The Equinox (Volume I, Number III)

THE EQUINOX It is the best support, the bow off which the soul as the arrow flies to Brahman, the arrow which is shot from the body as bow in order to pierce the darkness, the upper fuel with which the body as the lower fuel is kindled by the fire of the vision of God, the net with which the fish of Prana is drawn out, and sacrificed in the fire of the Atman, the ship on which a man voyages over the ether of the heart, the chariot which bears him to the world of Brahman.* At the end of the “Shiva Sanhita” there are some twenty verses dealing with the Mantra. And as in so many; other Hindu books, a considerable amount of mystery is woven around these sacred utterances. We read: 190. In the four-petalled Muladhara lotus is the seed of speech, brilliant as lightning. 1g1. In the heart is the seed of love, beautiful as the Bandhuk flower. In the space between the two eyebrows is the seed of Shakti, brilliant as tens of millions of moons. These three seeds should be kept secret.t These three Mantras can only be learnt from a Guru, and are not given in the above book. By repeating them a various number of times certain results happen. Such as: after eighteen lacs, the body will rise from the ground and remain suspended in the air; after an hundred lacs, “the great yogi is absorbed in the Para-Brahman{ BHAKTA YOGA. Union by love. In Bhakta Yoga the aspirant usually devotes himself to some special deity, every action of his life being done in honour and glory of this deity, and, as Vivekananda tells us, “he has not to suppress any single one of his emotions, he only strives to intensify them and direct them to God.” Thus, if he devoted himself to Shiva, he must reflect in his life to his utmost the life of Shiva; if to Shakti the life of Shakti, until the seer and the seen become one in the mystic union of attainment. * Deussen. “The Upanishads,” p. 390. + “Shiva Sanhita,” chap. v. The seed in each case is the Mantra. ¢ The Absolute. 72