92. 104 CHAPTER II

104 CHAPTER II

QUALITIES OF INDIVIDUAL SUBJECT AND "BHOGA". ei Thus "Bhoga" is nothing but experience of pleasure, pain and senselessness, which are forms of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas respectively. It is due to the ignorance, on the part of individual subject, of his essential nature, of his identity with the Supreme Lord. The Saiva draws a distinction between "Bhoga" and "Parama Bhoga". The former is the experience of limited subject and consists in pleasure, pain and senselessness. The latter is the experience of universal subject. It has no objective reference. It is perfect rest of the Universal within Himself.

THE CONCLUSION. The aim of our presentation of the Saiva conception of the Absolute and its first two manifestations, Siva and Sakti, was to determine the spiritual level at which Abhi- navagupta places the æsthetic experience. These dis- cussions justify our position that he was influenced in his exposition of the theory of Æsthetics by the Saiva system and not by the Vedanta. And our object in presenting the Saiva conception of qualities of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas was to show that Bhatta Nayaka, who explained æsthetic experience in terms of predominance of "Sattva" and identified it with "Ananda" failed to grasp the true nature of Æsthetic experience. For, if his conclusion be accepted the æsthetic experience would belong to the sphere of Maya, because the qualities, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, are the constituents of Maya, according to the Vedantin, whom he follows.

According to Abhinavagupta, æsthetic experience is a transcendental experience. It does not belong to the sphere of Maya. It does not admit of explanation in terms of qualities of individual subject, It is beyond Sattva and its