Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

WORSHIP 77
is Śākta, and qualified for the worship of the threefold
śakti of Brahma, Viṣṇ u, Maheśvara. He is fully initiated
in the Gāyatrī-mantra, and worships the Devī
Gāyatrī, the Dakṣiṇ a-Kālikā, or Ādyā Śakti—the union
of the three Śaktis. This is the stage of individualistic
Brahmanattva, and its aim is the union of faith, devotion,
and determination, with a knowledge of the threefold
energies. After this a change of great importance
occurs, marking, as it does, the entry upon the path of
return (nivṛ tti). This it is which has led some to divide
the ācāra into two broad divisions of Dakṣiṇ ācāra (including
the first four) and Vāmācāra, (including the last
three), it being said that men are born into Dakṣiṇ ā-
cāra, but are received by initiation into Vāmācāra. The
latter term does not mean, as is vulgarly supposed, “lefthand
worship” but worship in which woman (vāmā)
enters, that is, latā-sādhana. In this ācāra there is also
worship of the Vāmā-Devī. Vāmā is here “adverse,” in
that the stage is adverse to pravṛ tti, which governed in
varying degrees the preceding ācāra, and entry is here
made upon the path of nivṛ tti, or return to the source
whence the world sprung. Up to the fourth stage the
Sādhaka followed pravṛ tti-mārga, the outgoing path
which led from the source, the path of worldly enjoyment,
albeit curbed by dharma. At first unconsciously,
and later consciously, sādhana sought to induce nivṛ tti,
which, however, can only fully appear after the exhaustion
of the forces of the outward current. In Vāmācāra,
however, the sadhaka commences to directly destroy
pravṛ tti, and with the help of the Guru (whose help
throughout is in this necessary) 1 to cultivate nivṛ tti.
1 It is comparatively easy to lay down rules for the parvṛ tti-mārga, but
nothing can be achieked in Vāmācāra without the Guru’s help.