The Sleeping Embryo on A coiled serpent

 

                            

Climbing up that sacred hills along the eastern ghats of that peninsular India in the serene month of Marghazi ( Mid December to Mid January ), a soul awakens every aspiring living being from its embryonic slumber in the chill weather of December, with a penetrating voice.

Why does the Lord Vishnu need a awakener on Earth everyday ? is the Lord, who is the declared protector of all beings, needs to be awakened ? is the Lord so sluggish, sleepy character to be always in slumber ? This may be a common question why the ancient sages described VISHNU always in a sleeping on a huge snake coiled to become his bed.

Everyday trillions of lives have to spring up to life form and the universe decided to send one of its awakener on earth, who like the Saint Narada ( aptly This sage also acted as Saint Narada in one of the cult classics ) is on duty 24 x 7 x 365. 

Who is this Vishnu ?  why he is in a reclining pose on the curled serpent ?

One question many of us would have wondered. When a river completely dries up bone dry and after it rains and water flows, fishes start jumping and swimming in the water. Can the fish survive without water ?  A fully grown up fish may not be able to survive but fish's egg can be in slumber in a ready to hatch from embryonic state whenever a drop of water falls on it.

Vishnu, is a state, which is always ready to hatch as a life being. A seed which is always ready to germinate.

So, the sages, who composed various hymns to describe the variety of aspects of Nature, the universe, had described the ready to hatch state as Vishnu. For a commoner to understand, they tried to bring to describe it with tangible forms, which a human can relate to in a Human like form. Fish, according to Puranas, is the first form or avatar of Vishnu and the second is a tortoise and on. Even in Narasimha avatar, when Prahalada was asked, where is the Vishnu? He replies that one which is always ready to come to life in any form in any place.

This is the reason that Venkatesa Suprabhatam is recited every day in the morning. Why MS ? 

A great musician, is aptly described as "Gaana amrutha varshi" - the one who pours out the music like the rain droplets. When the rain falls, it is natural, the fish will hatch. Anyone who have heard "Katrinile varum geetham" would definitely vouch to see Lord Krishna in every aspect of our lives.

More so, in her name, M stands for Madurai, where the ruling Lord is Meenakshi - meaning "Rule of the fish " or the "fish eyed god".

The Universe has chosen to send this, Gaana Gandharva ( Celestial Musician ), on this day to awaken 106 years ago, ( This post originally written in Sep 2022 ) trillions of vishnus, to life and enable the Earth to be a better place to live in.

This Ratna of Bharath, played the role of Sakuntala, once again in that role too, a fish takes away her ring and had to rear her son, The Bharat, which this nation was named after. This soul, is the true essence of this great nation, brand ambassador of this universe.

In the land of doubters, universe gave hopes to lives in the voice of divinity. Till the last file having that Suprabatham in any remotest server on earth, Vishnus will be awakened by this voice forever.

Still if there are doubters of existence, see the tiny seeds of a Banyan tree, which can show the Vishwa Roopam of Vishnu, with the extent of spread of the Banyan Tree.

So The Vishnu is a ready to hatch to a life form.

Yoga - Kundalini 

In yoga, the Kundalini - source of vital energy, is said to be residing in the Mooladhara chakra. Interestingly, the Sage Patanjali, who is considered as the source of Yoga sutra, didn't appear in Human form but as a snake. This signifies the evolution is not only limited to Human form but also many other forms of life.

In the process of evolution, sleeping serpent, Kundalini, has to be awakened, like a snake and it has to move along the vertebrae of the skeleton to reach the pinnacle, Sahasrara, topmost position on the head, as a 1000 petalled lotus in a fully blossomed position. In the process of movement of this kundalini energy, process of evolution is defined in 7 stages, which yoga sutra defines the locations as chakras, as wheels of rotation.

Each stage is defined by a sound (Seed Mantra), color.

For every yogi or aspiring to realize the supreme consciousness, Sage Patanjali defined the path and gave a guided process to self-actualization.

What is Sakthi?

In the yoga philosophy, we come across various terms like Vishnu, Sakthi, Siva etc... Though in the idol worship, there are different shapes and forms given to these energies. there is a clear definition by Sage Thiru Moolar (Saiva Siddhanta Siddhar) that whatever we are experiencing in the Macrocosm can be realized in the Microcosm. Hence the Sages who became self-realized being, gave a form for the yet to be realized souls as a step of form worship to graduate to higher realms of supreme consciousness.

There are many corollary terms being used between Vishnu and Sakthi like, Vishnu - Vaishnavi, Varaha- Varahi, Bhrama - Bhrami etc... So, for every Vishnu masculine form, there is an equivalent Sakthi Feminine form. What does it mean? We already saw, Vishnu - the ready to hatch source of life is waiting for the suitable climate to spring into life, like the tadpole coming out of eggs when first rainwater arrives on a riverbed, The 1st water droplet is that energy which enables the life from sleep is Sakthi. If Vishnu is a Potential Energy, then Sakthi is a kinetic energy. 

The Sakthi, reigning in the seven chakras, are identified by different names, based on the energy level and activation of the energy field around the chakra. 

Chakras are the circular vortexes of energy that are placed in seven different points on the spinal column, and all the seven chakras are connected to the various organs and glands within the body.

In this energy activation process, total universe has a pattern for the flow of energy, which is designed as Sri Chakra. Ancient sages with their visualization of the universe revealed after years of penance in this pattern. Interestingly the Sri chakra can also be located in the human body and the soul residing in the body can be guided in the process of evolution. 

In Bharat (India ), there are 51 spots across the country, which are considered as the spots of Sakthi Peetam, are the places where high energy flow is observed. Similarly, 51 spots in the body are identified to track the energy flow in the body and any effect on the energy flow in the body results in disease. So, the experts of Sri Vidya can heal the spots which have deficiency and streamline the flow for the pink of health and also elevate the souls to higher levels of self-realization.

In a day-to-day reference, we can relate to the Water stored in a dam as a stored energy or potential energy as Vishnu, then the velocity at which the water gushes out of the dam is the Kinetic Energy or the Sakti. So more the potential energy, then kinetic energy is also more as a reflection. So, the Vishnu state and the Sakthi state are inseparable and are reflections of each other. So, for the people, who understand with better correlation with the human relations, Vishnu & Sakti are Siblings.

What is Siva?

Like Vishnu and Sakthi, the 3rd most important energy state or from is SIVA. This doesnt mean the Siva is state is lesser than the other two. Since the three distinct practitioners of the three states are sometimes so rigid to dismiss the other two states are lower than one state. It will be pure ignorance, to separate the three energy states. It is one and only one but identified based on the function. Every life form is a testimony to that.

So, when the dormant serpent Kundalini, is activated and moves its hood, it attains the blissful state in the 7th Chakra, Sahasrara, with the opening of 1000 pettalled Lotus.

Since every soul born in this universe are in different stages of evolution, both form full and formless worship and then realizing self, are actually the steps of evolution.

Every ready to come to life is that energy, which gets activated by that energy and which becomes that energy. We, human beings, have also multiple roles in our lives to perform, which are quite distinct, yet it is that one.

Kalakkattu Kavirayar

Krishnakumar Sathiyawageeswaran