Chapter 28 - Mental Worship of Śiva (śivārcana-tattva)

Nandin said:

1-2. The fiery, solar and the lunar^[1] disc shall be thought of within the heart. Above that the trio of the Guṇas and the Atmans shall be conceived. Above it, the devotee shall meditate upon and worship the lord in both the aspects with and without attributes with half his body taken over by his beloved.

3-4. Since there are many objects to think upon, the thinker shall not think of anything except the following. The meditator shall conceive no distinction between the object and the means of meditation; otherwise, (i.e. if he thinks of anything other than these) knowledge does not arise in him.

5-6. The word Puruṣa is derived thus: puri śete (he who lies in the body). He who worships the deity, the object of worship by means of meditation, is known as yajamāna. Dhyeya (the object of meditation) is the lord himself. Dhyāna is the act of thinking. Niruktī (bliss) the fruit of dhyāna. One who knows about this attains the ultimate reality which is the substratum of Pradhāna and Puruṣa.

7-10. Here the supreme lord, the object of meditation, is the twenty-sixth principle,—the meditator (jīva) is the twenty-fifth, the avyakta or pradhāna is the twenty-fourth. The seven principles constitute mahat, ahaṃkāra, and five tanmātras. The organs of action are five, as also the organs of sense; then there is the mind and the five dements. Thus Śiva is the twenty-sixth principle. He alone is the creator and sustainer. He is greater than Brahmā. He has created Brahmā. He is one who is above and greater than the universe, and is the universe itself.

11. Just as children are not born without their parents, so also the three worlds are not born without Śiva and his consort.

Sanatkumāra said:

12-13. If the great lord who is the supreme power and the supreme soul is himself the doer how can he be an agent who causes activity of the individual souls? But the supreme lord has been mentioned by you as eternal, enlightened and unqualitative.^[2] How can he then bestow liberation? If he is without attributes how can he function?

Nandin said:

14 It is Kāla (Time) that evolves everything. Lord Śiva evolves the Kāla always. When the mind devoid of qualities

15-17. The universe appeal's to be existent by his very activity. The eight^[4] forms of the lord represent the empirical universe. Without the five elements—ether, earth, wind, fire and water and without the priest, the sun and the moon, the world has no existence. On consideration, it is evident that the gross world consisting of the mobile and immobile beings is the gross body of Rudra. These eight are the cosmic forms of the lord.

18-19. O excellent brahmins the sages declare that the subtle body of the lord is inexpressible. (The Vedas declare) “From him the words recede after failing to reach him along with the mind. He who realizes the bliss of the Brahman eschews fear from any quarter”.^[5] Hence, after realizing the bliss of the pināka-bearing lord, no one need be afraid.

20. After perceiving through their imagination that the elegances^[6] of Rudra are present everywhere, the sages who perceive the truth say, “Everything is Rudra.”

21-22. By making incessant obeisance to Brahmā one’s prestige is increased. All this is Brahman; everything is lord Rudra. Puruṣa is the great lord; Śiva is the supreme lord. Thus the lord has been specified. Meditation is the sole thought about him.

23. O sage of good, holy rites, he should be thought upon in fourfold^[7] manner and perceived. He, the cause of worldly existence, is the world itself He is the cause of liberation. He is the greatest ecstasy.

24-27. The four-arrayed path is prescribed for a practising yogin. Thought is counted as manifold. If it is centred in one place it is called Suniṣṭhā;^[8] if centred in Rudra it is called Raudrī; if centred in Indra Aindrī; if in Soma Saumyā; if in Nārāyaṇa or in the sun or in the fire it is called after those names. If the devotee fixes in his mind in both ways that he is I and I am he that thought is called Brāhmī. O brahmins, thus should a devotee think of this universe—both mobile and immobile—as identical with Brahman.

28-29. Keeping the goal in his mind, the devotee shall eschew the thought of division between the mobile and immobile,^[9] as also between what should be eschewed and what should not be eschewed, as also between what is possible and what is not possible of achievement and what should be done and what should not be done. Me shall also remain satiated and contented. Such a man’s contemplation is the real one pertaining to Brahman and not otherwise. Thus in due order the mental worship of the lord has been recounted.

30-33. Those who carry out this son of mental worship should also be adored by means of obeisance, etc. Even if they are hideous and deformed, these expounders of Brahman should not be censured. They should not be subjected to scrutiny by a discerning person. Those who censure them are narrowminded persons who will become miserably unhappy as those sages of old who censured the lord in the Dārukā forest. The knowers of the Brahman who are beyond the bounds of castes and stages of life should always be served and bowed to by the persons devoted to the rigid discipline of castes and stages of life.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

amṛta [amṛtam]—somaṃ candrarūpam Śivatoṣiṇī, lunar orb.

[2]:

niṣkala [niṣkalaḥ]—devoid of attributes, hence passive or inactive, but who imparts impetus to Time—Kāla who creates the universe—[kalayati |] is set on lord Śiva, lord Śiva reveals His true, attributeless nature.¹⁸³

[3]:

The mind too when stabilized by concentration becomes inactive (niṣkriya) as this helps in the emancipation of jīva. Cf. Śivatoṣiṇī.:—[mana eva manuṣyāṇāṃ kāraṇaṃ bandhamokṣayoḥ | guṇeṣu saktaṃ bandhāya mokṣāya tapasi sthitam ||]—But, as a matter of fact, the terms—bondage and release are illusory and so arc creation and dissolution. Cf. Pañcadaśī as quoted in Śivatoṣiṇī:—[na nirodho na cotpattirna baddho na ca sādhakaḥ | na mumukṣurna vai mukta ityeṣā paramārthatā ||] VI.35.

[4]:

The eight forms of lord Śiva constitute the five gross material elements, the soul, the sun and the moon. Each stands in relation to its constituent as follows: (i) Śarva—earth (ii) Bhava—water, (iii) Rudra—fire, (iv) Ugra—wind, (v) Bhīma—ether, (vi) Paśupati—soul, (vii) Īśāna—sun, and (viii) Mahādeva—moon.

[5]:

Cf. Taittirīya Āraṇyaka. 8.4.1. Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.41, 9.1. Brahman is here identical with Śiva.

[6]:

Rudrasya vibhūtayaḥ. The vibhuties of Rudra comprise ṛta, satya etc. Cf. ṛtaṃ satyam param brahma, quoted in Śivatoṣiṇī.

[7]:

caturvyūha: Four vyūhas constitute prāṇa, manas, vijñāna and ānanda and exclude the gross annamaya kośa. Śivatoṣiṇī. offers an alternative explanation:—[yad vā dhyeya-dhyāna-yajamāna-prayojanarūpaiḥ caturvyūhaiḥ].—But according to Liṅga purāṇa, the caturvyūha consists of (I) existence (saṃsāra), cause of existence (saṃsārahetu), cause of emancipation (mokṣahetu) and emancipation (nirvṛti).

[8]:

suniṣṭhā—knowledge pertaining to Rudra (raudrī cintā) that releases jīva from the so-called bondage of birth and death.

[9]:

carācara-vibhāga [vibhāgam]—Jagadbrahmarūpa [Jagadbrahmarūpam] Śivatoṣiṇī.—distinction between Brahma and the mundane world.