image credit: Devprayag
Amṛtānanda ends his Cidvilāsastava (‘Hymn to the Play of Consciousness’) with a profound teaching on the nature of ritual worship and the utility of how his contemplations are to be used in practice. Amṛtānanda teaches that all ritual worship is based on duality, a distinction that necessarily requires a difference between a subject and an object; items fit for worship and items that should be rejected; and ultimately between a worshiper and the deity worshiped.
When ritual worship is overtly focused on such distinctions, it can actually work to reinforce duality and difference—something Amṛtānanda would definitely be against. And yet, far from rejecting ritual worship, in this verse, Amṛtānanda seems to be suggesting that the Cidvilāsastava might be a type of higher level mode of ritual worship that happens within the mind alone. Of course, as explored in the introduction, it is quite possible that what Amṛtānanda had in mind was to provide inner contemplations that were meant to accompany external ritual practice. Either way, it seems clear that Amṛtānanda’s final teaching to his readers is that the contemplations within the Cidvilāsastava are meant to dissolve duality and awaken one’s recognition that they are pure, nondual, supreme, and self-luminous Consciousness.
या क्रिया समभिहारतस्त्रिधा दर्शितात्र गुरुभावनादिका ।
सा विभेदलयभावनादिकाभ्यस्यतां परशिवैक्यसिद्धये ॥ ४० ॥
yā kriyā samabhihāratas tridhā darśitātra gurubhāvanādikā |
sā vibhedalayabhāvanādikābhyasyatāṃ paraśivaikyasiddhaye || 40 ||
“The three types of ritual action, such as meditating on the Guru and other acts, are collectively revealed here. They should be practiced in the form of meditations on the dissolution of duality and difference [that structure ritual] to attain unity with supreme Śiva.” (translation by Ben Williams)
