Ricerc@Sapienza

A major characteristic of the aristocratic attitude—and I would not know how to better de ne the avor that pervades the whole of Abhinavagupta’s work—is the downgrading of all painful e ort, seen as a plebeian feature. The aristocrat intends to show that what inferior people can achieve only at the cost of long and painful exercises is accessible to him promptly and very easily. One of the recur- ring quali cations for Abhinavagupta’s attitude to the spiritual path is precisely absence of e ort, absence of exertion or fatigue, easiness.