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

30 Paramārthasāra of Abhinavagupta
15. Paramam yat svātantryaṃ
durghaṭa-saṁpādanaṃ maheśasya
Devī māyā- śaktiḥ
svātmāvaraṇaṃ Śivasyaitat.
That supreme self-dependence of Paramaśiva, through which He
brings about even that which is not possible, is known as the deity
named Māyā-śakti. It serves Paramaśiva as a veil to hide Himself.
Māyā, the divine power of the Lord, reflected by Him externally,
appears as Māyā-tattva, the sixth one in the process of phenomenal
evolution. The Lord, covering Himself with it, conceals His nature
of absolute purity and divinity. Making a show of His involve-
ment in it, He sees everything through a viewpoint of diversity
and forgets the divinity of His I-consciousness. Besides, Māyā-
tattva serves as the inanimate objective substance out of which
all other insentient elements evolve. It is thus the substantive
cause of numerous universes floating in it like bubbles in an
ocean. Māyā-tattva is also a creation of the Absolute God. It is
His impure creation. Further creation out of Māyā is conducted
by Lord Anantanātha, one of the agents of God.
मायापरिग्रहवशाद् बोधो मलिनः पुमान् पशुर्भवति ।
कालकलानियतिवशाद् रागाविद्यावशेन सम्बद्धः ॥ १६ ॥
16. Māyā-parigraha-vaśād
bodho malinaḥ pumān paśur bhavati
Kāla-kalā-niyati-vaśād
rāgāvidyā-vaśena saṃbaddhaḥ.
The pure consciousness, having adopted Māyā as a part and
parcel of its self, becomes impure and appears as the finite subject
known as Puruṣa who is bound like a beast with (the chains of
bondage consisting) of kāla, the sense of time, kalā, the limited
capacity to do just a little, niyati, the law of natural causation,
rāga, the limited interest in a particular something and Avidyā,
the limited capacity to know just a little.
Puruṣa is the finite subject who takes a finite individual I-cons-
ciousness, having limited powers to know and to do, as his self.
Having lost his infiniteness, he is known as 'aṇu' a finite being.
He sees everything and everyone as different from him. Such
viewpoint of diversity and such finitude are the main impurities
of such individual I-consciousness which, being fastened by the