Vakyapadiya 1.142, agama stanzas

May 8, 2008

In the vritti commentary on 1.142, a quotation is made of some agama

stanzas, including four of them which rather summarize Bhartrihari's

distinction of levels in the expression of language. The quotation

here is evidently from some more ancient text that is regarded as

authoritative.

I find these four stanzas helpful, in part to show how Bhartrihari's

three-fold analysis of speech levels is related to a fourfold

analysis that is found elswhere in the Indian tradition. So a free

translation of each stanza is presented below, with a further

reflection upon how it might be interpreted today.

For original Sanskrit and translation method of each stanza, see:

http://www.advaitin.net/Ananda/VakyapadiyaExcerpts.pdf

1. Elaborated structure (vaikhari)

-

Arranged in their respective places,

different elements of speech

are carried, spoken, in the air.

That forms elaborated speech.

It's a recording, carried out

through acts of living energy

that functions forth from those who speak.

This first stanza describes 'vaikhari vak' or 'elaborated speech'.

The elaboration takes place through an articulation of spoken

elements (phonemes, syllables etc.), which are carried in 'vayu'

or 'air'.

However, that 'air' is not just physical. As 'vayu', it is the fourth

of five cosmic elements, in our experience of the physical and

mental world. It is the 'atmospheric' element of qualitative

conditioning: which can be 'felt, but not seen'. It conditions space

and time, with a pervading climate of influencing qualities that are

intuitively felt, through inner judgement and evaluation. These

qualities are not seen as gross objects, through outward sense and

intellect. Instead, they are more subtly felt, as their conditioning

surrounds and pervades the grosser objects of the world. It is

through this climate, of physical and mental conditioning, that

speech gets articulated, into complex structures.

Moreover, as words are spoken, they express a living meaning, in the

structures that they form. This expression is conceived through the

Sanskrit word 'prana'. Mechanically, the word is associated with the

flow of breath in our bodies. As air is breathed, in and out, it

refreshes our living functions. And it gets vibrated from within,

producing sounds that show a living consciousness, expressed in

various changing forms and names and qualities of speech. Prana is

the energy of this expression. It is not a mechanical energy that

acts from one object to another. Instead, it is a living energy that

rises up from consciousness, which it expresses in the flow of

meaningful activity.

Like the energy of modern physics, prana acts through subtle

vibrations in the conditioning of space and time; and objects are

thus interconnected patterns of its dynamic activity. But prana is an

energy that's understood biologically, through considerations of

living purpose, meaning and value that are specifically excluded from

modern physics. Where modern physics is applied externally, through

calculation and engineering, the living energy of prana is

investigated reflectively, through education and intensive discipline.

As words express their meaning, they record a knowledge that

continues from the past. This 'recording' is called 'nibandhana'.

Literally, it means 'tying back' or 'tying down'. 'Nibandhana' is

what ties words to the concrete meaning that supports them. It is the

grounding of words, in the underlying knowledge that they record.

Here, it is not conceived that a passing knowledge is made to last,

by tying it down to material records like written documents. In fact,

the conception is just the opposite. Where knowledge is genuine, it

is inherently alive and unchanging, in itself. Material records are

inherently dead and decaying. They come to life only when their

meaning is interpreted afresh, by living speakers, on the basis of a

living energy whose functioning grounds words in lasting knowledge.

This is the root meaning of the English word 'record'. The prefix 're-

' means 'back'; and 'cord' comes from the Latin 'cor', which

means 'heart'. Thus, the word 'record' implies a return to heart, and

hence a recalling and a fresh visiting of knowledge that continues in

the heart. Material records are only a degraded and decaying means of

that living recall.

2. Mediating mind (madhyama)

----------------------------

Mind in itself is made of forms

that follow on successively,

replacing what has gone before.

The functioning of living energy

is thereby left behind,

as mediating speech goes on

with its continued functioning.

This second stanza describes 'madhyama vak' or 'mediating speech'.

The mediation takes place through mind, and it is of two kinds.

One kind of mediation is called 'krama' or 'succession'. Here, mind

is a process that takes place in time, mediating between the past and

the future. At each moment of time, a state of mind appears,

replacing previous states. Each state displays a momentary show of

mind, which has been formed by transformation from the past, in a

continuing process of perception, thought and feeling. The mind is

thus a passing stream of apparent forms, each form a momentary

display of the entire process.

But, as these forms succeed each other in our minds, meaning is

expressed in them, through our living functioning. That functioning

is called 'vritti' or 'turning'. It is of course the functioning of

prana's living energy. It functions by turning back and forth:

between the objects mind perceives, and the consciousness that knows

the changing stream of perception in the mind. Here, there is a

revolving cycle: as consciousness is expressed in the mind's

perception of objects, and as each perception is assimilated back

through mind into consciousness again.

By thus going out to perceived objects and then reflecting back

within, the mind keeps mediating between a world of changing things

and a consciousness that carries on beneath. This is another kind of

mediation, which does not stay in passing time. Instead, it

repeatedly returns into a timeless consciousness: which knows all

changes from beneath.

Each time a perception is absorbed into that consciousness, there is

a timeless interval, where mind subsides and disappears. There,

mind's living energy has come to rest. Its time-bound functioning is

left behind, before new states of mind appear. That's how the mind

proceeds from state to state. It keeps going on beyond, to where it

is dissolved, transcending its own time-affected functioning.

3. Seeing in itself (pashyanti)

-------------------------------

But seeing is that partless essence

always present, everywhere.

In it, succession is absorbed.

There's only light in its true nature,

as it is itself, within.

That is a subtle speaking where

no disappearance can be found.

This third stanza describes 'pashyanti' or 'seeing'. That seeing is

not a changing action of body, sense or mind. Instead, it is a

changeless presence, staying present everywhere, through all

experiences. As different appearances succeed each other in our

minds, it is their common principle of consciousness, which witnesses

them all. Its witnessing takes each of them into itself, where all

succession is absorbed.

To describe it in itself, it is called 'svarupa-jyoti' or the 'true

nature of light'. 'Jyoti' means 'light' and 'svarupa' means 'true

nature'. A 'rupa' is an apparent form, modified by changeable

perception. 'Sva-' is a prefix that means 'inherent' or 'one's own'.

So the svarupa of something is its inherent essence, beneath the

changing forms that modify its appearances from different points of

view. When something is known from within, as it is in itself, there

its svarupa is realized. That is not a looking from outside, taking

one of many points of view in the external world. Instead, it is a

knowing in identity. It requires that one stands identical with what

is known.

So, when seeing is described as the svarupa of light, it is a seeing

that knows itself, from within, as self-illuminating light. And it is

realized by reflecting back to it, as one's own knowing self, from

where all mind and world are illuminated.

From there, it speaks unceasingly, as it is expressed through all

experience of the physical and mental world. That speaking is

called 'sukshma vak' or 'subtle speech'. It is too subtle to be heard

through outward faculties of sense and mind, whose attention is

distracted by the noisy clamour of apparent change and its competing

differences. That subtle speaking thus remains unheard and

unperceived, by our outward faculties. From outside, it seems dark

and silent; even though its nature is pure light, which sees

everything and keeps on speaking everywhere.

4. Beyond all differences (para)

--------------------------------

It reaches its conditioned form

by mixing it, with a variety

of differing disturbances

that seem to float on it.

But that, which seems elaborated,

is pure being in itself.

It is untouched, quite unaffected

by its show of qualities.

Here, there is a description of what came to be called 'para'

or 'beyond'. In Bhartrihari's Vakyapadiya and its vritti commentary,

this term 'para' is not used to denote a fourth level of speech.

Bhartrihari says that speech is threefold; and he treats the third

level of pashyanti as ultimate. It's later on in the tradition that

the name 'para' appears, referring to a fourth level. As a result,

there came to be a fourfold division of levels, which was used

extensively, in connection with Shaivite theology. Then, pashyanti

was treated in a slightly degraded way: not as consciousness itself,

but as the silent witnessing through which consciousness illuminates

and inspires the changing world.

In this fourth stanza (quoted from the vritti commentary),

consciousness is described as unconditioned, beyond the conditioned

differences that are superimposed upon it. This superimposition is

called 'viplava'. 'Plava' means 'floating', and the prefix 'vi-'

implies 'distinction' and 'difference'. So viplava is a floating

overlay of difference and disturbing change.

As consciousness appears, it seems thus mixed with a floating

overlay, which confuses our understanding. To correct the confusion,

consciousness must be distinguished from all the changing and

conditioned things that are perceived through mind. When the

distinction is complete, consciousness turns out to be pure being,

completely unaffected by the limited appearances that are

superimposed by partial mind and senses.

That pure being is called 'sattva-matra'. It is the one reality of

everything that's known, throughout the entire universe. Thus, by

distinguishing consciousness as that which knows, it turns out to be

identical with all reality, where all distinctions are dissolved. By

fully separating that which knows from what is known, the duality

between them is completed, and a non-dual unity is realized.

Ananda

May 8, 2008

Pranam!

The mention of word " agama " creates a spiritual thrill.

You have touched a fundamental aspect which helps to understand the cosmic

manifestation. I am reproducing few lines from my article on the subject.

Om Namah Shivaye!

Virendra.

DOCTRINE OF THE FOUR STAGES IN THE MANIFESTATION OF SPEECH.

To understand the manifestation of Maya Shakti from the level of Param Shiva,

it is important to consider the process and stages in the manifestation of

speech. Bharatrhari, the originator of the philosophy of Sanskrit grammer, says

in his Vakyapadiya: " The eternally existent Brahman, being the changeless

essence of speech appears in the form of the phenominal substance out of which

the process of universal existence proceeds " . The concept of SABDABRAHMAN have

been explained in detail in Shaiva Agamas.

Speech is not only the means to convey one's ideas to others, it is also a way

to understand things personally. When we choose to convey ideas to others, we

generally use spoken language, known as VAIKHARI. A finer form of speech that

serves as the medium for thinking and understanding, through which a person

forms definite and indefinite ideas about words and their meanings, is the

mental speech called MADHYAMA. It is an internal reflection of manifestation

of awareness taking the form of ideas. There is a still finer level of speech,

far subtler in character and resides in the inner-most part of our being. It

is called PASYANTI. It is known as the " be-holding speech " because through its

medium enlightened people can behold all objective existence within themselves.

Beyond this is PARAVAC the supreme speech or the transcendental speech. This

consists of pure awareness of the self. It is also called PARAVANI.

This doctrine can also be understood by the example of an artist's creation

from the grossest to the finest level. His tangible creation like a painting

etc. can be VAIKHARI and the images formed mentally, where his creation shines

within him in the form of MADHYAMA. Before even this exists a subtle creative

urge like a stir, or restlessness or inward flutter which is PASYANTI. Finally,

at the most subtle level, the original seed of the artistic creation lies in

the inner most center which is shining as PARAVAC, the Supreme speech.

Ananda Wood <awood wrote: In the vritti commentary on 1.142,

a quotation is made of some agama