The Heart of the Yogini

Introduction to the Parapanchashika

We provided a note regarding the Parapanchashika on page 82. Fortunately, a revised edition of it has been published in this very volume (pp. 395-400). Verses 18-25 of the Parapanchashika are very similar to verses 16.70-84 of the Kailasa Samhita of the Shivapurana. We have indicated elsewhere¹ that the Shivapurana quotes the Shivasutra (6.16.44 and 46), the Shivasutravarttika (6.16.46), and the Virupakshapanchashika (6.19.44). The Shivamahimnastotra authored by Pushpadanta is also quoted in two places (3.4.11, 3.12.18). It is worth noting that the material related to the Parapanchashika is in the same chapter as the quotations from the Shivasutra and Shivasutravarttika. The six lines of verses 15 to 18 and verses 38-40 of the Parapanchashika can also be compared with verses 6-9 of the Paratrishika. Similarly, the process of exposition in verses 32-37 is similar to the process described in Abhinavagupta’s Tantrasara (pp. 12-15). Despite all this, this small treatise is complete in itself. The passage quoted in the Dipika (p. 333) seems to be its auspicious opening verse mangala shloka, but it is not found in any of the available manuscripts.

Here, in the beginning, the non-duality of Shiva and Shakti—in the form of Light prakasha and Reflection vimarsha—and their non-duality with the world are established with the help of logical arguments. It is explained here that difference and inertia are both non-essential atattvika. This entire world is merely the essence of consciousness. There is nothing other than Light. Just as a lamp is not needed to illuminate the sun...

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1. See the essay titled "Shivapuraniyam Darshanam" published in Tantrayatra (pp. 50-51).