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Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam

«The Heart of Recognition» — twenty sūtras of Kṣemarāja and his own commentary on them

Source: sanskrit-trikashaivism.com — Sanskrit, transliteration, and English exposition belong to Gabriel Pradīpaka. The translation of the twenty sūtras themselves is also his, from the page of the twenty sūtras. In Russian, this appears here for the first time — analysis: the source does not have it, only English.

What is this text

Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam — “The Heart of Recognition,” written by Kṣemarāja (10th–11th centuries), a disciple of Abhinavagupta. Twenty short sūtras in which the entire Trika is reduced to the most essential: Consciousness is free and unfolds the universe from itself; contracting, it becomes a bound being; recognizing itself, it is liberated. This text is usually recommended as a starting point — it is the most accessible in the entire tradition.

Twenty sutras without commentary is a table of contents of a teaching, not the teaching itself. All the meaning lies in the commentary: sutra Citiḥ svatantrā viśvasiddhihetuḥ fits into three words, but what stands behind them, Kṣemarāja explains in a page. He wrote the commentary himself, to his own sutras.

Whose translation is this

These pages bring together two works, and they should not be confused.

Twenty sūtras in Russian are available from Gabriel Pradīpaka, on a separate page, and are taken from him as is. Translating them anew would mean diverging from him for no reason: the same sūtra on the site should not sound in two readings. His footnotes to the sūtras have not been carried over here — they are on his page, along with his own introduction to the scripture.
Kṣemarāja’s analysis is not published in Russian anywhere: at the source it exists only in English — 115 thousand characters. It is translated here, from that English exposition, and is not presented as Gabriel’s words.

Sanskrit — devanāgarī and transliteration — has been carried over from the source unchanged.

Why it lies here

Then, for the same reason as the “Tantrasāra](/en/ksh/tantrasara/)”: site search searches the pages of this repository, not others’. But here the reason is not only search — no Russian analysis exists, and it had to be made.

How to read these pages

Each part is structured the same way as the source: first all its Sanskrit, then the same in Russian.

Green marks Kṣemarāja’s commentary, reddish — the sūtra itself. In the source, the color here is as it happens: in the fifth aphorism everything is in red, in the first — almost nothing. Exactly the stanza that ends with the aphorism’s number is made red — and this is the only edit made to its layout.
Under each line of Devanagari stands the same line in IAST transliteration. In the source they run in two blocks — first all the Sanskrit of the section, then all the transliteration; here the lines are paired so you don’t have to flip back and forth.
Next comes the translation. In it, above the Russian word in small type stands the Sanskrit (saṁskṛta) — the one that in the source stands in parentheses right after. The parentheses haven’t gone anywhere: they are visible when copying and in search.
A word that has an entry in the glossary of terms — is a link there; from the glossary the links lead back, straight to the paragraphs where the term is analyzed most densely.
Above the wall of Sanskrit — two buttons: take its Devanagari or its transliteration in full. The lines alternate, and one script cannot be selected with the mouse.

Important (this is the translator’s note): everything in the translation that appears in parentheses in italics has been added by the translator to complete the phrase. And everything between double dashes, — like this —, is the translator’s explanatory clarification, which is not present in the original.

Translator’s introduction

Gabriel Pradīpaka prefaces the analysis with a short introduction. Here it is translated along with everything else:

Hello, again Gabriel Pradīpaka. This is simply the commentary that the very author of Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam — namely Kṣemarāja — wrote to this same scripture. Therefore, my introduction to Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam is for the most part also suitable here. This book is very simple in comparison with the main scripture on Pratyabhijñā — the recognition of the Self — that is, with the famous Īśvarapratyabhijñā of Utpaladeva, which requires a powerful mind to unravel its subtleties. But this does not mean that the commentary on Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam will be without its own difficulties. No, at places it is difficult, as is customary for the scriptures of Trika — but in comparison with the aforementioned treatise (and with others like it) it is completely straightforward. It is like a working manual that quickly leads the seeker to Final Liberation. If you want to know your own divinity as easily as possible — this manual is for you. I am not joking. Having read it, you will no longer be able to miss the recognition of the Self, which is also Final Liberation.

And one more thing: I will only translate this scripture, without giving detailed explanations. If you need a thorough explanation, I advise you to buy the book of the venerable Jaideva Singh. That great translator took upon himself the labor of explaining everything in detail.

Glossary of terms

Dictionary — 111 entries, gathered from those very Sanskrit annotations that accompany every Russian word. This book’s list is its own, not shared with its neighbors, and this was decided by measurement: out of one hundred twenty entries in the dictionary of “Tantrāloka” thirty do not occur here at all — the entire ritual — while the most frequent word of the “Heart of Recognition,” citi, is entirely absent from that dictionary. The “Heart of Recognition” is not a compendium but the shortest exposition of the whole system, and its words are its own: saṅkoca and vikāsa, pañcakṛtya, grāhaka, bhūmikā, vyāmohitatā.

Parts

Beginning — introductory verses and address to the reader — 4 verses, 5 paragraphs
Aphorism 1 — Force-Consciousness is free and is the cause of the universe — 11 verses, 9 paragraphs
Aphorism 2 — it unfolds the universe on its own canvas — 3 verses, 3 paragraphs
Aphorism 3 — the universe is manifold because of the division into knower and known — 3 verses, 3 paragraphs
Aphorism 4 — contracted consciousness also bears the universe — in contracted form — 16 verses, 17 paragraphs
Aphorism 5 — Force itself, descending, becomes mind — 7 verses, 7 paragraphs
Aphorism 6 — the perceiver under the power of māyā consists of mind — 7 verses, 7 paragraphs
Aphorism 7 — the One becomes two, three, four, and seven fives — 3 verses, 3 paragraphs
Aphorism 8 — all philosophical schools are His roles — 30 verses, 27 paragraphs
Aphorism 9 — from the contraction of Force the Self becomes a soul covered with dirt — 3 verses, 3 paragraphs
Aphorism 10 — and in this state it performs the same five actions — 8 verses, 8 paragraphs
Aphorism 11 — five actions: manifestation, taste, response, seed, dissolution — 5 verses, 5 paragraphs
Aphorism 12 — to be a soul in the cycle means not to know of this authorship — 19 verses, 18 paragraphs
Aphorism 13 — with full knowledge the mind itself ascends to Pure Consciousness — 3 verses, 3 paragraphs
Aphorism 14 — the fire of Consciousness even under cover burns the fuel of the knowable — 5 verses, 4 paragraphs
Aphorism 15 — having attained the Force of Consciousness, a man makes the universe like himself — 9 verses, 8 paragraphs
Aphorism 16 — having attained Bliss, he is free while living — 5 verses, 4 paragraphs
Aphorism 17 — Bliss is attained by the opening of the middle — 5 verses, 5 paragraphs
Aphorism 18 — four ways of this opening — 35 verses, 35 paragraphs
Aphorism 19 — constant Samādhi — from the state after Samādhi — 5 verses, 5 paragraphs
Aphorism 20 — mastery over the circle of deities of one's own Consciousness — 27 verses, 28 paragraphs

About the Source

Sanskrit, transliteration and English exposition have been transferred from sanskrit-trikashaivism.com unchanged; their author is Gabriel Pradīpaka. Each part has a link leading to its place on his site. The Russian translation of the analysis was made for this site based on his English exposition and is not in his words.

The two pages of the source diverge from each other twice—in the readings of the 13th and 18th sūtras (चेतनापद against चेतनपद, वाहच्छेदद्यन्त against वाहच्छेदाद्यन्त). Emendation is not our concern, and the pages bear the reading that is in the analysis itself.