Târâ |
A star in the dark night bursting forth a sphere of light out of vacuum -
that is Târâ, the second of the great paths of self realization.
The unmanifest sound of Omkârâ bursts forth into the manifest
world, that is Târâ.
Cut a sphere with a central star in it, into two halves, and place them side by side. Move the half star into the surface centers of the two hemispheres. Thus does Omkârâ assume a female form, where the centre is moved to periphery, and one appears as two. Out of this, the creation proceeds further, shown by the tail of the Omkârâ and third centre of the world develops - that is jeeva. Jeeva is located in the navel (manipura), and that is Târâ as Omkârâ symbolizing manifestation. Manipura is the first place where light manifests, like so many starry jewels. The Sanskrit word Târâ takes on different meanings. The highest meaning is that She is Târîni, She crosses you to the beyond, She is the bridge for you to walk to immortality. In this, She is symbolized by Omkârâ. The second meaning of Târâ is that She is high pitched sound. This reflects how the Omkârâ heard in the heart centre transforms itself first into super sonic sound, and then into light and then into darkness again as the frequency increases. The third meaning is that Târâ is the lover of Moon. This shows that manifestation is a reduction of band width, a ray of the infinite frequency, since moon symbolizes love, which is based on duality. At the physical level representing duality, Târâ is worshipped with an aim to experience the undifferentiated state. Here the worship bears a similarity to Kâli, but with this difference that the focus of awareness is at the navel centre, not the svadhisthana centre as in Kâli. Târâ involves seduction too, which Kâli does not. As the purpose of seduction is self-realization, it becomes purified in the non-dual state. In the first meaning, Târâ is a Vedic mantra, the shuddha pranava. This mantra is Om. In its second meaning, Târâ is a tantric mantra, to be worshipped as Hrim Strim Hûm Phat. Hrim acting as the great seducer Strim, the woman (symbol for the mind), should be blown away (Phat) by the fire of knowledge of Shiva (Hûm). This is done by a Sadhaka alone, but in union with kundalini. In its third meaning, where physical seduction is present, Târâ is a buddhist mantra of the Mahâyana or Vajrayanâ sect. Here the mantra takes the form Om Hrim Strîm Hûm Phat. The sound symbol Phat is very important. It is an explosive sound and symbolizes the piercing of the darkness by light. The fourier transform of a sharp transition contains all frequencies in it; when the frequencies fall in the visible range, it becomes an explosion of light in meditation. At the lowest frequencies, the sound is a current or a vibration in the body. As the frequency rises, the following transformations occur: feelings, sound, heat, silence of radio waves, light, ultra-violet, then silence again. As Kundalini moves up, first it is parâ, then pashyanti, then madhyamâ and lastly vaikhari - in the sound branch. In the light branch, it becomes infra-red, visible light, ultra-violet, and the invisible black, cold light of x-rays, gamma-rays, cosmic rays, and matter waves. So, after the sound ceases, comes light. After light ceases, awareness persists in Shûnyatâ. This is what the Buddha says - nirvana is Shûnyatâ, which has the nature of vajra or a diamond - it is indestructible. It is wrong to assume of course that Shûnyatâ is emptiness. Quite the contrary, it is utter completeness of variety which is incomprehensibly deep in knowledge and awareness. Consider an example. Suppose you are listening to music. The tempo builds up, the rhythm beats faster and faster. After some time, no rhythm can keep pace with the speed, and everything merges into a steady monotone of unmanifest silence, which is one pointed awareness, which appears to have lost all vibrations. It is vibrating at an infinite frequency as awareness. It is stillness of a spinning top, not the laziness of a sleeping man. That in essence is the difference between Samadhi and sleep. It should be realized that the combined band width of parâ, pashyantî and madhyamâ is far below that of the light waves; and that the band width of the light waves is far below that of the waves of awareness of the matter waves, which invariably travel faster than light, and hence are always moving backwards in time. Hence Buddha's statement that silence and Shûnyatâ is the nature of the universe, is absolutely correct. That is what the Upanishads also say - that the manifest universe is only the tail of the Brahman. There are three kinds of particles known in physics. These are particles, light waves and antiparticles. Particles move forward in time; antiparticles move backward in time. Light waves don't move in time - they freeze the present. When a particle meets another corresponding antiparticle, they annihilate each other explosively, and that becomes light. So, light is a result of pair annihilation; knowledge is a result of the union of past and future in the present. The nature of present is bliss. Buddhist philosophy says - eliminate desires, which are anticipations based on duality, you will eliminate misery. In the present lies realization; if you move away from it either by remembering or by planning, you have lost irretrievably the contact with the purity of the present moment, the utter bliss of the present moment, the nirvana of the present moment. Come to think of it, there is no past, there is no future. There is only present, a moving present, an infinitesimal moment of time which contains all of the infinite time in it. There is no time away from the present! Târâ is the pashyantî sound, which overlaps madhyamâ in frequency. The power of manifest sound is bridge to God within the human system. The power of sound is called Om. The word syllable Om is only imitating the sound within. It is only a symbol. What the symbol points to is an unbroken sound which is heard inside, which resembles Om. The external symbol has a beginning and an end. Not so for the inner sound. It is there always. That is Târâ. That Târâ pointed to by the symbol Om, has many forms. One form is called Nîlâ - She is called the dark one, Tâmasî. Here the darkness refers to unheardness, unmanifestness, unclearness. The same applies to the Tâmas of Rudrâ, the God of unmanifest. This Târâ is the most pious of the pious. Because Om is the unusual name of Îshwarâ. Patânjalî has said - Om points to Îshwarâ. One who has not heard the Om within, has no use for any mantrâ. Even the Vedâs say - what will any one do with the song (of the Vedâ) if one has not heard the Om within? This Om enters all sounds and makes them come alive individually. However, there is a difference in the ability of different sounds to convey the Om. Among the sounds, vowels carry Om best. Even there, Vedâs contain the quality of sound best. If one ignores the barrage of consonants and listens to the vowel sounds of the Vedic mantras, the pleasing nature of Om will become evident. That is why it is important to protect the sound of the mantrâ. When mantrâs are translated, the purpose is only to bring out the hidden meanings - the coded meanings of the mantrâ. But such translations cannot be used for japa, because the sound Om is not brought out clearly in the translation. What then is a mantrâ? When sages sit meditating, that is listening to the sound of Om in their heart - throat - head centers, out of the ocean of the Om, waves called mantrâs arise, and are heard or seen in meditation. That is why each mantrâ has a seer - the rishî who happened to see or hear the mantrâ in his meditation. These mantrâs are natural flow of sound waves, controlling a manifestation of Omkârâ. If one meditates on Om, that is Târâ or Saraswatî, She gives mantrâs. If one meditates on these mantrâs, one gets communications of knowledge from that wave. All such communications form the content of the mantrâ. These mantrâs arise spontaneously, without effort in meditation - it is a by product. There must have been no effort at all in designing the mantrâ. A mantrâ is not designed; it is complete and arises by itself. What is designed with effort is ordinary language constructs which cannot convey Om so clearly. A limited intellect has no capacity to design a mantrâ. Though all elements are available, a sculptor cannot build a living being. A mantrâ is a living sound. It has life in it. Only unlimited intellect of God can foresee and build life out of a genetic code. The mantrâ is the genetic code of the deity. By repetition of the genetic code, Man is made. By repetition of mantrâ a God or Goddess is made. That is why mantrâ manifests God by repetition. When mantrâ starts flowing, it can become joy, peace, power, dance, art, poetry, prose, vedâs, purânâs, Agamâs, nigamâs, etc. Among these several manifestations, some are true and some are untrue; the mostly true and accurate picture of Godliness is contained in Vedâs - called the Trayi Vidyâ - they contain the highest light and wisdom. So do the religious texts of all religions. Absolute truth cannot be conveyed in words. So, all words are mappings of the truth, but contain some lie in it by necessity. It is a question of degree of how much truth is there (Here truth is used in the sense of resemblance). Can the idea formed in the reader be same as the idea which prompted the seer or writer? The answer is sadly no, in most cases. Vedâs are direct revelations. So are the revelations of the seers, jnânîs in their dhyânâ. They all have the same validity. They contain the highest degree of resemblance to the reality seen. They are called Shukla, the white, or the manifest Târâ. No untruth should be spoken. Only truth is to be spoken even if it hurts ones own ego to do so. One must study well and remember what is said or taught. This in brief is Shuklâ Upasanâ Study of the Vedâs, Upanishads, Agamâs, Nigamâs provides a worship of Saraswatî, the creative power of Brahman; this is called Shukla Upasanâ. The study of the source of all such revelation, to get the revelations oneself, is called the Nîlâ Upâsanâ. The bliss of speaking out, from the tip of the tongue, is Saraswatî. Saraswatî is raswatî, one who has rasa, or Anand with Sa the Shakti. Saraswatî means the orgasmic union, utter creativity, manifest by detachment, and elimination of the notion of one's own, and another's. Then there is a third form of Upâsanâ of Târâ. It is called Chitrâ. The words spoken by people, ordinary people, contain both lies and truths. Such is Chitrâ - truth and untruth; reality and myth; perception and projection. Seeing Omkarâ, hearing Omkarâ in all such sounds, and not responding and reacting to the pairs of opposites in them constitutes the Upasanâ of Chitrâ. Chitrâ is the Om in other's voices. In abuse and praises in pointless talks and in great epics; in harsh noise and in melodious music; in crying and in singing; the sound must be taken in equally, observing the sound picture. One should not turn away from the unpleasant, one should not seek the pleasant sounds. One should be a detached observer. This is Chitrâ Upâsanâ. All three forms of Târâ can be followed. Jnânîs follow the study of Vedâs, Shastrâs, etc. Yogîs follow the Om in their heart; the common man can simply concentrate on the world of sound around him. Whether singly or by a couple, upâsanâ of Târâ is done by a constant awareness of unmanifest sound within; this is obtained by constantly researching the sound of the mantrâ within, when the unmanifest sound comes to be known. It becomes known by a permissive (anujnâ mudrâ), uncensoring mood. Having tasted union with God, all other pleasures pale in comparison. For that reason one must not however spurn the lower nature, but use it intelligently, wisely, to break down the ego barriers and reach Samâdhi.
|