Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari(DPDS-11)

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Recall the Note about the organization of the ‘Digest’, from

DPDS – 6 or the earlier ones.

V. Krishnamurthy

 

A Digest of Paramacharya’s Discourses on Soundaryalahari - 11

 

The mutuality of Shiva and Shakti should be in our minds all the

time. When hard core ideas from philosophy are made into poetic

extravaganzas, both for the poetic excellence and for the

liberties taken with a view to making the devotees revel in

their devotion, it is natural to exaggerate or make

out-of-the-way comparisons. Thus at one time it may be said that

Shiva is greater than Shakti and at another time quite the

opposite. In every one of these presentations one should not

forget the equality, nay, the identity of the two. Keeping this

clearly in his mind, our Acharya, though he built into the first

sloka the idea that it was Sakthi who made Shiva move, he takes

care to see that the prodding for the ‘movement’ does not come

from outside. She is inside Him and therefore the word

‘spandanam’.

 

In Kashmir Saivism this internal spandanam is emphasized very

well. Though we call it Kashmir Shaivism, the propagators of

that philosophy did not give it that name. ‘Trika-shaivam’ is

its name. For it focusses on three principles; pashu, pati and

pAsham. ‘pratyabijnA-shAstra’ is also another name for the

same. To know the fact that Shiva principle is Atman is

pratyabijnA. The literal meaning of ‘pratyabijnA’ is ‘to know a

thing truly as it is’. Another name for this school of

philosophy is ‘spanda-shAstra’ !

 

According to that shAstra, Shiva and Shakti together form the

parabrahman. All the universe is a reflection of that

parabrahman. By saying this it does not mean that the reflection

is outside of brahman. Nor does it think of a ‘kevala-shivam’ (

shivam and shivam alone) that has no connection with the

universe. Since the parabrahman, according to this school, is

shiva as well as shakti, the reflection (AbhAsa) is due to the

presence of shakti. And even then, it is not like light and its

reflection, wherein we think of the reflection outside of the

light. No. There can be nothing outside of shakti. Siva-shakti

is one. Within that one there comes an internal spandanam and

the duality is presented. Again the presentation is not outside

of brahman. Just as a reflection shows itself in the mirror,

there is nothing outside of the mirror. The word ‘spanda’ is

exploited in Kashmir Shaivism to establish two things. One is

that the universe is not outside of brahman and two, Shakti

itself is not an external action on brahman. Shakti is abhinnam

– non-separate – from shivam.

 

Among the various shaiva darshanas, what comes nearest to our

Acharya’s advaita is this spanda-shAstra. On moksha both say

the same thing. But instead of saying that the universe is

mithyA, created by mAyA, this school includes not only mAyA as

well as the Ishvara of advaita vedanta in their shakti.

According to them there are 36 fundamentals. Of these shivam is

the first and shakti is the next. But immediately they say that

the shivam which is ‘sat’ (Existence) has always the

‘cit-shakti’ within it. Therefore shivam is sat-cit. The Ananda

appears when the play of reflection, producing the universe,

starts as a sport.

 

In order to accommodate those who cannot take the strenuous

jnAna-mArga of advaita, our Acharya has adopted in this work of

bhakti, the concepts of spandanam and those of pashu, pati and

pAsham from the shaiva shAstras. In sloka No.99 he says: He

who worships ambaal, throws off the attachment (pAsham) to the

animal self (pashu) and enjoys the nectar of the bliss of

param-Ananda. Obviously when composing the SoundaryalaharI. he

must have had in mind several objectives, such as: This hymn to

Ambal should raise Her to the skies so that in the devotees it

should generate bhakti towards Her exclusively (ananya-bhakti);

it should reach the pinnacle of poetical excellences and respect

all poetic traditions; it should also be concordant with the

religious traditions of ShrI-vidyA-tantra; even though it may

not stress the advaita point of view exclusively, since anyway

shRI-vidyA and advaita are not discordant, it should be able to

touch upon advaita though tangentially. Instead of saying that

the Acharya had these objectives we might say that ambaal had

already predetermined his objectives for him.

 

Even though these are the basic purposes which we see have all

been fulfilled in the hymn, it should be said to the credit of

our Acharya that, because of his steadfast holding to advaita,

and of his great respect for ShrI-vidyA, and of his natural

poetic talent, he did not regiment himself as to be

circumscribed by preconceived limitations. It is our good

fortune that he allowed his talent and imagination to express

itself freely and soar as high as it liked. Such a freedom has

resulted in one of the most excellent hymns which excels in

poetry, in mysticism, in devotion, in spirituality and in

religious tradition. And in this process, the flood of ideas

that gushed forth from him includes without bias some of the

philosophical concepts and thoughts that came to the forefront,

long after his time, like those of Saiva-siddhanta, Kashmir

Shaivism, visishTAdvaita, and dvaita.

 

The schools that I just mentioned of course took their present

form only after the time of our Acharya. But the original ideas

from which these schools sprang were there from earliest times.

In fact advaita also had its origin long before our Acharya. But

it was he who streamlined it and presented it as a siddhAnta. In

the same way the Acharyas of the other schools who came only

later to our Acharya, pulled out the ideas which were already

there and established their siddhantas. It is the greatness of

Adi Sankara that he was able to see by his erudition and

farsight the other points of view also even before they had been

established as a popular school.

(To be continued)

 

PraNAms to all advaitins and Devotees of Mother Goddess.

profvk

 

 

 

 

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Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice, and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.