Shakti Shiva / Shiva Shakti: Preface to the Vijnana Bhairava (8/8)
Shakti is the face of Shiva, ie. we can only recognize Shiva by using our practice in the face of manifestation. When we feel a non-difference between these two, we acquire a state of Shiva, we enter the door of our true nature. [text continued below]
Pocket Sutra
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“When in one who enters the state of Shakti, there ensues the feeling of non-distinction (bet-ween Shakti and Shiva), then that yogi acquires the state of Shiva, for inthe agamas, she (Sakti) is declared as the door of entrance (into Shiva) (Lit., Shakti is like Shiva's face)’”
We work on our cushions, with our techniques, as preparation for our work in the face of manifestation, Shakti. We spend time looking inside so that we can look inside while we live outside. And vice versa, we go out into our lives in order to grow inside. Technique alone, meditation in a cave setting, or samsara alone, just going through the motions of life, are both missing the union of shiva and shakti, and it is in this union where growth happens. It is like a cooking flame and a kettle, they need each other to achieve their purpose. Together, they cook down our karma and extract the nourishment and growth. And it is this Union that is at the heart of this text, it is its title and its purpose.
Shiva concludes the preface with an additional take on the metaphor given earlier, teaching that there is no shiva or shakti apart from one another, they are one in the same—
“Just as by means of the light of a lamp, and the rays of the Sun, portions of space, etc, are known even so, Oh dear one, by means of Shakti is Shiva (one's own essential Self) cognized (i.e. re-cognized).”
Jai Deva Singh helps us interpret this last line by looking at it from a few different perspectives:
“There are three points suggested by this simile (1) Just as the flame of the lamp is not different from its light; just as the rays of the sun are not different from the sun, even so Shakti is not different from Siva…”
This seems like an easy point to agree with and understand, but I feel there is a lot of work required for true recognition. When we are describing inert things like light, it is easy to agree that ‘this too is shiva’, but when you have a misunderstanding with someone at work, and there is a lot of emotion, then it becomes much harder to find Shiva, a state of perfection, within what would otherwise feel very imperfect. This is because the ability to recognize Shiva within manifestation takes surrender, takes practice. When we apply our practice to all the various circumstances of our lives, only then, it seems, do we start to see all these circumstances as Shiva.
As Swami Rudrananda teaches: “We must come to understand that everything is part of perfection and must be taken in in a state of surrender; it must be digested and transcended. Life must be consumed whole— with all its tensions, pain and joy. Only by surmounting a situation can we achieve the understanding, the nourishment, that that situation offers…My spirit grew by eating that which encompassed me.”
(2) Just as through the lamp or the sun, objects of the world are perceived, even so through Shakti the universe is known.
This reiterates the earlier point that we recognize Shiva through SHaktik that Shakti is Shiva’s face. The cooking flame needs the kettle, the kettle needs the cooking flame, they are two sides of one coin— the coin of digesting our karma and growing from it.
(3) Just as to perceive the light of the lamp, another lamp is not required; just as to perceive the sun, another sun is not required; they are known by their own light. Even so, shiva is known by his Shakti who is not different from him.”
The path of our practice, the path to the heart, is already within us. As Babaji said at the end of one of his satsang answers, “I am not giving you anything you do not already have. I am just making you aware of what is already there.” This path is more than personal, its our true nature. And it is the light of our own awareness that eventually illuminates this inner landscape— when the light of our awareness, which usually shines out, also shines back in. The Sutras and the lineage can point the way, can provide examples and direction, but the lights of this path are motion activated— only the footsteps of our practice can turn them on. We will eventually become enlightened not by someone else’s work, but by our own work.