Spanda Karikas: Section III - Vibhuti Spanda
स्पन्दकारिकाः - तृतीयो निःष्यन्दः (विभूतिस्पन्दः)
The third and longest section of the Spanda Karikas, Vibhuti Spanda ("the supernormal powers of Spanda"), 19 verses. Describes the higher and lower powers that arise from laying hold of the Spanda principle - freedom in dream, the vividness of unmesa, mastery over hunger and depression - then turns to define bondage itself (verses 13-18, the puryastaka and the power of words) before closing, in its final verse, by showing that the very same power which binds the pasu becomes, once recognized, the means of becoming cakresvara, lord of the collective whole of the saktis.
Sanskrit
यथेच्छाभ्यर्थितो धाता जाग्रतोऽर्थान् हृदि स्थितान् । सोमसूर्योदयं कृत्वा सम्पादयति देहिनः ॥१॥
Transliteration
yathecchābhyarthito dhātā jāgrato'rthān hṛdi sthitān / somasūryodayaṃ kṛtvā sampādayati dehinaḥ ||1||
Translation
As the sustainer of this universe (i.e. Siva) when eagerly entreated with desire accomplishes all the desires abiding in the heart of the embodied yogi who is awake after causing the rise of the moon and the sun.
Deep Meaning
Opens Section III by showing the yogi's power extending beyond waking life: Siva, the universe's sustainer (dhata), fulfills the heartfelt desires of a devoted, wakeful yogi by causing the "rise of the moon and sun" - here meaning jnana-sakti and kriya-sakti, the powers of knowledge and action, entering and animating the yogi's own prana and apana.
Sanskrit
तथा स्वप्नेऽप्यभीष्टार्थान् प्राणस्यानतिक्रमात् । नित्यं स्फुटतरं मध्ये स्थितोऽवश्यं प्रकाशयेत् ॥२॥
Transliteration
tathā svapne'pyabhīṣṭārthān prāṇasyānatikramāt / nityaṃ sphuṭataraṃ madhye sthito'vaśyaṃ prakāśayet ||2||
Translation
So also in dream, by appearing in the central nadi (madhye), does He surely reveal always and more vividly his desired objects to him who never desists from his zealous prayer.
Deep Meaning
Completes verse 1 by extending the same power into dream: for the yogi whose prana never strays from its proper course - who abides in susumna, the central channel, even in sleep - the same desired objects are revealed there too, and more vividly than in waking, since this yogi is never infatuated by dream or deep sleep.
Sanskrit
अन्यथा तु स्वतन्त्रा स्यात्सृष्टिस्तद्धर्मकत्वतः । सततं लौकिकस्येव जाग्रत्स्वप्नपदद्वये ॥३॥
Transliteration
anyathā tu svatantrā syātsṛṣṭistaddharmakatvataḥ / satataṃ laukikasyeva jāgratsvapnapadadvaye ||3||
Translation
Otherwise, the Creative power of the Divine according to its characteristics, is free in manifesting always all kinds of things (usual and unusual) (to the yogi also) both in waking and dream states as in the case of the common people of the world.
Deep Meaning
A direct warning counterbalancing verses 1-2: if the yogi does not maintain this constant prayerful orientation, the Divine Creative Power remains entirely free to manifest ordinary, uncontrolled experience to him in both waking and dream - exactly as it does for common people - throwing him back into transmigratory existence along with them.
Sanskrit
यथा ह्यर्थोऽस्फुटो दृष्टः सावधानेऽपि चेतसि । भूयः स्फुटतरो भाति स्वबलोद्योगभावितः ॥४॥
Transliteration
yathā hyartho'sphuṭo dṛṣṭaḥ sāvadhāne'pi cetasi / bhūyaḥ sphuṭataro bhāti svabalodyogabhāvitaḥ ||4||
Translation
Indeed just as a thing which, in spite of all the attentiveness of the mind, is perceived indistinctly at first, appears more distinctly, later, when observed with the strenuous exercise of one's power.
Deep Meaning
Introduces a simile continued in verse 5: just as something seen indistinctly at first - despite full attentiveness - becomes clearer with the strenuous, repeated exercise of one's visual power, so too does Spanda itself become more vivid the more one practises identity with it.
Sanskrit
तथा यत्परमार्थेन येन यत्र यथा स्थितम् । तत्तथा बलमाक्रम्य न चिरात्सम्प्रवर्तते ॥५॥
Transliteration
tathā yatparamārthena yena yatra yathā sthitam / tattathā balamākramya na cirātsampravartate ||5||
Translation
So when the yogi resorts to the power (of Spanda), then whatever thing (yat) actually (paramarthena) exists in whichever form (yena), in whichever place or time (yatra) in whichever state (yatha) that thing (tat) becomes at once (na cirat) manifest in that very way (tatha).
Deep Meaning
Completes verse 4's simile with a striking practical claim: by resorting to the power of Spanda, whatever actually exists - in whatever form, place or state - becomes manifest to the yogi almost instantly, since he reaches it by merging his psychosomatic sense of being the experient into his inner essential Self, not by any ordinary effort of searching.
Sanskrit
दुर्बलोऽपि तदाक्रम्य यतः कार्ये प्रवर्तते । आच्छादयेद्बुभुक्षां च तथा योऽतिबुभुक्षितः ॥६॥
Transliteration
durbalo'pi tadākramya yataḥ kārye pravartate / ācchādayedbubhukṣāṃ ca tathā yo'tibubhukṣitaḥ ||6||
Translation
Just as a feeble person also by resorting to that power (of Spanda) succeeds in doing what has to be done, even so one who is exceedingly hungry overcomes his hunger.
Deep Meaning
A further supernormal fruit: even a physically depleted person can accomplish what seemed beyond his strength by resorting to Spanda's power, and even someone overcome by extreme hunger overcomes it - Utpala Bhatta's note reads "hunger" here as standing in, elliptically, for all six waves of embodied existence: hunger, thirst, sorrow, delusion, old age and death.
Sanskrit
अनेनाधिष्ठिते देहे यथा सर्वज्ञतादयः । तथा स्वात्मन्यधिष्ठानात्सर्वत्रैवं भविष्यति ॥७॥
Transliteration
anenādhiṣṭhite dehe yathā sarvajñatādayaḥ / tathā svātmanyadhiṣṭhānātsarvatraivaṃ bhaviṣyati ||7||
Translation
Just as all knowability, etc., in respect of the body occurs when it is pervaded by that spanda principle, even so when the yogi is established in his essential Self, he will have omniscience, etc. everywhere.
Deep Meaning
Draws the inference from verse 6: just as the body's very capacity to be known or acted upon arises simply from Spanda pervading it, so too, when the yogi becomes established in his imperishable Self rather than the body, that same principle grants him omniscience and omnipotence everywhere - not confined to his own body's field.
Sanskrit
ग्लानिर्विलुण्ठिका देहे तस्याश्चाज्ञानतः सृतिः । तदुन्मेषविलुप्तं चेत्कुतः सा स्यादहेतुका ॥८॥
Transliteration
glānirviluṇṭhikā dehe tasyāścājñānataḥ sṛtiḥ / tadunmeṣaviluptaṃ cetkutaḥ sā syādahetukā ||8||
Translation
Just as a plunderer carries away the valuables of the house, even so depression saps away the vitality of the body. This depression proceeds from ignorance. If that ignorance disappears by unmesa, how can that depression last in the absence of its cause?
Deep Meaning
A promise of real relief: glani, the depression that "plunders" the vitality of anyone who mistakes his body for the Self, has ignorance (non-recognition of one's own nature as a mass of consciousness-bliss) as its sole cause. Once unmesa dispels that ignorance, the depression has no cause left to sustain it, and must disappear - the text adds that a body permeated this way grows free even of ordinary signs of decline like wrinkles and grey hair.
Sanskrit
एकचिन्ताप्रसक्तस्य यतः स्यादपरोदयः । उन्मेषः स तु विज्ञेयः स्वयं तमुपलक्षयेत् ॥९॥
Transliteration
ekacintāprasaktasya yataḥ syādaparodayaḥ / unmeṣaḥ sa tu vijñeyaḥ svayaṃ tamupalakṣayet ||9||
Translation
That should be known as unmesa whence the rise of another thought takes place in the mind of a man who is already engaged in one thought, one should experience it introspectively for oneself.
Deep Meaning
Defines unmesa, the pivotal term promised since the exposition of verse 8: it is the sudden rise of a transcendental awareness precisely when the mind, fully engrossed and restrained in one single thought, cannot move toward any other. Kshemaraja insists this cannot be grasped as an object, "this" - it has to be approached from within, as I-consciousness, with effortless attention.
Sanskrit
अतो विन्दुरतो नादो रूपमस्मादतो रसः । प्रवर्तन्तेऽचिरेणैव क्षोभकत्वेन देहिनः ॥१०॥
Transliteration
ato vindurato nādo rūpamasmādato rasaḥ / pravartante'cireṇaiva kṣobhakatvena dehinaḥ ||10||
Translation
From this (unmesa) appear (supernormal) light, (supernormal) sound, (supernormal) form, (supernormal) taste, in a short time, to the yogi who has not yet done away with the identification of the Self with the body, which, however, are only a disturbing factor (in the full realization of the Spanda principle).
Deep Meaning
An important caution placed directly after unmesa's definition: the practice does produce genuine supernormal experiences - an inner starlike light, spontaneous unstruck sound, a luminous form, a transcendental taste - but for a yogi who still identifies with the body, these remain only distracting, even obstructive, sources of temporary satisfaction, not the actual goal.
Sanskrit
दिदृक्षयैव सर्वार्थान् यदा व्याप्यावतिष्ठते । तदा किं बहुनोक्तेन स्वयमेवावभोत्स्यते ॥११॥
Transliteration
didṛkṣayaiva sarvārthān yadā vyāpyāvatiṣṭhate / tadā kiṃ bahunoktena svayamevāvabhotsyate ||11||
Translation
When the yogi wishing to see all objects abides in that state pervading them all, i.e. infusing them all with the light of his consciousness, then what is the use of saying much, he will experience for himself (the splendour of that vision).
Deep Meaning
When the yogi, desiring to see all objects, abides pervading them entirely - infusing everything with I-consciousness exactly as Sadasiva does, moving from an initial sense of "I" relating to each thing toward a final thought-free awareness embracing all of it at once - no further instruction is needed; the experience speaks for itself.
Sanskrit
प्रबुद्धः सर्वदा तिष्ठेज्ज्ञानेनालोक्य गोचरम् । एकत्रारोपयेत्सर्वं ततोऽन्येन न पीड्यते ॥१२॥
Transliteration
prabuddhaḥ sarvadā tiṣṭhejjñānenālokya gocaram / ekatrāropayetsarvaṃ tato'nyena na pīḍyate ||12||
Translation
Observing all objective phenomena by knowledge i.e. by external perception, one should always remain awake, and should deposit everything in one place i.e. see everything as identical with Spanda which is our own essential Self. Thus, he is never troubled by another.
Deep Meaning
Gives the concluding practical instruction for the fully enlightened: remain constantly awake - at the start, middle and end of every state - and "deposit" everything observed in the one place, recognizing it all as identical with Spanda. Since nothing then remains different from his own Self, he can no longer be troubled by anything.
Sanskrit
शब्दराशिसमुत्थस्य शक्तिवर्गस्य भोग्यताम् । कलाविलुप्तविभवो गतः सन्स पशुः स्मृतः ॥१३॥
Transliteration
śabdarāśisamutthasya śaktivargasya bhogyatām / kalāviluptavibhavo gataḥ sansa paśuḥ smṛtaḥ ||13||
Translation
Being deprived of his glory by kala, he (the individual) becomes a victim of the group of Powers arising from the multitude of words, and thus he is known as the bound one (pasu).
Deep Meaning
Turns from liberation to bondage directly: if the whole universe is truly Siva, who is troubled and by whom? The answer: one deprived of his own glory by kala (Maya's power of limitation) becomes prey to the group of letter-goddesses (Brahmi and the rest) arising from the multitude of words, and is for that reason called pasu, the bound soul - the first of a six-verse arc (13-18) on how binding actually works.
Sanskrit
परामृतरसापायस्तस्य यः प्रत्ययोद्भवः । तेनास्वतन्त्रतामेति स च तन्मात्रगोचरः ॥१४॥
Transliteration
parāmṛtarasāpāyastasya yaḥ pratyayodbhavaḥ / tenāsvatantratāmeti sa ca tanmātragocaraḥ ||14||
Translation
The rise, in the bound soul, of all sorts of ideas marks the disappearance of the bliss of supreme immortality. On account of this, he loses his independence. The appearance of the ideas has its sphere in sense-objects.
Deep Meaning
Explains the mechanism of bondage further: every idea (pratyaya) that arises in the bound soul marks, in that very moment, the disappearance of the bliss of supreme immortality - not because that bliss is ever truly gone, but because it goes unnoticed. He loses his independence precisely because these ideas are tied entirely to the sphere of sense-objects (tanmatras).
Sanskrit
स्वरूपावरणे चास्य शक्तयः सततोत्थिताः । यतः शब्दानुवेधेन न विना प्रत्ययोद्भवः ॥१५॥
Transliteration
svarūpāvaraṇe cāsya śaktayaḥ satatotthitāḥ / yataḥ śabdānuvedhena na vinā pratyayodbhavaḥ ||15||
Translation
Brahmi and other Powers are ever in readiness to conceal his real nature, for without the association of words, ideas cannot arise.
Deep Meaning
Explains why escaping these ideas is so difficult: the letter-goddesses are perpetually active in concealing the bound soul's real nature, because no idea whatsoever - however subtle, down to the pre-verbal gestures by which even an infant or an animal first signals understanding - can arise without some involvement of word.
Sanskrit
सेयं क्रियात्मिका शक्तिः शिवस्य पशुवर्तिनी । बन्धयित्री स्वमार्गस्था ज्ञाता सिद्ध्युपपादिका ॥१६॥
Transliteration
seyaṃ kriyātmikā śaktiḥ śivasya paśuvartinī / bandhayitrī svamārgasthā jñātā siddhyupapādikā ||16||
Translation
That afore-mentioned operative power of Siva existing in the bound soul is a source of bondage; the same when realized as residing in him as the way of approach to one's own essential reality brings about success (i.e. the achievement of liberation).
Deep Meaning
The pivotal verse of this arc: the very same operative power (kriya-sakti) of Siva that binds the pasu becomes, once recognized as one's own way of approach to Siva, the direct means to liberation. Bondage and freedom are not two different powers - only two different relationships to the one identical power, which is why the text can close this whole section by showing the bound soul rising to lordship through the very power that bound him.
Sanskrit
तन्मात्रोदयरूपेण मनोऽहंबुद्धिवर्तिना । पुर्यष्टकेन संरुद्धस्तदुत्थं प्रत्ययोद्भवम् ॥१७॥
Transliteration
tanmātrodayarūpeṇa mano'haṃbuddhivartinā / puryaṣṭakena saṃruddhastaduttham pratyayodbhavam ||17||
Translation
Besieged by puryastaka which rises from tanmatras and exists in mind, I-feeling, and the determinative faculty, he (the bound soul) becomes subservient and undergoes the experiences that arise from it in the form of ideas about certain objects and the pleasure or pain that accrues from them.
Deep Meaning
Names the actual psychological mechanism in full: the puryastaka - the subtle body made of the five tanmatras together with manas, ahamkara and buddhi - besieges the bound soul, who becomes subservient to it and undergoes whatever ideas, pleasures and pains it throws up.
Sanskrit
भुङ्क्ते परवशो भोगं तद्भावात्संसरेदतः । संसृतिप्रलयस्यास्य कारणं सम्प्रचक्ष्महे ॥१८॥
Transliteration
bhuṅkte paravaśo bhogaṃ tadbhāvātsaṃsaredataḥ / saṃsṛtipralayasyāsya kāraṇaṃ sampracakṣmahe ||18||
Translation
Owing to the continuance of the puryastaka, he (the bound soul) leads transmigratory existence. We are 'therefore' going to explain what causes the extirpation of this transmigratory existence.
Deep Meaning
Completes verse 17's diagnosis: because the puryastaka persists - carrying residual desires forward from one body to the next even after physical death - the bound soul is driven into transmigratory existence. Having stated the disease fully, the text now turns, as promised, to its cure.
Sanskrit
यदा त्वेकत्र संरूढस्तदा तस्य लयोदयौ । नियच्छन्भोक्तृतामेति ततश्चक्रेश्वरो भवेत् ॥१९॥
Transliteration
yadā tvekatra saṃrūḍhastadā tasya layodayau / niyacchanbhoktṛtāmeti tataścakreśvaro bhavet ||19||
Translation
When, however, he is firmly rooted in that supreme Spanda principle, then bringing the emergence and dissolution of the puryastaka entirely under his control, he becomes the real enjoyer and thenceforth the lord of the collective whole of the Saktis.
Deep Meaning
Section III's final verse and its resolution: once firmly rooted in Spanda, the yogi brings the very emergence and dissolution of the puryastaka under his own control, becomes the true enjoyer rather than its victim, and rises to cakresvara - lord of the entire collective of saktis that once bound him. Jaideva Singh notes the author closes by "showing the sameness of the great reality both in the beginning and end of the book" - this verse returns to exactly the principle announced in Section I's opening invocation.