RW, Good descriptive paragraph. That is my experience. Thanks for the put to words and posting it here, -Buck RW writes, According to Brooks, "The srividya, because it consists of "indestructible seed" syllables (bijaksara) rather than words, transcends such "mundane" considerations as semantic meaning. Accordingly, a bija-only mantra is not merely esoteric but inherently superior. Because it is purely seed-syllables [bijasaras] is the purest form of mantra. It does not make a request or praise god, it is God's purest expression. Gayatri is great but it cannot match srividya because it is still in language; it is Veda and mantra but when transformed into the srividya its greatness increases."
MMY - Yogi and Seer: So, you think that the Adi Shankaracharya of Sringeri not only initiated disciples into Sri Vidya practices, but said: "Worship of Sri Chakra is a must for the Swamis of the peetha." And, as noted, not by householders, but by Swamis? Sri Vidya practice consists of tantric yoga techniques such as mantra, yantra and puja. According to Brooks, "The srividya, because it consists of "indestructible seed" syllables (bijaksara) rather than words, transcends such "mundane" considerations as semantic meaning. Accordingly, a bija-only mantra is not merely esoteric but inherently superior. Because it is purely seed-syllables [bijasaras] is the purest form of mantra. It does not make a request or praise god, it is God's purest expression. Gayatri is great but it cannot match srividya because it is still in language; it is Veda and mantra but when transformed into the srividya its greatness increases." From what I've read, the TM bija mantras come from the Sri Vidya tradition. This makes sense when you consider that Swami Brahmanand Saraswati was a Shri Vidya adherent, like his master Swami Krishnananda Saraswari of Sringeri. Sringeri is the headquarters for the Saraswati sannyasin and the center of Sri Vidya worship. And, isn't it a fact that the principal deity, Saradambal, the Goddess of Learning, is a focus of a mighty spiritual force? According to my informant, Saradamba, by all legendary accounts, is a deity of Kashmir who was literally brought down to the south of India by Adi Shankara. He installed the Sri Yantra at the Kamakshi Temple by Shankarachary himself at Kanchipuram. Swami Krishnananda Saraswati: Mystic and Master: So, let's go figure. There is a shrine to Shankara at the Sri Vidya temple down in Kanchipuram peeth, wherein lies the Sri Cakra or Sri Yantra. And, the Swami Rama's recounted in his book, Living With the Himalyan Masters, a direct, first hand account of Guru Dev having a Sri Yantra in his possession: Shri Yantra in two dimensions: "During our conversation he started talking to me about Sri Vidya, the highest of paths, followed only by accomplished Sanskrit scholars of India. It is a path which joins raja yoga, kundalini yoga, bhakti yoga, and advaita Vedanta. There are two books recommended by the teachers of this path: The Wave of Bliss and The Wave of Beauty; the compilation of the two books is called Saundaryalahari in Sanskrit." Swami Rama of the Himalayas wrote that SBS was a proponent of the Sri Vidya, and that he used to worship a ruby-encrusted Sri Chakra. Brahmananda Saraswati: Yogi and Siddha: So, to sum up: So, I guess we can conclude that Swami Krishnananda of Sringeri was a Himalayan Master. And, we can also conclude that SBS, his disciple, was a Himalayan Master. And, I guess we can conclude that Swami Rama was a Himalayan Master, since he founded the Himalayan Institute. MMY came out of the Himalayas and he looks like a Himalayan Master. So, if someone comes out of the Himalayas after studying with a Himalayan Master, and MMY looks and talks like a Himalayan Master, then MMY must be some kind of Himalayan Master. And, since people all over India used to call MMY a Master, then he is probably a Master of some kind. So, since the TM bija mantras came from Naryana, through Parashara and Shakti, down to the Adi Shankara, passed on to Shantanand Saraswati, and Vasudevanand Saraswati, are which are included in the supreme scripture of the Sri Vidya, the Soundaryalahari, we can conclude that the Mahesh Yogi got the TM bija mantras fromthe Shri Vidya tradition. James Duffy and Billy Smith both seem to agree with this. They understand that the TM bijas came from the Sri Vidya tradition, but emptybill cannot. Go figure. Notes: Apparently, the 33rd Shankaracharya of the Sringeri Matha died before he could give all the initiations to the 34th, his succossor. However, the 33rd is reputed to have said: "Worship of Sri Chakra is a must for the Swamis of the peetha." According to an authority on the subject, normally the Srividya mantropadesa would be done by the guru, but Narasimha Bharati had passed away before his disciple arrived at Sringeri. Hence the mantropadesa was done by Srikanta Sastri. He had been initiated into it by Narasimha Bharati Mahaswami the34th. The Pontiff's rein was from 1912 to 1953, so he was a contemporary of Guru Dev. The 33rd. was Sri Narasimha Bharati Mahaswami, making him a contemporary of SBS's Guru, Swami Krishnanand Saraswati. Works cited: 'Living With the Himalayan Masters' by Swami Rama Himayan Institure, 1999 p.245 "Auspicious Wisdon" The texts and traditions of Srividya Sakta Tantrism in South India. by Douglas Renfrew Brooks SUNY 1992 p.95 On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 8:33 AM, Richard Williams <punditster@... mailto:punditster@...> wrote: MMY and Swami Venkatesananda Saraswati at Rishikesh According to MMY, sidha yoga is a mechanical processes. There is no religious prayer in the practice of TMer siddha yoga. It's not based on faith or a particular belief. There is no "god of yoga", which enters into the physical universe and causes change. Religions are based on faith and surrender, not on individual freedom and will-power. Success in yoga is not dependent on any kind of religious practice. Mircea Elliade wrote that yoga means freedom and immortality. 'Siddha yoga' means 'perfected, that is, enlightened, transcended into pure consciousness, which is made manifest in the individual by 'self-knowledge' and 'Self-Knowlege. Enlightenment is the state pertaining to 'gnosis' - that which ends the identity of the mind with sense phenomena - knowledge that is "transcendentnal", or beyond sense perceptions. The Sanskrit term 'yoga' refers to the techniques for experiencing higher states of consciousness in meditation. The earliest mention of meditative states are the Buddhist records of the historical Buddha. The "enlightenment tradition" originated in South Asia. Mircea Eliade notes that yoga and the "shramana" or renounced tradition is native to South Asia - it isn't found in the mythology or religious systems of western culture. Asceticism seems to be peculiar to the Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu philosophies. Go figure. The first historical yogin was Shakya the Muni, who formulated the 'Eightfold Path' leading to Nirvana. The term 'nirvana' is Sanskrit, and is the central concept in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Kashmere Shaivism. Nirvana is the state of being "enlightened", free from ignorance. A state where the mind that has come to a point of "perfect lucidity and clarity due to the cessation of the production of volitional formations." Patanjali says that yoga is the "cessation of the fluctuations of the mind-stuff" (Charles Johnston translation). "Yoga is the cessation of the mental turnings of the mind." - Yoga Sutra, I.1.2 "Let there be soundless repetition of the [pranava] and meditation thereon." - Yoga Sutra, I. 1.28 "Chit" is thought; "citta" is consciousness. "Citta vriti" means the turning of thought in the mind. "Nirodha" is cessation - the turnings have stopped, ceased, come to a halt, stilled, blown out, made peaceful, "Nirvana" means release; thought has been totally left behind - consciousness all by itself; there is no returning; no more. Siddhis are an indicator of natural law - causation. Patanjali says: Yoga has to do *isolation* (Sanskrit kaivalya) from the prakriti. Cessation, (Sanskrit "nirodha) of the fluctuations of the mindstuff and the attainment of freedom, based on the sheer willpower of the individual (moksha). "Freedom is a reversal of the evolutionary course of prakriti, which is empty of meaning for the Purusha; it is also the power of consciousness in a state of true identity." - Yoga Sutra, 4.34 The 'Yogavasishta' is a synthesis of Upanishadic Advaita, Buddhist Vijnanavada and the Trika philosophy of Kashmir Shivaism. Swami Venkatesananda also wrote a lucid abbreviated translation of the Yogavasishta. There is also a good translation by Swami Jyotirmayananda. The Yoga Vasishta sums up the spiritual process in terms of the Seven Bhoomikas: 1. Subecha - Longing for the Truth 2. Vicharana - Right inquiry 3. Tanumanasa - Attenuation of mental activities 4. Sattvapati - Attainment of Sattva 5. Asamsakti - Unaffected by anything 6. Pararthabhavani - See Brahman everywhere. 7. Turiya - Perpetual Samadhi Work cited: 'History of Religious Ideas Volume 2' From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity by Mircea Eliade University Of Chicago Press, 1985 'Yoga: Discipline of Freedom' by Barbara Stoler Miller Bantam Wisdom Editions 1998 p. 5, 52. References: 'The Concise Yoga Vasistha' By Swami Venkatesananda and Christopher Chapple State University of New York Press, 1984 'Yoga Vasistha' By Swami Jyotirmayananda Yoga Research Foundation, 1977 On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 4:55 PM, Richard J. Williams <punditster@... mailto:punditster@...> wrote: According to MMY in Beacon Light of the Himalayas' "For our practice, we select only the suitable mantras of personal Gods. Such mantras fetch to us the grace of personal Gods and make us happier in every walk of life." This statement was confirmed by Satyanand at a CCP I once attended in Berkely with Jerry Jarvis. Bhagavan Das wrote that MMY gave him the bija mantra Ram to use in his meditation. But, strictly speaking, the bija mantras are not the actual names of the Gods - they are just the nick-names of the Devatas. Apparently only very highly evolved individuals get to be on a first name basis with God Almighty! In fact, all the TM bija mantras are common tantric householder mantras. All the Devatas such as Rama, Ram Chandra, Devaki, Vasudeva and Krishna used these same mantras. The Devatas are deified heroes, that is, that are highly evolved humans. They reached a high level of consciousness by yogic means - tapas, and by utilizing the same non-ideational mnemonic devices as we TMers use today. That's why MMY selected only suitable mantras that the ancient yogis used, because they are time-tested. In the Shankaracharya tradition, such mantras indeed fetch to us the grace of the Devatas, and they make us happier in every walk of life. So, I mean, who doesn't like to hear the sound of their own name? Work cited: 'It's Here Now (Are You?)' By Bhagavan Das Broadway, 1998 On 10/10/2013 6:01 PM, iranitea wrote: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com> mailto:fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote: When MMY first started out in Kerala, according to 'Beacon Light of the Himalayas', he only used Ram (for the guys) and Shyam (for the gals), not unlike the ISKCON pundit boys who sing the maha mantra. Sure about that? I found copies of the beacon light online, and there is no such reference in it. Rather, to the opposite, there is a report, that the persons mantra is selected according to their Ishta Devata, Also people are adviced to meditate for one hour, or if they don't experience Ananda, to just meditate long enough. There is no mention of the Ram mantra or the Shyam mantra there. On which page would that be? It was only later in 1957 that MMY started using the five bijas and created the sixteen variants bijas to include the Saraswati bija which he got from SBS. Again, where do you get this from? Can you name a source? In 1957 Maharishi was still in India, and AFAIK there was no other uniform method of selection there. According to MMY, the Shankaracharya tradition is the custodian of the bija mantras. This makes sense because the sixteen bijas are enumerated in the Sound Arya Lahari, compiled by the Adi Shankara, the main scripture of the Sri Vidya sect. Go figure. A yoga teacher can use any seed sounds they want toin spiritual practice, even make up new ones, as long as they are given out in a ritual initiation. Otherwise, they are just simple phonemes or quasi-phonemes with no apparent meaning. However, most Indians, and thus most TMers, only use bijas in a short sentence, such as with the word 'namah' at the end. You get one single bija mantra in TM and then you get the more advanced technique with the added words. So, you get the seed sound and then the fertilizer; you water the root and enjoy the fruit. All you have to do is start the mantra and then just baby sit your bija and watch it grow. It's that simple! On 10/10/2013 9:41 AM, Michael Laurenson wrote: Hi Richard, I taught TM in the early 70s and been reading FFL posts for awhile. I've read that shyam, shyama are related to Krishna. Are these still considered Saraswati mantras? Warm regards, Michael
