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The bases of this Yoga are of a highly metaphysical and scientific character. For its understanding there is required a full acquaintance with Indian philosophy, religious doctrine, and ritual in general, and in particular with that presentment of these three matters which is given in the Shākta and Monistic (Advaita){122} Shaiva Tantras. It would need more than a bulky volume to describe and explain in any detail the nature and meaning of this Yoga, and the bases on which it rests. I must therefore assume in the reader either this general knowledge or a desire to acquire it, and confine myself to such an exposition of general principles and leading facts as will supply the key by which the doors leading to a theoretical knowledge of the subject may be opened by those desirous of passing through and beyond them, and as will thus facilitate the understanding of the difficult texts here translated. For on the practical side I can merely reproduce the directions given in the books, together with such explanations of them as I have received orally. Those who wish to go farther, and to put into actual process this Yoga, must learn directly of a Guru who has himself been through it (Siddha). His experience alone will say whether the aspirant is capable of success. It is said that of those who attempt it one out of a thousand may have success. If the latter enters upon the path, the Guru alone can save him from attendant risks, molding and guiding the practice as he will according to the particular capacities and needs of his disciples. Whilst, therefore, on this heading it is possible to explain some general principles, their application is dependent on the circumstances of each particular case.

Veda says: “All this (that is, the manifold world) is (the one) Brahman” (Sarvvam khalvidam Brahma).{123} How the many can be the one{124} is variously explained by the different schools. The interpretation here given is that of the grand doctrine underlying and contained in the Shākta Tantras or Āgamas. In the first place, what is the one Reality which appears as many? What is the nature of Brahman as it is in itself (Svarūpa)? The answer is Sat-Chit-Ānanda—that is, being-feeling-consciousness-bliss. Consciousness or feeling, as such (Chit, or Chaitanya, or Samvit), is identical with being as such. Though in ordinary experience the two are essentially bound up together, they still seem to diverge from each other. Man by his constitution inveterately believes in an objective existence beyond and independent of himself. And this is so as long as, being embodied spirit (Jīvātmā), his consciousness is veiled by Māyā. But in the ultimate basis of experience, which is the Supreme Spirit (Paramātmā), the divergence has gone, for in it lie in undifferentiated mass experiencer, experience, and the experienced. When, however, we speak of Chit as feeling-consciousness we must remember that what we know and observe as such is only a limited changing manifestation of Chit, which is in itself the infinite changeless principle which is the background of all experience. This being-consciousness is absolute bliss (Ānanda), which is defined as “resting in the self” (Svarūpa-vishrānti). It is bliss because, being the infinite all (Pūrna), it can be in want of nothing. This blissful consciousness is the ultimate and real nature or Svarūpa, as it is called, of the one reality, the own form or the propria forma of the scholastics. Svarūpa is the nature of anything as it is in itself, as distinguished from what it may appear to be. This supreme consciousness is the Supreme Shiva (Parashiva). It never changes, but eternally endures the same throughout all change.

But if this be so, how is it that everything we see is associated with apparent unconsciousness? Our mind is evidently not a pure, but a limited consciousness. What limits it must be something either in itself unconscious or, if conscious, capable of producing the appearance of unconsciousness.{125} In the phenomenal world there is nothing absolutely conscious nor absolutely unconscious. Consciousness and unconsciousness are always intermingled. Some things, however, appear to be more conscious, and some more unconscious than others. This is due to the fact that Chit, which is never absent in anything, yet manifests itself in various ways and degrees. The degree of this manifestation is determined by the nature and development of the body in which it is enshrined. Spirit remains the same; the body changes. The manifestation of consciousness is more or less limited as ascent is made from the mineral to man. In the mineral world Chit manifests as the lowest form of sentiency evidenced by reflex response to stimuli, and that physical consciousness which is called in the West atomic memory. The sentiency of plants is more developed, though it is, as Chakrapāni says, in the Bhānumatī a dormant consciousness. This is further manifested in those micro-organisms which are intermediate stages between the vegetable and animal worlds, and have a psychic life of their own. In the animal world consciousness becomes more centralized and complex, reaching its fullest development in man, who possesses all the psychic functions, such as cognition, perception, feeling, and will. Behind all these particular changing forms of sentiency or consciousness is the one formless, changeless Chit as it is in itself (Svarūpa), and as distinguished from the particular forms of its manifestation.

As Chit throughout all these stages of life remains the same it is not really developed. The appearance of development is due to the fact that is now more and now less veiled by mind and matter. It is this veiling and projection by the cosmic consciousness (Shakti) which creates the world. What is it, then, which veils consciousness and projects the world-show?

The answer is Shakti as Māyā. Is Shakti the same as or different from Shiva or Chit? It must be the same, for otherwise all could not be one Brahman. But if it is the same it must be also Chit or Consciousness. Therefore it is Sachchidānandamayī{126} and Chidrūpinī.{127}

And yet there is, at least in appearance, some distinction. Shakti, which comes from the root Shak, “to have power,” “to be able,” means power. As She is one with Shiva, She as such power is the power of Shiva or Consciousness. There is no difference between Shiva as the possessor of power (Shaktimān) and power itself. The power of consciousness is consciousness in its active aspect. Whilst, therefore, both Shiva and Shakti are consciousness, the former is the changeless static aspect of consciousness, and Shakti is the kinetic active aspect of the same consciousness. The particular power whereby the dualistic world is brought into being is Māyā-Shakti, which is both a veiling (Āvarana) and projecting (Vikshepa) Shakti. Consciousness veils itself to itself, and projects from the store of its previous experiences (Sangskāra) the notion of a world in which it suffers and enjoys. The universe is thus the creative imagination (Srishtikalpanā, as it is called) of the Supreme World-thinker (Īshvara). Māyā is that power by which things are “measured”—that is, formed and made known (Mīyate anena iti māyā). It is the sense of difference (Bhedabuddhi), or that which makes man see the world, and all things and persons therein, as different from himself, when in truth he and it and they are the one self. It is that which establishes a dichotomy in what would otherwise be a unitary experience, and is the cause of the dualism inherent in all phenomenal experience. Shakti veils consciousness by negating in various degrees Herself as consciousness.

Before the manifestation of the universe, Being-Consciousness-Bliss alone was—that is, Shiva-Shakti as Chit and Chidrūpinī respectively. Consciousness not exercising its power, Consciousness alone changelessly was. In this the quiescent state of the Ātmā or Self, Shakti being latent, is one with it. The Devī in the Kulachūdāmani Nigama{128} says: “I, though Prakriti, lie hidden in Consciousness-Bliss.” Rāghava Bhatta says:{129} “She who is eternal (Anādirūpā) existed in a subtle state, as it were Consciousness, during the great dissolution.”

This is Parashiva, who in the scheme of the thirty-six Tattvas is known as Parāsamvit. This is the perfect experience and perfect universe. By this latter term is not meant any heaven in the sense of a perfected world of forms. The perfect universe is Shakti herself in Her own nature as consciousness experienced by Shiva as consciousness. As the Upanishad says, “The self knows and loves the self.” It is this love which is bliss or “resting in the self,” for, as it is elsewhere said, “Supreme love is bliss” (Niratishaya-premāspadatvamānandatvam). If, however, there be one Changeless Consciousness there is no manifestation. If, again, we assume some other than Consciousness as cause of the universe, then the Monistic (Advaita) truth is destroyed, as in the dualistic Sāngkhya, which assumes, in addition to and independent of the Purusha consciousness, the Prakritiun consciousness as the material cause (Upādānakārana) of the world. All Indian Monism, therefore, posits a dual aspect of the single consciousness—one the transcendental changeless aspect (Parāsamvit),{130} and the other the creative changing aspect, which is called Shiva-Shakti Tattva.{131} In Parāsamvit the “I” (Aham) and the “This” (Îdam), or universe of objects, are indistinguishably mingled in the supreme unitary experience.{132} In Shiva-Shakti Tattva Shakti, which is the negative aspect of the former, Her function being negation (Nishedha-vyapāra-rūpā Shaktih), negates herself as the Îdam of experience, leaving the Shiva consciousness as a mere “I,” “not looking towards another” (Ananyonmukhah aham pratyayah). This is a state of mere subjective illumination (Prakāsha mātra){133} to which Shakti, who is called Vimarsha,{134} again presents Herself, but now with a distinction of “I” and “This” as yet held together as part of one self.

At this point, the first incipient stage of dualism, there is the first emanation of consciousness, known as Sadāshiva or Sadākhya Tattva, which is followed by the second or Īshvara Tattva, the Lord. Some worship predominantly the masculine or right side of the conjoint male and female figure (Ardhanārīshvara). Some, the Shāktas, predominantly worship the left, and call Her Mother, for She is the great Mother (Magna Mater), the Mahādevī who conceives, bears, and nourishes the universe sprung from Her womb (Yoni). This is so because She is the active aspect{135} of consciousness, imagining (Srishtikalpanā){136} the world to be, according to the impressions (Sangskāra) derived from enjoyment and suffering in former worlds. It is natural to worship Her as Mother. The first Mantra into which all men are initiated is the word Mā (Mother). It is their first word and generally their last. The father is a mere helper (Sahakāri-mātra) of the Mother.{137} The whole world of the five elements also springs from the Active Consciousness or Shakti, and is Her manifestation (Pūrna vikāsha). Therefore men worship the Mother,{138} than whom is none more tender,{139} saluting Her smiling beauty as the Rosy Tripurasundarī, the source of the universe, and Her awe-inspiring grandeur as Kālī, who takes it back into Herself.

In the Mantra side of the Tantra Shāstra, dealing with Mantra and its origin, these two Tattvas emanating from Shakti are known as Nāda and Bindu. Parashiva and Parāshakti are motionless (Nihspanda) and soundless (Nihshabda).

Nāda is the first produced movement in the ideating cosmic consciousness leading up to the Sound-Brahman (Shabdabrahman), whence all ideas, the language in which they are expressed (Shabda), and the objects (Artha) which they denote, are derived.

Bindu literally means a point and the dot (Anusvāra), which denotes in Sanskrit the nasal breathing (°). It is in the Chandrabindu nasal breathing placed above Nāda (). In its technical Mantra sense it denotes that state of active consciousness or Shakti in which the “I” or illuminating aspect of consciousness identifies itself with the total “This” as the yet dualistically unmanifest state of the universe.{140} It subjectifies the “This,” thereby becoming a point (Bindu) of consciousness with it. When consciousness apprehends an object as different from itself it sees that object as extended in space. But when that object is completely subjectified (such as to ourselves our own mind) it is experienced as an unextended point. This is the universe experience of the Lord experiencer as Bindu.{141}

Where does the universe go at dissolution? It is withdrawn into that Shakti which projected it. It collapses, so to speak, into a mathematical point without any magnitude whatever.{142} This is the Shivabindu, which again is withdrawn into the Shiva-Shakti-Tattva which produced it. It is conceived that round the Shiva Bindu there is coiled Shakti, just as in the earth center called Mūlādhāra Chakra in the human body a serpent clings round the self-produced Phallus (Svayambhulinga). This coiled Shakti may be conceived as a mathematical line, also without magnitude, which, being everywhere in contact with the point round which it is coiled, is compressed together with it, and forms therefore also one and the same point. There is one indivisible unity of dual aspect which is figured also in the Tantras{143} as a grain of gram (Chanaka), which has two seeds so closely joined as to look as one surrounded by an outer sheath.{144}

To revert to the former simile, the Shakti coiled round Shiva, making one point (Bindu) with it, is Kundalinī Shakti. This word comes from the adjective Kundalī or “coiled.” She is spoken of as coiled because She is likened to a serpent (Bhujanggī), which, when resting and sleeping, lies coiled; and because the nature of Her power is spiraline, manifesting itself as such in the worlds—the spheroids or “eggs of Brahmā” (Brahmānda), and in their circular or revolving orbits and in other ways. Thus the Tantras speak of the development of the straight line (Rijurekhā) from the point which, when it has gone its length as a point, is turned (Vakrarekhā angkushākāra) by the force of the spiraline sack of Māyā in which it works so as to form a figure of two dimensions, which again is turned upon itself, ascending as a straight line into the plane of the third dimension, thus forming the triangular or pyramidal figure called Shringātaka.{145} In other words, this Kundalī Shakti is that which, when it moves to manifest itself, appears as the universe. To say that it is “coiled” is to say that it is at rest—that is, in the form of static potential energy. This Shakti coiled round the Supreme Shiva is called Mahākundalī (“The great coiled power”), to distinguish it from the same power which exists in individual bodies, and which is called Kundalī or Kundalinī.{146} It is with and through the last power that this Yoga is affected. When it is accomplished the individual Shakti (Kundalī) is united with the great cosmic Shakti (Mahā-kundalī), and She with Shiva, with whom in truth She is one. Kundalinī is an aspect of the eternal Brahman (Brahmarūpā Sanātanī) and is both Nirgunā and Sagunā. In Her Nirguna aspect She is pure consciousness (Chaitanyarūpinī) and bliss itself (Ānandarūpinī, and in creation Brahmānandaprakāshinī). As Sagunā She it is by whose power all creatures are displayed (Sarvabhūtaprakāshinī).{147} Kundalī Shakti in individual bodies is power at rest, or the static center round which every form of existence as moving power revolves. In the universe there is always in and behind every form of activity a static background. This is one of the profound truths of the Shākta Tantras, which, as later explained, is borne out by recent discoveries of modern science. The one consciousness is polarized into static and kinetic aspects of conscious energy for the purpose of creation. This Yoga is the resolution of this duality into unity again.

The Indian Scriptures say, in the words of Herbert Spencer in his “First Principles,” that the universe is an unfoldment (Srishti) from the homogeneous (Mūlaprakriti) to the heterogeneous (Vikriti), and back to the homogeneous again (Pralaya or dissolution). There are thus alternate states of evolution and dissolution, manifestation taking place after a period of rest. So also Professor Huxley, in his “Evolution and Ethics,” speaks of the manifestation of cosmic energy (Māyā Shakti) alternating between phases of potentiality (Pralaya) and phases of explication (Srishti). “It may be,” he says, “as Kant suggests, every cosmic magma predestined to evolve into a new world has been the no less predestined end of a vanished predecessor.” This the Indian Shāstra affirms in its doctrine that there is no such thing as an absolutely first creation, the present universe being but one of a series of worlds which are past and are yet to be.

At the time of dissolution (Pralaya) there is in consciousness as Mahākundalī, though undistinguishable from its general mass, the potentiality or seed of the universe to be. Māyā potentially exists as Mahākundalī, who is Herself one with Consciousness or Shiva. This Māyā contains, and is in fact constituted by, the collective Sangskāra or Vāsanā—that is, the mental impressions produced by Karma accomplished in previously existing worlds. These constitute the mass of the potential ignorance (Avidyā) by which Consciousness veils itself. They were produced by desire for worldly enjoyment, and themselves produce such desire. The worlds exist because they in their totality will to exist. Each individual exists because his will desires worldly life. This seed is therefore the collective or cosmic will towards manifested life—that is, the life of form and enjoyment. At the end of the period of rest, which is dissolution, this seed ripens in Consciousness. Consciousness has thus a twin aspect: its liberation (Mukti) or formless aspect, in which it is as mere Consciousness-Bliss; and a universe or form aspect, in which it becomes the worlds of enjoyment (Bhukti). One of the cardinal principles of the Shākta Tantra is to secure by its Sādhanā both liberation (Mukti) and enjoyment (Bhukti).{148} This is possible by the identification of the self when in enjoyment with the soul of the world. When this seed ripens Shiva is said to put forth His Shakti. As this Shakti is Himself, it is He in his Shiva-Shakti aspect who comes forth (Prasarati) and endows Himself with all the forms of worldly life. In the pure, perfect, formless Consciousness there springs up the desire to manifest in the world of forms—the desire for enjoyment of and as form. This takes place as a limited stress in the unlimited unmoving surface of pure Consciousness, which is Nishkala Shiva, but without affecting the latter. There is thus change in changelessness and changelessness in change. Shiva in His transcendent aspect does not change, but Shiva (Sakala) in His immanent aspect as Shakti does. As creative will arises Shakti thrills as Nāda,{149} and assumes the form of Bindu, which is Īshvara Tattva, whence all the worlds derive. It is for their creation that Kundalī uncoils. When Karma ripens, the Devī, in the words of the Nigama,{150} “becomes desirous of creation, and covers Herself with Her own Māyā.” Again, “the Devī, joyful in the mad delight of Her union with the Supreme Akula,{151} becomes Vikārinī”{152}—that is, the Vikāras or Tattvas of mind and matter which constitute the universe appear.

The Shāstras have dealt with the stages of creation in great detail both from the subjective and objective viewpoints as changes in the limited consciousness or as movement (Spanda), form, “sound” (Shabda). Both Shaivas and Shāktas equally accept the thirty-six categories or Tattvas, the Kalās, the Shaktis Unmanī, and the rest in the Tattvas, the Shadadhvā, the Mantra concepts of Nāda, Bindu, Kāmakalā, and so forth.{153} Authors of the Northern Shaiva school, of which a leading Shāstra is the Mālinīvijaya Tantra, have described with great profundity these Tattvas. General conclusions only are, however, here summarized. These thirty-six Tattvas are in the Tantras divided into three groups, called Ātmā. Vidyā, and Shiva Tattvas. The first group includes all the Tattvas, from the lowest Prithivi (“earth”) to Prakriti, which are known as the impure categories (Ashuddhatattva); the second includes Māyā, the Kanchuka,{154} and Purusha, called the pure-impure categories (Shuddhaashuddha Tattva); and the third includes the five highest Tattvas, called the pure Tattvas (Shuddha Tattva), from Shiva Tattva to Shuddhavidyā. As already stated, the supreme changeless state (Parāsamvit){155} is a unitary experience in which the “I” and “This” coalesce into a unity in which neither are perceived as such.

In the kinetic or Shakti aspect, as presented by the pure categories, experience recognizes an “I” and “This,” but the latter is regarded, not as something opposed to and outside the “I,” but as part of a one self which has two sides—an “I” (Aham) and “This” (Idam). The emphasis varies from insistence on the “I” to insistence on the “This,” and then to equality of emphasis on the “I” and “This as a preparation for the dichotomy in consciousness which follows.

The pure-impure categories are intermediate between the pure and the impure. The essential characteristic of experience constituted by the impure categories is its dualism effected through Māyā—and its limitations—the result of the operation of the Kanchukas. Here the “This” is not seen as part of the self, but as opposed to and without it as an object seen outside. Each consciousness thus became mutually exclusive the one of the other. The states thus described are threefold: a transcendent mingled “I” and “This,” in which these elements of experience are as such not perceived; a pure form of experience intermediate between the first and last, in which both the “I” and the “This” are experienced as part of the one self; and, thirdly, the state of manifestation proper, when there is a complete cleavage between the “I” and the “This,” in which an outer object is presented to the consciousness of a knower. This last stage is itself twofold. In the first the Purusha experiences a homogeneous universe, though different from himself as Prakriti; in the second Prakriti is split up into its effects (Vikriti), which are mind and matter, and the multitudinous beings of the universe which these compose. Shakti as Prakriti first evolves mind (Buddhi, Ahangkāra, Manas) and senses (Indriya), and then sensible matter (Bhūta) of fivefold form (“ether,” “air,” “fire,” “water,” “earth”){156} derived from the supersensible generals of the sense particulars called Tanmātra. When Shakti has entered the last and grossest Tattva (“earth”)—that is, solid matter—there is nothing further for Her to do. Her creative activity then ceases, and She rests. She rests in Her last emanation, the “earth” principle. She is again coiled and sleeps. She is now Kundalī Shakti, whose abode in the human body is the earth center or Mūlādhāra Chakra. As in the supreme state She lay coiled as the Mahākundalī round the Supreme Shiva, so here She coils round the Svayambhu Lingga in the Mūlādhāra.

The Mantra evolution is set forth with great clarity in the Shāradā Tilaka, wherein it is said that from the Sakala Shiva (Shiva Tattva), who is Sat-Chit-Ānanda, issued Shakti (Shakti Tattva); from the latter Nāda (Sadākhya Tattva); and from Nāda evolved Bindu (Īshvara Tattva),{157} which, to distinguish it from the Bindu which follows, is called the Supreme Bindu (Para-Bindu). Nāda and Bindu are, like all else, aspects of Shakti, being those states of Her which are the proper conditions for (Upayogāvasthā) and in which She is prone to (Uchchhanāvasthā) creation. In those Tattvas the germ of action (Kriyā Shakti) sprouts towards its full manifestation.

The Tantras, in so far as they are Mantra Shāstras, are concerned with Shabda or “sound,” a term later explained. Mantra is manifested Shabda. Nāda, which also literally means sound, is the first of the produced intermediate causal bodies of Shabda. Bindu, which has previously been explained, is described as the state of the letter Ma before manifestation, consisting of the Shiva-Shakti Tattva enveloped by Māyā or Parama Kundalī. It implies both the void (Shūnya)—that is, the Brahman state (Brahmapada)—in the empty space within the circle of the Bindu; as also the Gunas which are implicitly contained in it, since it is in indissoluble union with Shakti, in whom the Gunas or factors constituting the material source of all things are contained.{158} The Parabindu is called the Ghanāvasthā state of Shakti. It is Chidghana or massive consciousness—that is, Chit associated with undifferentiated (that is, Chidrūpinī) Shakti, in which lie potentially in a mass (Ghana), though undistinguishable the one from the other, all the worlds and beings to be created. This is Parama Shiva, in whom are all the Devatās. It is this Bindu who is the Lord (Īshvara) whom some Pauranikas call Mahāvishnu and others the Brahmapurusha.{159} As the Commentator says, it does not matter what He is called. He is the Lord (Īshvara) who is worshipped in secret by all Devas,{160} and is pointed to in different phases of the Chandrabindu, or Nāda, Bindu, Shakti, and Shānta of the Om and other Bīja Mantras. Its abode is Satyaloka, which within the human body exists in the pericarp of the thousand-petalled lotus (Sahasrāra) in the highest cerebral center. The Shāradā{161} then says that this Parabindu, whose substance is Supreme Shakti, divides itself into three—that is, appears under a threefold aspect. There are thus three Bindus, the first of which is called Bindu,{162} and the others Nāda and Bīja. Bindu is in the nature of Shiva and Bīja of Shakti. Nāda is Shiva-Shakti—that is, their mutual relation or interaction (Mithah samavāyah){163} or Yoga (union), as the Prayogasāra calls it.{164} The threefold Bindu (Tribindu) is supreme (Para), subtle (Sūkshma), and gross (Sthūla).{165} Nāda is thus the union of these two in creation. As the text says (v. 40), it is by this division of Shiva and Shakti that there arises creative ideation (Srishti-Kalpanā). The causal Bindu is from the Shakti aspect undifferentiated Shakti (Abhedarūpā Shakti) with all powers (Sarvashaktimaya); from the Prakriti aspect Trigunamayī Mūlaprakriti; from the Devatā aspect the unmanifest (Avyakta); from the Devī aspect Shāntā. The three Bindus separately indicate the operations of the three powers of will (Ichchhā), knowledge (Jnāna), and action (Kriyā), and the three Gunas (Rajas, Sattva, Tamas); also the manifestation of the three Devīs (Vāmā, Jyeshthā, Raudrī) and the three Devatās (Brahmā, Vishnu, Rudra) who spring from them.{166} It is said in the Prayogasāra and Shāradā that Raudrī issued from Bindu, Jyesthā from Nāda, and Vāmā from Bīja. From these came Rudra, Vishnu, Brahmā, which are in the nature of Jnāna, Kriyā, Ichchhā, and Moon, Sun, and Fire.{167} The three Bindus are known as Sun (Ravi), Moon (Chandra), and Fire (Agni), terms constantly appearing in the works here translated.

In Sun there are Fire and Moon.{168} It is known as Mishra Bindu, and in the form of such is not different from Paramashiva, and is Kāmakalā.{169} Kāmakalā is the triangle of divine desire formed by the three Bindus—that is, their collectivity (Samashtirūpā).{170} This Kāmakalā is the root (Mūla) of all Mantra. Moon (Soma, Chandra) is Shiva Bindu, and white (Sita Bindu); Fire (Agni) is Shaktibindu, and red (Shonabindu); Sun is a mixture of the two. Fire, Moon, and Sun are the Ichchhā, Jnāna, Kriyā Shaktis (will, knowledge, action) manifesting in the Mūlādhāra (head and heart). On the material plane the white Bindu assumes the form of semen (Shukra), and the red Bindu of menstrual fluid (Rajasphala, Shonita). Mahābindu is the state before the manifestation of Prakriti.{171} All three Bindus—that is, the Kāmakalā—are Shakti, though one may indicate predominantly the Shiva, the other the Shakti aspect. Sometimes Mishra Bindu is called Shakti Tattva, to denote the supremacy of Shakti, and sometimes Shiva Tattva, to denote the supremacy of the possessor of power (Shaktimān). It is of coupled form (Yāmalarūpa). There is no Shiva without Shakti, nor Shakti without Shiva.{172} To separate{173} them is as impossible as to separate the moving wind from the steadfast ether in which it blows. In the one Shiva-Shakti there is a union (Maithuna),{174} the thrill of which is Nāda, whence Mahābindu is born, which itself becomes threefold (Tribindu), which is Kāmakalā.{175} It is said in the Shāradā-Tilaka that on the “bursting” or differentiation of the Supreme Bindu there was unmanifested “sound” (Shabda).{176} This manifested Shabda is through action (Kriyā Shakti) the source of the manifested Shabda and Artha described later.{177} The Brahman as the source of language (Shabda) and ideas on one hand, and the objects (Artha) they denote on the other, is called Shabdabrahman, or the Logos.{178} From this differentiating Bindu in the form of Prakriti are evolved the Tattvas of mind and matter in all their various forms, as also the Lords of the Tattvas (Tattvesha)—that is, their directing intelligences—Shambhu,{179} the presiding Devatā over the Ājnā Chakra, the center of the mental faculties; and Sadāshiva, Īsha, Rudra, Vishnu, Brahmā, the Devatās of the five forms of matter, concluding with Prithivī (“earth”) in the Mūlādhāra center, wherein the creative Shakti, having finished Her work, again rests, and is called Kundalinī.

Just as the atom consists of a static center round which moving forces revolve, so in the human body Kundalī in the earth Chakra is the static center (Kendra) round which She in kinetic aspect as the forces of the body works. The whole body as Shakti is in ceaseless movement. Kundalī Shakti is the immobile support of all these operations. When She is aroused and Herself moves upwards, She withdraws with and into Herself these moving Shaktis, and then unites with Shiva in the Sahasrāra lotus. The process upward (evolution) is the reverse of the involution above described.

Before proceeding to a description of the Chakras it is, firstly, necessary to describe more fully the constituents of the body—that is, the Tattvas—mentioned, extending from Prakriti to Prithivī. It is of these Tattvas that the Chakras are centers. Secondly, an explanation is required of the doctrine of “sound” (Shabda), which exists in the body in the three inner states (Parā, Pashyantī, Madhyamā), and is expressed in uttered speech (Vaikharī) This will help the reader to an understanding of the meaning of Mantra or manifested Shabda, and of the “Garland of Letters” which is distributed throughout the six bodily centers.