Bhashya
र्घा वा प्लुता वेति ।यदि ह्रस्वा भवति सर्वं पाप्मानं दहत्यमृतत्वं च गच्छति यदि दीर्घा भवति महतीं श्रियमाप्नुयादमृतत्वं च गच्छति यदि प्लुता भवति ज्ञानवान्भवत्यमृतत्वं च गच्छति तदेतदृषिणोक्तं निदर्शनम्— सईं पाहि य ऋजीषी तरुतः श्रियं लक्ष्मीमौपलाम्बिकां गां षष्ठीं च यामिन्द्रसेनेत्युत आहुस्तां विद्यां ब्रह्मयोनिं सरूपां तामिहायुषे शरणं प्रपद्ये ।सर्वेषां वा एतद्भूतानामाकाशः परायणं सर्वाणि ह वा इमानि भूतान्याकाशादेव जायन्ते ।आकाशादेव जातानि जीवन्त्याकाशं प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्ति तस्मादाकाशं बीजं विद्यात्तदेतदृषिणोक्तं निदर्शनम्— हँसः शुचिषद्वसुरन्तरिक्षसद्धोता वेदिषदतिथिर्दुरोणसत् ।नृषद्वरसदृतसद्व्योमस-क्ष्यमाणं निदर्शनमुदाहरणम् ऋषिणोक्तं सईमिति ।साकार-व्यञ्जनात् पृथक्करणं सबिन्दुकस्य स्वरस्य ।अतः सबिन्दुके स्वरेह्रस्वादिसंबन्धो मायाबुद्धयोपासनं च ।सईमिति समासःसकारश्च ई च सईम् ।तस्याः संबोधने ईमिति निपात-त्वाददोषः ।हे सई सबिन्दुकस्वर त्वदालम्बनेन एता.वक्ष्यमाणाः शक्तीः उपासिताः पाहि रक्ष ।यद्वा स इतिव्यस्तं यत्तदोर्नित्यसंबन्धः ।य ऋजीषी ऋजुभावेच्छुःतरुत्रः तरणशील., स ई शक्तिं सबिन्दुकं स्वरं श्रियादि-बुद्धयोपासितं पाः पालितवान् ।पा पालने ।पालकाधीन-त्वात्पालनीयशक्तेः ।हीति निश्चितम् ।सबिन्दुकस्वराल-म्बनत्वेनोपास्याः तव व्यूहसंबन्धिनीः शक्तीराह — श्रियंविष्णुशक्तिं पाः पालितवान् ।यद्वा पाहि ।एवमुत्तरत्रापिद्विधा संबन्धः ।लक्ष्मीं नृसिंहशक्तिम् , औपलामम्बिकांगौरीं महेश्वरशक्तिम् , गां सरस्वतीं ब्रह्मशक्तिम् , षष्ठीं चस्कन्दशक्तिम् , यामिन्द्रसेनेत्याहुः तामिन्द्रशक्तिमिन्द्राणीम् ,विद्याम् ईश्वरशक्तिम् , ब्रह्मयोनिं ब्रह्मावाप्त्यै कारणभूतां सरूपांसाकारां तां तां शक्तिम् इह सबिन्दुके स्वरे आयुषे उपा-सनानुकूलायुरभिवर्धनाय शरणं प्रविशामि ।एवं शक्त्यक्षर-निर्णयं तदाश्रितां सप्तविधशक्त्युपासनां दीर्घादिमात्रोपास-नां सफलामभिधाय अथेदानीं बीजाक्षरनिर्णयं तदाश्रितां सफलां च उपासनाम् अभिधातुं तन्निर्णयमाह-- सर्वेषां वा इत्याद्यभिसंविशन्तीत्यन्तं स्पष्टार्थम् ।आकाशशब्दो हकारं वक्ति ।सर्वागमशास्त्रप्रसिद्धे. आगमरूपोपनिषत्प्रसिद्धेश्च ।यस्मादेवं तस्मादाकाशशब्दवाच्यं हकारं बीजं विद्यात् ।बीजं निदानं मूलकारणं तद्बुद्धयोपासीत तद्वाचकं वा निपातरूपेण ।स च अयं वाच्यवाचकसंबन्धो लोकेऽप्रसिद्ध इति मन्त्रागमशास्त्रैकगम्यम् ।एवं शक्त्यक्षरमपि शक्तिवाचकत्वाच्छक्तिः तद्बुद्धयोपास्यत्वाद्वा ।शक्तिबीजयोस्तद्बुद्धयोपास्यत्वं तद्वाचकत्वादेवेति रहस्यम् ।यथा प्रणवाक्षरं ब्रह्मवाचकत्वाद्ब्रह्मबुद्धयोपास्यमभूत् तद्वच्छक्तिबीजम्; तच्च सस्वरं व्यञ्जनमात्रं वेति संदेहः, तद्व्यावृत्त्यर्थमाह-- तदेतत् ऋषिणोक्तं निदर्शनम् ।तच्चोक्तार्थम् ।हंसः परमात्मा ।हं मूलकारणं सद्बृहत् ।यद्वा सकारेण संबद्धमजपागायत्रीरूपेण वर्तमानं नासिकापुटाभ्यां निःसृतं ब्राह्मणस्त्रीशूद्राद्यधिकारतया वर्तमानं संकल्पादेव फलदं परमात्मवाचकं स इति ।हंसः परमात्मा वक्ष्यमाणं सर्वमभूदिति वाक्यशेषः ।शुचौ बुद्धौ सीदतीति शुचिषत् ।हंस एव वसुः देवः ।स एवान्तरिक्षे सीदतीत्यन्तरिक्षसत् ।बृहत् बृंहणत्वादन्तरिक्षा-द्रष्टव्यं सामर्थ्यात् ।परमात्मवाचकमथर्वणर्चि द्वितीयं हंसर्चि प्रथमं यत्पठितं तदित्येवं स्तुतिमन्त्रेषु सर्वेषु चतुर्थ- पादे नृकारं सकारं विहाय यच्छिष्टमक्षरद्वयं यथापठितं तच्छक्तिबीजमिति तत्त्वं रहस्यं च इति शक्तिबीजाक्षर- निर्णयः ॥
In plain words
Continuing on: '...or long, or drawn out.' Say it short, and it burns away every sin, and you reach immortality. Say it long, and you gain great abundance, and you reach immortality. Draw it out, and you become full of knowledge, and you reach immortality. Here is the sage's own illustration of this: 'Protect this syllable, sī — you who are upright, you who deliver — protect it together with Śrī, Lakṣmī, Aupalāmbikā, the cow, Ṣaṣṭhī, and the one people also call Indrasenā; that power of knowledge, the very womb of Brahman, clothed in form — here, for long life, I take refuge in it. Of everything that exists, space is the final home. Every single being here is born from space alone. Born from space, they live by space; they move toward space and dissolve back into it. So know space itself as the seed.' And here is a further illustration from the sage: 'The Haṃsa, seated in purity, a shining one seated in mid-air, the priest who calls seated on the altar, a guest seated in the house, seated among men, seated in what is finest, seated in truth, seated in the sky...' — and there the quoted verse breaks off at the page boundary. 'The illustration still to come' — 'illustration' here just means 'example'; and 'stated by the sage' points back to the syllable 'sī'. What is happening grammatically is that the nasalized vowel gets pulled apart from the consonant carrying it — which is exactly why that nasal vowel can carry the short/long/drawn-out distinctions and be meditated on as Māyā. 'Sī' is simply 's' plus 'ī' fused together; and in the vocative, reading it as 'īm' works fine because it is treated as an indeclinable particle — no grammatical problem there. 'O sī, nasal vowel — resting on you, these powers about to be named, once they are meditated on, protect them, guard them!' Or, reading 'sa' as its own word, there is that timeless bond between 'which' and 'that'. 'Upright' simply means wanting straightforwardness; 'a deliverer' means someone whose nature is to rescue. 'Sa īm' means: he has protected the power — the nasal vowel — meditated on as Śrī and the rest. The root 'pā' just means 'protect,' because whatever needs protecting depends on its protector. 'Hi' simply means 'certainly.' Resting on the nasal vowel, the powers tied to your array are to be meditated on — and the text now names them: 'You have protected Śrī, the power of Viṣṇu.' Or, read the other way, 'protect!' From here on, every phrase works in exactly this double way: 'Lakṣmī' is Nṛsiṃha's own power; 'Aupalāmbikā' is Gaurī, Maheśvara's power; 'the cow' is Sarasvatī, Brahmā's power; 'Ṣaṣṭhī' is Skanda's power; and the one called 'Indrasenā' is Indrāṇī, Indra's power; 'Vidyā' is Īśvara's power; 'the womb of Brahman' is what makes reaching Brahman possible, clothed in shape and form — I take refuge in each of these powers, right here in the nasal vowel, for a long life — for a lifespan that supports this very meditation. So, having now laid out the power-syllable, its sevenfold meditation, and the meditation on vowel-length together with its fruit, we turn to the seed-syllable — its determination, its meditation, and its fruit — and here is how that is settled: the passage from 'of all beings...' to '...merge into it' speaks for itself. The word 'space' points to the letter 'h' — that much is settled doctrine across every Āgama text and every Āgama-style Upaniṣad. So, know that same letter 'h' — the one 'space' points to — as the seed. 'Seed' means the origin, the root cause; meditate on it with that thought, or on the little grammatical particle that names it. This link between a name and what it names isn't something ordinary language recognizes — only the mantra-Āgama tradition can teach you that. In just the same way, the power-syllable is called 'Śakti' either because it names Śakti, or because it is meditated on with that thought. Both the power-syllable and the seed-syllable get meditated on with that thought for exactly one reason — because they name it. That's the secret. Just as the syllable Om came to be meditated on as Brahman because it names Brahman, the seed of power works the same way — but there's a real question whether it's a full syllable with a vowel or just a bare consonant. To settle that, the text says: 'This is the sage's own illustration' — and that phrase already carries its meaning from before. 'Haṃsa' means the Supreme Self. 'Haṃ' is the root cause, being itself, the vast one. Or, taken another way, the syllable bound to the letter 's,' living as the natural breath-mantra so'ham, flowing out with every breath through the nostrils, open equally to priest, woman, and worker alike, bearing fruit the moment it is intended — that names the Supreme Self, 'he.' 'Haṃsa is the Supreme Self' — and became everything about to be described — the rest of that sentence is simply understood. Someone seated in pure awareness — that is why he is 'śuciṣat.' The Haṃsa himself is a shining god. He himself, seated in mid-air — that is why 'antarikṣasat.' 'Vast' — because he expands out from mid-air, as the context makes clear. The word for the Supreme Self comes second in the Atharvan verse but first in the Haṃsa verse — and on that basis, across every single praise-mantra, in its fourth line, once you drop the letters 'n' and 's,' whatever two syllables are left, exactly as chanted, are the seed of power. That is the truth of it, and that is the secret. And that is how the seed-syllable of power is determined.
Close to the Sanskrit
[Continuing:] '...or long, or prolated.' If it is short, it burns away all sin and one attains immortality. If it is long, one would obtain great prosperity and attain immortality. If it is prolated, one becomes possessed of knowledge and attains immortality. This is the illustration stated by the sage regarding it — 'Protect this [syllable] 'sī', O upright one, O deliverer — together with Śrī, Lakṣmī, Aupalāmbikā, the cow, Ṣaṣṭhī, and her whom they also call Indrasenā; that knowledge-power which is the womb of Brahman, possessing form — here, for the sake of long life, I take refuge [in it]. Of all these beings, indeed, space (ākāśa) is the final resort. All these beings, indeed, are born from space alone. Having been born from space alone, they live; they go toward space and merge back into it. Therefore one should know space as the seed(-syllable).' This too is the illustration stated by the sage — 'The Haṃsa, abiding in the pure, a Vasu, abiding in the intermediate space, the invoking priest, abiding on the altar, a guest, abiding in the house, abiding among men, abiding in the choicest place, abiding in truth, abiding in the sky...' [the quoted verse is cut short at the page boundary]. 'The illustration about to be given' — 'nidarśana' [is glossed as] 'example'; and 'stated by the sage' refers to [the syllable] 'sīm'. The separating-out of the nasalized vowel from the form-bearing consonant [that precedes it] — hence, in the case of the nasalized vowel, there is a connection with [the distinctions] short and so on, and meditation with the notion of Māyā. 'Sīm' is a compound: 's' and 'ī' combine to give 'sīm'; in its vocative, [the reading] 'īm' is [taken as] an indeclinable particle — hence there is no fault [in this analysis]. 'O sī, nasalized vowel! By resting upon you, these powers about to be described, once meditated upon, protect them, guard them!' Or alternatively, [reading] 'sa' as a distinct word — there is an eternal correlation between 'which' and 'that'. 'Who is upright' means one desirous of straightforwardness; 'a deliverer' means one of a saving disposition. 'Sa īm' means: he has protected the power, [namely] the nasalized vowel, meditated upon with the notion of Śrī and the rest. The root 'pā' means 'to protect' — because the power to be protected is dependent on its protector. 'Hi' means 'certainly'. By resting on the nasalized vowel, the powers connected with your array are to be meditated upon — the text now names them: 'You have protected Śrī, the power of Viṣṇu.' Or alternatively, [read as] 'protect!'. In the same way, further on too, each phrase construes two ways: 'Lakṣmī' is the power of Nṛsiṃha; 'Aupalāmbikā' is Gaurī, the power of Maheśvara; 'the cow' is Sarasvatī, the power of Brahmā; 'Ṣaṣṭhī' is the power of Skanda; and the one they call 'Indrasenā' is Indrāṇī, the power of Indra; 'Vidyā' is the power of Īśvara; 'the womb of Brahman' is the causal condition for attaining Brahman, possessing form and shape — I take refuge in each of these powers, here in the nasalized vowel, for long life — for the increase of a lifespan favorable to this meditation. Thus, having stated the determination of the power-syllable, the sevenfold meditation on power dependent on it, and the meditation on vowel-length together with its fruit — now, in order to state the determination of the seed-syllable, and the meditation dependent on it together with its fruit, [the text] gives its determination: the passage beginning 'of all [beings]...' and ending '...they merge into it' has a clear, self-evident meaning. The word 'ākāśa' denotes the letter 'h' — because this is well-established in all the Āgama-treatises, and also well-established in the Āgama-form Upaniṣad. Since this is so, therefore one should know the letter 'h', denoted by the word 'ākāśa', as the seed(-syllable). 'Seed' means the origin, the root-cause; one should meditate on it with that notion, or alternatively on its denoting-word in the form of a [grammatical] particle. And this very relation of denoted-and-denoter is not established in ordinary usage — it is knowable only through the mantra-Āgama tradition. In the same way, the power-syllable too is called 'Śakti' either because it denotes Śakti, or because it is to be meditated upon with that notion. The being-meditated-upon of both the power- and seed-syllable is precisely due to their denoting [Śakti/the root-cause] — this is the secret. Just as the syllable Om, because it denotes Brahman, came to be meditated upon with the notion of Brahman, so too is the seed of power; but there is a doubt whether it is a full vowel-bearing syllable or a mere consonant — to remove that doubt, [the text] states: 'This is the illustration stated by the sage' — and this has an already-stated meaning [to be supplied]. 'Haṃsa' [means] the Supreme Self. 'Haṃ' [means] the root-cause, the existent, the vast [Brahman]. Or alternatively, [the syllable] joined with the letter 's', existing as the natural Ajapā-Gāyatrī [breath-mantra 'so'ham'], issuing from the two nostrils, open to Brāhmaṇa, woman, Śūdra and all alike, giving its fruit by mere intention — denotes the Supreme Self, [namely] 'sa' [he]. 'Haṃsa is the Supreme Self' — and it became all that is about to be stated: this is the remainder of the sentence to be mentally supplied. 'He who abides in the pure intellect' — hence 'śuciṣat'. The Haṃsa himself is a Vasu, a god. He himself, abiding in the intermediate space — hence 'antarikṣasat'. 'Bṛhat' (vast) — because of expanding/pervading from the intermediate space, this is to be inferred from context. The word denoting the Supreme Self is recited second in the Atharvan verse, [but] first in the Haṃsa verse — that being so, in all the praise-mantras, in every one, in the fourth quarter-verse, having discarded the letter 'n' and the letter 's', whatever pair of syllables remains, as it stands recited, is the seed of power — this is the truth and the secret of it. Thus [ends] the determination of the seed-syllable of power.