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Matrika (the power of sound inherent in the letters of the alphabet)is the source of limited knowledge.Shiva Sutra 1.4

When Parashakti - who is also called Citi Bhagavati, the universal Consciousness- limits Herself, She manifests in the form of matrika, the group of letters, or sound-syllables. Matrika is the cause of one's pain and pleasure. all the thoughts and feelings that arise in the mind - happiness and unhappiness, desire, agitation, love, expectation, and jealousy - are the work of matrika. Neither language, nor terminology, nor poetry, nor scriptures, nor words of praise and blamecan pass beyond the world of letters.

Matrika arises from the heart, from the inner speech. There are four levels of speech corresponding to the four bodies. Everyone is aware of the speech of the tongue. It is called vaikhari and corresponds to the gross body. With the subtleintellect, one can also know the second level of speech, which is in the throat.There, words have taken form but have not yet emerged. This level is called madhyamah and corresponds to the subtle body. At a deeper level, words exist in theheart. This is the third level of speech, pashyanti, which corresponds to the causal body. Here, words are hidden, and what arises at this level is matrika. Beneath this level, parah, which corresponds to the supracausal body. Some say that parah is in the navel region, but in actuality this subtlest level of speech pervades everywhere. Since it is all-pervading, it can be known anywhere. Matrikahas its source in the parah level.

Letters combine to form a word - for example, m-a-n-g-o becomes mango. Each wordhas its own meaning, the meaning creates its own image, and that image has itsown feeling.

Whenever an image is created in the mind, one experiences an emotion, whether itis happiness or unhappiness, friendship or enmity. For example, if I call someone a fool, the letters come together and compose words, the words compose a sentence, the sentence has it's own meaning and the meaning creates it's own image.When I utter a sentence "That girl is a fool," it strikes her, and a painful andangry feeling arises in her mind.

Matrika creates infinite images. If one doesn't identify with the images or thei

r objects, one doesn't experience suffering.

Matrika is the source, not only of our pleasure and pain but of this entire universe. This world has arisen from the sound-syllables of the Sanskrit alphabet, which are nothing but matrika. Just as it creates the outer world, matrika creates infinite inner worlds. Different feelings arise in the heart, and the individual soul keeps moving among these feelings throughout it's life, experiencing pain and pleasure. Day and night, the matrika shakti creates these things within us. Even when we sleep, it doesn't sleep. It is alive even in the savikalpa stateof samadhi, the samadhi with thought. It dies only when one attains the state ofthoughtlessness, nirvikalpa samadhi.

Matrika is the source of the three malas, the impurities that cause knowledge to

become contracted. Due to anavamala, one feels imperfect; due to mayiyamala, one becomes lost in duality; and due to karmayamala, one becomes caught up in thefruit of one's good and bad actions. Instead of understanding that one is the Self, one understands oneself to be a mere human being. One feels, "I am a man," "I am a priest," "I am a woman," "I am thin," and in this way, one makes oneselfsmall. In the inner space, matrika shakti creates letters and one experiences them. One begins to dwell in them, one becomes infatuated with them, and as a result, one performs actions in this world. This is worldliness.

However, just as matrika helps us to contract, it also helps us to expand oursel

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ves. The moment one understands the matrika shakti and its work, one is no longer a human being. When the matrika shakti expands within, in this very body, onebecomes Shiva.

Sit quietly and watch the play of matrika shakti. Watch how the matrika gives rise to letters, how the letters compose words, how the meaning of the words compose images in the mind; watch how you become involved in these images.

The yogi pursues matrika shakti; he watches it and makes it steady. He brings itunder his control, he manipulates it any way he likes. He turns evil thoughts into good thoughts. The matrika shakti works according to his will. Such a yogi is called a conqueror of the senses.

One who understands the play of matrika shakti and makes it still rises above pain and pleasure. One cannot attain peace as long as he is driven by the play ofmatrika shakti. For this reason, one has to practice yoga. Through yoga, the movements of the mind are stilled and the power of matrika is overcome.

An exerpt from the Shiva Sutras 'Nothing Exists That Is Not Siva'