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 His Śivajīvadaśaka appeared in a college magazine and many other works from his pen are lying unpublished.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