sutadvēṣiṇāṁ daityarājaṁ nakhāgraiḥ
vidārya svabhaktasya saṁrakṣaṇāya |
nr̥siṁhāya saṁsmr̥tya duḥkhacchidē tē
namaskurmahē vīranārāyaṇāya ||Trailōkyavijayāliṅgitāya śrīvīranr̥harayē namaḥ ||
To answer a certain query related to addition of praṇava at the beginning of certain mantras, we went back to refer to Krama Kalpalatā, guarded with great care in our sampradāya. Though the encyclopedic ‘Bimbāmbikā Bodha’ forms the primary text book for śrīkula tantra in our lineage, several other works find supplementary use. Br̥hadbaḍabānala is the next chief source, followed by some references to the summarized Yatidaṇḍaiśvaryavidhāna. Though we had seen apūrṇa and aśuddha pratis of Daṇḍavidhāna, the first clean and a nearly complete copy was given by Sri Vijay from Mumbai. Yōgēndrānandanātha, the grand nephew of late H H Sri Shamsher Jung Bahadur Ranaji of Nepal, was initiated into śrīkula tantra by a vipra named Shāmbhavānandanātha who seems to have belonged to Kāśmīra dēśa. This great Mantraśāstrajña from Kāśmīra was in turn initiated by our Guru Srī Chinmudrānandanātha. He also underwent the sacred ritual of Virajāgrahaṇābhiṣēka by offering śikhā and yajnōpavīta in fire and had performed Ghaṭaśrāddha before entering the Avadhūtāśrama. He was one of those rare disciples disciple with uttamādhikāra who qualified for prathama śaktipāta among the nine types (tīvratīvra, tīvramadhya, tīvramanda, madhyatīvra, madhyamadhya, madhyamanda, mandatīvra, mandamadhya and mandamanda). He had used Krama Kalpalatā as the chief source to instruct Ranaji’s nephew and this copy was graciously handed over to me by Srī Yōgēndrānandanātha three years before he attained siddhi. This also marked the end of an era – one that opened to me the doors to infinite wisdom contained within the hidden libraries of Nēpāḷa dēśa, and most importantly characterized by a strong affiliation to Bimbāmbikā sampradāya. After ignoring this huge, handwritten copy for a long time, I finally picked it up for examination. While the book was in line with Bimbāmbikā Bōdha and Br̥hadbaḍabānala Tantra for the most part, it did discuss various topics of general interest in detail.
An overview which discusses the various characteristics of Tantra (quoted from Vaivasvata Tantra) immediately caught my attention. It discusses in great detail, the characteristics of Tantra such as Sarga, Pratisarga, Mantra nirṇaya, Yantra nirṇaya, ādhyātma varṇana, Tīrtha varṇana, Naraka varṇana, āśrama dharma, Yuga dharma, Rāja dharma, Dāna dharma, Dēvatā saṁsthāna, Bhūta saṁsthāna, Jyōtiṣa saṁsthāna, Vipra saṁsthāna, Vibudhōtpatti, Vyavahāra, Vrataparibhāṣā, Purāṇa, ākhyāna, Kōśa, Strīpuṁlakṣaṇa, Haracakra, śaucāśauca, Dēvatārcana, Sādhana, Puraścaraṇa, ṣaṭkarma, Dhyānayōga, Nityakr̥tya, Karmasūtra, Varṇabhēda, Jātibhēda etc. There is another chapter which deals with the technical differences between the five limbs of Kaula tantra namely Kaula, Vāma, Cīna, Siddhānta and śābara, and also Adhikāra nirṇaya.
The Yōgādhyāya chapter deals with the concept of Mahāyōga which seems to paraphrase the system of Samaṣṭiyōga taught by Mahāmahōpādhyāya Gōpīnātha Kavirāja. This chapter begins with discussion related to commonalities of dēśa/kāla such as āhāra, nidrā, bhaya and maithuna, their effects in vyaṣṭi and samaṣṭi, mentalities of itihāsa, paramparā and saṁgharṣa, limitations such as parimiti, apūrṇatva, alpatva, ajñatva, anāptakāmatva etc. and the ways to attain paripūrṇatva, sarvatva, sarvajñatva, sarvaśaktatva, āptakāmatva, avināśitva etc. The formation of Dēvatā Samāmnāya through Sāmudāyika prajñā saṁskāra seems to be a highly original and valuable contribution of the author of this work, who remains unknown. The informal language, miśraṇa of gadya and padya and lack of direct quotations from Tantras seems to suggest that the chapter of Yōgādhyāya is the independent work of the author of Krama Kalpalatā.
The chapter related to various limbs of a mantra is also more elaborate than in any other work of a similar genre. Topics discussed include Mātr̥kā cakra, Sarvatōbhadra maṇḍala, Kūrmacakra, Digbandhana, Rakṣācakra, Mantra-māsa-nakṣatra cakras, Liṅgōddhāra, Mantra janana sthāna, Mahācakrōddhāra, Varṇa yantrōddhāra, Ghaṭacakra, Pancāmnāya nirṇaya, ṣaḍāmnāya nirṇaya, Dvādaśāmnāya nirṇaya, ṣōḍaśāmnāya nirṇaya, Guruparamparā nirṇaya, Sampradāya rahasya, r̥śi-chandō-dēvatā-bīja-śakti-kīlaka nirṇaya, Nyāsa, Akṣara saṁkhyā, Dēvatā & Pratyadhidēvatā nirṇaya, Rūpa, ākr̥ti, Dhyāna, Svabhāva, Maitri, Samaya, Garbha, Prasava, Vighna, Tannivāraṇa, r̥tu, Janma, Sthiti, Avasthā, Mantrasvara, Mantra prakr̥ti, vikr̥ti, priyatva, Mātrā nirṇaya, Pallava, Saṁpuṭa, Prayōga, Upasaṁhāra, Mantra saṁskāra, Pancapāda, Mūlikā nirṇaya, Bali and ātmānusandhāna.
It is clear that the author is well aware of Bimbāmbikā Bōdha as he avoids those topics which are discussed elaborately by Bimbāmbikā. One such example is the topic of mantra dōṣa and saṁskāra. Bhagvatī Bimbāmbikā describes fifty dōṣas and vidhis to overcome them: bhinna, ruddha, śaktihīna, parāṅgmukha, badhira, nētrahīna, kīlita, stambhita, dagdha, trasta, bhīta, malina, tiraskr̥ta, bhēdita, suṣupta, madōnmatta, mūrchita, hatavīrya, hīna, pradhvasta, bālaka, kumara, yuvā, prauḍha, vr̥ddha, nistrimśaka, nirbīja, siddhihīna, manda, kūṭa, niramśa, sattvahīna, kēkara, bījahīna, dhūmita, āliṅgita, mōhita, kṣudhātura, atidr̥pta, aṅgahīna, atikruddha, samīrita, atikrūra, savrīḍa, śāntamānasa, sthānabhraṣṭa, vikala, ativr̥ddha, nisnēha and pīḍita. Topics such as āyāsa-klēśa parihāra, stōtra, kavaca, nyāsa, mudrā, sētu, cauragaṇēśa japa, kullukā, mudgara, utkīlana, samutkīlana etc. are skipped as well, probably for the same reason.
Another topic that gets discussed at length is related to nyāsa. Special attention is given to lesser known concepts widely used in śrīkrama tantra such as Mantrākṣara krama-vyutkrama, dakṣa-vāma-madhya, yuktadakṣa-yuktavāma-yuktamadhya, yuktavarṇa, yuktapada, yuktasvara, yuktavācya, yuktayōga, yuktāvayava, yuktāntarvyutkrama, digyōga, kālayōga, aṅgayōga, lakṣyayōga, samaṣṭiyōga, piṇḍāṇḍa bhāvanā, brahmāṇḍa bhāvanā etc. With the addition of six pallavas, various combinations of nyāsas result and grant different fruits.
The reason we mention this work is because of a chapter that talks about adding praṇava before mantras. There are three kinds of mantras:
1. Those where praṇava is explicitly included in the mantrōddhāra
2. Those where praṇava is not explicitly included in the mantrōddhāra
3. Those where the addition of praṇava is explicitly prohibited
Mahāṣōḍaśī, Prāsāda aṣṭākṣarī, Vāsudēva dvādaśī, Aṣṭākṣar, Aśvārūḍhā etc. belong to the first category. A whole gamut of mantras belongs to the second category. Mantras such as Caṇḍikā navākṣarī, Dhūmāvatī, Ucchiśṭa Bhairavī, Vajravārtālī etc. belong to the third category. There is yet another category where praṇava may be added for a specific purpose. Guhyakālī Tantra for example, prescribes the addition of praṇava before the Dvāvimśatyakṣarī Mahāvidyā of Mahāśyāmā, resulting in the formation of Siddhikālikā mantra, whose viniyoga is mainly for Mōkṣa. Similarly, for the sake of mantra-vīrya janana, addition of Praṇava is recommended in the case of Saiva pancākṣarī by several āgamas. However, in the case of Navārṇa mantra, there is sufficient pramāṇa that negates the need for the addition of Praṇava. Most often when the addition of Praṇava is challenged, name throwing and that alone is their justification for this practice. While most of the named personalities who are described to have used praṇava in Navākṣarī are hardly known beyond a certain ethnic group, the account of their siddhi of the mantra is more or less hagiographical as well. This being the case, there is no valid reason to accept their ācaraṇa as valid pramāṇa, especially when there is no śāstra pramāṇa supporting their cause as also when there are existing pramāṇas that explicitly prohibit the use of Praṇava. Moreover, even if all these pramāṇas were to be ignored, we should rather trust the words of the great Bhāskararāya than the central character of an imaginary folk tale.
Akṣara saṁkhyā is an extremely important aspect of any mantra and as we have pointed out several times before, the addition of Praṇava to Navārṇa makes it daśākṣarī. We have heard a rather strange argument regarding Mahāṣōḍaśī that this mantra is not strictly ṣōḍaśī either and hence daśākṣarī (praṇavayuktā navākṣarī) can be passed off as Navākṣarī. One should refer to the names Trikūṭā, Tryakṣarī, etc. which clarify the three kūtas of Pañcadaśī as tri-bījas. This concept is further clarified in Trikūṭā Rahasya, an appendix to Rudrayāmala. Sundarī Tantra discusses the raśmi saṅkalana krama of Mahāṣōḍaśī and it treats the vidyā as composed of sixteen avayavas and not twenty-eight. The Samayācara Sūtra states thus:
atha vidyā aṣṭāvimśativargaviśiṣṭā |
And the commentator on the sutra goes on to explain how the ṣōḍaśātmakatva of the mantra remains intact in spite of having twenty-eight letters. The following verse from Vāmakēśvara Tantra quoted by Puṇyānandanātha also adds puṣṭi:
ityuktā śrīmahāvidyā śaṭkūṭā paramēśvarī |
sarvābhicāraśamanī sarvasampatpradāyinī ||
mahāvyadhipraśamanī svargamōkṣavidhāyinī |
ṣōḍaśārṇā mahāvidyā prōktēyaṁ sarvakāmadhuk ||
Thus, it seems to us that there is absolutely no reason to add Praṇava before the Navārṇa mantra.
Bhūtajvaragrahasamudbhavabhītināśam |
sa tvaṁ nr̥siṁha mayi dēhi karāvalambam ||