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# 2022-01-20 - The Garland of Letters by Sir John Woodroffe
A friend loaned me this book. I found it cryptic and difficult.
What i did understand seems seems consistent with what i have learned
about Indian metaphysics so far. Sometimes i wondered whether
inscrutable philosophies are a prank of the mystics.
Below are some excerpts from the book.
# Preface
All sounds and therefore all movements form the "Garland of Letters,"
which is worn by the Divine Mother, from whose aspects as Oṁ or the
General Sound of the first creative movement all particular sounds
and things come. For all things may be rendered in terms of sound.
The universe is movement. The Letters are the sound of particular
movements. These are audible as the gross letters which Kāli, the
source of movement, wears as a garland round Her neck.
# Chapter 1, Vāk or the word
The word Vāk (in Latin Vox) comes from the root Vach which means "to
speak". [Vocal] The feminine noun Vāk therefore means literally
both voice and the word it utters, as also the sound of inanimate
objects.
This notion of the "Word" is very ancient. God "speaks" the word and
the Thing appears. Genesis says, "God said: let there be Light and
there WAS Light." The Divine word is conceived of in the Hebrew
Scriptures as having creative power.
The fourth Gospel opens grandly, "In he beginning was the Word and
the Word was with God and the Word was God." These are the very
words of Veda. Prajāptir vai ida ṁ āsīt: In the beginning was
Brahman. Tasya vāg dvitīyā āsīt; with whom was Vāk or the
Word; Vāg vai paramaṁ Brahma; and the word is Brahman.
# Chapter 2, Artha, pratyaya and śabda
By worship and meditation or Japa of Mantras the mind is actually
Shaped into the form of the object of worship and is made pure for
the time being through the purity of the object (namely
Iṣtadevatā), which is its content. So long as mind exists it must
have an object and the object of Sādhana is to present it with a
pure one.
# Chapter 3, Aśabda and paraśabda
Śabda or sound exists only where there is motion or Spanda. If
there is no Spanda there is no Śabda. If there is Śabda there is
Spanda. But the transcendent Brahman or Cit is quiescent and
changeless. From out of this Cit (for there is but one) but without
affecting its own changelessness, there arises a creative stir or
Stress which evolves into the universe. This is the work of the
active Brahman or Tśvara.
The mental image of a sound becomes apparent sound during the
dream-state; higher sounds even may be heard during this
[dream-state]. The Yogic state is a voluntary refining and deepening
of this [dream-state]; and hence Dhyāna is called Yoga-nidrā.
The sound is accompanied by movement. That of the causal body first
projecting the menifold universe from out of itself is general
movement, the sound of which is "Oṁ." From Oṁ all other Mantras
are derived.
# Chapter 4, Paraśabda, causal śabda
lettered sound (Varnāmaka Śabda) has a meaning [signal]
unlettered sound (Dhvanyātmaka-Śabda) has no meaning (at any rate
to us) [noise]
Immanent sound is an effect and comes in three kinds
* normal sound, any hearing person can perceive it
* subtle sound, only supernormal hearing can perceive it
* pure sound, only the perfect Yogi can perceive it
Transcendent sound means creative movement or Causal Stress itself,
the cause (Kārana) and Manifesting Fact itself.
The primordeal Śabda or Parāvāk (corresponds in some ways to the
Logos) is the cosmic predisposition to and precondition of creative
evolution.
Paraśabda is the name for that causal stress as it arises and before
it manifests as the universe.
# Chapter 7, Śabda as language
The proposition that there is no thought without language is only
true if by "thinking" is meant the formation of concepts or general
notions, judgments, and drawing inferences. For even in us,
intuitive processes, such as perception and ideation, are done
without language. To use the apt language of Professor Pramathanāka
Mukhopādhyāya, words are an "after-thought or after-construction in
relation to the intuitive experiences of life."
Absence of language occurs primarily in two cases, namely in
intuitive perception and intuitive ideation. Much of seeing and
hearing is done intuitively and without language. By intuitive
ideation is meant the forming of a mental image of an object.
# Chapter 8, Natural name
Matter itself is only a relatively stable form of cosmic energy.
Because all is in movement, the world is called Jagat or that which
moves. All movements are accompanied by a sound. ... let us suppose
we could hear (which we cannot do through the individual natural ear)
the sound produced by the generating stress or constituting forces of
the household fire, then the sound so heard would be the natural name
of that fire. Natural name in its purest sense may therefore be
defined as the sound produced by the general stress (Śakti) or
constituting forces of a thing... In this sense even the Vedic
language and its Mahāmantra "Oṁ" is not natural language.
The relative ear does not hear such stress unconditionally. To it
therefore a thing has no natural name.
Nevertheless there may be according to the Śastra (scripture) what
is called an approximate natural name, that is the sound of the
causal stress heard by a Yogī and transmitted imperfectly by him [or
her]. We say "imperfectly," because it is transmitted by an
imperfect agent as a sound which can be heard by the gross ear.
Vital function under different stimuli produces various sounds, some
of which the ordinary ear hears, but the causal sound of vital
function as breathing is represented by the Prāṇa-Bīja "Haṁsa"
and so on. If attention is paid to breathing it will be found that
the outward breath is in the form of the letter Ha and the indrawn
breath of Sa. It is not possible to indraw the breath and say the
letter Ha, but it is pushed forth by the outward breath.
[It is possible if you whisper.]
# Chapter 9, Vaidika-śabda
Hence it follows that the Veda which is heard by the gross ear and
spoken by the gross tongue is not a system of natural names. It is
however claimed to be a system of approximate natural names in
varying degree.
No man ever invented a language. Valapuk, Esperanto, and the like
are mere combinations of the sounds of pre-existing language. The
Vaidik Language was revealed by Īśvara to the Mānasaputras and
others and through them to men. This itself as ordinary worldly
(Laukika) speech became corrupted and when rectified was called
Sanskrit, that which has been purified. A distinction must therefore
be made between the original Vaidik language and current Sanskrit in
which however there are words which also occur in the Vedas.
# Chapter 10, The tattvas
The Śaiva-Śākta Śāstra calls experience as Śakti [stress] by
the term Vimarśa. Experience has two elements--the "I" (Ahaṁ) and
the "This" (Idaṁ) [like idiom], the subjective-knowing aspect
(Grāhaka) of the Self and the objective or known (Grāhya) aspect of
the Self. For it must be remembered that an object is nothing but
the one Self appearing through Māyā as non-Self to Itself as
subject. At base the experience is nothing but the experiencer:
though this is not realised until the bonds of Māyā which make the
subject and object appear to be different are loosened.
The Hermetic maxim says: "As above so below." Similarly the
Viśvasāra-Tantra says: "What is here is there, what is not here is
nowhere." Yad ihāsti tad myatra, yan nehāsti na tat kvacit.
Śaiva doctrine says: "That which appears without, only so appears
because it exists within." Vartānāvabhāsānaṁ eva ghatate
bāhriātmanā. Therefore what exists in our experience, evolved
from the Supreme, also exists in the Supreme experience though in
another way.
To sum up, the Supreme Experience (Parā-saṁvit) has a creative
aspect (Śiva-Śakti-Tattva) which gradually experiences the Universe
(Idaṁ) as part of Itself, at first faintly with a predominant "I,"
then clearly with predominant "This," and then as equal "I and This,"
ready for severance by Māyā. The latter then cleaves consciousness
in twain, thus setting up a dichotomy of Subject and Object, though
in truth the object is nothing but the Self as its own object.
# Chapter 11, Śakti--potency to create
The same commentator cites the Prapancasāra Tantra as saying that
the Parabindu divides into two parts, of which the right is Bindu,
the male, Puruṣa or Haṁ, and the left is Visargah, the female
Prakṛti or Sah. Haṁsah is the Union of Prakṛti and Puruṣa
and the Universe is Haṁsah. In, however, the MSS on which my
edition of this Tantra is based it is said that Parabindu divided by
Kalā becomes threefold--Bindu, Nāda, Bīja. The difference is of
no moment for this Bindu (Kārya) is Śiva and Bīja is Śakti, and
Nāda is merely the relation (Mithah-samavāyah) of the two. The
combined Hamsa indicates the same relation as is experienced by
Nāda...
# Chapter 12, Nāda--the first produced movement
Śakti is spoken of as female, that is, as Mother, because that is
the aspect of the Supreme in which It is thought of as the Genetrix
and Nourisher of the universe. [the feminine principle] But God is
neither male nor female. These are all symbolisms borrowed from the
only world which we ordinarily know--that around us.
Nāda which etymologically means "Sound," is a technical term of the
Mantraśāstra. ... Mantra is manifested Śabda which also literally
means "Sound." By "Sound" of course is not meant gross sound which
is heard by the ear.
Nada... evolves in the unmanifested seed or essence of that which is
later manifested as Śabda.
# Chapter 13, Bindu or sakti--ready to create
Bindu literally means a point. But in the Mantra-Śāstra it has a
technical meaning.
In an anonymous Mystical Work published in the eighteenth century by
one of the "French Protestants of the Desert" called Le Mystere de la
Croix, it is said (p. 9), "Ante omnia Punctum exstitit; non to
atomon, aut mathematicum sed diffusivum. Monas erat explicite;
implicite Myrias. Lux erat, erant et Tenebrae; Principium at Finis
Principii. Omnia et nihil: Est et non."
"Before all things were, there was a Point not an atom or
mathematical point (which though it is without magnitude has
position) but the diffusive (neither with magnitude nor position).
In the One there was implicitly contained the Many. There was Light
and Darkness: Beginning and End: Everything and Nothing: Being and
Non-being (that is, the state was neither Sat nor Asat)"
Where does the Extended universe go at the Great Dissolution
(Mahāpralaya)? It collapses so to speak into a Point. We only
conceive of it as a point, as something infinitesimally subtle...
This point is Bindu. Bindu is an aspect of Śakti or Consciousness;
therefore it is interpreted also in terms of our present
consciousness. Thus by way of example the individual mind is
completely subjectified and exists for each of us as a mathematical
point... We do not conceive of our own minds as extended because of
this complete subjectification. In the same way the consciousness of
Īśvara completely subjectifies the universe. He sees it as an
object which is a whole and which whole is Himself.
This Supreme Bindu as containing in Himself all Devatās is the
ultimate object of adoration by all classes of worshippers... The
sectarianism of the lower mind... is here shown to be a matter of
words... and is reduced to its real common denominator.
# Chapter 14, Māyā-tattva
What matter is in itself, the senses do not tell us. All that can be
predicated of it is in its effect upon these senses.
Matter is thus a manifestation or aspect of Spirit. The two are
ultimately one. They seem to be two because of the fundamental
Feeling (Cit) is able, as Śakti, to experience itself as object.
The ultimate substance is Śakti, which is of dual aspect as
Cit-Śakti which represents the spiritual, and Māyā-Śakti which
represents the material aspect. These are not separable.
The universe arises through a Negation or Veiling of true
Consciousness. This is a common doctrine of the three schools here
discussed. The difference lies in this, that in Sāṁkhya it is a
second independent principle (Prakṛti) which veils; in Māyāvāda
Vedānta it is the non-Brahman unexplainable mystery (Māyā) which
veils, and in Śākta-Advaitavāda it is Consciousness which without
ceasing to be such, yet veils itself.
The existence of life cannot be explained on exclusively mechanical
principles. What is called mechanical energy is the effect and not
the cause of vitality...
Mantra is thus here a pure thought-form... Through Mantra the mind is
divinely transformed.
# Chapter 15, The kañcukas
The term Kañcuka means sheath or envelope. The six Kañcukas
include Māyā which may be regarded as the root of the other five,
Kāla, Niyatī, Rāga, Vidya, [and] Kalā. The author cited [Dr.
Otto Scharder] opines that the six Kañcukas are only an elaboration
of the older doctrine of the three powers of limitation (Saṁkoca)
of the Pāñcarātra which are Māyā, Kāla, Niyata. The same idea
is expressed by these two terms, namely limitations by which the
Ātmā, in its form as the finite experiencer, is deprived of the
specific attributes which It, as the Perfect Experiencer, possessed.
... Māyā is the sense of difference (Bhedabudah) between all
persons and things.
Kāla is the is the power which urges on and matures things. It is
not in itself subjective or empirical time, though it gives rise to
it. It is transcendental Time without sections (Akhaṇda-Kāla)
giving birth to time as effect (Kārya-Kāla).
Niyati is enforced guidance and regulation in what one must or must
not do in any given moment.
The term Rāga is commonly translated desire. It is however properly
that INTEREST in objects which preceeds desire.
Vidyā means [finite] knowledge.
Kalā means [finite] agency to act.
# Chapter 16, Haṁsa
The Hamsatārā-Mahāvidyā is the sovereign mistress of Yoga whom
the Kādis call Kalī, the Hādis Srisundari and the Ka-Hadis
Haṁsah.
But the life and consciousness displayed in organic bodies is not
something wholly new which had no place in the inorganic material of
which they are composed. All such vital phenomena exist in subdued
or potential form in every kind of matter which contains the
potentiality of all life. All which is manifested exists potentially
in its ground. [Bhūimi]
As the ancient Upaniṣad says and modern so-called "New thought"
repeats "What one thinks, that one becomes." All recognize this
principle to a certain point. If man thinks inhuman thoughts he
dehumanizes himself. Vedānta carries the application of this
principle to its logical conclusion and affirms that not only does
thought operate modifications in and within the limits of particular
types or species, but actually evolves such and all other types
through the cosmic or collective Thought of which the universe is a
material expression. Thus every unit or atom of matter is a Puruṣa
identifying itself with the solid (Pārthiva) "crust" of matter...
Every single atom in the universe is in constant movement and hence
the world is called Jagat or that which moves. The word Haṁsa is
here said to be derived from the word Hanti which means Gati or
motion.
Māyā is not something apart from Brahman, for it is Brahman who
through Māyā, an aspect of Brahman, Himself becomes His own object.
In the first act of creation He commences to become His own object,
but it is only when the subject as Purusa is clothed, that is
limited, by the Kañcukas, that the latter sees objects as other than
and outside Himself. At this stage duality is established and
exfoliates in the Vikṛtis of Prakṛtis as the multiple experiences
of the World of Mind and Matter.
# Chapter 17, Kāmakalā
In the previous chapters it has been shown that the Parabindu or
īśvara Tattva assumes in creation a threefold aspect as the three
Bindus--Bindu (Kārya), Nāda, Bīja. These three points constitute
symbolically a triangle which is known as the Kāmakalā. [Kāma is
here used in the sence of] Icchā, the Divine creative Will towards
the life of form...
# Chapter 18, The gross tattvas and their lords
Śiva is constantly represented in corpse-like (Śavarupa) form.
This symbolizes that Consciousness in Itself (Svarupa) is actionless
and inert. All action is by Śakti. Hence the Devī is in pictures
imaged as standing on the inert corpse-like body of Śiva.
* Mūlādhāra, earth, yellow [golden], Brahmā
* Svādhiṣṭhāna, water, white, Viṣṇu
* Maṇipūra, fire, red, Rudra
* Anāhata, air, black [smoke], Īśa
* Viśuddha, ether, transparent, Sadāśiva
[This elemental view of the chakras is the same one that i learned
from my teacher. See also:
(TXT) Pancha Bhoota, see section Yogic view
]
Rāghava-Bhatta says that it is for the purpose of worship
(Upāsanā-sthānaṁ) in pursuance of Śastra
(Svaśāstrānurodhena) that certain invisible things are here said
to have colours... Ether is transparent which is no colour, black is
the absence of colour. With Rūpa [form] there must be colour. For
what is colourless is formless. Form is only perceived by means of
colour: and thus the last three Bhūtas are with form. Their colours
are widely adopted. Thus in China also yellow is the colour of
earth, and red and white are generally assigned to fire and weater,
respectively. ... Elsewhere it is said that ether is hollow or
pitted (Suṣiracinam) air is moving (Calanaparah) fire is digesting
(Paripākavan) water is tasteful (Rajavat) earth is solid (Ghana).
[This description of ether as pitted brings to mind wavelengths of
light. See below for a relevant quote from Annie Besant's
autobiography. For this reason, ether can be thought of as rainbow
hued. Indeed, spiritual imagery is often depicted as bordered,
contained, and surrounded by a rainbow.
"Every one knows the exquisite iridiscence of mother-of-pearl, the
tender, delicate hues which melt into each other, glowing with soft
radiance. How different is the dull, dead surface of a piece of wax.
Yet take that dull, black wax and mould it so closely to the surface
of the mother-of-pearl that it shall take every delicate marking of
the shell, and when you raise it the seven-hued glory shall smile at
you from the erstwhile colourless surface. For, though it be to the
naked eye imperceptible, all the surface of the mother-of-pearl is in
delicate ridges and furrows, like the surface of a newly-ploughed
field; and when the waves of light come dashing up against the ridged
surface, they are broken like the waves on a shingly shore, and are
flung backwards, so that they cross each other and the oncoming
waves; and, as every ray of white light is made up of waves of seven
[let's just say "many"] colours, and these waves differ in length
each from the others, the fairy ridges fling them backward
separately, and each ray reaches the eye by itself; so that the
colour of the mother-of-pearl is really the spray of the light waves,
and comes from arrangement of matter once again. Give the dull,
black wax the same ridges and furrows, and its glory shall differ in
nothing from that of the shell."]
# Chapter 19, Causal śaktis of the Praṇava
The gist of the matter may be shortly stated as follows: In creation
the three Śaktis, Jñāna, Icchā, Kriyā, manifest. These are
manifested powers of the Supreme Bindu. "What is here is there," and
these Śaktis of the Lord (Pati) appear as the Guṇas of Prakṛti
in the Paśu; or as it has also been said, Jñāna and Kriyā with
Māyā as the third appear as Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas of the
Puruṣa-Prakṛti stage which is the immediate source of the
Consciousness of the Paśu.
For just as in the region of ideation the evolution is from infinite
Consciousness to the general and hence to particular ideas; so from
the corresponding objective or Mantra aspect, which is that of
Śāktopāyayoga, motion commences from the unextended point first as
general, then as particular movement, at length developing into the
clearly defined particularity of speech and of the objects with which
speech denotes. The rhythmic vibration of objects is the same as
that of the mind which perceives them, since both are aspects of the
one Śakti which thus divides itself.
# Chapter 20, The Kalās
Kalā is a common term in Tāntrik literature for which it is
difficult to find an appropriate English rendering. Kalā, in short,
is a particular display of Power for Vibhūti. Kalā is also one of
the Kañccukas which go to the making of the Puruṣa Consciousness
and in the production of higher Śaktis and Kalās.
# Chapter 21, The garland of letters or varṇamālā
Strictly speaking all uttered sounds are Mantras, all uttered speech
having a common origin or development...
The root "Man" means "to think" and the suffix "tra" indicates the
saving character of Mantra.
The one supreme Śakti appears in dual aspect as the Word, the Sense
by which as uttered sound it is heard, and as the Object or Artha
which the word denotes.
But a Mantra is the Devatā. The Sādhaka is taught who that Devatā
is. He [or she] does not however at once see that Devatā. At this
stage the Devatā exists for him [or her] clothed with or as an
audible sound, which evokes a particular thought-movement or
transformation of mental substance. The next stage is by
Mantra-Sādhanā to realise that Devatā; to know it not only as a
word and its mental counterpart, but as a form of that Power of which
they are but a faint reflection in the world of mind and matter.
But the Devatā is not an object in the ordinary material universe.
The Sādhaka has to pierce through the vehicle of the audible Śabda
and realise the Devatā whose form the Mantra is. He [or she] is
enabled to do this by the co-operation of the Mantra-Śakti with his
[or her] own Sādhana-Sakti.
The Devatā thus produced is as it were the son [or daughter] of the
Sādhaka. It is not the Supreme Devatā (who is actionless) who
appears, but in all cases an emanation produced by the Sadhaka for
his [or her] benefit only. ... the Devatā is a form of the
consciousness of the pure Sādhaka, which the latter arouses and
strengthens and gains good thereby. ... For thought in the sense
previously stated, words (gross and subtle) are necessary.
Mantra-vidya is the science of thought and its expression in language
as evolved from the Logos or Śabda-brahman Itself.
It is in this sense that the universe is said to be composed of the
Letters. It is the 50 (or as some count them 51) Letters of the
Sanskrit alphabet which are denoted by the Garland of severed heads
which the naked Mother Kālī, dark like a threatening rain cloud,
wears as She stands amidst bones and carrion, beasts and birds, in
the burning ground, on the white corpse-like (Śavarūpa) body of
Śiva.
# Chapter 22, Oṁ
The first Mantra into which a child is initialized is Mā or Mother,
for that is its first word, and Mother is often the last word on the
lips of the dying. Reverence to the natural Mother is reverence to
the Mother of all... The Primordial Power or Ādyā Śakti is
inconceivably beyond manifested personality, for this is limited
experience hedged in by mind and matter. Though not itself a Person
as we understand that term, it is ever PERSONALIZING in the form of
all individual (Vyaṣti) things in the world. It is also a Person
as the aggregate (Samaṣti) of all such personalities. Whilst
infinite, it contains in Itself the sum of all human and other
experience. Whilst the Power (Mahā-śakti) is in Itself beyond mind
and senses in that darkness (as man[kind] thinks it to be) which is
the body of Mahākālī, its manifestations are seen. It is with
reference to such manifestations inferred to be the Radical Vital
Potential which is, as it were, the thread (Sūtrātmā) of the whole
series of beings, which form one Vital Continuity, a principle on
which Indian Monistic philosophy is based. Nothing is an absolute
commencement or end. All is transformed. Birth and death are modes
thereof. Each existence is as it were a knot tied in an infinite
rope which knot is made at birth and untied at death. Something does
not come from nothing, and something never becomes nothing. ...
Nevertheless there is an infinite Vital Continuity stretching from
the Radical Potential to its actualization as the crust of matter,
which is but an infinitesimal portion of the effect produced by the
function of Substance relative to the whole universal efficiency. ...
The search therefore for the origin of life is futile, since life is
eternal and had no beginning.
All things are part of the one Mother who is Life itself. It
displays itself in innumerable forms, but the vastest generalization
of Its working discloses three movements of creative upbuilding, of
destructive disintegration, and the holding of these two opposing
forces in equillibrium. Nāda-bindu differentiates into the Trinity
of Will (Icchā), knowledge (Jñāna), and Action (Kriyā), "Sun,"
"Moon," and "Fire," and this self-explicating Power manifests in
matter in the threefold manner described. These three Powers are
A.U.M. or the Devatās Brahmā, Viṣṇu, [and] Rudra. These are
not "Gods." There is only one God. They are Devas or "Shining
ones," being aspects and specific manifestations of the One Divine
Power whose feet (in the words of Śāstra) even Brahmā, Viṣṇu,
and Rudra worship. They are scientific concepts deified, and rightly
so, for their content refers to the Supreme Power which is God.
Again leaving individual existences and looking at the sum total of
manifested energy, Viṣṇu, the Maintainer, throughout Space and
Time, is a theological statement of the general Conservation of
Energy. To these intuited laws and truths objective science is
giving increasing support. In this sense "Oṁ" is the Pratika or
representative of the Radical Vital Potential of the Universe and of
the Trinity of Energies by which It actualises and materialises
Itself as the five forms of "matter" (though Ether is not ponderable
matter), namely ethereal (Akāsa), aerial (Vāyu), fiery (Agni),
liquid (Ap), and solid (Pṛthvī). Through worship of and
meditation on this Pratika, with all its implications, man[kind],
according to Advaita-Vedanta, realises himself [or herself] as the
one vital Śakti who is the Mother of all.
# Chapter 23, The necklace of Kālī
... whilst there is one essential Wisdom its revelation has been more
or less complete according to the symbols evolved by, and therefore,
fitting to [different peoples]. Symbols are naturally misunderstood
by those to whom the beliefs they typify are unfamiliar, and who
differe in temperament from those who have evolved them. To the
ordinary Western mind the symbols of [Hindus] are often repulsive and
absurd. It must not, however, be forgotten that some of the symbols
of Western Faiths have the same effect on the Hindu. From the
picture of the "Slain Lamb," and other symbols in terms of blood and
death, he [or she] naturally shrinks in disgust. The same effect on
the other hand is [often] produced in the Westerner at the sight of
the terrible forms in which India has embodied Her vision of the
undoubted Terrors which exist in and around us. All is not smiling
in this world. ... We must also in such matters distinguish between
what a symbol may have meant an what it now means.
The Mahānirvāṇa-Tantra says... "At the dissolution of all things
it is Kāla (Time) who will devour all and by reason of this He is
called Mahā-Kāla and since Thou devourest Māha-Kāla Himself it is
Tho who art called the Supreme Kālikā. Because Thou devourest
Kāla, Thou art called Kālī..."
Here I take only the garland of freshly severed heads which hangs
like a Varṇamālā low from Her neck. An esoteric explanation
describes this Garland as made up of the heads of Demons which She as
a power of righteousness, has conquered. According to an inner
explanation given in the Indian Tantra-Śastra this string of heads
is the Garland of Letters (Varṇamālā), that is the 50, and as
some count it, 51 letters, of the Sanskrit Alphabet. These letters
represent the universe of names and forms (Nāma-rūpa) that is
Speech (Śabda) and its meaning or object (Artha).
There is a tradition that there was once a universal speech before
the building of the Tower of Babel, signifying the confusion of
tongues. Of these letters and names and their meaning or objects,
that is concepts and concepts objectified the whole Universe is
composed. When Kālī withdraws the world, that is the names and
forms which the Letters signify, the dualism in Consciousness, which
is creation, vanishes. There is neither "I" (Ahaṁ) nor "This"
(Idaṁ) but th one non-dual Perfect Experience which Kālī in Her
own true nature (Svarūpa) is. In this way Her Garland is understood.
# Chapter 24, Dhvani
Motion may be either produced or unproduced. The latter is the
causal stress itself, and the former the effect of it.
This uncreated self-existing Śabda as causal stress manifests in
double form as unlettered sound or Dhvani and is thus called
Dhvanyātmaka-Śabda and as lettered sound or Varna which is
Varṇātmaka-Śabda.
According to the Vyāsa-Bhārya on Yoga, each Varṇā is capable of
expressing all Arthas or meanings. A special combination of Varṇas
is necessary to express a special meaning.
The Varṇas or letters have imperishable and invariable (Nitya)
forms. Plato's doctrine of ideal archtypes and their sensible
variations comes nearer to the Vedānta doctrine.
Thus the Śabda "Oṁ" is uninterruptedly going on, but this it is
said, one can only hear in certain stages of Sādhanā or in a quiet
place particularly during night time when there is little...
interference of the sound waves.
Thus we say "Ka is now produced and is no more." But really that
which comes to be or ceases to be is the vehicle (Dhvani) and not the
Varṇa-Śabda.
When a man is heard shouting from a great distance we do not catch
his actual words and yet we can hear the pitch, modulation, and so
forth of his voice. When he speaks close to us we catch his words as
well... In both cases the pitch, etc., of the sound constitute its
Dhvani. These qualities of pitch, sweetness, and the like do not
inhere in the Varṇas themselves but belong to their acoustic
expression, the Dhvanis.
In the Tantras Dhvani is a form of Causal Śabda. Thus we hear of
the "sweet murmuring Dhvani of Kundalinī," the Creatrix of all
Śabdas and Arthas.
# Chapter 26, Bīja-mantra
Action necessarily implies movement. Whenever therefore, there is
action, there is Spanda or movement and therefore what the perceiving
subject (when heard) is called Sound. In the beginning of things the
natural Principle (Prakṛti) was in a state of equillibrium
(Sāmyāvasthā). Then there was no Sound, for there was no movement
of the objective world. The first Vibration which took place at the
commencement of creation, that is, on the disturbance of equillibrium
(Vaiṣamyāvasthā) was a general movement (Sāmānya-Spanda) in the
whole mass of Prakṛti. This was the Praṇava-Dhvani of Oṁ
Sound. Oṁ is only the approximate representation or gross
utterance to gross ear of the Subtle Sound which is heard in Yoga
experience of the first movement which is continually taking place,
for at each moment the creative movement is present.
Mantras are given various names according to the number of the
syllables. A Bīja or Seed-mantra, is strictly speaking, a Mantra of
a single letter such as Kaṁ, which is composed of the letter K (Ka)
together with Candrabindu (ꣲ) which terminates all Mantras.
For this reason, in the selection by the Guru of the Mantra for his
[or her] disciple the letters are chosen according as an examination
shows that there is an excess or deficiency of any particular Bhūta.
Where there is an excess of a Bhūta, the letter in which it is
predominant is said with the outbreathing. Where there is a
deficiency it is said with the inbreathing. M is chosen to end the
Bīja because here the Bhūtas are said to be in equipose. Though
strictly the Bīja is of one letter as the seed from which the Mantra
springs, popularly other short unetymological vocables such as
Hrīṁ, Śrīṁ, Krīṁ, Hīṁ, Aiṁ, [and] Phat are called
Bījas.
Each Devatā has His or Her Bīja. Thus the Devatās of Krīṁ,
Hrīṁ, and Raṁ are Kālī, Māyā, and Agni respectively. The
primary Mantra in the worship of any Deva or Devī is known as the
Root Mantra (Mūlamantra).
[For the meanings of various Bījas, see 6th Chapter of the
Varadā-Tantra as quoted in the well known Bengali compendium known
as the Prānatoṣiṇī.]
A close examination of the above may raise some difficulties, but
must, in connection with what is elsewhere written, remove the charge
that the Bija is a meaningless saying to the worshipper. It is full
of meaning to him [or her].
# Chapter 28, Mantra-sādhana
"Man" of "Mantra" comes from the first syllable of Manana or thinking
and "tra" from Trāṇa or liberation from the bondage of the
Saṁsāra or phenomenal world.
This shows that Mantra is not mere individual thinking but a
particular sound-body of consciousness. ... to the Sādhaka it is a
very mass of radiant Tejas or energy.
A mantra again is not the same thing as prayer... Prayer is conveyed
in what words the worshipper chooses and bears its meaning on its
face. [One can use any language for prayer] without recourse to the
eternal and determined sounds of Śastra.
The Jīva who inbreathes and outbreathes utters a great Mantra. This
is the Ajapā-Mantra of Haṁsah, called "Ajapā" because it repeats
itself naturally without any effort ont he part of the Jīva. It is
the heaving of the Dhvani which causes alternate inspiration and
expiration. Śakti it is who is the Cause of the sweet, indistinct
and murmuring Dhvani which sounds like the humming of black bees.
The consciousness of the Sādhaka becomes en rapport and in union
with the Consciousness in the form of the Mantral; and the Devatā
who is the Artha of the Mantra appears to the Sadhaka, whose mind has
been cleansed and illuminated by devotion.
author: Woodroffe, John George, Sir, 1865-1936
(TXT) detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/John_Woodroffe
LOC: BL1135.T6 W65
(HTM) source: http://www.mysticknowledge.org/The_Garland_of_Letters-_By_Arthur_Avalon.pdf
tags: ebook,esoteric,non-fiction,spirit,tantra
title: The Garland of Letters
# Tags
(DIR) ebook
(DIR) esoteric
(DIR) non-fiction
(DIR) spirit
(DIR) tantra