Kashmiri Shaivism

Shrinivas Gadkari sgadkari2001 at YAHOO.COM
Wed May 1 16:27:03 CDT 2002

>I guess the problem i am having is understanding what is the nature of the
>sentient seer.  If he is already Shiva then what is there to see?  Advaita
>Vedanta says that the essential Shiva-nature of the atma has been
>"obscured" or "forgotten" because of Maya.  But if you do not accept that
>idea then where do the impermanent names and forms come from?  The
>Kashmiri Shaivism website (I do not know if it is accurately representing
>the philosophy or not but let us assume it is.) suggests it is the
>kriyashakti (power of creation) of Shiva Bhagawan which is responsible but
>then we come to the problem facing all theisms.  Is God such a sadist that
>He creates beings only to torture and destroy them?  Or is it
>Shiva-as-atma who creates?  Then you have the problem of idealism.  If we
>are all doing our own creating, why do most things look so similiar to
>all of us?

Namaste Jaldhar,

The proposition that God is an external being is out, no need
even to discuss this idea.

So it has to be the Siva as the Self who creates. Is this not the
same in Vedanta ? Creation is a leela.

And what for ?
Just for fun.

Now why does the world look the same to everyone ?
How would you answer this as a Vedantin ? May be something like
this scheme is a part of the leela itself. Why not use the same
answer when it comes to (Kashmir) Shaiva darshana.

What happened to Shiva after creation ?
Same answer as that of a Vedantin: Beholding the creation, the
Being who was Shiva, due to avidya forgot his Shiva nature and
became a Jiva.

Frankly I see no difference between Vedanta and Shaiva darshana.
The only difference being, a typical Vedantin tends to reject the
world of duality (I never could understand why, and I have exhausted
myself posting messages related to this point on the advaitin
and this list). On the other hand, a typical follower of the Shaiva
darshana tends to celebrate the world of duality - although it
is an illusion !

Best regards
Shrinivas Gadkari

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