It was back in the year 2006, when I worked in a media house in
Delhi. One day, a colleague randomly came up to me and said: “You are a Bengali;
you must know tantra and black magic.”
Caught off guard and without any knowledge of the connection between
Shamanism and Bengal, I had shot back: “If I knew that, don’t you think I would
be somewhere else and not slogging my a** here?”
In one of the serendipitous instances when I randomly pick up the
right books at the right time, I chanced upon a book at the Oxford Book Shop in
Darjeeling a couple of years back. The subtitle of the book - ‘Life Lessons
from the Himalayas’ – had caught my attention. Surprisingly (or not so), the
story turned out to be about the author’s Shamanistic (Shaiva Tantra) journey
in the mountains. Consciously or unconsciously, I was getting drawn to the
mysticism around Shamanism and Tantra at that time. A slow read, the book
opened up a whole new philosophy to me along with the realization that, way
back in 2006, both the colleague and I were not only highly ignorant but also had
fallen prey to the popular notion that Tantra was bad as it dealt only with
black magic and sex.
(Shaiva and Shakti) Tantra, as was followed in the East of India and
Nepal, predates Vedas. Tantra is not a religion but a heterodox tradition which
has been passed on orally by teachers to students chosen by them. Loosely
translated, Tantra would mean expansion of your mind for liberation. None of
the written materials found till now on Tantra really do justice to what it
really is. Distortions to the Tradition started with the brahminical hegemony which
saw Shiva (Tantra’s prime ‘deity’) as a low-caste uncouth being as opposed to
Vishnu, a typical representation of a brahminical god, fair skinned, erudite
and upper caste. But despite their efforts, Shiva remained extremely popular
among the people. As a result, they had to incorporate him into the ‘Hindu’
pantheon of gods. Similarly, to show women their rightful place in an evolving
patriarchal system and to tame their potency, all representations of Shakti
were given secondary positions as wives of the gods. Vilification of the Tradition
started perhaps due to its unorthodox philosophy and practices as against some
of the ‘Hindu’ teachings, and also perhaps to bring people under the brahminical
fold. Unlike other religions which put restrictions on people’s conduct and
behavior by terming them good or bad, Shaiva Tantra allows people to experience
everything (practical knowledge) but mindfully. The ultimate aim is to
understand the self, the interconnectedness of things and balance of nature,
and through that free ourselves from our self-created and self-focused rigid
confines.
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| Paintings by Mira |
Shaiva Tantra’s Aims of
Life:
Dharma: Fulfillment of moral duty (to oneself first); to choose to think,
say and do nothing to one’s or others’ detriment; to actively engage in living
and loving fully and wisely; and not just for personal gains but to restore
balance in oneself, family, society etc.
Artha: The greatest of Earth’s hidden treasure is self-knowledge. It aims
to achieve prosperity in our material endeavors but within the confines of
Dharma, that is, not for personal gains or through means which harm others.
Worldly achievements are not separate from so-called ‘spiritual’ achievements
as other religions emphasize; but to be achieved to sustain a society where all
can flourish according to their own nature.
Kama: Embrace, heighten, and explore all pleasures accessible to our
senses in everyday life. Touch, smell, sound, nature, music, art, dance,
friends, alcohol. And yes, sex! To be
fully active in the world and not be enslaved by it. Because only a happy,
healthy, and gratified body and mind can attend to other aims of life.
Moksha: To learn to find resolution to apparent contradictions – kindness
and cruelty, light and darkness, beauty and suffering, compassion and
indifference etc. To understand that all these play a part in the balance of
our universe, to develop empathy and dynamic compassion, to realize that we
already have all we need to be complete, to be all that we can be.
Some of the Yamas (vows
or restraints on personal conduct):
Ahimsa: The wisdom gained in learning to avoid causing harm to oneself or
others by either thoughts or words or actions. Even personal gain at the
detriment of another by whatever means – including at the price of your own
self-respect and integrity – is considered a form of violence.
Alobha: The wisdom gained by learning to live without selfish ambition. Aspiration
in every aspect of life is essential but not at the cost of inner violence of
greed, pride, and jealousy. To discover that it is not in taking from others,
but by giving to ourselves without thought of personal profit that we truly
gain the most.
Asteya: The wisdom gained by learning not to steal – neither by body, nor
intellect, nor word. To extinguish the desire to possess something that belongs
to others – material wealth, social rank, talents, reputation, appearances etc.
Tyaga: Wisdom gained by learning to release attachment to material
possessions. It does not propose a state of poverty which would be unrealistic
and miserable, but it encourages us to recognize that the desire to possess is
a tireless cycle that can never be fulfilled, and to value only that which is
necessary to live healthily and freely.
Brahmacharya: Not sexual chastity as commonly believed. But to resolve the deep
conflict that we suffer due to the disparity between our true nature and the
familial, social, religious expectations, and beliefs we keep conforming to.
The wisdom learnt in seeking to live according to our true nature.
But what I liked the most about the Tradition, is its philosophy of the
Shakti (female energy that is the Universe) and the place it accords to women
in the society as a result. In the Yogini Tantra, women are encouraged to speak
and act with the same social, familial and sexual liberties as the menfolk. Consider
some of these excerpts from texts related to Tantric as well as ‘Hindu’
philosophies as it developed over the years.
“Respect and consideration
for women mark the very foundations [of the Tradition]. All women are to be
looked upon as manifestations of the Great Mother [Shakti]. An offending woman
should not be beaten even with flowers. A woman of any age, even a girl, or
even an uncouth woman, should be bidden a respectful farewell after
salutations.” (Chapter 10 – Kaulavalinirnaya Tantra)
“Women are light-minded.
They are the root of all troubles. Attachment towards them should not pursued
by wakeful persons who desire liberation. [For] there is none more sinning and
more sinful than women.” (Uma Samhita XXIV:3,16)
“One should approach [a]
woman and invite her to have sex. Should she refuse to consent, [a man] should
bribe her. If she still refuses, he should beat her with a stick or with fists
and overpower her, saying: ‘I take away the splendor from you with my virility
and splendor.” (Brhadarankyaka Upanishad VI.IV:9,21)
It’s therefore easy to understand why Eastern India, the mountain
states and Nepal are societally so different from the rest of the aggressively
patriarchal states, why women have a far more equal status and mobility still
(even with a high patriarchal influence), and why men there don’t need to be
macho to be ‘men’ or women docile and feminine to be ‘women’.
In 2004, while backpacking in South India, my travel partner
and I had come across a Shiva-Parvati statue in Dakhshina Chitra, Tamil Nadu.
It had an explanation at the bottom: ‘Shiva
denotes all things positive and virile. Parvati is the Shakti or force behind
Shiva. Without Shakti, Shiva is impotent’. I had found this concept
profound then, but little did I know it was sourced from Tantra philosophy and not
from ‘Hindu’ philosophies as we know it.
The more I learn, the less I think I seem to know.
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Disclaimer: A lot of the content of this blog post (the teachings and practices) has been taken directly from the book Limitless Sky by David Charles Manners. This is the only book I have read on Tantra, and I realize that I have barely scratched the surface of something far more deep and mystical than just what is in the book.
Very nice
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