T H E   P R A T Y A B H I J N A   S C H O O L

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PART 3
RECOGNIZE WHAT IS ETERNAL
One of the main inspirational sources of this school was the philosophy of the Shaivasiddhanta School. Although, it is a dualist School insisting on the difference between God and the individual soul, it foreshadows many essential elements that define the philosophy of the Recognition of the Supreme Divine Essence School (Pratyabhijna).

The world is very real and the consciousness is the ultimate reality of God and of the individual soul.

Consequently, the doctrine of the Pratyabhijna School does not condemn or deny the illusionary nature of the existence of perception, of the inference of thoughts or of other means because they are supported by the fundamental reality of God the Father’s Absolute Consciousness.

This dualistic school (Shaivasiddhanta) also sustains that the recognition phenomenon is proof that objects are not momentary and illusionary; they are essential for speech and for expression through sounds, they directly derive from the manifestation of the energy of the Supreme Logos (paravak).

If it wasn’t so, we could believe that this energy of the logos does not exist, or that the subtle sound itself, (shabda), that it manifests is actually illusionary.

Furthermore, the Shaivasiddhanta School asserts that it is absolutely necessary that the Supreme Consciousness Self (Atman) should be unchanging and should remain in eternity as the supreme and ultimate reality of the human being, in order to make sure the connection between present and a subsequent perception, a necessary condition for the Recognition phenomenon.


THE SUPREME SELF EXISTS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF YOU
In Somananda’s text, Shivadrishti, the word Pratyabhijna appears only once and has a different meaning than the one eventually given by Utpaladeva, Somananda’s disciple.

Somananda wanted to prove that there is an indestructible unity between the previous perception of an object and the remembrance of this object so that the recognition of the same object, and not of another one’s, should be possible.

Thus, Somananda shows that the two types of perception (the previous perception and the remembrance of perception) are supported by the fundamental element of the Divine Unity in Creation.

He analyses the act of Recognition as being in fact the intuitive capacity of the consciousness to be totally aware of its own nature. Utpaladeva was the first one who mentioned this fundamental extension of the recognition phenomena.

Let’s say that two days ago we met a person with whom we talked for a while. When we remember that person, the fundamental element that makes the remembrance and recognition acts possible is, in fact, the Consciousness of the Supreme Self which is the same for all beings.

This is the profound and “fundamental remembrance” of any act, event or phenomenon of Creation and it (this Recognition of the Supreme Spiritual Essence) is considered to be the doctrinaire basis of the Pratyabhijna school.

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