Sacred Geography in our Mouth part 3

Now, a funny thing that happens with “a.”  There’s a what you might call a device, called visarga, which is much more than device, because it is the thing that actually makes speech manifest and it’s the thing that makes the world manifest. Visarga, you can think of it as reflection in the same way that when Shiva looked into the mirror to see himself he saw a reflection, the reflection of Shaki.  And it also means an echo. So the visarga of “a,” the echo of “a” is the anahat, the untouched, the unstruck syllable of “ha.”

So, if we want to see the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega, the pure consciousness and the final manifestation of consciousness, we put “a” with visarga and we get “aha.”

But “aha” is still incomplete, because there exists a tension between the “a” and its echo, “ha,” that tension is marked by bindu, and that is the nasal “ma,” or  “mmm,”  rather than “ma,” because there is no vowel attached to what we think of as the letter “M.”

So, when we put together the “a” plus the “ha,” add the bindu, we get “aham.”

Now, “aham” means “I,” the first person singular pronoun, “I”, but it also means the entire universe.  Shiva and Shakti connected by the bindu of tension that exists between them, and this is the universe.

Michelle:  Babaji.

Baba Rampuri:  Yes.

Michelle:  “Aham” also reflected is “Maha.”

Baba Rampuri:  I think that’s that is a much, much later issue.   We haven’t really discovered yet what even “aham” really is.  When I say that it means “I” and the “universe” we still have to see how that really works.  I don’t want you to accept and memorize the things that I say.  I want you to try and see them along with me, rather than take my word for it, or take the word of any author.

Baba Rampuri:  Ok.

Jan:  Babaji.

Baba Rampuri:  Yes.

Jan:  Babaji, is the “aham” somehow related to “Om” or “Aum,” “A” “U” “M” or is it…

Baba Rampuri:  We’ll get there… We’ll get there very soon. 

Jan:  Ok. Thank you.

Baba Rampuri: And again, I am going to do the same thing with “Om” as with “Maha” which is to really take this up a little bit later because what you are going to discover is that all this speech, and especially Sacred Speech, requires specific earth, specific soil, specific context and when we try to universalize and generalize especially Sacred Speech, then we fall into a trap because it sort of means what we’re defining it to be but if you would really try and use it apply it for something  it just wouldn’t do the job because it doesn’t have its context, its native soil to sit in.  It’s as if you are trying to transplant a plant that grows in the rich soil of the jungle in the desert. It’s just not going to grow because it lacks its proper context.

So, this, the “a” is the first and the most powerful of Shiva’s Shaktis, and it’s referred to as chit shakti. “Chit” being consciousness.  So this is the Shakti of consciousness itself.  The next. Well there’s two ways to do this.  I will go through the expansion of the syllable “a”. When we apply a strengthening to the syllable “a” we get “ā.” Ok.  There is a difference. These are two specific, different syllables, “a” and “aa.”  And if you will all pronounce these two things together. Maybe close your eyes for just a moment while you pronounce this.  Feel the difference between “a” and “ā.”

Can you do that for a second?

[Several people try]

Ok, can you tell me the difference that you feel between these two syllables?

Kailash:  I feel …we go from unmodified voice to an ever so slight subtle variation that’s a result of a manipulation in the throat.

Babaji:  Ok, if you magnify that difference, Kailash, times a 1000, OK, so that now it is a major difference.  Because, let me warn you about something, that in English, we have only one letter “T.” But in Sanskrit there are 4 letter “Ts”.  And there’s 4 letter “Ds.”  Right? And there’s not one letter “a,” there’s two, there’s “a” and there’s “ā.” And, believe me, there is as much difference between “a” and “ā” or “ta” and “tā” as there is between “A,” “B,” and “C.”  There are huge differences there.

Michelle:  What I notice Babaji when I say “a” and “ā” is that there’s a massive space in my throat when “ā” is strengthened my whole throats opens and the sound gets bigger and even moves much more… almost.. .  yeh, it amplifies it and the space in my throat opens and  I can feel the vibration in a bigger area.

Hari:  Higher I would say

Babaji:  OK, let me ask you this.  That if “a” means undifferentiated, what does “ā” mean?   Why. OK. We saw in which case we would naturally and spontaneously articulate the syllable “a.”  What would be the circumstance that we would articulate the syllable “ā?”

Michelle:  When I know something, I would say, “Aaahhh”

Hari: When it comes to you.

Michelle:  There’s knowledge.  There’s recognition.

Babaji:  Just wait a second.  Forget knowledge, forget recognition.  Let’s get back to what you first said.  That when you realize something.  When you suddenly know something.

Kailash:  The aha moment

Babaji:  What?

Kailash: The aha moment

Babaji; Ok. Maybe also if you taste a delicious dish for dinner, you might you might say  “ā, that’s really good.” You wouldn’t say, “a,” because is still questioning. You might say, “‘a,’ is this good?”  But if you say, “ā,” that means that it’s really good.  So whereas “a” is the chit shaki of shiva, undifferentiated, when he looks in his mirror, and he sees shakti, he exclaims, “ā.”  Right.   So it could be both that moment of realization or, or/and, it could be that moment of pleasure.  So, “ā” is called, “anand shakti of Shiva.”  Ok.  Now all of this is taking place at the Ka varga.  You remember the Ka varga, now.

Hari:  Throat

Babaji:  Ok.  It’s in the throat.  Now I will tell you a very funny thing about the Ka varga.  Is that when the syllable “a” contracts, there’s a contraction of  the “a”, the syllable, the vowel, when there a compactness, a condensation of the “a” vowel, it becomes Ka.  The “a” and the “ka” are coming from the same place.