Several systems of Sadhana (spiritual discipline) have been recognized in Saivism as paths leading to self-realization. The Trika and Kaula systems were popularly prevalent among the ancient teachers of Kashmir Saivism. Authors like Abhi- navagupta, Somananda and Bhatta Kallata were masters of both Trika and Kula systems. The latest important Kashmirian master of Kaulism was Sahib Kaula Ananda- natha who lived in the time of Shahejahan and Aurangazeb. His is a clear case of Yoginidiksa, an informal rite of initia- tion by some superior female deity resulting in a spontaneous revelation of the self in its purest and divine aspect.
When Sahib Kaula was just a boy he was blessed by the Lord by a sudden and spontaneous flash of the direct realization of his absolute Godhead through Yoginidiksa. Having thus realized suddenly his absolutely divine nature of Godhead, he turned at once into a poet of high merit and started to express his divine realization through the medium of a wonderfully beautiful poetry in Sanskrit language. His first verse in such context runs t h u s :
Yenotkirnam visvacitram sva-bhittau Nana-varnais citritam yena bhaktya
A Flash of Self Realization 79 Ante svasmin nrtyate yena hrtva
Soham Sahib-kaulakarama-Sambhuh
I, Sahib Kaula, alias Sahibrama, am that blissful Sambhu (Lord Siva the Absolute God) Who inscribed the figure of the whole universe on the wall of his own self, Who made it wonderful by means of various hues with a devote attention, and who finally performs the Tandava dance after absorbing it into His own self.
Recollecting his previous position of a living being in a physical form, he spoke t h u s :
Kah svid dehah kasya dehah kva deho Dehi dehenaiva baddho na baddhah Soham Sambhur visnur Arko gneso Dhata Saktih sarvasaktir namo me.
What is the body, where does it stand and to whom does it belong (When even a gross body also is the Lord Himself)? A soul, being bound by a body, is not really bound, (because there is no body but the Lord Himself appearing like that). As for me, I am myself Sambhu, Visnu, Sungod, Ganesa, Brahma, Sakti and (even) Almighty God Himself. Let all prostrations be therefore to me."
Depicting his present outlook on the functions of his psycho-physical set up he spoke t h u s :
Naham jane naiva kurve na veccha- Myavirbhavam cetya-cetyo na yami; Jane kurve svecchaya svam param svam Bhavam bhavam bhava-bhavo namo me.
80 History of Kashmir Saivism
I neither know nor do nor desire anything (other than me) nor do I appear as an object of any (senses which are themselves) objects. But, by virtue of my own independent will, I know and do my own self and know and do everything other than me as my own self. Prostrations to myself, the very existence of each existent entity.
Declaring the all-pervasive absolute consciousness as his real nature he uttered t h u s :
Jagratyam va svapnajayam dasayam Sausuptyam va ya cidabhati turya; Tamapyetam tisthatesma atitya Sarvasmai me sarvabhase namostu.
I (as the transcendental reality) stand beyond even that pure consciousness of the fourth state (of revelation) which continues to shine in all the three states of waking, dream- ing and sleeping. Prostrations to myself who is everything and through whose lustre everything shines.
Sahib Kaula, being as yet a boy of eight years in age and not having undergone eny hardening practices of Hatha- yoga, did not then possess a sufficiently strong nervous system capable to contain and bear the great flood of divinely powerful spiritual force being suddenly experienced by him in such suddenly aroused flash of self-realization. He felt his physical body as failing to bear it and consequently collapsing under its heavy pressure. His reaction to the apprehension of the so called death urged him to utter the fifth verse:
A Flash of Self Realization 81 Mrtyur mrtyur mrtyubbajam na mrtyur
Mrtyujnanam naiva jata yataste; So'ham mrtyum capyamrtyum vyatitya Bhase bhasa mrtyu-mrtyur namo me.
Death is death for only such people who believe to be undergoing it. It is not like that for them who realize its real essence, because in reality such people do not have any birth. As for me, I, transcending (the relative conceptions of) both death and immortality, am shining (eternally) by virtue of my own lustre. Prostrations to my self, the absor- ber of (even) the god of death.
Having uttered these five verses, the philosopher poet fainted, and coming back to his senses after a few hours, he uttered five more verses. The hymn created thus was named by him as Slva-jiva-dasakam, the first five verses of it having been uttered in a fit of Sivahood and the rest of it after coming back to his own jivahood. The eleventh verse con- tains hints towards the situations in which its both parts were uttered and the last one concludes it.
The next five verses have been uttered by the poet after having come back to his usual jivahood. The verse uttered just at the moment of his coming back to his senses is the next one. Discussing the phenomenon of death through it he spoke t h u s :
Yaccittenamrstam etad vibhati Yanno tasyabhanameveha b h a n a m ;
Nato yaih sancetito janma-bhavas
Tesam mrtyuh kah kva drstah srutah kva.
The way of knowing in this world is t h i s : "A thing cognized by one's mind is (said to be) known and that not cognized is (said to be) not known. What can be accepted
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as death for people who do not feel at all the reality of their b i r t h ? Where has any death for such people been seen or h e a r d ?
Note: A thing is being said to be existent only when it is known. He alone is beset with death who has under- gone birth. A man possessing the correct knowledge of the basic nature of death and birth does not take them like that,
but sees them as minor events in the process of the divine play of God. Therefore there is no death for him.
The next verse throws more light on the same topic of death:
Cet samyogo dehajo janma-bhavas Tad-vicchedo mrtyur ityeva vadah Tat samyukte va viyukte svabandhau Kastajjnanam harsa-sokavatarah
If however the theory regarding death is put forth like t h i s : "Union of a soul with a body is birth and its separa- tion from that is death", then the answer i s : "What occasion for pleasure or pain can there be for wise persons possessing right knowledge on the visits and departures of their near and d e a r " ?
To refute all diversity and to establish absolute unity the philosopher poet uttered the eighth verse of the h y m n :
Ko'ham ko'ham yavad ittham smarami So'ham so'ham tavadasam paro'smi;
Syam casmrtva tvamimam mam ca tam yarn Svatma svatmanyasmi seso'hamekah.
A Flash of Self Realization 83 I was all along that very absolute reality even while I was thinking repeatedly (and inquisitively) as to "Who am I ? " I am and can be only the supreme. Pushing all the relative conceptions like - you, this, I (in relative sense), he, who etc. into oblivion, I alone remain there myself in my own self (as the only undeniable entity).
Describing the apparent diversity as the manifestation of the playful will of the monistic self, he spoke out the ninth verse:
Matto bhanam tvanmayam manmayam ca Mattas caitat samyamevatra bhati; Bhanam bhanam capyabhanam ca bhanam So'ham bhami prapta-bhedaika-bhavah.
The appearance of diversity in the form of yourself and myself is manifested by me. This presently appearing unity alone with respect to all phenomena is also manifested by me. Prakasa (the psychic light of consciousness), is both, pure (Nirvikalpa) and mixed (Savikalpa) knowledge and I am thus shining unitarily in all diversity.
Another sense carried by the third l i n e : Appearing of some thing is Prakasa and its not appearing is also Prakasa because that also shines in the lustre of consciousness.
Describing awareness as the essence of all consciousness, he uttered the tenth verse:
Bhanam cet syan nirvimarsam na tat tat Cet tadrupam tarhi bhedo na yo'tra
84 History of Kashmir Saivism Bharupayaham-vimarsatmakaya Jivayasmai me namo va Sivaya.
If Prakasa the psychic light of consciousness, were devoid of Vimarsa (awareness), it could not have been Prakasa. When awareness is accepted as its essential nature, then the apparent phenomenal diversity is reduced to nothing- ness. Prostrations to me, having Prakasa as my form and Vimarsa as my nature and appearing myself either as soul or as God !
The next verse hints at the circumstances in which the first five and the last five of the above verses of the poem were uttered by the philosopher poet. He s a y s :
Dehe yate mrtyukalpam avastham Panca-sloki kenacit samsmrteyam; Panca-sloki prapya samjnam krtanya Sahib-kaularama-svasthena bhuyah-
When the physical form of the poet had reached a state like that of death, the first five verses were aroused by some one (that is, by Lord Siva) in his memory. The other five of them were composed by Sahibrama Kaula after coming back again to his normal health.
Note: Since the first five verses were inspired by Siva and the last five were composed by the poet who was a worldly being, the poem was given the title as "Siva-Jiva- Dasakam".
The concluding verse describes the philosophic and theological merit of the hymn like t h i s :
A Flash of Self Realization 85 Pankti-slokim daisikendrad vibudhya
Bhuyo bhuyah savatmana samvimrsya; Jivah prapya svanubhutim vimukto Liyetasmin dhamni nitye pare sve.
A (blessed) person, having learnt well the above ten slokas from an experienced preceptor and having himself contemplated on them again and again, can finally become merged into his eternal and blissful lustre of pure (and potent) consciousness after having attained self-realization and consequent liberation (from bondage).
Sivajtva dasaka, composed by Sri Sahib Kaula Ananda- natha, the great and exalted teacher of Saivism, is thus completed.
Sri Harishvara Natha Tikku, a descendent of Sahib Kaula, gave me a transcript of the poem in 1947. I got it published with Hindi translation in the magazine of some government college in Kashmir. The same is now being published presently with translation and introduction in English. The history of the composition, as hinted at in the 11th verse of the hymn, was learnt by me from Sri Hansh- vara Natha Tikku as well.
The self realization, inspired by some yogini in the head and heart of the boy Sahibrama, is a typical example of Pratibha jnana as discussed in detail in the 13th chapter of Tantraloka.
The poet wrote several works on Saivism. The most important one among them is Kalpavrksa-prabandha, a philosophic work written in the style of poetic prose. It is lying still in manuscript form.
The only work from his pen, which has undergone regular publication, is Devinamavilasa. It is a long poem
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describing the mythological story lying behind the composi- tion of Bhavani-sahasranama-stuti, a Tantric hymn dedicated to Mother goddess. His Slva-jiva-dasakam appeared once in a college magazine. He wrote a philosophic work entitled Saccldananda-kandali. His Atma-caritam in Kashmiri
language is also lying in its manuscript form. He aims at an integration of the theistic absolutism of the Saivism of Kashmir with such theory of the Upanisadic Vedanta and, doing so, replaces the theory of Vivarta by that of Svatantya, while interpreting the latter philosophy. Many wonderful stories about his yogic and Tantic powers are being still heared at Srinagar and some other places in the Valley. He is the most important Kaula author of Kashmir upholding the absolute theism of the Saiva philosophy of the Trika system.