[146] These are the five, vindu, mala, karman, máyá, and rodhaśakti. Vindu is described in Foulkes' translation of the Śiva-prakáśa-patalai: "A sound proceeds out of the mystical syllable om;... and in that sound a rudimentary atom of matter is developed. From this atom are developed the four sounds, the fifty-one Sanskrit letters, the Vedas, Mantras, &c., the bodily, intellectual, and external enjoyments of the soul that have not attained to spiritual knowledge at the end of each period of the world's existence, and have been swept away by the waters of the world-destroying deluge; after these the three stages of heavenly happiness are developed, to be enjoyed by the souls that have a favourable balance of meritorious deeds, or have devoted themselves to the service of God or the abstract contemplation of the Deity, viz., (1.) the enjoyment of the abode of Śiva; (2.) that of near approach to him; (3.) that of union with him." Vindu is similarly described, J. A. O. S. iv. pp. 152, 153 (cf. also Weber, Rámatápanyía Up. pp. 312-315).
[147] See the same illustrations in J. A. O. S. iv. p. 150.
[148] Some forced derivation seems here intended as of páśa from paśchát.
[149] In p. 90, line 2, read sá káryeṇa.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PRATYABHIJNA-DARSANA, OR RECOGNITIVE SYSTEM.
Other Máheśvaras are dissatisfied with the views set out in the Śaiva system as erroneous in attributing to motiveless and insentient things causality (in regard to the bondage and liberation of transmigrating spirits). They therefore seek another system, and proclaim that the construction of the world (or series of environments of those spirits) is by the mere will of the Supreme Lord. They pronounce that this Supreme Lord, who is at once other than and the same with the several cognitions and cognita, who is identical with the transcendent self posited by one's own consciousness, by rational proof, and by revelation, and who possesses independence, that is, the power of witnessing all things without reference to aught ulterior, gives manifestation, in the mirror of one's own soul, to all entities[150] as if they were images reflected upon it. Thus looking upon recognition as a new method for the attainment of ends and of the highest end, available to all men alike, without any the slightest trouble and exertion, such as external and internal worship, suppression of the breath, and the like, these Máheśvaras set forth the system of recognition (pratyabhijñá). The extent of this system is thus described by one of their authorities—
"The aphorisms, the commentary, the gloss, the two explications, the greater and the less,