EL PROYECTO EVA

"Kubjika" is the feminine form of the Sanskrit word "Kubja" which literally means "humped-back" or "crooked." Even so, although the Tantras of the Kubjika school describe many forms in which the goddess can be visualized, she is not commonly represented as bent over. It has been suggested, in order to account for this fact, that "Kubja"is a word of Munda origin200 that does not originally mean "crooked." The Tantras do not, however, support this contention. Thus we find that Kubjika is also called "Vakresvarl, "Vakrika or Vakra because, as the Tantras explain, her limbs are crooked (vakra).201 Of her three principal forms as a girl (Bala), young woman (Kumari) and old woman (Vrddha), it is the last which, as one would expect, is associated with her crooked form.202 Perhaps this image of her as old and deformed is the reason why she is also called "Khanjani" which means literally "she who walks with a limp."203 A myth recorded in the KRU that explains why she is bent over does not, however, relate this to herage.204 The story goes that Kubjika once sat with devotion to worship the union of the god with the goddess. The god then appeared to her and took hold of her hand as a prelude to union but she, overcome with apprehension and bashfulness, contracted her body, and so became 'Kubjika'. As such, she is equated with Kundalini who, when awakened,

Kubjika ₈₉

becomes bent over with 'shame'.205 Again, Kubjika's crooked form relates to her nature as Kundalinl who is the matrix (yoni) or Triangle (srgata) from which creation pours forth and in which it resides. As such, she is bent over, not when awakening but when she is dormant, and the power of consciousness (cicchakti) is contracted, which is as one would expect, and is in fact usually the case in representations of Kundalinl. From this point of view, consciousness is 'straight', i.e., unconditioned when it is free of 'crooked' obscuring thought-constructs.206 From another point of view, Kubjika is said to be crooked because she must contract her limbs to reside in the body of Kulesvara just as someone whose body is large must stoop down when moving about in a small hut.207 While according to the

Paratantra, she is bent over because she initially 'churns' her navel with

her tongue to give birth to the universe within her womb.208 This is because, as the CMSS explains, the navel is the Great Matrix (mahayoni) from which Kundalini rises. Thus in this account Kubjika is bent over in order to stimulate her cosmic power which, rising through the body, leads the yogi to liberation.209

Kubjika is the Supreme Goddess (Para devi) where form is the divine light of consciousness that shines in the centre of the brilliant radiance enlightened yogis perceive.210 As such, she is the Great Mother they experience within themselves.211 As Kundalini she is pure bliss, the power of the Light which resides in all the six centres in the body (cakra) and so is of six forms.212 As the power of consciousness she is the source of all Mantras and as such has three aspects: Supreme (Para), Middling

(Parapara) and Inferior (Apara). In this three-fold form she is, just as in

Trika doctrine, Malini213 consisting of the fifty letters of the alphabet in a

state of disorder, symbolizing the rising of Kundalini and the disruption of the cosmic order that takes place when it is reabsorbed into the Supreme Matrix (parayoni) - the goddess Kubjika - from whence it was originally emitted. At this level the goddess resides in the state which is Beyond Mind

(unmanabhavatita) as Siva's divine power (sambhavasakii) to will, know

and act. She has thus three forms (trirupa) and travels along the three paths (tripathaga)214 of the sides of the triangle of the organ of generation

(bhaga) which is both the source and ultimate end of all creation.215 At the corners of this triangle are located the Mahapithas: Purnagiri, Jalandhara and Kamarupa. In the centre is Odiyanapitha where the goddess resides in union with the divine linga whose nature is bliss itself and whose seed

(bindu) is the Sky of Consciousness.216 In the centre Akula and Kula unite, while the goddess, as Rudra's power (rudrasakti), pervades each part of the triangle and lords over it as the Mistress of Kula (Kulesvari) who is also called Mahakaulika and Bhairavi.217

90 THE KAULA TANTRAS

centre of this triangle is as a tamarind tree: Cincini. Thus it refers to the doctrine of the Kubjikatantras as Cincinisastra.218 The abode of this

doctrine is the Circle of the Divine Transmission (divyaughamandala), higher than that of the Transmission of the Perfected Ones and of Men

(Siddha and Manavaugha).219 It is under this Tamarind Tree that

Cincininatha (alias Vrksanatha) attained, by divine command, the highest state.220 This tree is the tree of the light of consciousness (cincinicit-

prakasa) brought into this world by Siddhanatha221 who planted it on the Island of the Moon (candradvipa) which is in the Great Ocean of Kula. The roots of this Tree and its branches are extensive and it bears the fruits of the Divine Transmission. It is Kaula rooted in Kula and flourishes in Siva's Circle. The juice of this tree is one's own nature (svasvabhava); its young sprouts are the Vedas and Vedangas; its flowers are the senses, and the divine fount which waters it is the delight of consciousness, its inner glory.222 To lie in its shade is to experience the highest state of rest

(visranti) in which one is free of the opposites of pleasure and pain.