The four levels of Speech (parā, paśyantī, madhyamā, vaikharī)

41

The supreme consciousness — the supreme [Speech], {{parā / paśyantī / madhyamā / vaikharī:the four ascending levels of Speech}} — is the Self's self-touch of the infinite meanings dissolved within it; she, who bears all in a single act, is the mantric Speech and pure agency.

42

She draws Time of her own accord — Time that flows threefold, runs in three paths, and stands in three [stations] — outward, and from there back into the Self: thus is the blessed Parā the Drawer-of-Time [Kālakarṣiṇī].

43

Parāparā is the contemplation of the undivided being [now] internalized though [seemingly] differentiated; that same agency, resting on the lordly state of that very [Parā], is Paśyantī [the 'Seeing' Speech].

44

Madhyamā [the 'Middle' Speech] is sequential, gross, abiding in the inner faculty, its expressible content split apart by thought-construction, divided by the operation of the vital breath.

45

Through abiding in the condition of its own latent dispositions, even in the two prior states there can be the limitedness of the māyā-bound measurer; and the sequence of Paśyantī too is atom-fine [aṇu].

46

Entering in turn into those two states — the quiescent [śānta] and the thought-constructing [vikalpa] — the blessed one beholds, with wonder, the full expanse of his own self-awareness.

47

She, having for her essence the person's exertion through the striking of the points and organs of articulation, is Vaikharī [the 'Uttered' Speech], whose operations are these [articulate sounds] that fall within the range of hearing.

48

By means of these [forms of Speech], reciprocal discourse — whose essence is the transmission of knowledge from one to another — comes about, whether ordinary or scriptural, hemmed in by manifold contractions.

49

Thus, the presiding goddesses of these [phonematic] classes — the deities headed by Māheśvarī — never consume [i.e., devour into limitation] the one who knows the pervasion of Speech, even in the waking state.