PART 1
The Story of Shūm
Gurudeva’s Personal Narrative on How
this Mystical Language Came to Be
In the summer of 1968, Himalayan Academy conducted an Innersearch Travel-Study Program to Ascona, Switzerland. I was working on a little book called The Advaitin. The book was about the refined states of experience deep within the inner realms of pure consciousness, just before one merges into the Self and after one comes out of that state. The little book was unfolding beautifully, but upon rereading what had been written, I thought, “This is very understandable to me, but would it be so to someone just beginning on the path? It’s going to be so complicated, so difficult to understand, for what I wish to portray in words, there are no words in the English language.” I then began to feel that what should be done was to begin using Sanskrit to provide the necessary, adequate words so that the inner and refined areas of the mind would have their own name in the same way emotions, physical things and so forth are named in English.§
When we use the English language to describe inner realms, we are quite limited. It is difficult for the beginner to believe in the reality of the inner man unless he has had positive experiences himself, simply because there are not enough words to describe it. Everything that is really “real” is named in English, and the intellectual mind begins to grasp, take hold of and believe in those areas of mind that have a proper name. Even before the individual experiences them, he can intuit the experience. At our Ascona summer retreat, this theory that unfolded from within was going ’round and ’round in my mind, and I began looking through several Sanskrit dictionaries to locate certain words that could be used in The Advaitin. But in three Sanskrit/English dictionaries, each translator had translated each of the words in a different way. I threw up my hands at this and said, “This is going to make it more confusing for my beginning students than if we didn’t use Sanskrit,” simply because of the differing translations.§
The feeling began to come that what was really needed was another language, a new, fresh language, one giving me a vocabulary that we could use to accurately describe inner states of consciousness. Two or three days later we traveled to Venice for a few days’ excursion. This idea of a new language was still strong in my mind. It was in Venice that I decided to go deeply within and bring out a new esoteric language. So, I went deep within, and wrote down some instructions to my outer self as to how to go within, and where, to be able to unfold another language. My instructions were, “You go within the ūdā current of the simshūmbīsī»” That is the current of mind flow where language exists.§
In following the instructions, my spine lit up in a beautiful, pale yellow and lavender light. The yellow and the lavender intermingled, one color coming in and out of the other. It was just beautiful! But I only found one end of the ūdā current, and did not have any results in Venice. Three days later, after returning to Ascona, Switzerland, while working within myself, I found both ends of the ūdā current. Then, in meditation, after coming out of nirvikalpa samādhi, I heard the tones of the svādishṭhāna, the anāhata and the ājñā chakras. Within two hours, out of my inner mind came the script, the basic alphabet of eighteen sounds, the syntax as well as some of the basic vocabulary, like simshūmbīsī», vūmtyēūdī, karehāna. The first word to be uttered was Shūm.§
Shūm now names the mystical language of meditation. As fast as I could, I wrote it all down and ran downstairs to one of the monks, shouting, “I have it! I have it! Here is our language!”§
Because of the immediate need for a vocabulary of fifty or a hundred words for me to work with during the Innersearch Travel-Study Program, I was eager to proceed in bringing through the new language. Shūm started out in a very simple way. I thought, “Fine. Now we will have ten or fifteen or twenty or maybe a hundred more words eventually to work with, and they will be marvelous inner teaching tools.” However, in the days to follow, this ūdā current became stronger and brighter and brighter. I didn’t tell anyone about it at the time except two or three of the Śaivite monastics who were with me in Switzerland.§
I began working day and night, and the structure and script for the language began to refine itself, and vocabulary started coming through, right from the inner light. I would see light within my head and see little images or letters in the Shūm script drop down one after another and line up. Then I would read the word, like “kanasimnī,” and know what it meant, and then write the Shūm word with the meaning in English. Vocabulary flowed out like this for two or three weeks. In Nice, in Southern France, the whole concept of līūnasī, the psychic nerve system, and ālīkaiīshūm, the warmth and psychic heat of the body, came through. I saw how in a word of several images, the moving of the accent from one image to another changes the meaning slightly as far as going into the depth of the same area of the mind, the next deeper area and the next refined area.§
Then, later in our Innersearch, in Paris, more of Shūm came through. Upon returning to the United States, I had a vocabulary of about 300 words, and every day more were coming to Earth. Finally, the images stopped dropping out of the inner light, and I would hear the meaning of the word clairaudiently, almost as if someone were speaking. Sometimes they would come in reverse—English first, Shūm second. The vocabulary and the structure of the language developed quickly, but what is more important, the perspective of the Shūm language was available. §
It began to unfold from within me that each language has its own perspective or position of awareness that comes into effect when one is speaking the language. In English and the other European languages, our awareness is out in the material world. It seems to be located outside of the physical body, looking back at the physical body. From that perspective, a person, if he is daring enough, might be able to fathom the inner areas of the mind like looking through a keyhole. The external world is so distracting, one does not bother too often to look within.§
In the Shūm language, the perspective is deep within the mind. It is called shūmīf. From this perspective, we have the consciousness that we are the center of the universe. We see light within the spine as the central pole, and then open our eyes and look out into the world. §
From the shūmīf perspective, the story of the seven dimensions of the mind was unfolded. The first dimension of the mental spheres is the inside of things that we can see and touch. The second dimension includes all things that we can see and/or touch, and this includes things physical as well as astral. The third dimension is our relationships to those things. From the fourth dimension, we can look through the third dimension and cognize what is going on between people and people, and people and their things, as well as into other areas of subsuperconsciousness. There are fourteen dimensions of the mind, but in the Shūm language we concentrate and centralize only around the first seven of these dimensions. I was told by the Mahādeva that another language closely related to Shūm would come later, called Tyēīf, and it would name areas within the eighth to the fourteenth dimensions.§
Shūm has had wide acceptance and grown into a marvelous teaching tool because within the structure of the language is contained the entire Śaiva Siddhānta philosophy. It has within it the perspective man had to hold to make the Advaita Siddhānta philosophy of the ancient ṛishis alive and vibrant today.§
As soon as I released a little bit of Shūm to my students, they began teaching it all over the country. Two universities wanted to teach the Shūm language in their philosophy departments. §
Shūm is mostly spoken within a person. When a meditator has an inner experience, he can call it by name in Shūm and draw a map for himself, showing how to return to the same inner state again. Shūm is not designed to replace secular languages, like French or English, which are conceived to completely address all the detailed needs and concerns of physical, intellectual and emotional life. Also, Shūm, as a working language, is still in its formative stages.§
In the Shūm language, when we are aware consciously in superconsciousness, we deal in complete concepts rather than partial concepts. The languages of the world with which I have had contact, I find, deal in partial concepts. This includes English and most of the other European and Eastern languages. Each Shūm portrait or picture is a complete concept. It is a proper name for a specific area within the vast universe of the mind. I provided chants in the Shūm language for my students who soon found that by chanting these tones of the kamshūmālingā awareness was drawn into an expanded state. §
Since 1968, Shūm has grown beyond all expectations. It took me two years to finish the basic structure and vocabulary of the language. Now there are thousands of portraits and pictures naming inner, superconscious states of mind and emotional states that man goes through in the astral subconscious area of his mind.§
The following year, 1969, we returned to Switzerland and experienced the tremendous breakthrough of mambashūm. These are Shūm maps of areas of meditation that enable a devotee not only to map out his meditation before he begins it, but to make memos of the meditation as it progresses. Now devotees are able to go back to the same area of the inner mind, time and time and time again. By following the same mambashūm, more than one person can go into the same area of the mind, time and time and time again. Mystical experiences began to develop between myself and the devotees, as we would go into the same area of the mind and experience, see and hear the same sounds, see the same colors—which is an event that is not made known in mystical and occult literature. §
That year, nashūmīf mūmlingmī Shūm came through as well. Its simple structure and vocabulary opened the door to speaking Shūm while living in inner states and getting things done around the ashram or in the home without using another language. Nashūmīf mūmlingmī Shūm is a very simple and easy way of speaking Shūm which makes the world look very simple and lets the individual deal in the world without being drawn too far out into it. §
In 1969, on the India Odyssey Travel-Study Program, I did a lot of work in Shūm at Sandakphu, a tiny mountain climbers’ base camp located twelve thousand feet high in the Himalayas, fifteen miles from the Tibetan border. There, some of the most intricate and profound states were unfolded and recorded as mambashūm. Sixty-five devotees were with me. Our intense meditative life there inspired us deeply. We found that the study of Shūm provides concentration practices and powers better than any known today in the mystical arts and meditation techniques. §
The study of nashūmīf mūmlingmī Shūm, pronouncing the words and speaking them at home or at the ashram—and just communicating in the simplified version of Shūm—is uplifting. These practices also provide that necessary second step: concentration—holding one’s perspective within. The study of Shūm offers a framework in which an individual can unfold; and the more vocabulary that is learned, the more stable his unfoldment will become, year after year after year.§
We have tried hard at Himalayan Academy to keep Shūm as a tool, as a vehicle to help with the individual’s natural spiritual unfoldment. We look at it as a tool—not as a quick cure-all for the subconscious mind, nor as a mystical mantra that is going to do a tremendous amount for one, but as a magnificent tool to help the devotee on his way, like language itself is a tool.§
Much of Shūm is spoken within a person. With Shūm, when the devotee has an inner experience, he knows what it is. He has a name for it and can write a map of how to return to the precise inner state again. Devotees have entered the study of Shūm and meditation who, due to their emotional reactions, we ordinarily would never think of taking into the study of meditation. This is because their subconscious mind is too heavy, too conglomerated with unresolved conflicts. We could see that their emotional reactions were too vibrant to withstand the intensity of simply turning awareness inward. So, we would always recommend a school of philosophy instead. Now all this has changed, for through the study of the Shūm language, those with heavy subconscious burdens come along in a very nice and easy way. Occasionally they do become aware in emotional areas, but now have a name for them all and a method of pulling awareness out into areas of the mind that are at peace. We have heard them say, “Oh, that’s rehsīka. I’m going to move my awareness in just a few minutes to shūmsīmīka.” They know their way around now in the mind with such facility that it is amazing to watch.§
Each Shūm portrait and picture is elucidated in its final explanation in a way that is absolutely clear. Each definition of complex words contains several definitions, explaining what they mean and what they do not mean. By explaining the meaning in several different ways, the concepts become quite clear and can be translated into another language without error. §
We often imagine how it will be when there are Shūm-speaking communities. The vibration the language makes when a group is speaking Shūm is in itself uplifting. Try to image how the vibration of a room would be where the underlying tone of the conversation were “ī” and “
.” These two tones working together cause an upliftment of consciousness. Of course, everyone would be speaking about inner things and describing new portraits of deep dimensions of the mind in the Shūm language. The consciousness of the people speaking would reach a very high vibration. §
When chanting Shūm, all you have to do is listen inwardly to the tones of the kamshūmālingā maā» (chakras), and let one or two out orally. A great study was finally made on the rhythm of speaking the Shūm language, so that it is spoken correctly and the tones are pronounced in the very same way that the tones are heard deep within the inner kamshūmālingā maā». §
The Shūm language has its own rhythm and must not be spoken like the English language or any other modern language. It has its own distinct rhythm, and when the tones are uttered, even if one does not know the meaning of what is being said, he is affected by the tone. Therefore, it is a mantra language. A mantra or a chant or an incantation vibrates the inner areas of the astral body and the soul body. This allows the soul body to come through the astral into the physical. All this does not have to be understood. It happens naturally. The combinations of the tones also do not have to be understood to have their effect. In the very same way, you do not have to know the ingredients of an aspirin for it to have its effect within your nerve system. You don’t have to know the meaning of a Shūm chant or even a conversation in Shūm for it to have an effect on your inner nerve system. §
Before the advent of Shūm, we did not encourage group meditation at Himalayan Academy. During a group meditation, there were usually several who meditated quite well while others let their minds wander here and there, going into a half-sleep or becoming distracted. This caused a strange vibration to occur. Now, we have very uplifting group meditations in Shūm. All of the psychic and subconscious problems we had in teaching meditation were eliminated through the harnessing effect of a Shūm vocabulary. Shūm harnesses awareness from straying. In fact, at our monastery in Kauai, we begin every day with a Śiva pūjā followed by a guided group Shūm meditation which lasts about 45 minutes.§
One person, through speaking Shūm, gently guides the entire group into and out of deep meditation. All individual awarenesses flow into the same areas of the inner mind at the same time. The Shūm words give a strong and supportive direction to all present. When this begins to happen, the vibration in the room becomes stronger, potent and intensely more satisfying—for the group helps the individual and the individual helps the group.§