Verse 16: Vāgdevatā-nyāsa

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 16:

पूरुषत्वसमवाप्तिहेतुपुर्यष्टकाख्यनिजसूक्ष्मवर्ष्मणः ।
चित्पदे लयविधानम् अष्टवाग्देवतान्यसनम् इष्टम् उत्तमम् ॥ १६ ॥

pūruṣatvasamavāptihetupuryaṣṭakākhyanijasūkṣmavarṣmaṇaḥ |
citpade layavidhānam aṣṭavāgdevatānyasanam iṣṭam uttamam || 16 ||

The higher form of the mantric installation of the eight speech goddesses (Vāgdevatās) is prescribed as the practice of dissolving one’s own subtle body called the “fortress of the eight,” which perpetuates individuality, into the field of consciousness.

Notes:

The worship of the eight Vāgdevatās (Vāśinī, Kāmeśvarī, Modinī, Vimalā, Aruṇā, Jayinī, Sarveśvarī, and Kaulinī) is a specialized aspect of Śrīvidyā that is not found, to the same degree, in other Kaula and tantric lineages. Śrīvidyā's relationship with the eight Vāgdevatās can be seen in a number of important ways including within the Vāgdevatā-nyāsa that Amṛtānanda contemplates in this verse.

It is said that the Vāgdevatās (at the request of Lalitā Mahātripurasundarī) composed her sahasranāma, a collection of a thousand of her most sacred and secret names. The Vāgdevatās are also worshiped within the Śrīcakra at the highly exalted position of the seventh āvaraṇa known as the Sarvarogahara cakra, the remover of all disease. This cakra is presided over by

Tripurāsiddhā, who is known as the controller of the^[1] rahasya (secret) yoginīs that populate the Śrīcakra at this level. The mudrā used to express this āvaraṇa is known as the Sarvakhecarī mudrā, which is performed simultaneously with the recitation of the Khecarī bīja, both of which denote a state of completely free, and nondual, consciousness.^[2]

The Vāgdevatās are also considered to be forms of Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning, knowledge, and the arts. Each of the Vāgdevatās have their own individual bīja mantras, which are given in the first chapter of the Nityāṣoḍaśikārṇavatantra (1.65-78), and their own gāyatrī mantras which are given in the Śrīvidyārṇavatantra. More detailed information about their iconography and other elements such as their yantras are not readily available, if they exist at all.

The Vāgdevatās, being the goddesses of speech (vāc), each preside over a Sanskrit varga (class of syllables) within the Sanskrit syllabary as follows:

-) Vāśinī rules over the "a" varga: a, ā, i, ī, u, ū, ṛ, ṝ, ḷ, ḹ, e, ai, o, au, aṃ, aḥ;
-) Kāmeśvarī rules over the "ka" varga: ka, kha, ga, gha, ṅa;
-) Modinī rules over the "ca" varga: ca, cha, ja, jha, ña;
-) Vimalā rules over the "ṭa" varga: ṭa, ṭha, ḍa, ḍha, ṇa;
-) Aruṇā rules over the "ta" varga: ta, tha, da, dha, na;
-) Jayinī rules over the "pa" varga: pa, pha, ba, bha, ma;
-) Sarveśvarī rules over the "ya" varga: ya, ra, la, va;
-) Kaulinī rules over the "śa" varga: śa, ṣa, sa, ha, kṣa.

Taken as a whole, these eight goddesses preside over the entirety of the Sanskrit akṣaras.

As mentioned above, the Vāgdevatās are worshiped in the seventh āvaraṇa of the Śrīcakra which hosts eight triangles and forms the puryaṣṭaka, also known as the "fortress of eight," a critical concept in Śaivism that is sometimes referred to as, "the subtle body." The Vāgdevatās, as goddesses of the subtler (secret and unseen) aspects language, issue forth from the puryaṣṭaka of the goddess. The puryaṣṭaka is comprised of eight elements that vary significantly between texts and traditions.

The fortieth verse of the Kāmakalāvilāsa teaches that the aṣṭakoṇa (eight triangles), inhabited by Vāśinī and the rest, is the puryaṣṭaka of the goddess and consists of the cakra, the self, and pure consciousness.^[3] Naṭānandanātha, in his commentary on this verse of the Kāmakalāvilāsa cites a verse attributed to the Svacchandatantra that teaches the eight elements of the puryaṣṭaka are, "citi, citta, caitanya, indriya karma, jīva, kalā, and śarīra."^[4] Amṛtānanda's Dīpikā commentary on the Yoginīhṛdayatantra (3.131) teaches that the puryaṣṭaka consists of citi, citta, caitanya, cetanādvayakarma, jīva, kalā, and śarīra. Śivānanda, in seventeenth verse of his Subhagodayavāsanā, records the opinion of his guru and teaches they are related to consciousness, bliss, nirvāṇa, and other elements. Bhāskararāya, in his Setubandha commentary on the Nityāṣoḍaśikārṇavatantra, teaches the eight elements are the karmendriyas, jñānendriyas, manas, the prāṇas, the elements viyat etc., kāma, karma, and tamas.^[5] Through the lens of the twenty-first verse of the Bhāvanopaniṣad, the Vāgdevatās are connected to the sensations of cold, heat, pleasure, pain, desire, and the three guṇas (sattva, rajas, and tamas).^[6] As these texts and ācāryas highlight, the puryaṣṭaka is a highly debated concept in Śrīvidyā, let alone Śaivism.

The puryaṣṭaka provides a framework for one to experience the world, but it also gives contracted consciousness, as the individualized and limited soul (jīvātma), a form to hold onto.

In this way, the puryaṣṭaka can bind pure nondual consciousness to the ego, mind, and the senses—the very method by which individualized consciousness stays engrossed in saṃsāra, the cycles of birth and death. Śaivism teaches that the puryaṣṭaka travels with the individual soul like a swan flying from lake to lake as it transmigrates through saṃsāra, holding all of the past actions, tendencies, preferences, and karma that will accompany the individual soul into whatever incarnation they take up next in their journey. In this sense, attachment to the "fortress of eight" is the very cause of spiritual bondage and the cycle of rebirth. Accordingly, destroying attachment to the puryaṣṭaka is equivalent to ending saṃsāra and fully identifying with supreme consciousness. This realization, and letting go, allows consciousness masquerading as the individual soul to no longer see the puryaṣṭaka as a burden, or a heavy weight, but rather as a vehicle that one only temporarily travels in and which has no real bearing on one's true identity. Amṛtānanda understands the supreme form of Vāgdevatānyāsa to consist of dissolving one's puryaṣṭaka, that consists of eight elements, into pure consciousness.

Amṛtānanda's contemplation on the supreme nature of the Vāgdevatānyāsa has a close parallel with Śivānanda's teachings in the Subhagodayavāsanā:

मातृकावर्गसंयुक्तवशिन्याद्यष्टकस्मृतेः ।
विमृशामि महाहन्तां परिपूर्णचिदात्मिकाम् ॥ २७ ॥

mātṛkāvargasaṃyuktavaśinyādyaṣṭakasmṛteḥ |
vimṛśāmi mahāhantāṃ paripūrṇacidātmikām || 27 ||

"I become aware of that profound awareness of “I” that is all-encompassing consciousness from remembering the set of eight [Goddesses] beginning with Vaśinī who are connected to the [eight] classes of the syllabary."^[7]

Further note: Becoming aware of ahantā, also means becoming aware of [the mantra, or source of potency of all mantras] AHAM, which is the form of subjectivity that encompasses all the phonemes, from A to HA. Thus contemplating the eight vargas in this way, makes space for, pūrṇāhamvimarśama. On AHAM, which Abhinavagupta teaches right after the phonematic emanation, see Tantrāloka 3.200cd-208ab.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

See notes to verse thirteen.

[2]:

See verse thirty-eight.

[3]:

Woodroffe 1922, 60.

[4]:

Woodroffe 1922, 61.

[5]:

Ibid.

[6]:

See Mira, 1976, 19.

[7]:

Translation and further note by Ben Williams.