Yoga of Synthesis in Kashmir Shaivam

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

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texts to explain how Shiva though himself indeterminate and without any form or variety, "all variety comes out of him”- the analogy of mayurānda rasa or the liquid present inside in the egg of a peacock. This liquid is without any colour itself but potentially contains all the colours of the peacock's splendid plumage.
Shiva's act of cosmic creation points to his complete freedom (svātantrya) to manifest variety out of his own consciousness without sundering his unity as the absolute. This is his spontaneous and natural activity (kriyā). Unlike the absolute of Advaita Vedanta, Shiva is not portrayed in Kashmir Shaivism as inert and passive. He is the vibrating, pulsating, wondrous light of consciousness which in Abhinavagupta's words "unfolds itself everywhere” and makes "all the varied forms of the universe to appear". Shiva's conative, creative power, his natural dynamism, is what in Shaivite terms takes the form of Shakti, or the Goddess. Svātantrya (freedom), vimarsha (self-awareness), spanda (vibration), purnatā (fullness) are but her synonyms. The Goddess is, however, in no way different from Shiva, as Abhinavagupta makes abundantly clear. XV To put it in the words of Kamalākar Mishra, “the relation between Shiva and Shakti is one of identity"XXVI. As Shiva's inherent power, Shakti is shown to have two aspects: the Power of Knowledge or jnana shakti and the Power of Action or kriyā shakti. These two powers are not separate or incompatible but complimentary aspects of Shiva's infinite power. Besides "power to know" and "power to act”, there is another power that the concept of Shakti is shown to connote: iccha shakti or the "Power to Will”. In fact there are two more denominations of Shakti in the Tantric tradition, chit-shakti or the "Power of Consciousness” and ānanda shakti or "Power of Bliss", taking the total to five. These are actually different names of Shakti, given to her for the different role she plays. Of these powers of Shiva the triad of icchā-jnāna-kriyā is related to the process of Creation.
The Kashmir Shaiva yogi conceives of reality as Shiva and Shakti "united in the oneness of pure consciousness”. Simultaneously, they open out and evolve in the form of the universe, both mirroring each other as transcendence and immanence. It is here that the third side of the triad, nara or individual soul comes into the picture. Kashmir Shaivism holds that Shiva is his essential nature, as of all things, but ignorance of this truth makes
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