Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

WORSHIP 75
is for all castes and for all women. 1 The latter are also
excluded under the present Vaidik system, though it is
said by Śankha Dharma-śāstrakāra that the wife may,
with the consent of her husband, fast, take vows, perform
homa and vrata, 2 etc. According to the Tantra, a woman
may not only receive mantra, but may, as a Guru, initiate
and give it. 3 She is worshipful as Guru, and as wife of
Guru. 4 The Devī is Herself Guru of all Śāstras 5 and
women, as, indeed, all females who are Her embodiments
are, in a peculiar sense, Her earthly representatives.
FORMS OF ĀCĀRA
There are seven, or, as some say, nine, divisions of
worshippers. The extra divisions are bracketed in the
following quotation. The Kulārṇ ava-Tantra mentions
seven, which are given in their order of superiority, the
first being the lowest: Vedācāra, Vaiṣṇ avācāra, Śaivācāra,
6 Dakṣiṇ ācāra, Vāmācāra, Siddhāntācāra, (Aghorācāra,
Yogācāra), and Kaulācāra, the highest of all. 7 The
ācāra is the way, custom and practice of a particular
class of sādhakas. They are not, as sometimes supposed,
1 Sarva-varṇādhikārascha nāriṇām yogya eva ca (chap. i).
2 It has been said that neither a virgin (kumārī), a pregnant woman
(garbhiṇī), nor a woman during her period, can perform vyata.
3 Rudra-yāmala, 2 Khaṇda (chap. ii); 1 Khaṇda (chap, xv.), where the
qualifications are stated.
4 Ibid., 1 Khaṇda (chap, i); Mātṛ ka-bheda-Tantra (chap. viii); Annadalialpa
Tantra cited in Prāṇa-toṣini, p. 68. As the Yoginī-Tantra says, gurupatnī
maheśāni gurureva (chap. i).
5 Kaṇkala-mālini-Tantra (chap. li).
6 This is generally regarded as a distinct sect though the author below
cited says it is, in fact, not so. Aghora means, it is said, one who is liberated
from the terrible (ghora) saṃ
sāra, but in any case, many worshippers for want
of instruction by a siddha-guru have degenerated into mere eaters of corpses.
7 Chapter II. A short description (of little aid) is given in the Visvasāra-
Tantra (chap. xxiv). See also Hara-tattva-dīdhiti, fourth edition, pp. 339, et seq.