About "The Vijnana Bhairava"

About
The Vijñâna Bhairava

The Vijñâna Bhairava is one of the most highly regarded treatises of Kashmir Shaivism. It is believed to have been written sometime before 800 C.E., possibly as early as 500 C.E. The objective of the treatise is to lead the aspirant toward the most expansive state of spiritual consciousness, known as vijñâna. At this level of consciousness, the aspirant gains direct experience of Ultimate Reality, referred to as Bhairava.

The treatise sets forth 112 techniques for expanding one's consciousness. Mastery of any one of these techniques is said to be sufficient to realize Bhairava. For the most part these techniques involve subtle shifts of attention. The general idea is that one should withdraw one's attention from objects which are limited in time and space, and instead focus one's attention on that which is unlimited and omnipresent (i.e., Bhairava). Since it is omnipresent, it should be easy to see; it's just a matter of knowing how to look.

To use an analogy, it's like the universe is a fence with Bhairava pervading both the fence and the chinks in the fence. Although Bhairava is in the fence, it's easier to see Him if you start looking at the chinks. With this in mind, the 112 techniques are mostly geared to pointing out chinks in the universe; it's left to the reader to go look at them.

The techniques themselves are described in the most succinct way imaginable. However Jaideva Singh has composed an invaluable commentary which explains the techniques' underlying philosophical system and further elaborates on their practice. For his translation and commentary, see The yoga of delight, wonder, and astonishment.

Editorial note on the quotations

The quotations cited here were taken from Singh's work. In those cases where Singh used a Sanskrit term followed by an English translation (or vice versa), I have generally omitted the Sanskrit term and only reproduced Singh's English translation.