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.
WORSHIP<br />
THERE are four difference forms of worship corresponding<br />
with four states (bhāva). 1 The realization that the jīvātma<br />
and paramātma are one, that everything is Brahman,<br />
and that nothing but the Brahman exists, is the<br />
highest state or brahma-bhāva. Constant meditation by<br />
the yoga process upon the Devatā in the heart is the<br />
lower and middlemost (dhyāna-bhāva); japa (q.v.) and<br />
stava (hymns and prayer) is still lower, and the lowest<br />
of all mere external worship (pūja) (q.v.). Pūjā-bhāva is<br />
that which arises out of the dualistic notions of worshipper<br />
and worshipped; the servant and the Lord. This<br />
dualism exists in greater or less degree in all states<br />
except the highest. But for him who, having realized<br />
the advaita-tattva, knows that all is Brahman, there is<br />
neither worshipper nor worshipped, neither yoga nor<br />
pūjā, nor dhāraṇ a, dhyāna, stava, japa, vrata, or other<br />
ritual or process of sādhana.<br />
In external worship there is worship either of an<br />
image (pratimā), or of a yantra (q.v.), which takes its<br />
place. The sādhaka should first worship inwardly the<br />
mental image of the form assumed by the Devī, and then<br />
by the life-giving (prāṇ a-pratiṣṭ ha) ceremony infuse the<br />
image with Her life by the communication <strong>to</strong> it of the<br />
light and energy (tejas) of the Brahman which is within<br />
him <strong>to</strong> the image without, from which there bursts the<br />
lustre of Her whose substance is consciousness itself<br />
(caitanya-mayī). She exists as Śakti in s<strong>to</strong>ne or metal,<br />
1 See “Principles of <strong>Tantra</strong>.”