Although Shiv has only 108 names in the Māhābhārata, the Shiv Purāna gives His thousand names. The Shiv-sūtras explain how the universal unfolding of the dimensions of Naad occurs in the I –consciousness. The best way of unfolding these as part of the karma of our daily lives is – kalā as Naṭarāj, gyān as Mātrikā and vikalpa as Yogi. And this is exactly what Mishraji means when he further explains the Āgama (quote) – “The goal of all these [lives’] activities is to discern the true nature and meaning of our [individual] existence – what we are, where we are, how we have come here and where we are going?”[10]

The expanding energies of Nād in theShiv sūtras are developed as the Mātrika Shakti or the study of the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. A sūtra (viz. II.7) is mātrikā chakra saṁbodhaḥ. When we follow this and arrange the letters in a circle we get the Mātrikā Chakra [11] as shown. At the top where the Chakra closes the ‘ah’ sound forms and both the syllables ‘a’ and ‘h’ are kantasthah i.e. they are both uttered from the throat adjacent to each other. This ‘ah’ sound is also the bīja mantrā or ‘seed sound’ for the Sahasrār or the Crown Chakra. The ‘a’ is the ‘smallest syllable’ or the samvrt prayatna of the Aiterya Āranayaka; it is the indestructible Akshara or Brahmn. The ‘h’ is the aspirate or the sound of the exhalation of the breath. The Bindu completes the aham – and this is the I- consciousness. This Ātmā is born in the ‘sah’ world moving left and counter-clockwise around the Chakra. Clockwise[12] it is the hamsa the sound of our breath or prāna. It is not a mythical bird but rather a mantrā that we all chant compulsorily 8 to 10 crore times over a normal life time. When we die ‘yama’ transmits the hamsa to the world of ‘mara’ and while we live in ‘sah’ all the māyā unfolds in the dimensions of space-time and consciousness. The latter is the ‘yama’ reversed with lengthened svars as the extension in time. Thus, we have seen how Bindu, a unit of consciousness unfolds its Spanḍa into the metaphysical duality of Viṣh & Shiv as it itself metamorphoses to the individual I-consciousness. The Visarga[13] is the prateek of the Ātmā and also in the Sanskrit alphabet it is considered as ayogavāh, literally meaning ‘outside the harness’.

3. In this section, we look at the three Shaktīs or Goddesses Shri Lakshmi, Pārvati (Uṣhā) & Saraswatī. They have been deified respectively as the consorts of the Trinity of the Hindu pantheon viz. Vishnu, Shiv & Brahmā. But, as we shall see, they are actually deep metaphysical entities that are the key to understanding how the Ātmā experiences the infinite mysteries of life through its conscious evolvement.

But, before we proceed, I would like to quickly familiarize you with the Mātrikā Chakra. We will follow Mishraji’s advice at the beginning of his Book (quote)[14] – “The seer-scientists [rishīs] find a striking parallel between the origin and unfolding of this vast Universe and the process of development from the primal sound to the alphabet, words, sentences and, ultimately, the fully developed language. It may be compared to the evolution of a small seed into a huge banyan tree… Sanskrit meticulously follows the laws of nature in its evolution…”.