- Edited
10 Mudrās of Śrī Vidyā - lecture by Guruji
Transcription:
Today we will be talking about Daśa Mudrās. What is the meaning of the word mudrā? «Mudam rāti [ulati?] iti mudrā» - because it brings happiness it is called mudrā. Mudam - means happiness, pleasure.
In Śrī Vidyā upāsana we use 10 mudrās. In Lalitā Sahasranāma it says: daśa-mudrā-samārādhyā. These 10 mudrās have the following bījākṣaras:
- sarva-saṃkṣobhiṇī (drāṁ)
- sarva-vidrāviṇī (drīṁ)
- sarvā-karṣiṇī (klīṁ)
- sarva-vaśankarī (blūṁ)
- sarvon-mādinī (saḥ)
- sarva-mahānkuśe (kroṁ)
- sarva-khecarī (hskhphreṁ)
- sarva-bīje (hsauṁ)
- sarva-yone (aiṁ)
- sarva-trikhaṇḍe (hsraiṁ, hsrklīṁ, hsrsauḥ)
These 10 are called daśa-mudrās.
Broadly speaking drāṁ, drīṁ, klīṁ, blūṁ, saḥ, are the five arrows of Manmatha, pañcha-tanmātra-sāyakā, which Lalitā Devi is holding in Her right hand. Drāṁ, drīṁ, klīṁ, blūṁ, saḥ are the śabda, sparśa, rūpa, rasa and gandha. They are the five arrows of sensory pleasures that come through the interaction with the world at large.
Kroṁ is ankuśa, anger. Whereas engagement with sensory perceptions brings pleasure or displeasure, they represent attractions. Kroṁ represents anger. If you anger somebody then you push him away, you don't want him/her to come near. Anger is something that pushes away and rāga is something that pulls in. The first five are the mind engaging in interactions with the world, which brings in attractions and the other one ankuśa means repulsiveness.
Hskhphreṁ - represents detachment, from bondages and therefore the ability to let go of things, it’s like not being born with the gravity of Earth, but you are able to fly away into Space. Kha - means space, Ha, Sa - Śiva and Śakti, Phreṁ – through the fire they move away into space.
Hsauṁ - Ha is Śiva, Sa is Śakti, Oṁ (Auṁ) - seed coming from the union of Śiva and Śakti. The seed is the information about how to manufacture a new entity. A creative capsule containing the information.
Aiṁ represents the time, cause and effect relationship, causality, the creation; aiṃ - Saraswatī. It is Saraswatī who creates. Kālī, who destroys. Between them this creation and destruction is going on. Creation is called aiṃ. And destruction is called sauḥ.
These mudrās have been called secret. You are not supposed to show these mudrās in public. When you go into the temple and you see someone doing mudrās and they see someone come in, they quickly hide them. Nobody should be able to figure out what they are doing. Because you are saying, you are interacting with the Goddess and you are talking to Her in sign language. Mudrās are a sign language for communication with the Goddess.
What kind of communication are we asking?
Remember Goddess is the world, you can interact with Her with the śabda, you can interact with Her with the sparśa, you can interact with Her with the rūpa, rasa and gandha, all these five elements. And you can interact with Her when you are detached and moving in the sky. Or you can interact with her through knowledge. The information saying: you talk to me, I talk to you. Will you give me permission for that? And so on. Exchange of information. You are the creatrix and I want to worship every aspect of your creation. So these are the different meanings of mudrās.
Now let’s go a little more in depth of these things.
Drāṁ - in one sense, it represents the way you fold the fingers. When you fold the fingers in a certain ways you are creating lines here that are going to change your destiny. Drāṁ means sound, śabda. It's called sarva-saṃkṣobhiṇī mudrā. Kṣobhana means agitation, saṁkṣobhana - means great agitation coming from śabda. What kind of agitations can you get? You hear nice music and you become peaceful. You hear insults, then you get agitated. So relaxing and terrorizing, fearful road noises, braking glass, stuff like that; all these are coming from Drāṁ. So these interactions – I want pleasant ones and I don't want unpleasant ones. We are requesting the Goddess here by showing the mudra Drāṁ, which is like this, you’ll learn how to do that. So Drāṁ is agitation positively or negatively by interacting with the Goddess and She gives the permission for that. “Can I speak to You?”, “Yes, I’ll speak to you.”
And if She wants to give permission to do that, because She has to give permission. If you want to communicate with the Goddess, it's not under your control, it's under Her control. Whether she wants to talk to you depends on Her not you, therefore She has to give permission. How does She give permission? She gives permission with the last and final mudrā which is not shown by the devotee but by Her - by saying hsraiṁ, hsrklīṁ, hsrsauḥ - I give you permission to worship Me through knowledge (icchā), through kriyā and jñāna. Icchā, jñāna, kriyā - I J K.
You can talk to Me, you can touch Me, you can do whatever you want with me, I give you permission, OK. That’s how you invoke Her with the icchā, jñāna and kriyā. They correspond to:
- Hsraiṁ | Icchā | Saraswatī | White in color
- Hsrklīṁ | Jñāna | Lakṣmī | Yellow in color
- Hsrsauḥ | Kriyā | Kalī | Red in color
And then you say:
mahā padma vanāntasthe kāraṇānanda divya vigrahe sarva-bhūtā hite mātaḥ ehyehi parameśvari
…and invite her into the anywhere: suvasini, or a yantra, whatever you are worshipping, or an icon.
Drīṁ is sparśa. Sparśa means touch. The question is “Can I touch You?” and She says “Yes.”
In pūjā or creating interaction with the Goddess, when we do a puraścaraṇa we do japa, arcana, homa, tarpaṇa.
So mantra is the way you start interacting with the Goddess, that it's śabda.
Arca is sparśa pradhāna, the interaction which takes place through touch. The property of vāyu, the characteristic of the anāhata chakra, if it flows through your body, you feel that, it's a feeling, touch is a [faint?] sense of the pūjā (arcana)
Homa is seeing; the fire has a characteristic of visualizing; the form corresponding to the mantras we are saying. Rūpa pradhāna is homa.
Rasa pradhāna, rasa is life, and waters of life, and because life has started in salt waters and giving life is called tarpaṇa or mārjanā or abhiṣeka.
And last and final, you have to give it strength, serenity, gravity, and you do it by feeding annadanam.
So puraścaraṇa, is what you have to do before you are able to use the mantra para prayoga – you have to give it form, teachability, you got to give it life, you got to give it mouth and ears to listen to you and talk to you and you have to give it strength to act for you. So puraścaraṇa consists of these things*.* So all these mudrās are working in conjunction not only to interact with the Goddess, who is the environment, but also to be able to create this interaction mechanism, the interface between you and the Goddess, between here and there. So these are the mechanisms for that.
Klīṁ is akarṣaṇa (attraction). So how do we touch the Goddess? When you expand into the whole world, including all of it in yourself, then you have touched the whole world, then there's nothing that you haven't touched. That is the expansion of your consciousness, including everything in the world is called Drīṁ (sparśa). That is dissolution of the “I” is one way to expand, the other way is to attract the whole world into you.
Blūṁ (sarva-vaśankarī mudrā). Blūṁ is rasa (wonder). There are 14 different worlds. Atala, vitala, sutala… seven worlds below, the eighth one in which you are living in, and six more higher then us. So when you see all these things, they are all in the womb of the Mother, and there’s a wonder: "Oh how much creation, what creativity, what utter creativity" and you are in a state of wonder, that is called Blūṁ (rasa - wonder).
Saḥ - sarvon-mādinī (gandha). Rasa is life, when you know all of life, you are wondering how all of this creation has taken place, there must be some creator and you are wondering about creation is Blūṃ. And Saḥ is sarvon-mādinī mudrā. Unmādana means becoming mad. If Manmatha puts all 5 arrows you become mad; if there’s only four arrows he applies, then you can still live. If all the 5 arrows are placed on you, you become totally mad. Maddening mudrā.
Tomorrow I’ll probably hope to show you Śrī Cakra for mad people. I’ll show you a video, it's a beautiful, beautiful, lovely video, you will all enjoy it. I have downloaded it from the internet. So, yes – pici, pici, pici…
So what is this madness? When you wake up from your waking state, you realize that all this world that you see, all this infinite variety that you see is inside of you. When you move from your phenomenal existence to the non-phenominal existence, then you are waking up from your waking state. The relationship of a superconscious state to the waking state is the same as the relationship between the waking state and the dreaming state. When you wake up from the waking state you realize that all the waking state experiences are like a dream, there are all within me. And then it’s a maddening knowledge, by interacting with the world with madness. The world is inside of me.
Kroṁ – you must apply your anger to ariśaḍvarga [are the six enemies of the mind, which are: kāma (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (attachment), mada (pride), and mātsarya (jealousy)]. And then [?duṣṭa śikṣaṇa artha praṇa parayana?], if you are doing these things then this is a function of krodha. So krodha should be expressed against the evil elements. Why should be express it towards the evil elements? We are taking sides of divine versus demonic. We choose to be divine and are drawing the line there. It’s a limitation still, but it’s a good limitation. So if you have anger directed againts internal enemies. So to remove all the sins people have done and remove their adhi-vyadhi, the diseases and the mental diseases and it gives you jñāna, aiśvarya, ānanda, rakṣaṇa. It’s called sarva-mahānkuśa mudrā. You can demand protection, so it called ankuśa. Like an elephant that is controlled by ankuśa, all your anger and other ariśaḍvargas can be controlled by this mudrā. That is the function of this one.
Khecarī mudrā (Hskhphreṃ). Ha is Śiva, Sa is Śakti and Kha is sky; and phrem is a free movement in space. You move in the sky like expanding waves of awareness, that is what is called ākāśa gamanam [sky, movement], you are becoming identical with Devi, and Devi is taking you into the worlds and you are experiencing the wonder of the astral travel. That is ākāśa gamanam.
Sarva-bīja mudrā (Hsauṁ). Ha and Sa are Śiva and Śakti, Auṁ (A U Ṃ) is jāgrat, svapna and suśupti. Interaction between Śiva and Śakti is Hsauṁ. You request Devi, you say: “I want to give the information that I know and You give me the information that you know. Let’s exchange the information.” All the Āgamas: āgatāṃ śivavaktreṇa gataṃ ca girijāmukhe – told by Śiva to Śakti, and it’s called Āgama. Nigama – told by Śakti to Śiva. So the exchange of information between Śiva and Śakti. What are they talking about? Their union they are talking about is how to create; how the world evolves; what is this phenomenal world that we are creating; how are you going to sustain it; the process of creation; they are discussing these matters. All of the 64 Tantras are the discussions between Śiva and Śakti.
Sarva-yonī mudra (aiṁ) – there are 7 yonis are there inside of us. The mūlādhāra, svādhiṣṭhāna, maṇipūra, anāhata, viśuddhi, ājñā, and sahasrāra chakras. They are all yonis in the astral plane. In the physical plane the chakras locations, worshipping those locations is called sarva-yonī mudrā. “Am I allowed to worship You in all parts of Your body?” That is the request. And if She says yes, She shows the 10th sarva-trikhaṇḍa mudrā: hsraiṃ, hsrklīṃ, hsrsauḥ. So you see, the interaction between Śiva and Śakti is being talked about when you are talking bout mudrās.
