Abhinanagupta- the great master of Kasmirian Shivaism

Abhinavagupta was considered an important musician, poet, playwright, exegete, theologian and logician, being a personality who exerted an exceptional influence on Indian culture.

The great sage Abhinavagupta is said to have been an avatar of Shiva

Even today he is unanimously accepted as one of the greatest Indian spiritual masters, philosophers, mystics and aestheticians. Although India has had many aestheticians, Abhinavagupta remains unique in his masterful synthesis of all the visions and theories up to him, giving them a much broader, deeply spiritual perspective.

Birth and the first part of life

He was born in the Kashmir Valley (c. 920 – 1020 A.D.), into a family of Brahmans with high spiritual concerns.

In Kashmir it is considered that a descendant of parents with very high spiritual interests and achievements (“established in the supreme essence of Bhairava”) results to be a being with special spiritual endowments.

His own birth fits with claims that he was actually an embodiment of the god Bhairava, conceived by extraordinary circumstances in which his mother and father engaged in ritual sexual union. His birth, in other words, was not the beginning of his life journey, but rather the proper means by which a being of the god entered the world in order to reveal ancient wisdom toward the end of providing a path of liberation for worthy seekers.

His mother, Vimala,died when Abhinanagupta was just two years old. Because of this, he grew up with a tendency to distance himself from the world and focus on spiritual concerns and effort.

His father, Narasimhagupta, after the death of his wife fostered an ascetic lifestyle while raising his three children.
He had a cultivated mind and a special heart, both adorned with an exceptional devotion to Maheshvara (Shiva) – as Abhinavagupta himself says.

He was Abhinavagupta’s first teacher, instructing him in grammar, logic, and literature.

All the people around him had very elevated spiritual concerns

and, therefore, Abhinavagupta benefited from a very propitious environment that allowed him to make gigantic strides in Himself and for humanity, thus managing to complete a work of the magnitude of “Tantraloka”.

According to Kashmiri tradition, around 1025 BC, he entered a cave while reciting Bhairavastava with 1200 disciples and they were never seen again. They supposedly meditated until they translated into another dimension.

His Masters

He studied all the spiritual, philosophy and art schools of his time, under the guidance of more than 15 masters of the time, among whom were: Vaishnavas, Buddhists, Shaiva Sidhanta and Trika.

Vamanatha trained him in dualistic Shaivism and Bhutiraja in dualist-nondualist Shaivism.

Lakshmanagupta, a direct disciple of Somananda, on the Trayambaka line was highly respected by Abhinavagupta and initiated him into aspects related to the non-dualistic Shivaite schools: Krama, Trika, and Prathyabhijna (except for the Kaula school).

Shambhunatha initiated him into the mysteries of the fourth nondualistic school – Ardha Trayambhaka – the Kaula school.

For Abhinavagupta, Shambhunata was like the sun, in its power to dispel ignorance.

Abhinavagupta received the initiation of Shambhunata through Shambhunata’s wife, using a special very high tantric procedure, which can only be practiced by the being with great spiritual attainment.

Shambhunata asked his student to write Tantraloka, and therefore the influence of this master will be felt throughout the work.

From Jayaratha we learn that Abhinavagupta manifested all six qualities necessary to be a perfect recipient of the state of shaktipata – the divine grace manifested in a man’s being:

• an unwavering faith in God
• Possessing Absolute Spiritual Efficiency in Working with Mantras
• control of the essential principles of manifestation (tattvele), including here the 5 known subtle elements
• carrying capacity (which allows the successful completion of any activity undertaken)
• poetic creativity
• intuitive spontaneous knowledge of all areas of knowledge.

Abhinavagupta probably completed his extensive studies and stages of mystical achievement up to the age of thirty

At that time, he lived the rest of his life as a prolific teacher and author, transforming his home in Kashmir into a place of spiritual learning (āśrama) where he wrote his many works and participated in the instruction of the many disciples who were drawn to him like bees to honey. The vibrant setting of Abhinavagupta’s world at this time is palpably described by his disciple Madhurāja in the “Verses of Meditation” (Dhyānaśloka) in his “Reflections on the Lord Teacher” (Gurunātha Parāmarśa).

In these verses of the most cited, Abhinavagupta is considered as a divine incarnation, which is located in a grape garden inside a pavilion adorned with crystal and beautiful works of art. The room is scented with the scent of flowers, incense and oil lamps.

Beautiful women dance to the instruments and songs of master musicians, all in the adoration of the master, Abhinanagupta, who is surrounded by students and various spiritual aceptors. The eyes of the long-haired master are described as trembling in ecstasy, as he sits in a yogic posture, holding a prayer mudra with one hand and a musical instrument in the other.

In this wonderful portrait of Madhurāja, we get a clear vision of Abhinavagupta as one who lived and embodied the ecstatic states he wrote about in such powerful and inspired ways.

Like Leonardo Da Vinci and other Renaissance scholars, he was suddenly a philosopher, artist and visionary– embodying his knowledge through multiple mediums. In other words, Abhinanagupta was much more than just a writer. Certainly, each of Abhinanagupta’s writings, whether on the subject of tantric ritual, philosophy or aesthetics, represents a mystically charged artistic vision in which divine reality is understood as an ever-creative impulse that appears in the heart that is itself identified as the supreme and most sublime location of divinity.

For Abhinanagupta, in other words, art, the path of spirituality and divine reality were clearly one and the same

In Abhinavagupta’s mind, this cosmos is God’s artistic creation, a creation within which every smallest unit of creation itself embodies and reflects the divine artist who is its origin. For this reason, artistic expression – be it poetry, drama, painting, music or any other artistic medium – is equally capable of achieving a spiritual achievement as a yogic practice. For Abhinanagupta, the artist is a yogin, and the yogin is an artist. The final artistic expression is life itself that presents the opportunity of spiritual realization, an event that allows the individual to recognize his own identity as distinct from the identity of that final artist who is the source and even the creation itself.

His work

Abhinavagupta reconstructed, rationalized, classified, and systematized spiritual, mystical, and philosophical knowledge into a coherent form, using in it all the resources of his time.

His work will be a source of knowledge for a long time to come, in the modern era. Various contemporary scholars have rated him as “brilliant and holy”, “a pinnacle of the development of Kashmiri Shaivism” and “a being in possession of supreme attainment in yoga”

In his rather long life he completed over 60 works , the largest and most important of which is “Tantraloka” – an encyclopedic treatise on all the spiritual, philosophical and practical aspects of the Trika and Kaula systems, within Kashmiri Shaivism.

Of great value is the great treatise on aesthetics from the profound perspective of the spirituality of Kashmiri Shaivism – “Abhinavabharati“, which is an extensive commentary on the Nityashastra of Bharata Muni.

Many of India’s philosophers have written hymns to express their love for God, but also their mystical living. Thus, we also find at Adhinavagupta such a hymn of adoration.

Abhinanagupta’s anthem

Among his most important works are:

Tantraloka – the light of tantra – is a synthesis of all Trika systems and is, for now, translated into very few languages.
As this work is vast, Abhinavagupta also wrote another work – Tantrasara – “The Essence of Tantra” which is a summary of the first, which was further summarized in Tantroccaya and which was then summarized again in Tantravaṭadhānikā – “The Seeds of Tantra”.

Pūrvapañcikā was a commentary by Pūrvatantra, aka Mālinīvijaya Tantra, lost today.
Mālinīvijayā-varttika – “Commentary on Mālinīvijaya” is a commentary on the first verse of the Mālinīvijaya Tantra.
Kramakeli – “The Krama Game” was a comment by Kramastotra, now lost.
Bhagavadgītārtha-saṃgraha – “Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita” – translated by Boris Marjanovic.

Other mystical works are:

Parātrīśikā-laghuvṛtti – “a brief commentary on Parātrīśikā”,
Paryantapañcāśīkā – “Fifty Verses on the Supreme Reality”,
Rahasyapañcadaśikā – “Fifteen Verses on the Mystical Doctrine”,
Laghvī prakriyā – “The Short Ritual”,
Devīstotravivaraṇa – ” commentary on the Hymns of Devi “
Paramārthasāra – “The Essence of the Supreme Reality”.
Devotional hymns.

Abhinavagupta composed a number of devotional poems, most of which were translated into French:

Bodhapañcadaśikā – “Fifteen Verses on Consciousness”,
Paramārthacarcā – “The Supreme Reality Debate”,
Anubhavanivedana – “Inner Tributes”
Experience Verses “Anuttarāṣṭikā -” The 8 Things About Anuttara “,
Krama-stotra – a hymn, different from the fundamental text of the Krama school,
Bhairava-stava – “Hymn for Bhairava”,
Dehasthadevatācakra-stotra – “Hymn of the wheel of deities now living in the body”,
Paramārthadvādaśikā – “Twelve Verses About the Supreme Reality”
Mahopadeśa-viṃśatikā – “Twenty Verses on the Great Teaching”.
Another poem Śivaśaktyavinābhāva-stotra – “Hymn on the Inseparability of Shiva and Shakti” has been lost.

One of the most important works of Anhinavagupta is
Īśvarapratyabhijñā-vimarśini – “Commentary on the Verses Concerning the Recognition of the Lord” and
Īśvarapratyabhijñā-vivṛti-vimarśini – commentary on the explanation of Īśvarapratyabhijñā.
This treatise is fundamentally transmitted in Pratyabhijña school (the Kashmir branch of Shaivism based on direct recognition of God) in our day. Another comment on a thing by Pratyabhijña – Śivadρtyā-locana ( “Light on Śivadρi”) is now lost. Another lost commentary is the Padārthapraveśa-nirṇaya-tika and Prakīrṇkavivaraṇa – “Commentary on a Manscript” – referring to the third chapter of Bhartrihari’s Vākyapadīya.
Two more philosophical texts of Abhinavagupta are
Kathāmukha-tilaka – “Ornament of the Preface of Discourses” and
Bhedavāda-vidāraṇa – “The Confrontation of Dualistic Theses”.

Poetic and dramatic works

Abhinavabharati
The most important work in Abhinavagupta’s philosophy of art is Abhinavabhāratī – a long and complex commentary on Bharata Muni’s Natya Shastra.
This was one of the most important factors contributing to Abhinavagupta’s fame to this day. His most important contribution was the theory of Races (aesthetic flavors).

Other poetic works include:
Ghaṭa-karpara-kulaka-vivṛti, a commentary on Kālidāsa’s “Ghaṭakarpara”;
Kāvyakauṭukavivaraṇa, a now-lost “Commentary on the Wonder of Poetry” (a work by Bhaṭṭa Tauta), and
Dhvanyālokalocana, “Illustration of Dhvanyāloka”, which is a famous work by Anandavardhana.

Abhinanagupta’s brilliant systematization of several areas of religious, artistic and literary knowledge per se is nowhere better captured than in these words in his final work, “Reflections on Recognition of Lord”:

One who realizes that the powers of knowledge (jñāna) and activity (kriyā) are but manifestations of svātantrya (the independent power of God) and that these manifestations are not distinguishable by themselves and by the essence of the latter, whose form is the Lord (īśvararūpa) – a person ,in this way) “resonates” entirely with the awareness that activity and knowledge are truly one – whatever this person wants, he or she is certainly able to achieve. Such a person remains in a state of complete mystical absorption (samāveśa), even if it is still in a body. Such a person, still in the flesh, is not only released while he is alive (jīvanmukta), but has in fact achieved the final realization of identity with the supreme master (parameśvara).

“Reflections on Recognition of Lord”