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Paratriśikā-vivaraṇa — Abhinavagupta’s commentary on the Paratriśikā
Source: sanskrit-trikashaivism.com — translation from Sanskrit, explanations, and all Sanskrit apparatus belong to Gabriel Pradīpaka. Sanskrit (Devanagari and IAST) has been carried over from there without changes; the Russian text on these pages is a translation of his English exposition, made for this site. For the exact meaning, go to the source.
Hello, again Gabriel Pradīpaka — incorrect spelling: Pradipaka —. Parātrīśikāvivaraṇa — incorrect spelling: Paratrishika Vivarana — is an explanation, or exposition (vivaraṇa), made by Abhinavagupta on Parātrīśikā (the last part of the revered “Rudrayāmala”). In Trika, eleven tantras are revered. Of them five are the main ones: Mālinīvijaya (also called Mālinīvijayottara), Vijñānabhairava, Svacchanda, Rudrayāmala and Netra (also known as Mṛtyuñjit). This text is also called Parātriṁśaka or Parātriṁśikā. Therefore, the explanation by Abhinavagupta on the last part of the “Rudrayāmala” can be called in three different ways: Parātrīśikāvivaraṇa, Parātriṁśakavivaraṇa — incorrect spelling: Paratrimshaka Vivarana — or Parātriṁśikāvivaraṇa — incorrect spelling: Paratrimshika Vivarana —.
Who is Abhinavagupta? The simplest way to put it is this: he is the greatest Master of the Trika philosophy. He wrote about forty books, of which the most extensive and the most important is the Tantrāloka. In any case, the present Parātrīśikāvivaraṇa is considered the most difficult writing to translate and understand in the entire Trika system—and you will soon see that this label has good reason. This writing is “originally” intended for very advanced students, as well as for jīvanmukta —those liberated while alive—, and I am not joking in the least. Hence it is obvious that I will have to add lengthy explanations, otherwise the reader’s boat will be shipwrecked before even leaving the shore.
Parātrīśikā is also known as Trikasūtra — the aphorisms of Trika — because it contains teachings that form the very core of this philosophical system. The themes of this monumental treatise, as always, are the Supreme Reality and how to realize It, but here Abhinavagupta places emphasis on mantra, as the reader will yet see. Abhinavagupta’s style has always been difficult for most translators to understand, but this time the bar has been raised to a new height. So for me personally, this will ultimately be a journey into madness — especially because, added to the difficult translation, there is heavy work: making the scripture comprehensible (if viewed optimistically) to the ordinary reader through endless explanations. In short, our voyage, dear reader, may easily turn into the voyage of the mythical “Titanic,” if we are not careful enough, ha-ha. Well then, to work!
Each part is structured the same way: first the Sanskrit, then the transliteration, then the translation, and after it — a detailed explanation by the translator.
Abhinavagupta comments on the verses of the Parātriśikā in sequence; the translator has divided the commentary into parts, and the same division is preserved here.
All fourteen parts are translated in full. As for the following stanzas 5–8, the translation from the source has not yet been published: stanzas 9–18, 19–37, and the twenty concluding praise stanzas of Abhinavagupta are listed in his table of contents, but there are no references to them.
Sanskrit (Devanāgarī and IAST) is carried over unchanged from sanskrit-trikashaivism.com, where Gabriel Pradīpaka translates the treatise from Sanskrit into English and provides it with explanations. The Russian text on these pages is a translation of his English exposition, made for this site; for the exact meaning and for the Sanskrit, one should always go to the source.
Among Russian translations, it is worth keeping at hand Tantrasāra and Basic Principles of Kashmir Shaivism — they provide the minimum set of concepts without which the “Parātriśikā-vivaraṇa” is unreadable.