Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
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MACROCOSM AND MICROCOSM<br />
THE universe consists of a Mahābrahmāṇ ḍ a, or grand<br />
Cosmos, and of numerous Bṛ hatbrahmāṇ ḍ a, or macrocosms<br />
evolved from it. As is said by the Nirvāṇ a-<br />
<strong>Tantra</strong>, all which is in the first is in the second. In the<br />
latter are heavenly bodies and beings, which are microcosms<br />
reflecting on a minor scale the greater worlds<br />
which evolve them. “As above, so below.” The mystical<br />
maxim of the West is stated in the Viśvasāra-<strong>Tantra</strong> as<br />
follows: “What is here is elsewhere; what is not here is<br />
nowhere” (yadhihāsti tadanyatra yannehāsti na tatkvacit).<br />
The macrocosm has its meru, or vertebral column,<br />
extending from <strong>to</strong>p <strong>to</strong> bot<strong>to</strong>m. There are fourteen regions<br />
descending from Satyaloka, the highest. These are the<br />
seven upper and the seven nether worlds (vide ante).<br />
The meru of human body is the spinal column, and<br />
within it are the cakras, in which the worlds are said <strong>to</strong><br />
dwell. In the words of the Śāktānanda-Tarangiṇ ī, they<br />
are piṇ ḍ amadhyesthitā. Satya has been said <strong>to</strong> be in<br />
the sahasrārā, and Tapah, Janah, Mahah, Svah, Bhuvah,<br />
Bhūh in the ājnā, viśuddhi, anahata, maṇ ipūra,<br />
svādhiṣṭ hāna, and mūlādhāra lotuses respectively.<br />
Below mūlādhāra and in the joints, sides, anus, and<br />
organs of generation are the nether worlds. The bones<br />
near the spinal column are the kulaparvata. 1 Such are<br />
the correspondences as <strong>to</strong> earth. Then as <strong>to</strong> water. The<br />
nadis are the rivers. The seven substances of the body<br />
1 The seven main chains of mountains in Bhārata (see Viṣṇu-Puraṇa, Bk.<br />
II, chap. iii).