]■[ “Pratyabhijna System.” ]■[
⎯ The word pratyabhijna means “to spontaneously once again recognize and realize your Self.” Here you have only to realize, you do not have to practice. There are no upayas (means) in the Pratyabhijna system. You must simply recognize who you are. Wherever you are, whether you are at the level of Supreme Being, at the level of yoga, or at that level which is disgusting, you can recognize your own Nature then and there without moving anywhere or doing anything.
For example, take the case of a bride and groom. The woman has not seen her husband-to-be and craves to see him. Concerning him she has only heard praise and glory but she has not actually met him. Suppose this girl and her future husband happen by chance to go separately on the same pilgrimage. When they arrive at the place of pilgrimage, they meet. The girl, however, does not feel any importance in this man because she does not know him to be her future husband. Yet her future husband and this man are the same person. Later, when a friend introduces her to him, telling her that this is the man who is to be her husband, then she is filled with happiness, pleasure, and ecstasy. She realizes that this is the same man she had seen before.
In the same way, reality dawns in the Pratyabhijna system. In whichever level you are situated, do not mind.
“The moment recognition dawns, not only do you instantaneously become divine, but you also realize that you were already divine.”
At that moment, you realize that you were already the Lord but did not know it because you had misunderstood yourself.
In the Pratyabhijna philosophy it is your master who tells you, that ‘you are the same person for whom you are longing’, and he teaches you to reach the goal there and then without adopting any means. This teaching, therefore, is situated chiefly in anupaya, which is that means where there are no means at all. It is the recognition that there was nothing to be done and nowhere to go. Here, there is no practice, no concentration and no meditation. By the grace of your master you realize it and you are there.
The Pratyabhijna system was flourishing in the beginning of kali-yuga. As time passed, however, it became veiled due to misunderstanding. It wasn’t until the end of the eighth century A.D. that the great master Somananda reintroduced the Pratyabhijna system in Kashmir. Somananda’s disciple was Utpaladeva, and his disciple was Lakshmanagupta, and his disciple was the very great Abhinavagupta.