Śiśumāra Cakra

Śiśumāra Cakra · śiśu-māra cakra, “the wheel of the dolphin”

The Śiśumāra Cakra (also written Śiṃśumāra Cakra), “the wheel of the śiśumāra”, is the whole starry sky seen as one great figure: a śiśumāra, the Gaṅgā river dolphin or porpoise. Dhruva, the Pole Star, is at its tail and Nārāyaṇa is at its heart, and all the lights of the sky turn around Dhruva as around an axle.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, in Śrī Śuka Maharshi’s teaching to Parīkshit, places the Dhruva-maṇḍala, the supreme dhāma of Bhagavān Vishṇu, thirteen lakh yojanas above the Saptarshis, and tells how kāla, the śakti of Bhagavān Vishṇu, whirls the grahas and nakshatras round it like cattle tied to a threshing post. Held in the form of a śiśumāra by the māyā-śakti of Bhagavān Vāsudeva, the nakshatra-maṇḍala has Dhruva at the tip of its tail, the twenty-eight nakshatras on its sides and limbs, Agastya and Yama at its jaws, the grahas at its mouth, chest, navel and throat, and Nārāyaṇa at its heart. It is the form of Bhagavān Vishṇu made of all the devatās, and one who bows to it or remembers it at the three sandhyās, praying to Purushottama, the support of the nakshatras, is freed at once of the pāpa of that time.

Per Vishṇu Purāṇa

In the Dvitīyāṃśa (second part) of the Vishṇu Purāṇa, the Śiṃśumāra Cakra (“wheel of the Śiṃśumāra”) is the form of Bhagavān Vishṇu as the whole universe. The entire universe of stars is seen as a divine river dolphin (śiṃśumāra) whose body is the cosmos itself. Dhruva, the Pole Star, sits at the tail. All the planets, stars, nakshatras (lunar mansions) and other lights of the sky have fixed places on this body. They are tied to Dhruva by unseen vāyu-ropes (cords of wind) that keep them moving in their paths.

Nārāyaṇa lives in the very heart of the Śiṃśumāra. The Purāṇa says that meditating on this form in the early morning cleanses one of the pāpa (wrongdoing) of the day and night before.

The Form of the Śiṃśumāra

The word śiṃśumāra (also written śiśumāra) means the Gaṅgā river dolphin or porpoise, a creature that moves through water in winding, circling motions. The universe, as it turns and circles, is compared to this creature. Bhagavān Vishṇu is the universal Purusha (Supreme Person) whose body is this whole turning system.

The Purāṇa places the lights of the sky on the body of the Śiṃśumāra like this:

• Tail (puccha): Dhruva, the Pole Star, the axis around which the whole system turns
• Hindquarters: Prajāpati and other fixed points near the pole
• Waist: the Saptarshi-maṇḍala, the circle of the seven ṛshis (the Great Bear, Ursa Major)
• Along the spine: Nāgarāja (the king of serpents) and other star groups lined up with the pole
• Heart (hṛdaya): Nārāyaṇa himself, the Supreme Purusha whose presence gives life to the whole wheel
• Throat and mouth: the planets, including the Sun, each in its place
• The two sides: star groups on the right and on the left

This picture shows the universe not as a machine of objects in space but as a living, divine form. Every part of it is a particular place of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s presence.

Dhruva as the Axis of the Universe

Dhruva became the Pole Star through intense tapas (austerity) as a child. In the teaching of the Śiṃśumāra he is the anchor of the whole system. All the other lights of the sky are tied to Dhruva by vāyu-ropes (winds) that keep them in their paths. The seven main winds named are:

1. Āvaha: the carrying wind
2. Pravaha: the wind that flows forward
3. Anuvaha: the following wind
4. Saṃvaha: the sustaining wind
5. Vivaha: the lifting wind
6. Pūrvavāha: the wind that carries eastward
7. Parivaha: the wind that circles around

These seven vāyus match the seven paths in the sky. Just as a wheel spins on its axle, the whole wheel of stars and planets spins on Dhruva as its axle. Dhruva in turn is guided by the will of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The chariot of Sūrya (the Sun) is also part of this system: Dhruva turns the great wheel, and Sūrya’s chariot moves along its outer rim.

Nārāyaṇa in the Heart of the Śiṃśumāra

The heart of this teaching is a clear statement: Nārāyaṇa is not just linked with this great wheel; he lives in its very heart. The heart of the Śiṃśumāra is the heart of the universe. So meditating on the Śiṃśumāra is not an exercise in astronomy. It is a direct dhāraṇā (fixing the mind) on Bhagavān Vishṇu‘s own form. It is a kind of upāsanā (devotional meditation) on the Virāṭ Purusha, the universal form, in which every star and planet we can see is a limb of Bhagavān Vishṇu himself.

The Path of the Gaṅgā Through the Śiṃśumāra

The source of the Gaṅgā is placed within this picture of the universe. The Gaṅgā flows from the tip of the nail of Bhagavān Vishṇu‘s left big toe (pāda-nakhāgra). She is first held by Dhruva, at the tail of the Śiṃśumāra. From Dhruva she passes through the Saptarshi-maṇḍala (the stars of the seven ṛshis), and from there through the Moon. Coming down from the Moon onto Mount Meru, she splits into four great branches:

1. Sītā: flows east through Bhadrāśva-varsha
2. Alakanandā: flows south through Bhārata-deśa (India)
3. Cakshu: flows west through Ketumāla-varsha
4. Bhadrā: flows north through Uttara-Kuru

The Alakanandā’s way to the ocean was carried by Bhagīratha for one hundred years, through his long and extraordinary tapas, before she finally came down to earth and freed the sixty thousand sons of King Sagara. This deed of Bhagīratha sits inside the larger picture: the Gaṅgā that saves Sagara’s sons comes from Vishṇu’s own body and passes through the axis of the universe (Dhruva), through the ṛshis of the sky and through the Moon before she reaches the earth.

Using It in Meditation

The Purāṇa says that whoever meditates on the Śiṃśumāra, the dolphin-form of Vishṇu spread across the universe, in the brahma-muhūrta (the auspicious hours before dawn) is cleansed of all pāpa gathered during the day and night before. This practice turns simply looking at the night sky into a direct contemplation of the body of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Per Matsya Purāṇa

The Śiśumāra Cakra is a great figure in the stars described in the Matsya Purāṇa. The stars arranged around Dhruva (the Pole Star) in the northern sky are seen as the shape of a dolphin or porpoise, the śiśumāra. Each part of the Śiśumāra’s body stands for a divine being or a principle of the universe. Nārāyaṇa is at its heart, and Dhruva is at the tip of its tail.

So the Śiśumāra Cakra is both a map of the stars and a statement of faith: the whole moving sky is the body of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, with the Pole Star as its fixed point.

The Figure in the Sky

The Śiśumāra lies with its tail at Dhruva (the Pole Star) and its head pointing toward the south of the sky. The beings and stars linked with each part of its body are:

What It Means

The Śiśumāra Cakra teaches that the whole turning sky is one single, living body: the Viśvarūpa (universal form) of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, made visible as the night sky. Because Nārāyaṇa is at the heart, all movement in the sky comes from the divine centre and returns to it.

Dhruva at the tail is the fixed point around which everything else turns. He is the bhakta (devotee) who, through his supreme tapas (austerity), became the lasting axle of the great wheel. Dharma at the lower jaw and Uttānapāda at the upper jaw show that a family line rooted in dharma frames the whole order of the universe.

Dhruva as the Axle of the Sky

All the lights of the sky are tied to Dhruva by unseen vāyu-pāśas (cords of wind), and through them Dhruva controls all movement in the sky. This makes Dhruva at once the smallest star to the eye (he seems not to move at all) and the most powerful, since all the other jyotis (lights of the sky) turn around him. In the image of the Śiśumāra this is shown by placing Dhruva at the very tip of the tail: the point from which the whole body hangs and around which it turns.

Per Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa

Chapter 23 of the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa describes the Śiṃśumāra as the body of the universe, with Dhruva at the tail and Nārāyaṇa in the heart. It describes the twelve groups of beings who travel with Sūrya, each for two months, and how the devas drink soma from the Moon in the bright fortnight and the pitṛs (ancestors) drink it in the dark fortnight, all within the same Śiṃśumāra picture.

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa

In the Fifth Skandha of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śrī Śuka Maharshi describes to Parīkshit the arrangement, divisions and measures of the bhūmaṇḍala, the jyotirmaṇḍalas (the circles of the luminaries) and the bila-lokas below the earth. After the chariot of Sūrya he comes to the jyotiścakra, the wheel of the luminaries, and to the Śiśumāra, the form of Bhagavān Vishṇu made of all the devatās.

The wheel of the luminaries

Parīkshit asked: Śuka had said that Sūrya goes round facing the rāśis with Meru and the Dhruva-maṇḍala on his left, and yet that in truth his movement is not a going round to the left. How could this be known for certain? Śuka answered with the potter’s wheel. When a potter’s wheel turns, ants moving on it the other way seem to those standing outside to move in reverse. In the same way the kālacakra, the wheel of time, goes round the Dhruva-maṇḍala and Meru keeping them on its right, and Sūrya and the other grahas resting on it turn with it; yet their own movement appears reversed against the nakshatras and rāśis, for it is the nakshatras and rāśis that fix the motion of the kālacakra.

Nārāyaṇa, the cause of the world, the complete one whom the mahātmās and the Veda seek to know, is manifest directly as Sūrya. For the purity of Vedic rites and the welfare of the lokas he divided his form as time, made of the Veda, into the twelve months, and set up the six ṛtus beginning with Vasanta so that beings may enjoy the fruits of their karma. Worshipping this Sūrya-Nārāyaṇa with śraddhā through the rites and yoga the Veda teaches, and keeping the dharma of varṇa and āśrama, people easily attain moksha.

Sūrya, the ātmā of all beings, passes through the twelve months in the kālacakra in the antariksha between svarga and bhūloka, and the months take the names of the rāśis he passes through. The knowers of jyotiśśāstra teach three measures of a month: by the cāndramāna (lunar measure) two pakshas make a month; by the pitṛmāna (measure of the pitṛs) one day and night of the pitṛs is a month; by the sauramāna (solar measure) the time Sūrya takes to pass one pāda of two nakshatras is a month. A ṛtu is the time in which Sūrya completes one sixth of his yearly round, and an ayana the time in which he passes half of it. By his slow, fast and even movement the year is called by five names: saṃvatsara, parivatsara, iḍāvatsara, anuvatsara and vatsara.

Candra moves faster than Sūrya: the path Sūrya travels in a year Candra passes in a month, and the distance Sūrya travels in a paksha Candra passes in a day. With his kalās waxing in the śukla paksha he makes the days of the devatās, and with his kalās waning in the kṛshṇa paksha he makes the nights of the pitṛ-devatās. Full of amṛta, Candra sustains the life of all beings in the form of food and passes each nakshatra in thirty muhūrtas. In the form of Candra is Purushottama himself; Candra of sixteen kalās is the presiding devatā of the mind, and gives contentment and nourishment to devatās, pitṛs, humans, pretas, cattle, birds, creeping creatures, trees and plants.

Śukra moves with Sūrya, ahead of him, behind him or level with him, and is favourable to beings, for he often brings rain. Budha, the son of Candra, moves like Śukra and is mostly auspicious, but when he goes ahead of Sūrya he signals great winds, clouded skies and drought. Aṅgāraka, when not in vakra (crooked) motion, passes each of the twelve rāśis in three pakshas and mostly signals sorrow. Guru passes each rāśi in a year and is mostly favourable to the knowers of the Veda. Śani spends thirty months in each rāśi and so takes thirty years to pass them all, and generally brings unrest. Above them all, in the north, the Saptarshis, desiring only the happiness of beings, circumambulate the Dhruva-maṇḍala, the paramapada of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 22

The Dhruva-maṇḍala

Thirteen lakh yojanas above the Saptarshi-maṇḍala is the Dhruva-maṇḍala, which the mahātmās call the supreme dhāma of Bhagavān Vishṇu. There dwells Dhruva, the son of Uttānapāda, a great bhagavad-bhakta. Agni, Indra, Kaśyapa Prajāpati and Dharma, in the form of stars, all at one time reverently perform pradakshiṇa of that maṇḍala. Dhruva is the support of the beings who remain until the end of the kalpa; Śuka says he has told of his glory before.

Kāla, time, which never blinks, is the śakti of Bhagavān Vishṇu, and its speed is beyond the senses. Kāla whirls round and round all the groups of luminous maṇḍalas, the grahas, the nakshatras and the rest, and for these turning maṇḍalas Īśvara made Dhruvaloka as their support, like a pillar. That loka shines at all times.

The threshing post

A farmer threshing grain plants a post in the middle of the threshing floor and ties cattle to it, some with long ropes, some with short ropes and some with ropes of middle length, so that they go round the post, each in its own place, far, near or between. In the same way, in the kālacakra, Īśvara has set the hosts of nakshatras and the grahas in place, by difference of place, below and above, and by difference of time: uttarāyaṇa, dakshiṇāyana and the vishuvat (the equinoxes). Driven by vāyu, taking the Dhruva-maṇḍala alone as their support, the grahas revolve until the end of the kalpa, like clouds driven by the wind and like eagles and other birds that wheel about by their own effort. All the hosts of nakshatras are made by the union of prakṛti and purusha, and their movement is fixed by their former karma. Because they revolve, they do not fall upon the earth.

The Śiśumāra form

Śuka then gives the form in which this nakshatra-maṇḍala is described: held up by the triguṇa māyā-śakti of Bhagavān Vāsudeva in the form of a śiśumāra, which the text explains as a “water-monkey”, a creature of the waters. Its head is turned downward and its body is coiled in a ring toward the right; as a śiśumāra coiled ring within ring has limbs equal in number on both sides, so is the nakshatra-maṇḍala arranged.

On its tail:

• at the tip of the tail, the Dhruva-maṇḍala;
• in the middle of the tail, the stars Kaśyapa Prajāpati, Indra, Agni and Dharma;
• at the root of the tail, the stars Dhātā and Vidhātā.

On its right side are the fourteen uttarāyaṇa nakshatras, from Abhijit to Punarvasu, and on its left side the fourteen dakshiṇāyana nakshatras, from Pushya to Uttarāshāḍhā, evenly balanced. On its back is the Ajavīthi, the group of Mūla, Pūrvāshāḍhā and Uttarāshāḍhā, and on its belly the Ākāśagaṅgā, the long band of stars.

The nakshatras are to be contemplated on its limbs thus:

The grahas and other beings on the Śiśumāra:

• Agastya, the upper jaw;
• Yama, the lower jaw;
• Aṅgāraka (Maṅgala), the mouth;
• Śani, the guhya-sthāna;
• Bṛhaspati, the hump;
• Sūrya, the chest;
• Nārāyaṇa, the heart;
• Candra, the mind;
• Śukra, the navel;
• the Aśvinī nakshatras, the breasts;
• Budha, the prāṇa and apāna;
• Rāhu, the throat;
• the stars shaped like banners (dhvaja), the various limbs;
• all the hosts of stars, the hair-pores of that form.

“This, certainly, is the form of Bhagavān Vishṇu made of all the devatās.” The Śiśumāra, with its grahas, nakshatras and circles of stars, is the very form of the Deva.

The prayer at sandhyā and its phalaśruti

At the time of sandhyā the sādhaka, pure, keeping silence, standing and gazing at the nakshatra-maṇḍala, should pray: “We bow to and meditate on Purushottama, the support of the nakshatras, whose form is the kālacakra, the master of the devatās.”

For those who recite this prayer at the three times of day, pāpas go away. One who bows to this form at the three times of day, or only remembers it, is at once freed of the pāpa done in that period.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 23

Elsewhere in the Bhāgavata

Teaching Parīkshit the path of krama-mukti, Śuka tells that the yogī who leaves the body by the shining sushumnā nāḍī goes by the path of the sky to Agni Devatā, where his remaining faults are destroyed, and then reaches the jyotir-maṇḍala of Śiśumāra, which belongs to Śrī Hari and lies above Agniloka. That Śiśumāra-cakra of Śrī Hari is like the navel of the Virāṭ-purusha. The yogī, with a very subtle body free of faults, passes beyond it and reaches Maharloka.

Maitreya Maharshi, closing the account of Dhruva‘s ascent for Vidura, gives the same image: as a herd of bullocks tied to a post in the middle of the threshing floor goes round it at a deep, steady pace, so the wheel of the jyotir-maṇḍala, bound to Dhruvaloka, goes round it at a deep, unwearying speed.

Among the lines of the eight Vasus, Śuka names Śiśumāra as the son of the Vasu Dosha and his wife Śarvarī, an aṃśa of Śrī Hari. At the opening of the Sixth Skandha, and again in the summary of the whole Purāṇa in the Twelfth, the jyotirmaṇḍala is named among the subjects of the Fifth Skandha.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 2; Skandha 4, Chapter 12; Skandha 6, Chapters 1, 6; Skandha 12, Chapter 12

Per Bhavishya Purāṇa

The Pratisarga Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa tells that at the laya of the manvantara the whole earth dissolved and stayed for a thousand years in the midst of the water. Then Bhagavān Vishṇu, with Bhagavān Śaṅkara and Brahmā, set the Śiśumāra-cakra in the sky and set all the nakshatra-maṇḍalas and grahas in their places as before. Through those luminaries the water of the earth dried and the earth became firm, and after one ayuta (ten thousand) years the earth appeared as dry land.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 5

Sources

• Vishṇu Purāṇa, Dvitīyāṃśa (Book 2), Chapter 9
• Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 123
• Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Chapter 23
• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 2; Skandha 4, Chapter 12; Skandha 5, Chapters 22–23; Skandha 6, Chapters 1, 6; Skandha 12, Chapter 12
• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 5