REGARDING

Tattva Prakasika
(for future reference and enjoyment)
The Illumination of the Categories
by Bhojadeva
(24 out of 76 verses)
Opening Benedictions
1. Victorious is Siva, Mass of Consciousness, the One, the Omnipresent, the
Eternal, the Ever-Free, the Lord, the Tranquil, the Unique Germ of the World, the
Favorer of all!
2. Victorious is Sivas Glory, knowledge and action by nature.
It is free from origination and destruction, is immutable and it gives us
release!
3. With all my being do I adore Her, the One, the First Energy, whose essence is
Consciousness, through whom Siva is enabled to make the group of pasus experience
and be liberated.
4. To be of service to mankind, with a mind full of compassion,
We concisely compose the work, Tattva Prakasa.
5. The triad, consisting of Pati, pasu and pasa, in that order, is pre-eminent in
the Saiva Scriptures.
Of these, Pati is known as Siva; Pasu as the infinitesial conscious beings; and
pasa as the five objects.
6. The Released Souls (Muktaatma), too, are Siva; however, they are released by
His favor.
He, the one Eternally Released Being, should be known as having a body of the
Five Incantations (Panchamantra).
7. A Fivefold Cosmic Activity (Pancakrtya) is attributed to the Everfree
(Satatodita) Siva--Creation, Maintenance, Dissolution, Obscuration, and the
impulsion of Grace.
8 Pasus, we must know, are of three kinds: Intelligence-deconditioned
(Vijanakala), Dissolution-deconditioned (Pralayakala), and Conditioned (Sakala).
Of these, the first are conjoined with mala (anava); the second, with mala and
karma.
9. The Conditioned Pasu (Sakala or embodied) is conjoined with mala, maya and
karma. Among these (three kinds of pasu), the first kind is twofold--one with
contamination liquidated and the other with contamination unliquidated.
10. Favoring those of the first sort, Siva endows eight with the title of Lords
of Wisdom (Vijnesvaras). He makes the other Incantations(Mantresa), and they
number seventy million.
11. Among the Dissolution-deconditioned (Pralayakala) are those souls whose mala
and karma have become liquidated. They enter [liberation]. Others furnished with
bodies of eight constituents, enter all wombs under the impulse of their karma.
12. Eight-Constituent Bodies may be said to consist of the Inner Faculty
(antahkarana), and the Faculties of Perception (jnanendriyani) and Action
(karmendriyani). Favoring some, the Great Lord confers on them the lordship of
the world.
13. The remaining souls become the Conditioned Souls (sakala) through linkage
with categories (tattvas) such as Aptitude. At the dawn of creation, He Himself
makes a hundred and eighteen of them the Lords of Incantations.
14. Eight of these are called Circle Lords (Mandalin). Equal in number are gods
like Krodha. There are also Viresa, Srikantha and the hundred Rudras--one hundred
and eighteen in all.
15. Through the Fulmination of the Mala-Dissolvent Energy (Anugraha), He links
the souls whose mala has matured to the supreme end. This he does through
Initiation, taking the form of a Preceptor.
16. Siva makes the remaining bound souls experience the world in accordance with
their karma. Thus has been set forth the nature of the Pasus.
17. The souls bonds are of four kinds--the first two marked by mala (anava) and
karma, and the other two originating from Sivas Mirific (Maya) and Obscuring
(Tirobhava) Energies.
18. One, but manifold in potency, Pollution (anava mala) as we must know,
conceals the knowledge and action of the soul,
As husk does rice, or a verdigris, encrusted in copper.
19. Karma is without beginning (karma nadiproktam), made of merit (dharma) and
demerit (adharma), and varied.
Mirific Power (Maya) is real in essence, the root of the universe (mula), and
eternal (nitya-sa).
20. Because it favors bondage, the Energy of Siva which obsucures the souls in
called Bond. So the Bond is fourfold.
21. The Pure categories are five. The Ancient Preceptors declare the firt among
them to the the Siva Category. [And the others as] Energy (Sakti), Sadasiva (the

Ever-Beneficent), Isvara and Vidya.

22. To ensure ignorance and activity in the soul, a pentad of categories issues
from Mirific Power--Time and Necessity, as well as Aptitide, Knowledge and
Attachment.
23. From Mirific Power also emerges the unmanifest(avyakta tattva) which is the
category of three Attributes (gunas). After it Instinct(buddhi) and Egoism
(ahankara); the Mind (manas), the Faculties of Perception and Action, and the
Elements, Subtle and Gross.
24. Twenty-three categories originate from Prime Matter (mula-prakrti) for the
experience of the soul. Because of which there is actually no total difference
between Matter (prakrti) and the Attributes (gunas).
Conclusion
The noble Bhojadeva, the king who sees in his mind the complex of categories as
clearly as one sees an amalaki in ones hand, wrote this incomparable work,
Tattva Prakasa, replete with the essence of the Saiva Agamas.