Pashupata Shaivism

For the weapon in Hindu mythology, considered most destructive, seePashupatastra.

Pashupata Shaivism(Pāśupata,Sanskrit:पाशुपत) is one of the oldest majorShaiviteHindu schools. The mainstream which followsVedicPāśupata penance are 'Mahāpāśupata' and the schism of 'Lakula Pasupata' ofLakulisa.

There is a debate about pioneership of this schism. On one hand, the Goan school of Nakulisa darsana believes that Nakulisa was pioneer and that Lakulisa and Patanjalinatha were his disciples. On the other hand, the Gujarat school believes that Nakulisa and Lakulisa are one.Sarvadarśanasaṅgrahawritten byVidyaranya(sometimes also known as Madhavacharya) mentions it as "Nakulisa Darsana" not as "Lakulisa Darsana". Both sub schools are still active in their own areas. The philosophy of the Pashupata sect was systematized byLakulīśaalso called Nakulīśa) in the 2nd century CE.

The main texts of the school arePāśupatasūtrawith Kauṇḍinya'sPañcārthabhāṣya,andGaṇakārikāwith Bhāsarvajña'sRatnaṭīkā.Both texts were discovered only in the twentieth century. Prior to that, the major source of information on this sect was a chapter devoted to it inVidyāraṇya'sSarvadarśanasaṅgraha.

History

The date of foundation of the school is uncertain. However, the Pashupatas may have existed from 1st century CE.Gavin Flood dates them to around the 2nd century CE.They are also referred to in the epicMahabharatawhich is thought to have reached a final form by the 4th century CE.The Pashupata movement was influential inSouth Indiain the period between the 7th and 14th century.

During his travels through India in the early 7th century, theBuddhistpilgrim monkXuanzangreported seeing the adherents of Pashupata sect all over the country. In the region ofMalwa,he mentions seeing a hundred temples of different kinds with Pashupats making a majority.In the capital city of the place called ’O-tin-p’o-chi-lo (Atyanabakela), he saw a temple ofShiva,ornamented with rich sculptures, where the Pashupats dwelled.In another city called Langala on the way toPersiafromIndiahe reports seeing several hundredDevatemples with a richly adorned Maheshwara temple where the Pashupats were exceedingly numerous and offered their prayers.

One of the last surviving influential Vedic Pasupatamathaswas the Eka Veerambal matha which existed up to the late 18th century administering theJambukeswarar Temple, Thiruvanaikavaltemple nearTrichyand theRamanathaswamy Temple.

Overview

Pashupata Shaivism was a devotional (bhakti) and ascetic movement.Pashu inPashupatirefers to the effect (or created world), the word designates that which is dependent on something ulterior. Whereas, Pati means the cause (or principium), the word designates the Lord, who is the cause of the universe, the pati, or the ruler.To free themselves from worldly fetters Pashupatas are instructed to do apashupata vrata.Atharvasiras Upanishsad describes the pashupata vrata as that which consists of besmearing one's own body with ashes and at the same time mutteringmantra— "Agni is ashes, Vayu is ashes, Sky is ashes, all this is ashes, the mind, these eyes are ashes."

Haradattacharya, inGaṇakārikā,explains that a spiritual teacher is one who knows the eightpentadsand the three functions. The eight pentads of Acquisition (result of expedience), Impurity (evil in soul), Expedient (means of purification), Locality (aids to increase knowledge), Perseverance (endurance in pentads), Purification (putting away impurities), Initiation and Powers are—

Acquisition	knowledge	penance	permanence of the body	constancy	purity
Impurity	false conception	demerit	attachment	interestedness	falling
Expedient	use of habitation	pious muttering	meditation	constant recollection ofRudra	apprehension
Locality	spiritual teachers	a cavern	a special place	the burning ground	Rudra
Perseverance	the differenced	the undifferenced	muttering	acceptance	devotion
Purification	loss of ignorance	loss of demerit	loss of attachment	loss of interestedness	loss of falling
Initiations	the material	proper time	the rite	the image	the spiritual guide
Powers	devotion to the spiritual guide	clearness of intellect	conquest of pleasure and pain	merit	carefulness

The three functions correspond to the means of earning daily food — mendicancy, living upon alms, and living upon what chance supplies.

Philosophy

Pashupatas disapprove of theVaishnavatheology, known for its doctrine servitude of souls to the Supreme Being, on the grounds that dependence upon anything cannot be the means of cessation of pain and other desired ends. They recognize that those depending upon another and longing for independence will not be emancipated because they still depend upon something other than themselves. According to Pashupatas, spirits possess the attributes of the Supreme Deity when they become liberated from the 'germ of every pain'.In this system the cessation of pain is of two kinds, impersonal and personal. Impersonal consists of the absolute cessation of all pains, whereas the personal consists of development of visual and active powers like swiftness of thought, assuming forms at will etc. The Lord is held to be the possessor of infinite, visual, and active powers.

Pañchārtha bhāshyadipikā divides the created world into the insentient and the sentient. The insentient is unconscious and thus independent on the conscious. The insentient is further divided into effects and causes. The effects are of ten kinds, the earth,four elementsand their qualities, colour etc. The causes are of thirteen kinds, the five organs of cognition, the five organs of action, the three internal organs, intellect, the ego principle and the cognising principle. These insentient causes are held responsible for the illusive identification ofSelfwith non-Self. The sentient spirit, which is subject totransmigrationis of two kinds, the appetent and nonappetent. The appetent is the spirit associated with an organism and sense organs, whereas the non-appetent is the spirit without them.

Union in the Pashupata system is a conjunction of the soul with God through the intellect. It is achieved in two ways, action and cessation of action. Union through action consists of pious muttering, meditation, etc. and union through cessation of action occurs through consciousness.

Rituals

Rituals andspiritual practiceswere done to acquiremeritor puṇya. They were divided into primary and secondary rituals, where primary rituals were the direct means of acquiring merit. Primary rituals included acts of piety and various postures. The acts of piety were bathing thrice a day, lying upon sand and worship with oblations of laughter, song, dance, sacred muttering etc.

See also

• Indian philosophy
• Kashmir Shaivism
• Shaiva Siddhanta

References

• Cowell, E. B.; Gough, A. E. (2001).The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha or Review of the Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy: Trubner's Oriental Series.Taylor & Francis.ISBN978-0-415-24517-3.
• Flood, Gavin, ed. (2003).The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism.Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.ISBN1-4051-3251-5.
• Michaels, Axel (2004).Hinduism: Past and Present.Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.ISBN0-691-08953-1.