Commentary on “The Spanda Karikas” by Ranjit Chaudhri
Spanda Karikas and the Shiva Sutras belonging to the Spanda School of Kashmir Shaivism, along with Vigyan Bhairava Tantra and the Paratrishika. Kashmir Shaivism, a philosophy that is non-dualistic and emphasizes that we are not different from the creator, but one with it.
The Spanda Karikas was written by the sage Vasugupta in the late 8th or early 9th century. Originally written in verse format containing 52 verses. This book The Spanda Karikas is commentary to the 52 verses of Spanda Karikas so that a commoner like us can understand and absorb the powerful ideas of this ancient wisdom.
The term ‘Spanda’ refers to the vibration, or simply the movement and dynamism in a living being, considering the required impact at every minute level of existence. Vasugupta gave consciousness a new name : Spanda. Here are few powerful ideas from the book to understand what you can anticipate from the book.
Idea 1:
Self is consciousness. The ability to be conscious or self-aware exists in every human being. Other form of livings don’t have the ability to be self-aware. For this reason, human life is a blessing. We have the potential to reach our highest state, a state of full awareness or oneness with God.
Our mind causes suffering. Certain events in our life may disturb us and cause us pain. But pain doesn’t have to cause suffering. It is our thoughts about that event that causes suffering. Our mind judges that event, calls it negative, and causes suffering. Buddha taught that a person who continuously thinks,” He abused me, he beat me, he robbed me, he defeated me” pain follows him day and night. On the contrary, a person who doesn’t focus on his condition even when he is abused or cheated or robbed, happiness follow him day and night.
Therefore, humans have the ability to experience two extremes- Suffering because of the mind and our higher state through consciousness.
Idea 2:
Feelings of pleasure, pain, greed, anger, lust and other emotions are experienced by all human beings at some point in their lives. In Hinduism, the way to overcome negative emotions is not through impression but by elevating our awareness. When we feel anger, we lose our awareness. Becoming angry means that we have lost ourselves completely in the situation and we have no self-awareness at that point of time.
When our awareness levels rise, our feelings of anger, lust, greed, suffering etc automatically diminish. After a certain point, these emotions vanish completely. Our feelings of pain and pleasure also arise because of our strong identification with the body. The body experiences both pain and pleasure. In a heightened state of awareness, one ceases to identify with the body.
There are stories of masters who have died of cancer. They should have been experiencing pain but they experience none because they reached a state where they no longer identified with the body and what was happening to their body no longer affected them.
Idea 3:
Physiology of human body according to Yoga: On surface we have Gross Body which we are aware of. Controlling the gross body is Energy Body/ Subtle Body, comprising of Chakras & Energy Pathways (Nadis). Then we have casual body/ soul which consciousness. Consciousness give life to our energy body and to our gross body. Medical Science recognises only the Gross Body. Most illness are cause because our energy body goes out of balance.
Idea 4:
In Hinduism, the soul and the Self are the same. Normally, all our attention is directed outwards. When we redirect some of our attention inwards, we become a witness. We are then in a state of awareness and we observe all the events in our life and this profoundly changes the quality of our life. The witness is our Self. It is pure consciousness.
Ideas 5:
Author talks about 3 impurities
- Aanava/ Impurity of ignorance: Due to ignorance, we are unable to experience our highest state and believe we are the body. Our body is infinitesimally small compared to our real Self, which is infinite
- Maayiya/Illusion: The illusion conceals our true nature. The illusory world we live in reinforces our identification with our body and our feeling of separateness.
- Karma: It makes us believe we are the doer- we are the one doing things. In reality, we are the witness, the Self. The body does things, not our real Self.
The way to remove our impurities and reach our highest state is to STILL THE MIND. The mind becomes agitated when our attention goes outward to the world. We will not find sustaining peace in the world. The world will disturb us. We only find peace when our attention is focused inwards on the self.
When we focus our attention on the external world, we experience Pain;
Ramana Maharshi
When we direct it inwards to the Self, we experience Peace.
Do read this wonderful book, if you have just embarked on your spiritual journey or planning to do so. I will highly recommend reading another book by the same author named Vigyan Bhairava Tantra wherein he gave commentary on 112 meditation techniques illustrated in Vigyan Bhairava Tantra.
