Fwd: Tantra - Notes on reflection of the nature of Godhead

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As Shakti is the self-awareness power of the Absolute (Anuttara), vimarsha,

while Shiva is

the light of pure consciousness, prakasha, so in the manifested existence these

two are

represented in the forms of women and men. In this sense we can understand the

verse of

Shaktisangama-tantra saying that "all men are forms of Mahakala and all women

are of the

nature of Kali and Tara" (Kalikhanda, 5.4-5). In the process of upasana it is

women who

elevate men for the provided reason – all activity is done by vimarsha, prakasha

being the

static pole, Linga.

That is why Tantras underline again and again that without company of a woman

there is

no complete perfection. The love feeling manifested between woman and man is the

primal vibration of the Godhead, spanda. It is this process which is the direct

means to

self-realization urged by the direct impact of divine power of grace,

shaktinipata. What

exists in Tantric practice as its sexual side is a vessel for the descent of

anugraha, being

more its result rather than its cause. That is why it is clearly told that only

love saves; from

perfect love naturally evolves erotic aspect, kama. It is by this kama Devi is

pleased and

served through. In this course we can notice that women is a cause of the

self-realizing,

svatma-sakshatkara. In every relation with a woman sadhaka can unite with a

certain

aspect of vimarsha – this is a kind of inner maithuna which is prescribed in

Tantras to be

practiced with any woman one likes. Its nature is of consciousness and need not

be

necessarily reflected in actual sex.

What is essential for the proper understanding and application of the most

sacred Tantric

doctrine is the rasa-darshana, meaning "mystical vision through feeling". If

Tantra is taken

to be mere technical ritual (be it radical or conventional) it turns to be

useless as well as if

it is taken as a dry theory – like what had mostly happened with Kashmir

shaivism and

partly with Srividya.