Shakti can be described in a number of ways. The straight definition is that Shakti is the energy or power by which the Cosmic Spirit manifests itself. Now I will go through some hypothetical definitions and respond to each:

A power to be controlled and utilized—That is siddhi. To the extent that the individual spirit has realized a deep connection to the Cosmic Spirit, Shakti can be expressed through the Will of the magician.

A divine being to be worshipped—Yes, absolutely for sure. That’s how the connection is made and expanded.

Pure individualized self devoid of ego—You must mean pure UNindividualized self devoid of ego, otherwise it’s a contradiction, a self-contradiction, so to speak. Anyway, that’s a description of the Absolute, or Cosmic Spirit, and yes, Shakti is Cosmic Spirit made tangible to the refined and trained mind.

A Goddess and/or an intelligent and aware force—In mythology Shakti is usually thought of as a Goddess, consort of Shiva, and often worshiped as the Divine Mother as a way of going back to the Source from which we came. But let’s not get stuck on gender – Shakti can be generated and accessed through worshiping Shiva and other “male” god forms too. Shiva and Shakti are flip sides of a coin, inseparable, dual aspects of the One. Yes, Shakti is an intelligent and aware force. It is consciousness, after all.

Blind force, something which can be possessed, transferred, or lost—No, not blind force but quite the opposite, and “possessing” Shakti is just a casual manner of speaking where one might hear that such-and-so a siddha “has a lot of Shakti,” but of course the meaning is not to imply literal ownership, as it is the siddha who is a devotee of the Shakti (and he must be a good devotee if people are saying he has a lot of Shakti).

Shakti can be transferred to another person if they are properly receptive, which is the basis of an initiation lineage like the INO. It can be projected into an object as well. It is not the same as prana. Prana is life force associated with the body; Shakti is a cosmic spiritual force. Every living person experiences prana every moment, fewer experience Shakti.

While sitting for puja, the Nath subsumes his/her prana into the Shakti as an integral part of the yoga, however ultimately it must be remembered that Clinging To Life is an obstacle to spiritual liberation. Once attained, Shakti can be lost by allowing Kleshas to proliferate unchecked.

Om.

Dhruvanath

By Dhruvanath

The accompanying one minute video clip presents a moment Awakening deep into a Dhuni ritual. By this point the Nath sadhaks have been immersed in worship for hours. The air is thick with fragrant smoke from smoldering fire offerings, mixing with the swirling, expanding, multi-layered mantric vibrations.

In the video, we first see the flame of a nearby torch. The picture slowly pans to reveal a trishul in its natural habitat. The three-pronged scepter of Shiva represents mastery over the three Gunas (tamas, rajas, and sattva). Pure consciousness is free and unfettered by the appearance of any qualities.

Next we see the embers which fill the Dhuni, sparks sent flying about from passionate fanning. The purpose of the ritual is to exalt the sacred fire pit, therefore the ritual would not be complete without puja of Lord Bhairava, for what could please Her more that to receive the Lingam of Lord Bhairava?

Bhairava is the Lord of Magick, the Lord of Permissions, Granter of Siddhi Shakti. He lords over the yogic processes. If pleased, He grants success in the yogic processes by allowing transference of the Siddhi Shakti to the properly aligned recipient Microcosm. Lord Bhairava is easily pleased by those who approach with sincerity, but can only grant Siddhi Shakti in proportion to the quality of one’s yogic alignment. Thus, attainment unfolds in accordance with the aspirant’s efforts.
In His capacity as Lord of Permissions, Bhairava guards and protects the Inner Sanctum, barring those who are unfit to enter. For those who gain permission to proceed, He is known to be rather ruthless in stripping away impurities. For this reason He is sometimes experienced as fearsome, although such a reaction to His blessing is merely indicative of uncontrolled Kleshas.

The flame in the Dhuni is the Lingam of Lord Bhairava. In this coition is the transference of the Divine. Bhairava is the Light of Consciousness, His approach is the gateway to the ultimate spark of Awakened Awareness. His Reality is the nature of the Great Awakening.

Adesh, Adesh,

On a Sunday afternoon, two days after Guru Purnima, July 1991, after a gloriously intense ritual honoring Guru Mahendranath at a place called Syn Dhuni and a day spent reading the English translation of the Avadhuta Gita by Shree Purohit Swami and edited by S. Mokashi-Punekar (Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers) in the company of Lalitaji, I was struck by a direct transmission of the entire text of the Avadhuta Gita. My consciousness was rendered completely split by the experience. At once I was still, yet I could completely attend to the sound of my housemate and guru brother Shri Kapilnath listening to Star Trek, The Next Generation on the television in the next room.

The clarity of that dichotomy amplified the importance of the experience. At once I was Here and yet There. The There was a vision of wintertime trees and sky, and the completely chilly dispassionate feeling that everything you know is Wrong, and the Ego response of “please don’t say all my practice/life is wasted”. I was bankrupt in a millisecond. Everything I had thought of as useful was utterly useless, irrelevant…Kaput! The emotional panic of that realization was quickly followed by the corresponding understanding, …that all of my Fears of failure or other mishap, were equally Irrelevant, cosmic pause…..emptiness …. I was inherently Free!

Curiously, I had stumbled upon the answer to a question of many years yearning, yet the answer was startlingly Alien in texture from the expectations I had previously imagined. The transmission had the lack of sentiment of a transmission from a complete Uberlord 108 eyed Alien from another galaxy. From this experience, I was left with the idea that much of my sentimental human concept of “Freedom” was false… but all was not lost, because my worry and likely most other mortal’s misconceptions were equally irrelevant, and so equally without karmic worry.

The paradox was liberating. At that moment, at a deep level, I was free from the snares of expectation. This transmission had the vibrational signature of Guru Mahendranath all over it. I was in a zombie-like emotional zero state for a week afterward, but also very liberated… again more paradox. I set out to make plans to visit Mahendranath in India, to ask his opinion on my recent experience with the Avadhuta Gita. Ah, but this is another story. Let me instead emphasis that the Avadhuta Gita is my talisman. It stands in equal to the I Ching.

Guru Om,

Sri Garudanath

The Five Kleshas have been touched upon a number of times, and rightly so. Insight into the way we habitually maintain our kleshic “reality bubble” is essential to the long process of finally letting it go. Relaxing our grip on the Kleshas makes room for a new… yet eternal… more expansive spiritual awareness to shine forth. Full and permanent dissolution of the Kleshas must wait until, having attained Cosmic Awakening, you also dispense with your body. So, the Five Kleshas are a useful set of terms to explain what an Awakened State is not. As a corollary, also worthy of reflection are the handful of “keywords” that describe what an Awakened State is. These keywords are beacons which we find sprinkled through the Scrolls of Mahendranath. They are: Sama, Sahaja, Svecchachara, and Samarasa.

Briefly – Sama means balance, equipoise. Sahaja means naturalness, ease, divine joy born of deep harmony with the Cosmos, “going with the Flow.” Svecchachara means thinking for yourself, doing one’s authentic Will, free from dogma or conditioned ideas absorbed from others. Samarasa means the state of perfect yogic assimilation of microcosm and macrocosm, the bliss of attainment which continues undisturbed after samadhi is finished, or one could say, the magnum opus of twilight yoga.

Just as the Five Kleshas do not exist independently of one another, but are interconnected aspects sprouting from a common source, the four keywords are also aspects or characteristics of a singular state of Being. From the standpoint of a divine mindset, these qualities are are self-evident expressions of the Divine Wisdom Stream. Their practical value as keywords is more for those of us emerging from the world of the Kleshas. They can serve as reference points to align our mind into a better configuration for Cosmic Vibes to break through, and to help stabilize degrees of Awakening when it takes place. As such, they reveal their power more when combined together, rather than each standing alone. (This synergy is also true of other keyword groupings used by Naths, i.e. Insight-Intuition-Imagination, Will-Knowledge-Action, People-Things-Ideas…) That said, although they function together, building a working affinity with each keyword individually is important and worthy of focus and contemplation.

I’ve found it valuable to make a point of thinking about the keywords while experiencing “expanded consciousness,” for the purpose of imprinting a bit of the essence of each keyword into my brain cells. It comes in handy as a set of magic seeds for conjuring the Zonule next time around. Merging them together into one energy is a compelling way to put forward one’s offering.

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA

Dhruvanath

Greetings Everyone,

I would like to share an expansive thought on an excerpt from The Occult World of a Tantrik Guru relating to Yantra and the Kleshas.

“Clinging or attachment to life is the fifth evil of the five-fold pentagon of the pain-bearing obstructions. The complete pentacle is as follows:

The five pain-bearing obstructions,
The root cause of sorrow and strife –
Ego, ignorance, attachment,
Aversion and clinging to life.

In Kauladharma they are drawn as a yantra composed of a five-pointed star, sometimes contained within a circle and the circle contained in a square. The five-pointed star of the pentacle can also be used alone, placed on the shrine for worship or used for meditation… Most Tantrik sadhana, while it appears to aim at praise, worship and oneness with the Devi, is also a medium which helps disciples to overcome these five gyves.” ~Shri Gurudev Mahendranath

I enjoy making yantras and shortly after I read “The Occult World of a Tantrik Guru” I created, with cotton embroidered on wool, the Kleshas yantra. Although Mahendranath doesn’t go into more detail about Yantra in this text, I feel it is worth mentioning that before a yantra is empowered the design is simply just that, a pretty object to admire. Constructing a yantra is the beginning of the path to Yantra.

Yantra is a Sanskrit word meaning a machine, to sustain energy, a geometrical design intended to represent a deity or serve as a vehicle for the deity’s energy or Shakti. An empowered Yantra is impregnated with the Shakti needed for it to become alive. Only an individual accomplished in projecting and fixing a special form of energy, called Shakti is capable of properly empowering a Yantra. This takes place when the Sadhaka is absorbed and in resonance with the Divine Shakti in Yoga. The amalgamation of the Shaktis of Will, Knowledge and Action are unified into a single Shakti and projected and fixed into the Yantra. This is a skill that is developed and refined through Shakti Yoga practice and guidance from the Guru.

Once the Yantra is empowered, interacting with it in worship can take on new utility and life. Focusing on the already established spiritual energies of an empowered Yantra can facilitate in helping us go beyond the Kleshas. As Shri Mahendranath often notes, understanding the Kleshas is necessary before real Nath practice can begin. Creating and using a Yantra that has been empowered to assist in overcoming the Kleshas can be beneficial in Nath practice.

May Peace, Freedom and Happiness be yours,

Rose Devi