Tantra

 

#Tantra the most miss understood, and most defamed path of Hinduism.

This has primarily happened cause of the invasion the Hindus of today, are what I would loosely call cultural Hindus actually that to isn’t a right word to describe, a better word will be Hindus in only shell or Hindus only in the name. The framework of west is so embedded in our lives and discourse, that we understand our own ideas like a western outsiders and are trying to justify, reject and tame it, to the framework, which we are trained. No matter if your on the right or left, both are trying to make Hinduism more palatable to their taste and reject all that which appears difficult to digest. That is why you have movement in the right which want to make Hinduism monotheistic, or dream of unquestioning unity, a cult of zombies, built on new triggers. On the other hand we have the left, who want Hinduism to be docile and non violent, to a point, that it willingly submits to the insults. Both the right and left hate tantra, worse they demonise it. And to add to it, some western white man, breaking away with all traditions and rules , after a few experiences , to make big buck has created an industry of tantra and used it to satisfy their worldly goals, yes tantra doesn’t ask you to reject worldly offerings, but it asks one to not be attached to it.

I don’t know if that statement is even understood but I try to put forward so that those capable will understand. after all spiritually isn’t fun and games, nor is it easy as often perceived, it need great deal of intellect, inner strength, iron strong will power, rock bottom humility and mad mad bravery, a good body and grace of lord and guru himself. That is why a yogi , a Bhairav, a siddha , a nath, a Buddha are called Purushottam (The best amongst mens).

So in my this effort to convey, what little I May know, I will use the tantric terms then to blandly translate them into English, cause the point of this article is to bring this complex system/philosophy/understanding, to that one person who is interested.

Tantra how did it originated , tantra came from Agam Nigam , a question and answers session between Ishwar Mahadev as Swachand Bhairav and maha shakti Parvati as Aghoreshwari Kurukulla. This was heard by sapt Rishis and mahamatysendra Nath or avalokeshwar Vishnu. And from there the threads of tantra started. So tantra starts from Shambhu Ishwar in the form of kaal Bhairav or swachand bhairav the cause of it is the questions of Devi kurukulla hence all Kulla Samayachar, kaulachar and veda or Puran starts here, but the first guru is shiv and then it goes through various parampara.

Now gurus are of different level from the Brahmin to parents to local saints these are manavoyga guru,then there is rishiyogya guru , devogya guru and finally siddhaogya guru. Some prominent guru besides shiv later in the tradition of tantra are Bhagwan Dakshinamurthy , Bhagwan Datatreya, Bhagwan mahamatsyendranath etc.

According to Shiva tantra is the best way of Dev Upasana in kaliyuga, like in satyug etc Vedic Upasana might be best but in kaliyuga tantra hold the top place, but tantra is gopniya(secretive loosely ) and encoded it can’t be practised by reading a book like Vedic Upasana, it strictly needs a guru that too not a self styled guru, but a guru from a guru parampara which is traced back to the source. So are we using tantra in anyway in our day today life the answer is yes, it is true,the puja we do on our festivals are more of, like 90% samayachar a tone down and very mild form of tantra, so much so it is not considered tantra but the ten percent is still tantra. Any process of deksha is a tantric process, invocation of god into any substance is tantric process to a great extent. And if you live in, say Kashmir , Himachal nepal region, Tibet (Kaulantak), Assam Bengal region(kamakhya Peeth), Oriya Andhra region (udiyan peeth), Konkan region(vam peeth) your basically a tantric , these are the places where tantra was developed or practiced in such a way that, it was interwoven in the day today life of an individual, these are also know as deshaj parampara here the tradition is passed through communities, where different families preserve and practice different threads of one large Vidya. The reason why tantra has a negative connotation can be traced here, these vidyas are powerful if performed rightly but the practitioner often don’t know it’s purpose, he does it as a tradition and then he might use it for small time material benefits, what was preserved in a family for well-being of the community, here the adogati starts, actually, when one start wishing Bad for someone cause he or she is different, say you don’t like a person and hence want him to go away, this is where actually you have initiated an abhichara tantra, now you don’t have Shakti, hence he doesn’t go away. But shows more of him to you, that’s natural reaction to your abhichara and adhogati in small way is initiated. Any serious tantric, which is 99% of them will never be even interested, in this abhichara or shatkarma, and never use it commercially. His intention is Upasana of the ishta Devta, and for that he needs urdha gaati, now what is Adhogati and urdhagati, a simple answer is one which takes you out of ignorance and towards control or better perception is urdagati, and one which drives you into ignorance is adhogati, where you loose control ur perception becomes shorter or myopic, which is the cause of pain.

So for devta upasan you need a larger perception, The Devtas are vast, very vast, that is they have been in this universe long before even humans were created, and will be there even after humans are gone, so our life of 100 years is not even a blind of an eye for them, and Upasana is a systematic path through which your aim is to have a meaningful conversation the devta, now Bhakti is fine , here Bhakti I mean that small emotional connect or what is today popularly called as Bhakti , cause Upasana is the systematic and highest form of Bhakti, with a aim to force the ishta to respond back to you, and have a real relationship.

Which is called siddhi, Siddhi is miss understood as control, it is just the ability to communicate with the divine, in very intense manner or invocation of that devta tatva into you, to its fullest. Like in tantra there are many types of samadhi but loosely the end stages are like samavesha,where there is no difference between you and the devta, like you both are one, your consciousness for lack of word is one with that of the Devta. Then there is sidhathva, where your close to moksha but then you choose to do Leela again and again. And then there is moksha or nirvana.

Now tantra has its stages or acharyas, and each of these Acharya, one might need even life times of practice to complete just a stage of it.

The first is Veda Acharya, what we do in our day today life, go to temples celebrate festival and do those rituals, by this we put smaskara into our body and mind, which propels us forward inch by inch, this a Hindu automatically does cause it is woven into his religion, that is why your fortunate.

The second Acharya is vaishnav Acharya, here your singular focus is on A form of Vishnu, and you do his Upasana with bhav (contemplate on Vishnu with all the love and emotions), and with observing all the rules of a Vaishnava.

Then is shaiv Acharya, here it is more of intellect focus and not so much on emotions (incomparison ), this is where you will study scriptures,Darshan and also do the rituals in shaiv padati.

Till here one need not need a Deeksha, once interest and someone’s upadesh (Keertan, pravachan, satsangh, etc are enough ).the speed of progress is also slow and repercussions are negligible, mostly it will only purify you step by step. The only thing which can bring you to adhogati in all these path is arrogance ( a perfect word in English in this situation). Now arrogance is universal leg puller in spirituality, it might be of anything my path is the best path or I know everything or anything after all arrogance comes in many shades.

Then comes dhakshina Acharya, here initiation (Deeksha), is very necessary form a guru , actually real tantra starts here.

There are many types of Deeksha shakt Abhishek Deeksha, Sparsh Deeksha( highest or most powerful ), etc. here thou it is right hand path so to say, so nothing exotic happens it is vegetarian with all the rules of vedas followed, but things get intense, the realm of experience starts here, so you can’t go wrong and that is why a guru is a must, in this case a living guru, who can guide you , handhold you, who knows things in and out, small things like assana sudhi, that is purification of the place to sit and many more things which can’t be told publicly is taught, even nyas which is inviting energies into your body with mantra, bandhan etc. here the heart of tantra, which is the mantra and yantra, one is exposed to. Mantra is loosely a frequency of the devta captured in sounds, now these sounds at base level are called beej (seed), now combination of these sounds can make the form and guna of the devta , yantra is both a map to reach the devta and a living form of devta, yantra mandala are like mandala art forms, this is a powerful technique and enough to take you to the ultimate state , there are many gurus from this Acharya, who reached samadhi.

The next where all the new age exotic things comes from is vamacharya, now these Acharya has Panch makar mansa (meat), matysa (fish) , mudra (symbols) , madya (alcohol) and maitun (sexual energies ) , it is aati guiya (hidden ) it has symbols which will scare away normal people, it’s text is all encoded a normal man, not into the system will end up doing something idiotic, if he tries. Even dhakshinacharya is encoded but not to this level, here everything has a altered meaning totally strange , this is what the westerners have picked up and created a mess out of it, just by following the text , it can’t be even understood without a right guru, and without raising your consciousness through the previous acharyas, one must complete those state and inculcate discipline to reach here. Yet he needs gurus grace and guidance, this is a lightning fast practice, this is kaulachar, but then the reason it is ati guya, is cause the rishis, the siddha and the Mahadev himself didn’t wanted ppl to directly jump here, cause it is super fast but it is super dangerous. The Kaulicks the Tibetans are vamacharis and even the deshj practice this is in some lesser form or the other.

Thou it has Panch makar, those things have encoded meaning and purpose to which is beyond the understanding of normal rational mind, that is where the adhikar comes in our shastras , adhikar is misunderstood as gate keeping, that we don’t allow it to everyone , actually all these Vidya, is for everyone but to get into it one must first make himself capable to handle and understand it, or he will make a mess out of it, like the white man did of tantra, and you have some half baked, some mumbo jumbo taught as kundalini and exploit of other humans done in the name of tantra. That is why adhikar is to be earned, by increasing once ability and it isn’t gate keeping for a class or creed or caste. Purify your self and you have it , it’s like an entrance test every one can attempt it but only who clears it will have the adhikar. And the last it is not the experience which will make you succeed experience are just mile stones not the end goal it is the practice which will make you succeed.

Thank you