Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

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INTRODUCTION TO TANTRA ŚĀSTRA
resolve for maithuna), adhyavasāya (determination towards
it), kriyāniṣpati (actual accomplishment of the
sexual act). In short, the paśu (and except for ritual
purposes those who are not paśus) should, in the words
of thc Śaktakramīya, avoid maithuna, conversation on
the subject, and, assemblies of women (maithunam tatkathālāpaṃ
tadgoṣthiṃ parivarjayet). Even in the case
of the householder’s own wife marital continency is
enjoined. The divinity in woman, which the Tantra in
particular proclaims, is also recognized in the ordinary
Vaidik teaching, as must obviously be the case given the
common foundation upon which all the Śāstras rest.
Woman is not to be regarded merely as an object of
enjoyment, but as a house-goddess (gṛ hadevatā). 1 According
to the sublime notions of Śrūti, the union of man
and wife is a veritable sacrificial rite—a sacrifice in fire
(homa), wherein she is both hearth (kunda) and flame—
and he who knows this as homa attains liberation. 2
Similarly the Tāntrika-Mantra for the Sivaśakti Yoga
runs: “This is the internal homa in which, by the path of
suṣumṇ a, sacrifice is made of the functions of sense to
the spirit as fire kindled with the ghee of merit and
demerit taken from the mind as the ghee pot Svāhā.” 3
It is not only thus that wife and husband are associated;
for the Vaidikadharma (in this now neglected) prescribes
1 Cited in the Commentary on the Karpūrādistotra (verse 15), by Mahāmahopādhyāya
Kṛ ṣṇanātha Nyāya-pañcānana Bhattāchāryya.
2 See thirteenth mantra of the Homa-prakaraṇa of the Bṛ hadāraṇyaka-
Upaniṣad. The Niruttara-Tantra (chap. i) says :
Yonirūpā mahākālī śavah śayyā Prakīrtitā
Smaśānam dvividhaṃ
devī citā yonirmaheśvari.
3 Oṃ
dharmādharma havirdīpte ātmāgnau manasā śrucā suṣumṇā
vartmanā nityam akṣavṛ ttirjuhomyahaṃ
svāhā (Tantrasāra, 998, and see
Prāṇatoṣinī).