[Reader-list] Reality Of Shiva from Kashmir Shaivism to Lalla Ded Vakhs

Pawan Durani pawan.durani at gmail.com
Sat May 30 20:19:35 IST 2009


The Reality Of Shiva from Kashmir Shaivism to Lalla Ded Vakhs

Prof. M.L  Koul

The Shaiva thinkers of Kashmir structured their thought model on the
fulcrum of Shiva as the highest metaphysical reality. Shiva is
synonymous with consciousness supreme. 'Chaitanyam atma' as formulated
by acarya vasugupta invests the Shaiva thought with such a
distinguishing feature as marks its divergence from other variants of
absolutism. Chaitanyam as drawn from chetna as per Khemraj marks the
absolute freedom of consciousness supreme or Shiva to know and act. It
is the state of one ness (aham) and in no way impairs the absolute
reality of Shiva. Though an active agent in the processes of creation
(manifestation), Shiva is perfect, and transcendental. He is
self-proved (svata sidda) and needs no logical pramanas to prove and
establish His existence.

Besides being svata-sidda, Shiva is prakash, light of luminosity and
Jnan, all-knowing, everything known to Him. Prakash also underlines
Shiva's transcendence and equipoise in the state of transcendence.
Shiva as against Vedanic Sat, Cit, Anand is only Cit and Anand. It is
His Kutasth Swarup. His luminosity is His Prakashrupta and Anand is
His gushing out (Uchhalan) to act out the vilas (sport) of creation.
Shiva has no taints  of limitation and succession. He is beyond
Vikaras (deformities). He is the first and the last cause of the
manifestation. Prior to His emergence of will to manifest what is
inside Him to Himself, the universe with all its diversities lies in
Him in a state of submergence. In his monumental work Tantralok,
Abhinavgupta conveys the same position of Shiva which is commented
upon as—

'sa cha svata-sidda prakashatma parmarthrupa parmeshvar Shiva aiva'

Shiva is not only Prakash but Vimarsa also. Vimarsa as per Dr. Jaidev
Singh is the sciring of Shiva's own consciousness. Vimarsa is Shakti,
the nature of Shiva. It denotes Shiva's power to act. As per Shaiva
texts diamond is prakash, but it is absolutely deficient in knowing
itself as prakash. But Shiva knows Himself as prakash. Various names
have been given to Vimarsa. It is Kartritva, Swatantrya, and
Parashakti. Had Shiva been prakash only the universe would not have
appeared. It is because of Vimarsa that Shiva manifests the universe
on the screen of His own consciousness. All that we find in the
universe is an abhasa and each abhasa is self-expression of Shiva.
What we find outside in the universe is inside Shiva only—yadantastad
sahir.

The Shaivite monists of Kashmir have taken a different position on the
Vedanic stand-point of Vivartvad which means imposition of world on
Brahman through ignorance (avidya). To justify their non-dual position
they assert that Shiva through his Swatantrya Shakti imposes world on
Himself through His own maya-Shakti. The Vedantists are afraid that if
Maya is taken as the Shakti of Brahman, it means dragging Brahman into
the world of impurity. Had they taken such a position of maya as the
Shakti of Brahman, their Brahman would have metamorphosed into Shiva
of Kashmiri thinkers. Unlike the Vedantists the Shaivites do not
negate the world to reinforce the metaphysical reality of Shiva. When
Shiva is pure luminosity (prakash), which is the sheet anchor of all
abhasas, He is transcendental. When He is immanent in the world, He is
Vimarsa. Shiva is an active agent in manifesting the world. He is the
first and final cause of the manifested world.

Shiva and Shakti, to Kashmiri thinkers of monism, are not two separate
entities or polarities. They are one and only one. When Shiva through
His divine will wants to see what is inside Him, He is Shakti. Had he
no will power to manifest Himself to Himself, He would have been
inanimate and life-less (Jada). Shiva's Swatantrya lies in willing,
knowing and acting. Shakti is the potency of Shiva to create the
universe. His divine activities are known in Shaiva parlance as His
Kriya. Activities of willing, knowing and acting are not His Vikaras
(deformities) as is the case in Vedanta. Kashmiri Shaivites take Jnan
and Kriya in combination. Their position is not that of Vedanta which
holds Jnan and Kriya as two separate categories, one cancelling the
other. Shiv is Kriya, the universe that He creates (manifests) is His
doing. His Kriya does not taint the purity of His being. Shiva is
Maheshwar (Lord), not because of His prakash or Jnan, but because He
acts to manifest the universe. His lordship is in His manifestation of
the world. Shiva is both transcendental and immanent.

Shiva performs five acts (panchkretya). He creates, preserves,
withdraws, obfuscates and showers grace (anugrah). His five-fold acts
define Shiva's Swatantrya (absolute freedom). In Svacchand Tantra we
have--

srishti samhar kartaram vilai sithiti karkam

anugrah karam devam pranatarti vinshanam

It needs be emphasised that Shiva as the sovereign lord has no
compulsions to commit five acts. He has no lag for the filling of
which he performs five-acts. He is all perfect and purna. His inherent
nature of being purna and perfect gets in no way impaired by His act
of manifestation of the phenomenal world. He creates but has no
purpose to create. His creation and creative impulse underline his
swatantrya to do anything. He creates out of anand which establishes
His Vilasa of Lordship (maheshvariya). In his celebrated work
Shiva-strotravali utpaldev sings that Shiva steeped in His ananda
imagines diverse objects of the world out of His free-will just for
leela (sport). In Paratrimshikha Abhinavgupta writes that the
vibration of Shiva's anand is the universe.

'Akul' & 'Kul are two agamic terms that have oft been used to denote
Shiv and Shakti. 'Akul' is Shiva who is synonymous with consciousness
supreme. 'Kul' is the Shakti that creates the universe. These two
terms have come to non-dual Shaivism from Kaulachar that was practised
at many places in India .Their meanings have been retained by the
Kashmiri thinkers. In Paratrimshika Abhinavgupta has extensively dealt
with the terms of 'Akul' and 'Kul', one denoting the transcendental
Shiva as consciousness supreme and the other as the Shakti of that
consciousness tending to create.

Shiva in Lalla-Ded Vakhs

Lalla Ded Vakhs are deeply soaked in Shiva-consciousness. The
attainment of Shivahood is her ultimate destiny. Initiated in the
Shaiva praxis by her preceptor, Sidda Srikanth, Lalla Ded devotedly
and single-mindedly worked out the upayas (methodologiesthat her
celebrated preceptor had introduced to her. Her Vakhs lucidly reveal
that she is fully aware of the real swaroop of Shiva. She sings out
that Shiva is Chidanand, Cit and Anand, Jnan and Prakash. Cit is the
consciousness supreme which is the source of life and universe and
anand is the gushing out (Ucchalan) of that consciousness supreme. She
also sings that Shiva with whom she has to gain identity is Prakash as
He illumines in His own light, celestial light and is Jnan as He is
all-knowing.

As Lalla Ded was a Shaiva Yogini she has experienced the luminosity of
Shiva's consciousness through the relentless pursuit of Shaiva
trajectory. She has not just shone in His Prakash as Muslim mystics
would in the light of God, but she is an inalienable part of that
luminosity and is totally soaked in it. As her Vakhs convey she has
intensely felt the condition of getting merged in the luminous state
of Shiva's consciousness. She is not merely speculating, but
expressing her felt-experience in a language that objectifies that
experience, though subtle and nebulous. Being one with Shiva's Prakash
and Jnan, His entire mass of divine consciousness, Lalla has risen to
the status of one who is liberated while living. She has no confusions
and dilemmas of an anu (Jiva) who is tossed about in the dualities of
the world.

Lalla Ded sings-

Chidanandas Jnan prakashas

Yimav Chyun tim zeevantai mokhta

vishaymis samsarnis pashyas

abodi gandah shyat-shyat ditya.

Shiva is a creative agent. He can be likened to a painter who
delineates the universe on the canvas of His own consciousness. When
He creates, He is the Shakti. He and His divine consciousness pervade
the universe, whether animate or inanimate. From man to everything
living to dead objects have immanence of Shiva. He is not like a
monotheistic God who creates the world and leaves it alone. The
creator and the created never meet. Shiva is present in everything
living or non-living. As an ultimate destiny everything finds its
resting place in Shiva's consciousness supreme. Lalla Ded says:-

Gagan Chaya Bhutal Chay

Chay Dyan Pawan Ta Rath

Lalla Ded knows the inherent nature of Shiva, who is anahat, pranav,
unhindered sound of oum, kha-swarup, shunyalia, aham, I consciousness,
bindu and nada and as pure consciousness has no name and form, caste,
colour and gotra. Lalla Ded is aware of the trajectory that she has to
warily follow to attain emergence into the pure consciousness of
Shiva, wherein the stir of creativity lies undifferentiated from the
vast ocean of that consciousness. As an initiate she has to practise
pran-apan to pacify her chitta (mind) from kshob (disturbance) brought
about by currents and cross-currents of diverse thoughts. She has to
pass through states where there will be a void or support-lessness and
also flashes of illuminating consciousness uplifting her from the
crippling limitations that have bound her as a jiva. Shiv, to her, is
the only deity that qualifies to ride the 'trigunatmac' horse as put
in the allegory.

Lalla Ded’s Shiva is-

anahat kha-swarup shunyalia

yas nav na varan na guthur na raef

aham vimarasa nada bindai von

sui deeva ashwa war chyadyas

Lalla Ded is in full know of her human condition. She is a Jiva beset
with enormous web of limitations. Her Shiva has six attributes which
He can harness at His mere will with nothing to restrain Him. He has
the attributes of sovereign power (maheshwariya), omnipotence
(sarva-kartritva), Omniscience (sarvajnatritva), all-inclusiveness
(purnatva) eternality (nityatva), and all-pervasiveness (vyapaktva).
What essentially distinguishes her from Shiva is that  He masters His
in-built attributes while she is in a state of servitude to the
limitations that have enmeshed her.

Lalla Ded pours out-

yimai sheya chya timai sheya meya

shamgala chaya byan tatis

yohai byan abeeda chya ta meya

chya shyan sami ba sheyi mushis

Shiva is transcendetal, beyond the confines of time and space, but He
is equally immanent, present in everything He incessantly creates on
the screen of His own consciousness. His is not the case of a semitic
God who creates the world and withdraws from it for fear of losing His
unity. Shiva creates all the world of animates and equally creates the
world of inanimates. A dead stone also has the spark of His creative
consciousness, but the spark is slightly weak. Whatever appears in the
world is within the ambit of His all-pervasive consciousness.

Lalla Ded Conveys the immanence of Shiva-

Shiva chuya zavul zal vahravith

kranzan manz chuy tarith kyath

Shiva as prakash or in transcendence is rest, equipoise and perfect
equilibrium. He brims with anand (bliss). The canvas of universe that
He incessantly opens out and draws in as a matter of sport (Leela) is
His garden where He deilghts in the flowers of smell, taste, sight,
sound and touch. The multifarious diversity that Shiva creates is His
act of lordliness and it in no way disturbs His poise and tranquility.
Lalla Ded as a yogini living in the flowery world of smell, sight et
al is so well-poised in her

(Contd. from Page 13)

awareness that she sees Shiva in the world, yet beyond the confines of
the world as a perceptible garden. She is at a station  where she is
absolutely content and joyous having dips in the ever-gushing nectar
of Shiva's consciousness supreme. She calls such dips as 'dying'
because it is a state of mergence. Lalla Ded sings:-

Lala ba chayan suman baga baras

vuchum Shivas Shakhat meelith tavah

laya karmas amryat saras

tati maras ta karyam kyha

It is a matter of common observation that water as an element under
freezing conditions gets frozen into the form of snow and ice. When
the sun shines upon snow or ice, it gets melted, back into the state
of water. The element of water, the process of getting frozen and snow
or ice, though sequentially three in number are essentially one. Water
as the basic substance under a freezing process turns into snow or
ice. Similarly the fundamental fluid of Shiva's consciousness having a
stir of creativity in a submerged condition assumes varied forms under
the willing impulse of Shiva Himself. Diversity as we find in the
multi-faceted universe is eternally one with the creative
consciousness of Shiva. It is an eternal process of opening out
(unmesh) and withdrawing in (nimilan)

Lalla Ded sings out-

Turi salil khot ture

himi trai gayi byan abyan vimarsa

chyatani rava bhati sab samai

shiva mai charachar jagpashya

The frightful and ominous clouds of bigotry and intolerance had
enveloped the skies of Kashmir when Lalla Ded was treading the native
land of Kashmir. The forcible conversions with the aid of Muslim state
power had already kick-started. In her trenchant exhortation to the
hordes of Sayyid-Sufis acting as sappers and miners of Islam she
clamours out the immanence of Shiva and need to follow the path of
self-recognition as part of Trika Darshan to see essence of Shiva in
men of all faiths:-

Shiva chuya thali-tahl rozan

mozan hynd ta musalman

trukhai chyukh pan praznav

soya chai shivas saet zani-zan

Source: Kashmir Sentinel, May 2009 issue


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