image credit: Cesar Couto
In the thirty-seventh verse of his Cidvilāsastava (‘Hymn to the Play of Consciousness’), Amṛtānanda teaches about the worship of the Samayavidyśvarīs (goddesses of the initiatory pledges) as they relate to dissolving the various states of consciousness known as jāgrat (waking), svapna (dreaming), suṣupti (dreamless sleep), and turya (the fourth state) into the pure light of conscisouness (bhāsā), known as the fifth state as follows:
जाग्रदादिसमयाश्चतुर्विधाश्चान्तरात्मपरमात्मविग्रहाः ।
पञ्चमे ऽत्र तदतीतचिद्घने धाम्नि तल्लयमतिस्तदर्चनम् ॥ ३७ ॥
jāgradādisamayāś caturvidhāś cāntarātmaparamātmavigrahāḥ |
pañcame ‘tra tad atītacidghane dhāmni tallayamatis tadarcanam || 37 ||
“The set of four initiatory pledges (samaya), which correspond to waking [and the other states], relate to the inner self and the supreme self. The worship of the Samaya deities is the awareness of those [four pledges / states] dissolving into the fifth, the undifferentiated light of transcendent consciousness.” (translation by Ben Williams)
