these sutras help us understand and appreciate these sutras.

[jonesboy]

Brief Introduction for Kashmir Shaivism from the text:

"Kashmir Saivism is a system of philosophy known as the Trika system. The Sanskrit word trika means "threefold." In Kashmir Saivism, trika is used to refer to the threefold signs of humankind and their world. These three signs are Siva, Sakti and the bound individual (nara), and the three energies of Siva. These three energies are para Sakti, supreme energy; parapara sakti, medium energy; and apara sakti, inferior energy."







The 3 Paths or Upayas:

Kashmir Shaivism provides 3 paths or upayas to attain the moksha or realization. They are as follows.



Sambhavopaya - By the grace of the Master/Guru or by the divine, the aspirant attains the God consciousness in a flash. No methods, practices, meditation, etc. This is the first and the highest means of the 3 methods.
Saktopaya - This method is described as the liberation through means of shakti or energy. The practice of Kundalini may fall under this.
Anavopaya - Liberation through ego or through the individual effort (by mind). This upaya is considered inferior because it uses mental and physical practices for advancement. The meditation, yoga, practicing ahimsa, etc. will fall under this category.


The key thing to note is these steps are not sequential. An aspirant does not need to start at the bottom and climb their way up. The highest method is advocated for every aspirant and if it does not work, then they can proceed to the next one below.



This text the Siva Sutras is also divided into three parts corresponding to the 3 upayas as described below in the text.



"The Siva Sutras are divided into three parts. According to Ksemaraja, the three parts correspond to the three means 5 Introduction (upayas) for the attainment of liberation (moksa), as revealed by Kashmir Saivism. The three upayas for traveling from individual limited consciousness to universal God consciousness are sambhavopaya, saktopaya and anavopaya. The first and highest means is called sambavopaya. The second means, for aspirants of medium qualifications, is called Saktopaya. The third means, called anavopaya, is regarded as inferior. Abhinavagupta, drawing from the Malinivijaya Tantra, defines Sambavopaya as the upaya wherein the aspirant achieves entry (samavesa) into supreme consciousness just by the grace of his master, without adopting any process. He does not use thought (dhyana), mantra, or any other aid to meditation. Saktopaya is defined as the upaya where the aspirant achieves mystical entry (samavesa) through contemplation of the mental object that cannot be spoken or recited. Anavopaya is defined as the upaya where mystical entry takes place through concentration on parts of the body (sthana-prakalpana), contemplation (dhyana), recitation (varna), taking the support of the breath (uccara), and mantras."

[jonesboy]

First Awakening



The Story of how Shiva Sutras were initially revealed to Vasavagupta:

"Some time before in the valley of Kashmir, at the foot of Sri Mahadeva Mountain, there lived a great devotee of Lord Siva named Vasugupta. He was absolutely unique and purified by the grace of Lord Siva. Filled with devotion, Vasugupta did not accept the theory and teachings of Buddhist philosophers. Having purified his heart by the teachings of siddhas and yoginis, he was determined in meditating on Lord Siva.



After some time, Lord Siva, having decided to elevate the great master Vasugupta by filling him with true knowledge, appeared in a dream. In this dream, he told Vasugupta that at the foot of Mahadeva Mountain, there is a great boulder and under this boulder are inscribed his sacred verses (sutras). He then directed him to find these sutras and to practice their teaching. "If you do this," he said, "you will discover the truth of the reality of God consciousness."



Vasugupta awoke from his dream and set off in search of the great rock. Eventually, he found the rock just where Lord Siva said it would be, at the foot of Mahadeva Mountain. As soon as he touched it, it turned over and there, on the underside, he found the engraved sutras described by Lord Siva.



He was awestruck and filled with joy. He began intense study and reflection on these sutras. He read them thoroughly and exhaustively, concentrating and meditating upon each one, seeking to grasp its true and hidden meaning. Through this profound study and reflection, he gained the understanding and knowledge the sutras contained. He then began to share the theory and secrets of these sutra s with his chief disciples, Bhattakallata and others. Simultaneously, he revealed the sutras in a book called Spanda Karika. Ksemaraja further clarified these spanda verses in his work entitled Spanda Nirnaya.



Now the Siva Sutras will be explained."

[jonesboy]

The First Sutra:



Without further ado, let's jump into the actual sutras.



The first sutra is one of my favorite. It describes everything there is to be described in this one short phrase, like in a flash. In my view the entire Siva Sutras is contained in this one sutra. It is deep.



"The first sutra of the Siva Sutras explains that the reality of the universe is the real self. This self is not false. This is contrary to the theories of those philosophers who argue that the individual being is always individual being and universal being is always universal being. For these philosophers, universal being will never be united with individual being and individual being will never be united with universal being. This first sutra, on the other hand, states that individual being is one with universal being. The reality of this whole universe is God consciousness. It is filled with God consciousness."



1. caitanyamatma

The independent state of supreme consciousness is the reality of everything.

[jonesboy]

Here are some comments on the first sutra that I found interesting and insightful from the text.

(Note: These paragraphs are taken from different parts of the commentary for the first sutra)

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"The independent state of consciousness is the self. It is the self of everything, because whatever exists in the world is the state of Lord Siva. So Lord Siva is found everywhere."

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"Now, if all individual beings are filled with consciousness, then where is the difference in these beings? There can be no difference. So, all individual beings are one universal being."

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"Ksemaraja talks about those aspirants who are on the path, who meditate day and night, and do not achieve anything. He says these aspirants are the same as ignorant people. This is not the real state of Siva. The real state of Siva is full realization. When full realization takes place, that is the fullness - the reality - of independent God consciousness. Until then, nothing has happened. Aspirants who practice day and night and do not achieve anything are just like ignorant worldly persons bound up in samsara. The reality of the self only exists when you are filled with the independent state of supreme God consciousness (caitanya). Until then, everything is useless and worthless.



So, there are not individual states of being, there is only the universal state of being, and that is one. This is why, in the very first verse, the author has explained that God consciousness is one in many."

--------------------------------



"The independent state of God consciousness is also found in the individual states of body (Sarira), breath (prana), intellect (buddhi) and void (Sunya). In the body, he is above the body. In breath, he is above the breath. In intellect, he is the super intellect. In voidness, he is full. In nothingness, he is everything. This is the reality of universal I (aham)."



---------------------------------



"The Vijnana Bhairava says the same thing.



In each and every being exists the independent state of God consciousness. You must find this state of God consciousness. To accomplish this, concentrate on the totality of individuality, the state of universal consciousness. If this is done, you will conquer the differentiated state of world and will be carried above the individuality of consciousness. (Vijnana Bhairava 100)"



---------------------------------



"Ksemaraja now gives another exposition of this first sutra. He says that, in the verse, the word atma means "form." Thus the meaning is: "This supreme independent state of God consciousness (caitanya) is the form." But the author has not revealed whose form. He simply says that this supreme independent state of God consciousness is form. If it is not said whose form it is, you must conclude that this is the form of everything. So, the independent supreme state of God consciousness is the form of everything. It is the form of the nose, it is the form of the eye, it is the form of the face, it is the form of the arm, it is the form of the limbs. And even more than that: It is the form of an animal, such as a sheep; it is the form of a tree; it is the form of everything in this world."

[jonesboy]

I think the term Kula really helps with this. From the Triadic Heart of Siva.



As the Embodied Cosmos that emerges from Siva, the kula is the

grand and complex structure of lived reality.



If Siva is the absolute totality, kula is a term that can be applied to

any emergent manifestation from that totality. Kula seems to be applied

on a sliding scale from the largest unit of manifestation to the smallest.



Even as Siva creates the very real game of

breaking himself into parts which suffer transformation, division, extinction

and emptiness, he is nevertheless able to maintain himself free of the game

and intact as Siva, all the while taking on the roles required by the game.



In the inconceivable enormity of Siva's game, any self-contained

unit - for example, our universe - may be termed a kula. The unit is

self-sufficient precisely because it is a part that is structured out of wholeness.

Since the kula's essential reality is finally that wholeness which it

has bodied forth, every unit, or kula, resonates in identity with every

other structure composed of that wholeness. It is in this way that the

human body, as a kula, resonates in identity with the entire universe.



Wherever Siva is present, the

whole is present. If the body is a structure composed essentially of Siva,

then all that is manifested from Siva, including the entire array of universes,

may be found present in the body.

[jonesboy]

From the first sutra commentary, there is a discussion about the existence of ignorance that I found interesting and wanted to share before moving on to the second sutra. The conclusion: Ignorance was really non-fullness of knowledge. Yet this non-fullness of knowledge results in getting caught up with the entire worldly experience.





Does ignorance exist before realization?



"Let us examine the theory of the malas, the veils of ignorance. Where does this ignorance exist? How can we say that ignorance exists? If ignorance is removed from God consciousness, it does not exist at all. So where does it exist? If ignorance is filled with the independent state of God consciousness, then it is not ignorance at all, but fullness of God consciousness. So ignorance cannot be found. Then what is it that remains? What is left? There is only independent supreme God consciousness - which is the reality of the self.



What if, for the time being, we were to say that the veil of ignorance exists before you are realized, and that afterwards, when you are realized, it does not exist? Then, if ignorance does not exist after realization, it is the truth that it did not exist at all. Why? Because at the time of realization, the aspirant realizes and knows that ignorance does not exist at all. So that ignorance never exists. Whatever he called ignorance existed, but it was not actually ignorance; it was really non-fullness of knowledge."

[jonesboy]

Sutra 1.2



2. jnanam bandhah



Knowing differentiatedly is bondage and not knowing undifferentiatedly is bondage.





Though the sutra reads as 'jnanam bandhah', generally sutras are chanted, read and written one after the next continuously. When such combining happens, the Sanskrit language grammatical (sandhi - joining) rules apply and they change the word and meaning at times. In this case, the first sutra ends with atma (caitanyamatma) with the 'a'. This joins with the word jnanam in the second sutra and makes it ajnanam bandhah.



So, when read or chanted separately, it is jnanam bandhah, and with the first sutra it becomes ajnanam bandhah.



Jnanam = Knowing (roughly translated in this case, it is hard to translate jnana word to word jnana directly to English)

Ajnanam = Not knowing or the opposite of Jnanam.





There are two ways the sutra can therefore be interpreted.



Knowing differentiated is bondage
Not knowing undifferentiated is bondage


The two interpretations of the sutra may sound contradictory. The question then becomes knowing what is bondage and not knowing what is bondage. The author explains beautifully in the commentary as follows.



"What knowledge is bondage? Differentiated knowledge. What not knowing is bondage? Not knowing your own undifferentiated self. So knowing individual consciousness as one's own nature and not knowing universal consciousness as one's own nature, are both bondage. In the path of Saivism, there is nothing that exists or that does not exist that is separated from citprakasa, the conscious self. Impurity (mala), therefore, also does not exist. So how can impurity (mala) come between you and the conscious self, creating obstacles and bondage? It cannot. Then what is impurity (malap. Impurity is not dirt, impurity is ignorance.)"



Essentially it boils down to this. The first sutra talked about the universal God consciousness that is essentially everything. Not knowing this undifferentiated universal consciousness as one's nature and seeing the world as multitudes only leads to bondage. A limitation as the result of the Maya tattva (principle) that makes us get caught up in this samsara and take countless births. Knowing everything in a differentiated state as multitudes and not seeing the one universal consciousness (essentially means the same) leads to bondage.

[jonesboy]

Some of the commentary for the 2nd sutra that I found insightful from the text. I have added the bolded topics to provide context to the text added from different parts of the commentary.



Cause of Samsara - what binds us in the wheel of repeated births and deaths?



"We are told this in the Malini Vijaya Tantra:



Impurity (mala) is the ignorance (ajnana) of undifferentiated nature and the knowledge of differentiated nature. That ignorance is the cause of the sprout of samsara. (Malini Vijaya Tantra)



It is also said in the Sarvacara Tantra:



Because of this ignorance, you are filled with differentiated, not undifferentiated, knowledge and you become bound in the wheel of repeated births and deaths. This happens in innumerable ways. (Sarvacara Tantra)"





What causes the maya (illusion) of limitation?



"This contraction or limitation is caused by Paramesvara's great illusive energy. This is the great force of illusion that has risen by the power of his freedom. By this energy of his freedom, he conceals his nature and reveals this limitation in his own self just for play, not in trying to satisfy some deficiency or for pleasure.



The self is only a vacuum full of consciousness (akasakalpi). And within that vacuum, that contraction or limitation, are found the states from Anasrita Siva to limited jiva. The demonstration of limitation is bondage. The contraction is in the form of not knowing. It is ignorance, but ignorance of what? Ignorance of the oneness of Siva. The sign of bondage is the feeling that you are incomplete (apurnammanyata)."



What is anavamala? (anava-mala -> the first of the 3 impurities)



"The sign of bondage is the feeling that you are incomplete (apurnammanyata). You agree that you are incomplete, that you are not full. That is the impurity (mala) known as anavamala. It is shrunken knowledge and it is ignorance. Why? It is shrunken knowledge because it is knowledge of the differentiated world and it is ignorance because it is ignorance of the undifferentiated state. When you do not know your undifferentiated state, that is ajnana (ignorance), and when you know your differentiated state, that is also limited jnana (knowledge). Jnana is bondage and ajnana is also bondage."

[jonesboy]

Before moving on to the third sutra, it is essential to have a basic understanding of the three impurities (malas) that are basic part of the KS philosophy. These impurities are the building blocks of the Maya tattva/principle which veils and creates the limitation of separated individual entities.



Here is a brief chapter about the three impurities from 'The Secret Supreme - Swami Lakshmanjoo'.

The Three Impurities

Malas



In our Śaiva system, there are three malas or impurities. These malas reside in māyā. They do not reside in svātantrya śakti. Even though svātantrya śakti and māyā are one, yet they are different in the sense that svātantrya śakti is that state of energy which can produce the power of going down and coming up again, both at will, whereas māyā will only give you the strength of going down and not the ability of rising up again. Once you have come down, you can not move up again. This is the reality of the state of māyā. It binds you.



Māyā śakti is that universal energy which is owned by the individual being, the individual soul. And when that same universal energy is owned by the universal being, it is called svātantrya śakti. Svātantrya śakti is pure universal energy. Impure universal energy is māyā. It is only the formation that changes through a difference of vision. When you experience svātantrya śakti in a crooked way, it becomes māyā śakti for you. And when you realize that same māyā śakti in Reality, then that māyā śakti becomes svātantrya śakti for you. Therefore, svātantrya śakti and māyā śakti are actually only one and the three impurities (malas), which are to be explained here, reside in māyā śakti, not in svātantrya śakti.



The three impurities (malas) are gross (sthūla), subtle (sūkṣma), and subtlest (para). The gross impurity is called kārmamala. It is connected with actions. It is that impurity which inserts impressions such as those which are expressed in the statements, “I am happy, I am not well, I have pain, I am a great man, I am really lucky”, in the consciousness of the individual being. This impurity of action (kārmamala) is śubhāśubhavāsanā, the impressions of pleasure and pain. And these impressions of pleasure and pain actually remain in your individual consciousness.



The next impurity is called māyīyamala. This impurity creates differentiation in one’s own consciousness. It is the impurity of ignorance (avidyā), the subtle impurity. The thoughts, “This house is mine, that house is not mine; This man is my friend, that man is my enemy; She is my wife, she is not my wife,” are all created by māyīyamala. Māyīyamala creates duality. Māyīyamala is bhinnavedyaprathā, the feeling that I and others are different. You feel that what you have is different from what others have, that some things are yours and other things are not yours. This is the impurity which makes Lord Śiva appear as many rather than as one.



The third impurity is called āṇavamala. It is the subtlest impurity. Āṇavamala is the particular internal impurity of the individual. Although he reaches the nearest state of the consciousness of Śiva, he has no ability to catch hold of that state. That inability is the creation of āṇavamala. For example, if you are conscious of your own nature and then that consciousness fades away and fades away quickly, this fading is caused by āṇavamala.



Āṇavamala is apūrṇatā, non-fullness. It is the feeling of being incomplete. Due to this impurity, you feel incomplete in every way. Because of this feeling, you create abhilāṣā, the desire for completion. As you feel that you are not complete, you desire to become complete. For example, if I have the desire for some particular thing, then it means that I feel that I do not have this thing. This feeling, that you do not have this thing, is caused by āṇavamala.

Though you feel incomplete, knowing that there is some lack in you, yet you do not know what this lack really is. You want to hold everything, and yet no matter what you hold, you do not fill your sense of lacking, your gap. You cannot fill this lacking unless the Master points it out to you and then carries you to that point.



Of these three impurities, āṇavamala and māyīyamala are not in action; they are only in perception, in experience. It is kārmamala which is in action.

You can read more about malas in other texts of Kashmir Shaivism here…