Broadly speaking, there are to archetypical non-dual traditions, two very valid paths to bliss: The Non-Duality of Total Negation (Classical Advaita) & Kālī's Non-Duality of Total Acceptance (i.e Tāntrik Non-Duality or paramadvāya). 

Of course there are infinite shades of nuance and variation in between these two extremes. In this talk, we do a comparison of these two extreme models (or rather, flavor)s of non-dual Sādhanā, playing off of some ideas from last week’s “Who Should Worship Kālī? | Dakṣiṇa Kālī vs Smaśāna Kālī” talk! 

This lecture is mostly a theoretical survey of the absolute state of realization which can anyone anywhere can attained through grace (i.e, sudden spontaneous insight) of course, but which is more likely to be a result of sincere spiritual practice! As for the practical side of this discussion, you might like to pair this talk with the What Do You Need To Start Worshipping Kālī & Practicing Tantra? lecture from two weeks ago! 

PS: you might find this lecture somewhat reminiscent of Who Created The World? | Vedanta vs Tantra and also Who or What is God? | Vedanta vs Tantra but we've certainly developed the ideas quite a bit since then! 

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After watching What Does Kālī Want From You? | The Yoga of Grief & Fullness, Who Should Worship Kālī? | Dakṣiṇa Kālī vs Smaśāna Kālī and What Do You Need To Start Worshipping Kālī & Practicing Tantra? you might be starting to get the impression that Kālī pūjā and sādhana is (as Sri Ramakrishna himself put it) no joke!

As such, to stay safe and to practice in a meaningful, gradual and integrated way, we have to discuss some foundations. After all, Mother Kālī is always standing on Śiva: isn't this a clue for us? To practice Kālī sādhanā, we should become like Śiva, that is to say, we should build our Kālī practice on top of some firm and stable Śaiva foundations!

As such, in this class, which is the culmination of this year's śrāvana festivities, O walk you through more or less the entirety of śiva pūjā & sādhana with a special emphasis on the foundational mantras of our Tāntrik tradition, known as the pañca-Brahmā mantras from the Taittirīyāranyaka from Yajur Veda, the foundational Veda for Śaivism & Tantra: 

sadyojātaṁ prapadyāmi sadyojātāya vai namo namaḥ
bhave bhave nāti bhave bhavasva māṁ bhavodbhavāya namaḥ

I take refuge in the ever-fresh (newly born) Śiva, salutations again and again! Do not let me be born into mundane existence again and again with every birth! Become my very Being! Salutations to You, the source of all Becoming!

oṁ sadyojātāya paschimavaktrāya namaḥ
Salutations to Sadyojāta, the Westward facing Śiva!

vāmadevāya namo jyeṣṭhāya namaḥ śreṣṭhāya
namo rudrāya namaḥ kālāya namaḥ
kalavikaraṇāya namo balāya namo
balavikaraṇāya namo balapramathanāya namaḥ
sarvabhūtadamanāya namo manonmanāya namaḥ

Salutations to Vāmadeva, the eldest, the supreme Rudra (howling one), to Time and Dynamism, to Strength, to the Transformer of Strength and Destroyer of Strength, to the One who Subdues All Beings, abiding beyond the mind!

oṁ vāmadevāya uttaravaktrāya namaḥ
Salutations to Vāmadeva, the Northward facing Śiva!

aghorebhyo’tha ghorebhyo aghoraghoretarebhyaḥ
sarvabḥyo śarvaḥ sarvebhyo namaste rudra rūpebhyaḥ

Salutations to the gentle forms, fierce forms and forms that are both gentle and fierce, salutations to all the forms of Rudra everywhere!

oṁ aghorāya dakṣiṇavaktrāya namaḥ
Salutations to Aghora, the Southward facing Śiva!

oṁ tatpuruṣāya vidmahe mahādevāya dhīmahi
tanno rudraḥ pracodayāt oṁ

May that spirit, may that Great God, may that Rudra guide my intellect!

oṁ tatpuruṣāya purvavaktrāya namaḥ
Salutations to Tatpuruṣa the Eastward facing Śiva!

īśāna sarvavidyānāmīśvaraḥ sarvabhūtānāṁ brahmādipati brahmaṇo’dhipatir
brahmā śivo me astu sa eva sadāśiva oṁ

O Lord of all Knowledge, the Lord of all Beings, the Primordial Lord of Brahmā (and the other gods) and theLord of  Brāhmanas, may you Śiva be Brahmā for me. You are the eternally auspicious oṁ

oṁ īśānāya urdhvavaktrāya namaḥ
Salutations to īśāna the Upward facing Śiva!

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The word Tantra essentially refers to a set of texts, or a genre of spiritual literature in which we encounter profound philosophies, intricate visualizations, techniques for meditation involving the phonetic power of language and various other tools for spiritual practice.

In short, the tantras (also called the āgamas) present an entire system of spiritual practice designed to lead the aspirant to the fullest realization of Reality in which all her bliss and fulfillment can be found, in which all her suffering is transcended.

Tantra is a scientific (and artistic path) to God and the tantras (the source literature) come in many, many flavors to account for the many different dispositions and proclivities in the heart of the many aspirants who enter into its many living lineages.

In this talk, we explore a few of the different flavors of Tantra and then present our community's paddhathi (ritual manual) for daily contemplation and practice. We say a few things about why this resource is really at the heart of the Tāntrik tradition. discuss how our role as a Tāntrik community (a kula) is really to refine this resource for the generations to come. 

The Kālī paddhathi is unique to our community but it draws from so, so many resources. So many streams pour into it: my upbringing in Tamil Śaiva Siddhanta in my family gurukula, at the feet of my paternal grandfather, my upbringing in Malayalee Śaktism from the jungles of Kerala (from my Mother's side of the family), the paddhatis from the Hollywood Vedanta Temple Kālī Pūjā paddhathi and from the Kali Mandir Laguna Beach as part of my involvement in the Ramakrishna lineage, the paddhathi from Abhinava Gupta's Tantrāloka, from Chaitanyananda Nathaji's (Ayyaji) Śrī Vidyā paddhathi and of course from my study of the tantras throughout my life, in general. 

But you know what? While this paddhathi has inherited so much from all the paddhathis that came before, it is a living, growing, breathing resource that responds to the needs, desires and unique expression of our community. Each of you contribute your presence to the guru-mandala (the circle of instruction and practice) and that in turn will affect the paddhathi, the mantras, the sequence, the flavor, and the outcome. 

As we grow, it grows. 

For in truth, the paddhathi (ritual manual), the priests/priestesses (that is, the practitioners in tthe gurukula using the paddhathi for daily ritual and practice) and the Deity (Kālī) are all part of one dynamic reality, the trinity (trika) of worshipper (pūjāri/pūjārinī), the worshipped (pūjyā) and the act of worshipping (pūjā) reconciled in the Non-Duality of Consciousness which is your essential nature, the sole Reality that inheres in all things as all things! 

The ones that came before walked so we could run. They gave their lives to this so we can pick up from where they left of. Let us now live up to that legacy and strive to contribute what we can to the ever deepening treasury of resources regarding the worship and veneration of our Divine Mother! 

May this be my constantly evolving and deepening offering to you. May this be our offering to each other. May this be our offering to the world at large and to all those that will come after us! 

May Her will be done! 

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Last week, we had a profound and poignant discussion on the heart of Kālī sādhana in What Does Kālī Want From You? | The Yoga of Grief & Fullness where we explored what Swami Vivekananda called "The Worship of the Terrible"!

Notice that the imagery around Mā Kālī doesn't just focus on terror, chaos and death in an amorphous or abstract way; it presents some very concrete motifs of intoxication, arousal and madness.

The idea that Mā dwells in the jungles or in the cremation grounds (i.e in a realm of the chaotic unknown beyond all law, reason and order, perhaps a symbol for the wild and untrammeled Subconscious) surrounded by bloodthirsty female spirits (dākinīs), ghosts and jackals (perhaps symbols for the dark, violent and often repressed dimensions of the human psyche) is very important and deserving of a courageous, careful, considered, serious and earnest inquiry. What does all of this mean? And why are such (to some people) disturbing images so insisted upon when it comes to Mā Kālī's iconography? I want to discuss some of this tonight, playing off some ideas we first encountered in the Why Is Kālī Drunk? & Mā Kālī's Non Dual Aspect & Tantrik Sādhanās to Attain Itlectures.

And so at tonight's 7pm PST zoom satsangh, I want to take up this inquiry with you in the context of a discussion on the different shades of insanity, i.e discerning between the fun kind that we saw in Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda vs. the not-so-fun and often, debilitating kind that can sometimes come about as a result of ungrounded, unsupervised śakti sādhana like we did in the Why is Kālī Crazy? lecture to answer these questions:

Is there a difference between  Dakṣiṇa Kālī and Smaśāna Kālī?
Is one for householders and the other for ascetics?
What will happen if I start worshipping the former, and what if I worship the latter? 

Etc. 

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On the last Monday of śrāvana is an especially sacred day for contemplating the Absolute because it is a culmination four or six weeks of very intense Sādhanā (spiritual practice). As such, as a celebration and consummation, I’d like to discuss something quite poignant: the yoga of grief & fullness.

I want to compare some transcendalist schools of Advaita to the Tāntrik approach which emphasizes fullness, especially with regard the full spectrum of flavors (rasa) that arise in Consciousness! We’ll offer some a touching and telling stories of Lord Śiva’s grief, Matsyendranātha's fall, and the pain and grief of Sarada Devi, Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda!

Often I feel there can be nothing more important than presenting this profoundly humanizing portraits of our heroes because rather than subtracting from their spirituality , they only add to it.

Essentially, I want to talk about an all embracing kind of spirituality that leaves no experience unexplored, no facet untasted: in short, the Advaita of Kālī!. Naturally, we’ll explore the 5 phases of the 12 Krama deities too and Abhinava Gupta’s nava-rasa theory to point to the philosophical complexity and poetry of this position!

Many of you will find this lecture someone reminiscent of some our community favorites like:
1. Mā Kāli's Bowl of Blood | Turning Suffering Into Ecstasy
2. Mā Kālī's Non Dual Aspect & Tantrik Sādhanās to Attain It
3. What Does Kālī Really Want?
4. and most especially How To Succeed At Tantra & The Worship of The Terrible

You'll notice that in a sense, this is the key teaching or rather the uttama-vāda, highest revelation of our Kālī tradition! This talk also contains elements from another one of my favorites: What Makes Art Spiritual? | Kashmir Shaivism

At the end we offer a very refined spiritual practice for transforming all our pain and grief into an experience of aesthetic rapture or poetic delight! 

On this auspicious Tuesday, on Mā's sacred day, I lay all of these words as so many flowers at your feet, you who are Mā incarnate! 

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
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One of the most exalted, refined and mysterious aspects of the Tāntrik non-dual tradition is the veneration of the devītraya, the Three Wisdom Goddesses who are linked to three dynamic expressions of Consciousness: Knower (Parā), Knowing (Parāparā) and Known (Aparā). 

More mysterious than this is the idea that Consciousness, the central Goddess (Samvit Devī) expresses Herself simultaneously (akrama) and sequentially (Krama) as 12 phases within those three aforementioned Goddesses.

As such, having taken a first swipe at this topic in the The Knower, The Knowing & The Known As Tāntrik Goddesses | Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra, Verse 106 lecture from our Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra class and having explored them in a ritual context in Worshipping the Trika Goddesses we now take up the topic of the One Goddess, the Three Goddesses (devītraya), the Twelve Goddesses (kālī-krama) and the Fifteen Goddesses (pañca-daśa-yoginī) to show how they are in truth, the dynamic aspect of the One Consciousness which you yourself are! 

Jai Samvit Devī Ki Jai! 

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
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As part our our How To Do Tāntrik Pūjā lecture series, we've recently been exploring the topic of mānasa pūjā, or Mental Worship vs External Worship by looking at theMantra for Mental Worship | Mānasa Pūjā which if you recall, is the mantra we used in this talk How To Worship Mā Kālī Mentally (Mānasa Pūjā)!

Now, I often argue that cultivating of our inner world through techniques such as mānasā pūjā (which is part of a broader practice in the Tāntrik tradition called bhāvanā orcreative, dynamic visualization) is The Most Important Spiritual Resource. The quality of our so-called "external reality" is wholly determined by our inner state since the world is nothing but an appearance within Consciousness! As such, interiorized practices like this are so wonderful for refining our inner state and aligning it with the Absolute.

But Mānasa-pūjā is also very helpful in the context of Kālī sādhana for doing things like Substituting the Pañcamakāras, Forbidden Offerings & also for  Substituting Animal Sacrifice & Other Transgressive Offerings in Kālī Worship for those whose temperament might not lean this way and who might still want to participate somehow in these more vīra-bhāva-esque practices that come with the territory. 

So having given so many lectures now on the beauty and importance of mānasa-pūjā, I wanted to spend a little time in this talk reminding us why external rituals are also so important! After all, Tantra is essentially, ritualism! 

Often, when we understand something of interior worship, we might become very quick to dismiss external forms! And in truth, this is also a valid approach and this what the Samaya-marga or "right hand path" in Tantra tries to do. And in one sense, the Kaula marga is more likely to emphasize externals since in the Kaula view, the "external" is nothing but God embodied! 

And since we tend to lean towards the latter approach in our community, I first present some arguments for the importance of externals before presenting two very important techniques in tantra that complement external worship: substitution and interiorization!

Jai Mā!

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Almost all of us have so man hang-ups lurking in our psyche. Whether through religious indoctrination or societal conditioning of any sort, most of us carry around a strong sense of duality that distinguishes between pure & impure, holy & unholy, right & wrong, good & bad etc. Often we feel like we are dirty or sinful or broken and in need of growth, healing and liberation which we often think we can get through spirituality. And correspondingly, most spiritual traditions take up a kind dualistic vision of the universe which distinguishes the Transcendent principle (i.e God) from the Immanent principle (the world). According to these transcendentalist traditions, the former is the goal that we are practicing towards and the latter is often seen as a debased obstacle to be scorned, avoided and ultimately overcome.

In stark contrast to this is the non-dual Tāntrik view which embraces everything as Divine. God is the world and the world is God for only God is. As such, there is no sense of pure or impure, right or wrong, holy or unholy, good or bad or any other kind of dichotomy in this view since everything is through and through God, or śiva (i.e a blessing). 

But this idea (what to say of the realization of this idea in your own experience) can often wreak havoc with our cherished notions of duality. Although many of us are fascinated by non-dual traditions, in truth, many of us are still scared of non-duality. And who could blame us? If we really understand what is being claimed here and if we were reality to follow through with our realization, we would naturally feel a bit reserved since all our familiar prisons of dualistic thought are destroyed! 

For a mind attached to judging others, for a mind hell-bent on duality and on abstract standards of purity, for a mind attached to rules and structures and institutions, non-duality is terrifying. And what mind isn't to some extent colored by judgement, duality and notions of purity? What mind doesn't crave structure? 

When Mā Kālī's sword flashes, aimed at our neck, we would be right to tremble at first, even if we ultimately know that it entails non-dual realization! It is only natural that we tremble. As such, here is a talk about that. 

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The one indubitable fact about my life is that I AM. Or rather, I am essentially consciousness because to be is to be aware and to be aware is to be. But what is the nature of that Consciousness? We argue in our tradition that this Conscious Self which I feel myself to be is really one and the same with God, Śiva and that

I am not at all merely localized to this contraction of limited body-mind-personality but that I am, in truth, all-pervasively present in all things as all things. And more than that, I am not only immanent in all things, I also transcend them all! I am full and empty, everything and nothing.

What then do we make of insentience? If I, the sentient Self am all, then are all things sharing in my sentience? Are jugs and pieces of cloth sentient? Is the AI sentient? In fact, are cats and other people even sentient?! (i.e the problem of the philosophical zombie). And if I am all things, then why do I feel like only this one thing (namely this body and this mind)? How do you explain my jīva-tva (my littleness) when in fact I am śiva (the all-pervasive transcendent-immanent Absolute.) 

This is a really profound and beautiful question to ask because it takes us to the very heart of non-dual Śaivism! As such, on this third Monday of the sacred month of śrāvana, I present you with this discussion on the lofiest and most refined ideas of the Śaiva non-dual transmission, as part of our Paramārthasāra, Abhinava Gupta series. 

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
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Who or What is Kali?

According to Abhinava Gupta , Kālī is: 

क्षेपो ज्ञानं च संख्यां गतिनाद इति क्रमात्। 

कल्लनां कुर्वती काली कर्षिणीत्यभिधीयते। 

She who projects, She who knows, She who delimits, She who vibrates, She who is resonance and She who is process She who imagines, She who acts, She who devours (i.e reabsorbs)....this is verily Kālī 

In other words, Kālī is that resonant, dynamic One from Whom the world is projected outward, articulated and known and into Whom it is reabsorbed in a constant simultaneity of unfolding! 

But what does that mean? And what does Kālī have to do with Śakti and what is Śakti to Śiva? Is there such a thing as a Śākta (worshipper of Devī) distinct from Śaivism? 

In trying to approach some of these questions, we discuss one of my favorite topics: yoginīs, mātrikās & cremation ground deities! 

As our śrāvana festivities and practices intensify with the passing weeks, there is a rising fervor and I am feeling rather inspired to explore the cremation ground roots of our Śaiva heritage, to make a few historical points about Ati Margins and about Kāpālikās and about what they discovered, understanding it all within the wider philosophical context of Somānanda's presentation of Śiva as primordial dynamic Consciousness, inseparable from Śakti, the pentadof powers! (cit, ānanda, icchā, jñāna, kriyā etc.) 

This union of Śiva + Powers (i.e puissance or latency or agency or dyanmism) is what we call Kālī and this is what I hope to explore with you a little bit today in class!

According to Shiti Kanttha in Mahānāya Prakāśa: 

एवं आधौ एव शक्तिः स्पन्दनशीला 

बहिर्विषयोन्मुखी व्यापिनीभावेन सृष्ट्युपदेशभाजनम्...। 

एकैव चिन्नीलाधवाभासरूपा 

अस्थिरहठगवती कुलैव पश्चात्प्रतिसंहतस्वभावा 

अग्राग्रागमिप्रसरत्सहजरूपा लक्ष्यते, 

सोऽयं निरुपाधौ चित्स्फायादुपाधिकृतो भेदः। 

Verily is She is the Primordial Pulsation, inclined towards externality, the all-pervasive receptacle of emission and wisdom. She alone is the Pure Awareness in which shines experiences like the colour blue etc. Dyanmic and forcefully flowing into externality, She is verily "Kula" (the embodied universe) and yet afterwards, she withdraws it back into her nature. Her spotaneous nature is found at the very edge of arising experience. Duality arises in Her when there are limiting adjuncts but in truth She shines non-differently!

Shiva = Kali, as in Shiti Kanttha:

शिवस्वभावैव शक्तिः न वस्त्वन्तरम्,

इत्येकम् एव शिवव्यपदेश्यं शक्तिव्यपदेश्यं 

च वस्तुतत्त्वं नापूर्वं किञ्चित्। 

The essential nature of Shiva is Shakti; they are is no seperate reality! That which is called "Shiva" and that which is called "Shakti" is the same thing! And this essential reality is wholly ordinary and not something bizzare! 

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
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