The five pointers - Kaňcukas

Part 1 Learning never ceases. I am constantly looking for guides from whom I can glean more gems from the yogic path. I have recently done an online course with a beautiful and stunningly intelligent woman by the name of Kavitha Chinnaiyan … cardiologist, and lineage holder in the Sri Vidya lineage. During the course she explained that to ascribe gender to siva and sakti is only a device, that gender cannot truly be ascribed to them as they are but aspects of oneness, that even to use such a term as oneness, implying as it does that there is a more than one, does not do justice to That which we seek to describe. She also gave a powerful image of how the world becomes manifest – as sakti turns to face siva, manifestation dissolves into the still spaciousness of siva, as sakti turns away manifestation occurs, and sakti turns and turns, like the blinking of an eye, so there is a pulsation in this manifestation, a throb, a vibration, we do not usually notice it, manifestation seems continuous, just like when you run the individual frames of old fashioned analogue film through the projector, the world on the screen seems continuous and you do not see those moments in the frame where there is no picture. This vibration is called Spanda. But the View writings reveal more detail about how this manifestation occurs. Kaňcukas: concealments for manifestation In this process there are five concealments that mask our oneness. These concealments are necessary in order for that which is unlimited to take form. In Sanskrit they are called the Kaňcukas, in iRest®, Richard Miller dubbed them “the pointer sisters”. I will come back to the reason why. The concealments, or limitations, are: Kalā – limited agency (or doing) Vidyā – limited knowing Rāga – limited perfection = desire/craving Kāla – limited time – sequential time, divisions of time, passing of time Niyatī – limited space – localisation and causality We can easily see these in action. There is so much more I need to do. There is so much more I need to know  I so much crave that … < insert latest craving here> (holiday in Bali, new car, chocolate bar, better body) I just don’t have time, am running out of time, I have a past, I anticipate a future  I don’t have enough space, I need a bigger house, closet, kitchen etc – or I am too big, I am too small, I am in the wrong city, I am not happy unless I am at the beach etc iRest® founder Richard Miller calls them pointer sisters as they are like signposts with an arm pointing both ways. This way – manifestation, embodiment and the sense of being incomplete That way – lifting through the veils to recognition of true nature as always whole, nothing needing to be done, omnipotent, omniscient, perfection, eternal and infinite. Between recognition and the Kaňcukas of limitation is Māyā, laying like a strata of cloud that conceals the sun.  Have you ever had the experience of taking off in a plane on an overcast day? The plane leaves the ground in dull conditions and enters the cloud and things are even duller. Then there is a moment when the plane breaks through the cloud and you find there is brilliant sunshine above the clouds. Our perception is like that. When embodiment happens and a sense of I develops, that "I" loses the sense divine Oneness and feels separate and different to everything else. This is like living in dullness. When you break through the clouds you awaken to the brilliance of non-duality. Sink below the clouds and and you are in the realm of limitations and a sense of separation. So they are pointers because as we can recognise them as they are present in our lives we can also take them as reminders or pointers to who we really are. These limitations are never a voiding of the unlimited attributes of the Divine Oneness. The limitation of infinite power is not impotence. It is just enough of a limitation for dimensions and linear time and action to be possible, preconditions to manifestation and embodiment. So meeting the Kaňcukas is not to be despaired at, nor are they to be rejected. You are not trying to get rid of them, just to recognise what is on the other side of that strata of clouds, Maya, and what these pointers represent! Try this sadhana, spiritual practice, you can take it on for a week, a month or forever; notice the action of the Kaňcukas in your life, and you might journal how they affect you and reflect on how they might be pointing you to your true self. In Part 2 we will look at each of these in more detail. Go to Part 2