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VBT verse 54 ~ Yukti #27 ~ tattva-śuddhi (an āṇava-upāya practice suitable for intermediate practitioners):
स्वदेहे जगतो वापि सूक्ष्मसूक्ष्मतराणि च ।
तत्त्वानि यानि निलयं ध्यात्वान्ते व्यज्यते परा ।। ५४ ।।
sva-dehe jagato vāpi sūkṣma-sūkṣmatarāṇi ca |
tattvāni yāni nilayaṃ dhyātvānte vyajyate parā || 54 ||
Meditating on the Principles of Reality dissolving, each more subtle than the last, in one’s own body or even in the world, the Supreme Goddess (Parā) manifests in the end.
Word-by-word breakdown: sva-dehe = in one’s own body; jagataḥ = of the world; vāpi = or even; sūkṣma-sūkṣmatarāṇi = subtler and subtler; tattvāni = principles of reality (pl. of tattva); yāni = those, which; OR going (commentator Śi. acknowledges this ambiguity and cites an alternate reading, yātāni layam); nilayam = dissolution, disappearance; dhyātvā = meditating, visualizing; ante = in the end [of that process]; vyajyate = manifests, is manifested; parā = the Supreme (fem.).
Explanation: This verse is quite esoteric for one who’s not already steeped in classical Tantrik tradition. It makes reference to the tattvas or principles of reality. In the very ancient Sāṅkhya philosophy, there were 25 tattvas or principles of reality taught. Sāṅkhya was absorbed into the Tantrik tradition which then expanded on the principles of reality articulated in that earlier philosophy. The Tantrik tradition teaches 36 tattvas or principles of reality, adding 11 more tattvas on top of the Sāṅkhya system. It’s this addition which really distinguishes Tantrik philosophy. I refer you to my book Tantra Illuminated where all of the 36 tattvas are explained in some detail, especially the uniquely Tantrik tattvas.
Tantra argued that Sāṅkhya, and the Pātañjalian Yoga based on it, which scholars often call Classical Yoga, was an incomplete system. The Tantrik tradition absorbed that system but radically reconfigured it by adding these 11 tattvas, which include five different aspects of divine Consciousness (or God, if you will), which were completely absent in the Sāṅkhya system. Being an atheistic philosophy, divinity (God and/or Goddess) is not part of Sāṅkhya, and is very much a part of the Tantrik system. The 36 tattvas or principles of reality taken all together provide a comprehensive phenomenological map, that is, a map of the experience of embodied consciousness—including less common experiences of absolute unity-consciousness, overarching divinity, etc.
This tattva-map goes from the most obvious or tangible or coarse principles at the bottom to the most subtle and transcendental principles at the top, from Earth element to formless Śiva or absolute divine consciousness. At least, Śiva is the highest principle in mainstream Tantra, but the Vijñāna-bhairava-tantra is part of a Goddess tradition actually puts the Supreme Goddess (Parā Devī) at the very top of the tattva hierarchy, and that’s what we see in the present verse. More on this below.
Let’s look at the verse a little more closely. It says that we are to meditate on the principles of reality, the tattvas, dissolving, each more subtle than the last, within one’s own body or in the world. This last statement makes sense because in Tantrik philosophy each embodied human or sentient being is a microcosm of the whole universe. And the universe is a macrocosm of each sentient being. So the same 36 principles of reality that constitute our embodied consciousness constitute the whole universe as well, at least insofar as we are able to experience it.
The usual way to do the practice that the verse alludes to is through contemplating each tattva dissolving into the tattvas above it. Earth element dissolves into Water, which dissolves into Fire, which dissolves into Wind, which dissolves into Space, and so on. I won’t go through all the tattvas here, but one meditates on each tattva dissolving into the tattva above it until one reaches the summit of the cosmic hierarchy.
The key here is that this practice is impossible to do unless you’re intimately familiar with the tattva system. You have to have it perfectly memorized and internalized in order to meditate on each tattva dissolving into the one above, x36. The great majority of Tantrik practitioners opt for a simplified form of the practice called bhūta-śuddhi, in which you simply work with the five great elements, with Space dissolving into pure Essence. This fits with the teaching in the verse above, which says the Supreme Goddess, Parā Devī, “manifests in the end.” She is the personification of our deepest essence-nature. It’s significant that she is mentioned here, because rather than utterly transcendent Shiva topping the cosmic hierarchy, as is the case in other Tantrik lineages, here in the Kaula Trika it’s Goddess Parā, who is simultaneously transcendent and immanent. She transcends all the tattvas and yet is present in Her fullness within all of them at the same time. She manifests as all the principles of reality, all the factors of our lived experience, and yet is incomprehensibly more than the sum of those principles, those factors. She is much more than meets the eye, and yet she’s everything the eye can meet. (The eye being synecdochic for all the senses, including the mind.) The Supreme Goddess is beyond anything the mind can grasp and beyond anything the senses can perceive—that’s what transcendent means. But She simultaneously manifests as all the phenomena of lived experience—that’s what immanent means.
Again, most Tantrik practitioners, both historically and in modern times, opt(ed) for practice of bhūta-śuddhi, which involves just five tattvas plus Goddess-Essence. Below you will find a recording of the practice, which includes specific mantras and visualizations. It’s an absolutely central practice of classical Tantra. This practice recording is also found in the new VBT app, TANTRA 112. It gives you a sense of the depth of the practices on offer in the app.
The following precisely accurate diagram may help you orient to the practice:
Art by Carmen Richards, an accomplished Denver-based artist.
The image depicts traditional Tantrik visualizations for the five Great Elements: a golden-yellow square (or cube), marked by four vajras, reaching up to the pelvic floor; a silvery bowl of pure water, optionally adorned with two lavender water-lilies, coterminous with the pelvic bowl; a triangle (or pyramid) made of fire, centered on the heart, and optionally adorned with svastikas (not depicted); a six-pointed star with six spheres of smoke at the six points, the uppermost point at the third eye; and a sphere of pure space, which can be as depicted or infinitely vast. At the top you see a cobalt blue Essence-bindu. Note that not all these details are mentioned verbally in the guided meditation above.
The practice of bhūta-śuddhi is ubiquitous throughout the Tantrik tradition, and is done with special Tantrik bīja-mantras for the five elements, not the exoteric bījas many are familiar with (laṃ, vaṃ, raṃ, etc.). You’ll hear them in the guided practice.
If one wanted to attempted a full tattva-śuddhi, which I do not recommend without being intimately familiar with all 36 tattvas, then one way is to meditate on the tattvas within the central channel with Earth at the pelvic floor and Sadāśiva at the crown of the head (the brahmarandhra), and the 33 tattvas between those two arrayed all along the central. And then the final tattvas, Śakti, Śiva, and the all-inclusive Supreme Goddess as the 37th tattva (called tattva #0 in Tantra Illuminated, counting the other way) are above the head in the psychic space which extends beyond the physical body. In the highly simplified version of tattva-śuddhi, you put your attention on the pelvic floor and feel the Earth element there, and imagine it dissolving upward just a couple of centimeters into the Water element, within the central channel, and so on through all the following tattvas, all the way up to śuddha-vidyā tattva at the third eye, Īśvara tattva above that, behind the forehead, Sadāśiva at the crown, Śakti several centimeters above that, Śiva several centimeters above that, and the all-inclusive Supreme Goddess above that but also pervading the entire central channel, which is the microcosm of the whole universe we experience.
NOTE: the commentator Śivopādhyāya says that this meditation should be done at the time of physical death in order to merge into the Supreme Goddess.
ALTERNATIVE TRANSLATIONS:
b) If the yogī thinks deeply that the subtle and subtler constitutive principles of one's own body or of the world are being absorbed in their own respective causes, then at the end, Parā Devī or the supreme goddess is revealed. (SINGH)
c) Having meditated on the merger of the subtle and (then progressively) most subtle principles within one’s own body or the world (back into one another), in the end (the goddess) Parā is revealed. (DYCZKOWSKI)
d) If one meditates on the subtlest elements in one's own body or of the world as if they were merging one after another, then in the end the Supreme (Goddess) is revealed. (BÄUMER)
e) Visualizing the levels of being dissolving away, into more and more subtle levels, at the end the Supreme (Goddess) will manifest clearly. (DUBOIS)
f) Dharana on those constituents which comprise one’s own body and the whole universe, such as the tattwas and tanmatras, from subtle to subtlest, leads to the source of existence. (In this way) Paradevi, the supreme goddess, (is revealed) at the end of meditation. (SATSANGI)
g) Meditate that the constitutive elements of one’s own body, or the world are becoming subtle and more subtle, until they finally disappear. In the end, the Supreme Goddess is revealed. (CHAUDHRI)
h) By meditating on the subtle and subtler contents of one’s own body or that of the whole world getting merged (into their respective causes), one at the end finds the Supreme Goddess manifesting Herself before him. (Singh & Maheśvarānanda)
i) Si l’on médite sur les catégories subtiles ainsi que sur les catégories très subtiles, (incluses) dans son propre corps, ou bien sur celles de l’univers comme si elles se résorbaient les unes dans les autres, finalement, la suprême (Déesse) se révélera. (SILBURN)
j) On doit visualiser que les (trente-six) éléments qui forment notre corps et le monde se dissolvent (les uns dans les autres), de plus en plus subtils. À la fin se manifestera la (Déesse) Suprême. (DUBOIS)
k) Wenn man darüber meditiert, wie alle Elemente im Körper und im Kosmos immer subtiler werden und sich ineinander auflösen, dann offenbart sich am Ende die Göttin Transzendenz. (BÄUMER)
l) Si se contempla cómo los principios en el cuerpo o también en el cosmos se disuelven sucesivamente según su grado de sutileza, al final, la Suprema (parā) se revela. (FIGUEROA)
m) If subtler and subtler tattvas are absorbed into their own origin, the supreme Goddess will be revealed to you. (ODIER)
n) Feel the fine qualities of creativity permeating your breasts and assuming delicate configurations. (REPS)
o) DaleAnn Gray’s rendering:
Contemplate involution
from subtle to subtler still
in your body or
in the world.
Finally,
She appears.