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| Bhairava, source of speech |
What shines inwardly in undivided form is the source of all later articulation
evam amunā krameṇa sadoditatā evaṃparamārthamayatvāt parameśvarasya cittattvasya
yad eva avibhāgena antarvastu sphuritaṃ
“Thus, in this sequence, because the consciousness-principle of the Supreme Lord is ever-risen and made of the highest reality, whatever shines inwardly in an undivided way…”
Abhinavagupta begins here from the deepest pole again.
Before letters, words, sentences, Paśyantī, Madhyamā, and Vaikharī — there is antar-vastu sphuritam: an inward shining content, not yet split. And this shining belongs to parameśvarasya cittattvasya — the consciousness-principle of the Supreme Lord.
That matters because the later stages are not being introduced as additions from outside. They are developments of what already shines inwardly in an undivided way.
The phrase sadoditatā is powerful here: ever-risen, never setting. Consciousness is not waiting to become luminous. It is always already risen. And because it is paramārthamayam, made of the highest reality, its inward shining is not a psychological event inside an individual mind. It is the primary fact from which the whole articulated order will unfold.
So the point is simple but foundational:
the source of speech is not sound,
not concept,
not grammar,
but inward undivided shining.
This is why Abhinava keeps refusing every crude model of language. He will allow letters, words, and sentences, but only as later formations of something more primary.
So this line re-establishes the root: the Supreme as consciousness is ever-risen, and what shines inwardly without division is the real beginning of all subsequent articulation.
In Paśyantī, the inner shining is touched by the urge to divide into letters, words, and sentences
“That very thing, in the plane of Paśyantī, is touched by the desire to divide into letter, word, and sentence.”
Now the first turn happens.
What was inwardly shining in an undivided way does not yet become fully divided. But in Paśyantī it is already parāmṛṣṭa — touched, contacted, seized — by vibibhājayiṣā, the urge or will to divide into varṇa, pada, and vākya.
That matters because Paśyantī is not blank unity. The later articulated order is already nascent there, but only as impulse, not yet as completed division.
So this is a very exact description of the threshold:
not yet letter,
not yet word,
not yet sentence,
but already the pressure toward them.
That helps a lot. Paśyantī is often spoken of too vaguely, as if it were just some luminous pre-language. Abhinava is sharper. It is the stage where articulation is already stirring in seed form. The whole later linguistic body is implicit there as a will-to-differentiate.
And the word vibibhājayiṣā is strong. This is not passive drift. There is an active tendency toward manifestation, toward making distinctions explicit.
So the line shows how speech begins to be born:
first inward undivided shining,
then in Paśyantī the first touch of division,
still compact,
still inward,
but no longer without directional force.
That is why Paśyantī matters so much. It is the first inward leaning of the undivided whole toward articulated expression.
In Madhyamā, it stands in difference, gathered around an object-basis
“And in the state of Madhyamā, it stands in differentiation, compactly gathered with an object-basis.”
Now the division has advanced.
In Paśyantī, the inner shining was only touched by the urge to divide. Here in Madhyamā, it is already bhedena sthitam — standing in difference. So the distinctions are no longer only implicit tendency. They have taken inward form.
But they are still saṃnannaṃ — compact, collected, not yet spread into full outer articulation. And they are vastu-pūrvakam — with an object-basis. That is important. The articulation is no longer pure undivided inward shining. It is now organized around something like a determinate content.
So Madhyamā is the middle exactly because both things are true at once:
difference is present,
yet the articulated spread is still inwardly held.
That makes the progression very exact:
- in Paśyantī: the will to divide
- in Madhyamā: differentiation standing inwardly in compact form
- later in Vaikharī: full outer spread
So Abhinava is again refusing vagueness. Madhyamā is not just “inner speech” in a loose sense. It is the stage where inward articulation already has structure and object-oriented content, but has not yet broken out into externalized sequence.
The path from undivided consciousness to articulated language is not abrupt. It passes through a real inward zone where differentiation is already standing, but still gathered within.
All the way to Vaikharī, it becomes the differentiated māyīya construction of letters, words, and sentences
yāvat vaikharyantam anuttaraṃ katham ityādi bhinnamāyīya-varṇa-pada-vākya-racanāntam
“Thus, all the way down to Vaikharī, the Anuttara becomes the differentiated māyīya construction of letters, words, and sentences — beginning with forms such as ‘how?’ and the like.”
Now the descent reaches full spread.
What was inwardly undivided, then touched by the will to divide in Paśyantī, then inwardly differentiated in Madhyamā, now extends up to Vaikharī as bhinna-māyīya-varṇa-pada-vākya-racanā — a differentiated, māyīya construction of letters, words, and sentences.
That matters because Abhinava is not treating outer speech as foreign to the source. He is saying that Anuttara itself comes this far. The unsurpassable does not stop at inward subtlety. It appears even as articulated language.
But the word māyīya matters. At this level, the construction is shaped by differentiation, partition, explicitness, and the spread of distinct units. This is language as built in the field of division.
So the point is double:
- Vaikharī is still the unfolding of Anuttara
- yet it is Anuttara under the conditions of explicit differentiated construction
That is exactly why speech can both reveal and conceal. It reveals because its root is still the supreme. It conceals because, at this level, it is arranged in the māyīya mode — separated letters, words, sentences, sequence, distinction.
The little phrase katham ityādi is also telling. Even ordinary articulated forms like “how?” already belong to this spread. So Abhinava is not speaking only about sacred mantras or exalted utterances. The ordinary machinery of language has arisen within this same descent.
So this line completes the arc:
the whole path from Anuttara to ordinary speech is one continuous unfolding,
but one that becomes increasingly shaped by explicit difference as it reaches Vaikharī.
This very unfolding, though unnoticed, is the mouth of Bhairava
etadeva tadanupalakṣyaṃ bhairavavaktram
“This very thing, though not ordinarily recognized as such, is the mouth of Bhairava.”
This line has to be read carefully, because otherwise it can seem to contradict the earlier distinction.
Previously Abhinavagupta said that when the movement is viewed under the predominance of śakti in the mode of sṛṣṭi, the fitting recognition is Devī; and when the predominance falls on śaktimat in the mode of saṃhāra, the marvel is Bhairava. So one might expect the unfolding into speech to be described only in Devī-terms.
But here the angle has shifted.
Abhinava is no longer naming the process primarily from the side of which power predominates within a given cosmic gesture. He is naming the whole articulated unfolding from the side of its source and utterance. And from that angle, it is fitting to call it Bhairava’s mouth.
So this is not a contradiction. It is a change of vantage.
From the side of creative predominance, the fitting recognition is Devī, because manifestation is being viewed as the surge of śakti.
From the side of the supreme speaking source, the whole process can be called Bhairava-vaktra, because the articulated emergence of letters, words, and sentences is the opening of the Lord’s own utterance.
In other words:
- Devī names the unfolding as power in emergence
- Bhairava’s mouth names the same unfolding as issued from the sovereign source
That is why the word vaktra matters. He is not merely saying “this is Bhairava” in a general sense. He is saying this is the mouth of Bhairava — the expressive opening through which the whole progression into speech takes place.
So the logic becomes:
the process is creative, therefore rightly describable as Devī from the śakti-side;
but the very same process is also the utterance of the supreme, therefore rightly describable as Bhairava’s mouth from the source-side.
This is exactly the kind of shift Abhinava makes often. He does not keep one name fixed to one layer mechanically. He rotates the same reality and names it according to the aspect under emphasis.
So the line does not cancel the previous Devī/Bhairava polarity. It gathers it. The unfolding of speech is Devī from the side of expressive power, and Bhairava’s mouth from the side of the supreme speaker.
The mouth of Bhairava is the seed of the Trika śāstra and the one life of all beings
sṛṣṭiparāmarśātmakam
anuttarāhaṃbhāvasāra
ākārākārarūpaśivaśaktisaṃghaṭṭasamāpattikṣobhātmakaṃ
trikaśāstraprasarabījaṃ dhruvapadaṃ maulikaṃ sarvajīvatāṃ jīvanaikarūpam
“It is of the nature of the self-apprehension of creation; it has as its essence the unsurpassable state of ‘I’; it is constituted by the upheaval born of the union and collision of Śiva and Śakti in the form of akāra and hākāra; it is the seed of the expansion of the Trika śāstra, the fixed point, the primordial root, the single life of all living beings.”
Now Abhinavagupta tells us what this bhairava-vaktra, the mouth of Bhairava, actually is.
First: sṛṣṭi-parāmarśātmakam. It is of the nature of the self-apprehension of creation. So yes, the creative side is fully present here. That is important after the earlier confusion. The line itself confirms that this “mouth of Bhairava” is not something opposed to emergence. It is the very self-awareness through which manifestation opens.
Second: anuttara-ahaṃ-bhāva-sāra. Its essence is the unsurpassable aham. This is the real center. The whole unfolding into language, scripture, and manifestation does not begin from objecthood, not from “this,” but from the supreme “I”-sense of consciousness.
Third: ākārākārarūpa-śiva-śakti-saṃghaṭṭa-samāpatti-kṣobha-ātmakaṃ. This is one of those extremely compressed Abhinavan lines. The point is that the process is born from the dynamic shock, the upheaval, of Śiva and Śakti coming into union. Not static unity, but living collision, living pressure, living awakening into expression. This is why speech and manifestation are not dead mechanisms. They issue from a primal spanda.
Then he piles up the consequences.
This is the seed of the spread of the Trika śāstra. That means scripture is not an external literary product later composed about reality. Its real germ is here, in this very primal Bhairavic opening.
It is dhruvapada — the fixed point.
It is maulika — the root, the original principle.
And most strikingly, it is sarva-jīvatāṃ jīvanaika-rūpam — the one life of all living beings.
That last phrase matters a lot. Abhinava is not only talking about esoteric scripture or rare mystical experience. He is saying that this same primal opening is the very life in all lives. The mouth of Bhairava is not only the source of revelation. It is the living core of sentience itself.
So this whole section is really gathering everything into one point:
the source of language,
the source of scripture,
the source of manifestation,
and the source of life itself
are not different.
They are one living Bhairavic opening rooted in the supreme aham, born from the dynamic union of Śiva and Śakti.
That is why the line becomes so grand so quickly. Abhinava is no longer merely describing stages of speech. He is naming the generative center of Trika itself.
Because there is no delimitation, no particular place can be assigned
with the glossed objection:
nanu ca ... devībhairavayoḥ sthānanirdeśaṃ karoti yathā ... kailāsaśikharāsīnam ... ihāpi tat avacitam eva iti kiṃ na kṛtam
“For that very reason, because there is no delimitation, designation of a place and the like is not possible.”
Glossed objection:
“But in other scriptures one does specify the place of Devī and Bhairava, for example, ‘seated on the peak of Kailāsa’ and so on. Why was that not done here as well?”
This follows very exactly from the previous line.
If this bhairava-vaktra is the seed of the Trika śāstra, the primordial root, and the one life of all beings, then it cannot be fenced into one location. That is the force of vyavaccheda-abhāva — absence of delimitation, absence of a cut that would isolate it here rather than there.
So Abhinava’s point is not merely literary. He is not saying, “This text just prefers not to mention Kailāsa.” He is saying that at the level being spoken of here, place-language becomes inadequate.
That matters because tantric texts often do begin with a setting:
Śiva and Śakti on Kailāsa,
a cremation ground,
a peak,
a sacred seat,
a divine assembly.
Those settings have value. They situate revelation within the imaginal and theological field of manifestation. But here Abhinava is driving deeper. If the source being described is truly without delimitation, then assigning it to one place would already misstate it.
So the objection is natural and intelligent:
“Why not say here too that Devī and Bhairava are seated somewhere specific?”
And the answer is:
because this teaching is speaking from a level prior to such localization.
This fits the whole logic of the passage. The same source has already been described as:
- ever-risen
- inwardly undivided
- unfolding into all speech
- the one life of all beings
Once that is said, a fixed spatial setting would shrink the claim.
A simple analogy helps. If someone says “light is in this lamp,” that is fine at one level. But if the discussion is about the nature of luminosity as such, fixing it to one lamp would miss the point. In the same way, Kailāsa and similar locations may function symbolically or theologically, but here Abhinava is speaking of the non-delimited source itself.
So this line is a kind of purification. It refuses to let the mind picture the supreme event of revelation as though it happened only at one sacred address. The source is not place-bound, and therefore place-designation is not fitting here.
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