Truth is the appearance
of the Supreme Brahman; Truth is the most excellent of all Tapas; every
act is rooted in Truth. Than Truth there is nothing more excellent.
Therefore has it been said by Me that when the sinful Kali Age is
dominant, Kaula ways should be practised truthfully and without
concealment - Mahanirvanatantra IV, 77-78, Woodroffe translation
Shiva Sutra is a central text for Kashmir
Shaivism. I first translated these mysterious verses in 1978, said to
have been revealed to a sage Vasugupta in a dream. Waking, he went to
the summit of a nearby mountain, and found a rock inscribed with the
verses.
In 1979, Jaideva Singh produced a translation of the
sutras, together with a long commentary and explanatory material. (Shiva
Sutras, Motilal Banarsidas, 1979). I recommend this work to any
student. The translation is probably far better too; but as my
translation was written with the
Shri Vidya in mind,
I have decided to let it stand or fall on its own.
Shiva Sutra is divided into three sections and
gives the core of the inner yoga practice and philosophy not only of
Kashmir Shaivism but also of many other tantrik traditions.
First section
1. Consciousness is the being.
2. Knowledge the fetters.
3. The yoni divisions are the body of time.
4. The matrikas are the seat of knowledge.
5. Endeavour is Bhairava.
6. In the union of the circle of the Shaktis is the dissolution of the
universe.
7. The fourth enjoys and is contained in the states of waking, dreaming
and
deep sleeping.
8. Knowledge is the waking state.
9. False imagining is the dream state.
10. Want of awareness is Maya, deep sleep.
11. The triad eaten by a Lord Hero.
12. Surprise-wonderment is the place of yoga.
13. Iccha Shakti is Uma, the Virgin.
14. All things the body.
15. When the collective-observation-shock is in the heart, dream vision
disappears.
16. From being aware of the pure essence comes the shakti of
non-duality.
17. Deliberation-pondering is being-wisdom.
18. World bliss is samadhi happiness.
19. In the abode of Shakti is creation of the body.
20. The collective abode of the elements is the universe, the elements
separately are the shocks.
21. From the appearance of pure knowledge come the many Shaktis of the
lord of the circle (of the Shaktis).
22. By concentrating on the transcendent lake of female energy, mantra
life is obtained.
Second section
1. Consciousness the mantra.
2. Endeavour the method.
3. The science-body-being the secret of mantra.
4. In the womb state of consciousness expansion the inferior science of
the dream state.
5. In the arising of vidya, spontaneously, one may move in the void,
like Shiva.
6. By means of the guru.
7. Awakened knowledge is the circle of the letters of the alphabet.
8. The body is the sacrifical ladle.
9. Knowledge is the food.
10. From the heap of knowledge arising from seeing in the dream state.
Third section
1. The being is consciousness.
2. Knowledge the fetters.
3. From the kalas, the thing called in non discrimination, Maya.
4. In the body the dissolution of the kalas.
5. The nadi dissolution is the victory over the elements, freedom from
the elements, separation of the elements.
6. Siddhi from the appearance of delusion.
7. The victory over delusion is the victory of spontaneous knowledge,
which is of endless extent.
8. From the waking state, the world is a ray.
9. The essence is the dancer.
10. The inner essence is the theatre stage.
11. The sense organs are the audience.
12. Insight from will is the pure siddhi.
13. Accomplishment means transformation into independence.
14. As there, so elsewhere.
15. Attention is the bija.
16. Asana is the happiness of immersion in Shakti.
17. One's own measure is the measure suitable for measuring, giving
guidance.
18. Imperishable knowledge means destruction of births.
19. In the Ka-series are Maheshvari and so forth, the beast-mothers.
20. Pour the fourth in the three like oil diffusing in water.
21. One should enter, immersed, by one's own consciousness.
22. Equally the practice of breath produces a similar sight.
23. In the centre, emanating the lower.
24. In the measure of one's own trust in the abode is this prevented
again from appearing.
25. One knows equality with Shiva.
26. The existence of the body becomes a religious vow.
27. Conversation is mantra recitation.
28. The act of offering is being-wisdom.
29. Whosoever is in this state is the means of knowledge.
30. The universe becomes an aggregate of his Shaktis.
31. Both maintenance and dissolution.
32. Though subject to the cyclic law, one is not excluded from self
experience.
33. Happiness and sadness become external.
34. Set free from that, one is complete.
35. The being of action is a heap of delusion.
36. Sundering the internal stream proceeding from action.
37. The creative Shakti from one's own spirit-perception-feeling.
38. The primordial animating one with three parts.
39. Observation remaining, the body creates action externally.
40. From wanting external actions arises the collective being.
41. When really reaching that, through its destruction, the embodied
being is destroyed.
42. When the element-sheaths are released, at that time one becomes
supreme and equal to the lord.
43. The inherent union of breath.
44. What is meant by restraint in the centre of the brow? The left and
right in the central channel.
45. Again and again comes all encompassing awareness.
Notes
1. The Fourth, i.e. Shiva, without attributes is pure
Consciousness. The three, that is Shakti is with attributes, which are
produced from the play of the three gunas. These three gunas manifest in
a human as moon, sun, and fire chakras -- the three areas of light which
constitute the central nervous system.
2. Because Shiva wishes to know, He being one with
Shakti is bound by knowledge, which is the very self of the three gunas.
3. The yoni-divisions are the kalas, there being 16
of the Moon. The 15 represent the modifications of the Moon in her
waxing and waning, whilst the 16th which is
Lalita- Tripurasundari
herself is the Consciousness-Shakti.
4. The letters of the alphabet -- 36 consonants and
15 vowels -- constitute the Goddess in the form of Time. The Matrika
Chakra Viveka propounds the following doctrine in relation to the
Shri Yantra:
(After a table in the introduction to Matrika
Chakra Viveka). The letters of the alphabet are evolutes, and placed
in the different parts of the Shri Yantra, which is within the Wheel of
Time itself. (As it represents the human body).
5. Effort or endeavour is Bhairava himself.
6. The Shakti circle is composed of the three gunas,
which form Her body. Every Shakti there is, emanates from Her. Thus, in
the Prayoga to the
Bhavanopanishad, compiled by Bhaskararaya Machin, Her Body as
manifested through the different
Nityas, Kalas,
Grahas, Yoginis, mudras, Vashinis, tattvas are separately enumerated. As
She creates and maintains, She also dissolves.
7. The Fourth, the Turiya,
Shiva Himself enjoys
= eats, through the three states of wake, dream, and deep sleep -- these
three being subsequently developed in the next three sutras.
8. Knowledge, i.e. ordinary knowledge is the waking
state. It is the Fourth alone who is the eternal omnipresent witness,
the atma, the essence. And all these three states here enumerated are
based on the three gunas, and therefore one is inseparable from the
other. So that in the waking state there is dream and deep sleep, and so
on.
9. The dream state is false notion, that is to say
imagination, which causes us to mislead a rope for a snake etc.
10. Want of discrimination is declared to be deep
sleep, which is Maya, that is to say Kulakundalini herself, the great
artificer, She who plays, conceals, hides, reveals.
11. These three are eaten, consumed, by Shiva, that
is to say He enjoys them, and is inseparable from them. As he is one
with the triple Shakti, He is therefore in them all.
