Lakshman Joo´s secret

 

Credit: Lady Melamori@MeLamoricosplay (at X)

Swami Lakshman Joo (1907-1991) was a Tantric Hindu teacher in the Kashmir Shaivism tradition, apparently regarded as extinct during his lifetime. It´s not entirely clear to me, but it seems that most of what passes for “Kashmir Shaivism” today (at least in the West) can be traced back to Lakshman Joo, who taught both Western scholars, beat poets and other spiritual teachers. I recently read a tribute to Lakshman Joo by British Indologist Alexis Sanderson, “Swami Lakshman Joo and His Place in the Kashmirian Shaiva Tradition”, published in the 2007 collection “Samvidullasah: Manifestation of Divine Consciousness. Swami Lakshman Joo: Saint-Scholar of Kashmir Shaivism. A Centenary Tribute”. Sanderson´s text is available free on the web, but the collection as a whole isn´t, so the context is lacking. I get the impression that Sanderson wants to defend Lakhsman Joo´s place in the Kashmir Shaiva tradition against unnamed critics who had perhaps questioned his proper credentials. Sanderson had studied the works of Kashmir Shaiva sage Abhinava Gupta (10^th century) under Lakshman Joo, but I can´t help wondering if Sanderson´s sympathies go further still. Not that there is anything bad with that, of course!

There are several related problems with the transmission and survival of Kashmir Shaivism (really a cluster of several different traditions, some of which Abhinava Gupta tried to syncretize). One is that less scriptures are preserved the further away we get from Abhinava´s time. During the 13^th century, commentator Jayaratha sometimes misunderstood Abhinava Gupta´s points, for the simple reason that the source texts were no longer available. The situation got progressively worse in later centuries, to a large extent because of the Muslim conquest and rule of Kashmir, and the decline of the Brahmin estate in the Kashmir Valley. Two of the traditions synthesized by Abhinava Gupta, Trika and Krama, no longer existed in their respective ritual forms. Other Kashmir Shaiva rituals were still carried out during the 19^th century, but only by very small groups of Brahmins who evidently were just going through the motions. When Lakshman Joo was born, Kashmir Shaivism in this “living” sense no longer existed.

However, Sanderson argues that this isn´t really a problem for Lakshman Joo´s credentials, since the great Abhinava Gupta had argued that the Shaiva rituals themselves are only efficacious if conjoined to gnosis. It´s the gnosis that liberates, not the ritual as such (the latter position was taken by the more exoteric Shaiva Siddhanta tradition). Sanderson has even found evidence of a post-Abhinava Gupta but pre-Lakshman Joo tradition according to which a non-ritualist Trika gnosis can be combined with mainline Brahmin (Smarta) rituals, rather than with specifically Trika ditto. Which just happens to be exactly the practice of Swami Lakshman Joo! The scripture in question is called the Mrititattvanusmarana (well, I think) and can´t be older than the 15^th century (since it excommunicates all Brahmins who learn Persian – the language of the Muslim administration - something that firstly became common during this period). According to this apparently unpublished text, one path to liberation is precisely to go from Smarta rituals to Trika gnosis.

Alexis Sanderson´s article is very narrow and scholarly, but I admit that it was a fascinating read (after a fashion). It was also intriguing to learn that Sanderson studied under Lakshman Joo for six years (!), and that the old teacher never tired of explaining and exegeting Abhinava Gupta´s works for the Western student, despite the latter´s seeming incomprehension of all things non-dual. And yes, the number of religious traditions of Homo sapiens are almost endless…