Chapter

ch2_baumer_hymns

4170 words · vendored research asset

source →

ṣam apy amr̥tāyate . . .

ramādvaita in the Mystical Hymns

the Śivastotrāvalī

ttina Bäumer

paladeva’s Śivastotrāvalī or collection of verses (muktaka) and hymns
totra) is one of the most outstanding documents of mystical
terature, not only in Sanskrit, but even in the context of mysticism
any tradition. If Utpaladeva is the disciplined philosopher in his
rikās and Siddhis, in these verses he enjoys the freedom of
ontaneous expression of his most intimate experience and of his
tense longing to be one with his Lord. If his bhakti is defined by his
vaita, we could call the Stotrāvalī the laboratory of Recognition, a
boratory in which he experiments with all the possible states of
paration, union and the ever-achieved state of non-duality
atatodita). The experiences he expresses in the Stotrāvalī are the
econdition for his philosophy of Recognition:

thaṁcid āsādya maheśvarasya dāsyam . . . — ĪPK I.1

e purposeful vagueness and understatement of kathaṁcid undergoes all
nds of variations in the Stotrāvalī. The humility expressed in dāsyam
state of servanthood”) already shows the creative tension between
akti and advaita that is so characteristic of Utpaladeva. And, as
rella has pointed out, it is not only the recognition of the Lord
ich is “the cause of the achievement of all spiritual wealth”
amastasaṁpatsamavāptihetu), but also the state of servanthood of the
rd (according to Abhinavagupta’s Vimarśinī). The other aspect of
thaṁcid pointing to the importance of grace is already expressed in
e Vr̥tti. All these aspects implied in the first kārikā will be fully
folded in the Stotrāvalī.

mentioned by Kṣemarāja in his Vivr̥ti, the collection of verses and
e arrangement in twenty stotras is not the work of Utpaladeva but of
s disciples, Śrī Rāma, ādityarāja and Śrī Viśvāvartta, who provided
tles to the twenty stotras. He also mentions that only three hymns
ve been composed by Utpala in the way they are handed down by
adition: the Saṁgrahastotra, Jayastotra and Bhaktistotra (13, 14 and
). Kṣemarāja mentions the same altruistic motif for their composition
the first kārikā:

order to bestow grace on those people who are eager to recognize
eir own true nature (svaṁ rūpaṁ tathātvena parāmraṣṭum
thijanānujighr̥kṣayā . . . , introductory part).

d he calls Utpaladevācārya one who “has always the direct realization
the supreme Lord as his own Self” (satatasākṣātkr̥ta svātma
heśvaraḥ).

the verses or hymns are called stotras, most of them do not conform
the traditional style of stotra,1 and if they do, they not only
aise the Lord, but, as in the very first verse of the entire text,
ey also praise the bhaktas who have already achieved union with the
rd and who do not need to practise meditation, japa, etc. (I.1). No
nder, Kṣemarāja identifies their state with anupāya, the no-means, as
pounded in the Tantrāloka (II). A similar praise is expressed to the
votees “who in every state worship you always as having assumed the
ture of all things — they indeed are my chosen deities”.2

t the intention of this paper is not the literary form of the
otrāvalī, nor a general survey, but an analysis of its content in
gard to the topic of the overcoming of dualities and opposites in the
ght of the experience of paramādvaita. Instead of finding a
ntradiction between bhakti and advaita, it is, in the words of
rella,

e perspective of the paramādvaita, such an elevated viewpoint that it
es not fear what is different from itself, and where the “higher” does
t automatically cancel the “lower”. — ĪPK, Introduction, p. XXI

rst I want to analyse a number of verses which describe opposites and
eir overcoming in the mystical experience, belonging to different
ntexts. We may start with a more philosophical verse:

dasattvena bhāvānāṁ yuktā yā dvitayī gatiḥ ।

m ullaṅghya tr̥tīyasmai namaś citrāya śambhave ।। — 2.1

ere are two ways associated with existing things:

ing and non-being.

offer my homage to the wonderful Śambhu

o transcends them, being the third.3

va is praised as being beyond the duality of real and unreal, and
nce as the “third” one, and he is wonderful on account of his
anscending the two states.

the same stotra he comes down to the level of experience from this
ilosophical statement, by calling the fire of Śiva cool:

ramāmr̥tasāndrāya śītalāya śivāgnaye ।

smaicid viśvasaṁploṣaviṣamāya namo'stu te ।। — 2.3

y you be glorified O Mild One,

ooth and brimming with the finest nectar,

fire of Śiva4 the cool one

o burns away the entire universe.

fact, the tone of this second stotra is one of the overcoming of
posites:

mastalakṣaṇāyoga eva yasyopalakṣaṇam।

smai namo'stu devāya kasmaicid api śambhave ।। — 2.6

y the Lord be glorified,

e mysterious Śambhu

ose only definition is that he is

void of all definitions. — tr. Bailly

ere is a whole series of praises to Śambhu as the coincidentia
positorum, which leads up to verse 12:

yāvine viśuddhāya guhyāya prakaṭātmane ।

kṣmāya viśvarūpāya namaś citrāya śambhave ।।

mage to the wondrous Śambhu,

e Deluding One

o is yet pure and clear;

e Hidden One

o has yet revealed himself;

e subtle One

ose form takes the form of the whole universe. — tr. Bailly

t there are two verses which express affirmation, negation and their
anscendence, in a kind of Nāgārjunian way. The first concerns the
tinomy between Vedas and Āgamas:

dāgamaviruddhāya vedāgamavidhāyine ।

dāgamasatattvāya guhyāya svāmine namaḥ ।। — 2.7

mage to the Lord, the mysterious One,

o is opposed to the Vedas and Āgamas,

o is the revealer of the Vedas and Āgamas,

d who is the true essence of the Vedas and Āgamas.

is shows both, his transcendence of all scriptures as well as their
lativity in relation to their originator, as well as the relativity of
e opposition of different schools and traditions.

e same principle applies to the different schools of Tantrism:

kṣiṇācārasārāya vāmācārābhilāṣiṇe ।

rvācrāya śarvāya nirācārāya te namaḥ ।। — 2.19

mage be to Śarva,

e essence of the right-handed path

e lover of the left-handed path,

o belongs to all ways of practice

d to none at all

r: who transcends all traditions).

e following verse concerns the opposition between saṁsāra and its
anscendence:

ṁsāraikanimittāya saṁsāraikavirodhine ।

maḥ saṁsārarūpāya niḥsaṁsārāya śambhave । — 2.8

ory be to Śambhu

e sole cause of the world

d its only destroyer,

o has taken the form of the world

d who transcends the world.

re the opposites are saṁsāra and niḥsaṁsāra (unworldliness), which are
sewhere taken as saṁsāra and mokṣa. What is a statement of Śiva being
th opposites and transcending them is expressed as a process of
ansformation in one of the key verses of Utpaladeva, describing the
stical way of Śaṅkara:

ḥkhāny api sukhāyante viṣam apy amr̥tāyate ।

kṣāyate ca saṁsāro yatra mārgaḥ sa śāṅkaraḥ।। — 20.12

ere even suffering is transformed into joy,

ere even poison becomes nectar,

ere the world itself is a way of liberation:

ere is the way of Śiva

r: this is the tradition of Śaivism).

e conscious use of denominatives (sukhāyante, amr̥tāyate, mokṣāyate)
ovides stress to this powerful statement, a kind of summary of the
iva path. Kṣemarāja paraphrases mārga significantly by: paraṁ śāktaṁ
dam (“the supreme state of Energyˮ) because it is Śakti who exercises
r transforming power. The contrast of poison and nectar (viṣa and
r̥ta) is one of the powerful metaphors in the Stotrāvalī, having the
thical background of the churning of the milk ocean. This is alluded
in a moving verse of the Saṁgrahastotra:

ṇṭhakoṇaviniviṣṭam īśa te

lakūṭamapi me mahāmr̥tam ।

y upāttam amr̥taṁ bhavadvapur

edavr̥tti yadi rocate na me ।। — 13.17

en the deadly poison

at rests in a corner of your throat, (O Lord,)

supreme nectar to me.

t even if I attain nectar,

do not want it,

it is separate from your body.

is verse contains one way of interpreting the phrase viṣam apy
r̥tāyate, the poison being the one associated with the Lord and hence
ansformed as well as transforming (pain into joy).

e ideal is not only transforming suffering into happiness, but
aching a state of equality, equanimity or harmony (samatā) of both. It
not achieved automatically but by an equalizing meditation. In a
werful metaphor Utpaladeva compares this process to a devastating
ood:

rṣāṇām atha śokānāṁ sarveṣām plāvakaḥ samam ।

avad-dhyānāmr̥tāpūr nimnānimnabhuvām iva ।। — 3.9

ditation on you full of nectar

kes all joys and sorrows equal

ke a flood, levelling high and low lands.

cannot be achieved by an ordinary meditation, but, as Kṣemarāja
phasizes, by a state of absorption (samāveśa).

e ideal of samatā is expressed by another cosmic metaphor: equinox
iṣuvat, sometimes abhijit):

aktānāṁ samatāsāraviṣuvatsamayaḥ sadā ।

adbhāvarasapīyūṣarasenaiṣāṁ sadārcanam ।। — 17.5

e time of the equinox,

ose essence is equanimity,

celebrated by the devotees continuously;

r always does their worship consist

the sweet bliss of your devotion. — tr. Bailly

d yet, equanimity does not mean absence of emotions, on the contrary.
paladeva’s bhakti is charged with emotions, often contrasting ones. In
is respect he is completely in the tradition of Vijñāna-Bhairava,5
anda-Kārikā6 and his own guru, Somānanda.

e following verse contains a hint to some of the dhāraṇās of the
jñāna-Bhairava:

aharṣād vātha śokād vā yadi kuḍyādghaṭād api ।

hyād athāntarādbhāvāt prakaṭībhava me prabho ।। — 5.10

ether in great joy or in sorrow,

om a wall or from an earthen pot,

ether from external things or internal states —

veal yourself, O Lord!

is interesting to note that Kṣemarāja does not refer here to the
jñāna-Bhairava7 to explain the wall and the earthen pot. He only
mments on vā as meaning kutaścit sphuṭībhava (“manifest yourself from
ereverˮ). The Stotrāvalī does not show many signs of a Tantric
irituality, but in this verse the connection is clear. As in the
jñāna-Bhairava, the experience of the Divine can happen either from
ternal things or from inner states.

e true devotees are given to strong emotions:

danto vā hasanto vā tvām uccaiḥ pralapanty āmī ।

aktāḥ stutipadoccāropacārāḥ pr̥thag eva te ।। — 15.3

ether weeping or laughing,

ey address you in loud, delirious speech.

tering hymns of praise, the devoted

e truly unique attendants. — tr. Bailly

e devotee does not seek to avoid the emotions with a view to a state
equanimity, on the contrary. In some of the most powerful verses
paladeva prays for experiencing the extremes.

aktikṣīvo 'pi kupyeyaṁ bhavāyānuśayīya ca ।

thā haseyaṁ rudyāṁ ca raṭeyaṁ ca śivety alam ।। — 16.7

t me be enraged and yet

mpassionate toward the world.

d thus in the madness of devotion

y I laugh and weep and chant

va, thunderously. — tr. Bailly

re the contrasting emotions are anger and compassion towards the
rld. Utpaladeva throws to the winds even the ideal of equanimity
amatā) and undistracted establishment in the Self (svastha).

ṣamastho 'pi svastho 'pi rudann api hasann api ।

mbhīro 'pi vicitto 'pi bhaveyaṁ bhaktitaḥ prabho ।। — 16.8

t of Love, O Lord,

t me be disturbed and yet at peace,

eping or laughing,

deep thought or distracted.

ese two verses embracing the opposites are in a way summarized in the
llowing:

aktānāṁ nāsti saṁvedyaṁ tvadantar yadi vā bahiḥ ।

ddharmā yatra na bhavān nirvikalpaḥ sthitaḥ svayam।। — 16.9

r the devotees nothing else is to be known

thin you or outside.

r you are of the essence of consciousness

tablished in your own thought-free state.

re lies the justification for accepting all opposite states, because
ch one shares in the pure Divine consciousness. Bhakti alone is the
ndition for sharing in this all-inclusive and all-transcending
nsciousness.8

mbhu is praised as the very coincidentia oppositorum:

maḥ satatabaddhāya nityanirmuktabhāgine ।

ndhamokṣavihīnāya kasmaicid api śambhave ।। — 2.17

mage be to Śambhu, who is ever bound,

d who is eternally liberated,

o is neither bondage nor liberation,

cause he is indescribable.

paladeva loves expressions of inexpressibility or indescribability,
st like kathañcit and kasmaicit.

e greatest opposition exists between the material, inert (jaḍa) and
nscious reality (cit), corresponding also to subject and object
edaka, vedya). But in the Lord even this pair of opposites is
braced:

ḍe jagati cidrūpaḥ kila vedye 'pi vedakaḥ ।

bhur mite ca yenāsi tena sarvottamo bhavān ।। — 3.20

this unconscious world

u are the form of consciousness.

ong the knowable you are the knower.

ong the limited you are all-pervasive,

erefore you are the highest of all.

is verse might well sum up the position of paramādvaita as defined by
rella at the beginning. It is therefore no wonder that for the
votees who are intoxicated by their love for the Lord, he is both,
th form and formless, internal as well as external (16.22).

the Lord is the union of opposites, his devotees can well realize him
any opposite state:

armādharmātmanor antaḥ kriyāyor jñānayos tathā ।

khaduḥkhātmanor bhaktāḥ kimapy āsvādayanty aho ।। — 15.6

tween activity and knowledge,

ether righteous or unrighteous,

ether full of happiness or suffering,

the bhaktas taste something inexpressible.9

course, the expression āsvādayanti is in tune with the sensible
perience of the Lord, where Utpaladeva frequently uses the sense of
ste, mostly connected with amr̥ta, sudhā, piyūṣa, etc. It is this
nsible experience which embraces as well as transcends all opposites.

wever, the mystic remains conscious of the contradictions experienced,
en he uses the term virodharasika (attachment for contradictory
jects), as in the following:

a nu rāgādiṣu rāgaḥ kva ca haracaraṇāmbujeṣu rāgitvam ।

thaṁ virodharasikaṁ bodhaya hitam amara me hr̥dayam ।। — 5.20

at comparison is there between attachment for sense-objects

d love for the lotus feet of Hara?

us, O Immortal One, make me aware of contradictory tastes

d awaken my heart to what is beneficial.10

re it seems to be a matter of choice between two loves, but there is
so a way of accepting and transforming the pair of attachment and
ersion.

veditam upādatsva rāgādi bhagavan mayā ।

āya cāmr̥tīkr̥tya bhuṅkṣva bhaktajanaiḥ samam ।। — 5.13

Lord! accept my offerings of attachment and aversion!

ving received them and transformed them into immortal nectar,

joy them together with your devotees.

e metaphor of ritual offerings is here applied to the very disturbing
rldly emotions which are divinized (“nectarized” in the words of Swami
kshman Joo) and shared between the Lord and the devotees.

e overcoming of opposites in the realm of mystical experience is also
plied to time.

tadā na sadā na caikadety api sā yatra na kāladhīr bhavet ।

d idaṁ bhavadīyadarśanaṁ na ca nityaṁ na ca kathyate 'nyathā ।। — 12.5

ither “then” nor “always”

r even “once”.

ere no awareness of time exists

at is verily your realization.

can neither be called “eternal”

r in any other way (i.e. temporal).

a kind of Nāgārjunian negation of negation, any temporal category is
cluded from the realm of mystical experience. This negation is so
rceful because religious language again and again lands in the
tegories of time and eternity.

e richness of mystical experience contained in the verses quoted
nnot be brought into any systematic order, but every one can
timately be related to paramādvaita which includes as well as
anscends all opposites. Apart from expressions related to the nature
the Divine as containing all opposites, it is the mystical process
at engages Utpaladeva. And in the final analysis, the greatest
position which needs to be overcome is that between the limited ego
d the Divine aham. Here, too, advaita is not the ending point but the
arting point.

tha lokābhimānānām apūrvaṁ tvaṁ nibandhanam ।

hābhimānaḥ karhi syāṁ tvadbhaktirasapūritaḥ ।। — 9.13

Lord! You are the sole cause

all worldly egos —

en shall I attain the great Ego

lled with the bliss of your Love?

e great abhimāna is nothing but the Divine I-consciousness without
ich no individual ego could exist.

paladeva also gives a grammatical justification to the pre-eminence of
e first person, the Divine “I”:

tamapuruṣo 'nyo sti yuṣmaccheṣaviśeṣitaḥ ।

am mahāpuruṣas tv eko niḥśeṣapuruṣāśrayaḥ ।। — 3.14

e “first person”

distinguished from the second person,

d from the “third person” as well.

u alone are the Great Person,

e refuge of all persons.

emarāja goes into the philosophical implications of this grammatical
atement.

me striking verses relate to the process of transformation which does
volve the participation of the mystic.

'vikalpam idam arthamaṇḍalam

śyatīśa nikhilaṁ bhavadvapuḥ ।

ātmapakṣaparipūrite jagat

sya nityasukhinaḥ kuto bhayam ।। — 13.16

who perceives this whole universe of objects

a thought-free state as your divine body,

d who fills the world with his own self —

is ever blissful. Whence the fear?

e process implied is a state of nirvikalpa which alone makes it
ssible to experience the world as divine, but in a second (or third)
ep to identify one’s self with this universal vision of the divine
dy. The result is of course a blissful state free from fear.
directly this experience contains not only advaita (between the
iversal divine and the individual), but the coming together of all
ree constituents of trika: śiva, śakti, nara (śakti being the
iversal expansion).

is verse expresses both an experience actually undergone by Utpaladeva
d a practice of identification of the individual with the universal
lf.

e most extraordinary expression of a mystical experience — an
perience of pratyabhijñā — as total identification with the Divine
am is found in verse 5.15:

tarbhakti-camatkāra-carvaṇāmīlitekṣaṇaḥ ।

mo mahyaṁ śivāyeti pūjayan syāṁ tr̥ṇāny api ।।

th my eyes closed

lishing within the wonder of inner devotion,

y I worship even the blades of grass thus:

lory to Śiva, to myself”!

e mantra namaḥ śivāya is applied to the mystic himself, as well as to
e blades of grass in an ecstatic unity of all reality, the trika. The
scription of the experience is based on the aesthetic enjoyment:
matkāra, carvaṇā, transmuted into the inner devotion, as well as on
e metaphor of worship with mantra. The philosophical implication is
at there is no jaḍa, because even the blades of grass are suffused
th consciousness. In this verse several levels of Utpaladeva’s
sticism come together: the aesthetic, the bhakti, but all centred on
e Divine “I”: namo mahyaṁ śivāya.

om the extraordinary richness of Utpaladeva’s mystical hymns we have
nsidered one central aspect which finds diverse expressions. The
otrāvalī can in many ways be related to the philosophy of
atyabhijñā, bathed in a spirit of bhakti, hence very different from
hinavagupta. But this comparison is not my task here. At the end I
ly want to throw light on the texts quoted from an analysis of
stical language.

am referring to two theories on mystical language which can well be
plied to Utpaladeva. One question which arises while reading and
stening to the Śivastotrāvalī is this: if these verses were expressed
the author in a state of mystical intoxication (which he often refers
) why do they also contain a number of stereotypes, traditional images
d metaphors? First of all, the mystic cannot help but use language
ich is also conventional (sāṅketika) and in a way unfit to the
nguage-transcending experience.

erre Hadot, great interpreter of Plotinus, has analysed mystical
nguage and come to the following conclusion:

is said — and rightly so — that one should not be misled by the
nguage of the mystics. They, too, have their common places and their
aditional images, in a word, their rhetoric . . . but the authentic
perience gives a tone to the language which cannot deceive. . . .11

e rhetoric and common places in the case of Utpaladeva are drawn from
e world of ritual worship (pūjā, arcā), and from the devotion offered
the guru or the deity by worshipping their lotus feet. All these
cepted traditional images need to be interpreted in the light of the
iginal experience. But, as Hadot says, the spontaneous experience
nnot be overheard, it passes through even the conventional language
s in the case of the last quoted verse).

e mystic cannot help but use metaphors to express the inexpressible.
ese metaphors are taken from the traditional background, but are
nstantly in need to be transcended and made to explode. In another
proach of interpreting mystical language, the expert on German
sticism (Meister Eckhart in particular), Alois Haas, has taken up an
pression coined by Hans Blumenberg, namely “explosive metaphors”.12
is concept is applied mostly to the negative theology and mysticism of
onysius Areopagite and other neo-Platonic mystics of the Christian
adition, but it has universal implications. Mystical language being

combination of the observable and more than observable. . . . By
lowing the metaphor to deconstruct itself through paradox (I would
d: and negation), it allows for the possibility of perceiving oneness
d eternity. . . . (And) In the final analysis all metaphors can be
garded as having an explosive effect.

art. cit., p. 142

e best illustration is a quotation from Meister Eckhart:

have often said: The shell must break and whatever is inside must come
rth; for if you want to have the nut, you must first crack the shell.
the same way: if you want to find nature revealed, you must first
ack all its parables, and the further you penetrate, the closer you
ll get to true being. When the soul finds the One in which all is one,
en it remains in this single Oneness.13

paladeva uses another “explosive metaphor” where it is a question of
eaking the shell:

gādimayabhavāṇḍaka-

ṭhitaṁ tvadbhaktibhāvanāmbikā tais taiḥ ।

yāyayatu rasair māṁ

avr̥ddhapakṣo yathā bhavāmi khagaḥ ।। — 7.4

toss within the egg of the world

nsisting of attachment (hatred, etc.).

y the Mother, contemplative Love,

urish me with sweet essence,

that I grow into a bird

th strong wings.

is is one of the most powerful metaphors implying the breaking of the
ell of worldly emotions and bondages in order to attain the freedom of
beration. The word used for “bird” (khaga), also implies the movement
the unlimited space of Consciousness (kha, cf. khecarī, khecara). The
ndition for hatching this egg is not only bhakti, but bhakti-bhāvanā
ich fulfils the role of the mother bird. A complex and multi-layered
taphor.

e theory of the “explosive metaphors” is precisely applicable in the
se of the way Utpaladeva deals with opposites, first of all the one
ven as the motto of this lecture: poison and nectar. He makes the
nguage explode by negating them, transcending them, including and
cepting them, and in this way revealing the inner core, the heart, the
re consciousness, the divine body (vapus), and landing in the state of
ramādvaita.

ferences

ārya Utpaladeva viracitā Śivastotrāvalī (mūlamātra), ed. Īśvarasvarūpa
āmī Lakshman Joo, Srinagar: Ishvar Ashram Trust, 1997.

illy, Constantina Rhodes, 1987, Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir, a
. and study of Utpaladeva’s Śivastotrāvalī, Albany: SUNY Press.

e Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā of Utpaladeva with the Author’s Vṛtti,
itically edited and translated by Raffaele Torella, Delhi: Motilal
narsidass, 1st edn., 1994 (3rd edn., 2013).

vastotrāvalī of Utpaladeva: A Mystical Hymn of Kashmīr, Exposition by
ami Lakshman Joo, New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2008.

vastotrāvalī of Utpaladeva, Sanskrit text with Introduction, English
. and Glossary, N.K. Kotru, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,1985.

e Śivastotrāvalī of Utpaladevācārya, with the Sanskrit Commentary of
emarāja, ed. with Hindi commentary by Rājānaka Lakṣmaṇa Varanasi:
owkhambha Sanskrit Series Office, 1964 (2nd edn. 2008).

andakārikās: The Divine Creative Pulsation, tr. Jaideva Singh, Delhi:
tilal Banarsidass, 1st edn., 1980.

e Stanzas on Vibration: The Spandakārikā with Four Commentaries, tr.
rk S.G. Dyczkowski, Varanasi: Dilip Kumar Publishers, 1st Indian edn.,
94.

jñāna-Bhairava [VBh] with the Uddyota by Kṣemarāja up to verse 23 and
th the Vivr̥ti by Śivopādhyāya thereafter, ed. M.R. Shastri, KSTS VIII,
mbay, 1918.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Stavacintāmaṇi of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa is more in conformity with the
mnic style.

sarvadā sarvabhāveṣu yugapat-sarvarūpiṇam ।

ām arcayanty aviśrāntaṁ ye mamaite ’dhidevatāḥ ।। — 17.3

A more free translation by Bailly: “Homage to the miraculous Śambhu,
o, transcending the two forms — the real and the unreal — of all that
ists, constitute the Third Form.” (p. 39)

Cf. śivāgnaye in 2.5.

E.g. VBh. v. 101.

SpKā 1.22.

VBh. 59-60.

Cf. also 16.10 and 11.

Bailly 1987: 85: “Your devotees, in the face of all this, enjoy the
iss of your devotion.”

Translation combined with N.K. Kotru.

Pierre Hadot, Plotin ou la simplicité du regard, Paris (Gallimard)
97, pp. 87-88 (tr. from the French).

“Sprengmetaphorik” in German. Cf. Alois Haas, 2005, “The Nothingness
God and Its Explosive Metaphors”, in Void and Fullness in the
ddhist, Hindu and Christian Traditions, ed. Bettina Bäumer and John
puche, New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, pp. 121-43.

Meister Eckhart, 1993, Werke, ed. N. Largier, Frankfurt a.M., vol. 1,
545, tr. in Haas, art. cit., p. 142.

Sources & corrections: edit source →. source lives here.