Tantrasâra Abhinavagupta Tantrasara of Abhinavagupta Translated from Sanskrit with Introduction and Notes by H.N. Chakravarty Edited by Boris Marjanovic Preface by Swami Chetanananda Rudra Press Published by Rudra Press P.O. Box 13310 Portland, OR 97213-0310 503-236-0475 www.rudrapress.com Copyright© H.N. Chakravarty, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America Cover art by Ana Capitaine ~ Cover design by Guy Boster Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Abhinavagupta, Rajanaka. [Tantrasara. English] Tantrasara of Abhinavagupta / translated from Sanskrit with introduction and notes by H.N. Chakravarty ; edited by Boris Marjanovic ; preface by Swami Chetanananda. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-915801-78-7 1. Kashmir Saivism-Early works to 1800. 2. Tantrism-Early works to 1800. 3. Abhinavagupta, Rajanaka. Tantraloka. I. Chakravarty, H.N., 1918-2011, translator, writer of added commentary. II. Marjanovic, Boris, editor. III. Abhinavagupta, Rajanaka. Tantraloka. IV. Title. BL1281.154.A3513 2012 294.5*95—dc23 2012008126 Contents Preface by Swami Chetanananda vii Foreword by Boris Marjanovic ix Introduction by H.N. Chakravafty 1 Abhinavagupta’s Tantrasara 51 Chapter One 51 Chapter Two 58 Chapter Three 60 Chapter Four 67 Chapter Five 79 Chapter Six 87 Chapter Seven 101 Chapter Eight 107 Chapter Nine 123 Chapter Ten 135 Chapter Eleven 140 Chapter Twelve 148 Chapter Thirteen 152 Chapter Fourteen 168 Chapter Fifteen 173 v VI CONTENTS Chapter Sixteen 175 Chapter Seventeen 179 Chapter Eighteen 181 Chapter Nineteen 183 Chapter Twenty 186 Chapter Twenty-One 201 Chapter Twenty-Two 205 Notes 215 Bibliography 265 About the Translator 267 About Rudra Press 269 Preface One day in May of 1980 in South Fallsburg, I was sitting in my room in between programs at the Siddha Yoga Ashram reading some science fiction book, when Muktananda came, in the room. As always, when Swami Muktananda came in the room, every­ body’s foreheads immediately hit the floor, and that day was no exception. Mine was on the floor immediately. The first thing Muktananda did in looking around the room while I was on the floor was to note there was a book on the bed. He asked me what it was. I told him, and he said, “Don’t read that; read Kashmir iSaivism.” And that began my decades-long interest in the study of what is now called 3akta-£aivism. One of the great deficiencies that those of us who have an inter­ est in Saivism have suffered under is the absence of qualified scholars who are willing to engage in translation projects. The Buddhists are fortunate enough to have living traditions—esoteric 3aivism lost its last living lineage holder with the passing of Swami Lakshman Joo—and a great deal of reserve of both cultural and financial capital in the organizations that promote Vajrayana Buddhism, and none of this has existed in support of those of us who have great interest in esoteric Saivism. Because of that, I have caused many different works to become translated. This particular project has been going on so long, I can’t even remember when it started. After Swami Muktananda passed away, I began visiting Swami Lakshman Joo in Srinagar. I was never really able to stay there long enough to really study with him or to consider myself a student of his, but I was and am a great admirer VIII PREFACE of him. His blending of intellectual development and a uniquely human quality of compassion was really extraordinary, and he was an extremely beautiful person. Sometime in the early 1990s, how­ ever, it became too difficult to go to Kashmir, because of the poli­ tics of the place. Still intent on continuing my reading and study of Kashmir 3aivism, and having met all the Kashmiri pandits, I went to Benares to meet Pandit H.N. Chakravarty. In doing so, I also met many of the people associated with him in Benares, such as Bettina Baumer and Pandit Kamalakar Mishra, whose work on Kashmir Saivism I published more than a decade ago. At the time I met Pandit Chakravarty, I requested him to translate the Tan­ trasara into English, and he agreed. And so we launched on the project, and it was a couple of years later that he delivered a manu­ script which, in fact, was absolutely unreadable. While his knowl­ edge of Saivism was deep, his English was extremely limited, and there was really nothing I could do about the publication of the manuscript; it was just impossible. So it languished for years, until there was pressure from Chakravarty’s side and from some of his friends in Canada for us to do something about the manuscript. What eventually came about was that Boris Marjanovic took on the project, and it was really his effort to bring a readable English translation of the Tantrasara out that has given renewed life to this project and ultimately brought it to the extremely fine state that it is in. Boris Marjanovic deserves an enormous amount of credit for the existence of this manuscript in the quality that it is. I am grate­ ful to Pandit H.N. Chakravarty and to all of his friends, including Bettina Baumer, for her support, and I am especially grateful to Boris Marjanovic. Swami Chetanananda January, 2012 Foreword Tantrasára (TS), as its name suggests, is the summary of impor­ tant notions, principles, doctrines, and practices found in the Tan- tras in general and in the Tantráloka (7/1) in particular. The TÁ is Abhinavagupta’s most extensive work on the principles of nonduaL áaiva doctrines written in verse, while the TS, which is its sum­ mary, is significantly shorter and written in prose. It was the tradition of some of the ancient pandits belonging to different schools of Indian thought to write brief and simpli­ fied versions of the main principles and doctrines of their schools. The purpose of this practice was to provide those interested in the subject but unable to devote years of study to Sanskrit grammar and logic, deemed prerequisites for the study of any other branch of learning, with a simplified and comprehensible overview of the main principles of their respective schools. Abhinavagupta and his disciple Ksemarája wholeheartedly embraced this practice. As early as the second benedictory verse of the TS, Abhinavagupta declares the complexity, vastness, and depth of the topics dis­ cussed in the TÁ as the main reason for writing its short version. The primary aim of the TS is to make knowledge easily acces­ sible; thus, Abhinavagupta avoids getting into complex and lengthy philosophical arguments and elaboration, and lays out the subject matter smoothly and concisely. For us, on the other hand, who are attempting to study and to understand this text a millennium later, the brevity of the style of the TS presents a significant chal­ lenge. Furthermore, the Sanskrit used by Abhinavagupta in the TS is not easy, and the notions and practices found in it are obscure X FOREWORD and sometimes incomprehensible. It is because of these difficulties that this text remains inaccessible not only to the general public but also to Sanskrit scholars and Indologists whose specialty is outside of Tantric studies. However, it should be pointed out here that a reader at the time of Abhinavagupta would have experi­ enced significantly less difficulty in understanding this text than we are experiencing today, especially when it comes to ritual prac­ tices and observances. The reason for this is that the tradition was alive and its teaching and practices were widespread and therefore understandable to those interested in learning them. For example, in Chapter Sixteen, Abhinavagupta speaks of the application of the net (jalaprayoga), the procedure by which the ihitiator catches the departed souls during the ritual of ini­ tiation. There he explains that these departed souls, for one rea­ son or another, hadn’t received initiation before their death but deserved to be initiated because of their service to the teacher or some other devout activity. It is the command of Siva, Abhi­ navagupta further clarifies, that the teacher, through the applica­ tion of the net, should bring a departed soul to enter the figure of ku, a grass that represents a departed devotee, and then per­ form the initiation procedure. This knowledge, according to Abhi- navagupta’s own admission, was transmitted to him orally by his teacher áambhunátha. It is difficult to fully comprehend from the available sources what the nature, method, and application of this practice were. It seems clear, however, that the power of the deep meditation of the teacher was believed to be the deciding factor for the success of the entire process. As already pointed out, the brevity of the style of the TS pre­ sents a serious difficulty in understanding this text. Fortunately, these doctrines are often discussed at length by the same author in his TÁ as well as in his other works. The translator then is required to read the TÁ along with the TS if intent on grasping the meaning and wider context of topics discussed. Thus, the TÁ and the TS complement each other, although on rare occasions the translator is fortunate to find additional information or explana- FOREWORD XI tions in the TS itself that were left out and not elaborated on in the TA. This conforms to the style of Abhinavagupa that he adopted from his teacher Sambhunatha, which was not to keep knowledge completely hidden but also not to reveal it all at one place or in a single book.