In this excerpt from Bhagavad Gita: In the Light of Kashmir Shaivism (chapter 7, verse 14), Swami Lakshmanjoo reveals the key to subsiding māyā—illusion. Drawing on Abhinavagupta’s distinctive understanding, he explains that māyā is overcome not by rejecting it as something separate, but by recognizing it as none other than Parabhairava, the supreme reality itself.
A clear and unique explanation of the much-discussed term “maya” (illusion) in the light of Kashmir Shaivism as Swami Lakshmanjoo reveals to us how we have become limited being.
This is an excerpt from Abhinavagupta’s Paramarthasara: The Essence of the Highest Reality.
View on YouTube or listen to the audio below…
PS DVD 1 (00:55:10)
मायापरिग्रहवशाद्
बोधो मलिनः पुमान् पशुर्भवति ।
काल-कला-नियतिवशाद्
रागाविद्यावशेन संबद्धः ॥१६॥
māyāparigrahavaśād
bodho malinaḥ pumān pa...
In this important excerpt from The Magical Jewel of Devotion in Kashmir Shaivism – Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa’s Stava Cintamani, Swami Lakshmanjoo explains why, in Kashmir Shaivism, māyā (illusion) is really svātantrya (freedom).
Audio 4 (45:26)
यस्याः प्राप्येत पर्यन्त-विशेषः कैर्मनोरथैः ।
मायामेकनिमेषेण मुष्णंस्तां पातु नः शिवः ॥७३॥
yasyāḥ prāpyeta paryanta-viśeṣaḥ kairmanorathaiḥ /
māyāmekanimeṣeṇa muṣṇaṁstāṁ pātu naḥ śivaḥ //73//
Let that Lord Śiva protect us (pātu naḥ śiva; na...
In the summer of 1987, Swamiji began compiling important verses from the various scriptures he had studied throughout his life. Each Sunday he would distribute one or two slokas to devotees, at the same time giving, in brief, their essential meaning. In all Swamiji revealed a total of eighty-five verses. The following year Swamiji traveled to Nepal where he spent a month with the Hughes family recording his revelation on those verses in the “Special Verses on Practice“.
When asked about the sou...
