Pauṣkarāgama
By Swami Harshananda
Significance of Pauṣkarāgama[edit]
The Pauṣkarāgama is a minor work and is said to be a supplement to the Pārameśvarāgama, which is listed as the 26th of the major Śaivāgamas. Though it has been quoted in some other important works like the Sarva-darśanasañgraha of Mādhavācārya,[1] the full text has not been secured till now. The origin of the title Pauṣkarāgama seems to be rather obscure.
Sections of Pauṣkarāgama[edit]
Out of the four pādas which every āgama is said to contain, this work available in print today has only the last section. These four sections are:
- Kriyāpāda
- Caryapāda
- Yogapāda
- Vidyāpāda or Jñānapāda
Vidyāpāda or Jñānapāda[edit]
The present text is in the form of a dialogue between Lord Śiva and some sages. There are eight paṭalas or sections containing a total of 971 ślokas or verses. The contents may be briefly summarized as follows:
- There are six categories out of which Śiva is pati or the Supreme Lord.
- The jīvas or individual souls are paśus.[2]
- Bindu is the manifold creation shrunk into a point as it were, after pralaya or destruction.
- When Śiva wills for the next cycle of creation, this is called ‘saṅkalpa’ in the āgama, his Śakti[3] operates on the bindu which actually is the material cause of this universe.</ref> and makes it evolve into this world.
- The jīvas or individual souls are eternal. But they have got into bondage[4] due to malas or impurities such as:
- General yogic practices including yama and niyama help the jīvas to be cleansed of the malas and regain their original state fully.
- The work also devotes some space to describe four pramāṇas or means of knowledge. They are:
- Pratyakṣa - direct perception
- Anumāna - inference
- Śabda or Āgama - the Vedas
- Arthāpatti - presumption
Commentary of Pauṣkarāgama[edit]
Umāpati Śivācārya[5] has written a commentary. From it, one can safely presume that the full text of the Pauṣkarāgama was available at that time and was quite popular.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore