Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
GURU AND ŚIṢ YA<br />
THE Guru is the religious teacher and spiritual guide <strong>to</strong><br />
whose direction orthodox Hindus of all divisions of worshippers<br />
submit themselves. There is in reality but one<br />
Guru. The ordinary human Guru is but the manifestation<br />
on the phenomenal plane of the Ādināthā Mahākāla,<br />
the Supreme Guru abiding in Kailāsa. 1 He it is<br />
who enters in<strong>to</strong> and speaks with the voice of the earthly<br />
Guru at the time of giving mantra. 2 Guru is the root<br />
(mūla) of dikṣa (initiation). Dikṣa is the root of mantra.<br />
Mantra is the root of Devatā; and Devatā is the root of<br />
siddhi. The Munda-mālā-<strong>Tantra</strong> says that mantra is<br />
born of Guru and Devatā of mantra, so that the Guru<br />
occupies the position of a grandfather <strong>to</strong> the Iṣṭ a-devatā.<br />
It is the Guru who initiates and helps, and the<br />
relationship between him and the disciple (śiṣya) continues<br />
until the attainment of monistic siddhi. Manu says:<br />
“Of him who gives natural birth and of him who gives<br />
knowledge of the Veda, the giver of sacred knowledge is<br />
the more venerable father. Since second or divine birth<br />
insures life <strong>to</strong> the twice-born in this world and the next.”<br />
The Śāstra is, indeed, full of the greatness of of Guru. 3<br />
The guru is not <strong>to</strong> be thought of as a mere man. There<br />
1 Guru sthānaṃ<br />
hi kailāsam (Yoginī-<strong>Tantra</strong>, chap. i).<br />
2 Mantra-pradāna-kāle hi mānuṣe naga-nandini,<br />
Adhisthānaṃ<br />
bhavet tatra mahākālasya śaṃ<br />
kari,<br />
Atastu gurutā devī mānuṣe nātra sa ṃ<br />
śayah. (ibid.)<br />
3 See chap. i of the <strong>Tantra</strong>-sāra, which also deals with the qualities of the<br />
Guru; the relationship between him and the disciple, qualities of the disciple<br />
and so forth.