Union and Unity in Hindu Tantrism

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http://www.svabhinava.org/union/UnionEli/index.phpUnion

and Unity in Hindu Tantrism

By

 

Elizabeth

Chalier-Visuvalingam

 

 

[union and Unity in Hindu Tantrism has been viewed 4 times since 12 March 2007]

 

 

 

 

[version español]

 

"O vision of immortal and supreme ambrosia,

resplendent with conscious light streaming from the absolute Reality, be my

refuge. Through it art Thou worshipped by those who know the secret (science).

Having purified the 'foundation' (âdhâra-dharâ) by sprinkling it

with the rapturous savor of Self-Consciousness, and mentally offering all

objects presenting themselves (to the senses, as if they were) flowers exhaling

an innate scent, (dipping them first in) the nectar of bliss overflowing the

impeccable libation-vessel (argha-pâtra) of my heart, I

worship Thee night and day, O God united to the Goddess, in this House of YHWH

(deva-sadana), my Body."

Abhinavagupta, Tantrâloka,

26.63-64, 29.176; adapted from Silburn's translation, Kundalinî,

p. 204.

 

Inclusive Unity in the Trika System

Tantric

Physiology and the Unification of Consciousness

The Vocabulary of Union and Unity in the Trika

Kulayâga:

Paradigm of Union and Unity in Hinduism

Sexual

Union as Sacrifice: Between Veda and Tantra

Bhairava-Consciousness and the all-devouring Fire

The fundamental preoccupation of Hinduism is to put an end

to the infernal cycle of rebirths (samsâra) and thus to attain 'deliverance' (moksha).1

The Hindu ideal aims at fusion with the totality (brahman), which abolishes all

individuality (âtman).

In this regard, the different systems of Hindu philosophy seem to rally around

this idea expressed in the Parama

Hamsa Upanisad: "I know the Unity; my soul is no longer

separate but united to the cosmic soul; this is indeed the supreme union

(junction)—no more 'me' nor 'you' for him (= the liberated), the very universe

has disappeared."2

Under the influence of Advaita Vedânta, unity in the Hindu tradition has been

generally understood in opposition to the world of multiplicity, of illusion (mâyâ), of bodily

incarnation, which must necessarily be rejected in order to unite oneself with

the Absolute. Within such a perspective, it is difficult to understand how any

concrete union, presupposing as it does the (at least initial) dualism of the

sexes, could lead to salvation. Sexual union is after all based on the

identification with the ephemeral flux of the body and the desire for its

other, whereas unity is precisely the negation of the Other. In the Vedic myth,

it is indeed through the desire for the Other that the One become many. The

valorization of symbols of sexual union and the universalization of their

sacrificial notation in the brahmanical ritual functioned within a public

`polytheistic' context where any aim of unity is not at all apparent. It is

only in the later doctrines of Tantrism that ritualized sexual union is

systematically sanctified within a non-dualistic perspective, precisely as a

means to individual liberation. For here unity is understood rather as the

absence of oppositions between moksha and samsâra, an ineffable

state including both transcendence and immanence that the Trika philosophical

system—more widely called `Kashmir Shaivism'—designates by the term anuttara ('that

which has no beyond').

Inclusive Unity in the Trika

System3

The Trika is a doctrinal

synthesis which constitutes, among other things, the sophisticated

self-representation of a radical Tantric outlook within and through the high

discourse of classical Brahmanism itself.4

Though the doctrinal bases were already laid down by the beginning of the ninth

century A.D., its highly refined philosophical superstructure called the

'Doctrine of Recognition' (Pratyabhijñâ) found its fullest and most

powerful formulation in the extensive work of its dominating figure,

Abhinavagupta (10-11th century), who insists on going "beyond dualism and

non-dualism." Unlike the 'exclusive' non-dualism of Shankara's Advaita

Vedânta which simply rejects all dualism, the Trika perspective seeks to

encompass the rich diversity of manifestation within the non-dual principle at

its heart. The fundamental difference consists in the apprehension of activity

as illusion (mâyâ) for Shankara and as reality for Abhinavagupta. For the

latter, the Absolute is characterized by the totality of two powers (shakti), that of knowledge (jñâna) and

that of activity (kriyâ). The sort of ideological split that occurred within the

Veda-based orthodoxy between the ritualists (Mîmâmsakas), who espoused action

in this world to the detriment of knowledge, and the Vedântins who could affirm

such liberating knowledge only by negating action, is not only reconciled in

practice but also resolved in theory by the Trika. Ritual confers insight and

stabilizes the degrees of self-realization, just as knowledge vivifies and

empowers the outer activity in turn. Hence the affirmation of a supreme

non-dualism (parâdvaita) that goes `beyond both dualism and non-dualism' makes

good sense from the soteriological point of view.

The Trika distinguishes between two modes or rather

logically successive states of spiritual realization, which have been

translated by borrowing the terms 'ascending' (sankoca: 'retraction') and

'descending' (vikâsa:

'expansion') realization respectively. "During the ascending realization,

Consciousness isolates itself from all objectivity (including body, mind, etc.)

until it transcends the latter through a process assimilated to a gradual

'self-purification'.... But the process attains completion only when

Consciousness 're-descends' to assimilate the entire objective world to itself,

a 'universalization' culminating in the state of Anuttara, impossible to

describe in terms of sankoca

and vikâsa,

understood as constituting the ultimate essence of Bhairava. This claim is

typically inserted in the midst of arguments justifying the non-observance of

the distinction pure/impure or edible/prohibited (food) and so on. The logic

behind this equation becomes clear when we consider the definition of purity:

whatever is (experienced as) distinct from Consciousness is impure, whereas

whatever is (experienced as) identical with Consciousness is pure. Both terms

of the opposition are therefore relevant only with respect to that preliminary,

though better known, process of the ascending realization. For the Kaula adept

intent on universalizing his Consciousness by re-descending to and assimilating

the lowest and most impure aspects of objective manifestation, it is the

pure/impure distinction itself that is considered the ultimate impurity to be

transcended. It is in attempting the dangerous process of totalization that the

adept often commits deliberate transgressions to shatter the rules and

limitations that had earlier propped up both his worldly life and spiritual

disciplines."5 The category of the impure, which is externally

imposed by tradition, thus reveals itself to be ultimately dependent on a

dialectic of interdiction and transgression correlated to the two modes of

spiritual realization.

Whereas those techniques aiming

at an ascending realization and the religio-philosophical currents based on

them advocate turning away from the world of ordinary sensory-experience to

attain an ultimate reality that is transcendent, the techniques of the descent

insist that it is possible to `recognize' this transcendent reality as

simultaneously immanent, even glorifying itself, in the everyday world of

sensory-experiences. Not falling a prey to it by recognizing one's inner transcendence,

it is possible to continue living in the world, enjoying it as a manifestation

of the Divine. Thus the unity which the individual seeks to attain by ascending

towards God is presupposed by and encompassed within a larger movement whereby

God Himself re-descends to re-appropriate his creation through the medium of

the adept who has surrendered his limited individuality to the supreme

Consciousness. Functioning both as the means to and the expression of

transcendence in the midst of worldly experience, transgression, by dissolving

the final barriers which preserve the profane from the sacred, raises the

experience of unity to a second order. It is the reconciliation of deliverance

(moksha) and sensual enjoyment (bhoga) that

permits the supreme valorization of the body in the `descending' Tantric

perspective. Abhinavagupta, the living incarnation of Bhairava, attributes his

highest metaphysical realization to his initiation into the technique of the

'Kula-Sacrifice' (kula-yâga) consisting primarily in the exceptional use of meat and

wine in order to reinforce the bliss of incestuous sexual union.

Tantric Physiology and

the Unification of Consciousness

Chapter twenty-nine of the Tantrâloka,

which describes the kula-yâga—the most esoteric

ritual of union for the attainment of unity—is extremely difficult to

understand because of Abhinavagupta's deliberately obscure style (TA 29.169).

Lilian Silburn's pioneering work, the life-work of a scholar and practitioner

of the Trika, has proved invaluable in clearing many difficulties and I am

indebted to her translation, notes and explanations.6

In order to understand the process of unification during sex, the following

ternary structure must be especially kept in mind: idâ, pingalâ and susumnâ. This detailed Tantric physiology goes back to the

Upanishads, where the body is traversed by innumerable canals (nâdî) among which these three play the dominant role.

One has thus this series of symbolic correspondences:

 

 

 

Name

 

 

Place

 

 

River

 

 

Color

 

 

Light

 

 

Sex

 

 

Breath

 

 

 

 

idâ

 

 

left

 

 

Gangâ

 

 

yellow

 

 

moon

 

 

female

 

 

apâna

 

 

 

 

pingalâ

 

 

right

 

 

Yamunâ

 

 

red

 

 

sun

 

 

male

 

 

prâna

 

 

 

 

sushumnâ

 

 

center

 

 

Sarasvatî

 

 

diamond

 

 

fire

 

 

neuter

 

 

udâna

 

 

 

Through the mutual friction and

neutralization of the opposed solar and lunar breaths (prâna/apâna),

fire is produced in the form of the ascending udâna which devours all

duality, just as the twin Vedic churn-sticks were consumed in the spark of the

sacrificial fire they kindled. The fusion of these three breaths, viz. apâna,

prâna and udâna also symbolizes the unity of desire, knowledge and

action in the Trika. The ascent of udâna through the median canal (sushumnâ)

corresponds to the elevation of the kundalinî, the sexual energy in the

form of a coiled serpent at the base of the spine. In Sanskrit, "this term

has an exact synonym in the compound bhogavatî, bhoga is at the same

time curvature, coiling up (especially of the serpent) and everything that

pertains to sense experience, notably enjoyment" (Biardeau, L'hindouisme, p. 167). Sensuality and, more

particularly, sexuality is thus inherent in the conception and functioning of kundalinî.

The spiritual exercises based on the tantric physiology should allow the kundalinî

to take the way of the sushumnâ to reach the dvâdaçânta, place of

meeting with the Absolute and where the perfect union of Shiva and his Shakti

is realized.

Unlike the later texts of hatha-yoga which describe

the cakras as seven stationary centers visualized in elaborate detail

with varying numbers of petals corresponding to the letters of the alphabet,

etc., the Shaivas of Kashmir experienced them rather as whirling many-spoked

wheels serving as nodal points for energy exchanges between various parts of

the body and the median channel.7

These wheels, which in the ordinary person exist rather in the form of

coagulated 'knots' (granthi) obstructing the free circulation of

conscious energy, are moreover only five in number. The 'root support' (mûlâdhâra)

at the base of the spine is represented by a downward pointing (adhovaktra)

triangle (trikona), for the sexual energies are normally dissipated

downwards. It is the seat of the dormant kundalinî coiled around the

germinal point (bindu) representing Shiva and the essence of virility.

The intimate relation of this center with the sexual and reproductive functions

is underlined through other names like the 'base of generation' (janmâdhâra)

and 'place of the womb' (yoni-sthâna). When the adept successfully

inverts this triangle so that the opening at its apex is directed upwards,

virile energy is instead drawn into the median channel through an opening

called medhra-kanda 'bulb (at the base) of the penis.' The second wheel

at the navel (nâbhî) with ten spokes is at the junction of ten principal

pathways (nâdî). The wheel of the heart (hrdaya), where the

breaths are understood to fuse, is especially privileged by Abhinavagupta as a

seat of awakening for the kundalinî. Insofar as it reflects the fusion

of the opposing triangles at the two extremities of the median channel, it can

even be considered the primary center, infusing all the rest with its

overflowing essence (rasa). Above the fourth wheel situated in the neck

(kantha) is the fifth located between the eyebrows (bhrû-madhya),

which is the 'confluence of the triple current' (trivenî) of the vital

breaths. In the ordinary person, this upward pointing triangle is still not

effectively linked to the topmost wheel at the 'orifice of Brahma' (brahma-randhra),

which is located on the crown of the skull at the "end of twelve fingers'

breadth" (dvâdaçânta) away from it. The experience of the latter

corresponds to the height of the ascent when the Self is realized in a state of

meditative absorption (samâdhi). However, the supreme dvâdaçânta

is above the body at the 'end of twelve fingers' breadth' from the brahmarandhra

itself, and corresponds to the experience of Shiva in the entire universe at

the culmination of the descending realization. This eternally present

'thousand-rayed' (sahasrâra) wheel of innumerable energies, a fusion of

light (bindu) and sound-vibration (nâda), is the very nature of

things. Likened to the orb of the full moon shedding ambrosia, it contains the

trident representing the united triple (trika) energy of will (desire),

knowledge and activity that gives the Trika doctrine its name.

The aim of the practice is to retract the dispersed

psycho-physical energies back into the 'point' (bindu) at the center of

each wheel before directing their flow upwards so that the wheels are threaded

by the median channel piercing through their centers. Ultimately, there is only

a unique bindu on account of the fusion of all the wheels. The upturning

of the inverted triangle (female) at the mûlâdhâra results in its

elevation through the flow of kundalinî to the point between the

eyebrows, where it unites with the upper triangle (male) to form the

six-pointed (shatkona) 'Seal of Solomon' at the brahmarandhra. This

coincidence of Shiva and Shakti so that they share a common bindu

symbolizes the highest experience of unity possible in the body. Most pertinent

is that the interaction or 'friction' of these two 'lotuses' leading to their

fusion is conceived as a mode of sexual union that may be facilitated by,

synchronized with and wholly assimilated to an external copulation, which is

precisely what happens during the kula-yâga. The inner union of the

triangles, which restores the original unity of the opposed—masculine and

feminine—principles, is represented in Hinduism in the figure of the ardhanârîçvara

or androgyne.8

The paradoxical 'transmission' of the realization of the

unity of Consciousness from the teacher to the aspiring disciple hence takes

the form of an intermediate unity involving the temporary compenetration of the

two at the level of their corresponding cakras (Kundalinî, pp. 87-103).

The initiation (dîkshâ)

of the pupil consists in the systematic 'piercing' of one or more of his wheels

by the teacher in order to infuse him with his own energy and momentarily raise

him to the same level. It is almost a fusion of bodies resembling the

Upanishadic sacrifice called sampratti wherein the son lay on the dying

father—limb on corresponding limb—in order to receive the latter's breaths and

sense-faculties. Though all the six modes of 'initiation by piercing' (vedha-dîkshâ)

require that the teacher renew his unity with the Absolute Consciousness before

uniting the disciple's limited consciousness with his own, the raising of the kundalinî in

some of them has a particularly marked sexual component. In the mode called

'piercing through virile potency' (bindu-vedha), the guru concentrates his

seminal energy in his heart so as to intensify it before focusing it outwards

through the bindu

in the middle of his eyebrows. The disciple likewise receives it through the

middle of the eyebrows where the guru attempts to retain it, failing which it

is deposited in the heart or in the root-bulb in respective order. On reaching

the latter sex-center, the breath is transformed into a seminal flow that

permeates the bodies of both partners before rising to the brahmarandhra.

Similarly, the next two initiations (shâkta and bhujanga) are described as different

modes, gradual or instantaneous, whereby the teacher unites the female 'energy'

(shakti)

at the base of his spine with the male 'possessor of energy' (shaktimat = shiva) at the brahmarandhra,

in order to reproduce the same inner union within the disciple. It is certainly

no mere coincidence that the details of the vedha-dîkshâ are discussed in the twenty-ninth

chapter of the Tantrâloka (29.236-253) consecrated primarily to the

exposition of the kula-yâga.

The secret of unity through sexual union was transmitted by preference to

female disciples (yoginî)

who subsequently initiated other males. It may be expected that some forms of

'penetration,' especially those with a marked inward sexual dimension, were

combined in some way or other with the practice of copulation itself. This is

perhaps implied in Abhinava's declaration that "by means of the couple of

man and woman and without resorting to vows, to yoga... the guru, ever evoking

the original sacrifice (i.e., the kula-yâga), engages therein, and lays on the

female body and on his own body, science and efficiency respectively. He

meditates on the lotus (woman) in the form of the moon (knowable), and on

himself in the form of the sun (knowledge). Then he intimately merges together

these two sanctuaries made up of science (vidyâ) and efficiency (mantra)"

(TA 29.166-8).

Whereas the modes of ascending realization underlying the

other philosophical systems denounce the (limited) ego-function (aham-kâra) as the

supreme obstacle to the realization of unity, the descending perspective of the

Trika rather recommends the universalization of the 'I-Subject' as the highest

mode of unity.9 This totalization

of Self is condensed into the word 'I' (aham) by transforming it into a sacred

formula (mantra) comprising the first (a) and the last (ha)—hence

all the—letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, which merge into the single point (bindu)

representing the nasalized m (a-ha-m). Since the letters (varna or mâtrkâ) of the

alphabet correspond to specific energies of the wheels, the realization of

`total I-ness' (pûrnâhamtâ)

corresponds on the 'physiological' level to the union of the male and female

triangles around the unique bindu. Thus even the highest

metaphysical realization of the universal 'I-ness' is not without implications

of unity at the level of the (subtle) body and vice-versa. There is always a

latent sexual dimension even in the case of transmission from male guru to male

disciple and this is because the realization of the total 'I' already implies a

spiritualized sexual union within the teacher himself. The 'libido' of

consciousness functions—like electricity—only through its inherent tendency to

polarization represented by the male and the female. The privileged mode of

realizing its essential non-differentiation is thus precisely through sexual

union.

The Vocabulary of Union

and Unity in the Trika10

It is pertinent to note here

that some of the terms used to denote various aspects of unification with the

Supreme Principle are derived from the sphere of conjugal relations or have at

least unmistakable erotic connotations. Perhaps partly under the influence of

the 'intentional' (sandhâ-) or 'twilight' (sandhyâ-)

language (bhâshâ) of the Tantrics, terms referring to sexual practices or

states are given a highly refined but innocuous epistemological or theosophical

content. Thus even the term kula which

Abhinavagupta charges with the most diverse meanings (Tantrâloka,

29.4-6), could literally mean 'clan' or (extended) 'family' and hence the

sexual-rite that goes by that name could have simply served to underline their

incestuous or 'endogamic' character. The term âveça derives

from the root viç- 'enter into,' it is often translated by 'possession'

which is understood in the Trika context as identification with the state of

Bhairava (bhairavâveça). This does not obviate its external manifestation in the

form of a palpitating trance, as evidenced by its characterization through

words meaning 'trembling' (kampa), 'swirling'

(ghûrni), 'fainting' and so on. In the Kaula context (kulâveça), the term refers more specifically to the absorption in

the divine energy brought about through sexual union. The term melâpa, which is defined as

the perfect unity that dissolves the dichotomy between subject and object, also

refers more concretely to the ritualized practice of group-sex. The term sâmarasya designates the 'homogeneity' of the undifferentiated

Consciousness, in this context the 'equalization' (from sama- 'equal') of its

'flow' (from rasa 'sap') in and especially between the opposite sexes

during the their union. On a more concrete level, it is applied even to the

'fusion' of male and female reproductive substances. From here we easily arrive

at the term especially used by the tradition to designate union: yâmala

whose primary meaning is 'twin.' It is remarkable that it is this term that has

been retained to translate the union of Shiva and Shakti, and there are entire

compendia which go under the name (Brahma-, Rudra-, etc.) Yâmala, which

is also the denomination of an entire sub-current of Tantrism, where the

feminine element begins to take the upper hand. At a deeper level, the union between

the sexes is merely the means to reproduce their divine unity within

each partner, and thus the figure of the twins oscillates between that of the

'sexed couple' and the androgyne.11

In the tantric rites of union, the woman hence plays an indispensable—and

sometimes even the dominant—role: the feminine and the masculine are

fundamental symbols of reality, and tantrism abolishes this duality in order to

accede to unity through union.

Kulayâga: Paradigm of

Union and Unity in Hinduism

Though the

divine 'energy' (shakti) which is intrinsic to Consciousness may be

realized through various techniques, the method of the kula-yâga insists

on the difficulty, if not impossibility, of realizing unity in all its

plenitude without resorting to physical union with an external woman,

technically called dûtî (TA 29.96). The dynamic flow of Consciousness

during the sex-act is expressed in terms of the interaction between the

secondary wheels (anu-cakra)—in this context, particularly the five

sense-faculties and the mind that coordinates them—and the main wheel (mukhya-cakra)

which refers to the sex-organs, the heart and ultimately to the supreme

Consciousness (TA 29.106-115). This extraordinary usage is based on the

unification of these centers at the height of the sexual union. The partners

begin with mutual stimulation of their secondary wheels in a congenial

atmosphere, heightened through the use of food, incense, flowers, etc. pleasing

to the senses, and thus engage in worship of the main wheel. The external and

internal sensations of kissing, etc., take the place of the delicious 'food'

offered to the deity in normal worship. Due to the introverted attitude, the

satiated senses feed their energies into the sex center, which expands only to

merge into the wheel of Consciousness. The movement thus corresponds to an

'ascending' realization, a retraction into the quiescent Self using the

sensuous experience itself as a support. Thereby a first degree of unity is

achieved through the absorption of the secondary wheels into the central wheel

of Consciousness.

Paradoxically, this spiritualization renders the union far

more delightful and satisfying than ordinary sex, wherein (the energies and

experiences of) the secondary centers remain distinct, neither vibrating nor

satiated, precisely because their unification is hindered by the false

identification with the body in the form of egoistic feelings of 'I' and 'you.'

As the climax of union is approached, a reverse process takes place whereby the

plenitude of the main wheel of Consciousness overflows through the sex-center

back into the secondary centers infusing them with its own virile energy (vîrya).

A second degree of unity is attained, corresponding to the

"descending" realization, whereby the central wheel of Consciousness

in turn expands outwards (vikâsa) to appropriate the functioning of the

senses and their respective contents, namely, the multiplicity of external

objects. This indescribable condition of bliss is designated by the term 'the

mouth of the yoginî' (yoginî-vaktra), which refers to the unity

of the sex center with the other two primary cakras of the heart and the

brahmarandhra. Hence it is also designated as the 'heart of the yoginî'

(yoginî-hrdaya), the 'middle center' (madhya-cakra), and so on.

These verbal equations underline the fact that, under these specific

conditions, the physical experience culminates in an emotional plenitude

wherein the heart, vitalized by the influx of sexual energy, expands to

envelope both the organ of generation below and the supreme seat of

Consciousness (brahmarandhra) above. In a profound sense, the heart thus

mediates in a total experience, where the sexual union seems to take place at

the brahmarandhra within the supreme Consciousness, and conversely this

realization of the unity of Consciousness seems to take place within the

experience of sexual union. It is this mediation of the heart that explains the

use of the same term rasa to refer to the 'flow' of Consciousness, to

the sexual 'fluid' and to the emotional 'essence' of the aesthetic

experience. And it is the unification of the sex-center with the supreme

Consciousness that underlies Abhinavagupta's universalization of the aesthetic

experience beyond the world of the theater.

The experience of unity through sexual union is such that

it informs both the means and the final condition attained. On the one hand,

the duality of the partners—of the enjoyer and the enjoyed—tends to dissolve

into a unitary experience of bliss and, on the other hand, the absolute

Consciousness reveals itself to be a polarity best represented as a sexed

couple (Shiva-Shakti). This bi-unity is revealed especially in the

indescribable fusion—wherein all differentiation is dissolved—of the quiescent

transcendent (çânta) and the emergent immanent (udita) poles of

the supreme Consciousness (TA 29.115-20, 126-7). The supreme secret of the Kula

is neither quiescent nor emergent but the ground of these two alternating and

co-existing movements. It is simultaneously and equally experienced by both the

sexes, with the only difference that the emergent aspect is shared through the

union of the organs by the partners intent on enjoying each other, whereas the

quiescent aspect is experienced independently and inwardly by each partner.

Those intent on final emancipation concentrate exclusively on the latter

dimension, whereas those seeking the lordship of creative (magical) powers and

longevity particularly cultivate the former aspect. The real emission (visarga)

which culminates the union is not external but internal, and the extraordinary

concentration of energies produced by the sexual friction is released primarily

into Consciousness to fill it with a universalizing quasi-androgynous bliss (sâmarasya).

At the heart of the Kula is the unitive friction (sanghatta) of the two

flows—external (udita) and internal (çânta)—of emission which

somehow replicates the union of the external couple within each partner. This

then is the ultimate significance of the term yâmala (twin) applied not

only to the union of the sexed couple (mithuna) but also and especially

to each partner as a fusion (sâmarasya) of Shiva and Shakti: there could

be no better symbol of the identity of the couple and of the polarization of

the One than the figure of the (identical) twin(s). The interpenetration of the

active male 'means' (upâya) and the passive female 'wisdom' (prajñâ)

into the principle of 'two-in-one' (yuga-naddha, Tibetan zung-'jug)

is also found in the Buddhist Vajrayâna (Snellgrove, pp. 278-88).

In the case of the discriminating gnostic endowed with the

required purity of heart, who can therefore dispense with the ritual

preliminaries and supports, this alternation of contraction and expansion

corresponds to the equalizing technique of the krama-mudrâ which, like

the bhairavî-mudrâ, is a technique that is generally practiced quite

independently of any rites of sexual union. However, unlike the bhairavî-mudrâ

which grasps the inner and the outer simultaneously in a single immobile

perception, the 'sequential posture' (krama-mudrâ) is a dynamic movement

where Consciousness repeatedly flows inwards and outwards so as to dissolve the

barriers that hinder the experience of transcendence in the midst of worldly

experience. The two stages of ascent towards quiescence and descent towards

emergence are more sharply distinguished by Abhinavagupta, when he

recapitulates the technique of the kula-yâga for the benefit of those

whose discrimination is not so mature (TA 29.129-39). The latter ritualists are

enjoined to worship the divinities of the wheels beginning with the outermost:

Ganesha with his attendants, the couple of Kula teachers, the three goddesses

of the Trika at the points of the trident, etc. These are to be worshipped,

while in a sexually aroused (udita) state, as residing in the 'main

wheel' of the yoginî and in the aspirant's own body. During the

ascending stage, the aspirant repeatedly focuses his heart-consciousness on the

quiescent aspect (the 'internal emission') and thus establishes himself in the

state of the transcendent Shiva. Like an ocean unruffled by waves, this static

mode of bliss (nirânanda) is characterized rather by the immobilization

of the host of divine energies in the sex-center which remain suspended in the

void. Likewise, the secondary wheels of sight, etc., which depend on the

energies of the main wheel, are also immersed in this tranquil bliss and lose

their individual natures. However, it must not be forgotten that this

'ascending' mode is being effected within, and is conditioned by, the highly

sensuous context of sexual union. Though immobilized in turn and (temporarily)

desisting from their respective pleasures, the senses nevertheless continue to

crave for their corresponding forms of enjoyment but now as instruments of the

supreme Consciousness. And though they next rush out to exuberate in the midst

of external impressions overflowing with the sap of their own individual

flavors, whatever moments of satisfaction (of the sex-center) derived thereby

are now experienced as offerings to the supreme Self. All these delightful

streams of sense impressions flow into the already stabilized main wheel to

infuse it with a tremendous stir of virile energy (vîrya-vikshobha).

With this vehement (sexual) effervescence of the hitherto unruffled reservoir

of Consciousness, the Lord of the wheel(s) too expands impetuously towards the

external world. Though this 're-descent' clearly presupposes the ascent, the

end result is the same fusion of the two poles that characterized the

experience of the accomplished adept almost from the beginning. Hence, Abhinava

again distinguishes the three modes of emission (visarga): creative or

emergent identified with Shakti and the kundalinga ('phallus'), and the

supreme or unitive (sanghatta) identified with their indescribable union

(melaka). ('womb'), resorptive or

quiescent identified with Shiva and the

The unity achieved through union is simultaneously

realized on three correlated levels which are experientially and symbolically

superposed so as to seal it with the essence of the supreme posture (khecarî-mudrâ,

TA 29.150-4). The friction (sanghatta) within the median channel of the

sun and the moon representing all the pairs of dualities—from the most material

ovum/sperm to the most abstract knowledge/known level—results in the production

of Fire representing both the (supreme) knower and the resulting conception.

This unitive friction serves to equate the external union between the male and the

female (organs) with the friction between the lower inverted triangle at the mûlâdhâra

and the upper upright triangle, which is precisely what awakens the kundalinî

in the median channel and ultimately leads to their total fusion above. Since

the stem of the median channel is also visualized as inseparably linked to the

sex-organs—as it indeed is in the esoteric experience—there results a symbolic

identification of the male and female united through the phallus with the

sexually polarized triangular lotuses strung on and united through the median

channel. It is no doubt here, in the reciprocal 'sexualization' of the median

channel and the 'spiritualization' of the coital exchange, that the mythical

identity of the axis mundi with the linga has its true rationale.

The germ which sprouts in the womb from the union of the male and the female is

hence simultaneously fertilized by the spiritual seed descending the median

channel from the union on high represented by the seal of Solomon. The yoginîbhû

is thus primarily the fiery consciousness born of the union (yâmala)

internal to each partner and is only secondarily the new physical sheath that

sprouts from the external sexual union. In fact, the term yoginîbhû

refers primarily to this indescribable condition and only secondarily to the

child that may or may not issue from it. Through this khecarî-mudrâ, naturally

arising from the coalescence of moon, sun and fire, the adept becomes rooted in

the transcendental 'fourth' (turya) state and inwardly engages in the instantaneous

sequence of creation, etc. The idea seems to be implied that the process of

'creating an embryo' is being initiated at that supreme level where the adept

has appropriated the Lord's function of universal creation, etc.

Though the Kaula texts are generally written from the male

point of view which characterizes the larger culture and though Abhinava

himself elsewhere often describes the male as the enjoyer (bhoktr) and

the woman as the enjoyed (bhogya), it is nevertheless emphasized in this

context that there is no difference between the experience (çântodita)

of the two sexes. Which is precisely why it is called 'twin' (yâmala)

with respect to either and both of the partners. When the distinction is made,

it is on the contrary in favor of the woman (TA 29.121-9), who alone is capable

of nurturing the creative germ not only in the biological but also in the

spiritual sense. Though the female physiology may be relatively less adapted to

the ascetic or 'ascending' modes of realization, it surrenders far more readily

to the spontaneous expansion of the median channel that defines the

'descending' mode of the sexual union. Hence, like Shivânandanâtha, the founder

of the Krama school, the guru imparts the secret doctrine (kulârtha)

to the dûtî as the true depositary of the experience, who in turn

initiates male disciples. The (temporary) unity of consciousness between guru

and disciple during the 'initiations through piercing' (vedha-dîkshâ)

is probably achieved here through the medium of sexual union. The mainstay of

the esoteric tradition is the 'mouth of the yoginî' understood not only

as the supreme wheel of Consciousness but also as its physiological basis, the

mouth of the vagina. The transmission of salvific knowledge "from mouth to

mouth," that is, orally and hence secretly, acquires in this context the

additional quasi-literal meaning of the transfer of the combined male and

female reproductive substance (kunda-golaka) to the mouth of the male

and vice-versa, before it is deposited in an external 'libation-vessel' (argha-pâtra,

see also TA 29.22). The idea is that the semen and the ovum emitted are

highly purified, infused with the spiritual condition of the partners, and that

their ingestion has quasi-medical effects resulting in the rejuvenation of the

body. The real elixir of immortality, of which the kundagolaka is as it

were the tangible concentrate, is thus the 'substance of the Kaula experience'

(kulârtha has both meanings). By the same logic, the embryo resulting

from such a union has in reality been conceived within the womb of

Consciousness (yoginîvaktra) and has the nature of Shiva even before its

birth (TA 29.162-3). Though this theme is not explicitly developed by

Abhinavagupta, it is pertinent to ask whether it is not in some sense implied

that the partners—particularly the male adept—are themselves reborn and

rejuvenated in and through this universal womb. Would it not be in this sense

rather that Abhinavagupta's own claim to being 'born of a yoginî' (yoginîbhû)

ought to be taken? In the corresponding Buddhist secret 'empowerment' (abhiseka),

the disciple voluntarily surrenders his female companion to the Vajrayâna guru.

After the latter has copulated with her, the initiand is brought in to swallow

the guru's semen "as the embodiment of all the Buddhas" immediately

followed by "a drop of the pollen of all the Tathâgatas" from the

vagina of his consort. Considering that the Yogânuttara doctrines were revealed

by the Lord (Vajrapâni) ensconced in the Paradise of Bliss within the vagina of

the Vajra-maiden, "the Mother of all the Buddhas," it is probable

that 'the Buddha-embryo' (tathâgata-garbha) was to be understood not

just as a metaphysical metaphor but xxx (Snellgrove, pp. 111-5, 121 n.9,

243-77). All the concrete elements of these Buddhist tantras have been derived

more specifically from the texts of the Shaiva Vidyâpîtha which belong to the

Kâpâlika cults of the Krama/Trika which form the basis of Abhinavagupta's Tantrâloka.12

The principle of the 're-descent' shatters the barrier

between the sacred and the profane, it obliterates the distinction between

(ritual) means and (physiological) side-effects. The arduous exercises

practiced in order to attain unity now manifest instead as spontaneous

expressions of the Kaula state, or are otherwise effortlessly integrated in

their essential nature into the experience of union (TA 29.142-61). Having

mastered this art of awakening, bringing to rest and penetrating (samâveça),

as applied to the ascending and descending current in the median channel, and

(from there) to the remaining 72,000 channels, the wheels, junctions and

joints, (the adept identified with) Shiva fuses the parceled elements of

consciousness diffused throughout the body into a vibrant undifferentiated

unity. The state of Bhairava characterized by 'unitive emission' (sanghatta)

thus permeates the entire organism, and the unity of Consciousness is

experienced within the body. The alternating solar and lunar breaths, which the

yogin otherwise strives assiduously to neutralize, easily give way to

the experience of the supreme Subject in the median channel, when the adept

focuses his attention thereon during this total immersion in the quiescent-cum-emergent

Kaula state. Mantra is no longer the separate repetition of sacred

syllables but the absorption in the spontaneous resonance of Self-awareness

which arises from the fusion of the triple flow of emission. By focusing one's

personal mantra onto this original vibration underlying all sound, the

adept understands the emergence of (all) mantra, assimilates their

potency (vîrya), and applies them with least effort (even for material

ends). The effects aimed at by 300,000 recitations (japa) of the mantra

divided between the quiescent, emergent and unitive states, are naturally

achieved by simply focusing on the (silent) reverberation (nâda) during

the convergence of the secondary wheels into the central wheel of

Consciousness. Similarly, when the couple is immersed in the quintessential khecarî-mudrâ

described above, even their experience of mutual kisses, fondling, play,

laughter, etc., is endowed with all the eight increasingly subtle stages of

sound that internally constitute the (potency of) mantra. By entering

the eight-fold wheel of this mudrâ—which is deployed in the to-and-fro

movement of the breath, in the intellect, in hearing, sight, in the mere

contact of both the sexual organs, in their actual union, at the dvâdaçânta,

and finally in the twin (yâmala = çântodita) state of union

comprising all this—in order to utter the spontaneous japa, the adept

attains the state of the eight Bhairavas presiding over these stages. The

indistinct cry (çîtkâra) arising spontaneously in the heart of the beloved

to emerge from her lips at the climax of the union, is itself the privileged

vehicle of ultimate appeasement for the adept who hears it, just as the

agitation subsides, at the center of both wheels (Shiva and Shakti, as forming

the single yoginîvaktra). Through it he realizes the omni-penetration (vyâpti)

of the mantra—composed of light, sound and touch—the supreme eight-fold

Bhairava in the form of sound (nâda). The commentator adds that this

Bhairavian 'octave' is designated by the neuter gender because it arises from

the state of complete homogeneity (sâmarasya) between Shiva and Shakti.

Through the kula-yâga, the essence of all the spiritual techniques—mantra,

mudrâ, kundalinî-yoga, etc.— has been distilled into the single experience

of sexual orgasm proper to an androgynous twin.

The whole kula-yâga may thus be recapitulated

through the various meanings of the term kula: "the Lord's energy (shakti),

efficiency (sâmarthya), elevation (ûrdhvatâ), freedom (svâtantrya),

vitality (ojas), efficiency (vîrya), embryo (pinda),

consciousness (samvit) and body (çarîraka)" (TA 29.4), all

of which elements are integral to the rite. The unity of Consciousness is

experienced within the body itself, which accounts for the term kula

meaning both 'body' and 'Consciousness.' So in addition to the abstract

metaphysical meanings provided by the commentator, Jayaratha, we may risk

indicating some of the more concrete connotations related particularly to the

body. Shakti designates of course the dûtî identified with the

Goddess, and ûrdhvatâ to the 'ascent' of the kundalinî corresponding

to the 'erection' of the phallus. Vîrya is the inherent vitality of

Consciousness and more concretely the semen. Pinda not only refers to

the experience of the universe as a compact, homogeneous 'mass' but literally

means 'embryo' which could simultaneously refer to the fusion of reproductive

substances and to the spiritual "birth from the yoginî." The

compenetration (samâveça) which results in the 'sexualization' of the

supreme Consciousness and the 'divinization' of the body is perhaps best summed

up in Abhinava's closing declaration that "the body itself is the supreme linga,

the auspicious Shiva comprising all the elements, the dwelling of the (primary)

wheel of divine energies, and the abode of the highest worship (pûjâ).

It is indeed the chief mandala composed of the triple trident, the

lotuses, the wheels, and the etheric void.13

It is there that the circles of divinities should be unceasingly worshipped,

both externally and internally. With full awareness of their respective mantras,

let them appropriate the manifold sap of bliss issuing therefrom (from the

principal wheel in the form of the body), through the process of creation and

absorption (through the emergent and quiescent modes). Sovereign over

the wheel of Consciousness, which is suddenly awakened through this contact, he

attains the supreme abode by satiating all the gods (the divine energies within

the body). May he satisfy them externally through objects pleasing to the heart

and internally through appropriate acts of self-awareness" (TA 29.171-5).

If he were re-incarnated in our own times to aesthetically relive this ultimate

Kaula experience of Unity, one wonders whether Abhinavagupta would have at all

hesitated to re-formulate it in quasi-materialistic terms...

Alexis Sanderson has argued that the

Kaula current is in fact a domesticated version of a more radical

cremation-ground culture,14 and the adoption of

the Kâpâlika-Bhairava—with all his gruesome imagery—as its highest metaphysical

principle is perhaps the most telling indication of this. What is striking

nevertheless is the scrupulous retention of this symbolic universe through

visualization, substitutions, semantic equations, and so on. In their radical

versions, these sex rites were practiced in the cremation-grounds and could

even make use of corpses. In Abhinava's description, however, the whole imagery

is internalized, through a play on the word citi which means both

funeral pyre and (the supreme) consciousness: "Behold within the body

itself that citi, resplendent like the Fire at the end of Time, wherein

everything is dissolved and all the elements are consumed. This

cremation-ground in the form of the void is the most terrible playground, the

resort of the yoginîs and the perfected ones (siddha), where all

forms are disintegrated. The chains of obscurity are dispelled by the circle of

its own (fiery) rays (the sense-organs) to reveal only the (supreme) state of

bliss, free of all mentation (vikalpa = doubts). Having entered this

receptacle of all the gods, this cremation-ground of consciousness, so terrible

with its innumerable funeral-pyres (citi) strewn all around, who indeed

would not attain perfection (through performing the kula-yâga)?"

(TA 29.182-5). It is not merely a question of using images borrowed from the

cremation-ground to depict the destructive (samhâra) aspect of unity

with the supreme Consciousness, for the ritual of cremation itself merely

exteriorizes an initiatic process. In the holy city of Banaras, which is the

'great cremation-ground' (mahâ-çmaçâna) of the Hindu universe, where the

pious go to perform the funeral rites of their relatives and to await their own

death, the ritual is modeled on both the Vedic fire-sacrifice and the Tantric

physiology underlying the process of liberation. Sexual union with the deceased

is optionally prescribed for the wife in certain brahmanical funerary texts.15 Though necessarily down-played in

the domesticated and aestheticized setting of the Trika, it would seem that the

all-consuming bliss of the kula-yâga was nevertheless experienced as a

mode of inner death, a dimension which is central to the Vedic dîkshâ.

The confirmation of this is to be found not only in the designation of the sushumnâ

and, by extension, of the awakened kundalinî, as 'çmaçâna'

but also in the symbols of death and the real animal sacrifices associated with

concretizations of the axis-mundi whether it be the Vedic yûpa, the

posts representing Potu Râju in South India, or the Newar New Year poles which

are identified with the linga. The sushumnâ is nevertheless said

to devour death, for the initiatic death—even when it presupposes the

loss of individual identity—is the means of attaining a mode of immortality.

The sacrificial death has been symbolically equated with sexual union through

the frequent practice of inserting the right foot of the male victim into its

own mouth in conjunction with the marriage of the post to the Goddess. This makes

sense only if we consider the union as taking place within the androgynized

animal at the level of its head, that is, with its mouth representing the yoginî-vaktra.

The impurity of death which

infests the cremation-ground and transforms it into the very image of hell for

the classical brahmin, so obsessed with ritual purity, is perhaps the most

vivid spatialization of transgression in the Hindu imagination. The union of

the kula-yâga is indeed an experience of transgression in every sense of

the term (TA 29.10-17). On the concrete level this takes the form of violating

the prohibitions that define the brahmanical ideal of orthodox Hinduism.

Abhinavagupta indeed begins by affirming that to the intelligent are prescribed

those disgusting substances like meat, alcohol and those of sexual origin,

which are forbidden in the traditional religious treatises. The first two

M's—meat (mâmsa) and

wine (madya)—serve

primarily as aphrodisiacs in facilitating and reinforcing the bliss of the

third M, sexual union (mithuna). The experience of union is concretized

in the fusion of male and female reproductive substances, the primary offering

(argha = kunda-golaka) to which are added (twelve) other secret

substances selected specifically on account of their impurity. Though this is

not explicit in the description given in the Tantrâloka,16

it is well-known that in the radical forms of Tantric union the woman was expected

to be menstruating and her blood was ingested with the other reproductive

substances. This transformation of the most impure of substances into the

"elixir of immortality" is not peculiar to India, for Lévi-Strauss

has demonstrated that honey (or maple-syrup) is likewise used as a metaphor for

menstrual-blood in Amerindian mythology, where its relation to 'fire' parallels

that of Soma in the Indian tradition.

Moreover, the choice of the woman (dûtî) is

determined regardless of beauty, caste, age, birth, etc., and solely in terms

of her capacity to identify with the adept (TA 29.99-103). In the radical forms

of the Tantric union, this often implied a predilection for untouchable women

drawn even from the castes related to the cremation-ground rituals. The

breaking of caste-barriers through the joint participation of brahmins and

untouchables is merely the systematic application of the valorization of

impurity in a dialectic of transgression. However, the "domesticated"

tradition which Abhinava himself inherited from his Kaula teacher,

Shambhunâtha, is in a sense even more radical in that it enjoins the choice of

women related through direct familial ties—mother, daughter and sister—or

through second-degree ties—grand-mother, grand-daughter and aunts, nieces, etc.

The dûtî could herself be the 'mother' in the sense of teacher,

'daughter' in the sense of disciple, or a 'sister' initiated by the same

teacher. Here however, spiritual affinity between the male and female adept is

reinforced by worldly—genetic—affinity, and the Kaula 'secret society' becomes

a 'family' (kula) tradition in the literal sense of the term. The wife

is expressly excluded from the sacrifice because of worldly attachment to her.

Though this is interpreted in terms of desire for mere sexual enjoyment (riramsâ)

by the commentator, it is clear that 'attachment' here rather refers to the

adulteration of pure sexual desire (kâma) in her case by other worldly

concerns that restrict the experience of union to a carnal level.17

As for next-of-kin who are normally forbidden precisely because of worldly

over-proximity, breaking the incest-barrier may be understood, on the contrary,

as the most effective means of raising the sex-experience to a transcendental

level. So central is transgression to the kula-yâga, that Abhinava

affirms that those who perform this sacrifice without the sources of bliss, the

three M's, will simply go to a horrible hell. More significant than the

violation of fundamental brahmanical taboos, however, is Abhinava's systematic

re-definition of principles like bráhman in terms of transgression (TA

29.97-100). Thus a brahmacârin is no longer one who is chaste, but one

who literally 'walks the (path of) bráhman' by incorporating the supreme

bliss of bráhman within his own body in its concrete forms of wine, meat

and especially (the substance of) sexual intercourse. The choice of the

brahmanicide Bhairava as the ultimate symbol of the indescribable Anuttara

underlines that the experience of the sacred, as revealed through the kula-yâga,

is transgressive at its very core. Bhairava's appropriation of the fifth

and central head of Brahmâ suggests, however, that even the experience of

Brahman through the kula-yâga is ultimately derived from the Vedic

sacrifice.

Sexual Union

as Sacrifice: Between Veda and Tantra

The kula-yâga presents

itself as a 'sacrifice' (yâga) more precisely designated by the term yajña.18

"The order of the world rests on the sacrifice (yajña) and more

generally on the rites of which the sacrifice is the supreme form and the model...

The very structure of the sacrifice is such that the sacrificer is necessarily

an individual, just as it was an individual and, for good reason, the

primordial sacrificer when he performed the sacrifice amounting to the creation

of the world. In this primordial sacrifice, of course, the oblatory matter can

only be the sacrificer's own body because nothing else exists (Malamoud, ibid.,

pp. 7-8). Now the essence of the kulayâga resides in the fact that the

oblatory matter is the body of the participants, often reduced to the form of

seed, which is offered into the fire of Consciousness. Moreover, this rite of

union is an act of creation not only on the physiological but especially at the

most fundamental level of participating in cosmic creation. There thus seems to

be an "incontestable filiation" (S. Levi, ibid., p. 12) between the

Vedic and the Tantric sacrifice. The latter consciously models itself on the

former by borrowing and elaborating its metaphors and even applying them quite

literally. Sexual union (mithuna) is already considered to be a

sacrifice in the Vedic current, for it is known that the act of creation is

represented as a coupling. "In the Vedic sacrifice, the

presence of the wife of the sacrificer is in general indispensable, for the destiny

of the couple is inextricably intertwined."19

Women "cannot by themselves fulfill the role of yajamâna

[sacrificer] but it is also true that the sacrificer is supposed to have his

wife beside him in order to perform most of the rites and the sacrificer is the

couple formed by the husband and the wife (dampati)."20

The Kaula justification for the necessity of the female partner (dûtî)

is in this respect most significant: "Just as the brahman's wife

takes part in the Vedic sacrifice, so too does the dûtî participate in the

kula-yâga" (commentary ad. TA 29.96).

Despite her vital presence for the efficacy of the Vedic

ritual, the role of the woman is however passive and wholly subordinate. Union

in this public context is reduced to a profusion of metaphors, extended even to

pairs of inanimate and abstract entities. The aim of the Vedic mithuna

is ostensibly 'procreation' in the sense of abundance and prosperity, both in

this and the other world, which would distinguish it from the Tantric mithuna

which has procreation as an aim only in the rare cases of the yoginîbhû.

In the kula-yâga, it is no longer a question of a simple presence but of

an active participation. The woman is identified with the Goddess as a direct

consequence of the conception of the divinity as Shiva-Shakti. "If, in

most of the cases the Absolute in his ultimate form remains the Purusha in whom

everything—including his feminine energy or Shakti—is reabsorbed, the god of

the manifested cosmos can only be united to this Shakti in a permanent and happy

union. The divine is a couple analogous to the human couple, and inversely, the

man or the woman can approach him only by attempting to reproduce in themselves

the original couple.... The formula is to be taken literally. This signifies,

among other things, that sexual union between man and woman can even be one of

the means employed in order to reproduce in oneself this permanent union

consubstantial to the divine" (Biardeau, L'hindouisme, p. 163 and n. 1). In the

Tantric context, it is rather Shiva-Shakti who represent the ultimate form of

the Absolute; and even within the bi-unity of the divine couple, the dynamic

Shakti may be elevated above the prostrate corpse of the passive Shiva.

Despite this glaring contrast between the concrete roles

of the woman in the classical brahmanical sacrifice and the later Tantric kula-yâga,

what is truly striking is the facility with which the sexual symbolism of the

former has lent itself to literal application by the Tantric adept. "The

union is a ceremony, comprising many preliminary purifications, symbolical

homologizations, and prayers—just as in the performance of the Vedic ritual.

The woman is first transfigured; she becomes the consecrated place where the

sacrifice is performed: 'Her lap is a sacrificial altar; her hairs, the

sacrificial grass; her skin, the soma-press. The two lips of the vulva are the

fire in the middle [of the vulva (Brhad-Âranyaka Upanisad, 6.4.3)]...

The identification of the sacrificial fire with the female sexual organ is

confirmed by the magical charm cast on the wife's lover: 'You have made a

libation in my fire,' etc. [ibid., 6.4.12)."21

The Vedic altar (vedi) in which the sacrificial fire is kindled is

assimilated to the vulva, and the sacrificial post (yûpa) on its

edge—half within and half without—is likewise not without phallic notations, so

much so that one would be justified in following Biardeau in seeing in the

later aniconic form of Shiva as the linga-in-the-yoni no more

than a subsequent transposition of the Vedic motifs.22

Moreover, the 'female' ring (casâla), fitted around the 'male' knob at

the summit of the yûpa at the time of its erection, strangely recalls

the sexual union at the brahmarandhra or dvâdaçânta; for it is

only the length of the yûpa till the casâla that is measured to

the height of the sacrificer. Preceded by its theriomorph, the horse, and

followed by the sacrificer, the brand from the 'householder' (gârhapatya)

fire is carried first knee (jânu symbolizing the 'genitals') high, then

navel high and finally at the level of the face in the procession to light the

'invocatory' (âhavanîya) fire. Even the tripling of the altars thus

recalls the different but correlated meanings of the 'mouth of the yoginî'

in the kula-yâga. This raises the question as to whether the Tantric

re-working is a willful misreading of the Vedic paradigms in favor of a

pre-conceived ideology or rather the systematic exegesis of a hidden dimension

already latent in the original sacrifice. We may even go on to explore the

extent to which the Vedic structures may in turn shed light on certain aspects

of sexual union that remain obscure in the exegesis of the Tantrics themselves,

an exegesis which is on the whole focused on a metaphysical understanding of

the unity thereby achieved.

In fact, the archaic strata of Vedic ritual must have

given more explicit and pronounced expression to sexual (and violent) elements,

vestiges of which still remain even after its reorganization into its purified

classical form. Thus in the Mahâvrata, for example, there was an

obligatory and public ritual copulation between a brahmin student and a

prostitute. In the imperial Açvamedha, the chief queen was supposed to copulate

under a tent with the (dead) sacrificial horse which represented the royal

sacrificer himself in a symbolically 'incestuous' context. Surprisingly, one of

the central and most persistent mythological motifs built into the Vedic

sacrifice is that of incest, which characterized Prajâpati as the mythical

sacrificer, as the victim offered in his place and also as the sacrifice

itself. Already at a very early period, there had been sacrifices like the

Gosava, where it was obligatory for the sacrificer to subsequently commit

various forms of incest in order to fulfill his vows. The mythical incest of

Prajâpati however seems to function at a primarily symbolic level, and is

connected rather with the inner state of the sacrificer who, on being

consecrated (dîkshita), regressed into an impure, deathly, pre-natal

condition. The underlying idea is that the sacrificer is in some way being

reborn from the womb of his own wife, which also accounts for her indispensable

ritual presence in the classical sacrifice, where they form an indissociable

couple. Nevertheless, Prajâpati characteristically mates not with his mother

but with his virgin daughter, a crime which is inherited by his successor, the

Brahmâ of the Purânas, and which is also the pretext for the latter's

(sacrificial) beheading by Bhairava. This 'irrational' identification of the

mother and the virgin within a transgressive context is a constant in the later

Hindu universe, and suggests that it is not so much any concrete sexual

union—incestuous or otherwise—but rather the symbolic reality and the inwardly

lived experience encoded in it, that is the prime focus of the ritual.

The relation between sexual union as conceived in the

paradigmatic but outmoded public drama of the brahmanical sacrifice and the

wholly internalized and transgressive kula-yâga may be clarified by

recognizing the manner in which their respective meanings overlap in the mythico-ritual

structures that determine the regular worship of the ordinary Hindu. Though the

devotee acknowledges the ultimate desirability of liberation, which is actively

sought for by the Tantric adept, his immediate intent is nevertheless still the

assurance of his worldly welfare in the Vedic sense. The pilgrimage to the

chaste, vegetarian goddess Vaishno Devî in north-western India is undertaken as

a pious vow normally presupposing the purity of the pilgrims, who arduously

ascend the mountain in order to offer her coconuts and other materials of

worship at her cave-shrine at the summit. Yet the founding-myth which

structures its successive stations and its actual content is based on the

attempt of Bhairava to rape the virgin Goddess when she refused him the meat

and wine he had demanded of her during an 'adoration of the virgin' (kumârî-pûjâ).

At the end of his pursuit, she emerged from her cave to punish him with

decapitation before according the repentant demon-devotee the privilege of

being worshipped immediately after her by the pilgrims. The pious devotee, who

has no deliberate intention of following Bhairava's example, nevertheless

retraces the entire itinerary, which includes penetrating into her womb-cave

mid-way up the mountain, before symbolically offering up his own head in the

form of the coconut wrapped in blood-red cloth. Despite his subordinated role,

Bhairava functions as a sort of divine consort to the Goddess, and the

pilgrim's symbolic violation of her womb is charged with all the transgressive

notations of the kula-yâga. The Goddess reveals herself in the

paradoxical figure of the Virgin-Mother and the devotee's violation of the

virgin is at the same time an initiatic death and a return to the maternal

womb. After all, the kumârî-pûjâ and the kula-yâga are

ritual elaborations of complementary roles accorded to the feminine within the

Tantric ideology, and the purity of the virgin and the breaking of the

incest-barrier are but the two extreme poles of a single dialectic of

transgression. In the final analysis, the blood-thirsty Goddess and her victim

Bhairava constitute a single symbolic entity, for it was Vaishno-Devî herself

who first hid in the cave like an embryo in her own womb. Despite variations

due to doctrinal context, social milieu and regional history, it could be shown

that this paradigm of the pre-classical brahmanical sacrifice has still a

pan-Indian application, especially at the symbolic level.23

The traditional insistence that Abhinavagupta ended his terrestrial life by

disappearing into the cave of Bhairava would suggest that the above scenario is

relevant to a fuller understanding of what it really means to be 'born of the yoginî.'

The wearing of (generally red) female attire by the male partner in order to

reinforce his identity with the Goddess, also reflects in its own way the

androgynous fusion of the embryo with the maternal-womb. From this symbolic

perspective, the kula-yâga would remain 'incestuous' even if implemented

in a mitigated form with the wife assuming the role of dûtî. Even the

function of 'fertility' generally attributed to (the role of sexual elements

and sexual symbolism in) the sacrificial rituals of archaic cultures may well

reveal itself to be ultimately the exteriorization of the inner rebirth and

rejuvenation obtained through such esoteric techniques.

The Vedic roots of the kula-yâga are to be found in

the birth of the brahmán priests Vasishtha and Agastya from the common seed of

the dual divinity Mitra-Varuna which was shed into a pot, so much so that one

of their frequent appellations is 'born from a pot' (kumbha-yoni). In

the later mythology, the spirit of Vasishtha enters into the body shared by

Mitra-Varuna, and then into the body of the celestial courtesan, Urvashî, as

well, when this dual divinity unites with her on the sea-shore. Later Mitra and

Varuna split into separate bodies, and whereas Mitra unites with the consenting

nymph, Varuna looks on lustfully and simultaneously sheds his seed into a pot.

The seed of Mitra, oozing out from Urvashî's womb onto the earth, is mixed with

Varuna's seed already in the pot, and it is from the common seed in the

'surrogate' womb that Vasishtha and his twin, Agastya, are born. Already in the

obscure Rig-Vedic hymn, both Vasishtha and Agastya are said to emerge from the

pot as the sons of Mitra-Varuna (maitrâvaruni). This doubling of the

womb by the pot makes sense if Mitra corresponds to the 'emergent' (udita)

aspect of the emission, which is common to the male-female couple, and Varuna

corresponds to the 'quiescent' emission into the inner (pot-) womb (of

consciousness) related to the base of the spine. The mixing of the seed would

then express the idea that Agastya and Vasishtha—who duplicate the polarization

of the twin divinity—were born from that union of both emissions which later

characterizes the kula-yâga. Vasishtha's penetration into the body of

Urvashî during the coupling further suggests that Varuna, who is himself

represented by the pot and whose element is the (subterranean) waters,

constitutes the feminine dimension of the twin divinity. Vasishtha in

fact embodies the ideal of the Vedic priest and his lineage was most sought

after for the role of royal chaplain (purohita) even in later India. The

duality of Mitra-Varuna is inherent in the later divinity, Brahmâ, the latter

being—like the closely related god, Brhaspati—no more than the mythical

projection of the brahmán

officiant and purohita. The androgynous dimension of the brahmán,

already present in the Rig-Vedic material, finds expression later in the female

aspect and even maternity of Brahmâ (Shulman, op. cit., pp. 294-316), which is

retained especially in the pot-belly of the elephant-headed god Ganesha whom

the Hindus traditionally identify with Brhaspati. The Vedic sacrificer,

whatever be his caste, was reborn, after his consecration (dîkshâ), as a

brahman

from the womb of the brahmán

officiant, and the guru is likewise said to bear his disciple in the womb

during the process of initiation. The purohitas are credited with a

significant role in the formulation of the emerging Tantric systems and Kaula

lore brings Vasishtha specifically into relation with orgiastic sexual

practices which he is supposed to have "discovered" in Buddhist

Tibet. The Vedic antecedents hence likewise suggest that the eugenics of the yoginîbhû is ultimately the

transposition of an inner embryogony of taking the place of the Mother

(-Goddess) in order to give birth to oneself.24

Bhairava-Consciousness

and the all-devouring Fire

Though this requires a separate

study that would provisionally bracket aside the specific philosophical

doctrines and the theistic context in which the kula-yâga

is inscribed and the specific social and ritual context in which the Vedic

sacrifice was earlier practiced, a privileged key in establishing this continuity

would be Fire (agni) both in its domesticated and in its terrible form. Fire

is universally used as a metaphor for the sexual appetite (kâmâgni) insofar as it 'burns' and 'consumes' and through the

intensity of its light it also serves as a metaphor for (degrees of)

Consciousness. The metaphor of 'friction' (sanghatta)

between the solar and the lunar breaths to kindle consciousness in the form of

the knowing subject (pramâtâ), is itself

directly borrowed from the churning of fire from the 'sexual union' of two

pieces (aranî) of wood, male and female, in the brahmanical ritual

(Biardeau, Histoires de poteaux, pp. 50-62). The

'incestuous' character of this union is best underlined by the ritual

stipulation that the male rod should be made of an açvattha tree which

was growing out of a çamî tree, from which the hollow female part should

be made. The açvattha is called 'born from the çamî' (çamî-garbha)

not only because the latter is its 'mother' but also because, through a play on

the root 'çam-', it is 'appeased in the womb' or has 'a pacified womb' (çânta-yoni).

This would correspond to the 'tranquil' (çamî) and 'emergent' (açvattha)

poles of the Fire of Consciousness during the Kaula experience of sexual union.

Yet, both açvattha and çamî are considered forms of fire, so much

so that the child devours the parents at birth only because the parents

themselves are born of Fire. The frequent option of having both male and female

parts made from açvattha (-born-of-the-çamî) alone, would

suggest, firstly, that the maternal 'incest' is primarily symbolic and, more

importantly, that the male and the female again form a couple of twins (yâmala). The difficulty of deciding unilaterally in favor of a

single option for the female aranî would again suggest that through

sexual union the partners (açvattha), particularly the male, are in fact

being reborn from the womb of Fire (çamî). 'To pacify' (çam-) is,

moreover, a euphemism for 'to kill' (as in çâmitr, the Vedic

executioner), and all these ideas come together in the later Hindu

representations of the divinized male victim, the 'Buffalo-King' Potu Râju, by

a (hence androgynous) pole made of çamî wood beneath a pippal (açvattha)

tree located at the center of the South Indian village.

It is the staff of the first Agnihotrin, planted at the

confluence of two rivers, that sprouted to become the Varuna-tree now within

the compound of the temple to Agni at Patan. And from its wood is sculpted the

Mitra-Varuna emerging from a pot, like the purohita Vasishtha, in order to incarnate the

priest himself. Popularly represented by a pot (-womb), even at the confluence

of three rivers, (Tikka) Bhairava (at the southern limit of the Katmandu

valley) is also the terrible fire that devours the dualism of the vital breaths

to ascend through the spinal column (sushumnâ).

Already during the Licchavi period, which saw the efflorescence of Vedic

ideology in tribal Nepal, the enlightened king Amçuvarman offered human flesh

into the fire for Bhairava. It is thus by prolonging the embryonic dimension of

Varuna through a properly tantric modality, that this Agnihotra installed by

the king Shivadeva, himself assimilated to a Bhairava of Assam, has been able

to integrate this supreme god of the Kâpâlika adepts of the Soma doctrine (somasiddhânta).

In the final analysis, the ease with which the image of the brahmanical

sacrificer merges with that of the tantric adept, obliges us to ask whether

Vedic religion was not founded from the beginning on such esoteric practices

aiming at the expansion of the fire of consciousness. Abhinava repeatedly

internalizes the Vedic 'fire-sacrifice' (agnihotra) as the external paradigm for the

techniques of maintaining an intensified Consciousness such as those employed

in the kula-yâga (Silburn, Kundalinî, p.

88, 143-4). The brahmin householder had to offer oblations of 'semen' in the

form of milk and clarified butter into the sacrificial fire (âhavanîya)

mornings and evenings to nourish the gods. The (solar) fire, internalized

through the breaths, is an embryo to be nurtured so that at death it consumes

the body of the sacrificer only in order to in turn give him (re-) birth into

immortal life. In Chândogya Upanishad V.19-24, the Agnihotra is further

internalized into an offering to the Self as the universal Fire (vaiçvânara).

In the transgressive context of the kula-yâga, this universalization

assumes the form of the all-devouring Bhairava-consciousness to which Abhinava

attributes his highest spiritual realization. "Once it has been

sufficiently kindled, Fire, instead of being snuffed out, purifies in the very

process of consuming whatever impurities it comes into contact with. Whereas

only pure offerings are made in the brahmanical sacrificial fire, the Trika

technique of hathapâkavidûshaka [clown of the classical Indian

theater], this totalization is symbolized by his gluttonous, all-devouring

appetite, the dramatic transposition of the mythical Fire that in the Purânic

cosmogonies destroys the world at the end of each cycle and whose imagery has

been borrowed in the above technique. His rounded sweet-meats (modaka) likewise

represent the Vedic soma-amrta (ambrosia), which would seem

to ultimately refer to the supremely blissful state—often induced by sexual

techniques—of Consciousness, which moreover is believed in the Trika to have a

rejuvenating influence on the psycho-physical system as a side-effect."25

In the Mahâbhârata, the god Agni indeed assumes the form of a gluttonous

brahmin to consume the Khândava (= "sweet-meat") forest in the

context of Arjuna-and-Krishna's dalliance with the innumerable women of the

harem. Lévi-Strauss has moreover demonstrated that, in Amerindian mythology,

the all-devouring forest-fire, often ignited through the friction of two

fire-sticks, is symbolically equated to incest. The (secret of) fire was

originally hidden in an old woman's vagina symbolically equated with the

"big mouth" of her swallow which must be provoked to laughter before

the fire can be stolen by the Indians; the furnace which demands human

sacrifices is itself symbolically identified with the womb.26

'cooking, burning or digesting (the world) by force' aims at offering the

entire objective universe into the blazing gastric Fire of one's own

Bhairava-Consciousness so that it is transformed into undifferentiated ambrosia

to be relished till satiation. In the

The total immersion in the expansive sexual joy of the kula-yâga is used as a vehicle for the

universalization of Consciousness, and it is the symbolism of Fire that permits

the merging of these two levels of experience. If the Vedic motifs and patterns

lend themselves so easily to their subsequent Tantric exploitation to

communicate an inner lived experience, it is not at all unreasonable to suppose

that the brahmanical sacrifice—though elaborated to satisfy other, primarily

socio-cosmic, concerns—was from the beginning rooted in such an experience. In

such a context, unity would have referred not so much to the abolition of all

difference between the sacrificer and a personal god or a metaphysical

Absolute, but rather to the totalization of the sacrificer's self or 'vital

breath' (âtman)

through a realization of its symbolic correspondences with a mythico-ritual

universe. A systematic analysis of the content, structure and organization of

these enigmatic correspondences could well reveal this universe to be already

the coded projection and hypostatization (brahman) of a unified state of consciousness

proper to the Vedic 'shaman' (rshi). This is indeed implied in

Abhinavagupta's 'etymology' (TA 29.164-6) of the 'primordial' sacrifice (âdi-yâga) as not

only conferring the 'essence' of the sacrifice but as constituting the

'original' (âdi)

sacrifice. The original meaning of brahman, now identified with kula, was

(ritual) enigma and resolving the enigma was universally equated with

committing an incest. Of course, Tantric and Vedic ritual are worlds apart, but

Abhinava insists (TA 29.5-9) that the kula-yâga does not require the outer paraphernalia like the sacrificial

circle (mandala),

fire-pit (kunda),

purificatory gestures (nyâsa),

baths, etc., though one may opt to include them at will. In fact, the

sacrifice may resort to six different supports: 1) the external world, 2) a

woman (shakti)

3) the body, 4) union between a couple (yâmala), 5) the flow of breath (in the median

channel) and finally 6) thought itself. According to Abhinavagupta, (the

essence of) the kula-yâga

belongs to the adept freed from all doubts, who sees the whole universe as Kula

(TA 29.5-6), that is, as constituted of the union of Shiva and Shakti (Jayaratha's

commentary), just as the Vedic ritual saw the whole (sacrificial) universe in

terms of the mithuna

of pairs of objects. The kula-yâga

is whatever the Tantric 'hero' does—mentally, verbally and physically—in order

to establish himself permanently in such a mode of Consciousness, for this

sacrifice is ultimately nothing but "knowledge and the knowable."

Transgressive sexual union may have been the indispensable external setting

wherein all the above modes and faculties were once effectively integrated, but

the ultimate realization of Unity procured by the original sacrifice could just

as well become the normal condition of humanity with no other material supports

than the body and consciousness itself.