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Light of the Vedas

W W W. V E D A N E T. C O M

BI MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF VEDIC STUDIES

Nirguna Kali Takes Us Beyond All Dualities

Yogini Shambhavi

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Message
Namaste and Pranams in the Vedic Light! We will be spending most of February and March in India, with special projects with Ayusante and Kerala Ayurveda for the promotion of Ayurvedic living, Sanchi University of Buddhist and Indic Studies for their second international conference (of which Vamadeva is a patron), and celebrating Mahashivaratri with Sadguru Sri Sivananda Murty, our own great Guruji. We look forward to our Annual Yoga Shakti celebrations with forty sadhaks from around the world in the sacred Kumaon Himalayas above six thousand feet (March 10-20). In May we have a special set of programs in Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedic astrology in Russia May 14-May 28 (with the help of Rami Bleckt) and Bulgaria (with Antoaneta Zarkova), May 28 to June 5. We also have our programs at the Chopra Center for our regular Primordial Sound Meditation teacher training (April 22-28), the Council of Vedic Astrology (CVA), for its notable 20th Anniversary Conference (June 19-23) and AAPNA (Association of Ayurvedic Professionals of North America), July 4-6, for a very important Yoga and Ayurveda conference featuring Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. This summer we will be doing a special Yoga Shakti retreat, Tantra, Mantra & Transforming Karma in the mystical environs of Santa Fe NM, USA, August 1825, reflecting the power of the lofty Rocky Mountains, the luminous high desert, ancient Native American and Hispanic traditions, numerous artists and spiritual groups from throughout the world who have made this land of enchanting light their home. Note the retreat flier at the end of this Newsletter. Our current Newsletter features an article from Yogini Shambhavi on Nirguna Kali, the highest form of the Devi, and a Rigveda translation by Vamadeva on the Ocean of the Heart, showing important esoteric secrets of the Vejoldic Yoga. With the Light of the Vedas,

Vamadeva and Shambhavi

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Nirguna Kali Takes Us Beyond All Dualities

The Devi is twofold in her aspect as Saguna or Nirguna, with or without qualities. The Goddess, as Supreme Absolute Brahman, can be expressed with form and attributes in the manifest realm (Saguna) or without form in the unmanifest (Nirguna). Saguna Devi, we could say, is Prakriti or Lakshmi, while Kali is Nirguna Devi. Since Kali, the Dark Goddess is the formless Nirguna Devi, she is usually the most unapproachable and unfathomable of the Goddesses.
Deeper Jnana is through unique distinctiveness not by any consent or concurrence. As the sadhaka's thought-waves mature, the being moves into the higher Self or Atman placing the mind at rest. Enriching the inner yogic experiences one leaves behind the name and forms, searching out the void of the Dark Goddess. Lakshmi holds the most desired qualities and is outwardly beneficent in offering us all that we desire as beauty, prosperity and happiness, which is why people prefer to seek her blessings. Kali's benefic mantras cherish and fulfill all one's desires and worldly wishes, much like Lakshmi, yet also directing us beyond. Aim Hrim Shrim Klim Kalike Klim Shrim Hrim Aim! Kali and Lakshmi, the two Goddesses work together as a single energy to guide the human soul through its cycle of Mahamaya, the cosmic mirage of dream and illusion. They allow us to experience the fruits that result from our actions, which carry us through the bedlam of human incarnations to the ultimate reality. The play between dharmic goodness and sensual carnal delights, the forces of light and darkness, is revealed

Yogini Shambhavi

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through the Dark Goddess, who herself is beyond all duality, allowing us the freedom of choice. Kali stands at the doorway to all dharmic values with her ever watchful eye, rendering her boons and blessings for those who choose the higher truth. The lure of her noose, trapping our negativities, unfolds our true nature at the given time of worldly experiences. Yet Kali also appears most terrifying as the face of death and destruction, using her sword when we deviate from our true path. Hers is a school of intense discipline, guiding us to integrate all dualities in achieving the non-dual state. She takes on the mantle of the Mother, who in a family guides its members, especially her children to higher values conducive to love and peace. In this regard, Kali plays the role of Rudrani, the consort Devi of Rudra, the powerful or fierce aspect of Shiva Maheshvara. Saguna Devi is Prakriti or the material nature in all her abundant potentials for the physical being, the mind and its emotions, playing out life's drama. Prakriti offers us the blessings of Lakshmi through boons of personal, devotional and family happiness. As the Shakti of the outer nature, which is ultimately inert or jada, Lakshmi's power rests upon the Nirguna Shakti of Kali beyond all duality. Nirguna Devi is the Para Prakriti or the higher nature of Brahman, which is, concentrated bliss without any deviation or diminution. Kali is the Shakti of Brahman as Chit Shakti, the power of consciousness, the secret power through which Prakriti works. She unfolds the highest potentials of Prakriti and takes us beyond their boundaries as well. The movement of all spiritual practice or sadhana begins with the blessings of the manifest, more discernible qualities of Saguna Devi, eventually taking us to the realization of the unmanifest or Nirguna Devi. It is not merely a movement from Prakriti to Purusha or from Anatman (not-Self) to the Self or Atman. It is a conscious movement from Saguna Shakti to the Nirguna Shakti. The Rishis and sages in ancient Hindu traditions realized that saguna and nirguna are not separate identities. In saguna one has to bring the Devata into a form and in relating to their energies with devotion, one moves beyond all human notions into the void of nirguna. Rituals, murti (idol) puja allows us to move out of our self image and become receptive to the energies and grace of the Devatas. Everybody uses a form to represent one's faith. God is formless yet we have given him a personality of love, anger, wrath and peaceful benevolence.

Vedic philosophies of Samkhya , Yoga and Vedanta emphasize discrimination between Purusha, the pure consciousness or spirit, and Prakriti, the great Nature or matter, or the Self and not-Self as the key to liberation. In principle, the Purusha is symbolically male and Prakriti is symbolically female. Yet liberation can only be realized through ChitShakti, the power of consciousness, or the power of perception, which in its reality is the higher form of the Devi or Goddess. Through discrimination between the lower and higher aspects of the Goddess herself, between Prakriti and Kali, we can understand and realize the higher truth. Kali is the nondual Devi who carries both Brahman and Prakriti as the higher and lower sides of herself. Accessible only by the knowledge beyond the gunas and beyond duality, O Kali, You are the unity realized in the form of the Supreme Brahman. Sudhadhara Kali Stotra The most important worship of Kali is in her Nirguna or formless aspect, particularly through meditating upon her as infinite space and eternal time. She is Prakata-kriti Devi, 'the one who makes known', whose formless energy manifests in the shape of the entire universe. Kali provides the inner knowledge to exist in all time (Kaal) and in every form (Kalaa). Once we realise this essential truth we are able to evolve into higher fields of consciousness. We discover the wonder of our being in the form of an ever new light. To worship Kali we must unfold the nakedness of our true selves before the Absolute truth. One must learn to dance in Kali 's steps of sheer abandonment, allowing our heart its expression of sacred delight and abounding peace. We must fill the boundless space of Kali's void with our spirit of joy and happiness. In the empty space where there is no face or form, we must discover the dance of Kali. We touch the faceless expansion of her joyousness in relaxing our hold on all that we would wish to control or possess. We realise the beauty of Kali in forgetting all that we presume to know and understand. We feel and experience the magic of Kali in detaching ourselves from all emotional reactions of love and hate, pleasure and pain. This state of clarity, balance and grace of Nirguna Kali unfold in the form of Shambhavi, which holds the blessings of the Absolute.

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From Wisdom of the Ancient Seers (1986, 1993) by David Frawley

The Rishis Vision of an Ocean of Oneness Rigveda X.5

Seer - Trita Aptya
1. An ocean of oneness, the foundation of splendors, he perceives the manifold births from our heart. He holds to the breast in the lap of the two secret ones, in the midst of the fountain-source, the hidden seat of the bird. The Fire of Consciousness is the eternal sea of the oneness. This Fire grows in the Waters. It is the light that blossoms in darkness when we see the unity of the opposites, of subject and object, man and nature in the eternality of existence. That universal being of the flame is our own Self, the dweller in the heart, who perceives all our births, all existences. The two secret ones are Heaven and Earth, which are hidden within us as the creative powers of our own mind. The fountain-source is the heart that is the hidden abode of the bird, the eagle of the soul. 2. The mighty ones who dwell in a common lair, the strong horses have come together with their powerful mares. The seers guard the seat of truth. They hold in secrecy the supreme names. This is the image of the unification of our lifeenergies in the flame that is the seeing of life. The seers speak the language of the Fire, of symbol and mantra, not to hide anything from anyone. It is simply that the truth of life is a matter of inner awareness, a secret of the heart, which can be alluded to but never definitively put into words. 3. The two truth-bearing Sisters of magic wisdom power conceive him. Having formed the child, increasing him they give him birth. The center of all that is stable and moving, the seers weave by the mind

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the thread of the seer.

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of light, the light of truth which blinds the ignorant but which the wise turn open like a door, seeing it as The twin Sisters are Heaven and Earth as the dual the radiance of their own Self. creative power without and within. They are also the dawn and the night of the sacrifice, our births and 6. The seers fashioned seven frontiers. Along only deaths, our awakenings and our states of peace. They one of them the straight and narrow path will go. He are the complementary dualities of life, like is a pillar of immortal life in the lair of the supreme. inhalation and exhalation that between them Where the paths diverge he stands in the upholding generate the energy or intensity of awareness, which laws. is the Divine Son or Fire. He is the center, the wordless source, around which the seers weave the The seven frontiers are the seven realms of existence, the three Heavens and tapestry of their mantras to three Earths and the seventh invoke him within us. realm of the Self or the Spirit, where the straight and narrow 4. Born perfectly from the paths path to immortality leads. It is of truth, the energies of earlier the origin of all the paths, the Heaven hold to him for vigor. heart of all realms, their central Heaven and Earth, wearing him pillar of light. as their investing power, have increased him with the clarity 7. He is being and nonbeing in and substance of their honeythe supreme ether, in the birth of bliss. the discerning Father, in the bosom of the infinite Mother. Earlier Heaven is the causal or The Fire for us is the firstborn of archetypal world that manifests truth. He is the Bull and the through the Divine Son or milch Cow in the original eon. spiritual man. Heaven and Earth increase him as their beloved What can one say after a verse child, as the world exists for the like this? Such is a revelation, a birth of the Spirit, the coming scripture, and the mantras of the forth of the Fire. He is the child ancient enlightened seers. The who when born consumes his Fire is our Self, the eternal flame parents, the Spirit who reabsorbs within our hear ts. As the both the worlds into his pure individual Self or Divine Son, awareness. the Absolute or Divine Father is 5. Desiring the seven radiant Sisters, the knower bore born into his own creation through the receptive up their honey-bliss for the vision. The ancient born consciousness that is the Mother of all things. labored in the atmosphere, searching he found the The Divine Self is both immanent and transcendent. covering of the fostering Sun. He is the firstborn in creation, our own central being. The seven radiant Sisters are the Goddess-powers of How otherwise could we know the truth and for what the seven levels of existence. The Divine Son, the other reason would he create the world? He is both seer, absorbs their bliss. They are the energies of the the Bull, the symbol of the cosmic male or Spirit and seven chakras or spinal centers wherein spiritual the milch Cow, the symbol of the cosmic female, knowledge dawns in man. The atmosphere is the matter or Nature. The original eon or world-age is world of manifestation between the two polarities of the immortal life of the Oneness, in which the Son Heaven and Earth or mind and body. The spirit works becomes both his parents. It is the pure life of unity to spread apart Heaven and Earth, to open up the with nature and our own inner nature, the original atmosphere for the greatest extension of life. It is paradise of the pure mind. To that original life of only in this fully open life that the Divine can pure unity, all life through man is striving to return. manifest. The covering of the fostering Sun is the veil Therein alone is peace.

Santa Fe Yoga Shakti Retreat

Tantra, Mantra & Transforming Karma
Santa Fe NM (USA), August 18-25, 2014
Harmonize your Karmic Life-Play through Vedic Ritual, Mantra and Meditation!

With Pandit Vamadeva Shastri & Yogini Shambhavi

Shakti Yoga empowers our Higher Prana and Inner Self awareness for total well-being and harmony! Join us in celebrating the Power and Divine Grace of the Mother Goddess energy through ancient Vedic teachings understanding our Karmic disposition in life.

Awaken and Nurture the Shakti force within you Explore Tapas, your inner fire through Shakti Sadhana Enhance your Drishti Yoga, the Inner Yoga of Perception Meditation as a Tantric Art of Awakening Shakti within us Tantra as a Spiritual Path for Transformation of Consciousness Tantra as weaving our Prana with the Cosmic Prana (Life-force) Understand your Karmic unfoldment through Vedic Astrology Harmonize your Karmic Lila or Divine Dance through Mantra

Become immersed in the deeper teachings of Vedic and Tantric wisdom, Raja Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedanta in the mysticism of Santa Fe's powerful environs. Enjoy the healing grace of Our lady of Guadalupe amidst the repose of Northern New Mexico's high desert and the lofty Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and explore the culture, arts and crafts of Santa Fe. Explore the 93rd Annual Santa Fe Indian Market, the largest arts and crafts fair of the Natve Americans, August 23-24.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT

PO BOX 8357, SANTA FE NM 87504, USA

YOGINI SHAMBHAVI email: yoginishambhavi@aol.com www.vedanet.com