Sambhunatha

Sambhunatha was a revered master of the Trika and Kaula lineages and the principal guru of Abhinavagupta. Very little is known of his biography beyond what Abhinavagupta himself tells us. In the opening verse of the Tantrasara, Abhinavagupta compares his guru's wisdom to the rays of the sun that opened the closed lotus of his heart, freeing his awareness from its contraction. This poetic dedication suggests a profound transmission -- the kind of spiritual awakening that Abhinavagupta later describes as the Descent of Power (shaktipata). Sambhunatha is credited with transmitting the esoteric Kaula practices that Abhinavagupta would later integrate into his comprehensive synthesis of nondual Shaivism.