AdvaitaVedanta

tavadhare mule saha samayaya lasya paraya
navatmanam manye navarasa maha tandava natam
ubhabhyam etabhyam udayavidham uddisya dayaya
sanathabhyam jajne janakajananimaj jagad idam

I meditate on your new self, as placed at your Muladhara, together with Samaya
Given to her light-step dance as also that great bold-step dancer;
Giving expression thereby to all nine aesthetic interests, thus by their joint lordship,
By mercy intending the rebirth of the world, they confer on it the renewed status of having both father and mother.

Verse 41 expressly refers by name to the conventionally recognized Muladhara Chakra. Already in Verse 9 the same Muladhara has been referred to as “earth”. There the Chakras were mentioned in an ascending order, starting with the Muladhara as the lowest, about which there seems to be sufficient agreement between textbooks of Yoga. Muladhara evidently has a firm ontological reference in the terra firma itself, so there is no room for ambiguity in the matter of fixing its epistemological status among the Chakras.

There are particular uncertainties to be noted about the actual number of Chakras to be officially admitted into our discussion for the purposes of this work. In Verse 9, counting the Chakras that have been named and structurally located in an ontologically biased phenomenological scheme, we find that the Sahasrara Padma (thousand-petalled lotus) figures as the upper limiting point, making seven Chakras in all. In the structure of the Sri Chakra, as described in Verse 11, we find the nine centres of prakrti or mulaprakrti (prime nature). If we now ask ourselves if there would be any objection to including a tenth, it becomes a fairly ambiguous matter to decide one way or the other. For purposes of structural symmetry, it would be easier, mathematically at least, to think of “five plus five” as making up the totality of the Chakras.

This is not, however, favoured by Sankara, who cannot be said to be without a sense of neatness in his mathematical abstractions and generalisations. Ten can be arrived at by adding one to nine, or nine by subtracting one from ten. When ascending dialectics is involved, adding one to nine would be normal, but in descending dialectics it would be normal to subtract one from ten. The demands of mechanistic symmetry are not the same as those of a truly structural symmetry which respects such factors as reciprocity and complementarity. As in the case of extras accompanying a football team, where the bigger number could be favoured; here the tendency toward numbers greater than the minimum required could not be taken as objectionable. Two extras for a match could reasonably accompany a team , even though they will not necessarily be employed in the match itself. Only one of them may be required in the normal course of events, but in principle the other is also necessary, though he will not usually actually enter into the game. A similar status has to be given to the limiting Chakra at the plus or minus ends, depending upon the contingency that might call for their entry into the game. There is an “either/or” option presented here, whether it is an ascending or a descending series with which we happen to be concerned. The status of the Sahasrara Chakra in Verse 9, which would make seven very tangible Chakras, is thus to be treated as an extra when we accept six as the normal basis. The Muladhara Chakra could similarly have a tenth one added to its negative limit. It is not difficult to recognize a certain methodological alternative choice implied in the enumeration of different Chakras in different textbooks, for which we have to make some allowance. By making such allowances we could recognize six basic Chakras, referred to ordinarily as the sad adhara or sad chakra. When Verse 9 and the present reference to Muladhara and five others are considered together (Verses 36 - 41), keeping in our minds the either/or ambiguities involved, it will be possible for us to justify the nine of mulaprakrti (prime nature) represented in the Sri Chakra itself. The word prakrti would suggest an ontological perspective rather than a teleological one. This does not mean that a teleological perspective has to be ruled out altogether, for both ascending and descending methods are equally permissible.

With these general remarks in our minds, if we should now scrutinize the chart attached and take into consideration the Chakras marked in each of the two Upanishads, to which we have decided to give authoritative recognition for our purposes, it should be possible for us to recognize a certain interphysical and trans-subjective relationship between the two sets of Chakras, revealing a normalized pattern which is always the same Sri Chakra.

Some have suggested that we could invert the Sri Chakra to obtain the Shiva (male) Chakra, but such an inversion is not called for because Vedanta, at least with Sankara, gives primacy to ontological cause over teleological effect in its recognized methodology. A rope is more real than the idea of a snake superimposed on it. Existence must have primacy over essence, as even modern existentialists claim. Sense data cannot be explained away, and any philosophy that tends to such a form of idealism only discredits itself by having to contradict common sense at every stage of its speculation. Appearance might over cover reality, but reality is not abolished thereby. Thus it is that the Sri Chakra calls the nine centres by the name mulaprakrti. Mula means “root” or “source”, and prakrti means “nature”. The ontological bias here is inevitable and necessary for a fully scientific approach. If a value called absolute beauty is to come within human experience at all, the eighth Chakra or Adhara could be added to or subtracted from the basic seven recognized in Verse 9 and could be named either Brahma Chakra or Brahma Randhra as seen in the two alternative Upanishads that we have used for reference (see Appendix). Thus the term astabandha (eight stable positions) sometimes used in connection with the installation of temple images could be justified in terms meaning “eight bonds”. One more detail remains to be clarified. In Verse 11 we have referred to four srikanthas, evidently referring to masculine deities used as a monomark. Any monomark having a numerator reference could be considered as masculine. In the present verse we find a reference to Shiva, as a masculine divinity, dancing with parity of status with a feminine divinity, although the Muladhara refers to a lower limit in the total situation. The masculine divinity here still has a numerator reference, just as in Verse 9 the female divinity is promoted to the seventh Chakra, beyond the Chakras known to the Kula path, which still has a denominator reference. “New” means that his reference is on the numerator side, while Samaya's reference is normal.

1. “Your new self” (navatmanam)
This must have an Omega Point reference and thus must imply a masculine Shiva, because the feminine is already represented by the other goddess called Samaya, who has a normal status with an ontological reference. Newness only implies that its reference is positive.

2. “Your Muladhara”
Each Chakra represents the totality of the Absolute in a normalized form in the context of beauty as a tangible reality. This reference in the second person singular is therefore justified. The word Muladhara still refers to the ontological or “source” side of the situation.

3. “Samaya”
The status of the goddess Samaya remains the same. Because the school of Samayins were not aware of the rival cancellable aspects, their approach was unilateral, immanent and within the scope of the three Gunas. A similar goddess is under reference in Verses 34, 37 and 39. According to the context we have to give a legitimate status to each of these Samaya goddesses or divinities.

4. “Her lasya Dance”
Lasya and Tandava are the two styles of dancing proper to feminine and masculine dancers, respectively. Tandava is characterized by a sinus curve that is vertical, like a frequency, while Lasya has a horizontal reference as in a wavelength. This distinction is well known in the Bharata Natyam school of classical Indian dance.

5. “All nine aesthetic interests” (navarasa)
The nine aesthetic interests could be multiplied by two, as applying to visual or auditory expressions in art. Basically, there are nine which apply to both.

6. “Joint lordship” (sanathabhyam ubabhyam)
A husband and wife could be considered as master and mistress. Thus, there is a kind of lordship, whether masculine or feminine, applied within the parity of status of the two divinities here. Vertically viewed, they are not husband and wife but father and mother. It is the grace or the sanction of the total Goddess that gives room for all these possibilities or probabilities.

7. “Intending the rebirth of the world” (udaya vidhim uddisya)
The rebirth is intended to be considered as taking place every split second. In Verse 55, the opening and shutting of the eyes represents creation and dissolution. Between the contradiction of opening and shutting the eyes, there is a purer process of becoming which knows no contraries; this has a third- or fourth-dimensional status which should not be mixed up with alternate creation and dissolution.

8. “Renewed status”
Renewed status implies that dissolution took place once, as understood in the idea of the great deluge (pralaya). Alternation of creation and dissolution can be viewed in the eternal present or as in an eternal moment. Plato's writings justify both these possibilities (Cf. “Parmenides” or “Timaeus”)

9. “Father and mother” (janaka jananimat)
Conferring parenthood implies the idea of having both father and mother, as opposed to being an orphan in respect of one or the other. The correct opposite; double orphanhood, which is anterior to this moment, is what is to be kept in mind here.

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