Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 7

Being with the joy of the mind

Yatra Yatra Manasthushtihi Manastatraiva Dharayeth

Tatra Tatra Paramanandaswaroopam Sampravartate.

*****

The mind finds joy in simple things. It can be the fragrance of the flowers. It can be the wispy clouds passing through an azure blue sky. It can be in moments of love. It can be while watching a beautiful picture or listening to one's favourite music. There are many ways that bring happiness to the mind.


Wherever the mind experiences joy on experiencing something, focus on that object, person or situation. In that place, the form of the supreme bliss manifests. It can be while seeing, hearing, touching or tasting, smelling a pleasant aroma or recalling and remembering joyous moments - there is a surge of energy within. This reveals to us the bliss within. Just be with that joy. It is nothing else but the form of the supreme joy of consciousness that manifests through even the momentary and fleeting moments of bliss of day to day life. - Swahilya Shambhavi.

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 6

Contemplating on the elements of nature

Maya Vimohini Nama Kalayah Kalanam Sthitham

Ithyadi Dharmam Tatwanam Kalayanna Prithagbhavet.

****

All forms and activities of the nature around us are a combination of the different elements - Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space - in different consistencies. This includes man, animal and tree. The different essences combine in different ways to manifest in various forms. What we call Maya or illusion is the feeling that some object is different from us and the objects are themselves different from each other and have different names and forms.
But this Tantra gives us an opportunity to meditate upon different forms of nature, dissolving the differences and becoming one with the consciousness that exists in all.
There are different kinds of human beings, thinking and acting differently. But they all breathe the same air and survive on the same water, sunlight and earth, as do the plants and animals do.
But the consciousness within, that makes one to see the different names and forms, is equally present in those names and forms too. When you feel the earth beneath your feet, meditate. When you drink a glass of water to quench your thirst, meditate. When the cool air blows gently against your face, meditate. When you see the flames of the fire that burns - meditate. When you feel the space around you that lets you go wherever you want to, meditate.
These will lead you to the eternal one that is Consciousness. - Swahilya Shambhavi.

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 5

Where there is pain, there is Shiva

Kinchidangam Vibhidyadau Teekshnasoochyadina Tataha

Tatraiva Chetanam Yuktva Bhairave Nirmala Gatihi.

******

If someone had the experience of having acupuncture needles running through the body, connected to electric impulses, then this Vignana Bhairava Tantra may have some meaning to them already! This Tantra is not entreating you to invite pain and suffering upon yourself.
But when there is a prick of a needle, there is a point in the body where it pains. Draw your attention to that spot. The pain is nothing but a pure and fresh movement in the consciousness called Bhairava. Be there and experience it in the moment.
It is not just about experiencing the physical pain. It can be an inexplicable pain in the heart too, when one experiences suffering born out of separation of a loved one, dejection, depression, sadness. When such heaviness of the heart happens, be there in that moment without comment or judgement. You experience Consciousness. The pain can liberate too. A word of caution! There is no need to wish for pain and suffering. But experiencing it when it visits is what this verse of the Vignana Bhairava Tantra conveys.


Picture: A memorial for the many children who lost their lives at the Madavamedu village off Nagapattinam coast in Tamil Nadu when the tsunami struck. The little children who died where those who were washed away while they were blissfully watching the television at home. - Swahilya Shambhavi

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 4

The Silence and the Sounds of Music

Tantryadi Vadyashabdeshu Dheergheshu Kramasamsthithe

Ananyachethah Pratyante Paravyoma Vapur Bhaveth.

****

The Universe is in the form of the cosmic sound called Nada. It is this Nada that emanates when a chord of the veena or tampura is struck. It can be a keyboard, guitar, tabla or congo drums, the sounds of birds, chirping of a squirrel or even the human voice. But when the mind follows the frequencies of the musical waves and the silence that precedes, stays along and exists after the sound subsides, then it merges into that silence and becomes the body of silence itself.
So next time you hear music, even speech sometimes can be music to the ears! know it's time to let go and just be with the sounds. The point where the sounds end and the silence begins, is the end of meditation. It is the place where the rivers merge into the ocean of bliss. The sounds begin from silence, travel in silence and fall back into the same silence.
- Swahilya Shambhavi

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 3

A steady gaze begets a steady mind

Sampradayamimam Devi Shrunu Samyagvadamyaham

Kaivalyam Jayate Sadyaha Nethrayoh Stabdhamathrayoh.

*****

When Shiva tells something to Parvathi it is nothing but the embodiment of Consciousness, imparting its qualities to the unsteady and wavering mind. By doing so, the two become one and merge into a conscious whole. So in the course of the conversation, Shiva tells Parvathy to listen fully to the tradition that he imparts in its entirety. If Shiva, the Guru of Yoga speaks of a tradition, then one can imagine how ancient this art of meditation must be!
This is a tradition of meditation, a means to dissolve into the awareness of the self. This is called Kaivalya. It is called Samadhi - Sama + Adhi : Where the intellect has merged into the Awareness. It is the same state of non-dual presence which is described as Adwaita, reaching which one attains liberation or Moksha or becomes a Jivan Mukta.
It can happen in a trice when one in total concentration is looking at the words in a book, without batting an eyelid. It can happen when one gazes steadily at a painting or the photograph of a beloved one. It can happen when one gazes with no intention, yet steadily at the lamp that lights the darkness. One gets in touch with the Self and enters into a state of Kaivalya, immediately.
In this state, one discovers the truth of being in the light of consciousness that casts its light. One can see that the fire is not created by the oil and wick when lighted. But the merging of the oil and wick, when fired by a spark, lights up as much as it can to reveal to us the already existing light in that much of space that it can show. The bigger fires like the Sun only show us the vast expanse of the presence of light in the space just around us and within.
The highest state of Samadhi arises immediately when the gaze of the eyes are fixed steadily. This gaze can be at objects without, or just the awareness within. The steadiness dissolves the mind into Consciousness. That is the end of knowing and the beginning of being.
- Swahilya Shambhavi

Vignana Bhairava Tantra - 2

Into the blue dome overhead

Akasham Vimalam Pashyan Krithva Drishtim Nirantaram

Stabdhathma Tatkshanad Devi Bhairavam Vapurapnuyat.

*****

What you see, that you become. It may not be so true of all the numerous material objects. But when it comes to letting the mind immerse into space, seeing is becoming. The thoughts and emotions can at times come crowding - almost like a wave. Following a thought and being with it will be like allowing oneself to get tossed by a wave. But it is during such moments that you can take a break to be with yourself. Look up at the wide, wide sky which has all the clouds floating on it - but it remains steady. Seeing that, the mind with its spaghetti of thoughts, simply dissolves and becomes like the sky.

In this Tantra, Shiva tells Parvathi to look into the pure space of the skies, fixing the gaze steadily. The effect is immediate as thoughts lose themselves in the vastness and dissolve just as the river loses itself into the ocean. With such a steady state of awareness, the mind expands into the body of Bhairava - Pure Consciousness.

- Swahilya Shambhavi.

Vignana Bhairava Tantra

Many ways to meditation

If there is a text to suit the ways and means of each human being in converting ordinary and extraordinary situations in life into a means for meditation - it is the Vignana Bhairava Tantra. These over a 100 ways to meditate as told by the Guru of Yoga - Lord Shiva to his consort Parvati who questioned him as Arjuna did to Krishna in the battlefield on what it takes to experience the divine awareness.

Many a situation in life - a technique from a verse in the Vignana Bhairava Tantra has come to my rescue in understanding what the masters say when they talk of the Self. I wish to share here with you - a verse a time, picked not in any particular order, but at random.

If meditation is being in that space where thoughts come and go - float like clouds in the sky, then each technique of the Vignana Bhairava Tantra is the way to be in the present moment - in the consciousness.

When you happen to be in a vast open space, where there is not a soul to even holler out to, it may be a vast desert with the sun's rays beating down, it may be the big wide sea and just yourself before it, it can be alone on the slope of a mountain or just by yourself on the terrace, staring into the dark night's sky....

Nirvriksha Giribhithyadi Deshe Drishtim Vinikshipeth

Vileene Manase Bhave Vrittih Ksheenah Prajayathe.

You may be walking past a mountain where there are no trees. You may just gaze at a big rock. Look into it fully and be there. The numerous thoughts that arise, with the support of images that you see outside will stop. The thoughts will become lesser and lesser and will disappear. Next time you happen to be alone in a wilderness, it is the place to meditate with eyes wide open.

(Pic. The lone trail to Charan Paduka, behind the crowded temple for Lord Vishnu at Badrinath in the Himalayas.)

Row Row Row

Gently Down The Stream

The journey of life
Is like going to school
Having born, we have to go through
Education is the purpose of being
Just as athe child goes to school
Life exists as we breathe in and out
Each year passes by with a promotion
And life too rolls on to the next grade of experience.
As much as the student is endowed
With intelligence and the right environment
There is success or failure
Joy or sorrow through the school
Just as dropouts stagnate
At that level of study
Life's quitters hover around
The same wavelength of experience
They have to enroll again to move on
One does not mourn the end of school days
When they have to go ahead and
Meet the challenges of the world without.
Just so with life, when death comes
It is just the last day
In the school of Earth International
A preparation for our work and life
In the Universe beyond.

- Swahilya Shambhavi

(Pic: The quiet and deep Ganga beneath the Ram Jhoola at Rishikesh.)

Zen

...in everyday life

It has been many times now. A look into the mirror has taught me so much. From Who am I, to I am That - every spiritual truth has expressed itself so beautifully when I look into the mirror.see myself in reflection.

Once I saw my face on a glass pane of a car moving ahead of me. I saw myself. But I thought at first that the face I saw was me. But then every reflection shared its space on that single glass pane - the other motorists and their vehicles, the trees, the birds that flew past, the blue sky, the sun and all it's glory. I saw myself indeed! It took just a moment before my mind expanded from 'i' to I - the little me to the big universal myself.

I realised today why tea is most celebrated in the land of Zen. Today I sat on a jute swing to spend some quiet moments with a cup of the brown liquid. Beside me, on a bookshelf was Adi Sankara's Dakshinamurthy Stotra - verses that tell that this Universe is a solid dream, just as the one we have in sleep is an amorphous transient one.

Seeing the name Dakshinamurthy took me to my being of Silence that the incarnation of Shiva is said to embody.

I sipped my tea in this thought and I discovered that the liquid was flowing through consciousness, in the space of the foodpipe connecting the mouth with the stomach. It simply travels through silence and rests there for a while. Anything eaten, drunk, spoken or done are just movements in consciousness. That I call some Zen Tea!

- Swahilya Shambhavi

Swaha...

Meditation on fire and other thoughts

Sunday seems to me for sure a day of sun, light, fire and sparks of consciousness.
Much fire has happened, too much to share but yet I shall. Waking up in the morning,

I sat up to pen down the thoughts that began to flow...

Spiritual Progress?

The garment bought in the market is good enough
The master wears it, it collects grime over time
Has to be washed, however well kept it may be
There the process begins - soaking in soap water
A time when the mind garment is dumped with company
Other mind ideas that have the power to cleanse
The cloth then is taken out, from its wet existence
Subject to a more subtler process here
Rinsing in the pure waters that wash away accumulated tendencies
That over, yet a lot remain
It has to be wrung dry of even the holy waters
The master holds the mind's cloth in his hands
Tightens his grip into the now rope-like fabric
Spins it hard and squeezes mercilessly
There is yet the influence of water
Pure though it may be
An alien impression nonetheless
There it finds its place beneath the sun
Spread out on the clothesline with many others
Exposed to the scorching rays of consciousness
Chilling out, yet giving away
The few little ideas it holds on to
Even that is not enough for a product final
There is a gruelling process of surrender
Red hot coals from the depths of the earth
Flatten and iron out the tenacious wrinkles of distortion
The cycle goes on no end
But for the Master who does it all,
There is no pain, no gain
No thing whatsoever.

- Swahilya Shambhavi


Truth

The poem is not the truth
There is a silence
A nothingness
An empty space
After all the eddying words have poured out
There my dear, is the truth
Hold on to it and dissolve
Into eternity.

- Swahilya Shambhavi

Thoughts

When you open your eyes
You see trees, cars, buildings and people
The are there out alread
They are in motion and keep changing
But they have been and will be there for sure
You close your eyes
You see images floating past
Ideas, plans, love, pain, activities
They too like objects are there
And can't be wished away
Just see objects moving about
In the vast expanse of space
The clouds of thought float around
In the skies of Consciousness
As refreshing as an airplane ride
In the sunshine above the clouds
I meditate in my heart's cave
My towering mind nestled in thought clouds
Just as Shiva sits in Silence
In the mighty Himalaya.

- Swahilya Shambhavi.

Evam Eva Jagat Sarvam Dagdham Dhyathva Vikalpataha
Anyachetasah Pumsaha Pumbhavah Paramo Bhaveth

- Vignana Bhairav Tantra

"Having meditated with an unwavering and one-pointed mind on the entire universe being burnt by the fire of time, that man becomes a godman or attains a supreme state of manhood."

Consigned to flames!

Many a time have
The thoughts of the past
Penned or unsaid
Consigned to flames
And as I look into the fire
I see my mind is gone
With all the desires
Wants or vows
Everything goes
Into the flame of time.
All that remains
Is an emptiness
No direction and no thing.

- Swahilya Shambhavi.