| |
Ha-Sa is the pathway breath takes in living creatures. This mantra
exists in the form of exhalation and inhalation, dearest one. Just as
clouds cannot exist without wind, and just as the sky is without limit,
so the world cannot exist except by (this) Shri Paraprasada mantra. The
world of immovable and moving things comes from the Shri Paraprasada
mantra - Kularnavatantra III
The Devi Kali has many forms. Kashmir Shaivism speaks of twelve Kalis,
while in other parts of India she is and was worshipped as Mahakali,
Dakshina Kalika, Shmashanakali, Bhadrakali, Kamakali, and Guhyakali,
amongst many others.
The Guhyakalika section (khanda) of Mahakalasamhita is a voluminous
work, comprising many thousands of shlokas (verses) and with Guhyakalika
(Secret Kalika) as its focus. But the work also covers a number of other
tantrik topics in equally great detail, and along the way also includes
subjects rarely referred to in other published tantras.
The work follows the usual tantrik formula, with Mahakala answering
questions posed to him by his spouse, Kali.
Mahakala opens the Guhyakali section of the Mahakalasamhita by saying he
will reveal the mantra, yantras, meditation forms (dhyana and rules of
worship relating to Guhyakali, which, he says, have been previously
hidden. There are eighteen Guhyakali mantras, he says.
Guhyakali, he says, has forms with 100, 60, 36, 30, 20, 10, five, three,
two and one faces. Different mantras correspond to these different
forms, which he then reveals, using the usual codes for the different
letters of the Sanskrit alphabet employed in other tantras.
Mahakala starts to talk about Guhyakali when she is on her lion seat
(simhasana), and gives meditations for the guardians of the directions
(dikpala), and the five great corpses, forms of Shiva, upon which she
sits. There is a sixth pitha, Bhairava. He is described as black in
colour, with four arms, terrifying and the cause of fear. He has five
faces, each with three eyes. In his left hands he holds a skull staff
khatvanga and scissors, and in his right a skull and the hourglass
shaped damaru. He is adorned with a garland of skulls, and is fanged.
Lying, on an eight petalled lotus above Bhairava is a two-armed form of
Shiva, clothed in tiger skin and holding a skull-staff and a trident.
The four petals of the major directions represent dharma (duty), jnana
(knowledge), vairagya (dispassion) and aishvarya (dominion).
The 10-faced form of Guhyakali is then described. She has 27 eyes, with
some faces having two, and other three, eyes. Each of her faces
represents a different female animal aspect of Guhyakali and is of a
different hue. For example, her upper face is called Dvipika (a leopard
or possibly a panther), then comes Keshari (a lion) which is white,
Pheru ( jackal) which is black, then Vanara (a monkey) which is red,
Riksha (a bear) which is purple, Nara (a woman) which is of a cochineal
colour, Garuda which tawny, Makara (a crocodile) which is turmeric
colour (yellow), Gaja (elephant) which is of a golden colour, and Haya
(horse) which is of a dark or dusky (shyama) colour.
The human face is on Guhyakali's shoulders. To the left of that face is
the crocodile, above that the horse and above that the bear. To the
right of her face is the Garuda, the elephant, and the monkey. On the
top of her head is the monkey face, above that the lioness face, and
above that the leopardess.
Guhyakali's human face has great, fierce sharp fangs, she laughs very
loudly, while streams of blood pour from her mouth. She has a rolling
tongue and is adorned with garlands of skulls, with earrings also of
skulls. The mother of the universe (jagadambika) has 54 arms each of
which holds a weapon. Her right hands hold a jewelled rosary, a skull, a
shield, a noose, a shakti missile, a skull-staff, a bhushundi weapon, a
bow, a discus, a bell, a young corpse, a mongoose (?), a rock, a man's
skeleton, a bamboo stave, a serpent, a plough, a fire hearth, a damaru,
an iron mace, a small spear (bhindipala -- it could mean a sling), a
hammer, a spear, a barbed hook, a club studded with metal nails
(shataghni). Her right hands hold a jewelled rosary, scissors, make the
gestures (mudra) of threatening, a goad, a danda, a jewelled pot, a
trident, five arrows and so forth.
In the same work there is a nyasa specifically for the 10 faces of this
form of the goddess. Here, the faces are related to the 1,000 petalled
lotus, the mouth, the right eye, the left eye, the right nostril, the
left nostril, the right cheek, the left cheek, the right ear and the
left ear.
Guhyakali has three major forms, corresponding to creation, maintenance
and destruction, a little like a very much darker form of
Tripurasundari.
Chapter five of the Guhyakalikhanda describes 18 yantras of the Devi,
corresponding to the 18 separate mantras mentioned earlier.
The first consists of a bindu, a triangle, a hexagon, a pentagon, a
circle, 16 petals, eight petals and four doors, adorned with tridents
and skulls. This relates to Guhyakali's one letter mantra, which is
Phrem (see above left).
Guhyakali dwells within the centre of eight cremation grounds
(shmashans), whose names are Mahaghora, Kaladanda, Jvalakula,
Chandapasha, Kapalika, Dhumakula, Bhimangara, and Bhutanatha. Her
worship honours the Vetalas (vampires), eight tridents, vajras, jackals
and corpses, Bhairavas, dakinis, Chamundas, Kshetrapalas, Ganapatis and
other denizens of the cremation ground. |
|
|
|
|
