– Parameshvarananda
Practitioners who are unable to grasp the subtleties of śāmbhavōpāya and progress with this method should then turn to the next lower stage – that of śākta yōga, the yoga of self-contemplation. In this practice, one uses the mind and imagination to constantly contemplate the real nature of the Self as taught in the philosophy of Shaiva Advaita. One is supposed to think repeatedly that one is everything and yet also beyond everything. All creation is one’s own play. It is the manifestation of one’s own divine powers, having been created through his own divine and independent will, not aided by anything else. One is to imagine oneself as omniscient and omnipotent pure consciousness (Tantrasāra, 21). The practice of this form of Self-contemplation carries the impression of these truths deep into both one’s conscious and subconscious mind. With time and practice, one comes to experience the divine and absolute consciousness as his real self. It no longer seems to be simply an imagined concept superimposed on oneself by the mind. Having developed a firm belief in the divinity, infiniteness and purity of one’s real nature, one is able to wash away past impressions of one’s limitations, attain a śākta samāvēśa of Absolute Reality, and develop the ability to practice śāmbhava yōga which is the only direct means of realizing the divine nature of the Self in its highest aspect. In fact, all types of yoga have to rise to the level of śāmbhava in order to yield this highest goal of life.
To clarify, śākta yōga is a practice in pure ideation (śuddha-vikalpa), the Yoga of Self-contemplation, imagination, meditation, etc., while śāmbhava yōga is a practice in non-ideational (nirvikalpa) realization, a yoga free from all conceptual knowing and gross word images. Because śākta yōga is a practice in correct conceptual knowing, in which the practice of mental ideation dominates, it is also called jñāna yōga.
The Nidhidhyāsana practice of the Vēdānta school is similar to śākta yōga. However, the post-Shankara Vēdāntins have increasingly stressed the importance of the philosophical theories of vivarta, while ignoring the practical aspects of the theology as taught by the ancient sages. Due to extensive interaction with Buddhist logicians through decades, the Vēdāntins copied and assimilated a great deal from Buddhism, and slowly drifted towards a kind of situation that comes close to Nihilism. They ignored the actual practice of Shankara’s Vēdānta to such an extent that most of them today are not even aware of the existence of some important Tantric works on Vēdānta like the Vidyāratnasūtra by Gauḍapāda, Prapañcasāra Tantra by Shankara, the commentary on it by Padmapāda and so on. Because of this drifting away from the practical aspects of Vēdānta, many of its scholars have come to doubt the validity of Shankara’s authorship of Saundaryalaharī. One of these scholars tried to prove that Shankaradeva, a Shaiva-siddhāntin of the Tamil region, had been the author of Saundaryalaharī. These scholars apparently don’t accept that the sophisticated theological doctrines contained in Saundaryalaharī are absolutely foreign to the simple Shaiva-siddhānta doctrines of caryā, kriyā, and yoga.
Disciples of J Krishnamurti and certain logicians from the West are inclined to criticize śākta yōga as being a practice in self-hypnotism. It is true that its method of practice seems to be very much like hypnotism, but in reality, it is far more profound. Hypnotized people are made to forget their individual notions and to adopt new ones in accordance with the will of the hypnotist. Whether people become stronger, healthier, and wiser depends of course on the quality of the hypnotists, and what they are attempting to do with their power. There is always the danger that one set of illusions may simply be substituted for another. But according to āgama, all of us are already hypnotized by the effects of māyā, by thoughts of our own limitations and inadequacies. The practice of śākta yōga, as discussed above, helps us wash away the hypnotic effects of māyā, by means of deepening the impression of vidyā, the correct knowledge. This is more a process of de-hypnotizing as it removes the hypnotic effect of māyā, and brings us back to our real and essential nature.
There are various other names associated with this practice of yoga. Shākta yōga has been defined as a practice in refining ideation (vikalpa-samskāra), which is a process of bringing about gradual perfection in the correct conceptual knowledge of a person. Shākta yōgins have to impress on themselves two aspects of their real nature: pure transcendental unity and universal divinity. This is to be accomplished through several types of contemplation known symbolically as yāga, hōma, japa, vrata, yōga, and so on. These are all metaphorical in character in the context of śākta yōga.
Another metaphorical or symbolic name given to śākta yōga is sattarka, the yoga of correct reasoning. Sattarka is reasoning that is based neither on any of the objective experiences of ordinary people still deluded by māyā, nor the conventions and arguments set forth by them. It is a logic inspired by the direct realization of the Self by the Self, a logic started by perfect beings or Siddhas. Still another name for this is bhāvanā. The root bhu means to exist and the word bhāvanā means “to bring into existence”. Shākta yōga is a bhāvanā that brings into existence the correct understanding of the truth – that māyā, with the help of imposed forgetfulness, had pushed back into the field of nonexistence. This bhāvanā, of Trika yoga, should not be confused with the bhāvanā that appears in the philosophical texts of the mīmāmsā and nyāya schools.
There is a special type of śākta yōga known as Kālīnaya. It was originated by one Shivānandanātha about whom we know very little. He imparted it to three female disciples named Kēyūravatī, Kalyāṇikā, and Madanikā. We know that Gōvindarāja learned it from Kēyūravatī and then imparted it to the great philosopher Sōmānanda. Kālīnaya reached Abhinavagupta through the line of Ujjaṭa, Udbhaṭa, etc. Erakanātha, the disciple of Kalyāṇikā, engaged himself in attaining supernatural powers and did not initiate any disciple in the path. This information about the origin and spread of Kālīnaya has been provided by Jayaratha in his commentary on Tantrālōka. He bases the information on the Kramakēli of Abhinavagupta and quotes a long passage from it. Passages in kāśmīra-apabhramśa, quoted by Abhinavagupta in his Tantrasāra and Parātrimśikā vivaraṇa, may have been drawn from the sayings of works of the above mentioned three female preceptors. These three highly respected yōginīs may have preferred to teach in the language of the common people, as did Lallēśvarī in the fourteenth century A.D. Shivānanda, being the great-grand teacher of Sōmānanda, may have flourished sometime in the eighth century A.D.
The term Kālīnaya can be understood as follows. Naya can be thought of as a doctrine, and Kālī in Kashmir Shaivism is a name given to the Absolute Power. This power or śakti is called Kālī because it conducts kalanā, the manifestation of divine activities of the Supreme God. Kalanā is different from and should not be confused with kalpanā. Kalpanā is imagination, conducted in one’s own mind, while kalanā is a kind of transmutation brought about by the divine essence of the Supreme. It is the outward manifestation of an inwardly existent phenomenon.
Kālīnaya is practiced in the following manner. In śākta yōga, Kālī is visualized in four aspects. It conducts all the divine functions in the fields: (1) absolute unity, (2) unity in diversity and (3) complete diversity. While these are its main aspects, there is fourth, (4) the all-pervading aspect also. Each of these aspects of Kālī is supposed to be contemplated upon as it relates to the divine activities of creation, preservation, and absorption. An example of creation would be: (1) the absolute unity of creation, (2) the absolute diversity of creation, (3) the unity in diversity of creation, (4) the all-pervading aspect of creation, and likewise with preservation and absorption. In this way, the number of Kālīs amounts to twelve. The Kālīs constitute the śakticakra. Personified as goddesses, these Kālīs have been eulogized in Siddhanātha’s Kramastotra, certain stotras of Abhinavagupta, Chidgaganacandrikā of śrīvatsa (incorrectly identified as Kālidāsa) and a scriptural work named Pañcaśatikā, quoted by Jayaratha. All the poetic descriptions of Kālīs found in these work are merely symbolic in character, because the Kālī of Kashmir Shaivism is the abstract divine power of the Supreme and not a deity with a subtle divine form, as in the Kālī in Durgā Saptaśatī.
Practitioners of śākta yōga practicing Kālīnaya are to imagine themselves as the master of the śakticakra. They visualize the divine role of these śaktis with respect to all of the phenomenal existence appearing as the trinity of the subject, object and the intermediate means of knowing, called respectively pramātr̥, pramēya and pramāṇa. The practitioners visualize this trinity in the twelve varieties appearing in creation, preservation, dissolution, and absolute position. Then they imagine themselves as having assimilated all these phenomenal varieties, one by one, into their own Selves through their twelve divine śaktis visualized as the twelve Kālīs – absorbing them. This highly complex and abstract worship of Kālī in its many forms, which employs this special kind of contemplative imagination, and which is practiced through a clear conviction that everything is One – a pure-dualism, is significantly different from the ritualistic Kālī-worship prevalent in Bengal. This is true even though both forms of Kālī-worship are Tantric in origin and character.
The above-mentioned varieties of śākta upāya such as yāga, hōma, etc. require a very deep and comprehensive form of contemplation, which absorbs simultaneously all phenomenal existence into the practitioner’s infinite I-consciousness. This practice is so difficult that only the most accomplished yogins like Abhinavagupta can use it successfully.
Shivānandanātha developed an easier type of śāktōpāya by taking the above mentioned twelve categories in a definite order of succession and making them the targets, one by one, of contemplative meditation and subsequent absorption. As krama is the Sanskrit word for succession, this easier type of śākta upāya came to be known as Kramanaya. Much has been written about the Kramanaya by different yogins, and Jayaratha quotes many of them in his commentary on the Tantrālōka. In fact, this krama method of śāktōpāya became so popular with practitioners of the Trika system in Kashmir that many teachers like Jayaratha mentioned it along with the Trika as an independent system.
This tendency to consider the Krama system as separate, while still somewhat prevalent in Abhinavagupta’s time, was actually only indicative of the popularity of Kramanaya practice. Had it actually been an independent system of theology, it would have not have been discussed in such detail as an integral part and important variety of śākta upāya, but to śāmbhava as well (Tantrālōka III 250-53). It has also been discussed as an important element of the dhyāna type of āṇava upāya (Tantrālōka, II 23-27; Tantrasāra, 36). J C Chatterjee, the pioneer research scholar who worked on Kashmir Shaivism, was mistaken in announcing Krama as an independent system of theological practice, and unfortunately, most of today’s scholars have adopted his view without taking the above facts into consideration.
In summary, the Krama doctrine of the twelve Kālīs is an important element of all three upāyas and an integral part of the Trika system. As such it cannot be considered an independent system of practice. This variety of śāktōpaya, standing within the Trika system, has enjoyed special popularity among the ancient practitioners of Kashmir Shaivism.
When students perfect the practice of śākta yōga, their practice automatically attains the status and character of śāmbhava yōga. According to the philosophy, the śāmbhava and śākta methods of yoga are meant only for those aspirants whom Lord Paramaśiva has blessed with a forceful divine grace. Only these special devotees find intense interest and quickly attain success in the practice of these two superior types of yoga. Shāmbhava is also known as abhēdōpāya, the monistic means of salvation, and śākta is called bhēdābhēda upāya, the mono-dualistic means.