Vagartha

Vayu said

Now I will explain how the universe comes into being through vagartha, word and meaning. It can be understood along six paths, and I will give it briefly and accurately, not at length. There is nothing that is not the meaning of some word, and no word without a meaning, so in their proper season all words carry sense and point to something. The two ideas, word and meaning, are consequences of Prakriti. They are therefore called forms of Prakriti, while Shiva and Shivaa are the supreme selves behind them. The learned say that the word has three modes of expression: gross, subtle and beyond both. The gross is what the ear can hear. The subtle is said to take the form of thought, and the one beyond has no thought at all.

The Shakti that rests on Shiva's tattva is called Para Shakti, and she gains strength by joining with Jnana Shakti and Iccha Shakti. All the Shaktis together are called Shakti tattva. All work is done once the Shaktis reach the muladhara. There is a pure, supreme path through the maya of the kundalini, said to unfold along six courses. Of these, three concern words and three concern the meanings of words. For people, the right to be dissolved and the right to enjoy depend on the divisions of all the tattvas and on how pure the person is. Accordingly the parts of the tattvas spread through each other. At the start, supreme Prakriti passes through five transformations, and these parts are fairly settled as nivritti and the others.

The paths of words are those of mantras, padas and varnas. In turn the paths of meanings are those of the worlds, the tattvas and the kalas. They are said to pervade each other and be pervaded by each other. Padas fill all mantras, and sentences are built of padas. A wise person knows that a group of varnas makes a pada. Varnas are pervaded by the worlds because the worlds are where they can be found, and the worlds are drenched in tattvas. In order they arise inside and outside, and are pervaded in many ways by the tattvas, which are origins and instruments. Some tattvas arise within the worlds, others are in the Puranas, others are known from the Shiva agamas. Some were made famous by samkhya and yoga, and many more by the texts on Shiva. In turn, the tattvas are pervaded by the kalas. As at the start, supreme Prakriti has five transformations, and the five parts, nivritti and the rest, pervade one another. The supreme, undivided Prakriti fills the six paths, and she in turn is filled by Shiva's tattva. From Shakti down to the earth, everything arises from Shiva's tattva, which fills it all as clay fills a pot. Along these six paths Shiva's supreme destination can be reached.

When the five tattvas are purified, the Shakti who was not all-pervading becomes all-pervading. The region from the cosmic egg up to Rudra is purified by nivritti. Above it, up to the imperceptible region of the unmanifest, is purified by pratishtha. Above that, the middle part up to Vishveshvara, by vidya. Above that, purification is by shanti, and at the end of the path by shantyatita. This is called supreme space because of its union with supreme Prakriti. These are the five tattvas that fill the whole universe, though all this is meant to be seen only by practitioners. A person who wants to purify himself without knowing how these paths pervade is deceiving himself. He will not get the fruit of purification, his effort will be wasted, and he will go to hell. Apart from yoga and the grace of Shakti, there is no way to know the nature of the tattvas, how they pervade and how they grow.

Shakti, as consciousness, is the supreme command of Shiva. She is Parameshvari. While Shiva presides over everything, she takes the form of the cause. There is no maya in her self, and one should not think she undergoes any transformation. She has neither bondage nor liberation; she is the one who arranges both. She is the culmination of all Shiva's powers and never acts against him. She follows the same dharma and, above all, shares his inclinations. He is like the householder and she is always the lady of the house. Their offspring are works, and the universe arises from supreme Prakriti. He is the doer and she the cause. Shiva alone divides himself in two and stays as the difference between them. Some say that difference is of male and female. Others say Shiva and Para Shakti cannot be separated, like the sun and its light. Yet as consciousness she has a distinct existence. So Shiva is the supreme cause and Parameshvari is his command. Urged by Shiva, primordial Prakriti takes three forms: Mahamaya, Maya and Triguna. These three workings lead to the six paths called vagartha. The entire universe is made of these six, and everything the scriptures say is only an elaboration of them.