Spanda-Karikas

Book excerpt: The Spandakarikas are a number of verses that serve as a sort of commentary on the Siva-sutras. According to Saivagama, the divine consciousness is not simply cold, inert intellection. It is rather spanda, active, dynamic, throbbing with life, creative pulsation. In Siva-sutras, it is the prakasa aspect of the divine that is emphasized; in Spandakarikas, it is the vimarsa aspect that is emphasized. Together, these two books give us an integral view of Saiva philosophy. Ksemaraja has written a commentary on Spandakarikas, titled Spanda-nirnaya. He is fond of sesquipedalian compounds, long and windy sentences, but he is very profound in the comprehension of the subject and so cannot be ignored. The author tried to provide a readable translation of both the karikas and the Spanda-nirnaya commentary. Each karika (verse) is given both in Devanagari and Roman script, followed by its translation in English. This is followed by Ksemaraja's commentary in Sanskrit. Then follows an English translation of the commentary. After this, copious notes are added on important and technical words. Finally, a running exposition of each karika in the author's own words is given.