In this excerpt from the Spanda Kārikā, which is part of the book: The Mystery of Vibrationless-Vibration in Kashmir Shaivism – Spanda Kārikā & Spanda Sandoha Swami Lakshmanjoo talks about the two states which we experience in this world. Read along with the transcript in this video recording or read the transcript below…
Audio 1 – 44:09
अवस्थायुगलं चात्र कार्यकर्तृत्वशब्दितम् ।
कार्यता क्षयिणी तत्र कर्तृत्वं पुनरक्षयम् ॥१४॥
avasthāyugalaṁ cātra kāryakartṛtvaśabditam |
kāryatā kṣayiṇī tatra kartṛtvaṁ punarakṣayam ||14||
There are two states in this world, two states which we experience in this world. There is kāryatā and this kartṛtā. Kāryatā is just what you do.
For instance, you work, you go to the office, you marry, have children, have babies (get yourself married and then have children), and then . . .
ERNIE: Your activities in the world.
SWAMIJI: All things. You . . .
JOHN: Rear your children.
SWAMIJI: . . . you make money, you have got a big bank balance, . . .
ERNIE: You spend money.
SWAMIJI: . . . and you have got a big bungalow afterward – motor cars, everything, society, friendship. This is kāryatā.
Kartṛtā is the one who is the hero, who has done all this – the hero.
The time will come [when] this whole cycle of kāryatā will vanish altogether – there will be no son, there’ll be no children, there will be no money, there will be nothing, no wife, no house, no . . . – you’ll be just like a pauper. But kartṛtvaṁ punarakṣayam, but the doer, the hero, is still there. The hero does not get vanished.
Which hero?
JOHN: The doer, the real doer.
SWAMIJI: The real doer.
Kāryatā kṣayiṇī tatra kartṛtvaṁ punarakṣyaṁ, kartṛtva (doership) is [always] there. The done, whatever is done by that doership, let it be vanished, let it vanish, let it go to hell, but the doership is still existing.
Kāryonmukhaḥ . . . what happens to this cycle [of kāryatā] then?
Audio 1 – 46:05
[Vasugupta] says:
कार्योन्मुखः प्रयत्नो यः केवलं सोऽत्र लुप्यते ।
तस्मिँल्लुप्ते विलुप्तोऽस्मीत्यबुधः प्रतिपद्यते ॥१५॥
kāryonmukhaḥ prayatno yaḥ kevalaṁ so’tra lupyate
tasmiṁllupte vilupto’smītyabuddhaḥ pratipadyate ||15||
[not recited in full]
The prayatna, ‘the effort’, the trouble, all this, that vanishes, that is finished. There is no son, there is no wife, there is no . . . nothing remains, only that . . .
ERNIE: Doer.
SWAMIJI: . . . doer is there. That prayatna is finished, that pratyana has vanished. Tasmin-lupte, when the prayatna is vanished, i.e., his effort, his fruit, along with his effort, along with his fruit, has vanished, he concludes, “I am vanished, I am no more, I am finished! [Swamiji beats his chest] I am finished!” [But] he isn’t finished, he is still there. Tasmin-lupte vilupto asmi iti abudhaḥ, this is the perception of ignorance, this is the perception derived from ignorance that he says, “I am nothing . . . I am ruined . . . I am spoiled . . . I have no wife . . . I have no children . . . they all were crashed in an air crash . . . finished . . . I am, bas . . .
ERNIE: “I will kill myself.”
SWAMIJI: . . . I am nothing . . . there is no fun in . . . there is no meaning in my life now,” (laughter) he says that.
Tasmin-lupte vilupto’smītyabudhaḥ, but this is the perception perceived by that person who is ignorant, who is not fully elevated.
Audio 1 – 47:44
न तु योऽन्तर्मुखो भावः सर्वज्ञत्वगुणास्पदम् ।
तस्य लोपः कदाचित्स्यादन्यस्यानुपलम्भनात् ॥१६॥
na tu yo’ntramukhobhāvaḥ sarvajñatvaguṇāspadam |
tasya lopaḥ kadācitsyādanyasyānupalambhanāt ||16||
[not recited]
Na tu yo’ntramukhabhāvaḥ, that antar mukha bhāva (antar mukha bhāva is that . . .
GANJOO: Introvertedness.
SWAMIJI: . . . introverted God consciousness), the state of introverted God consciousness, which is sarva jñatva guṇās padam, which is the basis of all knowledge and all action, tasya lopaḥ kadācitsyāt, it cannot be vanished, it will never vanish [even] if its function, its action, has vanished. If its action has vanished, it cannot vanish along with its action, along with its force, its creative force. That [introverted God consciousness] remains eternally one-pointed and just in one shape, one form.
Source: The Mystery of Vibrationless-Vibration in Kashmir Shaivism – Spanda Kārikā & Spanda Sandoha revealed by Swami Lakshmanjoo
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