Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam / Consciousness and the mind (चित्त) / 1
1
the Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam (प्रत्यभिज्ञाहृदयम्)
चितिः स्वतन्त्रा विश्वसिद्धिहेतुः citiḥ svatantrā viśvasiddhihetuḥ
The line
Consciousness is free. She is the cause by which the universe comes to be.
नेपालीमा
चिति स्वतन्त्र छ। विश्व सिद्ध हुनुको कारण उही हो।
Where it sits
Opens the book. The neighbor on this shelf is the Śiva Sūtra (शिव सूत्र) 1.1, where consciousness is the self. This line says what that consciousness does: she brings the world about, and she depends on nothing else to do it.
Split: citiḥ (चितिः) + svatantrā (स्वतन्त्रा) + viśvasiddhihetuḥ (विश्वसिद्धिहेतुः)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| citiḥ (चितिः) | nominative singular, feminine | consciousness. cit (चित्) is awareness. citi (चिति) is that awareness as a power. |
| svatantrā (स्वतन्त्रा) | nominative singular, feminine | self-dependent, free. sva (स्व) is one's own. tantra (तन्त्र) here is dependence. Agrees with citiḥ (चितिः). |
| viśvasiddhihetuḥ (विश्वसिद्धिहेतुः) | nominative singular, masculine | the cause of the world's coming to be. viśva (विश्व) is the universe. siddhi (सिद्धि) is accomplishment. hetu (हेतु) is a cause. The case sits on hetu (हेतु). |
The phrases
Three nominatives, and no verb. citiḥ (चितिः) is svatantrā (स्वतन्त्रा), and that same citiḥ (चितिः) is the hetu (हेतु). The feminine adjectives agree with citiḥ (चितिः). The compound is masculine because hetu (हेतु) is masculine, and a sūtra (सूत्र) still lets it name her.
Sanskrit in this line
The visarga of citiḥ (चितिः) stays, because the next sound is s (स्). svatantrā (स्वतन्त्रा) is feminine to match citiḥ (चितिः).
Say it back
Say what citi (चिति) is, and what she is the cause of.