Vasugupta

Vasugupta (860–925) was the author of the famous Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta.

Biography

The author was believed to have amassed knowledge and recognition through direct realization. He was a native of Kashmir and was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. One night Shiva appeared to Vasugupta in a dream and instructed him to go to a particular place called Harvan. There in the forest of Myna he found a large rock nestled on the side of a small stream. By his mere touch the huge rock turned over and the mysteriously inscribed Shiva Sutras were revealed to Vasugupta. This rock became known as Shankar Pal or the rock of Shiva. Even today devout Kashmiri Saivas pray at the destined place. Vasugupta also wrote the Spanda Karikas as a commentary on the Shiva Sutras. He paved the way for later scholars for a cultural and religious renaissance in Kashmir which continued for four centuries till the forcible advent of Islam. His principal disciple, Bhatta Kallata wrote Spanda-karika.

Philosophy and Kashmir Shaivism

Vasugupta is regarded by some as the founder of the system of Hindu philosophy known as Kashmir Shaivism, also called Hindu Tantra. A great personage - Vasugupta has been called mahan or a great personage, because he had realized his identity with the Lord.

Vasugupta's exposition on the states of dreaming in the common man and in the Yogi have a vast influence on states of consciousness, which range from the psychological to the paranormal in devotees of Shiva. One such Tantric tradition temple is Shri Swapaneshwar Mahadev temple in the precincts of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga. With reference to the Yogi, at first his knowledge in the form of dharana or fixing the mind on particular object is his waking state, then his vikalpas (reverie) in the form of a continuous flow of the idea of that object of his concentration is his dream state; (finally) Samadhi in the form of absence of difference between the thinker and the thought is his state of deep sleep. Turya-svapna is that state in which the Yogi crosses the boundary of limitation (of knowledge) and enters the region of unlimitedness(of knowledge). Hence in the tantras, it is called ananta, i.e. unlimited. Turyatita is that state which is full of uninterrupted divine rapture of I consciousness. There is no question of phases of this state. It is the state of fullest realization. There is no need of any Yogic practice now. The jnani calls this state mahapracaya. In it even the distinction between the transcendent and the imminent disappears. To one who has entered this state, everything is Shiva. Many scholars have found this school of thought as essentially purifying and freeing of all deep seated fears, phobias and complexes, which are basis to psychological diseases.

External links

• About Shiva Sutras - Swami Lakshmanjoo
• Siva Sutras-The yoga of Supreme Identity [2]
• The Shiva Sutras[3]
• The Shiva Sutras[4]
• MARK-DYCZKOWSKI-1992-THE-APHORISMS-OF-SIVA-THE-SHIVA-SUTRAS-WITH-BHASKARA'S-COMMENTARY-(267P)[5]