Recall that in the previous post, Bhairavī asked “What is the fundamental nature of reality?” ~ At last Bhairava answers Her:
भैरव उवाच |
bhairava uvāca |
साधु साधु त्वया पृष्टं तन्त्रसारम् इदम् प्रिये || ७ ||
sādhu sādhu tvayā pṛṣṭaṃ tantra-sāram idam priye || 7 ||
Bhairava said:
Bravo! Bravo, my dear one. You have asked about the very essence of the Tantra(s). || 7 ||
We don’t have a very exact translation for sādhu, because sādhu means something like good or wonderful, but it also means “bravo!” We see this usage in the Sanskrit dramas, when the gods applaud a heroic act on the part of the protagonists of the drama. These days people know the word sādhu in modern India as referring to a holy man or homeless mendicant, but it originally also has this very common meaning of “Hooray! Wonderful! Bravo!”
So, in his response to his beloved consort, the first thing that Bhairava does is celebrate her. He celebrates her questions, he celebrates her objections, he celebrates her heartfelt request. That is so beautiful!
This could even be seen as a model for our own relationships. How amazing would it be if when somebody we care about questions us or raises some objections or doubts, whether on the relational level or the intellectual level or the spiritual level, we were able to celebrate that and say, “It is so awesome that you care enough to inquire into what’s really real, what really matters here. It’s so awesome that you’re brave enough to raise your doubts and objections.”
So in a way this is one of the most beautiful lines in the text. “Sādhu! Sādhu!”—just celebrating Her. And then he says, "Priyā, my dear one, my beloved, you have asked about the very essence of the Tantras, the very essence of what is taught in the scriptures, the very essence of this path.” He goes on,
गूहनीयतमम् भद्रे तथापि कथयामि ते |
यत्किंचित् सकलं रूपं भैरवस्य प्रकीर्तितम् || ८ ||
gūhanīyatamam bhadre tathāpi kathayāmi te |
yatkiṃcit sakalaṃ rūpaṃ bhairavasya prakīrtitam || 8 ||
तद् असारतया देवि विज्ञेयं शक्रजालवत् |
मायास्वप्नोपमं चैव गन्धर्वनगरभ्रमम् || ९ ||
tad asāratayā devi vijñeyaṃ śakrajālavat |
māyā-svapnopamaṃ caiva gandharva-nagara-bhramam || 9 ||
ध्यानार्थम् भ्रान्तबुद्धीनां क्रियाडम्बरवर्तिनाम् |
केवलं वर्णितम् पुंसां विकल्पनिहतात्मनाम् || १० ||
dhyānārtham bhrānta-buddhīnāṃ kriyāḍambara-vartinām |
kevalaṃ varṇitam puṃsāṃ vikalpa-nihatātmanām || 10 ||
“[8.] I shall relate this most hidden of teachings to you, virtuous one. Know that the anthropomorphic forms of Bhairava I have taught in the scriptures [9.] are not the real essence, O Goddess. They are like a magic trick, like dreams or illusions or castles in the sky, [10.] taught only to help focus the meditations of those who are debilitated by dualistic thought, their minds confused, entangled in the details of ritual action.”
(translation of verse 10 influenced by that of Sanderson)
In other words, he says, “I taught those things to meet those people where they are and to support them where they are. But they are not the real essence.” And he goes on to carefully acknowledge everything Bhairavī has said. (Another great model for relating!) He carefully acknowledges each of her proposals, lovingly saying,
तत्त्वतो न नवात्मासौ शब्दराशिर् न भैरवः |
न चासौ त्रिशिरा देवो न च शक्तित्रयात्मकः || ११ ||
tattvato na navātmāsau śabda-rāśir na bhairavaḥ |
na cāsau triśirā devo na ca śakti-trayātmakaḥ || 11 ||
नादबिन्दुमयो वापि न चन्द्रार्धनिरोधिकाः |
न चक्रक्रमसम्भिन्नो न च शक्तिस्वरूपकः || १२ ||
nāda-bindu-mayo vāpi na candrārdha-nirodhikāḥ |
na cakra-krama-sambhinno na ca śakti-svarūpakaḥ || 12 ||
अप्रबुद्धमतीनां हि एता बलविभीषिकाः |
मातृमोदकवत् सर्वं प्रवृत्त्यर्थं उदाहृतम् || १३ ||
aprabuddha-matīnāṃ hi etā bala-vibhīṣikāḥ |
mātṛ-modakavat sarvaṃ pravṛttyarthaṃ udāhṛtam || 13 ||
“[11.] In reality [the true form of] Bhairava is not Navātman, nor the mass of mystic phonemes (śabda-rāśi), nor the trinity of śaktis (the three Goddesses of the Trika), nor the Three-headed [form of Bhairava (whose three ‘heads’ are those very Goddesses)], [12.] nor does it consist of the Resonance and the Point, nor the Half-moon and the Impeder, nor that which is combined with the sequence of the Chakras,* nor [simply] Energy [itself]. [13.] All these were taught to help unawakened people make progress [on the path], like a mother uses sweets and threats to influence her children’s behaviour.”
(translation of verse 13 influenced by that of Sanderson)
He is saying, “In reality, the divine, awe-inspiring power of consciousness (this is what Bhairava means here) is not any of these things ultimately.” It is those things, but they are not its ultimate reality. All of these Tantrik ways of accessing the Divine were taught to help those who are not yet awakened make progress on the path.
Why this metaphor of a mother using sweets and threats? It could be an allusion to the different forms of Deity that are taught in the tradition. The saumya or sweet-looking forms (like Lakṣhmī and Amṛteśvara) and the aghora or scary-looking forms (like Mahākāla and Chāmuṇḍā): both are different ways of inspiring you to move forward on the path. Frightening forms of Deity represent, for example, the healthy fear of remaining in the dream-state; the healthy fear of remaining trapped in your cycle of suffering. That is and should be scary! The fierce deities remind you of that, as well as reminding you of your mortality. The sweet forms of Deity, on the other hand, remind you of the blissful nectar that will flow as a result of your engagement with this process of awakening and liberation.
But the metaphor of ‘sweets’ (modaka) in the above verse also alludes to the fact that the scriptures describe non-ultimate benefits of tantrik yoga practice—they say you can become more successful in worldly life through this practice, you can become more wealthy, you can become more attractive to others, and so on. The authors of the scriptures knew that people would get involved in the practice for some of the same reasons that people initially get involved in yoga today: to look better, to feel better, to be sexier. That’s why people first walk in the door of a yoga studio, but that’s not why they stay. They discover something much deeper.
Similarly, Bhairava is implying that people get involved in the practice because of these tempting possibilities of increased power and pleasure, and then they discover something much deeper and more sublime. (I know many many people like that, dedicated yogis who started in what you might call a superficial way, just for fitness or whatever. That’s why in any healthy spiritual community, we welcome people to start wherever they are, seeking whatever they think they’re after, and then unveil this deeper opportunity of spiritual awakening for whoever is ready to engage it.)
Having confirmed what the ultimate reality is not, Bhairava finally reveals what it is. But he must use paradoxical language to do so:
दिक्कालकलनोन्मुक्ता देशोद्देशाविशेषिनी |
व्यपदेष्टुम् अशक्यासाव् अकथ्या परमार्थतः || १४ ||
dik-kāla-kalanonmuktā deśoddeśāviśeṣinī |
vyapadeṣṭum aśakyāsāv akathyā paramārthataḥ || 14 ||
अन्तःस्वानुभवानन्दा विकल्पोन्मुक्तगोचरा |
यावस्था भरिताकारा भैरवी भैरवात्मनः || १५ ||
antaḥsvānubhavānandā vikalponmukta-gocarā |
yāvasthā bharitākārā bhairavī bhairavātmanaḥ || 15 ||
तद् वपुस् तत्त्वतो ज्ञेयं विमलं विश्वपूरणम् |
tad vapus tattvato jñeyaṃ vimalaṃ viśva-pūraṇam | 16ab
“Know that in reality, the one pure universe-filling essence of Bhairava is that absolutely full state of being called Goddess Bhairavī: that which is beyond reckoning in space or time, without direction or locality, impossible to signify, ultimately indescribable, a field free of mental constructs, [but is] blissful with the experience of that which is inmost (antaḥsvānubhavānandā).”
These exquisite verses reveal the ultimate nature of reality, that which all spiritual practice is aimed at realizing. The scripture describes it in beautiful and profound language, but what it’s ultimately pointing towards is something quite simple: the state of a very full heart, a heart that is full to overflowing, brimming over with love, joy, presence, and awareness. That is ultimate state as taught in the Vijñāna-bhairava-tantra. The text is explicitly saying that this absolutely full state of consciousness is both the goal of spiritual practice and the goal of this particular lineage. It articulates the goal in two words, bharitākārā-avasthā: the absolutely full state of being. Consciousness blissfully replete with self-awareness. And the word bharita- is specifically chosen because it shares the same root as the word Bhairavī. She is that state of overflowing fullness.
Bhairava then goes on to say that this state of fullness is antaḥsvānubhavānandā, which means “blissful with the experience of that which is inmost,” that which is the most intimate part of you (antaḥsva), and yet remains undiscovered by those who don’t learn how to look deep within. In other words, He explains that the state of fullness in question is specifically full of the bliss of the experience of your own innermost being (which is identical to that which is innermost in all conscious beings).
Then he gives some details about the ineffable nature of this state. This is where it gets interesting to a linguist, because in English translations, you always put the main subject first and then fill in adjectival details afterwards, especially when there’s a lot of them; but here in the Sanskrit, what we actually have is a gradual build-up to a stunning reveal. Let me give you another translation in the Sanskrit word order. This is the order of phrases that, if you understood Sanskrit and you were listening to the text being recited, you would hear as the description of the ultimate reality:
“Beyond reckoning in space or time, without direction or locality, impossible to signify, ultimately indescribable, blissful with the experience of that which is inmost, a field free of mental constructs: that state of fullness is the Goddess Bhairavī, the very essence (ātman) of Bhairava. That is the form that is ultimately real; that is what most ought to be known and experienced; that is absolutely pure and pervades the entire universe.”
That is the order in which the phrases come in Sanskrit. In verse 15, Bhairava is essentially saying to Bhairavī: “You are the best part of me. You’re the ultimate essence of what I am.” He literally says, “that state of fullness is Goddess Bhairavī, the ātman of Bhairava.” And remember, he’s speaking to Bhairavī, so he’s implicitly saying to Her: “What is the ultimate reality? It’s You. It is you as you are in your real nature: overflowing with the fullness of ineffable, blissful beingness.
“In reality, the answer to your quest(ion) is and always has been you. Know yourself, then, as you really are: an absolutely full state of pure being that needs nothing outside of itself, that is beyond mental understanding or imagining, and is blissful with the experience of simply being itself.”
Since here Bhairava and Bhairavī are modelling the real-life teacher-student relationship, this answer to the ultimate question applies equally to you, dear reader. OṂ!
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APPENDIX: Word-by-word breakdown
14. dik-kāla-kalanonmuktā = beyond reckoning in space or time
deśoddeśāviśeṣinī = without direction or locality (i.e., not in one place more than another; nonlocal)
vyapadeṣṭum aśakyāsāv = impossible to indicate/explain/signify
akathyā paramārthataḥ = ultimately indescribable (i.e., not verbalizable in the final analysis)
15. antaḥsvānubhavānandā = blissful with the experience of that which is inmost
vikalponmukta-gocarā = a field (of perception/awareness) free of mental constructs, imagination, etc. (vikalpa-s)
yāvasthā bharitākārā bhairavī bhairavātmanaḥ = that state of overflowing fullness [pointed at by the phrases above] IS Bhairavī, the essence (ātman) of Bhairava.
16. tad vapus tattvato = it is THAT beautiful embodied essence which is ultimately true, real, and fundamental,
jñeyaṃ = it ought to be known/experienced,
vimalaṃ = is is inherently pure, [and]
viśva-pūraṇam = it pervades everything (viśva), the whole universe (viśva) of experience.
*FOOTNOTE: curiously, Bhairava uses the phrase “that which is combined with the sequence of the Chakras” whereas previously Bhairavī had asked about “the mantra-phoneme installed in the Chakra”. Are we supposed to understand that the word cakra in Bhairavī’s initial question should in fact be construed in the plural? Or is Bhairava referring to a slightly different practice, one in which a bīja mantra is installed in each chakra?