– Nṛsiṃhacaraṇa Paṇḍā
Gauḍapāda holds that the world-appearance is due to the vibration of prāṇa or chitta or vijñāna. Shabdabrahman is a synonym of Prakṛti or Māyā. The concept of Vibration or Spanda is implied in this word. The world of diversity and multiplicity is produced as a result of the vibration of the Māyā śakti, the power of Brahman. The Upaniṣads use the term Sūtrātman for Brahman. The whole universe is the vibration of the single string (sūtra), the Self of which is Brahman. The Brahmasūtra traces the manifestation (vyakta) of the unmanifest (avyakta or Mayā) to the origination of prāṇa and its subsequent vibrations (kampana). Thus the Shaiva Doctrine of Vibration gets support from the Vedāntic scriptures.
But there are some salient points of differences between Kashmir Shaivism and the Vedāntic non-dualism. Brahman is Advaita Vedānta is motionless and actionless. According to the logic of Advaita Vedānta motion is an activity and any activity necessitates an expenditure of energy. If Brahman has activity, it cannot be permanent and unmodifiable. Hence, says Advaita Vedānta, Brahman, the Absolute Being, is devoid of becoming. Its power (Māyāśakti) which is indescribable (anivarcanīya) has attributes and activity. The three strings (sattva, rajas and tamas) produce the empirical universe. Vedānta holds that Māyāśakti vibrates whereas Brahman is completely unmoving (niḥspanda). In the process of the activity of Māyāśakti, there is a perpetual degradation (entropy) of energy. Hence, in order that the available energy of Māyāśakti is not rendered zero and the cosmic process is not brought to a stand-still condition, the world energy is recycled through the process of pralaya (dissolution). The totality of the manifest universe is dissolved in Māyā, to be manifested in the next cycle of emanation, maintenance and dissolution.
In the Shaiva view, a pulsation (spanda) consisting of two phases – a phase of expansion and another phase of contraction – is not a motion. Of course, it is not a motion in the sense of change of position, movement from position P1 to P2. But it cannot be denied that pulsation is a movement. Any movement needs expenditure of energy and pulsation (vibration) is not possible without expenditure of energy.
By “pulsation”, we refer to the cosmic cycles of emanation, sustenance and dissolution and also the perpetual pulsations with regard to the sustenance of the universe. The atoms, the molecules, the galaxies and the super-galaxies are all products of the pulsations of the second type. There is no loss of energy is any pulsation; there is, however, degradation of energy (conversion of utilizable to non-utilizable) in the second type. The existence and the activities of the universe necessarily involve degradation of energy. The degraded energy is reconverted to utilizable energy in the process of cosmic dissolution (pralaya). If considered from this point of view, the Doctrine of Vibration is free from any conceptual defect.
In Advaita Vedānta, Brahman is functionless and Māyā is active. This is however not the case in Kashmir Shaivism, in which Paramaśiva, the Universal Consciousness, is ever active. He is self-luminous light (Prakāśa); He is also the self-conscious and active agent. He is the Svātantrya śakti (the Absolute Freedom of the Divine), otherwise known as Vimarśa, appearing as the Power of Will (Iccāśakti), the Power of Action (Kriyāśakti) and the Power of Knowledge (Jñānaśakti).
In reality, Shakti is one, although Her manifestations are many. The Shaiva holds that the power (śakti) is non-different from the possessor of the power – śaktiśaktimatorabhedaḥ. There is no Shiva without Shakti nor is Shakti without Shiva. Like fire and heat, Shiva and Shakti are ever non-different. Prakāśa is the Shiva polarity and Vimarśa is the Shakti polarity of the undivided unity of the Universal Consciousness. In fact, Shakti vibrates, but the agency of the vibration is attributed to Paramaśiva Who is free from duality. Thus both in Advaita Vedānta and the Spanda philosophy, it is Shakti that vibrates. The details of the concepts of Māyā and Shakti in the two systems are not identical; there are subtle differences which are not insignificant. But, at least on the surface, the one common factor that needs emphasis here is that the active agent is Shakti, named as Vimarśa or Māyā. Even though the Pratyabhijñā and Spanda philosophy is monistic, the Spandaśakti (the Energy of Creative Pulsation) has been termed as śāṅkarī (of śaṅkara or Maheśvara) in Kṣemarāja’s propitiatory verses in his Spandanirṇaya. Vasugupta, in his Shivasūtra, has prayed to Shankara in the first verse and has used the term śāṅkaraṃ caitanyam for the same Svātantrya śakti. Thus, as Māyā is the power of Brahman, so also is Shakti, the power of Maheśvara.
There is both idealism and realism in Pratyabhijñā philosophy. Reality is Universal Consciousness. Without undergoing any change and affecting its undivided, unitary existence, it manifests as the world of diversity and multiplicity. It reflects on its own mirror. This is the doctrine of appearance (ābhāsavāda) in the Pratyabhijñā philosophy. But, in spite of this concept of ābhāsa (appearance), the world is real in this system.
Advaita Vedānta is absolute idealism. Brahman is Pure Consciousness and is the Reality. The world is an illusion; it is not real although not non-existent. A rope is mistaken, due to ignorance, as a snake. In this case, the rope is the substratum (adhiṣṭhāna) and the snake is the illusory appearance. And so is the world which is the illusory appearance of the substratum, Brahman. The whole cosmos is ever-changing. But all these changes are apparent only. Any change is not real since there is nothing other than Brahman that does not change. As gold takes forms of a ring, a necklace, a bangle and still remains as the same gold, the change being in the form and name (ṇāma rūpa) only without changes in the substance, so does Brahman appear as the manifold world of names and forms without undergoing any modification. This is the vivartavāda (doctrine of apparent change) of Advaita Vedānta. There is pratibimbavāda (doctrine of reflection) in Advaita Vedānta. According to this doctrine, the one Brahman (Self or Consciousness) is reflected on its power, Māyā and also on the empirical subtle bodies (liṅgaśarīras). The former reflected image is īśvara (god) and latter reflected images are the empirical selves (jīvas). Although the source of the reflected images (jīvas) is one Brahman only, each jīva is different from the others. One Sun is reflected on many water-reservoirs to appear as many Suns and so is Brahman.
If the fundamentality of the ābhāsavāda of Pratyabhijñā and the pratibimbavāda of Advaita Vedānta is considered at the exclusion of the minute details of the two systems, there seems to be more commonness and less distinctions. Realism, in its rigorous form, does not operate in the Spanda philosophy. Reality (the Universal Consciousness) is one and one only. Due to the vibration or pulsation of one of its bipoles, the world of diversity and multiplicity appears. As different musical tones are produced by the vibration of the string of the violin, so appears the manifold world as a result of the vibration of the Shakti of the Self. This is the essence of the Spanda philosophy. It does not stand the rigors of strict realism. Thus it is not much meaningful to say that Advaita Vedānta is illusionistic and Spanda philosophy is realistic. There has been much confusion over the use of the word “illusion”. Saaṅkarācārya does not deny the existence of the world. He recognizes the absolute existence of Brahman and refutes the absoluteness of the existence of the world. And so is Shaiva monism that recognizes Paramaśiva as the Absolute Universal Consciousness and the world with its phases of manifestation, sustenance and dissolution as the reflection of the Consciousness. Gauḍapāda contends that the prāṇaśakti vibrates. The Shaiva monism maintains that the spandaśakti vibrates. Except the difference in the philosophical jargons, basically the concept seems to be one and the same.
The tāṇḍava dance of Shiva is a symbolic expression of the creative pulsation (spanda). The beating of His drum (damaru) is the further confirmation of the doctrine of vibration. The image of Naṭarāja is a symbolic exhibition of the vigorous steps of the divine dance with the vibrating sounds of the drum. The cosmic creative pulsation comes into being as an external manifestation of the supernal creative joy (ānanda) of Paramaśiva. The ānanda wells up from the Universal Consciousness and vibrates rhythmically to be manifested as the universe.