consciousness to merge back into it in such a
way as to be filled with Siva's own divine
power,
3and so everything the yogi says is a part
of his incessant prayer.
4The deity the adept
should meditate upon in the course of the
ritual is perceived when he realizes that the
universe is nothing but the play of his own
consciousness.
5This is the real initiation that
The Stanzas on Vibration
qualifies him to perform the sacred rites.6 The gift (dana) the teacher gives by means of the rites of initiation is the knowledge he transmits to his disciple of his true identity,7 and it is this same offering which he presents as food (anna) to the gods.8 The vow the disciple takes in the course of his initiation is to abide in the body, conscious that he is one with Siva9 for he has offered his conditioned bodily consciousness as an oblation into the fire of knowledge.10
At times, the Tantras also draw these kind of parallels, indeed for the average layman these are the elements of the Tantras that he finds the most interesting. What distinguishes the Aphorisms and the Stanzas from the Tantras is not only that these elements have been isolated and elaborated more or less systematically but that they are understood in a much broader metaphysical and theological context. This allows for further elaboration into an extensive and rich Saiva metaphysical and theological system in which theoretical considerations about the nature of reality can consistently be represented as practical instruction which, when understood and applied, leads directly to the liberating insight in which Siva, one's own identity, and all of reality are realized to be one.
At the same time, however, ritual or elements of common practice drawn from the Tantras are not simply set aside as useless. They are not just interiorized, rather the source of their power and efficacy (which is never disputed) is sought in the infinite reality of absolute consciousness which is at once Siva, man and the universe. Commentators on the Stanzas refer to the efficacy of the imagined projection of mantric sounds onto the limbs of the body (nyasa)11 and to how ritual formulas find wide application, from the imparting of initiation at the highest level to the curing of a scorpion's sting at the lowest.12 They maintain that ritual is essential, or at least that the scriptures dictate that some rituals are to be performed regularly.13 It is important to add, however, that rites and ritual formulas can only be effective if they are vitalized by the vibrant -Spanda - energy of consciousness that is inherent in one's own nature, which is the true ritual agent (kartr) who acts universally as the universal agency (kartrta) of consciousness and
8
hence is in every conscious being.
Again, Siva in Himself is not only the universal agent but also the pure perceiving subjectivity (upalabdhrta), which is the pure consciousness that is every man's authentic identity.14 He is thus every individual soul (jiva), which according to this idealistic view, is in its turn all things, in so far as the act of perception gives existence to the world of objectivity as an object of perception. Again, this world, perceived in this way, is one with the consciousness which is the individual soul's and Siva's true nature.1 5 The ebb and flow of each act of cognition thus generates and withdraws all things, and so they arise and fall away in the field of awareness through the outpouring and withdrawal of the will to perceive (didrksa).16 This activity is the energy hidden in consciousness that impels it when it directs its attention outside itself to the external world of objectivity that it itself projects outside its own nature. It is the rythmn or pulse of the energy of Siva, W h o is one's own nature which is universal consciousness. It is accordingly called 'Spanda' which means 'vibration', 'throb' or 'pulsation' and is described as the subtle movement (kinciccalana) of consciousness, to distinguish it from the gross movement of physical action.17
Commentators on the Stanzas and the Apho-risms have sought to transmit this realization by explaining their meaning from a number of points of view which represent in one way or another all the major components of Kashmiri monistic Saivism as a whole. Some commenta-tors have stressed that Spanda is Sakti - Siva's divine power, which as we shall see, has led a number of modern scholars to think that the Doctrine of Vibration as taught in the Stanzas is Sakta rather than Saiva. They seem to find sup-port with the commentators who present paral-lels in their commentaries drawn from Sakta-oriented schools. Conversely, some commen-tators repeatedly align the views expressed in the Stanzas with the monistic Saiva theology of the Recognition (Pratyabhijna) school of Kash-miri Saivism, as elaborated by Somananda, Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta between the 9th and 11th centuries. Finally, one of the commen-taries translated in this volume, namely, the
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The Beginnings of Kashmir Saivism Lamp of Spanda (Spandapradipika) is full of
ref-erences from Vaisnava Tantric sources in what is clearly an attempt to syncretize monistic ide-alist Vaisnavism with its Saiva counterpart.
The redaction of the Aphorisms and Stanzas along with their commentaries took place with-in the narrow compass of hardly two hundred years between the mid 9th century and the 11th.
The Stanzas and Aphorisms, particularly the for-mer, belong to a class of their own and represent an independent school of Kashmiri Saivism. At the same time, as J.C. Chatterjee, writing at the turn of the century, could clearly see, "the first beginnings of what has been called 'Kashmiri Shaivaism', to distinguish it from other forms of Shaivaism known and still practised in different parts of India, may be traced to the Shiva Sutras."18 Indeed the Aphorisms and the Stanzas are the very first monistic Kashmiri Saiva works, and so stand at the threshold of a whole new world of discourse which within the next two centuries was to develop to the fullness of its most complete and varied expression in the hands of Abhinavagupta, who was not only the greatest of these Kashmiri masters but was also, without a doubt, one of India's most brilliant thinkers. Kallatabhatta who wrote the Brief Explanation (vrtti) on the Stanzas and possibly the Stanzas themselves, was one of the first to initiate these rich developments, while Kse-maraja, Abhinavagupta's direct disciple and the author of the last known commentary on the Stanzas, witnessed its triumphant climax. The commentaries do in fact reflect this growth.
Thus, although at the beginning the Stanzas and Aphorisms seemed to be hardly more than short, relatively elementary tracts, history chose to vindicate their importance by reserving for them a unique place in the development of Kashmiri Saivism. Let us see then how these works came to be written.
C h a p t e r 3 The O r i g i n o f t h e A p h o r i s m s o f S i v a
Consisting of nearly eighty aphorisms, the Sivasutra are traditionally considered to be divinely composed by Siva Himself and revealed to Vasugupta. We know next to nothing about Vasugupta except that he was the teacher of Kallatabhatta to whom the historian Kalhana refers in his Chronicles of the Kings of Kashmir (Rajatarangini) as a perfected yogi (siddha) who adorned the court of King Avantivarman.1 As Avantivarman reigned between 855 and 883 A.D., Vasugupta must have lived in the first half of the ninth century.
Like most other Kashmiri Saivites who came after him, he was a Brahmin. He seems to have lived a retired life on the slopes of m o u n t Mahadeva2 or in the valley below it in which the Harwan river flows behind the famous Shalimar gardens near Srinagar.3
The manner in which Vasugupta received the Aphorisms is variously described by different Kashimiri authors. The oldest, and probably the most reliable version, is that transmitted by Kallata who says that Vasugupta learned them directly from Siva Himself in a dream he had on Mahadeva mountain.4 Despite Kallata's author-ity, there are two other accounts of how Vasug-upta came upon the Aphorisms. The first is recorded by Rajanaka Rama and Bhagavadut-pala in their commentaries on the Stanzas and by Bhaskara in his commentary on the Apho-risms.5 All these authors agree that the Apho-risms were originally composed by Siva Himself5
and that Vasugupta received them on Mahade-va mountain, but add that he learned them by word of m o u t h from a perfected yogi (siddha).
Accordingly, Bhagavadutpala states that the type of relation formed between the revealer of this scripture and his disciple is the h u m a n one formed between a perfected yogi (siddha) and a c o m m o n man.7
Ksemaraja presents a different account of the origins of the Aphorisms in the beginning of his commentary on them. There he tells us that Vasugupta was a spiritual master (guru) who lived on Mahadeva mountain. He was devoted to Lord Siva and his heart was purified by the many sound traditions transmitted by perfected yogis and yoginis8 and so refused to accept what he considered to be the inferior teachings of other (Buddhist Tantric?) yogis like Nagabodhi.9
One night, as Vasugupta slept, Siva appeared to him in a dream and told him to climb the m o u n -tain where he lived to seek a rock upon which he was to find enscribed a secret. When Vasugupta awoke the next day, he went to the spot that had been indicated to him and found there a great boulder. Miraculously, it rolled over at a mere touch of his hand and he found the Aphorisms of Siva carved upon it.10 This is the tradition con-cerning the discovery of the Aphorisms that is commonly accepted by Kashmiri Hindus.
Indeed, the faithful still venerate a rock on Mahadeva mountain that they believe was the one upon which Siva had written the Aphorisms,
The Stanzas on Vibration
although there is now no trace of any inscription on it." It seems, therefore, that history has choosen to support Ksemaraja's authority, with the result that even though he may sometimes express novel views, as in this case, it is his voice that is heard rather than that of other, older authorities.
The Aphorisms have been transmitted in two slightly different recensions that have been the object of two major commentaries, one by Bhaskara, which I have translated in a separate volume, and another later one by Ksemaraja.12
They sometimes differ from one another quite considerably, leading one to suppose that they represent two distinct commentatorial tradi-tions.13 But despite their differences, both com-mentators divide the Aphorisms into three sec-tions, which suggests that this division dates back to Vasugupta. The names of these three sections according to Bhaskara are as follows:
1. The Description of the Nature of the Light of Universal Consciousness (samanyacit-prakasasvarupanirupana).
2. The Arising of Innate Knowledge (sahaja-vidyodaya).
3. The Vibration of the Powers (vibhutispan-da).
Ksemaraja does not name any of the sections but does present each as dealing with one of three categories of practice (upaya). Now although it is possible to think of the forms of yogic practice taught in the Aphorisms in terms of these categories, as Ksemaraja does in his commentary on them and in the way we have outlined in our Doctrine of Vibration14 and chap-ter 13 of this volume, there is no reason to sup-pose that the Aphorisms were divided into three sections to correspond to these three categories of practice. It is Abhinavagupta, Ksemaraja's teacher who formally elaborates on this system of classification, primarily in his Light of the Tantras (Tantraloka). There is, moreover, hardly any evidence to suggest that this system was known even to the Tantras that served as Abhi-nava's sources. It is true that the Malinivijaya-tantra which Abhinavagupta adopts as the prime authority for the Trika Saivism he sponsors, does define the three degrees of mystical absorption
12
(samavesa) associated with the three categories of practices. But even though the definitions found there serve as Abhinava's scriptural authority for the existence of these categories, and he comments on them extensively in these terms, the Malinivijaya itself does not elaborate on them at all. It appears that the precidents for this doctrine are not found in the Tantras or, at least, are not developed there. We must look then to the oral traditions associated with them, through which explanations of their contents and further elaborations were transmitted, and that were at the same time one of the sources of the Tantras. In fact, Abhinava expressly tells us that he learned this system of classification from Sambhunatha, the teacher who initiated him into Trika Saivism and who taught him the meaning of a number of Tantras as well as sever-al practices for which he acknowledges his debt of gratitude more than once.
In short, despite the importance that this way of classifying practice assumed, there is no evi-dence to suggest that Vasugupta knew of it. So it could not have been his intention to interprete the practices taught in the Aphorisms in these terms. Although Ksemaraja seems to follow a new course of his own in this respect, he seems to have reverted to the older model for the divi-son of the Stanzas into three sections which he adopts and names as follows:
1. The Vibration of One's Own Nature (sva-rupaspanda).
2. The Vibration of the Arising of Innate Knowledge (sahajavidyodayaspanda).
3. The Vibration of the Powers (vibhutispan-da).
These headings correspond to those Bhaskara attributes to the three sections of the Apho-risms)5 This reminds us that we cannot divorce the Aphorisms from the Stanzas unless we mean to contradict the unanimous view of their com-mentators. Thus, Bhagavadutpala, the author of the commentary on the Stanzas called the Lamp of Spanda translated for this volume, thinks of the Stanzas as a synopsis (samgrahagrantha) of the secret teaching transmitted to Vasugupta.16
Rajanaka Rama refers to the Stanzas as a brief statement of the teachings previously 'threaded