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Hindu Saints and Philosophers Details
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Hagiography
<p>Utpaladeva, a philosopher and theologian from Kashmir who lived from around 900 to 950 CE, was a significant figure in the Trika Shaiva tradition. He is considered the most important thinker of the Pratyabhijñā school of monistic idealism, and his most prominent work, the Īśvarapratyabhijñā-Kārikā (Verses on the Recognition of the Lord), is central to this school of thought. While Utpaladeva was a major influence on the great exegete Abhinavagupta, who would later overshadow Utpaladeva's works, many of Abhinavagupta's ideas are seen as developments of Utpaladeva's teachings, according to Indologist Raffaele Torella.</p>
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<p>For Utpaladeva, the supreme reality, Shiva, is "an absolute I", the atman, a singular subject or consciousness.[4] As Torella notes, Utpaladeva constantly works to prove, contra the Buddhists, that there is "a single, dynamic subject that unifies and animates the discontinuity of reality and constitutes the substratum of every limited subject, as well as of every form and activity of everyday life."[4]</p> <p>Utpaladeva's view of God is stated in the <em>Īśvarapratyabhijñā-Kārikā</em>:</p> <p>There is only one Great Divinity, and it is the very inner Self of all creatures. It embodies itself as all things, full of unbroken awareness of three kinds: “I”, “this”, and “I am this.”[5]</p> <p>According to Torella, another important and original contribution of Utpaladeva is his doctrine of "abhasas" (light, radiance, manifestations), which sees everything as radiant manifestations of the ultimate consciousness of Shiva which is their necessary foundation. Each "manifestation" is a kind of universal and is connected with a specific Sanskrit word. Torella also notes however that the term abhasa was not a new term "but was commonly used in the Vedantic and Buddhist schools."[6] Torella explains Utpaladeva's view of God as follows:[7]</p> <p>This I or Consciousness is, on the religious plane, Siva. In his highest form, the supreme divine personality is solely 'I' - consisting of consciousness and beatitude - in whom all the principles are contained though in a state of complete dissolution. He is present throughout the IPK as the ultimate essence of every reality and is also directly mentioned here and there, even if the stage is generally occupied by a less extreme form of him, which balances between transcendence and immanence. In fact, being an expository work, which requires an object to teach and a recipient of this teaching; it cannot but deal with that form of the God which is open to the world of manifestation, whilst firmly remaining its sovereign. On the supreme plane there is only the I resting in his fullness and no trace of the knowable remains...this more accessible form of the God is connected with the second level. It is mainly indicated as Mahesvara, Isvara, Isa, Prabhu, whereas the supreme form is often given the name of Siva or Paramesvara, but there certainly are exchanges between these two series - which indirectly points out the fact that it is a question of a sole reality and that every distinction of degree and figure is purely instrumental to the expository requirements.</p> <p>This supreme reality expresses itself through a scale of tattvas (reality) in a manner similar to that of Shaivasiddhanta philosophy (all the while remaining thoroughly monistic in character).[8]</p> <p>Utpaladeva also provided an argument for the existence of God (Ishvara) which was at least partly drawn on Nyaya sources. According to Isabelle Ratie, this argument states that "the universe is an effect consisting of a specific arrangement that must have been created by an intelligent agent considered as its efficient cause." Furthermore, for Utpaladeva, given the complexity and harmony of the universe, this creator must be omniscient and omnipotent.[9]</p>
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