Kamakalavilasa 190

190

This is the meaning: moving upward from the abode of Mitra and Varuṇa by the retention of breath, piercing through the lotuses beginning with the svādhiṣṭhāna, approaching the lap of Paramaśiva seated upon the throne of the drop at the end of the twelve fingers, the Great Mother Kuṇḍalinī, who is experienced as consisting of manifold sounds, is regarded as one's own Self by the great worshippers of Maheśvara who have attained all truths through samādhi. 'Consisting of nine sounds' means: the first is 'ciṇi'; the second is 'ciṇiciṇi'; the third is the sound of a bell; the fourth is the sound of a conch; the fifth is the sound of a lute; the sixth is the sound of cymbals; the seventh is the sound of a flute; the eighth is the sound of a kettle-drum; the ninth is the sound of a mṛdaṅga drum. 'Called the letters of the elements': they are elements and they are letters, hence 'letters of the elements'. Here, the character of elements in the letters lies in their being manifested through specific bodily movements and ritual deposition of syllables; and that is merely conceptual, because the syllables are essentially the power in the form of light. She whose designation, whose name, consists of these is [the gross form]. For the subtle madhyamā, having entered the state of being the cause of the gross form, is indeed one. Hence he says: 'The first is the cause', and so forth. 'The first', the subtle mentioned before, is the 'cause', because it arises first; 'the other', the gross, is the 'effect', because it is produced from it. Since, for that reason, between these two—the subtle and the gross—there is the relationship of cause and effect, therefore, for that reason, this gross power is identical with that very subtle power; 'there is indeed no distinction'—there is no difference at all. Objection: How can there be a relation of cause and effect when there is identity? To this he says: 'Identity...'. Identity, having the nature of identity-in-difference, is accepted as 'cause and effect', having the nature of producer and produced.