Fifteen Verses of Wisdom

Who here hath not heard of Abhinavagupta? About the greatest of Shivacharyas, we need not say anything for no words can describe the grandeur, the depth, the genius of his being. Unto the feet of this Jagadguru, we pay obeisance. 

In the Bodhapanchadashika (Fifteen Verses on Wisdom), the great Acharya very succinctly summarizes the entirety of Shivadvaya, the non-dualist philosophy associated with what we now term Kashmir Shaivism. Although written about a thousand years ago, the powerful words still resound in our consciousness as we read these beautiful verses. Because this short work was created by the Acharya for his disciples of little understanding, it is easy for us to understand without any explanation. Presumably, he wrote these fifteen verses after finishing his magnum opera. 

As we know, 118 worlds (bhuvanas; 256 in some Agamas) make up the entire universe at various levels, within various tattvas. Lord Bhairava is Himself the nature of all these 118 bhuvanas; all this His experience of His own infinite Being. All this diversity exists within Him. It is by His grace alone that we realize the true nature of reality, the true nature of our own being, which is but Lord Bhairava. Indeed time, one of the kanchukas of maya, and our (mis)understanding of its march results in worldly existence (samsara). The perception of the existence of time is a result of His independence, His means to realize His own nature (see: Time Divine; Doctrine of Time). The fullness of this realization is achieved by those who have been liberated within this life (jivan-muktas; see: Sivagnanabodham). 

These verses have been especially created for those of us with little understanding so we may be instantaneously elevated! Let us, then, as disciples, learn from the Bodhapanchadashika. 

oṃ sauḥ parāyai namaḥ

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बोधपञ्चदशिका [Bodhapanchadashika]

1. The brilliance of the One Being's light does not vanish in external light or in darkness because all light and darkness resides in the supreme light of God Consciousness.

2. This Being is called Lord Shiva. He is the nature and existence of all beings. The external objective world is the expansion of His Energy and it is filled with the glamour of the glory of God Consciousness.

3. Shiva and Shakti are not aware that they are separate. They are interconnected just as fire is one with heat.

4. He is the God Bhairava. He creates, protects, destroys, conceals, and reveals His nature through the cycle of this world. This whole universe is created by God in His own nature, just as one finds the reflection of the world in a mirror.

5. The collective state of the universe is His supreme Energy (Shakti), which He created in order to recognize His own nature. This (Shakti), who is the embodiment of the collective state of the universe, loves possessing the state of God Consciousness. She is in the state of ignorance, remaining perfectly complete and full in each and every object.

6. The supreme Lord Shiva, who is all-pervasive and fond of playing and falling, together with the Energy of His own nature simultaneously brings about the varieties of creation and destruction.

7. This supreme action cannot be accomplished by any other power in this universe except Lord Shiva, who is completely independent, perfectly glorious and intelligent.

8. The limited state of consciousness is insentient and cannot simultaneously expand itself to become the various forms of the universe. The possessor of independence is absolutely different from that insentient state of consciousness. You cannot, therefore, recognize Him in only one way. The moment you recognize Him in one way you will also recognize Him in the other way.

9. This Lord Shiva, who is completely independent (svatantra), has the diversity of creation and destruction existing in His own nature. And, at the same time, this diversity is found existing in its own way as the field of ignorance.

10. In this world you will find varieties of creation and destruction, some of which are created in the upper cycle, some of which are created below, and some of which are even created sideways. Attached to these worlds smaller portions of worlds are created. Pain, pleasure, and intellectual power are created according to the status of being. This is the world.

11. If you do not understand that there is actually no span of time, this misunderstanding is also the independence (svatantrya) of Lord Shiva. This misunderstanding results in worldly existence (samsara). And those who are ignorant are terrified by worldly existence.

12-13. When, because the grace of Lord Shiva is showered upon you, or due to the teachings or vibrating force of your Master, or through understanding the scriptures concerned with Supreme Shiva, you attain the real knowledge of reality, that is the existent state of Lord Shiva, and that is final liberation. This fullness is achieved by elevated souls and is called liberation in this life (jivan-mukti).

14. These two cycles, bondage and liberation, are the play of Lord Shiva and nothing else. They are not separate from Lord Shiva because differentiated states have not risen at all. In reality, nothing has happened to Lord Shiva.

15. In this way the Lord, Bhairava, the essence of all being, has held in His own way in His own nature, the three great energies: the energy of will (iccha-shakti), the energy of action (kriya-shakti), and the energy of knowledge (jnana-shakti). These three energies are just like that trident which is the three-fold lotus. And seated on this lotus is Lord Bhairava, who is the nature of the whole universe of 118 worlds.

16. I, Abhinavagupta, have written and revealed these verses for some of my dear disciples who have very little intellectual understanding. For those disciples, who are deeply devoted to me, I have composed these fifteen verses just to elevate them instantaneously.

Hughes, John. Self Realization in Kashmir Shaivism. State University of New York Press, 1994. 

Sivagnanabodham

Meykanda Devar (aka Meykandar) was a important 13th century CE philosopher and propounder of the southern school of Saiva Siddhanta. Here we read from his work known as Sivagnanabodham (Instruction in the Knowledge of Shiva), a masterpiece of 12 sutras in the Tamil language. It is said that these verses come from or are inspired by the Rauravasutrasamgraha (aka, Raurava Agama). However, this is no longer found in the remaining fragment of the text that goes by that name. 

Within these sutras, Meykanda Devar has carefully woven and saliently highlighted the essential triad that is central to all forms of Shaivism from the ancient Vedic Pashupata and Lakulisha-Pashupata forms all the way to the Agamic-Tantric, Puranic and Vedantic forms. These sutras then also go on to form a school of philosophy within the southern Saiva Siddhanta through their exposition by Shivacharyas that follow Meykanda Devar. 

Verses 1-2 describe the nature of Pati (the Lord), here called Hara, as it relates to the world and the individual Atmans (Pashus). Verses 3-5 elaborate the true nature of the Pashus, and how they are guided by the Pati. Verses 6-7 speaks of the world (the fetters, pasha) and how it is perceived by the Pashus; what constitutes real and not real. Verses 8-11 speak of the quest and means of liberation for the Pashus. Finally, verse 12 describes the remaining life of the liberated soul (jivan-mukta), who has removed the fetters by the Grace (Arul/Anugraha) of Hara. Such is the beauty of the Sivagnanabodham!

 

ஓம் நம சிவாய ~ ॐ नमः शिवाय ~ ওঁ নমঃ শিবায় ~ ૐ નમઃ શિવાય ~ اوم نمہ شوایہ ~ Om Namah Shivaya 

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Sivagnanabodham

Tamil Om

1. As the (seen) universe, spoken of as he, she and it, undergoes three changes (origin, development, and decay), this must be an entity created (by an efficient cause.) This entity owing to its conjunction with anava mala has to emanate from Hara to whom it returns during samharam (dissolution). Hence, the learned say that Hara is the first Cause.

2. He is one with the souls (non-dual). He is different from them (dual). He is one and different from them (dual-non-dual). He stands in union with His Gnana Sakti and causes the souls to undergo the processes of evolution (births) and return (samharam) by including their good and bad acts (karma).

3. It rejects every portion of the body as not being itself; it says my body; it is conscious of dreams; it exists in sleep without feeling pleasure or pain or movements; it knows from others; This is the soul which exists in the body formed as a machine from maya.

4. The soul is not one of the antahkarana (mental apparatus). It is not conscious when it is in conjunction with anava mala. It becomes conscious only when it meets the antahkarana, just as a king understands through his ministers. The relation of the soul to the five avasthas is also similar.

5. The senses while perceiving the object cannot perceive themselves or the soul; and they are perceived by soul. Similarly, the soul while perceiving cannot perceive itself (while thinking cannot think thought) and God. It is moved by the Arul  (Anugraha) Sakti of God, as the magnet moves the iron, while He Himself remains immoveable or unchangeable.

6. That which is perceived by the senses is Asat (non-real in the absolute sense). That which is not so perceived does not exist. God is neither the one nor the other, and hence Siva is called Sat or Chit - Sat by the wise; Chit or Siva when not understood by the human intelligence and Sat when perceived with divine wisdom.

7. In the presence of Sat, every thing else (i.e., cosmos - Asat) is sunyam (is non-apparent). Hence Sat cannot perceive Asat. As Asat does not exist, it cannot perceive Sat. That which perceives both cannot be either of them. This is the Soul (called Sat-Asat).

8. The Lord appearing as Guru to the soul which had advanced in tapas (virtue and knowledge) instructs him that he has wasted himself by living among the savages of the five senses; and on this, the soul, understanding its real nature leaves its former associates, and not being different from Him, becomes united to His Feet.

9. The soul, on perceiving in itself with. The eye of Gnanam, the Lord who cannot be perceived by the human intellect or senses, and on giving up the world (Pasha) by knowing it to be false as a mirage, will find its rest in the Lord. Let the soul contemplate the panchakshara according to instruction.

10. As the Lord becomes one with the Soul in its human condition, so let the Soul become one with Him and perceive all its actions to be His. Then will it lose all its mala, maya, and karma.

11. As the soul enables the eye to see and itself sees, so Hara enables the soul to know and itself knows. And this Advaita knowledge and undying love will unite it to His Feet.

12. Let the Jivatma, after washing off its mala which separates it from the strong lotus feet of the Lord and mixing in the society of bhaktas (jivan-muktas) whose souls abound with love, having lost dark ignorance, contemplate their forms and the forms in the temples as His Form.

Trans: J M Nallaswami Pillai

[Edited for clarity]

Vibhuti-Yoga of Shiva

ॐ

Today we read from the seventh chapter of Ishvara Gita (the Lord's Song), an ancient gita spoken by Lord Shiva to the assembled sages in the Naimisha forest (Naimisharanya). The Ishvara Gita comes to us from the latter book (uttarabhaga) of the Kurma Purana. In modern rendering, the chapter is entitled "Vibhuti-Yoga of Shiva." The teaching is in line with the doctrines of the Vedic Pashupatas and is absent of overt concepts from Agamic Shaivism except in seed form. The concepts around the essential triad are beautifully incorporated alongside theistic sankhya philosophy. The pashas (fetters) are said to be two: karma and maya; anava is curiously missing. Nevertheless, asmita (egotism) is said to be one of the six klesha (miseries) caused by maya.  By all accounts, this is a very ancient composition. 

In the chapter below, we find that Shiva as best of the best, the highest of the highest, the essence of All; He is the supreme Lord, He indeed is Aum. He is the Overlord of both prakriti and purusha, and Maya Shakti is His primordial energy. He is the Causer of bondage and He is the Causer of liberation. As we read, we also note the similarity between this chapter and sixth chapter of the Shiva Gita and the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. 

||Aum Namah Shivaya, Shivaya Namah Aum||

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Ishvara said:

1. Ye Sages, listen all of you to the prowess of Parameshthin (highest objective) on realizing which man becomes liberated and does not fall into the worldly existence again. 

2. That is my greatest abode, the Brahman, which is greater than the greatest, eternal, steady and immutable, of perpetual bliss, devoid of doubts and alternatives. 

3. Among the knowers of Brahman, I am the God, Brahmā, the self-born deity, with faces all round. Among the wielders of maya, I am the ancient, imperishable God, Hari. 

4. Among yogins, I am Shambhu, among ladies, I am the Goddess (Parvati), the Daughter of the lord of mountains. I am Vishnu among solar deities, and am the fire-god among Vasus. 

5. Among Rudras, I am Shankara; among those who fly, I am Garuda; among the leading elephants, I am Airavata, and among those who bear weapons, I am Rama. 

6. Among sages, I am Vasishtha; among Devas, I am Satakratu (i.e., Indra); among craftsmen, I am Vishvakarman, and among the enemies of Devas, I am Prahlada. 

7. Among ascetics, I am Vyasa; among the Ganas (attendants of Shiva) I am Vinayaka; among heroes, I am Virabhadra; and among the Siddhas, I am the ascetic Kapila. 

8. Among the mountains, I am Meru; among constellations, I am the Moon; among the weapons of striking potentiality, I am the thunderbolt; and among holy rites, I am truthfulness.

9. Among serpents, I am Ananta (Shesa); among generals of armies, I am Lord Pāvaki (i.e. Skanda); among the stages of life, I am the householder’s stage and among lshvaras (Rulers), I am Maheshvara. 

10. Among kalpas (cycles of time), I am mahakalpa (the great kalpa); among the yugas, I am Krtayuga (golden age); among the Yaksas, I am Kubera and among grasses, I am Virudha. 

11. Among the Prajapatis (progenitors ofthe world), I am Daksha; among the Rakshasas I am Nirrti; among powerful persons, I am Vayu, and among the continents, I am Pushkara. 

12. Among the leaders of beasts, I am the lion; among mechanical devices, I am the bow; among the Vedas, I am Samaveda and among Yajur mantras, I am Shatarudriya (Vaj. Sam. XVI. 1-66). 

13. Among the mantras for the purpose of chanting, I am Savitri (Gayatri mantra; RV. III. 62. 10); among mystic secret mantras, I am Pranava (AUM), among the hymns, I am the Purusha Sukta (RV. X. 90); and among the Saman mantras I am Jyestha Saman. 

14. Among the scholars of Vedic topics, I am Svayambhuva Manu; among territories, I am Brahmavarta, and among holy centers, I am Avimuktaka (Varanasi). 

15. Among Vidyas (lores), I am the Atmavidya (spiritual science, leading to realization of Atman). Among types of knowledge, I am the greatest knowledge pertaining to Ishvara; among the elements, I am the ether (akasha), and among the entities (realities), I am mrtyu (death). 

16. Among the nooses and fetters, I am maya, and among the calculators, I am kala (time); among goals, I am liberation (from samsara) and among the greatest ones, I am Parameshvara (supreme Lord).

17. Whatever else be in the world that stands most prominent by means of sattva guna, brilliance of power, you can vouchsafe for it that it is a manifestation of (My) brilliance.

18. All the Atmans existing in the world are said to be pashus. I am remembered as their Lord, Pashupati, by the wise sages.

19. In my sportive activity, I bind all these pashus by means of the noose of the maya. Expounders of the Vedas say that I am the Liberator of the pashus. 

20. Excepting me, the great Atman, the unchanging overlord of the bhutas (beings), there is no other liberator of those who are bound with the noose of the maya. 

21. The twenty-four principles, the maya, the karma and the three gunas—these are the nooses (in the hands) of Pashupati; and distresses are the bondages of individual souls (pashus). 

22. The mind, the intellect, the ego, the firmament, the wind, the fire, the water, and the earth—these eight are prakritis (causes) and the other things are vikaras (effects). 

23-24. The ears, the sense of touch, the eyes, the tongue and the fifth one the nose (these are the sense-organs of knowledge), the anus, the genitals, the hands, the feet and the organ of speech (these are the organs of activity), sound, touch, color, taste and smell (these are the five objects of pleasure) —these fifteen together with the eight objects mentioned before constitute the twenty-three prakritas or products of Prakriti. 

25. The twenty-fourth principle is the Avyakta (unmanifest), Pradhana characterized by its gunas. It has neither beginning nor middle nor destruction. It is the supreme cause of the universe.

26. Sattva, rajas and tamas—these are called the three gunas. The state of equilibrium of these, three, they know to be the Avyakta Prakriti (the unmanifest Prakrti). 

27. Sattva is knowledge; the rajas is a mixture of knowledge and ignorance; and the tamas is ignorance (ajnana). The wise sages know that the inequality of the gunas is due to the disequilibrium in intellect. 

28. What are called dharma and adharma are the binding nooses called karmas. But those karmas dedicated unto Me are conducive to liberation and not to bondage. 

29. Avidya (ignorance); asmita (egotism), raga (passion), dvesha (hatred) and abhinivesha (attachment) are collectively called kleshas (miseries). They are themselves the bonds that fetter the Atman. 

30. Maya alone is called the cause of these pashas (fetters). It is the original unmanifest Prakriti. That Shakti (divine power) stays in me. 

31. He alone is the primordial nature or pradhana as well as purusha, and the product such as mahat, etc. (i.e. evolutes of prakriti). He is the eternal God of gods. 

32. He alone is the bondage and the Maker of bondage; He alone is the pasha and the Sustainer of the pashus. He knows everything, but no one knows him. They call him the Primordial and Ancient Purusha.  

Ishvara Gita VII:1-23 (Kurma Purana, Book II, VII:1-32)

Hymn of the Supreme Support

Of the thousands of hymns of the Vedas, a few stand out as unique, most rarefied. These hymns also demonstrate that the composers, the Maharishis, were not pastoral nomads, but men and women of extraordinary realization. Their yajnas were not just external fire rituals, but they also kindled the fire of consciousness deep within. The Purusha Sukta, the Nasadiya Sukta, the Rudradhyaya, and the Hiranyagarbha Sukta, to name a few, are all examples of such exalted hymns. Volumes could be written on these suktas, which are but upanishads without so classifying. Another such magnificent hymn is the Skambha Sukta from the Atharvaveda, the most mysterious and misunderstood of the Vedas. 

While the Rigvedic hymn glorifies the Divine as Purusha, the Cosmic Person, who was sacrificed to bring about creation, the Atharvaveda glorifies the Divine as the Skambha, the Pillar of Creation. The Skambha is the singular support unto which all this is based, the substratum of all existence, the primoridial cause of all, the singular source of all Devas. The Skambha, the Pillar of Light, is the center of the manifest universe, the axis mundi, the Dispeller of all darkness, the One on whom all the compass points converge. The Shambha is both known, and at the same time, unknowable. It is both Being and Nonbeing; it is verily the Supreme Brahman. It is the end of all pursuits, all knowledge. S/he who knows that the highest Being, the Lord of Life, also intuitively knows that Supreme Support, the fulcrum of existence. 

In later literature, this Pillar of Light is called the Jyotirlinga or Lingodbhava Murti, the primordial formless form of Shiva that first manifest in front of the great Devas, who couldn't but find the ends of it. It speaks to His immeasurable existence, the infinitude of Paramashiva. This same form is also understood to be Aja Ekapada, the Unborn One-Footed. For from the one limb, says the hymn, the world was fashioned; in the one limb, all the great Devas are affixed. The rest remains beyond, transcendental, unmanifest, pure Prakasha (vide: Purusha Sukta, mantra 4). 

Aum Namah Shivaya.

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Skambha Sukta

Atharvaveda X.7.1-44

In which of His limbs does Fervor dwell?

In which of His limbs is Order set?

In what part of Him abides Constancy, Faith?

In which of His limbs is Truth established?

From which of His limbs does Fire shine forth?

From which of His limbs issues the Wind?

Which limb does the Moon take for measuring rod

when it measures the form of the great Support?

In which of His limbs does the Earth abide?

In which of His limbs the atmosphere?

In which of His limbs is the sky affixed?

In which of His limbs the great Beyond?

Toward whom does the rising Flame aspire?

Toward whom does the Wind eagerly blow?

On whom do all the compass points converge?

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

Where do the half-months and months together

proceed in consultation with the year?

Where do the seasons go, in groups or singly?

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

Toward whom run the sisters, day and night,

who look so different yet one summons answer?

Toward whom do the waters with longing flow?

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

The One on whom the Lord of Life

leaned for support when He propped up the world--

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

That which of all forms the Lord of Life

created--above, below, and in between--

with how much of Himself penetrated the Support?

How long was the portion that did not enter?

With how much of Himself penetrated the Support

into the past? With how much into the future?

In that single limb whose thousand parts He fashioned

with how much of himself did He enter, that Support?

Through whom men know the worlds and what enwraps them,

the waters and Holy Word, the all-powerful

in whom are found both Being and Nonbeing--

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

By whom Creative Fervor waxing powerful

upholds the highest Vow, in whom unite

Cosmic Order and Faith, the Waters and the Word--

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

On whom is firmly founded earth and sky

and the air in between; so too the fire,

Moon, Sun, and wind, each knowing His own place--

Tell me of that Support--who may Hebe?

In whose one limb all the Gods,

three and thirty in number, are affixed--

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

In whom are set firm the firstborn Seers,

the hymns, the songs, and the sacrificial formulas,

in whom is established the Single Seer--

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

In whom, as Man, deathlessness and death combine,

to whom belong the surging ocean

and all the arteries that course within him;

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

Of whom the four cardinal directions

comprise the veins, visibly swollen,

in whom the sacrifice has advanced victorious--

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

Those who know the Divine in man

know the highest Lord; who knows the highest Lord

or the Lord of Life knows the supreme Brahman.

They, therefore, know the Support also.

He whose head is the Universal Fire,

who has for His eyes the Angirases

and for His limbs the practitioners of sorcery--

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

He whose mouth, so they say, is Brahma,

whose tongue is a whip steeped in honey,

of whom Viraj is considered the udder--

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

Out of His body were carved the verses,

the formulas being formed from the shavings.

His hairs are the songs, His mouth the hymns

of the Seers Atharvan and Angiras--

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

The branch of Nonbeing which is far-extending

men take to be the highest one of all.

They reckon as inferior those who worship

your other branch, the branch of Being.

In whom the Adityas, Rudras and Vasus,

are held together, in whom are set firm

worlds--that which was and that which shall be--

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

Whose treasure hoard the three and thirty Gods

forever guard--today who knows its contents?

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

In whom the Gods, knowers of Brahman,

acknowledge Brahman as the Supreme--

he who knows the Gods face to face

is truly a Knower, a Vehicle of Brahman.

Great are the Gods who were born from Nonbeing,

yet men aver this Nonbeing to be

the single limb of the Support, the great Beyond.

The limb in which the Support, when generating,

evolved the Ancient One--who knows the limb

knows too by that same knowledge the Ancient One.

It was from His limb that the thirty-three Gods

distributed portions among themselves.

Thus in truth only knowers of Brahman

are also knowers of the thirty-three Gods.

Men recognize the Golden Embryo

as the unutterable, the Supreme.

Yet it was the Support who in the beginning

poured forth upon the world that stream of gold.

In the Support the worlds consist; in Him

Creative Fervor and Order have their ground.

You I have known, O Support, face to face,

in Indra wholly concentrated.

In Indra the worlds consist; in Indra

Creative Fervor and Order have their ground.

You I have known, O Indra, face to face,

in the Support wholly established.

Before dawn and sunrise man invokes

name after name. This Unborn sprang to birth

already with full sovereignty empowered.

Than He nothing higher ever existed.

Homage to Him of whom the Earth is the model,

the atmosphere His belly, who created the sky

from His head. Homage to this supreme Brahman!

Homage to Him whose eye is the Sun

and the Moon which is ever renewed, whose mouth

is the Fire. Homage to this supreme Brahman!

Homage to Him whose in-breath and out-breath

is the wind, whose eyes are the Angirases,

whose wisdom consists in the cardinal points.

Homage once again to this supreme Brahman!

By the Support are held both heaven and earth,

by the Support the broad domain of space,

by the Support the six divergent directions,

by the Support is this whole world pervaded.

Homage to Him who, born of labor

and Creative Fervor, has entered all the worlds,

who has taken Soma for His own exclusive possession.

Homage to this Supreme Brahman!

How does the wind not cease to blow?

How does the mind take no repose?

Why do the waters, seeking to reach truth,

never at any time cease flowing?

A mighty wonder in the midst of creation moves,

thanks to Fervor, on the waters' surface.

To Him whatever Gods there are adhere

like branches of a tree around the trunk.

To whom the Gods always with hands and feet,

with speech, ear, and eye bring tribute unmeasured

in a well-measured place of sacrifice.

Tell me of that Support--who may He be?

In Him exists no darkness, no evil.

In Him are all the lights, including the three

that are in the Lord of Life. The one who knows

the Reed of gold standing up in the Water

is truly the mysterious Lord of Life.