In verse two of our text, Bhairavī asked Bhairava “What is the true nature of reality?” And in the following two verses, she proposes seven possible answers to her own question.
Right here at the beginning we encounter a section of the original text that has been almost entirely ignored by other translators, mostly because they didn’t understand these verses. It requires a bit of intellectual labor to do so, but I think it’s worth it. It’s important to understand the traditional teachings that the text puts into play here, at the beginning, as possible answers to the question, “What is the nature of ultimate reality?” These initial allusions to esoteric concepts within the Tantrik tradition set the bar for the reader, implying that only one well-versed in the practice teachings of Tantrik Yoga can fully understand and successfully undertake the subtler practices of the VBT.
As far as I know, none of the published versions of the VBT really break down these esoteric concepts with any clarity or any detail. I am happy to be one of the first teachers to do so publicly. So let’s get into it.
Bhairavī, the goddess, asked Bhairava, her beloved, the ultimate question. Already knowing the answer, she asks for the benefit of us, for the benefit of those who are eavesdropping, as it were, on the whole conversation. She is not asking out of ignorance. Remember that in the very first verse, Bhairavī said that she has heard everything Bhairava has taught: the entire teaching of the Trika, all the scriptures generated by their union up to that point. When she asks “What is the nature of ultimate reality?” (or, more literally, “What appearance or form [taught in the scriptures] most accords with reality?”) she is effectively asking about what is ultimately true, and about which spiritual practice connects us with that truth. She is asking “What is that which, if we know it experientially, there is nothing more that needs to be known? That which makes all other knowledge trivial by comparison — that’s what I want to know about.”
Then, she shows that she has in fact done her homework. This is the part we are coming to now, the end of verse two into verse three, as well as the beginning of verse four. She shows that she is qualified to ask this question by offering seven possible answers to her own question (of which we’re exploring the first four in this post). She is saying, “I have listened carefully to the Śaiva teachings, so I know these are some possible answers to my question, but I need more clarity. Is it one of these or something else altogether?” Her exact words are:
. . . शब्दराशिकलामयम् ।। २ ।।
. . . śabdarāśi-kalā-mayam || 2 ||
किं वा नवात्मभेवेन भैरवे भैरवाकृतौ । त्रिशिरोभेदभिन्नं वा किं वा शक्तित्रयात्मकम् ।। ३ ।।
kiṃ vā navātmabhedena bhairave bhairavākṛtau |
triśiro-bheda-bhinnaṃ vā kiṃ vā śakti-trayātmakam || 3 ||
नादबिन्दुमयं वापि . . . ।। ४ ।।
nāda-bindu-mayaṃ vāpi . . . || 4 ||
. . . Does it consist of the powers that inhere in the mass of phonemes? || 2 || Or, amongst the awesome forms of Bhairava, is it Navātman? Or is it the trinity of śaktis (Parā, Parāparā, and Aparā) that constitute the three ‘heads’ of Triśirobhairava? || 3 || Or does it consist of the Resonance and the Point (nāda and bindu)? . . . || 4 ||
Let’s break these down. Is the ultimate reality attained through:
śabdarāśi-kalā, the powers embodied in the Sanskrit alphabet? (see below, and also ch. 12 of The Recognition Sūtras)
Navātma-bhairava? (see below)
śakti-traya, the three goddesses of the Trika lineage? (see below, and also the Trika chapter of Tantra Illuminated), or
nāda & bindu, the Resonance and the Point? (see below)
Note that each of these can be understood as covering the whole of reality. The first sees reality as diversified in fifty ways (since śabdarāśi-kalā refers to the pulsations of energy underlying the fifty phonemes of the Sanskrit language), the second in nine ways, the third in three ways, and the fourth in two ways.
Let us look at the answers Bhairavī proposes one by one. In the end of verse two, she offers her first possible answer to her own question, saying: “Is it the śabdarāśi-kalā(s)?”—that is to say, the mysterious powers inherent in the very sounds of language (specifically the sacred language of Sanskrit). More precisely, this phrase refers to the divisions of finite power (kalās) expressed as the mass (rāśi) of phonemes or linguistic sounds (śabda).
Let’s investigate a bit more about what śabdarāśi-kalā connotes. Śabdarāśi is a synonym for mātṛkā (literally, ‘matrix’), which refers to the power inherent in language, a power made possible by vimarśa-śakti, our innate capacity for reflective awareness or meta-cognition: that is, consciousness becoming aware of itself. Because of that capacity, we have the power of language. Now, the phrase that concerns us here is specifically śabdarāśi-kalā—the powers represented by the phonemes of language. In his commentary on this section of the text, Kṣhemarāja (who also wrote the Recognition Sūtras) clarifies what exactly is being talked about here. He says, śabdarāśi-kalā, the powers inherent in the mass of phonemes, really means vimarśa-śaktis, the potencies of self-aware consciousness that are the fundamental and universal pulsations of all of reality divided into two main classes, signifiers and signifieds—meaning words and that which they denote.
“These vimarśa-śaktis or potencies that inhere within reflective awareness—anuttara (Awareness), ānanda (Awe), icchā (Intention) and so on—are universal pulsations of energy [embodied in their respective phonemes, a, ā, i, etc.] that comprise and encompass all signifiers and signifieds (i.e., words and that which they denote). Since they are aspects of the power of self-awareness of the Bhairava-that-is-Consciousness, they are intrinsic to reality—could then this ‘power of the mass of sounds’ (śabdarāśi-kalā) be the Ultimate?”
Here Kṣhemarāja is following the teaching of his guru Abhinavagupta, who expounds this topic of ‘linguistic mysticism’ at length in Tantrasāra chapter three.
So, Bhairavī proposes śabdarāśi-kalā as the possible ultimate reality (or the means to realize ultimate reality) precisely because this capacity within consciousness to become aware of itself is inherent within all sentient beings. In other words, Kṣhemarāja suggests that she’s making this proposition because of the inherence of this power of self-awareness within Divine Consciousness, here called Bodhabhairava—a synonym for Vijñānabhairava. (Indeed, it is because of Kṣhemarāja’s usage of the term Bodhabhairava that we can be sure of the meaning of the term Vijñānabhairava.)
This is the domain of semiotics: the world of signifiers and signifieds, seen by some as encompassing the whole of reality. The building blocks of all this are these fundamental pulsations of energy (śabdarāśi-kalā) that on this View give rise to both words and that which they point to. And what are these pulsations of energy? Kṣhemarāja says “anuttara-ānanda-icchā-īśana and so on,” meaning to say, each phoneme of the Sanskrit language actually represents, embodies, and expresses a specific śakti or potency within consciousness. Following the traditional order: a, the first phoneme, expresses and embodies anuttara-śakti, the power of the Absolute, meaning the base consciousness that gives rise to the totality of experience. The second phoneme, ā, is ānanda-śakti, the power of bliss, the power inherent within consciousness to simply revel in itself, to enjoy being itself. Third is i, which expresses and embodies icchā-śakti, the power of will or urge toward self-expression. I could go on and enumerate all the śaktis and tattvas that every single letter of the alphabet embodies and expresses, but this post would become way too long.
So this śabdarāśi-kalā is a viable candidate for the ultimate reality because the powers of the mass of phonemes refers to those fundamental pulsations of consciousness that give rise not only to all language but also to all phenomenological experience. The tradition sees a common root of śaktis that give rise to both signifiers and signifieds. If there were not a common root of both words and what they denote, then words would not have the power to denote.
Summary of possible answer #1: śabdarāśi-kalā ~ the powers represented by, and embodied in, the 50 phonemes of the Sanskrit alphabet. Example: the first three sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet are a, ā, and i, representing and embodying the three most fundamental potencies (śaktis) of Consciousness: a = anuttara-śakti, the Power of Absolute Awareness (the ground of being), ā = ānanda-śakti, its inherent Power of Bliss, and i = icchā-śakti, the Power of Intention or Will, the prediscursive urge toward self-expression and self-exploration. (For more on this, see Tantrasāra chapter three.)
We’ve now covered the last quarter of verse two. This is how deep things can go, and this section of the text is deep. Why? Why is it so deep when later the text will offer many simple and accessible daily life practices? In classical Tantra, there is a kind of threshold that you have to pass: if you are not properly initiated into the View, then the practices, although they might seem simple, are not going to have the same power. You must grasp some of the background that the text is building on and transcending.
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Now we move on to verse three. She proposes two more possibilities in verse three.
kiṃ vā navātmabhedena bhairave bhairavākṛtau |
Or, amongst the awesome forms of Bhairava, is it Navātman? . . .
Among these awe-inspiring forms of consciousness, is the ultimate reality Navātmabhairava?
You have probably never heard of Navātmabhairava, who is a deity, and a mantra, and also a set of nine tattvas, nine principles of reality. Navātmabhairava is a very important element of the ancient Tantrik tradition that did not quite survive to the present day.
Let us learn a little about Navātmabhairava. First of all, navātma means having nine aspects. This referring to the nine tattvas, the nine aspects of reality, that this form of divine consciousness assumes. What are those? The nine tattvas of Navātmabhairava are:
prakṛti (materiality), puruṣa (individuated consciousness), niyati (causality), kāla (time), māyā (the creative power of consciousness to emanate a universe, not illusion), vidyā (liberative insight), īśa (God), sadāśiva (a more transcendental form of God), and śiva (an even more transcendental form of God that is impersonal, universal, and all-encompassing). (See Tantra Illuminated for more information on these tattvas.)
Navātmabhairava is also a specific form of Bhairava as a deity. He appears in the Trika as the consort of Aparā Devī, the fierce goddess who looks like Kālī. Later he appears as the consort of Kubjikā.
Kubjikā embracing a dreadlocked Navātmabhairava. Illustration by Ekabhūmi Ellik, from Tantra Illuminated.
A brief history of Navātma-bhairava: he and his nine-letter mantra first appeared in the earliest Tantrik scripture of all, the Niśvāsa, circa 550 CE. Next he appears in the earliest Trika scripture, the Siddha-yogeśvari-mata-tantra of 700 CE, where he is the highest male deity “worshipped . . . in the heart of the assemblage of Vīras and Yoginīs known as the Khecarī-cakra [‘the Skywalker-assembly’].” In later Trika scriptures he is no longer the highest male deity but now appears as the consort of one of the three Trika goddesses (for which see below), Aparā Devī. Finally he ends up as the consort of Kubjikā, the Tantrik goddess most associated with Kundalinī and the cakras. This phase of Navātman’s career became an important one, because even though he was usually subordinate to Kubjikā, in an important South Indian Tantrik lineage known as the Śāmbhavānanda lineage he was venerated as the principal deity—and it is precisely this lineage that was key in the 13th-century transition from Tantrik Yoga to Hatha-yoga (see the work of Cšaba Kiss and the work of James Mallinson on this topic).
In his commentary on the VBT, Kṣemarāja says “As he is the essence of that king of mantras, the Navātman, through which one reflects on reality in the form of nine tattvas, [Bhairavī wonders,] could he be the ultimate reality?”
Summary of possible answer #2: Navātman aka Navātma-bhairava ~ this term refers to an esoteric Tantrik mantra with nine letters, and/or to a list of the nine most important tattvas (principles of reality) and/or to a particular form of Bhairava who was once very important in Tantra but is virtually forgotten today.
Next, what does Bhairavī say?
triśirobhedabhinnaṃ vā kiṃ vā śaktitrayātmakam || 3 ||
Or is it the trinity of śaktis (Parā, Parāparā, and Aparā) that [also] constitute the three ‘heads’ of Triśirobhairava?
She says, “Or is the ultimate reality the trinity of śaktis, the three goddesses of the Trika, that also constitute the three aspects of the three-headed Bhairava called Triśirobhairava?” Who are the three goddesses of the Trika? They are Parā, Parāparā, and Aparā.
The three Trika goddesses. Illustration by Ekabhūmi Ellik, from Tantra Illuminated.
As detailed in Tantra Illuminated, the three goddesses are associated with several triads that constitute key teachings in Śaiva Tantra:
Parā (in the center of the illustration): icchā-śakti, sṛṣṭi (creation), pramātā (the knower), and abheda (nonduality)
Parāparā (on the left): jñāna-śakti, sthiti (stasis), pramāṇa (knowing), and bhedābheda (unity-in-diversity)
Aparā (on the right): kriyā-śakti, saṃhāra (dissolution), premeya (the known), and bheda (duality)
These three are also associated with the oldest trinity of the Trika teaching, that of Śiva, Śakti, and Nara (individuality) respectively. When Bhairavī proposes the three goddesses as the ultimate reality, she is also proposing the various sets of three to which they correspond. These three goddesses are a viable candidate for the nature of ultimate reality in terms of the sets of three that they represent, which encompass the whole of reality. For example, take the trinity of knower, knowing, and known. There is nothing in the universe (of our experience) that is not a knower, a known, or a process of knowing. Likewise, the trinity of Śiva, Śakti, and Nara (individuality) also subsume the whole universe of our experience, since those terms connote consciousness, energy, and embodied unique vantage point respectively. Kṣhemarāja adds that this “Triad of Powers” also refers to the three mantras that correspond to and sonically embody the three goddesses.
Summary of possible answer #3: the Triad of Powers (śakti-traya) ~ the three Goddesses of the Trika lineage, who also constitute the three aspects of the deity Triśirobhairava (venerated in a long-gone branch of the Trika).
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Now we come to the first quarter of verse four, where we find Bhairavī’s fourth possible answer to the ultimate question.
nādabindumayaṃ vāpi . . .
Or does it consist of the Resonance and the Point (nāda and bindu)? . . .
What does she mean by this? Kṣhemarāja comes to our rescue once again. He says bindu (point of light) represents prakāśa, the Light of Consciousness, that is, the innate capacity of consciousness to manifest & illuminate all the objects of its experience. The word bindu more generally means a singularity, a single point of ultimacy that manifests a whole world of experience. So, the term bindu denotes the singularity at the beginning of time that expands and manifests the entire universe (as taught in the Yoginī-hrdaya), but it is also the fertilized egg that becomes a human being (and makes possible all their unique life experiences). The pattern is the same on all scales. So the bindu, this point of ultimacy that diversifies into a world of conscious experience, is prakāśa—the Light of Consciousness and its capacity to manifest experience. So what is nāda? It’s usually understood as a subtle resonance, a vibration at the subtlest level of mantra. Kṣhemarāja teaches that nāda is associated with (and expresses) vimārśa-śakti, the power of self-awareness, which mantra in its highest form embodies. Then he also says that nāda represents all possible words, too, because nāda means ‘sonic resonance’. So nāda and bindu can also be taken to mean signifiers and signifieds.
bindu & nāda = prakāśa & vimarśa = vācya & vācaka
bindu = the Light of Consciousness’ power of manifestation = all things signifiable
nāda = the capacity of Consciousness to become self-aware = all signifiers
In his commentary, Kṣhemarāja gives us an ultra-long Sanskrit compound: sarva-mantra-cakra-sāmānya-vīryātmaka-viśva-vācyāvibhāga-prakāśa-rūpa-bindv-aśesa-vācakāvibhāga-parāmarśa-maya-nādātmakam, which means “nāda consists of the self-aware capacity of consciousness, and is undivided from all the possible words or signifiers, whereas bindu is the Light of Consciousness, undivided from all that is signified (all the objects of experience) in the universe: and together they are the universal empowering [force], that which empowers the entire circuit of all mantras.”
Summary of possible answer #4: the Resonance & the Point (nāda and bindu) ~ bindu is the point of ultimacy, the singularity, the Light of Consciousness (prakāśa), which diversifies into the whole universe of phenomena that words can denote; nāda is the fundamental resonance made possible by the self-reflective capacity of Consciousness, which expresses as the totality of all words (and mantras).
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Now, we already went over nāda and bindu, but I want to present you here with what the great tantric scholar Dominic Goodall has to say about nāda and bindu in the scholarly publication called the Tantrābhidhāna-kośa:
“Since the ‘pure universe’ [top five tattvas] is above the level of primal matter (māyā), the worlds and beings that it contains cannot have māyā [or prakṛti] as their material cause. These worlds [and the beings that inhabit them] are instead made up of subtle sonic matter. . . . Some scriptures divide up this sonic matter into many different levels, but they tend to do so differently, and what may be treated as names for different levels of subtlety in one passage may appear as synonyms for the same level of subtle sonic matter, or generically for subtle sonic matter itself, in another passage. . . . At the same time, nāda is held to be the eternal subtle sonic matter out of which lower layers of coarse sound evolve, the coarsest being that of enunciated speech (vaikharī), and it is thus used by [Tantrik author] Rāmakaṇṭha to account for the capacity of living creatures to communicate with each other: for if one did not suppose the existence of such an entity [as nāda], then how could the transient enunciated sounds of any given sentence convey meaning, since they perish as soon as they come into being?
When nāda is not used as a generic label for sonic matter, it is most commonly the very first level to emanate from supreme sound (parā vāk), being in turn the source for a very slightly coarser level of sonic matter called bindu, which is in turn, in due course, the source of the syllabary [the phonemes of language]. [And of course the term bindu is also used for mystical inner light, because at this level of reality sound and light are fused. ]
As [Tantrik author] Rāmakaṇṭha teaches, ‘…unvoiced sound (nāda) is the first ‘shudder’ (kṣobha, pulsation), which is of the nature of unmanifest sound, from the supreme power of sound called Kuṇḍalinī. And bindu is of the nature of an inner ‘murmuring’ because of the slight coarsening of that [unvoiced sound].’
The pairing of the two levels of nāda and bindu in this sequence of emanation [of reality] is doubtless ancient and may be the result of the reverse-engineering of mantra-uccāra to produce a sequence of sonic emanation. For when a seed-syllable mantra is enunciated, the nasalization is graphically represented by a dot (bindu) . . .” ~ Dominic Goodall, Tantrābhidhāna-kośa vol. III
Since the pure universe, that is to say, the top five tattvas in the 36-tattva schema, is above the level of primal matter (māyā), the worlds that it contains cannot have māyā or prakṛti as their material cause. So these worlds and the beings that inhabit them are instead made up of subtle sonic ‘matter’: the pure vibrations which manifest at a lower level, in our world, as mantras.
Some works, Goodall says, divide up the sonic matter into many different levels, but they tend to do so differently and what may be treated as names for different levels of subtle sonic matter in one passage may appear as synonyms for the same level of subtlety in another passage. So this makes things a bit complicated for scholars. But we don’t need to concern ourselves with that. Suffice to say that nāda is the eternal subtle sonic matter out of which the lower layers of perceptible vibration evolve. In other words, nāda underlies our capacity for language as well as for mantra. Thus it is ultimately an expression of vimarśa-śakti, the power of self-reflection inherent within consciousness. For, Tantric philosophers argue, if there were not an innate capacity within consciousness to reflect on itself and represent itself in sound, then how could the transient enunciated sounds of any given sentence convey meaning, since they perish as soon as they come into being?
Goodall goes on to say that the pairing of the two levels of nāda and bindu in this sequence of emanation of reality (regarding all reality as vibration, of course), is a very ancient teaching. And it also relates to the practice of uccāra, or mantra-uccāra, which we’ll examine later.
Now that was all quite technical, but remember, Bhairavī is simply demonstrating that she has done her homework. She has familiarized herself, like any good student, with these fundamental concepts of Tantric Yoga; and in the next verses, you’ll be pleased to learn, Bhairava is gonna say: “Hey, you don't need to concern yourself with all that complicated stuff for very specific reasons. Because if you can get the revelation that is the whole point of this text, the Vijñāna-bhairava-tantra, then the more technical aspects of Tantrik Yoga need not concern you.”
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Whew! You made it through what will doubtless be the longest and most challenging VBT post. Congratulations! For more support in learning the VBT, please join me at learn.tantrailluminated.org. And may all beings benefit!