The Meaning of SivaliGkam 1-5

Dr K. Loganathan, May 2003

[1. The Atara Cakras ( or Existential Abodes) 2. The Examination of Atara Cakras ( Atara Cootanai) 3.

The Experiencing of Transcendental Light 4. The Mantra Syllables and the Atara Cakras 5. The SivaliGkam as that which Provides the Living ]

The Meaning of SivaliGkam-1

The Atara Cakras ( or Existential Abodes)

The Meaning of SivaliGkam is very profound and immensely complex and hence it is not surprising at all that it is ill understood especially by the Westerners who do not seem to appreciate the metaphysics behind it. I intend to write few essays based upon Tirumular’s account of it in the Seventh Tantra that has a chapter of 73 verses on SivaliGkam, one of the fundamental icons of worship among the Saivas. As an icon it is something like the notion of MODULE in the newly emerging Evolutionary Psychology but it goes deeper than the notion of genetic codes that determine the biological features and so forth. The icons such as SivaliGkam PREEXISTS the genetic modules though like these, are objective realities out there in the world and which on taking over the psychobiological processes not only determine the species characteristics, the sexuality but most important of all, the nature of the understanding itself. Thus Tirumular approaches the whole issue in terms of HERMENEUTICS, the seeking to make sense of the genesis and configuration of Human Understanding in the most comprehensive manner.

And interestingly enough the first verse in this chapter begins with the notion of Atara Cakras and second goes on to explaining how all these are related to learning and development of UNDERSTANDING and how in the limiting case, the ordinary human understanding is purified and made to shine out as Civanjaanam, the LIMIT in understanding where only truths are witnessed and enjoyed.

The SivaliGkam is the union of the Siva Tatvas Natam and Bindu where in the graphical version we have the Pillar as a form Natam and the pedestal as the form of Bindu. The real SivaliGkam is everywhere and only when the Natam penetrates or conjugates with Bindu that Kundalini is released. The sexual act of copulation is just one of such Natam-Bindu union. It takes place at all levels and only because of it there is release of Kundalini, the Psychic Energy, the Sakti. The Natam transforms the Kundalini into the Sun, and Bindu into the Moon and which are objects of transductive perception. These two act and interact in various degrees to illuminate the mind, clarify the understanding and through that PURIFY the soul.

Thus SivaliGkam is a metaphysical reality that in essence is there to illuminate the mind, clarify understanding and lift up the soul into the higher reaches of metaphysical realms.

The following two verses give more details.

1704

naalum irumuunRum iiraintum iiraaRum

koolimeel ninRa kuRikaL patinaaRum

muulam kaNdu aaGkee mudintu mutal irandum

kaalaG kaNddan adi kaanalumaamee

Meaning:

Among the Atara Cakras (that constitute the essence of existence and which are there in the world as well as in the psychic interior) the first, the muulaataaram, has the four-petalled Lotus as its foundation, the second, the Suvaatistaanam the six-petalled Lotus; the third, MaNipuurakam, the ten-petalled Lotus and the fourth Anakatam has the twelve-petalled Lotus. Next comes Vicukti that has 16 symbolic elements (kuRikaL) over a globular structure. When one seeks and understands the fundamental principles of the genesis and evolution of these Cakras, then one enters the sixth Cakra, that of Aknja. And when the understanding goes further and locates the Siva tatvas Natam and Bindu and BEING as Civa and Sakti while in union with them and how it is only because of the DANCE of this TWO that there are eight fold Buddhies and Siddhies that install TEMPORALITY in the mind, that we really succeed seeing the DANCE of BEING. This direct vision of the Dance, the Divine Feet, must the goal of our metaphysical efforts.

1705:

iiraaRu naatattil iireddaam antattil

meetaati naataanta miitaam paraasatti

pootaalayattu avikaaran taniR poota

meetaati yaataara miitaana uNmaiyee

Meaning:

While the SUN principle as an expression of the Siva Tatva, Natam, have 12 divisions, the MOON, the expression of Bindu, has 16 divisions. When one gains all these, enjoys the experiences and illuminations afforded by them and finally transcends them all, one can meet Parasakti as the Deep Structure and who stands as original ground of it all but only when one transcends every aspect of speech. When one pursues further, taking it as the temple of metaphysical illuminations, becoming free thereby of all mental distortions, one can also attain, theCivanjaanam the Absolute Understanding where only truths shine out. 

Comments:

Te SivaliGkam is the union of the Siva Tatvas Natam and Bindu where the Pillar ( tuuN or SivataaNu) stands for Natam and the circular pedestal for Bindu. When the Natam penetrates into Bindu (like in sexual copulation) KundaliNi is released and which under the transformer Natam appears as the Sun and under Bindu as the MOON and which are elements of metaphysical experience. The Sun and moon structures emerge slowly in degrees, 12 for the sun and 16 or the moon and at each stage there are illuminations or gaining of insights into the mysteries surrounding existence. Such insights gained thus illuminate the mind and develop the understanding by driving the darkness of ignorance. The mental distortions are also removed and the understanding purified.

When during such times one seeks the Deep Structure of it all, and tears oneself away from all kinds of speech, in the deep silence that ensues, one can witness Parasakti, the Transcendent Pure Radiance which is behind every kind of metaphysical illumination one enjoys. This is the Temple of Metaphysical illuminations (pootalayam) that destroys every kind of mental distortions or pollutions of ordinary understanding. Perseverance in this Temple further purifies the soul and at the end of which one begins to enjoy Civanjaanam, the Absolute Understanding in which there is seeing and experiencing only truth and nothing else.

The Meaning of SivaliGkam-2

The Examination of Atara Cakras ( Atara Cootanai)

Saivism (and perhaps also VaishNavism and Saktaism) shares a common feature with Jainism and Buddhism viz. a hermeneutic orientation and which distinguishes them from the Vedism that seeks to establish an spiritual imperialism by claiming that only the Vedas are authoritative in matters that are spiritual and hence also the Brahmanahs who are by right the upholders of these Vedas.

The Hermeneutic orientation of the Agamic tradition upholds the rights as well as acceptsan inherent competency of everyone to reach the highest possibilities in UNDERSTADING and enjoy Mukti. One need NOT study the Vedas and sit at the feet of Brahmanahs to be redeemed. The following two verses of Tirumular explain the matter further.

Having accessed the Six Atara Cakras as objective realities there in the world and in the mind that establishes the various inner ecologies, one must REFLECT on them and appropriate them as self-understanding, something one acquires as part of one existential understanding in order to ascend and the enjoy the darsana of Pure Light, called here the ViNNoLi, associated with presentation of Paraasakti Herself.

This experience of Pure Light is the common denominator of mystics all over the world and has nothing to the differences in religions or even caste. En Hudu Anna, the daughter of Sargon the Great (c. 2200 B.C) begins her Sirbiyam (The Exaltation of Inanna) with the immortal lines: Nin mey sar-ra u dalla-e-a(Lady of all me’s, resplendent light) Tamil: Nin mey sarva uL teLLiya.

William James, has already drawn our attention to the universality of this experience in his “Varieties of Religious Experience’

However what Tirumular accomplishes in the two verses below exceeds what has been achieved about this experience either in India or elsewhere (as far as know) by way of a philosophical explanation. The Buddhists appropriated this as Sunyata (Su.sul, sun, Ta. suul, suur, suun: a region of intense heat and light) and stopped at that ( till they became Tanrtic). The Advaitins noted this as Brahman (Ta. paruti: sun) and did not go beyond.

It should be noted that while Natam as the Sun, violates the darkness within and provides the initial vision as to what is there, it is the Bindu as the Moon that allows the appropriation of this as self-understanding and hence both only because the SivaliGkam. Thus only within a metaphysics that accommodates both Natam and Bindu ( the Sun and the Moon) one can, unlike the Buddhists who never saw the self and the Vedanties who lost it to the Brahman, succeed in seeing the self as distinct from BEING and understand everything in terms of Fundamental Ontology where Pati ( BEING) Pasu ( the selves) and Paasam ( the binding fetters) are taken as anati, unoriginated.

1706

meelenRuG kiiz enRu iraNdaRak kaaNunGkaal

taanenRum naanenRu tanmaikaL ooraaRum

paareGkum aakip paranta paraaparan

kaar onRu kaRpakamaaki ninRaanee

Meaning:

If one sees the six Atara Cakras and the SivaliGkam that establishes them all, without separating and isolating the top pillar of Natam and the bottom pedestal of Bindu, then one can witness how the transcendental BEING spread across the whole world and gives rise to the ego sense of “I” and “mine” and the six Siva-qualities to the anmas. BEING would also appear as the Tree with the dark rain clouds that bestows untiringly whatever is desired.

Comments:

Perhaps Tirumular is describing here a technique for ascending further and enter what is called the Sahasra Talam, the metaphysical realms of Thousand Petals. For this what is required is the seeing of BOTH Natam and Bindu and as always together and everywhere. The Father of Natam and Mother of Bindu must be seen as always together and hence not avoiding or despising one in favor of another.

Once o person succeeds in the unitary vision of Siva and Sakti together and everywhere, BEING as Ammaiyappar, the Androgynous Reality, then one can succeed entering the Realms of Thousand Petals and there enjoy Boundless KuNdalini, the Power that regenerates youthful vitality and virility along with all the divine qualities that would ensure undiminishing joy.

1707

aataara cootanaiyaal naadi cuttikaL

meetaati iireN kalaantattu viNNoLi

pootaalayattup pulan karaNam punti

saataaranaG keddaan taan sakamaarkkamee

Meaning:

The SivaliGkam, which is the union of Natam and Bindu, generates the six Atara Cakras beginning with muulaataaram and ending with Aknja. When one examines and understands how they in fact configure the various instinctual pressures and hence the motivational dynamics, then one can attain being free of the Four Nadies - the Idakalai, Pingkalai, Suzimunai and Guru Nadi which is the deep structure of all these. In the course of such reflections the Bindu emerging as the Moon within will afford metaphysical illuminations in 16 degrees. At the end of this way of learning there will be the Vision of Parasakti as the pure heavenly Radiance. When the anma immerses in this field of Pure Light and loses the normal senses cognitive utensils and thoughts and acquire utensils and so forth designed to enjoy Civanjaanam, then the anma succeeds in leading a way of life which is Being-along- with-BEING (saka maarkkam)

Comments:

Metaphysical life is not only experiencing the various realms beyond the physical but also UNDERSTANDING how the elements there configure the ordinary life. These elements and dynamics remain the MYSTERY of existence, that which remain the Unconscious most of the time and hence something there but incomprehensible. The ordinary mind dismisses them as MYSTICAL thus depriving itself an opportunity for gaining a deeper understanding of self itself.

Tirumular maintains that one can free oneself from the ordinary and worldly passions only by reflectingly appropriating an UNDERSTADING of how one’s own psychodynamics are configured by SivaliGkam that establishes the Six Atara Cakras for this purpose. In the course of such a life metaphysical reflections, the Bindu within in the form of the MOON, the WOMAN, slowly unfolds the mysteries in 16 degrees and at the end of which there is the darsana of Parasakti as Pure Divine Radiance. When one maintains oneself firmly in the vision of this Pure Light, then one is freed of the ordinary senses and mind of an ordinary person and bestowed in their place with those that would constitute a Sivanjani, one desirous of understanding Civanjaanam and nothing else. This way of life is also a life is sakamaarkkam, Being-along-with-BEING.

The Meaning of SivaliGkam-3

The Experiencing of Transcendental Light

The SivaliGkam as composed with a pillar standing on a pedestal has a structure and hence a structural meaning over and above others. Though it is instrumental for affording the Experience of Pure Light, the paraaSakti or NuNNoLi, as Tirumular would call it, it has structural components and because of the functions of which the understanding is raised to glow in the experience of Pure Light, the common denominator of all mystics.

But how are we to attain to this great heights? What is sadhana relevant to it?

Tirumular addresses this question in the following verse within the theoretical understanding as founded by Mantrayana. It is undeniable that the Sivalingkam underlies the genesis of creatures into males and females ( thus a pre-genetic force) and the existence sexual allurements that bring them together in marriage. This pertains not only creatures of the world but also deities who are also male and female. These celestial beings enjoy hierogamos (divine weddings?) and which is celebrated as VaLLit TirumaNam (the marriage of Muruka to vaLLi), Rukumini Kalyanam (the marriage of KrishNa to Rukkumani) and Minaatci Sundareswarar Kalyanam (The Marriage of Minatci to Civa as Cokkanatan or kalyanasundaran) accompaniedwith all theproceedings of the worldly weddings.

But these are only phenomenal presentations of what is actually the union ( ma-kaaram) of the mantra a-kaaram (the root of the female) and u-kaaram (the root of male) and which is represented by A-U-M, the OGkarram, and the Udgita of the Upanishads. 

When the self has extricated itself from the phenomenal world, including the celestial, and bodily bondages and enters and exists fully in the Mantra World, the sadhana that is most appropriate for eliciting the KuNdalini is the recitation of the mantra Om continuously so that there is always the union of a-kaaram with u-kaaram and hence the continuous production Kundalini which at this point is no more the taatu-energy, the energy of species regeneration but something transformed into illuminating Light.

When the seeing of the significance of SivaliGkam is conditioned by this kind of mantra-understanding, the vision becomes truly DIVINE, as it was the case with Appar described in his famous TiruvaiyaaRu Tiruppatikam, where he declares in seeing the matting of animals that he infact sees the dance of Siva and Sakti and thereby understands that are not normally understood ( kaNdaRiyaatan Kandeen). Only the immature minds (and perhaps the sexually repressed or deprived) would see this simply as the symbol of carnal sexuality forgetting the whole range of deeper meanings available there.

At the deepest level it is the symbol of destructive-generative processes that underlie all -- the physical and metaphysical, the separation of a-kaaram and u-karaam spelling out decay and destruction, their union or marriage regeneration, resurgence, renewal and so forth.

1708

meetaatiyaalee vidaatu Om enat tuuNdi

aataara cootanai attuva cootanai

taatu ataaramaakavee taan ezac ceytaal

aataaranj cey pookamaavatu kaayamee

Meaning:

Establishing firmly the various processes that afford clarities in understanding (meetaati), one must recite the Mantra Om to further activate the KundaliNi and its flow into the psychic interiority.With eliciting psychic Energy thus, one must examine the six Atara Cakras and the various channels of cognition (attuvas: mantra, mantra-complexes, the intonations, the existential worlds, the realities and the various stages or degrees in which illuminations are attained) continuously eliciting the Libido and transforming it into various kinds of higher energies, the Gnostic and so forth. Once one succeeds in doing this then the ordinary body becomes the instrument for the enjoyment of all the Siddhies that the Atara Cakras bestow upon the anma.

Dear Bala

Thank-you for your questions. I am struggling ( and what a struggle it is! )
to understand Tirumular who has said so many deep things in the  vast book
of Tirumantiram with 3000 verses. A fantastic achievement really, almost
inhuman one might say. What I am doing is to bring into current thinking
whatever that reaches my understanding.

With these preludes let me attend to some of the questions you have raised.
I shall be brief here and will come to ithem later in greater detail.  My
responses are below your questions.

Loga

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

----- Original Message -----
From: Bala Pillai <bala@tamil.net>
To: <akandabaratam@egroups.com>; <IndianCivilization@egroups.com>
Cc: <tamil@tamil.net>; <meykandar@egroups.com>;
<sydneytamil@yahoogroups.com>; <malaysianindianclub@egroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2002 8:23 PM
Subject: Re: [tamil] The Meaning of SivaliGkam-3

> Dr Loga,
>
> >1708
>
> >meetaatiyaalee vidaatu Om enat tuuNdi
> >aataara cootanai attuva cootanai
> >taatu ataaramaakavee taan ezac ceytaal
> >aataaranj cey pookamaavatu kaayamee
>
> >Meaning:
>
> >Establishing firmly the various processes that afford clarities in
> understanding (meetaati), one must recite >the Mantra Om to further
activate
> the KundaliNi and its flow into the psychic interiority.  With eliciting
> >psychic Energy thus, one must examine the six Atara Cakras and the
various
> channels of cognition >attuvas: mantra, mantra-complexes, the intonations,
> the existential worlds, the realities and the various >stages or degrees
in
> which illuminations are attained) continuously eliciting the Libido and
> transforming it >into various kinds of higher energies, the Gnostic and so
> forth. Once one succeeds in doing this then the >ordinary body becomes the
> instrument for the enjoyment of all the Siddhies that the Atara Cakras
> bestow >upon the anma.
> >
>
> Re: "...to further activate the KundaliNi..." and "...continuosly
eliciting
> the Libido...", I would think this pre-supposes that a person has lived a
> normal sexual life as what was normal during the times of Tirumular --
> before Semetic (Islamic and Christian) and Victorian prudishness/sexual
> repressionism set into Tamil lands?

Loga:

Yes and Tirumular was a family man as far as the internal evidences would
go. He must have practiced what he calls Pariyangka Yoga, the Yoga of Sexual
Union on the Bed with his spouse in the Third Tantra that devotes to delineating the
details of many Yoga practices. ( More comprehensive than Patanjali!) Even
at the height spiritual life he does not disallow a life with females. He seems
to think that as one progresses in spiritual life, one will also gain the
company of excellent women( nalla madavaar nayantu udanee varuvar -- 908) as
the grace of God. He seems to think that such a way of life is a blessing
for those who advance in the  faultlessSanmaarkkam, the Way of
metaphysical Illuminations

>
> Would you know what the sexual norm then would have been? Was it the time
> when there were devadasis and natyams in temples? Since on average people
> died much earlier, got married earlier, were less dependant on parents,
had
> more common sense, did men and women (boys and girls in today's parlance)
> begin sexual activities from closer to Nature's mark of adulthood --
> puberty?

Loga

 Tolkaappiyam is quite clear on this . Only sex life within LOVE is taken as
the norm and this is called anbin aintiNai, the life ofmental ecologies regulated
by LOVE ( anbu). Interestingly enough this kind of life is also that which
is condoned by the deities, Ceeyoon Maayoon etc. The purely sexual and other forms
of  behaviour are taken to be abnormal , something that pertains only to
Kiiz Makkal, the lower kinds of people. They are divided into KaikiLai and
PeruNtinai, forms of behaviour that should  not condoned and encouraged.
They are also behaviour arising from ecologies where the gods are absent!

Please do not confuse the fine arts and the Devadasi system. The original
meaning of devadasi is 'servant of god" and probably were women who devoted
themselves to the temple services by way of keeping it clean, dancing and
singing to please the gods and people. During the bakti period we hear of
many such Saivite devotees.  But you  also find that periodically it
degenerates whereby these women are turned into prostitutes especially by the
political leadership of the times. This happened recently in Tamil Nad
after the collapse of the Colas whereby the Baratha Nattyam dancers also
became mistresses of the Jamindars and Palayakkaras. The term 'kuuttiya'
which really  means a dancer,  has come to mean a mistress because of this.
The book Tamil NeRi ViLlakkam ( I think) allows the rich men to have kaathaR
Kizatti or Kamak Kizatti i.e. mistresses

> Further would love and sex been on a continuum as compared to today where
> they are more seen as opposites? An example: given that our mind and its
> imagination is our foremost sex organ, is it not possible that the act of
a
> man lovingly-sensuosly feeding a woman, be "sexual" to someone? If say
today
> we see the act of intercourse as 95% sex and 5% love, and say this act of
> feeding as 100% love and 0% sex, and say the act of touching someone of
the
> opposite sex as 70% sex(?) and 30% love (?) and let us think of every
> activity from eating, playing, touching, dancing -- is it possible that
love
> and sex flowed in one continuum and sex was then, closer to utmost love
than
> it is today. Given today's guilt and the norm of needing to hide sex any
> semblance of sexual (or "love", love-sex) feelings, it is a mixture of
> guilt, desire, adventure, fantasy and love(?) in confusing and bewildering
> mixes?

Loga:

Yes most certainly. The difference is between the Kamattup Paal of TirukuRal
and the Kama Sutra of Vatsyana. VaLluvar delineates LOVE between a man and
woman and in this almost the Siva-Sakti Dance. There is hardly any mention
of the sexual acrobatics that Kama Sutra elaborates. There is also another
book in Tamil "Kokookam" which is similar to Kama Sutra.

The LOVE as delineated in KuRaL is almost divine. In fact Tol. speaks of
LOVE people have for God ( iRaik kaamam) and perhaps its gramamr is to be
had in KuRaL. The hymns of Sri ANdal and Punitavati articulate such a love,
the former for Naranan and latter for Siva.

I have seen many couples deeply in LOVE with tender care for each other even
in their sixties!  When one dies soon or later the other too dies. The sexual
attraction is temporary and after an initial few years it gets transformed
into Pure LOVE that is more fulfilling and more lasting.
>
>
> I would think that in today's Tamil/Indian repressed sexual environments,
> eliciting the Libido without the biological and natural adolescent plus
> sexual urges being exhausted as it might have been then, this eliciting
> would increase sexual urges and cause a need for their release. Especially
> given that sex has been (because of Islamic, then-Christian and Victorian
> norms) artificially made into a scarcity thus making it the best raw
> material for persuasion/advertising/entertainment, which tintillates even
> more sex.

Loga:

I think it is NOT sex that is repressed but rather LOVE. Young Hindu adults
are NOT allowed to LOVE and choose their own mates. The causes may be many
and perhaps the onslaughts of Islam and so forth are partly responsible for
it. Perhaps also the division of society into rigid caste groups where the
children were not allowed to freely mix and develop LOVE . I have counseled
a Chettiyar girl who went almost mad because she began to love a
nonchettiyar boy and had immense problems in overcoming that love which has
to be  killed to please her parents who were  very caste conscious!
>
> In sum, I would think that Tirumular may have taken it that there was a
> natural progression from biological sexual urges being released at the
right
> near-puberty onwards ages, then Man step by step moving on to higher and
> higher mental levels.
>
> What do you think?

Loga

You are certainly right here. The higher according to him is entering the
world of Mantras and leading a way of life fully absorbed in it and enjoying
the deeper and deeper metaphysical illuminations that one is blessed with
there. This according to him is true spiritual life.

More on such things later.
>
> anpudan../bala
> bala@tamil.net

The Meaning of SivaliGkam- 4

The Mantra Syllables and the Atara Cakras

The SivaliGkam is the Union of the mantra-syllables of ukaaram and akaaram also known as the primordial real substances, the tatvas, Natam and Bindu. In the following two verses Tirumular explains how it is only as the result of the functional characteristics of the SivaliGkam, also the Primordial Logos Om, the living human body is both physical and spiritual or both the mind and body.

The person ( or any living creature for that matter) is both physical and spiritual and one cannot be reduced to other. Both are generated from the various mantra scripts that are generated out of the primordial Om and which act upon the physical and spiritual substances ( the cutta acutta mayai) to generate both physical and mental forms that go together. This is the solution Tirumular has for the perplexing question about mind and body and how they stand in relation to each other that has exercised the philosophers in the West since the days of Descartes.

What is also very interesting to note is that the Six Atara Cakras are ALREADY present in the human mind for the human beings to access and live by. And so thereisa UNIVERSALISM - no matter what is the religion ethnicity caste language and other differentiating factors, the WAY towards liberation is ALREADY AVAILABLEin the mind of every body. What they have to do is to ACCESS them one by one and TRANSCENDall to reach the highest and which also constitutes Mukti.

Thus it would turn out that theVedas and such other scriptures can be of some help but are NOT absolutely authoritative. The RIGHT WAY, the Sanmaarkkamremains ALREADYGIVEN and it is at the depths of our own understanding and anybody brave enough to venture into it can enjoy the ultimate bliss and on his own efforts.

God is NOT discriminating though the priests gurus and philosophers may be.

1709

aaRu antamuG kuudi aakum udampinil

kuuRiya aataara maRRuG kuRikoLmin

aaRiya vakkaram aimpatin meelee

uuRiya aataarattu oor ezuttaamee

meaning:

This physical body (that we enjoy as our own) is in fact generated in such a way that the Six Ataara Cakkaras, from Mulatara to Aknja, are already there. In order to understand properly the dynamics and essence of self, we should also seek to understand these cakras as well as all those that come along with them. These Cakras that establish the WAY for the selves, are in fact generated out of the fifty aksaras and the Om, the Mantra of a single aksara, that remains the originating ground of all these.

Comments: 

With this verse Tirumular begins an account of the Genesis of the human body where he notes that, in addition to being physical with bones flesh nerves and so forth, there is also SPIRITUAL. The spiritual dimensions are already there as the essence of the living human body for right at the point of inception, the Six Ataara Cakras along with the deities that regulate them are already installed, a matter that has been investigated in greater depths by the later Siddhas of Tamil country. Thus it is NOT just the genetic factors that determine the physical characteristics of the body generated but also the spiritual elements and which are present in the form akkara-cakras, mantra complexes and the deities that ordain them.

In the formation and genesis of the embryo, these cakras and deities come to prevail in stages and only because of which the person who comes into the world as human being, comes also with such spiritual essences as speech culture religion and so forth. Thus it becomes imperative that in seeking to understand self in a nonreductionistic way, one should also seek to understand how the mental functioning is ordained by the mantra-complexes.

By way of explaining the origins of theses mantra complexes that are generated from the basic 50 aksaras, Tirumular also notes that these have as their Deep Structure or Ground, the Logos Om, the primordial single aksara where BEING is also present in His most authentic form.

1710

aakum udambum azikinRa avvudal

pookum uambum poruntiyavaaRutaan

aakiya vakkaram aimpatu tattuvam

aakum udambukkum aaRanta maamee

Meaning:

The body that becomes that which is lived by an anma, is generated from the physical (asutta maayai) and spiritual (cutta maayai) substances with the help of the mantras and by the deities that are there along with the mantra-complexes. Of these while the physical body suffers death and decay, the spiritual body survives death and remains there indestructible. Only when we seek to understand how these two different kinds of bodies come to co-exist in a well co-ordinated manner, we can see how the primordial LogosOM became differentiated into the 50 aksaras and how in union with the tatvas, the real substances, this body is generated in such a way that the six Ataara Cakras are already there along with the competency to transcend them.

Comments:

This verse is related to above where Tirumular is seeking understand the genesis of the living body where we have both the physical and spiritual functioning in good co-ordination. The living human being (and also all the living creatures) being generated out of both the physical and spiritual substances, have an inherent DUALITY, the mental and physical functioning in good co-ordination. The good co-ordination we see between the mental and physical is due to the fact that the spiritual self contains within itself SCRIPTS of mantra-complexes that act and transform the physical and spiritual substances so that there is good co-ordination between the mental competencies and physical attributes of the biological body (except in some abnormal cases). Thus the soul with scripts of an elephant does not generate the body of a human being and so forth.

In this it is only the physical body that suffers death and decay but not the spiritual self, the soul that separates itself from the body at the point of death and survives (along with the prabta karma) till it is allowed to resurrect itself and enjoy another lease of life.

Tirumular also notes here that the scripts available in the spiritual self also establish the Six Atara Cakras within the mental horizons and hence inner ecological regions as already available. Thus the atara cakras are NOT inventions of the mind but rather recognition of what is already made available as differentiations of the Primordial SivalinGkam, the graphical version of A-U-M. The AUTHENTIC LIFE consists in living in accordance of these inner ecologies already given and TRANSCENDING them as well and which capacity is also equally available. 

The Meaning of SivaliGkam-5

The SivaliGkam as that which Provides the Living

The SivaliGkam, let us recall, is a reality, a module ALREADY THERE at the deepest layer of the psychic interiority allowing the anmas to live a life, enjoy Being-in-the-World as a living creature, a presence as opposed to absence. Though the SivaliGkam in the temple may be static, but as it is in the soul it is dynamic, the LiGkam and Yoni, the forms of Natam and Bindu, are in conjugal relationship, there is a DANCE of Natam and Bindu and only because of which there is BREATHING as such - the inhaling exhaling, the fundamental processes of life. Without this dynamic presence of SivaliGkam in the soul, there will NOT the breathing processes that supply the KuNdaliNi Sakti, the Energy to be transformed and used for various other purposes.

Thus the SivaliGkam being related to species regenerating sexual activity is only a LOCAL aspect of it, universally it is that which establishes the LIVING itself and hence all those who breathe and live, do so, whether they understand and admit it or not, only because of the PRESENCE of this dynamic SivaliGkam in the deepest layer of the psyche, the anma.

This also means that the departure or the withdrawal of the SivaliGkam from the psychic interiority is that which brings about DEATH.

Now we have already seen it is this dance that generates the various mantra complexes or scripts that generate the Ataara Cakras that configure the existential ecologies that are SAFE and in the company of the divine forces as opposed to the devilish demonic or Satanic. But even here the intrusion of such evil forces are met with but however a war is waged with them with the help of the divine forces so that eventually victory over them is attained and enjoyed. This inner war between the devas and Asuras is the substance of most of the mythologies and which is most clear in Kanta PuraNam, a tale of how Muruka defeats the Cuur, the embodiment of all that is Satanic.

This inner battle, which is possible only when the divine forces are available is the stuff of Anakatam, the inner ecology ordained by Rudra and Rudri or Makali. BEING assumes these immensely destructive Natam (Rudra) and Bindu (Rudri) forms to destroy the Satanic forces within so that the anma is freed of them and thereby made PURE and thus enabled to access the inner ecology of Visukti (<mii- sukti: great purity)

Thus the continuous and active presence of SivaliGkam is deemed also the cause for the anma to wage ferocious battles within and attain the state of being absolutely PURE and thereby also being joyous and happy undiminishingly, to enjoy the Sivaanatam.

More on this below.

1711

aayu malarin aNimalar meelatu
vaaya itazum patinaaRum aGkulLa
tuuya aRivu civaanatam aakipooy
meeya aRivaay viLaintatu taanee

Meaning:

Above the Lotus form that the Bindu takes and which establishes the conditions for living as such for an anma, lies the Beautiful Flower that would afford the most beautiful experiences in the world.. It lies as Vicukti, the Cakra above the existential world of Anakatam and with a lotus of 16 petals. Any anma that succeeds in accessing this Cakra would begin to enjoy Pure Understanding and also Bliss Supreme arising from Pure Consciousness. This understanding would on its own accord transmute the ordinary understanding of the person making existence itself as conditioned by it.

Comments:

It has already been noted that it is the SivaliGkam, as the combination of the Siva Tatvas Natam and Bindu (as the LiGkam and Yoni) that worked by the mantras generate the Existential Worlds or Atara Cakras that found the existence itself, an anma assuming a body, cognitive and other utensils and appropriate ecological conditions for surviving and sojourning as a living creature in the world till death puts an end to it.

There is a teleology in the movement of understanding that examines these Cakras and appropriates how they in fact configure the UNDERSTANDIING itself. One can see that one is being pulled upwards by psychotropisms, the nadies, that exist because of the inherent pull BEING exerts on the anmas. As Meykandar has observed, BEING pulls all anmas unto itself like a magnet would pieces of iron nearby. While the universal processes may NOT be teleological but rather cyclic, the movement of understanding of creatures is eminently so, there is direction and an Upper Limit to this movement and development of understanding.

There are TWO qualities that become more visible as the higher realms are accessed. One is BEAUTY and other is PURITY and both become eminently available in the Cakra of Vicukti that lies above Anakatam, the Cakras of painful battles with the ugly and dirt within oneself. When the battle turns inwards and bestial within is noted and vanquished, the ugly within is eliminated , one gains the access into the Cakra of Vicukti where resides the 16 petalled Lotus that breeds esthetically the supreme and ethically the most pure. There takes place a transmutation of understanding itself as if by an alchemical process, llike copper changed into the brilliant gold, the ordinary understanding is transmuted into something very PURE and because of the Pure Consciousness that becomes available for experience now, also the enjoyment of Feelings of Undying and ever pleasing Bliss of Civanantam.

Also as if spontaneously this PURITY becomes also an integral part of the person so that such a person also becomes a PURE individual and always happy, free of the filth and dirt that are root causes of pains and miseries of all kinds. The individual who accesses the Vicukti, is not only pure as a person but also a happy one, always full of joy and happiness.

Now it should also be noted all these esthetical aspects, the feeling related aspects of personality development, are attributed to the different forms of Bindu, the way Sakti or the Woman contributes to configuring the shape and form of human existence.

The Meaning of SivaliGkam-6

The Unity of the Personal and Cosmic

One of the most arresting insights of the Siddhas and perhaps something that began with Tirumular is the notion of homology, a similarity of structure between the cosmic and the individual, that man is microcosmic and the cosmos is macro-man (with thanks to Kaviyogi). The notion that the cosmos is a Large Person may be as old as Purusuktam and which may be a restatement of the Sumerian Enlil (eeN liilai: Lord of the Play) also known se-ir-maal (Ta. Tirumaal, VishNu). However a Copernican revolution took place about the time of Tirumular whereby the inner world of anmas is also seen as cosmic in the same way and thereby transmuting the ancient astrology into Utkiraka Maarkkam, Depth Psychology of a kind.

In the following two verses, Tirumular records a further insight -- that in addition to the Six Ataara Cakras that the SivaliGkam provides and which serve as universal the framework for the hermeneutics of Proper Human Understanding, it is the same SivaliGkam as the ANdaliGkam, the Cosmic SivaliGkam, that provides the cosmic ecology within which is written the personal history of all. The implication is that cosmological thinking is integral to the psychological and that unless both are pursued and understood the meaning of SivaliGkam cannot be attained.

Everything in the universe is in fact bringing into being-there wrested out from the primordial womb of Darkness with the form and functions (vadivam & guNam) of all generated as transformations of the primordial Energia, the Parasakti. The whole of the cosmic Play is one of differentiation and undifferentition of Sakti, the Bindu represented as the circular Peedam of the SivaliGkam, effected by BEING who stands as the Natam, represented by the Pillar in the SivaliGkam and who assumes the root archetypal form of Cataciva for this purpose.

Thus we see the integration of the psychological and cosmological with SivaliGkam understood as the ground of both. More details below.

9

2. aNdaliGkam

1712

iliGka maavatu yaarum aRiyaar

iliGka maavatu eNdisai yellaam

iliGka maavatu eNNeN kalaiyum

iliGka mataaka eduttatu ulakee

Meaning:

Nobody seems to be aware that whatever there as the world and as in the world is only because the distant SivaliGkam presents itself as the Cosmic LiGkam. It permeates the whole Space and in all the eight directions standing as the primordial GROUND of all. This applies not only to the physical but also the nonphysical, the pedagogical, the 64 arts and sciences. Hence this applies both to the world of the brute matter as well as the universes of consciousness - the SivaliGkam as the Cosmic LiGkam is the foundation of all.

Comments:

The SivaliGkam, the deepest and most distant presence of BEING-as-One-with-Natam-and-Bindu presents itself as the ANdaliGkam, PiNdaliGkam and so forth and here Tirumular begins with ANdaliGkam, the Cosmic LiGkam, the SivaliGkam standing as the FOUNDATION of the whole of the cosmos. This Cosmic LiGkam shows itself as the Empty Space, the Container, the empty vessel that contains all and which also gives rise to the notion of DIRECTION within the human understanding that remains delimited or circumscribed. Hence we can add here as well the notion of TEMPORALITY that comes along with the notion of Directional Space.

But this ANdaliGkam as being a presentational form of SivaliGkam itself also affects consciousness of the sentient creatures making it possible for them to LEARN and hence the foundation also of the 64 arts and sciences, the pedagogical processes in nature.

10

2. aNdaliGkam

1713

ulakil eduttatu satti mutalaa

ulakil eduttatu satti vadivaay

ulakil eduttatu satti kuNamaay

ullakam eduttatu sataacivan taanee

Meaning:

It is BEING the Absolute and wholly transcendent who in union with Sakti, the Energia, assumes the form of five-faced polycephalic Sataaciva and brings into being there as such the whole universe, making it become a manifest reality releasing it from the state of being unmanifest. In this He also transforms the Sakti to provide every shape form and function to all both the sentient and insentient.

Comments:

Let us recall that the SivaliGkam is the union of Natam and Bindu and hence BEING as Siva and Sakti. It is now being further stated by Tirumular that for the purposes of COSMIC CREATION and endowing forms and functions to everything that comes into being there, He transforms the Sakti, the Pure Energy, also known as Parasakti to make these entities substantial realities with structure form and functions. The Sataciva Muurttam is said to have FIVE faces, and which form is a further development of the ancient Trimurti (of the Elephanta Caves) with each face assuming a form of Sakti. The Vamadevam is Sakti as the sources of all desires including the sexual. The Tatprusham is that impulse that underlies the seeking a true knowledge of self and which is in bosom of all. The Satyosaatam is the pressure within to seek TRUTH (satyam) and simultaneously avoid falsities. The Akoram is that which impels the creature to develop LOVE and sympathy towards all and thus overcome the aggressive instincts within and become nonviolent in essence. The Isaanam is that which impels all creatures to aspire towards Mukti and discarding the worldly seek to be with BEING permanently without any fissure.

Within the fabric of the universe and at deepest level of which BEING is as this Sataciva, these pressures or psychotropisms are ALREADY THERE as objective realities and hence as universally available possibilities for all creatures.

Note that this is more a advanced understanding of the cosmic reality compared to the ancient Samkhya where the matter was viewed in terms of Purusha-Prakiriti complex and where the Prakiriti was said to be ceaselessly active, the Purusha remaining an impassive observer of all.

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