O & E of Shakti Worship - 3

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The work kaula is cognate with clan and the communities venerated a huge

number of gods and goddesses. (It could also mean 'kundalini' in

mUlAdhAra'). In this KaulAchArA, other wise known as VamAcharA the rishi is

Bhairava. Bhairava and Bhairavi are the deities. The worship of the shakthi

component of the shiva shakthi is stressed. In this ritual, the sAdhaka

performs the puja according to Parasuraama kalpa suutraas. With left hand,

liquor and meat are offered to the deity. Some worshippers known as Uttara

Kaula perform puja to female genital organ.

 

There were different clans of people who practiced this method. Some of

those worshippers were digambaras and kApAlikAs. MahA kALA and MahA kALI are

their deities. Sacrifice of humans that too most revered ones is the

effective way of pleasing the deity according to them. We come across such a

kApAlikA in Shankara's biography. A later modification of this clan who shed

human sacrifice but lived in graveyards and dressed with animal skin known

as 'kALAmukhas' lived during mid Chola rain in south. (We read about them in

the famous tamil novel 'Ponnin selvan').

 

In vAmAchArA pancha MakAras are offered to the deity in the ritual. They are

meat (mAmsa), wine (madya), parched rice (mudrA), fish (matsya) and sexual

intercourse (Maithuna). Regarding the origin of these pancha makaaras, we

can trace it in the evolution of the shaktha matha itself.

 

The fierce rival goddess of shakthi cult is even today offered meat and in

some places toddy or what ever the worshipper ate or drank such as fish and

wine. In mahabaratha Sri Durga is mentioned to be fond of wine and meat.

KshatriyAs were allowed to consume meat and wine even according to Smruti.

So rajasic deities were offered what they ate as a sacrament.

 

It's worth quoting kulArNAva tantra in this context,

"Beguiled by false knowledge as propagated, certain persons, deprived of the

guru-shishya tradition, imagine the nature of the Kuladharma according to

their own intellect. If merely by drinking wine, men were to attain

fulfillment, all addicted to liquor would reach perfection. If mere

partaking of flesh were to lead to the high state, all the carnivores in the

world would become eligible to immense merit. If liberation were to be

ensured by sexual intercourse with a shakti, all creatures would become

liberated by female companionship." (Kularnava Tantra, II, 116- 118).

 

Some tantras came forward to impose an inner import to these external acts.

The person who practices 'pancha makAra' worship is termed as a 'divya' or a

hero in kularNava tantra. The tantra states that the divine person, or

divya, is one who realizes the wine flow from the 1,000 petal lotus, flesh

as the sense of duality, fish as the disordering of the senses and sexual

intercourse is the union of Kundalini with supreme Shiva. Indeed, the

commentary to the famous Karpuradi stotra goes further and says that true

sexual intercourse is union with the goddess within. Intercourse with any

other woman is adultery. (It's unreasonable to assume that vAmAchArins did

not practice kundalini yoga).

 

This paved way for the creation of one more clan who got cot in a midway

known as the 'mishra' fellows. They did not engage in ragasic or tamasic

pujas with flesh and wine but replaced them with more satvic things. (Ginger

for flesh, milk for wine and the symbolic union of two flowers for

copulation.) . Actually most of the living Sri Vidya schools are of this

type. True samAchArins are very rare. Adapted to any extent their capability

to coarsen the intellectual faculties, especially in spiritual pursuits was

soon discovered and was tabooed to every spiritual aspirant by great men.

 

Some seek to justify vaamaa chaara on the ground that it seeks to sublimate

the grosser nature of man. But this is strange argument as the human nature

is to go grosser and grosser as the senses are satisfied further and

further. Some come up with arguments that great souls like Rama Krishna

Paramahamsa have practiced vaamahaara. This is against rather an odd

argument. It is only highly evolved souls like Rama krishna can with stand

the temptations and pit falls in this approach. It is not for ordinary men

and evolved souls do not need it.

 

But what ever might be the origin of this vamachara, it evolved as a path of

sadana for certain, classes of hindus and has a place in their spiritual

growth at any rate in the beginning. The Tantras themselves give adequate

warning about the pit falls in vAmAchAra.

 

On an examination of the historical evolution of the tantras, sex act as an

article of worship seems to have been introduced fourth first time in the

‘Guhya samAja Tantra’ of Buddhistic origin. XVIII chapter of this tantra

speaks abut initiation of a disciple with ‘prajN^A’ or women. From the name

of the tantra itself it is to be understood that it advocated secret

societies where this cult was practiced as Hinduism. Orthodox buddhisum did

not tolerate such unholy acts. But diluted ones adopted it in buddisum and

‘VajrayAna Buddhisum’ evolved. One of the major reasons for driving out

Buddhism from its motherland was the immortal practice that got embedded

with it in course of time.

 

These undesirable tantric rituals have invaded the worship of not only

Sakthi but also other gods like Surya, Shiva, Ganesh and even the most

satvic Vishnu of the Hindu pantheon. (Agamas give mantras to treat Vishnu as

an abhichaara mUrti)

 

The credit goes to Sri Shankara for rescuing these various schools of hindu

religious worship more especially the Sakthi worship from these odious

practices and establishing it in its pristine vedic purity as ‘Samaya Mata’

or ‘DakshiNAhchAra’. This samayachara is the ritual adopted in the monastic

institutions established by Shankara and prescribed to Hindus since his

time.

 

(cont..)

 

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