Latest revision as of 21:12, 8 March 2024

[edit] Core principles

[edit] Pasu, pathi, paasa

Sarala Rajagopalan, October 24, 2017: The Hindu

There are three core principles in Saiva Siddhanta. They are pasu, pathi and paasa. Pathi refers to God; pasu is the individual jivatma; and paasa refers to ego, illusion and karma.

Ego, illusion and karma are hurdles that stand in the way of our liberation. Those who cannot free themselves from the three hurdles exhibit certain undesirable traits, elaborated Sarala Rajagopalan in a discourse. They are avaricious and can never have enough of anything.

When we have a long list of desires and seek to fulfil all of them, it is inevitable that we are going to be disappointed. And when we are so particular about attaining something, even a minor setback seems unbearable to us. The result is that we become miserable.

And having spent our entire lives in the pursuit of wealth, we are too worn out to even think of God, when we are no longer able to earn.

But the man who loves God intensely will realise that love is God. The ignorant think that love and God are different. But the realised soul knows that love is God, and God is love. This is pointed out by Saint Thirumoolar. He says love and God are indistinguishable. They are one and the same.

God is the embodiment of love. We have to make ourselves worthy to receive His grace, and when we prepare ourselves for a life of devotion, God Himself comes to us. Manickavachagar, because of his love for Lord Siva, was in a state of wonder, not knowing how to reach Him. But the Lord steadied and calmed him, and gave Manickavachagar the rare boon of seeing His feet.

Manickavachagar celebrated this kindness of the Lord through his Thiruvachagam. Manickavachagar had no thoughts or time to spare for anything or anyone but Lord Siva.

And the Lord reciprocated the saint’s love for Him.

[edit] Kashmir Shaivism

[edit] Panch-kritya, five great activities

Vijay Hashia, March 6, 2024: The Times of India

Kashmir Shaivism venerates Shiv and attributes panchakrityas, five great activities, to Him. They are: Srishti, creation, emanation, or projection; Sthiti, maintenance; Samhara, dissolution; Tirodhana, veiling, concealment of real nature; and Anugraha, grace.


Srishti is not considered a separate entity but an extension of Shiv’s infinite consciousness, giving rise to a diversity of forms, energies and experience within the manifest world. Shakti, energy, is the active force behind creation, emanating spontaneously from Param Shiv’s consciousness. It is through the interplay of Shiv’s consciousness and Shakti’s dynamic nature that the universe unfolds.

Shiv also plays the role of cosmic maintainer, ensuring preservation and sustenance of the created universe. Sthiti is not a static state but part of an ongoing, cyclic process. It involves the harmonious

interaction of various forces and energies within the universe, preventing imbalance or chaos. Shiv’s presence in every aspect of the universe encourages reverence and recognition of the sacredness inherent in all creation.


Samhara signifies the withdrawal of the manifested universe back into Shiv’s divine essence. It marks the end of one phase of creation and the preparation for the next, highlighting the impermanence and transience of reality. Samhara is not an act of destruction but a natural and cyclical process in the cosmic dance of Shiv. In dissolution, all individual forms and entities merge back in the undifferentiated unity of Shiv’s consciousness, representing a temporary cessation before the renewal of creation. This phase allows for the regeneration of new possibilities and forms in the subsequent cycle of creation. Param Shiv’s ‘Svatantrya Shakti’ unfolds dual manifestations, comprising Prakash as Universal Consciousness and Vimarsha as Universal Energy, the powers of manifestation and perception. The former transcends and illuminates the universe and the latter operates through it and is a dynamic aspect that makes use of divine light. Vimarsha is attributed to the manifestation, maintenance and re-absorption of the universe and that is why it is perceived as both transcendent and immanent. Prakash is a passive phase of Shiv’s consciousness, a phase of potentiality. Tirodhana involves Shiv temporarily concealing His infinite consciousness to experience the diversity of the created world. This act highlights the divine paradox of unity and diversity coexisting within Shiv’s consciousness. Maya, the illusory power,

facilitates this veiling, allowing Shiv to partake in the world of appearance without losing sight of ultimate reality. Tirodhana suggests that individuals, too, can temporarily forget their divine nature to engage in the experiences of the material world. However, the underlying oneness is never lost, and the journey back to Self-realisation involves lifting the veil of ignorance and recognising one’s inherent divinity.


Finally, Anugraha is the act of divine benevolence through which Shiv guides sentient beings towards spiritual awakening and liberation. Grace is considered central to the path of Self-realisation in Kashmir Shaivism, as it transcends ego and ignorance, leading individuals to realise their divine nature.


Shiv’s grace is unconditional and compassionate, providing necessary support and guidance on the spiritual journey of the aspirant. And Shivratri is the blissful night that bestows this grace.

[edit] Shivoham

Anup Taneja, March 10, 2021: The Times of India

Experience The Sublime State Of Shivoham

The three main cosmic functions of the Supreme Being, which are accepted by all systems of Indic philosophy, are ‘srishti’, creation; ‘sthiti’, preservation; and ‘samhriti’, dissolution. Kashmir Shaivism, however, accepts two additional functions, ‘nigraha’, concealment, and ‘anugraha’, grace. These are briefly explained below.

The Absolute Lord, called Paramashiva in Kashmir Shaivism, is the selfluminous, eternal Being who is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, endowed with perfect I-Consciousness. He abides in pure awareness to the total absence of duality and desire of any kind. In the transcendental state, He holds within himself the unmanifest universe. In the light of the pure, undifferentiated I-Consciousness, all objects of the world stand revealed as identical with the subject. However, under the influence of ‘spanda shakti’, the divine creative pulsation, Paramashiva begins to feel incomplete. This limitation of Absolute Consciousness gives rise to the first tendency towards self-forgetfulness and, in the process, the bliss of pure I-Consciousness gets obscured. This state is also termed as the state of ‘vacuity’ or ‘indeterminateness’ and is the initial stage of consciousness before it crystallises into the reasoning process.

When this happens, the difference between cosmic I-Consciousness in pure creation and the individualised consciousness in pure-impure creation becomes conspicuously evident. Maya-Shakti, the gross power of consciousness, imposes a limit on Paramashiva’s powers of omniscience, omnipotence, and creates a sense of differentiation by polarising Pure Consciousness or Paramashiva into subject and object, mind and matter.

The Supreme Shiva, in the process of enacting His drama of manifestation as the wondrous universe with myriad names and forms, sheds, of His own volition, His undifferentiated state, conceals His true nature – which is pure awareness and pure bliss – becomes ‘pasu’, the individual soul and operates in the phenomenal world at three levels of consciousness, waking, dreaming and sleeping. Shiva also has the power to liberate the souls by eradicating the obstruction and removing the veil; he actually creates the opportunity for souls to work out their salvation. This is called grace.

According to Kashmir Shaivism, Paramashiva is spontaneously realised by the individual soul on whom the grace of God or sadhguru has descended. This grace occurs in the form of ‘shaktipat’ – awakening of the dormant Kundalini within the seeker. In fact, the intense desire to attain Selfrealisation implies that divine grace is already present in the seeker.

By the grace of the master, the awakened Kundalini begins to rise in the ‘sushumna’, the central nerve of the seeker, towards ‘sahasrara’, the highest spiritual centre in the cranium, bringing about his spiritual evolution at a rapid pace.

In the final stages of meditation, the seeker, in deep meditation, experiences the entire universe being permeated by the dazzling blue rays of consciousness. This is referred to as the process of assimilation, which is the reverse of the process of manifestation. When this happens, the seeker’s individuality gets completely dissolved in Pure Consciousness and he experiences the sublime state of ‘Shivoham’ – I-am-Shiva.

[edit] Spanda-Karikas: To Know Shiv Is To Become Shiv

Anup Taneja, March 6, 2024: The Times of India

Spanda-Karikas, a Kashmir Shaivism text, explains that the world, although an abhasa, reflection, is not a superimposition on Shiv from outside. Instead, it is a Selfcreation or Self-projection of Shiv who, by his own free will, constantly unfolds within his own being the wondrous universe with myriad names and forms. 
Creation, thus, in Kashmir Shaivism, is not understood as an act where wilful effort is made to fulfil a want; rather, it is a natural and free activity that has the merit of being absolutely spontaneous.


Though Shiv in his original state abides as Pure Awareness, ‘I am’, completely absorbed in the bliss of his own Self, yet, at the same time, Selfconsciousness or Self-observation, called spanda, is the natural inner dynamism of Shiv, in the same way as self-illumination is the very nature of light. It is under the influence of spandashakti,the inner dynamism, that countless universes keep arising and subsiding on the Being of Shiv. Spanda, thus, is the throb, ecstasy of Shiv. There is no other material cause of creation.


In the process of enacting the wonderful drama of the colourful world, Shiv, of his own volition, sheds his undifferentiated state of Pure Awareness. He polarises himself into subject and object, accepts dualities, shrinks his powers of will, knowledge and action, puts on the cloak of maya, forgets his Shivahood, and reduces himself to an individual soul operating in the phenomenal world in a state of ignorance.


Abhinavagupta, a well-known authority on Kashmir Shaivism, explains the ontological status of the world in terms of Bimba-Pratibimba principle wherein the mysterious universe is seen as a pratibimba, reflection, of Shiv – the Self-luminous, Eternal Being. For example, if you stand in front of a mirror, your face will be reflected in it as pratibimba; while your actual face is bimba, archetype. And what happens to the reflected face need not happen to the actual face. So, if a stone is hurled at the reflection in the mirror, the latter may break into pieces but the actual face will remain unscathed. Therefore, what is real is bimba, actual face, and not pratibimba, reflection, which is merely an abhasa, which though objective, is not material.


Abhinava gupta further explains that just as earth and water, when reflected in a mirror, do not get mixed, so also the entire world of objects appears together in the mirror of Pure Consciousness, Shiv, like a reflection. Thus, Shiv, while appropriating the entire world of countless colours, remains immaculately pure and untainted and does not suffer the least diminution of his perfection despite diverse reflections getting superimposed on his being.


Utpaladeva, another authority on Kashmir Shaivism, says the entire creation of Shiv is so bizarre that all our attempts to conceptualise and define him are futile, for Shiv always eludes our grasp. The only way, therefore, to know Shiv is to become Shiv by delving deep into the vast inner realms of consciousness through regular meditation. Realisation will then dawn upon the seeker that in the luminous regions within, the divine effulgence of Shiv, radiates in all directions on a constant basis, reverberating with the knowledge of ‘Shivoham’, ‘I am Shiv’.