Sidelights on the Tantra

SIDELIGHTS ON THE TANTRA

In this brief study we shall make an attempt to appreciate the basic principles that underlie the Agamas, generally called Tantra Shastra. We shall make a general reference to their relation to the Vedic and Vedantic schools of philosophic thought and spiritual discipline. We shall take note of the salient features and evaluate, in the light of Sri Aurobindo’s teachings, the part they have played in the past which has trickled down to the current times. When we look upon the past of India, upon the lines of her cultural history in its meandering course, with all the vicissitudes of such a long life that has few parallels elsewhere, we are struck by a consistent note. It is a note that permeates every successive attempt to revive the ancient spirit and restate in the language and form suited to the conditions of the age the high ideals, the subtle ideas and sublime truths perceived and worked out by the early builders of Indian society in its infancy as well as in its adolescence. What is this perpetual note that arrests our attention ? Certainly, it is the presence of a large synthesis conceived and worked out first by the ancient architects of society, the seers and sages of the Vedic Age and later in its decline taken up by the revivalist attempts of the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. Nowhere is this spirit and vision of synthesis so open and exacting as in the teachings of the Gita which heals up the hiatus or the apparent gulf of the intermediate ages and builds a comprehensive system having for its basis the spirit of the Veda and the substance of the Vedanta, takes up all the accumulated knowledge of the past, assimilates the essentials into the body and spirit of its instructions, and presents a really grand synthesis not as a metaphysical system but as a comprehensive teaching for application under all conditions of life.

But there has been all along another distinctive Synthesis embodied in the teachings of Agamas which, while professing general allegiance to the Vedic systems of philosophy and thought and spiritual discipline, is apparently different in its method of approach and is comprehensive, all-inclusive in its spirit, devoid of the exclusiveness associated with all the religious school and rituals based upon the Smritis and Shrutis of Vedic ceremonialism. It is difficult to plumb exactly into their origins, much less to find the precise period of the beginnings of their teachings, though the extant works of the Agamas can be traced to approximate periods of India’s history. For we must note that the substance of the teachings may have and certainly has come from early ages, though the written texts may have appeared later on at different times which may be ascertained with less difficulty. Let us first be sure of the sense in which the term Agama is used and came, to be called Tantra and then proceed with the main principles of the framework of the Agamas in general and the Shakta Tantras in particular. In dealing with the purposes of the study of vyakarana Sanskrit Grammar, Patanjali uses the word Agama in the sense of Veda or Vedic knowledge; and in the Yoga Sutras he speaks of three criteria of knowledge—Perception (pratyakșa), Inference (anumāna), and Revelation or authentic utterance (agama). Thus we find that because all sacred scriptures were considered to be revealed the Veda was termed Agama; and when another class of literature, viz., Tantra, scriptural in import, appeared and began to hold sway over a vast mass of people, the term Nigama was applied to Veda while Agama though not exclusively but generally came to denote Tantra on the one hand and ensure its sanctity like the Veda on the other. Now it is well-known that the Rishis of the Veda are not authors of the Veda but seers of the Mantra while the Veda is understood to be eternal even as the Divine Wisdom that is embodied in it. The Agamas, whoever may be their writers and whatever their dates be, are held to be essentially Scriptures revealed by the Supreme Shiva or Hari according to the nature and class of the Agamas concerned.[^158]

[^158]: The dates of the extant Agamas even when they are settled with certainty do not at all mean that the teachings they embody came to birth along with the books. It is necessary to strike a note of caution on this point in view of the current beliefs among a section of the educated classes, Indian and Western, that the Agamas were later inventions or scriptural adjustments wrought by the endeavours of later writers. Shiva-worship side by side with the Vishnu-worship was current in the Southern (Tamil) India as early as the first and second century of the Christian Era as is evidenced in the sacred poems of Nayanmars, Shiva Saints and the Prabandhams of Alwars, Vaishnava Saints, whose times extend from the 2nd to the 8th century. Not only worship, but references to Agamas are frequent therein. In the North, the Besnagar Pillar Inscription of the 2nd century B.C. bears clear testimony to Vishnu worship in temples. The Inscription records the erection of Garuda Pillar in the temple of Vasudeva and indicates thereby that that worship had been accepted by a foreign Greek ambassador from Taxila.
That the major Puranas and the main Agamas of Shiva and Vaishnava persuasion were written and completed by the end of the Gupta period is admitted on all hands by students of history. But Vasudeva worship is referred to by Panini whose time is at least some four centuries before Christ. Thus it is wrong to deduce from the available texts that the teachings themselves started with these books. It is quite possible that Shiva worship was a feature of the Indus valley Civilisation and the recent researches based upon the excavations throw some light on prehistoric India and and have given shock to the accepted notions of historians in regard to stories of Ancient India. Let us aside for consideration the Bauddha and Jaina Agamas which openly disclaim any Vedic authority and purport in fact to oppose and supplant the ancient tradition, and we have the Vaishnava, the Shiva and the Shakta Agamas. The Vaishnava Agamas look upon Vishnu as the Supreme and other gods and goddesses his aides; so do the Shiva Agamas assign the highest position to Shiva. The Shakta Agamas too claim the most superior position for the Goddess in practice.[^159]

[^159]: We must note that this was a radical departure from the Vedantic tradition. For while the tradition looked upon the Purusha as the Lord of all and the One Substratum of All, the Shakta Agama i.e. Tantra increasingly looked to the Energy aspect of the Supreme, to the Prakriti in effect and this departure was responsible, as pointed out by Sri Aurobindo, for the later loss of its purity of intention in the mechanism of its means. But in theory she is not put above Vishnu or Shiva. She is indeed the Creatrix of the Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra—the Mother of the Universe. But she is also acclaimed as the Yoga-Maya of Vishnu as in Chandi Saptashati or as in other texts the Para Shakti, the Supreme Consort of Shiva. There is another notable difference between the Shakta and the other two classes of Agamas. For while the Shaiva and Vaishnava Agamas continue and preserve the Vedic tradition of confining their knowledge and application only to the four Varnas with some restraint, the Shakta declares in a more liberal spirit that it is for all people irrespective of their Varna. It is the scripture of the common man. All the Agamas are also known as the Tantra Shastra. Tantra in Sanskrit has many meanings; but the one significance of relevance to us here is act. Act—and ritual is an act—is the one charateristic common to all the Agamas and hence they have come to be known as the Tantra Shastra.

A striking feature common to these Agamas is the high reverence in which they hold the Vedas. They do not, as is imagined by many, run counter to the spirit of the Veda. On the contrary, they declare that the knowledge in the Veda is high, beyond the reach of common men and claim to hold in themselves the substance and essence of the supreme knowledge embedded in that Scripture. And indeed it is so. For while the Upanishads represent the revivalist attempts for the recovery of the Jnana portions of the Vedas, the practical side of the Vedic teaching, not as related to the ritual —-for that was the care of the Brahmanas—but as concerning the inner life of the seeker, the esoteric teaching as we would put it, was sought to be revived, continued and preserved by these later Yogas and Tantras. As Sri Aurobindo observes: “ The mental images of the Vedic gods figured in the mantras (were replaced) by mental forms of the two great deities, Vishnu and Shiva, and their Shaktis and by corresponding physical images which are made the basis both for external worship and for the Mantras of inward adoration and meditation, while the psychic and spiritual experience which the inner sense of the Vedic hymns expresses finally disappeared into the psycho-spiritual experience of Puranic and Tantric religion and Yoga.” Such knowledge as this— of the building of the inner life—was traditionally handed down from father to son, from Guru to Shishya and the Agamas represent a worthy compilation and preservation of this inheritance from the forefathers. There are many traces of the Vedic influence and outlook in these Agamas. There is, for instance, a monotheism in them. It is now Shiva, now Vishnu or Hari who is the Supreme. There is also, as in the Rig Veda, an apparent polytheism. For many are the deities worshipped and invoked by the aspirant—though their position is one of subordination to, and ultimately identity with the Supreme. There is even a tendency to Monism perceptible in the Shakta scriptures. The devotee worships the deity and finds his glorious culmination in the final act of complete identification and merging in the Higher-eliminating all difference between worshipper and the worshipped.

But these Agamas are not a mere conglomeration of various systems of teachings and past traditions. They work up a large synthesis instead. And synthesis is no collection or heaping up of diverse elements; it is not eclecticism either. The synthesis we meet with in the Agamas is a living whole in which every element of value is preserved and falls into its just position and proportion all together making quite a new and developing system which embraces the entire life in its sweep, the man in the individual and man in the aggregate, man the thinker and the doer, man the soul. This synthesis of the Tantra is in fact more comprehensive than the synthesis of the Gita and in a sense more in consonance with the intention in life. For the ultimate teaching of the Gita comes to this: action is unavoidable, none can subsist without it. So make the best of it, use it-such of it as allows to be so used—first of all for your own moral and spiritual elevation leading to a progressive surrender to the Lord of all so that once you are completely given to Him you may have nothing more to do with this transitory and unhappy world, even though you may continue to do work for the sake of others. Life is a lever for rising upwards and shooting beyond it, not a field to be worked upon and cherished as an enjoyable creation of the Divine Being. The Tantric synthesis however looks upon life with a different and other vision. There is nothing to be rejected from what the Supreme Shakti has created. Even that which the Gita enjoins upon all seekers to reject, the bhoga, need not be given up. After all the world is for the bhoga of the Ishwara or the Ishwari and man at his highest, representing as he does an effective portion of Him or Her must enjoy the bhoga, conscious of his part as the vehicle or centre of the Enjoyer. That this bhoga-mārga, Vamamarga as it is called, later fell into disrepute and degeneracy is quite another matter which could be easily explained and does not detract from the sublime conception at the base, the high standard of purity and sincerity that was expected of man if he was to discharge conscientiously his responsibility as an unsullied channel of the Joy of bhoga. It means a tremendous labour of discipline and self-exceeding, in one’s own personal and inner, and the outer and collective life-a continuous action, tantra, on so many planes.

Let us now turn to a closer view of the Tantric system and scrutinise the four famous parts, pada-which go to make up the whole. Every way of religious and spiritual life has a basis to stand upon, a metaphysical base providing the philosophical Truths underlying the system, its genesis, rationale, the aim. In fact it is the strength and validity of this source of inspiration that determine the course and power of the outflowing manifestation. A systematised presentation in intellectual terms of the underlying Idea, a rational working out of its ways and means of expression, an examination of its fundamentals in the premises and in the conclusions-vis-à-vis other prevailing Idea-truths, is what we would call the metaphysical basis of a system and the Tantra Shastra has doubtless a philosophy, a metaphysics of its own. If the esoteric message of the Vedas is the substance of its practical teaching, the Vedanta with the Sankhya in a modified form provides the background, we may say, even the backbone of the philosophy of the Tantra. The Supreme is one and All is He. Only there it is Brahman, here it is Vishnu, Shiva or Shakti. The psychology of the Tantra is the psychology of the Sankhyas which itself is a side-product of the Upanishadic thought. These teachings are developed and extended so as to apply to a larger and larger part of man; the emphasis is sought to be shifted from the soul and mind to the other parts of the being, the heart and emotions and the will as well. In fact it is a restatement of the Wisdom of the Upanishads in terms suited to the changing conditions in which society was passing with varying stresses on the different elements that go to make up the complex personality of man. But this knowledge-part, jnāna-päda, could not be all. At best it can provide a satisfying and even a compelling understanding of the aim and purpose of life. Beyond that it has to put it into action. And the Tantra has the second pāda, the yoga-pāda for the purpose.

It is certainly not that Yoga was born with the Agamas or the Tantriks or that there were no Yogins before they came. It cannot be said either thateven Raja Yoga was first propounded by Patanjali. The truth is that Yoga is as old as the Vedas at least and the Institution of Sacrifice, yajna, in the Vedas is just a symbol of the one Yoga in which the Rishis were ceaselessly engaged, the Yoga by which they endeavoured, invoked and received in themselves the gods from on high. In the very nature of things there was no set uniformity in every detail of the individual pursuits of the Yoga though in large outlines they always corresponded. Handed down by tradition for centuries, it was perhaps Patanjali who first picked up one line of Yoga, and methodised the system of Raja Yoga in his famous Sutras. But Tantric Yoga goes beyond that, it infuses an inner discipline on the lines marked out by the Guru to the disciple. Life is sought to be purified, uplifted and equipped for effective embodiment and living the truths in accordance with the principles laid out in jnana-pada.

The Tantra Shastra does not stop with the individual. It recognises that for all purposes man is but a member of the larger society around. He influences those around and is influenced by their movements, by their thoughts, aspirations and actions to a greater extent than he normally affects the aggregate. It is not enough to educate and develop one unit. It is indispensable to mould the general environment also on the same lines so that there could be an identity of aspiration, a mutually helpful and congenial intercourse between the individual and the collective. It recognises also that human mind in the mass is less attracted to the abstract and the subtle and goes on to provide significant rituals and ceremonies by which it could be gradually drawn to the inner truth of things. This is the kriyā-pāda. External ceremonies, ritual worship have played a notable part in the awakening of the naturally extrovert consciousness of man to the reality of an Inner Presence; they impinge upon the senses and sense-faculties of man with considerable force and leave impressions which in their cumulative result effect an opening through some part into the larger being of himself. Effort at such social and collective religious practices is encouraged. Congregational worship has a stimulating effect and power of invocation not generally realised by most. The atmosphere created by the pressure of a single Idea, a single mounting aspiration in a multitude of hearts simultaneously striving for the same end gets charged with a force and intensity which the individuals share, consciously or unconsciously, each benefitting by the all, each individual aspiration and realisation contributing to the general but also absorbing and growing on the strength and nourishment received from the total and the general. It is in this light that the elaborate ritual-cum-worship aspect of the Tantra is to be examined. This aspect of the Tantra bears a close resemblance to and recalls the Ritual of the Brahmanas, the Yajna of the Veda. There is no more the full figure of the Yajna; yet an important ritual in the construction of Temple and the installation of the Idol is the kumbhābhişeka, considered to be a yāga. Thus even the tradition of the old ritual ceremony is absorbed and carried forward in a newer form.

And this is not all. The seeker is given a philosophy with which he equips himself intellectually; he is initiated into a Yoga that could yield the truth of the philosophy for his living; he is provided with an environment and an outer scaffolding suited to the growth and outflowering of his faith and realisation. But the spiritual effort, fostered and built up with such an all-round care and eye for detail, is not meant to be bottled up in its results within the limits of the individual frame. Liberation of the soul from the bonds of the lower Prakriti and a release into the heights of the Spirit does not form the end of such a comprehensive endeavour. The ideal individual of the Tantric Yoga has a responsibility to others less forcunate than himself, he is looked upon as a siddha, a perfect individual for the outpouring of the Shakti he is in communion with. He has to have dealings with men and society, he has to discharge all the responsibilities that devolve on him by virtue of the pre-eminent position he has attained, not without some help from the society. He has to guide and lead others. The Shastra lays down the code of conduct, the ways of functioning —the caryā—for these mentors of men. Relations and activities of men on the spiritual path are governed by rules and modes of conduct other than those that are prescribed by the Dharma of the age for the laity. That is because their thoughts and their actions proceed from a different basis; they have another motive-force and other ends in view. Their attitude to life, their outlook on the world, is different from that of common humanity and things do not appear to them in the same hue and light in which they do to others. As a rule man looks only at the surface of things, thinks— when he does at all—with an insufficient faculty called mind—and proceeds as best as he could. But one who has effected a change in his makeup by dint of tapasyā and stationed himself on a deeper basis, necessarily governs his life-movement with different considerations which many at times strike the convention-ridden mind as opposed to reason or morality even as the actions of an adult human being may well appear to be harsh, cruel and stupid—when they are really otherwise-to an infant. The Tantra Shastra recognises and provides for the need of such a higher type of being to proceed from different basis of action in the fourth pāda, the caryā-pāda and enjoins upon him to work out the progressive weal of the rest. Mark the three ways of worship of the Tantriks: the godly way, divya bhava, the way of the hero, vira bhāva, and that of the animal, paśu bhāva, which alone is governed by the ordinary stereotyped rules of conduct.

This in brief is the rationale of the four Padas of the Tantra, the Jnana-pada, Yoga-pada, Kriya-pada and Charya-pada. A Tantra is whole and complete only when it has these four parts. We can now better appreciate the large spirit that has actuated the Tantric sages. But no human institution fashioned by human hands in Time is known to have escaped the decay and disease inevitable with the wear of age and the Tantric system has been no exception. And we need not be surprised when we find votaries of Tantra attaching exclusive importance to the externals of the cult, to the minutiae and formulae, totally forgetful of the or:ginal intention of the system-builders. Thus when it is asserted that what is of utmost importance in the Kriya-pada is strict observance, to the very letter, of the requirements in measurement and design in the construction of the temple and performance of the ritual or when it is sought to enforce uniform rules for all relating to details of daily life as all-sufficing commandments of the Charya-pada, one can only smile if one has enough detachment or sigh at human stupidity which competes with the march of ages in pulling down lofty structures of the ancients.

Before concluding this section on the Tantric synthesis we cannot resist the temptation of drawing attention to the parallel between this and the New Synthesis, the synthesis worked out in the Teachings of Sri Aurobindo. Not that this our system has been modelled after the Tantric, though it is true that the Tantric truths have gone into the making of it even as the Vedantic conceptions have. But they do not, by any means, form the prototypes; they are important elements; we will not go into the question further for the moment but only point out an interesting correspondence between the Tantric-Quartette and the Quartette of writings Sri Aurobindo found necessary to broad-base his vast system, for Metaphysics and Philosophy, for the realisation of the fundamental truths in one’s being, for the development of social psychology in consonance with the principles enunciated and finally for the actual working out of the Unity of man.

II

It is not accurate to describe this ancient religion of India, now current, as Puranic. Neither the Gods of the current religion nor the metaphysics and philosophy—Shastra—are really Puranic in origin. The Puranas are compilations of the legendary lore of the country, giving different accounts of the cosmogony of the universe—accounts of the primary creation, the secondary creation, narrations of the geneology of the progenitors of mankind, cycles of time, rolls of the dynasties of kings, etc.-purūņam panca-lakṣaṇam. The Puranas are more historical—if history they can be called interspersed with philosophical or religious stories for the mental and moral elevation of man and society. The Gods of the Hindu religion are in fact Tantric Gods. And the Gods of the Tantra are not sudden arrivals on the scene. They are really a continuation of the line of the Gods of the Veda. Not in the same form and name, of course, but with necessary modifications inevitable with the incidence of Time on tradition.

The Vedic Gods, as we have noted elsewhere while dealing with the subject in fuller detail, have a twofold aspect to the seers of the Veda. In their exterior aspect they are essentially Nature-powers. Agni is the elemental fire, Indra the rain-god, Surya the solar body, Maruts the storm-gods and so on. But they have another, psychological character also and this was more important to those initiated into the mystery of the Vedic religion. These Gods are powers indeed, but not merely the powers of Nature. They are rather higher Powers, Personalities of the Godhead having the Cosmic field for their action. There are also lower gods who preside over the elemental forces of nature, over movements in the physical world and also movements in the inner world of man. Besides presiding over the Fire element in creation, Agni is looked upon as the deity controlling and promoting the upward flame, the agni in man stationed on the various levels of his being—as the agni in life, prāņa-agni, as the flame of aspiration in the heart, as the consuming quest for knowledge in the mind. He has other functions also. Similarly, Indra is the God governing the higher regions of the luminous mind, the Maruts controlling and contributing to the life-forces and thought-powers of man. Thus the Gods are Cosmic Powers with specific functions in the external world of Nature as well as with more important and significant charge in the inner world that supports it from behind and above. The sages of the Tantras carried on the tradition in the essentials that mattered. The Gods are very much the same here also, only the external functions in their physical aspect which predominate in the common mind of the early times have been appropriately relegated to the background when they are not altogether dispensed with. Thus Agni of the Veda continues in the Tantra, with a change of name certainly, yet with the same functions and even the new name, Kumara, Child, is significant for the Agni-origin it preserves. Agni is Kumara, Child of the Supreme Shiva. In the Rig Veda Agni is in the forefront of the Gods, their guide, their messenger. Here he is their Chief of Powers who leads them to victory, the commander behind whum they line up. In the Veda Agni is regarded by the seers as the all effecting and all-knowing pilot of their journey. Kumara is also looked up to for his immense store of knowledge and wisdom by these seers of later times. Again, the mighty Indra is there, but in the Tantra and the Puranas his part is taken up by Rudra the powerful who brooks no obstacle. The hosts of Indra—the Maruts-continue as the pramathas of Rudra. Indra the marutvān, leader of the hosts of Maruts, the storm-gods or life-powers, continues to play his effective part as Rudra the lord of the pramathas, Pramathanatha. The Sun, the Highest God of the Veda is also here as Vishnu-a name which is applied to the Supreme Sun in the Rig Veda itself. Aditi, the mother of All, is not there under the same nomenclature, but there is the Supreme Shakti called variously Uma, Gouri, etc. All the important Gods are there. The other minor gods with mainly physical functions and less of the psychological have been consigned to the position of the dik-pālakas, guardians of the several quarters or of some other minor importance. Newer Gods have arrived, true, but the older ones have not been altogether supplanted and totally forgotten, they retain their due supremacy though in different form.

We have referred to that interesting feature of the Tantra, namely the recognition of the Supreme Deity as the Highest with a simultaneous adoration of a number of other deities. The sages of the Tantra do not see any inconsistency in the position, for they recognise that this creation is not a unitary system but a gradation of worlds spread over a rising tier of consciousness and planes and the various Gods and Goddesses are higher beings, powers and entities deriving their authority from the Supreme to take their part, and act or preside over their spheres of domain. There is a regular hierarchy of Gods some of whom are far above the highest heavens of human reach. But there are also Gods and Goddesses closer to the human level. They are more readily accessible to those who aspire to them and in some cases the seeker on the Tantric path looks to the aid and lead of these deities in his effort. They are endowed with capacities and powers beyond normal human possibility, but they are not all for that reason divine in nature. There are higher and lower classes of them, ucca and kșudra Devatas. Those that are nearest to the earth-plane, swarming in the vital world overtopping the physical, are usually of the latter type. They respond very readily to the approaches of those who seek their help, but they do so mainly for their own purpose, namely to get hold of the particular human vehicle and convert it into a centre for their activity on the earth. They may and do answer the call of the seeker, in the beginning but in the end they let him down, rather roughly, once their purpose is fulfilled. The seeker is misled, his inner progress comes to a standstill if it does not end in disaster. The Kshudra-devatas mislead the seeker with petty glamorous gifts, induce a false sense of progress and siddhi, prevent the dawn of real Jnana which would expose their whole game and succeed in enslaving the man for their purpose at the cost of his soul which is betrayed into misadventure. It is to eliminate all such chances and possibilities of mishap that orthodox spiritual tradition frowns upon and strongly discourages occult lines of effort in which intercourse with the beings of other worlds is not rare. But we must remember at the same time that all the Devatas or deities are not of this type. There are benevolent deities who answer equally readily to the prayers of the devotee and their help is inestimable for him if only he keeps his Ideal pure and aloft. If he aspires only for the Highest the deity helps him, takes him a long way, not merely with spiritual aid but help of other kinds as well. The Tantra Shastra has done signal service in emphasising that though all the Devatas are of the same divine origin, yet each has a special stress in its character, each is meant to actualise or help to actualise the particular potentiality of the Supreme in creation. Thus certain deities have it within their power to confer wealth, material and spiritual, some to confer health of mind and body, some have an exclusively spiritual function. It is again a fact to be noted that prayer to an indefinite something, to an Impersonal divinity can only evoke as impersonal or indefinite response. If a response is sought to be evoked for a particular need, the prayer could be fruitful when it is addressed to a canalised centre of the Divinity, the Personal form which is active for the purpose in question, and that is precisely what the Devata in its higher sense is in the Tantra. Spiritual progress with the help of deities as these is rendered easy and safe. The sincerity with which the seeker puts himself into their care guarantees safety against the rocks and steeps in the path, the progress is smoother and the growing realisation richer by reason of the happy contribution made and especial gifts conferred on him by these chosen deities, ista-devatās.

The Tantra Shastra develops the means wherewith to commune with the Gods. Man is endowed with faculties all of which are not active or perceptible to the physical mind, but are nonetheless real; and given the necessary touch of awakening and opportunity for development, they function with much more effect and with an infinitely larger range than the usually active sense-organs. The ancients knew this and developed various lines of discipline for the development of his less-cared for and hidden side of man in which lies the means for his deliverance from helpless subjection to the bonds of physical nature. There are many lines of Yoga, including Hatha Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Raja Yoga, Laya Yoga, not to speak of Devotion and Knowledge, each with its own basis, technique and process of functioning and the seeker has to choose in accordance with the aptitude of his nature and demands of his soul the proper way he would commence. Now the Tantriks took over these Yogas, as they were, improved upon with their special knowledge of the occult worlds and applied these means for opening up the inner centres that window upon the supraphysical and still higher regions. But they did not stop with that alone. They developed another Sadhana which also had significant origins with the Vedic Rishis-the mantra. The Mantra-Sadhana has survived to this day as the most significant contribution of the Tantras to the spiritual heritage of mankind. A Mantra, as is well-known, is not a mere letter or collection of letters, with some meaning. It is the sound-body of a Power charged with the intense vibrations of the spiritual personality of the creator or the seer of the Mantra. The Mantra is an ever-living embodiment of the Truth and Power which have found expression in it through the medium of the Rishi or Yogin who has given them that body. And when a Mantra is uttered, under proper conditions, it is not the feeble voice of the reciter that goes forth to evoke the response of the Gods to whom it is addressed, but the flame of tapasyā and realisation that is lying coiled up in the body of that utterance. The vibrations issuing from the Mantra are its own and they create the necessary conditions in and around the reciter appropriate the reception of the response from the deity to whom the address is made. The form of the Mantra may be coherent words or may be single letters arranged in a certain order. The Tantra has thus formulated some seed-letters, Bijaksara, which the seeker uses as the Mantra. These Bijaksharas have been endowed with a perennial store of power by the Tantrik seers and it needs only the living touch of the Guru to set them awake in the disciple. This is true sense in which the use of the Mantras is to be understood. They are not, as at times the superficial mind may be tempted to suppose, just convenient aids for concentration, mechanical devices for keeping the mind from wandering.

These are the essentials of the Tantra Sadhana—the Devata, the Mantra and the Guru. The Devatas are certainly not worshipped in the abstract. They are approached in the form in which they revealed themselves to the inner eye of these seers. For these Gods and Goddesses, though they may not have the physical form of the gross kind, have yet their own characteristic figure and colour. They have their own vehicles, vāhana, their auras of specific colour. Some of them reveal their presence in certain definite symbols. All these are matters of experience with the Tantric seers who proceeded to render these subtle forms and figures in their physical correspondences as close and faithful as possible. Hence the sacredness and importance attached to the images and figures in the Tantric ritual. The image, mūrti, or the diagram, yantra, are the meeting places of the Invisible Presence of the Deity and the sensebound soarings of human aspiration.

The Bijakshara, the Mantra of the seed-letter, is also no construction or invention of the imaginative Tantriks. These letters have an individuality of their own shade and colour and reveal themselves as such. Each seed-letter refers to a certain principle related to the Tattva of the Deity. And it could by itself be a Mantra or form a Mantra in conjunction with other seed-letters or words.

Then there is the Guru, who carries the Tantric tradition in himself, is instinct in some measure with the living presence of the deity invoked and who implants the Mantra along with the activating personal force of his own in the disciple. The Mantra-dynamis is set in motion within the being of the disciple by the Guru and if only he would co-operate by assiduous attention and compliance with the needs of the growing Sadhana the progress is assured and the goal sure of reach. The Guru, the Deity, the Mantra are all equally important. The Shastra goes so far as to combine them in the identity of a single whole, and with reason. For the Guru is present in the Mantra through the influence he puts into it while initiating the disciple. The Devata is present in the Mantra which is indeed the sound-body of the deity. Again the Devata is also present in the person of the Guru. And it is the Mantra which works out the Sadhana. That is why it is said, the Guru, the Devata and the Mantra are one, gurudevatā-manūnām aikyam.

Thus it will be seen that the Tantra Shastra attaches great importance to all the three essentials of the Sadhana. The Guru is much more than the physical appearance he wears; he is looked upon as the embodiment of the Deity sought to be realised or attained; to look upon him as a human being like any other is not merely wrong but also a dangerous delusion. Then there is the image in which the deity is worshipped. The image or the form is the material foundation’ to form the physical nodus’ for the act of external worship. To look upon such an image as mere stone is profane. Again the Mantra has a special character, it is the body of a spiritual truth or deity. The look upon it as mere letters is to blaspheme the sacred character of the Mantra. Thus the Tantriks have a famous dictum which sums up the Tantric position in regard to the Guru, the Image and the Mantra: “To hell he goes who mistakes the Guru for a human, who takes the image for a piece of stone, who looks upon the Mantra as mere letters."[^160]

[^160]: देशिके मानवभ्रान्ति प्रतिमासु शिलामतिम् । मन्त्रेष्वक्षरबुद्धिं च कुर्वाणो निरयं व्रजेत् ।।

III

This, then, is the Tantric system in its fundamentals. We see that there is nothing in it which runs radically counter to the ancient spirit of the Vedic teachings. On the other hand there is much in conformity with it or in continuation of it. It has assimilated the Vedic spirit and revived it in a modified form. If there is a note critical and antagonistic to the Vedas in some of the extreme texts of the Tantra, it is in the nature of a rejoinder provoked by criticism of the later Vedist, the Smritikaras that the Tantra, unlike the Veda, has no sacred character about it because all castes, varñas, including women, have access to it, and such other insinuations. We have referred to the esteem in which they hold the Vedas. The central feature of the Vedic ritual, viz., the Yajna is taken up in the ritual of the Tantra with suitable changes and there is no temple without a yāga-sāla, Sacrificial Hall. The gods of the Veda continue to adorn the Tantric pantheon; their functions continue, but vary in form; the names undergo a change. The same gods are worshipped under different names and, what is remarkable, at times the very same Mantras and gods in the Rig Veda figure in the Tantra in all their grandeur. We shall illustrate this point as it is important to show how the Tantra has worked its way up to adumbrate in it the gods of the Vedic pantheon. We shall take an example from the Prapancastatantra which deals with many deities, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta without distinction of superiority of any one over the other.

Agni in the Rig Veda is a deity of paramount importance without whose help it is impossible for the sacrificer to proceed. Agni is the seer who finds the way, the pāvaka who burns the dross and cleanses the seeker of all sin and impurity, carries him through all obstacles, like a boat over the seas, nāveva, sindhum. In the Shakta Tantra the same Deity is worshipped as Durga, the indomitable, the protectrix who carries the devotee safe across the sea of misery, the ocean of birth and death, bhavasāgara-nauḥ. And what is more important, in one place the exact Mantra addressed to Agni in the Veda is applied here to Durga.

It is in the text referred to above that we come across three Mantras which have been combined together to form a hundred letters and give what is known as the satākṣari vidyā. The first Mantra consisting of 44 letters, in tristup metre, is bodily taken from the 99th Sukta of the first Mandala in the Rig Veda.

Agni is the seer, knower of all. It lies in his power to render us all help as a result of his foreknowledge. Knowledge is a most priceless possession of man and without it he is rudderless in the sea of life. And Agni deprives the enemy of this indispensable possession. To him, says the Rishi, let us offer our choicest gift, the very sap of life, the distilled juice of Ananda, the Soma, so that pleased, he would transport us over all the eddies and whirls, tides and waves of obstruction and misfortune that beset life. “Like a boat across the waters”, is a favourite image of the ancients. It is repeated in the Upanishads, it also finds mention in the Tantric text referred to. Here is the Rik and the English rendering:—

जातवेदसे सुनवाम सोममरातीयतो नि दहाति वेदः ।
स नः पर्षदति दुर्गाणि विश्वा नावेव सिन्धुं दुरितात्यग्निः ।।

“ To the Knower of all Birth (Agni) we press Soma, to him who consumes the knowledge (or wealth) of the enemy. Let Agni carry us across all the obstructions like a boat over the river."

In the Veda the Rik is ascribed to Rishi Kashyapa; in the Tantric text also the Seer of the Mantra is Kashyapa. There the deity is Agni, here it is Durga.

Then follows the second part of the Shatakshari (hundred-lettered Mantra) of 32 letters, in anuştup metre, which again is a verbatim reproduction of the 12th Rik in the 59th Sukta of the seventh Mandala in the Rig Veda. The Rik is addressed to Rudra as Tryambaka, father of the Three (worlds). The Rishi aspires towards immortality for himself and for others who have engaged themselves in the Yajna, the antar-yajna. He has a claim for immortality as a child of the Gods, a position he has attained not merely by his endeavours but by the benign grace of the Gods themselves. But this high status of immortality cannot be won and retained by any one without a certain elevation and strength of purity; the utmost that human effort can build up in the direction is inadequate. Only the Divine can promote and shape the requisite all-round strength and fitness. Again desire, want, greed, lust bring in their train disappointment, grief, unhappiness, disease and ultimately death. And for those that aspire for immortality there should be nothing in them which clings to its opposite, viz. death and agents of death. He that would share in the high status above has necessarily to be aloof and separate from, even while living amidst it, the envelope of ignorance and darkness that characterise the human world, like a cucumber separate from its shell, says the Rishi, like the ripe cocoanut loosened from its shell, say the saints and sages of later times.

त्रयम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धि पुष्टिवर्धनम् । उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मक्षीय मामृतात् ।।

“We adore the Father of the three worlds, Tryambaka of auspicious Fame, increaser of fullness and strength. May I be detached from Death like cucumber from the shell (or the stem), not from the Immortal."

In the Rig Veda, this Rik ascribed to Vasishtha is addressed to Rudra, as Tryambaka, father of the three worlds. Here in the Tantra also the deity is Rudra, as Mrityunjaya, conqueror of Death and the Mantra is famous as the Mrityunjaya Mantra.

The third part of 24 letters, in gāyatri metre, is the famous Gayatri from the 62nd Sukta of Rishi Vishwamitra in the third Mandala of the Rig Veda. Savitr is the deity in the Veda; the same supreme deity is invoked here also. Savitr, it must be noted is identified with Vishnu here as in the Rig Veda. Vishwamitra is the seer of the Mantra here also. The Sun, Savitr, is not the physical sun we see in the skies, but the supreme Effulgence in the highest firmament above, beyond the lower triple creation. The physical sun is indeed taken as the image of the Truth-Sun, the Centre of all Knowledge and radiating Power. It is the radiance issuing from the Supreme Source in which is massed all the creative movement of the Uncreate that is the ultimate root of all movements in the creation. Let that Light motivate and energise our thought-movements, says the Rishi.

तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि । धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ।।

“We meditate upon that excellent splendour of the Lord Savitr. May he activate our thoughts.”

One significant fact shall not escape notice here inasmuch as it illustrates the remarkable facility with which these seers reconcile the claims of the respective votaries of Vishnu, Shiva and Para Shakti for supremacy. Thus here in this single Vidya, there is Durga who stands for the Para Shakti of the Shakta, there is Rudra in place of Shiva and there is Savitr, Surya for Vishnu. All are placed on the same supreme level of adoration, all are simultaneously invoked in the prayer poured forth by the Sadhaka.

Such is the synthesis of the Tantra, broad-based and deep-rooted, catholic and progressive. It does not ignore or overlook any past heritage of spiritual value. Its Jnana-pada, the metaphysical basis, combines in itself the essence of the Vedantic philosophy with all the spirit of pliability and catholicity of the ancient Rishis. The Yoga-pada, the practical side, revives the remnants of past lines of Yoga as far as possible and carries further the esoteric tradition, absorbs and develops the later physico-vital and psychological methods of self-development and self-exceeding. The Kriya-pada, the social and the ceremonial aspect, takes up the institution of community worship and ritual from immemorial times and extends the claim of the Spirit on the entire society. The Charya-pada, bearing upon personal conduct, re-establishes the claim of society on the individual and reconciles.it with the special privileges and responsibilities of the latter issuing from his spiritual transcendence.