Shakti and Shakta

[Guest guest]

> , " jagbir singh "

<adishakti_org> wrote:

> >

> >

> > Dear Semira,

> >

> > Definitely and without question the Divine Message will triumph

> > over the organization itself. In future more and more people

> > will embrace its central message of evolving into the eternal

> > spirit that all religions, holy scriptures and prophets have

> > since time immemorial upheld. The Divine Message is a spiritual

> > sanctuary, a beacon of hope, joy, peace of eternal life to all

> > humans. The Shakti/Holy Spirit/Ruh/Aykaa Mayee is the Divine

> > Feminine that gives Self-realization/Birth of Spirit/Baptism of

> > Allah/Opens Dasam Dwar for humanity to enter the Sahasrara/

> > Kingdom of God/Niche of lights/Inner Sanctuary within where

> > Brahman/God Almighty/Allah/ Waheguru resides as THE LIGHT.

> > Semira, not only the current Sahaja Yoga organisation but all

> > religious organizations as well have merely been intended as

> > temporary vehicles and starting points for the Divine Message.

> >

> > jagbir

> >

> >

> > , " jagbir singh "

<adishakti_org> wrote:

>

> By the way things are moving the Adi Shakti will eventually

> triumph. All we need to do as Her bhaktas is to stand our ground

> and not yield an inch because Truth always triumphs. Years of

> silence from religious regimes is the sure sign that the Devi and

> Her Divine Message to all humanity cannot be challenged, and will

> eventually be victorious in Her battle against the evil forces.

> All we need to do is to fearlessly announce the Truth. Shanti,

> Shanti, Shanti.

>

 

 

Shakti and Shakta

 

Shakti who is in Herself pure blissful Consciousness (Cidrupini) is

also the Mother of Nature and is Nature itself born of the creative

play of Her thought. The Shakta faith, or worship of Shakti, is I

believe, in some of its essential features one of the oldest and

most wide-spread religions in the world. Though very ancient, it is

yet, in its essentials, and in the developed form in which we know

it to-day, harmonious with some of the teachings of modern

philosophy and science; not that this is necessarily a test of its

truth. It may be here noted that in the West, and in particular in

America and England, a large number of books are now being published

on " New Thought, " " Will Power, " " Vitalism, " " Creative

Thought, " " Right Thought, " " Self Unfoldment, " " Secret of

Achievement, " " Mental Therapeutics " and the like, the principles of

which are essentially those of some forms of Shakti Sadhana both

higher and lower. There are books of disguised magic as how to

control (Vashikarana) by making them buy what they do not want, how

to secure " affection " and so forth which, not-withstanding some

hypocrisies, are in certain respects on the same level as the

Tantrik Shavara as a low class of books on magic are called. Shavara

or Candala are amongst the lowest of men. The ancient and at the

same time distinguishing character of the faith is instanced by

temple worship (the old Vaidik worship was generally in the home or

in the open by the river), the cult of images, of Linga and Yoni

(neither of which, it is said, were part of the original Vaidik

Practice), the worship of Devis and of the Magna Mater (the great

Vaidik Devata was the male Indra) and other matters of both doctrine

and practice.

 

Many years ago Edward Sellon, with the aid of a learned Orientalist

of the Madras Civil Service, attempted to learn its mysteries, but

for reasons, which I need not here discuss, did not view them from

the right standpoint. He, however, compared the Shaktas with the

Greek Telestica or Dynamica, the Mysteries of Dionysus " Fire born in

the cave of initiation " with the Shakti Puja, the Shakti Shodhana

with the purification shown in d'Hancarvilles' " Antique Greek

Vases " ; and after referring to the frequent mention of this ritual

in the writings of the Jews and other ancient authors, concluded

that it was evident that we had still surviving in India in the

Shakta worship a very ancient, if not the most ancient, form of

Mysticism in the whole world. Whatever be the value to be given to

any particular piece of evidence, he was right in his general

conclusion. For, when we throw our minds back upon the history of

this worship we see stretching away into the remote and fading past

the figure of the Mighty Mother of Nature, most ancient among the

ancients; the Adya Shakti, the dusk Divinity, many breasted, crowned

with towers whose veil is never lifted, Isis, " the one who is all

that has been, is and will be, " Kali, Hathor, Cybele, the Cowmother

Goddess Ida, Tripurasundari, the Ionic Mother, Tef the spouse of Shu

by whom He effects the birth of all things, Aphrodite, Astarte in

whose groves the Baalim were set, Babylonian Mylitta, Buddhist Tara,

the Mexican Ish, Hellenic Osia, the consecrated, the free and pure,

African Salambo who like Parvati roamed the Mountains, Roman Juno,

Egyptian Bast the flaming Mistress of Life, of Thought, of Love,

whose festival was celebrated with wanton Joy, the Assyrian Mother

Succoth Benoth, Northern Freia, Mulaprakriti, Semele, Maya, Ishtar,

Saitic Neith Mother of the Gods, eternal deepest ground of all

things, Kundali, Guhyamahabhairavi and all the rest.

 

And yet there are people who allege the " Tantrik " cult is modern. To

deny this is not to say that there has been or will be no change or

development in it. As man changes, so do the forms of his beliefs.

An ancient feature of this faith and one belonging to the ancient

Mysteries is the distinction which it draws between the initiate

whose Shakti is awake (Prabuddha) and the Pashu the unillumined

or " animal, " and, as the Gnostics called him, " material " man. The

Natural, which is the manifestation of the Mother of Nature, and the

Spiritual or the Mother as She is in and by Herself are one, but the

initiate alone truly recognizes this unity. He knows himself in all

his natural functions as the one Consciousness whether in enjoyment

(Bhukti), or Liberation (Mukti). It is an essential principle of

Tantrik Sadhana that man in general must rise through and by means

of Nature, and not by an ascetic rejection of Her. A profoundly true

principle is here involved whatever has been said of certain

applications of it. When Orpheus transformed the old Bacchic cult,

it was the purified who in the beautiful words of Euripides " went

dancing over the hills with the daughters of Iacchos " . I cannot,

however, go into this matter in this paper which is concerned with

some general subjects and the ordinary ritual. But the evidence is

not limited to mysteries of the Shakti Puja. There are features in

the ordinary outer worship which are very old and widespread, as are

also other parts of the esoteric teaching. In this connection, a

curious instance of the existence, beyond India, of Tantrik doctrine

and practice is here given. The American Indian Maya Scripture of

the Zunis called the Popul Vuh speaks of Hurakan or Lightning, that

is (I am told) Kundalishakti; of the " air tube " or " Whitecord " or

the Sushumna Nadi; of the " two-fold air tube " that is Ida and

Pingala; and of various bodily centers which are marked by animal

glyphs.

 

Perhaps the Pañcatattva Ritual followed by some of the adherents of

the Tantras is one of the main causes which have operated in some

quarters against acceptance of the authority of these Scriptures and

as such responsible for the notion that the worship is modern. On

the contrary, the usage of wine, meat, and so forth is itself very

old. There are people who talk of these rites as though they were

some entirely new and comparatively modern invention of'

the " Tantra, " wholly alien to the spirit and practice of the early

times. If the subject be studied it will, I think. be found that in

this matter those worshippers who practice these rites are (except

possibly as to Maithuna) the continuators of very ancient practices

which had their counterparts in the earlier Vaidikacara, but were

subsequently abandoned. possibly under the influence of Jainism and

Buddhism. I say " counterpart, " for I do not mean to suggest that in

every respect the rites were the same. In details and as regards, I

think, some objects in view, they differed. Thus we find in this

Pañcatattva Ritual a counterpart to the Vaidik usage of wine and

animal food. As regards wine, we have the partaking of Soma; meat

was offered in Mamsashtaka Shraddha; fish in the Ashtakashraddha and

Pretashraddha; and Maithuna as a recognized rite will be found in

the Vamadevya Vrata and Maravrata of universally recognized Vaidik

texts, apart from the alleged, and generally unknown, Saubhagykanda

of the Atharvaveda to which the Kalikopanishad and other " Tantrik "

Upanishads are said to belong. Possibly, however, this element of

Maithuna may be foreign and imported by Cinacara (see Ch. V). So

again, as that distinguished scholar Professor Ramendra Sundara

Trivedi has pointed out in his Vicitraprasanga, the Mudra of

Pañcatattva corresponds with the Purodasa cake of the Soma and other

Yagas. The present rule of abstinence from wine, and in some cases,

meat is due, I believe, to the original Buddhism. It is so-

called " Tantriks, " who follow (in and for their ritual only) the

earlier practice. It is true that the Samhita of Ushanah says, " Wine

is not to be drunk, given or taken (Madyam apeyam adeyam agrahyam) "

but the yet greater Manu states, " There is no wrong in the eating of

meat or the drinking of wine (Na mamsabakshane dosho na madye) "

though he rightly adds, as many now do, that abstention therefrom is

productive of great fruit (Nivrittistu mahaphala). The Tantrik

practice does not allow extra-ritual or " useless " drinking

(Vrithapana).

 

Further, it is a common error to confound two distinct things,

namely, belief and practice and the written records of it. These

latter may be comparatively recent, whilst that of which they speak

may be most ancient. When I speak of the ancient past of this faith

I am not referring merely to the writings which exist today which

are called Tantras. These are composed generally in a simple

Sanskrit by men whose object it was to be understood rather than to

show skill in literary ornament. This simplicity is a sign of age.

But at the same time it is Laukika and not Arsha Sanskrit. Moreover,

there are statements in them which (unless interpolations) fix the

limits of their age. I am not speaking of the writings themselves

but of what they say. The faith that they embody, or at least its

earlier forms, may have existed for many ages before it was reduced

to writing amongst the Kulas or family folk, who received it as

handed down by tradition (Paramparyya) just as did the Vaidik

Gotras. That such beliefs and practices, like all other things, have

had their development in course of time is also a likely hypothesis.

 

A vast number of Tantras have disappeared probably for ever. Of

those which survive a large number are unknown. Most of those which

are available are of fragmentary character. Even if these did appear

later than some other Shastras, this would not, on Indian

principles, affect their authority. According to such principles the

authority of a Scripture is not determined by its date; and this is

sense. Why, it is asked, should something said 1,000 years ago be on

that account only truer than what was said 100 years ago? It is held

that whilst the teaching of the Agama is ever existent, particular

Tantras are constantly being revealed and withdrawn. There is no

objection against a Tantra merely because it was revealed to-day.

When it is said that Shiva spoke the Tantras, or Brahma wrote the

celebrated Vaishnava poem called the Brahmasamhita, it is not meant

that Shiva and Brahma materialized and took a reed and wrote on

birch bark or leaf, but that the Divine Consciousness to which men

gave these and other names inspired a particular man to teach, or to

write, a particular doctrine or work touching the eternally existing

truth. This again does not mean that there was any one whispering in

his ear, but that these things arose in his consciousness. What is

done in this world is done through man. There is a profounder wisdom

than is generally acknowledged in the saying " God helps those who

help themselves " . Inspiration too never ceases. But how, it may be

asked, are we to know that what is said is right and true? The

answer is " by its fruits. " The authority of a Shastra is determined

by the question whether Siddhi is gained through its provisions or

not. It is not enough that " Shiva uvaca " (Shiva says) is writ in it.

The test is that of Ayurveda. A medicine is a true one if it cures.

The Indian test for everything is actual experience. It is from

Samadhi that the ultimate proof of Advaitavada is sought. How is the

existence of Kalpas known? It is said they have been remembered, as

by the Buddha who is recorded as having called to mind 91 past

Kalpas. There are arguments in favor of rebirth but that which is

tendered as real proof is both the facts of ordinary daily

experience which can, it is said, be explained only on the

hypothesis of pre-existence; as also actual recollection by self-

developed individuals of their previous lives. Modern Western

methods operate through magnetic sleep producing " regression of

memory " . (See A. de Rochas Les Vies Successives and Lancelin La Uie

Posthume.) Age, however, is not wholly without its uses: because one

of the things to which men look to see in a Shastra is whether it

has been accepted or quoted in works of recognized authority. Such a

test of authenticity can, of course, only be afforded after the

lapse of considerable time. But it does not follow that a statement

is in fact without value because, owing to its having been made

recently, it is not possible to subject it to such a test. This is

the way in which this question of age and authority is looked at on

Indian principles.

 

A wide survey of what is called orthodox " Hinduism " today (whatever

be its origins) will disclose the following results: Vedanta in the

sense of Upanishad as its common doctrinal basis, though variously

interpreted, and a great number of differing disciplines or modes of

practice by which the Vedanta doctrines are realized in actual fact.

We must carefully distinguish these two. Thus the Vedanta

says " So'ham " ; which is Hamsha. " Hakara is one wing; Sakara is the

other. When stripped of both wings She, Tara, is Kamakala. "

(Tantraraja Tantra.) The Acaras set forth the means by

which " So'ham " is to be translated into actual fact for the

particular Sadhaka. Sadhana comes from the root " Sadh " which means

effort or striving or accomplishment. Effort for and towards what?

The answer for those who desire it is liberation from every form in

the hierarchy of forms, which exist as such, because consciousness

has so limited itself as to obscure the Reality which it is, and

which " So'ham " or " Shivo'ham " affirms. And why should man liberate

himself from material forms? Because it is said, that way only

lasting happiness lies: though a passing, yet fruitful bliss may be

had here by those who identify themselves with active Brahman

(Shakti). It is the actual experience of this declaration

of 'So'ham " which in its fundamental aspect is Veda: knowledge (Vid)

or actual Spiritual Experience, for in the monistic sense to truly

know anything is to be that thing. This Veda or experience is not to

be had sitting down thinking vaguely on the Great Ether and doing

nothing. Man must transform himself, that is, act in order to know.

Therefore, the watchword of the Tantras is Kriya or action.

 

The next question is what Kriya should be adopted towards this end

of Jñana. " Tanyate, vistaryate jñanam anena iti Tantram. " According

to this derivation of the word Tantra from the root " Tan " " to

spread, " it is defined as the Shastra, by which knowledge (Jñana) is

spread. Mark the word Jñana. The end of the practical methods which

these Shastras employ is to spread Vedantic Jñana. It is here we

find that variety which is so puzzling to those who have not gone to

the root of the religious life of India. The end is substantially

one. The means to that end necessarily vary according to knowledge,

capacity, and temperament. But here again we may analyze the means

into two main divisions, namely, Vaidik and Tantrik, to which may be

added a third or the mixed (Mishra). The one body of Hinduism

reveals as it were, a double framework represented by the Vaidik and

Tantrik Acaras, which have in certain instances been mingled.

 

The word " Tantra " by itself simply means as I have already

said " treatise " and not necessarily a religious scripture. When it

has the latter significance, it may mean the Scripture of several

divisions of worshippers who vary in doctrine and practice. Thus

there are Tantras of Salvias, Vaishnavas, and Shaktas and of various

sub-divisions of these. So amongst the Salvias there are the Salvias

of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Advaita Shaiva of the Kashmir School,

Pashupatas and a multitude of other sects which have their Tantras.

If " Tantric " be used as meaning an adherent of the Tantra Shastra,

then the word, in any particular case, is without definite meaning.

A man to whom the application is given may be a worshipper of any of

the Five Devatas (Surya, Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti) and of any

of the various Sampradayas worshipping that Devata with varying

doctrine and practice. The term is a confusing one, though common

practice compels its use. So far as I know, those who are

named, " Tantrics " do not themselves generally use this term but call

themselves Shaktas, Salvias and the like, of whatever Sampradaya

they happen to be.

 

Again Tantra is the name of only one class of Scripture followed

by " Tantrics " . There are others, namely, Nigamas, Agamas, Yamalas,

Damaras, Uddishas, Kakshaputas and so forth. None of these names are

used to describe the adherents of these Shastras except, so far as I

am aware, Agama in the use of the term Agamavadin, and Agamanta in

the descriptive name of Agamanta Shaiva. I give later a list of

these Scriptures as contained in the various Agamas. If we summarize

them shortly under the term Tantra Shastra, or preferably Agama,

then we have four main classes of Indian Scripture, namely, Veda

(Samhita, Brahmana, Upanishad), Agama or Tantra Shastra, Purana,

Smriti. Of these Shastras the authority of the Agama or Tantra

Shastra has been denied in modern times. This view may be shown to

be erroneous by reference to Shastras of admitted authority. It is

spoken of as the Fifth Veda. Kulluka Bhatta, the celebrated

commentator on Manu, says: " Shruti is twofold, Vaidik and Tantrik

(Vaidiki tantriki caiva dvividha srutih lurtita) " . This refers to

the Mantra portion of the Agamas. In the Great Vaishnava Shastra,

the Srimad Bhagavata, Bhagavan says: " My worship is of the three

kinds -- Vaidik, Tantrik and Mixed (Mishra) " and that, in

Kaliyuga, " Keshava is to be worshipped according to the injunction

of Tantra. " The Devibhagavata speaks of the Tantra Shastra as a

Vedanga. It is cited as authority in the Ashtavimshati Tattva of

Raghunandana who prescribes for the worship of Durga as before him

had done Shridatta, Harinatha, Vidyadhara and many others. Some of

these and other references are given in Mahamahopadhyaya

Yadaveshvara Tarkaratna's Tantrer Pracinatva in the Sahitpa Samhita

of Aswin 1317. The Tarapradipa and other Tantrik works say that in

the Kali-yuga the Tantrika and not the Vaidika Dharma is to be

followed. This objection about the late character and therefore

unauthoritativeness of the Tantra Shastras generally (I do not speak

of any particular form of it) has been taken by Indians from their

European Gurus.

 

According to the Shakta Scriptures, Veda in its wide sense does not

only mean Rig, Yajus, Sama, Atharva as now published but comprises

these together with the generally unknown and unpublished Uttara

Kanda of the Atharva Veda, called Saubhagya, with the Upanishads

attached to this. Sayana's Commentary is written on the Purva Kanda.

These are said (though I have not yet verified she fact) to be 64 in

number. Some of these, such as Advaitabhava, Kaula, Kalika, Tripura,

Tara, Aruna Upanishads and Bahvricopanishad, Bhavanopanishad, I have

published as the XI volume of Tantrik " texts. Aruna means " She who

is red " . Redness ( (Lauhityam) is Vimarsha. (See Vol. XI, Tantrik

Texts. Ed. A. Avalon.) I may also here refer my reader to the

Kaulacarya Satyananda's Commentary on the great Isha Upanishad.

Included also in " Veda " (according to the same view) are the

Nigamas, Agamas, Yamalas and Tantras. From these all other Shastras

which explain the meaning (Artha) of Veda such as Purana and Smriti,

also Itihasa and so forth are derived. All these Shastras constitute

what is called a " Many millioned " (Shatakoti) Samhita which are

developed, the one from the other as it were an unfolding series. In

the Tantrik Sangraha called Sarvollasa by the Sarvavidyasiddha

Sarvanandanatha the latter cites authority (Narayani Tantra) to show

that from Nigama came Agama. Here I pause to note that the Sammohana

says that Kerala Sampradaya is Dakshina and follows Veda

(Vedamargastha), whilst Gauda (to which Sarvanandanatha belonged) is

Vama and follows Nigama. Hence apparently the pre-eminence given to

Nigama. He then says from Agama came Yamala, from Yamala the four

Vedas, from Vedas the Puranas, from Puranas Smriti, and from Smriti

all other Shastras. There are, he says, five Nigamas and 64 Agamas.

Four Yamalas are mentioned, which are said to give the gross form

(Sthularupa). As some may be surprised to learn that the four Vedas

came from the Yamalas (i.e. were Antargata of the Yamalas) which

literally means what is uniting or comprehensive, I subjoin the

Sanskrit verse from Narayani Tantra.

 

Brahmayamalasambhutam samaveda-matam shive

 

Rudrayamalasamjata rigvedo paramo mahan

 

Vishnuyamalasambhuto yajurvedah kuleshvari

 

Shaktiyamalasambhutam atharva paramam mahat.

 

Some Tantras are called by opposing sects Vedavirud-dhani (opposed

to Veda), which of course those who accept them deny, just as the

Commentary of the Nityashodashikarnava speaks of the Pañcaratrin as

Vedabhrashta. That some sects were originally Avaidika is probable,

but in process of time various amalgamations of scriptural

authority, belief and practice took place.

 

Whether we accept or not this theory, according to which the Agamas

and kindred Shastras are given authority with the four Vedas we have

to accept the facts. What are these?

 

As I have said, on examination the one body of Hinduism reveals as

it were a double framework. I am now looking at the matter from an

outside point of view which is not that of the Shakta worshipper. We

find on the one hand the four Vedas with their Samhitas, Brahmanas,

and Upanishads and on the other what has been called the " Fifth

Veda, " that is Nigama, Agama and kindred Shastras and certain

especially " Tantrik " Upanishads attached to the Saubhagya Kanda of

the Atharvaveda. There are Vaidik and Tantrik Kalpa Sutras and

Suktas such as the Tantrika Devi and Matsya Suktas. As a counterpart

of the Brahma-sutras, we have the Shakti Sutras of Agastya. Then

there is both Vaidik and " Tantrik " ritual such as (he ten Vaidik

Samskaras and the Tantrik Samskaras, such as Abhisheka; Vaidik and

Tantrik initiation (Upanayana and Diksha); Vaidik and Tantrik

Gayatri; the Vaidik Om, the so-called " Tantrik " Bijas such as Hring;

Vaidika. Guru and Deshika Guru and so forth. This dualism may be

found carried into other matters as well, such as medicine, law,

writing. So, whilst the Vaidik Ayurveda employed generally vegetable

drugs, the " Tantriks " used metallic substances. A counterpart of the

Vaidika Dharmapatni was the Shaiva wife; that is, she who is given

by desire (Kama). I have already pointed out the counterparts of the

Pañcatattva in the Vedas. Some allege a special form of Tantrik

script at any rate in Gauda Desha and so forth.

 

What is the meaning of all this? It is not at present possible to

give a certain answer. The subject has been so neglected and is so

little known. Before tendering any conclusions with any certainty of

their correctness, we must examine the Tantrik Texts which time has

spared. It will be readily perceived, however, that if there be such

a double frame as I suggest, it indicates that there were originally

two sources of religion one of which (possibly in some respects the

older) incorporated parts of, and in time largely superseded the

other. And this is what the " Tantriks " impliedly allege in their

views as to the relation of the four Vedas and Agamas. If they are

not both of authority, why should such reverence be given to the

Deshika Gurus and to Tantrik Diksha?

 

Probably, there were many Avaidika cults, not without a deep and

ancient wisdom of their own, that is, cults outside the Vaidik

religion (Vedabahya) which in the course of time adopted certain

Vaidik rites such as Homa: the Vaidikas, in their own turn, taking

up some of the Avaidika practices. It may be that some Brahmanas

joined these so-called Anarya Sampradayas just as we find to-day

Brahmanas officiating for low castes and being called by their name.

At length the Shastras of the two cults were given at least equal

authority. The Vaidik practice then largely disappeared, surviving

chiefly both in the Smarta rites of to-day and as embedded in the

ritual of the Agamas. These are speculations to which I do not

definitely commit myself. They are merely suggestions which may be

worth consideration when search is made for the origin of the

Agamas. If they be correct, then in this, as in other cases, the

beliefs and practices of the Soil have been upheld until to-day

against the incoming cults of those " Aryas " who followed the Vaidik

rites and who in their turn influenced the various religious

communities without the Vaidik fold.

 

The Smartas of to-day represent what is generally called the Srauta

side, though in these rites there are mingled many Pauranic

ingredients. The Arya Samaja is another present-day representative

of the old Vaidika Acara, mingled as it seems to me with a

modernism, which is puritan and otherwise. The other, or Tantrik

side, is represented by the general body of present-day Hinduism,

and in particular by the various sectarian divisions of Salvias,

Shaktas, Vaishnavas and so forth which go to its making.

 

Each sect of worshippers has its own Tantras. In a previous chapter

I have shortly referred to the Tantras of the Shaivasiddhanta, of

the Pañcaratra Agama, and of the Northern Saivaism of which the

Malinivijapa Tantra sets the type. The old fivefold division of

worshippers was, according to the Pañcopasana, Saura, Ganapatya,

Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta whose Mula Devatas were Surya,

Ganapati, Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti respectively. At the present time

the three-fold division, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, is of more

practical importance, as the other two survive only to a limited

extent to-day. In parts of Western India the worship of Ganesha is

still popular and I believe some Sauras or traces of Sauras here and

there exist, especially in Sind.

 

Six Amnayas are mentioned in the Tantras. (Shadamnayah). These are

the six Faces of Shiva, looking East (Purvamnaya), South

(Dakshinamnaya), West (Pashcim amnaya), North (Uttaramnaya), Upper

(Urddhvamnaya), Lower and concealed (Adhamnaya). The six Amnayas are

thus so called according to the order of their origin. They are thus

described in the Devyagama cited in the Tantrarahasya (see also,

with some variation probably due to corrupt text, Patala II of

Samayacara Tantra): " (1) The face in the East (that is in front) is

of pearl-like luster with three eyes and crowned by the crescent

moon. By this face I (Shiva) revealed (the Devis) Shri

Bhuvaneshvari, Triputa, Lalita, Padma, Shulini, Sarasvati, Tvarita,

Nitya, Vajraprastarim, Annapurna, Mahalakshmi, Lakshmi, Vagvadini

with all their rites and Mantras. (2) The Southern face is of a

yellow color with three eyes. By this face I revealed

Prasadasadashiva, Mahaprasadamantra, Dakshinamurti, Vatuka,

Mañjughosha, Bhairava, Mritasanjivanividya, Mrityunjaya with their

rites and Mantras. (3) The face in the West (that is at the back) is

of the color of a freshly formed cloud. By this face I revealed

Gopala, Krishna, Narayana, Vasudeva, Nrishimha, Vamana, Varaha,

Ramacandra, Vishnu, Harihara, Ganesha, Agni, Yama, Surya, Vidhu

(Candra) and other planets, Garuda, Dikpalas, Hanuman and other

Suras, their rites and Mantras. (4) The face in the North is blue in

color and with three eyes. By this face, I revealed the Devis,

Dakshinakalika, Mahakali, Guhyakah, Smashanakalika, Bhadrakali,

Ekajata, Ugratara, Taritni, Katyayani, Chhinnamasta, Nilasarasvati,

Durga, Jayadurga, Navadurga, Vashuli, Dhumavati, Vishalakshi, Gauri,

Bagalamukhi, Pratyangira, Matangi, Mahishamardini, their rites and

Mantras. (5) The Upper face is white. By this face I revealed

Shrimattripurasundari, Tripureshi, Bhairavi, Tripurabhairavi,

Smashanabhairavi, Bhuvaneshibhairavi, Shatkutabhairavi,

Annapurnabhairavi, Pañcami, Shodashi, Malini, Valavala, with their

rites and Mantras. (6) The sixth face (Below) is lustrous of many

colors and concealed. It is by this mouth that I spoke of

Devatasthana, Asana, Yantra, Mala, Naivedya, Balidana, Sadhana,

Purashcarana, Mantrasiddhi. It is called " Ishanamnaya. " The

Samayacara Tantra (Ch. 2) says that whilst the first four Amnayas

are for the Caturvarga or Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha, the upper

(Urddhvamnaya) and lower (Adhamnaya) are for liberation only. The

Sammohana Tantra (Ch. V) first explains Purvamnaya, Dakshinamnaya,

Pashcimamnaya, Uttaramnaya, Urdhvamnaya according to what is called

Deshaparyyaya. I am informed that no Puja of Adhamnaya is generally

done but that Shadanvaya Shambhavas, very high Sadhakas, at the door

of Liberation do Nyasa with this sixth concealed Face. It is said

that Patala Amnaya is Sam-bhogayoga. The Nishkala aspect in

Shaktikrama is for Purva, Tripura; for Dakshina, Saura, Ganapatya

and Vaishnava; for Pashcima, Raudra, Bhairava; for Uttara, Ugra,

Apattarini. In Shaivakarma the same aspect is for the first,

Sampatprada and Mahesha; for the second, Aghora, Kalika and

Vaishnava darshana; for the third, Raudra, Bhairava, Shaiva; for the

fourth, Kubera, Bhairava, Saudrashaka; and for Urddhvamnaya,

Ardhanarisha and Pranava. Niruttara Tantra says that the first two

Amnayas contain rites for the Pashu Sadhaka (see as to the meaning

of this and the other classes of Sadhakas, the Chapter on

Pañcatattva ritual Purvamnayoditam karma Pashavam kathitam priye,

and so with the next). The third or Pashcimamnaya is a combination

of Pashu and Vira (Pashcimamnayajam karma Pashu-virasamashritam).

Uttaramnaya is for Vira and Divya (Uttaramnayajam karma divpa-

virashritam priye). The upper Amnaya is for the Divya

(Urdhvamnayoditam karma divyabhavashritam priye). It adds that even

the Divya does Sadhana in the cremation ground in Virabhava (that

is, heroic frame: of mind and disposition) but he does such worship

without Virasana. The Sammohana also gives a classification of

Tantras according to the Amnayas as also special classifications,

such as the Tantras of the six Amnayas according to Vatukamnaya. As

only one Text of the Sammohana is available whilst I write, it is

not possible to speak with certainty of accuracy as regards all

these details.

 

Each of these divisions of worshippers have their own Tantras, as

also had the Jainas and Bauddhas. Different sects had their own

particular subdivisions and Tantras of which there are various

classifications according to Krantas, Deshaparyaya, Kalaparyaya and

so forth.

 

The Sammohana Tantra mentions 22 different Agamas including Cinagama

(a Shakta form), Pashupata (a Shaiva form), Pañcaratra (a Vaishnava

form), Kapalika, Bhairava, Aghora, Jaina, Bauddha; each of which is

said there to contain a certain number of Tantras and Upatantras.

 

According to the Sammohana Tantra, the Tantras according to

Kalaparyaya are the 64 Shakta Tantras, with 327 Upatantras, 8

Yamalas, 4 Damaras, 2 Kalpalatas and several Samhitas, Cudamanis

(100) Arnavas, Puranas, Upavedas, Kakshaputas, Vimarshini and

Cintamanis. The Shaiva class contains 32 Tantras with its own

Yamalas, Damaras and so forth. The Vaishnava class contains 75

Tantras with the same, including Kalpas and other Shastras. The

Saura class has Tantras with its own Yamalas, Uddishas and other

works. And the Ganapatya class contains 30 Tantras with Upatantras,

Kalpas and other Shastras, including one Damara and one Yamala. The

Bauddha class contains Kalpadrumas, Kamadhenus, Suktas, Kramas,

Ambaras, Puranas and other Shastras.

 

According to the Kularnava and Jñanadipa Tantras there are seven

Acaras of which the first four, Veda, Vaishnava, Shaiva and Dakshina

belong to Pashvacara; then comes Vama, followed by Siddhanta, in

which gradual approach is made to Kaulacara the reputed highest.

Elsewhere six and nine Acaras are spoken of and different kinds of

Bhavas, Sabhava, Vibhava and Dehabhava and so forth which are

referred to in Bhavacudamani.

 

An account of the Acaras is given in the Haratattvadidhiti [pp. 339-

342. See in particular Vishvasara Tantra (Ch. 24) and Nitya Tantra

and Pranatoshini. The first is the best account].

 

Vedacara is the lowest and Kaulacara the highest. (Kularnava Tantra

II). Their characteristics are given in the 24th Patala of

Vishvasara Tantra. The first four belong to Pashvacara (see Chapter

on Shakta Sadhana) and the last three are for Vira and Divya

Sadhakas. Summarizing the points of the Vishvasara: a Sadhaka in

Vedacara should carry out the prescriptions of the Veda, should not

cohabit with his wife except in the period following the courses. He

should not eat fish and meat on the Parva days. He should not

worship the Deva at night. In Vaishnavacara he follows injunctions

(Niyama) of Vedacara. He must give up eating of flesh (Nitya Tantra

says he must not kill animals), avoid sexual intercourse and even

the talk of it. This doubtless means a negation of the Vira ritual.

He should worship Vishnu. This Acara is distinguished from the last

by the great endurance of Tapas and the contemplation of the Supreme

everywhere. In Shaivacara, Vedacara is prescribed with this

difference that there must be no slaughter of animals and meditation

is on Shiva. Dakshinacara is said to have been practiced by Rishi

Dakshinamurti and is therefore so called. This Acara is preparatory

for the Vira and Divya Bhavas. Meditation is on the Supreme Ishvari

after taking Vijaya (Hemp). Japa of Mantra is done at night. Siddhi

is attained by using a rosary of human bone (Mahshankha) at certain

places including a Shaktipitha. Vamacara is approved for Viras and

Divyas. One should be continent (Brahmacari) at day and worship with

the Pañcatattva at night. ( " Pañcatattvakramenaiva ratrau devim

prapujayet " ). The statement of Nitya (Pañcatattvanukalpena ratrau

deving prapujayet) is, if correctly reported, I think incorrect.

This is Vira Sadhana and the Vira should generally only use

substitutes when the real Tattvas cannot be found. Cakra worship is

done. Siddhi is destroyed by revelation thereof; therefore the Vama

path is hidden. The Siddhantacari is superior to the last by his

knowledge " hidden in the Vedas, Shastras and Puranas like fire in

wood, by his freedom from fear of the Pashu, by his adherence to the

truth, and by his open performance of the Pañcatattva ritual. Open

and frank, he cares not what is said. " He offers the Pancatattvas

openly. Then follows a notable passage. " Just as it is not blameable

to drink openly in the Sautramani Yajña (Vaidik rite), so in

Siddhantacara wine is drunk openly. As it is not blameable to kill

horses in the Ashvamedha Yajña (Vaidik rite), so no offense is

committed in killing animals in this Dharma. " Nitya Tantra says that

an article, be it pure or impure, becomes pure by purification.

Holding a cup made of human skull, and wearing the Rudraksha, the

Siddhantacari moves on earth in the form of Bhairava Himself. The

knowledge of the last Acara, that of the Kaula, makes one Shiva.

Just as the footprint of every animal disappears in that of the

elephant, so every Dharma is lost in the greatness of Kuladharma.

Here there are no injunctions or prohibitions, no restriction as to

time or place, in fact no rule at all. A Kaula is himself Guru and

Sadashiva and none are superior to him. Kaulas are of three classes,

inferior (the ordinary or Prakrita Kaula), who is ever engaged in

ritual such as Japa, Homa, Puja, follows Viracara (with Pañcatattva)

and strives to attain the highland of knowledge; middling is the

Kaula who does Sadhana with Pañcatattva, is deeply immersed in

meditation (Dhyana) and Samadhi; superior, the Kaula who " Oh

Mistress of the Kaulas sees the imperishable, and all-pervading Self

in all things and all things in the Self. " He is a good Kaula who

makes no distinction between mud and sandalpaste, gold and straw, a

home and the cremation ground. He is a superior Kaula who meditates

on the Self with the self, who has equal regard for all, who is full

of contentment, forgiveness and compassion. Nitya Tantra (Patala

III) says that Kaulas move about in various shapes, now as an

ordinary man of the world adhering to social rules (Shishta), at

other times as one who has fallen therefrom (Bhrashta). At other

times, he seems to be as weird and unearthly as a ghost (Bhuta).

Kaulacara is, it says, the essence which is obtained from the ocean

of Veda and Agama after churning it with the staff' of knowledge.

 

In a modern account of the Acaras (see Sanatana -- sadhana-Tattva or

Tantra-rahashya by Saccidananda Svami) it is said that some speak of

Aghoracara and Yogacara as two further divisions between the last

but one and last. However this may be, the Aghoras of to-day are a

separate sect who, it is alleged, have degenerated into mere eaters

of corpses, though Aghora is said to only mean one who is liberated

from the terrible (Ghora ) Samsara. In Yogacara was learnt the upper

heights of Sadhana and the mysteries of Yoga such as the movements

of the Vayu in the bodily microcosm (Kshudravrahmanda), the

regulation of which controls the inclinations and propensities

(Vritti), Yogacara is entered by Yoga-diksha and achievement in

Ashtangayoga qualifies for Kaulacara. Whether there were such

further divisions I cannot at present say. I prefer for the time

being to follow the Kularnava. The Svami's account of these is as

follows: Vedacara which consists in the daily practice of the Vaidik

rites (with, I may add, some Tantrik observances) is the gross body

(Sthula-deha) which comprises within it all the other Acaras, which

are as it were its subtle body (Sukshma-deha) of various degrees.

The worship is largely of an external character, the object of which

is to strengthen Dharma. This is the path of action (Kriyamarga).

This and some other observations may be a modern reading of the old

facts but are on the whole, I think, justified. The second stage of

Vaishnavacara is the path of devotion (Bhaktimarga) and the aim is

union of devotion with faith previously acquired. The worshipper

passes from blind faith to an understanding of the supreme

protecting Energy of the Brahman, towards which his devotion goes

forth. With an increasing determination to uphold Dharma and to

destroy Adharma, the Sadhaka passes into the third stage or

Shaivacara which the author cited calls the militant (Kshattriya)

stage, wherein to love and mercy are added strenuous striving and

the cultivation of power. There is union of faith, devotion, and

inward determination (Antarlaksha). Entrance is here made upon the

path of knowledge (Jñanamarga). Following this is the fourth stage

or Dakshinacara, which originally and in Tantra Shastra does not

mean " right-hand worship " but according to the author cited is the

Acara " favorable " to the accomplishment of the higher Sadhana of

which Dakshina-Kalika is Devi. (The Vishvasara already cited derives

the word from Dakshinamurthi muni, but Dakshina in either case has

the same meaning. Daksinakali is a Devi of Uttaramnaya and approach

is here made to Vira rituals.) This stage commences when the

worshipper can make Dhyana and Dharana of the threefold Shakti of

the Brahman (Iccha, Kriya, Jñana) and understands the mutual

connection of the three and of their expression as the Gunas, and

until he receives the rite of initiation called Purnabhisheka. At

this stage the Sadhaka is Shakta and qualified for the worship of

the threefold Shakti of Brahman (Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshvara). He

worships the Adya-Shakti as Dakshina-Kalika in whom are united the

three Shaktis. The aim of this stage is the union of faith,

devotion, and determination with a knowledge of the threefold

energies. (Passage is thus made from the Deva-aspect to the Deva-

whole.) Up to this stage the Sadhaka has followed Pravritti Marga,

or the outgoing path, the path of worldly enjoyment, albeit curbed

by Dharma. The Sadhaka now, upon the exhaustion of the forces of the

outward current, makes entry on the path of return (Nivritti-Marga).

As this change is one of primary importance, some have divided the

Acaras into the two broad divisions of Dakshinacara (including the

first four) and Vamacara (including the last three). Strictly,

however, the first three can only be thus included in the sense that

they are preparatory to Dakshinacara proper and are all in the

Pravritti Marga and are not Vamacara. It is thus said that men are

born into Dakshinacara but are received by initiation into Vamacara.

As Dakshinacara does not mean " right-hand worship " so Vamacara does

not mean, as is vulgarly supposed, " left-hand worship " . " Left-hand "

in English has a bad sense and it is not sense to suppose that the

Shastra, which prescribes this Acara, itself gives it a bad name.

Vama is variously interpreted. Some say it is the worship in which

woman (Vama) enters, that is Lata-sadhana. Vama, this author says,

means " adverse " that is the stage adverse to the Pravritti, which

governs in varying degrees the previous Acaras. For, entry is here

made on the Nivritti path of return to the Source of outgoing. (In

this Acara also there is worship of the Vama Devi.) In Vamacara the

Sadhaka commences to directly destroy Pravritti and, with the help

of the Guru, to cultivate Nivritti. The help of the Guru throughout

is necessary. It is comparatively easy to lay down rules for the

Pravritti Marga but nothing can be achieved in Vama-cara without the

Guru's help. Some of the disciplines are admittedly dangerous and,

if entered upon without authority and discretion, will probably lead

to abuse. The method of the Guru at this stage is to use the forces

of Pravritti in such a way as to render them self-destructive. The

passions which bind (notably the fundamental instincts for food,

drink, and sexual satisfaction) may be it is said so employed as to

act as forces whereby the particular life, of which they are the

strongest physical manifestation, is raised to the universal life.

Passion which has hitherto run downward and outwards (often to

waste) is directed inwards and upwards and transformed to power. But

it is not only the lower physical desires of eating, drinking, and

sexual intercourse which must be subjugated. The Sadhaka must at

this stage commence (the process continues until the fruit of

Kaulacara is obtained) to cut off all the eight bonds (Pasha) which

have made him a Pashu, for up to and including Dakshinacara is Pashu

worship. These Pasha, bonds or " afflictions " , are variously

enumerated but the more numerous classifications are merely

elaborations of the smaller divisions. Thus, according to the Devi-

Bhagavata, Moha is ignorance or bewilderment, and Mahamoha is the

desire for worldly pleasure which flows from it. The Kularnava

Tantra mentions eight primary bonds, Daya (that is pity as the

feeling which binds as opposed to divine compassion or Karuna), Moha

(ignorance), Lajja (shame, which does not mean that a man is to be a

shameless sinner but weak worldly shame of being looked down upon,

of infringing conventions and so forth), Family (Kula, which ceases

to be a tie), Shila (here usage, convention) and Varna (caste; for

the enlightened is beyond all its distinctions). When, to take the

Svami's example, Shri Krishna stole the clothes of the bathing Gopis

or milkmaids and cowherds and made them approach Him naked, He

removed the artificial coverings which are imposed on man in the

Samsara. The Gopis were eight, as are the Bonds, and the errors by

which the Jiva is misled are the clothes which Krishna stole. Freed

of these the Jiva is liberated from all bonds arising from his

desires, family and society. Formerly it was sufficient to live in

worldly fashion according to the morality governing life in the

world. Now the Sadhaka must go further and transcend the world, or

rather seek to do so. He rises by those things which are commonly

the cause of fall. When he has completely achieved his purpose and

liberated himself from all bonds, he reaches the stage of Shiva

(Shivatva). It is the aim of the Nivritti Sadhana to liberate man

from the bonds which bind him to the Samsara, and to qualify the

Vira Sadhaka, through Rajasika Upasana (see Chapter on Pañcatattva)

of the highest grades of Sadhana in which the Sattvika Guna

predominates. He is then Divya or divine. To the truly Sattvik,

there is neither attachment, fear nor disgust (Ghrina). What is thus

commenced in Vamacara, is gradually completed by the rituals of

Siddhantacara and Kaulacara. In the last three Acaras the Sadhaka

becomes more and more freed from the darkness of Samsara and is

attached to nothing, hates nothing, is ashamed of nothing (really

shameful acts being ex hypothesi below his acquired stage), and has

freed himself of the artificial bonds of family, caste, and society.

He becomes an Avadhuta, that is, one who has " washed off " everything

and has relinquished the world. Of these, as stated later, there are

several classes. For him there is no rule of time or place. He

becomes, like Shiva himself, a dweller in the cremation ground

(Smashana). He attains Brahmajñana or the Gnosis in perfect form. On

receiving Mahapurnadiksha, he performs his own funeral rites and is

dead to the Samsara. Seated alone in some quiet place, he remains in

constant Samadhi (ecstasy), and attains it in its highest or

Nirvikalpa form. The Great Mother, the Supreme Prakriti, Mahashakti

dwells in his heart which is now the inner cremation ground wherein

all passions have been burnt away. He becomes a Paramahamsa who is

liberated whilst yet living (Jivanmukta).

 

From the above it will be seen that the Acaras are not various sects

in the European sense, but stages in a continuous process through

which the Sadhaka must pass before he reaches the supreme state of

the highest Kaula (for the Kaulas are of differing degrees). Passing

from the gross outer body of Vedacara, he learns its innermost core

of doctrine, not expressed but latent in it. These stages need not

be and are not ordinarily passed through by each Jiva in the course

of a single life. On the contrary they are as a rule traversed in

the course of a multitude of births, in which case the weaving of

the spiritual garment is recommenced where, in a previous birth, it

was dropped on death. In one life the Sadhaka may commence at any

stage. If he is a true Kaula now it is because in previous births he

has by Sadhana in the preliminary stages won his entrance into it.

Knowledge of Shakti is, as the Niruttara Tantra says, acquired after

many births; and according to the Mahanirvana Tantra it is by merit

acquired in previous births that the mind is inclined to Kaulacara.

 

Kauladharma is in no wise sectarian but on the contrary claims to be

the head of all sects. It is said " at heart a Shakta, outwardly a.

Shaiva, in gatherings a Vaishnava (who are wont to gather together

for worship in praise of Hari) in thus many a guise the Kaulas

wander on earth. "

 

Antah-shaktah bahih-shaivah sabhayam vaishnava matah

 

Nana-rupadharah Kaulah vicaranti mahitale.

 

The saying has been said to be an expression of this claim which is

I think involved in it. It does however also I think indicate

secrecy, and adaptability to sectarian form, of him who has pierced

to the core of that which all sects in varying, though partial, ways

present. A Kaula is one who has passed through these and other

stages, which have as their own inmost doctrine (whether these

worshippers know it or not) that of Kaulacara. It is indifferent

what the Kaula's apparent sect may be. The form is nothing and

everything. It is nothing in the sense that it has no power to

narrow the Kaula's inner life. It is everything in the sense that

knowledge may infuse its apparent limitations with an universal

meaning. A man may thus live in all sects, without their form being

ever to him a bond.

 

In Vaidik times there were four Ashramas, that is, states and stages

in the life of the Arya, namely (in their order) that of the chaste

student (Brahmacarya), secular life as a married house-holder

(Grihastha), the life of the forest recluse with his wife in

retirement from the world (Vanaprastha), lastly that of the beggar

(Bhikshu or Avadhuta), wholly detached from the world, spending his

time in meditation on the Supreme Brahman in preparation for shortly

coming death. All these four were for the Brahmana caste, the first

three for the Kshattriya, the first two for the Vaishya and for the

Shudra the second only (Yogayajñavalkpa, Ch. I). As neither the

conditions of life nor the character, capacity and powers of the

people of this age allow of the first and third Ashrama, the

Mahanirvana Tantra states (VIII. 8) that in the Kali age there are

only two Ashramas, namely, the second and last, and these are open

to all castes indiscriminately (ib. 12). The same Tantra (XIV. 141

et seq.) speaks of four classes of Kulayogis or Avadhutas namely the

Shaivavadhuta and Brahmavadhuta, which are of two kinds, imperfect

(Apurna) and perfect (Purna). The first three have enjoyment and

practice Yoga. The fourth or Paramahamsa should be absolutely chaste

and should not touch metal. He is beyond all household duties and

caste, and ritual, such as the offering of food and drink to Devata.

The Bhairavadamara classes the Avadhuta into (a) Kulavadhuta, (b)

Shaivavadhuta, © Brahmavadhuta, (d) Hamsavadhuta. Some speak of

three divisions of each of the classes Shaivavadhuta and

Brahmavadhuta (see pp. 32-33 of Introduction to Tantra Shastra). The

Shaivavadhutas are not, either, from a Western or Shastric

standpoint, as high as the Brahmavadhuta. The lowest of the last

class can have intercourse only with the own wife (Shvakiya Shakti

as opposed to the Shaiva Shakti); the middling has ordinarily

nothing to do with any Shakti, and the highest must under no

circumstance touch a woman or metal, nor does he practice any rites

or keep any observances.

 

The main divisions here are Vedacara, Dakshinacara and Vamacara.

Vedacara is not Vaidikacara, that is, in the Srauta sense, for the

Srauta Vaidikacara appears to be outside this sevenfold Tantrik

division of which Vedacara is the Tantrik counterpart. For it is

Tantrik Upasana with Vaidik rites and mantras, with (I have been

told) Agni as Devata. As a speculation we may suggest that this

Acara was for those not Adhikari for what is called the Srauta

Vaidikacara. The second and third belong and lead up to the

completed Dakshinacara. This is Pashvacara. Vama-cara commences the

other mode of worship, leading up to the completed Kaula, the

Kaulavadhuta, Avadhuta, and Divya. Here, with the attainment of

Brahmajñana, we reach the region which is beyond all Acaras which is

known as Sveccacara. All that those belonging to this state do or

touch is pure. In and after Vamacara there is eating and drinking

in, and as part of, worship and Maithuna. After the Pashu there is

the Vira and then the Divya. Pashu is the starting point, Vira is on

the way and Divya is the goal. Each of the sects has a Dakshina and

Vama division. It is commonly thought that this is peculiar to

Shaktas: but this is not so. Thus there are Vama, Ganapatyas and

Vaishnavas and so forth. Again Vamacara is itself divided again into

a right and left side. In the former wine is taken in a cup of stone

or other substance, and worship is with the Svakiya-Shakti or

Sadhaka's own wife; in the latter and more advanced stage drinking

is done from a skull and worship may be with Parastri, that is, some

other Shakti. In the case however of some sects which belong to the

Vama-cara division, whilst there is meat and wine, there is, I am

told, no Shakti for the members are chaste (Brahmacari). So far as I

can ascertain these sects which are mentioned later seem to belong

to the Shaiva as opposed to the Shakta group.

 

The Tantrik Samgraha called Shaktanandatarangini by Brahmananda

Svami says (Ch. 2) that Agama is both Sadagama and Asadagama and

that the former alone is Agama according to the primary meaning of

the word (Sadagama eva agamashabdasya mukhyatvat). He then says that

Shiva in the Agama Samhita condemns the Asadagama saying " Oh

Deveshi, men in the Kali age are generally of a Rajasik and Tamasik

disposition and being addicted to forbidden ways deceive many

others. Oh Sureshvari, those who in disregard of their Varnashrama

Dharma offer to us flesh, blood and wine become Bhutas, Pretas, and

Brahmarakshasas, " that is, various forms of evil spirits. This

prohibits such worship as is opposed to Varnashramadharma. It is

said, however, by the Vamacaris, who take consecrated wine and flesh

as a Yajña, not to cover their case.

 

It is not uncommonly thought that Vamacara is that Acara into which

Vama or woman enters. This is true only to a, certain extent: that

is, it is a true definition of those Sadhakas who do worship with

Shakti according to Vamacara rites. But it seems to be incorrect, in

so far as there are, I am told, worshippers of the Vamacara division

who are chaste (Brahmacari). Vamacara means literally " left " way,

not " left-handed " in the English sense which means what is bad. As

the name is given to these Sadhakas by themselves it is not likely

that they would adopt a title which condemns them. What they mean is

that this Acara is the opposite of Dakshinacara. Philosophically it

is more monistic. It is said that even in the highest Siddhi of a

Dakshinacari " there is always some One above him " ; but the fruit of

Vamacara and its subsequent and highest stages is that the

Sadhaka " becomes the Emperor Himself " . The Bhava differs, and the

power of its method compared with Dakshinacara is said to be that

between milk and wine.

 

Moreover it is to be noted that the Devi whom they worship is on the

left of Shiva. In Vamacara we find Kapalikas, Kalamukhas,

Pashupatas, Bhandikeras, Digambaras, Aghoras, followers of Cinacara

and Kaulas generally who are initiated. In some cases, as in that of

the advanced division of Kaulas, worship is with all five Tattvas

(Pañcatattvas). In some cases there is Brahmacarya as in the case of

Aghora and Pashupata, though these drink wine and eat flesh food.

Some Vamacaris, I am informed, never cease to be chaste

(Brahmacari), such as Oghada Sadhus worshippers of Batuka Bhairava,

Kanthadhari and followers of Gorakshanatha, Sitanatha and

Matsyendranatha. In Nilakrama there is no Maithuna. In some sects

there are differing practices. Thus, I am told, amongst the

Kalamukhas, the Kalaviras only worship Kumaris up to the age of

nine, whereas the Kamamohanas worship with adult Shaktis.

 

Some advanced members of this (in its general sense) Vamacara

division do not, I am informed, even take wine and meat. It is said

that the great Vamacari Sadhaka Raja Krishnacandra of Nadia, Upasaka

of the Chinnamasta Murti, did not take wine. Such and similar

Sadhakas have passed beyond the preliminary stage of Vamacara, and

indeed (in its special sense) Vamacara itself. They may be Brahma

Kaulas. As regards Sadhakas generally it is well to remember what

the Mahakala Samhita, the great Shastra of the Madhyastha Kaulas,

says in the 11th Ullasa called Sharira-yoga-kathanam: " Some Kaulas

there are who seek the good of this world (Aihikarthadhritatmanah).

So also the Vaidikas enjoy what is here (Aihikartham kamayante: as

do, I may interpose, the vast bulk of present humanity) and are not

seekers of liberation (Amrite ratim na kurvanti). Only by

Nishkamasadhana is liberation attained. "

 

The Pañcatattva are either real (Pratyaksha. " Idealizing " statements

to the contrary are, when not due to ignorance, false),

substitutional (Anukalpa) or esoteric (Divyatattva). As regards the

second, even a vegetarian would not object to " meat " which is in

fact ginger, nor the abstainer to " wine " which is coconut water in a

bell-metal vessel. As for the Esoteric Tattva they are not material

articles or practices, but the symbols for Yogic processes. Again

some notions and practices are more moderate and others extreme. The

account given in the Mahanirvana of the Bhairavi and Tattva Cakras

may be compared with some more unrestrained practice; and the former

again may be contrasted with a modern Cakra described in the 13th

Chapter of the Life of Bejoy Krishna Gosvami by Jagad-bandhu Maitra.

There a Tantrika Siddha formed a Cakra at which the Gosvami was

present. The latter says that all who were there, felt as if the

Shakti was their own Mother who had borne them, and the Devatas whom

the Cakreshvara invoked appeared in the circle to accept the

offerings. Whether this is accepted as a fact or not, it is obvious

that it was intended to describe a Cakra of a different kind from

that of which we have more commonly heard. There are some practices

which are not correctly understood; there are some principles which

the bulk of men will not understand; for to so understand there must

be besides knowledge that undefinable Bhava, the possession of which

carries with it the explanation which no words can give. I have

dealt with this subject in the Chapter on the Pañcatattva. There are

expressions which do not bear their surface meaning. Gomamhsa-

bhakshana is not " beef-eating " but putting the tongue in the root of

the throat. What some translate as " Ravishing the widow " refers not

to a woman but to a process in Kundalini Yoga and so forth. Lastly

and this is important: a distinction is seldom, if ever, made

between Shastric principles and actual practice, nor is count taken

of the conditions properly governing the worship and its abuse. It

is easy to understand that if Hinduism has in general degenerated,

there has been a fall here. It is, however, a mistake to suppose

that the sole object of these rites is enjoyment. It is not

necessary to be a " Tantrik " for that. The moral of all this is, that

it is better to know the facts than to make erroneous

generalizations. There are said to be three Krantas or geographical

divisions of India, of which roughly speaking the North-Eastern

portion is Vishnukranta, the North-Western Rathakranta and the

remaining and Southern portion is Ashvakranta. According to the

Shaktamarigala and Mahasiddhisara Tantras, Vishnukranta (which

includes Bengal) extends from the Vindhya range to Chattala or

Chittagong. From Vindhya to Tibet and China is Rathakranta. There is

then some difference between these two Tantras as to the position of

Ashvakranta. According to the first this last Kranta extends from

the Vindhya to the sea which perhaps includes the rest of India.

According to the Mahasiddhisara Tantra it extends from the Karatoya

River to a point which cannot be identified with certainty in the

text cited, but which may be Java. To each of these 64 Tantras have

been assigned. One of the questions awaiting solution is whether the

Tantras of these three geographical divisions are marked by both

doctrinal and ritual peculiarities and if so what they are. This

subject has been referred to in the first part of the Principles of

Tantra wherein a list of Tantras is given.

 

In the Shakta division there are four Sampradayas, namely, Kerala,

Kashmira, Gauda and Vilasa, in each of which there is both outer and

inner worship. The Sammohana Tantra gives these four Sampradayas,

also the number of Tantras, not only in the first three Sampradayas,

but in Cina and Dravida. I have been informed that out of 56 Deshas

(which included besides Hunas, places outside India, such as Cina,

Mahacina, Bhota, Simhala), 18 follow Gauda extending from Nepala to

Kalinga and 19 follow Kerala extending from Vindhyacala to the

Southern Sea, the remaining countries forming part of the Kashmira

Desha; and that in each Sampradaya there are Paddhatis such as

Shuddha, Gupta, Ugra. There is variance in Devatas and Rituals some

of which are explained in the Tarasukta and Shaktisamgama Tantra.

 

There are also various Matas such as Kadi Mata, called Viradanuttara

of which the Devata is Kali (see Introduction to Tantraraja Tantra,

A Short Analysis); Hadi Mata called Hamsaraja of which

Tripurasundari is Devata and Kahadi Mata the combination of the two

of which Tara is Devata that is Nilasarasvati. Certain Deshas are

called Kadi, Hadi, Kahadi Deshas and each Mata has several Amnayas.

It is said that the Hamsatara Mahavidya is the Sovereign Lady of

Yoga whom Jainas call Padmavati, Shaktas Shakti, Bauddhas Tara, Cina

Sadhakas Mihogra, and Kaulas Cakreshvari. The Kadis call her Kali,

the Hadis Shrisundari and the Kadi-Hadis Hamsah. Volumes VIII and

XII of " Tantrik Texts " contain that portion of the Tantraraja which

belongs to Kadi Mata and in the English Introduction, mentioned

above, I have dealt with this subject.

 

Gauda Sampradaya considers Kadi the highest Mata, whilst Kashmira

and Kerala worship Tripura and Tara. Possibly there may have been

originally Deshas which were the exclusive seats of specific schools

of Tantra, but later and at present, so far as they exist, this

cannot be said. In each of the Deshas different Sampradayas may be

found, though doubtless at particular places, as in Bengal,

particular sects may be predominant.

 

In my opinion it is not yet possible to present, with both accuracy

and completeness, the doctrine and practice of any particular

Tantrik School, and to indicate wherein it differs from other

Schools. It is not possible at present to say fully and precisely

who the original Shaktas were, the nature of their sub-divisions and

of their relation to, or distinction from, some of the Shaiva group.

Thus the Kaulas are generally in Bengal included in the Brahmajñani

Shakta group but the Sammohana in one passage already cited mentions

Kaula and Shakta separately. Possibly it is there meant to

distinguish ordinary Shaktas from the special group called Kaula

Shaktas. In Kashmir some Kaulas, I believe, call themselves Shaivas.

For an answer to these and other questions we must await a further

examination of the texts. At present I am doing clearing of mud

(Pankoddhara) from the tank, not in the expectation that I can

wholly clear away the mud and weeds, but with a desire to make a

beginning which others may complete.

 

He who has not understood Tantra Shastra has not understood

what " Hinduism " is as it exists to-day. The subject is an important

part of Indian culture and therefore worth study by the duly

qualified. What I have said should be sufficient to warn the

ignorant from making rash generalizations. At present we can say

that he who worships the Mantra and Yantra of Shakti is a Shakta,

and that there were several Sampradayas of these worshippers. What

we can, and should first do, is to study the Shakta Darshana as it

exists to-day, working back from the known to the unknown. What I am

about to describe is the Shakta faith as it exists to-day, that is

Shaktivada, not as something entirely new but as the development and

amalgamation of the various cults which were its ancestors.

 

Summarizing Shakta doctrine we may first affirm that it is

Advaitavada or Monism. This we might expect seeing that it

flourished in Bengal which, as the old Gauda Desha, is the Guru both

of Advaitavada and of Tantra Shastra. From Gauda came

Gaudapadacarya, Madhusudana Sarasvati, author of the great

Advaitasiddhi, Ramacandratirthabharati, Citsukhacarya and others.

There seems to me to be a strong disposition in the Brahmaparayana

Bengali temperament towards Advaitavada. For all Advaitins the

Shakta Agama and Advaita Shaivagama must be the highest form of

worship. A detailed account of the Advaita teachings of the Shaktas

is a matter of great complexity and of a highly esoteric character,

beyond the scope of this paper. I may here note that the Shakta

Tantras speak of 94 Tattvas made up of 10, 12 and 16 Kalas of Fire,

Sun and Moon constituting the Kamakala respectively; and 19 of

Sadashiva, 6 of Ishvara, 10 each of Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma. The 51

Kalas or Matrikas which are the Sukshmarupa of the 51 letters

(Varna) are a portion of these 94. These are the 51 coils of Kundali

from Bindu to Shrimatrikotpatti-Sundari mentioned in my Garland of

Letters or Studies on the Mantra Shastra. These are all worshipped

in the wine jar by those Shaktas who take wine. The Shastras also

set out the 36 Tattvas which are common to Shaktas and Salvias; the

five Kalas which are Samanya to the Tattvas, namely, Nivritti,

Pratishtha, Vidya, Shanta, Shantyatita, and the Shadadhva, namely,

Varna, Pada, and Mantra, Kala, Tattva, Bhuvana, which represent the

Artha aspect and the Shabda aspect respectively. (See Garland of

Letters.)

 

To pass to more popular matters, a beautiful and tender concept of

the Shaktas is the Motherhood of God, that is, God as Shakti or the

Power which produces, maintains and withdraws the universe. This is

the thought of a worshipper. Though the Sammohana Tantra gives high

place to Shamkara as conqueror of Buddhism (speaking of him as a

manifestation of Shiva and identifying his four disciples and

himself with the five Mahapretas), the Agamas as Shastras of worship

do not teach Mayavada as set forth according to Shamkara's

transcendental method. Maya to the Shakta worshipper is not an

unconscious something, not real, not unreal, not real-unreal, which

is associated with Brahman in its Ishvara aspect, though it is not

Brahman. Brahman is never associated with anything but Itself. Maya

to the Shakta is Shakti veiling Herself as Consciousness, but which,

as being Shakti, is Consciousness. To the Shakta all that he sees is

the Mother. All is Consciousness. This is the standpoint of Sadhana.

The Advaitins of Shamkara's School claim that their doctrine is

given from the standpoint of Siddhi. I will not argue this question

here. When Siddhi is obtained there will be no argument. Until that

event Man is, it is admitted, subject to Maya and must think and act

according to the forms which it imposes on him. It is more important

after all to realize in fact the universal presence of the Divine

Consciousness, than to attempt to explain it in philosophical terms.

 

The Divine Mother first appears in and as Her worshipper's earthly

mother, then as his wife; thirdly as Kalika, She reveals Herself in

old age, disease and death. It is She who manifests, and not without

a purpose, in the vast outpouring of Samhara Shakti which was

witnessed in the great world-conflict of our time. The terrible

beauty of such forms is not understood. And so we get the recent

utterance of a Missionary Professor at Madras who being moved to

horror at the sight of (I think) the Camundamurti called the Devi

a " She-Devil " . Lastly She takes to Herself the dead body in the

fierce tongues of flame which light the funeral pyre.

 

The Monist is naturally unsectarian and so the Shakta faith, as held

by those who understand it, is free from a narrow sectarian spirit.

 

Nextly it, like the other Agamas, makes provision for all castes and

both sexes. Whatever be the true doctrine of the Vaidikas, their

practice is in fact marked by exclusiveness. Thus they exclude women

and Shudras. It is easy to understand why the so-called Anarya

Sampradayas did not do so. A glorious feature of the Shakta faith is

the honor which it pays to woman. And this is natural for those who

worship the Great Mother, whose representative (Vigraha) all earthly

women are. Striyo devah striyah pranah. " Women are Devas; women are

life itself, " as an old Hymn in the Sarvollasa has it. It is because

Woman is a Vigraha of the Amba Devi, Her likeness in flesh and

blood, that the Shakta Tantras enjoin the honor and worship of women

and girls (Kumaris), and forbid all harm to them such as the Sati

rite, enjoining that not even a female animal is to be sacrificed.

With the same solicitude for women, the Mahanirvana prescribes that

even if a man speaks rudely (Durvacyam kathayan) to his wife, he

must fast for a whole day, and enjoins the education of daughters

before their marriage. The Moslem Author of the Dabistan (ii. 154.

Ed. 1843) says " The Agama favors both sexes equally. Men and women

equally compose mankind. This sect hold women in great esteem and

call them Shaktis and to ill-treat a Shakti, that is, a woman, is a

crime " . The Shakta Tantras again allow of women being Guru, or

Spiritual Director, a reverence which the West has not (with rare

exceptions) yet given them. Initiation by a Mother bears eightfold

fruit. Indeed to the enlightened Shakta the whole universe is Stri

or Shakti. " Aham stri " as the Advabhavano Upanishad says. A high

worship therefore which can be offered to the Mother to-day consists

in getting rid of abuses which have neither the authority of ancient

Shastra, nor of modern social science and to honor, cherish, educate

and advance women (Shakti). Striyo devah striyah pranah. Gautamiya

Tantra says Sarvavarnadhikarashca narinam yogya eva ca; that is, the

Tantra Shastra is for all castes and for women; and the Mahanirvana

says that the low Kaula who refuses to initiate a Candala or Yavana

or a woman out of disrespect goes the downward path. No one is

excluded from anything except on the grounds of a real and not

artificial or imagined incompetency.

 

An American Orientalist critic, in speaking of " the worthlessness of

Tantric philosophy " , said that it was " Religious Feminism run mad, "

adding " What is all this but the feminisation of orthodox Vedanta?

It is a doctrine for suffragette Monists: the dogma unsupported by

any evidence that the female principle antedates and includes the

male principle, and that this female principle is supreme Divinity. "

The " worthlessness " of the Tantrik philosophy is a personal opinion

on which nothing need be said, the more particularly that

Orientalists who, with insufficient knowledge, have already

committed themselves to this view are not likely to easily abandon

it. The present criticism, however, in disclosing the grounds on

which it is based, has shown that they are without worth. Were it

not for such ignorant notions, it would be unnecessary to say that

the Shakta Sadhaka does not believe that there is a Woman

Suffragette or otherwise, in the sky, surrounded by the members of

some celestial feminist association who rules the male members of

the universe. As the Yamala says for the benefit of the

ignorant " neyam yoshit na ca puman na shando na jadah smritah " . That

is, God is neither female, male, hermaphrodite nor unconscious

thing. Nor is his doctrine concerned with the theories of the

American Professor Lester Ward and others as to the alleged pre-

eminence of the female principle. We are not here dealing with

questions of science or sociology. It is a common fault of western

criticism that it gives material interpretations of Indian

Scriptures and so misunderstands it. The Shakta doctrine is

concerned with those Spiritual Principles which exist before, and

are the origin of, both men and women. Whether, in the appearance of

the animal species, the female " antedates " the male is a question

with which it is not concerned. Nor does it say that the " female

principle " is the supreme Divinity. Shiva the " male " is co-equal

with Shivé the " female, " for both are one and the same. An

Orientalist might have remembered that in the Samkhya, Prakriti is

spoken of as " female, " and Purusha as " male " . And in Vedanta, Maya

and Devi are of the feminine gender. Shakti is not a male nor a

female " person, " nor a male nor a female " principle, " in the sense

in which sociology, which is concerned with gross matter, uses those

terms. Shakti is symbolically " female " because it is the productive

principle. Shiva in so far as He represents the Cit or consciousness

aspect, is actionless (Nishkriya), though the two are inseparably

associated even in creation. The Supreme is the attributeless

(Nirguna) Shiva, or the neuter Brahman which is neither " male "

nor " female " . With such mistaken general views of the doctrine, it

was not likely that its more subtle aspects by way of relation to

Shamkara's Mayavada, or the Samkya Darshana should be appreciated.

The doctrine of Shakti has no more to do with " Feminism " than it has

to do with " old age pensions " or any other sociological movement of

the day. This is a good instance of those apparently " smart " and

cocksure judgments which Orientalists and others pass on things

Indian. The errors would be less ridiculous if they were on

occasions more modest as regards their claims to know and

understand. What is still more important, they would not probably in

such cases give unnecessary ground for offense.

 

The characteristic features of Shakta-dharma are thus its Monism;

its concept of the Motherhood of God; its un-sectarian spirit and

provisions for Shudras and women, to the latter of whom it renders

high honor, recognizing that they may be even Gurus; and lastly its

Sadhana skillfully designed to realize its teachings.

 

As I have pointed out on many an occasion this question of Sadhana

is of the highest importance, and has been in recent times much

overlooked. It is that which more than anything else gives value to

the Agama or Tantra Shastra. Mere talk about religion is only an

intellectual exercise. Of what use are grand phrases about Atma on

the lips of those who hate and injure one another and will not help

the poor. Religion is kindness. Religion again is a practical

activity. Mind and body must be trained. There is a spiritual as

well as a mental and physical gymnastic. According to Shakta

doctrine each man and woman contains within himself and herself a

vast latent magazine of Power or Shakti, a term which comes from the

root " Shak " to be able, to have force to do, to act. They are each

Shakti and nothing but Shakti, for the Svarupa of Shakti, that is,

Shakti as it is in itself is Consciousness, and mind and body are

Shakti. The problem then is how to raise and vivify Shakti. This is

the work of Sadhana in the Religion of Power. The Agama is a

practical philosophy, and as the Bengali friend and collaborator of

mine, Professor Pramathanatha Mukhyopadhyaya, whom I cite again, has

well put it, what the intellectual world wants to-day is the sort of

philosophy which not merely argues but experiments. This is Kriya.

The form which Sadhana takes necessarily varies according to faith,

temperament and capacity. Thus, amongst Christians, the Catholic

Church, like Hinduism, has a full and potent Sadhana in its

sacraments (Samskara), temple (Church), private worship (Puja,

Upasana) with Upacara " bell, light and incense " (Ghanta, Dipa,

Dhupa), Images or Pratima (hence it has been called idolatrous),

devotional rites such as Novenas and the like (Vrata), the

threefold " Angelus " at morn, noon and evening (Samdhya), rosary

(Japa), the wearing of Kavacas (Scapulars, Medals, Agnus Dei),

pilgrimage (Tirtha), fasting, abstinence and mortification (Tapas),

monastic renunciation (Samnyasa), meditation (Dhyana), ending in the

union of mystical theology (Samadhi) and so forth. There are other

smaller details such for instance as Shanti-abhisheka (Asperges)

into which I need not enter here. I may, however, mention the

Spiritual Director who occupies the place of the Guru; the worship

(Hyperdulia) of the Virgin-Mother which made Svami Vivekananda call

the Italian Catholics, Shaktas; and the use of wine (Madya) and

bread (corresponding to Mudra) in the Eucharist or Communion

Service. Whilst, however, the Blessed Virgin evokes devotion as warm

as that which is here paid to Devi, she is not Devi for she is not

God but a creature selected as the vehicle of His incarnation

(Avatara). In the Eucharist the bread and wine are the body and

blood of Christ appearing under the form or " accidents " of those

material substances; so also Tara is Dravamayi, that is,

the " Saviour in liquid form " . (Mahanirvana Tr. xi. 105-107.) In the

Catholic Church (though the early practice was otherwise) the laity

no longer take wine but bread only, the officiating priest consuming

both. Whilst however the outward forms in this case are similar, the

inner meaning is different. Those however who contend that eating

and drinking are inconsistent with the " dignity " of worship may be

reminded of Tertullian's saying that Christ instituted His great

sacrament at a meal. These notions are those of the dualist with all

his distinctions. For the Advaitin every function and act may be

made a Yajña. Agape or " Love Feasts, " a kind of Cakra, were held in

early times, and discontinued as orthodox practice, on account of

abuses to which they led; though they are said still to exist in

some of the smaller Christian sects of the day. There are other

points of ritual which are peculiar to the Tantra Shastra and of

which there is no counterpart in the Catholic ritual such as Nyasa

and Yantra. Mantra exists in the form of prayer and as formulae of

consecration, but otherwise the subject is conceived of differently

here. There are certain gestures (Mudra) made in the ritual, as when

consecrating, blessing, and so forth, but they are not so numerous

or prominent as they are here. I may some day more fully develop

these interesting analogies, but what I have said is for the present

sufficient to establish the numerous similarities which exist

between the Catholic and Indian Tantrik ritual. Because of these

facts the " reformed " Christian sects have charged the Catholic

Church with " Paganism " . It is in fact the inheritor of very ancient

practices but is not necessarily the worse for that. The Hindu finds

his Sadhana in the Tantras of the Agama in forms which his race has

evolved. In the abstract there is no reason why his race should not

modify these forms of Sadhana or evolve new ones. But the point is

that it must have some form of Sadhana. Any system to be fruitful

must experiment to gain experience. It is because of its powerful

sacraments and disciplines that in the West the Catholic Church has

survived to this day, holding firm upon its " Rock " amid the

dissolving sects, born of what is called the " Reform " . It is likely

to exist when these, as presently existing sects, will have

disappeared. All things survive by virtue of the truth in them. The

particular truth to which I here refer is that a faith cannot be

maintained by mere hymn-singing and pious addresses. For this reason

too Hinduism has survived.

 

This is not necessary to say that either of these will, as presently

existing forms, continue until the end of time. The so-called

Reformed or Protestant sects, whether of West or East, are when

viewed in relation to man in general, the imperfect expression of a

truth misunderstood and misapplied, namely, that the higher man

spiritually ascends, the less dependent is he on form. The mistake

which such sects make is to look at the matter from one side only,

and to suppose that all men are alike in their requirement. The

Agama is guilty of no such error. It offers form in all its fullness

and richness to those below the stage of Yoga, at which point man

reaches what the Kularnava Tantra calls the Varna and Ashrama of

Light (Jyotirvarnashrami), and gradually releases himself from all

form that he may unite his self with the Formless One. I do not know

which most to admire -- the colossal affirmations of Indian

doctrine, or the wondrous variety of the differing disciplines,

which it prescribes for their realization in fact.

 

The Buddhists called Brahmanism Shilavrataparamarsha, that is, a

system believing in the efficacy of ritual acts. And so it is, and

so at length was Buddhism, when passing through Mahayana it ended up

with the full Tantrik Sadhana of the Vajrayana School. There are

human tendencies which cannot be suppressed. Hinduism will, however,

disappear, if and when Sadhana (whatever be its form) ceases; for

that will be the day on which it will no longer be something real,

but the mere subject of philosophical and historical talk. Apart

from its great doctrine of Shakti, the main significance of the

Shakta Tantra Shastra lies in this, that it affirms the principle of

the necessity of Sadhana and claims to afford a means available to

all of whatever caste and of either sex whereby the teachings of

Vedanta may be practically realized.

 

But let no one take any statement from any one, myself included,

blindly, without examining and testing it. I am only concerned to

state the facts as I know them. It is man's prerogative to think.

The Sanskrit word for " man " comes from the root man " to think " .

Those who are Shaktas may be pleased at what I have said about their

faith. It must not, however, be supposed that a doctrine is

necessarily true simply because it is old. There are some hoary

errors. As for science, its conclusions shift from year to year.

Recent discoveries have so abated its pride that it has considerably

ceased to give itself those pontifical airs which formerly annoyed

some of us. Most will feel that if they are to bow to any Master it

should be to a spiritual one. A few will think that they can safely

walk alone. Philosophy again is one of the noblest of life's

pursuits, but here too we must examine to see whether what is

proposed for our acceptance is well founded. The maxim is current

that there is nothing so absurd but that it has been held by some

philosopher or another. We must each ourselves judge and choose, and

if honest, none can blame our choice. We must put all to the test.

We may here recollect the words of Shruti -- " Shrotavyah, Mantavyah,

Nididhyasitavyah, " -- " listen, reason and ponder " ; for as Manu

says " Yastarke-nanusandhatte sa dharmam veda, netarah " -- " He who by

discussion investigates, he knows Dharma and none other. " Ultimately

there is experience alone which in Shakta speech is Saham -- " She I

am " .

 

 

NOTE TO CHAPTER VI

 

I have referred to the Vaidik and Agamic strands in Indian Dharma. I

wish to add some weighty remarks made by the well-known Vedantic

Monthly The Prabuddha Bharata (Mayavati, U. P., July 1914). They

were elicited by the publication of Arthur Avalon's Principles of

Tantra. After pointing out that a vindication of the Tantras

rebounds directly to the benefit of Hinduism as a whole, for

Tantrikism in its real sense is nothing but the Vedic religion

struggling with wonderful success to reassert itself amidst all

those new problems of religious life and discipline which historical

events and developments have thrust upon it, and after referring to

the Introduction to that work, the author of the review wrote as

follows:

 

" In this new publication, the most noteworthy feature of this new

Introduction he has written for the Tantra-tattva is his

appreciative presentation of the orthodox views about the antiquity

and the importance of the Tantras, and it is impossible to

overestimate the value of this presentation.

 

" For hitherto all theories about the origin and the importance of

the Tantras have been more or less prejudiced by a wrong bias

against Tantrikism which some of its own later sinister developments

were calculated to create. This bias has made almost every such

theory read either like a. condemnation or an apology. All

investigation being thus disqualified, the true history of

Tantrikism has not yet been written; and we find cultured people

mostly inclined either to the view that Tantrikism originally

branched off from the Buddhistic Mahayana or Vajrayana as a cult of

some corrupted and self-deluded monastics, or to the view that it

was the inevitable dowry which some barbarous non-Aryan races

brought along with them into the fold of Hinduism. According to both

these views, however, the form which this Tantrikism -- either a

Buddhistic development or a barbarous importation -- has

subsequently assumed in the literature of Hinduism, is its improved

edition as issuing from the crucibles of Vedic or Vedantic

transformation. But this theory of the curious co-mingling of the

Vedas and Vedanta with Buddhistic corruption or with non-Aryan

barbarity is perfectly inadequate to explain the all-pervading

influence which the Tantras exert on our present-day religious life.

Here it is not any hesitating compromise that we have got before us

to explain, but a bold organic synthesis, a legitimate restatement

of the Vedic culture for the solution of new problems and new

difficulties which signalized the dawn of a new age.

 

" In tracing the evolution of Hinduism, modern historians take a

blind leap from Vedic ritualism direct to Buddhism, as if to

conclude that all those newly formed communities, with which India

had been swarming all over since the close of the fateful era of the

Kurukshetra war and to which was denied the right of Vedic

sacrifices, the monopoly of the higher three-fold castes of pure

orthodox descent, were going all the time without any religious

ministrations. These Aryanized communities, we must remember, were

actually swamping the Vedic orthodoxy, which was already gradually

dwindling down to a helpless minority in all its scattered centers

of influence, and was just awaiting the final blow to be dealt by

the rise of Buddhism. Thus the growth of these new communities and

their occupation of the whole land constituted a mighty event that

had been silently taking place in India on the outskirts of the

daily shrinking orthodoxy of Vedic ritualism, long before Buddhism

appeared on the field, and this momentous event our modern

historians fail to take due notice of either it may be because of a

curious blindness of self-complacency or because of the dazzle which

the sudden triumph of Buddhism and the overwhelming mass of

historical evidences left by it create before their eyes. The

traditional Kali Yuga dates from the rise of these communities and

the Vedic religious culture of the preceding Yuga underwent a

wonderful transformation along with a wonderful attempt it made to

Aryanize these rising communities.

 

" History, as hitherto understood and read, speaks of the Brahmins of

the Buddhistic age -- their growing alienation from the Jñana-kanda

or the Upanishadic wisdom, their impotency to save the orthodox

Vedic communities from the encroachments of the non-Vedic hordes and

races, their ever-deepening religious formalism and social

exclusiveness. But this history is silent on the marvelous feats

which the Upanishadic sects of anchorites were silently performing

on the outskirts of the strictly Vedic community with the object of

Aryanizing the new India that was rising over the ashes of the

Kurukshetra conflagration. This new India was not strictly Vedic

like the India of the bygone ages, for it could not claim the

religious ministrations of the orthodox Vedic Brahmins and could

not, therefore, perform Yajñas like the latter. The question,

therefore, is as to how this new India became gradually Aryanized,

for Aryanization is essentially a spiritual process, consisting in

absorbing new communities of men into the fold of the Vedic

religion. The Vedic ritualism that prevailed in those days was

powerless, we have seen, to do anything for these new communities

springing up all over the country. Therefore, we are obliged to turn

to the only other factor in Vedic religion besides the Karma-kanda

for an explanation of those changes which the Vedic religion wrought

in the rising communities in order to Aryanize them. The Upanishads

represent the Jñana-kanda of the Vedic religion and if we study all

of them, we find that not only the earliest ritualism of Yajñas was

philosophized upon the earlier Upanishads, but the foundation for a

new, and no less elaborate, ritualism was fully laid in many of the

later Upanishads. For example, we study in these Upanishads how the

philosophy of Pañca-upasana (five-fold worship, viz., the worship of

Shiva, Devi, Sun, Ganesha and Vishnu) was developed out of the

mystery of the Pranava ( " Om " ). This philosophy cannot be dismissed

as a post-Buddhistic interpolation, seeing that some features of the

same philosophy can be clearly traced even in the Brahmanas (e.g.,

the discourse about the conception of Shiva).

 

" Here, therefore, in some of the later Upanishads we find recorded

the attempts of the pre-Buddhistic recluses of the forest to

elaborate a post-Vedic ritualism out of the doctrine of the Pranava

and the Vedic theory of Yogic practices. Here in these Upanishads we

find how the Bija-mantras and the Shatcakra of the Tantras were

being originally developed, for on the Pranava or Udgitha had been

founded a special learning and a school of philosophy from the very

earliest ages and some of the " spinal " centers of Yogic meditation

had been dwelt upon in the earliest Upanishads and corresponding

Brahmanas. The Upakaranas of Tantrik worship, namely, such material

adjuncts as grass, leaves, water and so on, were most apparently

adopted from Vedic worship along with their appropriate

incantations. So even from the Brahmanas and the Upanishads stands

out in clear relief a system of spiritual discipline -- which we

would unhesitatingly classify as Tantrik -- having at its core the

Pañca-upasana and around it a fair round of rituals and rites

consisting of Bija-mantras and Vedic incantations, proper meditative

processes and proper manipulation of sacred adjuncts of worship

adopted from the Vedic rites. This may be regarded as the earliest

configuration which Tantrik-ism had on the eve of those silent but

mighty social upheavals through which the Aryanization of vast and

increasing multitudes of new races proceeded in pre-Buddhistic India

and which had their culmination in the eventful centuries of the

Buddhistic coup de grace.

 

" Now this pre-Buddhistic Tantrikism, perhaps, then recognized as the

Vedic Pañca-upasana, could not have contributed at all to the

creation of a new India, had it remained confined completely within

the limits of monastic sects. But like Jainism, this Pañca-upasana

went forth all over the country to bring ultra-Vedic communities

under its spiritual ministrations. Even if we inquire carefully into

the social conditions obtaining in the strictly Vedic ages, we find

that there was always an extended wing of the Aryanized society

where the purely Vedic Karma-kanda could not be promulgated, but

where the molding influence of Vedic ideals worked through the

development of suitable spiritual activities. It is always to the

Jñana-kanda and the monastic votaries thereof, that the Vedic

religion owed its wonderful expansiveness and its progressive self-

adaptability, and every religious development within the Vedic fold,

but outside, the ritualism of Homa sacrifices, is traceable to the

spiritual wisdom of the all renouncing forest recluses.

This 'forest' wisdom was most forcibly brought into requisition when

after the Kurukshetra a new age was dawning with the onrush and

upheaval of non-Aryan and semi-Aryan races all over India -- an echo

of which may be found in that story of the Mahabharata where Arjuna

fails to use his Gandiva to save his protégés from the robbery of

the non-Aryan hordes.

 

" The greatest problem of the pre-Buddhistic ages was the

Aryanization of the new India that rose and surged furiously from

every side against the fast-dwindling centers of the old Vedic

orthodoxy struggling hard, but in vain, by social enactments to

guard its perilous insulation. But for those religious movements,

such as those of the Bhagavatas, Shaktas, Sauryas, Shaivas,

Ganapatyas and Jainas, that tackled this problem of Aryanization

most successfully, all that the Vedic orthodoxy stood for in the

real sense would have gradually perished without trace. These

movements, specially the five cults of Vedic worship, took up many

of the non-Aryan races and cast their life in the mold of the Vedic

spiritual ideal, minimizing in this way the gulf that existed

between them and the Vedic orthodoxy and thereby rendering possible

their gradual amalgamation. And where this task remained unfulfilled

owing to the mold proving too narrow still to fit into the sort of

life which some non-Aryan races or communities lived, there it

remained for Buddhism to solve the problem of Aryanization in due

time. But still we must remember that by the time Buddhism made its

appearance, the pre-Buddhistic phase of Tantrik worship had already

established itself in India so widely and so firmly that instead of

dislodging it by its impetuous onset -- all the force of which, by

the bye, was mainly spent on the tattering orthodoxy of Vedic

ritualism -- Buddhism was itself swallowed up within three or four

centuries by its perhaps least suspected opponent of this Tantrik

worship and then wonderfully transformed and ejected on the arena as

the Mahayana.

 

" The publication of these two volumes is an event of great interest

and importance. The religious beliefs of the modern Hindus have been

represented to English readers from various points of view, but the

peculiar mold into which they have been sought to be cast in

comparatively modern centuries has not received adequate attention.

The exponents of the religion of modern Hindus take cognizance more

of the matter and source of their beliefs than of the change of form

they have been undergoing through the many centuries. The volumes

under review, as well as other publications brought out by Arthur

Avalon, serve to carry this important question of form to such a

prominence as almost makes it obligatory for every exhaustive

exposition of Hindu doctrines in future to acknowledge and

discriminate in them the formative influences of the Tantrik

restatement. In the Tantratattva, the presentation and vindication

of the Hindu religious beliefs and practices avowedly and closely

follow the methodology of the Tantras, and the learned pundit has

fully succeeded in establishing the fact that what lies behind these

beliefs and practices is not mere prejudice or superstition but a

system of profound philosophy based on the Vedas. Every student of

modern Hinduism should acquaint himself with this, namely, its

immediate background of Tantrik philosophy and ritualism.

 

" The Hindu religious consciousness is like a mighty Ganges emerging

from the Himalayas of Vedic wisdom, receiving tributaries and

sending out branch streams at many points in its course. And though

the nature of the current, its color, velocity or uses may vary at

different places, the Ganges is the same Ganges whether at Hardwar,

Allahabad or Calcutta. The stream is not only one but it has also

its one main channel in spite of all the many tributaries and

branches. And the whole of the stream is sacred, though different

sects may choose special points and confluences as of special

sanctity to themselves, deriving inspiration thence for their

special sectarian developments. Now, though the rise of Tantrik

philosophy and ritualism created in former times new currents and

back-waters along the stream of Hinduism, it was essentially an

important occurrence in the main stream and channel; and instead of

producing a permanent bifurcation in that stream, it coalesced with

it, coloring and renovating, more or less, the whole tenor of the

Hindu religious consciousness. As a result, we find Tantrik thought

and sentiment equally operative in the extreme metaphysical wing of

Hinduism as well as in its lower matter-of-fact phases.

 

This actual permeation of Hindu religious consciousness by Tantrik

thought and sentiment should receive the fullest recognition at the

hands of every up-to-date exponent. His predecessors of former

generations might have to strengthen their advocacy of Tantrik

doctrines by joining issue with the advocates of particular phases

of Hindu religion and philosophy. But the present epoch in the

history of our religious consciousness is pre-eminently an epoch of

wonderful synthetic mood of thought and sentiment, which is

gradually pervading the Hindu religious consciousness ever since

Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa embodied in himself its immediate

possibilities, to find in the literature that is being so admirably

provided for English readers by Arthur Avalon an occasional tendency

to use Tantrik doctrines as weapons for combating certain phases of

Hindu belief and practice. This tendency seems to betray quite a

wrong standpoint in the study of the Tantras, their relation to

other Scriptures and their real historical significance. "

 

Shakti and Shakta

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas06.htm

 

 

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), [1918]

Chapter 1: Indian Religion As Bharata Dharma

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas01.htm

Chapter 2: Shakti: The World as Power

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas02.htm

 

Chapter 3: What Are the Tantras and Their Significance?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas03.htm

 

Chapter 4: Tantra Shastra and Veda

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas04.htm

 

Chapter 5: The Tantras and Religion of the Shaktas

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas05.htm

 

Chapter 6: Shakti and Shakta

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas06.htm

 

Chapter 7: Is Shakti Force?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas07.htm

Chapter 8: Cinacara (Vashishtha and Buddha)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas08.htm

 

Chapter 9: The Tantra Shastras in China

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas09.htm

 

Chapter 10: A Tibetan Tantra

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas10.htm

 

Chapter 11: Shakti in Taoism

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas11.htm

 

Chapter 12: Alleged Conflict of Shastras

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas12.htm

 

Chapter 13: Sarvanandanatha

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas13.htm

 

Chapter 14: Cit-Shakti (The Consciousness Aspect of the Universe)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas14.htm

 

Chapter 15: Maya-Shakti (The Psycho-Physical Aspect of the Universe)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas15.htm

 

Chapter 16: Matter and Consciousness

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas16.htm

 

Chapter 17: Shakti and Maya

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas17.htm

 

Chapter 18: Shakta Advaitavada

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas18.htm

 

Chapter 19: Creation as Explained in the Non-dualist Tantras

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas19.htm

 

Chapter 20: The Indian Magna Mater

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas20.htm

 

Chapter 21: Hindu Ritual

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas21.htm

 

Chapter 22: Vedanta and Tantra Shastra

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas22.htm

 

Chapter 23: The Psychology of Hindu Religious Ritual

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas23.htm

 

Chapter 24: Shakti as Mantra (Mantramayi Shakti)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas24.htm

 

Chapter 25: Varnamala (The Garland of Letters)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas25.htm

 

Chapter 26: Shakta Sadhana (The Ordinary Ritual)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas26.htm

 

Chapter 27: The Pañcatattva (The Secret Ritual)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas27.htm

 

Chapter 28: Matam Rutra (The Right and Wrong Interpretation)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas28.htm

 

Chapter 29: Kundalini Shakta (Yoga)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas29.htm

 

Chapter 30: Conclusions

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas30.htm