After the Trika lineage flourished in Kashmir in the 10th through 12th centuries, it faded amidst Muslim incursions into the region and we find no new works on the Trika produced there after Jayaratha’s great commentary on Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka. However, by this time the Trika had taken hold in the far south, and flourished there almost down to the modern period, new works on the Anuttara Trika being composed as recently as the 19th century. A key work of the south Indian Anuttara Trika is the Parā-praveśikā (“An Introduction to the Goddess Parā,” referring to the lineage-goddess of the Trika), also known as the Svarūpa-prakāśikā (“A Little Light on our Essence-nature”), composed by Bhaṭṭa Nāgānanda, probably in southern Karnāṭaka, possibly in the 15th century. This work has enjoyed a continuous tradition of study all the way down to the present day. So it is not some relic of a forgotten past, but part of a living tradition. What follows is a translation of the second half of this short text (the first half is here). You will understand this section of the text better if you first study Tantra Illuminated pp. 124-150. I hope you enjoy this work-in progress! Commentary to be added later. If you want a full explanation of this scripture, please join my Patreon group!
पराप्रावेशिका Parā-prāveśikā, Part Two
Now (atha), the characteristics of those Principles (tattvas). That Principle called Śiva is in fact Paramaśiva, whose essence-nature is the joy of fullness (pūrṇānanda) that entirely consists of and expresses as Will, Cognition, and Activity (icchā-jñāna-kriyā). The first Vibration (spanda) of this ultimate Divinity, which embraces its innate desire to emit this world, is Will (icchā), the Śakti-tattva. Because this Will is unobstructed, it manifests this world, being [in this phase] ever like a sprout; it exists covered & subsumed by ‘I-ness’, i.e. by one’s own Self—this is the Sadāśiva-tattva. [When] the ‘sprouted’ world is turned round by [that] I-ness [into ‘this-ness’], it exists as the Īśvara-tattva. [When] there is perception of equality between ‘I-ness’ and ‘this-ness’, that is Śuddhavidyā-tattva. Māyā [tattva #6] is the power that manifests [apparent] differentiation amongst existent entities whose own-forms are [actually] Śiva’s. When the ultimate Divinity assumes the form of a contracted perceiver, by grasping its essential nature through power of Māyā (which is itself an aspect of the ultimate Divinity), then it is called a ‘person’ (puruṣa, tattva #12). This very person, [when] confused by Māyā and bound by karma, is [known as] a saṁsārin. Though he is not different from ultimate Divinity, his confusion does not partake of his ultimate Divine nature—rather it is like unto the bewilderment or false impression produced by the will (sva-icchā) of the magician at a magic show. But being nothing but awareness, the very sovereignty made known by insight (vidyā), Paramaśiva himself is [ever] liberated. His powers of total agency, complete knowing, all-encompassing fullness, atemporal eternality, and all-pervasive nonlocality, though uncontracted [in their essential nature], take on contraction, become the limited power of acting (kalā), limited power of knowing (vidyā), limited craving (rāga), limited time (kāla), and causality (niyati). Here, that principle called kalā is the cause of impeded agency on the part of this person (puruṣa), vidyā is the cause of impeded knowing, rāga is intense attachment or craving for the objects of experience, while kāla is the sequentiality of states appearing and disappearing, i.e. that which creates the apparent divisions of past, present, and future. Niyati is the cause of restrictive concepts such as “I should do this” and “I should not do that”. This set of five is called “the armors” (kañcukas) because they conceal one’s true nature.
Prakṛti is the root-cause of all the rest of the tattvas, from buddhi (mahat) to earth; it is the undivided homogenous state in which clarity (sattva), energy (rajas), and inertia (tamas) exist in equilibrium. [From it proceeds tattvas in which the gunas are not in equilibrium, beginning with] buddhi, which produces judgements & opinions, and which holds the reflections of the mental constructs [internalized from one’s cultural environment]. [Next, tattva #15 is] the ahaṃkāra or “I-maker,” so called because it produces divisive self-referential thoughts such as “this is mine, that is not mine.” The manas produces volitional thoughts. These three taken together are called “the inner instrument” (antaḥkaraṇa). The five “faculties of sense-cognition” (jñānendriyas, tattvas #17-21) are hearing (aural cognition), touching (tactile cognition), seeing (visual cognition), tasting (gustatory cognition), and smelling (olfactory cognition), which produce cognitions of sensual objects in the realms of sound, touch, appearance, taste, and smell respectively (which in their underlying generic forms are tattvas #27-31, the tanmātras [lit., “merely-that”]). The five “faculties of action” (karmendriyas, tattvas #22-26) are speech (vāk), hands, feet, anus, and groin, which respectively produce the actions of speaking, grasping, strolling, evacuating, and pleasure respectively. [Finally are tattvas #32-36, the mahābhūtas or “great elements”]: Space is that which makes room; Wind is that which animates; Fire is that which burns as well as cooks & digests; Water is that fluid which refreshes & rejuvenates; and Earth is that which supports.
This world [consisting of 36 tattvas] exists within the Heart-Seed (hṛdaya-bīja) that is the Great Lady Parā, as taught in this scriptural verse of our tradition:
Just as a massive tree exists as potential energy in the tiny seed of the banyan fig, so does this world consisting of animate and inanimate things exist in the Heart-Seed. || Parātriṃśikā verse 24
How is this so? Just as pots and dishes are modifications of clay, yet in reality are nothing but clay, or just as the various classes of liquid (water etc.), being properly considered, are determined to have the common property of liquidity, in the same way Being (sat) itself, the subject of our [current] investigation, is the real nature & substance of the tattvas from Earth to Māyā. Removing the suffix-portion (which reveals the meaning of the root) of this word as well, what remains is merely the primordial nature [of the word], i.e. the letter s. The thirty-one tattvas are contained within it. After that: the tattvas of Śuddhavidyā, Īśvara, and Sadāśiva, whose essence is Action, Insight, [and Will], due to the diversification of those powers, exist within the Power of the Absolute in the form of [a particle of] assent (i.e. the phoneme au). After this: the visarga in the form of the creative emission above and below (:). [This is coded language that, when understood by the Trika initiate, gives the seed-mantra of Goddess Parā.]
The Goddess Parā in a modern depiction, with her seed-mantra pictured in Śāradā script.
Paramaśiva himself, who is [simultaneously] transcendent and immanent, and who is the Great Mantra (AHAM or “I AM”), constitutes the innate essence-nature of this Seed of the Heart, because he/it is the ground in which everything comes to rest and from which everything emerges.
One who knows this Heart-Seed as it really is, and becomes immersed in it, is truly initiated [through such immersion alone] and becomes liberated while living, while seeming to exist like any ordinary person. At the fall of the body, he becomes revered Paramaśiva. || iti śivam.
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