Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

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INTRODUCTION TO TANTRA ŚĀSTRA
the path of the other four processes which deal with
subjugation of the body. There are then three interior
(yogānga) methods for the subjugation of the mind—
namely (6) Dhāraṇ ā, attention, steadying of the mind,
the fixing of the internal organ (citta) in the particular
manner indicated in the works on yoga. (7) Dhyāna or
the uniform continuous contemplation of the object of
thought; and (8) that samādhi which is called savikalpasāmadhi.
Savikalpasāmadhi is a deeper and more intense
contemplation on the Self to the exclusion of all
other objects, and constituting trance or ecstasy. This
ecstasy is perfected to the stage of the removal of the
slightest trace of the distinction of subject and object in
nirvikalpasāmadhi in which there is complete union
with the Paramātmā, or Divine spirit. By vairāgya
(dispassion), and keeping the mind in its unmodified
state, yoga is attained. This knowledge, Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi
(“I am the Brahman”), does not produce liberation
(mokṣa), but is liberation itself. Whether yoga is
spoken of as the union of Kulakuṇ ḍ alini with Paramaśiva,
or the union of the individual soul (jīvātmā) with
the Supreme Soul (paramātmā), or as the state of mind
in which all outward thought is suppressed, or as the
controlling or suppression of the thinking faculty (cittavṛ
tti), or as the union of the moon and the sun (Iḍ a and
Piṇgalā), Prāṇ ā and Apāna or Nāda and Bindu, the
meaning and the end are in each case the same.
Yoga, in seeking mental control and concentration,
makes use of certain preliminary physical processes
(sādhana) such as the satkarma, āsana, mudrā, and
prānāyāma. By these four processes and three mental
acts, seven qualities, known as śodhana, dridhatā,