emptybill: > I have the Mandukya Upanishad with > Shankara's detailed commentary. Nowhere > is there a discussion of 7 states of consciousness, > much less Maharishi's 7 states. Shankara's so called > usage of Kashmiri Trika or Shri Vidya is untrue and > has long been disproven. > It has already been established that Swami Brahmananda Saraswati was an adherent of the Sri Vidya. It has also already been established that MMY was a close confidant of Swami Laksmanjoo, the last Tantric teacher of Trika in Kashmere.
Another crucial point that is often missed is that Maharishi's typology is a tantric rendering of the seven states, not a strictly Vedantic map. The 'God Consciousness' described by Maharishi is based on Sri Vidya principles: The Absolute as the creative source - the divine Mother, Tripura, which is the main doctrine of both Sri Vidya and Kashmere Shivaism. Tripura can be an anthropomorphic deity, but the subtler tantric practices are directed towards Tripura as the formless - that is, the fourth state which is beyond or transcendental to, the three gross states (three cities) symbolized by AUM in the Mandukhya Upanishad and the cogent commentary by Gaudapadacharya. In Sri Vidya, the Sri Yantra is the map of the seven states, which agrees with Maharishi's layout, with the Bindu at the center. According to Tantra the Bindu is the highest state of transcendenace. Swami Rama on the Mandukhya Upanishad: 2) Sarvam hyetad brahmayam-atma brahma soyamatma catushpat. "Atman has Four Aspects: All of this, everywhere, is in truth Brahman, the Absolute Reality. This very Self itself, Atman, is also Brahman, the Absolute Reality. This Atman or Self has four aspects through which it operates." Work cited: 'Enlightenment Without God' Mandukhya Upanishad By Swami Rama Himalayan Institute Press, 1982 Other titles of interst: 'The Secret of the Three Cities' An Introduction to Hindu Sakta Tantrism By Douglas Renfrew Brooks University Of Chicago Press, 1998 'The Triadic Heart of Siva' Kaula Tantricism of Abhinavagupta in the Non-Dual Shaivism of Kashmir By Paul Eduardo Muller-Ortega State University of New York Press, 1989
