Spiritual orphans: Is it the end of Kashmiri Shaiva lineage ?

Has the lineage of Shaiva Masters,especially in the context of oral tradition and guru shishya parampara, that existed in the Himalayan valley of Kashmir for over a millennia, ended? Was Swami Lakshaman joo last in the lineage? Is Shaiva tradition on decline or dying in the land of its birth? Is observing some festivals and rituals giving us a false feeling of being Shaivites? Are we being hypocrites who keep on harping about Shaiva roots and ignore the fact that Shaiva traditions are fading from the Kashmiri ethos?

If renowned physicists are discovering the parallels between Spanda and quantum physics, why our leaders and scholars have failed to teach us even the simple Shaiva traditions and their significance in the modern idiom. Do they really know or understand it themselves. How many of them would have read all the volumes of Abhinavgupta’s masterpiece Tantraloka, forget about understanding it and teaching it.


It pains me that our elders have failed in passing on the teachings and the essence. Our generation is like potted plants lying on dusty staircases of high rise buildings, content with our stunted and claustrophobic potted roots. Phony words and claims of great Shaivist heritage are no substitute for the real transmission, for real earthy touch.


In this sense, I feel like a spiritual orphan, who is trying to fathom the sea of Shaivism on his own with few paper boats (books, cyberworld) and limited knowledge. Nietzsche says somewhere ``One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil’’. Given the stature of Shaiva Masters like Abhinavgupta’s, Vasugupta or Swami Ram, we have really been very bad repayers.


Our generation watches the rituals and traditions of our community in exile with great amusement, unaware of their underlying spiritual significance. The fact is that elaborate rituals are now skipped on most occasions and short cuts are being taken- be it in rituals related to birth, death, birthdays or marriages. Gloss has overtaken most of our functions, while the spiritual side has taken a backseat. It seems that we are slowly moving towards a collective spiritual amnesia.




The realization of this spiritual blackhole dawned on me, when few years back I met world famous authority on Tantra and Kashmiri Shaivism, Mark Dyczkowski, who originally hails from Russia, in Jammu. It was a dream come true, an encounter that exposed my ignorance about the real significance of Shaivism and my superficial academic understanding of it.


I had always deeply desired to see a real Shaiva master and talk with him or her or at least be face to face with a real scholar who knows the secrets of Shaiva tradition of Kashmir. I hardly know of any living Kashmiri who can be said to be a living Shaiva Master or a real scholar who knows the mysteries of Shaivism. May be there are secret Masters, but almost no one is in the public domain who can be given the credit for taking the Shaivist lineage forward.


Dyczkowski was in Jammu to attend a conference. When I came to know about it, I was very excited. After few enquires that day, I came to know he was in the famous Raghunath Sanskrit Library, looking for some ancient texts. I was not aware where the famous Library, whose catalogue of nearly 6000 rare Sanskrit texts was prepared by Sir Aurel Stein himself in 1894, was.


I knew it was somewhere near the Raghunath temple. After half an hour of search and directions from the local shopkeepers, I reached the Library. I made a mental map of questions in English, which I had to ask. For me, Dyczkowski was a Russian scholar, who had studied Shaivism. A foreign scholar. I had imagined him as a high brow scholar, with an air of aloofness and absentmindedness, who would dish out replies in Hinglish accent. But when I saw him, I was taken aback. He was antithesis of everything that I had imagined about him. He was sitting comfortably in a chair in front of the Library. Basking in winter sun and conversing with scholar employee of the Library, he was eating groundnuts with a laidback approach, his demeanour never suggesting that he was the man who wrote the famous Doctrine of Vibration. Wearing a casual kameez payijama, with silky white beard and a shining face, he seemed a rishi from some ancient era. His eyes had the freshness of wonder and a soft glint of a child. He spoke in fluent Hindi, surprising me further. And I switched over to Hindi as well, loving his gentle sprinkling of Sanskrit shalokas intermittently.


After introducing myself, I started asking him general questions, trying to cover-up my ignorance of the higher topics of which he was a master. When I told him, that even now there are no institutions or research centres dedicated to the study of Shaivism in the land of its birth, he was surprised, but didn’t show much emotion. He told me that it was indeed surprising that while in many parts of the world, hundreds of institutions and scholars are dedicatedly researching various facets of Kashmiri Shaivism and the works of various Shaiva masters like Abhinavgupta, Vasugupta, Anandvardhan, Bhatta Kalatta and so no, here, in the birthland, nothing like that was happening .


When I asked him how he was initiated into the mysteries of Shaivism, looking far into the distance, as if looking at the fast collage of the past events, he recalled that it was great Shaiva master Swami Lakshaman joo who had initiated him in 1976. Even after studying different aspects of Shaivism for the last four decades, I could see the reverence in his eyes for his Master.


Then suddenly, as if hinting that my earlier question was not that important or foolish, he said, ``To understand the mysteries of Shaivism, one needs grace of Lord Shiva and then dedicated efforts in the right direction’’.


As if questioning my stress on books and institutions, Mark said with a childlike innocence, ``If the grace of Shiva is there , then only the spark will aflame your soul, then only access to the teachings of Shaivism through different mediums like books, CDs, audio cassettes, book exhibitions, workshops, seminars and lectures of scholars will help and mature your recognition’’ .


On his relations with the Ishwar ashram, the ashram of Swami Lakshaman joo, he said that he is not much in touch,….hinting subtly that how he got disillusioned with the ashram affairs after the departure of the Master.




That day I felt I had met a person, who has transcended the scholarship of Shaivism and was now moving on the higher paths as a seeker. His life is evident of his dedication towards understanding the mysteries of Shaivist tantra. He has devoted his whole life to the study, collation, edition, translation and interpretation of manuscripts of the Shaiva and Kaula Tantra. Dyczkowski, who lives and works in Benares is a Masters in Philosophy and Indian Religion from Benares Hindu University and has studied Sanskrit grammar and literature with Pandit Ambikadatta Upadhyaya. After graduating from BHU, he went to England, finished his doctorate in 1980 at Oxford University where he studied under the eminent Prof Alexis Sanderson, on the Spanda School of Kashmiri Shaivism. In 1980 he came back to Benares and started his research work.


This man who is author of The Aphorisms of Siva, The Stanzas on Vibration, 14 volume work on the Kubajika tantra, had no scholarly air about his being. He seemed a simple Shaiva bhakt to me, a modern day rishi . His simple demeanour, seemed to defy the fact that he is arguably the most original and wide-ranging scholar of Hindu Tantra alive today. As a community, I feel ashamed that we don’t invite him in our functions, for lectures, discourses, workshops for young or for felicitating him. Most of our leaders are busy in petty organizational politics, factionism and mini power struggles.


If this generation fails to carry forward the Shaiva traditions and the lineage, a day will come when all that will be left will be a swelled fan list on Shaivism groups on social sites like facebook and hollow claims of our great Shaiva heritage. The real touch of a master, a real seeker is missing somewhere….words and clicks help to a certain level…but primarily one needs grace, guidance and guru….


That day when I accompanied Mark Dyczkowski back to his university guestroom , where he was staying, in an auto-rickshaw, I felt his silent grace and love……it was wordless….when we departed….he just smiled with his eyes beaming with childlike wonder….that day I felt as if all Shaiva masters of last one millennia were smiling through him…. I recognized in his eyes a somewhat similar expression that I had once seen as a kid in the compassionate eyes of Swami Lakshaman joo, while he blessed me and gave me handfuls of prasad at his Ishwar Ashram in Kashmir….