Sṛṣṭi Kālī: The Mystic Journey Begins with the First Impulse of Perception

When I left society 20 years ago to follow the path of Classical Yoga, I swore to myself and to god that I would my best example of Sanyasi Yogi life that I could, or die trying. Going back to society, to the typical career and relationships, the whole political divide, to all the noise was just not an option. I wanted freedom and I wanted peace. I’ve done alright, it’s never been easy, the struggles with all this material stuff never went away, but somehow Kali was always guiding me, breaking everything, humbling and humiliating me in a million ways; keeping me humble and on my path. The dance on cremation ground where the fire separates body and spirit; Purusha and Prakriti; nature and nurture. Kali Maa is somehow there every step of the way: When shiva conceals himself: there stands Kali. When Shiva reveals himself, there stands Kali; the forgotten one, the overlooked, the gaps in attention, awareness & perception. The Saivite is one who is constantly aware of perception, awake to each movement of and act of perception: 1 – 5. The movements of the senses to reach out and gather fruits, the Jnana indriya; 6 – 10. The movement of the senses to leave some fruit, the karma indriyas; 11. the mind which both directs the ten senses with longing and tastes the flavours provided by the senses with relish. All of this is to satisfy 12. the sense of personal identity. All of it expanding and contracting like a heart beat, the movement of energy, Spanda, Sapndita.

Dedicated to Mark Ji!
Har Har Mahadev

Om Shree Ganesha Namah

Oṃ Hrīṃ Sṛṣṭi Kālyai Namaḥ

I forever salute that Sṛṣṭikālī, the Sṛṣṭi of the Subject, the Kālī of Emission who moves our attention outwards toward the objective world. This is the moment consciousness stirs and the perceiver awakens; the first impulse of self-awareness comes as the senses reach out towards the ‘other.” This is the first movement or quiver of existence; of spanda. One cannot even yet say: “I am”, the sound and energy has begun to flow; like a light switch when everything is hooked up correctly, the path of energy is clear. Like of horse race in the moment when the gates are opened, aaand their off…. (Sṛṣṭikālī Kali is the 3 ‘a’s and the ’n.’)

The initial split that gives rise duality, to existence. When we talk of objects and objective reality. And there cannot be an object without a subject. The light, the energy, the awareness, the act of perception all comes from the subject. The more you look at something, really focus on it with all your sense, mind, intellect, or connect it with your personal identity, the more power you give it. If you give away enough power to the objective world it will surely come to have power over you.

We are getting ahead of ourselves here because the passionate attachment and connection to things doesn’t come until we reach Rakta Kali when the object becomes our only focus and our whole world. Sṛṣṭikālī Kali comes before form, before name, before thought. “You are not the mind. You are the light that moves the mind.”

We must also keep in mind that this object, this Sṛṣṭikālī Kali didn’t come form nothing. She marks the transition from Para to Apara, from non-dual stillness to manifested multiplicity. Astrologically, we could connect this strange duality to Ashwini, the false of awareness that brings something from nothing. Just enough to stir the curiosity, the sense of play; she draws au is and takes us further from Our true selves which, at this moment, has been totally forgotten. I can’t say that the smallest trace of divinity, spirit, subject is still there, but the perceiver is now caught in the net of objectivity. The knower arises, but he is almost blind to himself.

Sṛṣṭikālī Kali is the ignition point, the first spark when we start to make something else out. What’s that? Raktakālī draws us more deeply into the object and even more fully away from Shiva.

It’s said that “She appears as the Waves made of the Mass of the Bliss of the Ocean of Kaula, and disappears into the Darkness of Kula or in the Totality of objects.” “Mass of the Bliss of the Ocean of Kaula” is Pisces, very Revati. From Revati comes Ashwini, the waves, the initial pulsation of energy: the joyful, the forever young, the seeker.

She is said to be, “the one who within her self-form ingests (devours) both unmeṣa (unfolding) and nimeṣa (disappearance).” Sṛṣṭikālī Kali sits at the juncture of nothing and something, she lives in this space. She commands the whole wheel of energy, the first witness of the ceremony where pure consciousness in cloaked in Maya.

One might say that stored potential energy is just being released at this stage. The Subjects potential reaching out to satisfy that subtle essential longing connected to lunar energy. All at once the Sun, the Moon and the shadows energy emerges like play a play the mind. We suspend our sense of disbelief. And we are drawn in by Rakta Kali.

This is the initial movement of energy which we call Spanda. This is a very important concept in Trika-Kaula lineages. So what is Spanda?

Spanda is the dynamic nature of creation and dissolution. Described as a pulsation, vibration, or the throb of consciousness. There are many synonyms for Spanda:

• Ucchalana: Surge, uprising, spontaneous movement of energy.
• Kampana: Tremor, quiver, vibration of consciousness.
• Chalana: Motion, movement, flow of Prana.
• Spṛha: Thirst, longing, a subtle urge that propels existence.
• Nāda: Primordial sound vibration, especially the unstruck sound (Anahata Nada).
• Prakāśa-vimarśa: The oscillation between illumination (Prakāśa, the light of Shiva) and reflection (Vimarśa, the self-awareness of Shakti). Unmesha: Opening, expansion, the first flicker of awareness.
• Nimesha: Contraction, withdrawal, the pause before creation.
• Kṣobha: Stirring, agitation, the primal urge for manifestation.
• Spandita: That which vibrates, a state of subtle movement.
• Śakti-cālana: The stirring or movement of Shakti, the initial impulse of universal energy.
• Hṛdaya-spanda: The throb of the heart, both physically and metaphorically, as the seat of Shiva’s dynamic awareness.. Sphurattā: The living, quivering radiance of consciousness, the ceaseless shimmering of awareness.
• Śānta-udaya: The paradox of Spanda as both stillness and arising at once.

Spanda is the whole movement of arising and falling away or the wave, both the sound and the silence of pulsation and it expresses itself both ways for those with expanded perception. It like me looking at you and judging you, and thinking that is the whole truth. But there is also your side of the story. Somewhere in the murky middle ground lies the actual truth. In the greatest of arguments, both sides are on their respective extremes shouting out the truth as they see it. And if you really good heartedly looked at things from their perspective you would probably agree with them.

Most Tantra is focused on this, seeing from the others perspective (if it manages to claw its way out off Rakta Kali’s indulgence in all the objects conjured up by Sṛṣṭi Kālī). We cannot see anything as long as we are caught up with the surface stuff; and you can only see as deeply into anyone else as you can see into yourself. The more spiritual practices helps us find the gaps and spaces between things to sit and just watch it all go by. This is the vaigra of detachment; an understanding that it’s not about your truth or my truth; there is a much higher truth than this; we won’t be able to share that truth so, it’s expressed through the same silence in which we fist go seeking it. Sat-chit-anada: spanda expressed on three levels, without hierarchy.

Sṛṣṭi Kālī is like the seed that contains the whole tree and the seeds; it carries with it a whole lineage forged through the dance between spirit and matter, the past and the future.

We get so focused on this life, we think this is everything. But just think, we started to emerge from the seed at the very beginning of time. We are still carrying with us that primordial energy. It didn’t die, it lives on through us and it’s kinda up to us add power to that flow of energy as we send it back out from ourselves though children or through teaching; dedication and attention to each step of the cycles of life, of time, of energy. We cannot control what this life (this universe) will give us, but we can control what we leave behind us. At this stage, even the purity of our waste is important because we know we will grow agin from that.

Spanda comes and goes; rises and falls, it moves in all directions to fill space like the waves caused by a pebble in the water, but 3 dimensional. It’s the energy, the vibration of the heart-beat of consciousness, the tandava, Hṛdaya, the heart as the centre of being, the core of reality where Shiva is realized. It’s also called:

• Mahā-hṛdaya: The Great Heart, the infinite cosmic heart that beats as the universe itself.
• Cid-hṛdaya: The Heart of Consciousness, where Śiva’s awareness eternally vibrates. 
• Śiva-hṛdaya: The Heart of Shiva, the source of all manifestation. 
• Hṛdaya-vimarśa: The Self-reflective heart, where the power of Vimarśa (self-awareness) emerges. 
• Cidānanda-hṛdaya: The Heart of Blissful Consciousness, where realization dissolves all distinctions.
• Spanda-hṛdaya: The Heart as pulsation, the sacred tremor of awareness. 
• Anāhata: The Unstruck Sound, referring both to the Heart Chakra and the unmanifest, eternal vibration.

I really love the way these words sounds in Sanskrit and all the meaning discovered through the same-same-but-differnt model.

Two concepts have already come up a couple of times, these are key to Spanda:

• Nimeṣa: The closing or contraction of consciousness, where the infinite appears as the finite, as in when the world manifests and we can’t see consciousness anymore. 
• Unmeṣa: The opening or expansion of consciousness, where the finite dissolves back into the infinite and liberation dawns; we make contact with pure consciousness.

Sṛṣṭi Kālī might be seen as the that moment of chaos like childbirth when consciousness contracts and a limited individual world expands. Part of the theory here is the mirrored vision of the tree of life and the sign post to tell us where to seek liberation. Something comes from nothing all at once, but for something to become nothing, it must follow the steps, the Krama sequence backwards; back to pure consciousness.

What’s the sequence? It’s so simple that you already know: earth, water, fire, air, space, om namah shivaya.

Sṛṣṭi Kālī is the Kali we fist meet when we want to find ourself. She is the will which provides us with everything we will need to carry out our mission. She initiates the hero at the centre of the wheel and put the nameplates in place for all the yogi’s gathered around; she sets the stage. She initiates the whole play (Lila) between Shiva and Shakti, subject & object, making them appear distinct. This is the contact he yogi makes with a will that is greater than the individual. When the perceiving individual (the experiencer) submits to divine will they enter onto the path to the non-dual state.

Like a burning wick in ghee, she is fuelled by the past just a as a tree fuelled by the Sun is set to release that energy again when we put in in the fire. Sṛṣṭi Kālī initiates us by our own desire to know, to see, to experience the cycle of infinite energy. True initiation happens internally, spontaneously, during moments of alignment, or crisis, or grace. Sṛṣṭi Kālī is not just any initiation, it’s the power of initiation with intent to complete the self-realization mission.

Besides the five common elements, there is another sequence of 36 elements that energy passes through in each direction of manifestation. When all the elements come together it’s like plugging in the lamp, spanda, which was always there in latent form (potential), makes itself known the moment it starts to move. Your goal might be seen as trying to experience Spanda, the flow of energy, in all of the 36 stages. The objective world gives us about 25 elements and the subtle realm has another 11. As the energy flows through the Tattvas (principles of reality), the energy of each tattoo is projected into the world. The sequence can also be experienced through Matrika Shakti, the power of sound/letters, which structures the subject’s perception through language and thought.

Sṛṣṭikālī, the Kālī of Creation; nascent, the primal spark, the radiant force birthing the universe from pure consciousness. She is the womb of the universe from which time emerges like the cracking of a seed ready to sprout. Her Yantra is a simple upward triangle, symbolizing Śakti’s the creative ascent of her fiery nature with a central bindu (dot) in red or gold, enclosed in a black circle—representing the void of potential.

Visualize her as a glowing ember against a dark cosmic background, symbolizing the first light of creation; as a spark of creativity, inspiration, initiation devouring the dark void where all possibility rests. Where there was nothing, there is now everything the whole range of diversity. Lies in the universals.

This is the first shift in the way we perceive things, we don’t just see them in their mundane physical form, but as something sacred, and as part of the cosmic process of consciousness & energy that is unfolding in both the yogi’s inner world and the external world. Sṛṣṭikālī is an awakening to the spiritual reality; the first movement towards non-dual perception (it’s also the first movement away from it); the first stir of Shakti’s Will like a divine command. The subtle vibration of intent. The arising of a thought or sensation from stillness.

This is the birth of the Self through sensory discrimination or perception event. It’s the first mirror; we exist because other things exist. There is not just an ‘I’ anymore, the ‘I’ is moving and becoming in relation this an external world. we become rooted in sensation and time and change; unceasing movement has completely devoured the stillness that preceded it in a single gulp. The wheels turn and turn and turn. She does not come quietly either she comes with Rudra, a roar, a cacophony of sensual objects and pleasures that becomes the horror and the wonder of it all driving us forward, holdings us back; directing the whole show. How can we not praise that Kali of Creation.

But speaking of creation. We might note the Brahma only has one temple. Some say it’s because the creation is already here, we spend most of our lives dealing with Vishnu and fearing Shiva. On the other hand, they say, the Creator does not need a temple because everything that exists is the creators temple. But then we look at traditional family where mother is everything and papa often dismissed; or perhaps just doing his thing outside of the home.

Sṛṣṭikālī is where accumulated karmic residues initiates the projection of the universe from pure consciousness. The beginning of everything rests in the subject: the generator gets turned on, the kalachakra begins to turn. This awakens the throb of manifestation aligned with divine will.

The creative spark of Sṛṣṭikālī is not unlike the initiation of Aries; the pulsation of Ashwini, the sensual beauty of Bharani in the heart of the flame, the cutting edges krittika. There is a Ketu quality to the Kali, unbound, liberated, scattered in all directions, without centre; forcing us to declare a centre in order to measure and understand the formless, the nameless initiator of the wheel of consciousness.

Awareness:

Body awareness, breath awareness.

Be aware of the various limited identities we take on in the course of a day. Each of those identities is in relation to some external ‘other.’ I am a brother, a son, a father, a saint, a sinner, etc.” I am, I am, I am so many things as a reflection of what is in front of me: who are all these versions of the Self.

Those dealing with addictions strongly identify with being a gambler, a drunk, an addict, etc. Be aware of all you I am thoughts and try to be aware of the moment those different identities rise up.

Be aware of the inhalation which is the god given breath of life. The inhalation with comes from the heavens and goes down to the root, birthing the diversity of life here on earth and the multiplicity. This inhaled breath (apana), though creative in nature, is also what separates us from God and from everything else. We become something, someone, some, “I am.”

Contemplate the impulse of creation, the beginning of anything new. You might picture a spark or a seed opening to sprout, generative energy, felt as a subtle stirring or tingling. Be aware of a gentle expansion, warmth or vibration in the lower abdomen to the floor. Embodied existence!

Energy:

Sṛṣṭikālī represents the awakening spark of consciousness, like the ignition of a flame. It is the initial impulse of life force that drives the instinctual nature: spring energy, crazy, wild and unpredictable. This might be described as the first stirring of Kundalini.

Pilgrimage:

We start with our most primal instincts: hunger, fear, desire etc. This is as far from god and purity and the airy fairy flaky yoga stuff as you can get. We start on the cremations ground, and rise up from that ash with the power of Sṛṣṭikālī. We are just starting the spiritual journey with a powerful impulse that we usually don’t understand; the initial urge for liberation. Like the monk when he first leaves the comfort of home.

Direct Impulsive Perception: Reality is perceived in its raw, primal form emanating from the sheer will to perceive. Perception is moving outwards in all directions until it meets some object of perception that is flagged for extra attention. Sṛṣṭikālī is this flag; the initial contact with the world through the senses. The first step in self-recognition is simply to perceive what is around us without the distortion of ego or complex mental processes.

Moving from gross to subtle: We might experience this on a few different levels depending on where you are in life.

• Tamasic: Life is a struggle for survival and assertion. Awareness seeks tools for survival.   
• Rajasic: I am alive and aware awareness is seeking tools of self improvement. 
• Satvic: Joyful emergence of self as conscious force. They seek nothing, but find sat-chit-ananda everywhere.

Om namah shivaya

Ommmmmm