Kamakalavilasa 120

120

Sound is the quality of space; touch is the quality of wind; form is the quality of fire; taste is the quality of water; smell is the quality of earth. Starting from space up to earth, with one additional quality progressively added, these qualities amount to fifteen. By virtue of these qualities being fifteen, the venerable esoteric mantra becomes fifteen-syllabled. 'Regarded as elemental': accepted, acknowledged as related to the elements. For this very reason, she 'embodies the fifteen syllables': because the elemental qualities originating from herself are fifteen, the syllables of the esoteric mantra are also fifteen; she has that form, she is of that nature. 'Eternal': immutable, meaning the ground of manifestation of all differentiated forms, like the ocean for waves, bubbles, and foam. For the immutable Goddess of the Sixteen Syllables herself, he explains the nature of the fifteen-syllabled esoteric mantra embodying the fifteen deities abiding in the fifteen lunar days that constitute her fifteen limbs, with: 'The eternal goddesses have the form of lunar days...' 'The eternal goddesses': resting in those beginning with Kāmeśvarī; 'having the form of lunar days': the presiding deities of the lunar days. 'And the lunar days': beginning with the first day of the lunar fortnight and ending with the full moon, 'have the form of the equal coalescence of Śiva and divine power,' having the form of the casket of luminous consciousness and reflective awareness. For this very reason, 'consisting of day and night': having the form of day and night, because luminous consciousness and reflective awareness consist of day and night. 'These lunar days are the venerable syllables': by that previously stated nature, the venerable syllables are fifteen in form; even the qualities of the phonemes within the esoteric mantra have the form of that pair,