Para, Apara and Parapara

[sm78]

Can anyone enlighten me on the philosophy and practice behind the 3 shaktis in kashmir shaivism, para,apara and parapara ~ beyond the Transcendant, Imminent and Transcendant-Imminent meaning.

para,apara & parapara reference comes in nitya puja viddhi in pitha puja, hence my curosity.

[yajvan]

Hari oṁ
~~~~~

Originally Posted by sm78

Can anyone enlighten me on the philosophy and practice behind the 3 shaktis in kashmir shaivism, para,apara and parapara ~ beyond the Transcendant, Imminent and Transcendant-Imminent meaning.

para,apara & parapara reference comes in nitya puja viddhi in pitha puja, hence my curosity.

Namaste singhi,

I noticed that no-one addressed your question as of yet so I thought to offer the following. This is not exhaustive but offered to give a direction on where your question may be answered.

In Kaśmir Śaivism it operates on the notion of the trika ( 3 fold) system. We know this as śiva , śakti and nara. These are composed of the 3 energies of Śiva-Bhairava i.e.

• parā śakti - considered Supreme energy (śakti)
• parāparā śakti - considered medium śakti
• aparā śakti - lower śakti

Within these 3 energies the whole universe and every action ( worldly, mental, physical, spiritual, etc) exists or are fueled within these 3 śakti-s.
So within kaśmir śaivism and the trika philsophy or Trika Śaivism, it consistes of 4 schools of thought:
Pratyabhijñā ( SELF recognition),
Kula ( a grouping and used for 'totality' , Universal Consciousness),
Krama ( progress made step-by-step),
Spanda ( the throb, movement, SELF-referral of the Divine).

This is where one that is interested can round out their understanding of where parā, parāparā & aparā reside, their influnces, ownerships and transformations of the native occur.

This wonderful knowledge is found in the āgama-s. The āgama-s are made up of the following:

• Bhairava śāstra-s - 64 in number; these are considered non-dual some call monistic; parā
• Rūdra śāstra-s - 18 in number; these are considered dual-non-dual or mono-dualistic ; parāparā
• Śiva śāstra-s - 10 in number; these are considered dualistic; aparā

You can see they total 92 śāstra-s that make up the āgama-s , yet some say there are 96.

IMHO the best way to know parā, parāparā & aparā is through the catagoires of śāstra-s mentioned above & that are available today ( not always easy to get the books with a translation and commentary)

FYI - for the linegage of Kaśmir Śaivism according to Svāmi Laksmanjoo, you may wish to visit this HDF post: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=3150

pranams