Yoga of Synthesis in Kashmir Shaivam

Author(s): S S Toshkhani
Publisher: S S Toshkhani

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The core concept of the Trika, or Kashmir Shaivism as it is generally called, is that Shiva as universal consciousness is the ground and essence of everything, the highest reality. His creative and active power Shakti is the source from which the whole phenomenal world and all its entities have emanated. There is nothing that exists outside consciousness which though one also appears in the form of diversity. Being a manifestation of absolute consciousness, the world is not only real but also divine. We thus find Kashmir Shaivism to be a life-affirmative philosophy that validates the world and at the same time offers us an intuitive insight into our innate nature as inseparable from Shiva. It is recognition of this essential oneness that forms the basis of the yogic goal of the Kashmir Shaiva aspirant.
Another distinguishing feature of Kashmir Shaivism is its insistence that there is no dichotomy between kriyā or action and jnäna or knowledge. It recognizes both as two aspects of Shiva's inherent Power, or Shakti. What this implies is that Shiva as absolute consciousness is both the 'doer and the knower'. As Kamalākar Mishra explains, "Shiva is absolute not only by being existent but also by being known. Awareness or knowledge (ināna) is the very nature of Shiva for Shiva is consciousness. "xxiii Another meaning of absolute, as Mishra points out, is that which pervades all and is, therefore, everything, there being none else. XXIV In other words, there is nothing that is separate from Shiva, the universe being but his self-manifestation or extension (prasāra). Shiva or the absolute is thus, according to Kashmir Shaivism, independent as well as non-dual or the only reality. His self-awareness or consciousness about his own self is his very first activity
The question arises if Shiva is the only reality, is the phenomenal world with all its diversity unreal then? The position of Kashmir Shaivism on this is that being a manifestation of Shiva as consciousness, the world is one with Shiva, and therefore anything but unreal. Shiva manifests the world, or rather “manifests himself as the world”, freely as his own projection or self-expression. The diversity of the world is there because the One appears as many out of his free will. This raises the question of the relation between unity and differentiation. An interesting analogy is given in the Shaiva
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