advaitam and Kashmir shaivam

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Jaldhar H. Vyas wrote:

>In a tika on the Saundarya Lahiri I have the following outline of the
>Shaiva shastras is given.  There are 10 Shivagamas that teach dvaita and
>18 Rudragamas that teach vishistadvaita.  Together these 28 are the basis
>of Shaiva Siddhanta and Shaiva temple worship particularly in the South.
>In the the worship of Shiva bhagwan is primary.  Then there are 64
>Bhairavagamas which teach advaita.  These are also known as Tantras and in

The above information is somewhat incorrect. There are shaiva Agama
texts which uphold advaita in it's highest form, eg, the devikAlottara.
It's one of the Agama-s, although it's considered a "minor" one by the
shaiva-s. There are other advaitic Agama-s also.

Further the tantra texts teach advaita, but not advaita as in the sense
of  shrI sha.nkara. These texts uphold the reality of the world and do
not accept the brahma satya jagat mithyA idea. In fact these texts
criticize outright, advaita vedAnta as taught by shrI sha.nkara. It's
somewhat similar to Kashmir shaivism in fact!

Ramakrishnan.