Kahnapa Song Paṭaha Mañjari: Hidden Yogic Meaning
Story behind this song
This is Kanhapa's song. The title of this song is Paṭaha Mañjari [པ་ཊ་ཧ་མཉྗ་རི/རྔའི་ཚོགས་པ་], which means 'cluster of drums'. It is from Charyapada's collection of Mahasiddha songs [popular in Bengal and Orissa]. Kanhapa is also known as Krishnacharyavrata. According to the Tibetan text, Kanha was born in Orissa [Odda Visaya] into a Vaishya family. He first saw Mahasiddha yogini Lakhsminkara [Crazy princess] in a forest when he was a young boy tending a cow. As he grew older he decided to travel to Uddiyana. On his way he met Yogini Lakhminkara again. She advised him to go to a place called Jalandhara, where he would meet Mahasiddha Jalandhara, who was dressed as a Hadipa. After some time his guru Jalandhara told him to go to Uddiyana. At Uddiyana he received the teachings of Chakrasamvara from the community of dakinis and yoginis. He returned to his guru Jalandhara with 'six bone ornaments' consecrated by 'dakini hands', but he used the six bone ornaments to fly to Jalandhara against the advice of his guru and dakini.
Kanha had a longing to do yogic-ascetic wandering practice [vratacaryā] in the twenty-four holy places. So he asked his guru for permission. Guru Jalandhara replied, 'To do yogic-ascetic wandering practice, you should have miraculous power. Show me what miraculous power you have so far. Then Kanha demonstrated some of his magical powers, such as paralysing/freezing the man-eating tigress like a tree with a threatening gesture of his finger. He plucked a ripe fruit with his gaze and offered it to his guru. Jalandhara replied, 'What is control of the vital air and mind, and what is optical illusion? These are not examples of magic power. It is simply the work of the consciousness when the vital air of the right channel becomes pliable. Since you should also gain control over the left channel vital air, this is the action of wisdom. You should work on it. Having said this, he snapped his fingers and the tigress and the fruit returned to their places. When Kanha realised that there was an imbalance in the movement of the vital air in his right and left channels, he became sad and sang this song called ‘Cluster of drums’.
Notes:
The above story is taken from 'Life Story of Kanha or Krishnacharyavrata' in the collected works of Jonang Kunga Drolchog (16th century).
In this post I have also added a Bengali song of Kanhapa with an English translation by Tanvir Ratul.
In the Tibetan text, the Indian language Ali and Kali are translated as Bhairava and Kalratri. Bhairava and Kalratri are usually seen under the feet of Chinnamasta Devi. Kanha seems to have a connection with the Chinnamasta Devi.
The three poisons are usually known in Buddhism as desire, hatred and ignorance. In Vajrayana dzogrim practice, however, they are called rajas [rdul, moving through the right channel], sattva [snying stobs, moving through the left channel] and tamas [mun pa, moving through the central channel].
Kanha also received the teachings of ‘Straightening the crooked nadi, vayu and bindu’ from Immorta Uccita, whose teacher was Lord Shiva.
Words in brackets are mine.
Kahnapa Song Paṭaha Mañjari
།འཇིགས་བྱེད་དུས་མཚན་མ་ཡིས་ལམ་ནི་བཀག །དེ་མཐོང་ཀཱཧྞ་སེམས་ནི་རྣམ་མི་དགའ། །ཀཱཧྞས་གང་དུ་ཕྱིན་ནས་གནས་འཆའ་བྱེད། །ཡིད་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་གང་དེ་བཏང་སྙོམས་འདུག །གསུམ་གསུམ་གསུམ་པ་གསུམ་ཀྱང་སོ་སོར་འདུག །ཀཱཧྞས་སྨྲས་པ་སྲིད་པ་ཡོངས་སུ་གཅོད། །གང་དང་གང་བྱུང་དེ་དང་དེ་ཡང་སོང་། །བདག་ཉིད་འོངས་ནས་ཀཱཧྞ་ཡིད་མི་བདེ། །འདི་ནི་ཀཱཧྞ་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཕོ་བྲང་ཉེ། །ཀཱཧྞས་སྨྲས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་སྙིང་མི་འཇུག།
Taranatha’s Explanation of the song
I.
།འཇིགས་བྱེད་དུས་མཚན་མ་ཡིས་ལམ་ནི་བཀག། །དེ་མཐོང་ཀཱཧྞ་སེམས་ནི་རྣམ་མི་དགའ།When Kanha sees that Bhairava and Kalratri [the right and left channels] are blocking the path [the central channel], his heart becomes displeased.
Meaning
'Jigs byed [Bhairava] and Dus mtshan ma [kalratri] are also known in Indian languages as ālī and kālī, names for Shiva and Uma respectively. ālī and kālī also refers to vowels and consonants, and also the left channel [rkyang ma] and right channel [ro ma].
Because the left and right channels [ālī and kālī] block the central channel, [the subtle air moving through the right and left channels] evokes the image of the external grasped object and the internal mental conceptual thought [dualistic mind]. When Kahna sees their [image of external objects and internal mental conceptual thoughts] lack of real existence, Kanha becomes displeased with the appearances [of the dualistic mind].
II.
།ཀཱཧྞས་གང་དུ་ཕྱིན་ནས་གནས་འཆའ་བྱེད། །ཡིད་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་གང་དེ་བཏང་སྙོམས་འདུག།Where does Kanha [the mind of Kanha] go and where does it settle down? It remains effortlessly over all phenomena.
Meaning
In the past, Kanha's mind rode on the wind-horse [vital air]. Now that the movement of the vital air through the right and left channels has ceased, and the mind has no rides, [it asks] where does Kanha [the mind of Kanha] go and where does it settle? This shows that it doesn't go and doesn't settle anywhere, because what really goes is the vital air, and it has ceased, and the efficacy of the right and left channels is diminished. The answer to the question of where his mind settles is that it remains equanimous, that is, effortless, on the nature of the objects of mind, which are all phenomena. It means, as the the path of central channel being blocked by the right and left channels, and the fundamental nature of the [dual] right channel [subject] and left channel [object] being emptiness that is devoid of thought construct. When he settles his mind on the emptiness [as water upon water], the subject-object fixation disperse in the expanse of space. At that moment, the vital air of the right and left channels also disperse in the expanse [of central channel]. This opens up the path of central channel, and the movement of vital air and the mind ceases. So, it says, his mind remains in Samatā [equality].
III.
།གསུམ་གསུམ་གསུམ་པ་གསུམ་ཀྱང་སོ་སོར་འདུག །ཀཱཧྞས་སྨྲས་པ་སྲིད་པ་ཡོངས་སུ་གཅོད། །གང་དང་གང་བྱུང་དེ་དང་དེ་ཡང་སོང་།All the three sets of three [three poisons: rajas, sattva and tamas; three movements of air: coming in, staying and going out; and three conceptual thoughts of body, speech and mind] also abide [as if dissolved in emptiness]. As Kanha says, I have completely cut off [the false appearances of] samsara. Wherever [existence, the three worlds] comes from [emptiness], it returns [to emptiness].
Meaning
The three channels are restrained by restraining the triad of sense consciousness, space and the vital air. When the three channels are restrained, the three poisons [rajas, tamas and sattva] are restrained, the triad movement of air coming in, staying in and going out is restrained, and the triad conceptual thoughts of body, speech and mind are restrained. [so the first line says], each of these three sets of three also abides as if dissolved in the emptiness. Because Kanha says, he has severed all the false appearances of the three worlds.
IV.
།བདག་ཉིད་འོངས་ནས་ཀཱཧྞ་ཡིད་མི་བདེ། །འདི་ནི་ཀཱཧྞ་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཕོ་བྲང་ཉེ། །ཀཱཧྞས་སྨྲས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་སྙིང་མི་འཇུག།When the essence [of mind, great bliss] comes, Kanha's heart becomes displeased [with conventional things]. Kanha is not far from the royal palace [of great bliss]. [Although] I, Kanha, say this [which is inexpressible]. [Although my conceptual mind thinks this], it does not enter Kanha's heart.
Meaning
When great bliss, the nature of the essence of mind, arises, Kanhapa becomes displeased with superficial, conventional things. Because of the power of intrinsic awareness [mind], it transcends them. By abiding in this sky yoga, Kanhapa is close to the royal palace of great bliss. Although I, Kanha, speak of it as such, it is inexpressible. My conceptual mind thinks as such, but it does not enter Kanha's heart because it is free of words and concepts.
Kahnupada [Begali and Odia song]
आलिएँ कालिए बाट रुंधेला। ālie kālie bāṭa ruṃdhelā। ता देखि काह्नु विमन भइला॥ tā dekhi kāhnu vimana bhailā॥ काह्नु कहिँ गइ करिब निवास। kāhnu kahi gai kariba nivāsa। जो मनगोअर सा उआस॥ jo managoara sā uāsa॥ ते तिनि ते तिनि तिनि हो भिन्ना। te tini te tini tini ho bhinnā। भणइ काह्न भव परिच्छिन्ना॥ bhaṇai kāhnu bhava paricchinnā॥ जे जे आइला ते ते गेला। je je āilā te te gelā। अवणागवणे काह्नु विमन भइला॥ avaṇāgavaṇe kāhnu vimana bhailā॥ हेरि से काह्नि निअड़ि जिनउर वट्टई। heri se kāhni niaḍa़i jinaura vaṭṭaī। भणइ काह्नु मो हिअहि न पइसइ॥ bhaṇai kāhnu mo hiahi na paisai॥
ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY TANVIR RATUL
Truth and untruth close the road which saddens Kanhupa. Where will he live? He who is supposed to be wise is also unwise. They are three, they are three, three, they are all separate, Kanhu says: the world is cleansed. Those who came all went away. Comings and goings make Kanhu sad. O Kanhai, the City of Great Bliss is very near, says, Kanhu. Yet I cannot get into my heart.