A Ferocious Light: Medieval Śaiva Imagery

Kṣemarāja, the 11th century Kashmiri Śaiva, begins his commentary on the Vijñānabhairava with a beautiful opening benediction which simultaneously comments upon and praises the meaning / reality (artha) of Bhairava, Śiva's horrific incarnation and the eponymous diety of the text. Bhairava, beyond being a legendary archetypal figure [known for roaming around cremation grounds, followed by jackals, eyes bulging with intoxicants], often denotes the supreme inner reality of a Śaiva practitioner who has realized his identity with the light whose form is the totality of the universe. This immanent-cum-transcendent level of being, above or within Śivatattva, can helpfully be termed trans-dual [click here for a description of this system's higher nonduality (parādvaita)], in that it offers a non-dual vision of reality that includes, and even embraces, the diversity of the world. I now will offer a rough translation of Kṣemarāja's benediction and a short comment:

bhīrūṇāmabhayaprado bhavabhayākrandasya hetustato
hŗddhāmni prathitaśca bhīravarucāmīśo 'ntakasyāntakaḥ |
bhīraṁ vāyati yaḥ svayoginivahastasya prabhurbhairavo
viśvasminbharaṇādikṛdvijayate vijñānarūpaḥ paraḥ || 1 ||

The one who performs the [cosmic actions] such as supporting the universe, embodying the highest wisdom, lord Bhairava, is victorious. That fear (bhīraṁ) extinguisher ([vā]yati) is the support of his own yogis, he is the death of [all] death. That lord is radiating (prathitaḥ) a terrifying lustre into the abode of the heart and because of that (tato), he is the means for one lamenting from the fear that is worldly existence, bestowing fearlessness upon the fearful. || 1 ||

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This verse reminds me of the classic trope from martial arts flicks -- kill poison with poison. Here, the terrifying Lord is etymologically explained as bhairava -- bhīraṁ vāyati (an upapadatatpuruṣa compound) literally meaning the one who is 'blowing' / or 'emitting' fear. I took the liberty to translate it as 'extinguishing' based upon the main imagery of Bhairava "radiating a terrifying lustre" that directly enters the heart of his yogis, and in the process bestows fearlessness (i.e., extinguishes fear). This Bhairava is also depicted in this verse as a cosmic process sustaining the entire universe, a personal deity supporting his devotees, and the very nature and namesake of the scripture Kṣemarāja introduces, the Vijñānabhairava: Bhairava whose form is sublime wisdom. The purpose of benedictory verses is to remove obstacles, and Kṣemarāja elaborates upon this purpose, grammatically analyzing the deity invoked, clarifying him as the very nature of the revealed text, and showing how this act of praise towards Bhairava can transform the primary obstacle that identity with the phenomenal world necessitates -- fear.

Bhairava, then, is a higher order agent of fear, one that squashes all other fears, just as he is a higher order of death that ends all forms of death (antakasyāntakaḥ). In speaking about Bhairava in relationship to an individual, the imagery of cosmic ferocity which radiates this meta-fear is idealized as a sheer potency for eradicating everything that limits agency. In the text that follows we are given a garland of 112 micro-practices or contemplative techniques (dhāraṇas) that help enable the firmness of our resolve to face and ultimately merge into this ferocious, cosmic Bhairava -- a process that is itself modeled by a cosmic resorption of Bhairava into Bhairava. With that in mind, Kṣemarāja invokes a power that can expose all the obstacles to that transformative process, and then scare them to death.