Soham Hamsa
Question Re: Hamsa and Soham mantras
Some of the material in this topic is based on interpretations by Sri. Kondamudi Hanumacchastri who authored a series of articles titled "Atharva Vedamlo Aksaya Nidhulu" in Andhra Prabha Weekly 1981-82.
Question from a Buddhist: Please tell me of the meaning and significance of this mantra and any scriptural references thereto.
Vaidix: The discussion started with Atharva veda (Prana Sukta). This is how it goes..
The cosmic energy which is in the Sun enters waters and heats them up.
Then it enters the clouds when water evaporates, then it enters rain (from the clouds), then it enters the herbs as they absorb that rain.
That energy enters the living organisms and becomes prana when they eat those herbs. This prana splits up into two parts: prana and apana.
This prana together with apana supports the seven chakras with only one half of itself, and scripture wonders who knows what the other half is for!
This implies that meditation on prana is more powerful than the meditation re: the chakras.
The scripture mentions that Nivara (the wild rice that grows in the forest) is the source of prana and yava (barley) is the source of apana. It is well known that rice is an important source of energy and barley has excellent medicinal properties that help in excretion.
Sri Hanumacchastri interprets that prana raises from the lower end of spine to top of the head during inhalation, and apana runs down from top of the head to lower end of the spine during exhalation.
This is the meditation regarding prana and apana according to prana sukta.
This meditation does not endorse a one way upward movement like that of the popular kundalini theory; but it is a two way movement: up and down.
Prana helps in igniting the fuels in the body and release energy to activate the living cells, and apAna helps in excreting the waste materials such as urine, stool, sweat, CO2 etc.
The meditation goes like this: During inhalation, imagine a point of concentration that starts at the lower end of spine, going up to the top of the head by the end of inhalation.
The point of concentration has to reach top of the head at the end of inhalation, never mind if you have to skip some portion of the spine in a hurry.
Likewise during exhalation, imagine a point of concentration that runs down the spine from top of head and reaches the lower end of spine by the end of exhalation.
The point of concentration has to reach the lower end of spine by the end of exhalation, never mind if you have to skip some portion of the spine. (Repeat this about five times, once a day).
The upward movement of the point of concentration during inhalation is called prana, and the downward movement of the point of concentration during exhalation is called apana.
According to physiological psychology, the spine has two nervous systems namely sympathetic nervous system and para-sympathetic nervous system.
The sympathetic nervous system helps in igniting the fuels in the body and activate the living cells so that he organism can cope with its needs.
The para-sympathetic nervous system has the effect of moderating the nervous activity to conserve energy, and it also helps in activities of excretion and removal of bodily wastes.
Therefore it must be understood that meditation regarding prana and apana tones up the sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous systems.
In my opinion any obstruction to this meditation (that causes us to skip a portion of the spine) represents a problem that a person faces at any point of time.
Conversely these (the obstructions to this meditation) are the only problems a person experiences at any point of time, whether one knows how to translate and explain those problems into a human language or not!
The meditation re: prana and apana is known to be a philosophical truth finder plus lie detector that is within the human (or any other living) body; because when a person meditates on any topic to know its truth, if one experiences an obstruction of prana or apana it must be known as untruth.
If there was no obstruction it is the truth.
The combination of prana and apana is the entire functionality of the spine and it is also called the Unknown in the Veda.
That is the connection.
This concludes the meditation regarding prana and apana.
(The following discussion may be skipped by first time readers.)
While the preceding is the factual position according to prana sukta and its interpretations, other portions of the scripture such as chandogya upanisat describe prana and apana in a different way saying prana is the cause of exhalation, and apana is the cause of inhalation.
This can be confusing, as it apparently contradicts what we said before, that prana raises from lower end of spine to the top of the head during inhalation and that meditation re: prana is best done during inhalation, and the other way for apana, that is apana runs down from top of the head to lower end of spine during exhalation, and meditation re: apana is best done during exhalation.
Now chandogya throws us into a conflict by associating prana with exhalation and apana with inhalation when it says prana is the cause of exhalation and apana is the cause of inhalation.
There is really no conflict.
Both arguments of the scripture are correct.
The conflict gets resolved when we define prana as the ability to exhale and the apana as the ability to inhale.
The ability to exhale (prana) gets strengthened during inhalation, and the ability to inhale gets strengthened during exhalation.
In other words, prana invests in apana and apana invests in prana.
Now going back to discussion re: hamsa, prana sukta hints that there is death in every breathing cycle, but the death does not really happen because the hamsa (swan) that is made of this prana and apana while swimming on the lake tries to get up with one leg still on water, and then decides to stay back on water to resume its swimming.
As for the mention of hamsa (swan), Sri Hanumacchastri's interpretation is that, inhalation sounds like "ham" and exhalation sounds like "sa"; therefore hamsa is "inhalation followed by exhalation".
Soham is no different from hamsa because it is merely the same two elements in the reverse order "exhalation followed by inhalation".
The "death" is the death of the thought that a person has at any point of time. The thought gets dissolved, that is, it gets fully understood (during the exhalation), and enlightenment is achieved at that very moment, but life continues because the swan decides to stay back (possibly because there are other things remaining to be understood).
Hamsa is the mantra that starts with inhalation and ends with exhalation.
The inhalation is meant for enjoying the desires that are born in the mind, because inhalation fires the fuels in the body and releases energy.
The exhalation that follows is meant to clean up the body of the waste materials generated and purify the body and mind.
The meditation re: Hamsa eliminates desires by fully enjoying the desires.
Soham is the mantra that starts with exhalation.
The exhalation (sa) is meant for renouncing the worldly pleasures, but one cannot renounce everything, even a monk who has renounced everything still has something left to enjoy.
What remains to be enjoyed is the seed for the next inhalation, and that is the source of ham.
Sa and ham together becomes soham according to Sanskrit grammar.
Therefore hamsa and soham both lead to enlightenment, while the approaches are different.
Hamsa starts out with the purpose of enjoying the seeds of past works so that they do not lead to further birth, whereas soham starts out with the purpose of renouncing the future works by removing the illusion that something has to be done now.
While hamsa decides to stay back on the lake (and continue life),
hamsa means "I am"
soham means "I am that (one material that exists)".
Soham starts out with the idea of ending this life by removing the illusion that this self is different from that existence, but continuing the life only because some illusion is still left out.
And right here is where The Bible (and what has become Christianity) meets Veda, Jesus meets Buddha and Krishna and India.
And Moses said unto God, Behold, [when] I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What [is] his name? what shall I say unto them?
Exodus 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Exodus 3:15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this [is] my name for ever, and this [is] my memorial unto all generations.
So the God of the Bible said, I am breath
And the Veda, the oldest scripts known to mankind said, I am breath
Question: Yes, thank you for your remarks.
Now, a point of interest to me....the Bodhisattva way of life, the essence of which (as I understand it) since one believes (as a Buddhist) that everything has interdependent origination, then (again, in brief) all is related, all is one, all is unity; therefore, one can only be truly (that is fully) liberated from bondage when all are liberated.
Your story of the swan starting to fly, but with one leg still in the water, and then coming back to swim, is (in my view) another way of describing the classic case of a person who has scaled the wall and has the opportunity to escape the bondage of maya, but, instead out of compassion (and also the knowledge that all is one) comes back into the world (resumes swimming) in order to liberate all sentient beings.
Vaidix: I fully agree with you.
If multiple organisms are perceived, it is the responsibility of the practitioner to assume leadership and distribute the knowledge of enlightenment to all the beings. However if the perception of different beings is itself due to result of a false sense of division in existence arising out of ignorance, and if that ignorance is removed by discarding that false idea, there is no further responsibility.
Even though there is no further responsibility, a person of knowledge continues to work in the society, not because one is forced to by the past karmas but as a prime mover.
Question: Also, secondly, there is the observation that between the in-breath and the out-breath (or vice versa) that there is a still-point of no-breath... and yet we are still alive.
It is at this point that the "primordial vibration" may be experienced that provides peace that surpasses all understanding.
Your thoughts on that notion or your experience of same will be appreciated.
Answer: That which is between inhalation and exhalation, or between exhalation and inhalation is what is the cause of both.
That which is the cause of both inhalation and exhalation and is the basis of both, is vyana, or brhaspati.
It is not in spite of this point of no-breath (Brhaspati) that we live.
It is because of this brhaspati that we live.
However, even Brhaspati has a cause in that, when the Known is fully controlled by the Unknown it is a symbol of brhaspati.
The components of knowledge namely the Known, the Knowable and the Unknown (as represented by speech, brain and spine respectively) are alone the reality and these alone are the source of all the deities, and all the gods beginning with Indra, Brhaspati, and Vishnu are merely derivatives of knowledge.
The breathing cycle (as represented by the sevenfold sama) is itself a sum total of thought cycles of all the living cells in the body, and the thought cycle of each individual cell (as represented by gayatra sama) is itself in turn perceived due to a false of sense of interaction between the components of knowledge namely the Known, the Knowable and the Unknown.
And ultimately the components of knowledge are themselves perceived due to a false sense of division in Existence.
Some of the material in this topic is based on interpretations by Sri. Kondamudi Hanumacchastri who authored a series of articles titled "Atharva Vedamlo Aksaya Nidhulu" in Andhra Prabha Weekly 1981-82.
Question from a Buddhist: Please tell me of the meaning and significance of this mantra and any scriptural references thereto.
Vaidix: The discussion started with Atharva veda (Prana Sukta). This is how it goes..
The cosmic energy which is in the Sun enters waters and heats them up.
Then it enters the clouds when water evaporates, then it enters rain (from the clouds), then it enters the herbs as they absorb that rain.
That energy enters the living organisms and becomes prana when they eat those herbs. This prana splits up into two parts: prana and apana.
This prana together with apana supports the seven chakras with only one half of itself, and scripture wonders who knows what the other half is for!
This implies that meditation on prana is more powerful than the meditation re: the chakras.
The scripture mentions that Nivara (the wild rice that grows in the forest) is the source of prana and yava (barley) is the source of apana. It is well known that rice is an important source of energy and barley has excellent medicinal properties that help in excretion.
Sri Hanumacchastri interprets that prana raises from the lower end of spine to top of the head during inhalation, and apana runs down from top of the head to lower end of the spine during exhalation.
This is the meditation regarding prana and apana according to prana sukta.
This meditation does not endorse a one way upward movement like that of the popular kundalini theory; but it is a two way movement: up and down.
Prana helps in igniting the fuels in the body and release energy to activate the living cells, and apAna helps in excreting the waste materials such as urine, stool, sweat, CO2 etc.
The meditation goes like this: During inhalation, imagine a point of concentration that starts at the lower end of spine, going up to the top of the head by the end of inhalation.
The point of concentration has to reach top of the head at the end of inhalation, never mind if you have to skip some portion of the spine in a hurry.
Likewise during exhalation, imagine a point of concentration that runs down the spine from top of head and reaches the lower end of spine by the end of exhalation.
The point of concentration has to reach the lower end of spine by the end of exhalation, never mind if you have to skip some portion of the spine. (Repeat this about five times, once a day).
The upward movement of the point of concentration during inhalation is called prana, and the downward movement of the point of concentration during exhalation is called apana.
According to physiological psychology, the spine has two nervous systems namely sympathetic nervous system and para-sympathetic nervous system.
The sympathetic nervous system helps in igniting the fuels in the body and activate the living cells so that he organism can cope with its needs.
The para-sympathetic nervous system has the effect of moderating the nervous activity to conserve energy, and it also helps in activities of excretion and removal of bodily wastes.
Therefore it must be understood that meditation regarding prana and apana tones up the sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous systems.
In my opinion any obstruction to this meditation (that causes us to skip a portion of the spine) represents a problem that a person faces at any point of time.
Conversely these (the obstructions to this meditation) are the only problems a person experiences at any point of time, whether one knows how to translate and explain those problems into a human language or not!
The meditation re: prana and apana is known to be a philosophical truth finder plus lie detector that is within the human (or any other living) body; because when a person meditates on any topic to know its truth, if one experiences an obstruction of prana or apana it must be known as untruth.
If there was no obstruction it is the truth.
The combination of prana and apana is the entire functionality of the spine and it is also called the Unknown in the Veda.
That is the connection.
This concludes the meditation regarding prana and apana.
(The following discussion may be skipped by first time readers.)
While the preceding is the factual position according to prana sukta and its interpretations, other portions of the scripture such as chandogya upanisat describe prana and apana in a different way saying prana is the cause of exhalation, and apana is the cause of inhalation.
This can be confusing, as it apparently contradicts what we said before, that prana raises from lower end of spine to the top of the head during inhalation and that meditation re: prana is best done during inhalation, and the other way for apana, that is apana runs down from top of the head to lower end of spine during exhalation, and meditation re: apana is best done during exhalation.
Now chandogya throws us into a conflict by associating prana with exhalation and apana with inhalation when it says prana is the cause of exhalation and apana is the cause of inhalation.
There is really no conflict.
Both arguments of the scripture are correct.
The conflict gets resolved when we define prana as the ability to exhale and the apana as the ability to inhale.
The ability to exhale (prana) gets strengthened during inhalation, and the ability to inhale gets strengthened during exhalation.
In other words, prana invests in apana and apana invests in prana.
Now going back to discussion re: hamsa, prana sukta hints that there is death in every breathing cycle, but the death does not really happen because the hamsa (swan) that is made of this prana and apana while swimming on the lake tries to get up with one leg still on water, and then decides to stay back on water to resume its swimming.
As for the mention of hamsa (swan), Sri Hanumacchastri's interpretation is that, inhalation sounds like "ham" and exhalation sounds like "sa"; therefore hamsa is "inhalation followed by exhalation".
Soham is no different from hamsa because it is merely the same two elements in the reverse order "exhalation followed by inhalation".
The "death" is the death of the thought that a person has at any point of time. The thought gets dissolved, that is, it gets fully understood (during the exhalation), and enlightenment is achieved at that very moment, but life continues because the swan decides to stay back (possibly because there are other things remaining to be understood).
Hamsa is the mantra that starts with inhalation and ends with exhalation.
The inhalation is meant for enjoying the desires that are born in the mind, because inhalation fires the fuels in the body and releases energy.
The exhalation that follows is meant to clean up the body of the waste materials generated and purify the body and mind.
The meditation re: Hamsa eliminates desires by fully enjoying the desires.
Soham is the mantra that starts with exhalation.
The exhalation (sa) is meant for renouncing the worldly pleasures, but one cannot renounce everything, even a monk who has renounced everything still has something left to enjoy.
What remains to be enjoyed is the seed for the next inhalation, and that is the source of ham.
Sa and ham together becomes soham according to Sanskrit grammar.
Therefore hamsa and soham both lead to enlightenment, while the approaches are different.
Hamsa starts out with the purpose of enjoying the seeds of past works so that they do not lead to further birth, whereas soham starts out with the purpose of renouncing the future works by removing the illusion that something has to be done now.
While hamsa decides to stay back on the lake (and continue life),
hamsa means "I am"
soham means "I am that (one material that exists)".
Soham starts out with the idea of ending this life by removing the illusion that this self is different from that existence, but continuing the life only because some illusion is still left out.
And right here is where The Bible (and what has become Christianity) meets Veda, Jesus meets Buddha and Krishna and India.
And Moses said unto God, Behold, [when] I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What [is] his name? what shall I say unto them?
Exodus 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Exodus 3:15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this [is] my name for ever, and this [is] my memorial unto all generations.
So the God of the Bible said, I am breath
And the Veda, the oldest scripts known to mankind said, I am breath
Question: Yes, thank you for your remarks.
Now, a point of interest to me....the Bodhisattva way of life, the essence of which (as I understand it) since one believes (as a Buddhist) that everything has interdependent origination, then (again, in brief) all is related, all is one, all is unity; therefore, one can only be truly (that is fully) liberated from bondage when all are liberated.
Your story of the swan starting to fly, but with one leg still in the water, and then coming back to swim, is (in my view) another way of describing the classic case of a person who has scaled the wall and has the opportunity to escape the bondage of maya, but, instead out of compassion (and also the knowledge that all is one) comes back into the world (resumes swimming) in order to liberate all sentient beings.
Vaidix: I fully agree with you.
If multiple organisms are perceived, it is the responsibility of the practitioner to assume leadership and distribute the knowledge of enlightenment to all the beings. However if the perception of different beings is itself due to result of a false sense of division in existence arising out of ignorance, and if that ignorance is removed by discarding that false idea, there is no further responsibility.
Even though there is no further responsibility, a person of knowledge continues to work in the society, not because one is forced to by the past karmas but as a prime mover.
Question: Also, secondly, there is the observation that between the in-breath and the out-breath (or vice versa) that there is a still-point of no-breath... and yet we are still alive.
It is at this point that the "primordial vibration" may be experienced that provides peace that surpasses all understanding.
Your thoughts on that notion or your experience of same will be appreciated.
Answer: That which is between inhalation and exhalation, or between exhalation and inhalation is what is the cause of both.
That which is the cause of both inhalation and exhalation and is the basis of both, is vyana, or brhaspati.
It is not in spite of this point of no-breath (Brhaspati) that we live.
It is because of this brhaspati that we live.
However, even Brhaspati has a cause in that, when the Known is fully controlled by the Unknown it is a symbol of brhaspati.
The components of knowledge namely the Known, the Knowable and the Unknown (as represented by speech, brain and spine respectively) are alone the reality and these alone are the source of all the deities, and all the gods beginning with Indra, Brhaspati, and Vishnu are merely derivatives of knowledge.
The breathing cycle (as represented by the sevenfold sama) is itself a sum total of thought cycles of all the living cells in the body, and the thought cycle of each individual cell (as represented by gayatra sama) is itself in turn perceived due to a false of sense of interaction between the components of knowledge namely the Known, the Knowable and the Unknown.
And ultimately the components of knowledge are themselves perceived due to a false sense of division in Existence.
posted by I am that I am at Sunday, March 26, 2006
38 comments
