Page Text
________________
TANTRA
Hence the great Tantric formula (so different from that of the earlier Hindu yogic disciplines): yoga (the yoking of empirical consciousness to transcendental consciousness) and bhoga ("enjoyment," the experience of life's joy and suffering) are the same. Bhoga itself can be made a way of yoga.
But it requires a hero (vira) to confront and assimilate, in perfect equanimity, the whole wonder of the World Creatrixto make love, without hysterical reactions, to the Life-force, which is the śakti of his own entirety. The "five good things" (pañcatattva), which are the "forbidden things" of the ordinary men and women of the herd, serve as sacramental fare for one who not only knows but feels that the World Force (śakti) is in essence himself. In Tantra, the worship of the World Creatrix in her own terms is rendered possible; for cohabitation (maithuna), her own supreme holy rite, is realized not in the spirit of the pasu ("cattle"; the human animal of the herd, desiring, fearing, and enjoying in the usual animal-human way), but of the vira ("hero") who knows himself to be identical with Śiva. "Om," he prays (and knows); "into the Fire which is Spirit (atman) brightened by the pouring on of the ghee of merit and demerit, I, by the path of yoga (suşumņā), ever sacrifice the functions of the senses, using the mind as the ladle of the offering. Hallelujah!"
32
The fruit of the rite then is release from illusion, which is the highest gift of Kālī, the dark and beautiful Goddess-Dancer of the Cremation Ground.
82
Om
Dharmadharma-havirdipte ātmāgnan manasă srucā
Susumnāvartmanānityam aksavṛttir juhomyaham: Svāhā. (Tantrasara 698; Woodroffe, op. cit., p. 559.)
580
| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |