Abhinavagupta

Over a thousand years ago, one of the world’s most prolific and brilliant literary critics was born in Kashmir.

Abhinavagupta (said to be an incarnation of Bhairava) has written at least 44 works between 950-1020 CE, ranging across philosophy, Tantra, aesthetics and hymns. His education was unrivaled, having had esteemed teachers in grammar, poetry, logic, philosophy, esoteric ritual practice, yoga, art, music and aesthetics. A millennium later, he is recognized by many as being one of the most brilliant writers, philosophers and aestheticians the world has ever known.

For Abhinavagupta, art, the spiritual path and the divine reality were clearly one and the same. In the mind of Abhinavagupta, this cosmos is God’s artistic creation, a creation within which every smallest unit of that creation itself embodies and reflects the divine Artist which is its origin. For this reason, artistic expression — be it poetry, drama, music, painting or any other artistic medium — is just as capable of bringing about spiritual realization as yogic practices.

A thousand years after he entered the Bhairava Cave never to be seen again, we are still only just beginning to appreciate the treasure trove of secrets illuminated by this great Kaśmirī master who left in his wake a priceless legacy of timeless and universal, revelatory wisdom.

-Dr. Jeffrey S. Lidke