A Banquet of Philosophical and Devotional Hymns of Abhinavaguptacarya

The collection of hymns of Abhinavagupta that have been translated, and are accordingly being presented to the public, represent such a diversity of thought of the composer of these hymns as would encompass the doctrinal, devotional and philosophical aspects of what has come to be known as the Shaivism of Kashmir. These hymns express the simplest mode of instruction in terms of which is conveyed the essence of non-dual spirituality that has been developed, both theoretically and devotionally, by the Siddhas and the accomplished Gurus of the Trika lineage. The thrust of this Trika spirituality, as expressed in these hymns, is to find out such ways and means as would lead to the transcedence of the profane by entering into the realm of the sacred. It is in terms of the entrance into the sacred that the profane structures of dualism are and thereby is allowed the flow of the theophany that terminates in the experience of the epiphany of deification. Such a state of divinity pulsates the very core of existence in such a manner as would allow the perception of divinity to occur. This realization a divinzation forms the core of these hymns, and so the entire universe is seen but the self- expression of Paramasiva. In the experiential state of non-difference is comented perfect unity in terms of which disappear all the conceptual differences which is the bane of empirical mode of life.