Sublime

Devipuram—“The Goddess’s Abode”—the temple complex that Guruji had spent more than three decades building up from almost nothing in the rural wilds of eastern India.

Cliff arrived at Devipuram toting a small, pyramidal Sri Meru he had ordered by mail from Devipuram five years earlier.16 One day he brought the Meru to Guruji for his blessing. Handing it back afterward, Guruji told him, “This is for your healing.”

The Śrīvidyā Mantra Traditionally, the Śrīvidyā lineages, rituals and texts were distinguished by three matas12—kādi, hādi, and sādi.13 They are named so based on the root of the Pañcadaśi, where the mantra begins with the syllables ka, ha, or sa.

Hādividya was precepted by Lopāmudrā, Agastya’s illustrious wife. The Yoginīhṛdaya and the Khadgamāla Stotra are examples of Hādividya texts.

Parvati stands there unmoving, deep in meditation on the mantra, “Om namah shivaya.”

The first forty one are dealing with the Mantra, Yantra, and the other partly philosophical and partly ritualistic ideologies of the Śākta cult as also with the mysteries of Kuṇḍalinī Yoga. This portion is called Ānandalaharī, the Flood of Bliss. The fifty-nine verses that follow give a description of the form of the Devī utilising most of the figu