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 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 14th 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 draft translation of the first half (almost) of this short text. 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
विश्वात्मिकां तदुत्तिर्णां हृदयं परमेशितुः।परादिशक्तिरूपेण स्फुरन्तीं संविदं नुमः॥
Viśvātmikāṁ taduttirṇāṁ hṛdayaṁ parameśituḥ |
Parādi-śakti-rūpeṇa sphurantīṁ saṁvidaṁ numaḥ ||
We sing the praises of the Heart of the Supreme Divinity, that vibrating & scintillating Consciousness in the form of the Three Powers (Parādi-śakti), manifesting as everything and yet transcending everything. || (Invocation verse)
Here, verily, the Supreme Divinity is the Light of Consciousness (prakāśa), and the Light of Consciousness has Reflectivity (vimarśa) as its essence. Reflectivity is so called because while taking the form/appearance of everything, shining as everything, and reabsorbing everything, [that Light] continually vibrates as the natural ‘I’-sense.
If the Light of Consciousness had no Reflectivity, it would necessarily be powerless (anīśvara) and inert. And this very Power of Reflective Awareness (vimarśa) is proclaimed & taught in the scriptures under these names:
cit ~ Awareness
caitanya ~ Sentience
parāvāk, svarasa-uditā ~ Supreme Word, spoken from One’s Essence
svātantrya ~ Autonomy; Freedom
mukhyam aiśvaryam ~ Primary sovereignty
kartṛtva ~ Agency
sphurattā ~ Coruscation (scintillating vibration)
sāra ~ Essence
hṛdaya ~ Heart
spanda ~ Pulsation
Therefore the Supreme Divinity, that spontaneous Illumination (prakāśa) that in its essence is the natural & unconstructed ‘I’-sense (i.e., vimarśa), vibrates and manifests as the world (from Śiva to Earth) by virtue of that essential Power, the Goddess of the Supreme.
This very Power of Reflective Awareness (vimarśa-śakti) is the Agency of this world, and it is not [and cannot be] unconscious or inert! Even the world’s condition of being an effect (kāryatva) is manifest only because of it. And the world, having such a nature, is undivided & non-different from the Great Lord, the sole Agent, whose nature is [nothing but] the Light of Consciousness.
If the world were considered as separate [from the Light of Consciousness], then by virtue of the fact that it would be unmanifesting/unillumined, it would not exist at all.
And the nature of the Blessed Lord as the Light of Consciousness is never obstructed or limited by this world. Having His Light of Consciousness as its foundation, this world manifests as the life-breath or vital energy of the [Supreme] Self (ātmanaḥ prāṇa-bhūtaṁ) – how then could it constitute an obstruction? And if the world did obstruct or limit That, how could it exist of its own accord?
And thus, [though] something might [seem to exist] as a proof in the establishing or denying of His reality, in fact His real being exists as the Knower which decides on the establishing or denying as [a result of] his act of intellectual synthesis. What proof can there be of that existent nature (sadbhāva)? As [that One] is the existent nature of reality itself, how could there be proof with regard to such an essence-nature already possessed by those who are attempting the logical inference about it? Thus, being the very nature of the one doing the inquiry, the spontaneously self-luminous Light of Consciousness that we call God, the primordially established source of all lineages (pūrva-siddha), is demonstrated by the very fact of the inherent capacity for conscious experience that everyone possesses. Furthermore, even methods of proof (pramāṇas) exist as methods of proof only by virtue of having That as their foundation & support. What could be the use of a pathetic ‘proof’, which manifests [in the mind] as something new, with regard to establishing the One who exists solely as the ever-manifesting Knower who possesses & perceives all forms of knowledge obtained through evidence [and thus is prior to them], transcending all the knowables such as body, prāṇa, blue, happiness and so on, which are each dependent upon such ordinary means of knowledge? Thus, Supreme Śiva, having as his essence the all-inclusive & perfectly full ‘I-awareness’ consisting of the mass of sounds [that constitute language, from a to ha] expansively manifests as the thirty-six Principles of Reality. [COMPLETE LIST OF TATTVAs FOLLOWS; see Tantra Illuminated pp. 124-150]
Now (atha), the characteristics of those Principles. . . . ~ CONTINUED IN PART TWO.
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