Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c8.55

c8.55

The Caryā-padas, following the Tāntric texts, often speak of four gradations in the doctrine of Śūnyatā. In the Pañca-krama of Nāgārjuna-pāda the four gradations have been arranged in the following manner:—the first is the Śūnya, the second Ati-śūnya, the third Mahā-śūnya and the fourth or the final is the Sarva-śūnya,—and these are all different according to their cause and effect.² The first stage Śūnya has been explained as light (āloka)³; it is knowledge (prajñā), and the mind (citta) remains active in it,—it is relative (para-tantra) by nature.⁴ In this state there are as many as thirty three impure functions (doṣa) of the mind; these are sorrow, fear, hunger, thirst, feeling (vedanā), sympathy, self-analysis (pratyavekṣā), kindness, affectionateness, fickleness, doubt, jealousy, etc.⁵ This mental state of Śūnya has also been called the woman (strī) and it has been said that of all illusions the illusion of the woman is the