Sahib Kaul's Flash
of Self-Realization
by Dr. B. N. Pandit
Monistic Saivism developed in the North in two schools, one being the Trymbaka School
which flourished in Kashmir (the Medhapitha) and is known at present as
the Kashmir Saivism, and the other being the school named Ardha Tryambaka
which developed in the Kangra area called Jalandharapitha. Many systems
of practical Sadhana (spiritual discipline), e.g. Vama, Daksina, Koula,
Mata, Trika, etc., were prevalent among the followers of Saivism. The Trika
system of Sadhana was highly popular with the Saivaites of Kashmir.
Abhinavagupta,
the greatest among the authors of the Trika system, had picked up the highest
form of the Kaul system of practice from his most esteemed preceptor,
Sambhunatha,
the presiding teacher of the Ardha Trymbaka School. Kaulism also became
sufficiently popular with the practitioners of Trika system in Kashmir
since then.
Saiva Philosopher
Sahib Kaul,
alias Anandanatha, who was a great Saiva philosopher and an experienced
practitioner of Kaulism, lived in Kashmir during the reign of Shahjahan
and Aurangazeb. He was a born Siddha (a perfect being) who got a sudden
and spontaneous flash of the direct realisation of his absolute godhead
even when he was a boy of about eight years. That sudden experience of
his divine nature turned him at once into a poet of merit and, expressing
his divine realisation through the medium of wonderful poetry in Sanskrit,
he uttered the verse given below:
"I, Sahib Kaul
or Sahibram, am that blissful Sambhu (Lord Siva the absolute God) who inscribed
the figure of the whole universe on the wall of his own self, who made
it wonderful by means of various hues with a devout attention; and who
finally performs the Tandav dance after absorbing it into his own self".
Remembering
his previous state of a soul living in a mortal body, he spoke out the
second verse:
"What is and
where is the body, and who has it? (Body also is, in fact, the Lord Himself).
A soul, being bound by a body, is not (really) bound (because there is
no body but the Lord Himself). As for me, I am myself Sambhu, Visnu, Surya,
Ganesa, Brahma, Sakti and (even) the Almighty God. Let all prostrations
be therefore to me."
Note - Depicting
his outlook on the function of his psycho-physical set-up he spoke the
third verse:
"I neither
know nor do desire anything different from me; nor do I appear myself as
an object of any (senses which are themselves) objects. But, through my
own will, I know and do my own self, and know and do everything other than
me as my own self. Prostrations to me who is the very existence of every
existent entity":
Note - Declaring
the pervasive absolute consciousness as his real naturet he uttered the
fourth sloka:
"I (as the
transcendental reality) stay beyond even that pure consciousness of the
fourth state (of revelation) which continues to shine in the (three) states
of waking, dreaming and sleeping. Prostrations to me who is everything
and through whose lustre everything shines."
Sahib Kaul,
being as yet a young boy of eight years, and not having undergone any hardening
practices of Hathayoga, did not have a sufficiently strong nervous system
capable to contain and to bear the weight of spiritual force experienced
by him in that sudden flash of self-realisation. He felt his physical body
to be failing to contain it and, consequently, collapsing under its huge
pressure. His reaction to the apprehension of the so-called death urged
him to utter the fifth verse:
"Death is death
for such people who undergo it. It is not so for them who realise its essence;
because such people are never really born. As for me, I, transcending (the
relative conceptions of) both death and immortality, shine (always) through
my own lustre. Prostrations to me who is the absorber of even the god of
death.'
Having uttered
the above verse, the philospher- poet fainted, and coming back to his senses
a few hours later, he uttered five more verses. The hymn thus created was
named by him as Siva-Jiva-Dasaka; the first five verses of it having been
uttered in a fit of Sivahood and the rest (five) after descending back
to Jivahood. The eleventh verse contains hints towards the circumstances
in which the hymn came forth and the last one concludes it.
The verse spoken
just on coming back to senses is the sixth one. Discussing the phenomenon
of death through it he spoke:
"The way of
knowing in this world is this that anything cognized by one's mind is known
and that not cognized is not known. What and how can then be death for
people who do not at all feel the reality of their birth? Where has the
death of such people been seen or heard?"
The next verse
throws more light on the same topic:
"If, however,
the theory (regarding death) is put forth like this, 'union of a soul with
a body is birth and its separation from it is death'; then (the answer
is), 'what pleasure or sorrow can befall wise persons knowing all well,
on the occasions of visits or departures of their near and dear?"'
To refute all
diversity and to establish absolute unity, the philosopher-poet uttered
the eighth verse:
"I was all
along that very absolute reality even while thinking (repeatedly and inquisitively),
'Who am I"? I am and I can be only the Supreme. Not recollecting any of
the relative conceptions like - you, this, (limited) I, he, who, etc.,
I alone remain myself in my own self (an an undiversifiable entity)"'.
Note: Describing
the apparent diversity as the manifestation of the playful will of the
monistic self, he spoke the ninth verse:
"The appearance
of (diversity as) "you-ness and "I-ness" is manifested by me. This (presently
appearing) unity in this diversity also is manifested by me. Prakasa (the
light of consciousness) is both, pure Nirvikalpa and mixed Savikalpa, and
I am thus shining unitarily in all diversity".
Another sense
carried by the third line. Appearing of a thing is a Prakasa and its not
appearing also is Prakasa (because that also shines in the lustre of Prakasa.)
Note: Describing
the natural connotive aspect of consciousness, he uttered the last one
of the 10 verses:
"If Prakasa
(light of consciousness) were devoid of Vimarsa (awareness), it would not
have been Prakasa. When awareness is its essential nature, then this apparent
phenomenal diversity is nothing. Prostrations to me with Prakasa as my
form and Vimarsa are my nature, appearing myself as soul or God."
Note: This
next verse hints at the circumstances already mentioned as collected by
me from a descendant of the author:
"When the body
(of the poet) had reached a state ]ike that of death, the (first five Slokas
were aroused by someone - (that is, Lord Siva) in His memory. The other
five were composed by Sahibram Kaul after coming back again to his normal
health."
The concluding
verse describes the philosophic importance of the hymn:
"A (blessed)
person, having learnt well the (above) 10 Slokas from an experienced preceptor,
and, having himself contemplated on them again and again, may merge into
his eternal and blissful lustre of pure consciousness after having attained
self- realisation and consequent liberation (from all bondage)."
Complete thus
is the Siva- Jiva-Dasaka, composed by Sri Sahib Kaul, alias Anandanatha,
a great and exalted teacher of Saivism.
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