An exploration into the individual seed letter
Obeisance to the Loveable Guru, the light of our lives
The Khecarī Bīja has an important place in the Śrī Vidyā mantra sastra. This bīja is found in the most important mantra–The Guru Padukā, along with the Ānanda bhairava–Ānandabhairavi and Parāprāsāda-Prāsadaparā mantras.
Khecarī can be split as ‘khe’ and ‘carī’. ‘khe’ means in the space or sky and ‘carī’ means travelling. Combining these, the meaning is travelling in the sky or space i.e., exploration into the highest realms of spirituality. ‘Kh’ also refers to Sadāshiva tatva, which is the identity of the universe and the creator and ‘carī’ is residing or firmly fixed on this idea. Another meaning of ‘kh’ is Brahman, the highest principle and residing in this state is also referred by this bīja.
In the Navāvaraṇa Pooja this bīja is recited while showing the Khecarī mudra in the seventh enclosure Pooja- the Sarvarogahara cakra (remover of all diseases). The mantra to be recited while showing this mudra is is HSKhPhrEm. There is only a vowel at the end the consonants are without any vowel, but in practice, it is difficult to pronounce this, hence the mantra sastra offers to place the first vowel ’a’ with the rest of the consonants. It may be pronounced as HaSaKhaPhrEm.
If we separate the bījākṣaras, we find six bījas – ha, sa, kha, ph, ra, em. Let us now try to identify these bījas with the internal Mātṛkā cakra nyāsas of the six ādhāra cakras. We find that each cakra has a representative akṣara in this bīja. Ha is one of the bījas of ājñā cakra placed in the right side. Sa is in the mūlādhāra placed in the left side.
kha is in the heart cakra (Anāhata) placed in the right side. pha is in Maṇipūraka (the navel cakra) placed in the left side. ra is in the Svādhiṣṭāna cakra (root of the genitals) placed in the left side. Finally, ‘e’ the eleventh vowel in Sanskrit alphabet is placed in Viśuddhi (the throat cakra) also on the left side. Tracing the path taken by these letters, we see this awareness starts between the eyebrows goes bottom to root (Mūlādhāra), then to heart, navel, genital and then to throat. This is the path taken for the production of the sound. Initially the sound resides as an idea in the mind represented by the ājñā cakra, this stimulates the production of the most subtle sound in the mūlādhāra called as Parā Vāk, this further moves up to form the combination of consonants and vowels which is called Paśyanti Vāk- the seen or mental form of the idea as words, which is at the heart. Then the stomach and pelvic muscles formulate this form into physical sound-the Madhyamā Vāk, and then this finally comes out through the throat as the physical sound which is heard called the Vaikharī Vāk. Hence by remembering this path, we can go back and still our thoughts and concentrate on the unique tatva Brahman.
On identifying these bījākṣaras with the external Mātṛkā nyāsa we find first two are placed as starting from the heart to the tip of the left and right hands, the third on the right elbow, fourth on the left side of the body, fifth on the right arm-pit and the final on the upper lip. The first two indicate that we have to do all actions with full heart, the right elbow indicates doing the actions with whatever is in our means, the left side is the praise of śakti tatva, the right arm pit also indicates the path taken has to be flexible without any apology to move away from this path, the upper lip is the sound as represented by the Vedic ideas.
Now let us look into another meaning of these bījas using the tantric dictionaries. The ‘Ha’ and ‘Sa’ are representing the Śiva and śakti tatvas. ‘kha’ is their expansion as the Sadāśiva tatva finally resulting in the space and the other four elements, which when mixed (Pañcīkaraṇa) make up the gross earth. ‘pha’ is the Pāni-hand tatva which is indicating our actions, ‘ra’ is the agni tatva which is the first ‘M’akāra –the Madhu and by representative logic the rest of the five ‘M’akāra-together these represent the Pooja ritual done by the sādhaka. ’E’ is the eleventh of the vowel and is taken to indicate the tatvātīta Paraśiva state. Hence the import of this mantra is attaining the Paraśiva state in the sādhaka by this Śrī Vidyā saparyā which is the constant awareness of the universal Śiva śakti oneness.
The gesture (mudra) is shown by intertwining the hands and showing the yoni mudra. Intertwining the hands is the śivaśakti mithuna tatva and yoni mudra is the realisation of the Paraśiva state. Interestingly we find the avarana (enclosure) that is removed by showing this gesture is sarvarogahara cakra – the removal of all diseases – sense of duality, is that disease.
This is offered to the lotus feet of the Guru with all LOVE
