This book is an attempt to comprehend the concepts of Bhairava (Supreme Reality) and bhavana (creative contemplation) in the Trika Saiva philosophy of Kashmir. We shall examine how the process of bhavana underlies the means prescribed for experience of Bhairava, who is conceived as the Supreme Consciousness in Trika Saivism.
What is the potential role of bhavana in bringing about paradigmatic shifts in human consciousness? The thesis is that as human beings, we can apply contemplative techniques to expand our limited state of consciousness into an expansive perfected state that is marked with extraordinary powers. Metaphysically, this state is termed as the Supreme Consciousness and in theological terminology it is named as Bhairava in Trika Saivism. My research is rooted in the discursive framework of this specific Kashmiri Tantric Saiva tradition originally called as Trika.
The Trika discipline that has its roots in the non-dual Bhairava Tantras reached its culmination in the Kashmir region of India between ninth and thirteenth centuries CE. The non-dual Trika Tantric tradition propounds that universal consciousness is the foundational reality and the individual empirical consciousness is not different from it. In other words, the experience of empirical reality is also the experience of consciousness in different degrees. When the consciousness is at its most expansive level, it is the Supreme Consciousness (purnahamta). The Supreme Consciousness undergoes constriction from its most expansive fullness by its own free will. In the constricted state, it shines as differentiated consciousness, This voluntary process of constriction is the effect of absolute freedom (svatantrya) of the Supreme Consciousness. Further, the Supreme Consciousness and the individual consciousness are capable of experiencing each other by contraction and expansion (sankoca-vikasa) of sakti (energy). In other words, the Supreme Consciousness is within the individual consciousness and vice versa.
From the vantage point of the most expansive level of consciousness, the experience of reality is whole and full. In the constricted state of consciousness, the experience of reality gains limitations. In the whole span of consciousness from its most expansive to its most contracted state, there is no state in which consciousness is not there -na sa avastha na yah sivah.
The Siva Sutras, the primary text of Trika was revealed to Acārya Vasugupta in the beginning of the ninth century. However, the non-dual Bhairava Tantras that are the fountainhead of Trika had existed for centuries before the discovery of the Siva Sutras. This text with its very first sūtra-caitanyam ātmā (consciousness is the self) - shifted the paradigms of the previously available Tantras from their emphasis on externalized rites, rituals, mandalas, mudras, and iconography to an interiorization of methods and means for attaining the supreme state of realization.
I WOULD like to thank and remember Shri Swami Satyananda Saraswati who had sown the seeds of the name of Bhairava in my mind in 2013 through my guru Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati (Sw. Satsangi) whose work on the Vijnanabhairava Tantra (2003) was my first introduction to the non-dual Tantric philosophy.
To have come into the fold of Trika lineage of Swami Lakshman Joo Maharaja though my teacher Dr Mark Dyczkowski was the greatest fortune of my life. I am grateful to Dr Mark Dyczkowski and Padmashri Professor Navjivan Rastogi who gave me opportunities to study with them.
I would like to acknowledge Ishwar Ashram Trust's consistent engagement in dissemination of Swami Lakshman Joo Maharaja's works. I have benefitted tremendously from their annual residential study courses.
I would like to thank Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla for granting me a two-year Fellowship to conduct and complete my research on this book.
I would like to thank Professor Makarand Paranjape, the Director of IIAS during my tenure as a Fellow, for his intellectual excellence and thorough kindness. I also express my deep regards for Professor Kapil Kapoor, the Chairman of IIAS, who has lit up the path of knowledge for many of us as a teacher, guide and philosopher.
Soon after I arrived at IIAS on 3 March 2020, the worst pandemic in human history hit the world, and all of us were required to remain confined within our homes. The fellows at IIAS, Shimla did not feel the enormity of lockdown as much as our friends in the cities did. We kept working consistently during the lockdown periods. It was Professor Makarand's contagious positive energy, his resoluteness, and his continuous presence in his office that sustained the spirits of all the fellows through the difficult waves of Covid-19. He kept the atmosphere of the Institute academically alive and vigorous by organizing online lectures and seminars with renowned scholars from different fields of knowledge.
I would like to thank my colleague Fellow Professor Balram Shukla not only for helping me with Sanskrit texts but also for the luminosity of his wisdom. I am happy that our tenures coincided at the Institute.
Next, I would like to thank the staff of the Institute who work in unison to make fellows' lives smooth and easy during their stay. Shri Padam Singh and Sri Bhagchand are very reliable and kind drivers. The estate supervisor Smt Vijayalakshmi and her team consisting of Shri Kesar Singh, Shri Dayaram and Shri Hemraj, and the Mess hall staff Shri Devraj, Shri Rajesh and Shri Rakesh have been truly supportive. Shri Kesar Singh and Shri Ram Singh have been my neighbours in Dell Villa and helped me during my Covid illness in many ways. I would like to thank Shri Ashwini Sharma and Shri Gaurav from the computer section for their prompt technical support at all occasions.
I would like to offer special thanks to our librarian, Shri Prem Chand who has been the light of optimism in the Institute.
I am very grateful to Professor Rajnish Kumar Mishra, Dean, School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, for finding time from his intense academic responsibilities to provide his informed opinion on this book.
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