{"collection":"tantra","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/tantra/htk/htk11.htm","path":"tantra/htk/htk11.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/tantra/htk/htk11.htm","text":"Hymn to Kali, by Arthur Avalon (Sir John George Woodroffe), [1922]\nO MOTHER, even a dullard becomes a poet who meditates upon Thee raimented with space, 1 three-eyed 2 Creatrix 3 of the three worlds, whose waist 4 is beautiful with a girdle made of numbers of dead men's arms, and who on the breast of a corpse, 5 as Thy couch in the cremation-ground, 6 enjoyest Mah\u0101k\u0101la. 7\nCOMMENTARY\n'Dullard' (Jadacet\u0101h)\nOne whose mind is smitten with passion for the world.\n'Poet' (Kav\u012bh)\nA great J\u00f1\u0101n\u012b.\n'Meditates' (Dhy\u0101yan)\nWho in mental vision sees Thee who art Saccid\u0101nandar\u016bpi\u1e47\u012b.\n'Whose loins' (B\u0101huprakarak\u1e5bta-k\u0101\u00f1c\u012bparilasannita\u1e41b\u0101m)\nAt the end of each Kalpa all J\u012bvas abandon their gross bodies, and existing in their subtle bodies in which their respective Karmas inhere, form part of the Avidy\u0101 which is in the causal body of the Brahmar\u016bpi\u1e47\u012b associated with Her own G\u016b\u1e47\u0101s (Svagu\u1e47a) until they are liberated at some future time after the commencement of the next Kalpa. Hence the girdle adorning the loins, lower belly and generative organ of the Mah\u0101dev\u012b vir\u0101dr\u016bpi\u1e47\u012b, capable of producing children is fashioned of the arms and hands of dead J\u012bvas. For these arms and hands were their principal instruments for the doing of work (Karma). The \u015a\u0101kt\u0101nandatara\u1e45gi\u1e47\u012b says, 'With Karma is a J\u012bva born, with Karma he dies, and in the next body again that Karma is\nattached to him.' Dev\u012bg\u012bt\u0101 says, 'In Her at dissolution J\u012bvas and their Karmas are merged in undifferentiated mass, just as all which is done (Vyavah\u0101r\u0101) merges in dreamless sleep (Su\u1e63upti).' Again the Dev\u012b says, 'It is I who create the whole world and enter therein with Pr\u0101\u1e47a, M\u0101y\u0101, Karma and so forth.'\n'Raimented with space' (Digvastr\u0101m)\nRaiment is the covering of M\u0101y\u0101. She is without that and above M\u0101y\u0101.\n'Three-eyed' (Tri\u1e47ayan\u0101m)\nHaving knowledge of the three divisions of Time, past, present and future.\n'Creatrix' (Vidh\u0101tr\u012b)\nShe who at the beginning of the next Kalpa gives birth and enjoyment to J\u012bvas according to their respective Sa\u1e41cita Karma.\n'On the breast of a corpse' (\u015aavah\u1e5b\u012bdi)\nThe corpse is Nirgu\u1e47a-Brahman. The couch is the support (\u0100dh\u0101ra). On Nirgu\u1e47a-Brahman as Thy \u0100dh\u0101ra. that is established in Thine own state (Pada) as Nirgu\u1e47a-Brahman. G\u0101yatr\u012b-Tantra says, 'By the word corpse is indicated Brahman as the dead body (Preta).' Gandharva-Tantra says Sad\u0101\u015biva is the couch on which lies the subtle Tripurasundar\u012b.\n'In the cremation ground' (\u015a\u1e41a\u015b\u0101nasth\u0101)\nThe cremation ground (\u015ama\u015b\u0101na) is the great Ether (Mah\u0101k\u0101\u015ba) in which all creatures are merged as corpses in the Great dissolution (Mah\u0101pralaya). In dissolution even the greatest of creatures are but corpses and hence it is a cremation ground.\n'Dost enjoy Mah\u0101h\u0101la' (Mah\u0101h\u0101la-surata-prayukt\u0101m)\nAt the end of a Kalpa, there being no creation, She being inactive, and there being nought but supreme Brahman, She being in-separate from Para\u015biva, experiences Herself as unlimited (Akha\u1e47da) Bliss.\n61:1 p. 63 The Dev\u012b is naked, as is \u015aiva, for, like Him, She is clothed with space, and is the great void itself (Mah\u0101\u015b\u016bnya).\n61:2 Tri\u1e47ayan\u0101\u1e41. The Three eyes are Sun, Moon and Fire (V). Mah\u0101nirv\u0101\u1e47a-Tantra says, 'Three eyes are attributed to K\u0101lik\u0101 because She observes the whole world with such eyes as the Sun, the Moon, and so forth'. See as to the meaning of these three terms which do not merely denote these luminaries and elements, A. Avalon's 'Serpent Power' and Studies in Mantra-\u015a\u0101stra'.\n61:3 Vidh\u0101trim, who provides Enjoyment and Liberation for all Jivas. (V).\n61:4 Nita\u1e41ba, literally, buttocks but the girdle goes all round. K\u0101l\u012b is represented as so girdled.\n61:5 The corpse (\u015aava) represents \u015aiva (V) because He is inactive whilst his \u015aakti it is who does everything. \u015aavah\u1e5bdi\u2014that is, on the breast of \u015aiva (Vipar\u012btarati). The Dev\u012b is given the dominant position in her union with Her consort, because She is Kartri (actress), and He is Bhokt\u0101 (unacting enjoyer). According to S\u0101\u1e41khya, Puru\u1e63a is neither producer nor produced, but passive, and a looker-on upon the actions of Prak\u1e5bti. It is not the Puru\u1e63a who is active in the creation of the world, but it is She who, in the light of His gaze, dances the world-dance. So Kubjik\u0101-Tantra says: 'Not Brahm\u0101, but Brahm\u0101n\u012b, creates; it is Vai\u1e63nav\u012b, not Vishnu, who protects; Rudr\u0101n\u012b, not Rudra, who takes all things back. Their husbands are like dead bodies.' For in respect of power they are dependent on their \u015aakti. As to the S\u0101dhana, see Pr\u0101\u1e47ato\u1e63in\u012b 622, Viparitaratau japtv\u0101 nirv\u0101\u1e47apadav\u012b\u1e41 vrajet. Two corpses are sometimes pictured, the lower being the eternally quiescent \u015aiva, and the upper being the \u015aiva united with \u015aakti in creation. Similarly the Dev\u012b is represented as reclining on a couch made of five corpses, which are the Mah\u0101preta (see Bhairavay\u0101mala, Lalit\u0101 verse 174, etc). The Mah\u0101pretas, whose B\u012bja is Hsau, are Sad\u0101\u015biva, \u012a\u015b\u0101na, Rudra, Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, and Brahm\u0101.\n61:6 The site of certain forms of Tantrik S\u0101dhana, such as \u015aav\u0101sana Mu\u1e47d\u0101sana, etc., as to which the Phetk\u0101ri\u1e47\u012b-Tantra says that it is an excellent place for S\u0101dhana. He who makes japa a number of times on a corpse in a cremation-ground attains all manner of success (Siddhi).'\n61:7 Parama-\u015aiva.","title":"Hymn to Kali: Text: Verse 7","type":"page"}