Yoga, Tantra , Bhakti,Karma and ShaktiPata - 1

[Guest guest]

Dear Group,

I was trying to express what i realize as of now by doing sadhana, the ideas were blurred and i was not able to give them a shape, luckily today i saw this interview of one desciple of Pt. Gopinath Kaviraaj Mahamahopadhya, He expressed it very neetly. The Yoga, Sankhya, Adviata, Tantra all says same thing but the Gurus if not enlightened properly distinguishes them ... This should be vanished, Q1 to 5 and Q 10 is very interesting to read , Regards - Lalit.

Q1. The ultimate goal of Shaiva Tantra is Self-recognition, or to realize that "I am Shiva." The ultimate goal of Yoga is kaivalya-isolation. Is that different? Do adherents of different philosophical schools have different goals and end up with different realizations? There is a level to which all these systems go. For instance, the practitioner of Vedanta is interested in realizing his Brahman nature. As soon as he realizes that, the world disappears. That is one idea. The Samkhyan is interested in kaivalya. He wants separation of purusa from prakrti. The Yogi also tries for that. And they get it. But here it is different. In Shaivism it is integration. You want to divinize the entire creation. You want to experience it as if it is your own glory, your own projection. The ideal here is a broader one. Q2.Is the actual experience of a fully accomplished Yogi so different from what a Shaivite practitioner experiences? Sometimes it is different. It all depends on what you want. Let me illustrate with an example. There is a term, moksha (liberation), or mukti (freedom), which is used repeatedly in all the systems. But there is another ideal: "amritatva" (literally, "that is the nectar," which refers to the nectar of immortality). The Upanishads say amritatva is the ultimate goal of life. The Upanishads use this word 52 times, but use the word moksha only twice. Why? Are the two ideals, moksha and amritatva, the same or different? What I feel is that they are not the same. Moksha is based on negation. You want to negate what is unreal (maya-or the world as we normally perceive it) and live in the real (Brahman, or the Self). That is the goal of Vedanta philosophy. But in striving for amritatva, you want extension of yourself. You want to enjoy the bliss underlying the creation. Everything should appear to you as if it is of the nature of Brahman. There is a famous mantra occurring in the Rig Veda, which loosely translated means, "The air, the breeze which is blowing, is giving bliss. The water is oozing bliss. The entire universe is full of bliss." I consider this to be a superior idea. You want to divinize the entire creation, to taste its bliss nature. You want to integrate it. That is what Shaivites want. I feel that this idea of amritatva is far more comprehensive and more significant than becoming Brahman and losing one's identity. Q3. M. P. Pandit and others say that Shankaracharya (founder of nondualistic Vedanta) later in his career turned more toward Tantra and that, in fact, the ritual in the maths (monastaries) is Tantric. Saundaryalahari, a Tantric text in the school of Shaktism, is attributed to Shankaracharya. Do you agree? Shankara's main purpose was to remove the influence of Buddhism and Mimamsa, his two rival philosophies. For that he took to dialectics-tarka. He had a double approach: one for the samnyasins (renunciates who had left the world) and one for householders. He had two kinds of disciples also. And for the householders, he had a different thing to say, which is seen in his Dakshinamurti Strotra, which is nothing but Shaivism, and his Saundaryalahari, which is based on a Tantric outlook. So I fully believe that in practice he was a follower of Tantra. But in preaching to samnyasins-because his main purpose was to interpret the import of the Veda, which people had forgotten-Shankara taught Vedanta, the essence of the Upanishads. Q4. One of the central ideas in Shaivism is the concept of spanda-"the doctrine of vibration"-which holds that the universe is born out of primordial vibration. Can you define spanda and how it is related to mantra science, which also seems to figure prominently in Tantric schools? It is difficult to explain this concept briefly, but it can be said that divine Shakti, an integral aspect of Shiva, functions ceaselessly to reveal the divine glory of the Lord, both as transcendent being and also simultaneously as the cosmos. The incessant activity of Shakti (consciousness made manifest) is called spanda-vibration or pulsation, or it is sometimes called urmi, which means web. Physicists tell us that several particles like electrons, protons, neutrons, etc., moving round the nucleus in an atom cause vibration or pulsation. The atom has infinite energy locked up inside it, which keeps on dancing within. In the same way, pure consciousness (Shiva) has Shakti ever-vibrating in its bosom. The dance of Shakti occurs during creative involution, when that energy is thrown out and creates the cosmos. The Yogis experience spanda as waves of bliss, a rasa (juice), oozing from the core of Shiva. Mantra is ultimately related to this idea. Actually, divine, vital energy is encased in mantra, which is not just an aggregate of phonemes. Mantra is a seed that contains the totality of divine Shakti. When the guru gives a mantra to a disciple, he awakens that latent potency, which may actually be experienced by the disciple during initiation. It is like a seed planted in the disciple's udhara (mind-body organism) which, if carefully nurtured, develops into a full-fledged tree of spiritual realization. Q5. Here's a quote from Mark Dyczkowski's The Docrtine of Vibration: "The closer we come to experiencing the moment in which the impulse to action arises, the more directly we come into contact with the concrete actuality of the present and the authenticity of our being." Could you elaborate on that? Actually, he's speaking of kshana. There are two opposing forces. If you explain it in terms of pranayama, there are two pranas-prana and apana (upward and downward moving energies in the subtle body). When prana and apana are equalized, then sushumna (the central "nerve" channel in the pranic body) opens up. That moment. If you can catch that moment, you can experience infinity. That is what it means. That's also in the Yoga Sutra. It's called nitya-vartamana-the eternal present. It is in Christianity also, this eternal present. In Sanskrit it is called kshana. This is the same as kundalini awakening. Q6.Why is shaktipata given so much emphasis in Tantra? Shaktipata is the turning point in the spiritual life of an aspirant. Without it there is no ascent, no going over to the other side of maya. It is a divine dispensation. It may come anytime, to anyone. It may come with your knowing it; it might come without your being aware of it. Though other schools of spiritual thought do not explicitly say so, they too admit the necessity of approaching a spiritual master for initiation in a particular path of sadhana. Q7.Is shaktipata transmitted when you receive any kind of initiation, even though you may not be aware of it? Yes. If you go to a guru, he may touch you, he may not touch you, or he may just see you. You can sometimes get mantra initiation even in a dream. In Varanasi (Benaras), we used to go to Hari Har Baba. People used to approach him freely, but he would never speak a single word. He would never look at you. But there were people who received a mantra from him. Q8. You've explained in your book that when a guru gives shaktipata, he or she doesn't vary it according to the aspirant. The intensity of this "descent of divine grace" is actually determined by the sadhaka-according to that person's ability to receive it or absorb it. Can you elaborate on that? Actually, shaktipata descends uniformly on all people. It is always coming; it's a continuing process. It's not received by people with the same intensity because of their incapacity to hold it. Now if I have the capacity to hold very intense shaktipata, I can get it. If I don't have that, I will only get a little. Shaktipata is always available, because Shiva is supposed to perform his five kriyas (functions) eternally, and dispensing grace (anugraha) is one of these functions. So shaktipata is eternal, looking at it from His point of view. From our point of view, we are not aware of it, because we have not prepared ourselves to receive it. But unless we receive shaktipata, we cannot begin our spiritual journey. That is said again and again in the texts. Q9. You've said that shaktipata can sometimes be received directly from God, without the intervention of a guru. In what instances might that happen? It's rare. Such shaktipata is the utkrishta-tivra (extremely intense) variety. The moment you get it, you lose the body. Q10.After receiving shaktipata, what's the responsibility of the guru, and what of the student? The guru takes entire charge of the disciple. He will continue to help and guide him. Dr. Kaviraj told me how he had received initiation from Swami Vishuddhananda. Dr. Kaviraj was very particular about doing his practices at certain times. He always did one practice at dusk. But one day he got busy talking to somebody-teaching somebody-and he forgot that it was time for worship. His wife came to remind him and saw he was engaged. Then she went to the room where he did his practice to light the lamp. But she found somebody sitting there! She shrieked, and then that somebody-a white looking figure-dis-appeared. He went through the window. Kavirajji rushed into the room and asked her what happened. She said, "I saw somebody there who looked like Swami Vishuddhananda." Immediately, Kavirajji realized that his guru had come to do his duty! When he related this incident, he explained to me that the guru always does that, if he's a true guru. So what's the disciple's duty? To obey the guru and do what he is told to do.

Q11 Wouldn't the recipient have to be somebody who has already done a lot of intense practice, someone who's already quite purified? It may be because of that, you never know. Changes can be going on inside of you that you are not aware of. Even if you have not done sadhana previously, it may still manifest suddenly. You may not have done anything in this life. There are many instances like that. Anandamayi Ma didn't go to any guru. It developed from within. In the beginning, people thought that she must be mad-God-intoxicated, some people thought. Q12. But Anandamayi Ma didn't leave her body . . . It was not extremely intense. In such cases, the person won't leave the body. One will continue, because one has a purpose. Actually, God wanted her to live, so that she could give the message to suffering humanity.

Q13. Is it possible for a guru to make a mistake with shaktipata-to give it where it shouldn't be given? Then he's not a guru, because unless he's commanded by Lord Shiva, how can he give shaktipata? It is the Supreme Will that works through the guru. The guru is only the agent. He cannot say on his own, "I'm going to give it to you." There are cases when people go for shaktipata, and the guru says "No, I'm not the right person to give you shaktipata, you have to go to some other place." I know of someone who went to Anandamayi Ma. She said, "I cannot give you anything, you have to go to another." And there he received it. Q14.In your book you speak of the three malas-bodies or coverings-that have to be destroyed in order to achieve liberation. Can you elaborate on that in light of the theory of karma and reincarnation? The first body arises out of Shiva's putting limitation on Himself. He is Shiva and He wants to be jiva (consciousness embodied as a human being). He wants to be pashu (a fettered being). And in order to be pashu, He has to negate His divine, absolute nature. He does that freely. He imposes limitation on Himself. When Shiva becomes pashu, He has no body. Then He comes under the influence of maya and the five kanchukas (limitations). They also enwrap Him and limit Shiva's powers of omniscience, omnipresence, and so forth. He then takes monadic form and is oblivious to His divine nature. Then comes karmamala, the third covering. The residual impressions of karma done by all jivas constitute this covering. These impressions lie in one place. They stick to the spiritual monads (chidanus), compelling them to assume gross physical bodies.