THE FUNDAMENTAL GOAL for the Saivite, as for adherents of many other Hindu systems of thought, is to attain mok$a (“final liberation”), the highest state of being that can be achieved by the human soul. For Śaiva philoso phy, the central drama of the cosmos is that of the human soul, immersed in a state of bondage, moving gradually toward moksa through diva’s grace. All else revolves around this. The entire oscillating universe, say the texts, is emitted and reabsorbed just to facilitate the soul’s progress toward libera tion. All of diva’s five fundamental activities are oriented to enabling the soul to attain liberation. As Mrgendragama asserts, “the soul is the reason for everything” (MrA vidya 6.7).
The Śaivas define moksa precisely as the process or event by which the soul is released from its bondage and becomes a Siva. When one attains liberation, they say, the soul becomes completely equal to Siva. It acquires a form identical to that of Siva. A liberated soul does not merge into the divinity or become united with him, as some other systems of Hindu philos
ophy assert. Nor does it enter again into the manifest cosmos. Rather, it remains as an autonomous theomorphic entity, separate from Siva but with all his powers and qualities. In this sense, the end point of the soul’s “ca
reer,” its final and most desirable destination, is to become a Siva. In the preceding chapter, I described how the worshiper “becomes a Siva” within the ritual setting. The transformation that the ritualist performs on his own body, reconstituting it as a “divine body” by means of atmasuddhi, is a crucial part of daily worship. This “purification” is necessary to render the worshiper fit for performing services to Siva, since “only a Siva can worship Siva.” In this chapter I relocate the bodily transformation that the ritualist performs daily in his worship in a broader soteriological framework, that of the soul’s ultimate attainment of mok$a.
This chapter is an account of the human soul’s religious passage from its beginning condition of bondage to the attainment of liberation, and of the crucial role ritual action plays in this passage. Rituals such as initiation and daily worship have significant effects on the person who performs them, effects that contribute critically to the liberation of his soul. In fact, the performance of these rituals, according to Śaiva soteriology, is the most direct means for the soul to gain liberation. At the same time, I will argue, the worshiper enacts the movement to mok$a within these rituals. Becoming a Siva temporarily in daily worship is identical in form to becoming a Siva permanently through final liberation.84 · Chapter Three
THE CAREER OF A SOUL
The normal human condition is not, in the view of the Śaivas, a happy one. While Siva is teaching them the Kamikagama, the sages interrupt his dis course to state their opinion of worldly life: " Ό Lord, in this world living creatures have weak natures and short lives; they are filled with greed, delu sion, conceit, passion, and hostility’" (KA 3.12-13). This pessimistic ob servation provides a starting place for an inquiry into the ultimate source of and cure for the predicament in which most humans find themselves. If these most eminent sages complain of their lot, how much more so should the rest of us, living our lives outside Siva’s grace.
Bondage and Liberation
Śaiva texts describe the normal human condition as a state of bondage (bandhatva). A human being is categorized as a pasu, a term used to desig nate the transmigrating soul (dtman) in the condition of bondage.
It is important to remember that the subject of bondage here is the soul, not the empirical human “person.” Śaiva philosophy maintains a sharp onto logical distinction between the soul and the other constituents that combine with the soul to make up the person. The soul is the nonmaterial locus of a person; it possesses consciousness (cit), which is the animating spirit of every living entity. The material body, the organs of perception and action, the ego, and the faculties of cognition and decision are considered inani
mate substances (jada), requiring some animating force to act upon them. The animate soul inhabits an inanimate body and with its powers of con sciousness directs all bodily activities. The soul is bound; all other constitu
ents of the person are forms of bondage acting upon the soul. This state of bondage, though it is the only human situation most of us know, is not inevitable. To speak of bondage implies at least the possibility of freedom. In fact, say the texts, the inherent condition of the soul is far different from the plight in which we normally see it. The soul in its innate form (svariipa) is like Siva himself; it is characterized by sivatva (“Siva ness”). Like Siva, each individual soul is endowed with consciousness, the animating energy that distinguishes it from all that is inanimate. By virtue of its consciousness the soul has vast powers of knowing and acting, amounting to omniscience and omnipotence (sarvajMnakriyaiakti). The soul is inherently pervading (vyapaka), eternal (nitya), and autonomous (svatantrya). These characteristics make the soul fully equal to Siva—or would make it so, that is, if not for the interference of the fetters. From its very beginning, the human soul has been tethered by the snares of bondage, which overcome its inherent powers.
Because the condition of bondage is not intrinsic to the human soul, but is imposed on it by extrinsic fetters, it is possible for the soul to gain libera-
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tion from its predicament. The soul itself cannot be altered, since it is im mutable. Nor would one wish to change it, since it is inherently like Siva. Liberating the soul is a matter of transforming its condition or situation, not its essence. To do so, one must uncover the soul’s immanent Siva-ness by eliminating all the fetters that cover it.1
Accordingly, Śaivas portray the passage from bondage to liberation in terms of removal and emergence: removal of that which suppresses the soul, and emergence of its immanent but concealed qualities. The fetters must first be removed (apanita) or eliminated (nivrtta); their hold over the soul must be loosened (vislisfa) or severed (chinna). Fetters are tenacious, but ulti mately they can be eliminated. When the soul has been extricated from its fetters, its own inherent qualities are able to emerge (vyakti). “As soon as the bondage caused by fetters such as ignorance ceases,” comments NarayanakanJha, “the Sivatva of the soul becomes manifest” {MrAVvidya 6.7). The two events are linked: removing the fetters enables the soul’s intrinsic powers to emerge, just as the elimination of a disease allows the body to recover its normal capabilities.
The category of moksa as an end point to the religious striving of the human soul is of course common to most schools of Indian philosophy. But, as Narayanakantha avers, the Śaiva conception of moksa as attainment of Siva ness differs conspicuously from the “so-called liberations” of other schools, which may consist of a reabsorption of the soul into Brahman, as Advaita Vedantins claim, or the discrimination of prakrti and puru$a, as the Samkhya school contends (MrAV vidya 2.29). Even among the Śaiva schools that ac
cept equality with Siva as the highest goal, the Śaiva siddhanta position is distinct from others in postulating an inherent Siva-ness that is recovered at the moment of liberation. Sivagrayogin terms this model of attaining libera tion “equality through manifestation” (vyakti). Among other Śaiva schools, he tells us, the Mahavratins hold that the soul’s equality with Siva comes
about through an origination (utpatti) at the time of liberation, the PaSupatas view this equality as arising through a transfer (samkranti) from Siva, and the Kapalikas argue that it occurs through possession (samdvesa) of the soul by Siva (SPbh pp. 341-43).
For Śaiva siddhanta, the long-term career of a soul consists in its gradual movement from a state of bondage, enmeshed in a multitude of fetters, to one of liberation. A movement in the opposite direction, deeper into bond age, is of course possible, but is not much discussed by Śaiva texts. They assume that no right-thinking person would consciously pursue such a course. In liberation a double transformation of the soul’s condition takes place: the fetters that constrain it are completely eliminated, and its inherent “Siva-ness” fully emerges. This alteration constitutes “becoming a Siva” in the broadest sense. Achieving final liberation means, precisely, that the soul leaves behind its previous bondage and attains a permanent state parallel to that of Siva.
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Fetters and Their Ripening
Clearly fetters and their removal are the crux of the matter of liberation. Any progress on the path to mok$a must involve elimination of these binding forces.
According to Śaiva siddhanta, the human soul is bound by three primary categories of fetters: mala, karman, and maya? The Śaivas understand these three as distinct realities, each with its own individual effects on the soul and its own characteristic pattern of evolution or “transformation” (parinama).3
Of the three fetters, the most ubiquitous and tenacious is mala, primordial stain. Mala, identified with constraint and obscuration, is the fetter most responsible for suppressing the soul’s capacities. Synonyms for mala in clude “darkness,” “stupor,” “covering,” “debility,” and “night”—indicating its general quality as a dark, oppressive fetter (MrA vidya 7.7). Arising con currently with the soul, mala is the first fetter to adhere to it and the last to leave. In Bhojadeva’s analogy, mala sticks to the soul from the soul’s in ception as a husk develops simultaneously with a grain of rice, and as tar nish with a copper pot. However, comments AghoraSiva1 just as the husk is broken off when the grain within has matured, and the tarnish may be wiped off a pot using chemicals, so mala can be removed from the soul through ripening and initiation (TPV 18).
Mala evolves through a process of “ripening” (paka). The term paka in common usage signifies processes in which the qualities of substances are modified due to some “heating” agency external to that which is modified: cooking, digesting of food, baking of bricks, ripening of fruits. Most often this results in a softening or loosening of the substance heated, as with boiled rice or ripened bananas. The texts do not specify exactly what is meant by the ripening of mala, but paka does denote a process by which mala’s grasp on the soul is gradually loosened or weakened (ksina).4
Among worldly beings, conditions of superiority and inferiority are recognized as [indexes of] their mala. Just like rice that is first raw then cooked, so too mala may be either raw or cooked, depending on the action of samsara. When mala is raw, a man is inferior; when it is cooked, he is to that degree superior. (SPur 1.31.71-72)
As mala ripens, its suppression of the soul’s powers softens. The term used for the second fetter, karman, means “action,” though in philosophical usage it covers a still broader field. Along with many other schools of Indian thought, the Śaivas accept an extended concept of causal ity. Every action undertaken by a person engenders a consequence. The causal relationship between act and result is not simply physical, but moral as well. A meritorious act gives rise to some beneficial result that sooner or
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later accrues to the person; conversely, a wicked act produces subsequent pain. The consequence may ensue immediately or only after several life times of lying dormant, but it is certain to occur eventually. Action and consequence are linked together in a beginningless “stream” (pravdha), as
seed and shoot successively and inevitably engender one another. For Śaivas, each action is connected to its results by a substantive “resi due” of the action, which adheres to the actor until it produces its conse quence. These residues, called bhogyakarman (“actions whose conse quences are still to be experienced”), are responsible for binding the soul. In Śaiva philosophy, the term karman denotes these residues as well as the actions that produce them. The unfulfilled residues of past actions, whether good or evil, constitute a fetter for the soul precisely because their results have not yet been experienced.
Karman is transformed only when one experiences or “consumes” Cbhoga) the “fruits” (phala) of past acts. The term bhoga, used generally for eating food or enjoying pleasurable things, here refers to consuming the fruit that is bhogyakarman. When the soul experiences the consequences of a past action, the residue is eliminated. Without that experience, however, the inert residue remains attached to the soul indefinitely. Unconsumed kar
man transmigrates from one body to the next along with the soul, awaiting fruition. “Karman that is not consumed,” says AghoraSiva, “does not di minish even in a hundred crore of eons” (TPV 36).
The Śaivas (as do other schools of thought) further distinguish three basic types of karman, according to the time of its genesis and its consumption.5 Most immediate in its effects is prdrabdhakarman,“active karman.” Prd rabdhakarman designates that portion of a soul’s previously acquired kar man that has brought about its present embodiment and is destined to be consumed during its present lifetime. The karman of this lifetime is already activated, literally “karman whose effects have already begun.” Less imme diate is sancitakarman, “accumulated karman.” This denotes the soul’s en tire collection of karman whose effects have not yet begun to manifest themselves. For most souls, sancitakarman constitutes an enormous stock pile that will furnish the prdrabdhakarman for many lifetimes to come. The third category of karman is termed dgamin, “future karman.” Agamin des ignates karman that has not yet formed, and that is not yet a fetter, because the action causing it has not yet taken place. The soul will acquire dgamin in the future due to its future actions. Śaivas employ this threefold classi fication of karman extensively in discussing the efficacy of rituals that con tribute to liberation.
Śaiva siddhanta defines mdyd, the third fetter, as the source-substance or “seed” (Jbija) of the entire manifest cosmos. Narayanakantha defines mdyd on the basis of its putative morphemes: “Since the entire world is contained (mdti) there during reabsorption through powers, and it proceeds (ydti) into
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manifestation from there during emission, it is called ma-ya” (MrAV vidya 2.7). Maya, according to the Śaivas, is real and substantive (vastuta), not illusory or ephemeral as some other schools contend. The recurring emis sions from and reabsorptions into maya produce the oscillating universe, as we saw in the previous chapter. Properly speaking, undifferentiated maya does not itself act as a fetter; rather, it is the thirty-one tattvas derived from maya that truly bind the soul. When these derivative tattvas are emitted and enter into combination with each other, they bring about the bodies that souls inhabit and the worlds in which they live. These /mxya-constructed bodies and worlds, in turn, provide the structures within which human pafus experience their bondage.
Caught up in the complicated fabric of creation, souls are easily led away from their own best interests. Even though real, maya is nevertheless “de luding” (mohika) because it (or rather, its derivatives) leads the soul to false ideas, such as considering something impermanent to be permanent, or mis takenly identifying something separate from the soul as integral to the soul (TPV 39). These erroneous beliefs provide the basis for further misguided actions, causing the soul to accumulate still more karman. Maya itself is transformed through the cyclical process of emission, preservation, and re absorption. The delusion generated by maya must be dispelled by correct knowledge, specifically the sivajnana contained in the agamas.
The transformative processes of the three fetters are closely linked to one another. The existence of karman is a precondition for the emission and reabsorption of maya. If karman does not exist, no evolution of maya will occur. The transformation of karman through consumption, in turn, de
pends on the emission of maya. In order for the soul to consume its karman, some means of experience must be present. Emission of the tattvas derived from maya facilitates the consumption of karman by producing the bodies and worlds through which experience takes place. The entire manifest cos
mos, says Narayanakantha, is emitted just in order that souls can complete the consumption of their karman (MrAV vidya 6.1).
Similarly, the existence of mala is the precondition for karman. Mthout mala there can be no karman. The ripening of mala, in turn, depends on the consumption of karman. Although the Saivite texts do not spell out the dy namics of this relationship, they clearly suggest that the soul’s consumption of karman induces a ripening of its mala. “During the time of preservation,” says Aghora£iva, “Siva causes the consumption of some ripened karman, in order to ripen mala” (TTNV 19). The transformation of karman, that is, brings about a change in mala as well.
In this way, the three fetters develop in a connected series. Through the recurring emissions and reabsorptions of the manifest cosmos out of and back into maya, the soul is able to consume its karman. The consumption of its karman causes the soul’s mala to ripen. This linked process of evolution
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does not itself eliminate the fetters. However, it does cause a gradual soften ing or loosening of the fetters’ grip, which prepares the soul for subsequent steps in the movement toward liberation.
The ultimate agent in this process of fetter transformation is Siva himself. The two most important of diva’s five fundamental activities, concealment (JirobMva) and grace (anugraha), are precisely directed toward the rela tionship between the human soul and its fetters. Siva sets the fetters in mo tion using his power of concealment. His instigation of the fetters, causing each to perform its proper role in the scheme of things, acts as a suppressing power (rodhasakti) on the souls. Through their actions, the fetters conceal from the soul its own intrinsic qualities.
At first glance this might seem a remarkably pernicious act for a god the Śaivas characterize as “giver of all grace.” Yet in the long run Siva’s con cealment is a form of grace to the soul, since it brings about the evolution of the fetters. Without evolving, fetters could never be removed. Thus, what might initially appear as an activity detrimental to the soul’s welfare turns out to be highly beneficial, in fact necessary to liberation. In Mfgen dragama, Siva’s use of concealment is compared to the doctor’s use of un palatable medicine: “A doctor, even though he causes the patient much pain by administering bitter medicines and the like, is not considered to be the cause of pain because, in the end, he brings about the desired result” (MrA vidya 7.18). So Siva’s animation of the fetters, which initially causes the soul to suffer through many births and deaths, ultimately paves the way toward liberation.
LIBERATION THROUGH INITIATION
The soul need not be simply passive in this process of evolving fetters. It may act to alleviate its own state of bondage. Attending temple services, listening to the teachings of one’s preceptor, and observing proper everyday conduct are signs that one’s fetters have ripened, and they also contribute significantly to further ripening. As fetters ripen, too, the soul becomes ca
pable of exercising increasing agency in extricating itself from its predica ment, performing and undergoing increasingly efficacious ritual actions. Fi nally the process of ripening may lead to the most important moment in the career of a soul: initiation.
Śaivas consider the ritual known as “liberating initiation” (nirvanadiksa) to be the pivotal event in the soul’s movement toward liberation, the ritual through which the most far-reaching alterations in its condition take place. Through initiation, the religious aspirant is placed on the only direct route to achieving liberation during this lifetime. Without initiation, liberation cannot be reached. “Initiation alone liberates one from the extensive bond
age impeding the highest goal and leads one upward to Siva’s abode” (SvaA
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quoted in SRS 69). Initiation is Siva’s most direct conferring of grace on the human soul. In fact, so closely are the ritual of liberation and Siva’s grace associated with one another that Śaiva texts use the two terms dlksd and anugraha as synonyms.
The Fall of Sakti
Initiation cannot be conferred on all persons. For initiation to accomplish its far-reaching effects, the subject of the ritual must be ready for it. If his fetters have not evolved sufficiently and their hold on him therefore remains too tenacious, then even this most powerful ritual act will be to no avail. Only when the ripening of fetters has reached its fruition should a person be given initiation. “When Siva sees that the soul’s mala is ripened and ready for removal,” Aghorasiva states, “he prepares the instrument called initia tion, whose form is his own Sakti, in order to liberate that soul” (JTNV 21).
For this reason, preparations and observation are necessary before undertak ing the ritual.
Śaiva texts often speak of the mysterious process by which a person be comes ready for initiation as the “falling of Sakti” (saktinipata).6 Siva’s own transforming power (sakti) of grace falls upon the novice, gradually or abruptly as the case may be, altering his condition irrevocably. In order to judge the readiness of a novice for initiation, the preceptor must watch care fully for indications that Siva’s Sakti has indeed fallen upon him.
Sivagrayogin sets out in detail the sequence of steps by which the fall of Sakti works its gradual metamorphosis. The process gets underway when the fetters have sufficiently ripened:
When a brahman, k$atriya, vaiiya, pure siidra, or one of the anuloma castes such as suvarna reaches a state where his karman is equable (samya) and his mala ripened, then the highest Sakti first falls on him. A great faith in the highest knowledge is then born in him, and he becomes detached (vairagya) by realizing the faults inherent in attachment to sensory objects and the like. When such de
tachment arises, he should approach the house of a teacher in order to learn the highest knowledge. {&Pbh p. 287)
Ripening leads to an initial falling of Sakti, which in turn brings about some symptoms of a religious vocation. The pilgrim is well advised to place him self under the charge of an initiated Śaiva guru, who will be best able to evaluate his spiritual condition and capacities. “And from the teacher, who judges his competence (adhikara) on the basis of his devotion, etc., the aspirant should receive samayadiksa” (SPbh p. 287). If the pupil shows the proper signs, the guru enables him to take the first ritual step on the path
to Siva-hood by conferring on him samayadiksa, “common initiation.” Samayadiksa is the general initiation by which one becomes a member of the Śaiva community. In the central rite of samayadiksa, the preceptor con-
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ducts the blindfolded novice into a specially prepared sacrificial pavilion and dramatically removes the blindfold so that the initiate is suddenly able to see Siva’s presence. The guru then gives the Śaiva initiate a new name.7 Such rites point clearly to the primary effects wrought by samayadiksa: entry into the world of Siva, awakening to the knowledge and vision of Siva’s presence, and a new identity in the community of Śaiva devotees. It is in no way comparable in transformative power to nirvdnadikfd, and the agamas do not generally discuss the effects of samayadiksa on fetters. But it does confer on the recipient the capacity to begin participating actively in Śaiva reli gious activities.
When he has received samayadiksa, he follows the codes of conduct of a common member (samayin) of the Śaiva community: watching after diva’s garden, sweep ing Siva’s house, gathering flowers and other articles suitable for worshiping Siva, honoring Siva’s devotees, smearing the body with ashes, placing the three horizontal marks on the forehead, wearing rudraksa, and the like. ($Pbh p. 287)
Many texts would also prescribe that a common Śaiva’s duties may also include performing worship on his own behalf (atmarthapuja), but Siva grayogin reserves that for a later stage of initiation.8
Through the initiate’s performance of duties around the temple, the fall of Sakti gradually gathers force.
As he follows the common duties in this way, the fall of Sakti which was initially very weak becomes less so, and an ardent desire to worship Siva, study the agamas, and so on, arises in him. When the preceptor recognizes the ripening indicated by such an ardent desire, he should immediately confer upon him visesadtksa, which enables the pupil to study the agamas, worship Siva, and so on. (SPbh p. 288)
If samayadiksa is predominantly a rite of entry, visesadtksa (“special initia tion”) is in essence a rite of rebirth. The initiating guru ritually removes the initiate’s soul from his body, places it in the womb of VagTsvaiT1 a form of Sakti, installed in a sacrificial fire, and there subjects it to a series of life cycle rites (samskaras) replicating birth. When the soul is then returned to
the novice’s body, he has been reborn as a “son of Siva” (putraka).9 After completion of this initiation, the newborn son is able to worship Siva on his own behalf, he is fit to conduct fire rites (homa), and he is eligi ble to study the Śaiva texts. For most Śaivas, this is as far along the path of ritual transformation as they wish to proceed. Those seekers of worldly benefits (Jbubhuksus) who intend to remain householders generally have no reason to go beyond this stage. But some others, further along perhaps in the ripeness of their fetters, do show signs that they are ready for more. As such a person conducts his regular duties of worship and study, says Sivagrayogin, “the fall of Sakti, which was previously mild, becomes in tense” (SPbh p. 288). New symptoms begin to appear:
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An ardent aversion toward samsara, that ocean of suffering, arises; a strong de sire to see diva’s lotus feet also is born. New thoughts arise: “When will I see the Lord of Gods? When will I be released from my bonds? Who will show me Siva?” (PA 4.39-41 in $RS 51)
Such signs serve as an observable index of the inner state of the soul, of the degree to which Sakti has indeed fallen. There is a shift, as Sakti falls, from worldly concerns to a longing for liberation.
Sakti falls without fail on the bodies of those who show these signs: yearning for liberation and repugnance toward remaining in this world, devotion toward the devotees of Siva, and faith in the teacher and in the rule of conduct taught by Siva. (MrA vidya 5.4)
According to AghoraMva, a novice should stay with the preceptor for at least one year, time enough for the guru to examine carefully the condition of the prospective initiate. Only after such preparation and observation can the teacher be sure that nirvanadiksa will achieve its desired effect.
Now, when the teacher recognizes that the pupil’s mala has ripened and that Sakti has fallen on him, and when he has been consecrated through the common and special initiations and has remained with him for one year, then only the eligible guru should perform nirvanadiksa. (KKD p. 264)
The Efficacy of Initiation
Nirvanadtksa is a very powerful ritual. Rauravagama compares the effects of initiation on the soul to those of a flame on cotton: “As a heap of cotton placed on a blazing fire is consumed completely, and never again is cotton, so that best of men, the initiate who approaches the mandala and receives the mantra of initiation, is never again born” (RA vidya 8.9-10). Initiation annihilates fetters like a blazing fire and in so doing also allows the soul’s powers to emerge. SomaSambhu, for instance, defines initiation as “that by which the fetters such as mala and maya are dissolved, and by which knowl
edge is born in the pupil” (SP 3.1.2). AnantaSambhu relates this twofold function of initiation to the morphemes supposed to comprise the word dikfa. “The word ‘diksa’ has a double meaning. The morpheme dl denotes ‘giving’ (dana); ksa denotes ‘removal’ (ksaya). ‘Giving’ is used because initiation grants sivatva; ‘removal’ is used because it causes the destruction of the three fetters” (SSV 57-58). The results accomplished by initiation, then, are exactly the two alterations in the soul’s condition that constitute liberation: eliminating fetters and manifesting innate powers.
Potent though it is, nirvanadik§a does not bring about immediate libera tion. In Kirandgama, Garuda asks the Lord about this. “If, through initiation, the god completely removes the fetters, why should the body remain upon
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completion of the ritual?” As Garuda knows full well, a soul without fetters would have no further need of a body. Yet it is apparent that a new initiate, unlike the incinerated cotton heap, does continue corporeal life after com pleting the initiatory ceremony. Siva answers this conundrum first with an analogy. “This body remains after the consecration is accomplished, as a potter’s wheel continues to spin even when the pot has been completed.” Then he goes on to summarize tersely the effects of nirvartadiksa on the different types of karman: “The many [accumulated] karman are burned up like seeds by the ‘atoms’ [i.e., the mantras used in initiation], future karman are suppressed, and the karman by which this [present body] exists [are removed only] through consumption” (KirA vidya 6.17-19). In other words, Siva answers that the soul remains embodied after initiation because the ritual does not remove all fetters. If it completely destroyed them, the novice, no longer requiring a body, would pass directly from the ritual to liberation.
Initiation acts directly and completely only on sancitakarman, the reposi tory of karman that otherwise would cause the soul to be reborn many times. This constitutes by far the largest part of one’s karman. By destroying this stockpile destined to be consumed in future lives, initiation enables the soul to forgo further rebirth. However, initiation does not fundamentally affect the other two categories of karman. It does not eliminate prarabdhakarman; this can be removed only by living out one’s current life, consuming the active karman “by which this present body exists” along the way. Nor does initiation remove agamin. Since this karman does not yet exist, initiation can at best prevent its occurrence. It must be dealt with later, as it comes into being. These latter two categories are the ones that keep the potter’s wheel spinning, maintaining the initiate in his present body until his death.
Although the main action of nirvanadiksa is the destruction of fetters, ini tiation rites are also devoted to the emergence of the soul’s inherent Siva ness. These rites are necessary, says Nirmalamani, because Sivatva does not automatically manifest itself when the fetters are removed. It is not like sim ply taking away a cloth so that a previously covered pot becomes visible. A better analogy, he suggests, is Aghorasiva’s eye doctor curing a case of cataracts. Here, “the eyes do not regain their power of perception just through the removal of the cataracts that have covered them.” Rather, the doctor must use some ointment as well, to aid the eyes in recuperating. The initiation rites for the manifestation of sivatva are analogous to the doctor’s ointment: they assist the soul’s powers, which have been “debilitated by their beginningless bondage.”
The ritual efficacy of initiation in removing fetters and unleashing Siva like powers results from Siva’s own action. Siva makes his most direct in tervention in the career of the soul during initiation, bestowing his “grace” (anugraha) powerfully and irrevocably on the initiate. “As the sun illumi-94 · Chapter Three
nates the worlds with its rays,” says Rauravagama, “so Siva shines through his powers (Sdkti) during the ‘sacrifice of mantras’” (RA vidya 8.4). Siva acts in nirvanadik^a by entering into the guru performing the ritual, who thereby becomes Siva’s “support” or embodiment during the course of the ritual. All ritual actions performed by the guru are, in fact, the actions of Siva; the initiating priest is simply Siva’s appointed agent (adhikarin) in carrying out this act of grace. The guru acts throughout with the “hand of Siva.” Thus the event most crucial to the soul’s eventual liberation is also the highest expression of Siva’s grace.
Rites of Removal and Emergence
Initiation acts as an instrument through which the soul is brought toward liberation, by removing fetters and assisting its inherent powers to emerge. In a performance of nirvdnadiksa, the rites specifically directed to accom plish these two tasks are the central, operative actions of the ritual. The pupil’s fetters are removed through the construction and subsequent destruc tion of the paSasutra, the “cord of fetters,” which serves as a “substitute body” (pratikaya) for the initiate within the ritual. After his fetters have been removed, the initiate’s soul is united (yojanika) with Siva and his di vine qualities are brought forth (gundpddana) through the offering of a series of oblations.
Nirvanadiksd requires two days for its complete performance.10 The first day is devoted to preparations. The most important object prepared is the pasasutra, a cotton cord equal in length to the pupil’s body. It is purified with water and mantras and suspended from the pupil’s topknot down to his big toe. The initiating priest, the guru, then transfers out of the pupil’s body all its constituents and imposes them onto the cord.
Here, as throughout the ritual, it is the priest who accomplishes the rite. The novice remains passive. The priest has already invoked Siva into him self, and hence it is Siva who acts through him. As for the initiate, his in trinsic powers of knowledge and action are still suppressed by fetters, and so he is not able to act for himself during the ritual. Only one who possesses
unfettered powers can accomplish the great changes of initiation. The method used by the guru to transport each of these realities is com plex.11 First the guru strikes the initiate with a flower, and with his own soul he enters into the pupil’s body along one of its subtle channels. Inside, he gathers up the thing he wishes to transport, removes it from its place in the novice’s body, and carries it to his own heart. Then he transports it upward and out of his own body and unites it with the cord. Once the constituent is joined with the cord, the guru worships it, constrains it there, performs a protective encirclement, and offers it three fire oblations. Each of these rit-
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ual actions is carried out with an appropriate mantra, and many require a specific mudra as well. The guru repeats these steps each time he conveys something from the body of the initiate onto the cord.
The guru first transports the goddess $akti, then (according to Soma Sambhu) the three subtle channels of the body and the six “paths” (adhvan). Next he transports the pupil’s soul and the fetters. Finally he transports the five kalas.
Of all the constituents imposed onto the cord, the five kalas figure most prominently in this ritual.12 Like the thirty-six tattvas, the five kalas (“por tions” of the cosmos) are cosmological entities. According to the Sivapu rana, $iva brings about the emission of the five kalas at the time of creation.
Santyatita emanated from Sakti, then Santi was emitted in due order, then vidya, and from that pratistha arose. Nivrtti came forth in due order from pratistha. Thus is described fully the emission directed by Siva. These five kalas are emitted in normal order (anulomya); reabsorption proceeds in the inverse direction (prati
lomya). The highest creator animates the world from the five aforesaid entities, and so the five kalas permeate this entire world. (&Pur 1.9.4-7)
So too in nirvanadiksa the kalas provide an ontological framework within which the entire manifest world is encompassed, differentiated, and ranked. All realities are contained or “enwombed” (garbhita) within them. The Kamikagama points to their all-inclusive character:
Mantras, words, phonemes, tattvas, and worlds are encompassed (vyapya); the bonds of karman, mala, and the derivatives of maya are encompassing (vyapaka). But the bonds such as mala are also encompassed, and the kalas are encompassing [in relation to them]. Therefore, when one grasps these kalas, one appropriates (svikarana) all the others. Similarly, through their placements and their purifications, everything is placed and purified. (UKA 23.31-34)
Before transporting each kala, the guru must first visualize all that is in cluded within it: tattvas, mantras, words, phonemes, worlds, seed-sylla bles, subtle channels, bodily winds, sense objects^ qualities, and governing lords—in short, all constituents of the manifest cosmos. By gathering up and transporting these kalas, the guru also transports all the realities con tained in them.
While the set of kalas contains all manifest realities, they also divide up and rank the encompassed realities among themselves. In order of relative purity or subtlety the kalas are: santyatita, santi, vidya, pratistha, and nivrtti. Accordingly, the two purest, most subtle tattvas are included within santyatita, the next three most subtle in santi, and so on down to the least subtle, Earth, included in nivrtti. Similarly, the most subtle worlds are found in the santyatita, and the least subtle in nivrtti. All other realities encom-
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passed within the kalds are also ranked according to the same scheme. Thus, the kalds present five hierarchical planes or dimensions of being that, be tween them, encompass all that there is.13
There is one important exception to the all-inclusive character of the kalds. The kalds contain all the initiate’s karman except prdrabdhakarman and the karman arising as a consequence of that. This exception is necessary since, if initiation were to remove his active karman, he would have no need to remain embodied after completion of the ritual.
When he transports the five kalds, the guru begins with Mntyatita and proceeds according to the order of emission. This order is appropriate here because the guru is ritually constructing the pdsasiitra. Each kald occupies a portion of the pupil’s body, with the most subtle kald located in the high
est place, as one would expect. (See Figure 7.) The kalds are correspond ingly placed onto the suspended pdsasiitra. SdntyatIta is joined onto the highest segment of the cord, then SdnH, and so on down to nivrtti, located on the lowest portion. After all kalds have been joined onto the cord, the guru marks it to indicate the location of each one, using colored powders to dye each segment and tying knots at each boundary.
Through this process of transferring constituents from body to cord, the pdSasutra is impregnated with the pupil’s complete makeup. It becomes a virtual reembodiment of the initiate, body and soul. The guru removes the cord, worships it, and places it near the Siva-pot, asking Siva to protect it overnight.
The following day the guru uses the pdSasHtra to perform a “purification of the kalds” (kaldiuddhi). During this rite the soul of the initiate is sepa rated from the kalds, and the kalds are then destroyed together with the fet ters contained in them. As on the first day, each kald is treated separately, in sequence. This time, however, the guru follows the order of reabsorp tion, beginning with nivrtti and ending with Sdntyatita, as is appropriate for a rite of purification. In this description, I use nivrttikald as a model; each subsequent kald follows the same procedure. j
The guru begins by once again visualizing nivrttikald and’all the realities included within it. As part of the visualization, the guru also imagines wombs within the kald. The kalds contain all possible wombs into which a soul might—as a result of previously acquired karman—be born. Like other encompassed realities, the wombs are differentiated and ranked according to the kalds in which they are found. In nivrtti, for instance, are found the wombs of the fourteen lowest states of existence: wild animals, cattle, birds, snakes, plants, humans, demons, titans, demigods, Gandharvas, Indra1 Soma, PrajeSvara, and Brahman. Wombs in purer kalds are of higher orders of beings.
Once the guru has fully visualized nivrttikald, he detaches it from the cord
initiate
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ELEMENT MANTRA
SantyatTta Sadasiva Ether Isana
Santi Isvara Wind Tatpurusa Vidya Rudra Fire Aghora
Pratistha Visnu Water Vama
Nivrtti Brahman Earth Sadyojata pasasutra
Fig. 7. Transfer of five kalds to the pasasutra
and transports it into the firepit. He invokes into the fire VagISvari and VagTsvara and worships them appropriately. VagTsvari (the “goddess of sound”) here is considered a “universal mother” possessing all possible wombs (MrA kriya 8.104). Within each kala, the goddess contains all the wombs proper to that plane of being. She is a form of Sakti, as VagKvara is of Siva. The guru now gathers up the pupil’s soul. He transports it to his own heart first and then, while conveying it toward the fire, he visualizes Sakti and Siva copulating. He places the soul in all Sakti’s wombs at once. In each womb the soul is joined with an embryo resulting from the sexual union of Sakti and Siva.
The purpose in subjecting the initiate’s soul to this multiple conception is to accelerate the process of consuming karman. Only consumption can re move karman, and consumption takes place during the soul’s embodiment. Even ritual tactics cannot circumvent this principle of the cosmos, so in-
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stead one seeks to speed things up. By placing the pupil’s soul in many bodies simultaneously, the guru enables it to experience rapidly the accu mulated karman that—without this ritual help—would require many life times to consume. Each kala, then, provides an environment made up of
many constituents, in which the soul can ritually pass through all the exis tences appropriate to that plane of being. Since the kalas together encom pass all possible wombs, in initiation the pupil is able to experience concep tion in every state of existence for which his karman might predestine him.
And by ritually living through these potential incarnations, he can consume all karman of these future lifetimes as well.
The novice next summarily enacts the life cycles of his many embodi ments by undergoing a set of appropriate consecrations (samskdras). The guru performs each consecration by making oblations into the fire, each ob lation accompanied by the proper mantra and visualization. After the pupil’s soul has procured its bodies (garbhddhana), these bodies are born (jatakar man) and acquire their proper aptitudes (adhikdra). All the soul’s karman is distributed among the bodies and then brought to fruition. The guru visual izes that the soul experiences and consumes (bhoga) all that is engendered from the traces of actions past and future. He next performs the rite of “at tachment,” which AghoraSiva defines as the “thorough pleasure” that the soul feels toward that which it experiences {KKD p. 312). Finally the guru performs a “complete removal” intended to “finish off all karman” (KKDP p. 320). With this final removal, the initiate’s soul completes the consump tion of all binding karman located in the nivrttikala. Thus, the need to be reborn as a wild animal, cow, bird, snake, or in any of the fourteen wombs of nivrttikala has been ritually obviated.
The guru next attacks the fetters as a group. Using oblations, mantras, and visualization, he first detaches the soul from maya, which is possible now that consumption no longer exists. He then suppresses the effects of mala and separates the soul from it. Finally he detaches the soul from kar
man, “even though it has already been consumed” {KKD p. 313). With the initiate’s soul safely separated from the fetters, the guru now cuts off the section of the pasasutra containing nivrttikala, smears it with cow dung, rolls it into a ball, places it in the sacrificial ladle and mixes it with ghee, and burns it completely in the fire. As the segment of cord is annihilated, so are the fetters it contains. Much as the “heap of cotton” in the Raurava
gama’s analogy, the cotton cord is consumed completely in fire, allowing the initiate’s body to shed its fetters but remain alive. The paiasutra is the necessary stand-in for his body, which could not be subjected to the same treatment as the cord without it resulting in physical death.
The pupil’s soul has at this point experienced birth in every state of exis tence possible within nivrttikala and consumed all karman pertaining to it. It
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has been carefully detached from all three fetters. Those fetters have been destroyed in the fire along with the segment of cord on which they were situated. The purification of nivrttikala is complete. The guru visualizes the initiate’s soul, “liberated from the net of nivrttikala, and resembling a pure crystal gem” (KKD p. 313). Once again he grasps the soul and transports it to the next-higher segment of the cord, where it awaits the purification of the next-purer kala.
Through the sequential purifications of all five kalas, containing all pos sible wombs and encompassing all fetters, the pupil’s soul is liberated com pletely from its bondage and from the need for subsequent rebirth. Soma Sambhu compares it, as it is freed step by step, to the moon slowly emerging
from the grasp of the eclipse, in the end appearing like “the autumn moon fully arisen” (SP 3.3.215).
When the initiate’s fetters have been removed, the inherent powers of his soul are free to manifest themselves. Unlike the autumn moon, however, the soul’s powers do not immediately shine of their own accord. Here again rites are necessary. The soul’s divine qualities (gum) are immanent, but they have been debilitated by their bondage. As the eye doctor uses an ointment to assist a patient in recovering his sight, in initiation the guru must unite his pupil’s soul with ParamaSiva and offer oblations to “produce” (άράάαηα) or “animate” (uttejana) the attributes that make up its sivatva. The Svac chandatantra compares the production of these qualities to the royal abhiseka. “When the king attains sovereignty, a priest anoints him with pots, and bards proclaim his royal virtues throughout the land. In the same way, when the initiate attains Sivatva, the wise priest will produce his divine qual ities” (SvaT 4.443-44). In both cases, immanent capacities are made fully manifest through the efficacy of ritual action.
The guru first asks for diva’s permission to unite the soul with Siva. He does several preparatory purifications and again requests of Siva, “Please cause this soul’s sivatva to become manifest.” Offering oblations into the fire, he performs the five life-cycle consecrations used previously, this time in the sivatattva. At this point, of course, there is no more karman to be consumed. These consecrations instead stimulate five qualities constituting the soul’s sivatva: entry into the sivatattva, emergence of the powers of knowledge and action, complete sovereignty, self-arising joy, and the abil ity to identify with Siva. This manifestation of Siva-ness, however, is only a preparation for the more fundamental one to follow.
The guru prepares himself mentally by meditating on his identification with Siva. He once again enters into the initiate’s body, collects his soul, removes it from that body, and returns with it to his own heart. There the pupil’s soul is united with his own. Then, reciting the PRASADA mantra, Siva’s own mantra, in an ascending order, the guru together with the pupil’s
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soul rises along his sufumna to the dvadaianta, where Siva resides in his most complete form. (I will discuss PRASADA and the method of ascending pronunciation in the following chapter.)
The guru unites the initiate’s soul with Parama^iva, “of whom highest joy is the intrinsic form, who surpasses the mind’s reach, who is empty of qualities and yet the eternal source of qualities.” Then he animates the six divine qualities of the soul: omniscience, contentment, eternal enlight
enment, independence, indestructible power, and infinite power. For each of these attributes, the guru offers three oblations into the fire and recites a mantra (using the seed-syllable of an angamantra) that invokes the qual ity. Liberated from the fetters that had long suppressed it, and now ani mated by oblations and mantras, the soul’s inherent Sivatva is able to emerge. The guru, with a divine glance, sees the soul of the novice “orna mented by its own emanating energies (tejas), like the disk of the sun” (KKD p. 359). The initiate has fully become a Siva while temporarily united with Paramasiva.
To close the performance of nirvanadiksa, the guru returns the pupil’s soul to his body so that it may consume its remaining pmrabdhdkarman. As in dicated above, this category of karman was expressly omitted from inclu sion within the kalas, and consequently the initiation has not affected it. The initiate’s condition has been fundamentally altered by the ritual. All karman that would otherwise engender future rebirths has been annihilated. Yet he must remain living in his present body in order to complete gradually the consumption of his residual karman and thereby gain final liberation. The guru, with the initiated pupil beside him, prays to Siva: “‘Taking on my form, you have granted grace to this initiate. Therefore, O Lord, make his devotion toward god, fire, and guru grow. By your favor, may he remain firm in unbroken ritual. Let him not be guilty of any fault that would again bind him’” (KKD pp. 360-61).
In summary, initiation is the decisive event in the soul’s passage from bondage to liberation. The effects achieved by nirvdnadik$a are precisely those two transformations in the soul’s condition that characterize moksa it self: the removal of fetters that bind the soul, and the emergence of the
soul’s inherent powers. The initiate’s fetters are removed through ritual ac tions centering on the pasasiitra. This cord becomes, by a series of trans fers, a reembodiment of the initiate. Using the cord as medium, the soul is able first to consume its accumulated karman and then to be separated from all its fetters. The fetters are destroyed in the sacrificial fire. Rites devoted to the emergence of the soul’s sivatva follow. The soul is transported to the realm of the highest Siva and united with him there, where the divine quali ties it shares with Siva are animated by oblations and mantras. With its powers thus manifested, it is returned to the novice’s body so that it may consume its remaining karman.u
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COMPLETING THE PASSAGE
The daily worship of Siva, says the Kamikagama, yields the fruits of both worldly enjoyments and liberation (KA 4.1). Now that we have looked at the philosophical model by which Śaivas understand the soul’s passage from bondage to liberation, and followed the career of a soul through the ripening of its fetters and the performance of initiation, we are in a much better posi tion to understand the role of daily worship in granting liberation.
In daily worship, the primary rite directed toward liberation is that of atmasuddhi. This rite, in which the ritualist “becomes a Siva” as a prepara tion for worshiping Siva, was described in the preceding chapter as a trans formation of the ritualist’s body. More fundamentally, however, it should be seen as a liberation of the soul. The body is an objectification of the soul’s bondage. By transforming his body, the worshiper alters the condi tion of his soul. He frees the soul from its most intimate fetters and replaces them with a body made of mantras.
Atmaiuddhi is a quotidian enactment in reduced form of the ritualist’s liberation. Like nirvdnadiksa, the “purification of the soul” in daily worship puts into practice the double alteration in the soul’s condition that consti tutes liberation: removal of the fetters and manifestation of the soul’s powers. This operation produces effects beyond the limits of the ritual it self. The performance of worship gradually diminishes the soul’s remaining fetters so that, at death, none remain to prevent it from attaining final libera tion. During atmasuddhi, the initiated “son of Siva” (putraka) daily exer cises his own capacities of self-transformation, both rehearsing his final lib eration and at the same time gradually bringing it about. Daily ritual is the best means available to the soul to complete its passage to mokfa.
Body and Soul
Initiation, we have seen, brings about a radical alteration in the spiritual condition of the initiate, but it does not engender immediate liberation. Ac cording to Saivism, the “fruit of initiation” that is ultimate liberation is ob tained only upon bodily death, when the soul’s remaining prarabdhakarman has also been fully consumed. This raises the issue of just what the initiated Śaiva should do in the meantime. How should he act for the rest of his life to facilitate his own final moksal
At the completion of initiation, the novice is like a potter’s wheel, ac cording to Siva’s analogy in the Kiranagama. Though the pot itself is fin ished, the wheel continues to revolve due to its own momentum. The initiate has removed his accumulated karman in initiation, and thereby eliminated his need to be reborn, but he must return to his present body under the im pulsion of karman whose effects are already in motion.
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The potter’s-wheel analogy is useful, but it oversimplifies the situation. The wheel is inanimate (jada), therefore inert, and its rotation will automati cally cease due to friction unless the potter again sets it in motion. The pu traka, on the other hand, is an animate soul, with powers of knowledge and
action. He is not able to wait passively until his body ceases its spinning. He must continue to act in the world after his initiation, and these actions are liable to engender new fetters, which could prevent his final liberation. In the language of karman, he must be sure not to contract any dgamin, while at the same time consuming his remaining prarabdhakarman.
The best course of action for the potential Siva, according to Aghoragiva, is to behave in accord with samayacara, the rules of conduct incumbent on all initiated Saivites. All human activities pose the risk of creating karman. Actions based on this code, however, do not give rise to new karman in the way that others do. One who has undergone initiation must faithfully follow samayacara, preventing karman, if he is to reach final liberation when his prarabdhakarman is completed and his body passes away.
One invariable rule of samayacara is that the initiated Śaiva must regu larly perform daily worship. “You should offer worship to Siva, to the fire, and to your guru until the end of your life,” the priest instructs his pupil at the completion of initiation (JSP 3.2.23). Failure to worship Siva entails a fault, leading to more residues of karman. However, it is not simply to avoid a transgression that the initiate should offer puja. Daily worship—and more specifically Stmasuddhi—plays a continuing role in resisting and re moving fetters.
Daily worship serves as a prophylactic, claims the Matangaparamesvara gama, counteracting the acquisition of any new fetters.
Thus sin does not arise in the one who daily worships the Prime Cause with devo tion, as daikness is not born after the rising of the sun. When his body ends, he does not reenter the world on account of his stock of karman. Therefore this daily ordinary worship brings good results [(or) conveys the sunrise]. (MPA kriya 3.100-101)
Initiation is the sunrise that removes the earth’s darkness, while daily wor ship is the continuation of sunshine during the day, preventing its return. In day-to-day life, the initiate is bound to make small transgressions of the rules. Daily worship, acting like a recurring initiation, removes the effects of these misdeeds as they arise.
Going beyond this counteractive view of Matanga, AghoraSiva sees daily worship as a ritual method of gradual removal, affecting existing fetters as well as newly arisen ones: “During the period after initiation, one may ac complish a removal of the fetters whose effects have already begun, such that they diminish daily, by following the common rules of conduct, begin ning with bathing and worship” (TST 39). Both regard daily worship as a
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necessary, efficacious action instrumental in the attainment of moksa. It takes up where initiation left off, removing any remnants of fetters not de stroyed during nirvanadiksa, and brings to completion the process initiated by that ritual.15
The rite within daily worship that causes this removal is atmasuddhi. Through this rite, we have seen, the worshiper becomes a Siva in order to worship Siva. “In this way the worshiper attains the form of Siva (Siva rupata), albeit separate from it, by first purifying his soul and his body and then imposing a mantra-body onto his own form, and thereby he becomes fit to offer worship to Siva” (&AC p. 29). At the same time as it fulfills this function within the context of ritual, it also contributes to the larger project of liberating the soul through the removal of fetters.
In the preceding chapter, I described the rite of atmasuddhi as a transfor mation of the worshiper’s body. There are good reasons to view it in this light, not least of which are the terms used for its component procedures: “purification of the subtle body,” “purification of the gross body,” and “im position of the mantra-body.” Atmasuddhi does indeed ritually transform the body. But more fundamentally it is a “purification of the soul,” an enact ment of the soul’s liberation. In fact, atmasuddhi purifies the soul precisely through the metamorphosis of the worshiper’s body. The body is treated as the locus of the soul’s bondage, and a ritual transformation of the body brings about the soul’s temporary liberation.
The soul, as we have seen, is itself immutable. It cannot be altered; only its condition or situation may be changed. The entire passage of the soul toward liberation is regarded by the Saivites as a sequence of processes— ripening, initiation, proper conduct, and so on—that gradually alter its con
dition by loosening and removing the fetters that bind it. The soul inhabits a body only because it has fetters. For the soul, the body is a necessary means of experience. It allows the soul to consume karman and thus instigates the ripening of the fetters. However, the body is also the most intimate projection of the soul’s state of bondage. The body is brought into being solely because of karman, and it is composed of the derivative tattvas of may ά. As an objectification of the soul’s fetters, it also acts as an instrument of this bondage. The body is a receptacle for the soul, which, once contained, is also constrained by it. For this reason, the body is the object that instantiates most concretely and most closely the soul’s bound condition.
This essential relationship between the soul’s fetters and the body it in habits provides the underlying motive of atmasuddhi. In atmasuddhi, the worshiper’s body is treated as a limited and highly concentrated manifesta tion of fetters. All the constituents of the body in its normal state are re garded as “impurities” that stain the soul. Consequently, the means of puri fying the soul—that is, of removing it from its condition of bondage—must104 · Chapter Three
involve a transformation of the body. The impure constituents must be somehow removed. In the process the ritualist’s body is transformed from an objectification of the soul’s fetters into an instrument of the soul’s intrin sic powers. No longer posing an obstacle to worship, the worshiper’s body empowers the soul to act in the ritual. This “body of powers”—parallel to
diva’s own body—is the means by which the worshiper is able to cany out all subsequent ritual actions of worship.
Rehearsals of Liberation
As an enactment of the soul’s liberation, atmasuddhi has many elements in common with nirvanadiksa. Both act on the soul through the medium of the body. Both achieve their effects by an equivalent two-phase process: first a removal of fetters, then a manifestation of Siva-like powers. The purifica
tion of the elements (of the gross body) in atmaSuddhi is particularly similar to the purification of the kalas in initiation. The construction of the divine body in atmasuddhi also suggests parallels with the production of divine qualities in nirvanadik$a. Kamikagama supports this linking of the two ritu als, stating that a worshiper should employ the same method of purification in daily worship as was used in his initiation (KA 4.60-61).
In the following description I will emphasize the parallelism between the worshiper’s daily self-purification and the ceremony of initiation. However, there are also some significant differences between the two. Atmasuddhi is a regular, repeated action undertaken daily by the initiated Saivite; initia
tion is a singular event in the career of a religious aspirant. Atmasuddhi is a rite embedded within the larger ritual of daily worship, whereas liberating initiation is itself an extensive, independent ritual unity. Most important, atmasuddhi is a rite performed by the worshiper himself, while initiation is accomplished on the initiate by Siva acting through the guru. Atmaiuddhi does recapitulate many of the important features of nirvanadiksa, but I do not wish to suggest that it is simply a repetition in miniature.
The performance of atmaiuddhi, we have seen, takes place in two con verse sequences of actions. First comes a phase of removals, of purification, intended to bring about the destruction of impure or binding constituents. This phase may be further divided into two series, correlated to a differenti ation of the subtle body and the gross body. Second is performed a phase of impositions, of construction, meant to build a new body of divine powers. Before the purifying phase of atmasuddhi, which is highly destructive, it is necessary to protect the soul and its remaining karman from annihilation. The soul is gathered up from throughout the body and moved to a safe place, twelve inches above the head, where it is temporarily absorbed into Siva. After purification is completed, the soul is returned through a descending
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movement, placing it on a lotus throne in the worshiper’s heart. Thus, atmaiuddhi may be sequentially outlined as follows:
-
protection of the soul, removal from the body
-
purification of the body
a. purification of the subtle body
b. purification of the gross body
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return of the soul to the body
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construction of a divine body
The purpose of protecting the soul is succinctly stated by Kdmikagama: “This joining [of the soul with Siva] is done by priests to protect their kar man remaining to be consumed This karmart is not destroyed [during this rite] due to the Lord’s command” (KA 4.54-55). The ritual method em ployed to purify the body is a harsh one and poses a threat to the soul’s prarabdhakarman. This karman should not be destroyed prematurely, and so it must be removed from the body to a safer asylum. Accordingly, the worshiper collects the consciousness pervading his body into the seed-sylla ble HOM, which he visualizes as a flame in the middle of his su$umna. With an ascending breath, he transports this syllable upward, bursting open as it pro ceeds all the nodes (granthi) that might otherwise obstruct its path. He re turns his consciousness and absorbs it into his soul. Placing his soul now in the syllable HAM, he expels his breath upward to the dvddasanta, where he unites his soul with Siva.
Mth the soul safely placed in the dvadaianta, the worshiper may now purify his body. The overall purpose is to neutralize and destroy all impure constituents of the body and to remove them as fetters from the soul. Nir malamani defines the purification of the body with the soul’s liberation in mind:
Purification of the tattvas located in the gross and subtle bodies by visualizing their reabsorption is done in order to stop their binding nature (bandhakatvani vrtti), as [a tan trie healer] visualizes himself as Garuda in order to stop the effects of poison. (KKDP p. 68)
The constituents of the body are fetters to the soul, and their “binding na ture” must be somehow terminated for the soul to be free of them. AghoraSiva divides the procedures of purification into two parts, one di rected at purifying the subtle body, the other at purifying the gross body. As described in the preceding chapter, the purification of the subde body con sists in a reabsorption of all thirty-six tattvas constituting the subde body into their two source-substances maya and mahamaya. The worshiper visu alizes each tattva going within its source, according to the order of reab sorption, until only the two undifferentiated substances remain. Undifferen-
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tiated maya does not itself constitute a fetter. Rather, the thirty-one tattvas of the impure domain emitted from mccya—referred to as mdyeya—are what actually bind the soul. By causing all these derivative tattvas to be reab sorbed into undifferentiated maya, the worshiper is able to remove the bind ing character of maya. Purifying the subtle body effectively neutralizes maya as a fetter.
The second purification is directed against the impurities of the gross body. In one sense, the gross body is easily understood as that composed of the five material elements.
The “gross body” denotes the body made of elements (bhutaiarlra), born in a certain world, whose form is both general and particular (sadharanasadharana): [general in that it is] the locus that causes notions such as “birth-community,” “family,” and so on, [particular in that it is] an aggregation of the elements Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Ether. (JKKDP p. 67)
The five elements indicated here are the five least subtle of the thirty-six tattvas that constitute the cosmos. Together they form the substratum for the five perceptible qualities, which inhere in them. Being gross elements, they are of course considered impure, and the worshiper’s body must be purified of them in atmasuddhi.
In another sense, however, the five elements appear as more than mere elements. They are termed “cosmic supports” (dharana) and are linked closely with the five all-inclusive kalas. Each element serves as the support for a kala. At the beginning of its description of purification, Kamikagama refers to this second sense of the elements as cosmic supports.
When its faults have been entirely annihilated, the soul remains, without mala, like gold whose impurities have been cleansed by fiie. Similarly, a person de stroys many sins and becomes pure by means of [this purification of] the cosmic supports, and then returns to his bodily state to fulfill his assigned role (adhi hard). (KA 4.57-58)
This connection of the elements with the kalas is reinforced by several sim ilarities between this portion of atmasuddhi and the rite of kalasuddhi. When the five elements of the gross body are viewed in this sense, as the supports of the entire cosmos, then the purification of the gross body takes on a wider dimension. Not simply a purification of bodily elements, it be comes also a purification of the cosmos itself as a source of fetters. The worshiper’s body in its composition of five elements is at the same time a concentrated embodiment of fetters. Its purification, like that of the kalas in initiation, liberates the soul from fetters.
The rite used to purify the gross body operates on both levels. (This dou ble level of reference is reinforced by the vacillation in terms used by the
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texts; sometimes they refer to “gross body,” sometimes to “elements,” to “cosmic supports,” or to “kalds” as the object of purification.) First the wor shiper visualizes the domain of each element. Each element is specifically “endowed with” or “connected to” a kala (KalA 8.6-7).
bhiita kala
Ether Mntyatita
Wind Santi
Fire vidya
Water pratistha
Earth nivrtti
Their positions on the scale of emission are equivalent; most subtle element is paired with most subtle kala. The domains are located in specified parts of the body, just as the kalds are in initiation. (Compare Figures 3 and 7.) Furthermore, the domains that the ritualist visualizes are in almost every respect parallel to those of the kalas visualized in initiation. Thus, as the kalds encompass all manifest realities in initiation, so here the domains of the elements include all realities among them.
If the visualization of domains suggests the cosmic level of reference, the next procedure switches to the material. Each domain has a number of at tributes, which are the perceptible qualities inherent in each element.16 Earth contains all five perceptible qualities, Water contains four, and so on. The relationships here between material elements and perceptible qualities are clearly those of the tattvas. The worshiper expels these qualities, one by one, using ascending expulsions of breath. After the attributes are ejected, the worshiper absorbs each element into its “opponent,” so that each comes to resemble the other. In effect, he neutralizes the binding power of his bod
ily elements.
With the elements fully visualized and neutralized, the worshiper visual izes his own form in a liberated state. “He should imagine that he has liber ated his own form from impermanence, limitation, impurity, and so on, and that it is now endowed with permanence, pervasiveness, purity, and such qualities” (KKD p. 58). Next he destroys all bodily elements. “Then, with the fire arising from his right big toe and with ASTRA, he burns the impurities of the elements located in the body resulting from karman whose con sequences have begun (prdrabdha), and then inundates it” (KKD p. 58). Here both levels of reference appear. AghoraSiva speaks first of visualizing the Siva-like qualities of the liberated soul, then of a physical destruction by fire of the body’s five material elements. The gross body is purified at two levels: as an aggregate of five material elements, and as the “support” for the kalds.
Like kaldsuddhi in initiation, this purification of the gross body begins
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with visualizations of each individual element. There is no transporting of these elements—as in kalaSuddhi—to a substitute body. In both purifica tions, a procedure is used to neutralize the elements, though kalasuddhi, with its complicated sequence aimed at consuming accumulated karman, is by far the more complex. Destruction by fire is the culminating operation in each rite. Here the fire is an internal one, arising from the worshiper’s toe; in initiation it is an external fire into which Siva has been invoked. Here the fire acts directly on the ritualist’s actual body; in initiation it destroys the stand-in body, the pasasUtra. In both, there is a complete removal of fetters except for the soul’s prarabdhakarman, whose consumption cannot be cir
cumvented by ritual means. The two rites are closely linked, though not exactly identical.
The ritualist’s body is now empty. Wthout impurities or fetters, it poses no danger to the soul, which may safely be returned to its normal location in the body. To do this, the worshiper first mentally constructs in his heart a throne in the form of a lotus. Following the order of emission, he leads the soul downward from the dvddasanta, where it has been united with Siva, and places it on that throne. He unites the soul in the puryastaka, the condi
tioned form of the body, establishes the soul there, and finally bathes it with a stream of nectar.
This procedure parallels that of invocation, by which Siva or any divinity is brought into a prepared form. This is suitable since, as AghoraSiva tells us, the soul is “located in the dvada&dnta in the form of bija, and is made of Siva” (iivamaya)" (KKD p. 59). By its separation from fetters it has be come a Siva, and it must be treated as such. The soul is reinvoked into its body much as Siva will be later invoked into the linga.
The imposition of mantras onto the worshiper’s purified body reconsti tutes it as a body of powers, a divine body appropriate to the soul that has become a Siva. As indicated in the previous chapter, this successive imposi tion of mantras invokes the form and powers of Siva onto the body: most important among these, the five brahmamantras invoke the five faces of SadaSiva, identified with Siva’s five fundamental activities, and the six anga mantras impose Siva’s powers. At one level this rite constructs for the wor shiper a body like that of Siva, saturated with the same mantra powers, ca pable of carrying out the ritual actions to follow. At a second level, these mantra powers may be seen as external forms of the soul’s own intrinsic powers, the realization of the soul’s Siva-ness as a divine body.
During initiation, six perfections—aspects of the soul’s sivatva—are pro duced or animated while the novice’s soul is united with Paramasiva. Here the divine powers are imposed after the soul has been returned to its body. In initiation the qualities appear to arise from the soul, animated by fire oblations; here the powers are imposed from the outside onto the body, in voked through mantras.
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Yet beneath these differences, the powers themselves appear to be the same. At the least, there is a parallel between diva’s six divine powers rep resented by the angamantras and the six perfections of the soul. The anga mantras are often described as embodying specific divine qualities of Siva, as in this passage from Kamikagama.
H$D is his existence, and SIRAS is his lofty pieeminence. SKHA is his independ ence. KAVACA would be his protective powers, ASTRA is the power by which he annihilates, NETRA is his power of omniscience, which illuminates everything. Thus the six perfections of the creator of the world, Siva, are stated here. (KA 4.363-65)
The imposition of angamantras in atmaiuddhi invokes diva’s powers onto the worshiper. These powers are the same in character as the inherent powers of his soul, the divine qualities animated during initiation. IsanaSiva points to this connection when he speaks of the soul’s perfections produced in initiation as “limbs” (anga) that “belong to Siva” as well. “Meditating that the pupil has become a Siva, the guru should produce the six perfections, which are limbs, and which belong to Siva” (IP 3 p. 185). The divine qual
ities of the soul, animated in initiation, are parallel to the powers of Siva imposed onto the worshiper’s body in atmasuddhi}1 Both make manifest the soul’s inherent sivatva, which is able to emerge when the fetters sup pressing it have been removed.
Last Rites
The soul’s passage to final liberation, to becoming a Siva permanently, is brought about by removing its fetters and enabling its inherent powers to manifest themselves. It is a long process. A gradual evolution of the fetters eventually brings the soul to a state where it is ready to undergo nirva
nadiksa. Initiation effects an enormous alteration in the soul’s condition, de stroying completely karman that otherwise would condemn the soul to many future rebirths. Yet even after initiation the passage is still not complete. Due to the remaining prarabdhakarman, the soul must remain in its body until all karman already in motion has been consumed. During this period, the daily performance of puja and particularly of atmasuddhi removes or resists any fetters that might arise from day-to-day living. This regular re
hearsing of the soul’s liberation, performed every day from initiation to death, gradually prepares the initiated Śaiva to become a Siva permanently. Even this is not enough. One final ritual remains to insure that the aspi rant attains final liberation: the cremation of the body upon death (antyesti).18 Śaivas identify death as the moment when a person completes the con sumption of pmrabdhakarman, the karman conditioning the present life time. For the seeker of moksa who has undergone nirvanadik^a and who has
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diligently observed proper conduct thereafter, this completion should signal the final extinction of all karman, and hence of all fetters. “And so, for one on whom Siva’s Sakti falls strongly due to the complete ripening of his mala, and who has no deficiency in his initiation, and who does not trans
gress the common rule of conduct—for him, moksa occurs immediately upon bodily death” (TST 39). But it is difficult to be sure. There is a danger that omissions or ritual oversights may have occurred.
Śaivas regard the ritual of cremation primarily as an “expiation” (praya scitta). It expiates any karman the subject may have contracted through ritual errors, such as “deficiencies” in one’s initiation or “transgressions” of proper conduct thereafter. And by removing any lingering fetters the de ceased may have unintentionally or unknowingly gained, cremation be comes the final door to liberation. As the Rauravagama defines it, crema tion is the “sacrifice” (isti) that leads to the “final” (antya) state, the supreme state of Siva-hood (RA 46.1-2).
Cremation necessarily involves, first of all, the incineration of the corpse (Savadaha) in a sacrificial fire. After suitable purifications and preparations, the body of the deceased is placed on a funeral pyre. The sacrificial fire Agni, identified as a form of Siva’s power of reabsorption, then consumes the body. In the conflagration, all the maya-derived elements that previ ously constituted the body are reabsorbed into their sources. The soul be comes free of its embodiment, which has acted as a force of bondage upon it throughout its lifetime.
More important, from the Śaiva point of view, the ceremony of cremation also provides an opportunity to reenact the nirvanadiksa of the deceased. Since cremation is an expiation that removes finally any remaining fetters, what better way to accomplish this than by repeating the most powerful lib
erating ritual in the Śaiva system right in the middle of the funeral rites. This embedded initiation involves a condensed repetition of the most essential ritual actions of the nirvanadiksa previously performed on the living initiate, this time administered to his corpse.
Just before the body is placed atop the funeral pyre, the officiating priest begins the rites of crematory initiation by capturing the errant soul with the “Great Net” mantra and restoring it to the corpse. Then, just as in nir vanadiksa, he transfers all constituents from the body of the deceased and imposes them onto a cord of fetters. He follows exactly the same set of purificatory actions as in kalasuddhi, consuming and destroying one by one all the fetters in the Siva-Agni fire, until they are completely annihilated. This time, the prarabdhakarman has also been extinguished. Then the guru transports the soul of the deceased upward and unites it with ParamaSiva, where its divine qualities may fully emerge. In crematory initiation, how
ever, unlike in nirvanadiksa, there is no subsequent need to remove the soul from the presence of Siva and return it to the body. Rather, the guru simply
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leaves the soul where it is, in the state of Siva, and burns the corpse like a heap of cotton.
Through this final ritual recapitulation of initiation, all obstacles to libera tion are overcome. Every bit of the soul’s karman has now been consumed; the potter’s wheel finally stops spinning. The soul is released, fully liberated from all bondage, and attains permanently what it has repeatedly experi enced temporarily through ritual practice, the highest ontological state of being a Siva.