Kashmir Shaivism (A Philosophy of Being & Becoming)

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The Saiva thinkers of Kashmir have so conceived the Absolute as to be a synthesis of Being and Becoming simultaneously, which is to say that Paramasiva as Absolute is characterized by such two movements which delineate the idea of it being a massive ocean of creativity. In order to establish that the Absolute is the embodiment of Being and Becoming, the Trika Saivas have made use of such metaphysical ideas as would establish it to be, on the one hand, of the nature of luminous consciousness (cit-prakasa). and, on the other hand, self-cognitive awareness (vimaria). The cit-prakasa aspect represents the Beingness of the Absolute, whereas the virmarsa denotes the Becoming aspect. It is the Becoming aspect that represents the dynamic nature of the Absolute, which translates itself into the actual manifestation of categories that are constitutive of objectivity. The Absolute as consciousness would mean that it is such a metaphysical principle which is changeless while being itself as the background or basis of all the change that is experienced at the level of phenomena. It is the cognitive awareness, represented by the idea of l-consciousness, that initiates the process of change in and through the Absolute. The consciousness aspect, from a philosophical perspective, explains the changeless, and thereby the static, nature of the Absolute. As consciousness, the Absolute as Paramasiva is pure light, and so discloses the transcendent (visvottirana) nature as being identical with Parasamvid or Anuttara. Transcending the space-time. structures, the Absolute accordingly is termed as being indivisible nisakala), incomparable (amayem) and infinite (ananta).

It would not be out of context if it is asserted, at the outset, that the Trika Saivism is, generally speaking, so oriented as to affirm its deep Tantric roots in terms of its thought and praxis. It is so because the Tantric conceptuality served, as it were, the substratum or basis for the flowering of Trika Saivism, which practically bursts forth with the composition of the Sivasutra of Vasugupta and of the Spandakarika of Kallata Bhatta. It is within the framework of Tantric revelation that the texts of the Trika Saivism were composed, and so accordingly followed such esoteric norms which esotericism as such entails. It is because of this Tantric esotericism that the entire Trika is spoken of as representing the tradition of esotericism (rahasya-sampradaya). Insofar as Tantric tradition itself is concerned, it is characterized, boardly speaking, by three strands of thought, representing thereby dualism (bheda-vada), qualified non-dualism (bhedabheda-vada), and non-dualism (abheda-vada). The dualistic strand of thought is to be found in such Agamic texts as, for example, Kamaja, Karana, Ajita, Dipta, Yogaja, etc., and which are said to be ten in number. The texts that contain the qualified non-dualism type of thinking are said to be eighteen, and some such texts are Vijaya, Nisavasa Madgita, Paramesvara, Siddha, Santana, etc. The texts that propound the non-dualistic form of thinking are referred to as Bhairavagamas, and are said to be sixty-four in number. The most important texts among them are the Svacchanda, Siddha, Malinivijaya, and Namaka. It is, however, the Malinivijaya-tantra on which the Trika thought structure is exceedingly dependent. This traditional classification of the Agamas explains the fact that there has been a clear development of Tantric thought from dualism via qualified non-dualism to pure non dualism.

**Contents and Sample Pages**