Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 224

8. PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINES
has no doubt based his definition of Kaula views on what he saw and heard in his own days. The Kulārṇavatantra (Chap. 9) says, like Somadeva, that the Kaulikas do not observe any restriction with regard to food and drink,' and goes on to declare that for them exists no injunction or prohibition, virtue or vice, heaven or hell. But the Kaula devotee is described also as a man free from desires, ever content, impartial and chaste, without any striving and desire for heaven, and conversant with the highest truths. The Kaula mystics go about the world in different guises, doing good to men, inscrutable and unperceived by others.* The Kaula ideal is, it is true, to eat, drink and be merry, but it is also one of concord and amity, for the Kaula is enjoined not to make any distinction between "You" and "I" Salvation, according to the Kaula system, seems to be union with Siva to be attained by knowledge, ignorance being destroyed by the performance of one's religious duties. Somadeva's definition of Kaula views does not take into consideration this aspect of the cult; and he criticizes the Kaula standpoint by asserting that if salvation was the outcome of reckless living, it would sooner come to the thugs and butchers than to the Kaulas."
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Somadeva, as we have seen, treats the Kaula doctrine as identical with Trikamata, to which there is another reference in Book I. We are told that the young prince Maradatta considered his body to be divine like one initiated into the Trika doctrine.s The commentary of Śrutasagara takes Trikamata to mean Saiva doctrine; and the divine character of the body seems to be a tenet common to the Saiva and Tantrika systems. The Kularnavatantra (Chap. 9) says, for instance, that the body is the abode of the gods, while the Self is Lord Sadasiva himself. The doctrine is found in a more developed form in the Sutasamhita (belonging to the Skandapurana), a comprehensive work of the Advaita school of Saivism. The Sutasamhita says among other things that the various organs are presided
1 अपेयमपि पेयं स्यादभक्ष्यं भक्ष्यमेव च । अगम्यमपि गम्यं स्यात् कौलिकानां कुलेश्वरि ॥
2 न विधिर्न निषेधः स्यान्न पुण्यं न च पातकम् । न स्वर्गो नैव नरकः कौलिकानां कुलेश्वरि । Ibid.
3 निःस्पृहो निष्यसंतुष्टः समदर्शी जितेन्द्रियः । स्वर्गहीनोऽप्रयासी च योगी परमतत्त्ववित् ॥ Ibid.
4 योगिनो विविधैर्वेशैर्नराणां हितकारिणः । भ्रमन्ति पृथिवीमेतामविज्ञातस्वरूपिणः । Ibid. The expression कुलयोगी is frequently used.
5 पिबन् मद्यं वमन् खादन् स्वच्छाचारपरायणः । अहं त्वमनयोरैक्यं भावयेन्निव सेत् सुखम् ॥ Ibid. 6 कर्मणोन्मूलितेऽज्ञाने ज्ञानेन शिवतां व्रजेत् । शिवक्यस्यैव मुक्तिः स्वादतः कर्म समापयेत् ॥ Ibid. 7 निःशङ्कात्मप्रवृत्तेः ग्याद्यदि मोक्षसमीक्षणम् । उकसूनाकृतां पूर्व पश्चात् कौलेष्वसौ भवेत् ॥ P. 271 8 'सकलजनसाधारणेऽपि स्वदेहे त्रिकमत दीक्षितस्यैव देव भूयेनाभिनिविशमानस्य' Vol. I, p. 43. 9 'देहो देवालयो देवि जीवो देवः सदाशिवः