Yoga of Synthesis in Kashmir Shaivam

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

Page 16

The remaining 25 categories of existence have been adopted by Kashmir Shaiva metaphysics straight from the Sāmkhya system with some interpretative differences here and there. Beginning with purusha or the Person -- limited consciousness -- and prakriti or Nature, the chain ends at prithvī or the earth. While purusha or the Person is the witness of all activities of objectivity, prakriti or Nature is the principle of materiality. Prakriti provides purusha the three gunas or qualities that are the basic constituents of experience - sattva (purity, goodness), rajas (passion, activity) and tamas (darkness, ignorance). Both purusha and prakriti, according to Kashmir Shaivism are manifestations of Shiva and Shakti. Prakriti is the primordial principle of materiality and from it the remaining categories of existence evolve. First we have the triad of manas or mind, buddhi or intellect, and ahamkāra or ego – the apparatus of subtle mental activities. From the threesome evolve jnānendriyas or the five perceptive faculties: eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin, and karmendriyas or the five motor faculties: voice, hands, nose, feet, anus and genitals. Lastly, there are the five subtle tattvas or the tanmatras: sound, touch, colour, taste and smell, and five gross tattvas or the mahābhūtas: ether (ākäsha), air (väyu), fire (agni), water (jala) and earth (prithivī).
With all these Sāmkhya categories incorporated, the process of cosmic manifestation is complete with consciousness moving from inner to outer and subtle to gross and grosser form in its "descent into matter". Conversely, in the case of "ascent into consciousness" the movement is from the gross to subtler forms of consciousness.
THE THREE MALAS
Shiva becomes the bound soul after going through the sweep of 36 tattvas due to the process of self-limitation or contraction set into motion by Māyā. This process of selflimitation is another name of ignorance-- ignorance which is regarded as a kind of impurity that stains consciousness. As individual souls we are enmeshed in a situation where we come into the grip of ignorance which conceals our true Shiva nature from us and binds us to the grind of karma. But in Kashmir Shaivism ignorance does not necessarily mean total lack of knowledge. It means wrong knowledge or incomplete