Sarvadarshanasangraha 8.45

8.45

vivṛtaṃ cābhinavaguptācāryaiḥ/ tam eva bhāntam anubhāti sarvaṃ tasya bhāsā sarvam idaṃ vibhāti iti śrutyā prakāśacidrūpamahimnā sarvasya bhāvajātasya bhāsakatvam abhyupeyate/ tataś ca viṣayaprakāśasya nīlaprakāśaḥ pītaprakāśa iti viṣayoparāgabhedād bhedaḥ/ vastutas tu deśakālākārasaṃkocavaikalyād abheda eva/ sa eva caitanyarūpaḥ prakāśaḥ pramātety ucyate/ tathā ca paṭhitaṃ śivasūtreṣu — caitanyam ātmeti/ tasya cidrūpatvam anavacchinnavimarśatvam ananyonmukhatvam ānandaikaghanatvaṃ māheśvaryam iti paryāyaḥ/ sa eva hy ahaṃbhāvātmā vimarśaḥ śuddhe pāramārthikyau jñānakriye/ tatra prakāśarūpatā jñānam/ svato jagannirmātṛtvaṃ kriyā/ tac ca nirūpitaṃ kriyādhikāre —

The following is an explanation of Abhinava-gupta:—The text, "After that as it shines shines the all of things, by the light of that shines diversely this All," teaches that God illumines the whole round of things by the glory of His luminous intelligence, and that the diversity or plurality of the object world, whereby the light which irradiates objects is a blue, a yellow light, and the like, arises from diversity of tint cast upon the light by the object. In reality, God is without plurality or difference, as transcending all limitations of space, time, and figure. He is pure intelligence, self-luminousness, the manifester; and thus we may read in the Śaiva aphorisms, "Self is intelligence." His synonymous titles are Intelligential Essence, Unintermitted Cognition, Irrespective Intuition, Existence as a mass of Beatitude, Supreme Domination. This self-same existing self is knowledge.

By pure knowledge and action (in the passage of Somānandanātha cited above) are meant real or transcendent cognition and activity. Of these, the cognition is self-luminousness, the activity is energy constructive of the world or series of spheres of transmigratory experience. This is described in the section on activity—