Yoga of Synthesis in Kashmir Shaivam

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

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juxtaposition or chain (prapancha) of thought-constructs, and thought is but the unuttered form of speech or language which in turn emanates from consciousness and assumes the form of thought. Kashmir Shaivism displays a deep awareness of the role that speech plays in both formulating thought-constructs and their purification and emphasizes it in its praxis, of which shāktopāya forms an important category. Fundamental to its worldview is its theory of language according to which the whole drama of bondage and liberation and creation and dissolution is a linguistic process. As language is an essential expression of Consciousness, it is an innate capacity of man, points out Swami Shankarananda quoting Noam Chomsky. And the way we use language, both inwardly and outwardly, affects our state, he adds."
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The Four levels of speech: Language in non-dual Kashmir Shaivite view can act as a "primary delusional force" by concealing from us our real identity. It can also be a liberating force when it mirrors the reality of our life as a manifestation of universal Consciousness. According to its concept of visarga shakti, Shiva's infinite reality itself is an "uttering" or "emitting". As Paul Muller-Ortega points out, "...The daily world we inhabit and the language that we use to describe it are in some sense coextensive.»lxvi The process of this emission or manifestation is shown as occurring at four levels of speech or vāk - parā, pashyanti, madhyama and vaikharī. At the highest level, it is described as parāvāk or supreme speech and is identified with the pure, reflective 1-consciousness of the Divine (aham vimarsha) - the level where language is pure potentiality co-existent with Shiva's "pure cosmic ideation (pratyaya)". It is a level beyond speech and thought and yet the source of all language. The next level is that of pashyanti vāk or "visible speech". Here word and meaning are undivided and indistinguishable, with speech at the stage of "mental image prior to thought". Then there is the level of madhyamā vāk or "intermediary speech". It is a subtle, inner discourse of thought with speech not having taken the distinct shape of words yet. The final level in this process is of vaikharī vāk or the "manifest speech", the stage when vocal organs utter the gross everyday speech. The word and its object are now completely separate and distinct. In these four levels of speech we can see a correspondence between the manifestation of the tattvas (categories of creation) from the non-manifested supreme reality to the tangible world of daily
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