The Ultimate Self-Awareness

Abstract

Śiva’s sense of self is ever-evolving, ever-changing. His selfawareness is in constant motion, expanding and contracting in its many manifestations. The movement is circular. It forms Śiva’s life cycle which is structured and bound to an internal dynamic based on a tensile balance between the reflexive and reflective modes of the god. The following article examines this dynamic, sketches the structure of the life cycle as it appears in the Kālavadha Kāvya of Kṛṣṇalīlāśuka, and aims to shed new light on the vibrant sense of Śiva’s self.