Tantra is Ritualistic Yoga

Tantra is the practical side of Yoga Theory. Yoga, as found in scriptures like Patanjali's Astanga Yoga Sutras, Shiva Samhita, Goraksha Samhita, Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati of Gorakhnath, Gheranda Samhita, Hathayoga Pradipika of Svatmaram, etc give us the ideas of what can be achieved by the performing Yoga, what is the philosophy of Yoga. Just like in Veda, there are 2 sides like the Samhita for mantras, fire-rituals and Upanishads for theoretical meanings. But the actual practical side of yoga is found among the Tantrik Yogis. The Lotuses, or, Chakras in the central channel (Sushumna), the various other channels (nadi-s), Kundalini energy, Kula and Akula points, Kama-Kala, these things have been extensively discussed in the Tantras. But this knowledge is lying scattered among many Tantra and Yoga scriptures. The Tantra-practitioners for ages were the prominent heads of Shiva (Shaiva, Nath, Siddha, Pashupata) schools (who were either householders or, recluse yogi monks), or, Shakti (Kalikula, Yamala, Kaula, Kapalika, Sri-kula) clans (who were mostly householder yogis). They held the secrets of the innermost esoteric yogic practices, which were only handed down from the Guru (master / adept yogi) to the chosen disciples. Often the Guru-s gave this secret only to their sons/daughters, to keep the family in a position of esteem and power. The students who received these verbal instructions were venerated and begged from for revelations by multitudes of Tantriks.
Gradually, due to slackness and ignorance, deformed practices began to creep in among the lineages. Tantra is supposed to be the art and science of living in direct communion with God. But as the path of tantra began to lead away from the highest ideal of spirituality, the sincere Yogi Masters felt the need to put down their knowledge into codified text, or, Tantrik scriptures, for fear of the original knowledge getting lost with time. The main form of Tantra is almost always, the Supreme Yogi Shiva answering the questions of the Mother Goddess Parvati. Devi Parvati asks the various intricate hidden secrets of Tantric lore, from many angles, the yoga behind it, the secret syllables, or, Bija Mantras, Nyasa-s for sanctifying the human body, Kavachas (armors) to bind and protect it from malefic forces. In this way numerous Tantras came into being, containing in them the esoteric lore of the masters, in the traditional form of Shiva-Parvati dialog.

The main purpose of Tantra is to weave spirituality with chores and activities of daily life. Tantra doesn't command the yogi to throw away his needs and yearnings of mundane life and go to the forest alone as a recluse. On the contrary, Tantra understands the daily human needs and sympathizes with people with lesser control over their senses. Everyone has a right to ascend the spiritual ladder, but not everyone is destined to lead a monk's life. Tantra is more inclusive than exclusive. It envelopes a very wide range of human traits and mental structures. Hence Tantra allows one to lead a normal life and slowly include the subtleties of yogic discipline into their lives, in stages.
It should also be noted that Tantrik Masters codified the secrets with multiple layers of meaning. It means a different thing for the Yogi of a higher level, and something else for a Beginner Yogi and something crude or, unintelligible for the layman. This was done intentionally to ward off onlookers and keep the delicate things hidden. The other purpose of writing Tantra in a cryptic language was to avoid persecution and abuse of the system by unbelievers. If you don't understand something, you cannot pin-point a technique or, call it a profanation. Tantrik yogis were severely criticized in the past centuries and sometimes punished due to their creepy behavior, or, abhorrent practices. There are several scriptural verses supporting this secretive trend. There are other verses banning, prohibiting or, cursing some Tantrik texts that were considered "not so good".

Verses:?

In modern times, all kinds of ritual worship of most gods/ deities in Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism are performed by following the edicts of Tantrik discipline. Some Purana-s (Myths, Legends and ancient Hindu history) admit the efficacy and validity of Tantra. It is surprising to note that the earliest masters of Yoga were also the earliest originators of Tantra. (Like Shiva, Nandinath, Parashurama, Dattatreya, Matsyendranath/ Machchendra-Nath, Goraksha/ Gorakhnath, Rishi Durvasa, Rishi Vishwamitra, Rishi Agastya, Rishi-Vyasa, Adi-Shankaracharya, etc.) As the Shiva-Shakti structure of Tantra took hold of the Hindu world of spiritual practices, and as Tantra began to yield astounding results in a very little time, it began to be copied among other clans. In this way, five principal of deities of Hindu faith had their own Tantra scriptures. Thus we have Tantras for Shiva, Shakti, Sun, Ganesha and Vishnu. Tantras created around more than 2000 years ago are lost now. The oldest among the Hindu Tantras are Bhairava and Yogini Tantras. Many of the original Hindu Tantras have been copied verse by verse into Vajrayana Buddhist pantheon. Before that, during the later Vedic stages, the Tantras were called Prayoga Shastra-s, meaning Practical Scriptures.

By Amitabha Chatterjee (student of Sri Dayal-Baba & Sri Lalbaba)

To be continued.(30/09/2014)
 

Is Hindu Idol Worship Paganism or, Kafer?

When someone repeatedly denigrates your revered Deity (Ista-Devata), and use hateful terms to describe that form of God, one must not swallow that silently. He who is knowledgeable, must protest. Word spreads like forest-fire over the internet. And people ignorant of the actual Hindu culture are prone to believe the bogus hateful propaganda and form wrong ideas.

Instead of "Unity in Diversity" view of the Veda, some people intentionally spread Lies and still call that "Vedic"! Veda is the reservoir of  infinite knowledge, realized by sages (Rishi, Yogi) in transcendental meditation. The unpronounceable Truth obtained in samadhi state is then converted into words (which is a weak vehicle of ideas) and put down into the vedic verses. These verses taught by Gurus to their disciples in unbroken lineages through thousands of years. The Veda, Vedanta, Yoga-sutras, Tantra s (mostly) are records of realizations by authentic yoga-masters.

There is only One God, who is as such beyond names and forms. This has been said again and again all over the Vedic scriptures. How then can Hindus be called Pagans? As for the idol-worship of Hindus, there is a deep scientific truth behind it. One should not misjudge the Hindu religion and belittle it.

The greatness of Hinduism is that it allows one to choose the form of God according to one's liking. Hinduism is very open minded and NOT rigid. This is very good, because there are numerous kinds of people with various natural traits. All kinds of people cannot accept only one form to worship, just as someone likes to eat sweet things, another likes salty food, another still likes it sour. The taste is unimportant, as long as it satisfies the mind and gives us nourishment. So Hinduism/Sanatana Dharma allows various deities. But behind all those forms, there is only one God. And in reality, there is only one Absolute Consciousness, and that is BEYOND NAMES AND FORMS. Veda: "Na tasya pratima asti yasya naam mahadyasha." The Glorious Supreme Being doesn't have any form.

In Veda, Rudra, Vishnu, Adi-Shakti (Devi-sukta of Rigveda) are all Equal and Valid forms of God. None is lesser than the other. These narrow views have been created by ignorant sectarians at a later age in the form of insertions in the Puranas. Veda and Upanishads say that God is all-pervading, always present everywhere. Whatever we look at is an expression of God. So the wise Rishis advised the common people to worship God in beautiful forms, to focus their minds. Ordinary people are unable to visualize the Formless. Nor can we praise God without words, hence the many names and forms of God. Furthermore, the various idols of God were obtained from the meditations of Yogis, which are deeply meaningful. These idols were not created from imagination at random. God expressed Himself to sages in transcendental states and these have been passed down as meditation-guides or, Dhyana-mantras. Later artists were appointed to sculpt these idols following the mantras. So, Hindus worship that One Infinite God of all creation in idols. They don't revere the idol-material or, lumps of rock or, metal, but send their prayers to the all pervading Spirit (Paramtaman) within, that cannot be perceived with the sense organs.

Some wrongly call Hindus Kafer because of their buth-parasti (idol worship), as the accusers are not aware of the science behind that worship. To imagine the formless is not only difficult, but impossible. The mind unavoidably imagines some form. The Muslims imagine the Arabic calligraphy of "Allah", or, the image of Kaaba, or, some light (Noor), the Christians imagine Jesus in a cross, the followers of Buddha worship his image, all the above are NOT FORMLESS. In the Veda, God is Avang-manas-gochara, meaning Beyond the capacity of speech and mind. So, that is formless. No name can describe it, no image can grasp it. To imagine a deity is only a means to focus the restless mind on some aspect of God.

Only the Yogis among the Hindus can truly meditate on the formless Niranjan Paramatman. I am sure true Islamic sages must also have realized the Allah in a formless manner. But that mental level cannot be reached by the ordinary masses. For them there must be some image to focus on.