THE universe consists of a Mahābrahmāṇ ḍ a, or grand
Cosmos, and of numerous Bṛ hatbrahmāṇ ḍ a, or macrocosms
evolved from it. As is said by the Nirvāṇa-Tantra, all which is in the first is in the second. In the
latter are heavenly bodies and beings, which are microcosms
reflecting on a minor scale the greater worlds
which evolve them. “As above, so below.” The mystical
maxim of the West is stated in the Viśvasāra-Tantra as
follows: “What is here is elsewhere; what is not here is
nowhere” (yadhihāsti tadanyatra yannehāsti na tatkvacit).
The macrocosm has its meru, or vertebral column,
extending from top to bottom. There are fourteen regions
descending from Satyaloka, the highest. These are the
seven upper and the seven nether worlds (vide ante).
The meru of human body is the spinal column, and
within it are the cakras, in which the worlds are said to
dwell. In the words of the Śāktānanda-Tarangiṇ ī, they
are piṇ ḍ amadhyesthitā. Satya has been said to be in
the sahasrārā, and Tapah, Janah, Mahah, Svah, Bhuvah,
Bhūh in the ājnā, viśuddhi, anahata, maṇ ipūra,
svādhiṣ ṭ hāna, and mūlādhāra lotuses respectively.
Below mūlādhāra and in the joints, sides, anus, and
organs of generation are the nether worlds. The bones
near the spinal column are the kulaparvata.1 Such are
the correspondences as to earth. Then as to water. The
nadis are the rivers. The seven substances of the body
1 The seven main chains of mountains in Bhārata (see Viṣ ṇ u-Puraṇ a,
Bk.
II, chap. iii).
(dhatu)1 are the seven islands. Sweat, tears, and the
like are the oceans. Fire exists in the mūlādhāra,
suṣ umṇ ā, navel and elsewhere. 2 As the worlds are
supported by the prāṇ a and other vāyus (“airs”), so is
the body supported by the ten vāyus, prāṇ a, etc. There
is the same ākāśa (ether) in both.3 The witness within
is the puruṣ a without, for the personal soul of the
microcosm corresponds to the cosmic soul (hiraṇ yagarbha)
in the macrocosm.
1 Skin, blood, muscle, tendon, bone, fat, semen.
2 The kāmāgni in mūlādhāra, badala in the bones; in suṣ umṇ a the fire
of
lightning, and in the navel earthly fire.
3 As to distribution of elements in the cakras, see chap. iv,
Bhūtaśuddhi-
Tantra. |
