It is by the grace of Shiva that we had a sneak peek in the philosophy, so great and profound, known as Kashmiri Shaivism. Actually this philosophy has been propounded by Shiva himself in the form of Shiva Sutras for the benefit of mankind in general. Vasgupta found these Shiv Sutras inscribed on rock near Harwan as per the directions of lord Shiva in a dream . Many scholars including Abinavgupta have documented and interpreted them in a very lucid form for the benefit of masses. In our times Swami Laxman joo , jai Dev Singh and many other scholars have interpreted Shiv Sutra for the benefit of aspirants of Shaivism.
As we already know that in the the pursuit of self realisation , a person can not sweep all the impurities and throw off all the bondages by self efforts only. He requires descent of Shiva's grace or ANUGRAHA , which in technical terms of Shaivism is called ' Shaktipaat.' This divine grace comes mysteriously depending entirely on Shiva's will and automatically destroys all the impurities . As it comes freely there can be no compulsion in the flow of grace from Shiva.
Here I will try to reproduce a folktale which I have heard in my childhood.
Once a Priest was travelling in a small ship for his onward journey to attend a religious conference . In the way, the Ship on which he was travelling , developed a technical snag and the captain of Ship had to stop the ship near a small island to repair it. Priest descended the ship like all other travellers and walked on the island while ship was being repaired . After walking a little further on the Island , he discovered three semi naked hermits sitting under a shade of tree murmuring something and looking towards sky. He came close to them to hear their murmur . They were saying repeatedly ,
" You are one and we are three . You are in us and we are in you."
The priest took pity on their desperate condition. He pondered over their plight and came to conclusion that they are wasting their life like this . Perhaps God has send him here for the liberation of their soul. He taught them commandments and prayers of Christianity , which they most readily tried to learn . With much difficulty they could learn few and priest left them with an advise to pray to God as per his advise. They all agreed . After some time ship was repaired and priest boarded the ship again . While ship left the island and covered a distance of few miles, Priest saw three hermits walking over the water were trying to reach towards ship. When they reached near the ship they implored to priest with all humility,
"Sir we forgot the prayers that you taught us. Can you repeat the same once again to us."
Priest was surprised and told them that they need not to remember those prayers now . They must continue their way of praying to almighty . On hearing this, the three hermits returned to their island joyfully.
Now Lord Shiva can only say whether the grace of Shiva had descended on the three hermits or they were on the final stages of their spiritual pursuit , accomplished by them through their self efforts. As per Kashmiri Shaivism more you achieve the heights of spiritual pursuit, less you have to make self efforts .
One of my unknown readers from some obscure city named Guatemala had commented on my blog on Kashmiri Shaivism part - 5 , Who is Shiva and Why his grace is needed . I replied to him that Shiva is God who exists in all living or non living things and his grace is required to recognise ourselves , which is the goal of our life . But It is not actually so simple a question as it appears prima facei . We all ,except few ,are sailing in the same boat . We do not know actually who Shiva is and why is his grace required . We shed torrents of tears for obtaining materialistic objects but who cares for Shiva . We can not just absolve ourselves by just defining Shiva and his grace . We have to realise the essence of thought by practice and pursuit . Only knowledge is not enough but action is also equally important .
Finally while concluding this chapter of Kashmiri Shaivism , I would like to refer to the self composed astuti of Abhinavgupta , which forms the gist of Kashmiri Shaivism. Abhinavgupta entered the Bhairva cave in Kashmir , singing this astuti along with his twelve hundred desciples for maha samadhi .
Om vyapt charachar bhav vishesham
Rkkaul.blogot.com
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