Random Meditations Through Her 1000 Names - XI

Read part ten here.

Panchatanmatrasayaka - She who holds the five tanmatras as arrows.

Just as she holds in her left front-hand the sugarcane bow of the sense-mind or manas, in her right front-hand she holds five arrows made of five different flowers which represent the five tanmatras.

What are the tanmatras ’? Hindu darshanas, particularly Sankhya, consider them very important in connecting the external and internal realities at both the psychological and existential levels. In Indic cosmology, tanmatras play an important role in ‘creating’ what we perceive as the external reality through our five senses. Swami Vivekananda beautifully and succinctly puts it :

These subtle tanmatras are actually evolutes of ahankara. This means they emerge when ahankara is churned by the guna, tamas. The ahankara, or the ‘I-doer’ is in turn the evolute emerging from buddhi. The buddhi itself evolves from prakrithi.

In his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali uses the term ‘linga’ for buddhi, which means it can be inferred by the signs. As against this, the primordial substratum of which buddhi itself is an evolute is alinga, which means it has no sign. (Bryant, 2009) The five tanmatras are associated with the five sense-potentials at the psychological level and are connected to the five physical elements or bhutas at the physical level. The tanmatras are thus sense-energy potentials : they are shabda (sound potential), sparsha (touch potential), rupa (colour potential), rasa (taste potential) and gandha (smell potential). The evolution of the physical elements needs the tanmatra as 'a potential or fluid matter which is further condensed or hardened into kinetic or effective matter.' With this framework, the Srimad Bhagwata considers the evolutionary process as involving ‘three processes like mass-disintegration, energy-transformation and condensation.' (Binay Kumar Pattnaik, 2008).

Now a question may arise as to if the five bhutas (akasa, vayu, agni, jala and prithvi) are nothing but similar to the five elements in other philosophies like Greek. In fact, pre-Christian Greek tradition did speak of the five elements which has been discarded as crude initial steps into science. So, how can the five tanmatras associated with the five ‘bhutas’ be any different?

Physicist and philosopher of science, Wolfgang Smith, in his renowned book discussing the impact of quantum mechanics on the philosophy of science explains that this should be seen in a qualitative manner. Then the ancient concept of ‘essences’ make sense and even help us understand the qualitative 'essence’ embedded in nature.:

And then in the footnote to this discussion he points out:

So, the tanmatras are important, on psychological-physical basis, in creating a participatory reality at the very fundamental level of the physical universe and in the psychological perception of that universe.

Perhaps it is because Swami Vivekananda was rooted in this worldview of participatory reality that he made an almost accurate futuristic assessment about the course the physical sciences would take - years before the advent of the ‘New Physics’:

With the sense-mind as the sugarcane bow and with the five tanmatras as the arrows of flowers, She manifests this participatory reality and the physical universe. One can note here that the entire process of the manifestation of the universe from subtle psy-physical matter to the universe is associated here with sugarcane and flower.

Abirami Anthathi (18th century) speaks of the Goddess as the one who ‘flowers the universe’. Physicist David Bohm uses the very same phrases to describe this view revealed by quantum processes. When philosopher Prof. Renée Weber queries if the evolution and existence of the universe should be seen as 'the creative play (Lila in Sanskrit) of the universe, where from its deep recesses it evolves different combinations', David Bohm answers in affirmative and says:

The deity who emerges from the bow is Mantrini . She is described in texts as the dark coloured Shyamala. She as Matangi has a tribal form. Her ear rings are made of dried palm leaves and she wears wild flowers. Being associated with music, the chariot she rides has seven layers and makes music as it moves. The deity who manifests from the arrows of tanmatras is Dandanatha who rides the kirichakra. Kiri is the wild boar. Either the chariot is boar shaped or it can be considered as pulled by the boars. This chariot is five layered. Later she kills Vsukra - the asura of inimical illumination. Mantrini carries veena the string musical instrument.

It is significant that in the manas-tanmatras association, a Goddess holding a string musical instrument emerges. The manas-tanmatras are central to the creation of participatory reality. In the evolution and existence of this reality, the importance of music cannot be understated. While in India this connection has not been explored much by modern scholars, it has revealed itself in another tradition and culture.

In the Western culture, the relation between music and physical universe has a long history. It is traced back to the idea of ‘music of spheres’ of Pythagoras (570-490 BCE). Pythagoras asserted that this is a music that could not be heard physically. Brian L Silver, in his acclaimed book on the history of both science and philosophy of science, sees in this 'an echo here of the ancient Hindu belief that, apart from audible sound, there was an 'unstruck sound' inaudible to man.' (‘Ascent of Science’, Oxford University Press, 2000).

In late sixteenth century, Johannes Kepler used the Pythagorean worldview and combined his 'geometric and mathematical reasoning' and arrived at the famous three laws of planetary motion. In 1950s and 1960s John Coltrane (1926-1967) the legend among the Jazz musicians of all times, combined in his music Einstein’s work and 'Eastern’ wisdom. It was only three years before his death that Coltrane could meet Pandit Ravi Shankar who had been performing regularly in the US since 1956. Nevertheless, Coltrane had started listening to Ravi Shankar and spoke of how his music moved him in 1961. Ravi Shankar taught him Indian music and musical concepts. On this, ethnomusicologist Carl Clements writes:

Stephon Alexander, a cosmological physicist and a saxophone musician, explores the connection between Coltrane’s music, his worldview influenced by the physics of Einstein, and then his (Stephon’s) own journey between the realms of physics and Jazz music. In his book on the subject he explains:

Physicist Michio Kaku, one of the co-founders of string-field theory, also explains how music provides a strong metaphor in understanding the physical reality at the very minute and the most macroscopic level:

In 1967, the very same year he died, John Coltrane gave a drawing of his musical scheme, a tone circle, to fellow saxophonist Yusef Lateef. It is now famous as the ‘Coltrane Mandala’. The Pentagram in the middle,  is associated with five elements in Western Pagan traditions. In Indic tradition, they are more well developed and complete principles of the tanmatras: psychological-physical tools in creating reality. A coincidence? Perhaps. With the caveat that the analogies and symbolism do not map one-to-one with the discoveries of science, it becomes clear why Mantrini , who emerges from the sugarcane bow of manas, carries in her hand the veena or the string instrument. Vibrations and harmonics are basic to the participatory physical reality in which we live.

Thus, the four names from eight to eleven make the Goddess the embodiment of the physical participatory musical universe we live in and also makes us meditate on Her further.

PS: Alice Coltrane (1937-2007) wife of John Coltrane became a Hindu and adapted the name Turiyasangitananda or Turiya Alice Coltrane. A gifted musician herself, she continued the work of her husband and took it forward. In fact, while her husband explored ‘Om’, the sound-symbol of consciousness through his music, Alice Coltrane changing her name to Turiyasangitananda points out how she internalised the nature of consciousness expressed in both Om and music. This name relates this great musician to the Mandukya Upanishad’s verse 12, which associates the fourth state of consciousness with Pranava itself and the name itself is number 262 in the Sri Lalita Sahasranama -Turiya.