Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori
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80<br />
INTRODUCTION TO TANTRA ŚĀSTRA<br />
Kaula’s own inner life; it is everything in the sense that<br />
knowledge may infuse its apparent limitations with an<br />
universal meaning. So unders<strong>to</strong>od, form is never a<br />
bond. The Visva-sāra <strong>Tantra</strong> says 1 of the Kaula that “for<br />
him there is neither rule of time nor place. His actions<br />
are unaffected either by the phases of the moon or the<br />
position of the stars. The Kaula roams the earth in<br />
differing forms. At times adhering <strong>to</strong> social rules (śiṣṭ a),<br />
he at others appears, according <strong>to</strong> their standard, <strong>to</strong> be<br />
fallen (bhraṣṭ a). At times, again, he seems <strong>to</strong> be as<br />
unearthly as a ghost (bhūta or piśācā). To him no<br />
difference is there between mud and sandal paste, his<br />
son and an enemy, home and the cremation ground.”<br />
At this stage the sādhaka attains <strong>to</strong> Brahma-jñāna,<br />
which is the true gnosis in its perfect form. On receiving<br />
mahāpūrṇ a-dikṣa he performs his own funeral rites and<br />
is dead <strong>to</strong> the saṃsara. Seated alone in some quiet<br />
place, he remains in constant samadhi, and attains its<br />
nirvikalpa form. The great Mother, the Supreme<br />
Prakṛ ti Mahāśakti, dwells in the heart of the sādhaka<br />
which is now the cremation ground wherein all passions<br />
have been burnt away. He becomes a Parama-haṃsa,<br />
who is liberated whilst yet living (jīvan-mukta).<br />
It must not, however, be supposed that each of<br />
these stages must necessarily be passed through by<br />
each jīva in a single life. On the contrary, they are<br />
ordinarily traversed in the course of a multitude of<br />
births. The weaving of the spiritual garment is recommenced<br />
where, in a previous birth, it was dropped, on<br />
death. In the present life a sādhaka may commence at<br />
any stage. If he is born in<strong>to</strong> Kaulācāra, and so is a<br />
1 Chapter XXIV.