In this excerpt from the Shiva Sutras – The Supreme Awakening, third awakening verse 17, Swami Lakshmanjoo explains the difference between water and snow.
Āgame api – in Tantra also it is said:
S.S. 3.17 (04:58)
jalaṁ himaṁ ca yo veda guruvaktrāgamātpriye /
nāstyeva tasya kartavyaṁ tasyāpaścimajanmatā //
“O dear Priye, O dear Pārvatī, the one who understands what reality lies in water and its coagulated formation, snow (this substance is the same, but the formation is separate, snow is snow and water is water; there is a difference between water and snow, but the substance of these two is one), the one who realizes, yo veda, the one who realizes by the grace of master, guru vaktra āgamāt, the difference between water and snow, nāstyeva tasya kartavyam, for him, nothing remains undone. Nāstyeva tasya kartavyam, for him nothing remains undone, in this world.
“Tasya apaścima janmatā, hence, this is his last birth in this universe. He won’t come again in the repeated wheel of births and deaths. He is jīvan mukta [liberated] then.”
anenaiva āśayena uktam / etadeva
Holding this way of explanation within, Spanda also declares in the same way in this śloka:
iti vā yasya saṁvittiḥ kṛḍātvenākhilaṁ jagat /
sa paśyan satatam yukto jīvanmukto na saṁśayaḥ //
The one who observes the difference between the universe and its creator . . .
Where is the difference between the universe and its creator?
Nothing!
The creator has become the universe and the universe is the formation of the creator.
. . . for him this whole universe is a play, it is nothing wrong. The one who realizes this, sa paśyan satataṁ yuktaḥ, he is always attached to his own reality of Self consciousness. Jīvan mukto, he is jīvan mukta, he is liberated in this very life, na saṁśayaḥ, there is no doubt about it.
Source: Shiva Sutras – The Supreme Awakening, third awakening, verse 17, revealed by Swami Lakshmanjoo
Copyright © John Hughes
