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| Yantra of Paramasiva |
Paramarthasara of Acharya Abhinavagupta
(with notes of Balajinath Pandit)
paraṃ parasthaṃ gahanād anādim
ekaṃ niviṣṭaṃ bahudhā guhāsu |
sarvālayaṃ sarvacarācarasthaṃ
tvāmeva śaṃbhuṃ śaraṇaṃ prapadye || 1 ||
I take refuge in you alone, Sambhu, who are beyond maya, transcendent, without beginning, one, existent in all beings in myriad forms, refuge of all, and immanent in all animate and inanimate creation.
Sambhu is the transcendental reality, but at the same time He manifests Himself as all phenomena which have Him as their only basic source. He has thus a pantheistic character and is yet the absolute reality that transcends all phenomena. His position lies beyond the pluralistic and impure sphere of Maya. He is the monistic absolute of Saivism and Godhead is His essential nature. The fundamental philosophic principle of Saivism is thus a theistic absolutism of monistic character.
garbhādhivāsapūrvaka -
maraṇāntakaduḥkhacakravibhrāntaḥ |
ādhāraṃ bhagavantaṃ
śiṣyaḥ papraccha paramārtham || 2 ||
ādhārakārikābhiḥ
taṃ gururabhibhāṣate sma tatsāram |
kathayatyabhinavaguptaḥ
śivaśāsanadṛṣṭiyogena || 3 ||
Overwhelmed by the chain of misery that begins with his birth in the womb and terminates with his physical death, a disciple asked Lord Adhara about supreme wisdom. The teacher [Adhara] instructed him on the essence of the supreme wisdom by means of the Adhara Karikas, which Abhinavagupta recasts, modifying them from the point of view of the Saiva tradition.
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| Acharya Abhinavagupta |
nijaśaktivaibhavabharād
aṇḍacatuṣṭayamidaṃ vibhāgena |
śaktirmāyā prakṛtiḥ
pṛthvī ceti prabhāvitaṃ prabhuṇā || 4 ||
The supreme Lord creates this universe consisting of four eggs (anda): the Sakti egg, the maya egg, the prakrti egg, and the prithvi egg, out of the glory of his own divine Sakti.
An anda is a sphere that contains in it a series of phenomenal elements and serves as a sheath that covers and hides the divine nature of the Absolute. Four such sphere are:
(i) Sakti, the divine power of God projecting itself externally and covering the Absolute with the pure creation. Manifesting diversity within unity, it hides the basic absoluteness and the perfect unity of the Absolute God and contains in it the four pure tattvas from Sakti to pure Vidya.
(ii) The sphere of Maya pushes into oblivion the natural purity and divine potency of the Absolute, covers it with five sheaths or limiting elements called kancukas and presents the Absolute as a finite being called Purusa. It contains in it seven tattvas from Maya to Purusa.
(iii) The sphere of Prakriti covers Purusa with all psychic elements, senses, organs, subtle objective elements called tanmatras, three gunas and four gross elements upto water. It contains twenty-three tattvas from Prakriti to water.
(iv) Prithvi as an anda or sphere covers the Absolute with the solid gross existence. It contains prithvi-tattva alone and consists of the whole solid existence in the universe.
(v) Siva-tattva lies beyond all these four andas.
The above mentioned four spheres contain thirty-five tattvas and cover the pure and divinely potent absolute consciousness with fine, subtle, gross and solid creation. The Absolute God creates them playfully in the process of the manifestation of His Godhead. He creates them out of His own self in the manner of reflections and covers His real self with them. Such creation is something like a kind of transmutation which is different from transformation. Neither God nor His divine power under goes any change or transformation while appealing in the form of all these created tattvas which shine in His psychic light as the reflections of His own divine powers.
tatrāntarviśvamidaṃ
vicitratanu - karaṇa - bhuvanasaṃtānam |
bhoktā ca tatra dehī
śiva eva gṛhītapaśubhāvaḥ || 5 ||
This world, with infinite kinds of bhuvanas (regions in creation), with its infinite variety of physical bodies and sense organs, exists within [the four eggs]. Having assumed the form of a fettered being (pashu), Siva alone is the embodied enjoyer of all this [the created world] in them [the eggs].
It is the basic nature of Siva to appear playfully as the finite being and to revolve in the cycles of transmigratory existence. Pashu is the finite being who is fastened like an animal with the ropes of karman and the limiting elements called kancukas.
nānāvidhavarṇānāṃ
rūpaṃ dhatte yathā'malaḥ sphaṭikaḥ |
suramānuṣapaśupādapa -
rūpatvaṃ tadvadīśo'pi || 6 ||
As a pure crystal assumes hues of different kinds, in the same way the supreme Lord also assumes the forms of gods, men, animals, and trees.
God, appearing as dilferent types of beings, does not at all undergo any change. The basic creation conducted directly by God Himself does not at all involve Him or His divine power into parinama or transformation. He reflects His divine powers outwardly and such reflections of His powers appear as all phenomena and their creation etc. Doing so, he does not require any external substances to cast their reflections into divine prakasa, the psychic luminosity of His pure consciousness. The basic cause of all such phenomenal manifestations is only His playful nature, by virtue of which such reflectionary creation of all phenomena happens. Creation is not thus due either to any external entity like Maya or Avidya or to any internal entity like Vasana as propounded by the Vedantins and Buddhists respectively. It is due only to the divinely playful nature of the Absolute.
dṛṣṭāntadvārṇa etadapi samarthayate
gacchati gacchati jala iva
himakarabimbaṃ sthite sthitiṃ yāti |
tanu - karaṇa - bhuvanavarge
tathā'yamātmā maheśānaḥ || 7 ||
Just as the reflection of the moon appears to be moving in flowing water and to be unmoving in still water, in the same way the Self, who is the same as the supreme Lord, appears to exist as embodied beings [equipped] with sense organs in different bhuvanas (regions in creation).
Here the difference between the moon and the Atman is this that the former requires some entity other than it to catch its reflections, but the latter reflects His own powers in His own psychic light and appears Himself as His reflections. Atman is thus divinely independent and appears in multifarious forms through His own divine powers of Godhead. It is, besides, not a chance, but the very essential nature of the Atman to appear playfully like that.
rāhuradṛśyo'pi yathā
śaśibimbasthaḥ prakāśate tadvat |
sarvagato'pyayamātmā
viṣayāśrayaṇena dhīmukure || 8 ||
Just as the invisible Rahu (the shadow of the earth), when appearing on the disc of the moon [at the time of a lunar eclipse] becomes visible, in the same way, the Self though present everywhere becomes perceptible in the mirror of the intellect (buddhi) by [the perception of] sense objects.
Rahu is the shadow of earth. It moves always in the sky, but becomes visible only when it becomes focussed on the disk of moon. Atman, being infinite in nature, is omnipresent, but appears as “I” only in the psychic organs of living beings while having mundane mental experiences. There it forms conceptions like ‘‘I have seen such and such object” and, doing so, appears as “I”. It does not appear like that in any inanimate substances.
ādarśe malarahite
yadvad vadanaṃ vibhāti tadvad ayam |
śiva - śaktipātavimale
dhītattve bhāti bhārūpaḥ || 9 ||
As a face shines forth in a spotlessly clean mirror, in the same way the supreme Lord who is of the nature of illumination shines forth in the buddhi (intellect) tattva that has been purified following the descent of divine grace by the Lord.
God’s bestowal of His grace is known as Saktipata. It is the primary factor that directs a being towards the study of divine scriptures, inspires in him a keen desire to know the truth, gives rise to devotion for the Lord in his heart, creates contact between him and a right preceptor and makes him active in the practice of Saiva yoga. All that purifies his inner soul and illumins in him the correct and real divine nature of his pure consciousness.
bhārūpaṃ paripūrṇaṃ
svātmani viśrāntito mahānandam |
icchāsaṃvitkaraṇair
nirbharitam anantaśaktiparipūrṇam || 10 ||
sarvavikalpavihīnaṃ
śuddhaṃ śāntaṃ layodayavihīnam |
yat paratattvaṃ tasmin
vibhāti ṣaṭtriṃśadātma jagat || 11 ||
The universe, composed of the thirty-six tattvas, manifests itself in the highest tattva [Paramasiva], which is of the nature of illumination, full-in-itself, endowed with infinite [modes] of shakti, [including the powers of] will, knowledge, and action , which is free from thought constructs, pure, ever at rest, and which is devoid of origination and dissolution.
Bhah is the psychic luminosity of pure-consciousness and that is the basic form of the Absolute. Everything that ever appears, lies internally in the Absolute in the form of pure consciousness and the Absolute is thus compactly full of all phenomena. It does not require anything other than its divine power on which to relax or to depend and that is the source of its infinite blissfulness. The Absolute wills to manifest, illumines the manifestable and manifests it objectively. These are its three primary powers through which it conducts all divine activities of Godhead. The Absolute shines through such a psychic luminosity which is free from ideation. It is an intuitive revelation through which the Absolute is realized. The real form of the Absolute is pure, tranquil, infinite, eternal and divinely potent I-consciousness. It is the transcendental reality having Godhead as its essential nature, and manifesting such nature through its divine activities of creation etc. Thus it assumes the form of the whole universe in the manner of a reflection. Godhead is thus the essential nature of the Absolute. Such theistic absolutism of Kashmir Saivism does not require the concept of any element other than the Absolute. Avidya of the post Sankara Advaita Vedanta or vasana of the Buddhist philosophy is not needed here for the sake of the explanation of the phenomenal manifestation. Even Gaudapada and Sankara have admitted such theistic nature of the Brahman in their Tantric works and religio-philosophic lyrics. But such works of these teachers are being very often ignored by the Vedantins. The powers named iccha, jnana and kriya are meant by the compound word iccha-samvit-karanaih. Vikalpa is mental ideation.
darpaṇabimbe yadvan
nagaragrāmādi citramavibhāgi |
bhāti vibhāgenaiva ca
parasparaṃ darpaṇādapi ca || 12 ||
vimalatamaparamabhairava -
bodhāt tadvad vibhāgaśūnyamapi |
anyonyaṃ ca tato'pi ca
vibhaktamābhāti jagadetat || 13 ||
Just as variety in the form of a city, village, etc., when seen in a mirror is not separate [from the mirror], yet it [the variety of objects] appears differentiated [in the mirror] as a city, village, etc., and also as different from the mirror. Similarly the universe, though not existing as different from the pure self-experience of the highest Bhairava, appears as the world, differentiated and different from [Bhairava], the supreme tattva.
Reflections shining in a mirror are not in fact any phenomena that exist outside it, because these shine inside it. But even then these do not appear as one with it, but as entities other than it. Likewise, all phenomena, shining inside the psychic luminosity of I-consciousness, are in fact one with it. It is the I-consciousness which shines itself as such phenomena. But even then these appear as different from the subjective I-consciousness. The whole phenomenon, along with all its functions, appears thus within the luminosity of consciousness in the manner of a reflection shining in a mirror. The main differences between consciousness and mirror are only two. Firstly, a mirror, being a dependent entity, requires outward articles to cast their reflections into it, but the pure consciousness, being divinely potent, perfect, and self dependent, manifests the reflections of its own divine powers of Godhead inside its own psychic lustre of consciousness and does not requite any external element, what so ever, for such purpose. It requires neither the avidya of Vedanta nor the vasana of Buddhism for the purpose. Such self-dependence is the cream of its Godhead. Another great difference between the two is this that a mirror is never aware of either itself or of the reflections shining in it, while I-consciousness is aware of both. Such is the theory of reflectional manifestation of the phenomenon propounded in Saivism of Kashmir. It saves that philosophy from a hypothetical supposition, like that of Avidya, reacting on the Absolute. Besides, it keeps away the apprehension of transformation (parinama) with regard to Brahman. The phenomenal manifestation in Saivism is thus something like a wonderful type of transmutation. Theistic absolutism is thus the fundamental and the basic principle of that philosophy.
śiva - śakti - sadāśivatā -
mīśvara - vidyāmayīṃ ca tattvadaśām |
śaktīnāṃ pañcānāṃ
vibhaktabhāvena bhāsayati || 14 ||
Dividing the five Saktis [one on each level of the five tattvas,] Paramasiva manifests [himself] as the five tattvas, namely, Siva, Sakti, Sadasiva, Iswara, and Vidya.
The five primary powers of God are (i) consciousness, (ii) blissfulness, (iii) divine and unrestrictible will, (iv) power to illumine phenomena, and (v) power to manifest them as entities different from Him. All such powers of God are interdependently mixed together through mutual cooperation and integration and yet each of them predominates only one of the tattvas mentioned above. Cit, the pure consciousness shines predominantly in Paramasiva, the Absolute, but projects out itself as Siva-tattva in which the power of blissfulness attains predominance. Blissfulness projects itself out and shines as Sakti-tattva with the predominance of the power of will. The divine will of the Absolute emerges out as Sadasiva-tattva with the predominance of jnanasakti, the power to illumine. That power gives rise to Isvara-tattva in which the active power or kriya-sakti of the Lord predominates. Kriya emerges out as the pure Vidya and the power of Vidya, the correct knowledge, attains prominence in it.
Each of these five primary powers of the Absolute is thus closely related to two tattvas, one being the immediate source of its emanation and the other being its field of predominance. In the basic works on Saiva philosophy these five tattvas are correlated with these five primary divine powers in accordance with the principle of their predominance. Thus Sivadristi and Isvarapratyabhijna correlate them with tattvas from Paramasiva to Isvara. But a different view is taken in the works on theology. Thus in Tantra-loka and Tantrasara the five primary powers have been correlated with the five tattvas from Siva to pure Vidya, the tattvas emanated as the outward manifestations of these five primary powers. That has been done for the purpose of the upward spiritual progress of a practitioner who, while contemplating on a particular tattva, has to see in it the higher power which is the immediate source of its emanation. Yogaraja follows that very latter view while explaining the above two couplets of the work.
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| Siva is the original source of all emanation and Sakti is the urge of the Absolute towards such emanation of the phenomenon. Siva is the name given to the inward aspect of the divine and blissful spiritual stir of the pure consciousness and its outward stir is represented by Sakti. |
Paramasiva, the Absolute is the infinite pure consciousness endowed with all divine potency. Siva-tattva is the name given to the same pure consciousness when thought over with the predominance of its noumenal aspect. Sakti-tattva also is the same infinite and pure consciousness but such name is used for it when it is meditated upon in the predominance of its phenomenal aspect. The Absolute reality is thought over as God and as His Godhead with the help of these two terms, Siva and Sakti. Siva is the original source of all emanation and Sakti is the urge of the Absolute towards such emanation of the phenomenon. Siva is the name given to the inward aspect of the divine and blissful spiritual stir of the pure consciousness and its outward stir is represented by Sakti. The objective existence does not at all appear in its objective aspect in these two tattvas where consciousness shines as the infinite and perfect “I” and that alone, without even the faintest manifestation of this-ness. That is the state of absolute unity thought over in its two aspects imagined by philosophers for the sake of perfect and complete understanding. The Lord is supposed to govern these two tattvas as Siva and Sakti respectively. Beings who attain the position of such unity are termed as Akala beings. They enjoy constantly the blissful existence of their infinite and pure I-consciousness endowed with infinite divine potency.
Sadasiva and Isvara-tattvas belong to the plane of unity in diversity and are governed by Lord Sadasiva and Lord Isvara respectively. The Absolute God, descended to such plane of unity-cum-diversity, is known by these two names. Beings residing at the planes of these two tattvas are respectively called Mantra-mahesvaras and Mantresvaras. They enjoy the awareness of their blissful unity with the undiversified objective existence appearing as simple “this” and feel respectively as “I am this” and "This is myself.” The awareness of the element of I-ness predominates in the former type of these beings and the element of this-ness does so in the latter. The viewpoint of unity-cum-diversity, belonging to both of these types of beings, serves them as their instrumental tattva and is termed as Suddhavidya or Sadvidya, the pure and correct knowledge. Sadvidya at its lower type is termed as Mahamaya. Beings residing in its plane are known either as Mantras or as Vidyesvaras. They see themselves as divinely potent, pure and infinite consciousness and enjoy its blissfulness but, at the same time, they take the objective existence as different from them. Lord Ivara, descended to that level is known as Lord Anantanatha who rules over Mantra beings ard conducts further creation by means of the divine powers delegated to him by the Lord. Creation up to the level of Mahaamaya is conducted directly by the Almighty Absolute God Himself, without entrusting it to any of His Avataras who conduct creation at lower levels. Such creation is known as the pure creation. It is termed as Suddha-adhvan, the pure path of objective meditation, as taught in the Trika system of practical Saivism.
paramaṃ yat svātantryaṃ
durghaṭasaṃpādanaṃ maheśasya
devī māyāśaktiḥ
svātmāvaraṇaṃ śivasyaitat || 15 ||
The supreme Lord's great freedom, which is capable of accomplishing the most difficult task, is called the Goddess Maya-sakti. It serves Paramasiva as a veil to hide Himself.
Maya, the divine power of the Lord, reflected by Him externally, appears as Maya-tattva, the sixth one in the process of phenomenal evolution. The Lord, covering Himself with it, conceals His nature of absolute purity and divinity. Making a show of His involvement in it, He sees everything through a viewpoint of diversity and forgets the divinity of His I-consciousness. Besides, Maya-tattva serves as the inanimate objective substance out of which all other insentient elements evolve. It is thus the substantive cause of numerous universes floating in it like bubbles in an ocean. Maya-tattva is also a creation of the Absolute God. It is His impure creation. Further creation out of Maya is conducted by Lord Anantanatha, one of the agents of God.
māyāparigrahavaśād
bodho malinaḥ pumān paśurbhavati |
kāla - kalā - niyativaśād
rāgāvidyāvaśena saṃbaddhaḥ || 16 ||
Enveloped by maya Sakti, the bodha (Siva's self-aware, pure consciousness) becomes defiled and accepts the condition of purusa, a fettered being, upon being fully bound by kAlа (limitation with respect to time), kalA (the limited capacity to do just a little), niyati (limitation with respect to causation), raga (the limited interest in a particular something), and avidya (limited capacity to know just a little) kancukas.
Purusa is the finite subject who takes a finite individual I-consciousness, having limited powers to know and to do, as his self. Having lost his infiniteness, he is known as ‘anu’ a finite being. He sees everything and everyone as different from him. Such viewpoint ot diversity and such finitude are the main impurities of such individual I-consciousncss which, being fastened by the chains of ignorance and finitude, is known as a pasu, a bonded being.
Carrying further the phenomenal evolution, Lord Anantanatha shakes up Avidya-tattva and expands it into five kancukas or sheaths that cover and hide the divine nature of the atman and present it in the form of a bonded being called pasu. Depriving it of its omnipotence and limiting its powers to do, it appears in it as kala, a limited capacity to do just a little. Contracting the omniscience of the atman, it appears there as the impure Vidya, a finite capacity to know just a little. Limiting further scope of the kala and Vidya of the atman, Maya appears as niyati, the law of phenomenal causation, and restricts the kala, Vidya and raga ot the finite being at each and every step.
Contracting the very person of such a being, Maya appears as kala, the sense of time, on account of which he does neither do nor know anything without conditioning these activities by the sense of time appearing as past or present or future. Such sense of time becomes so deeply impressed on his person that he does not even think of his very existence except within the terms of past, present or future.
Time, according to Saivism, is an imagined sense of succession with regard to events and actions. Such sense of time is based on the imagination of the finite being living at the plane of Maya, Such successions are either regular as those of the apparent movements of sun and moon, change of seasons, blossoming ot flowers, ripening of fruits and grains and so on: or these are irregular as those of the routine actions of individual beings. We very often measure all the irregular series of successions with some regular successions mentioned above and say that such and such person lived a life of one hundred years; such and such book was read by me in one month; today you slept for eight hours, and so on. Time in Saivism is thus a mere conception and not any substance. It is a special type of relativity which is itself a substanceless conception based on human imagination. The finite I-consciousness, shrouded by Maya and these five tattvas of limitation, is termed as purusa, a bonded finite being known as pasu or anu or jiva and so on.
adhunaiva kiṃcideve -
dameva sarvātmanaiva jānāmi |
māyāsahitaṃ kañcuka -
ṣaṭkamaṇorantaraṅgamidamuktam || 17 ||
[The limiting concepts expressed by thoughts like:] "Now," "something," "this," "completely," " I know" (“I know only now and know just a little and just this much of it quite completely”) together with maya are said to be the six internal sheaths (kancukas).
The omnipotence of Siva is reduced to the position of kalA in a finite being. His omniscience becomes here the impure Vidya. The perfectness of Siva is reduced here to raga-tattva. His eternity is brought down to the position of kala-tattva and niyati-tattva occupies the place of His complete independence.
The five pure elements, discussed previously, and these six impure elements raise the number of the tattvas in the process of phenomenal evolution to eleven and purusa is the twelfth such tattva. The six kancukas, being the part and parcel of the person of a finite being, are his interior limitations while the subtle mental body and the gross material body are his exterior limitations, because he wears them like clothes, changes the gross ones and sheds them off, but the interior limitations of kancukas have become the essential nature of his person. A purusa is a purusa because of these kancukas; otherwise he should have been a pure being residing in the plane of either pure Vidya or Sakti.
kambukamiva taṇḍulakaṇa -
viniviṣṭaṃ bhinnamapyabhidā |
bhajate tattu viśuddhiṃ
śivamārgaunmukhyayogena || 18 ||
The husk existing on a grain of rice, though existing separately, appears inseparable from the grain. But [the fettered being, who similarly seems attached to his fetters] attains purity by turning towards Siva through Yoga and treading on his path.
Rice grains have two coverings. One is the outer chaff which is removed by simple husking. But inside it there is a thin and yellowish white covering which appears as the part and parcel of the edible rice itself. It is often rubbed off only with the help of a polisher fitted in a husking machine. Rice shines in snow white colour only after the removal of such inner covering known in Kashmiri language as komb, Sanskrit kambuka. Likewise, the six kancukas appear as part and parcel of the finite subject whose, real nature can shine brilliantly only after washing away such coverings of kancukas by means of Saiva yoga.
sukha - duḥkha - mohamātraṃ
niścaya - saṃkalpanābhimānācca |
prakṛtirathāntaḥkaraṇaṃ
buddhi - mano'haṅkṛti kramaśaḥ || 19 ||
Prakriti is of the nature of happiness, sorrow, and delusion and [from it emerge] the internal sense organs, the intellect (buddhi) [the understanding sense that forms definite conceptions], the mind (manas), [the organ of such thinking as gives rise to indefinite ideations (about phenomena)] and the ego (ahamkara), [the egoist sense that connects such psychic activates with the finite subject.] which are the instruments for determinate cognition (niscaya), volition (sankalpa), and false conception of one's Self (abhimana), respectively.
Prakrti is the initial objective element that becomes the focus of the activities of the finite subject who feels it afterwards either as pleasure or pain or simple ignorance. Such three feelings are known respectively as Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, the three gunas. Prakrti is that state of the complete amalgamation of three gunas in which these do not at all appear in their separate individual character. It is their absolute equilibrium. Both Purusa and Prakriti are the creations of Lord Anantanatha. Lord Isvara, desended the plane of threee gunas is known as Srikanthanatha. Umapatinatha is another divine form of Srikanthanatha. He is the Siva of epics and puranas. Srikanthanatha shakes up Prakriti, disturbs the equilibrium of the gunas and creates the instrumental and objective elements out of it through a process of transformation. The first result of such transformation is the creation of interior senses including ego and the last one is that of gross physical elements known as bhutas. Samkhya system maintains that Prakrti undergoes transformation into instrumental and objective elements by virtue of its own essential nature, without any help from any quarters. But Saivism declares that Lord Srikanthanatha directs it, disturbs its equilibrium and transforms it into the twenty-three tattvas from mahattattva (buddhi) to earth, because, being insentient in character, it cannot undergo any change by itself and requires guidance for such purpose from some sentient person and such person is Lord Srikanthanatha.
śrotraṃ tvagakṣi rasanā
ghrāṇaṃ buddhīndriyāṇi śabdādau |
vākpāṇi - pāda - pāyū -
pasthaṃ karmendriyāṇi punaḥ || 20 ||
The sense organs, having sound and so on as their object of knowledge, are hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. The organs of action are the organs of speech, grasping, locomotion, excretion, and procreation.
Each sense has its fixed place in the gross body while an organ works through more than one limbs. One can catch hold of something with the help of his mouth also, can discharge through several outlets in the body, can enjoy sexual bliss through kisses and embraccs as well. All these senses and organs are produced through a process of the transformation of ego in its different aspects.
eṣāṃ grāhyo viṣayaḥ
sūkṣmaḥ pravibhāgavarjito yaḥ syāt |
tanmātrapañcakaṃ tat
śabdaḥ sparśo maho raso gandhaḥ || 21 ||
The subtle objects [experienced by the sense organs] are devoid of differentiation. These are the five subtle elements (tanmatras): sound (sabda), touch (sparsa), form (rupa), taste (rasa), and smell (gandha).
Tanmatra means “that much”. For instance, sabda tanmatra means simple sound alone, without any particulars. These are the finer objects of the senses and are produced out of a particular aspect of ego through the process of transformation, because all of them shine as egoistic feeling, arid ideas and not as any independent entities. It is the ego which takes them up as its particulars and shines itself in these five forms.
etatsaṃsargavaśāt
sthulo viṣayastu bhūtapañcakatām |
abhyeti nabhaḥ pavana -
stejaḥ salilaṃ ca pṛthvī ca || 22 ||
From the intermixing of these [subtle elements] are born the gross objects, the five gross elements, namely, ether, air, fire, water, and earth.
Five subtle objects of senses, when mixed together and disturbed, get evolved into five gross elements of physical existence. These have the subtle objects as their special attributes called visesa-gunas. The creation of gross objective elements is something like the coagulation of the subtle ones.
tu ṣa iva taṇḍulakaṇikā -
māvṛṇate prakṛtipūrvakaḥ sargaḥ |
pṛthvīparyanto'yaṃ
caitanyaṃ dehabhāvena || 23 ||
Creation, extending from prakrti down to prithvi (earth), covers pure consciousness by providing a physical body in the same way a husk covers a grain of rice.
Both subtle and gross bodies of a being are evolved out of an admixture of elements from prakrti to earth. Such bodies form the outer covering of I-consciousness, which takes them as its self. But kancukas, constituting the very finitude of the finite consciousness, shine as its essential part and parcel and are therefore its interior covering.
paramāvaraṇaṃ mala iha
sūkṣmaṃ māyādi kañcukaṃ sthūlam |
bāhyaṃ vigraharūpaṃ
kośatrayaveṣṭito hyātmā || 24 ||
Among the sheaths, the innermost [subtlest one] is the Anava-mala. The six kinds of sheaths (kancukas) made from maya, etc., form the subtle sheath. The outermost and gross covering is the physical body. The Self (Atman) is covered by these three kinds of sheaths.
God, hiding His purity, divinity etc., appears as a finite being who forgets his real nature and becomes ignorant about it. Such basic ignorance of a being regarding his purity, divinity, omniscience, omnipotence etc. is his finer covering. It conceals the very nature of his inner being and appears as his part and parcel. It is termed in Saivism as mala or impurity. Maya, along with its live evolutes called kancukas, limiting the scope of the powers of a being, is his interior and subtle covering. His external gross covering is his individual body, both mental and physical. The real nature of the Atman remains thus hidden under such three sheaths, the last one among which can be analysed further into two, the thinner one and the grosser one, that is, the mental one and the physical one.
ajñāna - timirayogād
ekamapi svaṃ svabhāvamātmānam |
grāhya - grāhakanānā -
vaicitryeṇāvabudhyeta || 25 ||
On being subjected to the darkness of ignorance, he [the Self], though one by his very nature, knows himself as many in the form of the infinite variety of limited subjects and objects.
The moon is one, but a person suffering from an eye disease sees it as two. So does an ignorant being see his monistic divine nature as a complex diversity with the result he goes on committing good and bad deeds and reaping the result of them in endless cycles of births, deaths, rebirths etc.
rasa - phāṇita - śarkarikā -
guḍa - khaṇḍādyā yathekṣurasa eva |
tadvad avasthābhedāḥ
sarve paramātmanaḥ śaṃbho || 26 ||
Just as [sugar cane] juice, jaggery, sugar, and gur, etc. are only [different forms or states of the same thing] sugar cane juice, so all beings abide in the supreme Lord Sambhu in different states or forms.
God shines in His two aspects, the noumenal one and the phenomenal one. In the former one He is infinite and pure I-consciousness and that alone. But within such transcendental consciousness lies that infinite divine power of Godhead through which all phenomena shine in Him as reflections in a crystal. He appears thus as the whole mental and physical existence and that is His phenomenal aspect.
vijñānāntaryāmi -
prāṇa - virāḍdeha - jāti - piṇḍāntāḥ |
vyavahāramātrametat
paramārthena tu na santyeva || 27 ||
[Notions like] "stream of pure awareness ," "the witness," "the vital breath ," "the all-pervasive body," "the Universal," and "the individual" are only conventionally true on the empirical plane. They have no actual existence.
The Buddhist thinkers maintain that the constant flow of momentary consciousness is the only reality. The Vedic thinkers say that the single self, penetrating inside, pervading, directing and governing all the minds, is the ultimate reality. Some Upanisadic thinkers take the power of animation as the ultimate truth, while other such thinkers say that one universal Atman, shining as all phenomena, is the only reality. Some other thinkers take either the psycho-physical organism or the generalities or lastly the individual as the ultimate truth. But all such theories are merely some dialectical speculations useful in discussions and debates. None among such entities has a real existence, as all these are mere suppositions and imaginary concepts of thinkers.
rajjvāṃ nāsti bhujaṅga -
strāsaṃ kurute ca mṛtyuparyantam |
bhrāntermahatī śakti -
rna vivektuṃ śakyate nāma || 28 ||
A snake does not exist in a rope, yet it can frighten someone to death. The power of delusion is so great that it is not possible to know its true nature.
A hanging rope, moving this way and that way in a gentle breeze, causes immense dread when it is mistaken for a serpent in its zigzag gait.
tadvad dharmādharma
svarnirayotpatti - maraṇa - sukha - duḥkham |
varṇāśramādi cātma -
nyasadapivibhramabalādbhavati || 29 ||
Similarly, merit and demerit, heaven and hell, birth and death, joy and sorrow, varna (caste), and asrama (stages of life), etc., though non-existent in the pure Self, arise by the strength of delusion.
No diversity is the real truth. Its existence is simply apparent. It shines in the Atman as reflections shine in a mirror. All this appears to a bonded being on account of the delusion caused by Maya. Saivism, taking in this way the phenomenon as a mere apparent entity, comes very close to the Advaita Vedanta. But Maya the basic cause of such reflectional appearance of the phenomenon, has been taken in Saivism as the divine power of the Atman, while it is being accepted in the Advaita Vedanta as a foreign entity coming into contract with the Atman and manifesting it falsely as God, soul and insentient substances. Saivism propounds thus a highly theistic absolutism, while the fundamental principle of the Advaita Vedanta is sufficiently nihilistic in character.
etat tad andhakāraṃ
yad bhāveṣu prakāśamānatayā |
ātmānatirikteṣvapi
bhavatyanātmābhimāno'yam || 30 ||
This darkness [of delusion], which is manifested through [apparently] existing objects, makes one experience the non-self in things which in fact are identical with the Self.
Only such a thing can appear as an existent entity which shines within prakasa, the psychic luminosity of consciousness. In fact it is such prakaia itself which, taking up the forms of such entities, shines like that. How can then any such entity be different from prakasa known as Atman! But still all this is taken as non-self and that is the darkness of ignorance.
timirādapi timiramidaṃ
gaṇḍasyopari mahānayaṃ sphoṭaḥ |
yadanātmanyapi deha -
prāṇādāvātmamānitvam || 31 ||
The experience of the Self in the not-self, such as the physical body or the vital air, is like darkness superimposed on darkness. It can be likened to a boil formed on the burned [part of the body].
One type of ignorance is the forgetfulness about one’s pure and intinite universal nature. It gives rise to another type of ignorance on account of which a being develops the conception of self-hood with respect to limited and insentient objects like the physical body etc., all of which are, in reality, non-self. Such double faced delusion is a disease over a disease and a darkness over a darkness.
deha - prāṇavimarśana -
dhījñāna - nabhaḥ prapañcayogena |
ātmānaṃ veṣṭayate
citraṃ jālena jālakāra iva || 32 ||
Just as a spider [ensnares himself] in his web, so he [the embodied man in the world] binds himself by experiencing worldly objects like the physical body, the vital breath, intellectual knowledge, and the expanse of sky.
The conception and feeling of I-ness with respect to physical body and pure animation is the gross covering that hides the real nature of the self. The subtle covering is the multitude of multifarious conceptual cognitions being always formed by his understanding capacity. The finer covering is his feeling of I-ness with regard to pure but finite individual consciousness, freed from all subjective and objective ideas. It can be compared to the nihility of the void. These are the amplifications with which the natural infinity, purity, eternity, divinity etc. of the potent and pure consciousness of a being become concealed and remain hidden. Since God appears as all beings, it is He who conceals wonderfully His real nature in this way.
svajñānavibhavabhāsana -
yogenodveṣṭayennijātmānam |
iti bandhamokṣacitrāṃ
krīḍāṃ pratanoti paramaśivaḥ || 33 ||
Lord ParamaSiva liberates himself from bondage by loosening its grip through the glory of knowledge of the Self. Thus bondage and liberation are his divine play.
Bondage is not basically due to any foriegn element like Avidya, but is due to the very divine nature of the absolute reality itself. God, shorn of such playful nature, would be reduced to the position of insentient pure space. It is such playfulness which is His natural Godhead. Neither bondage nor liberation can basically be due to anything other than such divine nature of God.
sṛṣṭi sthiti - saṃhārā
jāgratsvapnau suṣuptamiti tasmin |
bhānti turīye dhāmani
tathāpi tairnāvṛtaṃ bhāti || 34
Creation, maintenance, and dissolution [and the states of] waking , dreaming, and dreamless sleep , appear in him [the supreme Lord] in the fourth state, but even in that state he reveals himself as not covered [i.e., not affected] by them.
Turiya, the fourth state of animation, is the state of such intuitive revelation as illumines the pure and divinely potent nature of the self. It is the pure consciousness which keeps on shining in all the states of animation as the witnessing reality. It can neither be hidden by the waking state, nor by the dreaming one, nor by the sleeping one, all of which depend on it, because it is the basic light of consciousness pervading every function of a being. It alone illumines all the functions of animation in all these states.
jāgradviśvaṃ bhedāt
svapnastejaḥ prakāśamāhātmyāt |
prājñaḥ suptāvasthā
jñānaghanatvāttataḥ paraṃ turyam || 35 ||
The waking state corresponds to the universe (visva) because of differentiation. The dreaming state corresponds to illumintation ( tejas) on account of the dominance of light. The state of dreamless slumber corresponds to understanding (prajna), a s this state is characterised by massive knowledge, and the fourth (turiya) state is beyond all these.
Generally the beings in such states are given such four names, but such states and the beings in them have together been mentioned here through such four terms.
jaladhara - dhūma - rajobhi -
rmalinīkriyate yathā na gaganatalam |
tadvanmāyāvikṛtibhi -
raparāmṛṣṭaḥ paraḥ puruṣaḥ || 36 ||
Just as the vast expanse of sky is not defiled by clouds nor smoke nor dust, so the supreme Being is not affected by the changes of maya.
Five kancukas are the direct evolutes of Maya. They narrow down to the utmost the scope of the powers of a finite being. But since these five elements, along with Maya itself, appear only like reflections ins:de the psychic luminosity of the supreme self, and do so only by virtue of the playful and divine power of the self, these cannot affect it at all. That is to say that the Lord does not undergo any change in His basic character and continues to be pure, infinite and divine consciousness even while appearing as all phenomena. That is the strange pantheism of the Saiva philosophy of Kashmir. It is pantheism combined with absolutism.
ekasmin ghaṭagagane
rajasā vyāpte bhavanti nānyāni
malināni tadvadete
jīvāḥ sukha - duḥkhabhedajuṣaḥ || 37 ||
When the ether in one jar is filled with dust, the ether in other jars is not then defiled. This is also true for those souls that undergo differentiation with respect to joy and sorrow.
śānte śānta ivāyaṃ
hṛṣṭe hṛṣṭo vimohavati mūḍhaḥ |
tattvagaṇe sati bhagavān
na punaḥ paramārthataḥ sa tathā || 38 ||
The supreme Lord seems still when the various elements are still; glad when they are glad; gloomy when they are gloomy; but truly he is not so.
God is changeless. Tranquillity, delusion etc. are different psychic states involving change in the character of the entities to which these belong and are caused by three gunas. God, being the absolute reality that transcends gunas, does not at all undergo any change in His character. But, while acting as a finite being, He looks as if He were undergoing such changes and having pleasure, pain, delusion etc. as his character.
yadanātmanyapi tadrūpā -
vabhāsanaṃ tat purā nirākṛtya |
ātmanyanātmarūpāṃ
bhrāntiṃ vidalayati paramātmā || 39 ||
The great God, having first eradicated the delusion of taking the non-self and insentient substances as self, shatters afterwards the other delusive conception of taking the (all inclusive) self as non-self.
The self of a person in fact, divinely potent, pure and transcendental consciousness alone; but a person in delusion takes some insentient substances like the physical body, animation, mental apparatus etc. as his self. That is one type of his delusion. The whole phenomenon, being the manifestation of the divine powers of the real self, is in fact nothing other than one’s self, but is taken as non-self. That is another type of delusion. The great God, playing the gracious game of self-revelation, makes a person realize his real nature and to recognize himself as none other than God. Such recognitive self-realization liquidates both the above mentioned types of delusion, one after another. Such a man of realization feels firstly that he is pure, infinite, eternal, independent and perfect consciousness having infinite divine potency as his nature. Afterwards he sees the whole phenomenon as his own self.
itthaṃ vibhramayugalaka -
samūlavicchedane kṛtārthasya |
kartavyāntarakalanā
na jātu parayogino bhavati || 40 ||
When in this way the two illusions are successfully rooted out completely, the exalted adepts have fulfilled their aim, and there cannot be any duty left for them to accomplish.
pṛthivī prakṛtirmāyā
tritayamidaṃ vedyarūpatāpatitam |
advaitabhāvanabalād
bhavati hi sanmātrapariśeṣam || 41 ||
Thus by the power of meditation on unity, the trinity of prthivi (earth), prakrti and maya that had revealed itself in objective form, becomes reduced to simple being.
Bhavana is a contemplative practice in thinking constantly about the exactly pure and real nature of an entity, self or non-self. Such contemplative practice in thinking constantly about the monistic, pure and divine character of everything raises the whole phenomenal existence to the position of the basic existence which is pure consciousness endowed with divine potency.
raśanākuṇḍalakaṭakaṃ
bhedatyāgena dṛśyate yathā hema |
tadvadbhedatyāge
sanmātraṃ sarvamābhāti || 42 ||
Just as a belt, a ring, or a bracelet, irrespective of their differentiation, appear simply as gold, so the universe, irrespective of its differentiation, appears as simple being.
tadbrahma paraṃ śuddhaṃ
śāntamabhedātmakaṃ samaṃ sakalam |
amṛtaṃ satyaṃ śaktau
viśrāmyati bhāsvarūpāyām || 43 ||
This is the Brahman (supreme being), supreme, pure, still, undifferentiated, equable, complete, deathless, real, that rests in the Sakti who has consciousness as its form
Brahman is never involved in the disturbance of anything like Maya, karman etc. and that amounts to its tranquillity. Since Brahman alone is everything, everything is as much Brahman as Brahman itself. It is immortal and true and, being self dependent, it relaxes on its own divine power of Godhead which has infinitely potent consciousness, or rather awareness, as its essential form. It has not to relax or to rely on anything other than its divine power. It does not therefore require the assistance of either Avidya or vasana in its universal play which is played by it through its own divine power which is playful in its essential nature and that is the absolute Godhead of Brahman as maintained in Kashmir Saivism.
iṣyata iti vedyata iti
saṃpādyata iti ca bhāsvarūpeṇa |
aparāmṛṣṭaṃ yadapi tu
nabhaḥ prasūnatvamabhyeti || 44 ||
On the other hand , anything un touched by illumination (bha) expressed as the powers of will, knowledge, and action is like a flower-in-the sky it does not exist. [Illumination consists of the powers of will, knowledge, and action held in perfect equilibrium].
It is only consciousness which illumines an entity. Only that thing is accepted as an existent or non-existent entity which shines Iike that within the psychic light of the consciousness of a being. A thing which does never shine there is reduced to total nothingness. Therefore it is in fact the divine consciousness alone which shines itself as any phenomenon that is ever willed or observed or created. That proves the supreme theistic monism worked out in Paramarthasara
śaktitriśūlaparigama -
yogena samastamapi parameśe |
śivanāmani paramārthe
visṛjyate devadevena || 45 ||
Initially the Lord of the lords creates the whole phenomenon within His own divine, potent and eternally existent aspect named Siva, by handling the trident of His divine powers.
The conative, cognitive and creative powers of God are His three primary powers known as iccha-sakti, jnana-sakti and kriya-sakti. The symbolic trident of Siva is suggestive of these three divine powers which constitute His essential nature. Siva, coming face to. face to such powers through His awareness, that is, becoming fully aware of His natural divine powers, becomes prone or inclined towards creation. Such a situation is described as holding in His hand the trident of three divine powers. His conative power is His iccha-sakti, which is depicted in Upanisadic passages like “Tadaiksata, bahu syam, prajayeya iti”. The basic reality visualizes, “Let me become many, Jet me be born (in many forms)” and so on. Before creating the phenomenon externally as an objective existence, God creates it within His own self known as Siva. His will to create a particular type of phenomenon presupposes its existence inside His awareness, because nothing particular could have otherwise become the object of His conation, or creation. The phenomenon appears initially in Him and that is due to His cognitive power. It shines clearly in Him as the object to be created and is thus created there actually through His creative power. Its outward creation is due to the phenomenal growth of His kriya-sakti.
A worldly creator also follows such process. He creates only that thing outwardly which is initially created by him in his own self. A painter creates initially a wonderful form in his own will and then he illuminates it thoroughly while forming a clear idea about it in his mind and afterwards he starts to paint it actually on a board. So does the Lord create the phenomenon in His own subjective self before manifesting it outwardly and objectively. That is the interior creation which the couplet in hand is meant to express.
punarapi ca pañcaśakti -
prasaraṇakrameṇa bahirapi tat |
aṇḍatrayaṃ vicitraṃ
sṛṣṭaṃ bahirātmalābhena || 46 ||
And again, he [Paramasiva] accomplishes the task of the external creation of the three eggs with their infinite variety in order to find him self in the external world [as innumerable subjects and objects] through the process of expansion of his five Saktis.
The five divine powers of the Lord are: cit or pure consciousness, ananda or blissfulness, iccha or conative power, jnana or cognitive power and kriya or creative porwer. These powers shine in Him as His own self. Their outward manifestation reflects them as the creation of the objective existence consisting of three spheres of Maya, the causal creation, Pracriti, the subtle creation and Prthvi, the gross creation. The whole of such creation is complexly wonderful. It is the outward or objective manifestation of the essential nature of God. Here He finds out His own self in an objective aspect and that is His ‘bahiratma-labha'
iti śakticakrayantraṃ
krīḍāyogena vāhayandevaḥ |
ahameva śuddharūpaḥ
śaktimahācakranāyakapadasthaḥ || 47 ||
[yogin contemplates]: "Putting thus playfully the machine of the circle of divine powers in motion, I am myself the Lord, with purity as my nature, working at the highest post as the master hero of the infinite wheel of Saktis or divine powers!"
Concluding the discussions noted above, an aspirant realizes that he is not a finite being but the great Lord who is the only hero having the multitudes of divine powers as His heroins. He feels actually that he is himself activating playfully the whole circle of such powers, the primary one among which are five: (1) cit, (2) ananda. (3) iccha, (4) jnana, and (5) kriya. Their amalgamated unity appears in twelve forms in the process of all psychic activities of all beings and are known as Sakti-cakra or the group of twelve Kalis. Such Kalis absorb in them the psychic activities of all subjects, the functions of their psychic apparatus and the objective elements that become foci of such activities. A successful practitioner of Saivism realizes and visualizes such fact through his personal experience.
mayyeva bhāti viśvaṃ
darpaṇa iva nirmale ghaṭādīni |
mattaḥ prasarati sarvaṃ
svapnavicitratvamiva suptāt || 48 ||
"It is in Me that the universe reveals itself as [inanimate objects like] jars as in a mirror! From Me the universe emanates just as the manifold variety of the dream world emanates from the dreaming person!"
A successful Sivayogin, realizing his real nature, feels all phenomena as the wonderful reflections of his own divine pow'rs. He sees them as emanated from his own self just as dream world emanates from a dreaming person.
ahameva viśvarūpaḥ
karacaraṇādisvabhāva iva dehaḥ |
sarvasminnahameva
sphurāmi bhāveṣu bhāsvarūpamiva || 49 ||
"Just as it is the very nature of a body to be its limbs like hand, feet etc. so is the whole phenomenon my own form! Just as it is light which shines in the form of all existent substances, so do I myself glitter as all existence!"
A body is one though its limbs are many. So in one Atman alone the whole existence of diverse character. To have limbs is the very nature and character of a body; to appear as all phenomena is the basic nature of the self. Just as every existent entity shines within the light that illuminates it, so does everything shine within the psychic light of the consciousness of the Atman. In fact it is light that takes up the forms of all material substances against which it is focussed and shines as such substances. In the same way the Atman assumes the forms of all phenomena and shines as everything phenomenal in character.
Such arguments are put up to prove the correctness of the supreme monism or Paradvaita principle of Kashmir Saivism
draṣṭā śrotā ghrātā
dehendriyavarjito'pyakartāpi |
siddhāntāgamatarkāṃ -
ścitrānahameva racayāmi || 50 ||
"Though in fact I do not have any body or senses or organs, and do not commit any deeds, yet I see, hear, smell and I alone compose wonderfully different sastras like Siddhantas, Agamas and logical treatises!!!"
The Atman is pure consciousness that transcends all insentient entities like bodies, senses, organs etc. and yet all such entities are driven into their respective functions by the Atman which alone conducts thus such functions resulting in works like the composition of sastras.
itthaṃ dvaitavikalpe
galite pravilaṅghya mohanīṃ māyām |
salīle salilaṃ kṣīre
kṣīramiva brahmaṇi layī syāt || 51 ||
When the conceptual knowledge of duality disappears from the mind of a spiritual adept [after he establishes himself in his divine essence], and thus when he has succeeded in crossing over the delusion of maya, such an adept is merged in Brahman like water in water, and milk in milk.
itthaṃ tattvasamūhe
bhāvanayā śivamayatvamabhiyāte |
kaḥ śokaḥ ko mohaḥ
sarvaṃ brahmāvalokayataḥ || 52 ||
The whole cluster of tattvas, having become thus one with Siva by means of such contemplative practice in constant conceptions of absolute unity, what can remain there as sorrow or delusion for a yogin seeing everything as Brahman?
The viewpoint of diversity is a prominent basic cause of all delusions and sorrows. An aspirant, who sees Brahman alone, is automatically freed from all such misery even while he is yet living in a material form. Such viewpoint of absolute unity can be easily developed by means of jnanayoga called Bhavana, a practice in constant contemplation of perfect unity of the divinely potent self with the whole existence.
karmaphalaṃ śubhamaśubhaṃ
mithyājñānena saṃgamādeva |
viṣamo hi saṅgadoṣa -
staskarayogo'pyataskarasyeva || 53 ||
Good or bad fruits of one’s deeds are to be tasted by a person only on account of his companionship with incorrect knowledge. The evil of bad company is indeed very dangerous. It is like an honest man’s company with a thief.
Deeds are actually conducted by bodies senses and organs of finite beings under invariable and invisible direction from God. But, being under a deep effect of incorrect knowledge, wc feel that we are ourselves doing them. A deep impression of such feeling makes us responsible for the results of such deeds; otherwise, if we see things through the conect angle of vision, and feel consequently that the divine powers of God are directing and driving the senses and organs of all living beings, we will not develop any impression of our responsibility for any deeds.
lokavyavahārakṛtāṃ
ya ihāvidyāmupāsate mūḍhāḥ |
te yānti janmamṛtyū
dharmādharmārgalābaddhāḥ || 54 ||
Deluded people, adhering to incorrect knowledge based on mundane transactions, undergo births and deaths on account of their being bound by the chains of piety and sin.
A yogin, having developed correct knowledge, and feeling consequently that all deeds are being done bv the divine powers of God, is not at all involved in the chains of karman, because it is the egoistic conception of one’s having done such and such deeds that makes him responsible for their fruits. The impression of such conceptions is known as karmasamskara. It gives rise to a natural disposition towards rebirth to reap the fruits of such deeds.
ajñānakālanicitaṃ
dharmādharmātmakaṃ tu karmāpi |
cirasaṃcitamiva tūlaṃ
naśyati vijñānadīptivaśāt || 55 ||
Good and bad deeds, accumulated during the period of ignorance, are destroyed like heaps of cotton collected since long, by the power of the burning effulgence of actually correct knowledge.
Jnana is the knowledge of the Truth at the level of one’s understanding and vijnana is its actual experience in practical life. A person may be thoroughly convinced at the level of his intellect about the correctness of the principle of theistic monism, but may still feel himself to be a finite being different from God before he experiences actually his divinity and absolute unity through the vijnana of the truth. Such vijnana alone can annihilate all accumulated deeds known as sancita-karman
jñānaprāptau kṛtamapi
na phalāya tato'sya janma katham |
gatajanmabandhayogo
bhāti śivārkaḥ svadīdhitibhiḥ || 56 ||
After one attains true knowledge, [the actions performed by him] cannot bear fruit. How can he then be reborn? His connection with the bond of birth is ended, and he is revealed in the lustre of the Self, a sun consisting of Siva.
The past actions of a Sivayogin become annihilated. His present actions are reduced to ineffectiveness. No cause for any more rebirth remains existent in his case. Shedding off his physical form at the end of his current life, he frees himself from the ftnitude of individuality as well and, realizing himself as none other than the absolute Siva, he starts to shine eternally through the lays of his divine powers.
tuṣa - kambuka - kiṃśāruka -
muktaṃ bījaṃ yathāṅkuraṃ kurute |
naiva tathāṇavamāyā -
karmavimukto bhavāṅkuraṃ hyātmā || 57 ||
Just as a paddy seed, shorn of the outer husk, the inner yellowish covering and the germ of the plant, cannot sprout into a seedling; so does not the Atman, freed from the impurities of finitude, diversity and past deeds, undergo any rebirth.
The yellowish thin covering of rice, which is often rubbed off with the help of polisher in a husking machine, is called kambuka. A small round particle, stationed in one corner of the grain, and falling off in the process of husking, is called kimsaruka, ‘syur’ in Kashmiri. That syur is the germ of the seedling. Tusa is the name of the outer chaff of a rice grain. If these three elements are removed from a paddy seed, it cannot sprout into a seedling. The three impurities of a finite being have been compared here with these three elements of a paddy-seed.
ātmajño na kutaścana
bibheti sarvaṃ hi tasya nijarūpam |
naiva ca śocati yasmāt
paramārthe nāśitā nāsti || 58 ||
A person who realizes his real nature does not feel any dread from any quarters because everything is his own self. He does not experience any grief because, in reality, there is no death or destruction.
A person can be afraid of some phenomenon other than his own self. When everything is experienced as one’s own self, what can become a cause of fear? A person is overwhelmed with grief on account of either the death of some near or dear or the destruction of some property. How can there be any grief when there is neither any death nor any destruction in the view of a Sivayogin who has realized the real nature of his self?
atigūḍhahṛdayagañja -
prarūḍhaparamārtharatnasaṃcayataḥ |
ahameveti maheśvara -
bhāve kā durgatiḥ kasya || 59 ||
What can be taken as a misery or misfortune and for whom can it be taken like that when the heaps of the jewels of the Absolute Reality are fully accumulated inside the deeply hidden treasury of one’s inner self and when the supreme and universal Godhead is realized as one’s own nature?
Hrdaya is not the fleshy organ known as heart. It is the inner self, the main centre of all the functions of animation. The bounties of supreme Godhead are the jewels of paramartha
mokṣasya naiva kiṃcid
dhāmāsti na cāpi gamanamanyatra |
ajñānagranthibhidā
svaśaktyabhivyaktatā mokṣaḥ || 60 ||
The state of liberation is not confined to any special abode (like Vaikuntha), nor does it necessitate any ascension (towards any celestial abode). Liberation is the illumining of one’s divine potency attainable by means of resolving the knots of ignorance.
Fully liberated beings have not to ascend to any divine abode like Brahmaloka or Vaikuntha. Ignorance regarding one’s real nature, consisting of supreme and divine potency is bondage and as soon as such ignorance is annihilated, one’s really natural purity and divinity shine through the spiritual lustre of his own pure consciousness and that is liberation. Such a being is liberated even while living in a physical form.
bhinnājñānagranthi -
rgatasaṃdehaḥ parākṛtabhrāntiḥ |
prakṣīṇapuṇyāpāpo
vigrahayoge'pyasau muktaḥ || 61 ||
A person becomes liberated even while residing in a mortal form when the knots of his ignorance are resolved, his doubts are removed, his delusion is eradicated and his piety and sin are perfectly consumed.
When the impressions of the correct knowledge of one’s real nature become deeply impressed on his person, his ignorance, his doubts, his delusion etc. become annihilated and his good and bad deeds lose their power of fructification. Since it is ignorance with its results which is bondage, such a person attains liberation even while living in the mortal world and is consequently known as a jivan-mukta.
agnyabhidagdhaṃ bījaṃ
yathā prarohāsamarthatāmeti |
jñānāgni-dagdhamevaṃ
karma na janmapradaṃ bhavati || 62 ||
Just as a seed, parched in fire, loses its power to grow, so do deeds (of a person) lose their power to cause rebirth when these are burnt (from within) by the fire of correct knowledge (of the real nature of his self.)
parimitabuddhitvena hi
karmocitabhāvidehabhāvanayā |
saṃkucitā citiretad -
dehadhvaṃse tathā bhavati || 63 ||
When this body is destroyed, pure consciousness [once again] becomes a limited intellect (buddhi) by the formation of its future body in conformity with the fruits o f this body's present deeds.
The impression of the deeds done by a person create in him a consequent disposition that drives him, after the end of his current life, to such a future life in which his deeds can bear fruits. It is such disposition, working in each and every soul, that runs quite automatically the whole system of transmigration of beings from birth to rebirth in endless cycles.
yadi punaramalaṃ bodhaṃ
sarvasamuttīrṇaboddhṛkartṛmayam |
vitatamanastamitodita -
bhārūpaṃ satyasaṃkalpam || 64 ||
dikkālakalanavikalaṃ
dhruvamavyayamīśvaraṃ suparipūrṇam |
bahutaraśaktivrāta -
pralayodayaviracanaikakartāram || 65 ||
sṛṣṭyādividhisuvedhasa -
mātmānaṃ śivamayaṃ vibuddhyeta |
kathamiva saṃsārī syād
vitatasya kutaḥ kva vā saraṇam || 66 ||
But how can a person move about in transmigration when he knows definitely and feels actually that he is that pure consciousness which is the (absolute) ‘know-er’ and ‘do-er’ at the plane that transcends all phenomena, is infinite, consists of the unsetting and unrising light (of consciousness), the will of which is always fruitful, which is free from the concepts of time and space, which is eternal, changeless, all powerful and perfect in all respects, which alone brings forth the rise and fall of so many multitudes of divine powers and which is Siva, the perfect master of all divine functions of creation etc.? From where and to which place can an infinite entity move?
When an adept aspirant develops a thorough realization of the real nature of his self, he feels that he is the absolute truth which is free even from the conditions of time, space and causation, and becomes sure about the fact that he is none other than the Almighty God Himself, Who is the only absolute truth. He does not only take such truth as a mere theory, but actually feels himself to be God. A deep impression of such an experience liquidates the effects of all the previous impressions of finitude, impurity, involvement in deeds and so on. It annihilates thus the very mental dispositions that drive finite beings towards rebirth. Such an aspirant becomes liberated even while living in a mortal form.
iti yuktibhirapi siddhaṃ
yatkarma jñānino na saphalaṃ tat |
na mamedamapi tu tasye -
ti dārḍhyato nahi phalaṃ loke || 67 ||
It can be proved through logical arguments as well that the deeds committed by a jnanin can not bear him any fruits. A religious rite, done in this world through a firm attitude of "this is not mine but his [the Lord's]" does not bear any result to its do-er.
It is a principle of dharmaSastra that a priest, performing a religious rite for the sake of his yajamana. is not himself to get the result of such rite. It is the person for whom it is performed who gets its fiuit. Similarly a jnanin, having a firm belief in the fact that all deeds, being committed through his body, senses, organs etc. arc in fact being done by God Himself with the help of His own divine powers, does not become involved in the result of such deeds.
itthaṃ sakalavikalpān
pratibuddho bhāvanāsamīraṇataḥ |
ātmajyotiṣi dīpte
juhvajjyotirmayo bhavati || 68 ||
An aspirant, enlightened by such realization, and ottering all his conceptual functions and ideas to the sacrificial fire of pure consciousness of the self, kindled highly by the winds of the self- contemplative yoga, becomes one with such fire.
Bhavana is another name of the method of Saktoupaya. It is a practice in constant contemplation on the pure and divine nature of the self. A practitioner of such yoga has to think constantly like this, “I am infinitely potent and absolutely pure consciousness. All this is my own divine play. It is being manifested by me through my divine powers. I am all this and so on. Any of such conceptions is to be repeated again and again under a regular time-table, till it becomes so deeply impressed on one's person that he feels it to be his essentially real nature. Regular practice in such yoga results in the realization of the absolute unity between one’s pure I-consciousness and the whole phenomenon. Then the practitioner feals himself to be none other than the divinely potent, infinite, eternal, perfect, independent, playful and pure consciousness aware of its such nature.
aśnan yadvā tadvā
saṃvīto yena kenacicchāntaḥ |
yatra kvacana nivāsī
vimucyate sarvabhūtātmā || 69 ||
Eating whatever may come, wearing raiment of anything, absolute, still, living anywhere he comes upon by chance, he attains liberation, being the Self of all beings.
The person, who realizes his real divine nature, does not afterwards remain bound by any laws of religious discipline in food, shelter, clothing etc. He sees his own self in every being and everything and feels himself to be liberated from all bondages and restrictions. He may, very often, still observe some previously practised discipline either on account of his habit or for the sake of setting an example for the common man, but he is not at all bound to do so.
hayamedhaśatasahasrā -
ṇyapi kurute brahmaghātalakṣāṇi |
paramārthavinna puṇyai -
rna ca pāpaiḥ spṛśyate vimalaḥ || 70 ||
A yogin freed from all impurity and possessing the correct knowledge of the Truth can never be touched either by piety or by sin, even if he performs hundred-thousands of horse-sacrilices or commits as many murders of brahmins.
Both piety and sin drive a being towards rebirth for the sake of their fructification, but these become ineffective in the case of a yogin who possesses the correct knowledge of the exact reality. He becomes thus liberated from the results of all piety and sin and consequently does not undergo any more rebirth.
mada-harṣa-kopa-manmatha -
viṣāda-bhaya-lobha-moha-parivarjī |
niḥstotravaṣaṭkāro
jaḍa iva vicaredavādamatiḥ || 71 ||
Removing himself from conceit, the joy of gain, the misery of loss, wrath, lust, fear, avarice, and delusion, without a hymn of praise, he walks like an insentient creature without speech or intelligence.
A yogin attains freedom from the effects of all passions. Performance of any religious activities is not compulsory for him. He may or may not perform them. It does not make any difference for him.
madaharṣaprabhṛtirayaṃ
vargaḥ prabhavati vibhedasaṃmohāt |
advaitātmavibodha -
stena kathaṃ spṛśyatāṃ nāma || 72 ||
Conceit, joy, and the rest of these passions arise from the illusion of differentiation. Why should they [the illumined ones] be affected by such feelings when they have the vision of the non-dual Self?
A yogin, who sees only his self in each and every phenomenon, does not come under the effects of emotions like pleasure, pain etc. Even if such emotions appear in him, these can not touch his inner self shining beyond all diverst:y of mental and physical existence.
stutyaṃ vā hotavyaṃ
nāsti vyatiriktamasya kiṃcana ca |
stotrādinā sa tuṣyen
muktastannirnamaskṛtivaṣaṭkaḥ || 73 ||
Having none other prayable or worshipable besides him whom he could please by praying etc., the liberated one has neither to pay any salutation nor to offer any oblations to any one.
It is not obligatory for a liberated person to pray or to offer oblations to any deity because he does not see anywhere any one other than his own self. But such performances are not totally prohibited for him. He is free to perform them as his spiritual play. He may perform them just to establish an ideal for the common man and very often a yogin does it to set a good example for others.
ṣaṭtriṃśattattvabhṛtaṃ
vigraharacanāgavākṣaparipūrṇam |
nijamanyadatha śarīraṃ
ghaṭādi vā tasya devagṛham || 74 ||
Either his own body or another's, made from thirty-six tattvas and fully equipped with the windows [i.e. the senses] of the bodily organism, or any [external] object like a jar etc. is his temple [of worship].
Such a yogin sees his infinite, all pervasive and pure I-consciousness as the only worshipable deity and finds it in all bodies and all outward objects, all of which can serve him as the temples where to worship such deity.
tatra ca paramātmamahā -
bhairavaśivadevatāṃ svaśaktiyutām |
ātmāmarśanavimala -
dravyaiḥ paripūjayannāste || 75 ||
He worships there with the pure substance of his contemplation on the Self, the blessed deity, who is the supreme reality, the great Bhairava, along with his divine power Sakti.
The deity to be worshipped by an advanced Sivayogin in such temples is his all pervading pure I-consciousness, seen as the Absolute God, endowed with divine power called Sakti. The oblations to be offered consist only of the contemplation of the unity of the self with respect to all phenomena shining in its pure and divine natire. That is the worship by means of jnana-yoga known in Saivism as Saktopaya. It is a symbolic worship in which the individuality is merged in the universal self and that is taken as the offering of oblations. Several other methods of such worship that will follow are also symbolic in character.
bahirantaraparikalpana -
bhedamahābījanicayamarpayataḥ |
tasyātidīptasaṃvi -
jjvalane yatnādvinā bhavati homaḥ || 76 ||
His automatic homa goes on by means of the offerings of the huge grain heaps of diversity, appearing as the conceptions of interior and exterior objects, into the highly blazing lire of pure consciousness.
The self luminous pure I-consciousness is the sacrificial fire for a Sivayogin practising Saktopaya. All the mental conceptions of diverse character are the heaps of grain to be offered into it as oblations. Such a homa of a Sivayogin proceeds on without any effort on his part as all his objective ideas become dissolved automatically into the monistic conception of the pure and infinite I-consciousness, which alone shines afterwards through its own psychic lustre.
dhyānamanastamitaṃ puna -
reṣa hi bhagavān vicitrarūpāṇi |
sṛjati tadeva dhyānaṃ
saṃkalpālikhitasatyarūpatvam || 77 ||
His [the enlightened being's] meditation is without cessation because the Lord creates diverse forms and his meditations constitute the variety of forms depicted by the mind.
The word dhyana is meant here to denote a special type of self- contemplative meditation called Saktopaya. Such a yogin does not meditate upon anything like the form of a deity or some nerve centre in the physical body, as do the dhyanayogins of the school of Patanjali. Successive rise of a chain of objective ideas in his mind is visualized by him as his own independent creation, suggesting his divinely potent and pure nature of Godhead. The flow of such conceptions, resulting in the realization of the divine nature of the self, is the meditation practised by a Sivayogin in the process of Saktopaya.
bhuvanāvalīṃ samastāṃ
tattvakramakalpanāmathākṣagaṇam |
antarbodhe pariva -
rtayati yatso'sya japa uditaḥ || 78 ||
The spiritual adept transforms the entire series of worlds (bhuvanas), the order of the tattvas and his various senses into his inward vision. This is called japa (the repetition of mantra).
Japa is ordinarily a constant repetition of a religious formula along with turning round of a series of beeds. A Sivayogin catches hold of the series of one hundred and eighteen bhuvanas etc. through his imagination and visualizes them, item by item, as being contained inside his I-consciousness through a relation of unity or identity. Such repetiton of the conception of his unity with certain regular series in the phenomenal existence serves him as repetition of a Mantra.
sarvaṃ samayā dṛṣṭyā
yatpaśyati yacca saṃvidaṃ manute |
viśvaśmaśānaniratāṃ
vigrahakhaṭvāṅgakalpanākalitām || 79 ||
viśvarasāsavapūrṇaṃ
nijakaragaṃ vedyakhaṇḍakakapālam |
rasayati ca yattadetad
vratamasya sudurlabhaṃ ca sulabhaṃ ca || 80 ||
When the spiritual adept views the totality of his being with the vision of unity, he then considers his consciousness to be resting entirely in the cemetery of the universe, considers his own body
to be an emblem of the skeleton , and drinks from the skull that lies in his hands, which is a fragment of limited cognition and which is full of the drink of the universe's essence. This is called his austerity (vrata), which is both easy and difficult to observe.
The vow of a Pasupata monk involves elements like living in a cremation ground, wearing of human bones as ornaments, using the scullbone as a bowl to drink wine and so on. All such elements of the vow of a Sivayogin are only symbolic in character as depicted above. The firm viewpoint of equality is his vrata. The whole objective existence, filled with everything mortal, is the cremation ground for him. There he lives in the form of pure and universal I-consciousness. Seeing everything as self, he drinks the wine of self-bliss filled in the whole phenomenon. Such a vow is spontaneous but can be observed by very few. It is thus easy but rare.
iti janmanāśahīnaṃ
paramārthamaheśvarākhyamupalabhya |
upalabdhṛtāprakāśāt
kṛtakṛtyastiṣṭhati yatheṣṭam || 81 ||
Having realised the supreme Being , named MaheSvara (the great Lord), who is without birth and dissolution, he abides as he wishes, his aim fulfilled because of the manifestation of his nature as the knower.
Realization of the Truth is not itself as full of taste as the awareness of one’s having attained such realization. No other aim of life remains to be accomplished after the rise of satisfaction attained through such awareness.
vyāpinamabhihitamitthaṃ
sarvātmānaṃ vidhūtanānātvam |
nirupamaparamānandaṃ
yo vetti sa tanmayo bhavati || 82 ||
He who knows the all-pervasive, omnipresent Self, the obliterator of multiplicity, the supreme bliss, who is beyond comparison, becomes one with him [Siva].
tīrthe śvapacagṛhe vā
naṣṭasmṛtirapi parityajandeham |
jñānasamakālamuktaḥ
kaivalyaṃ yāti hataśokaḥ || 83 ||
Whether he departs from his physical body in a holy place or in an outcaste's hovel, and even if he loses his memory, he obtains liberation immediately upon receiving knowledge thus overcoming sorrow.
Being completely alert and conscious about the reality at the time of death is not so essential for a person who has fully realized his real nature of absolute purity, unity, divinity etc. Shedding oil'of his body at a sacred place like Kashi or at a polluted place like the house of a pariah does not mean any merit or demerit to him.
puṇyāya tīrthasevā
nirayāya śvapacasadananidhanagatiḥ |
puṇyāpuṇyakalaṅka -
sparśābhāve tu kiṃ tena || 84 ||
Visiting a holy place results in merit, and meeting one's death in an outcaste's hovel leads one to hell. But what difference does that make to one who is not affected by merit or demerit?
tuṣakambukasupṛthakkṛta -
taṇḍulakaṇatuṣadalāntarakṣetaḥ |
taṇḍulakaṇasya kurute
na punastadrūpatādātmyam || 85 ||
tadvat kañcukapaṭalī -
pṛthakkṛtā saṃvidatra saṃskārāt |
tiṣṭhantyapi muktātmā
tatsparśavivarjitā bhavati || 86 ||
The insertion of a grain of rice which has been completely separated from its covering and bran into another covering does not cause that insertion to be permanent. In the same way, the pure consciousness which by purification has been severed from its surrounding veils and is in the state of release is free from the influence of the veils, though that influence lasts for a while.
A jivanmukta continues to live in the world of mortals on account of the momentum created by his past impressions; but he is not at all involved in any limiting elements like kancukas. He lives like that till the prarabdha karnan becomes exhausted.
kuśalatamaśilpikalpita -
vimalībhāvaḥ samudgakopādheḥ |
malino'pi maṇirupādhe -
rvicchede svacchaparamārthaḥ || 87 ||
evaṃ sadguruśāsana -
vimalasthiti vedanaṃ tanūpādheḥ |
muktamapyupādhyantara -
śūnyamivābhāti śivarūpam || 88 ||
A gem, which has been made translucent by an extremely skillful jeweller may nevertheless be darkened by the covering which surrounds it, but it regains its true clarity when that covering is removed. In the same way, consciousness which has been fully purified by the instructions of a true teacher reveals itself in the form of Siva when it is released and fully freed from the surrounding covering.
A person who realizes thoroughly his pure and divine nature through the precepts of a right perceptor, does not get involved in any more rebirth and shines as infinitely potent, pure and divine consciousness freed from all external attributes like physical form, mind, functions of animation and the void of dreamless sleep. That is the state of his final and perfect liberation termed as Videha-mukti.
śāstrādiprāmāṇyād
avicalitaśraddhayāpi tanmayatām |
prāptaḥ sa eva pūrvaṃ
svargaṃ narakaṃ manuṣyatvam || 89 ||
Through previous unwavering faith in the authority of the holy texts and their instructions etc., one becomes the same as [the object of faith] and thereby passes to heaven, hell, or the human state.
The impressions built by a person on the basis of his belief identify his inner soul with the consequent forms of life and drive him to different types of existence for the fulfilment of his flair for the respective taste of objective experiences possible in particular abodes like heaven, hell or mortal world etc.
antyaḥ kṣaṇastu tasmin
puṇyāṃ pāpāṃ ca vā sthitiṃ puṣyan |
mūḍhānāṃ sahakārī -
bhāvaṃgacchati gatau tu na sa hetuḥ || 90 ||
ye'pi tadātmatvena viduḥ
paśupakṣisarīsṛpādayaḥ svagatim |
te'pi purātanasaṃbodha -
saṃskṛtāstāṃ gatiṃ yānti || 91 ||
The last moment [in life], which serves to produce a state of merit or demerit, becomes a cause of destiny in ignorant ones, but this is not the case [for an enlightened one] who determines the course of his destiny. Those who at that hour realise their state to be that of the Self, even though they be an animal, bird, or creeping creature, or the like, are nevertheless purified by the insight they had in a previous time, and now proceed on that course [their chosen destiny].
A particular disposition of mind, created by the psychic situation of a person at the last moment of his life, carries him to rebirth in some particular species where he can satisfy his particular flair for the taste of objective experiences. A person who realizes his nature of purity, divinity, perfectness etc. does not become a victim to any such mental disposition. He is not therefore driven to rebirth in any abode or any species.
Sometimes even some spiritually elevated beings are born as lower animals on account of some curse etc. They do not often forget their previous position and, visualizing it at the time of ucath, they build a suitable career and do finally attain spiritual evolution.
svargamayo nirayamaya -
stadayaṃ dehāntarālagaḥ puruṣaḥ |
tadbhaṅge svaucityād
dehāntarayogamabhyeti || 92 ||
Thus the fettered being is enclosed within a body which is his own heaven and hell, and when this [body] dissolves, the soul enters into union with another appropriate body.
Deep impressions of piety and sin, committed by a person, and also his consequent mental dispositions, drive him after his death to such an abode and to such species where he can get the results of his deeds.
evaṃ jñānāvasare
svātmā sakṛdasya yādṛgavabhātaḥ |
tādṛśa eva tadāsau
na dehapāte'nyathā bhavati || 93 ||
Thus also the Self is in him, the same as when at the hour of enlightenment it once and for all is revealed to him, and it does not change upon the dissolution of the body.
The deep impression of the right self-realization carries a being to the position of pure, potent, eternal, infinite, playful, perfect and blissful l-consciousness and even the death of his mortal form can not shake him from such position. Such is the effect of a deep impression
karaṇagaṇasaṃpramoṣaḥ
smṛtināśaḥ śvāsakalilatā cchedaḥ |
marmasu rujāviśeṣāḥ
śarīrasaṃskārajo bhogaḥ || 94 ||
sa kathaṃ vigrahayoge
sati na bhavettena mohayoge'pi |
maraṇāvasare jñānī
na cyavate svātmaparamārthāt || 95 ||
Utter palsy of senses, failure of memory , disturbance of breathing, breaking down of joints, malady, the sufferings arising from bodily confirmation, all these befall an individual while his union with the body lasts. Although he is united with an illusion [in the form of physical infirmities], the enlightened being does not because of that fall away from the supreme Being at the hour of death.
A person has an egoistic feeling of l-ness with regard to his physical body. He takes all the troubles of his body as his own. All such troubles are due to such egoistic feeling with regard to one’s body. Even a jnanin cannot ordinarily escape them.
Even a jnanin has all the mundane experiences of pleasure, pain etc. while he is yet living in a physical body. But that does not at all mean his swerving from the reality. Such things deserve to be taken as outward behaviour based on his life long egoistic feelings of I-ness and my-ness with respect to his body, organs, senses and mind. From within he is pure and has a firm belief in his purity and divinity. Such belief is not at all slackened by such mundane experiences or even by the experience of death. A jnanin remains firm in his real nature at the time of death and that results in his absolute and perfect liberation after death.
paramārthamārgamenaṃ
jhaṭiti yadā gurumukhāt samabhyeti |
atitīvraśaktipātāt
tadaiva nirvighnameva śivaḥ || 96 ||
Upon hearing the words of his teacher, divine grace descends on him in great intensity and he immediately finds the path to the Supreme Being and without any hinderance becomes Siva
Liberation of a being is the final part of the divine play of God. He bestows playfully His grace on us. Playfulness results in a complex variety in the divine act of the bestowal of His grace. The person, on whom He bestows thra anugraha, a speedy and highly forceful grace, gets quick initiation in Sambhava-yoga, the direct and quick means of self-realization, from a right preceptor. Regular practice in such yoga yields a quick realization of the real nature of the self. That results in liberation in this very life and perfect unity with Siva after death. This is the depiction of the results of the highest means of liberation.
sarvottirṇaṃ rūpaṃ
sopānapadakrameṇa saṃśrayataḥ |
paratattvarūḍhilābhe
paryante śivamayībhāvaḥ || 97 ||
Some, after ascending in gradual steps to the level of the all-transcending supreme Being, become identical to Siva when they establish themselves firmly in the supreme principle.
The middle path of the Saivite sadhana leads to the transcendental position by stages and steps. That is the case of a madhya type of the grace of God. The aspirant goes on ascending from step to step through the ladder of divine abodes of super-gods and becomes finally one with the Absolute.
tasya tu paramārthamayīṃ
dhārāmagatasya madhyaviśrānteḥ |
tatpadalābhotsuka -
cetaso'pi maraṇaṃ kadācitsyāt || 98 ||
yogabhraṣṭaḥ śāstre
kathito'sau citrabhogabhuvanapatiḥ |
viśrāntisthānavaśad
bhūtvā janmāntare śivībhavati || 99 ||
A person who yearns to reach the level of the highest Being but who stops in midstream [without reaching the goal] and who dies one day, is called in the scriptures a yoga-bhrasta, one who
has fallen from the path of yoga. He remains in a happy state, and shares in the various delights of the world of the gods, and attains Sivahood in the following life.
This is the case of a person on whom God bestows another type of madhya-saktipata, a middle type grace with mild force. Such a yogin proceeds slowly and step by step and may die before becoming certain to attain after death, some such pure and higher abode of highly divine and pure beings that could serve him as a definite step towards the final step in still higher spiritual evolution. The next life of such a yogin takes place generally in some higher abode of superior gods. He enjoys for some time the pleasures available in such heavenly abode, proceeds thereafter, once again, on the path of yoga and attains both jivan-mukti and videha-mukti, one after another. That is the case of an aspirant who has still some longing for enjoyments known as bhoga-vasana
paramārthamārgamenaṃ
hyabhyasyāprāpya yogamapi nāma |
suralokabhogabhāgī
muditamanā modate suciram || 100 ||
viṣayeṣu sārvabhaumaḥ
sarvajanaiḥ pūjyate yathā rājā |
bhuvaneṣu sarvadaivai -
ryogabhraṣṭastathā pūjyaḥ || 101 ||
One who though labouring on the path of yoga leading to the supreme Being does not attain him, shares in the delights of the world of the gods where he rejoices with a glad spirit. Just as an emperor is universally adored by all the people in
his kingdom, he, though fallen from the path of yoga, is adored by all the gods.
One year in this mortal world is equal to one day (24 hours) in the heaven of gods. The days in still higher abodes of divine beings are hundreds of times longer in duration than the years in the heaven of Indra. A Sivayogin, desirous of enjoyments, tastes them for aeons of our mortal world, but finally he takes up the path of real and perfect liberation. Even bhoga attainable through the path of Saivayoga, leads finally to moksa. That is the greatness of the grace of Lord Siva.
mahatā kālena puna -
rmānuṣyaṃ prāpya yogamabhyasya |
prāpnoti divyamamṛtaṃ
yasmādāvartate na punaḥ || 102 ||
After a long time he returns and assumes a human frame and practicing yoga he comes to the divine deathless state from which he never returns.
Such a position of non-return to the mortal world is either the perfect unity with the Absolute God or such a divine position wherefrom the aspirant goes on moving step by step towards such absolute unity. Sometimes such yogins are selected to take up certain authority in the hierarchy of the divine administration and they enjoy divine administrative powers of very high standard for several aeons of our mortal world. Finally they shed off their individuality and become one with the Absolute.
tasmāt sanmārge'smin
nirato yaḥ kaścideti sa śivatvam |
iti matvā paramārthe
yathātathāpi prayatanīyam || 103 ||
Therefore whoever is devoted to this holy path comes to the state of Siva. Contemplating on this, one should by every mean strive for the supreme unity.
idamabhinavaguptodita -
saṃkṣepaṃ dhyāyataḥ paraṃ brahma
acirādeva śivatvaṃ
nijahṛdayāveśamabhyeti || 104 ||
Siva's nature (Sivatva) quickly comes to penetrate the very heart of the individual who meditates upon the supreme Brahman whose nature has been described by Abhinavagupta.
Samavesha is a psychic situation in which the finitude of a practitioner becomes merged in the infinite self and he feels himself actually to be none other than Paramashiva, the Absolute God.
āryāśatena tadidaṃ
saṃkṣiptaṃ śāstrasāramatigūḍham |
abhinavaguptena mayā
śivacaraṇasmaraṇadīptena || 105 ||
This most profound essence of the teaching has been summed up in a hundred verses in arya metre by me, Abhinavagupta, inspired by the remembrance of Siva's feet.
iti śrīmahāmāheśvarācāryābhinavaguptaviracitaḥ paramārthasāraḥ ||
Here ends the Paramarthasara written by Abhinavagupta the great disciple of the Lord.
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