The Serpent Power. Arthur Avalon

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СКАЧАТЬ which attract his attention, and are thus selected by his Manas. The latter attends to one or other of these sense impressions, and conveys it to the Buddhi. When an object (Artha) is presented to the mind and perceived, the latter is formed into the shape of the object perceived. This is called a mental Vritti (modification), which it is the object of Yoga to suppress. The mind as a Vritti is thus a representation of the outer object. But in so far as it is such representation the mind is as much an object as the outer one. The latter—that is, the physical object—is called the gross object (Sthūla artha), and the former or mental impression is called the subtle object (Sūkshma artha). But besides the object there is the mind which perceives it. It follows that the mind has two aspects, in one of which it is the perceiver and in the other the perceived in the form of the mental formation (Vritti) which in creation precedes its outer projection, and after the creation follows as the impression produced in the mind by the sensing of a gross physical object. The mental impression and the physical object exactly correspond, for the physical object is, in fact, but a projection of the cosmic imagination, though it has the same reality as the mind has; no more and no less. The mind is thus both cognizer (Grāhaka) and cognized (Grāhya), revealer (Prakāshaka) and revealed (Prakāshya), denoter (Vāchaka) and denoted (Vāchya). When the mind perceives an object it is transformed into the shape of that object. So the mind which thinks of the Divinity which it worships (Īshtadevatā) is at length, through continued devotion, transformed into the likeness of that Devatā. By allowing the Devatā thus to occupy the mind for long it becomes as pure as the Devatā. This is a fundamental principle of Tantrik Sādhanā or religious practice. The object perceived is called Artha, a term which comes from the root “Ri,” which means to get to know, to enjoy. Artha is that which is known, and which therefore is an object of enjoyment. The mind as Artha—that is, in the form of the mental impression—is an exact reflection of the outer object or gross Artha. As the outer object is Artha, so is the interior subtle mental form which corresponds to it. That aspect of the mind which cognizes is called Shabda or Nāma (name), and that aspect in which it is its own object or cognized is called Artha or Rūpa (form). The outer physical object of which the latter is, in the individual, an impression is also Artha or Rūpa, and spoken speech is the outer Shabda. Subject and object are thus from the Mantra aspect Shabda and Artha—terms corresponding to the Vedantic Nāma and Rūpa, or concepts and concepts objectified. As the Vedānta says, the whole creation is Nāma and Rūpa. Mind is the power (Shakti), the function of which is to distinguish and identify (Bhedasangsargavritti Shakti).

      Just as the body is causal, subtle, and gross, so is Shabda, of which there are four states (Bhāva), called Parā, Pashyantī, Madhyamā, and Vaikharī—terms further explained in Section V. of this Introduction. Parā sound is that which exists on the differentiation of the Mahābindu before actual manifestation. This is motionless causal Shabda in Kundalinī in the Mūlādhāra center of the body. That aspect of it in which it commences to move with a general—that is, non-particularized—motion (Sāmānya spanda) is Pashyantī, whose place is from the Mūlādhāra to the Manipūra Chakra, the next center. It is here associated with Manas. These represent the motionless and first moving Īshvara aspect of Shabda. Madhyamā sound is associated with Buddhi. It is Hiranyagarbha Shabda (Hiranyagarbharūpa) extending from Pashyantī to the heart. Both Madhyamā sound, which is the inner “naming” by the cognitive aspect of mental movement, as also its Artha or subtle (Sūkshma) object (Artha), belong to the mental or subtle body (Sūkshma or Linga sharīra). Perception is dependent on distinguishing and identification. In the perception of an object that part of the mind which identifies and distinguishes, or the cognizing part, is subtle Shabda, and that part of it which takes the shape of the object (a shape which corresponds with the outer thing) is subtle Artha. The perception of an object is thus consequent on the simultaneous functioning of the mind in its twofold aspect as Shabda and Artha, which are in indissoluble relation with one another as cognizer (Grāhaka) and cognized (Grāhya). Both belong to the subtle body. In creation Madhyamā Shabda first appeared. At that moment there was no outer Artha. Then the cosmic mind projected this inner Madhyamā Artha into the world of sensual experience, and named it in spoken speech (Vaikharī Shabda). The last or Vaikharī Shabda is uttered speech developed in the throat issuing from the mouth. This is Virāt Shabda. Vaikharī Shabda is therefore language or gross lettered sound. Its corresponding Artha is the physical or gross object which language denotes. This belongs to the gross body (Sthūla sharīra). Madhyamā Shabda is mental movement or ideation in its cognitive aspect, and Madhyamā Artha is the mental impression of the gross object. The inner thought-movement in its aspect as Shabdārtha, and considered both in its knowing aspect (Shabda) and as the subtle known object (Artha), belong to the subtle body (Sūkshma sharīra). The cause of these two is the first general movement towards particular ideation (Pashyantī) from the motionless cause, Parashabda, or Supreme Speech. Two forms of inner or hidden speech, causal and subtle, accompanying mind movement thus precede and lead up to spoken language. The inner forms of ideating movement constitute the subtle, and the uttered sound the gross, aspect of Mantra, which is the manifested Shabdabrahman.

      The gross Shabda, called Vaikharī or uttered speech, and the gross Artha, or the physical object denoted by that speech, are the projection of the subtle Shabda and Artha through the initial activity of the Shabdabrahman into the world of gross sensual perception. Therefore in the gross physical world Shabda means language—that is, sentences, words, and letters, which are the expression of ideas and are Mantra. In the subtle or mental world Madhyamā Shabda is the mind which “names” in its aspect as cognizer, and Artha is the same mind in its aspect as the mental object of its cognition. It is defined to be the outer in the form of the mind. It is thus similar to the state of dreams (Svapna): as Parashabda is the causal dreamless (Sushupti) and Vaikharī the waking (Jāgrat) state. Mental Artha is a Sangskāra, an impression left on the subtle body by previous experience, which is recalled when the Jīva reawakes to world experience and recollects the experience temporarily lost in the cosmic dreamless state (Sushupti) which is dissolution (Mahāpralaya). What is it which arouses this Sangskāra? As an effect (Kārya) it must have a cause (Kāraka). This Kāraka is the Shabda or name (Nāma), subtle or gross, corresponding to that particular Artha. When the word “Ghata” is uttered this evokes in the mind the image of an object—a jar—just as the presentation of that object does. In the Hiranyagarbha state Shabda as Sangskāra worked to evoke mental images. The whole world is thus Shabda and Artha—that is, name and form (Nāma rūpa). These two are inseparably associated. There is no Shabda without Artha or Artha without Shabda. The Greek word Logos also means thought and word combined. There is thus a double line of creation, Shabda and Artha, ideas and language together with their objects. Speech, as that which is heard, or the outer manifestation of Shabda, stands for the Shabda creation. The Artha creation are the inner and outer objects seen by the mental or physical vision. From the cosmic creative standpoint the mind comes first, and from it is evolved the physical world according to the ripened Sangskāras, which led to the existence of the particular existing universe. Therefore the mental Artha precedes the physical Artha, which is an evolution in gross matter of the former. This mental state corresponds to that of dreams (Svapna) when man lives in the mental world only. After creation, which is the waking (Jāgrat) state, there is for the individual an already existing parallelism of names and objects.

      Uttered speech is a manifestation of the inner naming or thought. This thought-movement is similar in men of all races. When an Englishman or an Indian thinks of an object, the image is to both the same, whether evoked by the object itself or by the utterance of its name. Perhaps for this reason a thought-reader whose cerebral center is en rapport with that of another may read the hidden “speech”—that is, the thought of one whose spoken speech he cannot understand. Thus, whilst the thought-movement is similar in all men, the expression of it as Vaikharī Shabda differs. According to tradition, there was once a universal language. According to the Biblical account, this was so before the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel. Similarly in the Rigveda a mysterious passage{291} speaks of the “three fathers and three mothers” by whose action, like that of the Elohim, “all comprehending speech” was made into that which was not so. Nor is this unlikely when we consider that difference in gross speech is due to difference of races evolved in the course of time. If the instruments by, and conditions СКАЧАТЬ