Once during a conversation with Shiva, Párvatii remarked that to do anything one requires some minimum qualifications. Párvatii asked Shiva, “What should be the qualifications for those who aspire to enter the path of sádhaná or to engage themselves in meditation and recitation of God’s name?”

Shiva said that she was right to say that everyone needs some minimum qualification to do anything, and that to enter the path of sádhaná one should also have a certain minimum qualification.

Tantra Shástra has been compared to a bird which has two wings - one is Ágama and the other is Nigama. Whatever intellectual questions were put by Párvatii or whatever intellectual expressions were made by Párvatii are known as “Nigama Shástra”. Tantra has another wing, the replies of Shiva, which is both intellectual and actional. Instructions regarding how to live and how to behave in the objective world constitute Agama Shástra. So the questions of Párvatii regarding a minimum of qualification should come under Nigama. All that Párvatii said is Nigama.

Ágatam Shivavaktrebhyo gataiṋca girijá shrutao;
Mataiṋca Vásudevasya tasmátágama ucayate.

“Ágatam Shivavaktrebhyo” means “that which has come from the mouth of Shiva”. The first letter of “ágatam” is “á”. “Gataiṋca girijá shrutao” – here the first letter is “ga”. “Mataiṋca Vásudevasya” – here the first letter is ma. Thus it is known as “ágama”.

“Matam” is as in abhimatá. The conclusion a person reaches after deep thought is known as “mata”. All spiritual knowledge has been taught by whom? It has been said in Ánanda Sútram, “Brahmaeva Gururekah náparah”. Parama Puruśa, Parama Brahma alone, is the Guru. So whatever knowledge comes in the form of agama is from the Guru, or Parama Puruśa, or Paramátmá.

“Mataiṋca Vásudevasya”. Vásudeva is another name of Krśńa. The name of Krśńa’s worldly father was Vasudeva. Being the son of Vasudeva, He is said to be Vásudeva. “Deva” means “vibrational expression”, “vibrational manifestation”. “Vasu”is a loka where a person can abide or live and rest. Wherever a person can abide or live, say a star or a planet, is called “Vasu”. “Vasu” means “a place to live”. And that which is created due to the movements and manifestations of vibrational entities is “vasu”.

“Vasudeva” means the physical, rather, the biological expression of the Supreme Krśńa. For that reason the Biija mantra, the acoustic root, of Krśńa is klrḿ.

What is “ka”? Whenever anything is created, it must have support from sound, light, and so many things, because anything in existence is presented by so many vibrations – and whenever there is any vibration, there is light and sound.

When Parama Puruśa created this universe, this entire creation was subdivided into three phases.

In the first phase of this srśt́i, or creation whenever anything is created, the supporting Microcosmic and Macrocosmic sound, Macrocosmic acoustic root is “a”. Whenever something comes into existence, the sound “a” is created. Hence “a” represents the srśt́i viija. “A” is the acoustic root of creation, and hence is the first letter of the Indo-Aryan alphabetical order. “A” is our first letter, because it represents creation. The creation takes place first, thereafter other things follow. Hence the acoustic root of creation is “a”, and the first letter of our alphabetical order is also “a”.

Similarly, in the Semitic alphabetical order, the first letter is “álif”. “Álif” means “a”. And also in Greek and Hebrew it is “alpha”, and in English, that is in Roman script which has its origin in the Greek and Hebrew alphabetical order, it is “a”. And in French the first letter is “a”.

After creation, Parama Puruśa will have to maintain the created beings. He will have to look after them. The acoustic root for the action of maintenance, preservation and nourishment is “u”, the sound “u”.

And after creation and nourishment, what happens? You withdraw the mental pictures into yourself. In your mind you create a horse, and after some time you withdraw that horse into your own psychic structure. The acoustic root for withdrawal, the withdrawal which is commonly known as “death” – but actually it is not death, but going back to God – is “ma”.

So, “ma” is the acoustic root of withdrawal – not withdrawal here, but destruction. Actually, in the physical sphere we call it destruction, but for the Macrocosm it is not destruction, it is simply withdrawal – withdrawal from the field of activity, withdrawal from the phenomenal world. And that’s why “ma” is the last letter of our vargiiya varńamálá. What is our last varga? “Pa”, “pha”, “ba”, “bha”, “ma”. “Ma” is the last letter. After “ma” there remains a few antahstha varńas and uśma varńas. They are not actual varńas. After “ma” comes “ya”, “ra”, “la” and “va”. These four are antahstha varńas. I have said that when “ya” is the first letter of any word, it is to be pronounced “ja”; otherwise it is pronounced “ya”. It has two sounds. Then “ra”. When “ra” is the first letter, it is pronounced “ra”, and when it is not the first letter, it is pronounced “da”. Then “va”. When it is the first letter, it is pronounced “va”, and when it is not the first letter it is pronounced “wa”. And “la” as the first letter is pronounced “la”, and when it is not the first letter it is pronounced “lra”. In South India, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Orissa, there are two “la”: Ad́i “la” and antahstha “la” – when it is pronounced “la” and when it is pronounced “lra”. But in Hindi and North Indian languages, there is only one “la”. It is defective. “Phalam” is not correct, “phalram” is correct.

“Ya”, “ra”, “la”, “va”. These are the four antahstha letters, and the remaining letters are what? The remaining letters are uśma varńas, “sha”, “śa”, and “sa”. “Śa” is “ksha” as per Rk Vaedika pronunciation and “kkha” as per Yajurvaedika pronunciation. Both are equally correct.

Now “ma” is the last letter. “A-u-ma” – “aum”. “Aum” is the acoustic root of the entire creation. That is why before every Vaedika hymn, there was a system, there was a usage, of pronouncing the sound “aum”.

“Ka” is the first consonant and this is one meaning of “Ka”. The second meaning of “ka” is the objective universe. When Parama Puruśa creates the universe He remains the subject, and some portion of His Divine body is transformed into the universe. And that transformed portion is the objective world. As the Supreme Subjectivity, He creates the sound “aum” while creating the universe; but in the objective world (káya Brahma) – when the objectivated world is created – the acoustic root is “ka”. “Ka” is the acoustic root of Kárya Brahma. Hence it is the acoustic root of the expressed universe, this paiṋcabhaotika jagat, this prapaiṋca. “Ka” means the expressed universe, and that is why “ka” is the first letter of our consonantal alphabetical order.

Now, Krśńa controls this “ka”. He is the people’s God; He is the people’s object of adoration; hence He has something to do with “ka” also. He cannot neglect “ka”. He cannot neglect the people of this universe. He cannot neglect this expressed world. And in our Ananda Marga also, I have said that ours is subjective approach through objective adjustment.

The third meaning of “ka” is “water”. “Jalam”, “niiram”, “toyam”, “pániiyam”, “kambalam”, “ka”.⁽¹⁾ “Kena jalena chaditam” – “that, surrounded by ka, surrounded by water” – is “kaccha”. The word “kaccha” means “surrounded by water”. “Kena arthát jalena cháditam” – “covered by water”. Now you know the meaning of the land called Kaccha?

“La” is the acoustic root of the solid world. Kśiti, apa, teja, marut, vyoma – the kśiti portion has the acoustic root “la”.

The objective world, with all the glamour of physicality, is within Krsna. Hence he is “Klrm”.⁽²⁾

So human beings have to march ahead towards their supreme goal, keeping adjustment with the objective world. Humans have to go on marching ahead, but they have always to keep in mind that they have to maintain adjustment with this objective world. Where there is not this adjustment it becomes very difficult. Everything is upside down.

The main theme of my discourse today is that all things emerge from a singular Entity. So humans can catch hold of that Entity’s expressed ray, or any of Its pencils of rays, and start entering the inner world. They will have to travel a long way. Definitely it takes time.

For those who enter the realm of intellectuality, the path is comprised of three aspects: váda, jalpa and vitańd́á. For nyáyikas or pańd́itas there are always váda, jalpa and vitańd́a. The Indian logician’s philosophy is divided into these three aspects. So for those who travel the path of intellectuality, the first portion is váda, the middle portion vitańd́á, and the last portion jalpa. They will proceed through these three aspects to attain the logician’s victory as their goal. Parama Puruśa is not their goal. Their main goal is to attain victory in the realm of logic. What type of victory is this?

There are two inner feelings behind this victory. The first is becoming mentally inflated with vanity. The mind gets inflated with vanity like puffed rice. The person swells with pride like puffed rice, but inside there is nothing. And secondly, this intellectual develops a lust for some external words of praise - words to the effect that he or she has attained victory. So the first is that the mind gets puffed up with vanity, and thus grows weaker and weaker, and the second is that the person develops a lustful attachment for some external words of praise, and thus becomes a slave to those words and can never be a truly great person.

Those people are great who harbour no biases and who behave rationally both with those who abuse them give them pain and with those who give them happiness. Such people don’t harbour any feelings of enmity towards anybody and take no-one as their enemy. They remain the same in pleasure or pain whether they have a positive reputation or negative reputation. They are unaffected and unassailed in all circumstances of praise or criticism, pain or pleasure. They attach no importance whatsoever to any of these things. They are meaningless for such people.

Those who work with the motivation that they will attain intellectual victory are slaves to words of praise. They can never become great people. It is bad to be a slave to worldly words of praise. The sounds raised by jackals and those raised in praise of some intellectuals are similar. Hence remaining engrossed in váda, vitańd́á and jalpa will lead to nothing.

Besides, valuable time will be wasted. You have not come on this earth for thousands of years. Few are the people who even live for a hundred years. Of course, if you follow Sixteen Points, your longevity will be greater, but you will not live for a thousand or two thousand years. The most a person can live is a hundred or a hundred and twenty-five years.

So those who waste their time in váda, jalpa and vitańd́á are fools. They are C-grade fools. To which grade of person have you decided to belong?

As you do not want to belong to C-grade, you should do sádhaná and bhajana regularly and always remember the one who has sent you to this world and who resides within the mind of every person. You reside in Him, and therefore, you need not say, “O Parama Puruśa, O Náráyańa, be always with me.” He is always with you – nothing can exist beyond Him.

Also, always remember that even if you have done something wrong, the Guru can save you.

Shiva ruśt́e gurustrátá;
Gururuśt́ao na kaschana.

If Shiva gets angry, the Guru will save you, but if the Guru gets angry, no one can save you.

Who is the Guru? Parama Puruśa is the Guru. He is always with you. If you do injustice, He will reprimand you, but He cannot hate you. Even if He wishes He cannot. Why? Suppose He hates this flower. He should say, “Get out!” but where would He throw the flower? There is nothing beyond Him. What can He do? He can only move the flower from this lap of His to that lap of His.

He is powerless to hate. He has no power to hate. Even if He wishes He cannot hate. Suppose Parama Puruśa hates a wicked man and says to him, “Get out!” The wicked man may challenge Him, saying, “Tell me where to go.” Parama Puruśa will be unable to reply. If he says, “Go to that place,” meaning a place that is beyond Parama Puruśa, where Parama Puruśa does not exist, it means He is neither infinite nor omnipresent, and that will hurt His reputation. If a common man commits a mistake, Parama Puruśa will reprimand him, but cannot throw him out. He cannot hate him.

I have said earlier and repeat today that Parama Puruśa cannot do two things: first, He cannot hate anybody; and second, He cannot create someone like Himself. One who loves Him will merge in Him, will become one with Him. Parama Puruśa always remains a singular Entity –

Puruśa evedaḿ sarvaḿ yadbhútaḿ yacca bhavyam;
Utámrtatvasyesháno yadannenátirohati.⁽³⁾

An intellectual may say that Parama Puruśa can throw someone out. In that case, we should ask “What is beyond Parama Puruśa?” The intellectual shall reply, “It is the vanity of the intellectual”.

“Puruśa evedam sarvam.” Parama Puruśa knows everything. He knows “sa”, He knows “ra”, He knows “va” – “Sa-ra-va” means “Sarva” - everything. “Sa” represents the sentient principle, “ra” represents energy (light, magnetism, etc.) and “va” represents characteristics. Each and every entity has its own characteristics or special wonts which are represented by the acoustic root “va”. Each and every entity is guided by these three acoustic roots, “sa”, “ra” and “va”. Hence each and every entity in this universe comes within the fold of this “sarva”. “Sarva”, means “everything”.

“Puruśa evedam sarvam” – “Puruśa knows everything.” Nothing is hidden from Him. “Yadbhútam” – all that has occurred – and “yacca bhavyam” – all that is to occur – is known to Him.

You know, subtly speaking, there is no such thing as the present, there is only the past and the future. The tiny measurement of time which occurs between the past and the future is the present. At present I am speaking and you are hearing. But at that very moment when I am speaking, you are not hearing – you hear my words after some time. When I am speaking, my words are the future for you; and when you are listening, they are the past for me. First I speak and then you hear. Hence there is no present. Some part of the past and the future have been merged together to make the present.

Here it has been said, “Yadbhútam yacca bhavyam” – whatever has occurred and whatever is to occur is known to Parama Puruśa. To speak of the present is meaningless, because actually there is no present.

Parama Puruśa is the Master of both hell and heaven. Suppose a wicked man has gone to hell because of his wicked acts. Parama Puruśa will also remain with him there. In no situation is the wicked man helpless. Parama Puruśa will be with him in hell to console him, to inspire him, saying, “My son, there is nothing to worry about, there is nothing to be unnerved about. I am with you, go ahead.”

Once a devotee said, “Parama Puruśa can send me to hell if He wishes but on one condition – that He will stay with me there also.”

So, you should be careful. Remember that in no situation are you helpless, in no situation are you alone. Whether you are intelligent or foolish, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, you are never helpless. In no situation do you have to live alone. Parama Puruśa is with you. He will remain with you. To remain with you is His dharma. He cannot go against His dharma.

Footnotes

(1) Saḿskrta equivalents of water. –Trans.

(2) “Ka” + “La” = “Klrḿ.”

(3) Rgveda Puruśasúktam. –Trans.