KATHAM️
We browsed the7️⃣’s y’day on saptami, with the7️⃣notes🎵 <sapta-svarās> of🎶music. It’s time to visit the🎱’s today on aṣṭami, with the kingly dance of the 8️⃣-limbed🧘♀️<aṣṭa-aṅga>🧘♂️yōgā!
What’s so special about today’s particular combo of the mid-June to mid-July āṉi♊️solar🌞month & the moon🌓appearing with the background of the Denebola <uttiram̐🌠/uttara-phal̥guṇi> constellation, as viewed from the🌏earth⁉️ Well, that’s an indication of ourSelf🕉️(soul) & our emotional🥹mind (referred to as the💓heart in Western parlance), both accessing2️⃣distinct areas of our mercurial🟢intellect, or equivalently the2️⃣hemispheres of our🧠brain‼️
Throughout this fortnight, ourSelf🕉️has been & will be wading through a⛅️cloudy☁️corner of our investigative, algebraic & logical intellect. OurSelf🕉️is right in the middle of that🌦️cloudy☁️corner on this particular day of the year while our emotional🥹mind is in the🕉️spiritual corner of our creative, geometric & visual intellect.
This creates a perfect balance between the👩🔬scientist👨🔬 & the👩🎤artist👨🎤, within each of us. The eternal cosmic💃🏻dance🕺of quantum⚛️mechanics allows even laymen amongst us a breathtaking-intuitive peep into its brilliantly-aesthetic work forever in progress, if & only if we could🧘🏻♀️still🧘🏻our bodies & 🤐silence🤫our minds, here & now!
We explored the 5️⃣ fundamental elements <pañca-bhūtās> in a previous post. There’s mind-boggling magical alchemy whenever even a subset of them reorganise, at the behest of universal intelligence, to come together in different proportions. The phenomenal transformations need to be witnessed or, even better, experienced to be truly appreciated. The taste of honey🍯can’t be explained to a neonatal diabetic even by a🐝bee!
When a seeker <sādhakā> takes even an ordinary🛀bath, it’s not just physical🧼cleansing but subtle & causal🛁as well. Hence, the need to frequently sprinkle💦water on oneself & the🥘food to be consumed, as its essence is gonna soon transform involuntarily, effortlessly & magically into oneself. Today’s all about our water💧element <jal̥a tat-tvā> cascading around our ethereal space element <ākāṣa🌌tat-tvā> for our rare inside-out super-ablution <abhiśēka-priyā’s tiru-mañjanam̐>.
At one end of the spectrum, our nothingness, in its static-ellipsoidal form, is continually wetted in the eternal flow of universal wisdom to keep itself intact even amidst potential implosions. At the other end of the spectrum, the very same nothingness, in its dynamically-exuberant form, is too fired up & spatially expansive, allowing only for a rare sip of wisdom, communicated way beyond a silenced intellect. It’s 1️⃣ such rare sip of wisdom today, being 1️⃣ of only 6️⃣ such days in an entire year.
2️⃣ of these 6️⃣ sips are rendered extra-special in the form of gulps & 1️⃣ of them happens today, in the guise of a blissful yet boisterous dance <ānanda tāṇḍavam̐>! So, don’t miss the golden opportunity to partake in it through an intensification of whatever spiritual practices you might already be engaged in. If you just happen to perceive that you aren’t consciously involved in any spiritual practice whatsoever currently, then this is a golden opportunity to begin one☝️by bathing a naṭa-rāja🕺🏿vi-grah-am̐ or śi-va🕳️l̥iṅg-am̐ at your🏡home, preferably before sunrise🌄tomorrow morning. Else, do it at your convenience. We shall revisit🕉️cit-aṁbaram̐🌌for the🥈nd gulp too... in the solar☀️month of Dec-Jan♐️<mārgaḻi> during ārdrā darṣaṇam̐ on tiru-vādirai nakṣa-tram̐!
Just as our music is born out of our silence, our dance is born out of our stillness. With pure consciousness🕉️<cit> as its non-existent🌌sky/covering <aṁbaram̐>, our own🕳️nothingness breaks out of its💀death-like stillness with a dance of dissolution to re-enable re-creation. The evolution of a👨🎓sādhak (seeKEr)👩🎓 into a 🧘♀️yōgi🧘♂️ & a r̥ṣī (seer) is analogous to the dancer becoming the dance himself/herself/itself, by dropping the🔑‘KE’ as there’s no more lock🔒to be🔐unlocked🔓!
Ratios & proportions are critical in any appropriately-scaled model. Well, scaling laws apply‼️ The majestic temple🛕of🕉️cit-aṁbaram̐🌌is to our own🕳️nothingness what the1️⃣in śrī-raṅg-am̐ is to our own♾️everythingness. It’s a rare exception wherein our source <mūl-avar> & our festive spirit <utsav-ar> are unified, even in the physical dimension. Every aspect of the🛕temple’s architecture is analogous to our healthy body structure, with apt representations of our bodily systems, be it🫁respiratory👃, nervous, ❤️circulatory🩸, endocrine, reproductive, digestive or even excretory. Being a scaled-up model of our physical structure, whether we’re aware of this mimicry or not, the very presence is sufficient to make us resonate with the energy of the🛕temple’s architecture.
Working models aren’t all about aptly-scaled matter alone, but aptly-scaled energies too. Our dancing🕺partner💃🏻, our inseparable better half, or our driving energy, of our🕉️consciousness-clad🧥<cit-aṁbara> mastery over the dance of life <naṭa-rājā> is none other than our own beautiful desire for nothingness <śi-va-kāma-sundari>.
Story time! Long long ago... nobody knows how long ago... our own everythingness <viṣṇū> was relaxing as usual on our own primal-limitless-residue🐍<ādi-ananta-śēśa>. Suddenly, our everythingness burst into ecstasy & thus became too heavy to be supported & carried by our otherwise strong & buoyant🐍primal-limitless-residue, with high🏋🏿payload🏋🏻♀️carrying🏋🏾♂️capacity. The latter, our carrier, wondered why this was happening & questioned the former. BTW, our own omnipresence is omniscient too.
Our everythingness replied that he was witnessing, through our👼🏽divine👁️intuitive🪬vision, the incomparable view of the🕺dance of our🧜nothingness🕳️in the 🕉️consciousness-clad🧥<cit-aṁbara>🌌space! The spectacle was so absorbing & engulfing that our everythingness was⚖️weighing 🆙 in ecstatic bliss. Excited about the description & its possibilities, our primal-limitless-residue🐍then sought permission to go & witness this for itself live on the🌌sky-stage as it didn’t want to be left behind & miss out on the winning entry of the global premier of the super-show called “The Universe’s Got Talent!”
Thus, ādi-ananta-śēśā’s avatār as the great seer, whose feet🦶are worthy of🙇🏻♀️obeisance🙇🏻♂️<pat-añjali🙏maha-r̥ṣī>, to👀witness🕳️śi-va🧜naṭa-rājā’s dance, eventually led to his intellectually outstanding exposition on🧘♂️yōgā🧘♀️, in the form of crisp & compact formulae & yet constituting the most comprehensive literature survey ever:🛣️pat-añjal̥i🙇yōga🧎🏻♀️sūtrā! This was just 1️⃣ example of his many profound works covering pretty much every discipline worth a📖study!
Tomorrow, on the🎱th day of the🕯️waxing🌔phase, we can’t miss out at least a brief mention of the 8️⃣-limbed pat-añjal̥i aṣṭ-āṅga yōgā & its correlation with my earlier extrapolative coinage of the daily periods <nitya muhurtās> of brahmā, viṣṇū, śivā & kāl̥ī! So here you go:
1~2. sādhanā in brahma-muhurtam̐ (2hrs before🌄sunrise) optimally promotes yamā & ni-yamā (do’s & don’ts, irrespectively‼️ Do’s include brahman-like conduct <brahma-caryā>);
3~4. sādhanā in viṣṇu-muhurtam̐ or ucchi kāl̥a pūjai (2hrs before🕛noon) optimally promotes āsanā & prāṇa-āyamā (stilling the body & regularising the breath, respectively, to visualise lakṣmi-nārāyaṇā in the heart 💓<anāhata cakrā>);
5~6. sādhanā in śiva-muhurtam̐ or nitya pradōṣa kāl̥am̐ (2hrs before🌅sunset) optimally promotes pratyahārā & dhāraṇā (withdrawing the senses & focusing, respectively);
7~8. sādhanā in kāl̥i-muhurtam̐ (2hrs before🕛midnight) optimally promotes dhyānā & samā-dhī (de-concentration & intellectual equanimity, respectively);
In a previous post, by coining the term ‘static dissolution,’ I referred to the combination of pratyahārā (inward withdrawal of senses) & dhāranā (1️⃣-pointed focus/concentration), which are both essentially preparatory steps prior to meditation. On the other hand, I refer to the combo of dhyānā & samādhi as ‘dynamic annihilation.’
Also associated (in other months) with aṣṭamīs (which perfectly bisect fortnights <pakṣās> & thus reverberate with an equally-potent opportunity for devotion <bhakti> as well as wisdom <jñanā>), are durgā-aṣṭami, kāl̥a-bhairava-aṣṭami, kr̥ṣṇa-janma-aṣṭami, rādhā-aṣṭami...
Today is significant for other denominations of sanātana dharmā too. For instance, whether they’re around cit-aṁbaram̐ or not, both the dig-aṁbara & śvēta-aṁbara Jains begin their aṣṭānika or 8️⃣-day vratā, which culminates in guru pūrnimā. Finally, it’s supposed to be vél-ūr satya-ādi-rājā’s punya-dinam̐ too but😐I’ve no faint idea who he’s. Do you?!
poṉṉ-aṁbalam̐, tiru-citr-aṁbalam̐, aruṇa-acalam̐, mahā-dēva, mahā-liṅga, madhya-arjuna-īṣā!
<பொன்னம்பலம், திருச்சிற்றம்பலம், அருணாசலம், மஹாதேவ, மஹாலிங்க மத்யார்ஜுஙேஶா!>
🕉 na-maḥ-śi-vā-ya! (Keep orally/mentally chanting this 5️⃣-syllabled passcode to nothingness, throughout tonight & tomorrow!)
