What do you think?
Rate this book
Vac: The Concept of the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras
This book is about the power of the Word conceived as the main and most effective aspect of divine energy. It is the only systematic study in English of notions concerning the Word (Vac) as these are expounded in the shaiva tantras of Kashmir and in related texts. Padoux first describes the Vedic origins of these notions, then their development in texts of different tantric traditions. He shows how different levels of the Word abide in humans, how these levels are linked to the kundlini, and how they develop and articulate speech and discursive thought. He also described how the universe is created out of the letters of the alphabet. The last two chapters explain the powers of mantras as sacred ritual utterances. These powers are described as magical as well as religious, because they can achieve supernatural results as well as lead to salvation. Their uses are linked to yogic mental and bodily practices. André Padoux is Director of Research unit on Hinduism at the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, and is a member of the French National Council for Scientific Research.
460 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
6 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 3, 2011
Speaking of reading and knowledge, do we really know the full nature of even the first letter of the alphabet?
I paraphrase:
Tantric adepts experience the movement through which the Word (Vac) evolves from an unconditioned, supreme state (as experienced in meditation) down to the gross sound vibration as perceived in this world and which thereby brings about the gradual emergence of the cosmos.
Each of the Sanskrit phonemes (varnas) is really a living entity, a different movement in the gradual condensation and solidification of the pure energy of Vac, Goddess of Speech, and will bring successively into existence each of the thirty-six ontic levels, the tattvas, of which the entire manifestation consists.
A is the totality of the limitating power not submitted to maya, beyond hearing, uncreated, wondering at its own essence: that of the waveless sea of consciousness resting in the great light of the Absolute. It spreads from the first to the last stage of emanation, being the condition of the fullness of the supreme "I" in its total awareness of the universe, as produced by the self-effulgent spreading out of the Energy.
Although on one level a phoneme, ontologically, A corresponds to a level of the Word too elevated to be considered in terms of ordinary phonemes. It stands at the level of spontaneous sound, the phonic aspect of the supreme reality, which is produced without any "striking," whether of a percussion or from the contact of the respiratory breath with the organs of phonation, and so forth. It is even beyond the "unstruck" sound. It is the root thereof, the initial stir of sound-vibration beyond struck and unstruck sound. No one utters it, no one can possibly hold it in check. It is self-uttered, and dwells within the heart of all sentient beings.
A is all pervading. Being pure energy of consciousness, on the transcendent plane of the Word, it is no doubt beyond all manifestation. Yet, it can be philosophically considered as twofold: first as beyond the universe, and in this case its being known as avarna should be understood in the sense of "non-phoneme," and second, as the source of the energy, the origin of all phonemes, the starting point of manifestation, which is then within it in seed form, A being within the manifestation of the universe, as its essence, its background.
According to the great Kashmiri Tantric saint, Abhinavagupta, "The power of absolute freedom or autonomy is called A. In it the objectivity has not yet begun to develop and it is therefore essentially a reflective awareness whose inner nature is that of a pure interiorized mass of consciousness (antarghanasamvid). It is the Self. Having realized the nature of A, the unbounded consciousness of one's own Self, one has thereby fulfilled the prerequisite for knowing other things.
If the Knower is not established, the process of Knowing and the Known are without a basis. The entire edifice of knowledge is without a foundation. Because, who is the Knower? Some sensations given through the senses? Some fleeting stream of thoughts? Some ever-changing perceptions of objects? From the standpoint of consciousness, these are too pitifully transient to warrant the status of Knower.
Every volume in the SUNY Series in the Shaiva Traditions of Kashmir is a gem.
I paraphrase:
Tantric adepts experience the movement through which the Word (Vac) evolves from an unconditioned, supreme state (as experienced in meditation) down to the gross sound vibration as perceived in this world and which thereby brings about the gradual emergence of the cosmos.
Each of the Sanskrit phonemes (varnas) is really a living entity, a different movement in the gradual condensation and solidification of the pure energy of Vac, Goddess of Speech, and will bring successively into existence each of the thirty-six ontic levels, the tattvas, of which the entire manifestation consists.
A is the totality of the limitating power not submitted to maya, beyond hearing, uncreated, wondering at its own essence: that of the waveless sea of consciousness resting in the great light of the Absolute. It spreads from the first to the last stage of emanation, being the condition of the fullness of the supreme "I" in its total awareness of the universe, as produced by the self-effulgent spreading out of the Energy.
Although on one level a phoneme, ontologically, A corresponds to a level of the Word too elevated to be considered in terms of ordinary phonemes. It stands at the level of spontaneous sound, the phonic aspect of the supreme reality, which is produced without any "striking," whether of a percussion or from the contact of the respiratory breath with the organs of phonation, and so forth. It is even beyond the "unstruck" sound. It is the root thereof, the initial stir of sound-vibration beyond struck and unstruck sound. No one utters it, no one can possibly hold it in check. It is self-uttered, and dwells within the heart of all sentient beings.
A is all pervading. Being pure energy of consciousness, on the transcendent plane of the Word, it is no doubt beyond all manifestation. Yet, it can be philosophically considered as twofold: first as beyond the universe, and in this case its being known as avarna should be understood in the sense of "non-phoneme," and second, as the source of the energy, the origin of all phonemes, the starting point of manifestation, which is then within it in seed form, A being within the manifestation of the universe, as its essence, its background.
According to the great Kashmiri Tantric saint, Abhinavagupta, "The power of absolute freedom or autonomy is called A. In it the objectivity has not yet begun to develop and it is therefore essentially a reflective awareness whose inner nature is that of a pure interiorized mass of consciousness (antarghanasamvid). It is the Self. Having realized the nature of A, the unbounded consciousness of one's own Self, one has thereby fulfilled the prerequisite for knowing other things.
If the Knower is not established, the process of Knowing and the Known are without a basis. The entire edifice of knowledge is without a foundation. Because, who is the Knower? Some sensations given through the senses? Some fleeting stream of thoughts? Some ever-changing perceptions of objects? From the standpoint of consciousness, these are too pitifully transient to warrant the status of Knower.
Every volume in the SUNY Series in the Shaiva Traditions of Kashmir is a gem.
Displaying 1 of 1 review