First of all, let us recognize the importance of preserving ancient documents of enlightenment. The majority of original Sanskrit enlightenment documents are lost forever, but in the late 1800's the government of India authorized a massive, decades-long project to collect and preserve more than 500,000 pages of ancient Sanskrit manuscripts. If it wasn't for this project, even more of these original works would have been lost forever.
In 1919, this preservation project was printed as a collection of encyclopedia-like books (in Sanskrit) that were sent to universities all over the world. For more than 150 years those thick books have been sitting on shelves gathering dust - unstudied and untranslated. Indeed, only a small fraction of these preserved texts have been translated into English.
Vatula (800-900AD)
Fortunately for us, one of the most obscure, yet important documents of enlightenment is a very short work - 13 short verses in total - called the Vatulanatha Sutras.
Vatula was an advanced Tantrik practitioner who lived around 800 -900 AD. He had heard of oral teachings, and so set out to find the source of these oral teachings and learn more. Eventually, in a remote, mountainous location on the border of modern day India and Pakistan he met the enlightened female yoginis.
The yoginis tested his wisdom and sincerity, and eventually agreed to transmit the full array of oral enlightenment teachings - specifically the lineage of the Shaiva Non-Dual Tantra enlightenment system.
Vatula was shocked and transformed at the pure power of these teachings, and so when he returned to his home, he began teaching this system to his students. Several centuries later - perhaps 1100 AD, a student in this lineage (Anantasakti) wrote down the teachings of the great enlightened master Vatula with his own commentary on the meaning of the sutras.
We don't know what other teachings or oral transmissions of Vatula may still survive, but at least this handwritten document survived the ravages of history, and was published in Sanskrit as part of this huge collection. This particular short sutra was first translated into English in 1923.
This 1923 translation is marked on the cover:
"Published under the authority of the government of the Kashmiri state and his highness Maharaja (Great King) Sir Pratap Singh Sahib Bahadur Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir."
The Importance of Oral Transmission
The importance and scope of the oral (unwritten) wisdom of the yoginis was described in an unrelated document:
"You recite scripture and consider yourself learned, but the wisdom contained in scripture is like one hair on a horse. All knowledge is held by the yoginis."
So any time we get access to direct oral teachings from these yoginis it is quite a treasure - a rare view directly into the minds and techniques of the most enlightened.
The oral wisdom contained in these Sutras is considered to be the "secret of secrets" in enlightenment wisdom, the most pure and direct wisdom - not meant for explanation and intellectual study, but for direct experience. The sutras themselves are esoteric, meaning they sound like riddles - and almost every line refers to other teachings which must first be understood. For example, the three flavors, the three veils, the four goddesses, the 12 aspects - these would mean nothing to the modern student, yet they meant everything to students of the day.
Clearly these teachings can only be digested by an advanced student with a highly advanced guru. However, there are some verses of the Vatulanatha Sutras that require no explanation - the meaning is clear.
The Sutras of the Intoxicated Lord
We refer to these teachings as the Vatulanatha Sutras to identify the man Vatula, but within the teachings, these Sutras are called The Sutras of the Intoxicated Lord, or Sutras of the Wild Master - intoxicated and wild referring to the intoxication of complete enlightenment (although some believe the Intoxicated Lord and the Wild Master refer to students' memories of Vatula himself).
In perhaps 1100AD, the prime student of the Vatula lineage wrote down these teachings - as they were taught to him. From his introduction to the sutras:
"These insights cannot be taught in mere words or comprehended by the mind, being beyond all tradition and doctrines, revealing only in direct experience."
Excerpts from the 13 sutras themselves:
Upon entering the great emptiness (spaciousness), abiding in continuous, eventless consciousness, through the destruction of opposites, one is established in the nameless state.
By savoring the three flavors (the triple happiness), the supreme absolute utterly free, surges up spontaneously and one is permanently established in a state of repose within oneself, and thus the resonance (vibration) of the void is known.
Preparation for these teachings requires a long-term softening of your life force, an eventual release from outer stress and the limitations of your five senses.
So why share this knowledge? So that we may all know there was a time when enlightenment was common, that enlightenment is our birthright, and that each of us - in our own way - may advance ourselves through spiritual achievement and recognition of our light consciousness.
Here is a link to the first english translation of the Vatulanatha Sutras:
https://ia802900.us.archive.org/16/items/TheVatulanathaSutrasWithTheVrittiOfAnantashaktipadaMadhusudanKaulSHastri/The Vatulanatha Sutras with the Vritti of Anantashaktipada - Madhusudan Kaul SHastri_text.pdf