Pratyabhijnahrdayam: The Secret of Self-Recognition

The Saiva religion is perhaps the most ancient faith of the world. Saivaism has a history going back to the Chalcolithic Age or even further, and it thus takes its place as the most ancient living faith in the world. It had many off-shoots and appeared in differenet forms in many parts of the world. In India, there are three main forms of this religio-philosophy, viz., the Vira-Saiva form in Deccan-Karnataka, the Saivasiddhanta in Tamil Nadu, and the Advaits Saiva form in Kashmir. There are some common features in all the three, but there are important differences also. Here the title deals with the Advaita Saiva Philosophy of Kashmir. This little work is a digest of the Pratyabhijna system of Kashmir Saiva Philosophy, prepared by Ksemaraja, the illustrious disciple of Abhimavagupta. It avoids all polemics and gives in a very succinct form (20 sutras) the main tenets of the Pratyabhijna presented by Utpala. Pratyabhija means recognition. Jiva is Siva; by identifying himself with his body, Jiva has forgotten his real nature. This teaching is meant to enable Jiva to recognize his own real self i.e., Siva and to suggest to him the spiritual discipline needed to attain ‘at – one – ment’ with Siva. Dr. Daideva Singh has considerably revised and enlarged his translation, and provided a scholarly Introduction, Notes, Glossary of technical terms and Indexes. It serves as the best introduction to Pratyabhijna philosophy.