Customer Reviews

Spanda-Karikas: The Divine Creative Pulsation

5 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like Shakti for Shiva, like Venus for Mars, the Spanda-Karikas are required reading for the person who has delved into Jaideva Singh's compilation of the Siva Sutras.

The Spanda-Karikas are Sri Vasugupta's commentary verses on the Siva Sutras he had received from Lord Shiva. 52 in all, here in this book they are wedded to Sri Ksemaraja's commentaries, plus a bonus 53rd verse from Sri Ksemaraja. Cool hey?!! 11 centuries before music companies started dishing our free bonus album CDs, or MacD's gave the world that extra decked Big Mac, the Kashmiri Saivites had known all about bonus goodies. :-)

The texts are all expertly translated by the incredibly meticulous and conscientious Jaideva Singh. Here, and in his Siva Sutras & Pratyabhijnahrdayam too, Singh (pupil of Lakshman Joo; the last doyen of the Kashmir Trika lineage) really took pains to clarify the teachings of the Trika sect; carefully differentiating the Trika teachings from the strawman fallacies made out of them by careless Western academics. You will be hard challenged to find a better preserver and defender of the Trika philosophy elsewhere.

While the Siva Sutras laid out the foundational doctrines of the Trika sect, describing Supreme Lord Shiva's relationship to the material world and sentient beings, the Spanda Karikas elucidate instead primarily on Lord Shiva's power or ParaShakti, his divine consort. Together, the Siva Sutras and Spand Karikas constitute the cornerstones of Trika philosophy.

This is all I can offer as an intro to the Karikas. You need to study them yourself to get the gist of the Spanda doctrines. They can't be easily summarized. Least of all in a short Amazon.Com review. :-)

Aum Parashaktiye Namaha!
Aum Namah Sivaya!

Spanda Karikas is tied for the best book I ever read. The other is Divine Consciousness by the same author. These books are almost impossible to find, I suggest you get them.

this book is endlessly valuable if you're interested in kashmir shaivism's philosophy and practices

it's a bit crowded in a way and might be dry reading for some

however once you get into it and become familiar with it you'll find the quality of it

i find some of jaideva singh's translations a bit clunky but they work to get the point across

the subject matter is of course fairly obscure in many ways - however as one studies more of kashmir shaivism one begins to find in it a philosophy and system of practice that is remarkably clear and yet still profound.

at the center of all the talk is the incentive : go within , realize your own nature

Although this is a five-star plus book, I can sympathize with the reviewer who gave it only one star. At another stage and page of life this book might have "fell pretty flat" with me also. Although there may be some exceptions, here are what probably are the prerequisites for enjoying and appreciating this book:

*spiritual devotion (developing spiritual consciousness) must be the most important thing in one's life. This has to be an intensive interest, one's most intensive interest.

*one must feel comfortable in intellectual waters (it is not for the non-intellectually oriented bhakta/spiritual devotee).

*one must either already be somewhat familiar with Sanskrit philosophy and terminology or be willing to learn (the book itself is very helpful in this respect with its glossary and notes, etc. - a book such as "A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy" may be helpful).A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English

*one should probably already have had pragmatic spiritual experiences. One should be past the stage of spiritual doubt. One should know from practical real world material experience that God exists. (This experience can be developed through spiritual adventure and experimentation - the diligent and unswerving study and practice of all the teachings of Jesus would be one such adventure.)



This is my favorite presentation of Spanda-Karikas. I would also give a 5-star rating to another complementary presentation which is a wonderful work of scholarship and would probably be very helpful in developing Sanskrit philosophy/terminology understanding: "The Stanzas on Vibration" presented by Mark Dyczkowski. The Stanzas on Vibration: The Spandakarika With Four Commentaries : The Spandasamdoha by Ksemaraja, the Spandavrtti by Kallatabhatta, the Spandavivr (S ... Series in the Shaiva Traditions of Kashmir)

An extra note: the subtitle "The Divine Creative Pulsation" as well as the title of Mark's book "The Stanzas on Vibration" might be misleading. Perhaps "Science of God and Knowing God" or "Science of Consciousness" would be clearer.

Another extra note: I found a clashing "off-key" in the presence of an introductory blessing from Swami Muktananda as I do not regard him as an exemplary of the philosophy of this book - I have not gotten clear vibrations from Swami Muktananda.

And another extra note: I've seen all the books by Jaideva Singh that are in print and have found them all to be 5-star. My review of Siva Sutras complements this one. Siva Sutras: The Yoga of Supreme Identity

I sometimes wondered if I was reading the same text as the other reviewers! Can't recommend it...