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TANTRA
being, for example, a virgin (kumārīpūjā), or the worshiper's wife.
The first act of devotion consists in contemplating inwardly the mental image of the deity and then projecting the spiritual energy (tejas) of that inner subtle form into the gross outer image. This consecration is known as prāṇapratiṣṭhā, "the consignment (pratiṣṭhā) of the vital breath (prāna)." It is to be undone again at the conclusion of the period of worship by a "dismissal" (visarjana) of the holy presence, following which the image is no longer the seat of a deity (pitha), and may be thrown away. The worshiper sends forth and takes back again the shining form, just as the Creator sends forth and takes back again into his infinite substance the manifold of the cosmos-and by virtue of the same infinitude (brahman-ātman) within, as well as the same miracle of māyā. Later, when the initiate learns to recognize and spontaneously respond to the presence of the divinity everywhere, in all things, he no longer requires the pedagogical assistance of this ritual, but meanwhile his mind and sentiments must be given help. The little miracle of transubstantiation, however, is rather a microcosmic than a macrocosmic crisis. Divinity itself cannot be said to have been actually summoned and dismissed; rather, the realization of divinity has been facilitated. For, whereas the adept in the condition of perfect realization beholds and reveres the whole world as an icon or seat (pitha) of the Universal Presence, the usual member of the human herd (pasu) requires all the assistance of religion to bring his mind from the common, animal, economic-political mode of considering things, to the contemplative attitude of a luminous intuition.
The rites performed in the presence of a consecrated image are the counterparts of the secular rituals of daily life. The god is welcomed as a guest, with flowers, obeisance, washing of the feet, food, water for bathing, cloth for garments, jewels, per582
