Philosophies of India

SR No.: 007309
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

Page 611

TANTRA
titled to all his possessions; indeed, himself the rich man, the alter-ego of his lord. 14
But the rites and grades of service are governed by the spiritual character of the devotee. This is a basic principle of all Indian psychological training. The personality endowed with rajas (the quality of vigor and action) will require a different sādhana liom one steeped in tamas, while the godlike inan of brilliant sativa will be fit for still another way. In the Tantric vocabulary these three types are known, respectively, as vīra, the hero, pašu, the dark-witted animal of the herd, and divya, the godlike, luminous saint.
It is noteworthy, and perhaps a symptom of Kșatriya provenience, that in the classic Tāntric Āgamas the emphasis is given to the vīra, the man of rājasic disposition. According to the ideal and way of the Vedānta, rajas was to be subdued by sativa, all the disciplines being founded on the principle of the perfect mirror-pond, but in the classic Tāntric rcalization the victory was achieved by way of the passions themselves: they were challenged, directly faced, and ridden as a mettlesome stallion by a knight. The "five good things,” which for the pasu, thc pedestrian, the man of the herd, represent only danger, became the pre-eminent vehicles of attainment. “The five essential elements in the worship of Sakti," the Mahānirvāṇa Tantra states, "have been prescribed to be wine, meat, fish, parched grain, and the union of man with woman. The worship of Sakti without these five elements is but the practice of evil magic (abhicāra: a ritual that injures or destroys); the power that is the object of the discipline is never attained thereby, and obstacles are encountered at every step. As sced sown on barren rocks does not germinate, so worship (pūjā) without these five elements is fruitless." 45 These statements are quoted in the text as the words of Siva to
44 Saddharma-pundarika 4; cf. supra, pp. 508-509. 45 Mahānitvāņa Tantra 5. 22-24. (Translation by Avalon, The Great Liberation, pp. 89-90).
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