72. SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 79

SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 79

the most important in it. It is the means of freedom from the impurity of potential desire. For, it destroys the duality of subject and object and thus leaves no field for operation of desire. 3. Path of will (Icchopāya). It consists in the exercise of will-power, without any serious effort at contemplation, to realise the Ultimate reality. It 315m-f is the highest means and is responsible for freedom from the greatest impurity. 4. Path of grace (Anupāya). For fuller information about these the reader may refer to "Abhinavagupta" (182-190.) BACKGROUND OF HIS METAPHYSICS. Rationalism is concerned with the explanation of the why, the what and the wherefrom of the entire field of experience. Abhinava is not a rationalist of the Kantian type, according to whom metaphysics is not possible. On the contrary, he belongs to the Hegelian type and devotes serious attention to the problem of ultimate origin and nature of the world of experience. He completely rejects logical realism of Nyaya and atomistic pluralism of Vaiseşika both in details and funda- mentals. He holds that these systems present only the layman's point of view. His difference from the Realistic Dualism of the Sankhya, the subjective Idealism of the Bauddha and the monistic Idealism of the Vedanta, is confined to the fundamentals only. He incor- porates in his system the twentyfour categories and the Purușa of Sankhya, the doctrine of momentariness of the Bauddha and the Maya of the Vedantin with suitable modifications. He rejects dualism and pluralism in all forms, because they present an unbridgeable gulf between the self and the