Who Gave Brahma and Vishnu Their Diksha — Sadashiva, Parvati as Guru Mata, and the Pranava from the Five Faces

The speaker opens the doctrinal ground with a statement he says has been laid down: one should not make a distinction within Hari-Har. There is Mahadev, and there is Bhagavati Mahamaya Jagadamba"Mother of the World" — an epithet of the Devi.. It is through both of them, Mahadev and MahashaktiThe Great Power — distinguished by the speaker from ordinary Shakti sadhana., that Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra come into being. He then places this in time. After the PralayaThe dissolution at the close of a cosmic cycle, after which creation is taken up again., according to kalpa bheda, when a kalpa ends and a new kalpa begins, the Puranas describe that creation is composed in many different ways.

The second point, the speaker says, is that Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh are posts, composed by Bhagavan Devadidev Mahadev. Along with these, Indra is also a post. It is on account of his own karmas alone, he says, that a person, having earned accumulated deeds and accumulated Punya, arrives at a post of this kind.

The speaker says a war broke out between Brahma and Vishnu, each wanting to establish himself as the greater, each saying I am superior. Then Bhagavan Sadashiva manifested. The Shiv Puran describes it, he says: Sadashiva arose between the two in the form of a Jyotirlinga. To discover its beginning and its end, Brahma and Vishnu set off upward and downward. Then came Brahma having false testimony given by the Ketaki flower; Brahma receiving a punishment; Vishnu receiving a boon; and once again Brahma being given boons of many kinds. Those boons, he says, were that Brahma would have no murti and no mandir in the whole world, but that yajna and similar rites would never be complete without Brahma, without his pujan and so on; and that Brahma was established in the form of Vishwakarma. Many such boons were received there.

After the boons, the speaker says, the description continues right there: Bhagavan Sadashiva manifests in his Panchanana form. How he appears in that five-faced form is described, and through the five mouths the upadesh is given by him. To whom? To Brahma and Vishnu. The ShivlingThe aniconic form of Lord Shiva worshipped at home and in temples. in which Sadashiva manifested for the two of them, he says, is described in the Purana as being situated in Arunachal Pradesh. And that, he says, is the very place at which Bhagavan Sadashiva for the first time gives mantropadesh to Bhagavan Vishnu and to Brahma.

In that passage, the speaker says, it is stated that Rudra and Maheshwar, the vibhuti forms of Bhagavan Sadashiva, are of a higher order. That is, Rudra and Maheshwar are born from the direct and complete form of Sadashiva. Mahamaya never deludes them excessively, he says. Because of that their buddhi remains steady, and they have never anywhere received punishment, since they are directly forms of Sadashiva. Because of time, he says, it is told here that Brahma and Vishnu had forgotten their earlier karmas, or had somewhere or other been deluded by Mahamaya. That alone is why war broke out between the two, each saying I am superior. For these two, Bhagavan Sadashiva manifested there in the form of a ShivlingThe aniconic form of Lord Shiva worshipped at home and in temples..

Which upadesh came first of all? The speaker says it was the upadesh of the Pranav, given by Bhagavan Sadashiva. Of the greatly auspicious Pranava that manifested, Sadashiva says: Omkar is the vachak and I am the vachya; this mantra is my own form; by remembering the Pranava every day, it is I who am remembered. He then gives the derivation. From the northern face came a-kara, from the western face u-kara, from the southern face ma-kara, from the eastern face BinduThe point — the concentrated seed of sound or energy from which a mantra or a yantra's whole structure unfolds., and from the middle face Nada. Joined with these five parts the Pranava expanded to its full form and became one akshara, a single syllable. From that Pranava this entire world came into being. From bindu comes nada, he says, and the form of nada, the form of bindu, is the form of Mahamaya. Keep this in mind. When you recite the Devi AtharvashirshaA Vedic Upanishadic hymn drawn from the Atharvaveda (here, to Ganapati) — self-proven (Siddha), but its Vedic mantras demand correct pronunciation. you will find bindu rupena said there. So the one Sadashiva produced in bindu form from the eastern face was Bhagavati herself, emerging from there; in this way she composed her lila and took on the form of Omkar, the Pranava.

The speaker says that what came in sequence from those same five faces, the separate letters produced from it, is what you will find when you look at Bhagavan Sadashiva's Panchakshara in order. From this Panchakshari Mantra the matrika varnas manifested, which are of five kinds. That is, if the complete form of Shiva's five faces, the full form of Sadashiva, is described anywhere, it is in the Panchakshari mantra. Such is its special greatness, he says: the Panchakshara is held to be Shiva's own direct form. He points to the ninth and tenth adhyayas of the Vishweshwara Samhita, where it is described that from that same shiro-mantra the Tripada Gayatri Mantra manifested through four faces. From that Gayatri the entire Vedas manifested, from those Vedas crores of mantras issued, and by those mantras different works are accomplished. Go to the root, he says, and you find that the Pranava and the Panchakshara are the most fundamental, the origin, and through them all the works of this world can be accomplished. He runs the sequence once more from the start: five letters came from the five faces; when they all came into SayujyaUnion or association with the Divine granted to beings slain by the Goddess — they are absorbed into Her retinue (Ganas) rather than simply destroyed., meeting together, they took a form with shape, the form of the Pranava. Those that remain separate built the Panchakshara mantra; from the Panchakshara, through four faces, the Tripada Gayatri; from the Gayatri the Vedas; from the Vedas the mantras; and from the mantras crores of works are accomplished. That, he says, is the root.

The speaker says the upadesh of this very mantra was given by Bhagavan Sadashiva to Brahma and Vishnu, and the description of how and when it was given should be heard and known. Bhagavati Jagadamba"Mother of the World" — an epithet of the Devi. ParvatiThe daughter of the mountain and consort of Shiva; the questioner to whom much of tantra is expounded. sat in the form of guru mata, and Bhagavan Maheshwar in the form of Guru, facing north. The guru and the guru mata sat together, and Mahadev faced the northern direction. This, he says, is the first time the paddhati, the parampara, of giving a guru mantra is described. Brahma and Vishnu also faced north. Then Shiva covered them with a curtaining cloth, that is, veiled them, placed his hand on the head, and pronouncing slowly gave them upadesh of the excellent mantra. Following the vidhi told in Yantra and tantra, uttering the mantra three times, Bhagavan Shiva gave those disciples, Brahma and Vishnu, the Diksha of the mantra. And as guru dakshina, he says, Brahma and Vishnu surrendered their very selves.

The speaker frames the subject at the outset: in the avatars of Vishnu, gurus are described, but for Bhagavan Shri Narayana himself, when and how did he receive Diksha from a Guru, and who is Brahma's guru and when did he receive diksha? He calls it a subject worth knowing. His answer, after the account of the diksha: the first diksha Bhagavan Sadashiva gave was given to Brahma and Vishnu, with Bhagavati ParvatiThe daughter of the mountain and consort of Shiva; the questioner to whom much of tantra is expounded. in the form of guru mata. That is why, he says, when you read the Shiv Puran you find Sadashiva speaking of Brahma and Vishnu as sons many times; again and again he addresses them as putra. So the param guru of Brahma and Vishnu is Sadashiva himself, and Jagadamba Parvati is their guru mata. This is found in the Shiv Mahapuran, he says; it is no fabrication. After that, Brahma and Vishnu also performed stuti, which is found in the tenth adhyaya of the Vishweshwara Samhita. Know your Puranas, he says: you will learn much by which ignorance is destroyed and love for Mahadev grows.

The speaker says a point will be raised here: you are speaking of the Shiv Puran and the like, and there Shiva is shown as superior; we are servants of Narayana and hold Narayana to be superior. He clears it up on the spot. Whichever form your attraction and your surrender belong to, recite the Puranas and such texts connected with that form. But you must certainly have the knowledge, he says. There are eighteen Puranas and the Upa-Mahapuranas, and through them you should have correct knowledge about all the forms.

The speaker says the Puranas and similar texts were composed precisely so that the Vedas could be understood well, because Veda paath is not something everyone can do. Not everyone has been granted the AdhikaraThe eligibility or readiness required before attempting an advanced ritual — without it, even a correctly performed rite risks serious harm to the practitioner. to recite those mantras, he says, and without a special Guru none of them can be studied correctly. The Veda is a subject of adhyayan, of study. Through the Purana, all of that reaches us correctly and with ease. Therefore, he says, a person should from time to time recite the Puranas connected with their Sanatan tradition.