Five Powers of Siva: Sadasiva in the Agama Scriptures

A Rarely Explored Form of Siva Reveals the Saivite Hindu Understanding of Divinity and Cosmology

The Vedas decree that god created the world, and it is true, he did; but that is a simplistic rendering of a mind-bogglingly complex event. It would be like saying a child grows from two microscopic cells. It is true. But looking deeper, both processes are exquisitely magical and complex beyond belief. The growth of two cells into a human being of 100 trillion cells is a process capable of bringing tens of thousands of scientists to their knees. Imagine, then, comprehending the evolution of the entire universe, from God and of God, filled with 100 trillion galaxies. But understanding God's acts of creation, preservation, dissolution, concealment and revelation is exactly what the ancient Hindu seers undertook, aided, they would say, by the Agamas, sacred texts composed by God Himself. With more than a little trepidation, we undertake to bring forth a summary of what they teach of God and His powers. We were taxed to do this, and we have no doubt the reader will be similarly challenged to comprehend it all, though we hope our several charts will provide an overview of some textual complexities. Still, this central and profound part of ancient India's understanding of our cosmos and our innermost being is well worth the effort. It will give the Hindu priest enhanced insight into the deeper meanings of the temple puja. It will give the advanced meditator new ways to explore the subtle dimensions, the superconscious mind of God within. It will give theologians grist for their philosophical and cosmological mills. It will likely give everyone else a headache.

Introduction

The Five Powers of Siva

By Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Lord Siva is commonly thought of as the god of destruction, one Divinity among a divine trinity, along with Brahma, Lord of Creation, and Vishnu, Lord of Preservation. This theological perspective, especially espoused in Smarta Hinduism, is based in the Puranas, Hindu folk narratives containing ethical and cosmological teachings

about Gods, man and the world. But other denominations, including Saiva Hinduism, which is based on the Saiva Agamas, hold a different view. In these revealed scriptures the three great cosmic actions are all performed by God Siva. In addition to creation, preservation and destruction, Siva performs two more actions which relate specifically to the soul. With the fourth, called obscuration, He veils Himself from us, the embodied souls, purposefully limiting our awareness, keeping us ensconced in the world--oblivious to our true nature, our past and future lives and karmas--thus allowing us to evolve. This beguiling force is called veiling or concealing grace, tirodhana shakti. With His fifth action or power, called revelation, anugraha shakti, Lord Siva frees us from the illusion of separateness from Him, granting us realization of our true identity. The Raurava Agama proclaims: "The birth of the world, its maintenance, its destruction, the soul's obscuration and liberation are the five acts of His dance."

Siva Nataraja, Lord of Dance, a well-known murti (worshipful icon), clearly depicts these five actions. Creation, or emanation (srishti), is represented by His upper right hand holding the drum upon which He beats Paranada, the Primal Sound, from which issue forth the rhythms and cycles of creation. Preservation (sthiti) is represented by His lower right hand, held in the gesture of blessing, abhaya mudra, indicating "fear not." Destruction (samhara), dissolution or absorption, is symbolized by the fire in His upper left hand, held in ardha-chandra mudra, "half-moon gesture." Obscuring grace (tirodhana), the power which hides the truth from souls, thereby permitting experience, growth and eventual fulfillment of destiny, is represented by His right foot upon the prostrate person, apasmarapurusha, who symbolizes the principle of ignorance, or anava. Revealing grace (anugraha), which grants knowledge and severs the soul's bonds, is symbolized by Siva's raised left foot, and by His lower left hand, held in gajahasta or "elephant trunk" mudra, inviting approach.

Little known to the general public, but quite well known to the Saivite priesthood, is another form of God Siva performing these five actions. This form of Siva has five faces and is called Sadasiva. In Sanskrit the five faces are referred to as Panchabrahma, meaning "five great Lords." The term Brahma in this context does not refer to the four-faced creator God (Brahma). A description of Panchabrahma is given in the Ajita Agama (20, 158-164a) in the form of instructions to temple priests:

"After thus constructing mentally the throne of Siva, holding a handful of flowers, with steady mind and controlled senses, one should meditate on Siva's body sitting in the

lotus posture, shining with the color of pure crystal, endowed with five heads, serene, with smiling faces, having the brilliance of ten million suns, of new full-blown youth, with ten arms, brightened by a crest of tawny tresses rolled upwards, each face having three radiant eyes, or shaktis, with the crescent moon of wisdom in His hair, the cause of all causes, His right hands holding the no-fear posture, a trident, an axe, a sword and a thunderbolt, His left hands holding a noose, a serpent, an elephant goad, fire and a bell, all fit for a supreme sovereign, endowed with every auspicious mark, adorned with ample ornaments, in radiant raiments, attractive, having beautiful garlands and an ointment of sandalwood paste."

In his commentary on Mrigendra Agama, Aghorasivacharya (12th century) is careful to point out that while we speak of Siva with five faces and many limbs, He does not actually possess these features. This visualization in only for the sake of meditation and adoration.

In Saiva Siddhanta philosophy, Lord Siva, God, is All and in all, and is understood in three modes: formless (nishkala), formed-formless (sakala-nishkala), and formed (sakala). In the formless mode, Siva is Absolute Reality, Parasiva; in the formed-formless mode, Siva is Pure Consciousness, Parashakti; in the formed mode, Siva is Personal Lord, Parameshvara. Siva is represented in the main shrine of nearly all Siva temples as the Sivalinga. This aniconic murti represents the formed-formless aspect of God. Metaphysically, the Absolute Reality, Parasiva, which is formless, comes to be known as Sadasiva when He presents Himself in the Sivalinga. Sadasiva means eternally pure and auspicious. In temple ceremonies (puja) based on the Saiva Agamas, it is this five-fold form of Siva that is being worshiped in the Sivalinga. To show this, some temples include in their decorations a metal covering over the Linga with four faces engraved in it. The fifth face, Ishana, may be shown on the top, but is most commonly omitted. Some Sivalingas have the faces carved into the Linga itself. The Ishana face looks upward and is of pure crystal color. Tatpurusha faces east and is gold in color. Aghora faces south and is blue-black in color. Vamadeva is turned northward and is saffron in color. Sadyojata looks west and is white in color. In some temples, Panchabrahma is also represented by five distinct murtis displayed in a prominent place, such as on the outside of the main tower above the sanctum.

In the Ajita Agama, Sadasiva is said to be formed-formless because His body is made up of five mantras. In Sanskrit, this etheric vessel is termed vidyadeha or "knowledge body." The five mantras, known collectively as the Panchabrahma

Samhita Mantra, are: Ishana Murdha, Tatpurusha Vaktra, Aghora Hridaya, Vamadeva Guhya and Sadyojata Murta. At the subtle level at which Sadasiva exists, there is still not a definite body in form, only the seeds or potentialities of sound, color and knowledge.

In his introduction to the Ajita Agama, Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat, offers insight into Sadasiva in Saiva Siddhanta: "Saivism is a religion of one God, the supreme Siva (Parasiva). Numerous entities are around Him. They are His creations and consequently His subjects with definite functions. They participate of His own essence in different degrees. The major ones among them are said to be engendered by Him or to be outward manifestations of Himself. We use the word hypostasis, or "sub-state," to refer to the concept of emanation of a subsidiary entity from the Supreme, as it expresses in the most general way the idea of existence separated from the essence without altering the unity of the latter.... The reason given for the fact of hypostasis of the Supreme God is the necessity of communication. The Supreme is characterized as inaccessible to senses, speech and mind. That would render worship impossible. The Supreme makes Himself accessible through accessible hypostases. In the Saiva religion, the main hypostasis is Sadasiva; and Saiva worship is precisely the worship of Sadasiva. The communication with the entity comes through five Brahma mantras, which are formulas of homage to five entities: Ishana, Tatpurusha, Aghorasiva, Vamadeva and Sadyojata. Communion is realized through the mental image of five heads, bearing the same names and placed, respectively, at the zenith, in the east, south, north and west. The basic action of the worshiper is meditation (dhyana) on these five heads. Meditation and bodily actions need a point of fixation (dharana), a material support and target. This is the Linga, a name given in the Ajita Agama only in its sense of 'sign.'"

Editor's Note: The term Parasiva, used by Bodhinatha above to mean Absolute Reality, carries the additional meaning of Siva as Mahadeva in the main text.

The Story of Creation

The process of gradual manifestation of the Primal and Uncaused Light

By Sabharathnam Sivacharyar

From the Saiva Agama scriptures, we gain a profoundly detailed explanation of the process by which the universe unfolds. The following is a lucid summary of such discussions in the Kamika Agama, Vatula Agama, Raurava Agama and Kalottara Agama.

Siva, in His fullness, is supreme consciousness with the effulgence of trillions and trillions of suns. Should that intensity be directly manifested, the worlds would be incinerated, and thus there exists a gradual descent of His presence, leading indirectly to Karma Sadakhya, the form worshiped as the Sivalinga.

Siva assumes innumerable forms in order to regulate the movement of the worlds and to liberate embodied souls. Some of these divine forms are momentary, such as those seen in visions by devotees, saints and sages; and others are eternal, such as Dakshinamurti and Siva as vanquisher of demons. Temporary and eternal forms of Siva all arise from the Sivalinga enshrined in Siva temples. Thus, the Shilpa Shastras categorically call the Sivalinga the primal image (mula bimba). The greatness and significance of Sivalinga can be understood only by understanding the order in which these transcendental manifestations are taking place.

Cosmic Creation

Lord Siva, existing in His blinding self-effulgence and love, creates countless souls, an act that is likened to sparks issuing from a blazing fire. Initially souls are incorporeal and enshrouded in the darkness of ignorance. That this veiling darkness may be understood and dissolved, souls need to be embodied in various worlds where they can experience both merits and demerits. Different forms of the Supreme God are necessary for them for the purpose of contemplation and worship. The Agamas speak of a motherly compassion spontaneously arising within Lord Siva to redeem and uplift the shrouded souls, a divine desire (iccha) resulting in a minute impulse or movement (kshobha) within Him. It is from this vibration, this divine love, that manifestation in its myriad forms appears.

That impulse of creativity brings forth a pulse, or Shakti, called Parashakti, which is one thousandth of Parasiva's brilliant radiance. Next, another Shakti, called Adishakti, arises as a thousandth of Parashakti. Next, Icchashakti manifests as one one-thousandth of Adishakti. Then Jnanashakti arises as one tenth of a hundredth of Icchashakti. Finally, Kriyashakti arises as a thousandth of Jnanashakti. Each Shakti

is less subtle than the Shakti from which it arises. These five Shaktis are all transcendental and formless, never depicted as images, only contemplated upon.

Parashakti, profoundly subtle, all-pervasive and immeasurably effulgent, conceives the process of five-fold cosmic function. Adishakti, exceedingly brilliant, pervades embodied souls, as well as liberated souls. Icchashakti, greatly luminous, begins the process of creating the worlds and various bodies for the souls. Jnanashakti illuminates the Deities protecting the worlds and souls living in various planes of existence. Kriyashakti instills power and ability in the cosmic authorities that perform the five-fold cosmic function.

In this same transcendental space, five Sivas manifest, each related to one of the five Shaktis and collectively called the Panchasivas: Anashrita, Anatha, Ananta, Vyomarupa and Vyapaka. Anashrita appears as one part out of a thousand parts of Parasiva. In the same way, Anatha arises out of Anashrita, Ananta out of Anatha, Vyomarupa out of Ananta, and Vyapaka out of Vyomarupa.

Emergence of the Five Sadakhyas

Next, each of the five Shaktis merges with its corresponding Siva. Upon the union of Parashakti and Anashrita, a form called Siva Sadakhya appears, flashing forth incessantly with the radiance of thousands of lightning bolts. It emerges as one of ten parts of Parashakti. This is the first and fundamental tattva, which serves as the causal source for the evolution of all other tattvas. Sadakhya means that which is always pure and auspicious, undefiled by external or internal impurities and dispositions.

From the union of Adishakti and Anatha arises Amurti Sadakhya, as one tenth of Adishakti. It is likened to a fiery pillar with the brilliance of millions of suns. In the middle of that pillar is the vibrant presence of a luminous Linga called Divyalinga. Amurti Sadakhya, also called the primal pillar (mula stambha), serves as the source form for the occurrence of evolution and dissolution.

The union of Icchashakti and Ananta results in the emergence of Murti Sadakhya, comprising one-tenth of Icchashakti. It shines forth in the form of a fiery Linga, a blazing conflagration (kalagni), at the time of final dissolution (mahapralaya). In the upper part of that luminous Linga is a form with one face and three eyes, four hands, holding a deer, a hatchet and displaying the compassionate varada mudra and the

fear-not abhaya mudra. This Sadakhya form, too, is not depicted as a visible image. It is to be contemplated only.

The union of Jnanashakti and Vyomarupa gives rise to Kartru Sadakhya as one-tenth of Jnanashakti. Kartru Sadakhya has the form of a crystal (sphatika) Linga, in the middle of which appears a beautiful, luminous form with four faces, twelve eyes, four colors, eight hands and two feet. The four hands on the right side display a trident, axe, sword and abhaya mudra; the four hands on the left side display a noose, snake, bell and varada mudra.

The union of Kriyashakti and Vyapaka gives rise to Karma Sadakhya as one-tenth of Kriyashakti. This is the most important Sadakhya form. It is in this form that the Linga and the pedestal (pitha) of the Sivalinga appear for the first time. The Linga denotes the vibrant state of sound, or nada. The pedestal denotes the vibrant state of bindu, the potency which actuates sound. Without bindu, sound is ineffectual. The Linga denotes Siva, and the pedestal denotes Shakti. Karma Sadakhya is the united form of Siva and Shakti (Linga and pitha) for the systematic performance of the five cosmic functions.

In the same manner that the first five shaktis are manifested, there appear various other sets of Shaktis, each successively less subtle than the last. These include the five Paranada Kalas and the Aparanada Kalas. Along with the Paranada Kalas, there appear five Parabindu Kalas with the same effulgence. Corresponding to the five Aparanada Kalas, there appear five Aparabindu Kalas in the same manner and with the same effulgence. All of these manifestations explained so far exist in the transcendental realm known as pure creation (shuddha shrishti), far beyond the physical world.

The Greatness of Karma Sadakhya

It has already been said that Karma Sadakhya appears in the form of Sivalinga, the combined form of Linga and pedestal. Now it is to be noted that the pedestal is constituted of five Aparabindu Kalas--Shantyatita and others. The Linga portion is constituted of five Aparanada Kalas--Urdhvagamini and others.

Parasiva is vibrantly present in the Siva Sadakhya. The presence of Parasiva and Siva Sadakhya is in the Amurti Sadakhya. In the Murti Sadakhya, there is the vibrant presence of Parasiva, Siva Sadakhya and Amurti Sadakhya. The presence of these

four is in the Kartru Sadakhya. The vibrant presence of all five--Parasiva, Siva Sadakhya, Amurti Sadakhya, Murti Sadakhya and Kartru Sadakhya--is in the Karma Sadakhya, the final phase in the order of pure creation, manifesting in the form of the Sivalinga.

Karma Sadakhya is also the beginning phase in the order of non-transcendental creation. It is the repository for the group of transcendental tattvas, such as Paranada, Parabindu, Aparanada and Aparabindu. At the same time, it is the source for the evolution of 36 tattvas leading to this physical level. It is in Karma Sadakhya that the manifestation of Panchabrahma is taking place. The order of such manifestation is explained now.

Tattva, Murti, Prabhava

Before introducing the process of manifestation of five great Lords (Ishana and others), it is essential to know about three categories: tattva, murti and prabhava.

The five Sadakhyas come under the category of tattva. Tattva means that which is existing from the time of creation, operating in an orderly way, and which is absorbed into its source at the time of final dissolution.

In the category of murti, there are five--Sivatara, Isha, Brahmisha, Ishvara and Vyomesha. Who are these murtis? Where do they come from? [Note: In the Agamas, Sivatara is more often called Sadasiva, and Vyomesha is known as Ishana.] These five murtis manifest along with the five Sadakhyas from the same source, but they remain latent within the Sadakhyas.

Sivatara lies latent within Siva Sadakhya. (Parashakti is dominant in Siva Sadakhya, and Anashrita [Siva aspect] is dominant in Sadasiva.) Likewise, Isha lies latent within Amurti Sadakhya. (Adishakti is dominant in Amurti Sadakhya, and Anatha is dominant in Isha.) Brahmisha lies latent within Murti Sadakhya. (Icchashakti is dominant in Murti Sadakhya, and Ananta is dominant in Brahmisha.) Ishvara lies hidden within Kartru Sadakhya. (Jnanashakti is dominant in Kartru Sadakhya, and Vyomarupa is dominant in Ishvara.) Vyomesha lies hidden within Karma Sadakhya. (Kriyashakti is dominant in Karma Sadakhya, and Vyapaka is dominant in Vyomesha.)

On the upper portion of the Sivalinga, Sivatara is present. Isha is on the west, Brahmisha on the north, Ishvara on the south and Vyomesha on the west.

Prabhava is the category of Panchabrahma (five-fold God), or Sadasiva, which comes into existence upon the union of tattva (Shakti aspect) and murti (Siva aspect).

Panchabrahma

The union of Siva Sadakhya and Sivatara results in the appearance of Ishana. The union of Amurti Sadakhya and Isha gives rise to Sadyojata. The union of Murti Sadakhya and Brahmisha results in the manifestation of Vamadeva. The union of Kartru Sadakhya and Ishvara gives rise to Aghora. The union of Karma Sadakhya and Vyomesha results in the manifestation of Tatpurusha. All these manifestations are taking place in the Karma Sadakhya, which contains all prior levels of devolution.

Ishana is the source of spontaneous grace directed to all beings and to all worlds. It is beyond all systems and disciplines, unexcellable and unsurpassable, without limit or boundary.

Tatpurusha is the all-pervasive power that sustains the bodies of human beings, celestial beings, asuras, animals, birds and so forth, that which fills up and regulates the entire range of worlds, spreading out everywhere through nada arising from bindu.

Aghora is pure consciousness (Sivajnana), always calm and tranquil. It is the force that opposes the dreaded phenomenon of repeated birth and death, remaining ever aware in consciousness.

Vamadeva is the absolute power of knowing all and doing all, the force which keeps embodied souls engaged in activities to work out their karmas. It is the subtle and secret power, the luminosity of Siva, that enables embodied souls to experience dharma, artha and kama.

Sadyojata is the power that, by its mere will, assumes innumerable forms quickly and instantaneously creates relevant bodies for souls and relevant mantra-forms for competent yogis.

Sadasiva Linga--The Formless and the Formed State

The Sivalinga enshrined in the sanctum sanctorum is actually the form of Karma Sadakhya. The formless and transcendental Parasiva occupies this Sivalinga in the

form of Sadasiva, or the Panchabrahma. The Agamas provide this description: "Sadasiva appears with five faces: Ishana, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vamadeva and Sadyojata. The Ishana face, crystal in color, is at the top, looking upward. Tatpurusha, whitish-yellow, is turned eastward. Aghora, blue-black in color, is turned south. Vamadeva, of saffron hue, looks north. Sadyojata, colored like the moon's rays, looks west. The overall form of Sadasiva is the color of crystal. Each face has three eyes. The five heads are adorned with a crescent moon and locks of matted hair bound together with serpents."

Five Mantras that Constitute the Form of Sadasiva

In addition to the five faces, the Panchabrahmas also assume the form of five mantras to constitute all other parts of Sadasiva's body--heads, chest, shoulders, legs and so on. Each mantra is associated with vibrant shaktis known as kalas (pronounced kalās).

At this stage, Ishana becomes the mantra Ishana Murdha. Ishana marks the ultimate limit or boundary; hence Ishana Mantra is considered to constitute the heads of Sadasiva, the upper limit of the form. Murdha means head.

Tatpurusha becomes the mantra Tatpurusha Vaktra, constituting the five faces of the Lord. The term vaktra means to protect and to drive away. This mantra protects the bodies of all beings by bestowing knowledge and warding off the fear of future birth and death.

Aghora becomes the mantra Aghora Hridaya. It constitutes the heart, chest and related parts of the form. In this context, hridaya means supreme consciousness. This mantra metes out an antidote to the dreadful (ghora) phenomenon of repeated birth and death; thus it is known as aghora, meaning non-dreadful, tranquil and calm.

Vamadeva becomes the mantra Vamadeva Guhya. By nature, Vama is secret and unseen (guhya), the power of knowing and doing. It maintains progeny and related activities. Vama, meaning beautiful, also means base or inferior. The experiences of dharma, artha and kama are inferior to liberation. Vamadeva mantra enables souls to undergo lesser experiences in order to nullify their karmic merits and demerits. This mantra is considered to constitute the private parts (guhya) of the body--the hips and other lower regions.

Sadyojata becomes the mantra Sadyojata Murta (murta meaning form). Sadyojata is capable of assuming innumerable forms quickly, pervading and spreading. For this, feet are necessary. Not only feet, but the whole form is required to move. Thus Sadyojata mantra constitutes the limbs of the body.

Panchabrahma and the Five Deputed Lords: Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheshvara and Sadasiva

For the Supreme Lord Parasiva, the main purpose of descending to the level of Karma Sadakhya is to perform the cosmic activities within the realm of pure maya. He does this through His form of Lord Sadasiva (or Panchabrahma). The five cosmic activities are: creation, maintenance, dissolution, concealment and bestowal of grace. Siva's power of creation is Sadyojata. The power of dissolution is Aghora. Tatpurusha is Siva's power to veil the soul's inherent nature (of Pure Consciousness and its infinite power of knowledge and action). Siva's power of revealing grace is Ishana. The Vedas and the Agamas are revealed through the five faces of Sadasiva.

Sadasiva exists at the extremely rarefied stratum of pure maya (the causal plane) and therefore cannot be directly involved with impure maya (the astral and physical realms). So, He performs the five actions in these realms through five Deputed Lords (Adhishtita, also known as Karaneshvara): Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheshvara and Sadasiva. [Note: The Deputed Lord Sadasiva is set in italics to distinguish it from Sadasiva, the synonym for Panchabrahma.]

So, the cosmic process of hypostasis takes place and directly from Karma Sadakhya arises Sadasiva, the first deputed Lord, and then Maheshvara (as one thousandth part). From Maheshvara arise Rudra (one thousandth part), Vishnu (one 10 millionth part) and Brahma (one 10 millionth part).

Brahma is deputed for the activity of creation under the direction of Sadyojata, its Controlling Lord (Adhishtatru); Vishnu protects as directed by Vamadeva; Rudra reabsorbs as directed by Aghora; Maheshvara conceals as directed by Tatpurusha; Sadasiva bestows grace as directed by Ishana.

Adho Mukha, the Sixth Face

In addition to the five faces of Sadasiva, there is a sixth face named Adho Mukha, which manifests out of a sixth Sadakhya, Maha Sadakhya, and looks downward. A

pleasant blue color and located at the neck of the Lord, it is associated with Sri Nilakantha, the blue-throated Lord. Most of the esoteric meanings of Aum, the Pranava, are connected to Adho Mukha. It is identical with the space of supreme consciousness (chidakasha) and generates five levels of akasha. Adho Mukha has its role and presence in the form of Lord Skanda.

Sadasiva in Temple Worship Rites

During the puja, the priest visualizes the form and limbs of the Deity while chanting the respective five Panchabrahma Mantras three times. Perhaps the most significant instance is the invocation of the Divine presence into the Sivalinga: Ishana corresponding to the head; Tatpurusha, the face; Aghora the heart and chest; Vamadeva, the hips and other lower regions; and Sadyojata, the limbs. While chanting each mantra, the priest touches the corresponding place on the Sivalinga, from the top down to the base of the pedestal. Following that, the priest visualizes the corresponding five kalas while chanting and invoking them into the parts of the Sivalinga. Thus, during puja, the Sivalinga serves as a microcosm into which is poured the macrocosm in all of its dimensions of existence.

Next the priest again chants the five mantras while offering flowers in worship of the various parts of the body of Sadasiva and then to the five aspects, or faces, of Sadasiva in association with the five krityas, cosmic actions or powers. The five krityas and corresponding Panchabrahmas are 1) srishti, creation, Sadyojata 2) stithi, preservation, Vamadeva; 3) samhara, dissolution, Aghora; 4) tirobhava, concealing grace, Tatpurusha; 5) anugraha, revealing grace, Ishana.

For the final arati, a profound mantra from the Taittiriya Aranyaka, known as the Panchabrahma Veda Mantra (see below), is chanted to invoke the five aspects of Sadasiva into each of the five flames while offering the arati lamp before the Sivalinga.

Conclusion

Congratulations! The Agamas themselves contain a disclaimer for this arcane discussion: "This is the ultimate subject. There is no subject superior to this. Since it is ultimate, it cannot be understood by the uninitiated. Even for the initiated, there is no sadhana superior to understanding this ultimate subject. It is actually a great

tapas (austerity) to meditate on this ultimate subject." Vatula Agama, Tattvasara Patala, 252-254

1. Sadyojata ("quickly birthing"), the controlling Lord of Brahma, is the aspect of Siva that wields the power of creation. His direction is west, He is related to the sphere of earth (prithivi mandala) and His Panchakshara Mantra syllable is Na. The Agamas describe Him as white in color, in the likeness of a boy with a charming face, besmeared with sandalwood paste, adorned with white flowers. One hand displays the boon-granting varada mudra and another the fear-not abhaya mudra. He is Siva manifest in all of nature; the causer of birth.

2. Vamadeva ("lovely, pleasing"), the controlling Lord of Vishnu, is the aspect of Siva that wields the power of preservation. His direction is north, He is related to the sphere of water (jala mandala), and His Panchakshara Mantra syllable is Ma. The Agamas describe Him as red in color, with a handsome face and aristocratic bearing, wearing rich apparel, a turban and garlands of flowers. He holds a sword and a shield.

3. Aghora ("nonterrifying"), the controlling Lord of Rudra, is the aspect of Siva that wields the power of dissolution. His direction is south, He is related to the sphere of fire (agni mandala), and His Panchakshara Mantra syllable is Si. The Agamas state that Aghora Deva is the color of dark cloud and is adorned with crescent studded crown and beautiful earring. Though His expression is pleasant, His appearance is dreadful, with long, projecting teeth, and a tawny colored beard, moustache and matted hair. He is adorned with snakes and scorpions and a garland of skulls. The four hands on the left side hold a fire, khatvanga (a staff with a skull at its top), shield and noose. The four hands in the right side hold a trident, hatchet, sword and staff.

4. Tatpurusha ("supreme soul"), the controlling Lord of Maheshvara, is the aspect of Siva that wields the power of obscuration. His direction is east, He is related to the sphere of air (vayu mandala), and His Panchakshara Mantra syllable is Va. The Agamas describe Tatpurusha Deva as gold in color, dressed in yellow silken cloth, head adorned with a crown and crescent moon. In one hand he holds a string of beads and in another His trident staff.

5. Ishana ("ruler"), the controlling Lord of Sadasiva, is the aspect of Siva that wields the power of revealment. His direction is upward, He is related to the sphere of ether (akasha mandala), and His Panchakshara Mantra syllable is Ya. The Agamas describe Ishana Deva as pure crystal in color, with three eyes. In one hand He holds a trident and in another a string of beads. His two other hands present the

abhaya ("fear not") and dhyana (meditation mudras. Bearing a crescent on His crown, His form is charged with benevolence.

Gauri Lata Mandala

The meaning of the term mandala, as given in the Agamas, is "the square, the interior of which is enriched with various geometrical designs and beautified with colors." According to the Agamas, square is the basic form from which all other forms appear and into which they merge. In the yagnashala of a temple, a mandala is worshiped to channel the effects of the fire-ritual (oblations) and to enhance the auspiciousness of the surroundings. It is to be placed between the fire pit and the main altar (vedika). Though mandalas are not meant for meditation, the display of a perfectly designed mandala in a hall or shrine will ensure the divinity of the place and ward off any negative forces. Mandalas are of two kinds--those meant for use in temple rituals and those to be displayed in places of learning, hospitals, libraries and such. Mandalas consist of various important parts which correspond to various parts of a standing body, such as face, torso, hands, legs and so on. A mandala is actually a three-dimensional image rendered in two-dimensional form. The most important aspect of a mandala is its coloring. Each letter, each word of a mantra, each tattva, each kala, each form of a Deity, each of the vital airs of our body, each nadi (channel of the body), each element of the universe has its own significant color. Based on this concept, the guru who has a perfect knowledge of these principles and colors designs a particular mandala. The design of a mandala is based on the nature of a particular Deity to which that mandala belongs. Lord Sadasiva, five Sadakhya Saktis, Ashta Murtis, Ashta Vidyesvaras, Ashta Devatas (Nandi and others) and all the 36 tattvas are represented in the Gauri Lata Mandala.

Sabharathnam Sivacharyar

Panchabrahma in Shaktism & Vaishnavism

The five Panchabrahma murtis are found not only in Saivism, but also in Shaktism and Vaishnavism. They are portrayed in various forms depending on the tradition one follows. The Saiva Agamas depict them as: 1) Sadyojata, 2) Vamadeva, 3) Aghora, 4) Tatpurusha and 5) Ishana. In the Shakta tradition they are: 1) Brahma, 2) Vishnu, 3) Rudra, 4) Ishvara and 5) SadaSiva. In the Vaishnava Agamas, they are

named: 1) Vasudeva, 2) Samkarshana, 3) Pradyumna, 4) Aniruddha and 5) Narayana.

The concept of Panchabrahma in the Shakta school of thought could be best summarized by the most revered text of the Sri Vidya tradition, Sri Lalitha Rahasya Sahasranamam, the thousand names of Lalita Mahatripurasundari. Names 249 and 250 are Panchapretasanasena and Panchabramaswarupini. The meaning is that Sri Lalitha, seated on Her throne consisting of the Panchapretas, or five lifeless bodies (the five elements), is responsible for bringing existence to these Panchabrahmas through the infusion of Herself, the Shakti (pure energy).

Scientifically, it is understood that everything in the universe is made up of two things: matter and energy. Matter represents Siva and energy represents Shakti, and it is through this mergence that the manifestation of this universe exists. In Shaktism, the Panchabrahmas are responsible for the execution of the panchakrityas, or five-fold acts: 1) srishti, creation of the universe; 2) sthithi, sustenance of the universe; 3) samhara, destruction of the universe; 4) tirodhana, concealment; and 5) anugraha, absorbing the soul into infinite bliss. Understanding this, the aspirant must acknowledge that in order for life to continue, Siva can never be separated from Shakti; so we realize and revere Her as Panchabramaswarupini.

Janahan Balasingham

The Panchabrahma Veda Mantra

One of the greatest and most sacred of all mantras, the Pañchabrahma Mantrāṇī, is found in the Kṛshṇa Yajurveda, Taittirīya Āraṇyaka 10.17-21. Here its five verses are cited in reverse order (21 to 17), just as they are chanted during puja. This is a lucid translation by Sabharathnam Sivacharyar, based on the 12th-century translation by Ugrajyoti Sivacharyar in his priestly manual Vedartha Nirnaya Manjari, giving the enhanced meaning of the mantras in the context of the Saiva Agamas.

ईशानस्सर्व�विर्वद्यानां ईश्वरस्सर्व�भूतानां ब्रह्माि�ाधपवितब्र��णोऽधिधपवितब्र��ाशिशर्वो मे अस्तु सदाशिशर्वोम्।

īśānassarva vidyānām īśvaras sarva bhūtānām brahmādhipatir brahmaṇo’dhipatir brahmā śivo me astu sadāśivom

Lord Ishana—the Supreme Lord and Revealer of all knowledge and spiritual disciplines, the nourisher and controller of all living beings, the Directing Lord of

Sadasiva, He who is the guiding and directing authority for the eight Vidyeshvaras, who directs Brahma, Vishnu and others—may He present Himself in this Sivalinga. By such benign presence, let there occur absolute purity and auspiciousness in me. Om.

तत्पुरुषाय विर्वद्महे महादेर्वाय धीमविह तन्नो रुद्रः प्रचोदयात्।

tatpurushāya vidmahe mahādevāya dhīmahi tanno rudraḥ prachodayāt

As guided by my guru, I realize the form of Siva known as Tatpurusha. I meditate with pure mind and refined intellect on the Great Illuminator. Let Tatpurusha—who cuts asunder the limiting bonds of the souls and by this act comes to be known as Rudra—guide, enlighten and strengthen my organs of knowledge and action and my internal faculties.

अघोरेभ्योथघोरेभ्यो घोरघोरतरेभ्यः सर्व1भ्यस्सर्व� सर्व1भ्यो नमस्तेऽस्तु रुद्ररूपेभ्यः।

aghorebhyotha ghorebhyo ghora ghoretarebhyas sarvebhyas sarvasarvebhyo namaste astu rudrarūpebhyaḥ

Salutations to Lord Siva who manifests Himself in countless benign forms, in frightful and terrifying forms, and to all those countless forms of Rudra (eulogized in the Sri Rudram hymn). Salutations to all such manifestations of Lord Siva.

र्वामदेर्वाय नमो ज्येष्ठाय नमः श्रेष्ठायनमो रुद्राय नमः कालायनमः कलविर्वकरणाय नमो बलविर्वकरणाय नमो बलाय नमो बलप्रमथनाय नमस्सर्व�भूतदमनाय नमो मनोन्मनाय नमः।

vāmadevāya namo jyeshṭhāya namaḥ śreshṭhāya namo rudrāya namaḥ kālāya namaḥ kalavikaraṇāya namo balavikaraṇāya namo balāya namo balapramathanāya namas sarvabhūta damanāya namo manonmanāya namaḥ

Salutations to the luminous Lord who sportively creates everything. Salutations to the One who is eternally the Eldest, transcending the great cycles of time. Salutations to the One whose lordship excels all other Gods. Salutations to the One who wards off the sufferings of all living beings. Salutations to the One who is Eternal Time. Salutations to the One who sets into operation the divisions of time and maintains the worlds in an orderly way. Salutations to the One who, being the source of strength, strengthens the auspicious forces. Salutations to the One who, being the wielder of strength, withdraws the strength of inauspicious forces and extirpates them. Salutations to the One who guides all souls to ultimately reach Him.

सद्योजातं प्रपद्याधिम सद्योजाताय र्वै नमो नमः। भर्वे भर्वेनावितभर्वे भर्वस्र्वमां भर्वोद्भर्वायनमः।।

sadyojātaṁ prapadyāmi sadyojātāya vai namo namaḥ bhave bhavenātibhave bhavasva māṁ bhavodbhavāya namaḥ

I submit my mind, speech and body totally and repeatedly to Lord Sadyojata, who manifests Himself and instantaneously creates bodies and worlds, who appears to devotees in the forms contemplated by them and yet transcends such forms assumed by Him and who has a retinue of Deities formed of millions of mantras. May He make my form as of His own form.

The Five States of Mind

Exploring the conscious, subconscious, subsubconscious, superconscious and subsuperconscious—the interrelated states of our existence

FROM SATGURU SIVAYA SUBRAMUNIYASWAMI’S MERGING WITH SIVA

POPULAR THOUGHT PREVALENT TODAY IS THAT WE have an external mind to be shunned and an inner being to be reached. I look at the internal areas of the mind and the external areas of the mind as being one and the same, an integrated whole, one totality of mind. The inner universe of the mind is tremendous. It is much larger, more complex and better organized than any of the universes we can see with our physical eyes. The superconscious areas of mind deep within each of us are more advanced than the externalities of the material conscious world.

Man is discovering new things within the sea and in outer space. All of these vast new discoveries are being registered within his subconscious mind. Only through his deep, intuitive, perceptive faculties, resident within the inner area of his mind, is he

able to grasp these new findings, relate them to discoveries of the past and conditions of the present and hold a mountaintop overview of it all. But if he does not have this deep, intuitive, perceptive faculty awakened, man becomes confused by these new discoveries and fearful of his future.

Only the one who is inwardly awake, vibrant, alive and has the burning desire to know and be creative with that knowledge is content and at peace with himself and the world at large. For the more he knows about the external world, the more he discovers from deep within himself as he passes this knowledge on to the present generation, who will in turn pass it on to the succeeding generation, systematically and in an organized way. Many enlightened souls on the Earth today are handling the knowledge acquired from the exterior areas of the mind and the knowledge acquired from the depths of their own being in this way. To perform this mental activity, one does not have to be mystically inclined. A mystic is one who lives two-thirds within himself and one-third within the external areas of the mind.

A person who lives two-thirds within the external mind and only one-third within himself is not classified as a mystic. Let us look at the one-third of the inner area of mind in which he is living. It can be a delightful inner world or a very tragic area of the mind. This depends upon the character of the individual himself, the nature of his evolution and how he conducts himself in daily life. Although he is living only one-third within, intuitive flashes can penetrate the exterior walls of his consciousness strongly enough to change the history and course of humanity.

The Mind’s Three Phases

The totality of the mind is vast and complicated. However, it is helpful to look at the entirety of the mind in three basic phases: the instinctive, the intellectual and the intuitive. The instinctive mind is easy to become aware of and experience. It includes the impulses of our physical body, our cravings, our desires, our digestive system, and our emotional mechanism that works through the physical body. The systems of elimination and blood circulation and the regulation of the heartbeat are all within the instinctive mind. This phase of mind functions automatically, or instinctively. It is as much alive in the animal kingdom as among humans.

Man alone develops the intellectual mind and is responsible for its composition as he lives along through life. This phase is a mixture of man’s instinctive desires and cravings coupled with the knowledge he has gained from others and from his own intuitive discoveries. Within man’s intellect, he organizes a vast amount of

knowledge that begins to accumulate from a very early age. Ninety percent of this knowledge deals with the externality of the world and mind itself. The intellect can consume most of man’s time through an incarnation, and usually does, lifetime after lifetime.

The intuitive, or superconscious, phase is even more complex, more organized, more refined than the instinctive or intellectual phases. It is mystically known as the mind of light, for when one is in this state of mind, he may see light within his head, and sometimes throughout the entirety of his physical body, if his inner sight is developed enough. Otherwise, he just begins to feel good all over, as actinic energy permeates his nervous system.

The instinctive mind also has within it various forces: the force of fear, the force of anger, the force of jealousy and the dynamic force of self-preservation. It is what it is—instinctive. It is impulsive and immediately reacts to all situations. Though it is a great force in developing the intellect, its greatest enemy is intuition, the mind of the soul, which guides humans out of the morass of the lower nature into sublimity.

Most of us find the intellect a saving grace when it comes from the transformation of the instinctive nature into something more substantial. Constantly we strive to broaden our intellect, increase our knowledge, govern the mind with organized thinking and control our emotions by repressing the instinctive nature.

This is nature’s way of increasing man’s justification of that which has passed before the window of the mind and was not pleasing to his intellect, the justification being that enough knowledge has not been acquired by the intellect to sufficiently suppress the instinctive nature.

While the instinctive mind places great pulls on the individual, the intellectual mind often has a stranglehold. An intellectual person could run this explanation through his intellect and be able to explain it back better than we are unraveling it here, relating this point to that point exquisitely, yet deriving absolutely nothing from the conclusions to improve his own life. The next day his mental interest would be off on another subject.

When intuitive flashes come, he knows the next thing to be done in a creative activity. This is the superconscious area of the mind. When man is extremely perceptive, tremendously creative, and knowledge seems to come to him from the inside of himself spontaneously, he is a superconscious being.

Intellect and the Instinctive Mind

Instinctive is a word that some may understand and others take offense at. Don’t. It only means “natural or innate,” naming the drives and impulses that order the animal world and the physical and lower astral aspects of humans. For example, self-preservation, procreation, hunger and thirst, as well as the emotions of greed, hatred, anger, fear, lust and jealousy, are all instinctive forces. They are very real in animals and humans alike. When the mind functions instinctively, it is controlled by the habit impressions made in the subconscious during its journey through the experiences of life. Instinctive also means that the driving force comes from the sexual nature. The nature is turned in that direction subconsciously, even though the conscious mind may not be cognizant of the fact. It also means that in the event of an emergency, the animal nature would take over completely, being jarred loose from lack of what I term “mind-control,” or from what might be called self-control.

The first steps on the spiritual path consist in learning to harness these tendencies and impulses and transmute their energies into the higher nature. But we should not think of the instinctive mind as “bad,” for it controls the basic faculties of perception and movement, digestion, elimination, ordinary thought and emotion and the many other vital functions of the physical being. Animals, birds, fish, reptiles and insects are the personification of the instinctive mind. Living mainly in the areas of fear, they react immediately to change. Their driving forces are sustenance, sex, shelter and security for their young and themselves. It is these instinctive drives that are the most difficult impulses for humans to deal with. They are, for people, the seeds of all the desires of all the entanglements within the four areas—sex, money, food and clothes—which we capture in one word, desire. Yes, it is desire that propels humanity onward.

Intellect and Intuition

Mystics never demean or belittle intellectual reasoning. The intellect is not bad. It is good and necessary when used correctly. But they also do not elevate it too highly, knowing it is not the whole mind, it is only one phase of the mind. Instinctive, intellectual and intuitive phases define the whole of the mind. We often use the terms “unfolding intuitive faculties” and “developing intuition” in an effort to encourage an individual on the path to work within himself in subduing his intellect so that he can actually observe the already functioning totality of his intuitive mind.

In order to subdue the intellect—that partial conglomerate of thought patterns and modes of procedure which accord with the culture of the day—it is first necessary to inwardly observe how one’s acquired intellect actually functions. Observation is a faculty of the intuitive mind, and this particular aspect of observation only comes into usage after daily meditation has been maintained over a long period of time. Once an inkling of success in knowing intuition and how it differs from reasoning, emotional impulses and pre-programmed patterns within the subconscious awakens, the contest is won. Then and then only we can sustain this knowledge and dive deeper into the inevitable, all the time losing the future and the past, and loosening the reins of the intellect.

Some men say they are part of God, that the God Spirit is within them. The intuitive mind we consider to be that part of God’s vast mind—our inspiration. If you have ever had a hunch and had it work out, that is the intuitive mind working within you. It has temporarily dominated your conscious mind and made it possible for you to look into the future and estimate its happenings. The intuitive mind is the essence of time, yet it understands time and timelessness, its essence. It is the essence of space, yet it comprehends space and spacelessness. It is real, yet it does not exist—real only when used, nonexistent to the lower realms of the mind.

Man’s individual awareness is either captured by the nerve system of external consciousness of the animal bodies, which his soul inhabits as vehicles to live in on Earth, or captured by his celestial nerve system. This, then, is the intuitive nature, the natural expression of the transcendental soul known as man.

Brain & Mind

Glimpsing the New Science of Consciousness

The old science that we all learned in school teaches that consciousness is created by the activities of the brain. Perceptions, feelings, instincts, reasoning and memory all derive from neurological activity in the cranium. The conclusion, quite naturally, is that when you die, or when the brain dies, consciousness ceases. But there is a new science of consciousness, drawing from quantum physics, near-death and out of body reports, which concludes that it is not the brain that creates consciousness, but consciousness that creates the brain, and every other material thing. This view gives credence to the survival of the soul after death, and has deep roots in Indian metaphysics. We share here reflections from the new science trailblazers.

FOR AT LEAST TWO THOUSAND years thinkers have tried to explain the human mind and disagreed heatedly, but a consensus has formed around one thing. When you try to figure out where the mind comes from, you find yourself in a strange domain filled with mirrors, illusions and a shaky grasp on reality. The mind is harder to hunt down than the mythical unicorn, because the hunter and the hunted are the same. This frustrating obstacle has led to speculation that swings between two extremes—at one extreme, consciousness is pure illusion created by brain chemistry. At the other extreme, consciousness is a given that defies exploration, much as water is a given to a fish. We can’t jump out of our minds to land on a place where objective observations could be made, just as a fish cannot land on dry land as a way to peer under the sea. Both are physically impossible.

Must the riddle of the mind remain a riddle? Our position is radically different from the vast majority of brain researchers, who attempt to unravel the intricacies of the mind by dissecting the intricacies of the human nervous system. We hold that mind doesn’t need the brain in order to exist. It precedes all living things by being fundamental to the universe. In other words, human beings inhabit a conscious universe.

Over the past decade or so, this notion has gained in stature, even though it began as a ridiculed fantasy. Some leading cosmologists are circling back to the insights of quantum pioneers like Max Planck and Erwin Schrödinger. Planck declared that it was impossible to “get behind” consciousness, meaning that it can’t be explained by referring to anything more primal. Schrödinger held that consciousness cannot be subdivided; there is only one consciousness, even though it appears to be subdivided into billions of individual minds. To use an honored analogy from the Vedanta tradition in India, pure gold can be made into countless objects, but in essence they are the same gold.

Planck, Schrödinger and their like-minded colleagues never pursued this line of investigation very far, being consumed with the new frontiers of quantum mechanics

and the challenge to create a complete account of microscopic phenomena. Today, the physicists who are circling back can take advantage of brain science, which gives them a continuous view of mind from the biggest to the smallest, from the entire cosmos to the subatomic particles that constitute all objects, including the human brain.

One of the most open-minded cosmologists, Max Tegmark of MIT, is a gifted explainer of difficult mind-brain-cosmos issues. Tegmark goes further than traditional physicalists, the preferred term for those who trace all phenomena back to matter and energy. He has become identified with a tag line: Consciousness is a state of matter. However, this view still remains materialistic, in that subatomic particles come first and foremost, arriving from the quantum vacuum carrying information, which then becomes one of the primary trademarks of consciousness. By transferring and building up more complex information structures, one arrives at the human brain and its potential for creating artificial intelligence in computers of the future—everything depends on how powerful their information processing becomes.

Quantum physics is a two-edged sword when it comes to explaining the mind. Its predictions and theoretical approach have been used to justify a conscious universe or not, depending on the perspective of the thinker who is wielding the theory. But there is a consensus on the necessity of mathematical models. This is where Tegmark has fascinated his peers, because he wants to rescue the materialist view—he totally believes in mathematics as the ultimate model of reality—by positing that matter can have the property of consciousness. His ambitions are, quite literally, cosmic. He wants to deliver a universe where math is compatible with mind.

The higher you climb, the farther you may fall. In Tegmark’s case, critiques have emerged in equal measure with praise. He himself poses the most troubling problems that must be confronted:

1. Since it is agreed among quantum theorists that subatomic particles are essentially mathematical constructs, with no fixed properties that resemble tangible objects, how did rocks, clouds, mountains and trees get their physical properties? It looks like creation out of nothing. How do we get from numbers to the hardness of granite and the sweetness of strawberries?

2. To date, there has been a chain of discoveries of ever more potent mathematics to explain the structure of the cosmos. But what if the chain isn’t endless? We may be at the point where Nature’s patterns, and the math that describes them, run out. If

that’s true, then the mathematical models will no longer work, just as every previous model going back to the Greeks has succumbed. The big difference is that no one trained to view math as the ultimate tool of science can conceive of what would replace it.

3. What gives some kinds of matter the property of consciousness and not others? Oxygen has the property of being gaseous, while iron is metallic. The difference can be explained using the periodic chart of the elements. No such chart exists for why the sugar in your brain participates in thinking, while the sugar in a sugar cube does not, until you consume it. No explanation exists for why the same electrons that are being sent around the brain are somehow associated with thought, while the same types of electrons are found in the cores of nuclear reactors. If the electrons and elementary particles are common to both, would we conclude that brains and reactors are the same? Of course not.

4. “Information” is a dubious foundation for consciousness. You can make heavier elements by adding more protons to an atom and more atoms to a molecule, but is it true that the great achievements of the mind (represented, for example, by Mozart, Shakespeare and Einstein) were gained simply by adding more information? A Mozart symphony contains no more and no less information than a symphony by one of his hack contemporaries. Besides, doesn’t information require someone to make sense of it? Random computer streams of 0’s and 1’s have no meaning independent of the algorithms that someone has devised in advance, using a mind. So tracing mind back to 0’s and 1’s seems like circular reasoning.

5. There is a limit to all models, because reality is too complex to be whittled down. The great mathematician John von Neumann supposedly said that the only adequate model of a neuron would be a neuron. In other words, you can’t explain the mind by reducing it to anything else.

Tegmark offers an eloquent exposition of his claim that matter may have consciousness as one of its basic properties—at least he and others in the same wave of cosmologists are nibbling around the fringes of a universe that may be entirely mindful. One camp is willing to call itself “panpsychist,” meaning that in some way everything is conscious. This would be the same as accepting Schrödinger’s original notion that consciousness is holistic and cannot be subdivided. A radically new view of reality emerges if you accept this one idea, sending shock waves through brain science, quantum physics and cosmology.

Here are three quotations from Vashishtha, a Vedic sage writing many centuries ago, almost eerily anticipating the most far-seeing speculations in current cosmology.

The entire universe is forever the same as the consciousness that dwells in every atom, even as jewelry is non-different from gold.

Cosmic consciousness alone exists now and ever; in it are no worlds, no created beings. That consciousness reflected in itself appears to be creation.

The world exists because consciousness is, and the world is the body of consciousness.

By Deepak Chopra, MD; Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD; Menas Kafatos, PhD; Subhash Kak, PhD; and Neil Theise, MD

The Five States of Mind

Observing the great vastness of the mind, we can draw another conclusion and say that there are five states of mind: conscious, subconscious, subsubconscious, subsuperconscious and superconscious. The first state is the conscious mind, in which we perform our daily routines. When awareness is in the conscious mind, we are externalized. This means we take our direction mainly from memory of past experiences, from other people, from newspapers, magazines, radio, television or our emotions. The average man is aware in the conscious mind from the time he awakens in the morning until he falls asleep at night. That’s what makes him average. Only when he becomes mystically inclined does he become consciously aware of some of the other four states.

The second state is the subconscious mind, the grand storehouse and computer of man. It faithfully registers all thoughts and feelings that pass through the conscious state, whether correct or incorrect, whether positive or negative. It registers them and acts or reacts accordingly.

The subsubconscious, the third state of mind, is a conglomeration of various actions and reactions that we have experienced in daily life. It is a subtle state composed of two or more vibrations of experience which mingle and form a third vibration. We have an experience. We react to it. Later we have a similar experience. We react to that. These two reactions merge in the subsubconscious, causing a hybrid reaction that lives with us many, many years.

The fourth state is the subsuperconscious mind. Deep, refined and powerful, it filters intuitive flashes from the superconscious mind through the subconscious gridwork. There are times when you want very much to find a clear answer from within yourself. However, being aware in the conscious mind predominantly, awareness is cut off from direct contact with the superconscious. So, you begin to ask questions of yourself. These questions are registered in the subconscious. The subconscious, like a well-programmed computer, begins to search for the right answer from the superconscious mind. Then, all of a sudden, you know the answer from the inside out. Finding solutions through insight or intuition is one of the functions of the subsuperconscious. It also is the source of all true creativity, inspiration, understanding and perfect timing in daily events.

The superconscious is the fifth state of the mind. Within it is one world within another world and yet another. All mystical phenomena and deep religious experiences come from the superconscious. It is the mind of light, beautiful and vast. When one is superconsciously alive, he feels joyously alive throughout the totality of his being—physically, emotionally and mentally—for new energies are working through his nerve system. This state of the mind is available to everyone to be aware in. The superconscious is the mind of bliss. It is vast, pure intelligence. The subsuperconscious mind is that aspect of the superconscious functioning through established subconscious patterns.

Unfolding the Superconscious

The average man may have occasional subsuperconscious experiences and rare superconscious intuitive flashes. His awareness, however, is not attuned to know the intricacies of the working of his own mind. Therefore, he is not able to identify one from the other, making his sense of enjoyment less than that of the mature mystic. Because he is unaware of the higher states of mind, the average man may harbor his awareness deep in a subconscious state of suffering over the past for long periods of time, thereby completely ignoring his superconscious intuitive flashes when they come. As a result, his ability to bring awareness inward, out of the external, conscious and subconscious states of mind and into more blissful and refined areas, is lessened. Now sadhana is necessary for him to unfold his inner depth. Although he is unaware of these superconscious happenings within himself and unable to astutely pinpoint and dramatically distinguish them from his turbulent subconscious, his superconscious breakthroughs do have an effect upon the totality of his being. But when man lives externalized in the conscious and subconscious

states, all the inner enjoyment and conscious abilities of exercising perceptive faculties are completely lost. The ritual of daily sadhana must be performed to quell the ordinary mind’s tumultuous turbulence.

There is but one mind and, in its functioning, it works the same in everyone, as an autonomous, interrelated, self-perpetuating mechanism. Concentrate upon that mind. Find out what the mind is. Observe your thoughts, feelings and actions from within, and know that your mind is yours to use to the extent that you control the mind with the will.

Why must you study the mind? Because understanding alone is fifty percent of the control of the mind. This understanding is necessary to impress the subconscious deeply enough to secure awareness so that spiritual strength continues to come from within, from the superconscious through the subconscious. Before we can meditate, we have to know our way around within the mind. What part of you understands how the mind works? It is your superconscious. The subconscious can’t understand how the mind works, because it’s the repository. The subsubconscious can’t understand. It’s a collective repository. Your conscious mind can’t understand either, for it is opinionated knowledge—looking at the world through the eyes of others. Only the superconscious and subsuperconscious can conceive how the mind works.

Remember, these are not five separate departments. They all interrelate. The conscious and subconscious work together. The subsubconscious seems to work independently of both the conscious and the subconscious, but it is not really independent. It is just another aspect of the subconscious. The superconscious is our vast, pure intelligence. The subsuperconscious is one aspect of the superconscious, functioning through subconscious patterns.

The Mind & Beyond

Once an inkling of success comes in knowing intuition and how it differs from reasoning, emotional impulses and pre-programmed patterns within the subconscious, the contest is won. Then and then only we must persist to sustain this knowledge and dive deeper into the inevitable, all the time losing the future and the past, and loosening the reins of the intellect.

SHUTTERSTOCK

When you begin to sense this changeless existence within, your intuition begins to awaken, and if you function through the use of your intuition you are able to clear many misunderstandings about the experiences of life. In this clarity, intuition is born. Right now you perhaps think you are the mind; you may feel remote from your Inner Being, but ask yourself each time you think you have found yourself, will this change? You will find that every image you hold of yourself is subject to change—even your soul, or your superconscious mind, is subject to change through evolution and, therefore, is impermanent. Only the Self, the very core, is eternally the same, eternally Real. Find your Inner Being through feeling; realize it is closer to you than your hands or feet, closer to you even than your breath. Your mind will want to leave this consciousness as soon as you attain it, but gently guide your mind back through the channel of concentration until once again you become rejuvenated, uplifted in the awareness of That which has never changed. That is your very Self, and That is God.

A. MANIVELU

1. The Conscious Mind

There is but one mind. The consciousness, or ego, functions within the mind’s various phases. The one-tenth of the mind of the conscious plane, in ramification, is carried on by its own novelty. The object is to control the conscious mind and become consciously conscious.

 

IND IS VAST, AND FROM a mystical point of view it includes everything, even encompassing the elements of the physical plane. Mind and matter are not two different things. Matter is simply one phase of the mind, and it is in the conscious mind that material existence has its existence. Expand your concept of the mind to include the entire universe, from atom to galaxy. Then realize you are that mind, and that its outer manifestation is but one-tenth of the totality of the mind.

When we live in the conscious mind, we are aware of other people’s ideas. We listen with our ears, we see with our eyes, we feel with our fingers. We are involved in our physical senses, functioning instinctively as far as the physical body goes. We are functioning intellectually as far as our education goes, and we are dealing and working vibrantly and vitally in the world of external form. We can live in the conscious mind and be aware of that area of consciousness life after life after life after life, because the conscious mind is ever changing, perpetuated by its own novelty. One thing or idea leads us to another, and then on to another and another and another. We listen to people talk, and we want to know what they will say next.

The conscious mind is very curious. We taste something and we want to taste something else. We see something and we want to see something else. We feel something and we want to feel something else, and we go on and on, completely dominated by our five senses. This domination by the senses makes up the totality of the conscious mind. These five senses are constantly active, as energy continually flows out into the external world through them. The conscious mind makes up what is called the external world, and the external world is the conscious mind. We are all participating in making our own conscious mind as we go along through life.

Though the conscious mind is only seeming, it is very real while we are in it, as it glorifies in adding to itself. This process is called the intellect. As concepts and partial concepts are added one after another, the average person develops his or her intellect, and if it is not balanced by inner knowing, it holds the person firmly in the external realms of consciousness. Many people are trained to think, having had their conscious mind programmed in such a way, that the superconscious mind is nothing but a farce, that it doesn’t exist at all, that the only reality is the external world, and pleasing the external senses is what life is all about. They are coached to believe that anything of an inner life or an inner nature is just pure fantasy, imagination, which only weak-minded people believe in. Many people live this way, with their awareness bogged down in the conscious mind—believing reality to be outside their physical body. The object of spiritual unfoldment is to transcend the conscious mind into superconsciousness and beyond.

The Donkey and the Carrot

When we are in the conscious mind, we are like a donkey with a carrot in front of our nose. We are always walking to try to get that carrot. We are never satisfied, and we

are never happy. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. No matter how much money we have, we want more. No matter how many clothes we have, we need more. No matter how many television programs we watch, there is always a better one coming up. No matter how many sights we have seen, the next one may surpass them all. No matter how much food we eat, there is always the next big wonderful meal to enjoy. No matter how many emotions we experience, the next set of those emotional experiences will be the high point of our entire life, and we are sure of it. That is the conscious mind.

When we live in the conscious mind, we only surmise. We make guesses. We are never quite sure if we are right. Therefore, we are insecure, because the conscious mind only knows what has gone before it. It is certain only about the past. If it has been provided with a good memory, then it knows the past very well. But without a good memory, the conscious mind doesn’t know the past well at all. So, when we are in the conscious mind, we have one predominant and solid quality that we really can be sure of, and that is fear. We are afraid! We’re afraid of the future. And many of the things in the past petrify us, for we don’t want them to happen to us again.

The conscious mind is the real enemy, the real barrier, the real distractor to someone on the path of enlightenment. It is intriguing. It is the temptress. It leads us on and on and on, life after life after life after life after life after life after life. It is a wonderful state of mind, however, as long as our superconscious faculties are also available for awareness to flow into once in a while to become refreshed and renewed by a change of perspective and influx of energy. Otherwise, the conscious mind is a difficult and onerous state of mind in which to live, day after day after day. The spiritual path leads us out of the morass of the darkness of the conscious mind into the mind of light, which we call superconsciousness.

A. MANIVELU

The conscious mind is likened to a donkey and a carrot, for it pursues what’s in front of it, drawn by desire. Here a woman’s external mind is depicted as a house with many rooms, each filled with a different experience: family, meals, conversations, chores and relationships.

Reason Reigns Supreme

It really hardens a person to live in the conscious mind all the time, because he has to build an ego shell around himself for protection, and that makes him insensitive and rough. One of the biggest protective influences of the conscious mind is anger. Anger makes a person cunning in his thinking, and of course the predominant underlying quality of anger is fear. He is always afraid of something. It is generally something that may happen or is going to happen. He is always in conflict with someone. These are the motivating forces of the conscious mind: anger and fear. Most people live in the conscious mind unconsciously.

The conscious mind is the area of the mind where memory and time are Gods, and reason is the Supreme Ruler. “If it is not reasonable, it is not acceptable,” declares

the conscious mind, and “If we can’t measure it, it does not exist.” That is the conscious mind. It is active. It is alive. The conscious mind perpetuates itself, and we all help it to do that. It is carried on in ramification by its own novelty. We can always find in the conscious mind some distraction to please us, to intrigue us, to dominate our awareness of other states of consciousness. And we don’t have to look very hard to find it.

The mystic’s goal is to control awareness while he is in the conscious mind—to know where he is in consciousness. When he finds he is aware in the conscious mind, and the five senses have become his ruler, he then controls his awareness within the conscious mind itself. He does this in a number of ways. One way is through the control of breath. Breath is life, and life is breath. Breath is the controlling factor of awareness. Awareness rides on breath. Breath is also a controlling factor of our willpower. A seeker must develop a dynamic will to walk the path of enlightenment, so that he does not stumble or falter, but continues onward no matter how difficult the path seems to be for him.

Like Writing on Water

Spiritual unfoldment leads us along the path into the illumined knowing of where we are in consciousness at any point in time. There are many methods through which this may be accomplished. Carefully choose one path and then stay with it with extreme loyalty. For this a preceptor is needed, a spiritual guide to answer questions, to raise questions for you to find answers to within your meditations. It is an arduous journey. The rewards come only near its end.

To live positively in the conscious mind each day, exercise at least a half hour. Keep the vital energies of the body high and healthy. Eat simply and follow a vegetarian diet, feeding the stomach rather than the mouth. Be considerate of others always and live inconspicuously, almost transparently, by not ruffling your surroundings, by keeping the home neat and clean, by passing through a room or place and leaving it in a nicer condition than before you arrived. Seek fresh air and learn to breathe deeply. Get out in the sun. Move the physical body, walk briskly, dance, keep the energies vibrant and buoyant. Be close to nature. Grow food. Develop an art or craft so the hands are active, creative. Of course, being neat and attractive in personal appearance keeps the thoughts of others toward you positive. This is the way to live in the conscious mind. Try to live life as though you are walking in the rain without

getting wet, or carefully writing on water. No ripples, no disturbance, no reactionary residue that has to be faced at some future date.

2. The Subconscious Mind

The part of mind “beneath” the conscious mind, the storehouse or recorder of all experience (whether remembered consciously or not)—the holder of past impressions, reactions and desires. Also, the seat of involuntary physiological processes.

 

HAT IS YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND? think about this for a minute. Realize that everything that has once passed through your conscious mind in the form of experience is resident right now within your subconscious. Not only that, but imbedded within the cellular structure of your body, in the DNA code—one of the most formidable discoveries of modern science—lie all the experiences of your genetic history. The life, the biological evolution of your forefathers, is all registered in the molecular strands of your subconscious, capable of being recalled into memory.

The subconscious mind, like the conscious mind, has a form of its own. It is given form, shape and momentum by the nature of your experiences in life and the way you react to them. Most people are not happy with the form of their subconscious mind. They are still reacting to early experiences, early environments. Some people go to great expense in trying to change the form of their subconscious through therapy or travel, but because there is no absolution in either, in time they generally manage to recreate their subconscious in the same old form. Childhood experiences do have a profound influence on one’s make-up in this life, but these influences are

by no means binding. Any attitude, any personality conflict or block in the subconscious can be demagnetized and resolved.

How do we change the form of the subconscious? We purify it by resolving in understanding those experiences which have created it. How do we resolve those experiences through understanding? We bring them up into the light and face them without reaction. By resolving our reactive experiences in understanding, the subconscious becomes more and more transparent to our own view and, therefore, necessarily undergoes positive change. To be able to objectively observe one’s own experiences without reaction is one of the powers acquired through the performance of sadhana.

Resolving Past Experiences

Suppose when you were young you stole some money from your mother’s purse. “She promised me this once and broke her promise,” you rationalize. “Besides, I really need it,” you add. Then, because you are not particularly pleased with yourself, you pack this experience away in a corner of the subconscious where you will not need to think about it. You suppress it. But the next day, your mother casually mentions the subject of money to you, and you react or emotionally re-enact the experience. You feel guilty. Not wanting to think about it, you suppress it again, deeper in the subconscious. Suppose then later in life your mother has become seriously ill, and in a reflective mood you realize that you have not been close to her for many years. Mixed in with a rush of buried memories you come across the incident of the stolen money.

For the first time you appreciate and realize the sense of guilt that had lingered, influencing your life since that time in a hundred subtle ways. In the light of understanding, the experience suddenly becomes clear to you, and you objectively and unemotionally see yourself as you were at that time. You feel relieved and strangely lifted, not because you were able to analyze why you stole the money, but because in totally facing and accepting yourself in that circumstance you realize that you have expanded beyond it into a new realm.

Intuition travels through a purified subconscious. Before we can utilize the superconscious or intuitive realms of the mind, we must be able to resolve those past experiences which may still vibrate in our subconscious. Realize, however, that you need not seek out mental repressions. Simply face each one honestly as it naturally arises in life. Imagine that you are trying to arrive at an important business

or family decision. All the facts you need to know have already been outlined, yet you find yourself frustrated in not being able to arrive at a clear decision. The more you concentrate upon the problem, the more obscure does the answer seem. What your conscious mind isn’t aware of is that the personality problems you are having with your superior at the office, or with your spouse at home, are clouding the issue. Soon after, while relaxing on a family outing, thinking about nothing in particular, a great feeling of compassion, forgiveness and understanding wells up within you, and all at once that “bright idea” needed to solve the problem comes to you unbidden.

A. MANIVELU

Exploring the states of mind, this seeker reflects on the nature of the subconscious by recalling his childhood. He remembers moments as a baby in his mother’s lap, one summer day when he and a friend found a mango tree full of ripe fruits and his years of work mastering the drum.

A Channel to Intuition

Why does intuition come at this time? Your mind being at rest and no longer disturbed, intuition can flow through it unhampered. Then, too, the elements of a

problem have a way of piecing themselves together in the subconscious when it is allowed to relax. Your best answers often come after you have removed the searchlight of your conscious mind’s focus for a time. This is the superconscious working through the subconscious, making it subsuperconscious.

You have now unfolded the key to living an intuitive and productive life. People who live positive lives have clear goals well impressed in the subconscious mind. They often draw upon their subsuperconscious mind, though they may call it by another name—perception, insight, intuition, instinct or sixth sense.

The subconscious mind performs many, many functions for us. In fact, it would be impossible to do without it. But think of some of the uses of the subconscious—the skills which your memory bank acquires, such as typing, driving, playing musical instruments or speaking a language. As soon as any learning process becomes subconscious, the conscious mind is free to direct its attention to new areas of learning. Even all the processes of the physical body are governed by the subconscious mind. Can you imagine having to think through and control your heartbeat, or your digestion every time you enjoyed a meal, or the intricacies of muscular coordination? It is only when we interfere with the natural processes of the subconscious—which are very intelligent if left alone—that we become aware of our dependence upon this positive state of mind.

The subconscious mind is a storehouse, a reflection of all previous conscious mind experiences. The power of our decisions creates our reactions of tomorrow. When tomorrow’s reactions happen, they program the subconscious. We have to be careful that our programming is just right, so that the channels to superconsciousness begin to open through the subconscious.

Facing Old Memories

When man finally turns inward, sits down and asks “Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?” what is the first thing he discovers? The subconscious mind, of course. Do not be afraid of the subconscious. It is useless to be afraid of the past. If memories come up from the subconscious as if they happened yesterday, and you begin reacting emotionally and even physically all over again, say to yourself, “Welcome, welcome, welcome, memory from the past. My goodness, you’re shaking my emotional body. I remember going through these emotional states years ago, and here we are reliving this film over again. But now I am on the spiritual path to enlightenment. I am the Self. One day I’m going to realize it fully. I only live in

this physical body. I use these emotions, but I won’t be used by them. They are my tools. So here you are, my memory pattern, trying to make me feel like I did five years ago before I reprogrammed my subconscious and awakened spiritually. O, memory from the past, you have tested me well. Thank you.” Then, like a good secretary, write down on a piece of paper everything you can remember about these experiences that have come before your vision, and burn the paper when you have finished. Write down the entire experience that you are reacting to emotionally.

This paper-burning serves three purposes. First, it is symbolic to the subconscious that you are not going to react anymore to that particular problem. You have, through the act of writing it down, taken it out of the subconscious. Second, burning the paper means that no one else will read it, which might cause other problems. It also means that through the act of burning subconscious memories, you have released them forever.

When you begin to meditate, you become keen and perceptive enough to begin to see within yourself. Occasionally, you will see into the subconscious area and begin emotionally to relive the past. This means that many of the predominantly strong memory and reactionary patterns of the past loom up before you, one after another, and you may begin to react to them all over again, emotionally and even physically. These are not real experiences. It is only a layer of the subconscious exposing itself to your inner vision, indicating that reprogramming is needed.

3. The Subsubconscious Mind

The area of the subconscious mind formed when two thoughts or experiences of the same rate of intensity sent into the subconscious at different times intermingle and give rise to a new and totally different rate of vibration. This subconscious formation later causes the external mind to react to situations according to these accumulated vibrations, be they positive, negative or mixed.

 

HERE IS ONE AREA OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND THAT SEEMS rather devious and extremely hard to program. It is called the sub of the subconscious mind. It often could seem like faulty software in the computer. But when finally programmed correctly, it can become the greatest asset. It brings us good luck and assists with perfect timing through life. At times we feel as if nothing is happening to us anymore. Everything is going along smoothly. We walk up to a closed door and the door opens for us. We walk up to a telephone and it begins to ring. These signs show us that the subsubconscious is going along very nicely. As soon as we do not enjoy this fine timing, it is generally because of the sub of the subconscious area. For when two programs of a similar nature go into the subconscious computer at different times, they mix and mingle and form a third program within the subconscious that is difficult to fathom intellectually. This is recorded in the sub of the subconscious. For this reason, the sub of the subconscious mind seems awesome and foreboding. If both of the programs are good, beneficial, positive and spiritually vibrant, things go smoothly for us. But if they are not, this area of the subconscious can be very disturbing. Remedies are deep introspection and emotional-intellectual honesty. The subsubconscious can become very powerful, creating healthy new tendencies in this life and molding a dynamic personality.

Color shall be our example. Blue stands alone as a color, and so does yellow. When they merge, they make a third color, green, which creates a mood when you look upon it, different than the mood that arises from looking upon blue or yellow alone. Only in understanding that green is a composite of yellow and blue is the mystery dispelled. Add white to red and you get pink. Add water to soil and you get mud. This is easy to understand and shows the nature of impressions coming together in the subconscious. Add oxygen to hydrogen and you get water. That is a mystery which parallels the nature of the subsubconscious mind, a realm where one plus one equals three, while in the subconscious the sum is two.

Fathoming the Unfathomable

If psychological structures build up as problems in the subsubconscious and are not resolved, they can inhibit or hold back the superconscious. One then easily feels depressed and subject to many lower emotions. Then the concept that one is a self-

effulgent being seems quite distant, indeed. When the subsubconscious build-up is problem free, superconsciousness is there, bringing success and well-being.

The subsubconscious concerns us primarily as the state of mind which relates to congested subconscious force fields, or vasanas, caused by two similar intense emotional reactions at psychological moments. The resultant deeply suppressed emotions are puzzling to the seeker because, unless he is able to resolve through periodic review his subsubconscious, he may find them welling up from within him unbidden, and he knows not why. The subsubconscious influences us when we are encountering an experience similar to one that caused one of the two component reactions. This releases highly unexpected emotional responses, inobvious reactions and new behavioral patterns, some positive, some negative. The hybrid formation continues to react within the subsubconscious mind until resolved. Once understood, the mystery is gone. The vasana loses its emotional power. To a very great extent, it is the subsubconscious that harbors our subliminal aspirations, self-esteem, impulses toward success, neuroses and overall psychological behavior.

An example of this state of mind is as follows. A young man goes to an office party and accidentally spills coffee on his suit. Being a gentle, shy man, he becomes embarrassed and emotionally upset when everyone turns to look at him. Many months later, he attends his sister’s wedding. In her excitement at the reception, she accidentally spills tea on her beautiful new sari. She is naturally embarrassed. But it is a psychological moment for him, intensified by his attachment to his sister, and he becomes more embarrassed for her than she is for herself.

A year later he discovers that each time he attends a social gathering, his solar plexus becomes upset, his digestion is affected, he gets a headache and has to leave. The fear mechanism, stimulated by the subsubconscious mind, is protecting him from another upsetting condition among a group of people. This continues for a number of years until the subsubconscious, in a semi-dream state, reveals itself to him and he sees clearly how the two reactionary thought patterns, caused by the dual experiences, met and merged and gave rise to a different conscious experience—the indigestion, the headaches and the dread of being among people. Once the obstacle was resolved in the light of understanding, he would be able to be among people in gatherings without these ill effects.

The Mind’s Potent Alchemy

It is only when the emotionally charged experiences that go into the subconscious are of a strictly instinctive nature that the subsubconscious is uncomely or not beneficial and becomes a strong hindrance to well-being. On the other hand, experiences of a positive, intellectual or spiritual nature merging in the subconscious can create a subsubconscious that is quite dynamic and helpful, giving courage and competence in worldly affairs. Feelings of security, love and compassion can come up from the subsubconscious during psychological moments in one’s life to counteract and eliminate or subdue feelings of jealousy, hatred and anger, which are natural to the instinctive mind.

For example, a man’s business flourishes during the summer. The next winter he experiences great exhilaration and satisfaction at winning a skiing competition. The summer success and the winter accomplishment merging in the subconscious create a third, different impression which builds an abiding confidence and impulsion toward future victory. The next year, he goes into a second business and again prospers. The strong impression of being successful planted in the subsubconscious has created a positive habit pattern for the forces of the subsuperconscious to flow through.

The subsubconscious can also be formed by the blending of strong, intuitive, religious or mystical impressions. For instance, a devotee has an elevating vision of a Deity in an early morning dream or a conscious vision during meditation. A year later, while meditating, he has the experience of flying through the akaßa in his astral body. These two impressions merge in the subconscious and create a deep-seated faith and unwavering certainty in the inner realities. Such vasanas bring up courage and eliminate the fear of death, replacing it with the assurance that life is eternal, the soul is real and the physical body is but a shell in which we live.

A. MANIVELU

A subsubconscious complex is created when two similar experiences enter the subconscious, making a third. A woman recalls tea staining her sari at a party. Years later she sees coffee spilled on her husband. These experiences combine to create a fear of social events, just as blue and yellow create green.

Resolution in Dreams

Through the powers of meditation, one can straighten out a few of the subsubconscious mind’s predominant misprogrammings that cause tendencies that make us act in certain ways. The subsubconscious mind can be understood consciously when the thoughts which created this “sub” are traced. These will usually be found when the conscious mind is at its lowest ebb. When resting it is possible to study the sub of the subconscious mind with ease. The body is relaxed and the conscious mind has loosened its hold on external objects. When study has commenced, trace through the thought pictures consciously, without disturbing the overall picture. Take into consideration the fact that all thought stems from a series of influences within the ego. These influences take form and shape in thought. When

you manifest pictures before you, trace them to their conception by holding the consciousness lightly over the mind, blotting out all distractions that may creep into the mind in an effort to disturb your consciousness. Take your findings, whatever they may be, and consciously think them through until all doubts have been dispelled. You will then find that through your conscious effort the sub of the subconscious mind has been understood consciously as well as subconsciously. Remember, however, that it is not necessary to remove each and every negative impression, one by one. Rather, we seek to strengthen the positive impressions. This in itself is sufficient and will allow unseemly impressions to be naturally resolved.

The Subsuperconscious Mind

This is the intuitive state, which brings clarity, creativity and insight. It functions when the subconscious is quiet, allowing the superconscious to work through both the conscious and subconscious states.

 

HE SUBSUPERCONSCIOUS MIND IS THE AREA OF THE SUPERCONSCIOUS that has a subconscious which is connected with the physical-body functions and everyday life affairs. The subsuperconscious state is the total man, functioning at a higher vibratory rate than he did when in the instinctive-intellectual area. What is the subsuperconscious mind? It is the superconscious of the devotee well-programmed in the contemplative life. This devotee can work with himself and move awareness freely through any area of the mind that he wants to, consciously, without being hindered by habit patterns and reactionary conditions of the past which were programmed in the subconscious for him by parents,

schoolteachers, friends and the public in general as he came along through life from birth.

When your timing is perfect and everything works correctly around you, things happen as you expect them to happen, or even better, you are in the subsuperconscious area of the mind. Certainly you are not in the subconscious area or in the external conscious mind. You are subsuperconscious. You are aware within the inner realms and the external realms at the same time. When you feel stationary, stable, as if the whole world stopped and there is only you in the center, and yet you are able to converse with your friends—this is a subsuperconscious state. Subsuperconsciousness is really awareness traveling, propelled by energy and willpower.

The devotee who has developed the subsuperconscious area of the mind can sit quietly as a being of pure cosmic energy and observe the many thoughts of the mind without being affected by them. The intuitive knowing that we are pure awareness, the soul, and not the thoughts that we think gives the security to move from concentration into deeper meditation. The subsuperconscious state gives that inherent feeling of inner stability, the feeling of being stationary or centered within the realms of the thinking mind.

Man in the subsuperconscious area of the mind in meditation is sitting as a being of pure energy. Even if many thoughts go past his vision, he knows he is flowing through the world of thought as a subsuperconscious state of awareness. Awareness is in a stationary state within the realms of the thinking mind. When we are out of the thinking mind, we are in the conceptual, subsuperconscious areas.

Defining the Subsuperconscious

The subsuperconscious mind is a quiet subconscious. That is actually what it is. It is the subconscious that has been made to be peaceful by putting into it a contemplative lifestyle. It is a receptacle for the superconscious areas of mind to permeate the physical body from the psyche, so that the body of the soul can look out through the eyes of the physical body, radiate through the cells of the physical body and allow superconscious rays to radiate out through the aura.

Would you like to try to locate the subsuperconscious state of mind? Look at the room around you. That is the conscious mind you are aware in. Next, focus on your feelings and be aware of what you are thinking. You are now aware in the

subconscious mind. Next, feel your spiritual identity, feel the power in your spine. Sit up straight. Feel powerful energy on the inside of your spinal cord. At the same time you are identified with being the energy in the spine, and separating the feeling of energy from the physical spine, look at the room around you and become conscious of your personal thoughts and feelings.

Doing this brings you into a subsuperconscious state, because you are conscious of your superconsciousness, the power and energy and life and spiritual forces resident right within the body. Simultaneously, you are conscious of your thinking faculty, the room around you and yourself as being pure energy. It is that easy to be in a subsuperconscious state, more difficult to remain in it for long periods of time.

The feeling of the eternity of the moment is experienced upon the first arrival into the subsuperconscious state of mind. This occurs when the subconscious state of mind is in a quiescent state, a state of full receptivity to superconsciousness. It has not been destroyed, but has been purified of all barriers, such as negative attachments. When this occurs, the devotee has the feeling that there is no future, there is no past, and the only reality is the eternity of the moment.

Great vistas of creativity are opened to those who learn to keep open and receptive to the subsuperconscious mind. Music, art, drama and dance flow most spontaneously, and answers to questions in the subconscious, previously unanswered, come forth in intuitive flashes, without the use of reason, while not conflicting with reason. A feeling of contentment and confidence resides within an individual who has learned to consciously identify and use the subsuperconscious mind.

Security in the Superconscious

When the superconscious forces diminish, the subsuperconscious mind, in effect, recedes from the actual consciousness of the devotee, and he becomes simply conscious of his subconscious mind. In the very same way, from time to time, the conscious mind overshadows the subconscious mind, and the devotee becomes conscious fully in the external world, the subconscious mind receding from his conscious awareness of it. Therefore, the object of the devotee is to control the materialistic forces and the impressions that they create in his mind, so that he can become consciously conscious in the state of mind he chooses.

Meditation is conscious use of the subsuperconscious mind to solve problems that confront us in our daily activity and derive creative solutions from the inner recesses of our own mind. Another way of using the superconscious forces is through affirmation. When you say to yourself, “I’m all right, right now,” you immediately bring the forces of the mind together. All fears, worries and doubts cease. An influx of actinic energy fills the subconscious, and a sense of dynamic security permeates your being.

A. MANIVELU

The subsuperconscious mind becomes the daily experience of devotees unhindered by reactionary patterns. Here a seeker sees light in his head and spine, and hears the nada, a vina-like inner sound. He inwardly cognizes and resolves his karmas, shown as a thunderstorm.

The Flow of Creativity

A devotee who can command his mind to be instantly creative, and be consistently successful, has acquired a conscious control of the use of the subsuperconscious state of mind. This is because the subconscious mind—made of odic force, a sticky-

like substance that absorbs impressions, holds impressions and files them (not always, however, in an organized way)—has been understood, dissolved and brought in line with the cosmic forces through living a religious life. In this pure condition, the devotee’s attempts to direct his own mental forces are quite naturally successful. Unobstructed, the superconscious forces flow into the life of the devotee, and creativity is in abundance. Once the first breakthrough has been made, we find that these brilliant rays from the cosmic mind—which we also call Satchidananda, the mind of God Íiva, the Gods and your immortal soul—penetrate the sticky-like substance of the subconscious, reorganizing and purifying it.

The next time you feel physically, mentally or emotionally fatigued, use your willpower to command access to the cosmic energies that exist deep inside of you. Do not allow the body or mind to fall into lethargic, depressed states. Feel the life forces stirring, flowing out to invigorate every cell of your being.

When you can see a white light aglow in your head in a darkened room, or even see a flash of it, or hear the inner, high-pitched sound, “eee,” humming in your inner ear, then you know that you are consciously functioning in the subsuperconscious state of mind. Devotees who have had their first flash of white light in their head or heard the constant high-pitched “eee” in their inner ear have awakened the process of the subsuperconscious state of mind, and it works quite automatically after that. All they have to do is to learn how to consciously use their subsuperconscious transcendental powers. All this will naturally occur through their continued sadhana.

The Superconscious Mind

The mind of light, the all-knowing intelligence of the soul. The Sanskrit term is turiya, “the fourth,” meaning the condition beyond the states of “wakefulness” (jagrat), “dream” (svapna), and “deep sleep” (sushupti). At its deepest level, the superconscious is Parashakti, or Satchidananda, the Divine Mind of God Siva.

 

E HAVE TO ADJUST OUR SUBCONSCIOUS TO THE IDEA THAT we are a superconscious being, rather than an instinctive being or an intellectual being driven by the impulses of the five senses. Awareness is the core of us. If we dropped off this physical body today, we would be a superconscious being without a physical body.

When Are You Superconscious?

It is easier to know when you are not superconscious than when you are superconscious, because your superconsciousness is such a natural state. It is such a beautiful state. It is such a full, wholesome state to be in, that you are not aware generally that you are superconscious.

When you are not feeling too well within yourself, you are not superconscious. When you are feeling really good and satisfied within yourself, you are superconscious. When your timing is right, when everything is happening just right during the day, you are superconscious. When nothing seems to be happening right, then your awareness is flowing through one of the congested areas of the thought realm. When everything seems to be going wrong, you are flowing through an instinctive area or a congested intellectual area.

When you are arguing with yourself, you are not superconscious. You are flowing through an area of the intellectual mind, taking two points of view and flowing from one to another. When discussing something with someone, you are not superconscious, for superconsciousness is a one-way street. You speak right from the core of existence without really thinking about what you are going to say. You just speak out and hear what you said afterwards.

When you are arguing with someone, you are not superconscious. You have moved into a congested area of the thought strata of the mind and you are verbalizing it, and are congesting the aura, too. Then awareness has to be unwound from that area of the mind and directed back again to superconsciousness. When you are disturbed about yesterday, or even have a consciousness that there was a yesterday, you are not in a superconscious state. When you are afraid, you are not in a superconscious state. When you are peaceful, when you are calm, when you are in the eternity of the

moment, when you feel secure on the inside of you, you are in a superconscious state. Superconsciousness is not something you will get, because you have never been without it. You are superconscious this very minute, and functioning in all five states of the mind.

Be Aware of Energy

Become aware of the totality of Being. This does not take a lot of time. The easiest way, the simplest way, is to be aware of the spine and the energies within the head. Locate the consciousness of energy. Be aware of energy. When you are aware of energy, you automatically forget what you were previously aware of and it fades away. You leave the consciousness of the instinctive-intellectual area of the mind and move into superconsciousness. If you can remain totally centered in awareness of the energy within your spine and the energy within the head, you become aware of the same energy within everybody and everything you see. You are immediately in a superconscious state when this happens.

Therefore, the simple goal is, stay in this consciousness of energy for the rest of your life. It is just that easy, but it is not quite that simple to accomplish, because you have already trained your awareness to move into other channels of the mind, and it will do that automatically as soon as you cease to be aware of the energy within the spine. Then you forget that you are a superconscious, immortal being and begin to think you are only temporal. You may begin to think that there is a past, or that there is a future, and begin to feel that the eternal now is an insecure time. You may find yourself beginning to lean on other people rather than on your own spine. When you discover this happening, then begin to meditate. Go deep within yourself again and find superconsciousness. Seek the company of people who center their awareness within. This will make it easier for you to do so. Being around people who center awareness in the external areas of the mind is difficult because they draw your awareness into the external areas of the thought strata.

People who really value awareness being “hooked,” shall we say, into the inner areas of energy, and have studied that function of energy, draw your awareness into it. When this happens, you begin to see from inside out. You actually see from the inside of everything that you look at to the exterior of it. You look at a tree. You first see the energy within the tree. The bark is the last thing you see. When you are in an outer consciousness, first you see the bark of the tree and then you intellectually surmise that there must be energies within it because you happen to notice that a

leaf is growing and assume that it must be alive. How awkward awareness is when it is stumbling around in the external area of the mind. And how smooth awareness flows freely when it is dynamically cruising into inner layers of inner space.

We shall now compare the superconscious mind to an onion of seven layers, each interior layer more subtle than the outer ones. 1) Experiencing the consciousness of the eternity of the moment, as if the world was revolving around you; 2) Experiencing a cosmic energy, a divine force, flowing through your external mind which is more real to you than the external mind itself; 3) Experiencing hearing voices singing, music playing—the divine sounds of the flute, mridangam, vina and tambura—while in meditation or early in the morning just before awakening; 4) Experiencing seeing the faces of Gods or devas, or a rishi’s face, looking into yours while in meditation or early in the morning just before awakening; 5) Experiencing the peace and inner poise of the all-pervasive Satchidananda; 6) Experiencing the anandamaya kosha, the body of the soul, as it comes into conscious union with the physical body; 7) Experiencing being on the brink of the Absolute, Parasiva, the void, having lost consciousness of the physical body and of being any of the five states of mind. These seven states of superconsciousness are only a few, to be sure, of this vast area of mind.

A. MANIVELU

As the superconscious awakens, the seeker’s third eye, the ajna chakra, reveals a world of inner peace and mystical experience. This woman sees Siva dancing atop her head, His anklet softly jingling as blissful energies, symbolized by flowers, flood her nervous system.

Learn to Move Awareness

You must not think the superconscious mind is way out of your reach simply because of the word super, because it is quite the contrary. It is within you. It has always been within you. All you have to do is to reprogram the subconscious a little and move awareness out of the conscious mind, and your journey is within. You are superconscious now. You have to accept that. You do not have to “get to be” superconscious. This is not something that is going to happen to you all of a sudden and then cause you to be different. The thing that is going to happen to you is that you will release your individual awareness from the so-called bondages of the habit patterns of the external mind that it had been accustomed to flowing through. Once it is released, you will automatically flow into other inner areas of the mind because you have been studying about them and now have the map clearly outlined for you.

You might be wondering why, if you are supposed to be superconscious right now, you have not had the wonderful experiences that I have told you about. This is easy to answer. You may be superconscious now but not consciously superconscious all of the time, or even for long enough periods to have these beautiful experiences. Though you are superconscious right now, awareness is still externalized enough that you touch into it only a little bit and then are pulled back to the subconscious or to the conscious mind.

Through regular practice of meditation, one learns to move awareness through the superconscious areas like a dancer learns to move across the stage according to the rhythm of the music. It takes much practice for the dancer to acquire the technique in the preparation of himself to fulfill his calling. He has to live a disciplined lifestyle. It is the same for the contemplative. He has to work with and exercise the currents of awareness so dynamically that he can flow into a superconscious area and remain there long enough to look around a little bit and enjoy it

Love of God Is Vedanta!

The Life & Teachings of Sri Ramanuja, India’s Great Theologian

By Lakshmi & Tim Sridharan

PAINTING BY S. RAJAM

Ramanuja sits on the guru’s traditional seat in worshipful acknowledgement of the pervasive presence of Varadaraja (Vishnu), who reclines knowingly on the divine serpent Adisesha, a conch in His left hand and discus in His right.

SURI KESHAVA SOMAYAJULU AND HIS WIFE KANTHIMATHI , a young orthodox Vaishnavite couple living in Sriperumbudur (30 miles southwest of modern-day Chennai), yearned for a child. As so many young Hindu couples before them, the two regarded birth as a blessing held in the hands of God. Together they prayed ardently to the Varadaraja Perumal Deity in nearby Kanchipuram. Their heartfelt prayers were answered by the birth of a healthy, divine child—a son who, according to legend, was an incarnation of the serpent Adishesha (who had long ago incarnated as Rama’s younger brother, Lakshmana).

Kanthimathi’s brother, Thirumalai Nambi, struck by his nephew’s noble appearance and brilliant aura, named him Ramanujan (brother of Rama). Also named as Ilaya Perumal (“younger God”) by Nambi, Ramanuja would grow up to became a great scholar, teacher, theologian, philosopher and social reformer. Born ten centuries before Mahatma Gandhi, he foreshadowed Gandhi’s vision and ideals. He believed that the holy scriptures and Lord Narayana, God, are not the sole property of the brahmin community. Rather, everyone, irrespective of social status, has the right to learn the scriptures and worship Narayana. He believed that service to humanity is service to God.

RANGANATHAN

A view of the temples in Sriperumbudur. The largest tower is one of the gopurams of the Adhikesava Perumal temple.

Ramanuja and His First Teacher, Yadavaprakasha

Young Ramanuja had an extraordinary and precocious gift for grasping the meaning of the most difficult Sanskrit texts. He sought out the company of wise men, scholars and devotees. Ramanuja’s family arranged his marriage at age 16 to a beautiful girl named Rakshambal, culminating in a week-long ceremony at which the whole town rejoiced. But the joy did not last long, as Ramanuja’s father, Keshava, fell severely ill and died shortly after.

Following the traumatic demise of his father, the young groom left Sriperumbudur with his wife and mother and moved to the neighboring town of Thiruputkuzhi, near Kanchipuram, a well-known center of learning. Having studied Sanskrit and the Vedasunder his father, he would now study advanced Vedanta. There, Yadavaprakasha, a renowned advaitic acharya, accepted Ramanuja and his cousin Govinda as his disciples.

There is a saying in Tamil, “Guruvukku minjina sishyan,” praising the exceptional student who in some way surpasses his guru. Ramanuja was one such student. Yadava was strict in his beliefs, demeanor and expectations, demanding complete, unquestioning devotion from his disciples. Though faced with an intimidating teacher’s unbending ways, Ramanuja could not suppress his profound disagreement with Yadava’s views.

For instance, he openly challenged the teacher on the meaning of “Satyam, Jnanam, Anantam Brahma” (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.1.1). Yadava’s interpretation was, “Brahman is the whole form of truth, wisdom and infinitude.” Ramanuja’s gleaning was much fuller: “Lord has qualities such as truth and knowledge and has no beginning or end. God is eternal. However, those qualities alone are not Brahman.”

Yadavaprakasha was not impressed with his disciple’s extension or interpretation of the text, but rather annoyed. He was afraid that his brilliant student was a real threat not only to his status as guru but also to his advaita philosophy. Concerned that, if allowed to thrive, the youth might found a rival school, the guru hatched a plot to kill Ramanuja during a pilgrimage to Varanasi that he would make with all his disciples. The plan was to drown Ramanuja near Manikarnika Ghat. According to Life of Ramanujan, Yadav rationalized this as a “death which, taking place in the Holy Ganga, would be counted as an affair of merit, which they thought would not involve the actors in sin! What travesty of spiritual ethics by Yadava!”

NAINEE SHAH

Ramanuja has a heated philosophical debate with his first teacher, Yadavaprakasha (seated on bench), who scolds the impertinent student.

Along the way, Ramanuja’s cousin Govinda learned of the murderous plot and in-formed Ramanuja. Shocked and fearful of his teacher’s intent, Ramanuja fled the party, hiking off into the Vindhya hills. Traveling through the forest, he met and was befriended by a hunter couple who said they were on pilgrimage south to Kanchipuram. He shared that he wanted to go to Kanchi as well, and they offered to take him there. They suggested a well they knew of where they could gather water and bathe. They camped for the night and the next morning hiked to the well. Ramanuja went down a hill to the well and drank of the cool water. When he returned with water for the hunter couple, he could not find them. The couple had disappeared. Weary and confused, he continued his journey. Approaching a town and seeing its temple towers, he recognized it as his beloved Kanchipuram. Suddenly it dawned on him that the hunter couple were not human but divine beings. The Deity Varadaraja Perumal of the Kanchi Temple and His consort Perundevi had become his guides in the Vindhyan wilds and that night while he slept had miraculously transported him 1,000 miles to his destination.

South India’s Four Renowned Philosopher Saints

indu faith, religion, ethics, culture and traditions are strongly rooted in the vast body of ancient scriptures called the Vedas. Hindus revere these scriptures, compiled thousands of years ago, as revealed truth, or shruti (“that which is heard”). The first sections of the Vedas represent the karma kanda, emphasizing human life and worship of the Divine. The final portion of the Vedas, the Upanishads, being philosophical by nature, represent the jnana kanda (wisdom), emphasizing philosophy. They are also considered the ultimate end of the Vedas; hence the termVedanta (Veda + anta, meaning “end”). The Upanishads speak of the nature of reality, the world and the soul’s path to liberation from rebirth.

In scripture it is proclaimed, “Acharya devo bavah:” “Acharya (guru) is God,” implying that only with the guidance of an acharya can one comprehend and interpret the holy scriptures, lead a righteous life and use jnana, or knowledge, as a vehicle to attain moksha. The four great acharyas of South India, who lived many centuries ago, are Shankara, Ramanuja, Nimbarka and Madhva. Each formulated his own interpretation of the relationship between the infinite God (Paramatman, Parabrahman, Purushothaman, etc.) and the finite atman (individual self), as revealed in the Upanishads and other texts. The three basic concepts in their philosophies are God, soul and world—the fundamental triad of existence.

These four acharyas were not contemporaries: Ramanuja (1017–1137 ce) could question the interpretation of Shankara (780–812) but not of Madhva (1238–1317) or Nimbarka (13th century). Nor were they of the same faith: Ramanuja, Madhva and Nimbarka were staunch Vaishnavites, while Shankara was of the Smarta tradition.

Shankara promulgated pure Advaita, a non-dualistic or monistic philosophy teaching the oneness of the soul, atman, with Paramatman, the Supreme Soul, or God, and focusing on Reality as transcendent. Madhva, at the other extreme, taught Dvaita, a dualistic and theistic philosophy, postulating an eternal distinction between atman and Paramatman. He regarded the Supreme Person as a great Being, a Personal Lord. Nimbarka taught Dvaita-Advaita, positing three equally real and co-eternal realities—Brahman, the souls (chit), and the world (achit). Brahman is the Controller (niyantri), chit is the enjoyer (bhoktri) and the achit is the object enjoyed (bhogya). Ramanuja’s philosophy, known as Vishishtadvaita, or “monism of the qualified,” finds a middle ground, leaning towards monism yet disagreeing with Shankara’s understanding on several points: the relationship between atman and Paramatman; the definition of Parabrahman as nirguna (without guna, qualities) and the concept of

maya, which Shankara defined as illusion. Ramanuja’s Vishishtadvaita synthesizes the Advaita philosophy with the devotional practices of dualists and the alvar saints’ path of surrender, saranagati.

When Yadavaprakasa arrived at Kanchi, to his astonishment and dismay he found Ramanuja there ahead of him. Feigning joy, he said, “Our grief at your loss in the wilds was great; but seeing you now, it has given way to boundless joy.” Ramanuja reported to his would-be assassin that he had lost his way and gotten separated from the group, but was aided by a hunter couple who had magically transported him to Kanchipuram while he slept under a tree. Hearing this account, Yadava stared at Ramanuja in fear and wonder, at that moment realizing that Ramanuja was not an ordinary man but a great soul to be looked upon with utmost regard. Ashamed of his evil intentions, Yadava invited Ramanuja to again grace his school with his presence.

Ramanuja resumed his studies with Yadava, but their relationship once again became bitter as philosophical differences kept them at odds. When Ramanuja could no longer endure his guru’s intellectual tyranny, he left him. The following incident, narrated by Swami Tapasyananda in his book Sri Ramanuja, illustrates their divergent perspectives:

NAINEE SHAH

Ramanuja kneels beside Yamunacharya, who has just left his body. The thumb and two fingers on the right hand are clenched, which Ramanuja interprets as three wishes he must fulfill.

“One day Yadavaprakasha was interpreting the Upanishadic passage, Sarvam khalvidam brahma, ne’ha nanasti kinchana, ‘All this is Brahman; there is no diversity here whatever.’ He was interpreting it, justifying the doctrine of the oneness of the Atman and Brahman. Ramanuja differed from him and said the passage would have meant the oneness of all with Brahman if it were not followed by, Tajjalan iti shanta upasita, ‘This universe is born in, sustained by and dissolves in Brahman; meditate thus on Him.’ This qualification makes the earlier part mean: ‘The things in this samsara are not existing severally, but as pearls strung on a thread; they are interpenetrated by Brahman and held as a unity without impairing their manifoldness.’ This interpretation of Ramanuja generated a violent fit of annoyance in Yadavaprakasha. He asked Ramanuja to get away from his school. In obedience to the teacher, he took leave of him after worshiping his feet in all reverence.”

This was a turning point in the young philosopher’s life. Years later, Ramanuja defeated this former master in a debate. So potent was the victory that the once arrogant advaitin became a staunch Vaishnavite and a devotee of Ramanuja.

“Ramanuja was glad to leave this teacher of an impossible and absurd philosophy. Straight home he went, and informed his mother Sri-Devi of all that happened. ‘Enough of thy studies, son!’ said she; ‘there is Tirukkacchi Nambi who is in great favor with Lord Varadaraja. Seek his advice and service, and abide by his will. That will do thee all the good.’ Ramanuja at once sought Nambi and besought him to employ him in divine services in the temple” (as recounted in Govindacharya’s The Life of Ramanujacharya).

FOTOLIA

The distinctive sectarian forehead ¨ body insignia of four Vaishnava denominations along with the tripundra tilak worn by Saivites.

Ramanuja and the Great Yamunacharya

After leaving Yadavaprakasha, Ramanuja searched for a spiritual master. Meanwhile, the renowned Yamunacharya (917-1042) of Srirangam, now ailing, had been looking for an ideal student to become his successor. Yamunacharya was a scholar, a spiritual master and a powerful debater. As a mere child of twelve, he had defeated the most formidable scholar at the king’s court, winning half the kingdom and receiving the title Alavandar (“ruler,” “savior”) from the queen. Yamuna later renounced the kingdom to become a sannyasin and acharya, fulfilling the wishes of his grandfather, the great Nathamuni. It should be mentioned that the Vishishtadvaita philosophy and the creed of Shri Vaishnavism were already well established in South India at this time, firmly embodied in important temples at Kanchipuram, Tirupati and

other major towns. The prefix Shri refers to the Goddess Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu. Yamuna was in charge of the Ranganatha Temple and Vishishtadvaita Math at Srirangam, the main center of the Shri Vaishnavas.

It is believed that Ramanuja’s break with Yadavaprakasha was due to the prayers of Yamunacharya. Having had heard of his saintly prowess, Yamunacharya foresaw him as his successor. Author Govindacharya narrates this prayer: “Yamunacharya now mounted up to the central shrine of Lord Varada (called Hastigiri). Standing before the Deity he prayed, ‘Great Lord! grant me a boon. Thou art Vara-da (Boon-Granter). By thy favor, the deaf hears, the lame runs, the dumb speaks, the blind sees and the barren bears. I have sought Thee. Grant me that Ramanuja shall become the bearer of the torch of our faith.’”

Ramanuja’s Philosophy & Theology

amanuja, in contrast with Shankara, asserts that the Upanishadic absolute Brahman is not a bare identity or a non-entity but rather a determinate whole, maintaining an identity in and through the differences—that the absolute, infinite Brahman manifests in every finite reality. He echoes the words of Prahlad, who defied his atheist father by saying God is in this pillar and even in the smallest of all things (“Thoonilum ullan, thurumbilan ullan”). Life is real, matter is real, and universe is real; these are not figments of imagination, not illusory objects, however transient they may be. Ramanuja’s personal Deity is a composite of the divine characteristics described in the holy Sanskrit scriptures and the Tamil Divya Prabandham. The Supreme has “a divine form peculiar to itself, not of the primal substance or matter (prakriti) and not due to karma.”

To illuminate the acharya’s brilliant outlook, we gratefully offer the following long excerpt from the book Sri Ramanuja, by Swami Tapasyananda of the Ramakrishna Mission.

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The philosophy of Sri Ramanuja is the most pre-eminent among the Bhakti Schools of Vedanta, both because of the profundity of the doctrines it expounds and the balanced devotionalism it teaches. Barring Bhaskara’s Bhedabheda (identity-in-difference) interpretation of Vedanta Sutras, Ramanuja’s was the first comprehensive criticism of the Vedanta as expounded by Shankara some three

centuries before him. The other schools of Bhakti Vedanta that came after him have only taken up his criticisms and teachings with minor re-statements to suit their theological leanings. The common object of all these systems may be stated thus: They seek to establish the supremacy of the Divine Personality, known under the different sacred names of Purushottama, Narayana, Vasudeva, Krishna, etc., and equate Him with Brahman, the Absolute of the Upanishads. For them, the Supreme Being is a Person with attributes, and there is no Absolute beyond Him. They also lay stress on the exclusive position of devotion and Divine grace as the only means to overcome the hold of karma on the jiva and enable him to attain salvation. Salvation or release from the hold of karma does not mean for them the mergence of the jiva in Brahman, but attaining to the status of an eternal servant of His, which alone can give unalloyed bliss to the jiva. Most of these teachings are mainly theological, but they require the backing of a consistent metaphysics to establish their credibility.

Among all the teachers of this devotional brand of Vedanta, Ramanuja is the one whose metaphysical genius rivals that of Shankara himself. He was a master of Vedic lore and methodology of arguments and exposition. While in his subsidiary works he leans very much on the devotional writings of his school of Vaishnavism, in his main work, the Shri Bhashya or the commentary on the Vedanta Sutras of Badarayana, he exhibits himself to be a pure Vedantin, that is, the follower of the Upanishadic doctrine of Brahman, which of course is for him identical with Narayana, the Divine Person.

The Upanishadic Brahman is the unity which comprehends in Himself all the diversities of common experience and yet remains unaffected and unlimited by them. Shankara establishes that unity by reducing all diversity into a mere appearance like a snake superimposed on a rope in semi-darkness. According to him, the darkness of ignorance is the cause of illusory presentation of multiplicity. All the time the multiplicity is perceived, it is not actually there, and the unitary Consciousness had remained unchanged. On the light of knowledge arising, the illusory presentation disappears without leaving any residue beyond the Non-dual One, which was always there unchanged as the substratum. He thus achieves the unity of all existence and the unchangeableness and unaffectedness of Brahman. This achievement leaves many problems unsolved and creates many others to be solved. He however gives a prima facie reality to the world of diversity from the practical point of view (vyavaharika satta), only to deny it absolutely in the end. An unmodified and

attributeless Consciousness alone is the Ultimate Reality. Reality has thus for him two tiers—the apparently real and the truly real.

Ramanuja is totally hostile to this Advaitic interpretation of the unity proclaimed by this brand of Vedanta. Unity is not the sublation of all diversity but the subordination of diversity to unity. His system is called Vishishtadvaita, a term which, according to competent authorities, is not used by him anywhere in his writings, but came to be used later to differentiate it from the other systems of Advaita, just as Shankara’s doctrine came to be called in later times Kevaladvaita. Both Shankara and Ramanuja considered themselves only as Vedantins, and for both of them their system is the Vedanta.

The term Vishishtadvaita is often translated as “qualified non-dualism.” Scholars disagree with this translation. The compound (sandhi) is not karmadharayan butbahuvrahi, and its English translation will be the “non-duality of the qualified whole.” Von Buitenin has elaborated it as “unity of the universe’s spiritual and non-spiritual substances with, and in, a God whom they modify as His body.” A more compact translation is “pan-organistic non-dualism.” In this system, the world is ultimately true, the jiva is ultimately true, God is ultimately true, and liberation from bondage is also factually true. Thus, in effect, it is a totally realistic theism in which God and the Absolute are one and the same. The non-dual, all-inclusive qualified Whole is the Brahman of the Vedanta, according to Ramanuja.

While this metaphysical framework is established and argued with relentless logic and philosophical methodology of Vedantic tradition, Ramanuja’s system gets flesh and blood by his devotional ideologies of the passionate devotees of the Lord Vishnu (the alvars) that the Tamil land produced from the second to the eighth century. Thus Ramanuja’s Vedanta becomes philosophical Vaishnavism. While he is a strict Vedantin in his methodology and way of scriptural exegesis, he identified the Upanishadic Brahman with Vishu-Narayana; and this is his turning point from philosophy to religion. His Vaishnavism is indicated in his early major writing the Shri Bhashya, but becomes pronounced in his later writings. The account of Ramanuja’s life given earlier makes clear how these two streams of thought, the Vedic and the Vaishnava, came to mingle in him.

Theology

In fact, Ramanuja’s mission in life was this—to effect a rational and natural mingling of the rapturous devotion of the alvars with the Upanishadic quest of the ontological

and unifying ground of the changing world of the many. Bhakti, or devotion, requires two—the adorable and lovable God who is a Person as also the Supreme Being on the one hand, and the devotee who finds his fulfilment in service of Him, on the other. The Vedanta of the Upanishads mainly preaches the doctrine of the Absolute Being, who is the non-dual source, substratum and dissolving ground of the many that constitute the world of our experience. “That out of which all beings come, in which they all subsist, and into which they are withdrawn is Brahman”—this is the watchword of the Upanishads. Brahman is all-inclusive and all-absorbing, and is described by such epithets as Sat-chid-ananda (Existence-knowledge-bliss) and Sat-yam, Jnanam, Anantam Brahma (Brahman is Truth, Consciousness and Infinite).

Shankaracharya interprets this Upanishadic doctrine of the Absolute as the Non-dual Being in whom the world of the many is a mere appearance ascribed by Ignorance and not actually existing. For practical purposes, he gives a prima facie reality (Vyavaharika Satta) to the world of the many and to God, who is its cause. But this God (Saguna-Brahman) is distinguished from the Absolute, and His reality belongs to the same order as that of the world of the many that are said to be His creation. When Ignorance is overcome by proper metaphysical insight, the aspirant realizes that what he considered as his “I” is really the Absolute Brahman into whom the apparent world and its God too resolve. It is comparable to the appearance of a snake in semi-darkness, and its disappearance in its substratum, the rope, on the removal of darkness. Both the world and God conceived as its cause are sublated and are realized as having had no real existence.

Ramanuja totally differs from such interpretation of the Upanishadic doctrine which militates against the ultimacy of God and the supremacy of devotion. He criticises severely the theory of Ignorance and the compartmentalisation of Reality into Paramartha (ultimate) and Vyavaharika (relative or practical). To the question, what is the locus of Ignorance, there is no credible answer from the Advaitin. If it is Brahman, Brahman becomes loaded with evil and becomes unworthy as a spiritual goal. If it is the jiva (individual spirit), the same defect persists, as the jiva in its real nature is one with Brahman according to advaita. If it is an entirely different category, dualism is the result. Besides, the jiva is caused by the upadhis (adjuncts) superimposed on Brahman, and these upadhis are the products of Ignorance. Thus Ignorance must precede the jiva and cannot therefore be conceived as located in it. To describe Ignorance as a category that is neither existent nor non-existent nor a combination of both is to speak a language unknown to logical thinking.

Ramanuja directs a devastating attack against the doctrine of a sublatable God who is less than the Absolute or the Supreme Being, against the theory of Ignorance which is without a definite locus and which cannot be described as existent or non-existent or a combination of both, and against the compartmentalization of Reality into Paramartha (the ultimately real) and Vyavaharika (the relatively real), which means only that the latter is illusory.

Ramanuja’s greatness consists in bringing to bear his Sanskritic and Veda-oriented ideology and methodology on the purely devotional heritage of the alvars, and thus creating what is called Ubhaya-Vedanta [meaning two-fold Vedanta], which is significant in the whole world of philosophy, as also in the limited sphere of the Tamil land.

As explained by Swami Tapasyananda, “It was his great ambition to bring about a union between the emotional religion of the alvars and the Vedantic methodology of philosophic exposition which had become current in the scholarly world after the advent of Shankaracharya and his commentaries on Vedantic texts. He could not himself fulfill this work in his life, but towards the end of his life he came across Ramanuja and recognized in him the competent Vedic scholar who could do it.” Overjoyed upon hearing of Ramanuja’s separation from his former guru, Yamuna sent Mahapurna, one of his closest disciples, to go and bring the brilliant student to him from Kanchipuram.

Reaching Srirangam after four days of travel, Ramanuja and Mahapurna encountered a long funeral procession which they learned was carrying the body of Yamuna to the cremation grounds. Despite his will to live until Ramanuja’s arrival, the great Vaishnava saint had passed away.

LAKSHMI SRIDHARAN

The murti of Sri Ramanuja inside the Adikesava Perumal Temple at his birthplace, Sripurembudur.

Hearing this tragic news, Mahapurna and Ramanuja fell to the ground and wept. After a few moments, forgetting his own grief, Mahapurna led Ramanuja by the hand to Yamuna’s side. “I have at least been able to see Yamunacharya,” Ramanuja uttered. Falling silent, he scanned the body and discovered that the thumb and two fingers of the right hand were curled. Intrigued by the strange sight, Ramanuja wondered if the sage had some special message to express, and asked aloud to the gathering if the guru had told them of some important wishes that had been

unsatisfied in his life. Mahapurna then explained to Ramanuja that, yes, indeed, his Acharya had many times expressed three aspirations:

1) To perpetuate the doctrine of saranagati, complete surrender to the personal Deity; 2) To write a commentary on the Brahma Sutras of Sage Vyasa to bring out the real Vishishtadvaita meaning within them; 3) To perpetuate the names of Parashara (author ofVishnu Purana) and saint Shadakopa (a poet-saint also known as Nammalvar).

Without hesitation, Ramanuja promised boldly that he would fulfill these ambitious goals. “‘Holy sage,’ addressing his figure, ‘if this is thy mind, I promise I shall carry it out, provided I have the health, provided thy grace is on me, and provided God grants my prayers.’” (Govindacharya).

And as he did so, the saint’s curled fingers straightened one by one. At that moment, Ramanuja accepted Yamunacharya as his manasika acharya, “silent teacher.” Witnessing these vows and the miraculous uncurling of Yamunacharya’s fingers, the whole assembly in one voice declared, “Sire, doubt not that the sage’s grace is fully upon you; the very power and glory of his spirit will enter into you; you are the fit successor to him for furtherance of our faith. We all anoint you for the task.” Once the funeral rites were performed, Ramanuja took leave of Mahapurna.

Yamunacharya’s death was a severe blow to Ramanuja; he left for Kanchi without even seeing Lord Ranganatha. It is chronicled of Ramanuja that he often used to express to his holy assembly that “If I had been permitted for one single day to be in the living company of Sri Yamuna, I would have constructed a staircase to Heaven and procured free admission to all thereto” (Govindacharya).

Transcending Social Barriers

Social structure in eleventh-century India was quite different from what it is now. Only members of the brahmin caste were allowed to perform puja in Hindu temples. And the lowest members of the social hierarchy, the untouchables, were not allowed to enter temple premises at all. Brahmins did not entertain non-brahmins in their homes. Ramanuja had no regard for the caste system, and he never ceased seeking instruction from those who were qualified to give it, regardless of caste.

NAINEE SHAH

Standing at the base of a temple gopuram just moments after his japa initiation, Ramanuja shouts out to the masses the sacred and secret mantra Om Namo Narayana.

After the cremation of Yamuna, Ramanuja returned to Kanchi where he devoted his time to serving Lord Varadaraja and associating with Kanchipurna, a saintly devotee he had known and respected from a young age, all the while paying little attention to his wife and his family duties. Though Ramanuja beseeched Kanchipurna to be his guru, the latter humbly declined and instead deferred him to Mahapurna for further training. Thus, one year after Yamuna’s grand departure, Ramanuja was formally brought into the Vaishnava fold in a rite in which Mahapurna impressed the seal of Vishnu’s conch on his arms. For the following six months in Kanchipuram, he studied with Mahapurna the sacred Divya Prabandham, 4,000 devotional Tamil verses composed by the twelve Alvar saints.

LAKSHMI SRIDHARAN

The Thirunarayanapuram Temple in Melkote, a sacred kshetra in Karnataka where Ramanuja resided for twelve years.

Meanwhile, Rakshambal was understandably disturbed by her husband’s indifference to their life together since his return from Srirangam. Unwavering in her brahmin orthodoxy, she was also irreconcilably opposed to his mingling with Kanchipurna and other non-brahmins. There were several incidents in which she insulted non-brahmins, including Kanchipurna, his wife and Mahapurna. Unable to endure this, Ramanuja, still somber over his guru’s death, separated from her, sending her home to her parents.

Resolving that he had had enough of worldly life, Ramanuja undertook the rites for entering into the holy order of sannyasins at the Varadaraja Temple in the company of Kanchipurna, with the Deity, Lord Varadaraja, as his guru. Thereafter, staying for some time as head of the monastery in Kanchi, he began giving discourses on Vedanta and Vaishnavism to the many disciples who were drawn to his presence.

To complete his conversion to Vaishnavism, Ramanuja was encouraged by Mahapurna to seek initiation from Thirukottiyur Nambigal (a.k.a. Gostipurna) into formal recital of the sacred eight-syllable mantra, Om Namo Narayanaya. Nambigal taught Ramanuja the meaning of Charama shloka, the noblest of all passages in the Bhagavad Gita. However, he hesitated to give him mantra initiation. Ramanuja had to make eighteen trips seeking this initiation before gaining the confidence of the guru, who swore him to secrecy before imparting the mantra. “Ramanuja! Keep this mantra a secret. It is powerful. Share it only with disciples who have proven themselves worthy.” Ramanuja promised his guru that he would not share it—but it was a promise he could not keep.

Desiring that all souls might enjoy the eternal bliss of Lord Narayana, Ramanuja immediately called all the village together, irrespective of caste and creed, to assemble in front of a temple. Standing atop the entrance gate with the gopuram towering behind him, he shouted out the mantra at the top of his voice. This blatant disobedience to his guru was an unforgivable sin, one for which he could be condemned, but Ramanuja was willing to suffer personal torment if his transgression meant that millions of people could attain salvation by hearing the sacred mantra. When Nambigal learned of this, he became angry; but when Ramanuja stood before him and clasped the guru’s feet in humility, he realized the extent of his devotee’s selfless compassion, then embraced Ramanuja and blessed him.

At Home in Srirangam

Ramanuja settled in Srirangam. After further training from Yamuna’s disciples, he succeeded the great Yamunacharya as administrator of Srirangam Math and Temple. He conversed with the temple Deity, Lord Sriranganathan, more than once. During one conversation the Lord granted him the title Udaiyavar, owner—possessor of mukti (salvation) and Vaikuntha (Lord Vishnu’s heavenly abode). In gracious response, Ramanuja requested the Lord to grant these blessings to all His devotees. While at Srirangam Yatiraja (as Ramanuja was known in later years) gave discourses on the hymns of the Alvar saints, preached his Vishishtadvaita philosophy and composed important philosophical works in Sanskrit. He also held debates with leading advocates of opposing schools of thought, defeating and winning them over to his way of thinking.

NAINEE SHAH

Ramanuja seeks the blessings of Lord Varadaraja in Kanchi, having renounced worldly life and taken initiation to enter into the holy order of Hindu sannyasins as a lifetime celibate monk.

As explained by Vedic Knowledge Online, “Thousands of people flocked to him every day to hear his lectures. He cleansed the temples, settled the rituals to be observed in them, and rectified many social evils which had crept into the community. He had a congregation of 700 sannyasins, 74 dignitaries who held special offices of ministry, and thousands of holy men and women who revered him as Guru. He inducted lakhs of people to the path of bhakti and a highly moral and disciplined life. He gave initiation to all people. He was now seventy years old, but was destined to live many more years, establish more maths, construct more temples and spread his teachings to many more thousands of people.”

Ramanuja’s most significant literary work was his commentary on Badaranaya’sVedanta Sutra, the earliest known (ca 400 bce) systematization of Vedanta. Its aphorisms are extremely terse and philosophically cryptic, without explanation. Closely referencing Bodhayana’s seminal commentary of the Sutra, Ramanuja explained and interpreted the verses according to the devotional philosophy of his tradition.

As he commenced the work, entitled Shri Bhashya, Ramanuja told his disciples: “I can now refute the doctrines of these wrong-headed persons who think that the mere intellectual understanding of the great Vedic statements like ‘That thou art’ and ‘I am Brahman’ is enough for final beatitude of liberation. I have also to explode the views of those Jnana-karma-Samucchayavadins who admit the great efficacy of yajna, dana, tapas and karma along with the understanding of these statements. I have to establish that the purport of the Vedas and the Vedanta is the attainment of liberation through dhyana, upasana and bhakti. For all this, I shall begin writing the Shri Bhashya” (from Life of Shri Ramanuja, by Swami Ramakrishnananda, Ramakrishna Math, Chennai).

All-India Pilgrimage

Swami Tapasyananda provides a summary of Ramanuja’s travels following his magnum opus. “After completing the Shri Bhasya, accompanied by a large number of his disciples, Ramanuja went on an all-India pilgrimage, which was also of the nature of a digvijaya[victory tour], confronting philosophers of other schools of thought and spreading Vaishnavism among them. He first visited all the holy centers of Tamil land and of Kerala and gradually moved northward—visiting Dvaraka, Mathura, Vrindavana, Shalagrama, Saketa, Badarikasrama, Naimisa, Puskara and at last the Sharadapitha in Kashmir. The Pandits of Sharadapitha had acrimonious

debates with him, but he was able to convert the ruler of Kashmir to his faith. Here Ramanuja had a vision of Hayagriva, one of the Divine Incarnations. Then he went to Kasi, where he stayed for some time and won over many learned men to his faith. Continuing south to Shripurushottama-Kshetra, now known as Puri, he founded there a monastery called Embar Math. The scholars of that place, who controlled the temple, refused to face him in debate for fear of defeat. He next went to Ahobila, situated on Garuda mountain, where he established a monastery. Next he worshiped Narasimha-Murti at Isalinga, and afterwards reached the temple of Venkatachalapati at Tirupati. There he settled, through his superhuman powers, a dispute on the question whether the image of the temple was of Siva or Vishnu, in favor of Vaishnavas. He then returned to Srirangam via his old residence of Kanchipuram where he did obeisance to Varadaraja.”

NAINEE SHAH

To Ramanuja’s amazement, Govinda, fearless and full of compassion, removes a thorn that has pierced the tongue of a deadly cobra.

Twelve Years in Melkote, Karnataka

Ramanuja’s influence grew in the years to follow, and he gained a huge number of followers. Yadava and other advaitins, including the Chola king Kulothunga I (who considered him a threat to Saivism) continued to plot against him. The king intended to force this leader of Vashnavism to sign a declaration endorsing Lord Siva as the supreme God. When the king summoned Ramanuja to his court, Ramanuja’s shishyas convinced him to flee to safety. He escaped to Melkote, in Karnataka, where he is credited with rebuilding and renovating the Thirunarayanapuram Temple. There he gained the favor of the Jain king Bitrideva of the Hoysala dynasty by curing his daughter of an illness. Later, in a visionary dream, Lord Narayanan told him He was buried in the ground under a nearby anthill. Bitrideva helped Ramunuja recover the statue of the Lord, which had earlier been thrown out of the temple by Muslim invaders. Ramanuja reinstalled the sacred murti in the sanctum, where it remains to this day.

Ramanuja still needed an utsava murti, a Deity image made specifically to be paraded through the streets during festivals. This was needed in order to celebrate festivals properly. Once again the Lord appeared in his dreams, this time telling him the temple’s original utsava murti of Cheluvanarayana was currently in the possession of a sultan in Delhi. Ramanuja, now 80 years old, made the tiring journey to Delhi and asked the king to return the murti. The king asked him to identify it, but it could not be found.

Ramanuja called out, “Adiyen Vareer Enthan Selva Pillai” (“Please come out, my darling child). Miraculously, the three-foot-tall Cheluvanarayana statue came running from the chamber of the princess and sat on Ramanuja’s lap. Ramanuja brought Him back to Thirunarayanapuram—followed by the Muslim princess, who could not bear to be separated from her beloved Lord. She remained in Melkote serving Narayana to the end of her life. To this day she is honored at the temple there as Bibi Nachiyar.

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Ramanuja scribes his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, formulating a Vishishtadvaita interpretation of this terse summation of Vedanta written by Badarayana around 400 bce.

Ramanuja remained in Thirunarayanapuram for twelve years. As the administrator of temple activities, he devoted himself to community development and introduced several new festivals, including the Diamond Crown Festival. He involved the people of Melkote in all temple activities, daily pujas, rituals and annual festivals, embracing people of every caste and economic status in the service of Thirunarayana. He called the tribal people thirukulathatar, “family members of Goddess Lakshmi.” He was loved and respected by one and all.

When the cruel king Kulothunga I finally passed away, Ramanuja desired to return to his beloved Srirangam. But the people of Melkote begged him to stay in Thirunarayanapuram. In response, Ramanuja created a bronze image of himself which was formally installed in a shrine in the temple. He also brought 52 Bhattars

(priests) from Srirangam to perform the daily worship. To this day the priests carry out all temple activities according to the traditions set forth by him. There he is equally revered with the Deity Thirunarayana, and his birthday is grandly celebrated each year. Shri Vaishnavas seek blessings from the bronze Ramanuja murti before worshiping at the Deity sanctums.

Nine Literary Works

amanuja wrote to fulfill the wishes of Yamunacharya and to fulfill the vision of Ubhaya Vedanta. His nine books are considered to be nine precious gems (navaratna) in the world of Vaishnavite Hindu philosophy. 1) Vedanta Sangraha, an exposition of Vedanta; 2) Shri Bhashya, a commentary on the Brahma Sutras; 3) Vedanta Sara (Essence of Vedanta), an appendix to Shri Bhashya; 4) Vedanta Dipa (Light of Vedanta), another appendix and commentary to Shri Bhashya; 5) Gadhya Thrayam (or Vaikunta Gatyam), a description of Vaikuntha (the abode of Vishnu); 6) Shri Ranga Gadhyam, a prayer surrendering to the feet of Sriranganatha; 7) Saranagati Gadhyam, an imaginary dialogue between Ramanuja, Lakshmi and Narayana; 8) Nithya Grantham, daily activities to be performed by Vaishnavas; and 9) Gita Bhashya, a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita.

All nine works were written in Sanskrit. Though Ramanuja spoke and discoursed in the Tamil language, he does not seem to have written anything in his native tongue.

His Final Message

Returning to Srirangam, the aged acharya continued to serve Lord Sriranganathan and all His devotees. As a polemicist and philosopher, he devoted the remainder of his life to proving the Vedantic legitimacy of the popular conception of a personal Deity with an approachable identity.

At the ripe age of 120, Ramanuja prayed to Sriranganathan for moksha, liberation. His parting words to his devoted disciples were:

“Worship holy men exactly as you would do in the case of your spiritual preceptor. Have sincere faith in the teachings of the great Acharyas of yore. Never be slaves to your senses. Be not satisfied with the acquisition of worldly knowledge. Go on reading repeatedly the books dealing with the greatness of God and the wonders of His creation. If perchance you are favored with scintillating wisdom by the guru’s

grace, then the attraction of the senses will cease for you. Learn to treat all your feelings with indifference. Enjoy the utterance of the names and glories of God’s devotees with as much relish as the utterance of God’s names and glories. Bear in mind that he who renders service to God’s devotees attains God speedily. Therefore, unless you dedicate yourself to the service of God and His devotees, you will not be saved, however wise you may be. Do not consider the life of a Vaishnava as a means for acquiring any selfish advantage. You must endeavor to realize the ideal.

CREDIT: UNKNOWN

This granite murti of Sri Ramanuja is enshrined in the Cheluvanarayan Vishnu Temple at Melkote.

“Devote a portion of the day, at least one hour, to the contemplation of the greatness of your spiritual preceptor and some time every day to the reading of the sacred writings of the alvars or the acharyas. Always seek the company of those that pursue the path of self-surrender to God and avoid the company of those that say, ‘There are other paths leading to salvation.’ Do not associate with people who are always in quest of filthy lucre and sense enjoyment, but mingle with the devotees of God to the extent possible. Whoever looks upon the sacred images of God as mere stones, his own spiritual teacher as an ordinary human being, eminent devotees as high or low according to the caste of their birth, the holy water that has touched the feet of God and has as a consequence acquired the power to purify and purge one of all sins as ordinary water, the sacred mantras as a collection of sounds, and the Supreme Lord of all the worlds as one not higher than the Devas—let him be considered an unworthy person fit only for purgatory” (from Sri Ramanuja, Swami Tapasyananda).

NAINEE SHAH

Near the same temple, Ramanuja discovered and unearthed the parade murti of Lord Cheluvanarayana which was thrown out of the temple centuries before by Muslim mauraders.

Influence Today

wami Tapasyananda provides this summary: “It is important to point out that Ramanuja’s devotional philosophy had in a way a much wider field of operation than South India or Tamil Nadu. Many sects of North Indian Vaishnavism also had their origin in his teaching. Ramananda (1300-1411), the fountainhead of monotheism and Rama cults of North India, was a follower of Ramanuja’s sect and was initiated into Vishishtadvaita. He went early on pilgrimage to the North and stayed there for several years. On his return, the caste-conscious Vaishnavas of the South could not entertain him in their community. He was a spiritual liberalist who did not recognize caste as a factor in spiritual competence. Therefore he settled in Benares, and was practically the guru, the spiritual stimulator, of the twelve great leaders of the Vaishnava cult of the North. They belonged to all castes and included a cobbler and a Muslim. The most illustrious of them was Kabir, who worked for the unification of Vaishnavaism and Islamic monotheism. Another disciple, Ravidas, a cobbler by birth, initiated the celebrated Mira Bai into the meaning of bhakti. Sena, a barber by caste, converted the Raja of Bandogarh into Vaishnavism. Dana was a Jat, and Pipa a Rajput prince. In later days, great leaders of monotheistic devotion, like Tulsidas and Dadu, got their inspiration from Ramanuja’s teachings.”

From Ramanuja.org, we read, “Ramanuja’s supreme effort resulted in a systematic presentation of Vishishtadvaita. His genius also led to the development of a complete system which synthesizes the concept of God with the philosophy of the impersonal Absolute. The followers of Ramanuja are called Shri Vaishnavas. This term is not exclusive to Iyengars (a major sect among Brahmins of South India). Also among South Indians are a set of followers called Shattada Shri-Vaishnavas of non-Brahmin origins. Followers of Ramanuja (or at least those who include him in the lineage of their earlier acharyas) can be seen far and wide in different parts of India including Gaudiya Vaishnavas of Bengal and the Swaminarayans of Gujarat.”

Vaishnava pathashalas and colleges  all over India, as well as elsewhere, include Ramanuja’s philosophy in their curricula. Several Vaishnava organizations are propagating  Shri Vaishnavism in Europe, Russsia and North and South America. The tradition begun by Ramanuja of reciting Divya Prabandham continues in Sriranganadhar’s temple and other Vishnu temples to this day. Sriperumbudur’s Adhikesava Perumal temple at Ramanuja’s birthplace is one of the holiest places of worship for Shri Vaishnavites. Ramanuja is equally revered with the Perumal Deity

there, and a bronze statue of Ramanuja is under the same roof as Adhikesava, Shridevi and Bhudevi. There is a small shrine to Ramanuja next to the temple. In virtually all Vaishanava  temples there is statue of Ramanujacharya, including Mukthinath, Nepal, where Ramanujacharya himself installed the main Deity icon, which is made of saligram.  

Swami Vivekananda, who introduced Hindu thought to the Western world at the turn of the twentieth century, commented, “Ramanuja, with a most practical philosophy, great appeal to the emotions, an entire denial of birthrights before spiritual attainments and appeals through the popular tongue, completely succeeded in bringing the masses back to the Vedic religion.” (The Historical Evolution of India).

This speaks volumes about Ramanuja as a great visionary, a humanitarian, a philosopher and a guru.

Resources

Sri Ramanuja, His Life, Religion & Philosophy, by Swami Tapasyananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras

Life of Sri Ramanuja, by Swami Ramakrishnananda, Sri Ramakrishna at, Mylapore, Madras, 1959 (translated from Bengali by Swami Budhananda)

The Life of Ramanujacharya, the Exponent of the Vishishtadvaita Philosophy, by Akondaville Govindacharya, Kapalee Press, Madras, 1906

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Lakshmi and Tim Sridharan were brought up with great emphasis on Hindu traditions, culture and values by devout Tamil Brahmin parents in Madras, Tamil Nadu, and now live in San Jose, California. In preparation for this article, they traced the life path of Ramanuja through Tamil Nadu and Karnataka during a visit to India in December of 2013. While this is their first joint venture in writing, Lakshmi has published many articles on a variety of subjects, including Indian tradition and culture.