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These fifteen verses provide a brief exposition, and capture the
essence, of the doctrine of Kashmir Shaivism.
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Fifteen (15) verses of Wisdom
1. The brilliance of the One Being's light does not vanish in external
light or in darkness because all light and darkness resides in the
supreme light of God Consciousness.
2. This Being is called Lord Siva. He is the nature and existence of all
beings. The external objective world is the expansion of His Energy and
it is filled with the glamour of the glory of God Consciousness.
3. Siva and Sakti are not aware that they are separate. They are
interconnected just as fire is one with heat.
4. He is the God Bhairava. He creates, protects, destroys, conceals, and
reveals His nature through the cycle of this world. This whole universe
is created by God in His own nature, just as one finds the reflection of
the world in a mirror.
5. The collective state of the universe is His supreme Energy (Sakti),
which He created in order to recognize His own nature. This (Sakti), who
is the embodiment of the collective state of the universe, loves
possessing the state of God Consciousness. She is in the state of
ignorance, remaining perfectly complete and full in each and every
object.
6. The supreme Lord Siva, who is all-pervasive and fond of playing and
falling, together with the Energy of His own nature simultaneously
brings about the varieties of creation and destruction.
7. This supreme action cannot be accomplished by any other power in this
universe except Lord 'Siva, who is completely independent, perfectly
glorious and intelligent.
8. The limited state of consciousness is insentient and cannot
simultaneously expand itself to become the various forms of the
universe. The possessor of independence is absolutely different from
that insentient state of consciousness. You cannot, therefore, recognize
Him in only one way. The moment you recognize Him in one way you will
also recognize Him in the other way.
9. This Lord Siva, who is completely independent (svatantra), has the
diversity of creation and destruction existing in His own nature. And,
at the same time, this diversity is found existing in its own way as the
field of ignorance.
10. In this world you will find varieties of creation and destruction,
some of which are created in the upper cycle, some of which are created
below, and some of which are even created sideways. Attached to these
worlds smaller portions of worlds are created. Pain, pleasure, and
intellectual power are created according to the status of being. This is
the world.
11. If you do not understand that there is actually no span of time,
this misunderstanding is also the independence (svatantrya) of Lord
Siva. This misunderstanding results in worldly existence (samsara). And
those who are ignorant are terrified by worldly existence.
12. & 13. When, because the grace of Lord Siva is showered upon you, or
due to the teachings or vibrating force of your Master, or through
understanding the scriptures concerned with Supreme Siva, you attain the
real knowledge of reality, that is the existent state of Lord Siva, and
that is final liberation. This fullness is achieved by elevated souls
and is called liberation in this life (jivanmukti).
14. These two cycles, bondage and liberation, are the play of Lord Siva
and nothing else. They are not separate from Lord Siva because
differentiated states have not risen at all. In reality, nothing has
happened to Lord Siva.
15. In this way the Lord, Bhairava, the essence of all being, has held
in His own way in His own nature, the three great energies: the energy
of will (iccha-sakti), the energy of action (kriya-sakti), and the
energy of knowledge (jnana-sakti). These three energies are just like
that trident which is the three-fold lotus. And seated on this lotus is
Lord Bhairava, who is the nature of the whole universe of 118 worlds.
16. I, Abhinavagupta, have written and revealed these verses for some of
my dear disciples who have very little intellectual understanding. For
those disciples, who are deeply devoted to me, I have composed these
fifteen verses just to elevate them instantaneously.
Source:
Self Realization in Kashmir Shaivism by John Hughes pp. 21-34; State
University of New York Press
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