Pancharatra Agama Shastra

  Very little is known about the source of Agama Shastras. the Agama Shastra consist of the Shaiva, Shakta and the Vaishnava, however, the Vaishnava Agamas and the Pancharatra Agamas are mainly of the Viasshnavas with a branch of Vaikhasana Sutras. Swami Sri Harshananda who left us recently was the President of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Bengaluru, has given an account of this from the publication of Prabuddha Bharata. Incidentally, Prabuddha Bharata, the prestigious publication of Sri Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, Kolkata, is celebrating its 150th year.

  Like the Bhagavad-Gita where Bhagavan Sri Krishna instructs Arjuna, here in the Pancharatra, Keshava, i.e. Vishnu or Narayana, taught the esoteric science (secrets knowledge) to Ananta, Govinda, Vishvaksena, Brahma, and Rudra over five nights! The term 'Ratra' is also said to be 'Knowledge' here! Five kinds of knowledge such as: 1. Fundamental Principles of Cosmology (brahmanda tattva), 2. Higher Spiritual Knowledge of Salvation (Mukti-prada para-vidya), 3. Devotion (bhakti that brings salvation), 4. yoga, ands 5. Worldly Desires (Vishayasakti). Another view is that the Pancharatra teaches about the five aspects of Purushottama such as: 1. para, 2. vyuha, 3. vobhava, 4. antaryamin, and 5. archa (Worship) are taught here.  

   Hence, we have this Pancharatra, very ancient scripture, that  give us a detailed account of this universe and our existence. It all starts with a ritual of fire sacrifice by a group of sages who wanted to have darshan of Sri Hari Narayana. the manasa putra Sanaka, skandha, Sanatkumara, Narada an others were there. After five days and nights, when the sacrifice ritual was complete there was no sign of the supreme Lord to accept the 'havis'. So they were disappointed. Devarshi Narada laughed and said, 'Narayana will not give darshan so easily. I have been praying for his darshan uttering his name constantly. In fact, nobody has ever seen Him. But, they also say that He resides in 'go lok' and those people may have seen Him. Then, they all decided to go to 'go lok'. Those who were in 'go lok' also had not seen Him and believed that the Lord is beyond the Universe! So they all went to the end of the universe and heard a voice that said, "Fools, why did you come all the way here in search of Me, who resides within your own hearts'! Look within instead outside of you"! This, indeed, is the sum and substance of all the 200 Samhitas of Agama Shastra. The Samhitas contain details of Fire Sacrifice rituals, worship of God, construction of temples, sculpturing idols, mysteries of creation, mantra, yantra, tantra and other details. We have scientific explanation regarding all the secrets- starting from Absolute Silence (mahattanta shanta), to the vibration, waves (taranga), sound (shabda), syllables, alphabet (akshara)s, word(pada)s, and the associated meaning (artha), culminating in the material objective phenomenal world (padartha prapancha)! Can there be any other better source from anywhere else in the world that give us such a clear explanation for the nature of this world and our existence? However, it is so sad, rather tragic, that very few are interested in exploring these sources and publishing all the available manuscripts. Almost 200 Samhitas are there and hardly a few have seen the light of the day, in print. Some of these published works are in Hindi (with translation or commentaries) with Samskruta shlokas, published from Varanasi and Delhi.

  It is very interesting to note that some Western scholars like Schraeder have taken keen interest in these Agama Shastra and published English commentaries. of these, the most important published ones are the Ahirbudhnya Samhita (Adyar Library, Chennai), Lakshmi Tantra (Sanjukta Gupta, MLBD) and Sadakhya, Jayakhya (SN Das Gupta, in his "A History of Indian Philosophy, MLBD).

  As regards the contents of these published Samhitas, the Ahirbudhnya Samhita gives the details of Creation (in four Vyuhas (manifestation or emanations of the Lord!). It is a good source of mantra and yantra, as also, rituals to cure diseases. The other Samhita available to us are: Aniruddha, Hayshirsha, Ishvara, Jayakhya, Kashyapa, Maha-Sanatkumara, Padma, Parama, Parameshvara, Parshara, Poushkara, Sudarshana, Vihagendra, Vishnu and Vishnu-tattva Samhita. The Jayakhya Samhita gives the detailed philosophy of these Pancharatra. and the central idea of all these is mukti, moksha, or emancipation only. Methods of attainment to moksha, such as, yajnya, svadhyaya, yoga, and jnyana are explained here. The paratattva or God is Brahmaan of the Veda and is of the nature of pure Consciousness, and Bliss. All the attributes such as, ananta, acyuta, sarvashakta, paripurna, all-pervasive Vishnu, etc are the praise of the great Sages to Him. The supreme Lord, the Creator is both immanent and Transcendent. He, the Lord, is too subtle. sukshmati-sukshma, to be perceived by us, the humans! However, it is possible to experience the presence of this supreme power,  of course, in a limited manner. The most beautiful aspect of this 'tantra shastra' is that though every jiva is identified with the supreme Lord, the Creator, the subtler difference of individuality of  limited nature of the jiva is maintained and this has given rise to 'dvaitavada' and/or 'Bheda-bheda' philosophy amongst the Viashnavas. (to be continued)