• Bhartrhari originally gave the concept of “Śabdabrahman” and “the different levels of speech” in his work Vākyapadīya or it was picked up from some other source.

• What was that source: “Vedas” or “Non-dualistic Kashmir Śaivism”. As both school of thoughts have explained the concept, so which school’s original thought it was?

• Why Bhartrhari didn’t introduce the fourth level of speech Para Vāk, Is śabdabrahman itself the Para Vāk?

Outline

• Importance of Word.• Bhartrhari’s theory of levels of speech in

Vākyapadīya.• Historical Background• Śaivism on four levels of Speech• Four levels of speech and modern theories of

sciences.

Introduction to the importance of Word in Indian Philosophical Schools

Vākyapadīya

Śabdabrahman

The Brahman who is without beginning or end, whose very essence is the Word, who is the

cause of the manifested phonemes, who appears as the objects, from whom the

creation of the world proceeds,

Who has been taught as the One appearing as many due to the multiplicity of his powers, who, though not different from his powers

seems to be so,

Depending on whose Time –power to which (though one) differentiation is attributed, the

six transformations, birth etc. become the cause of all variety in being.

Of which one that is the seed of all, there is this state of multiplicity, that of the enjoyer, the

enjoyed and enjoyment.

Shiva Sutras Jnanadhisthanam mātrkā ||4||

It is the un-understood Mother or Power of Sound inherent in the alphabet that is the basis of the limited knowledge (in the form of anava, mayiya and Karma mala).

• Here in the fourth sutra, power of the sound of the alphabet, which is mātrkā, is revealed.

• According to this sutra it is the word, which gives rise to all the three types of bondages, which are because of the ānava mala, māyīya mala and karma mala.

• It is the sound of the alphabet, which is the basic cause of the creation of the universe and this name and form. Words form the basic limitation in every individual and make him caged in the prison of his own thoughts. Basically if we observe, our universe is defined by the words we know. It is word, which is the cause of the thought, because of which we are bound and are not able to experience the universal nature of the self. It is also the knowledge of the mātrkā, which will liberate one from the three malas.

Spanda Kārikās

What is Spanda?

• This spanda principle says that everything is Spanda and this Spanda is the creative power, which is basically svatantrya Shakti of the Brahman, which helps him in manifesting himself in the form of this universe.

• There are two aspect of the Brahman one is the unity and other is the diversity, one is the potential and the other is the kinesis, one is Shiva and other is shakti It is the shakti which is non identical and non different from the Brahman (Shiva) because of which Brahman is able to present himself in both the aspect of unity and diversity.

Four Levels of speech from Vākyapadīya of Bhartrhari (1.142)

This Science of Grammar is the supreme and wonderful source of the knowledge of the

three- fold word, comprising many paths, of the Vaikharī (the Elaborated), the Madhyamā (the Middle One) and the Paśyantī (the Seeing

One)

Vaikharī

• The lowest level of speech which is the manifested form of the word.

• It is the audible sound, which we hear in our day-to-day lives.

• That’s why it is called the elaborated one. • It represents the diverse nature of the word

and it assumes a form when the air strikes the vocal organs of the body. Thus it is a function of breath or Prāna.

Madhyamā

• It is basically the link between the Vaikharī and the Paśyantī.

• Madhyamā is the stage when the mental image is born out of some thought.

• It is the stage where the sequencing of the thought is there; the ideas are getting differentiated mentally.

• The Middle One proceeds by going beyond the functioning of breath, has sequence and has the mind alone as its substratum.

Paśyantī

• The third level, which is the highest form of speech, is the undivided form of speech.

• Because it is indivisible there is no sequence and is free from space and time.

• It is basically the inner light or the vision. Though it is indivisible, the power to produce succession has entered into it.

• It is restless and also still in concentration, hidden and pure; the forms of the objects of knowledge have entered into it or merged into it or it has no form at all; it has the appearance of limited objects or of connected objects or the appearance of all objects has come to an end in it; thus it has infinite variety

It has been said-

– "There are four states in regard to the word. The wise among the Brāhmanas know them. Three of them are kept in a cave and do not move. Men speak the fourth part of the word.

• It is the science of grammar that can give knowledge about these different levels of speech.

• The path to liberation or one gets free from bondage if he understands and realizes these four levels of speech.

• if one understand the manifestation of a word, if understand the manifestation of the universe and thus become free from the bondage of ignorance.

Origin of the Four levels of speech

• Vedic period: mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BCE, or the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

• Much earlier than Bhartrhari, the much quoted hymn of the Rg Veda (1.164.45), had already distinguished four forms of Vāc, and that speculations about correlative Quadri partitions of speech and the universe occurred even in the Upanishads.– Padoux, Andre. Vac: The Concept of the Word In Selected Hindu Tantras. NY: SUNY, 1990. p. 167

Śaivism history

• Basic pre-historic origin of that monistic Śaivism was discovered in the remains of the Indus Valley civilization which proves beyond doubt that Śaivism as a religion of a highly civilized nation, well versed in the arts of reading and writing, had attained remarkable development in its aspects of ritual and higher theology in India in the third millennium B.C.

• Since such philosophic views of absolute theistic monism are absent from the family books of Rig Veda, and since the use of the word yoga, in the sense of yogic practice, is not found anywhere in that Veda, it can be guessed correctly that the practice of yoga and philosophy of monistic and theistic absolutism were not originally known to Vedic Priests.

• The poetic description of absolute monism in Purusa sūkta (R.V. X-90) and that of monistic theism in Vāgambhrniya hymn (R.V. X-125), both belonging to the tenth Mandala of that Veda, prove that Vedic priests and authors learned the monistic philosophy of theistic absolutism from the yogins of Indus valley. – B.N. Pandit, History of Kashmir Śaivism, 1990, p. xiii

How does the word become mind and matter?

• Over the centuries since Bhartrhari, many grammarians have tried to elucidate the principle of śabdabrahman as divinely potent Brahman, the One who speaks and creates the Universe.

• Some scholars said that Brahman uttered the word bhū, meaning “earth” and the earth actually came into existence. They also quoted various scriptural passages like “having uttered ‘earth’, he created the earth” in an attempt to explain creation.

• But none of these writers has presented a convincing, logical or psychologically sound explanation for the principle concerned, and śabdabrahman has remained a mystery to the successors of Bhartrhari.

• However the authors of Kashmir Śaivism, especially Somānanda, Utpaladeva, and Abhinavagupta, have explained in detail the concept of śabdabrahman. – B.N. Pandit, Specific Principles of Kashmir Śaivism, 1997, p. 53

Four Levels of speech in Kashmir Śaivism

“Divine Consciousness is identical with the Supreme Word (Parā Vāk), and hence every letter or word is derived from and ultimately inseparable from

this Consciousness”. Sound is the link between the three main levels of reality in Kashmir

Śaivism; the causal (absolute God), subtle (energetic) and gross (physical) realms of the universe. Each layer of the manifest world is ordered based

on the consciousness or quality of energy characterized by it. The “divine consciousness” within Kashmir Śaivism’s cosmological

framework is the absolute form of god, which is immanently monistic. Therefore, “the analysis of language is inseparable from that of [the

analysis of] consciousness”.

– Singh, Jaideva. Abhinavagupta, Parātrīśika-Vivarana: The Secret of Tantric Mysticism. Delhi, 1988 p. xv – Tantric Sound: The Non-dual Śaivism of Kashmir’s Manifestation and Liberation In Sanskrit Words, Deities, Tattvas,

and Chakras, Kate Wilson, A Senior Honors Thesis, The Ohio State University, November 2008, p. 2– ibid. , p. 2

Parā Vāk• The essence of the highest reality, which is the supreme divine consciousness, is

itself the Para Vāk according to the non-dualistic Śaivism. • It is the primordial uncreated word which is ever-present everywhere. • Parā Vāk is inseparable aspect the supreme consciousness, which contains in itself

the whole universe as a potential, prior to its creation in an undivided form, • Therefore it can be said that not only it contains the other three levels of speech in

it in an undifferentiated form but all the words, actions, objects, subject and means of knowledge were already existing in the divine consciousness or the Parā Vāk.

• Parā Vāk “is indeed present on all the levels of Paśyantī and others, for without her, darkness and unconsciousness, would prevail”.

• As Parā Vāk is the throbbing energy because of which and out of which the whole universe is manifested it is the substratum of the every single thing or thought of the universe, nothing can exist without its presence. Even the empty space is filled with this throbbing vibration, which is Parā Vāk or the divine consciousness. – Singh, Jaideva. Abhinavagupta, Parātrīśika-Vivarana: The Secret of Tantric Mysticism. Delhi, 1988 p.5– Padoux, Andre. Vac: The Concept of the Word In Selected Hindu Tantras. NY: SUNY, 1990. p. 177-178

• Parā Vāk can be understood as the power of the supreme consciousness which is non different from it neither identical to it. According to Śaivism the supreme consciousness has two aspects one is prakāśa and the other is vimarśa. – Prakāśa is the pure light, the light in which the other things can appear; even the

visible light can be seen only because of the prakāśa, which is the divine light. – The other aspect is vimarśa, which is the self-awareness aspect of the supreme

consciousness. This self-awareness or vimarśa aspect is nothing but the Parā Vāk. It is an aspect of the supreme consciousness, which helps the supreme consciousness to manifest itself in the form of this universe.

• “Thus we saw how the universe, meaning, and language take their root in the supreme Word, and exist there undifferentiated, in seed-form, endowed with the full kinetic force peculiar to a seed.

• Such a force will assert itself and these seeds will start to grow in the next stage of Speech, Paśyantī, the "Visionary" Word.”

• Para Vāk as the Grand unified field.• Paśyantī as the different forces. (Like

Electromagnetic, Nuclear, Gravitation, • Madhyamā as the Quantum mechanical

regime • Vaikharī as the material physical world.

Grand Unified field (Parā Vāk)

Manifestation of Elementary Particles.

(Madhyamā)

Manifestation of Physical World

(Vaikharī )

Paśyantī (Four fundamental forces

of Nature)

Electromagnetism, Weak Interaction, Strong Interaction,

Gravitation

Paśyantī• Thus as the tendency towards manifestation arises in Parā Vāk, the first

stage of speech appears which is Paśyantī.• It is born from the supreme word or the śabdabrahman and it does not

possess the transcendence and the all pervasiveness of Parā. • It is the level where still the subject and object are in the undifferentiated

form.• It can be understood as the Sadāśiva tattva in the hierarchy of the

manifestation of the universe and thus the Parā Vāc is the Shakti tattva. Sadāśiva tattva as explained by Jaideva Singh in Shiva Sutras is: – “The experience of this stage is ‘I am this’, but the ‘this’ is only a hazy (asphuta)

experience. The predominant side is still ‘I’. The ideal Universe is experienced as an indistinct something in the depth of consciousness. Sadāśiva tattva is the first manifestation (ābhāsa). In this Universal experience, both the subject and the object are consciousness. Consciousness in this aspect becomes perceptible to Itself; hence a subject and a object.”

• Sadāśiva tattva is basically nothing but the emergence of the Paśyantī and Sadvidyā tattva, which is fifth in number in the 36 tattvas of Śaivism, is the submergence of the Paśyantī. From the 6th tattva Madhyamā starts emerging.

• So there are three stages of experience in Paśyantī, – the first is the experience of Sadāśiva: “I am this”. – Then is the experience of Īśvara, which is “This am I”– The last stage is the Sadvidyā stage where the dominance of the subject and the

object are equal but still they are in the undifferentiated form. It is a universal experience where the universe looks undivided. The experience is known as parāpara daśā.

– Thus we can say that at this stage there is still no emergence of any thought constructs and objectivity, we see their emergence only within a still prevalent. Although it cannot be said neither as complete differentiation of subject and object nor complete non-differentiation between them.

• Paśyantī, which is very close to parā Vāk, should not be confused with it. Following paragraph from Vāc by Andre Padoux will clearly state the differentiation – “The differences between parā and Paśyantī and their hierarchy, are thus clearly indicated.

Abhinavagupta further clarifies this difference when he writes in the Parātrīśika-Vivarana: "Paśyantī becomes aware through the sole movement of consciousness of anything which, desired [by it], is specifically awakened by a definite cause." This means that in parā Vāk everything was contained in absolute undifferentiation and without any limit, whereas here the power of will, insofar as it is intent on the manifestation of the universe, limits the supreme consciousness and brings forth in Paśyantī only that which serves its limited purpose—the manifestation of the universe. Such a limitation is brought about by the appearance of the lineaments of objectivity, which restrict the original freedom and utter plenitude of consciousness. Abhinavagupta compares on this occasion the Visionary to memory (smrti), where images only arise when evoked by a particular cause.”

• Thus Paśyantī is an ambiguous condition, which represents the transition from unity to the diversity, from non differentiation to differentiation. Therefore Paśyantī corresponds, to the supreme-non-supreme state (parāpara) of the Word and of the Energy, where subjectivity and objectivity coincide.”

Madhyamā• Further in the process of manifestation of Para Vāk, comes Madhyamā, which is

basically the link between the undifferentiated word and the manifested “gross” speech, Vaikharī. That’s why Madhyamā is called the intermediate word.

• With the emergence of Madhyamā we come out of the undifferentiation and enter the world of differentiation, which is the limited experience of an individual. While in Paśyantī there was only a will or desire of differentiation of subject and object but here at this level the differentiation is actually manifested.

• Here in Madhyamā consciousness for language has appeared: “phonemes, words and sentences” are present and consequently the differentiation between the subject and the object appears.

• There is a sequence of thought; every thought construct is divided in a sequence bound by the notion of spatial-temporal limitation. With language and speech being there, now the emergence of subject (vācaka) and object (vācya) takes place. This is the stage when the universe is born out of the supreme word in the objective world. mental thought constructs are born in the subjective world.

• Though the word has not taken any gross form as yet, it is still in the mental form or in an indivisible form from the universal consciousness but the power of cognition of a thought and its analysis is born at this stage.

• In the hierarchy of the tattva its emergence starts from the Īśvara tattva. Till the Sadvidyā tattva presence of both Paśyantī and Madhyamā are there but dominance is of Paśyantī. Both Paśyantī and Madhyamā are in undifferentiated form.

• But at the border of Sadvidyā tattva and the starting of the Maya Tattva the Paśyantī submerges completely and the Madhyamā becomes the dominant form of speech.

• From the stand point of cosmology the intermediate character of Madhyamā clearly is the differentiating factor between the supreme-non-supreme experience, the universal & the limited individual experience, unity and diversity, the differentiated & the non differentiated, of time & timelessness, objectivity and subjectivity etc.

• Also the thoughts at this levels are clearly distinct and thus it becomes a link between the higher word Paśyantī where nothing can be differentiated and the gross form of the word, Vaikharī which represents the diverse and manifested words and the world.

• common to all of us, which we hear in our day-to-day lives. That is why this level of speech is called corporeal. It does not matter how much diversity is present there at the level of Vaikharī speech but they are all like the pearls threaded in a single thread of Vaikharī Vāk which in itself is linked to the higher and subtle levels of speech. To summarize Vaikharī:

• “Thus the Corporeal is the final materialization of a continual, timeless, and unbroken process which, from parā and, metaphysically, without actually ever leaving her, starts with the Visionary and, through the Intermediate, results in the Corporeal. This is a basic concept in regard to the nature of the universe, which is nothing but the appearance, the ābhāsa, of consciousness, inseparable therefrom.”

• The communication in the external world is not possible without Vaikharī, without language there will be no cognition of thought and hence no external world will exist, i.e. objectivity will cease and universe will appear in an undifferentiated form. Thus because of the Vaikharī this objective world exist.

• ibid. , p. 216-218• ibid. , p. 219 para 2

• Finally after Madhyamā there arises the last stage of the speech, Vaikharī where the differentiation is fully manifested, the subject and the object are completely differentiated from each other. Here we are in the plane of objectivity, in the empirical limited world brought about by Maya Tattva. Everything that was thought of has been produced here from words to sentences to sound to real objects.

• A form of word is born with the help of the wind called Prāna, when it is set in motion and hit the different organs inside the human body. It is a form of sound