Now we turn to verse four of our text. We already examined the first pāda (the first quarter of the verse) in the last post, but now we’ll study the whole verse.
नादबिन्दुमयं वापि किं चन्द्रार्धनिरोधिकाः ।
चक्रारूढमनच्कं वा किं वा शक्तिस्वरूपकम् ।। ४ ।।
nāda-bindu-mayaṃ vāpi kiṃ candrārdha-nirodhikāḥ |
cakrārūḍham anackaṃ vā kiṃ vā śakti-svarūpakam || 4 ||
Or does it consist of the Resonance and the Point (nāda and bindu)? Or the Half-moon and the Impeder? Or the vowelless mantra-phoneme installed in the Circle? Or is it [simply] Śakti [itself]? || 4 ||
Here we have the final proposals that Bhairavī gives for the nature of ultimate reality: possible answers number 4 through 7.
Now, as I mentioned previously, it is significant that the text puts some of these challenging philosophical and yogic concepts right here at the beginning. It’s kind of like a Rubicon that you need to cross before you get to teachings which might seem much more intuitively comprehensible. The text is suggesting most people need to have done some homework as it were, not just intellectually, but in terms of inner practice, yogic practice, in order to fully grasp what is coming.
So let’s move on to the next possible answer that Bhairavī proposes for her own question. And that possible answer is as follows: “Is it ardha-candra, the Half-moon, and nirodhikā, the Impeder, that is ultimately important in this whole spiritual process?” This is yet another example of a statement that can’t be understood without some background in the tradition. These technical terms refer to two levels within the subtle layers of sonic resonance in advanced uccāra practice.
So what’s uccāra? Very simply, it is when you vibrate a bīja mantra (such as Oṃ or Auṃ or Hauṃ or Hrīṃ) in the central channel, raising it up through the center of the head and out the top of the head. Traditionally, the most important layers of this sonic resonance practice are actually the layers that are not audible to the human ear. What happens is the sound rises through the nasal cavity and then it reaches the third eye internally, which is at the top of the sinus cavities, and then the audible sound dies out but the energy of the mantra keeps rising.
The original Tantrik yogīs were so into this practice that they actually analyzed nine levels of subtle sonic resonance in this space between the third eye and the crown of the head. Through very careful, patient experiential exploration, they were able to discern these very subtle layers of mantra vibration in its inaudible phase, up to where it dissolves above the crown of the head.
The ardha-candra, (Half-moon) and the nirodhikā (Impeder) are two of these nine levels of sonic resonance. The ardha-candra is essentially the upper limit of the nasal sound that terminates most bīja mantras. In the symbol Oṃ, ॐ, you see a tiny crescent moon with a dot. That is nowadays called the candra-bindu (moon-with-dot), but also called ardha-candra, because it is a crescent moon. When you’re doing the uccāra practice (which is fairly subtle and involved, so we’re not going to get into the details of it here), when the bīja rises up into the nasal cavity, ardha-candra is the very very end of the audible section of the rise of the mantra. That’s just below the third eye, about a millimeter or two above the bridge of the nose.
So, what then is the Impeder, the nirodhikā? That is the psychic barrier just below the third eye center (also known as ājñā-cakra). It is called the Impeder because it’s the level beyond which it’s impossible to perceive the vibration of the mantra unless you have developed very subtle perception (and the stillness of mind necessary to have that subtle perception). It is a level that is hard for people to get past, hence it’s called the nirodhikā, the blocker or impeder.
When you successfully penetrate past that level, it triggers the experience that people call the “opening of the third eye”. There can be an opening or activation of the ājñā-cakra when you’re finally able to perceive the mantric resonance in that point and beyond.
In Kṣemarāja’s commentary on the Vijñāna-bhairava-tantra, he says that the ardha-candra and the nirodhikā, the Half-moon and the Impeder, are actually just particular expressions (in the context of uccāra) of the fundamental principles of bindu and nāda, which we explored in the previous post. So why would Bhairavī imagine that these two levels of uccāra might constitute the principle of highest concern in the process of realizing the Ultimate? Perhaps because penetrating past these levels is thought to be analogous to what is elsewhere called “untangling the knot of Māyā”—which is equivalent to the realization of nonduality (since Māyā, in the Tantrik tradition, signifies the self-concealment of the One within plurality). In other words, only when the rising energy reaches the part of the central channel which lies behind the forehead, just past ‘the Impeder’, can one perceive the nonduality of existence reliably.
Summary of possible answer #5: the Crescent-moon and the Impeder (ardhacandra & nirodhikā) constitute the last levels of the realm of duality when speaking in terms of the rise of energy (prāna-śakti) in the subtle body. (See chart below.)
The nine levels of uccāra (using Hauṃ an example bīja) as taught in the Svacchanda-tantra. Read from the bottom up. NOTE: the Svacchanda’s version of this teaching varies in small details from the explanation above. As usual, the tantras are not in perfect accord on the technical details of practice, which is probably to varying experiences in different practice communities of the time.
Let’s move on to possible answer number six that Bhairavī proposes: to wit, “Is the ultimate secret the vowelless mantra-phoneme installed in the circle?”
Here we get even more esoteric. The ‘vowelless mantra-phoneme’ (anacka) is a specific Sanskrit letter which is revealed in the scriptures: according to some sources it is क् K and according to others it is ह् H. For more information, please see the practice taught under the name vāha-ccheda in Chapter 18 of The Recognition Sūtras.
Here we are told to install the anacka in ‘the circle’ (cakra). Where is the cakra in question? We can’t be absolutely sure, but it seems very likely that it is the cakra of the heart space. Installing the mantra-phoneme in the center of that circle might be a way of accessing and/or activating Kuṇḍalinī on the level of the heart. The original Tantrik tradition gives practices for activating Kuṇḍalinī at three different levels: the crown of the head, the heart, and the base of the torso. (Again, for more on the practical dimension of this teaching, please see Chapter 18 of The Recognition Sūtras).
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Finally, Bhairavī proposes one final answer to her question (the last pāda of verse 4): “Is the ultimate reality śakti-svarūpaka, is it simply Energy itself?”
And so now Bhairavī takes a hard left, as it were: she was getting more and more technical in her propositions for what’s most ultimately important in this process of awakening to reality. And now she’s opening it back up to a broader context: is what we are seeking to realize simply power or energy itself? Is that the ultimate nature of reality?
The Sanskrit word śakti literally means energy, that is to say, the power to do work or the power to transform. It comes from the verbal root √śak: to be able, to be capable, to have capacity or potency. But the word śakti also means goddess. In this tradition, energy is personified as the Divine Feminine. One could even say that this is the most prototypical Tantric doctrine: the personification of energy as the Divine Feminine and the personification of different subtypes of energy, different potencies of consciousness, as emanations of the singular or ultimate Goddess power.
The doyen of Tantric Studies, Alexis Sanderson, has a theory about what Bhairavī has in mind when she says: “Is the ultimate reality Śakti herself?” He proposes that Śakti here might refer to secret goddess of the Trika-Krama synthesis, Kālī Kāla-saṅkarṣaṇī (She Who Devours Time). This name denotes the purely formless aspect of Goddess Kālī, which corresponds to a spiritual experience of total timelessness. In that state, it does feels as if time itself has been utterly devoured. Since that stateless state transcends time and space completely, it is personified as Goddess Kālī, who is the ultimate deity, the ultimate Śakti in the Trika-Krama synthesis as taught in scriptures such as the Devyāyāmala-tantra (unpublished) and by masters such as Abhinavagupta.
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Now we can move on to verse five. Bhairavī continues:
परापरायाः सकलम् अपरायाश् च वा पुनः |
पराया यदि तद्वत् स्यात् परत्वं तद् विरुध्यते || ५ ||
parāparāyāḥ sakalam aparāyāś ca vā punaḥ |
parāyā yadi tadvat syāt paratvaṃ tad virudhyate || 5 ||
And another point: if the Supreme Goddess (Parā Devī) is [to be visualized] with attributes, [that is, anthropomorphically,] like Parāparā and Aparā [the other two Trika goddesses], then her supremacy (paratva) would be contradicted! || 5 ||
Having finished with her possible answers to her original question, now she proposes a possible objection. This is also the mark of a good student. She doesn’t hesitate to say, “Hey, wait a second. There’s something here that doesn’t quite make sense.” So again Bhairavī is modelling for us that it’s okay to raise objections, it’s okay to say, “Hey, can we talk about this part? Because this doesn’t seem coherent to me.” So she says: “If the supreme goddess Parādevī is supposed to be visualized anthropomorphically, with attributes—that is, as a goddess with arms holding a manuscript and crystal mālā and so on—like the other goddesses of the Trika, then her supremacy would surely be contradicted. How can she be the Supreme Absolute if she has a particular form and attributes? That doesn't really make sense.” The point is especially clear in the original Sanskrit: as I noted in the translation, the word ‘supremacy’ translates paratva. So, if Goddess Parā, the Supreme, is visualized with attributes and as having an anthropomorphic form, that would seem to contradict her paratva, her supremacy, her parā-ness. So, this is rather an intelligent objection on Bhairavī’s part. She continues:
Parā Devī, drawn by Ekabhūmi Ellik, painted by Carmen Richards.
Aparā Devī, sitting on her consort Navātma-bhairava. Drawing by Ekabhūmi Ellik, painted by Carmen Richards.
न हि वर्णविभेदेन देहभेदेन वा भवेत् |
परत्वं निष्कलत्वेन सकलत्वे न तद् भवेत् || ६ ||
na hi varṇa-vibhedena deha-bhedena vā bhavet |
paratvaṃ niṣkalatvena sakalatve na tad bhavet || 6 ||
Nor [could she be supreme if she must be visualized] as having this color as opposed to that, or this form as opposed to that; supremacy is [properly associated] with formlessness, not with a specific form. || 6 ||
Verse six simply completes and clarifies Her objection. And then in verse seven she says this rather beautiful and heartfelt thing:
प्रसादं कुरु मे नाथ निःशेषं छिन्द्धि संशयम् |
prasādaṃ kuru me nātha niḥśeṣaṃ chinddhi saṃśayam |
O Lord & husband, be gracious to me & make me clear: cut away my doubts completely! |
Nātha means both lord and husband, depending on the context. Here it is both, because she is addressing her consort, the god Bhairava. In her final entreaty, she uses a beautiful word, prasāda, which means grace but also clarity. So when she says prasādaṃ kuru me, one could translate it as ‘make me clear’ (that is, ‘clarify it for me’) or ‘be gracious to me’ (/‘bestow your grace on me’). We don’t have a word in English that means both clarity and grace, so I translated it both ways.
In the next post, we will find out how Bhairava answers Bhairavī! It’s probably the most beautiful answer to a spiritual question ever given.
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