Shiva Sutras

Shiva Sutras are the aphorisms of philosophy of Shiva agama. Agama means acquisition of knowledge or traditional doctrine or percept. There are four sources through which knowledge can be acquired. They are perception, inference, comparison and non-apprehension. Advaita philosophy advocates non-dualism, in the sense that the Brahman and soul are not different entities. Soul, in fact is the mirror image of the Brahman Himself. But the Kashmir Shaivism, though typically follows the advaita philosophy, has a peculiar system of its own called trika. Trika shastra means three fold fundamental systems of Reality. Typically, shastra means order, command, percept rule, etc. Compendium of rules of life is also known as shastra. Trika shastra is again divided into three categories, agama shastra, spanda shastra and pratyabhijnana shastra. Shiva sutras come under aagama shastra. Spanda means throbbing or pulsation. It is the pulsation of Shiva causing a spiritual exaltation in the indispensable nature of the divine causing His svatantrya shakti, known as the Supreme Shakti or the Divine Mother, whose gross and subtle attributes are dealt with exhaustively in Lalita Sahasranaama. The third one pratyabhijnana shastra contains arguments and reasoning of identifying soul with Shiva. The present edition explains Shiva Sutras in a simple and easily understandable language. As far as possible, complicated Sanskrit terms have been avoided without sacrificing the intended meaning of those words. Aphorisms are quoted both in Sanskrit and IAST (International Font for Sanskrit Transliteration). IAST fonts are used throughout this book.