Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir: A Translation and Study of Utpaladeva's Shivastotravali (The Su Ny Series in the Shaiva Traditions of Kashmir)

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous songs of love and devotion
Review: This book has been around for almost twenty years and I've never read it and no one has reviewed it. Unbelievable!

After a few years of shopping around, following a profound religious experience twenty years ago, I threw myself at the feet of Gurumayi, the new head of the Siddha Yoga lineage at that time, and she has been my Guru ever since. I tried to be a good Shaivite, her tradition, and I think I was and am, but I also always felt drawn strongly to practice Buddhism, so after a number of requests and forays on my part I left her tradition and, with her grace and blessings, practiced Buddhism. Yet there has always been something of the Shaivite in my heart, and she is still my root Guru in this life, and so occasionally even now I will drive a few hours to go to one of her centers and chant ecstatically for an evening and reconnect with the energy there. It does my heart good. On one such evening recently I went there in a rather ragged mood, and before the evening program started I spent a few minutes in the bookstore, where I happened upon this book. I had never seen it before, but had always admired the Shiva Sutras and other works from Kashmir Shaivism, as well as ecstatic poetry from several Hindu traditions, and had continued to read and re-read such books long after I had formally transitioned to Buddhist practices. So I took this book down from the shelf, and as I stood there leafing through the pages that night the ecstatic words of the poems hit every foul mood I'd been having and just evaporated them. I purchased it on the spot, brought it home and read through it slowly, savoring the joy and the beauty of these twenty poems.

To understand the setting of the poems, the introduction begins: "Utpaladeva (ca. A.D. 900-950), well known as the founder of the Pratyabhijna school of philosophy in Kashmir, is best remembered for his philosophical treatises, most notably the Isvarapratyabhijnakarika, which, with its commentary, Vimarsini, of Abhinavagupta, constitutes a major contribution to Indian philosophy in general. But Utpaladeva was, foremost, a highly realized devotee of Shiva, and is considered in Kashmiri tradition to have been a siddha ("perfected being")".

Just to say a little about what these poems address, the author also states in her introduction that, "these songs were not composed by Utpaladeva as a single, structured work, but rather were written sporadically, during particular moods of devotional joy, anguish, praise, or of the mere reflection of his own philosophical ideas". These incredible poems essentially convey in rich imagery all the beautiful, intoxicating joy AND all the beautiful, intoxicating suffering, the poignant longing that is the Path of Bhakti, the path of devotion, the path of love.

Besides the poems themselves, what I've also come to admire in this book is the straightforward introduction by the author, Constantina Rhodes Bailly. She really does a masterful job of presenting clearly, with a minimum of jargon, the ideas behind this religious approach, and she then furthers these explanations with tactfully sparse and concise footnotes to explain some of the more obscure passages in the poems themselves. Most of the poems are so clearly presented, however, that no explanation is required at all. The poems are also presented again at the back of the book as transliterations from the Sanskrit, in case you'd like to chant them! Also at the back, along with notes and bibliography and such, is a brief (three page) but highly useful description of the Pratyabhijna, the Doctrine of Recognition of which this poet was the founding philosopher/theologian.

My only complaint is a quite small one: the language of the poems is a bit lackluster. It is really good, but it is not great. A better poet might have fully polished these poems to the luster they deserve. But really, my complaint shows an overly critical and ungrateful, petty mind: Ms. Bailly has done a pretty solid, if not stunning, job of bringing these devotional poems to life, and we are all much the better for it. Anyone who has ever had a divine longing in their heart will recognize a brother here in Utpaladeva.