hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namasté
If I use the word chaos most will know what it means… it infers and suggests confusion, dis-order, without pattern. Yet if we take a look at the ~original~ use from the Greeks this word meant ‘gaping void’ ; it comes from their word khaos – that which gapes wide open, vast, empty.
So, one must ask what then is the word the Greeks used for disorder ? It is tarakhe. Perhaps the connection with ‘taraha’ meaning ‘a thing deducted or rejected, that which is thrown away’ is possible but that would take me too far off course.
It seems interesting to me that the saṃskṛt term tara, meaning carrying across or beyond , is within these word meanings. The term tāraka means causing or enabling to pass or go over , carrying over , rescuing , liberating.
So the question becomes , is one ~crossing over~ the confusion ( chaos) or is one being delivered to a condition where there is no confusion or dis-order ? being delivered to the vastness ?
We may get a hint from one of the 10 qualities of śrī devī (sometimes referred to as the daśa mahāvidyā-s). This would be tara. Tara from a graha (jyotish) orientation is jupiter, or guru. Guru is most auspicious and rules the tattva of ākāśa or pure space. Here we easily see the alignment to chaos and its original meaning. Tara's name comes from the root tṛṛ to traverse, carry over, or to save. And tara is then surpassing, conquering, crossing , passing.
Let’s go one more step. Tārā is a fixed star, some call asterism which symbolizes light. And a boat is called tarī, used for carrying and crossing. So when we add this up we have tara as light that guides, that carries over, crossing ( traverses) and conquering. But what is this tara carrying and crossing over to?
Tara takes the individual and carries him/her over saṁsāra (sṛ= to flow + saṁ = join together) or life-after-life, birth-after-birth. The process of returning to this good earth again and again until mokśa is considered and experienced. She is the light that guides, the one that assists in crossing or carrying over.
We find this notion also in the ṛg veda. (Out of tradition and respect it is proper to list the ṛṣi, meter, etc.) The rishi (ṛṣi) is kutsaḥ añgirasaḥ , the meter is gāyatri and the deva is agni.
1.97.7
dvisho no vishvatomukka ati nāveva pāraya |
O agni whose face is on all sides ( face turned everywhere), take us beyond the foes like a ship (across a river)
1.97.8
sa naḥ sindhumiva nāvayā ati parṣhā svastaye |
you lead us like a ship across the ocean, to the supreme station that lies beyond our foes.
Since tara is connected with knowledge & with space (as a quality of Jupiter/guru), She is connected with sound, vibration, as space is the home of sound-vibration. We all know of this most auspicious sound aum, om औम् (some prefer ॐ) and is called praṇava¹. This is the bījā (seed) sound for tara. Hence tara is the eternal word or nitya (constant and indispensable) vak (speech or voice) sound.
Now we have the words of tara, tāraka, taraha, chaos, and om …. Is there a common thread? Perhaps the common thread for these from the human point of view is nirvāṇa – blown out, extinguished, absolute extinction or annihilation (~ śūnya~). How so ? what is the connection ?
iti śivaṁ
1. praṇava प्रणव - the syllable; aum , om औम्some like ॐ; for more discussion on this see HDF post http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showpost.php?p=18487&postcount=8
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