The Indian state of Kashmir is home to one of the world's profound spiritual traditions. A text central to the mystical philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism is the Spanda Karika, or Stanzas on Vibration. In a nutshell, the Spanda philosophy teaches that universal consciousness, that is, all that is, was and ever will be, is both immanent and transcendent. Transcendent Being is called Shiva, and possesses the quality of utter and complete "non-thingness." Shiva, as the human that is Being, can be recognized and reflected upon, but not described. Nor can He be apprehended except through "anugraha" or His own divine grace. Only then can Shiva be realized as the transcendent universal Self that all manifest beings always already are. By our own divine grace we each recognize that universal Being, that native Humanity, the actual Self, that we each and all already are.
Shiva can only be recognized through his own grace by his immanent Self, Shakti. Shakti is Shiva manifest as spanda, the divine vibratory energy that is each and all of us and the universe we create for our Self. We can apprehend and recognize the dynamic, pulsing core of our humanity by recognizing that universal, manifold manifestation emerges as a single note, the SOHAM uttered from the throat of Shiva. The most auspicious realization that a person can experience is the recognition that the only human being that exists is the universal Being that each and all of us already are.
The divine Heart of Shiva/Shakti is that pulsing center of fabulously erotic bliss that cannot be contained and can only burst forth from the throat of the universal Human to manifest herself as the universe of beings. The mystical wisdom of Kashmir Shaivism invites us to discover that the grandest experience of enlightenment is also the simplest and most profound understanding of what it means to be human.
The Song Alone
I am the opera diva
in love with the
sensation of my own Voice,
the pulsing bliss of
a Sound belted from
the heated vibrato of
my divine Heart
bursting into song--
Absolute and complete
in myself--
never fearing fear
for death does not exist,
nor dwelling in doubt,
for when nothing is
eaten and all consumed,
only immortality remains
where lust yearned
and hunger failed.
So, surge forth
my fabulous Voice-
Free from constraint,
sated with light,
and summoned to sing
by the Song alone.
MadhyaNandi
