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Devi Stuti · Sutra 6 of 23

Meeting the Shadow

ಛಾಯಾ · Chhaya. Guruji on the verse that bows to the Devi as the shadow.

ಯಾ ದೇವೀ ಸರ್ವಭೂತೇಷು ಛಾಯಾರೂಪೇಣ ಸಂಸ್ಥಿತಾ
ನಮಸ್ತಸ್ಯೈ ನಮಸ್ತಸ್ಯೈ ನಮಸ್ತಸ್ಯೈ ನಮೋ ನಮಃ

Yā devī sarvabhūteṣu chāyārūpeṇa saṃsthitā
Namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namaḥ

Read in

That Devi who abides in all beings in the form of shadow (of the

higher self): salutations to Her, again and again.

This Devi Shakti is present in every class of creature in the world in the form of shadow. To Her, salutations, salutations, salutations, every time salutations.

What is chhaya? The sutra says chhaya means shadow.

Shadow is a significant state. It can be seen in many conditions (appearance, shadow). It is not illusion.

Illusion (bhrame), hallucination (bhranti) and shadow (chhaya) each mean something different. A hallucination is what the eye does not actually see, while a shadow is something we do see. That is the difference between chhaya and bhranti.

A shadow appears in bright light. When bright light falls on the body, the body’s shadow appears and is seen.

But a shadow has no power of its own at its root. That such a state appears at all is a play of the Adi Shakti, a vast great power that is an extension of the Devi’s power.

It is said that this sutra’s beautiful word chhaya shows how receptive the Indian mind and its power of knowledge have been.

In India, knowledge, science and psychology were each made a part of our spiritual life. So knowledge, science and psychology must each work in their own way to evolve, and the growth of psychology must keep being carried forward.

From the psychological point of view we call this chhaya power the shadow (an image, a reflection).

Inside every person there is a shadow of good and bad. In every object you can clearly see another shadow.

Everyone can see such a shadow. In society, in the people around us, in our family, in animals and birds, in trees and plants, in everything, we keep seeing this shadow. Everyone accepts this.

What is the shadow? It is the feelings, longings and desires within us that our conscious mind does not accept. Out of guilt, desire, violence, lust and many other feelings, and through the many moral situations that confront us, these are pushed back by our structuring ego, away from our intuition, our inner feeling, our knowledge and that creative stream within us.

So they stay behind us, like a shadow.

Psychology has explained this at length in its many analyses of our dreams. Today, on social media, on the internet and in films, we keep seeing our own reflection, our shadow.

In films, television and TV serials we watch violence, creativity, sexuality, beauty, duet songs, fight sequences and so many other scenes. Music and the sound of instruments, even without words, can bring out many feelings and project our own reflection as a shadow.

So in everything you can see some reflection of yourself.

That is why every person is filled with dualities throughout life (a projected personality and a shadow personality).

Even this shadow personality, filled with darkness, is the Devi’s power. So do not be frightened when you see it. Do not run away and do not fear it. Watch it calmly, and while watching, accept it. The Devi will protect us.

Modern psychology, to untangle the many reflected confusions inside the human mind, began shadow work and the shadow concept, along with psychoanalytic methods and dream work. Writing down the confusions and dualities of the mind and keeping a diary, psychology says, helps to untangle and remove the many dualities and confusions stored like shadows in the unconscious.

Not everyone may understand such things. Yet creating these dualities and confusions is also a form of the Adi Shakti. When we watch these states, we see that this too is the play of the Devi’s power.

Chit Shakti Vikasa: the unfolding of the power of consciousness

The play of the primordial force. This is the power that has come from beginningless time, the original nature, which is called Paramatma. Every form created by this beginningless power is the nature of that power, or Paramatma.

For example: space, life, time, the present, and the continuum of unending movement. This infinitely capable power acts on the interactions between particles and shapes the power of wholeness that keeps everything evolving. This is the Adi Shakti, Paramatma, Shiva: the play of the primordial force. Time, space, continuum, life and the present.

The play of consciousness. This is chit shakti, the individual soul (jivatma), the true kundalini, the dancing of kundalini.

I am the awareness that plays and experiences in many forms through body, mind, knowledge, feelings and the knowing of the soul.

Through my body I receive sensations, through my feelings I experience, through my mind I think.

I act according to my needs and values. My sensations, feelings, thoughts and values may change, but my existence does not, because my existence is experiencing all this as a witness.

Based on the values I hold, I can choose actions and steps that make me awake.

In this way I can know my own awareness as it experiences the drama of life, and I can know my life as something I watch continuously, like a film on a screen.

Behind all these experiences of form, my awareness stays awake, always and continuously conscious.

This is my eternal, true reality. Everything else is only drama.

I am the one who watches this drama. I am the one who chooses to watch it. I can take on whatever roles I wish to experience, and watch and enjoy the play.

In my awareness I have this immense choice and freedom. So I am the truth; I am the jivatma.

Why waste time keeping such an immortal soul in a cage?

You are not a small spark of consciousness. You are the power of the primal being, of Paramatma.

So come out of your dualities.

Be free of worries and anxieties, receive the knowledge of that power, and gain immense peace and serenity. When this is understood, every person is released from the burden of guilt and becomes free.

Contemplate this great awareness. The wheel of time keeps turning, and in it pain and joy are mixed.

Each person perceives it differently. Life is inherently uncertain and unpredictable. It keeps transforming as it evolves, and over the turning of time every kind of event changes.

Arriving, moving on, departing: life rolls on like the wheels of a cart. We can witness this in the daily experience of life and death, gain and loss, day and night, the changing seasons, and the growth, passing and death of plants, animals and people. Through all these transitions there is one thing that never changes: my awake awareness (consciousness).

It is always steady, at all times. So finding that stillness, staying awake and knowing that awareness continuously is my true state (jivatma), the play of consciousness.

When this is rightly understood, every person is released from the burden of guilt and becomes free.

To that Adi Shakti, who has filled the shadow with the greatness of the Devi’s power, our salutations.

Translated from Guruji’s Kannada notes on this sutra. The Devi Stuti talks are on the Spiritual Conscious YouTube channel. All 23 sutras are also in a free book, The Devi Within (PDF).

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