Chidagnikunda Sambhootha

November 5, 2005

Dear Namaarchana Priyas,

Continuing my thread on my translation and my comments on the names of Lalitha Sahasranama Iam posting this after a long time since I finally found some time to type a few lines on Amba Nama. We have seen the first three names in the Lalitha Sahasranama(also long time ago I gave a posting on one name when one member asked me the meaning of "Panchapreta Manchaadishaayini" ...It was this member who asked me to post on all names on my own as he was disgusted with slipshod translations of the names and their commentaries...Thankyou Shree Govindan Avargale for placing faith in a very young man thus.)

The commentary is purely mine and any mistakes are mine and all credits go to my Gurunatha Shree Rajagopala Anandanatha.You might pass your comments on this postings and add some more if you wish to contribute.

Reciting just one name of the Sri Lalitha Sahasranaam destroys all the sins Of a devotee. It is said that the power of just one name in the Lalitha Saharanaam is so much that all the living beings of all the fourteen worlds put together cannot negate its effect by their sins. If one recites Lalitha Sahasranaam by keeping bhasma (ash) in his hands, he can relieve the sufferings of others by smearing their body with this Energized ash! Reciting this sahasranaam by holding a pot of water and then sprinkling the water would remove all bad planetary influences and the presence of ghosts and evil spirits, if any! It is very effective against sorcery also.

The fourth nama is

Chidagnikundasambhutha

If we analyse this thread bare

It comes like this

Chit+Agni+kunda+sambhutha.

Each word in sanskrit when used spiritually or even otherwise has vishesha artha.(special meaning).Sanskrit being a Devabhasha does not use meaningless and redundant words.

In this nama many miss the word "kunda" and explain it away!

Chit=Consciousness,the divine spark which contains the consciousness to be more precise.

Many Sanskrit words are unfortunately untranslatable into English because of many Arthas to one word.

Agni=Sacred fire emnating from divinity.

Kunda=pit,bowl,urn,pot

Sambhutha=one who emnated,joined and attached to the charecteristic of the element,elemental attachment.

Many people understand it to mean Rajarajeshwari Devi who emnated from the penance and sacrificial fire of Rishis,Trinity and other Gods and Goddesses when specially prayed for loka kalyana and destruction of a demon.

This can be estorically extrapolated as to mean

The kunda-urn inside our body at the Muladhara and who comes out from that as Purnapragnaachaitanya('fully knowledgable brightness') though attached elementally to the Muladharic roots.

Rajarajeshwari is called "Chidroopini" When the word 'chit' in Sanskrit when conjoined with any other word will take the sound "Chid"...so thus she is Chit-roopini. One who is a manifestation of the consciousness inherent in all of us.

In the fourhundred and sixteenth nama of the sahasranama She is called "Chidshakthi"

She is thus called because She has emnated(udbhavabharita) from the sacred sacrificial pit of pure consciousness.

Many mistakenly think that only Sthulashareera is Jadanimitta(Inanimate).Little do they know that even Sookshma Shareera(Subtle body) comprising of the mind and a physical etheric form is also Jadanimitta.

The two shareeras alongwith Karanashareera(Causal body) form the mind-body-karma triadic complex.

This Jada-shareera thus bears no shakthi.When Devi Rajarajeshwari Lalitha Mahatripurasundari emerges from the "chit" then this triadic complex is vivified and the "prana shakthi" is endowed.

It is because of this that we think on our very thinking. No other animal can do that.It can at best think but can it think on how it thinks? This supra-cognitive ability is predominant only in the homosapien race. This is a blessing of Matha Rajarajeshwari as She gives the shakthi to make us feel happy or sad.Everything is an eternal play enacted by Her and strung by Her mental chords.

Now the question how She emnates as the Chit-shakti can be dealt with through an understanding of Kundalini Shakthi.

The human 4 body system has three main naadis apart from the 70000 other naadis.

They are shushumna,Ida and pingala Naadi.

Rajarajeshwari is known as "Shushoomna Pravahita Devi" One who goes in the flow of Shushumna. This then is the route of Devi as the chit shakthi in us.

Kunda has a visheshaartha as the 'sacrificial pit' why the word sacrifice? This has been misinterpreted by many to mean animal sacrifice.It means the sacrifice of the animal inside you. This is what Rajarajeshwari finally expects be it a Dkashinaachari or a Vamachaari.

The sacrifice occurs in the Mooladharic pit.

Now this gives rise to another question. Why is Mooldhara called a pit? Why not a chakra? Mooladhara is a chakra. Chakra has another 'artha' called nerve endings. And the nerves bind people down to the lower strata. They pull a person down with happiness or sadness. Many say Iam elevated in happiness. No one is pulled down. Only Bliss elevates one from the ground.

Muladhara is thus the ground beneath Her Lotus feet.

This parinirvanic thought is enunciated by this Fourth name.

When the animal instincts in us are flailed by our 'Guru' and by Sadhanic assays then the pure consciousness is a Chitkala sambhutham. Like a water drop on the lotus petal.

Mantak Chia

In my Taoistic Learning days I used to attend advanced Taositic classes with one source etherically.That source(as also propogated by the great Tao Master Mantak Chia nowadays) used to enlighten me with some concepts of a burning urn in the muladhar region and how to suck the energy to the brain and circulate. It is something similar to the microcosmic orbit meditation of Mantak Chia.

Lao Tsu

I was surprised at the similarities of the Tamil Siddha meditation and Taoism and a little reserach by me into Naadi granthas in Chennai and Vaitheeshwaram region proved to be an eye opener to me. I was pleasantly surprised personally when I discovered that Bhogar Siddha of Tamilnadu during Dwaparayuga went to China and meditated and also he assumed the chinese form as Lao Tsu.

Even Lalitha Sahasranama is due to another Tamil Siddha raja. Agasthya Rishi! Jaya Agasthya rishi. Jaya Lopamudra Matha!

Thus the sacrificial pit forms an underlying siddha concept.

Ordinary chakras and Turiyateetha Chakras known to Siddhas-Diagram

There is even one ghumbha(hiughly secretive practice) of the siddhas were they actually imagine a burning urn in their mooladhara and try to raise up the devi from their. Apparently their female shakthi. Thus,the siddhas remain perfectly celibate because their shakthi is unionized internally and they do not need to seek an external form.

These are high concepts best left undiscussed.

Many these days do some minor Kundalini Sadhana and say they have seen the chidagni in Mooladhara.Let me tell you authoritatively with my own personal experience that

It is the brightness of Koti suryas(10 million suns!).Unless one Hs Deviraksha one cannot come out of the experience of seeing it unscathed.Please do not major in minro things!

Devi thus has come about from this blinding brightness of 1 crore suns.

This can be estorically extrapolated that...enlightenment comes on it's own with the sacrifice of animal insticts in the down pit of the sucking earth(adhara) with the elemental sambhutha.

Chichshakthi Parameshwarasya Vimalaa Chaitanya me vochyathe!

Chit-Shakti is Parameshwara's(God Almighty's Masculine form) Parishuddha Tatwa. The Brahman is Parameshwara.

Agni Magra Gaaminam!

It is said that Fire was the first to be in the order of things created by God. This bears a correlation with the Bible-Genesis which says that God said "Let there be light" and "There was light"."Let there be light" is one of the most well-known verses of The Bible, but it was actually proclaimed by God twice - the first time, as quoted above, at the Creation that gave physical light on the world; the second time when He sent His Son Jesus Christ to give spiritual light on the world.

Here the biblical phrase first written in Aramic(the language spoken by Jesus not Hebrew as many think) epitomises this nama"Chidagni kunda sambhutha".

When I was reading the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Lost teachings of Jesus Christ.I was surprised to find that he had a deep connection with fire worship both internally and externally. He had infact poured violet fire(agni deeksha) onto one ascended master.His guru was Chetana Natha of Himalayas.

Agni thus becomes a Upasaneeya -Saguna- Brahman for many religions.

Maheshwara Shakthi Mayaa Paathenaathyanthaabhutena Praadurbhootham Kila-Kena Chidroopa Visheshena!

Chidshakthi which has under it's control Maya has resorted to it's grace and gave birth to Rajarajeshwari devi. Ultimately even Devi is a Maya and Guru takes the aspirant beyond this final beatific form to the beyond.

One episode in Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's life bears testimony to this.

Totapuri was a yogi who came to the master's prescene guided by Paradevata Bhavadharini who thought that this Master too needed a Guru.

Totapuri asked Ramakrishna to withdraw the mind completely from all objects and dive into the Atman. This he was used to doing to have ecstatic communion with the Divine Mother. But when he tried to go to a still higher plane, there She always was, blocking his way to a vision of the formless absolute by presenting Her own charming form to his sight. Totapuri pressed a pointed piece of glass between his eyebrows and told him to concentrate all his energies at that point. Sri Ramakrishna once again concentrated intensely, and when the vision of the Mother appeared before him, he used his discrimination as a sword to severe the image in two and soared into the heights of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Totapuri closed the doors and left him in that state and to his utter amazement, he remained rigid and lost to the outer world for three days. At the end, in disbelief, Totapuri reentered and slowly began to bring his disciple back into waking

consciousness by chanting a sacred mantra - Hari OM. He was astonished that Ramakrishna had attained in one day what it had taken him forty strenuous years to accomplish!

Brahman is the only Reality, ever pure, ever illumined, ever free, beyond the limits of time, space and causation. Though apparently divided by names and forms through the inscrutable agency of Maya (illusion), that enchantress which makes the impossible possible, Brahman is really one and undivided. When a seeker is merged in the beatitude of Samadhi, he does not perceive time and space or name and form - the production of Maya. Whatever is within the domain of Maya is unreal; give it up. Dive deep in the search for Self and be firmly established in It through Samadhi. You will then find the world of name and form vanishing into nothing, and this puny ego merging into cosmic consciousness,the pure consciousness-the chidagnichaitanya.

Apart from these esoteric meanings. There is actually a practice beyond kevala Khumbhaka where a 'mind fire' is created and then this is worshipped as the adya shakthi inside the sadhaka and then the kundalini shakthi begins to associate with the fire. This too then forms what is called Chidagni.

The prerana(inspiration) should be kindled by Devi However in the form of Guru.

Also "kunda" here means "Maya"(illusion) which tries to hold like a pot.This pot has to break(every pot has to break one day!).This kunda is Mayasanketa!The Deviform is thus Karacharana Maayabadhha but the spark inside Her form is eternal and divine.This is unspoken and has to be experienced.

The silence of this unspoken word is my refuge.Then again, there is no place in this world to call a refuge anymore.so you might as well break into mine!

May the Empress-Goddess rise majestically from our heart fire!

Eshwaree Rakshathu!

Yours yogically,

Shreeram Balijepalli