KNOWLEDGE IS A BONDAGE ...
( Photo Autar Mota ...A painting depicting Shiv Sutra no 2 by Artist Gokul Dembi )
SHIV-SUTRAS OF RISHI VASUGUPTA OF KASHMIR
So much discussion. So many Scholars . So many Books . A Proud Cultural Heritage of kashmiris in General and Pandits in Particular. I tried to know it. Tried to read some Books . Read Articles and heard discourses . Could not Grasp Much as no person could present it in a simple and Layman’s language ; A language that a beginner could grasp.
And then of my own efforts, i came to Rishi Vasugupta’s Shiv Sutras .
Generations of kashmiris shall remain indebted to Rishi Vasugupta for presenting something Great , Simple , Philosophical and mind Boggling through his 77 Shiv-sutras ( aphorisms). I Read them one and all. It took me three days to understand the enormous Philosophical dimensions of some Sutras that come in just one line. Most of us have not come to kashmir’s Shaiva-Darshana from this way. At least I can say for myself.
I quote Ten Sutras …
(a)
Knowledge is bondage.
(b)
Origin is the basis of knowledge.
(c)
Only awakening is knowledge.
(d)
Most mysterious is the mind.
(e)
There is a feeling of one being like Shiva.
(f)
Body is an Offering .
( g)
Mind is the soul.
(h)
Consciousness becomes sublime when imagination is mastered.
(j)
Existence is eternal but life has end.
(j)
— Concentration into the origin of creation causes knowledge of why it is destroyed and created again.
I leave it to readers to think about various dimensions of these simple one line sutras ..
Enter the world of kashmir’s Shaiv Darshana through these Sutras .
( Avtar Mota )
PS
* Sage Vasugupta (~ 800 – 850 CE) was the author of the Shiva Sutras, an important text of the Advaita tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, also called Trika..It is believed that these Sutras were revealed to the sage somewhere near Present day Harwan garden .
Generations of kashmiris shall remain indebted to Rishi Vasugupta for presenting something Great , Simple , Philosophical and mind Boggling through his 77 Shiv-sutras ( aphorisms). I Read them one and all. It took me three days to understand the enormous Philosophical dimensions of some Sutras that come in just one line. Most of us have not come to kashmir’s Shaiva-Darshana from this way. At least I can say for myself.
I quote Ten Sutras …
(a)
Knowledge is bondage.
(b)
Origin is the basis of knowledge.
(c)
Only awakening is knowledge.
(d)
Most mysterious is the mind.
(e)
There is a feeling of one being like Shiva.
(f)
Body is an Offering .
( g)
Mind is the soul.
(h)
Consciousness becomes sublime when imagination is mastered.
(j)
Existence is eternal but life has end.
(j)
— Concentration into the origin of creation causes knowledge of why it is destroyed and created again.
I leave it to readers to think about various dimensions of these simple one line sutras ..
Enter the world of kashmir’s Shaiv Darshana through these Sutras .
( Avtar Mota )
PS
* Sage Vasugupta (~ 800 – 850 CE) was the author of the Shiva Sutras, an important text of the Advaita tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, also called Trika..It is believed that these Sutras were revealed to the sage somewhere near Present day Harwan garden .
** I found a sprinkling of Shiv sutras in the Kashmiri Bhakti poetry of Mahatama Krishen Joo Razdan of Kashmir .According to Shiv Sutras ,Want of awareness is Maya and deep sleep.
Awareness dispels Maya. A real Sadhaka only desires awareness. Mahatma Krishen Joo Razdan says:-
"Hosh dim lagayo Pamposh Paadan"
" O Lord! Grant me awareness.This life at your lotus feet"

Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.