Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
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FOUR AIMS OF BEING 153<br />
attributes, and so forth. The four abodes are the result<br />
of action, transi<strong>to</strong>ry and conditioned. Mahānirvāṇ a, or<br />
Kaivalya, the real mokṣa, is the result of spiritual<br />
knowledge (jñāna), 1 and is unconditioned and permanent.<br />
Those who know the Brahman, recognizing that the<br />
worlds resulting from action are imperfect, reject them,<br />
and attain <strong>to</strong> that unconditioned Bliss which transcends<br />
them all. Kaivalya is the supreme state of oneness<br />
without attributes, the state in which, as the Yoga-sūtra<br />
says, modification of the energy of consciousness is extinct,<br />
and when it is established in its own real nature. 2<br />
Liberation is attainable while the body is yet living,<br />
in which case there exists a state of jīvanmukti celebrated<br />
in the Jīvanmukti-gitā of Dattatreya. The soul,<br />
it is true, is not really fettered, and any appearance <strong>to</strong><br />
the contrary is illusory. There is, in fact, freedom, but<br />
though mokṣa is already in possession, still, because of<br />
the illusion that it is not yet attained, means must be<br />
taken <strong>to</strong> remove the illusion, and the jīva who succeeds<br />
in this is jīvanmukta, though in the body, and is freed<br />
from future embodiments. The enlightened Kaula,<br />
according <strong>to</strong> the Nityanita, sees no difference between<br />
mud and sandal, friend and foe, a dwelling-house and<br />
the cremation-ground. He knows that the Brahman is<br />
all, that the Supreme soul (paramātmā) and the<br />
individual soul (jīvātmā) are one, and freed from all<br />
attachment he is Jīvanmukta, or liberated, whilst yet<br />
living. The means whereby mukti is attained is the<br />
yoga process (vide ante).<br />
1 That is which gives mokṣa, other forms being called vijñāna.<br />
Mokṣe dhir jñānam anayatra.<br />
vijñānam śilpa-śāstrayoh.<br />
2 See Bhāskararāya’s Commentary on Lalitā Sahasranāma, śloka 125.