SPANDHAKARIKA (SONG OF THE SACRED TREMOR)
revealed by MAHADEVA SHIVA AT MOUNT KAILASH
(FIRST FLOW, STANZAS 1-16)
The Instructions Concerning the Independent Existence of Self
1.
The venerated Shankari (Shakti) source of energy,
opens her eyes and the universe is reabsorbed in pure consciousness;
she closes them and the universe is manifested within her.
2.
The sacred tremor, the very place of creation and return,
is completely limitless because its nature is formless.
3.
Even within duality, the tantrika goes straight to the nondual source,
because pure subjectivity always resides immersed within his own nature.
4.
All the relative notions tied to the ego
rediscover their peaceful source
deeply buried under all the different states.
5.
In the absolute sense,
pleasure and suffering, subject and object
are nothing other than the space of profound consciousness.
6.,7.
To grasp this fundamental truth is to see
absolute truth everywhere.
Thus, the activity of the senses itself
dwells in this fundamental freedom
and pours forth from it.
8.
Therefore, the person who rediscovers
this essential sacred tremor of consciousness
escapes the dim confusion of limited desire.
9.
Liberated this way from the multiplicity of
impulses tied to the ego
he experiences the supreme state.
10.
Then the heart realizes that the true innate nature
is both the universal agent and the subjectivity that perceives the world.
Thus immersed in understanding, it knows and acts according to its desire.
11.
How can this wonder-filled tantrika
who always comes back to his own fundamental nature
as the source of all manifestation
be subject to transmigration?
12.
If the void could be an object of contemplation
where would the consciousness that perceives it be?
13.
Therefore consider contemplation of the vacuity
as an artifice of nature
analagous to that of a profound absence from the world.
14.,15.,16.
Actor and action are united.
but when action is dissolved by abandoning the fruits of the act
the very dynamic that is tied to the ego exhausts itself
and the tantrika who is absorbed in this contemplation
discovers the divine tremor liberated from its ties to the ego.
The profound nature of action is thus revealed,
and he who has interiorized the movement of desire
no longer knows dissolution.
He cannot cease to exist because he has returned to the profound source.
(SECOND FLOW, STANZAS 17-27)
The Direct Perception of One's Own Fundamental Nature
17.
The awakened tantrika realizes this continuous sacred tremor
throughout the three states.
18.
Shiva is then in loving union with Shakti
in the form of knowledge and its object
whereas everywhere else
he is manifested as pure consciousness.
19.
The whole palette of the different kinds of sacred tremoring
finds its source in the universal sacred tremor of consciousness,
and in this way reaches the person.
How could such a sacred tremoring limit the tantrika?
20.
And yet, this sacred tremor itself causes
people who are subject to limited views to become lost,
because their intuition being dissociated from the profound source,
they throw themselves into the whirlwind of transmigration.
The person who with fierceness tends towards the profound sacred tremor
reaches his true nature even within activity.
The profound and stable sacred tremor can be reached in extreme states:
anger, intense joy, mental wandering, or the drive toward survival.
23,24.
When the tantrika gives himself over to Shiva/Shakti,
the sun and the moon come up in the central channel.
25.
At that moment, when in the sky the sun and the moon disappear,
the awakened person remains lucid,
whereas the ordinary person sinks into unconsciousness.
26., 27.
Mantras, when they are charged with the power of the sacred tremor,
accomplish their function through the senses of the awakened person.
They become united with the mind of the tantrika,
who penetrates the nature of Shiva/Shakti.
(THIRD FLOW, STANZAS 28-52)
The Direct Perception of One's Own Fundamental Nature
28.,29.
All things emerge from the individual essence of the tantrika
who recognizes himself in Shiva/Shakti;
everything in which he takes pleasure is Shiva/Shakti.
Thus, there is no state that can be named
that would not be Shiva/Shakti.
30.
Always present to the reality
that he perceives as the play of his own nature,
the tantrika is liberated at the very heart of life.
