Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

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