1969-9/SLC3
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Source SLC3
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December 26 1969
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CONTENTS:
VERSES 1 - 10, Brief commentary,
STRUCTURES and WORD-FOR-WORD, 18 Pages
P1- Verse 1
P2- Verse 2
P4- Verse 3
P5- Verse 4
P6- Verse 5
P9- Verse 6
P11- Verse7
P13- Verse 8
P15- Verse 9
P17- Verse 10
P1
VERSE 1
Siva, united with Sakti, becomes able to manifest,
If otherwise, this god knows not even how to pulsate,
How then could one of ungained merit be able to bow to, or even praise,
One, such as You, adored even by Vishnu, Siva and Brahma.
(This is the finalized translation of this verse, from 1973, and is given here for reference purposes, as will be the case in the rest of this document.)
A) Shiva can pulsate only with the Devi´s collaboration.
The Devi is being worshipped by the three gods; Shiva is just one of these.
Sankara is in meditation below the Alpha Point at the negative vertical pole, while thinking only of the Omega Point at the top of the vertical axis..
He is verticalized -This is like Bergson's image of the Rhone river expanding to form lake Geneva and then contracting into a river again
He is outside the whole picture.
B) The horizontal contains a fanwise expansion, that is all.
VERSE 1
TRANSLATION
Shiva = mathematical, general
by specific function = shaktya, representing the two phenomenal factors;
wave length and vibration, res cogitans and res extenso
(only) when united = yukto
if he (should) become able to manifest in becoming
if not thus, this god
is not indeed expert (in the matter)
even to pulsate (pulsation)
it being thus, you
are being worshipped
even by (api) Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (Vedic)
to prostrate, even to praise
(Now Sankara is outside the Vedic context - below it)
one of unaccomplished merit
specifically attain
SLC3 - P2
VERSE 2
The fine dust arising from Your lotus feet,
Brahma, gathering up, the worlds creates,
Vishnu incessantly bears them up somehow with his thousand heads,
And Siva, having shaken it up, accomplishes with it his ash-wearing rite.
TRANSLATION
by the superfine dust
what had its origin in Thy feet, Brahma
gathering together, created
the worlds
without imperfection bears them aloft (avikalam vahati)
these
Vishnu, somehow or other
by thousand heads
Shiva, having well mixed them
observes, accomplishes
the ash-wearing ritual
This is a "monde affiné" (c.f. Bergson) there is no actual firm ground - all is composed of dust.
C.f. Eddington, "standing on the threshold..." in his famous passage.
Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva represent three functions here.
1) Brahma, with his four heads is seated on a lotus and creates the universe from pollen dust.
2)Vishnu supports it with his thousand heads - making a terra firma
3)Shiva destroys it - turns it into smoke and ashes - this is the evaporation of everything into mathematics
Brahman, the Absolute, can be numerator as Parabrahman, the transcendent Absolute - then it is impredicable.
So: Parabrahman, the transcendent Absolute, is impredicable
Aparabrahman, the non-transcendent Absolute, is predicable
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P2 - V2
P3
You can ascend or descend. This work is ascending from Apara (the non-transcendent absolute) to Para (the transcendent absolute): from perceptual to conceptual, from the known to the unknown.
Sankara has taken the trinity of Indian gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and given them three separate representative functions in this verse, which introduces the stratifications of the vertical axis with the three gods each having their place on it.
Some kind of interesting value-content must go into the Absolute, such as creation, subsistence and destruction, here represented by the three gods.
The pollen is pressed together into a firm ground and is supported by Vishnu.
The final third aspect is the destroying fire and smoke of Shiva.
Experience first Aparabrahman, the non-transcendent absolute - as per Narayana Guru.
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P3 - V2
P4
VERSE 3
To the uninstructed You are the light-city, inner darkness banishing, mid-ocean placed
To inert ones the mind-expanding ooze of sweetness within blossoms celestial,
While for indigent spirits you become a brood of philosophers' stones
And for those submerged in the ocean of birth and death, the very tusk of Vishnu's boar
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P4 - V3
In the inner circle is what each of these four men dreams of.
The object here is to see the four-fold structure within the Absolute.
The movements of these circles can be reversed etc.
One man may be in all four of these positions at different times.
VERSE 3
TRANSLATION
1) for the ignorant an island city of sunlit (island) of inner darkness
2) for inert persons of the mind-blossom the heavenly honey-streak flow
3) for the indigent a collection of philosophers' stones
4) for those who are about to be immersed in the ocean of phenomenal becoming the (cutting) tusk of Vishnu's boar (antasti mira mihira)
- thou, o Goddess
P5
VERSE 4
Other arms than Yours can confer protection or boon;
You alone do not act overtly, by gesture, the promises of refuge or boon
What is more, Your feet, o sole refuge of the worlds of beings,
Are alone expert indeed in yielding boons more than asked for.
1) Vertico-horizontal reciprocity. (Complementarity, compensation, cancellability)
2) Phenomenal functions fitted into context.
3) The four sectors of values with the corresponding types.
4) The square root of minus-one.
Sankara is not concerned with numerator values and boons, but with the bottom of the vertical axis, the square root of minus-one.
Karana - (Karana is cause, Karya is effect; Vedanta goes from effects to cause)
"Ontological reality is at Your feet, not in Your hands".
Sankara is a Satkaranavadin, not a Satkaryavadin.
(a believer in the reality of causes and not of effects)
TRANSLATION
other than yours
by hands
conferring refuge and boons
the whole ensemble of divinities (demiurges)
you alone are not like that
(hand gestures are not important to the Devi, her feet will do.)
Exhibiting dramatic action of (conferring) boon or refuge
to save from fear
to confer benefit
as also to confer favours in surplus to what has been prayed for
of all possible worlds, o the sole refuge
yours indeed, the (pair of) feet are expert in
(put your faith in the feet, the square root of minus-one;
not in the hands of numerator gods.)
P6
In Vedanta, we go from the multiplicity of effects (horizontal)
to the cause (vertical).
This is a fundamental aspect of Vedanta: go from effect to cause,
this is Vedantic methodology: causes before effects - Satkaranavada, as opposed to Satkaryavada
VERSE 5
Once Vishnu, having adored You, the mother who bestows blessings on
those who worship you,
Taking womanly form, caused agitation even unto the City-Burner.
Eros, too, on worshipping You, with body licked into reality by the glances of Rati,
Even to the minds of great recluses, confusion of values brings.
Grace can operate directly or indirectly.
The reference here is to the churning of the milk-ocean, when Shiva is tempted to fall in love with the female form of Vishnu.
The point is; you can fall in love with Absolute Beauty, even Shiva can
- when it is in the vertical axis.
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P7 - V5
Beauty comes from the O Point.
If Vishnu is in the vertical axis, Shiva has to fall in love - it is communication with the Devi.
VERSE 5 WORD FOR WORD
Hari (another name for Vishnu)
having adored You
the source of prosperity of those who worship You
having once become a woman
even the burner of cities
caused to have passion
Smara (Kama Deva, Eros) also
having prostrated to You
by a body licked into shape by the consort of Eros (Rati)
the mind of even recluses
triumphs indeed
conducive of confusion, even to the great (Munis)
Kama Deva (Eros) derives his beauty from the Absolute, indirectly.
P7
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P7 - V5A
P8
Why does Kama Deva (Eros) triumph over the minds of the Munis (recluses or ascetics)?
Rati confers a beauty on him, which is derived from the Absolute.
The ascetics are overcome by the reflected beauty of Smara (Kama Deva, Eros).
They are simple people on the denominator, practising austerities in the Himalayas.
They are attracted to his beauty.
Even Shiva falls in love with Vishnu (Hari), who falls in the vertical axis.
There are two stories here: 1) Direct light - Shiva falls in love with "himself" - vertical axis.
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P8 - V5B
2) Reflected light - Eros and Rati. (Eros is more horizontalized. Ed.)
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P8 - V5C
The Munis (ascetics) are peripheral horizontally on the denominator side.
They are attracted even by the reflected, also peripheral, light of Eros. They now see both the perceptual and conceptual aspects of beauty - where generally they see only the perceptual aspect (because they are peripheral and horizontalized. Ed.)
P9
VERSE 5
Once Vishnu, having adored You, the mother who bestows blessings on
those who worship you,
Taking womanly form, caused agitation even unto the City-Burner.
Eros, too, on worshipping You, with body licked into reality by the glances of Rati,
Even to the minds of great recluses, confusion of values brings.
Occasionalism, as in the philosophy of Descartes, is what is operative here.
Eros, riding in his battle-chariot, triumphs due to the side-glance of the Devi.
He has an aide who whispers into the ears of lovers in the springtime.
There is an implied conflict here between horizontal Kama and vertical Shiva.
(The aide or adviser is Springtime, whispering to Eros to shoot his arrow at Shiva.)
P9
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P9 - V6
This is the situation favourable to love affairs; flowers, pleasant breezes, bees that suck honey - also, there is a conspiracy to give battle with chariots. The whole situation conspires for love to triumph.
Do not treat any of these as distinct parts, they are one, a unit or gestalt.
You cannot stop people falling in love: first with the above factors and then with the sanction of the Absolute (the side-glance of the Devi).
P10
VERSE 6
O Daughter of the Snowy Peak, just deriving from Your glance askance
Whatsoever grace he could; with flowery bow, bumble-bee bowstring,
And five-flowered dart and springtide for minister; all these as one withal:
Mounting the chariot of the mountain breeze , he victoriously reigns, that god of love.
TRANSLATION
the bow flowery
the string made of bees
five-flowered dart
springtide (is) minister
the western mountain breeze
war chariot
notwithstanding (their distinctness)
everything (here) treated as one
o daughter of the Himalayas
some sort of grace (kam api krpam)
from Your side-glance
obtaining
Eros ("the limbless one" - HE IS A MENTAL STATE) reigns supreme over this world
So, given certain conditions, Eros must be successful, when the grace of the Devi is there.
An example of occasionalism is divine will.
Even given all the other factors, the final occasionalism is the grace of the Devi - Her sidelong glance.
There is a war-chariot because there is a conflict.
The conflict is the paradox between the vertical and horizontal factors involved in falling in love.
There is always a struggle to resolve a paradox - thus, the war-chariot.
Shiva is not completely free of eroticism - this is the element of paradox here.
P11
VERSE 7
O let Her appear before us, that proud counterpart of the City-Burner
Resounding with waist-belt of jingle bells, recumbent by breasts
Like frontal bulges of a calf elephant, slim of waist, with autumnal full-moon mature face,
Holding aloft bow and arrow, noose and goad!
Here there is an absolute balance between male and female.
The Devi is here called Purushikaa (cognate to purusha - a man): the term implies a kind of pride - the Devi is as much masculine as feminine. She is neutral, like Joan of Arc.
VERSE 7
TRANSLATION
with waist-belt jingling
bent by breasts resembling the frontal knobs of a young elephant
slender at middle (waist)
having face like the full moon of early spring (sarat)
bow, arrow, noose, goad also (for the Devi's functions)
bearing (aloft)
by hands
before (as presented to the view of the devotee)
for us
of the city-burner
what wonder this purushika
The Devi's waist is slim; there is a Purushika pride.
The waist is also bent. She has a full, round face (in the Bindusthana or central locus).
A prayer is made coming from the down-and-out Alpha point at the negative pole, desperate for a four-handed Purushika.
This vision is seen when the moon is about to die.
The weapons of the Purushika appear held aloft in her four hands as seen by the person who is making the prayer as he is about to die.
The weapons are the last things to be seen.
Human beings want a saviour, that is a natural desire.
P12
The devotee is having a vision, meditating on the Devi.
1) Completely structural, the gist of the Guru's structuralism.
2)
3)
4) A logical parameter passing through the waist; faces in phases.
FILM MATERIAL
The Goddess is to be stretched (Numerator and Denominator factors separated), making the waist a thin vertical parameter; the two halves of the Goddess to be rejoined.
The S-shaped figure will change into a figure-8, also into Yin-Yang counterparts eating one another. (This could introduce a screaming woman).
The face of the Goddess is to appear as a moon with its different phases.
Appropriate music is to be chosen for each phase of the action.
There will be four elephants preceding all this: their trunks to become the legs of a girl, the knobs on their foreheads to become her breasts.
Then pass her through a ring, when she begins to become thin.
Purushikaa should be wanting to kill you from the other side.
Her pride and glory, with very loud drumming and the trident of Shiva, is a numerator glory.
Woman must be screaming in her heart -(show perhaps Medea killing her children or Kannagil burning Madurai - these are real tragedies; all of human life has suffering at the core.)
The moon in different seasons can be imagined here, with clouds, but also without.
Here come light effects.
Also, she must shoot arrows in two different directions, because she is Purushikaa.
P13
VERSE 8
Seated on a couch of Siva-form and having the Supreme Siva for cushion;
Placed within a mansion wafted round by the perfume of blossoms of Kadamba trees,
Located within a celestial grove on a pearly-gem island in the midst of a nectar ocean,
Some fortunate ones contemplate You as the upsurging billow of mental joy.
Vertical transformations take place in this verse.
Shiva is made into a cot, and the Supreme Shiva (Paramashiva), even higher at the positive pole of the vertical axis, is called a cushion on the cot.
The cot is stable - the numerator Shiva is here changed into a denominator cot.
The cot and cushion are for the Devi to sit on.
VERSE 8
TRANSLATION
mid ambrosial nectar ocean
by grove of celestial arbours surrounded, within a gem island
in a mansion of thought, with a garden of Kadamba trees around
in a cot representing Shiva form
placed on a cushion of Paramashiva
they adore
certain persons of religious merit adore You
as the upsurging billow of the bliss of understanding
What is true of the Numerator side is not true of the Denominator
- this is the secret.
Sartre rejected essence in favour of existence, but the transfer from Numerator to Denominator is not an easy one.
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P13 - V8
Existence and essence belong to the same Absolute - and the Absolute is a flux, flowing in one direction or another.
You can reverse the current, and thus revise the direction.
Numerator values are not of the same nature as denominator values
- although they are reciprocal parts of the same whole.
P14
What is a value in the Numerator can become transformed in the Denominator into a complementary factor.
In the previous verse, the Devi is seen as positive or numerator - as Purushikaa.
Here, Shiva is brought to the Denominator
MATTER FOR THE FILM
There is one-one correspondence between Numerator and Denominator;
conic sections are implied; the footstool is interchangeable with Shiva:
how to justify this? See VERSES 22, 27, 25, 30.
Method: A Pujari (priest), who waves ritual lights here and there and then downwards,
showing you how to see the Numerator and Denominator as the same,
intersubjective and transphysical.
Applications of these lights have somehow to be shown.
This verse describes a beautiful woman in a garden, surrounded by Kadamba trees,
Placed in the midst of a nectar-ocean is the abode of the Devi, a fool's paradise for the audience to melt into; a place of luxury.
The Devi is to be presented, not as a sanyasini (female ascetic),
but as a full-blooded, buxom, healthy woman.
The point is that numerator and denominator factors - back-to-back and by double correction - are interchangeable. This is a secret.
The footstool is as good as Shiva. This is also found in the Tarot: that which is above is analogous to what is below, etc., and both are component and integral parts of the whole.
In the Gita, the inverted tree refers to the same great secret.
This is represented by the Pujari priest (a performer of Puja - ritual worship) and his waving of lights. (This is the secret of temple ritual).
Here, bring in some Tantra, as also the throwing of baskets of flowers for so long that the Pujari falls down for some time as if dead from overwhelming devotion.
P15
VERSE 9
The earth placed in the Muladhara, water in the Manipura,
Fire in the Swadhisthana, air in the heart, with space above;
And amid eyebrows placing the mind, and breaking through the whole
Kula path,
You do sport with your lord secretly in the thousand-petaled lotus.
Non-dual Yoga and Patanjali´s Yoga are here revalued.
Here the Chakras are taken together, and dealt with in one stroke - burst through.
Do not say at any point that there are two realities - anyone who sees more than one, "he goes from death to death".
The Advaitic approach is to burst through all the six Chakras at on stroke.
Duality between ends and means is not admitted.
When we say Kundalini, we refer only to the denominator side.
Khecari Mudra, on the Numerator, must be dealt with at some other time.
VERSE 9 TRANSLATION
the earth
in the lowest of the series of Adharas (stable positions)
(Muladhara)
the water
in the second of the Adharas from below (Manipura)
fire
established
in the third (Swadhisthana)
in the heart
the air
space
above that (it is) in the fourth
also the mind
between the eyebrows
everything breaking through the Kula path
in the thousand-petalled lotus
together, secretly, with Your lord
You do sport
P16
THE REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH IN THIS VERSE IS THAT WE BURST THROUGH ALL THE CHAKRAS, INSTEAD OF TREATING THEM AS STAGES, AS IS USUALLY THE CASE.
ABOVE ALL OF THEM IS THE SAHASRARA - THE THOUSAND-PETALED LOTUS
Then, in descending order, we have:
6) AJNA CHAKARA, Manas, or mind
5) above the heart - space - VISUDDHI
4) heart - air - ANAHATA
3) fire - SWADHISTHANA
2) water - MANIPURA (SWADHISTHANA and MANIPURA are inverted here)
1) earth - MULADHARA
There is complete reversion in this verse: there is no ascent here,
the Absolute is sufficient unto itself, at any level.
There are three ideas of Yoga:
1) Patanjali's eight-stage Yoga,
2) Samkhya,
3) Kapila.
SHAD-ADHARAS (The six adharas or chakras) - these are six levels or ways of looking at things; a hierarchy of syndromes, c.f.psycho-somatic medicine and the Wehr-Fechner laws of psychophysics.
One has to go "up the tube" through the chakras - ascending like the Kundalini snake - between the snake and the tiger - there are two nadis or passages rising vertically - one is actual, the other is virtual or subtle.
The nearest thing to this in physiology is the sympathetic nervous system, c.f. Mc Dougal.
Here the process of ascent favoured by the Samkhya school is eliminated at one stroke.
There is no process of evolution here.
MATTER FOR THE FILM
The four kinds of Yoga must be shown here - almost as a lesson.
Four kinds of Gurus can be shown as the method.
Fifteen minutes can be given for this section, due to the widespread interest in the subject.
Each philosophy plays with certain categories.
There are six basic categories ("schools") of Hindu philosophy:
they reach their glory in the Advaita of Sankara. (c.f. Brahma Sutras)
The Mahavakyas (great sayings), aphorism such as tat tvam asi ("You are That (the Absolute)")
- these are the basic dicta of Advaita.
Transcend and generalize and abstract;
if you are good at this, you attain the Absolute.
P17
VERSE 10
With streaks of ambrosial essence streaming from between Your twin feet,
Sprinkling blessings over the worlds and again from that point of high intelligible values,
Turning Yourself into a snake form of three coils and a half,
You sleep in the hollow of the Kulakunda, Your proper ground attaining.
Here there is a participation between hierophantic and hypostatic value-worlds.
"Abhina nimittopadana sojatiya vijatiya bheda smuga "
This is Sankara's position, nailing down the doctrine of non-duality.
In the previous verse, both male and female principles are equated in the highest Chakra.
Here, something is now stated in reverse order.
In the Muladhara Chakra, there is snake sleeping in 3 1/2 coils.
So we go from the top to the bottom.
Behind the soft palate is the "hole" through which the Kundalini snake can pass.
This is the point of light.
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P17 - V10
VERSE 10
TRANSLATION
by the flow of ambrosial streaks
streaming from in between the two feet
created) five-fold world (understood in the contemplative context)
sprinkling ritualistically (Vedic ritual context)
then again (after doing that)
from the (great blissful) source of high intelligible values (such as the Vedas)
attaining
one's proper ground
like a snake
with 3 1/2 coils
Your (proper) self
making
You sleep in the Kula cavity/having a cavity, i.e. hollow
P18
There is some question over the translation of the last line: "Kulakunde...
We place the two feet at the central O Point where there are certain ambrosial essences being sprinkled down onto the denominator worlds, the streaks of ambrosia forming ramified sets - by Her blessing, everything becomes a member of a ramified set, related to some source at the O Point.
By this, all relativistic worlds are brought together into the realm of the Absolute Devi.
A ramification of blessings is being sprinkled on the created worlds.
The Kundalini snake goes to the point of highest bliss, then coils backwards.
Then again, from the great blissful source, it descends to its own proper source.
The 3 1/2 coils exist on the denominator side, and the snake is sleeping, where there was "sporting" in the previous verse.
STRUCTURE SLC3 - P18 - V10A
All of these points have to be justified: some immortal value is oozing out from between the feet of the Goddess; how to justify these "ambrosial streaks"?
These are value-streams or ramifications, sprinkling over the physical world which is going to be abolished, since it is unreal.
There is an amorphous veil covering the whole universe - it is vague and subtle.
The Kundalini participates between the Numerator and the Denominator which is its own true ground.
The Kundalini here reaches the Sahasrara (the thousand-petaled lotus) at the positive limit of the vertical axis; this is to be seen in the light of Yoga.
1) The "real world" is to be abolished.
2) The vertical parameter is the Kundalini here.
3) The snake's length and coils depend on the limit attained.
4) Out of 6+1 (six chakras and the Sahasrara), 3 1/2 coils are justified.
5) Essence and Mahas (rasamnaya mahasah in the verse) are below the O Point and between the feet.
(This may also require a rather long lesson in the film as also explanation of the upper and lower limits, often not clarified.)