Saubhagyahrdayastotra by Sivananda
by Brian Campbell and Ben Williams | 2024 | 11,962 words
This is the English translation of the Saubhagyahrdayastotra (“praise to the heart of auspiciousness”) by Sivananda (fl. 13th century South India), who was one of the earliest interpreters of the Tantric tradition of goddess worship known as Shri-Vidya. The Saubhagyahrdaya Stotra embodies Shivananda’s synthesis of foundational Shaiva doctrine, Kund...
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Verse 12 (text and translation)
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 12:
संविद्देव्यः समाक्रम्य विषयान् अमृतासवान् ।
योगिनां प्रेषयन्त्य् आर्ये त्वत्पूजार्थं हि सर्वदा ॥ १२ ॥saṃviddevyaḥ samākramya viṣayān amṛtāsavān |
yogināṃ preṣayanty ārye tvatpūjārthaṃ hi sarvadā || 12 ||To venerate You, O Noble Lady, the Goddesses of Awareness forever pervade the sense objects of yogīs and reveal them as distillations of nectar.
Notes:
The goddesses of awareness (saṃviddevīs) play an important role in many tantric traditions including as deities of the senses and as goddesses who bestow initiation to practitioners. In[1] this verse, Śivānanda presents a heightened form of Kaula practice (kulācāra) where the practitioner's senses are divinized as the saṃviddevīs and through their awakened interaction with sense objects, the latter are revealed to be pure nectar.
In contradistinction to many mainstream and orthodox religious traditions that teach engaging with the senses hinders spiritual practices by expending energy outwards, upsetting the vital energies, and overexciting the mind, several kulācāra practices (such as described in this verse) teach that subtle meditations upon the senses can actually lead to heightened states of awareness. The immediate background to more comprehensively understanding such practices is the well-known Kaula doctrine that the human body is a maṇḍala. Within Śrīvidyā it is taught the body, with its nine openings, is the Śrīcakra and its many goddesses are actually taught to[2] be the senses.[3]
Maheśvarānanda teaches in his Mahārthamañjarī that the goddesses of the senses (karaṇadevatās) reside along with Śiva within the body of the practitioner in the following verse:
अण्डमये निजपिण्डे पीठे स्फुरन्ति करणदेव्यः ।
प्रस्फुरति च परमशिवो ज्ञाननिधिस् तासां मध्ये ॥ ३४ ॥aṇḍamaye nijapiṇḍe pīṭhe sphuranti karaṇadevyaḥ |
prasphurati ca paramaśivo jñānanidhis tāsāṃ madhye || 34 ||“The goddesses of the senses pulse radiantly in the scared seat (pīṭha) that is one's own body consisting of the universe. And in their midst shines Supreme Śiva, the treasure of consciousness.”[4]
Similar practices to what Śivānanda is describing in this verse can be found throughout Kaula tantras and are often focused on maintaining stable awareness of the sequential (krama) unfolding of consciousness through experiencing and recognizing their flows in sensory[5] perceptions and enjoyments. By paying close attention to the flux of how consciousness comes into being, the practitioner expands their subjectivity and awareness of the dynamic structure of consciousness and reality. Meditating on perception through the senses is not meant to increase sensory enjoyments—one doesn't need to practice spiritual disciplines to enjoy their senses! On the contrary, when practiced by qualified adepts, subtle meditations on perception and sensory enjoyment can actually lead the senses, prāṇa (subtle life-force), and the mind back to their origin in pure luminous consciousness and are a hallmark of Kaula yogic practice. The Vijñānabhairavatantra teaches that what sets the practitioner apart from other living beings is that the practitioner pays attention to the subtle relationship between the subject and object in every experience.[6]
The interaction between the senses and objects of the world is often described within Kaula tantras as the meeting of siddhas and yoginīs, a union which, just as Śivānanda describes, is said to produce nectar from their mutual interaction and enjoyment.
The fifth verse of the Vātūlanāthasūtra[7] teaches:
सिद्धयोगिनीसंघट्टान् महामेलापोदयः ॥ ५ ॥
siddhayoginīsaṃghaṭṭān mahāmelāpodayaḥ || 5 ||
The Great Union arises by the union of Siddhas and Yoginīs.
Anantaśaktipāda explains in his commentary to this verse:
सिद्धाश् च योगिन्यश् च ताः सिद्धयोगिन्यः विषयकरणेश्वरीरूपाः । तासां संघट्टः संगमो ग्राह्यग्राहकोभयसंश्लेषः परस्परागूरणक्रमेणालिङ्गनम् । तेन आलिङ्गनेन सदैव महामेलापोदयः महामेलापस्याहन्तेदन्तात्मकद्वयविगलनात् निरुत्तरचिद्व्योम्नि सततं महासामरस्यात्मकस्य सर्वत्र प्रत्यक्षतया उदयः समुल्लासो भवति इत्य् अर्थः । वेद्यवेदकद्वयाप्रथनप्रवृत्त्या परमाद्वयसमावेशः सर्वत्रावस्थित इत्य् उक्तं भवति ॥ ५ ॥
siddhāś ca yoginyaś ca tāḥ siddhayoginyaḥ viṣayakaraṇeśvarīrūpāḥ | tāsāṃ saṃghaṭṭaḥ saṃgamo grāhyagrāhakobhayasaṃśleṣaḥ parasparāgūraṇakrameṇāliṅganam | tena āliṅganena sadaiva mahāmelāpodayaḥ mahāmelāpasyāhantedantātmakadvayavigalanāt niruttaracidvyomni satataṃ mahāsāmarasyātmakasya sarvatra pratyakṣatayā udayaḥ samullāso bhavati ity arthaḥ | vedyavedakadvayāprathanapravṛttyā paramādvayasamāveśaḥ sarvatrāvasthita ity uktaṃ bhavati || 5 ||
“The Siddhas and Yoginīs are the objects of sense and the goddesses of the senses, respectively. Their ‘union’ is their intimate coming together (saṃgama), the close (mutual) conjunction (saṃśleṣa) of both subject and object, and (their) embrace (āliṅgana) by the process of (their) mutual implication (āgūrṇana). It is by that embrace that ‘the Great Union arises’ at all times. (In other words) by the falling away of the two, namely, the subjectivity and objectivity of the Great Union, the Great Oneness (mahāsāmarasya) pours forth constantly, completely and everywhere as a direct immediate experience within the Sky of unexcelled consciousness. What is taught (here) is that penetration (and mystic absorption) into the supreme non-dual (reality) takes place everywhere by the ongoing power of the absence of the perception of the two, namely, subject and object.”[8]
Abhinavagupta, in the fourth chapter of his Tantrāloka, describes how the intimate union of subject and object, just like sexual union, produces nectar as follows:
यथा योनिश् च लिङ्गं च संयोगात् स्रवतेऽमृतम् ।
तथामृताग्निसंयोगाद् द्रवतस् ते न संशयः ॥ १३१ ॥yathā yoniś ca liṅgaṃ ca saṃyogāt sravate'mṛtam |
tathāmṛtāgnisaṃyogād dravatas te na saṃśayaḥ || 131 ||“Just as the (female) yoni and (male) liṅga stream forth nectar by (their) union, similarly, no doubt, the fire of the subject and the moon (amṛta) (of the object) exude (nectar) by (their) union.”[9]
The Mahānayaprakāśa of Arṇasimha echoes these teachings regarding the blissful union of the contact between consciousness and sense objects in the following verse:
ग्राह्यग्राहकसंश्लेषाद् अनल्पाह्लादनिर्भरा ।
या संविद् राजते सैव महामेलापविग्रहः ॥ १२७ ॥grāhyagrāhakasaṃśleṣād analpāhlādanirbharā |
yā saṃvid rājate saiva mahāmelāpavigrahaḥ || 127 ||“The consciousness that shines, full of the great bliss (āhlāda) that comes from the contact between subject and object, is the form of the Great Union.”[10]
From within the Śrīvidyā tradition, Amṛtānanda in his Dīpikā commentary on the
Yoginīhṛdayatantra (2.79) describes how the yoginīs of the senses are forms of consciousness and, as Dr. Mark Dyczkowski has pointed out, the first half-verse is cited by Jayar[11] ātha in his Viveka commentary on the Tantrāloka, thereby providing an interesting continuity between these two[12] Kaula traditions.
Amṛtānanda teaches in his commentary:
यत्र यत्र मिलिता मरीचयस् तत्र तत्र विभुर् एव जृम्भते ।
तत्सतां हि नियमावलम्बनं ध्यानपूजनकथा विडम्बना ॥
इति प्रामाणिकवचनोक्तरीत्या मातृमानमेयसंविदो योगिन्यस् तासां मेलनम् अन्तर्मुखीभावेन परप्रमातृविश्रान्तिः अथवा ब्राह्म्याद्यष्टकार्चनार्थं सामयिकशक्तिचक्रमेलनं योगिनीमेलनम् तत्रोद्युक्तैःyatra yatra militā marīcayas tatra tatra vibhur eva jṛmbhate |
tatsatāṃ hi niyamāvalambanaṃ dhyānapūjanakathā viḍambanā ||
iti prāmāṇikavacanoktarītyā mātṛmānameyasaṃvido yoginyas tāsāṃ melanam antarmukhībhāvena parapramātṛviśrāntiḥ athavā brāhmyādyaṣṭakārcanārthaṃ sāmayikaśakticakramelanaṃ yoginīmelanam tatrodyuktaiḥ“The All-pervasive Lord (vibhu) Himself blossoms forth wherever the rays (of the senses) unite. For those who possess that same Being and who do not (need to) take the support of rules and regulations (niyama), (all) talk of meditation and (outer) worship is deceit. The yoginīs are (forms of) consciousness as subject, means and object of knowledge. Their union is (their) repose in the supreme perceiver brought about by (their) introverted state. Or else (it can be understood to mean) union together equally in the one wheel of energies in order to worship the groups of eight (Mothers), Brāhmī and the rest. This is the union of the yoginīs.”[13]
Concerning the liberatory power of the senses, Abhinavagupta directly incorporates a number of verses from the fifteenth chapter of the Mālinīvijayottaratantra in the seventeenth chapter of his Tantrāloka that precisely qualify what types of sensory activities are liberating and what types are binding as follows:
बन्धमोक्षाव् उभाव् एताव् इन्द्रियाणां जगुर् बुधाः ।
निगृहीतानि बन्धाय विमुक्तानि विमुक्तये ॥ ११२ ॥
एतानि व्यापके भावे यदा स्युर् मनसा सह ।
मुक्तानि क्वापि विषये रोधाद् बन्धाय तानि तु ॥ ११३ ॥
इत्य् एवं द्विविधो भावः शुद्धाशुद्धप्रभेदतः ।
इन्द्रियाणां समाख्यातः सिद्धयोगीश्वरीमते ॥ ११४ ॥bandhamokṣāv ubhāv etāv indriyāṇāṃ jagur budhāḥ |
nigṛhītāni bandhāya vimuktāni vimuktaye || 112 ||
etāni vyāpake bhāve yadā syur manasā saha |
muktāni kvāpi viṣaye rodhād bandhāya tāni tu || 113 ||
ity evaṃ dvividho bhāvaḥ śuddhāśuddhaprabhedataḥ |
indriyāṇāṃ samākhyātaḥ siddhayogīśvarīmate || 114 ||“The wise have said that both bondage and liberation are (conditions) of the senses. Restrained, they serve to bind (the soul), liberated (from restraint, they serve as a mean to) liberation. These (senses) are liberated if they are, along with the mind, in (the one) allpervading state. (But) by being restricted somewhere to (a particular) object, they bind (the soul). Similarly, it is said in the Siddhayogeśvarīmata that the state of the senses is of two kinds, according to whether they are pure or impure.”[14]
Utpaladeva teaches in his Śivastotrāvalī that for devotees the senses are actually the path to worship, venerate, and contemplate the deity and reality as follows:
सर्व एव भवल्लाभहेतुर् भक्तिमतां विभो ।
संविन्मार्गो’यम् आह्लाददुःखमोहैस् त्रिधा स्थितः ॥ १० ॥sarva eva bhavallābhahetur bhaktimatāṃ vibho |
saṃvinmārgo’yam āhlādaduḥkhamohais tridhā sthitaḥ || 10 ||“The path of the senses is threefold,
Marked by pleasure, pain, and delusion.
For the devotee this is the path
That leads to your attainment.”[15]
In terms of specific practices oriented at recognizing the bliss of consciousness within the body and sensory enjoyments, the Vijñānabhairavatantra teaches:
जग्धिपानकृतोल्लासरसानन्दविजृम्भणात् ।
भावयेद् भरितावस्थाम् महानन्दस् ततो भवेत् ॥ ७२ ॥
गीतादिविषयास्वादासमसौख्यैकतात्मनः ।
योगिनस् तन्मयत्वेन मनोरूढेस् तदात्मता ॥ ७३ ॥
यत्र यत्र मनस् तुष्टिर् मनस् तत्रैव धारयेत् ।
तत्र तत्र परानन्दस्वरूपं सम्प्रवर्तते ॥ ७४ ॥
यत्र यत्राक्षमार्गेण चैतन्यं व्यज्यते विभोह् ।
तस्य तन्मात्रधर्मित्वाच् चिल् लयाद् भरितात्मता ॥ ११७ ॥jagdhipānakṛtollāsarasānandavijṛmbhaṇāt |
bhāvayed bharitāvasthām mahānandas tato bhavet || 72 ||
gītādiviṣayāsvādāsamasaukhyaikatātmanaḥ |
yoginas tanmayatvena manorūḍhes tadātmatā || 73 ||
yatra yatra manas tuṣṭir manas tatraiva dhārayet |
tatra tatra parānandasvarūpaṃ sampravartate || 74 ||
yatra yatrākṣamārgeṇa caitanyaṃ vyajyate vibhoh |
tasya tanmātradharmitvāc cil layād bharitātmatā || 117 ||“One should meditate on the state of fullness [filling one’s body] arising from the blossoming of delight in the pleasing taste of food and drink. From that [meditation], one attains supreme bliss. (72)
The Yogī who has merged with the incomparable delight of savoring sense objects such as music, becomes one with that [blissful state]. This takes place by the expansion [of that delight] in the heart by being totally immersed in it. (73)
Wherever the mind delights, let it become steadily focused upon that. In any such experience, the nature of the ultimate bliss becomes manifest. (74)
Wherever consciousness of the all-pervasive Lord manifests through the medium of perception, an all-embracing fullness arises, because that [object of perception], which has the property of a sensory experience, dissolves into consciousness.”[16] (117)
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
See Abhinavagupta's description in Tantrāloka 4.42 of the sāṃsiddhika guru who is initiated and consecrated as a teacher by the goddesses of his own consciousness in Dyczkowski 2023, III, 55.
[2]:
See Bhāskararāya's commentary on the Bhāvanopaniṣad, verse three.
[3]:
For precise correlations see the Kāmakalāvilāsa verses 40-45.
[4]:
Translation by Dyczkowski 2009, Introduction Vol I, 723.
[5]:
[6]:
Vijñānabhairavatantra 106.
[7]:
The Vātūlanāthasūtra is an important text from the Kālīkrama tradition. It was first published in Sanskrit, with an English translation, in the famous Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies (KSTS) in 1923 by Pandit Madhusudan Kaul Shastri. Swami Lakshmanjoo taught this important text to several of his students, who also published translations, including Lilian Silburn (1959), Mark Dyczkowski (2019), and Bettina Bäumer (2021). Swamiji's teachings on this text, based on audio recordings of his lectures, were published (in English) in 1996 by the Ishwar Ashram Trust.
[8]:
Verse and commentary translated by Dyczkowski 2019, 6-7.
[9]:
Translation by Dyczkowski 2023 III, 177.
[10]:
Translation by Dyczkowski 2023, III, 504.
[12]:
Dyczkowski 2023 I, 43, fn. 119.
[13]:
Translation by Dyczkowski 2023 I 49, fn. 119.
[14]:
Translation by Dyczkowski 2023 IX, 188.
[15]:
Translation by Rhodes-Bailly 1987, 30.
[16]:
Verse translations by Ben Williams.