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TANTRA
edly done wicked things, but I won't repeat them.' And have faith in his name."
Sri Rāmakrishna sang:
If only I can pass away repeating Durga's name; How canst Thou then, O Blessed One, Withhold from me deliverance, Wretched though I may be? ...
Then he said: “To my Divine Mother I prayed only for pure love, I offered flowers at Her Lotus Feet and prayed to Her: 'Mother, here is Thy virtue, here is Thy vice. Take them both and grant me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy knowledge, here is Thy ignorance. Take them both and grant me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy purity, here is Thy impurity. Take them both, Mother, and grant me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy dharma, here is Thy adharma. Take them both, Mother, and grant me only pure love for Thee.” 10
In Tantra the theistic attitude practically obliterates the abstract ideal of the Formless Brahman (nirguna brahman) in favor of Brahman-in-the-Guņas (saguna brahman)-the Lord (išvara), the personal God; and the latter is represented by the Tāntrics preferably in the female aspect, since in this the nature of Māyā-Śakti is most immediately affirmed.11 Thc Tāntric development supported the return to power in popular Hinduism of the figure of the Mother Goddess of the innumerable
10 lb., pp. 135-139 (with a few bricf omissions).
11 The Agamas (Tantric writings) are divided into five main groups according to the personification celebrated: Sürya (the sun god), Ganesa ("Lord of the Hosts," the elephant-headed son of Siva, who is the Indian counterpart of Hermes, breaker of the way and guide of the soul), Sakti, Siva, and Visnu, the last three being today by far the most important. Tântric principles and practices have been applied also to the worship of the Mahāyāna Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; the Yab-Yum symbolism is Tāntric.
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