The Yoga of Netra Tantra (Third Eye and Overcoming Death)

The Netra Tantra "Tantra of the (Third) Eye (of Siva)", also called Mrtyujit (Conqueror of Death), is one of the fundamental scriptures of non-dualist Kashmir Saivism or Trika. It is the only Tantra having the Third Eye of Siva as title and theme, and it contains three important chapters on Yoga, relating to three ways of overcoming death.

This book, besides giving an introduction to the Tantra, contains an interpretation of the three chapters; Chapter 1 deals with the Eye of Siva, Chapter 7 with subtle Yoga, and Chapter 8 with supreme Yoga. The same texts are presented in Devanagari, transliteration and translation, including the eleventh-century commentary of Ksemaraja, illustrious disciple of Abhinava-gupta. The Appendix contains illustrations of the theme of trinetra from different sources, mainly connected with Kashmir, as well as a comparative study on "The spiritual eye in the Christian mystical traditions".

This book is an important contribution to the studies on non-dualist Saivism or Trika, and especially to its Yoga.

Bettina Sharada Baumer is a scholar of non-dualist Kashmir Saivism and a disciple of Swami Lakshman Joo (1907-91). She has been teaching texts of Kashmir Saivism in intensive seminars for the last 20 years. She was National Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, from 2015-17. At present she is Director of 'Samvidalaya, Abhinavagupta Research Library' in Varanasi. Her recent publications include: Abhinavagupta's Hermeneutics of the Absolute, Anuttaraprakriya, An Interpretation of His Paratriksika Vivarana (2011); Utpaladeva, Philosopher of Recognition, co-edited with Raffaele Torella (2016); Tantrapuspanjali: Tantric Traditions and Philosophy of Kashmir, Studies in Memory of Pandit H.N. Chakravarty, co-edited with Hamsa Stainton (2018).

In 2015 she was awarded Padma Shri by the Government of India.

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