BHOGA KARIKA of Sadyojyoti With the Commentary of Aghora Siva

The Bhoga Karika is a collection of Sanskrit verses by the renowned Saivite teacher and writer, Sadyojyoti, of the eighth century A.D. This translation of the Bhoga Karika also includes a short commentary by the similar renowned Aghora Siva, of the twelfth century. In a lively and engaging manner, the Bhoga Karika defends the Agamic Saivite theology, epistemology and ontology of "bhogra" or "mundane/ worldly experience" against the attacks of the rival schools, notably the Naiyayikas, Samkhyas, Carvakas and Buddhists. Employing a Saiva-yogic doctrine to explain the nature of bhoga (i.e., as self-identity based solely on ego-identity), Sadyojyoti plays on the twofold sense of bhoga as "mundane-experience" and "enjoyment." While bhoga is a limiting factor in human experience, it still continues a measure of enjoyment, which explains its attraction. On the other hand, bhoga is also an opportunity for the cultivation of a more profound form of enjoyment - the bliss or "ananda" found in the consciousness and being of a transcendence designated by the name of Siva.

About the Author:

Wayne A. Borody is an Associate professor of Philosophy at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. His areas of Philosophical interests include the early Indian (Vedic, Hindu and Buddhist) and the early Greek and Modern European traditions. He is graduate of the former "Indian Philosophy" doctoral programme in the Religious Studies Depatrment at Mc Master University in Humilton, Ontario.