object:20.01 - Charyapada - Old Bengali Mystic Poems
book class:Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
subject class:Integral Yoga
class:chapter
The Brahmin The Golden Journey
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta CharyapadaOld Bengali Mystic Poems
Old Bengali Mystic Poems
I
The body is a tree; it has five branches.1
The mind is a restless thing and Death
has entered into it.
Make the mind firmthat is the measure
of the Great Happiness.
Luy says, "you must ask your Guru if you
want to know."
Of what use is trance, if through grief
and joy you move to death.
Pass out of self-will's bonds, out of the
yearnings for senses' satisfaction.
Hold to your flanks the two wings of
emptiness.2
Luy says, "I have seen in my consciousness:
The twin breaths3 are the stools upon which
I am firmly seated."
II
A tortoise has yielded milk the jar cannot contain4
And a crocodile has eaten all the tamarind up the tree!5
O Fair Vagrant, the open yard is your home.6
At midnight a burglar has run away with your ear-ring;7
The father-in-law is asleep, the daughter-in-law awake;8
The ear-ring a thief has taken, where to find it?
At daytime the daughter-in-law fears even a crow.9
At night she is daring with desire.10
Thus the hymn Kukkuripad sings
One in a million can seize it in one's heart.
Tamarindthe fruit of life.
The higher showers its Grace upon the soul, but the soul is too small to receive the Grace fully.
The lower enjoys its own Karma in its own domain. We may remember the two golden birds of the Upanishads.
III
She is the common ale-wife, she goes into both the rooms:11
She binds the ale tight with thongs of bark.12
Oh, fix the Simplicity and bind the ale tight,13
So mayst thou be ageless and deathless and carry solid shoulders
The ten doors are marked:14
The customer observes and comes by himself:15
The wine has been poured into the sixty-four jars16
Once the customer enters, there is no more exit for him.17
There is one jar and there is one thin Spout.18
Biruba says: steady your move.19
IV
O my mate, press triply and embrace me fast.20
The lotus and the thunder shall meet and I shall
pass beyond time.21
O my mate, without you I cannot live a moment.
I drink from your lips the very sap of the lotus.
What I cast upward, my love, cannot be kept down here below.22
Climb towards the jewel centre and enter into the beyond.23
The room of the mother-in-law is under lock and key24
Cut away the wings, the sun and the moon.25
Gundari says I am a heroic reveller
Between the man and the woman the victory banner is uplifted.26
V27
The world flows fast like a river deep and sombre.
On either side muddy banks, in between fathomless depths.
For the sake of the Law Chatila has built the bridge
So that travellers to the other shore may easily cross over
The tree of delusion has been cut down and the planks tied together
Affirm the single, use the axe of Nirvana;
Once on the bridge look not to the right nor to the left.
The awakening is near, do not wander far.
O people who want to go to the other shore.
Ask of Chatilathe Master has no peer.
VI
Whom do you accept? Where do you cling?
A great call encircles me all around.
The deer is an enemy to himself, because of his own flesh.28
Bhushuk is a hunter, he never relaxes a moment.
But the deer touches not grass, drinks not water.29
And he knows not the abode of his mate.
But the mate tells him, "O darling, listen, leave the forest
and go forth".
The galloping deer now shows not his hooves.
Bhushuk says: It is a thing that does not enter into the head
of the deluded!
VII30
Illusion and Delusionthe twin blocked the way;
This has confused the mind of Kanhu
Where can he go and live?
They who see with the mind stay away.
Three are there: although three, the three are one.
Kanhu says, the world is cut away from him
Whoever that came has gone:
Because of this coming and going Kanhu is confused.
It is visible, the city of victory is near to Kanhu.
Yet, Kanhu says, "It does not enter into my heart!"
VIII31
The boat of Grace is filled with gold,
There is no room for silver in it,
Kamali rows towards the heaven;
How is it then that the past life returns again?
Pull out the peg, spread out the rigging;
Row on, Kamali, and ask of the true Guru.
The helm is not there? How to ply and who can ply?
Press evenly to the right and to the left as you go:
So do you find on the way the Great happiness.
IX32
The solid stake of Dual Consciousness Purusha and Prakriti
is broken, .
Broken all the bondages that encircle:
Kanhu revels drunk with the sweetest wine,
He enters Self-born's lotus-grove and attains the calmness;
Even like the elephant in rut for his mate
He rains Truth's own realities.
All the sixfold movements in his nature are purified:
Whether in the Presence or in the Absence even
the hair's end does not stir.
From the ten sides the ten delightful treasures
have been gathered, .
To capture the Consciousness, as one does an elephant
with ease.
X
Your hut stands outside the city,
my untouchable maid;
The bald Brahmin passes sneaking close by.
O my maid, I would make of you my companion.
Kanhu is a Kapali, a Yogi, he has no disgust
and he has no robe on.
There is one lotus and it has sixty-four petals:
Upon that the maid will climb with this poor self
and dance.
O my Beauty, I ask you frankly:
Whose boat is it by which, you come and go?
My outcaste maid sells twines and
weaves baskets
The actor's make up for your sake I throwaway!
You are the maid, I am the Kapali;
For your sake I have embraced the garland of bones.
My love churns the lake and devours the lotus-stalk
I will beat and batter you, take your life out of you!
Paraphrase
The inner beingthe soullives outside the pale of the ordinary consciousness. It is, as it were, an outcaste from the civilised, cultured, moral, ceremonial social mentality.
Even so, the best minds there, the Brahmin, harbour some- times a secret hankering for the outcaste Beauty.
But only a Kapalian extreme Tantrik of the leftan outcaste himself, free and nude in every respect, having no bondages, nor prejudices nor preoccupations nor presumptions nor pretensions, whether of the mind or the life or the body, can aspire to be the fit companion of the deity within.
He can then revel with his Soul Beauty, the Divinity which is at the core of the heart, the full-blown lotus of the divine consciousness with its sixty-four petals of integral delight infusing its fragrant vibration into every nook and corner of the adhara from the crown of the head to the tip of the toe.
Yes, one must give up all, all worldly conventions and respectabilities. The Kapali has given up all that for the sake of his divine companion and chosen her life of austere labour and renunciation, outside the pale of genteel falsehood and Ignorance.
The soul comes down and enters into the muddy pool of earthly life. She seeks there the lotus of immortality that grows and blooms there in the mud. She seizes it and devours it with mad eagerness.
The aspirant too joins her in the battle of life, he battles with her also to win her, and win her gift of immortality. He is a violent warrior (Kapali) and seeks to wrest Heaven by violence.
XI33
The central cord is set firm in its frame;
And in the heart the soundless drum
resounds valiantly;
Kanhu the Kapali, the yogi, is engaged in his rites.
He wanders in the city of his body
in perfect identity;
The dualsvowels and consonantsare like
tinkling bells and anklets on his feet;
The sun and the moon are his carvings.
Love and hate and delusion are burnt to ashes.
He has put on the pearl-necklace
of Supreme Liberation;
He has slain the mother-in-law and the sister-in-law
who held the house
Indeed Kanhu has slain maya and become Kapali.
XII
I play chess upon the board of Grace:34
With the consciousness of the Guru one wins the world-game.
The two were removed and the King taken prisoner.35
The Guide directing Kanhu came by the city of victory.36
The first thing to do, pursue and kill the pawns.37
Then lift the Bishop and kill the five;38
By the Queen the King is dethroned, disabled,
the world-power is won.39
Kanhu says, "I am an expert in chess:
And I count and capture all the sixty-four squares.40
XIII
The threefold adherence is the boat and there are
eight rooms in it.41
My own body is the Compassion, the dwelling
inside is emptiness.42
I have crossed the world-ocean as through a
vain dream.
When within the boat, my mind dwells on the
waves as a witness:
The five luminous Beings are made the oars;43
Ply your boat, this body of yours, O Kanhu, through
the mazes of Maya:
Touch and taste and smell shall remain as they are,
Even like a sleepless dream.44
With his consciousness holding the helm through
the Void,
Kanhu moves towards the confluence of the Supreme
Delight.
XIV45
Oh! the boat plies between Ganga and Yamuna.
The Sea-elephant lies there plunged,
he ferries easily the yogi across.
Oh my mate, ply on, oh, ply on, my love,
it is late on the way.
Through the Grace of the Guru's feet
I will reach again the city of Victory.
Five oars are rowing, the ropes are tied
to the peg in the rear.
Emptiness is the pan, bale out the water with it
so that no chink permits a drop.
The sun and the moon are the agents that create and destroy.
Neither to the right nor to the left look for the way
Row on at ease.
She takes nor dole nor obole, she ferries you
of her own will.
One who rides a chariot and knows not how to ply a boat
wanders from shore to shore.
XV
You seek to weigh the true reality
of your self-experience:
But what is beyond ken leaves no trace for recognition.
Whoever went the straight upward way
came to the end of all ways.
O fool, move not from shore to shore,
there is a straight road in the world.
May no curve turn you aside, O child,
the King's way is covered with velvet.
Lo, the ocean of illusions and delusions
and you know neither its end nor its bottom:
No boat nor raft is in sight
what an error not to ask it of the Guru!
A bare expanse, no frontier anywhere!
Oh! make no error in your going.
Here are the eight great accomplishments
for one who goes the straight way.
Leave all other ways, right or left
says Shantipada in brief
Close your eyes and go the way that has
no steps, nor shrubs nor herbs!46
XVI
The soul's cry, like the roar of a dark cloud,
fell upon the triple47 altars:
The terrible Adversary48 heard it and fled
with all his cohort.
The Conscient Being like a mad elephant
rushed out
And in his thirst began churning the high heavens.49
The twin chainsvirtue and sinhe tore off
and uprooted the pegs:
He reached the top heaven and entered into Nirvana.
He is drunk with the supreme Wine, oblivious of
all the three worlds.
Master of the five agents, none is against.50
Burning with the hot rays of the sun51
he dives into the heavenly Ganga.52
Mahinda says, "Yes, I entered here and lost sight of all else.
XVII53
The sun is the gourd-shell,
the moon is the string tied to it;
The heart's silence is the rod,
and the ascetic woman does the rest.
O my mate, Heruka is playing on the Veena;
The Voice with its stringed melody
flashes forth the compassion
Vowels and consonants form the twin rows of cadence,
The bridge, elephant-shaped, marks the equal enjoying.
As the fingers press tight upon the palm,
All the thirty-two notes ring out and spread everywhere:
The Deity dances, the Goddess sings,
the Buddha play is played out.
XVIII54
All the three worlds I have moved through at ease
And now I am fast asleep revelling in the supreme happiness.
O my woman, how playful you are!
On either side the troop of caste people
And in the middle this outcaste Kapali.
O woman, you have upset everything;
Without rhyme or reason you have shelved the moon away.
Some call you a harlot,
But the wise wear you as a necklace.
Kanhu sings: she is a lustful outcaste
And a greater wanton there is none.
XIX55
Birth and Death are the drum and the kettle,
Mind and Life are the cymbals and tambours:
The bugles blow vying with peals of vivat.
Lo, Kanhu goes to marry his bride.
This marriage will bring him a new birth,
The dowry being the supreme states of consciousness.
The day and the night pass in the game of enjoyment,
In the company of Yoginis till the dawn breaks.
One who is attached to the outcaste woman
Never leaves for a moment the maddening intoxicant.
XX56
I am she the desireless, my spouse is the Void:
The knowledge I carry is beyond words.
O Mother, as I cast my look into the womb,
it all burst forth
But what I wanted here is not here.
The first-born out of me is a mass of desires:
That too vanished as its life-line was pursued to the end.
A new youthfulness I achieved
The original spearhead did the killing;
Kukkuripada says: stable now is the world
And he who knows here understands is a hero here.
XXI57
The night is dark, the mouse stirring:
Immortality is his food and he takes it.
Slay the mouse, O Yogi, the mouse that is like the wind.
So may he stop his coming and going.
The mouse pierces into the earth, he digs a hole.
Restless is the black mouse, be firm and kill it.
Black is the mouse; it is not visible for its colour.
When it ascends to the sky, then it enters into
a mindless meditation.
The mouse is restless; it is at rest when it has the
consciousness of the Great Master.
When its wandering ceases, then only,
Bhushuka says, all its bond ages break away.
XXII
You build up yourself your birth and death.
You create yourself your illusory bondage.
We know not what is beyond thought, we know not
how birth and death and rebirth occur:
As is the birth, even so is death, there is no difference
between the dead and the living.
One who is afraid here of birth and death,
One who hankers for the alchemy of delight,
One who wanders about in the three worlds
Such people can never be deathless and ageless.
Does action come from birth or does the birth
come from action?
Saraha says, that law is beyond the reach of thought.
XXIII
Bhusuk, if you go ahunting, do not fail
to kill the five creatures.58
Be single-minded as you enter the lotus grove.59
Like one not alive, for whom death has come,60
Bhusuk also has lost his flesh, he enters the lotus grove.
So have you spread your illusive net and caught the
deer that is Illusion.61
It is with the consciousness of the Guru that you have
understood whose is the story and what it is!62
XXIV
[The original text of these two pieces is missing. The text is available only in its Tibetan translation, which was translated again into Bengali. The Bengali version is translated here into English in its turn].
The moon rises, so shines the soul in its kingship:
The dark ignorance is dispelled by the Guru's words,
and all the senses dissolve in the Sky.
Heaven's seed goes back into the heavens
and sprouts, and spreads its shadow over the three worlds.
The Sun rising, the night ends and all the earth's
delusion dissolves.
The Swan-King takes in only the pure water,
so here too is taken in, Kanhu says, earth's pure rasa.
XXV
How does the Great Law arise? How is it established?
The Lightning-centre63 alone can tell.
Five are the epochs64 of Time, the robe is woven into
its warp and woof.
I am the weaver,65 the threads are of me
yet I know not the kind and quality.
The carpet spread is three cubit and a half long:
it extends into the three worlds:
The whole sky is woven out into the robe.66
XXVI
The cotton is beaten and beaten into fleecy shreds;
The shreds are beaten into nothingness:
Even then the source is not reached,
says Shanti, however much one may think of it.67
The cotton is beaten into shreds
and the shreds are collected into nothingness.
Moving into nothingness I abolished myself.
The path is muddy, neither side is visible:68
Shanti says, there is no passage even for a hair to enter.69
It is neither the cause nor the effect
such is the argument,
Shanti declares from his own experience.
XXVII
The whole midnight the lotus blooms:70
Thirty-two sisters (yoginis) are there,
their limbs rejoice.71
The moon follows the path of the Mother:
She indeed speaks to the One for the riches of delight:
The moon moveson and enters into Nirvana,72
The Goddess of the lotus bears the lotus on the lotus ten:
Th delight of cessation carries no sign, it is all pure.
He who understands this is the wise one here.
Bhusuku says, "I have understood through union,
Through the play of the Great Delight, the SupremeBeatitude.
XXVIII
Tier upon tier the hills arise,
there dwells the forest girl;
She wears the peacock feather in her hair,
and around her neck the garland of gunja flowers.
The forest-man is mad, he is wild:
Oh, do not worry, I implore you:
Your own house-wife is there, her name, beauty pure and simple.
Varied trees are in flower, their branches reach out to the skies.
The lone forest-woman wanders in this woodland;
her ear-rings dangle, her arms carry the thunder-bolt:
The cot of triple substance is put in place
and the forest-man spreads his bed in great joy.
The forest-man, a hooded passion, and the luminous Nought
a harlot pass the Night in love's revel.
In his heart he tasted of betel and camphor in glee;
the lovely lady, the Void Selflessness
her arms round his neck he passed the whole night in revel!
The Master's word is the bow,
hit the mark with the arrow of your mind:
Aim with the one single arrow
and hit, oh hit, the supreme Void.
The forest-man is wild with passion;
The forest-man has entered into the cleft
on the top of the hillhow to find him out?
XXIX
It does not become existence,
nor does it become non-existence.
Who would believe in such an experience?
Luy says: my boy, true knowledge is hard to glimpse:
It flashes in the triple substance and one does not know it.
It is a thing with no colour or sign or feature that is known.
How can one explain it through scriptures and holy books?
To whom and in what way should I speak of the riddle?
It is like the moon in the water, neither true nor false!
Lui says, what am I to think of it?
The thing I live with has neither a purpose
nor a roadway.
XXX
It was a ceaseless cloud-burst of Grace,
Abolished all conflict between 'is' and 'is-not';
Lo, in the mid-heaven rises a marvel:
Bhusuku, look at your old intimate being,
The very awareness of which tears up the net of senses,
And your mind, of its own accord, brings forth
the supreme ecstasy from behind.
The sense-objects are purified and so I know
what joy is:
Even as the heavens brighten with the moon-light:
This is the true essence of all the three worlds,
This is how Bhusuku, the yogi, has sundered the darkness.
XXXI
When the mind and the sense-winds die away,
I know not where my self enters and disappears.
The drum of the Grace beats wonderous,
And Ajdeb dwells aloof and lonesome;
Even as the moonbeams are reflections upon the moon,
The mind's reflexes lapse and enter into itself.
I have cast away fear and disgust and rules and customs,
I gaze and gaze upon the Void without a ripple:
Ajdeb has routed everything,
He has driven fear and disgust far away.
XXXII73
Nor sound nor its fount
nor sun nor moon is there.
The consciousness, a king, is free by nature.
Leaving the straightness of the straight
do not take to the crooked;
The Light is near, do not go far away.
The bangles are on your wrist,
do not take up a mirror.
Understand by yourself your own mind
Thus can one go to the other shore.
But with the wrong man you go downward.
To the right and to the left lie bogs and marshes
Sarahu says, my boy, the straight road is the best.
XXXIII74
My house is on the top of the mound
and I have no neighbour.
I have no food in my bowl
and everyday there comes a lover.
The worldly life grows on apace:
But does the milk that is drawn go back to the udder?
A barren cow has given birth to a bullock:
Pailful of milk has been milked these three evenings.
One who understands this has a sharp understanding;
It is the thief who is the guard.
Always there is a fightan equal fight
between the lion and the jackal.
The song of Dhendhanpa is comprehensible to a few.
XXXIV
Through The single action of the Void and its grace
in his Body and speech and mind;
Darika rejoices on the other shore of the Heavens.
His consciousness seizing on the Unseizable in utter delight.
Darika rejoices on the other shore of the Heaven.
What is the use of the holy word, what is the use of the holy rite,
what is the use of meditation and dissertation?
If you are not merged firmly in the supreme Happiness,
then the Final Consummation remains out of sight.
The wiseman enjoys through the senses, equating pleasure and pain
He makes no difference between himself and others,
Darika cognises only the One Supreme.
A king, a king, a king, you say? But he is bound by Ignorance!
Through the grace of Luipada, Darika has gained all the
twelve worlds.
XXXV75
So long I lay in perfect ignorance.
Now I have come to understand
through the guidance of a true Guru.
Now the reign of my consciousness is ended:
It has tilted and is sunk in the seas of Heaven.
Now I find all the ten directions are empty;
Even the consciousness is empty, neither sin nor
virtue is there.
Bajula has told me of the mystery of Ignorance:
And I drank of the waters of Heaven;
Bhade says: "It is my misfortune,
But I have eaten up the dominion of my consciousness!
XXXVI
The Void is my home,
and Truth my striking sword:
I seized the whole treasure of illusion
and swallowed it.
He sleeps unaware of the rift between mine and others,
The nude Kanhu is full of sleep of the Inner Being:
There is no awareness, no sensation;
He is gone into the depth of sleep.
He has accomplished all and lies happy in his sleep.
I saw in sleep the three worlds a Void,
As though a wheel that revolves no more.
Jalandhripada, my Guru, I have as witness.
The learned scholars are never by my side.
XXXVII
I myself am no more,
whom should I fear?
My desire even for the supreme act has vanished.
O Yogi, forget not the simple perception;
Stand free, stand free full square:
As you have been, so be for ever.
O Yogi, make no mistake about the simple path.
When you swim then only you know the burdens you carry
But how to explain what is beyond the way of words
Taraka declares there is no passage to enter into it.
If you say you understand you are hanged.
XXXVIII
The body is the boat, the mind the oar
And the word of the Guru the helm upon the seas;
Calm your mind and hold to the wheel:
There is no other way to cross over to the other shore.
The boatman tugs the boat by the rope:
Even so you must move on and merge into the goal:
go not elsewhere.
There is fear on the way, the brigand is strong;
In the high flood of the world all is lost.
Follow the coast-line, up the rushing current;
Saraha says, "Thus you will enter the heaven."
XXXIX
Even in dream, O my mind, you roam and revel in your ignorance;
it is your own error.
How can you then take delight in your voyage
through the words of the Master?
Strange, this heaven is born out of a mystic roar!
And as your wife in Bengal76 is taken away,
your consciousness broke up.
O strange is this world illusion
that marks out oneself and others.
This world is but an image upon water
empty yourself in the mystic consciousness.
The nectar is there and yet you swallow poison;
your own mind is a slave to others.
When I came to understand what is here at home and what is
there abroad,
then I eat up all my wicked kins.
Saraha says: Better an empty stable
than one full of wicked bullocks.
All alone I have annihilated the world and now I wander free.
XL
What the mind perceives is the maze of illusion
Scriptures and books, beads and rosaries,
Tell me, how can the simple truth be uttered?
The body, the word, the consciousness cannot enter into it.
In vain does the Guru teach the disciple.
That which is beyond the way of speech,
how can it be expressed?
The more you speak, the farther you go astray;
The Master is dumb, the disciple deaf
How is the victor delight like?Kanhu says
It is as though the dumb were to explain to the deaf.
XLI
This world was never born and, had no beginning,
through illusion it appears to exist.
When you mistake a rope for a snake
and get frightened,
You are not then actually bitten even by a harmless snake!
It is all a wonder! O Yogi, do not wash your hands with salty water.77
If you understand the world in its very nature,
then all your bonds will snap.
Even like the desert mirage or the airy city
or the image in the mirror
Or like the water's spout that stands solid as a stone-pillar
It is like the child of a barren woman playing odd plays:
It is like oil out of sand, like the horn of a rabbit,
like a flower blooming in the sky.
Raoutu says: Indeed, and Bhusuku says also, such
is the nature of things:
If you are in ignorance, go and ask of a true Guru.
XLII
The consciousness when normal is a total zero.
Do not be sorry when deprived of your limbs.
But how do you say Kanhu is not?
He is vibrant, constantly entering into the three worlds.
The ignorant are afflicted when they do not see the seen.
But when the waves break does the ocean dry up?
The ignorant do not see the worlds that yet exist.
They do not see the cream within the milk.
In this world none goes out, none comes in:
This is the consciousness in which yogi Kanhu revels.
XLIII
The Simple,78 even like a mighty tree has spread itself in all the
three worlds;
In a state of perfect delight who is bound, who is free?
Water poured into water shows no difference:
Even so the jewelled mind melts and enters into the one and
equal taste of the spaces.
Where there is no oneself, the other does not exist.
That which is uncreated has neither birth nor death.
Bhusuku says, even Raoutu says: such is the nature of things;
Here nothing goes, nothing comes, there is
neither presence nor absence.
XLIV79
Where the void unites with the void,
There arises the All-Law.80
But I am four square with the perfect consciousness:
In between all else is shut out and there is the
unsurpassing knowledge
The creative Sound did not enter into my heart:
I looked to one side and the other vanished:
You must know wherefore you have come here:
Hold yourself midwise and from there deal with things.
Loudly declares Kankanapada: the roar of the Truth disinter-
grates the universe.
Paraphrase81
I) When the ordinary consciousnessthe world consciousnessdissolves, becomes zero and vanishes into the transcendent zero.
II) Then that supreme zeroconsciousness expresses, embodies, the dharma, the supreme law of right living.
III) There the individual is one with the Supreme Reality on all the four levels of consciousnessthe soul or self, mind, life and body.
IV) Because of this inmost consciousness in the middle, that is to say, the intervening or intermediate consciousness, the world itself is shut out, becomes an illusion.
V) One passes by the vibrations that create the illusory world.
VI) For when one's consciousness is fixed upon the transcendent the relative, the cosmos disappear.
VII) The true source of all becoming is this transcendent zero.
VIII) The middle course, the course of the heart is the course of the truth, that turns neither to the left nor to the right but moves straight upward.
IX) The voice of the void has another vibration and effect, it does not create the world of ignorance, it disintegrates that world.
XLV
Mind is the tree and the five senses its branches
And the leaves are the many desires that it carries.
O, cut it down with the axe that is the Guru's word:
Kanhu says, the tree must not grow again.
Good and evil are the waters that nourish the tree;
Directed by the Guru the wise one knows how to fell it.
And he who knows not the trick
Goes astray, the fool, and accepts the cycle of birth.
The Void is the tree, 82 the sky83 the axe:
Cut down the tree, leave neither roots nor branches.
XLVI
One sees in a dream as though in a mirror:
Even so the illusion is there within.
When the mind is freed from the illusion,
Then only cease the coming and the going.
Fire does not burn it nor waters moisten it
nor is it ever torn;
Still behold, again and again it binds itself
to one illusion or another.
The shadow, the image, the body are all one and the same:
In true knowledge there is no taking sides84
Purify your consciousness with truth nature:
Jayanandi openly says, thus alone and in no other way.
XLVII
Between the lotus and the thunderbolt my union was made:85
The Outcast Woman blazed fierce in utter equanimity.86
The house of the untouchable woman is burning,
it is on fire:
Take up the Moon and pour out the waters upon it. 87
It does not scorch, it does not burn, nor any smoke is seen.
By the northern pole it enters the heavens.88
All the Gods and Godheads are burnt.
Burnt are the sacred threads and the tablet of rules.
Dhama says, he has a clear knowledge now
And the waters rise up the fivefold channel.89
We may remember the union achieved in between Ganga and Yamuna spoken of in the Tantras; vide also poem No. XIV.
XLVIII
[The original text is lost. Only a Tibetan translation exists.]
XLIX
The boat made of the thunderbolt I ply across the bosom of the Padma.90
The cruel robbers looted all my burden.
Today, O Bhusuku, truly you have become a Bengali,91
Your own wife is taken away by the outcast villains.
The five tablets, the sense-objects are now burnt.
I do not know where has entered my consciousness,
No more do I possess gold or silver;
In my own sphere I dwell in great happiness.
My four square treasury is now exhausted
There is no difference between life and death.92
L
In each heaven there is a three-storeyed building:
and my heart is an axe;
In my throat is awake the beautiful girl
the jewel of a void.
Abandon the illusion, abandon the delusion,
abandon all extreme dualities.
Shabara revels in the great delight
with his girl, the void.
I see my three-storeyed house, it is even like the heavens,
It is so well-built as if cotton flowers have opened out
in all their whiteness.
Beside the three-storeyed93 building there rose a moon-beam
building;
Then darkness burst open as though into flowers of heaven.
The fruits are all ripened, Shabara and his spouse are revelling;
Night and day, Shabara94 passed in the great delight.
he has no other consciousness.
With bamboo sticks a cot was prepared,
Shabara was placed upon it and was burnt.
Alas, vultures and jackals are mad with grief.
The one addicted to birth died in this way,
the last rites done, offerings distributed.
Behold, Shabara has attained Nirvana and
his shabarahood vanished.
Five branchesfive senses.
One must have wings of emptinessthe empty consciousness i.e., pure consciousness emptied of all movementsto soar into the high heavens of Nirvana.
The breath, embodying the vital energy. One movement controls the right side of the adhara, and the other controls the left sidethe twin movements of knowledge and action. It refers also to the double action of consciousness in yogic practicethe ascent and the descent.
Tortoisethe hoarded consciousness above (Hiranyagarbha) Milklight and delight Jarthe human receptacle (Jiva-dhr)
Crocodile he amphibian deity of life and bodythe vitophysical power and energy.
Between the two what is the soul to do? He (rather she) is neither here nor there. The open place is her home.
She has lost her inner Hearing, her Guidance. The Enemy has stolen it.
The guardian of the ordinary consciousness. The soul is the daughter-in-law. She is wedded into this house (the human receptacle)it is not her own house, she comes from elsewhere.
Daythe light of ordinary consciousnessin which birds of ignorance revel.
Nightwhen the inner consciousness is awake and the soul's ardent yearnings are in play."
The divine soul or consciousness in man embraces both the sphere of consciousness, the higher and the lower.
That central consciousness hoards the delight, keeps it tight bound in the depth of the heart, so that it may not be spilt and spoiltthe material sheath with its teguments and ligaments must be strong and make a resisting armour.
The supreme consciousness is simplicity itself. What can be more simple than Zero (Nirvana)? One who follows, adheres to simplicity is the Simple Man (Sahaja). This simple single consciousness is to be affirmed, firmly established in this material frame, the bodywhich is to be made fit so that it may hold that delightful consciousness.
The ten sense-instruments (indriyas) through which the consciousness passes in and out. They are to be vigilant and stamped with the seal of the supreme consciousness.
The customer is the divine self, the true individual in man.
The complete number of the principles or elements of the human vessel.
Once you have the divine delight and enter into it you can no longer be satisfied with anything else less.
Truth is one and there is only one expressionthat of the straight and narrow path.
Drink but do not be drunksteady and balanced and firm must be the frame that holds and expresses the divine consciousness and delight.
The Consciousnessmoves upward, it cannot be tied down upon the earth.
Jewel Centrethe highest centre at the top of the head representing the highest seat of mind beyond which is the Vast and Infinite Consciousness.
Mother-in-lawordinary consciousness.
Sun and Moonday and night, the cycle of ordinary consciousness.
Purusha and Prakriti in right relation means the victory of the Supreme Consciousness
Life is a dangerous river. You have to cross it to go over to the other shore of safety, the spiritual life. But once in it, you are doomed. You are drowned in its fathomless depths or if you try to clamber up its sides you are bogged down in their sticky mud. The one thing to do is to build a bridgeit can be only out of the materials of life itself. Life's experiences form the materials. They are trees, as it were, luxuriant in growth. You have to cut them down, dry themthey must be dead before they can be used as planks for the bridge. The sharp edge of a concentrated consciousnessthe sense of the unreality and inanity of this existenceis the axe for cutting the growth of life.
The deer is the individual self; his mate, the doe, is the secret deity, the conscious being in the heart, the immanent divine consciousness.
He gives up the joys of ordinary life.
The goal is the city of Godthe city of victory for Kanhu. He must go there and live for ever. But with the active mind, with its illusions and delusions, none can enter. Illusion is to see a thing which is not there, delusion is to see one thing for another. They remain outside, Kanhu sees the world abolished for him, the three worlds of the mind, the life and the body which although three are really onetheir truth is behind and beyond in the unity. That destination seems to be near and yet Kanhu has not completely entered into it."
Through the supreme Grace your being carries only goldpure consciousness. The impure, mixed worldly consciousness is the silverwareit must not be allowed to return. With this pure Consciousness firm in you, let yourself go ahead. Do not turn to the right, nor to the leftgo forward keeping a watchful eye all around.
All the ties of the world are broken. Kanhu is free, he is free in the Supreme Ecstasy.
The central cord: the cords (nadi) are the lines or channels of psycho-vital forces that govern the human organism, control the general functions of the body. These lines or channels are sometimes identified with the nervous system but they are more subtle than the material substance, more vital than physical. Their effective expression, their principal agency in the physical is the respiratory system. Their numbers are variously counted, sometimes sixty-four, sometimes thirty-four, but the principal ones are three. These form a trinity and follow the line of the spinal cord. They are the famous 'Ida', 'Pingala' and 'Susumna.' Ida and Pingala are on either side of the spinal cord, the central one being the Susumna. The two on either side are the ascending and the descending lines, (sometimes they are represented as the twins, knowledge and power); the central holds the balance between the two, representing the consciousness of unity or synthesis. These are the triple forces -that control the breath and are made use of in Hathayogathe intaking, the outgoing and the holding in of the breath (Purak, Rechak and Kumbhak); these are described as the means of controlling and mastering the life-force, Prana.
The two lines on either side of the central one form a circulatory system, distributing the forces through the body; the central one, as I said, balancing the two, maintains the poise; it has also a special function of its own not only to guide the forces around itself but also to direct them upward. Along with the physico-vital movement there is also a psychological movement, a movement of consciousness that establishes harmony among the forces around and also rises upward and through the crown of the head goes beyond. The whole operation may be transcribed as a movement of consciousness or consciousness force (chit-tapas) seeking to establish a new purified order in the human system in relation to a higher order.
The Grace abounding spread everywhere, which always helps the sadhak and ensures the victory.
Two = Duality (dvandvas). One must be dvandvatita, beyond the dualities and divisions to find the supreme unity. King = the Ego (ahamra)
Guide = Antarymin, the Inner Ruler.
Pawns = ignorant instincts. Samskras.
Bishop = Indian term 'tusker' (elephant) which means material power. Five = the senses.
Queen = the Divine Consciousness-Power. Chit-Shakti. King = the ignorant being (Purusha) that normally rules the ignorant nature.
squares = fullness, integrality of life. Kali, Mother Nature, is said to have 64 yoginis, powers and instruments. There are also 64 arts (kalas) embellishing a full life.
Threefold Adherence: to the Truth, the Guru, and the Divine Family (Dharma, Buddha, Samgha). Eight Rooms = the seven planes of consciousness (Sat-chitananda-mahas-manas-prana-anna) and the Supreme.
The Buddha consciousness: within, it is nothingness, outside it is compassion incarnate.
luminous beings = illumined senses.
sleepless = conscious, not unconscious, vigilant. dream = unreality,' from the spiritual consciousness.
Ganga and Yamuna: the upward and the downward currents of consciousness and force. The ascending current leads the being to the higher and higher levels, while the descending current brings the riches from above into the lower regions. The companion who is with you and helps you through the journey is your inner deity represented here as the sea-elephant.
This is a familiar image in the orthodox Tantra. It also represents the Purusha-Prakriti play. Tantra speaks of the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna where one is to seize by violence the divine damsel.
Sri Aurobindo refers to the same dual phenomenon as "aspiration from below" and "Grace from above". Emptiness or Neutral: the original word"pulin" is taken by the Sanskrit commentator as representing the neuter. Evidently it means the Void in which all creation ceases, the sun and the moon being the motors of creation
A smooth, clean pathway.
triplemind, life, body.
AdversaryMaya.
heavensthe mindchurning in order to go through.
Bhutas; elements or indriyas (senses).
Sun of the Truth-Consciousness.
Ganga = Supreme Delight.
Dried gourd is used as the base or hub of the instrument.
Sun is the Supreme Knowledge, moon is the Supreme Delight.
The creation is a stringed musical instrument. Knowledge is its base, the delight is the row of strings tied to the base, the inner silence is the body (rod) on which the strings are laid. The woman is the inspiration of the inner soul, creating the music, she is the mate of the singer, the poet himself. What kind of music is it? It is the music of the Void pouring out the light of compassion all over the creation. The strings are in two layers; the vowels (beginning with aalpha series) are the top series, the consonants the series below (Indian K series, European beta series). That marks the echoing and the re-echoing of the melody, also the right hand and the left hand movements of the consciousness (Knowledge and Power) according to the occultistsit means the total encircling consciousness, the global music. The bridge tightens and maintains the poise of the strings. We may remember here the two subtle nervous lines of 'Ida' and 'Pingala' and the middle one, 'Sushumna' that balances the two. The psychological sense is that the dualities of the world-experience are resolved in the consciousness of the sadhak by a supreme sense of equality. The elephant may mean the strength of physical resolution. The fingers pressing indicate the same thing, the pressure of almost physical consciousness to bring out the vast music that is Nirvana. The Gods and Goddesses are all happy for the curtain is rung down on the play, it is the endNirvana.
You have to cross the three worldsphysical, vital and mental, pass through the three states of consciousnessjgrat (waking), swapna (dreaming) and suupta (sleeping)-to enjoy the transcendent delight. It is the ecstasy of union with one's soul, the divine Beloved secreted within our inner heart. This divinity, this beloved deity is utter freedomno mental reservations or restrictions, no vital preferences or prejudices, no physical rules or regulations.
Outcastebecause she is cast out of the normal human consciousness, which does not recognise the worth of such a status. Womanbecause it is Power, Shakti and Delight (ananda). Yoginisall the attendant powers that aid and vivify the game.
This poem or song is an outright cryptogram. It speaks of mysterious things in an even more mysterious way. First of all, we must note that the poet is a woman. She calls herself kukkuri. But why of all names a "bitch"? Well, she is in good company. One remembers the Vedic Sarama or Sarameya. The West too has its Hound of Heaven. Only the term here has been put in its vernacular form. Anyhow it is a yogini who embodies or represents the divine Being, nairatma devi, as the Buddhist commentator says.
The opening lines have a clear Vedic ring, they take us back to the famous Devi Sukta where the poetessthere too it is a Rishika, Vak or Vagambhrinifeels herself one with the Supreme Shakti and declares her mightinesses.
Here also the woman-singer, filled with the divine afflatus, intones her inexpressible experiences. Her individual consciousness is identified with the universal Mother consciousness. And as such while she casts her glance into herself, into the depth of her womb, she finds the entire universe there and it comes out in a burst. But she notes that the first creation is only a world of the mere senses, the world of desires and it was not what she wanted. Therefore she severed the life-line that held itas though the umbilical cordby a stroke of the concentrated luminous energy that her consciousness was. So the wrong manifestation, the false world (of Maya and Mara) dissolved and disappeared. And in its stead the true, the world of truththat is the voidwas firmly established, never to move or change. The process is a difficult path and only a heroic soul can go through it.
This poem presents a simpler allegory and expresses a more familiar experience of the spiritual life.
The mouse is the ignorant being, the small being of ignorancethe restless desiresoul full of hunger and hankeringsmoved by the untamed vital urge ('the wind'). It is difficult to spot it, because it is a black thing moving in blacknessignorance enveloped in ignorance. Tamo asit tamasa gudham. It burrows a hole in the earth consciousness, enters into the basic inconscience, steals all the light and happiness from above and hides them in the underground darkness. No spiritual realisation can come and stay unless this nibbling enemy is tracked and brought to light. The Veda gives a similar image. The panis, the dark Asuras seize even the sun and store it away in their secret caverns. Indra, the lord of the Divine Mind, has to come and with his fulgurating thunderbolt pierce the hillsthe earth-built consciousness and rescue and release the Light. Even so, here the poet says, the mouse, the ignorant consciousness, must rise into the sky of the luminous mindlessness, attain a steadfast concentration, then it will lose its normal restlessness; when it is filled with the consciousness of the true Guru, the divine Master, then it becomes stable and tranquillisedit is no more fidgety bound in its inferior consciousnessits bondages snap, it is free. The little ignorant being of small mind is freed into the luminous vastness of the Buddha-consciousness. Then only can he taste of the nectar of immortality for which he yearned even in his ignorant states.
Five creaturesthe five senses.
Lotus grovethe divine Consciousness
When one enters the divine Consciousness one becomes dead to the world, to the life of flesh.
Illusionthe life of the flesh.
Storythe Story of the Soul, the soul's union with the Divine.
The Lightning-centre: the Divine in the heart.
Five epochs: the five senses out of which is made the world of experiences that the soul puts on as its garb.
The weaver: the soul or self. It weaves the world upon its sense experiences, it weaves out also the infinite space of Shunya or Nirvana.
The human body is the robe and it extends infinitely (that isto say, in its consciousness) and melts into the Void.
In spite of our efforts to think to the contrary.
Narrow is the passage to Truth.
Normally one argues from cause to effect, or goes back from effect to cause. Here neither is there.
Midnight: the absence of the ordinary daylight consciousness, entry into inner consciousness. Lotus:the inner consciousness and being.
Sisters:the powers that control the dhra: 32, perhaps body, life, mind, and each containing five jnendriyas and five karmendriyas plus the one above and the one below (Purusha and Prakriti); the Vedas also speak of ten sisters.
Moon:the being of delight.
The supreme Reality is beyond any form or formulation. The consciousness there is straight, simple, free. You need not go to a foreign land to find it, it is close by, within you. You can know it by yourself, you need no extraneous help. If you seek others' help you are likely to be wrongly guided and lose yourself in bogs and marshes. Go simply and straight. For only that way lies the consciousness that is absolute freedom.
The poem expresses the relation of the ascetic to the world. He lives aloof and alone, and without any ration. Yet the hungers from the world below mount up and try to tempt him. That is the way of the world. But one above the world cannot retrace his steps backward, even as the milk once out cannot go back to the udder. If at all it is another cow, another milk-yielder, another milk. It is not ignorant Nature's phenomenon; it is the consciousness of super-Nature pouring out the great delight. Nirvana is the barren cow, the bullock is its energy or tapas and the milk is the supreme Joy. The three evenings must be the close or end or setting of the three domains of worldly existencebody, life and mind. The thief is the higher consciousness guarding at the top and he has stolen away the world and the worldly objects. Similarly the lion is the Power of the Higher Consciousness and the jackal the prowling creature of the dark world. But the fight between the two is hard and equal, neither wanting to give up.
The poet, that is to say,the Siddhacharya, speaks of his experience or realisation of the annihilation of the ego-consciousness resulting in his attainment of the supreme Delight in the Heaven of Nirvana. He says graphically that he has eaten up the entire heap of egoism and adds with a sly witticism that it is a misfortune, for the egoism, but it brings him enjoyment to satiation.
The old ignorant life. Why Bengal? Perhaps he is now up somewhere elsein the Himalayas?leaving the plains of Bengal.
I.e., not pure clean.
SimpleSelf-born, Absolute.
The ultimate reality is a very simple thing: it is utterly simple, beyond all the complexities and contradictions and divisions, all the dualities that make up this creation, this illusory world.
It is as simple as the tree growing spontaneously and effortlessly and spreading and filling up the great space, one with its silence and equal calmness.
It is simple for it is zero, as the next poem says.
All-Law-Dharma.
There is a suggestion here of the Raja-yogic process. In the Rajayoga-image the consciousness ascends and descends with the rise and fall of respiration along two ducts on either side of the spine (naturally on the subtle plane): there is a third duct in between along which operates the holding of the breath and the withdrawal of consciousness leading towards the Super-consciousness beyond, the dual movement on either side represents the illusory worlds outside; the middle path absorbs all the noises of creation which are transformed into the final cry of the concentrated consciousness at its apex leaping into the great void.
The tree is the illusion, cut it away.
Sky is the wide pure consciousness (of the mind).
I.e., it is beyond the dualities.
lotus = lotus of the heart. thunderbolt = referring to the solidity and luminosity of the Supreme Consciousness, Nirvana.
Outcast Woman = the Divine Soul in man; the name Chandali literally means she, the fierce one; outcast because usually not accepted or recognised by the ordinary consciousness.
Moon = Soma; immortality. Waters = streams of immortality.
Northern pole: the summit of being or consciousness, the southern pole being the lower end corresponding to sahasrara at the top and muladhara at the bottom, of the Tantras, Sumeru and Kumeru.
Fivefold channel: the five senses; also compare the fivefold sheaths of the Upanishads.
Padma: the river of life.
Bengali: I am now my true self.
Four square: full, complete.
Three storeyed = the body, the life and the mind. There is a double set of this structureone, is dark, made of ignorance, alongside there is another, luminous, made of moonlight, that is to say, made of pure delight and immortality (Soma).
Shabara = the original, unregenerate, unclean, impure man, the man of ordinary, ignorant consciousness.
***
The Brahmin The Golden Journey
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