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Kashmir Shaivism
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Among the various Hindu philosophies, Kasmir Saivism is a school of Saivism categorized by various scholars as monistic idealism (absolute idealism, theistic monism, realistic idealism, transcendental physicalism or concrete monism). These descriptors denote a standpoint that Cit - consciousness - is the one reality. Matter is not separated from consciousness, but rather identical to it.
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Among the various Hindu philosophies, Kasmir Saivism is a school of Saivism categorized by various scholars as monistic idealism (absolute idealism, theistic monism, realistic idealism, transcendental physicalism or concrete monism). These descriptors denote a standpoint that Cit - consciousness - is the one reality. Matter is not separated from consciousness, but rather identical to it. There is no gap between God and the world. The world is not an illusion (as in Advaita Vedanta), rather the perception of duality is the illusion.
Kashmir Shaivism arose during the eighth or ninth century CE. in Kashmir and made significant strides, both philosophical and theological, until the end of the twelfth century CE. Kashmir Shaivism resembles Hindu tantra, and both have as their key symbol the Shri Yantra.
Mythical origin of Kasmir Saivism
As the philosophy of Kasmir Saivism is deeply rooted in the Tantras, the lineage of Kasmir Saivism begins with Siva himself. According to tradition, as the knowledge of the Tantras were lost by the time of Kali Yuga, Siva took the form of Srikanthanath at Mt. Kailasa, where he fully initiated Durvasa ??i, into all forms of the Tantrika knowledge, including abheda (without differentiation), bhedabheda (with and without differentiation), and bheda (differentiated), as described in the Bhairava Tantras, Rudra Tantras, and Siva Tantras, respectively. intensely meditated in the hope of finding an adequate pupil to initiate, but failed to do so. Instead, he created three "mind-born" sons, and initiated the first son, Tryambaka fully into the monistic abheda philosophy of the Bhairava Tantras; this is known as Kasmir Saivism.
Concepts in Kashmir Shaivism
Anuttara, the Supreme
Anuttara is the ultimate principle in Kashmir Shaivism, and as such, it is the fundamental reality underneath the whole Universe. Among the multiple interpretations of anuttara are: "supreme", "above all" and "unsurpassed reality". In the Sanskrit alphabet anuttara is associated to the first letter - "A" (in devanagari "?"). As the ultimate principle, anuttara is identified with Siva, Sakti (as Sakti is identical to Siva), the supreme consciousness (cit), uncreated light (prakasa), supreme subject (aham) and atemporal vibration (spanda). The practitioner who realized anuttara is considered to be above the need for gradual practice, in possession of an instantaneous realization and perfect freedom (svatantrya). Anuttara is different from the notion of transcendence in that, even though it is above all, it does not imply a state of separation from the universe.
Aham, the Heart of Siva
Aham is the concept of supreme reality as heart. It is considered to be a non-dual interior space of Siva, support for the entire manifestation, supreme mantra and identical to Sakti.
Kula, the spiritual group
Kula is a complex notion primarily translated as family or group. On various levels there exist such structures formed of many parts, interconnected and complementary. They are called families on account of having a common unifying bond, which is ultimately the Supreme Lord, Siva. The practices related to Kaula are very obscure and mystical and the focus is away from much philosophical tinkering and more into immediate experimentation. In essence, Kaula is a form of body alchemy where the lower aspects of one's being are dissolved into the higher ones, as they all are considered to form a unified group (a kula) which relies on Siva as ultimate support.
The Siva Sutras
The first great initiate recorded in history of this spiritual path was Vasugupta (c. 875-925). Vasugupta formulated for the first time in writing the principles and main doctrines of this system.
A fundamental work of Shaivism, traditionally attributed to Vasugupta, is the Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta. Traditionally these sutras are considered to have been revealed to Vasugupta by Shiva. According to myth, Vasugupta had a dream in which Shiva told him to go to the mountain in Kashmir. On this mountain he is said to have found verses inscribed on a rock, the Shiva Sutras, which outline the teachings of Shaiva monism. This text is one of the key sources for Kashmir Shaivism. The work is a collection of aphorisms. The sutras expound a purely non-dual (advaita) metaphysics. These sutras, which are classifed as a type of Hindu scripture known as agamas, are also known as the Shiva Upanishad Samgraha (Sanskrit: ) or Shivarahasyagama Samgraha.
Classification of the written tradition
The first Kashmiri Shaiva texts were written in the early ninth century CE.
As a monistic tantric system, Trika Shaivism, as it is also known, draws teachings from shrutis, such as the monistic Bhairava Tantras, Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta, and also a unique version of the Bhagavad Gita which has a commentary by Abhinavagupta, known as the Gitartha Samgraha. Teachings are also drawn from the Tantraloka of Abhinavagupta, prominent among a vast body of smritis employed by Kashmir Shaivism.
In general, the whole written tradition of Shaivism can be divided in three fundamental parts: Agama Sastra, Spanda Sastra and Pratyabhijña Sastra.
1. Agama Sastra are those writings that are considered as being a direct revelation from Siva. These writings were first communicated orally, from the master to the worthy disciple. They include essential works such as Malinivijaya Tantra, Svacchanda Tantra, Vijñanabhairava Tantra, Netra Tantra, , Rudrayamala Tantra, Sivasutra and others. There are also numerous commentaries to these works, Sivasutra having most of them.
2. Spanda Sastra, the main work of which is Spanda Karika of Vasugupta, with its many commentaries. Out of them, two are of major importance: Spanda Sandoha (this commentary talks only about the first verses of Spanda Karika), and (which is a commentary of the complete text).
3. Pratyabhijña Sastra are those writings which have mainly a metaphysical content. Due to their extremely high spiritual and intellectual level, this part of the written tradition of Shaivism is the least accessible for the uninitiated. Nevertheless, this corpus of writings refer to the simplest and most direct modality of spiritual realization. Pratyabhijña means "recognition" and refers to the spontaneous recognition of the divine nature hidden in each human being (atman). The most important works in this category are: Isvara Pratyabhijña, the fundamental work of Utpaladeva, and Pratyabhijña Vimarsini, a commentary to Isvara Pratyabhijña. Isvara Pratyabhijña means in fact the direct recognition of the Lord (Isvara) as identical to one's Heart. Before Utpaladeva, his master Somananda wrote (The Vision of Siva), a devotional poem written on multiple levels of meaning.
Prominent sages of Kashmir Shaivism
Abhinavagupta
All the four branches of the Kashmiri Shaivism tradition were put together by the great philosopher Abhinavagupta (approx. 950-1020 AD). Among his important works, the most important is the Tantraloka ("The Divine Light of Tantra"), a work in verses which is a majestic synthesis of the whole tradition of monistic Shaivism. Abhinavagupta succeeded in smoothing out all the apparent differences and disparities that existed among the different branches and schools of Kashmir Shaivism of before him. Thus he offers a unitary, coherent and complete vision of this system. Due to the exceptional length (5859 verses) of Tantraloka, Abhinavagupta himself provided a shorter version in prose, called Tantrasara ("The Essence of Tantra").
Jayaratha
Another important Kashmiri Shaivite, Jayaratha (1150-1200 AD, ), added his commentary to Tantraloka, a task of great difficulty which was his life long pursuit. He provided more context, numerous quotes and clarifications without which some passages from Tantraloka would be impossible to elucidate today.
The four schools of Kashmir Shaivism
Krama
The term 'krama' means 'progression','gradation' or 'succession' respectively meaning 'spiritual progression' or 'gradual refinement of the mental processes'(vikalpa), or 'successive unfoldment taking place at the ultimate level', in the Supreme Consciousness (cit).
Even if the Krama school is an integral part of Kashmir Shaivism, it is also an independent system both philosophically and historically. Krama is significant as a synthesis of Tantra and Sakta traditions based on the monistic Saivism. As a Tantric and Sakti-oriented system of a mystical flavor, Krama is similar in some regards to Spanda as both center on the activity of Sakti, and also similar with Kula in their Tantric approach. Inside the family of Kashmir Shaivism, the Pratyabhijña school is most different form Krama.
The most distinctive feature of Krama is its monistic-dualistic (bhedabhedopaya) discipline in the stages precursory to spiritual realization. Even if Kashmir Shaivism is an idealistic monism, there is still a place for dualistic aspects as precursory stages on the spiritual path. So it is said that in practice Krama employs the dualistic-cum-nondualistic methods, yet in the underlying philosophy it remains nondualistic. Krama has a positive epistemic bias, aimed at forming a synthesis of enjoyment(bhoga) and illumination(mok?a).
Kula
Another very important school of Kashmir Shaivism, Kula in Sanskrit, means 'family' or 'totality'. This is a tantric (left hand) school par excellence, and here Sakti plays a paramount role. The Kula teachings make the skeleton of Tantraloka and Tantrasara.
Spanda
The Spanda system, introduced by Vasugupta (c. 800 AD), is usually described as "vibration/movement of consciousness". Abhinavagupta uses the expression "some sort of movement" to imply the distinction from physical movement; it is rather a vibration or sound inside the Divine, a throb. The essence of this vibration is the ecstatic self-recurrent consciousness.
The central tenet of this system is "everything is Spanda", both the objective exterior reality and the subjective world. Nothing exists without movement, yet the ultimate movement takes place not in space or time, but inside the Supreme Consciousness(cit). So, it is a cycle of internalization and externalization of consciousness itself, relating to the most elevated plane in creation (Siva-Sakti Tattva).
In order to describe the connotations of the Spanda concept, a series of equivalent concepts are enumerated, such as: self recurrent consciousness - vimarsa, unimpeded will of the Supreme Consciousness (cit) - svatantrya, supreme creative energy - visarga, heart of the divine - h?daya and ocean of light-consciousness - cidananda.
The most important texts of the system are Siva Sutras, Spanda Karika and Vijñana Bhairava Tantra.
Pratyabhijña
The Pratyabhijña school, which in Sanskrit, literally means "spontaneous recognition" is a unique school, as it does not have any upayas (means), that is, there is nothing to practice; the only thing to do is recognize who you are. This "means" can actually be called anupaya, Sanskrit for "without means".
Though this school thrived until the beginning of the Kali Yuga, it was eventually lost due to a lack of understanding of the school, until, in the 8th Century CE, the Kashmir Shaivite master, Somananda revived the system.
See also
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