This is part of a series of posts translating Chapter One of Abhinavagupta’s 1000-year-old masterpiece called “Light on the Tantras” (Tantrāloka). Continued from the previous passage on The Nature of Reality, this passage constitutes the first 10 verses of a 34-verse discussion on the Nature of God.
कामिके तत एवोक्तं हेतुवादविवर्जितम् ।
तस्य देवातिदेवस्य परापेक्षा न विद्यते ॥
परस्य तदपेकत्वात्स्वतन्त्रो ऽयमत स्थितः ।
For that very reason (referring back to verse 57), it is said in the Kāmika-tantra: “This [Primordial Reality] is beyond logical argument. The God beyond [all] gods does not depend on any other; rather, because the other depends on him, he exists as the autonomous [source of all]. || 59-60ab ||
My commentary: the Kāmika the Abhinava quotes here is a lost work, different from the later South-Indian scripture of the same name. (See pp. 88-89 of “The Śaiva Literature” (Sanderson, 2014).)
“The sequences of place, time, and form do not constitute limitations of the One who is independent and self-contained—thus Śiva is [declared to be] all-pervasive, eternal, and omniform. || 60cd-61ab ||
“Because He is the all-pervasive power (vibhutva), He is in everything; because He is eternal, He has no beginning or end; because He is omniform, He manifests the wondrous variety of sentient beings and [the] insentient things [that are the objects of their experience].” || 61cd-62ab ||
[probable end of the Kāmika citation.]
For that reason, He is described as ‘multiform’ (bahurūpa) in the Dīkṣottara and other scriptures. Śiva is said [there] to be six-fold: World, embodied Form, Light/Radiance(s), Void/Space(s),* [Mystic] Sound (śabda), and especially Mantra, with subdivisions such as the Point (bindu), the Resonance (nāda), etc. || 62cd-63 ||
Abhinava is here paraphrasing a very old scripture, the Dīkṣottara (7th century), forming the latest part of the Niśvāsa, which is the oldest scripture of Śaiva Tantra. The Dīkṣottara chapter 2 gives a sixfold goal-division (lakṣya-bheda), that is to say, six aspects of the Divine among which the yogī chooses one to fix his attention upon. As Somdev Vasudeva explains, “The formless Śiva has compassionately lowered himself into these ‘targets’ so that earnest Yogins have something upon which they may focus.” (2004: 255) These six foci for practice were adopted into the Mālinī-vijayottara-tantra, Abhinava's primary source text: there (at 12.9) we see the same six, if we presume that Light = Bindu, Sound = Resonance, and Mantra = Phoneme (where the former term is that used by the Dīkṣottara and the latter that used by the Mālinī; the other three are exactly the same).
Being intently focused on the nature of any [of these six aspects], he [the yogin] attains the state/reality (bhāva) of that [aspect]. Supreme liberation certainly results from direct experience (vijñāna) of that to which the words Void and so on refer. || 64 ||
The interpretation of this verse is not certain (as noted at Vasudeva 2004: 257n31). The verse is translated according to Jayaratha’s interpretation, which may indeed be correct as far as Abhinavagupta’s intention goes; but the original scriptural source (the Dīkṣottara) tells us that, amongst the six goals, only absorption in the Void or Sound grant highest liberation. On the Void, it teaches: “The Yogin should contemplate the supreme firmament, devoid of quality, beyond contact, without lunar mansions and constellations, as resembling transparent crystal; fully merging his mind into the Void, located in the Void, identified with the Void, attains final liberation.” (Dīkṣottara 2.18-19, trans. S. Vāsudeva)
In light of the [aforementioned] omniformity of the Radiant One, [any of these six forms] is [merely] a synecdochic aspect, a partial definition (upalakṣaṇa), [as is apparent] when His unlimited & unconditioned nature has come to the fore and His particularized aspects have melted away [in the enlightened experience of the one who has realized Him as one’s very own infinite Self]. || 65 ||
And this is [also] declared in the Kāmika-tantra: “The Divine is formless yet assumes all forms. The whole universe is pervaded by That, just as [one thing can appear to be multiple, reflected in both] water and a mirror.” || 66 ||
And these qualities of His—all-pervasiveness and so on—are not separable from one another, [so they do not constitute divisions within Him]. [In fact,] He has only one [fundamental] quality [i.e., svātantrya-śakti], which implies all the others. || 67 ||
Therefore, the truly correct precept [with regard to Śiva] is that He is united exclusively with the Power of Autonomy (svātantrya-śakti). The fact that He is said to have many powers follows from [and is ultimately equivalent to] His inseparable union with that one Power. || 68 ||
Indeed, the power(s) of any entity is [simply] its [singular] innate nature as conceived [variously] by its perceivers. Thus, it is unitary, though we understand it as possessing multiple powers. [And the Divine is just the same.] || 69 ||
Afterword: some will be surprised to read what sounds like dualistic language throughout the above passage. But this passage cannot be taken in isolation; it is part of Abhinavagupta’s project to speak to all Tantrik Śaivas, dualists and nondualists alike, and integrate their various perspectives in one overarching comprehensive View. He takes the reader on a journey, leading us ultimately to an uncompromisingly nondual View. For example, he will go on to say:
“In actuality, what we mean by ‘God’ is simply the unbounded Light of Consciousness, reposing in innate bliss, endowed with its Powers of Willing, Knowing, and Acting.”** (For more on this, see The Five Powers of God, pp. 101-9 of Tantra Illuminated.)
Light on the Tantras continues in the next section, The Nature of God/dess, which brings in discussion of Śakti, the Divine Feminine.
NOTES:
* Dīkṣottara 2.7: vyoma, further defined as śakti-vyoma (either 'the Void of Power' or perhaps 'devoid of energy'), is said to be beyond śabda-tattva, and thus the highest of the six goals. In terms of yogic practice, three voids in the subtle body are described in chapter 3 of the Dīkṣottara: ayana-śūnya (back of the throat), praśānta-śūnya (top of the head), and niṣkala-śūnya (above the head). Jayaratha, writing centuries later, understands the three voids as the three stages of uccāra above the head and before the final stage: śakti, vyāpinī, and samanā. The Mālinī has three voids in the head and three above it, which are crucial to its understanding of khecarī-mudrā (see 7.15-17 and the parallel passage at Kubjikā-mata 7.81-6).
** evaṃ mukhyābhiḥ śaktibhiḥ yukto 'pi vastuta icchā-jñāna-kriyā-śakti-yuktaḥ anavacchinnaḥ prakāśo nijānanda-viśrāntaḥ śiva-rūpaḥ.
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