Emanation: how the one Lord manifests the fourfold universe and the 36 tattvas

PS_4

By the abundant majesty of His own śakti (the Lord's dynamic power/energy), this fourfold aṇḍa (cosmic 'egg'/sphere) — distinguished as Śakti, māyā (the Lord's self-veiling power of differentiation), Prakṛti, and Earth (pṛthivī) — is brought into being by the Lord, in their several divisions.

PS_5

Within them [is] this universe, an unbroken succession of variegated bodies, organs, and worlds; and the enjoyer there, the embodied one, is none other than Śiva, who has [voluntarily] assumed the paśu (the bound/fettered soul ('beast')) condition.

PS_6

Just as a flawless crystal takes on the appearance of manifold colours [set near it], so too the Lord [takes on] the forms of gods, men, beasts, and trees.

PS_7

As the disc of the moon [reflected] in water moves when the water moves and stays still when it is still, so does this Self, the Great Lord, [appear to move and rest] amid the host of bodies, organs, and worlds.

PS_8

Just as Rāhu, though invisible [in himself], becomes manifest when he rests upon the disc of the moon, so this Self, though all-pervading, [becomes manifest] in the mirror of the intellect by taking on objects.

PS_9

Just as a face shines forth in a stainless mirror, so this [Self], whose very nature is light, shines forth in the principle of intellect made pure by the descent of Śiva's power.

PS_10

[That reality is] of the form of light, wholly complete, [yielding] great bliss through repose in its own Self, filled to overflowing with [the powers of] will, knowledge, and action, perfectly replete with infinite powers (śakti).

PS_11

That supreme reality (paratattva) which is free of all thought-constructs, pure, tranquil, without dissolution or arising — within it shines the world whose nature is the thirty-six tattva (ontological reality-principle (here the 36)).

PS_12

Just as in the surface of a mirror the variegated [image] of city, village, and the rest, [though] undivided [from the mirror], appears with [internal] divisions — distinct from one another and from the mirror itself —

PS_13

so too, from the utterly stainless awareness of the supreme Bhairava, this world, though devoid of [real] division [from Him], shines forth as divided both from one another and from Him as well.

PS_14

[The Lord] makes manifest the [pure] state of the tattvas — consisting of Śiva, Śakti, Sadāśiva, Īśvara, and Vidyā — through the differentiated mode of the five powers (śakti).