Tantra is closely related to the Vedas
and shows a pronounced influence of the Upanishads as well as of yoga.
Reality according to the Tantra is Chit,
or Pure Consciousness, which is identical with Sat, or Pure Being and Ananda,
or pure Bliss. Thus both Vedanta and Tantra show a general agreement about the
nature of Reality, with an important difference.
According to the Vedas, Satchitananda, or
Brahman, is in Its true nature Pure Spirit; maya, which is inherent in It,
functions only on the relative plane at the time of creation, preservation and dissolution
of the universe, neither is the creation ultimately real, nor is created
beings, for true knowledge reveals only an undifferentiated Consciousness.
According to Tantra on the other hand,
Satchitananda is called Shiva-Shakti, the word suggests that Siva, or the
Absolute, and Shakti, or the created power are eternally conjoined like a word
and its meaning: the one cannot be thought without the other. A conception of
Pure Consciousness or Being which denies Shakti, or its creative power to
become, is, according to Tantra, only half of the truth.
Satchitananda is essentially endowed
with the power of self-evolution and self-involution. Therefore, the perfect
experience is the experience of the whole – that is to say, of Consciousness of
Being and Consciousness of power to become.
It is only on the relative world that
Shiva and Shakti are thought of as separate entities. Furthermore, Tantra
affirms that both the world process and the jiva, or individual soul, are real,
and not mere illusory superimposition upon Brahman. In declaring that java
becomes finally one with reality, Tantra differs from Dualism.
Maya, according to Tantra, veils Reality
and polarizes it into what is conscious and what is unconscious, what is
existent and what is non-existent, what is pleasant and what is unpleasant.
Through polarization, the Infinite becomes finite, the Undifferentiated
differentiated, the immeasurable measured.
Though Reality evolves by its own power
into animate and inanimate entities, yet at its core it always remains pure
consciousness, Being and Bliss. In the state of evolution, Reality does not
cease to be Itself, though neither the act nor the fact of evolution is denied
by Tantra.
Thus the finite centre in any position
in the process of evolution never ceases to be a point of Pure Reality through
which the Infinite opens itself and through which It can be reached. When the
jiva reaches this point, it is none other than Reality, and when it faces the
veil of maya, it is finite, conditioned and bound. Thus in every jiva centre
there are elements of individuality and infinitude, phenomenality and reality. One
direction of the functioning of maya, called the “outgoing current” creates the
jive centre with its fetters; a reversal of this direction, called the “return
current,” reveals the Infinite.
The various impulses and desires
associated with the outgoing current forms, as it was the net of the phenomenal
world in which the jive has been caught.
Some of these impulses appear to be
cardinal or primary knots in the net. The only question is how to transform
these cardinal impulses for the material enjoyment into spiritual experiences
(yoga); how to bring about the sublimation of desires. If this can be done,
what now binds will be reversed in its working, and the finite jiva realizes
its identity with Infinite Reality.
The jiva, caught in the outgoing
current, perceives duality and cherishes the notion of pleasure and pain,
acceptance and rejection, body and soul, spirit and matter, and so on. But if
the non-duality of Shiva-Shakti alone exists, as asserted by Tantra, all these
distinctions must be relative. Thus the distinction between man and women, the
desire for each other which is one of the cardinal desires and the physical
union between them all belong to the relative plane, where a perennial conflict
between flesh and the spirit is assumed, and where the jiva acts like an animal
bound by the fetters of common convention.
The distinction is a valid one and may
even be valuable as long as the jiva remains on the relative plane. The
observance of moral and social conventions, however desirable on that plane,
does not make the jiva other than an animal.
In order that the jive may know, that it
is really Siva (the Absolute), it must resolve every kind of duality and
realize the fact that whatever exists and functions on the physical and moral
level is Shiva-Shakti, the ever inseparable Reality and its Power. When one
realizes that the whole process of creation, preservation and dissolution is
but the manifestation of Lila, of Shakti-Shiva, one does not see anything
carnal or gross in the universe; for such a person everything becomes an
expression of Shiva-Shakti.
The special technique of the Tantric
discipline is to transform the outgoing current of diversification into the
return current of gradual integration, to gather separation, polarity, and even
opposition into identification, harmony and peace.
The two currents, however, do not
operate singly, one excluding the other; they are concurrent, though the
emphasis, which oscillates, is now laid on one and now on the other. Thus in
all affirmations of duality and difference, the affirmation of non-duality an
identity is immanent, and one sees unity, equalities and similarities and not a
mere chaos of colliding particles, even when the outgoing current functions in
the creation and preservation of the universe. Our ordinary experience, too
shows system, though this system reveals to us limited and conditional
identities. In brief, though differentiation is the prevailing feature of the
outgoing current, identity is either implicit in or conditionally visible.
How to affirm an identity which is
veiled
The method of Non-dualistic Vedanta as
we have previously discussed is to negate all limiting injunctions which it
calls unreal, until one sees nothing but Brahman, or pure consciousness, in the
man and woman. In order to reach the affirmation of oneness, every part of
duality must be discarded; in other words Vedanta asks to renounce the world of
names and forms. But this is more easily said then done, for such renunciation
is not for everyone.
Tantra, whose technique is different,
prescribes the discipline of sublimation. Physical man and women, floating
along the outgoing current of the cosmic process, are no doubt different from
each other, but by means of the return current they can be sublimated into
cosmic principles and realized as the one whole that is Shiva-Shakti.
In reversing the outgoing current, the
aspirant has to bring together the compliments or poles so as to realize their
identity; thus the physical union of man and woman is sublimated into the
creative union of Shiva-Shakti.
The Tantric method of sublimation
consists of three steps: purification, elevation and reaffirmation of identity
on the plane of Pure Consciousness. First the aspirant must rid himself of
dross of grossness by reversing the outgoing current into the return current.
According to Tantra, in the process of evolution, the pure cosmic principles at
a certain stage cross the line and pass into impure principles, the later constituting
the realm of nature, which is like a coiled curve, in which the jive is held
prisoner and where it wanders, caught in a net of natural determinism from
which there is no escape unless the coiled curve can be made to uncoil itself
and open a channel for its release and ascend into the realm of pure cosmic
principles. Until this is done the jiva remains afloat on the outgoing current,
moves with it, and cherishes desires which are gross and carnal. Whether
yielding pleasure or pain , these desires fasten the chain upon it with
additional links. Its hope lies in uncoiling the coil of nature that has closed
upon it. This is called in the technical language of Tantra the ‘awaking of the
Kundalini, or the coiled up serpent power, by which one moves from the plane
impure principles to that of pure principles. The head of this serpent is
turned downward; it must be turned upward. This change of direction of the
serpent power, which after evolving the jiva remains involved in it, is called
purification.
The next step is called elevation: the
order in which the cosmic principles move along the outgoing current must be
reversed with the starting of the return current. Ascend is to be made in the
order that is the reverse in which the descent was made. The aspirant must
raise himself from the grosser and more impure elements to the subtler and
purer ones until he attain to the realization of Shakti-Shiva.
The last step is reaffirmation in consciousness
of his identity with Shiva-Shakti. This is the general framework of the method of
sublimation into which all the methods of sublimation can be fitted that are
followed by the Dualistic, Non Dualistic and other systems of thought.
The spiritual awakening of the
practitioner id described in Tantra by means of symbols of the awakening and
rising Kundalini Power.
What is this Kundalini?
Properly understood it is not something
mystical or esoteric, peculiar to Tantra, but the basis of the experience described
by all religious faith. Every genuine spiritual experience, such as the seeing
of light or a vision, or communion with the Deity, is only a manifestation of
the ascent of the Kundalini.
Let us understand the Kundalini with the
help of physical science. There are two kinds of energy in a particle of
matter: potential and kinetic, the sum total of which is a constant. The
kinetic energy, which is only a fraction of the total energy, is responsible
for the movement or action of the particle. There exists a particular ratio
between the kinetic and the total energy; when this ratio is changed by
intermolecular action, the nature of the particle changes: one element is
transferred into another.
According to Tantra, the Kundalini, in
the form of cosmic energy, is present in everything, even in a particle of
matter. Only a fraction of it, like the kinetic energy, is operative, while an
unmeasured presidium is left, like the potential energy, coiled up and untapped
at the base of the spine. It is a vast potential of power, of which the
operative energy, like the kinetic energy of the particle, is only a fraction.
In the jiva centre there is also this
potential energy of the Kundalini, which is the storehouse of the energy of the
body (physical, subtle and causal), and also the active energy of the
Kundalini, which accounts for the action and movement of the jiva.
The coiled up Kundalini is the central
pivot upon which the whole complex apparatus of the body and mind moves and
turns. A specific ration between the active and total energy of the Kundalini determines
the present condition and behaviour of the bodily apparatus. A change in the
ratio is necessary to effect a change in its present working efficiency by
transforming the grosser bodily elements into finer. A transformation, and
sublimation of the physical, mental and vital apparatus is only possible
through what is called the rousing of the Kundalini and it re-orientation from
downward facing to upward facing.
By the former the physical body has been
made a coiled curve limited in character, restricted in functions
possibilities.
By the force of the latter it breaks its
fetters and transcends its limitations. This is the general principle. But there
are different forms of spiritual principles by which this latent power can be
acted upon.
Faith, love act as a most powerful lever
to raise the coiled up Kundalini; so also does the discipline of rajas and
jnana yoga, as well as the repetition of the Lord’s name or a holy mantra and
even music help in the process.
Tantra recognizes all this. The student
of Tantra should bear in mind the psychological aspect of the process of the
raising of the Kundalini, which is more of an unfoldment, expansion, and
elevation of consciousness than a mechanical accession to an increased and
higher power.
The aim of waking the Kundalini is not
the acquisition of greater power for the purpose of performing miracles or the
enjoyment of material pleasure; it is the realization of Satchitananda.
The passage of the awakening of the
Kundalini lies through the Sushumna, which is the central nerve in the nervous
system. A kind of hollow canal, the Sushumna passes through the spinal column connecting
the base centre chakra at the bottom of the spine with the centre in the
cerebrum.
Tantra speaks of six centres through
which the sushumna passes; these centres are so many spheres or planes,
described in Tantra as different colored lotuses with varying numbers of
petals. In the ordinary worldly person these pedals are closed and the lotuses
drop down like buds. As the Kundalini rises through the sushumna canal and
touches the centres, these buds turn upward as fully opened flowers and the
student attains spiritual experiences. The goal of spiritual practice is to
make the Kundalini rise from the lower and grosser centres to those which are
higher and more conscious. During this upward journey of the Kundalini, the
jiva is not quite released from the relative state until it reaches the sixth
centre or plane, which is the opening for the experience of Ultimate Reality.
At the sixth centre (the two-pedalled white lotus located the junction of the
eyebrows) the jiva sheds its ego and burns the seed of duality, and its higher
Self rise from the ashes of its lower self. It now dies physically, as it were,
in order to be able to live in Pure Consciousness. The sixth centre is the key
by which the power in the thousand pedalled lotus in the cerebrum, which is
like the limitless ocean, is switched on to the little reservoir which is the
individual self, filling the latter and making it overflow and cease to be the
little reservoir. Finally the Kundalini rises to the lotus at the cerebrum and
becomes united with Shiva, or the Absolute; and the student realizes, in the
transcendental consciousness, his union with Shiva-Shakti.
