Trika Shaivism

I have finished reading two more books on Trika Shaivism: Abhinavagupta’s Paratrisika-Vivarana, translated by Jaideva Singh, and Swami Lakhsman Jee’s Kashmir Shaivism: The Secret Supreme. Reading these books together turned out to be a good idea, because Jee’s book helped me to make sense out of the more ancient text. This brief essay will focus on the first book.

Paratrisika-Vivarana is one of the first major works of Abhinavagupta (d. 1025 ce). Paul Muller-Ortega, editor of the SUNY series on Kashmiri Shaivism gushes in his introduction to this translation that Jaideva Singh “brings to light a treasure-laden text such as the romantic imagination of visionaries and scholars have sought in India for centuries” (Singh, ix). When in the 13^th Century, Islam drove Kashmiri Shaivism into an even stricter secretiveness then the movement had already imposed upon itself,[1] this text somehow managed to survive, hidden and copied by scribes who may not have even understood it. Muller-Ortega says Abhinavagupta’s Sanskrit is “very difficult” and that this book is “his most complex and difficult work” (Singh, x). He’s not exaggerating its opaqueness. Although Abhinavagupta (henceforth: A.G.) provides extensive commentaries on many of his verses, his commentaries are often as dense as their referents. Yet at times his language emerges from the abstruse into poetry, as in the opening verse:

May my heart, the divine beatitude made visible in the form of the universe, whose very nature is manifestation, bursting into view by the union of Shiva and Shakti, which is the very emblem of supreme immortality, be fully flourished. The mother is Shakti, the universal Divine Energy which expresses its stamina in ever fresh creativity that is inspired by pure, absolute autonomy. The father is Shiva who is perfect and complete in Himself, not lacking anything whatsoever (Singh, 1).

Certainly the most complex section of the book is the matrika theory of the manifestation of the material universe via an incarnational process of Cosmic Sound. This treatise goes on for more than a hundred pages, explaining how Cosmic Sound produced all the letters of the Devanagari alphabet. Like his Kabbalist and Sufi contemporaries who were then thriving in Andalusia, A.G. places great emphasis on the meaning and function of each and every letter and phoneme.[2]

Detailed charts and lengthy explanations depict the principles by which Paravak, the Supreme Creative Word, generates each Sanskrit letter.[3] In a typical analysis, the mantra aham (“I Am”) begins with the first vowel “a” which is the original emanation of Paravak and represents Shiva; its second letter is ha, which represents Shakti, and the m represents Nara. The anusvara over the m shows that the entire continuum—Shiva-Shakti-Nara—is really one absolute singularity.

In addition to this mysticism of individual letters, A.G. frequently provides a dozen or more definitions of a single word, such as anuttara, showing various etymological derivations and interpretations of the term. For example, here is just a small part of his exegesis of a line from Bhairava: “The process of creation inheres in the ether of my heart (mama hridaya-vyomni).”

Hridayam means the final resting place, i.e. I—aham. The vyoma of that also means, by the form of the return movement of aham, i.e. ma + ha + a, the nara form, i.e. the objective phenomena represented by ma being dissolved in the dot (anusvara) over ha, enters the kundalini shakti represented by the letter ha and finally entering the a letter which represents the integral, unimpeded delight of anuttara, which is identified with all, it becomes that (anuttara). This is the ether of my heart. Therefore, that from which this universe proceeds, that in which it rests, that one alone, the eternal, the one whose nature cannot be veiled, which is self-luminous, which can never be denied, is the anuttara, the unsurpassable Absolute. (Singh, 79).

A.G. also spends pages on what might be called a “grammatical hermeneutics”—using grammatical and logical laws as evidence of certain theological points he is making. For example, he ties the first-person “I” to Shiva, the Supreme Subject; second-person language he links to Shakti; and third-person pronouns he relates to Nara (which he defines as the entire phenomenological cosmos).

Everything is an epitome of all. According to this universal principle, even the insentient third persons shedding their insentiency can become entitled to the use of second and first person. For instance, in “Listen, O Mountains,” the third person has been treated as a second person; in “Of mountains, I am Meru,” the third person has been treated as a first person; in “I, Caitra am speaking,” the first person has been treated as the third person… Each of this triad without giving up its nature, becomes of three forms: singular, dual, and plural… (Singh 73-4).

He goes on to conclude that since all languages (he mentions the languages of the Buddhists and the Dravidians) contain the three modes of address, “this manner of speech and meaning, which originally follows the instinctive feeling of the heart, conveys by its delightful impression this form [Nara, Shakti, Shiva] of understanding… So in every way this kind of comprehension is innate” (Singh, 74). A.G. ends this particular grammatical analysis (there are many) by saying, “So enough of an elaboration of a topic which can appeal to the hearts of only a few people who have received the teaching of a guru, who are of refined taste, who are well-read, who have heard from the learned people a great deal, and who have been purified by the descent of the Supreme Grace” (Singh, 74).

While some Western enthusiasts might imagine that the sexual rituals of Tantra are hot stuff, the actual ceremony of sexual intercourse, as prescribed in detail in Paratrisika-Vivarana seem designed to systematically de-emphasize any erotic elements. The couple begins by repeating 25 mantras (5 each for these body parts: skull, mouth, heart, genitals, whole body) followed by 27 mantras for “tying the tuft of hair,” then fettering the ten directions with one mantra repeated ten times. Next, they must consecrate water with 27 mantras, then sprinkle the sacred water over flowers and other objects of worship not excluding the female organ of the yogini and the male organ of the vira. Then the couple forms a seat with flowers consecrated by 14 mantras, and with more flowers pays honor to the goddess Maheshani “who is fully equipped with all the categories of existence, is decorated with all the ornaments and who is consecrated with 27 mantras… In this way, both vira and yogini should worship with supreme devotion and surrender themselves completely to her.” Then there follows an oblation of pouring melted butter over a sacrificial fire. Finally, after a long meditation on the mantra sauh (there are literally pages of hyperbolic praise about the efficacy of this mantra), one begins the “internal worship”[4] (Singh, 245-70).

Works Cited

Singh, Jaideva. A.G.: A Trident of Wisdom. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. 1989.

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[1] As noted in an earlier paper, the writings of Trika Shaivism often exhibit an intentional opaqueness, especially when treating the secretive subject of mantras.

[2] Both the Kabbalists and the Sufis also delve into the numerology of each Hebrew or Arabic word, which adds another expansive gloss to interpreting the Torah or Quran.

[3] In a translator’s note, Jaideva Singh defines paravak as the energy that sounds forth the universe: “The paravak is the paranada, the creative throb of the Divine Mind which at a lower level takes the form of sound. The energy of the paravak flows into various letters from a to ksa which as conscious forms of energy bring about the manifestation of the universe.” He adds that A.G. treats the following terms as nearly synonymous: paravak, pratibha, unmesha, anuttara, nirvikalpa samvid. (I would add to his list Shiva and aham.) A.G. uses all these terms to refer to undifferentiated, immutable, all-creative being. All determinate worlds (savikalpa) inhere in and emanate from this Supreme Source as its true expression. Therefore, A.G. treats the phenomenal universe not as illusion but as the manifest play of reality. (Singh, 79).

[4] That is, if one has not nodded off!