PanchaJanya Shankha, JyothirLinga, Hanuman (SethuBandha) etc.

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Panchajanya Shankha, JyothirLinga, Hanuman (SethuBandha), and their significance

to Nada Yoga

 

Sri Maha Ganapataye Namaha!

Sri Saraswathaye Namaha!

Sri Padavallabha, Narasimha Saraswathi,

Sri Guru Dattatreyaya Namaha!

 

Happy Devi Navarathri! to you all...

 

There are many hidden symbolisms in the imagery/rituals of Hinduism. Notable

symbols include the Lingam of Shiva and the Shankham (Conch Shell) of Vishnu, as

well as the relationship of Hanuman and Rama. These have a deep spiritual

significance beyond the mundane representation of the deities they represent.

The inner meaning of these symbols can be understood when one considers their

mathematical properties in detail, and relates them to the process of yoga.

But, first, it is useful to revisit the stories connected with these symbols, to

provide some context for the rest of this email. I apologize in advance as my

story-telling will be somewhat more erratic than what you may find elsewhere,

but at some point, your fingers just give out from typing ridiculously long

emails. Hopefully, you get " the gist " of them. Jai Sri Swamiji!

 

The story of the JyothirLingam (Shiva in the form of a fiery Column of Light)

 

Brahma once became filled with ego, claiming himself to be the greatest among

the three (Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara). Narayana (Vishnu) knowing Brahma's

mind, decided to teach Brahma a lesson. They both went to Lord Shiva's abode,

where Vishnu proceeded to explain to Shiva the situation. Shiva then issued a

challenge, that no one has yet been able to see the TOP of Lord Shiva's head

(the infinite column of light) and so the greatest of the three would be the one

who could see the top first. Shiva resumed his true form as the JyothirLinga,

an infinite fiery column of light that had neither a beginning nor end (in

time), and Vishnu warned Brahma that it was impossible to see Shiva's head.

Brahma laughed it off and said that He would find it and return. Meanwhile,

Vishnu, being the Lord of the Intellect, chose to take a different path.

Instead of seeking the TOP of the head of Shiva, he turned himself into a Boar

(Varaha Avathara) and sought the FEET

of Shiva (The SUPPORT, or CAUSE). When he touched Shiva's feet, Shiva himself

bent down and Vishnu looked up and saw the TOP of Shiva's head, emerging as the

victor in the Challenge. Shiva was amazed by Vishnu's brilliance. Meanwhile,

Brahma as he was going on and on, met with a certain kind of flower that had

fallend from the top of Shiva's head. He convinced this flower to bear false

witness, and to claim that Brahma indeed had seen the top of Shiva's head. Upon

his return, he told Vishnu that " See, I have seen the top of Shiva's head, and I

have brought back this flower as proof. " Shiva became filled with RAGE at the

lie that Brahma uttered, and chopped off one of his heads, leaving Brahma with

only 4 heads.

 

The story of the PanchaJanya (Vishnu's Conch)

 

Once when there were great festivities going on in deva loka (Indra Loka),

Durvasa muni (Indra's Guru / Preceptor) came to him with a gift, a flower

garland, that formerly resided on Adi Parasakthi herself. Indra was in a

festive mood and drunk with power and arrogance to the point where he ignored

and humiliated Durvasa when he visited his abode. In anger, Durvasa cursed

Indra that he and the rest of his devas would become rakshasas (demons).

Realizing his great mistake, Indra begs Durvasa for forgiveness. Durvasa told

Indra that the curse would be lifted when he churns the ocean of milk and drinks

the amrutha (ambrosia) that results. Not knowing what to do Indra panics.

Narada comes along and gives Indra a suggestion: Go seek the help of Narayana,

who can solve any problem. Indra goes to Lord Narayana with his problem, and

Vishnu tells him " Go churn the ocean of milk (consciousness) with Mount

Mandaranchal (as the appropriate churning tool)

with the help of Vasuki (the king of serpents) as the churning rope. So, Indra

and the devas enlisted the help of the demons (who were not happy to have the

devas amongst their midst, so were willing to do anything to get rid of them, as

well as to steal the ambrosia of immortality for themselves!) to churn the

ocean. The Gods pulled from the head of Vasuki, while the demons pulled from

the tail of Vasuki. As Vasuki was wrapped around Mt. Mandachal, the pulling

action caused the mountain to begin to spin, causing it to churn the ocean of

milk in the process. In the middle, the Mountain unable to bear the forces on

either side, began to sink into the Ocean. The Gods prayed to Lord Narayana who

took the form of a tortoise (Kurma-avatara) and rescued the sinking mountain.

Using the BACK of Narayana (as a turtle) as a fulcrum, the Gods and Demons

resumed the churning process. In this process, initially some poison was

produced, which Lord Shiva, in

his infinite compassion, drank up. Parvathi caught hold of his neck to keep

the poison from going any further, causing Shiva's neck to turn blue

( " NeelaKanta " ). As they continued to churn the ocean, the PanchaJanya was

produced, and Lord Narayana took it as his instrument. Finally, after much

churning, the ocean of milk began to yield the amrutha (heavenly ambrosia of

immortality) that allowed the Gods to resume their original status as Gods. It

was in this process that PanchaJanya was born. The churning of the Ocean

represents Vichara. The poison represents the vagrant thoughts of the Mind.

The resulting ambrosia is the nectar of Sat-Chit-Ananda. The PanchaJanya is

Hanuman. The Snake, Vasuki, is Kundalini. Mount Mandachal is the Sushumna,

whose rotating action represents the back-and-forth motion of prana as it jumps

from Ida to Pingala, and Pingala to Ida (in the process of Pranayama).

The name Panchajanya is comprised of two parts: Pancha (representing 5) and

Janya (in reference to the Janya raagas, or musical modes in the carnatic music

system in which certain elements are " left out " ). The PanchaJanya is used in

Hindu rituals for its " purifying " effect on the atmosphere. The sound generated

by the Conch Shell during constant blowing is of a very unique kind.

 

From the physical level, the harmonics of the Conch Shell generate highly

specific bursts of pure tonal frequencies, with very well-defined bandwidths

(often within 1-2 Hz) that repeat along harmonics that extend across the

frequency spectrum. The spectral peaks of the Conch Sound show a highly

specific exponentially decaying envelope, following a 1/f^n fractal structure.

In addition, due to their unique geometry and the way in which the human lips

interact with the shell during the process of blowing, the shell's acoustics

exhibits a unique wave phenomenon known as 'mode-locking' in which certain

harmonic frequencies are phase-locked with higher harmonics, out towards

infinity (along the frequency spectrum); in the process of phase-locking, some

waves experience interference with other waves of higher harmonics, and a

subsequent burst of high energy pulsed acoustic energy is produced that contains

numerous harmonics. Essentially, a low frequency

power source fuels the production of standing waves which are concentrated to

generate a higher frequency power burst of extremely short duration. The Conch

essentially acts as a sort of acoustic laser that generates highly coherent,

amplified sound. Mode-locking effects are used in modern advanced laser systems

that are used to generate powerful femtosecond bursts of coherent light.

 

From a spiritual level, the sound of the PanchaJanya causes the 5 pranas (Prana,

Apana, Vyana, Udana, Samana) to stand " at attention " and directs the

consciousness inwards (representing symbollically the spiritual movement of the

jeevatma towards the paramatma) but also forcing the prana to move along the

sushumna (and upwards to the sahasrara), causing the awareness to be directed

intensely inwards, while shutting out the externalities of the 5 senses (touch,

taste, smell, sight, sound) and directing the awareness to its source ( " Janya " ).

 

An extraordinary property of the sounds generated by the Conch Shell gives a

clue as to its relationship to Vishnu. If one records the sound of the Conch

being blown during any religious ceremony, and plays it back at faster or slower

speeds, one will notice a very curious phenomenon: the sound duration changes

accordingly, but the actual sound itself WILL NOT CHANGE. In other words, the

sound of the Conch is TEMPORALLY INVARIANT. How does this happen? Going back to

my earlier statement regarding the spectral characteristics of the Conch Sound

provides a clue: The Conch sound produces a perfect 1/f^n fractal spectral

structure; in simple terms, a fractal is the mathematical property of objects

being self-similar (repeated) at multiple scales. This special and unique

property of it's acoustics is due entirely to its geometry, which is represented

perfectly by the so-called Archmedes Spiral. If you look at the spectral

content (acoustic content) of

the Conch Shell, you will notice that no matter what frequency range you look

at (zooming in or out), you will observe a perfect mathematical relationship

between the peaks of the spectrum, at all ranges of the spectrum, so that the

spectrum as a whole looks the same always. Essentially this means that as you

STRETCH or SQUISH the Conch Sound, it will look EXACTLY THE SAME. Hence, the

acoustics of a Conch Shell are TEMPORALLY INVARIANT with respect to

transformations along that dimension. " So what? " you may ask. Recall that the

very name 'Vishnu' means 'all pervading'. This is physically represented in the

self-similar scaling of the spectrum of Conch Shells, in other words, Conch

Shell sounds are " all pervading " across the frequency spectrum due to their

fractal behavior. They exist in the tiniest intervals, as well as the largest

intervals. They pervade " all spatio-temporal scales " .

 

Stepping back, we now analyze the JyothirLingam of Shiva. The Lingam represents

an " infinite pillar of light " - having the form of a column of light that has no

spatial definition (width) but has an infinite length (height). In other words,

the JyothirLingam is a perfect mathematical IMPULSE function. What are the

properties of the impulse function? Applying spectral analysis, if one were to

examine a true impulse function, it would reveal that it contained ALL

FREQUENCIES or MODES within it. In other words, it is an extremely short

duration (infinitely short duration) pulse (of LIGHT ENERGY) that contained ALL

FREQUENCIES OF LIGHT within it, from the very low frequencies of visible light,

to the extremely high frequencies of gamma radiation, to the infinite frequency

spectra beyond. In other words, the Shiva Linga represents the principle of

CONTAINMENT: It CONTAINS the entire universe WITHIN it, and yet remains aloof

of it, untouched by it. So,

unlike the sound of the conch which is temporally invariant, we now are talking

about an object that is SPATIALLY INVARIANT, but temporally finite (infinitely

small duration).

" All this world is pervaded by Me in My Unmanifest form (aspect); all beings

exist in Me, but I do not dwell in them. " ~ Krishna

 

Between the two of the them, Vishnu and Shiva, the entire phenomenon of Space

and Time are contained as One undifferentiated mass of Intelligence having both

a manifest (apparent) and unmanifest (real) natures. The manifest portion is

the Space-Time Continuum ( " JAGATH " ) within which the various creations of Maya

engage in constant inter-play. The selective appearance of changing and

apparently " real " phenomenon is due to the creative principle (Brahma), fueled

by three principle modes of ignorance (Satva, Tamas, Rajas). The various states

of consciousness are denoted by the relative preponderance of certain modes

(Jagrath, Swapna, Sushupthi) which contain varying degrees of Satva, Rajas, and

Tamas repsectively.

 

" Though I am unborn, of imperishable nature, and though I am the Lord of all

beings, yet ruling over My own nature, I am born by My own Maya. " ~ Krishna

 

This combination of Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara is the Guru Tattva principle, known

as Dattatreya. Maya, which is accurately translated as 'covering' or

'limitation' (i.e., because it can be 'measured'), is nothing more than a kind

of false interference between different harmonics of the undisturbed whole (The

ALL), in which some of the modes of vibration are 'apparently' hidden (by

cancellation), while others are apparent (by amplification), resulting in an

APPARENTLY dynamic and changing universe.

 

Quantum physics suggests an infinite " Quantum Foam " in which ultra high energy

virtual particles randomly appear and disappear continually (Vacuum

Fluctuations). The existence of a manifest universe is entirely due to the

predominance of particles that are not re-absorbed into the foam, but exist as

actual particles. This virtual sea of particles is thought to be responsible

for the cosmological constant, which is why the Universe undergoes expansion and

contraction.

 

" At the end of a Kalpa, all beings merge into my nature, then, at the beginning

of the next kalpa, I emit them again. " ~ Krishna

 

Yet, Shiva being the ALL ENCOMPASSING PRINCIPLE, contains ALL within himself,

and remains eternally STATIC. Maya (as Parvathi) playfully covers portions of

Shiva, creating the ILLUSION of CHANGE within the inherently UNCHANGEABLE,

IMMOVABLE, and CONSTANT.

 

The PanchaJanya also has another important connection - to Hanuman. Hanuman is

responsible for being the gateway to " RaMa " . What do I mean? Let me explain.

The sound of the Conch Shell, as mentioned earlier, causes the prana(s) [5] to

stand at attention, directing them inwards and introverting the consciousness,

the introverted prana now flows along the proper channels (sushumna), and is

directed upward into the region of the agna chakra. The Agna Chakra is

comprised of TWO PETALS, and these petals receive their energy from the Ida and

Pingala Nadis located on either side of the nostril in the human face. These

TWO PETALS vibrate to the Ra and Ma shabda (Ra-Ma). At the end of any puja or

shloka to Lord Narayana, you notice that the sound of the BELL is heard. What

is its significance? The bell has a distinct spectral envelope corresponding to

the sound of the Omkara nada. When the Ghanta (Bell) is sounded, the dangling

part ( " the clapper " )

bangs against two sides of the " waist " of the bell, producing an alternating

pattern of sound, which, due to the difference in frequencies , appears to ring

alternately on the left and right hand sides of your inner acoustic space (i.e.,

the sound is heard 'binaurally'). These left and right hand sides correspond to

Ida and Pingala naadis. When the Prana is focused in the Ida or Pingala

respectively, the consciousness shifts attention from one side to the other. By

alternately hearing the bell on the right and left sides, it forces a shift in

consciousness, wherein the attention 'jumps' from left to right, and right to

left, accordingly. This jump in the attention corresponds with the movement of

prana from Ida to Pingala and Pingala to Ida, in succession, causing the Agna

Chakra to activate and open more fully. The Ra shabda is heard on one side,

while the Ma shabda is heard on the other (binaurally) due to the difference in

frequency (vibration)

from the two sounds (Ra shabda, 'sound', is one frequency, Ma shabda is another

- corresponding to naRAyana and MAheshwara respectively). The spectral

properties of a bell are extremely important in understanding its significance,

as I mentioned in a previous email some time ago, because the acoustics of the

bell correspond exactly with the infinitely trailing sound of the Omkara Naada.

Indeed, the first Naada was the Omkara (in which ALL OTHER NADAS exist

simultaneously), and after the 'devas' churned the Ocean of Consciouness (the

Omkara) the so-called 'Janya' raagas were produced, of which the 5 principle

Janya raagas combined, produced the Panchajanya Shankham (Conch Shell) that is

held by Lord Vishnu, in his left hand. Indeed, Hanuman, when asked about the

the results of reciting Rama mantra versus the Omkara mantra, matter-of-factly

states that the RaMa Mantra (dvi akshara mantra) is none other than the Omkara

manthra (Eka Akshara mantra) and

yields the same fruit. Here, we see that this is indeed the case, as the

awareness, unified by Yoga (PanchaJanya sound causes a unification of the 5

pranas) and shot upwards through the sushumna, merges into the sound of the Rama

Mantra, corresponding to the vibration of the Agna chakra, and merges into the

Omkara nada which has higher harmonics that createa a gateway for prana to move

through the Sahasrara. This is why RAMA is known as the PERFECTED MAN, because

the Agna Chakra is fully awakened, and a small pinhole like channel is created

allowing the individualized JeevaAtma to merge into the ParamAtma as One.

So, the PanchaJanya is none other than Hanuman himself (Pancha-Mukhi, or 5

faced, Anjaneya). Each of the 5 Janya Raagas, represents the elements (various

tattvas or sensoral elements of which the universe is CAUSED, or from which the

universe is BORN). The sound (Nada Brahma) itself is none other than ANJANEYA.

As you will recall, Hanuman was born of Vayu (WIND) and Anjani Devi: The sound

of the wind, as it travels through the uniquely designed spiraling cavity spaces

of the Conch Shell (shaped as the entrance to the womb, or in the shape of the

petals of a flower which leads into the Ovule), gives BIRTH (JANANAM " BIRTH " ->

i.e., " Janya " means BORN) to the PanchaJanya Naada, or the SOUND WHICH CARRIES

THE PRANA BACK TO THE OMKARA. THAT OMKARA IS NONE OTHER THAN THE HOLY FEET OF

THE ALL PERVADING LORD NARAYANA. This process of YOGIC involution from the

GROSS to the SUBTLE to the EXTREMELY SUBTLE (SUKSHMA) is known as NADA YOGA, and

is intuited by

Yogis in deep meditation (Savikalpa Samadhi) wherein they are slowly merged

(Nirvikalpa) into the Source of All (The Self, Atman, Parabrahman, Narayana,

Ishwara, Kaivalyam). Thus, the sound of the Shankham is most auspicious,

because it signifies the " bowing " of the 5 pranas before the HOLY FEET of Lord

Narayana, and is thus an auspicious beginning to any ritual. In turn, by

forcing the pranas to come to attention, it removes negative vibrations

(fluctuating tendencies of prana, or " vikalpas " " thought forms " ) and causes them

to move inwards/upwards to the Sahasrara, through the gateway of the Agna

Chakra, or the SethuBandha bridge made by the inscribing the letters 'Ra' and

'Ma' onto rocks (mantra) which unites Rama (Atma) with Sita (Buddhi), yielding

Sat-Chit-Ananda (Rama-Rajya or " Kingdom of Rama " ).

 

" Jaya Guru Datta! Sri Guru Datta! Om Namo Narayana! ParamamaYna GathiyE

Narayanudu. Vishvam antha vyaapinchukunaa tatvam-E VISHNU " ~ Sri Swamiji :)

 

{*Translation: " Jaya Guru Datta! Sri Guru Datta! Om Namo Narayana! The Eternal

Destination of ALL is only Narayana. That which envelopes and pervades this

Universe is called as Vishnu. " ...Swamiji's intro to the Vishnu Sahasranama

Stothram}

 

" I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS " ~ SRI SWAMIJI

 

---

Gurorangripadme ManaScenna Lagnam tata: kim! tata: kim! tata: kim! tata: kim!?

Sarva Kartha, Sarva Dhartha, Sarva Hartha, Mangalam!

Satchidananda, Satchidananda, Satchidananda Mangalam!

Tasmai Sri Guru-murthaye Nama Idam Sri Dakshinamurtaye!

 

Ata Nityo Narayanaha, Brahma Narayanaha, Sivascha Narayanaha, Kalascha

Narayanaha. Disascha Narayanaha, Vidisascha Narayanaha, Urdwamscha Narayanaha,

Adhascha Narayanaha, Antar-bahischa-Narayana.Narayana Eh Vedam Sarvam, Yat

BhootamYacchha Bhavyam.Nish-kalango Niranjano Nirvikalpo Nirakyadhas,suddhho

Deva Eko Narayanaha, Na dwiteeyosthi kaschit,ya evam Vedas Vishnu reva Bhavati,

Sa Vishnureva Bhavathi, Etat yajur veda sirodeeyathe.

 

Sundara Sundara Siva Siva! Karuna Bandhura Siva Siva! Karuna Rupa Spanda Siva!

Girisha Sat-Chit-Ananda Siva!

 

Jaya Jaya Jnana Bodha Sabha, ...Atma Tattva Bodha Sabha, ...Bhakthi Jnana

Vairagya Sabha, ...Namasankeerthana Dhama Sabha

 

Satchitananda Rupaya, Krishnayaa Aklishtakarine, Namo Vedanta Vedyaya, Gurave

Buddhi Saakshine

 

" Rama nama ki madhura milaye, janma janma dukha doora bagaye ...Satchidananda

Guru vachana mithaye "

 

~*Om * Ayim * Hreem * Sreem * Siva * Rama * Anagha * Dattaya * Namaha*~