In this extract from the Shiva Sutras: The Supreme Awakening, by Swami Lakshmanjoo, Swamiji explains how mantra (sound) is connected with kundalini. You can find some real gems here, we have highlighted a few in bold in the transcript below the video…
For such a great yogi the mantra, that supreme-I, universal-I (mantra is here universal-I, not individual-I), the splendor of that universal-I is explained in this next sūtra, third.
विद्याशरीरसत्ता मनत्ररहस्यम् ॥३॥
vidyā-śarīra-sattā mantra-rahasyam // 3 //
“Mantra rahasyam, the secret essence of mantra, is the establishment in the body of knowledge of oneness, vidyā śarīra sattā.”
Knowledge here meant, the supreme knowledge of oneness, monistic thought. In the real sense, that is the supreme God who is the formation of the collection of all sounds (śabda-rāśi). All sounds are stored there; all sounds are created from there, from that point.
So, in another sense, this state of God consciousness is that God consciousness which is – viśva abhedamaya – one with the universe and filled with supreme I-consciousness
This is the essence of all mantras!
Not “Oṁ namaḥ Śivaya . . . oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya”, these mantras are not mantras in real sense. Mantra is that supreme I-consciousness – this is upaniṣat, ‘this is secret’.
This is also quoted in Śrī Tantrasadbhāva tantra.
sarve varṇātmakā mantrāste ca śaktyātmakāḥ priye /
śaktistu mātṛkā jñeyā sā ca jñeyā śivātmikā //3.130
“All letters are actually one with mantra, and those mantras are one with the energy of Lord Śiva – Mother – and that Mother is one with Lord Śiva.”
yā sā tu mātṛkā devi para-tejaḥ-samanvitāḥ /
tayā vyāptam-idaṁ viśvaṁ sabrahma-bhuvanāntakam / 1.213
“That supreme Divine Mother who is filled with supreme prakāśa, ‘supreme light’, that Divine Mother has pervaded the whole universe up to brahmaloka.”
“O Devi, just as all letters are found in the first letter ‘a’, (the first letter holds all the collection of letters), in the same way the whole universe is found in that supreme Devī, Divine Mother.”
And that Divine Mother is placed in the bindu of heart.
Heart is not here. [Swamiji points to the place of the heart.]
Heart is everywhere in the body; the heart is the center of awareness.
“O Pārvatī, there you will find that Divine Mother, She is just like the serpent, She takes rest there near the rectum, and that place is called by our master’s mūlādhāra.”
In addition, that Goddess, after placing in her body chandra–moon; agni–fire; ravi–sun; nakṣatra–all stars; and all the fourteen worlds, She is absolutely unaware of all this happening in her own nature. She is asleep, and she does not perceive anything other than her own Self.
But how to awaken her?
You can’t awaken her with a push. She can be awakened only by nāda, i.e., parāmarśa, ‘supreme I-consciousness’ which is filled with supreme awareness.
The body of energy which is situated, which is established in the body of Divine Mother – kuṇḍalinī – that body of energy is also churned by this awareness.
So, you have to churn your point of one-pointedness, again and again, again and again, without any break. Churning means, when you put sparks of awareness in it, one after another, one after another. If you put only one spark, that spark will get faded, and there will be no awareness in the course of time.
So, let one spark fade, and put awareness afresh again; let that fade, and put again fresh awareness. In the same way, you have to put that fresh awareness in continuity.
And when you put fresh awareness in continuity, first you will feel that everywhere (right side, left side, front, backside, up, down), everywhere you will feel lights going on (vindava means lights, all lights); and you will feel that filled with very intense lights.
By those lights and that nāda that kuṇḍalinī gets rise.
And in the body of that kuṇḍalinī, there the sādhaka finds bindu.
Bindu means, it is a kind of (how can I explain it to you?), it is a kind of supreme semen, supreme vīrya, that gets agitated there. Because the formation of kuṇḍalinī is of that supreme semen. It is not that individual semen. It is something beyond, and it is experienced only by yogis.
Just imagine how joyous his formation would be by this. Because he is formed with this; the formation of that body is of that supreme semen – that is bindu.
When that rises, what happens next?
The yogi comes out at once because there is no tolerance of that joy of the nectar that he experiences there. He cannot tolerate that, so he comes out. It is just natural. Just he reaches that state, he comes out. It is the way it happens to everybody.
So what do we have to do there?
You have to go again and again inside.
Don’t think that you have lost anything!
Go, and maintain awareness of that oneness, and go inside again and again. Don’t wait for the master’s direction. Go inside again and again, because the way of mokṣa (liberation) is stopped.
And by these energies of the Divine Mother of kuṇḍalinī nine classes [vargas] of letters have risen, that is nava-varga: ‘a’-varga, ‘ka’–varga, ‘ca’–varga, ‘ṭa’-varga, ‘ta’–varga, ‘pa’–varga, ‘ya’–varga, ‘śa’-varga, all these classes of letters take rise from that Mother Divine kuṇḍalinī.
There are five sacred states of Self that rise from this kuṇḍalinī.
That is: Iśāna, Tatpuruṣa, Sadyojāta, Vāmadeva and Aghora; these five mouths of Lord Śiva have appeared from this kuṇḍalinī.
So, Lord Śiva can speak to the public, Lord Śiva can help, Lord Śiva can preach, and explain everything, because of these five mouths. But those five mouths take rise from kuṇḍalinī.
So Lord Śiva is dependent on kuṇḍalinī.
And now take three speeches: supreme, medium and inferior.
In the heart it is said to be centered in that supreme sound, supreme speech, that is paśyantī. In throat, it is madhyamā speech. And tongue is the center of vaikharī speech, when you speak words.
- So, heart is the center of paśyanti speech;
- throat is the center of madhyamā speech; and
- tongue is the center of vaikharī speech.
So, this whole universe resides on sound, this is the process of sound, and that sound is carried from that soundless center of kuṇḍalinī.
It is why all these letters rise from that supreme center of that energy of God consciousness – that is Divine Mother. And all mantras which are recited by sādhakas, those mantras also get vīrya, i.e., strength and splendor from that supreme Devī of God consciousness – kuṇḍalinī.
It is why that Mātṛkā and Mālinī, these two ways of these letters get rise from this kuṇḍalinī bhagavatī.
Now you should know, the Shiva Sutras are actually the most secret and essential thoughts of Lord Śiva, so we have given references of so many Tantras in this. So you should not get worried for our giving so many references here. They are to make you understand what is in real sense kuṇḍalinī. But if you don’t understand even then, you should take hold of the feet of your master.
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Source: Shiva Sutras: The Supreme Awakening, by Swami Lakshmanjoo
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