To go back to Chapter 3 – The Evolution of the Cosmos from the Para Pinda
After describing the constitution of the Maha Sakar Pinda (as described in Chapter 3), Guru Gorakhnath says – Sa Eva Sivah (SSP.I.37) – Meaning the Maha Sakar Pinda is veritably Siva Himself. So he seems to indicate that this is the Cosmic Body of Siva existing in time and space.
Within this cosmic order or Maha Sakar Pinda, Siva further manifests Himself as 8 divine personalities, who are called the Ashta Murti of the Maha Sakar Pinda. Guru Gorakhnath says –
Sivad Bhairavo Bhairavath Shrikantha, Srikanthat Sadasivah, Sadasivat Ishwara,
Ishwarad Rudra, Rudrat Vishnuh, Vishor Brahma
Iti Maha-Sakar-Pindasya Murtyashtakam (SSP.I.37)
Meaning – First Siva Himself, second Bhairava, third Srikantha, fourth Sadasiva, fifth Ishwara, sixth Rudra, seventh Vishnu, and eighth Brahma are manifested as the Ashta-Murti or eight special Divine Self-manifestations of the Maha-Sakar-Pinda.
It is through these Self Manifestations or development of these 8 types of Cosmic Consciousnesses that Siva performs different cosmic functions of regulating, preserving and destruction within the constantly modifying cosmic system.
Siva is the 1st Murti – The Supreme Cosmic Personality has a self illuminating consciousness which is all transcending, all comprehending, all illumining and all unifying. It is He who reigns over and determines the course of life across all planes of existence or worlds and defines all experiences.
Bhairava is the 2nd Murti – From Siva evolves Bhairava. This form of consciousness represents perfect purity, perfect perfection and perfect bliss, with no imperfection, limitation, bondage or sorrow. So it is often worshipped as the Ideal state of yoga and jnana. So this is what a yogi strives to become.
Srikantha is the 3rd Murti – From Bhairava evolves Srikantha. This consciousness represents perfection of Aesthetic Consciousness. It represents the world of beauty or Rasa. The beautiful order and harmony of the Universe comes from this consciousness. All aesthetics or beauty in form, movement, creation, etc, comes from this Srikantha. So, the Perfection in all aspects of aesthetics or beauty like poetry, music, dance, painting, etc. exist in Srikantha. He personifies beauty in every form and manifestation possible and so is also called Raseswar or Lord of beauty. So yogis meditate on him as the Ideal of artistic sadhana or rasa sadhana, where a yogi learns self discipline to create perfect harmony and beauty within his being and thus to tune it perfectly to the beautifully and perfectly created & organized universe.
Sadasiva is the 4th Murti – He evolves from Srikantha. He represents perfection of Moral Consciousness. It is this consciousness which regulates the world of Dharma or Moral Order. To him the Universe is a perfect moral order, in which ideals of goodness, perfect morality are the principles through which the Universe is to be regulated. All moral dilemmas, evils, vices, hatred, anger, miseries, catastrophies, etc are regulated in a manner that they finally result in the realization of perfect harmony and goodness in the Universe. We should not try to understand this in limited time and space constraints of a human life as these regulatory mechanisms play out over large, colossal time frames and so we cannot make sense of them over a lifetime of a few decades. Sadasiva looks at all actions of moral lack in a kind, compassionate and forgiving manner in order to evolve each living entity to a higher state of moral consciousness. He is worshipped by those looking for inspiration and strength to develop within themselves purity, goodness and moral excellence. So he is meditated upon as the ideal of perfect Goodness or Perfect Dharma.
Ishwara is the 5th Murti – He evolves from Sadasiva. He represents perfection of Rational or Intellectual Consciousness or what is called Buddhi (ability to Reason) in Sanskrit. Within Him Truth is Perfectly Realized. He regulates the Universe by seeing it is a perfect Rational system in which all individuals seeking Truth can use their intellect, ability to reason to overcome ignorance, recognize and avoid errors and follow a rational path to realization of the Truth of the Universe. Truth seekers worship Iswara to seek his grace to enlighten their Budhhi or ability to reason and rationalize. Thus all fields of human knowledge like the sciences, philosophy, literature, languages, etc are developed through this form of consciousness of Siva.
Rudra is the 6th Murti – He evolves from Iswara. He represents the Cosmic Mind. He regulates the world of mind or mental powers, mental phenomenon, controls mental powers & phenomenon, and brings about harmony and unity among all such powers and phenomenon. So he is all-powerful, all-knowing and blesses seekers with mental power, knowledge, brilliance and greatness. This form of consciousness is what supports and makes successful those seeking development of mind power, achievement of desires & ambitions, those looking to make new discoveries or make breakthroughs in expanding the frontiers of knowledge and finding the favorable mental environment in such pursuits. It also seems that this consciousness or Rudra form is not too concerned with ideals of truth, goodness, beauty, spiritual bliss as represented by Iswara, Sadasiva, Srikantha, Bhairava. He seems to be focused on what the mind can conceive, discover and achieve.
Vishnu is the 7th Murti – He evolves from Rudra. He is the all-pervading life power of the Universe. It is this form of Siva’s consciousness which manifests in all cosmic forces and phenomenon of the uni=verse. It is this which regulates, controls, maintains and unites all the diverse forces and phenomenon in a harmonious manner. Vishnu is the consciousness which rules the world of Life. It is only when the world of Life sets up a harmonious system in the cosmic order, that the world of Mind can attain its ideals of power, knowledge, brilliance and greatness. So Vishnu is worshipped by those looking to develop and elevate their life power to attain their mental goals and for seeking the Lord to unite the various life forces and phenomenon to create the best atmosphere which will lead to attainment of their goals.
Brahma is the 8th Murti – He evolves from Vishnu. Brahma is the Lord of the physical, material world. It is this consciousness that exists in all material bodies, material forces, material phenomenon, controls, regulates and harmonizes them to create the material universe. So brahma is seen as the designer and creator of the universe. It is he who makes possible all material embodiments to the life, mind, reason, moral, aesthetics and spiritual consciousnesses. It is through Brahma that the gross, material and sensual plane exists and experienced. This material and sensuous plane is created by Brahma from his conscious Will (Avalokana) and is the grossest and lowest plane of existence and experience. His Conscious Will manifests the Prakriti Pinda(Mother Nature) from which evolve all individual bodies.
So in this way, Guru Gorakhnath explains development and existence of various planes of Cosmic Consciousnesses which operate in the spatio-temporal order. It is through the creation of grosser and grosser levels of consciousness that Siva-Sakti come down from the transcendental to the lowest plane of existence and are manifested in the varied forms of the gross world.
It must be noted that this is a downward descent from higher spiritual planes of consciousness and existence to lower planes of material consciousness and existence. All embodied beings especially, human beings, therefore have a strong urge in their consciousness to understand or return to the higher planes from where their consciousness originated, which people strive to achieve through yoga, meditation, personal / spiritual growth. The downward process of consciousness development leads to diversity in creation of forms and existences and the upward process of tracing the consciousness back to its origin is a process of unity.
In the next Chapter we will explore the Prakriti Pinda and the creation of individual human bodies as described in SSP.
Next…..Chapter 5 – The Seven Dimensions of the Individual Person
