Probably you think that it sounds like a long list of unrelated practices. But they are not. All of them belong to an overlapping series of mystic practices. These practices can be found in almost any part of the world, in any time period, though these keep changing in terms of their meaning, details, and the purpose.
One of my Indian friends once attended a so called ‘sweat lodge ceremony’ in a remote Red Indian village in the US. Apparently, it involves heating a large boulder in a closed tent. The people who participate in the ritual keep splashing water on the piping hot boulder, muttering some secret words, and going around the boulder one after the other. A thick cloud of steam fills that closed tent, and my friend says that he had all kinds of mystical experiences participating in that ritual.
I don’t know what the red Indians expected from such rituals, but my Indian friend could easily connect it to the fire rituals that Indian Hindus often perform. Though the exact details or the goals are different, they showed how human minds can come up with very similar practices even when they are geographically far apart.
In the Indian context, probably such mystic practices had their origins in the ancient Tantric practices. Literally, the word Tantra just means a technique. Even a surgical procedure is a tantra in the Indian parlance. It is called shalya tantra. But this simple word with wide ranging usage, has gradually acquired myriad meanings over a long period of time.
Most westerners somehow associate the word Tantra with sex. Sex was very much part of the Tantra system that developed in India from ancient times. These practices had religio-spiritual connotation. The basic idea was to gain supremacy over the material forces by refusing to succumb to basic bodily instincts such as fear, disgust, hunger, craving, sexual urge, and so on.
Accordingly, the well-known 5 ‘M’ s formed the core ingredients of Tantric practices. These 5 ‘M’ s stand for Madya – alcoholic drink, Mamsa – meat especially extracted from partially burnt corpses, Mantra – mystical chants, Mudra – mystical body contortions meant to gain control over natural body functions during sex, and finally Maithuna – ritual sex.
Many modern-day purists refuse to accept this ancient history of Tantra. They claim that such practices were only a degenerate case of Tantra which they call as Aghora Tantra or Vamacara. They further Anglicize the words like Vamacara and DakshiNachara to mean ‘left-handed Tantra’ and ‘right-handed Tantra’! They want to paint a goody, goody picture of ancient Tantra and brush aside socially unacceptable practices by clubbing them as degenerate cases.
I suspect that words ‘Vama’ and ‘DakshiNa’ have very little to do with the sanctity of the hands, but they just mean ‘practices followed in the North’ and ‘those practiced in the South’. When one faces the Sun, his left hand or Vama Hasta points to the North, and his right hand or DakshiNa hasta points to the south. So, accordingly, the Tantra practices followed in the North of the Himalayas in the Indo-China region were called Vama Tantra or Vamachara and those followed in the South of the Himalayas was called DakshiNa Tantra or Dakshinachara. This possibility is further strengthened by the observation that Vama Tantra is also called Chinachara – the practice followed in China. Probably, it was an import from China.
Even today, 5 ‘M’ based Tantric practices are still followed in Parts of China especially Tibet and surrounding regions. I remember listening to Dalai Lama talking about them though they normally don’t emphasize on it much.
Over a period of time, some of the practices of Vama Tantra were refined to make them more socially acceptable. That might have given rise to DakshiNa Tantra in India, though one can see overlap between the two in some parts of Eastern India such as Bengal, Assam etc.
As I said, the goal of these Tantric practices was to gain control over nature or material things. What happens when one gains control over them? In the least, one can manipulate nature the way he likes. He can fly, he can become invisible, he can penetrate any barrier, and so on, since no material thing can limit such a master. In the extreme case, such a Tantric can become immortal!
Today, most people think that Yoga is all about health and body fitness. But actually, many of the Yogic practices that are in vogue today are actually part of Hatayoga which is an offshoot of Tantric practices. Many don’t like to accept such a connection between Yoga and presumably abhorring Tantric practices. But the fact remains that many of today’s Yogic practices are actually continuation of Tantric beliefs and aspirations.
Though many modern renowned Gurus write books on ‘Yoga’ and try to imply Yoga of Patanjali, these Gurus knowingly or unknowingly propagate Hatayoga which is quite different from Yoga of Patanjali. Despite some superficial similarities, these two are inherently different.
Hatayoga also revolves around conquering the nature or the material body. The word Hata in Hatayoga is meant to imply this forceful attempt to ascertain supremacy over nature. If you read original Hatayoga texts, it is full of techniques or Tantra to achieve this goal. Though Hatayoga admits health angle of Yogic postures or Asana, their primary purpose was to help in the arousal of the mystic force Kundalini.
Kundalini is yet another offshoot of old Tantric belief system which is so popular today that many will not even like my calling it so. I will leave the details to my book “Hatayoga myths shattered”. You can find many often-glossed details about Hatayoga in that book.
Symbolically, Hatayoga like Tantric practices are indicated by a triangle with its apex pointing down. That is indicative of not only the perineum area around which most of Hatayoga concepts revolve, but also the lower turned apex is supposed to imply practices that are directed towards worldly existence. Basically, these practices focus on acquiring special psychic powers, the so called Ashta Siddhis. They also aim at attaining immortality – both of which were the goals of original Tantric practices.
On the extreme end of the Tantric spectrum, we have what is called Samayachara symbolized by a triangle pointing upwards. Samayachara believes in union with the divine with no worldly interest whatsoever. The basic mechanism is through meditation.
There is a third variety which is in between. It tries to combine both aspects of Tantra and aims at achieving worldly as well as out-worldly goals. This system is often symbolized using two intersecting triangles, one pointing up and the other pointing down – something like a ‘star’ sign. This symbolism of intersecting triangles forms the core of many ritual devices called Mandalas or Yantras used in this system. This system has unlimited number of practices and is called by a variety of names, the most popular being Sri Vidya.
Sri Vidya is basically rich in ritual practices with reformed Tantric concepts and ideas. The socially abhorring 5 ‘M’ are replaced by ‘softer’ equivalents. Devotion to the chosen deity takes the center stage. It tries to amalgamate conflicting ideas and goals – Yoga – union with the divine, as well as Bhoga – enjoyment of worldly pleasures. A single supreme divinity as well as unlimited number of deities, each of whom are supreme in their own way, are envisaged, all of whom providing an interface to the practitioner at the human level.
Most of the Hindu practices today, are centered around this in-between or Madhyama form of soft Tantra which tries to talk both about being in the world, as well as getting liberated from the world at the same time! It is a vast set of practices that literally seem to have no end.
How does one react to such a wide variety of practices or Tantra built over thousands of years and still being practiced in different parts of the world, especially in India? Are they the right way to go as many modern ‘YouTube Gurus’ try to suggest? Let us take up this issue in the next episode.
No comments:
Post a Comment