The Shiva-Sutra Vimarsini of Ksemaraja

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From the Jacket

The Shiva Sutras is a manual of Yoga. It is divided into three Unmesas, each treating of one particular means, Upaya, for reaching independence Svacchanda. The first is the Shambhavopaya, the specific Shaiva discipline and corresponds to the Jnanamarga of the Vedantins, and what is called in the Bhagvad Gita, the jnanayoga of the Sankhyas, also the avyaktagatih. The second, the Shaktopaya is the same as Shakta discipline and consist in the use of mantras and attainment of knowledge by their means. The third called the Anavopaya is the Astanga Yoga of Patanjali. The three Upayas are treated in the order of their worth; the Shamb hava being the first and most excellent, and the Anava being the least worthy and not recognized by Vasugupta in his Spandakarika.

Introduction

The Pancharatra and the Pashupata, the Jaina and The Bauddha, all these systems, arose in India after the supremacy of the Veda and the Vedanta was successfully challenged by the Sankhya. All these schools of thought were elaborated by members of ascetic orders, open to men of low caste and to women, and following rules more or less opposed to those of the orthodox fourth ashrama of the Shastra (varnashramakritairdharmair-viparitam kvachit samam, Mahabhar. xii. 284). All the non-Vedic systems started from the philosophical analysis of experience arrived at by the Sankhya into twenty-five tattvas and extended it. The Yoga supplemented it by predicating an Ishvara. This Ishvara of Yoga is a colourless person, possessing none of the well- known characteristics of the Godhead, a special purusa untouched by evil, his only function being that of a Teacher (Yog. Sit., i, 24-6); An early form of the Pancharatra doctrine attributed to Narada and called the Sattvata Dharma, definitely recognized Visnu as the twenty- sixth principle, beyond the twenty-five recognized by the Sankhya. The Lord and the individual are in this system related as buddha and the budhyamana, the all-knowing and the little-knowing, the all and the fraction. (Ib. 308, 309, 319). This early compromise between the Sankhya and the Vedanta represents also the Spirit of the fundamental teaching of the Bhagavadgita.

Another early form of the Pancharatra cult was that of Panchashika, as described in the Mahabharata (xii. 320). This shows a further development of the Sankhya categories. The Elements of the Universe. Are here thirty Kalas or Gut1as—words having a specific, technical sense in other schools. Sulabha expounds Paf1chashika’s system to Janaka, King of Mithila and describes the thirty categories as (1-10) the ten Indriyas, (11) Manas, (12) Buddhi, (13) Sattva, (14) Ahamkara, (15) Prithakkala Samuhasya Samagryam (the disposition of the different kalas while in union), (16) Sanghata, a complex wherein inhere (17) Prakriti, (18) Vyakti, unmanifest and manifest matter, (19) the union of the correlates (dvandva-yoga), pleasure and pain, old age and death, gain and loss, love and hate, (20) Kala, (21-25) the five gross elements, (26-27) the relation and union of Sat and Asat (Sadasadbhavayogau), (28) Vidhi, (29) Shukra, and (30) bala. All creatures are born from a union of these kalas. Prof. Hopkins has pointed out that the Bhagavad—gita, which belongs also to the Pancharatra School, also called the School of the Bhagavatas, enumerates a set of 31 forms of the Ksétram, 31 modifications of matter, i.e., 5 gross elements, Ahamkara, Buddhi, Avyaktam (corresponding to Prakriti), 11 indriyas (including manas), 5 objects of sense, love, hate, pleasure, pain, sanghata, chétana and dhriti (xii. 5-6). Above these are the four forms of Paramatma, identified in these Schools with Visnu or Narayana, i.e. Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha.