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Tantra: The Method Of Kindling Dormant Energies
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The Image Of Tantra In Common Man's Mind
Tantra - a unique spiritual system capable of resolving the
mystery of Being and its relationship with the world without
itself being mysterious, caught in the cobwebs of misconceptions,
misled beliefs, clergies' disapprovals, moralists' censure,
ethical concerns, quakes' and sorcerers' misuses and abuses,
opposition of the 'authorized - theology, philosophy ., and above
all, the centuries long antipathy of Islamic and Christian
rulers, has been the subject of neglect, indifference and even
aversion for quite some time now. The term 'Tantra', often seen
personified in the person practicing it, the 'tantrika', brings
to mind's eye the image of a man with a rugged, coarse,
hoary-looking, bearded and wrinkled face, eyes deeply pushed into
their sockets, and locks of rough uncouth muddy long hair hung
around shoulders. Wearing a long loosely hung black cloak and
strings of multi-colored, multi-shaped and multi-sized beads,
stones and amulets, with a bundle of peacock feathers in his
hands, he is fantasized as seated against a smoky hearth in a
dark murky odorous cell in the suburb of a tribal or backward
hamlet, engaged in practices considered to relate to ghosts, evil
spirits or other forms of witch-craft and black arts. To
so-conditioned a mind, Tantra is a system comprising incredible,
primitive, unscientific beliefs, which by inciting blind faith
exploits undeveloped or under-developed masses.
India's Earliest Spiritual System
Quite strangely, and unbelievably, Tantra, which emerges with
such image in common man's mind now, is India's earliest, or at
the most, one of the two earliest spiritual systems, the other
being Vedanta. Being more simple and natural, seeking sublimation
of what one is born with, not its negation - the modus of the
Vedanta, Tantra dominated India's spiritual and ritual scene for
centuries with all principal theologies - Buddhism, Jainism, and
even Vedanta's offshoot Brahmanism and its components Shaivism,
Shaktism and Vaishnavism, practicing it as a scientific,
technical and spiritual method leading to attainment of
self-awareness, and thereby, ultimate knowledge and liberation.
Perhaps a pre-Vedic ritual cult practised by Harappan settlers
and thus one of the world's earliest spiritual cultures, the
Tantra occupied India's intellectual domain ever since.
Significantly, the number of Tantra-related texts, which began
pouring in from early centuries of the Christian era and
continued till late eighteenth century, is greater than that of
the texts related to any other system of thought, though
unfortunately most of them, usually manuscribed as secret
documents for individuals, survive now only as allusions
occurring in other texts.
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As Wide-Spread The Cult So Wide-Spread Its Censure
Not how the common mind takes, or mistakes it, Tantra has been on
censor's list almost always, or at least after the Vedic
asceticism gained prominence, sometimes for psycho-metaphysical
reasons and sometimes on grounds of morality. Human mind
naturally inclines to obtain what it does not have, seek
knowledge of things 'not known'. This mind disapproves Tantra for
the Tantra takes off with the real, instinctive, inborn, inherent
in nature, that is, 'what is', or 'that which is the best known -
the body, nature, desires or whatever. What to Tantra is its
basic source to sublimate is to this reasoning mind base and
common not worth striving or. Apart, the common notion is that
the key to transcendence is in the negation of oneself. One has
to negate, relinquish himself to become what he is not; he has to
give up what he has to obtain what he does not have. He venerates
asceticism, or whatever, because asceticism is above him. He
believes that asceticism is close to the 'achievable'. To reach
the 'achievable', he is required to acquire first this
'in-between' asceticism which is not in him. Asceticism condemns
him as a gross common reality - a thing of flesh and bundle of
frailties, shows his littleness and commands him to disbelieve
himself. Mesmerized he accepts this denunciation of himself more
so because he disbelieves himself, because he admits his
littleness, because he is too humble to accept his potentials,
his ability to sublimate. Grown in a climate of
pseudo-religiosity with taboos, prohibitions, all sorts of
suppressions, fears. the dilemma of this common mind is that it
lives in desires but detests them; it fears emotions, though in
them he finds his strength and source of reequipping his energies
and releasing tensions; it lives in sex, is born of it,
celebrates it, promotes life through it, but fears it. It fears
sex, and hence, it fears Tantra because Tantra venerates sex.
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Scope of Tantra
Tantra, a spiritual cult in practice for over five thousand years
now, is least a philosophy, and hardly a dogma or body of
doctrines. It does not claim to uphold any standards of morality,
though it is also not immoral. Neither moral nor immoral, Tantra
is beyond the 'moral'. The Western theory of 'sin', which
overwhelmed entire Indian theology after its contact with the
Western world, has never been the domain of Tantra. It does not
deal also with models, social or individual. Not 'what should
be', the primary concern of Tantra is 'what is', a sincere and
honest acceptance of oneself and the world around - 'the Truth of
the Being'. It is rather a spiritual science that examines
experiences of 'Self' with the material world and explores man's
inherent energies, spiritual and physical, methods to expand
them, and his place and relevance in the cosmos - 'the ultimate
ground of Being'.
The Tantra does not subject itself to intellectual problems or
metaphysical enquiries as do Vedanta and other early traditions
of thought, in the subcontinent and beyond, perceiving the
'Being' and the world as 'maya' - illusion, unreal, mere shadow
of the 'Real', or as things removed from their original identity.
Questions as to 'why' or 'whence' are not the areas of tantrika
deliberations. On the contrary, the Tantra accepts all actions as
they are, transmuting them into inner awareness, and further into
a creative evolution, all desires, into the vehicle of
transcendence, and all energies, into the ultimate means of
liberation. Tantra, by believing in the principle enunciated in
the Vishvasara Tantra - 'What is here is everywhere; what is not
here, is nowhere' (Yadhihastitadanyatra yannehasti na
tatkvachit), aims at realizing 'the known', and dismisses efforts
of running after 'the unknown'. Thus, Tantra is the technique of
harvesting inherent energies of body and mind by their
acceptance. It is a process of elevating what one is born with.
It identifies the 'Being' in the Being itself, not in its
negation or non-acceptance, but rather in its fuller acceptance.
Tantra : A Kind Of Body Rituals
On practical side Tantra is a kind of body rituals consisting of
action, method and technique leading to the attainment of
liberation. Tantra takes a path different and sometimes
diagonally opposite to that which the Vedanta or asceticism
takes. For going beyond oneself and the world, Tantra does not
require the 'sadhaka' - seeker, to fight and eliminate himself
and the world around as do Vedanta and asceticism; the tantrika
'sadhaka' goes beyond him through indulgence into himself and the
world, and deeper the indulgence more subtle and sooner his
liberation. Suppression is not the way of Tantra. On the
contrary, it harnesses the inherent, magnifies it and at times
even multiplies, though not without awareness which is the
essence of Tantra. It does not accept duality as asserts Vedanta.
Tantra asserts only 'as is', not 'as can be'. Hence, dissolution
or negation of 'what is' to become 'what can be' is not the
method of Tantra. Under Tantra, what seems to separate dissolves
of its own and emerges the 'Undivided Whole'. It is different
with the Vedanta. In the Vedanta, one is required to relinquish
'what one is'. Only then his 'new version' could emerge. Tantra
does not seek negation of natural self, body, instincts, desires,
or whatever, so that 'the new' is born. In the Vedanta and all
ascetic practices which it inspires, one is obliged to discover
the ultimate action in absolute inaction, one's new birth in
one's extinction, a life beyond this life, a Moksha, Liberation,
beyond this world. Such conflicting duality is not Tantra's lore.
Struggle, conflict, opposition to nature, negation of what one is
... are not the methods of Tantra. Tantra discovers 'the
Ultimate' in 'what one is'. In the Tantrika way, the 'Ultimate'
is the growth, to which the 'sadhaka' can subject himself. An
Israeli commonplace would well illustrate the point. Once a man
met a friend after some twenty-five years. After exchange of
courtesies he asked him about his eldest son Harry. His friend's
face glowed. He said that Harry was a poet of great eminence;
people hear him spell-bound; and, he is likely to be honored with
Nobel Prize any time in years to come. No less was his
satisfaction over his second son Benny who was a politician
likely to reach the Prime Minister's office in some years.
However, pain and discontentment shrouded his face the moment he
narrated the plight of his third and the last son Easy who was a
mere tailor with no such bright future as had his other two sons.
However, he admitted that family was getting its bread from
Easy's earnings and that out of some of his savings he had
expanded his business from a shop where he worked alone to a
factory where over a dozen persons earned their livelihood. Easy
is Tantra's theme. He is 'as he is', and from 'what he is' is all
his growth. He is a reality and as real is his growth. His
brothers are not living in the present and the future they are
dreaming of is beyond their reach and realization. Present is
Tantra's lore. A denial of present is a denial of all hopes of
growth, material or spiritual.
The World And The Liberation
As Tantra does not discard present, so it does not discard the
world. Its negation, or equating it to some kind of
transcendental nothing would only leave behind a vacuum, and the
very ground of the Being would be lost. Hence, Tantra, instead of
its negation, transforms it into the vehicle of liberation, or
rather perceives no gap between the two - the world and the
liberation. It is the transcendence, not death, which is needed,
and the Tantra perceives in the 'Being' that consists of great
mystery and many multi-dimensional energies the most potent
vehicle to take off for such transcendence. 'Now' and 'here', not
'then' or 'there', and all pains associated with 'now' and 'here'
that prick and keep the mind alert leading it to awareness, are
Tantra's guiding principles. Not withdrawal or rejection, total
or at least the fullest possible acceptance of oneself, one's all
energies, desires, feelings, and even weaknesses that one has as
a human being is in the Tantra the path to transcendence. Once
the Being moves with any of its energies, deep sensitivity and
love, coupled with awareness and understanding, each desire
becomes its vehicle to go beyond, each energy, a stepping stone,
body, a temple, and world, 'Nirvana' - final extinction. It is
that state of sublimation where one experiences God as his own
Self, as his own true being, as he is - the absolute state of
self awareness.
Man and Cosmos
Tantra perceives Creation as the 'Undivided Whole'. Not Tantra
alone, all streams - cosmological, metaphysical or philosophical,
claim that man shares with the cosmos all its five constituents -
earth, sky, fire, water and air. Thus, man is the
micro-miniaturized form of the cosmos. Summarily, the human body
is microcosmic sample of the universe and is thus its
representative form. Both Hinduism and Buddhism contend that the
entire drama that takes place in the universe is repeated in
human beings for the man and the universe are the same.
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They assert that the Void - Cosmic Consciousness and man's mind
are identical. As in Cosmic Consciousness so like a mirror in
man's Mind things spring up and also disappear. The Tantra
exploits this human body as its 'yantra' - instrument, which when
in absolute command of elements within helps command elements of
cosmos beyond, and thus, the cosmos. The Tantra asserts that the
human body comprises four aspects : 'nirvana', 'sambhogya',
'dharma' and 'sahaja', that is, illusory body, paradisal body,
body, and innate body, respectively. These four bodies correspond
to four planes of reality, namely, 'kaya' - physical, 'vak' -
verbal, 'chitta - spiritual, and 'jnana' - knowledge. These are
'chitta' and ' jnana' that help sublimate 'kaya' and 'vak' and
lead to the attainment of liberation. In some tantrika systems
human body is contemplated as consisting of five sheaths, namely,
'Annamaya' - the tangible physical body, 'Pranamaya' - the vital
air, (third and fourth) 'Manomaya' - the eternal element of joy
in man, and 'Anandamaya' - the bliss.
Basics Of Tantra : Shiva-Shakti : Nada-Bindu : Bliss, Procreation
Paradoxically, the term Tantra, used with absolute unanimity as a
singular noun, as if denoting a single doctrine or principle,
denotes a huge body of tantrika methods, hundreds in number, each
with a specified system and independent status, often designated
as an independent Tantra. Time has obscured many of them,
however, something like 108 Tantras still survive. As the
tradition has it, at the beginning of the 'Kalpa' - Age, Shiva
himself narrated to Parvati 108 methods of kindling inherent
energies through 'kundalini' - dormant coiled power. As
acclaimed, it was out of these 108 methods that the 108 Tantrika
systems, or Tantras, grew. It is said that once when meditating
on one of these methods Parvati's mind reached the axis of the
Great Void. She was amazed to see that a deity enshrined the axis
of the Great Void and the other moment she saw herself
transforming into that deity, and Shiva's blissful form bending
over her. His face glowed with the luster of creative energies.
He revealed that the 'One' in him desired to 'be many'. They
united in bliss and the Void exploded with energies, radiant and
colorful. The friction of 'Yoni' and 'Lingam' - female and male
organs, produced 'Nada' - the supersonic sound, first loud and
then low, and the Void echoed with it.
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Heat of passion that transpired initially turned it dark, loud
and inaudible, and out of it emerged 'tamas' - ignorance. Then
the divine will to create prevailed and now it was low and
audible, and out of it emerged 'sattva' - purity. After the
passion calmed and body's movement regulated, there emerged
'rajas' - activity. And, finally, emerged the 'cosmic seed', the
semen, that transformed into 'bindu' - dot, and out of it grew
all forms, time, to span these forms, and space, to accommodate
them, and thus the entire universe.
A myth, obviously a subsequent addition, it is nonetheless key to
Tantra's root and basic structure. Tantrika's stage is still the
same universe, carved out the Great Void, the axis of which
Shiva's consort Shakti enshrines, and where the act of
copulation - union of male and female principles which the
metaphysician perceives as the union of 'Prakriti' and
'Purusha' - matter and spirit, Tantrika, as of Shiva and Shakti,
and the devotee, as of 'Linga' and 'Yoni', is incessant.
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Shakti who enshrines universe's axis and is the source of joy and
creation is Tantra's presiding deity.
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It is, however, Shiva's bliss and desire to create that the act
of copulation and thereby explosion of energy and creation takes
place.
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Shakti substantiates Shiva's bliss, Tantra's principal objective;
hence, Tantrika resorts to Shiva for his procreative desire which
is the source of joy, but to Shakti for all other potentials,
even aspects of Shiva as Parabrahma - creation, preservation and
dissolution. The Tantrika perceives her as multi-aspected,
representing, besides female energy, abundance, multiplicity and
power to create and destroy. Except in Buddhist tradition, in
almost all schools of Tantra Shakti has a superior status. As
Shakti manifested in 'Yoni', the worship of 'Yoni' is the
foremost to the Tantrika.
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In Tantrika way the 'sadhaka', a product of Shiva's desire to
procreate and multiply, and hence, his microcosmic part, believes
to attain the same state of bliss and joy as the Proto- Shiva, if
he is able to magnify his mind and intellect with same enormity
as did Shiva-Shakti in the myth. He begins by copulating as his
first step. He believes that he is the cosmic male, his female
counterpart, the cosmic female, and in their ultimate
magnification, they are Shiva and Shakti; and, thus, their act of
copulation represents the divine union of Shiva and Shakti on
human level. He takes 'yoni' as the manifest form of Shakti, and
'linga', as Shiva's, and discovers in the union of the two his
means of attaining the ultimate bliss which revealed in the union
of Shiva and Shakti.
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While copulating, he commemorates the 'Mantra' to invoke the
deity - Shakti, to manifest in the 'yoni' and elevate his act to
the status of divine act. Manifest or unmanifest, commemoration
of 'mantra' is parallel to 'Nada'. Grabbed by heat of passion and
ignorance it explodes, loud and inaudible, and rends the cosmos.
After the passion quietens, self-awareness emerges and body-moves
are regulated, the sound of the 'Mantra' reduces to the audible
level. The universe is his stage which he realizes through
'yantra' - a mystic diagram, wherein it manifests. The diagram -
a 'Mandala', represents the universe, and through various motifs,
its other aspects - Shiva-Shakti union, emergence of 'seed',
multiplication of his procreative act . As his act of copulation
magnifies into the divine union of Shiva and Shakti, so the
mystic diagram begins revealing to him mysteries of cosmos -
elemental, psychic, spiritual. Now it is no more a thing outside
him. It is within him. He is one with the cosmos - an undivided
whole.
Kundalini
Kundalini, the tool of kindling inherent energies in the
Shiva-Shakti myth, is the essence of all Tantrika systems, and
even Yoga and Vedic asceticism. Kundalini has been contemplated
as dormant energy lying serpent-like coiled in the body. It is
multi-million times more potent than body's known energies,
something like the assertion of modern sciences that talk of
activating vast dormant areas of the brain which would release
incalculable neurological capacities of man. Hence, once
Kundalini is fully awakened the sadhaka's consciousness and
Cosmic Consciousness become one. Awakening of Kundalini is in the
form of its ascent from 'Muladhara' to 'Sahasrara-padma'.
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The body is perceived as comprising six 'chakras', the dynamic
Tattvik - elemental centers, namely, 'Muladhara', 'Svadhisthana',
'Mani-pura', 'Anahata', 'Vishuddha', and 'Ajna'. Over all them is
situated 'Sahasrara-padma' - the thousand-petalled lotus.
'Muladhara', an inverted triangular space situated in the midmost
portion of the body, is like a young girl's vagina in shape. It
is described as a red lotus with four petals representing four
forms of bliss : 'Yogananda' - Yoga bliss, 'Paramananda' -
supreme bliss, 'sahajananda' - natural bliss, and 'Virananda' -
heroic bliss. In the center of the lotus is 'Svayanbhu-Linga'. At
the base of the 'Linga' is the Brahma-dvara - divine door, where
the Devi Kundalini lies asleep. Here itself is the seat of
creative desire which, when awakened, pricks Kundalini to awake.
Thus, in Tantrika way with copulation begins the process of the
awakening of Kundalini. Just above 'Muladhara' and below the
navel is situated 'Svadhisthana', a six-petalled lotus. They
represent six qualities or states of being, namely, credulity,
suspicion, disdain, delusion or disinclination, false knowledge,
and pitilessness. Around the navel is situated 'Mani-pura', a
ten-petalled lotus representing ten virtues, namely, shame,
fickleness, jealousy, desire, laziness, sadness, dullness,
ignorance, aversion, and fear. During 'sadhana' or otherwise, the
human mind generally inclines to stay in these three 'chakras'.
In true sense it is when the mind enters the fourth 'Chakra' -
'Anahata' that the journey towards 'Sahasrara-padma' begins.
'Anahata', a lotus with twelve petals representing hope, concern,
endeavor, sense of mineness, arrogance, languor, conceit,
discrimination, covetousness, duplicity, indecision, and regret,
is situated in the region of heart. Its element is air and here
'jivatma' -self, appears like the flame of a lamp. Vishuddha
chakra and Ajna are situated at throat level and in between the
eye-brows respectively in the subtle body. In Vishuddha chakra
the sadhaka is in direct touch and contact of godly glory. The
'jivatma' sheds its colors and transcending beyond the material
existence dissolves in Parmatman. Here and in 'Ajna' it reaches
the state of 'samadhi', a state of complete transcendence.
Yantra and Mantra
'Yantra' and 'Mantra' are two instruments of transformation in
Tantra 'sadhana'.
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'Yantra', a term composed of two syllables 'yan' meaning 'to
regulate', and 'tra' meaning 'to protect', is broadly the means
by which the 'sadhaka' regulates his energies and also protects
them. 'Yantra' is usually a mystic psycho-cosmo-diagram, broadly
a 'Mandala'.
Illustration: exoticindia.com
A graphic design Mandala symbolizes the entire phenomenal world
of which universe - macrocosm, and man or 'sadhaka' - microcosm,
are the essential components. In its basic configuration a
'Mandala' is a circle which has universal protective
significance. A dot in the center forming its axis is the 'bindu'
which is the seed, symbolising the union of Shiva-Shakti,
emergence of seed and thereby the Creation. The dot represents
the deity enshrining the axis of the cosmos, which the 'Mandala'
represents. The circle around represents the dynamic
consciousness of the Creator. Of as great essence are the upright
and inverted triangles representing male and female principles.
In the multiplicity of upright and inverted triangles reveals
operative plurality of the creative process, which by
representing the Shiva-Shakti union reveals oneness of many. The
outlying squares represent the physical world bound in four
directions. In Buddhist Tantra, such square represents 'Sacred
Palace' which is also the 'Palace of Purity'. The 'yantra', when
meditated on it, becomes the tool of transformation, projection,
concentration and integration, and the sadhaka's consciousness
which finds expression in it, transcends beyond both - the
sadhaka and the instrument. In any case, the 'yantra', like the
deity-idol, when meditated on, leads the seeking mind to the axis
of the universe where the deity enshrines and then withdraws
leaving the 'sadhaka' to have a direct discourse with the deity.
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'Mantra' - sacred syllable, spell, or incantation, is divine
power clothed in sound. As clothes are inner, upper, and the
uppermost, Tantra identifies three kinds of sounds : 'Sphota' -
the transcendental, inaudible, defined as 'unstruck sound';
'Nada' - the supersonic sound; and, 'Dhwani' - the audible
sound. The 'Mantra' wears all three kinds of sounds, that is,
recited loud, or commemorated unspoken within, the 'Mantra'
charges with divine energy all sounds and thereby 'Vayu'- air,
the vehicle of sound. As 'Vayu' is life within and beyond, which
the 'Mantra' charges with divine energy, the 'sadhaka', by using
'Mantra' as his divine instrument, emerges as better-prepared for
the final attainment, that is, kindling of 'Kundalini Shakti'.
The term 'Mantra' is made of two syllables : 'Man' and 'Tra', the
former meaning 'mind' or 'speech', and the latter 'to guide' or
'to protect', that is, 'Mantra' guides and protects the mind and
speech. The 'Mantra' is an articulated word. A 'Mantra' may have
more words, but not occurring in grammatical sequence forming a
sentence. Each word is a 'Mantra' having esoteric properties,
sometimes being the atomized pith of a full doctrine, scripture,
or even a series of them.
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Without being communicable in terms of meaning, this 'word'
connects the 'sadhaka' with the Brahmanda', deity, or the object
meditated on. Usually 'Mantras' are divine names preceded by
'Bijaksharas', the letters which are indeclinable seed-sounds.
'AUM', the monosyllabic 'Bijamantra', which by its three sounds A
U M symbolizes God's three aspects - creation, preservation and
destruction, is the source of all 'Mantras'.
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Similarly, all 'Mantras' end with, or have intermittent
'Anushvaras', a phonetic sound transcribed as a 'dot' - 'bindu',
which is in Tantra the symbol of Shiva-Shakti, creative process,
seed, and the creation. Thus, every 'Mantra' constantly draws its
power from the Timeless Shiva and Shakti. Other monosyllabic
'bija-mantras' are 'hrim', 'shrim', 'krim', and 'klim'. 'Hrim' is
the 'bijamantra' of Bhuvaneshvari representing female energy;
'krim', of Kali representing the power to create and destroy;
'shrim', of Lakshmi, representing abundance and multiplicity;
and, 'klim', of procreative desire of Shiva as Kama representing
joy and bliss. 'Mantras' are sometimes classified as male, female
and neuter, the male ending with 'hum' or 'phat', female, with
'svaha', and neuter, with 'namah'.
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This article by Prof. P. C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet
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