परमार्थसार (महामाहेश्वर अभिनवगुप्त - त्रिक-दर्शन, अद्वैत शैव साधना एवं सान्वय सटीक)

Introduction 15
in character. He appears to have been impressed by the style of
Abhinavagupta as he has adopted it in writing his commentary
named Primala on his own philosophic work named Mahārtha-
mañjarī. That commentary also is a store house of information
about the history of Kashmir Śaivism. Puṇyānanda wrote Kāma-
kalā-vilāsa and Amṛtānanda explained it. In addition he wrote
Cidvilāsa; a detailed commentary on Yoginīhṛdaya, a Tāntric text,
and many other works known only through references and quota-
tions. Śitikaṇṭha, a Kashmirian teacher of Kaulism, wrote Mahā-
nayaprakāśa in old Kashmiri language in about the thirteenth
century. Another Kashmirian author of Kaulism was Sāhib-Kaula,
alias Ānandanāth who flourished, in the seventeenth century and
wrote many wonderful works on Śāktic Śaivism. His Devīnāma-
vilāsa has been published. His Śivajīvadaśaka appeared in a
college magazine and many other works from his pen are lying
unpublished.
Śaiva and Śākta philosophies of monism are not any two diffe-
rent schools of thought. The Ultimate Truth is both, Śiva and Śakti,
that is, God and His Godhead. It is one but is understood and
taught in such two aspects. God is that absolute and pure I-cons-
ciousness which transcends all material and mental phenomena
and shines through the psychic lustre of that consciousness. He
is always aware of His Godhead and such awareness makes Him
active towards its outward manifestation which results in the
show of all His divine activities. He is Śiva when thought about in
His transcendental aspect of pure I-consciousness. He is Śakti
when contemplated upon in the aspect of His divine activities of
creation, preservations and absorption of all phenomena and
oblivion and revelation of His nature of purity and divinity.
Śāktism and Śaivism are just two aspects of one and the same
philosophy, the former aspect giving more importance to the
practical sādhanā and the latter one to the philosophic theory.
When God inspires playfully the correct and real knowledge in
any beings they recognize and realise themselves as none other
than the Almighty God Himself, shining in His above mentioned
two aspects of Śivahood and Śaktihood. That is the pratyabhijñā
or the recognition of the self as established in Kashmir Śaivism.
The same pratyabhijñā of the real nature and character of the
self is the final aim of all practices in Śāktism which accepts the
philosophical principles of Śaivism. All Śaiva authors and teachers