Insight Editions · No. 364
Vedanta and Advaita Saivagama of Kashmir
A Comparative Study
Jaideva Singh · Banka Bihari-Hemangini Pal Lectures, 1984
Jaideva Singh's three lectures comparing the Upanisads, Kashmir Saivism and Sankara's Advaita: prakasa and vimarsa, svatantrya and abhasa, the thirty-six tattvas, the malas and the four upayas, then eight points of difference on activity, maya, the world, grace and liberation, with the Advaitin replies supplied.
A study guide to Vedanta and Advaita Saivagama of Kashmir: A Comparative Study by Jaideva Singh (The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture). Shared free for personal reading; not for sale and not endorsed by the author or publishers. Please read and buy the original.
CORE CLAIM
The Upanisads teach a dynamic Absolute that really becomes the world. Kashmir Saivism, with its prakasa-vimarsa, svatantrya and abhasa, preserves this better than Sankara, whose Brahman is inactive and whose world is false.
SCOPE
All three lectures: the philosophy of the Upanisads, the Para-Advaita of Kashmir Saivism (tattvas, malas, upayas), and an eight-point comparison with Sankara, with a glossary, a master synthesis that weighs the polemic and a practice path: about 11,000 words.
KEY FIGURES
Sankara; Abhinavagupta, Utpaladeva, Kshemaraja and Mahesvarananda; Sri Aurobindo and Gopinath Kaviraj as critics of illusionism; lecturer Jaideva Singh; foreword by Swami Lokeswarananda.
BEST FOR
Readers who know a little Advaita Vedanta and want to see, in one sitting, how Kashmir Saivism differs: activity in the Absolute, the reality of the world, grace, two kinds of ignorance and two ideals of liberation, with the Advaitin replies supplied.
How to Use This Guide
This is the shortest of Jaideva Singh's books and the most openly argumentative. In his translations (the Pratyabhijnahrdayam, the Spanda-karikas, the Siva Sutras, the Vijnanabhairava, the Para-trisika) Singh mostly explains. Here he takes a side. His thesis is that the Upanisads, the original Vedanta, teach a dynamic Absolute that really becomes the world, and that this teaching is preserved far better by Kashmir Saivism than by Sankara's Advaita, which in his view turned the world into an illusion and the Absolute into an inactive witness. The booklet is therefore three things at once: a compact summary of Upanisadic thought, a compact summary of Trika philosophy, and a polemic.
How This Guide Is Organised
- Foreword by Swami Lokeswarananda.
- Lecture I, The Philosophy of Vedanta (pp. 1 to 12): the nature of Brahman, the essence of the human being, their relation, the relation of the world to Brahman, and sadhana.
- Lecture II, The Para Advaita Philosophy of Saivagama (pp. 13 to 34): ultimate reality as prakasa-vimarsa, svatantryavada, abhasavada, the six courses, the thirty-six tattvas, the individual, bondage, liberation and the upayas.
- Lecture III, Comparison of Vedanta and Advaita Saiva Philosophy (pp. 35 to 41): eight points of difference.
- Glossary, Master Synthesis (with an honest assessment of the polemic), A Graded Practice Path and a Closing Note.
Each section has The Core Argument (Singh's claims, with his words quoted), Teaching Notes (numbered), an Insight paragraph, a critical lens ("A note for readers:") and Key Terms. Bold text marks the key ideas. Quotation marks are Singh's English; page numbers are to the booklet.
the venue matters. The Ramakrishna Mission is a Vedanta institution, broadly in Sankara's line as reinterpreted by Swami Vivekananda. Singh's argument that Sankara misread the Upanisads was delivered to an audience many of whose members would have held exactly the view he was criticising. The Foreword's warmth ("above all, he is a lovable person") suggests the lectures were received generously. Readers should hold the same generosity in both directions: this is a respectful but one-sided case, and Advaitins have answers to every point Singh raises.
A Scholar of the Old School (Swami Lokeswarananda)
"Dr Jaideva Singh is a much respected name as an exponent of Indian philosophy and Indian music. His contributions in these fields are rich and varied. But, above all, he is a lovable person. A stranger may talk to him for hours without for a moment suspecting that he is talking to a great scholar. Simple and modest in his habits, kind and generous, he is a true representative of the old-time Indian scholars."
Teaching Notes
1. The occasion. In December 1984 Singh gave three memorial lectures at the Institute, "one devoted to Vedanta in general and the other two devoted to the Para-Advaita Philosophy of Saivagama in particular". They "were highly appreciated by the audiences", and it was decided "to publish these lectures for the benefit of the larger public".
2. The patron. Mr Jagadiswar Pal, son of the late Banka Bihari and Hemangini Pal, funded both the lectures and the printing.
the Foreword is a reminder that Singh was a musicologist as well as a philosopher (he was a leading authority on Hindustani music and worked for All India Radio). His interest in vimarsa, consciousness as creative self-expression, has an obvious affinity with an artist's experience: a musician knows that the source of a raga is not an inert light but a living delight that wants to sound.
Key Terms
- Para-Advaita: "supreme non-dualism", a name for Kashmir Saivism that stresses its claim to go beyond other non-dualisms.
The Upanisads as the Real Vedanta (pp. 1 to 2)
"An unfortunate fact about Vedanta is that it is generally considered to be synonymous with Sankara's philosophy." The prasthana-traya (the Upanisads, the Brahmasutras and the Gita) "have been interpreted by each acarya in the light of his own sectarian views. Each has tried to draw support from these sources for his own sect and has read into them thoughts of his own system." Singh proposes to "go to the original source and see what truth it yields to us". Since "Vedanto nama Upanisad" is "the dictum that is respected by all", he will "take our stand entirely on the Upanisads".
Teaching Notes
1. Three phases. The Upanisads, "known as Brahma-vidya", "expound only Brahman and Atman". They show three phases: "an attempt to discover the world-ground", an attempt "to discover the essence of the human being", and an attempt "to discover the relation of the world to the world-ground and the relation of the essence of man to the world-ground".
2. Four headings. Singh therefore studies Vedanta under four heads: "(1) The svarupa or nature of Brahman, (2) The essence of the human being, (3) The relation of the essence of the human being to Brahman, (4) The relation of the world to Brahman."
Singh's method is to separate the Upanisads from their commentators, which is the right instinct for any reader of scripture. Every school in India (Sankara's Advaita, Ramanuja's Visistadvaita, Madhva's Dvaita, and others) claims the same texts. The question "what do the Upanisads themselves say?" is the only neutral ground.
Singh does not quite stand on neutral ground himself. As the rest of the booklet shows, the Upanisads he finds are remarkably close to the Trika (a dynamic Absolute, a real world, grace). That is a defensible reading, and many modern scholars agree that Sankara's illusionism is not the plain sense of the oldest Upanisads; but it is still a reading. "Going to the original source" always involves choosing which verses to stress.
Key Terms
- Prasthana-traya: the "three foundations" of Vedanta: Upanisads, Brahmasutras, Bhagavad Gita.
- Brahma-vidya: knowledge of Brahman, a name for the Upanisads.
- Acarya: a founding teacher and commentator.
The Nature of Brahman: Not This, Not That, and Sat-Cit-Ananda (pp. 2 to 6)
There are "two approaches to the realization of the nature of Brahman, one negative, the other positive".
The negative approach "maintains that the nature of Brahman is indeterminate. It is known as the neti neti approach. Brahman is 'not this, not that'." The Taittiriya: Brahman is that "wherefrom words turn back, together with the mind, not having attained (it)". It is "nirvisesa, not any particular... nirvikalpa, indeterminate, nirupadhi, unconditioned, niranjana, without stain and indefinable, niskala, without parts". The Mandukya (7): "it is unseen, it is that with which there can be no dealing; it is ungraspable; it has no distinctive mark; it is unthinkable; it cannot be designated; it is advaita, without a second."
The positive approach: "Having realized Brahman in immediate experience, the Upanisads also speak about Reality in positive terms." "The three basic positive terms are sat, cit, ananda." "Subjectively, He is sat, cit, ananda, existence, consciousness, and bliss. Objectively, He is satyam, jnanam, anantam, truth, knowledge, and infinity."
Teaching Notes
1. Why beyond thought. Two reasons. "Firstly, thought or vikalpa always sunders Reality into two: animal and not-animal, cap and not-cap, white and not-white." "Secondly, thought is relational by nature... thought has always a subject-object duality, nay, even triad, viz. knower, known, and knowledge. Reality is, however, unity of existence." Hence: "Thought, therefore, has to commit suicide in order to have an experience of Reality." There can be "only an immediate experience, aparoksanubhuti".
2. Gender as a clue. "The negative terms about Brahman in the Upanisads pertain generally to the nirguna or transcendent aspect and usually refer to Brahman in the neuter gender. The positive terms refer to Brahman in the saguna aspect... where Brahman is treated as deva and is referred to usually in masculine gender."
3. Sat. "He is sat or existence par excellence, for He exists by Himself. He is svayambhu, the Self-existent one." "Space, time, causality are, to borrow a term from the German philosopher Kant, categories through which He manifests Himself as phenomena." Brhadaranyaka III.8.11: "it is across Him that space is woven, warp and woof"; III.8.9: "at the command of that Imperishable One, the moments, the hours, the days... stand in their position."
4. Not attributes. "Consciousness and Bliss are not the attributes of existence, but its very nature. We have to use three words separately owing to the limitation of language."
5. Anantam. "It includes three ideas, viz. immortality, universality, freedom. Brahman is transcendent to time, and therefore connotes immortality. He is transcendent to space and therefore connotes universality. He is transcendent to causality and therefore connotes freedom."
6. The double aspect. The nirguna aspect "serves as the background of Saguna Brahman, and the Saguna Brahman, the dynamic, creative Brahman known as Saccidananda."
the phrase "thought has to commit suicide" is the bridge between the two philosophies the booklet compares. Both Advaita and Trika agree that discursive thought (vikalpa) cannot reach reality. The disagreement, which the third lecture spells out, is about what remains when thought falls silent: a still light (Sankara) or a light that is also self-aware and creative (the Trika). Notice how Singh already calls saguna Brahman "dynamic" and "creative": the comparison is being set up from the first pages.
Singh's account of the negative and positive approaches is accurate, but his ordering ("Having realized Brahman in immediate experience, the Upanisads also speak... in positive terms") quietly makes the positive description the fuller truth. Sankara orders them the other way: positive descriptions are provisional, for those not yet able to rest in neti neti. The same texts support both orderings.
Key Terms
- Neti neti: "not this, not that".
- Nirguna / saguna: without / with qualities.
- Saccidananda: existence-consciousness-bliss.
- Aparoksanubhuti: immediate, direct experience.
- Svayambhu: self-existent.
The Essence of the Human Being (pp. 6 to 7)
The human being "has been considered firstly from the analytical point of view, from the point of view of the kosas": annamaya (the bodily organism), pranamaya ("the vital vehicle"), and manomaya, vijnanamaya and anandamaya ("the psychic vehicles"). "These are vehicles of the Self. They cannot be called the Self." The metaphysical Self "can be discovered only by examining the states of the self, viz. the waking state, the dream state, and the deep sleep state". Beyond them is turiya, where "reigns the Saksi-caitanya or witnessing consciousness which never ceases".
Teaching Notes
1. Psychological and metaphysical self. The higher kosas "may at best constitute the psychological self or soul, but they cannot constitute the metaphysical Self, for they are all subject to change, whereas the metaphysical Self is, ex hypothesi, beyond change."
2. Dream. In dreams manas "assumes the functions of the other indriyas". "It is not only the reproductive imagination that is at work, but also constructive imagination... It fashions or fabricates all kinds of new and odd experiences."
3. Deep sleep. "Both manas and indriyas or senses become quiescent and there is complete cessation of empirical consciousness." Yet "there is some sort of consciousness as is evident from the sense of personal identity connecting the states before and after sleep". "This state is free from all desire and is, therefore, one of unalloyed bliss."
4. Turiya. "Even in deep sleep state when the normal, empirical consciousness is completely obliterated, the turiya is present as consciousness which witnesses all the three states. This is the metaphysical Self or Atma or the true Self of man."
the two methods (the five sheaths and the three states) are the classic Upanisadic routes to the Self, and they work by subtraction: whatever changes, or can be observed, is not the observer. The argument from deep sleep is the most striking: I wake and say "I slept well", so something was present to the absence of everything. This argument appears again, transformed, in the Trika (the Spanda-karika's claim that the experient persists through sleep).
Key Terms
- Kosa: sheath; the five layers of the person.
- Jagrat, svapna, susupti, turiya: waking, dream, deep sleep, the fourth.
- Saksi-caitanya: witnessing consciousness.
Atma and Brahman: Sparks, Birds and Rivers (pp. 7 to 11)
Atma has four characteristics. "Atma is caitanya or pure consciousness, consciousness not depending on the senses, prana, manas, buddhi, or ahamkara. Atma illumines these, they do not illumine it." "It is nityodita. It is ever active. It never takes a holiday." "It is Saksi or witness to all that we do, feel, or think." And "it is the eternal subject which can never be reduced to an object... the drasta of all drsya, the jnata of all jneya, the pramata of all prameya."
As to its relation to Brahman: "Atma is Brahman Himself in the human body. In fact, Brahman and Atma are synonymous in the Upanisads. This is clear from the four mahavakyas": "That am I", "That thou art", "This Atma is Brahman", "I am Brahman".
Teaching Notes
1. The unknowable knower. "By what can the knower of all knowledge be known?" "When one tries to know him as an object, one finds, to his utter chagrin, that even the attempt to know him as an object is not possible without his appearing as the knower."
2. The sparks. Mundaka: "As, from a well-blazing fire, sparks of like form issue forth by the thousands, even so, my friend, the jivas are produced from the Imperishable and also go there."
3. Jiva is not Atma. "It should be clearly borne in mind that jiva is not Atma. Jiva is the psychological or empirical Self. Atma is the met-empirical or metaphysical self. Jiva is Atma reflected in or conditioned by buddhi." The body is "Brahmapura, the tabernacle of God". "Brahman is cidakasa, Atma is cinmatra, Jiva is cidabhasa."
4. The rivers. Prasna VI.5: "As the rivers that flow towards the ocean, having reached it, disappear; their name and form are destroyed and they are designated the ocean, even so of this spectator, these sixteen parts... on reaching the Purusa, disappear... That one continues partless and immortal."
5. The two birds. Mundaka: "Two beautiful birds, fast bound companions, clasp close the same tree. Of those two, the one eats sweet fruit. The other looks on without eating.... When he sees the other, the Lord, contented, and realizes His greatness, he is freed from sorrow." "The psychological self loses the sense of autonomy and lordship and is therefore prey to sorrow."
6. Why delusion? "It is due to avidya, due to the forgetfulness of his true Self. It is a limitation imposed by Brahman upon Himself. He becomes a voluntary exile in order to realize better the sweetness of home."
two of Singh's phrasings here are already Trika ideas wearing Upanisadic clothes. Calling Atma nityodita, "ever active", is not standard Advaita (for Sankara the witness does nothing). And "a limitation imposed by Brahman upon Himself... a voluntary exile in order to realize better the sweetness of home" is precisely the Pratyabhijna doctrine of Siva's self-veiling (tirodhana) as play. Singh is showing, without yet saying so, that the Upanisads can be read as the seed of the Saiva view.
the "voluntary exile" image is lovely but raises the question every such theology faces: if the suffering of beings is Brahman's self-chosen game, what of the suffering? Neither Singh nor the Trika gives a fully satisfying answer here; the Trika's response (that the one who suffers is, at the deepest level, the one who chose) is coherent within its own terms, and hard to accept from outside them.
Key Terms
- Mahavakya: "great statement" of identity.
- Nityodita: ever-risen, ever-active.
- Drasta / drsya: seer / seen.
- Cidakasa, cinmatra, cidabhasa: consciousness as space, as pure consciousness, as reflected consciousness.
- Avidya: ignorance, forgetfulness of the Self.
The World and the Way: Origin, Om and the Heart (pp. 11 to 12)
"The Upanisads declare categorically that Brahman is the origin, and end of the world." Chandogya III.14.1: "All this is verily Brahman. Brahman is that from which everything proceeds, that in which everything breathes, Brahman is that in which everything is finally dissolved." Taittiriya: "From Brahman are all beings born, and having been born, it is through Him that they are alive, and He it is to whom all beings return."
Teaching Notes
1. Three moments. "First of all there is sisrksa, the Will to manifest: May I be many! The second moment is the appearance of cosmic matter. The third moment is the entrance or immanence of Brahman in manifestation."
2. Sadhana. The Upanisads "emphasize sraddha or faith, purity or purgation, introversion, and meditation".
3. Om. "Om consisting of three phonemes, viz. a, u, m, and the ardhamatra after m are the true representative of Brahman who appears as gross manifestation in the form of Virat, as the primal manifestation in the Isvara, as the absolute in the form of Brahman."
4. Dahara-vidya. Chandogya: "What is here in this city of Brahman is an abode, a small lotus-flower. Within that is a small space. That should be searched out." "This is a description not of the physical heart but of the mystic heart... This leads to the transformation of the empirical mind into the Divine."
the three moments of creation (will, matter, entry) are the core of Singh's case. If Brahman wills to become many and then enters what it creates, creation is a real act, not a misperception. This is the passage Singh will set against Sankara in Lecture III. It is also notable that both Upanisadic meditations he chooses (on Om and on the space in the heart) reappear in the Vijnanabhairava, which he had translated a few years earlier.
Advaitins read these creation passages as provisional teaching (adhyaropa-apavada, "provisional superimposition and its later removal"): the Upanisads describe creation in order to lead the mind to Brahman, then withdraw the description. Singh mentions adhyaropa only to reject it (in Lecture III). A fair summary is that the texts allow both readings, and the choice between them is philosophical, not philological.
Key Terms
- Sisrksa: the will to create.
- Virat / Isvara / Brahman: cosmic, primal and absolute aspects.
- Dahara-vidya: meditation on the small space in the heart.
- Sraddha: faith.
Ultimate Reality: Light That Knows Itself (pp. 13 to 15)
Kashmir Saivism "is a religio-philosophical system which is elaborated mostly in the Pratyabhijna darsana", "so called because the main emphasis in this philosophy is on the re-cognition of Self". "Siva voluntarily adopts Self-veiling by His tirodhana sakti and becomes a jiva. The problem for the jiva is to recognize his Self as Siva."
"Most of the systems of Indian Philosophy recognize ultimate Reality as simply prakasa, as self-luminous Light... But Saiva Philosophy maintains that para samvit or Cit or ultimate Reality is not simply prakasa; it is prakasa-vimarsamaya. It is not simply spiritual Light but also creative Energy." "Vimarsa is reviewing Energy of Siva, His kartrtva sakti. It is like a mirror in which Siva sees His glory, His creative power, His beauty."
Teaching Notes
1. Vimarsa defined. Kshemaraja (Parapravesika): vimarsa "is akrtrimaham iti visphuranam. It is the non-relational, immediate awareness of I. Vimarsa is the Self-surveying of Self."
2. Why vimarsa is needed. "If ultimate Reality were simply prakasa, and not also vimarsa, it would be powerless and inert." Kshemaraja: "yadi nirvimarsah syat, anisvaro jadasca prasajyeta."
3. Its many names. Vimarsa is called "para sakti, para vak, svatantrya, aisvarya, kartrtva, sphuratta, sara, hrdaya, spanda".
4. Siva and Sakti. "It is the same Absolute which from one point of view is Siva, from another Sakti. From the point of view of prakasa, Siva is visvottirna or transcendent to the universe. From the point of view of vimarsa or sakti, he is visvamaya or immanent in the universe."
5. Not transformation. The appearance of Parama Siva as experient and object "is not parinama or transformation, not vikara or change. It is simply the expression of His svatantrya, His unimpeded sovereignty."
6. Caitanya. "Caitanyam in this system does not mean simply consciousness. It means awareness of a cetana or conscious Reality that has the absolute freedom of knowledge and activity." It expresses itself "in iccha or will, jnana or knowledge, and kriya or activity".
the whole booklet turns on one distinction: prakasa alone versus prakasa-vimarsa. Imagine a light that illuminates everything but does not know it is shining; then a light that shines and is aware of itself shining, and can therefore choose what to shine as. The first is (in Singh's account) Sankara's Brahman; the second is Siva. The mirror image is apt: vimarsa is consciousness's capacity to turn back on itself, and that self-reflexive turn is also the source of its creativity.
Singh's phrase "most of the systems of Indian Philosophy" means principally Advaita Vedanta. Advaitins would reply that Brahman is self-luminous (svaprakasa), which already includes self-awareness without needing a second "aspect", and that adding activity to the Absolute imports change into the changeless. This is one of the oldest debates in Indian philosophy, and it is not settled by either side's definitions.
Key Terms
- Prakasa: light, the revealing aspect of consciousness.
- Vimarsa: self-awareness, the reflexive and creative aspect.
- Tirodhana: self-concealment.
- Visvottirna / visvamaya: transcendent / immanent.
- Parinama / vikara: transformation / change (both denied of Siva).
Svatantryavada: The Doctrine of Free Will (pp. 15 to 16)
"The Absolute in this system is known as Cit or Parama Siva or Mahesvara or Anuttara. It is called Mahesvara because of its absolute sovereignty of will, svatantrata or svatantrya. Svatantrya is the svabhava or own-being of the Absolute. It is this sovereign Free Will that brings about the objectification of the ideation of the Absolute."
Teaching Notes
1. Beyond the categories. Svatantrya "is beyond space, time, causality, etc., for they owe their own existence to it".
2. Utpaladeva. Isvarapratyabhijna I: "The Divine Power is known as citi. Its essence is Self-consciousness. It is known as Para Vak, the Supreme Word. It is by its own nature ever-present. It is svatantrya, the main power of the Supreme Self."
3. The heart of the Supreme. "Citi or power of consciousness is the creative flash of light, the Highest Being, free from the determination of space and time. In brief, this free sovereign Will may be said to be the very heart of the Supreme."
4. Abhinavagupta's statement. Parama Siva, "whose being is consciousness of the nature of Prakasa and Vimarsa", appears "as subject from Rudra down to immovable entities, as objects like blue, pleasure, etc., which appear as if separate, though in essence they are not separate, through the glorious might of Svatantrya... which does not conceal in any way the nature of the Supreme. This is the exposition of Svatantrya-vada."
svatantrya is the Trika's answer to the question "why is there a world at all?" Not because of ignorance, not because of a fall, not because of an external material, but because freedom expresses itself. A free consciousness that never expressed itself would not be free. Readers of the Pratyabhijnahrdayam will recognise sutra 1: "citih svatantra visvasiddhihetuh", "the absolutely free Citi is the cause of the world".
Key Terms
- Svatantrya: absolute autonomy, free will.
- Mahesvara: the great Lord, so called for his sovereignty.
- Anuttara: the unsurpassable.
- Para vak: the supreme Word.
Abhasavada: The Peacock's Egg and the Mirror (pp. 16 to 19)
"From the point of view of the creativity of the Divine, this system is known as svatantryavada; from the point of view of manifestation, it is known as abhasavada." "In the Ultimate Reality, the entire objective world lies as an undifferentiated mass identically with the ideation of Parama Siva, just as the varied plumage of the peacock with all its rich colour lies in an undifferentiated mass in the plasma of its egg." This is "mayuranda-rasa-nyaya".
Teaching Notes
1. What abhasa means. "The word abhasa is a component of two factors, a and bhasa. A means isat, i.e. sankocena or in a limited way, and bhasah means bhasanam or prakasana, i.e. appearance. So abhasa means manifestation or appearance in a limited, polarized way." "Everything in existence is a configuration of abhasas."
2. The mirror. Paramarthasara 12 to 13: "Just as in a clear mirror, varied images of city, village, etc. appear as different from one another and from the mirror, though they are non-different from the mirror, even so the world, though non-different from purest consciousness of Parama Bhairava, appears as different."
3. Where the analogy fails. "In the case of the mirror, there is an external object that is reflected, but in the case of Mahesvara, it is His own ideation that is reflected as the universe. In the case of the mirror, there is an external light... in the case of the Universal consciousness, it is its own light." And "the mirror being non-conscious does not know the reflections within itself, but the Universal consciousness knows its own ideation."
4. The yogi's creation. Isvarapratyabhijna: "The Divine being whose essence is Cit makes the collection of objects that are internally contained appear outside by His Will without any external material even as a Yogi." "The Divine being does not create like a pot-maker shaping clay into pots." Srsti "is derived from the root srj which means to let go, to project".
5. Not false. "It is the Universal consciousness itself that appears in the form of subjects and objects. Therefore, this appearance cannot be called false. This appearance, however, makes no difference to the fullness or perfection of the Universal consciousness."
6. The two oppositions. "Svatantryavada of this philosophy stands in contradiction to vivartavada, and abhasavada to parinamavada."
the last teaching note is the most precise single sentence in the booklet. Indian philosophy offered two classic models of how one reality becomes many. Parinama (Samkhya, and in a refined form Ramanuja): the cause really transforms, like milk into curd. Vivarta (Sankara): the cause only appears to change, like a rope seen as a snake. The Trika rejects both. Against parinama: Siva does not change into the world (the mirror is not altered by its images). Against vivarta: the appearance is not an error (the images really are the mirror's own display). Abhasa is a third option: real appearance without real change.
the mirror analogy has a well-known weakness that Singh partly acknowledges: mirror images are, in ordinary language, exactly what we call "not real". The Trika has to keep qualifying the image (no external object, no external light, a conscious mirror) until it is no longer quite a mirror. The analogy is best taken as a pointer, not a proof.
Key Terms
- Abhasa: limited appearance, manifestation.
- Mayuranda-rasa-nyaya: the analogy of the peacock's egg.
- Pratibimba: reflection.
- Vivarta / parinama: apparent change / real transformation.
- Srsti: emanation, from srj, "to let go".
Sadadhva: The Six Courses of Word and World (pp. 19 to 21)
Para sakti "manifests initially as para vak. The whole universe consisting of subjective and objective order is a proliferation of para vak under six forms known as sadadhva". "Three of them are under the vacaka aspect which means the subjective or grahaka aspect of manifestation, and the other three are under the vacya or the objective aspect." "At the level of para vak, vacaka and vacya, i.e. the word and the referent, are in an indistinguishable unity."
Teaching Notes
1. Three polarities.
| Level | Vacaka (subjective, temporal, phonetic) | Vacya (objective, spatial, cosmogonic) |
|---|---|---|
| Para, abheda (supreme, non-different) | Varna | Kala |
| Parapara, bhedabheda, suksma (subtle) | Mantra | Tattva |
| Apara, bheda, sthula (gross) | Pada | Bhuvana |
2. Varna and kala. "Varna, at this stage, does not mean letter, or colour, or class. Varna means the characteristic measure-index of the function-form associated with the object... kala is the predicable."
3. Mantra and tattva. "Mantra is the basic formula of tattva; tattva is the principle or source and origin of the subtle structural forms."
4. Pada and bhuvana. "Bhuvana is the universe as it appears to apprehending centres. Pada is the actual formulation of that universe by mind-reaction and speech."
5. Two kinds of varna. "Varnadhva is of the nature of prama. It is the resting place of prameya, pramana, and pramata." Varna is "non-mayiya and mayiya, i.e. metempirical and empirical. The vacaka-sakti of non-mayiya varnas is inherent in the mayiya varnas even as power of burning is inherent in fire."
the sadadhva is the Trika's way of saying that the world and the words for it arise together from a single source. Every level of objective reality has a matching level of "speech", from the pre-verbal pulses (varna) through the mantras that encode principles to the ordinary words we use for places and things. This is why mantra practice can work, in the Trika's view: going back up the ladder of speech is going back up the ladder of the world. It is also why the last line matters: the power of the higher, non-mayic letters is present inside the ordinary alphabet.
Singh's terse definitions ("the characteristic measure-index of the function-form") follow Lakshman Joo and earlier Indian scholarship and are difficult even for specialists. The sadadhva is a ritual map as much as a philosophical one: in Saiva initiation (diksa) the guru "purifies" the disciple's bonds along all six courses. Singh omits this ritual setting.
Key Terms
- Sadadhva: the six courses.
- Vacaka / vacya: denoting word / denoted object.
- Varna, mantra, pada: the three courses of word.
- Kala, tattva, bhuvana: the three courses of world.
- Mayiya / amayiya: within / beyond maya.
The Universal Tattvas: From Siva to Pure Knowledge (pp. 21 to 24)
"It is the svabhava or nature of ultimate reality to manifest. If ultimate reality did not manifest, it would no longer be consciousness or self, but something like an object or not-self." Abhinavagupta: "If the Highest Reality did not manifest infinite variety but remained cooped up within its solid singleness, it would be neither the Highest Power nor consciousness, but something like a jar." Paratrisika 24: "As the great banyan tree lies only in the form of potency in the seed, even so the entire universe... lies as a potency in the heart of the supreme."
Teaching Notes
1. The five powers. "Cit: the power of self-revelation. In this aspect, the supreme is known as siva. Ananda: This means absolute bliss. In this aspect, the absolute is known as sakti." "Iccha: the will... sadasiva. Jnana... Isvara. Kriya: the power of assuming any and every form... Suddha-vidya."
2. Siva and Sakti tattvas. "Siva-tattva is the initial creative movement of Paramasiva." "Sakti is the Principle of negation. She negates the 'this' or the objective side of experience." She "polarizes consciousness into aham and idam, I and this". She is "His unmukhata or intentness to create". Mahesvarananda (Maharthamanjari): Siva, "full of joy enhanced by the honey of the three corners of his heart, viz. Iccha, Jnana, and Kriya, raising up His face to gaze at His own splendour is called Sakti."
3. Delight as cause. "Just as an artist pours out his delight in a poem, picture, or song, even so the supreme pours out His delight in manifestation." Kshemaraja: "Sakti thrown up by delight lets Herself go forth into manifestation." Strictly, "siva-sakti-tattva is not an emanation or abhasa, but the seed of all emanation".
4. Sadasiva. "The experience of this stage is 'I am this,' but the 'this' is only a hazy (asphuta) experience... like a hazy idea of the picture that an artist has at the initial stage of his creation." It is "the first abhasa".
5. Isvara. "The experience of Isvara is 'This am I'." The 'this' "becomes a little more defined (sphuta)". Jnana predominates.
6. Suddhavidya. "The 'I' and the 'this' side of experience are equally balanced like the two pans of an evenly held balance." Kriya predominates. "The experience of this stage may be called diversity in unity." "Up to this stage, all experience is ideal... Hence, it is called the pure order, or Suddha adhva."
the five universal tattvas describe creation as an artist's process: the first stirring (Siva), the delight that wants expression (Sakti), the vague vision ("I am this", Sadasiva), the clearer vision ("this am I", Isvara), and the balanced plan in which self and work are both vivid (Suddhavidya). Singh's analogy is exact, and it explains why the Trika can call the world real without calling it separate: a painting in the painter's mind is fully real and wholly the painter.
the claim that an Absolute which did not manifest would be "something like a jar" is the Trika's sharpest jab at Advaita, but Advaitins would say it begs the question: it assumes that consciousness must be active to be consciousness, which is exactly the point in dispute.
Key Terms
- Siva, Sakti, Sadasiva, Isvara, Suddhavidya: the five pure tattvas.
- Aham / idam: I / this.
- Unmukhata: intentness, the "upturned face" of creation.
- Sphuta / asphuta: distinct / indistinct.
- Suddha adhva: the pure order.
Maya, the Five Coverings and the Lower Tattvas (pp. 24 to 27)
"Now Maya-tattva begins its play. From this stage onwards, there is Asuddhadhva or order in which the real nature of the Divine is concealed." "Maya is derived from the root 'ma' which means 'to measure out'. That which makes experience measurable, i.e. limited, and severs 'this' from 'I' and 'I' from 'this' and excludes things from one another is Maya." "Up to suddhavidya, the experience was universal. The 'this' meant 'all-this', the total universe. Under the operation of Maya 'this' means merely different from everything else."
Teaching Notes
1. The five kancukas. "Kala: This reduces the sarvakartrtva (universal authorship)... Vidya: This reduces the omniscience... Raga: This reduces the all-satisfaction (purnatva)... and brings about desire for this or that. Kala: This reduces the eternity... past, present, and future. Niyati: This reduces the freedom and pervasiveness... limitation in respect of cause and effect."
2. Kant. "It is interesting to note that Trika philosophy had anticipated the German philosopher, Kant, in the analysis of experience." For Kant, space and time and the categories are a priori; the Trika says "all our experiences are limited by kala and niyati". "Kant's category of relation is included in Niyati. His categories of quantity, quality, and modality come under the kancuka-vidya. Kala and Raga have no parallel in Kant's system."
3. Purusa and Prakrti. "Siva through Mayasakti which limits his power of knowledge and activity becomes Purusa. Purusa means every sentient being." "While Purusa is the subjective manifestation of Siva, Prakrti is the objective manifestation", with the three gunas.
4. The remaining tattvas. Buddhi ("the ascertaining intelligence", reflecting external objects and internal images "built out of the samskaras"), ahamkara ("the I-making principle and the power of self-appropriation"), manas (which "co-operates with the senses in building up perceptions, and by itself... builds images and concepts"), the five jnanendriyas, five karmendriyas, five tanmatras, and the five bhutas: thirty-six in all.
5. The individual. "Caitanya or Siva forms the very core of the being of each individual." Buddhi, ahamkara and manas with the five tanmatras "constitute the puryastaka or the subtle body". "In each individual, there is kundalini... in three and a half folds at the base of the spine." Turiya "is pure cidananda, consciousness and bliss of which the individual is normally not aware".
the five kancukas are among the most psychologically useful ideas in the Trika. Each names a specific way the infinite feels finite: "I can only do a little" (kala), "I only know a little" (vidya), "I want something" (raga), "time is passing" (kala), "this causes that, and I am bound by it" (niyati). Seen this way, ordinary dissatisfaction is not a personal failing but the structural signature of limited consciousness, and each covering suggests its own contemplation.
the comparison with Kant is suggestive but loose. Kant's categories are logical forms of judgement, derived from a table of judgements; the kancukas are cosmological principles that limit a pre-existing infinite consciousness. Kant also denied that we can know the thing-in-itself, while the Trika claims we can become it. "Anticipated" overstates the case; "parallels" is fairer.
Key Terms
- Maya: the power that "measures out", producing difference.
- Kancuka: covering; the five limitations.
- Asuddha adhva: the impure order.
- Puryastaka: the eightfold subtle body.
- Thirty-six tattvas: the full map from Siva to earth.
Bondage and Liberation: The Three Malas and Recognition (pp. 28 to 29)
"The bondage of the individual is due to innate ignorance or anava mala. It is the primary limiting condition which reduces the individual to an anu or limited creature. It comes about by the limitation of the iccha-sakti of the Supreme." "In association with asuddha adhva, he becomes further limited by mayiya and karma mala."
"Liberation, according to the system, means pratyabhijna or recognition of one's true nature which means akrtrima-aham-vimarsa, the original, pure I-consciousness." Abhinavagupta (Tantraloka I): "Moksa or liberation is nothing else but the awareness of one's true nature."
Teaching Notes
1. Mayiya mala. "It is bhinna vedya pratha which brings about the consciousness of difference. This comes about by the limitation of jnana-sakti of the Supreme."
2. Karma mala. "Anava mala leads to Karmamala, e.g. good or evil actions. This leads to mayiya mala which brings about the experience of pleasure, pain, birth, and death due to the vasanas or habit-energies." "It is the force of the vasanas that carries the jivas from one life to another."
3. The highest attainment. "To be integrated to the divine I is liberation." But "the highest attainment, however, is that of Siva-consciousness in which the entire universe appears as I or Siva."
the definition of liberation is beautifully simple: not acquiring something new, but becoming aware of what one is. The distinction between two levels is important: first one recognises oneself as Siva (inward), then one recognises the universe as oneself (outward). The second is the Trika's characteristic goal, and the point at which, in Lecture III, Singh will say it differs from Vedanta.
Singh's account of the three malas here differs slightly from his account in other books (where karma mala is tied to the limitation of kriya-sakti and mayiya mala to jnana-sakti). The sequence he gives here (anava leads to karma leads to mayiya) is also unusual. These are compressions in a lecture, not errors in doctrine, but readers comparing books will notice them.
Key Terms
- Anava mala: the innate sense of being limited.
- Mayiya mala: the sense of difference.
- Karma mala: the residue of action.
- Vasana: habit-energy.
- Pratyabhijna: recognition.
The Four Upayas: Grace and the Means (pp. 29 to 34)
"It is not simply by intellectual understanding that one gains awareness of true I-consciousness. There has to be Saktipata, the descent of Divine Sakti or anugraha or grace. In order to earn grace, one has to undergo spiritual discipline. This is known as upaya or yoga." There are four: anupaya, sambhavopaya, saktopaya, anavopaya.
Teaching Notes
1. Anupaya. "The prefix an in anupaya means 'slight'. When, through extreme saktipata, the aspirant realizes the Self... without any particular effort simply by once hearing a word from the guru."
2. Sambhavopaya. Also "icchopaya, abhedopaya, avikalpaka or nirvikalpa yoga". It is (1) "a sudden flash of the I-consciousness of Siva" (2) "in which all ideation ceases completely" (3) "which occurs to those whose entire consciousness is in the inner Bhairava principle".
3. Saktopaya. Also "jnanopaya, bhavanopaya, mantropaya". It "consists mostly in Mantra-sakti, Sattarka, Bhavana, and Suddha-vidya".
4. Mantra. "Since vikalpa or thought-construct is the very nature of mind, it cannot become completely vikalpa-free. Therefore, the best way is to catch hold of one suddha vikalpa, viz. I am Siva, and ruminate over it through mantra." "Mantra is not simply a conglomeration of letters recorded in a book. It is, really speaking, awareness at a higher level of mind of the veiled atmasakti." Kshemaraja on Siva Sutra II.1: "The mind of the devotee intent on intensive awareness of the deity inherent in the mantra acquires identity with that deity." The contemplation: "That which is unlimited consciousness transcending all limited expressions of Reality from the earth right up to Siva category, that alone is the highest Reality; that am I."
5. Sattarka and bhavana. Abhinavagupta (Tantrasara): "Sattarka is the reflection that re-inforces continuity of ideas similar to the Suddha vikalpa." "Sattarka leads to bhavana." "Bhavana is that contemplation which enforces clarity of a thing which though real and existent appeared as non-existent and unreal previously owing to obscurity." "Constructive imagination plays an important role in bhavana."
6. Suddhavidya. "With the appearance of suddhavidya, jneya or object of knowledge appears as a form of jnana. Jnana terminates in the jnata or the knower. Finally, this is displaced by the transcendental I-consciousness in which the distinction between the jnata, jnana, and jneya totally disappears."
7. Anavopaya. "For those who are not competent to practise Saktopaya." "Anu means the psychological self, the mind-body complex." Supports: "(1) buddhi, (2) gross prana, (3) subtle prana known as varna, (4) the body and the disposition of its organs in particular ways, known as karana, or (5) some external object known as sthana-kalpana." "These upayas are not watertight compartments. Generally, one passes into the other."
8. Varnayoga. Tantraloka V.131: "From the uccara of this general prana, there vibrates an imperceptible, inarticulate sound which is known as varna." Svacchanda Tantra: "No one sounds it voluntarily, nor can any one prevent its being sounded. The deity abiding in the heart of living creatures sounds it himself." Tantraloka VI.216: it is "anahata, i.e. unstruck, natural, uncaused". By anusandhana, prana and apana "become equilibrated", kundalini rises, "a number of pleasant sounds are heard", the citta dissolves, and at the pasyanti stage the sound is "no longer audible. The experient has now the experience of jyotih (light)... purnahanta or the supreme I-consciousness."
the account of suddha vikalpa is the most practical teaching in the booklet, and the clearest difference from simplified meditation advice. It accepts that the mind cannot simply stop thinking. So it gives the mind one true thought ("I am Siva", or "that unlimited consciousness am I") and lets that thought, steadily held, grow clearer through sattarka and bhavana until it dissolves into what it points to. A thought becomes the ladder out of thought. The varnayoga section then completes the picture: beneath all our thinking, the breath is already sounding a mantra no one recites.
Singh writes that one undergoes discipline "in order to earn grace". Most Trika texts are careful to say the opposite: saktipata is the free act of Siva and cannot be earned; practice is the response to grace already received, or the preparation of the ground. Abhinavagupta explicitly denies that grace depends on merit. Singh's phrasing is probably loose lecture language, but it matters, because "earning grace" is exactly what the Trika's doctrine of svatantrya rules out. The kundalini account (pleasant sounds, light, rising through cakras) is a traditional description; experiences vary widely, and readers should not measure their practice against it.
Key Terms
- Saktipata / anugraha: descent of power / grace.
- Anupaya, sambhava, sakta, anava: the four means.
- Suddha vikalpa: the pure thought "I am Siva".
- Sattarka: right reasoning.
- Bhavana: creative contemplation.
- Varna / anahata nada: the unstruck sound of the breath.
- Anusandhana: attentive observation.
The Nature of the Absolute: Activity and Maya (pp. 35 to 37)
Advaita Vedanta is "generally known as Santabrahmavada or Kevaladvaita. The philosophy of Kashmir is known as Isvaradvayavada or Pratyabhijna or Trika." "The most salient difference between the two is that according to Vedanta, the Absolute Reality is simply Prakasa or Jnana, whereas according to Isvaradvayavada, it is prakasa-vimarsamaya, i.e. it has both jnatrtva and kartrtva. Sankara thinks that kriya or activity belongs only to Jiva or the empirical individual, and not to Brahman."
Teaching Notes
1. Kriya in two senses. "Sankara takes kriya in a very narrow sense. He takes it as synonymous with karma. Certainly, parama siva does not act like a pot-maker... Saivagama takes kriya in a wide sense, in the sense of citi-sakti, in the sense of spanda, throb or pulsation to manifest." "Without activity, the Absolute would be simply inert."
2. The dilemma about maya. "Sankara says: 'All activity belongs to maya.' But is Maya simply a Sakti of Brahman or is it something quite external? If maya is something quite external, then advaita cannot be maintained. If maya is sakti of Brahman, then surely, it is an activity of Brahman."
3. Panini. "Svatantrah karta, a free being alone is an agent." Svatantrya implies kartrtva.
4. Sankara's own words. Brahmasutra-bhasya II.1.14: "Thus the potency of Isvara, His omniscience and omnipotence are contingent upon the limitation caused by the condition or association of avidya... In the highest sense, when all conditions are removed by vidya... the use of potency, omniscience, etc. would become inappropriate."
5. The five acts. For the Trika, activity "is not an adjunct of Isvara, but His specific nature", summed up as srsti, sthiti, samhara, vilaya, anugraha (manifestation, maintenance, withdrawal, concealment, grace). "He performs these five acts eternally even when He assumes the form of an empirical ego."
6. Mahesvarananda. Maharthamanjari: if the five acts are not accepted, "Atma as defined by Maya-Vedanta etc., characterized by the want of the slightest trace of activity, would be as good as unreal."
7. Maya real. "Maya, according to Santabrahmavada, is anirvacaniya or indefinable, but according to Isvaradvayavada, maya being the sakti of Siva is perfectly real and brings about multiplicity." Svetasvatara: "know maya to be prakrti". "Maya is the creative power of the Divine. Maya is not a power of illusion."
the dilemma about maya is Singh's strongest argument and one that Advaitins have always had to answer. If maya is other than Brahman, there are two realities; if it is Brahman's power, Brahman is active. The Advaitin answer is the doctrine of anirvacaniyata: maya is neither real nor unreal, neither other than Brahman nor identical with it, and this indeterminacy is not a defect but the very mark of illusion. Whether that answer satisfies is the reader's call; Singh, following the Trika, finds it an evasion.
Singh's summary of Sankara is accurate in its main lines (Sankara does say Isvara's lordship depends on the upadhi of avidya), but "Sankara takes kriya in a very narrow sense" is a debating point. Sankara's denial of activity to Brahman is deliberate and argued: any action implies a lack (something to be achieved), and Brahman lacks nothing. The Trika replies that spanda is not action toward a goal but the overflow of fullness. Both sides are using "activity" in their own sense, which is why the debate has never been resolved.
Key Terms
- Santabrahmavada / Kevaladvaita: the doctrine of a quiescent Brahman, exclusive non-dualism (Singh's labels for Sankara).
- Isvaradvayavada: the non-dualism of the Lord (the Trika).
- Jnatrtva / kartrtva: knowership / agency.
- Anirvacaniya: indeterminable.
- Pancakrtya: the five acts of Siva.
The Status of the World: Rope, Snake and Seed (p. 38)
"The world, according to Sankara, is mithya or false. It is simply an adhyaropa or adhyasa or false imposition on Brahman due to ajnana or nescience just as a snake is a false imposition on a rope." "In none of the Upanisads which form the original, real Vedanta, the rajju-sarpa or rope-snake analogy is to be found. Nor anywhere in the Upanisads has the world been designated as adhyaropa or adhyasa. Sankara has borrowed it from Nagarjuna."
"For Advaita Saivagama, the world is an abhasa, but abhasa or appearance is real. The abhasas only prove the glory and richness of Siva."
Teaching Notes
1. Aurobindo. "Sri Aurobindo rightly says that Sankara cut the Gordian knot by dismissing the world as illusion."
2. Gopinath Kaviraj. "According to adhyasa, Sankara's advaita becomes exclusive advaita, an advaita by excluding the world."
3. The seed. "The world lies only as a potency in Siva, just as a banyan tree lies as potency or Sakti in the seed. Manifestation only means making explicit what is implicit. Variety is not contradictory to unity."
4. A third theory. "The Advaita Saivagama maintains that parinamavada and vivartavada are not the exhaustive theories of manifestation. Manifestation is brought about by the Svatantrya or the autonomy of Siva."
this is the heart of the comparison. For Sankara, liberation means seeing that the world was never really there; for the Trika, it means seeing that the world was always Siva. Gopinath Kaviraj's phrase, "an advaita by excluding the world", names what the Trika thinks is missing in Advaita: a non-dualism that achieves unity by subtracting the many is, in a sense, still dualistic, because it needs the many as the thing to be denied. The Trika claims an inclusive non-dualism.
two claims here need qualification. First, the rope-snake image is indeed absent from the principal Upanisads, but the idea of the world as name-and-form superimposed on one reality is arguably present (Chandogya VI: "the modification is only a name"), and Gaudapada, Sankara's predecessor, already uses the rope-snake image in the Mandukya-karika. Second, "Sankara has borrowed it from Nagarjuna" echoes an old accusation ("crypto-Buddhist", pracchanna-bauddha) made by Sankara's Vedantic opponents. Historians do see Buddhist influence on Gaudapada, but "borrowed from Nagarjuna" is too strong as a statement of fact. Also, Sankara's "mithya" does not mean the world is nothing: it means it is neither absolutely real nor absolutely unreal, a dependent reality. Singh's summary makes Sankara sound more world-denying than his more careful readers find him.
Key Terms
- Mithya: false, dependently real.
- Adhyasa / adhyaropa: superimposition.
- Rajju-sarpa: the rope-snake analogy.
- Exclusive / inclusive advaita: unity by subtraction / unity by embrace.
Grace, the Embodied Self and the Means (pp. 38 to 40)
"According to Saivagama, anugraha or grace is one of the eternal activities of Siva. The Upanisads which constitute the real Vedanta also believe in anugraha." Katha I.2.23: "This atma cannot be attained by instruction, not by intelligence, nor by learning. To him alone, It reveals Its subtle form whom It chooses."
Teaching Notes
1. A disputed pronoun. "This stanza plainly speaks of grace, but Sankara dismisses grace by a linguistic tour de force. He takes esa as standing for sadhaka, though it is a pronoun standing for the noun atma."
2. Sankara admits grace elsewhere. On Brahmasutra III.2.5: "Just as when the power of sight withdrawn owing to cataract is restored with the potency of medicine, even so only to some rare being whose spiritual darkness has been removed by the discipline of meditation, and who has attained fulfilment through the grace of God is Realization restored." "The word 'Isvaraprasada' shows clearly that Sankara has admitted the grace of God in this context."
3. The Self in the body. "According to Sankara, atma in the human body is only saksi-caitanya or witnessing consciousness... niskriya, without activity. According to Isvaradvayavada, however, atma in the human body also is spandamaya. It has always the characteristic of jnana and kriya."
4. The means. "According to Vedanta, sravana, manana, and nididhyasana are the only means to liberation. This partially represents saktopaya of Saivagama. There is nothing like sambhavopaya or anavopaya in Vedanta."
the Katha verse is a famous crux. Read Singh's way, it says the Self chooses whom to reveal itself to, which is grace. Read Sankara's way (taking "whom" as the seeker who chooses the Self), it says the Self is revealed to whoever wholeheartedly seeks it, which is effort. The disagreement is not trivial: it shapes whether practice is understood as reaching or as being reached. The Trika, with its doctrine of saktipata, insists on the second.
the claim that Vedanta has "nothing like" anavopaya is arguable. Advaita traditionally requires the "fourfold qualification" (sadhana-catustaya), and later Advaita texts and teachers (including Vivekananda, in whose institution these lectures were given) integrated yoga, breath and devotional practice extensively. Singh's comparison is with Sankara's strict position, not with Vedanta as practised. Similarly, Sankara's grammatical reading of the Katha verse is defended by Advaitins as consistent with the context; Singh's "tour de force" is a rhetorical judgement.
Key Terms
- Anugraha / prasada: grace.
- Saksi / niskriya: witness / actionless.
- Spandamaya: full of pulsation.
- Sravana, manana, nididhyasana: hearing, reflection, contemplation (the Vedantic means).
Two Kinds of Ignorance, Two Ideals of Liberation (pp. 40 to 41)
"According to Vedanta, avidya or ajnana is removed by vidya or jnana, and when this happens, there is mukti." "According to Saivagama, there are two kinds of ajnana, viz. bauddha ajnana and paurusa ajnana. Paurusa ajnana is inherent in the purusa; bauddha ajnana is intellectual. By vidya only bauddha ajnana can be removed, paurusa ajnana will still remain. Such a person will only be landed in blank abstraction. He will not realize sivatva or divinization."
"The ideal of mukti in Vedanta is kaivalya or isolation just as in Samkhya-yoga. The only difference is that in Samkhya-yoga, it is isolation from prakrti, in Vedanta, it is isolation from maya. The ideal of mukti in Saivagama is sivatva-yojana or being integrated to Siva." "According to Vedanta, the world is annulled in mukti. According to Saivagama, the world appears to be a form of Siva-consciousness in liberation."
Teaching Notes
1. How paurusa ajnana is removed. "Paurusa ajnana has also to be removed. This can be removed by Saktipata which comes about either by diksa by a Self-realized guru or by direct divine grace."
2. Blank abstraction. The person who removes only intellectual ignorance "will only be landed in blank abstraction". He knows the truth but has not become it.
the doctrine of two ignorances is the Trika's most interesting contribution to the comparison, because it explains a familiar experience: understanding something perfectly and not being changed by it. Bauddha ajnana is the ignorance that study removes; paurusa ajnana is the deeper contraction in the very sense of self, which study cannot reach. One can know that one is Siva and still feel small. For the Trika, only grace (often through initiation) loosens the second knot. Whatever one thinks of the mechanism, the distinction between knowing and being is real.
describing Advaita's goal as "kaivalya or isolation just as in Samkhya-yoga" is the most contestable claim in the booklet. Sankara's moksa is not the isolation of one soul among many (as in Samkhya) but the realisation that there is only Brahman; Advaitins would say nothing is isolated because there is nothing to be isolated from. Advaita also has its own figure of the jivanmukta who lives in the world, sees Brahman everywhere and teaches. The real disagreement is narrower and sharper: whether the world, seen by the liberated, is affirmed as Siva's expression (Trika) or seen through as appearance (Advaita). On that point Singh is right that the two differ.
Key Terms
- Bauddha / paurusa ajnana: intellectual / innate ignorance.
- Diksa: initiation.
- Kaivalya: isolation (Singh's characterisation of Vedantic moksa).
- Sivatva-yojana: integration into Siva-hood.
Key Technical Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Abhasa | Limited appearance; the world as Siva's real self-display. |
| Adhyasa / adhyaropa | Superimposition (Sankara's account of the world). |
| Anirvacaniya | Indeterminable; Advaita's status for maya. |
| Anugraha / saktipata | Grace; the descent of divine power. |
| Anupaya, sambhavopaya, saktopaya, anavopaya | The four means of the Trika. |
| Atma / jiva | The metaphysical Self / the empirical self. |
| Bauddha / paurusa ajnana | Intellectual / innate ignorance. |
| Bhavana | Creative contemplation. |
| Isvaradvayavada | The non-dualism of the Lord; Kashmir Saivism. |
| Kancuka | One of the five coverings (kala, vidya, raga, kala, niyati). |
| Kosa | Sheath; the five layers of the person (Upanisadic). |
| Mahavakya | Great statement of identity ("That thou art"). |
| Mala | Impurity: anava, mayiya, karma. |
| Maya | The power that measures out difference; illusion (Advaita) or creative power (Trika). |
| Mithya | False, dependently real (Advaita). |
| Parinama / vivarta | Real transformation / apparent change. |
| Prakasa / vimarsa | Light of consciousness / its self-awareness. |
| Pratyabhijna | Recognition. |
| Sadadhva | The six courses of word and world. |
| Saccidananda | Existence, consciousness, bliss. |
| Saksi-caitanya | Witnessing consciousness. |
| Santabrahmavada | Singh's label for Sankara's doctrine of a quiescent Brahman. |
| Spanda | Pulsation, the dynamism of consciousness. |
| Suddha vikalpa | A pure, liberating thought. |
| Svatantrya | Absolute autonomy. |
| Tattva | Principle; thirty-six in the Trika. |
| Turiya | The fourth state. |
What the Booklet Argues
Singh's case can be stated in five steps.
1. The Upanisads are the real Vedanta, and Sankara is one interpreter among many. Their Brahman is both beyond description (neti neti) and positively saccidananda, the "dynamic, creative Brahman" who wills to be many and enters what he creates.
2. Kashmir Saivism develops this dynamic Brahman philosophically. Reality is prakasa-vimarsa, light that knows itself; its freedom (svatantrya) expresses itself as the world; the world is abhasa, real appearance without real change; the process is mapped through the sadadhva and the thirty-six tattvas.
3. The individual is Siva self-limited by maya, the kancukas and the three malas. Liberation is recognition, reached by grace through four means, of which saktopaya (suddha vikalpa, sattarka, bhavana) is the most characteristic.
4. Sankara's Advaita departs from the Upanisads in making Brahman inactive, maya indefinable, the world false, grace marginal and liberation an isolation that annuls the world.
5. The Trika is the more complete non-dualism: it includes the world rather than excluding it, and it has a richer range of means.
An Honest Assessment
Strengths. As an introduction, the booklet is remarkably efficient. In about thirty pages it gives a clear outline of Upanisadic thought and of the whole Trika system: prakasa and vimarsa, svatantrya, abhasa, the six courses, the tattvas, the malas, the upayas. The parinama / vivarta / abhasa distinction and the two kinds of ignorance are explained more clearly here than in many longer books. The dilemma about maya (external, or a power of Brahman?) is a genuine philosophical challenge. And the central question (is the Absolute a still light, or a light that is also free and creative?) is exactly the right question to ask.
The polemic is one-sided. Singh presents Sankara mostly through his critics (Aurobindo, Gopinath Kaviraj, Mahesvarananda) and does not state the Advaitin replies. Several characterisations would be rejected by careful Advaita scholars: that Sankara's moksa is "kaivalya... just as in Samkhya-yoga"; that the rope-snake idea was "borrowed from Nagarjuna" (it appears in Gaudapada, and the Buddhist-influence charge is an old polemical accusation); that mithya means simply "false"; that Sankara takes kriya "in a very narrow sense" (his denial of activity to Brahman is argued, not careless); that Vedanta has "nothing like" anavopaya. The Advaita answers (anirvacaniyata, the two levels of truth, the jivanmukta who sees Brahman everywhere) deserved at least a paragraph.
The Upanisads are claimed for the Trika. Singh's Upanisads (an ever-active Atma, a self-chosen exile of Brahman, a real creation) are already shaped by the Trika and by Sri Aurobindo's reading. That reading is defensible; the oldest Upanisads do speak of a real creation and are not obviously illusionist. But Advaita's reading is defensible too, and the texts do not settle the question alone.
The comparison is with Sankara, not with Vedanta. By "Vedanta" Singh means Sankara's strict position. Vedanta also includes Ramanuja, Madhva, Nimbarka, Vallabha (whose Suddhadvaita is in some ways close to the Trika), and the modern Vedanta of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, which affirms Sakti and the world. Ramakrishna's own teaching that Brahman and Sakti are one, "like fire and its power to burn", is strikingly close to the Trika; Singh, lecturing at the Ramakrishna Mission, does not mention it. A comparison including these would have been fairer and more interesting.
Loose phrasings. "In order to earn grace" contradicts the Trika's own teaching that grace is free. "Trika anticipated Kant" overstates a parallel. The sequence of the three malas differs from Singh's other books. These are lecture compressions, but readers should not take them as the system's precise doctrine.
Ritual and initiation. Singh mentions that paurusa ajnana is removed by "diksa by a Self-realized guru", but the booklet says nothing about what diksa involved in historical Saivism (an elaborate ritual) or about the risks of guru-dependence. Modern readers should take "Self-realized guru" as an ideal, and keep their own judgement about any particular teacher.
the most valuable thing to take from the booklet is not a verdict on Sankara but a pair of questions to bring to one's own practice. When the mind falls silent, is what remains a still witness, or something alive and self-aware? And does seeing truly mean seeing through the world, or seeing the world as the expression of what one is? Advaita and the Trika give different answers. Either way, they share far more than they dispute: both hold that consciousness is the Self, that thought cannot reach it, that the individual is not other than the Absolute, and that liberation is recognition rather than acquisition.
A Graded Practice Path
The booklet is philosophy, but it contains several practices. They can be tried in this order.
Stage One: The Upanisadic Methods
- Neti neti (pp. 2 to 3): sit quietly and note each thing you are aware of (body, sensations, thoughts, moods), and for each say inwardly "not this". Notice what remains when everything observable has been set aside.
- The three states (pp. 6 to 7): on waking, before thinking anything else, notice that something was present to the sleep that has just ended. Rest in that.
- Dahara-vidya (p. 12): rest attention in the small space in the centre of the chest, "the city of Brahman", and let it be searched out.
Stage Two: The Trika Contemplations
- The five kancukas (p. 25): when dissatisfied, ask which covering is at work: "I can only do a little", "I only know a little", "I want this", "time is passing", "I am caused". Notice that each is a limitation of something unlimited.
- Suddha vikalpa (pp. 30 to 31): hold one thought steadily, such as "That which is unlimited consciousness... that am I". Let it become clearer rather than louder (sattarka, then bhavana).
- The world as abhasa (pp. 16 to 19): look at an ordinary scene and contemplate it as an image in a conscious mirror: fully present, fully real, and not other than the awareness that sees it.
Stage Three: The Breath
- Varnayoga (pp. 33 to 34): listen to the breath as a sound that "no one sounds voluntarily" and no one can prevent. Rest in the listening (anusandhana) without forcing anything.
none of these require belief in either metaphysics. The comparison in Lecture III becomes much more interesting once one has tried the practices, because the question "still witness or living self-awareness?" is then a question about one's own experience.
Closing Note
This small booklet is Jaideva Singh's clearest statement of why he spent the last decades of his life translating Kashmir Saivism. He believed it preserved the Upanisads' vision of a living, creative, self-aware Absolute and an affirmed world better than the dominant Vedanta of his time. He makes the case concisely, generously in tone, and one-sidedly in substance. Read alongside his translations, it shows the philosophy beneath them; read alongside a good account of Sankara, it shows one of the great debates of Indian thought.
For Sankara, the world is a dream from which one wakes; for the Trika, it is a song one recognises as one's own. Singh preferred the song. The reader is free to listen to both.