The Ubiquitous Siva: Somananda's Sivadrsti and His Tantric Interlocutors (AAR Religions in Translation) by Nemec John

Author:Nemec, John [Nemec, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011-07-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three of the Śivadṛṣṭi and Śivadṛṣṭivṛtti: The Arguments against the Śāktas

The (Pratyabhijñā) doctrine of non-duality having been established, [Somānanda], immediately following his consideration of paśyantī, now turns his attention to philosophically proximate1 proponents of (a related form of ) nondualism.2 Accordingly,3 they say:

yasyā nirupādhijyotīrūpāyāḥ śivasaṃjñayā

vyapadeśaḥ parāṃ tāṃ tvām ambāṃ nityam upāsmahe

We worship you constantly, Ambā, you who are the supreme mother, the form of limitless light, the one whom people call “Śiva.”4

3.1

Regarding this, [Somānanda] says:

3.1. atha śakteḥ parāvasthā yair bhaktyā parigīyate

yuktyā prakāśito devas tataḥ śaktidaśā yataḥ

Now, those who out of devotion proclaim that the supreme condition belongs tośakti promote God under a pretense, because the śakti condition immediately follows him.

It is simply (an act of) devotion to speak of the object that one thinks of as śakti herself as the form of the supreme condition,5 because there otherwise would be no way to specify the gender (of her name, śakti ),6 for it7 is not separated from Śiva,8 since there is no possessor of power other than him;9 although being defined by a distinction (of her from him), this by dint of the signification (of her name), it10 is able to point to the one immediately preceding her, because she is dependent on him.11

Because they themselves say that the śakti condition is “a minimal swelling,”12 etc., one that immediately follows him, i.e., follows after the supreme condition, the ones who praise the supremacy of śakti promote God, i.e., Śiva, under a pretense, that is, by means of (the) genuine non-duality (of Śiva and śakti ), by means of (the expression of devotion to) that [śakti condition], it being a quality he possesses, he being based in himself, independent.

There is, moreover, absolutely no reason to enter into questions regarding the feminine gender, which is the marked gender; for masculinity is the unmarked gender of both the feminine and masculine [genders], while the neuter [gender], it not being a way of speaking of the state of being empowered,13 does not merit examination when one refers to the Lord of the universe in such a(n empowered) form. Thus, the power and the possessor of it are associated with the masculine [gender] in order to express (their) non-duality.

3.2ab

3.2. tathā tadvyapadeśaś ced vyapadeśaḥ śivātmakaḥ

Thus, if you argue that a reference is made to him, the reference is related to Śiva.14

Thus, if you maintain that the feminine gender makes reference to Paramaśiva himself,15 then that reference, according to the aforementioned rule,16 is itself actually17 a name for Śiva.

3.2cd–3

[Somānanda] says absolutely no difference exists:

na śivaḥ śaktirahito na śaktir vyatirekiṇī

3.3. śivaḥ śaktas tathā bhāvān icchayā kartum īdṛśān

śaktiśaktimator bhedaḥ śaive jātu na varṇyate

Śiva does not exist apart fromśakti;18 śakti is not different (from Śiva). And Śiva is empowered to create such 19 entities at will. In Śaivism, no difference whatsoever between power and the one possessing the power is described. 20

Even if Śiva does not exist apart from, i.e., absent of, śakti, are they one? To this, [Somānanda] says, “ śakti is not different (from Śiva).”21 For instance,

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