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Pratyabhijna and Shankara’s Advaita (comparative study)

by Ranjni M. | 2013 | 54,094 words

This page relates ‘Maheshvara: The Ultimate Reality in Pratyabhijna� of study dealing with Pratyabhijna and Shankara’s Advaita. This thesis presents a comparative analysis of two non-dualistic philosophies, Pratyabhijna from Kashmir and Shankara’s Advaita Vedanta from Kerala, highlighting their socio-cultural backgrounds and philosophical similarities..

Go directly to: Footnotes.

1.1. Ѳś: The Ultimate Reality in ʰٲⲹñ

According to ʰٲⲹñ, Ѳś is the ultimate reality.[1] He is also called as Ś[2] or ʲś.[3] He is considered as the Supreme Consciousness, who is fully aware of himself and beyond him there is no other knower, Paramārtha or Para the highest experient.[4] His ʲ is nothing but the completeness and the independence.[5]

Abhinavagupta describes Ѳś as the glorious one, by the sparks of whose power the Gods like վṣṇ and Brahman attain godhead, and whose essential nature is perfect freedom, consisting in unbroken self-luminosity and blissful consciousness:

māyāgarbhādhikāriṇo viṣṇuviriñcādyā�, taduttīrṇ� api mahāmāyādhikṛtā� śܻśܻ� mantratadīśatanmaheśātmāna�; śܻ api śrīsadāśiva-prabhṛtaya� | te tu yadīyaiśvaryavipruḍbhirīśvarībhūtā� sa 󲹲 Բ󾱲ԲԲśԲԻ岹ū貹ٲԳٰⲹ貹ٳ ś� |[6]

dzԲԻ岹, the founder of the system, starts his ṛṣṭi with a prostration for Ś, who materializes Himself as universe.[7] Ś himself shines forth in every form of Universe as all-pervasive and illumined. He is the continuous flow of unrestricted will, knowledge and action.[8] Ś’s transcendental nature is the ʲ state or Viśvottīrṇa or Anuttara and His immanent nature is the state or Viśvamaya.[9] In the transcendental state the three powers (Powers of will, knowledge and action) get united together in the most subtle form. He is in a state of non-differentiation (Nirvibhāga).[10] In 貹 state also Ś is united with these powers. He is fully aware of his transcendental nature. Ś is always full with His Śپ.[11] dzԲԻ岹 stuck on his idea about the non-duality of Ś from beginning to the end of his treatise.[12]

Not only dzԲԻ岹 but the other teachers like Utpala, Abhinavagupta and are also emphasizing the oneness and greatness of ʲś.[13] He is the Master, in him the whole universe exists in the form of divine potency. According to his will the whole manifestation took place. Utpala says that without the self of the Lord there cannot be the reflective awareness and the manifestation of multitude of things.[14]

The entire phenomenal reality is always present in the infinite and absolute consciousness called ʲś, the Supreme Lord. It shines in Him as the pure and infinite I-consciousness and lies in Him in the form of His divine potency, which has the capability to act or not to act, to act in one way or in other way it chooses. Such potency is His divine essence and is the source of His five divine phenomenal activities of cosmic creation, preservation, absorption, self-oblivion and self-revelation. His creation is merely an outward manifestation of the inwardly existent entities shining there as potencies of the pure and infinite I consciousness.[15]

Ś is in everybody, in everyone, and is in everywhere. Like the different rays in a light and like different streams of rivers in the sea, even though they are perceived as various, the notion of unity becomes visible as unitary entity.[16] Ś is considered as omnipresent,[17] all-pervading eternal, beginning-less, infinite beatitude, unique, highest divine etc.

Abhinava-gupta has pointed out these in ղԳٰǰ첹 thus:

Ծⲹ neti sa nityo viśvākṛti� ś� |
vibhutvātsarvago nityabhāvādādyantavarjita� ||
viśvākṛtittvāccidacidvaicitryāvabhāsaka� |
[18]

Ś becomes all that exists by His own nature (ū貹). The whole is Ś Himself and is thus pure.

Ś, by his own nature performs ceaselessly five operations:

  1. creation (ṛṣṭi),
  2. preservation (Sthiti),
  3. re-absorption (ṃh),
  4. grace (Anugraha) and
  5. obscuration (վǻԲ).[19]

Since Ś manifests Himself in the form of all things, the whole in all its diversity is therefore real. The reality Ś is thus everlasting, unlimited and indistinguishable with all the objects manifested in diverse forms.[20]

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Utpala often uses the word Ѳś in Īśٲⲹñ- kathaṃcidāsādya maheśvarasya (1.1.1), kartari jñātari svātmanyādisiddhe maheśvare (1.1.2), na cedantaḥkṛtānantaviśvarūpo ś� (1.3.7), Գٲū貹� sa ś� (1.7.1), sa eva vimṛśatvena niyatena ś� (1.8.11), svātmaiva sarvajantūnāmeka eva ś� (4.1), maheśvaro yathā (4.13). It seems that according to Utpala, this Ѳś is same as Ś, one among the 36 categories. But Abhinavagupta treat Him as ղٳٱīٲ, one who is beyond categories, or the 37th or 38th category. For details vide Kamalakar Misra, Kashmir Ś, p. 143.

[2]:

ś� cidānantaghana� paramākṣaravigraha� (4.14).

[3]:

ʲś is a synonym for Ѳś. Utpala used it once in a ata evāṅkurepīṣṭo Ծٳٲ� 貹ś� (2.4.8); and more than five times in his ṛtپ. parameśvaraprasādādeva (1.1.1); viśvātmana� parameśvarasya (1.5.14); prakāśātmana� parameśvarasya (1.5.18); In the Śdṛṣṭivṛtti Utpala uses the word ʲś. paramaśivātṛt ghaṭādyantānāmapi padārthānā� samaivānyūnā anatiriktā ca ś | 1.48.

[4]:

paramārtha śuddhacinmaya� | Īśٲⲹñ-śԾ, 첹ī, Part I, p. 197.

[5]:

paratā pūrṇatvamananyāpekṣā� | Īśٲⲹñ-śԾ, 첹ī, Part II, p. 227.

[6]:

Īśٲⲹñ-śԾ, 첹ī, Part I, p. 29.

[7]:

asmadrūpasamāviṣṭa� svātmanātmanivāraṇe | ś� karotu nijayā Բ� śaktyā tatātmane || Śdṛṣṭi, 1.1.

[8]:

ātmaiva sarvabhāveṣu sphurannirvṛtacid� | aniruddhecchāprasara� prasaradd�?[Ṛ]Ckraya� ś� || Śdṛṣṭi, 1.2.

[9]:

Vide ղԳٰǰ첹, 3.65-69; Īśٲⲹñ-, 3.1.5.

[10]:

nirvibhāga� parastadā | Śdṛṣṭi, 1.4; śaktisāmarasya� pūrṇacinmātraprakāśanātmatvāt cidrūpāhlādaparatva� coktam | saiva ca nirvibhāgatā 貹屹ٳ | Śdṛṣṭi-vṛtti, 1.4.

[11]:

eva� na ٳ cittasya viyogastritayātmanā | śaktyā nirvṛtacittasya tadabhāgavibhāgayo� || Śdṛṣṭi, 1.6-7

[12]:

madātmanā ghaṭo vetti vedmyaha� vā ghaṭātmanā | sadāśivātmanā vedi?[Â]ma sa vā vetti madātmanā | nānābhāvai� svamātmāna� jānannāste ⲹ� ś� | Śdṛṣṭi, 5.105-106,109.

[13]:

paramārthata� eka� , sa eva ca asti |.....tataśca 󲹲 sadāśivo jānāti ityata� ṛt ṛm辱 jānāti -ityantam eka eva iti 󲹱ٲ� ñٱ� pramātu� | Īśٲⲹñ-śԾ, 첹ī, Part I, p. 76f.

[14]:

svāminaścātmasaṃsthasya bhāvajātasya bhāsanam | astyeva na tasmādicchāmarśa� pravartate || Īśٲⲹñ-, 136 1.5.10.

[15]:

Vide Pandit, B.N., Īśٲⲹñ of Utpaladeva, Verses on the Recognition of the Lord, Muktabodha Indological Research Institute, New Delhi, 2004, p. 59.

[16]:

ṛt󲹰 dīpaprakāśānā� srotasā� sāgare yathā | aviruddhāvabhāsānāmekakāryā tathaikyadhī� || Īśٲⲹñ-, 2.3.7.

[17]:

Utpala doesn’t use straightly the word omnipresent (ī) in his s. But it is clear that the external manifestation renders the various objects that shine within him by his will. The : bhāntamevāntarathā?[Ṃ]ghamicchayā bhāsayedbahi� | 1.6.7.

[18]:

ղԳٰǰ첹, 1.60.

[19]:

ٳ󾱳پԳܲ󲹳پǻԲṣaṇa貹ñ� ṛtⲹ� yasya tasyokti� pañcavidhakṛtyo yadicyate tacchivatvam | Śdṛṣṭi-vṛtti, 1.12.

[20]:

eva� sarvapadārthānā� samaiva ś ٳ󾱳 | eva� bhedātmaka� Ծٲⲹ� śivatatvamanantakam || tathā tasya vyavasthanānnānārūpe'pi satyatā || Śdṛṣṭi, 1.48-49.

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