Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

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INTRODUCTION TO TANTRA ŚĀSTRA
The method at this stage is to use the forces of pravṛ tti
in such a way as to render them self-destructive. The
passions which bind may be so employed as to act as
forces whereby the particular life of which they are the
strongest manifestation is raised to the universal life.
Passion, which has hitherto run downwards and outwards
to waste, is directed inwards and upwards, and
transformed to power. But it is not only the lower
physical desires of eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse
which must be subjugated. The sādhaka must at
this stage commence to cut off all the eight bonds (pāśa)
which mark the paśu which the Kulārṇ ava-Tantra
enumerates as pity (dayā), ignoranc (moha), shame
(lajjā), family (kula), custom (śila), and caste (varṇ a). 1
When Śrī-Kṛ ṣṇ a stole the clothes of the bathing Gopīs,
and made them approach him naked, he removed the
artificial coverings which are imposed on man in the
saṃsara. The Gopīs were eight, as are the bonds (pāśa),
and the errors by which the jīva is misled are the
clothes which Śrī Kṛ ṣṇ a stole. Freed of these, the jīva is
liberated from all bonds arising from his desires, family,
and society. He then reaches the stage of Śiva (śivatva).
It is the aim of Vāmācāra to liberate from the bonds
which bind men to the saṃsara, and to qualify the
sādhaka for the highest grades of sādhana in which the
sāttvika guṇ a predominates. To the truly sāttvik there
is neither attachment nor fear nor disgust. That which
has been commenced in these stages is by degrees completed
in those which follow—viz.: Siddhāntācāra, and
1 There are various enumerations of the “afflictions” (pāśa) which are,
however, merely elaborations of the smaller divisions. Thus, according to the
Devī-Bhāgavata, Moha is ignorance or bewilderment, and Maha-moha is
desire of worldly pleasures.