Kashf
(Arab., ‘unveiling’). Comprehension of facts, events, and truths (mundane and spiritual) by inner sight or light. A
S
f
term, it is used for a revelation of any secret truth to the mind and heart by the grace and power of God.
Kashmir
aivism
.
An esoteric
aivism
prevalent in Kashmir, N. India, from the 8th to the 11th cents. CE. It comprises a number of related
aiva and
kta
systems, namely the
Kaula
(‘relating to the family’), Krama (‘gradation’), and Trika (‘threefold’), though the term often refers only to the latter school, which is the most important, in that it integrated the Kaula and the Krama.
The literature of the Trika school is divided into three stages:
(i)
gama
stra, revealed truth as embodied in the sixty-four monistic
aiva
gamas and the
iva S
tras
;
(ii) Spanda
stra, a group of texts dealing with
spanda
(‘vibration’), principally the
Spanda K
rik
s
; and
(iii) Pratyabhijñ
stra, the philosophical systematization of the earlier material, which advocates a theology of the recognition (
pratyabhijñ