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Wellsprings
hindu-devotionWe're still mapping where this idea was first discussed. Key passages and related ideas below.

Power of Knowing (Jñāna-Śakti)

The fourth power: the will's first stir taking clear shape as definite knowing.

Jñāna-śakti is the power of knowing — the capacity by which consciousness brings what it wills into clear cognition, giving it shape and definition. After the first stir of will comes knowing: the experience takes form as something distinctly perceived or understood. It is the divine's own clarity at work, the middle term between bare impulse and full-blown action.

Key passages(4)

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Spanda-kārikā · Bhaṭṭa Kallaṭa

High

Vijñāna-bhairava · Anonymous (Bhairava Āgama / Tantra)

Moderate

Vijñāna-bhairava · Anonymous (Bhairava Āgama / Tantra)

Moderate