Tantra śāstra is a dynamic philosophy that supports life, action, aspiration, knowledge, quest for truth, a path which unshackles the infinite potential of the human mind and helps one be One with the Divine. Yet, it is perhaps the least understood of Indian philosophies. Its paths and practices are believed to be mysterious, and any attempt to understand it becomes difficult due to the intricate nature of the subject itself, and the secrecy over the keys to its terminology and methods.
The ultimate aim of Tantrasādhanā is to realize the Truth, reach a higher state of Consciousness, change mortal imperfection into divine perfection, realize the Divinity within and attain godhood - all this while staying in the world and performing the worldly duties. Unlike the Vedic philosophy which treats the World as an illusion and a cobweb created by māyā, a Tantra yogi looks upon the world as a manifestation of prakṛti, accepts its reality, admires and respects it, lives in it and works towards Higher Consciousness.
But to dispel the myths and strange stories which have built over ages around the name of Tantrasādhanā, a proper definition of Tantrais critical to understand the subject.
The word ‘Tantra’ is formed from the Sanskrit root तन् which means ‘to spread, to widen, to expand, to elongate, to cover, to fill, to create.
तन्यते विस्तारयते ज्ञानं अनेन् इति तन्त्रम्
tanyate vistārayate jñānaṃ anen iti tantram
That which expands Knowledge is tantra
Therefore, the meaning of Tantra may be interpreted as i. Knowledge which encompasses all that is to know, and that which itself is expansive by nature, and ii) a system that leads to the expansion (विस्तार) of one’s intellect and awareness, resulting in the sharpening of intelligence and other mental faculties, higher faculty of reasoning and intuitive power, very high mental creativity, and speedy progress on the path of self-realization.
The core concept of the tantric philosophy is hidden in the timeless history when the Universe did not exist. Time did not exist, days and night did not exist, directions did not exist, there was no difference between existence and non-existence, there was neither death nor immortality. The nāsadīya sūkta portrays the condition before the dawn of Creation:
नासदासीन्नो सदासीत्तदानीं नासीद्रजो नो व्योमा परो यत्|किमावरीवः कुह कस्य शर्मन्नम्भः किमासीद्गहनं गभीरम्॥ न मृत्युरासीदमृतं न तर्हि न रात्र्या अह्न आसीत्प्रकेतः |आनीदवातं स्वधया तदेकं तस्माद्धान्यन्न परः किञ्चनास॥ तम आसीत्तमसा गूहळमग्रे प्रकेतं सलिलं सर्वाऽइदम् |तुच्छ्येनाभ्वपिहितं यदासीत्तपसस्तन्महिनाजायतैकम्॥
There was no Existence, nor Non-Existence. There was no air and no sky beyond it. There was neither Death nor I
Immortality, there was no sign of the Divider of Day and Night. There was Darkness, concealed in Darkness. All around was indiscriminate chaos.
śiva was in His niṣkala stage, i.e. śiva who had no form, no kalā. They called him śiva because he had to be identified by a name.In such a state of being and nothingness, somewhere the Knowledge to create the Universe must have existed, or else who guided the manifestation?
The Texts say that at the time of annihilation all the Knowledge is inhaled by Him who exhales it when the next Creation is to come into existence, much like the Blue Whale inhaling when it surfaces, and then diving deep, and at the right time surfacing and exhaling, to inhale again. Knowledge thus rested in the parāvāk – the Unmanifested Sound which itself rests in the niṣkala śiva.
And then on a certain moment the niṣkala unmanifested śiva decided to manifest and become sakala i.e. manifest into various forms or kalā. That was the moment when Creation began to manifest. He had no name. So when He decided to manifest as the Universe the Upanishad addresses Him as vā: THAT
तस्माद्वा एतस्मादात्मन आकाशः सम्भूतः
Then THAT manifested Itself as ākāśaḥ And then a systematic process of development of the Universe began.
आकाशाद्वायुः।वायोरग्निः। अग्नेरापः। अद्भ्यः पृथिवी।पृ॒थि॒व्या ओष॑धयः।
ओष॑धी॒भ्योन्न॑म्।अन्ना॒त्पुरु॑षः।
From ākāśa manifested vāyu, from vāyu manifested agni, from agni manifested jala, from jala manifested pṛthvī, from pṛthvī came the medicinal plants, and then was born food, and finally the humans manifested.
As the Universe manifested the parāvāk began to acquire a sort of semi-independent entity and flow out of sakala śiva as nāda, which is the Primordial Unstruck Sound of the Divine. Śiva developed five faces which are named sadyojāta, vāmadeva, aghora, tatpuruṣa and īśāna, and from them the nāda expanded in five directions, and this phenomenon is recorded in Tantra as the formation of five āmnāya – pūrvāmnāya, dakṣiṇāmnāya, paścimamnāya, uttarāmnāya, and ūrdhvāmnāya.
parāvāk or parāpaśyanti is the seat of all knowledge, all vibrations, therefore not only the seat of all languages and communications but in a way also of all gross substances and matter. With the manifestation of nāda it first manifests as paśyanti, a state of abstract knowledge, like an idea that has not yet been expressed in words, yet with a distinct entity. This is the playground where śiva acquires the dual form of The Divine Teacher and the Student. Where one part of him questions and the other part dispenses Knowledge. This is the ground where we look for answers to our problems and queries, where the Divine within us plays the role of the Disciple when we have a question to ask, and then the Divine becomes the Teacher and reveals the answer.
From paśyanti, the vāk descends to the ground of madhyamā, where Thought becomes distinct, concrete, and focused. madhyamā is the ground where we think distinctly, where words and sentences begin to form. This is the terrain of Mantras because it is here that the aspirant cando the ajapā Japa – repeat the mantra in his mind without uttering it or making any silent tongue or throat movement.
When vāk descends to the level of physical manifestation, it loses its subtle powers and turns gross. This is the level of vaikharī, the level of manifested nāda, or Sound as heard by the human ears and uttered by the human throat. This is the interesting field of nāda where vaikharī expresses Thought in various languages and forms, written or spoken. At the vaikharī level, the Being is more close to the lower levels of human intellect and existence, to grosser elements, to lower human nature.
Thus parāvāk manifests itself as the physical world by turning from subtle to gross through the following stages:
parā-paśyanti > paśyanti > madhyamā > vaikharī
paśyanti, madhyamā and vaikharī are represented by अ – ऊ – म which are the three sounds of ॐ. The fourth sound of ॐ is the ardhamātrā or the candrabindu which belongs to the higher realm of madhyamā and cannot be spoken by the human throat. A yogi or a sādhaka can only hear it.
सुधात्वमक्षरेनित्येत्रिधामात्रात्मिकास्थिता।अर्धमात्रा स्थिता नित्या यानुच्चार्याविशेषतः॥
sudhā tvamakṣare nitye tridhā mātrātmikā sthitā। ardhamātrā sthitā nityā yānuccāryā viśeṣataḥ॥
These three levels of nāda can be seen as the formation of a Divine Triangle. The bindu inside the Triangle represents the Cosmic Union of śiva and śakti and is the source of all manifestations.
These levels grow as the Cosmic Trinity of brahmā, viśṇu and maheśa and as their three Powers - īcchāśakti, jñānaśakti and kriyāśakti, as gaurī brāhmī and vaiṣṇavī, the three stages of sṛṣṭi, sthiti and saṁhāra, as the three dimensions of kāla, three dimensions of ākāśa, the three Veda and so on. These three levels of nāda are the three lines of tripuṇḍa on the forehead of śiva.
nāda, therefore, is the source of all Knowledge. All the available Knowledge, all the lost Knowledge, and all which is yet to manifest in present in the nāda. This is the highest stage of Tantra, and also the original form of Tantra.
Tantra views the Universe as a playground of Form and Energy. śiva is the Form and śakti is the Energy, although both are inseparable and hence are the same: śiva is śakti and śakti is śiva. Without śakti śiva is dead, a corpse who is incapable of action, and without śiva śakti is unable to manifest and is incapable of action either. This is best seen in the image of mahākālī who stands upright over the corpse form of śiva.
शिव – इ = शव
ई + काल = काली
In Tāntrik terminology ī is śakti. When ī leaves śivawhat is left is śava:
śiva - ī = śava.
But to be Kali, śakti also needs a union with kāla:
ī + kāla = kālī
kāla is none other than śiva. This male-female form is inseparable and is depicted as the ardhanārīśvara where half the form is śiva and the other half is Parvati. śvetāśvaropaniṣad says the Divine is Male and also a Female:
स्त्री त्वं पुमानसी त्वं कुमार उता वा कुमारि॥
strī tvaṃ pumānasī tvaṃ kumāra utā vā kumāri॥
From a worldly point of view śiva is puruṣa, the Pure Awareness, the unchanging Consciousness, the transcendental reality the mute Witness, the Supreme Guru who teaches in Silence, the primal ātman, the One who is absorbed in Himself. śakti is Nature - prakṛti, the primary substance of everything, the feminine aspect of every life form, changing supreme Power which creates, sustains and destroys. She is to the left of śiva and hence is vāmā. In devyupaniśad She describes Herself as being the entire Universe: ahamakhilam jagat.
Without him, I exist not; without me, he is unmanifest
prakṛti, therefore, is the manifest world and puruṣa is the conscious witness in every living being. They are the two inseparable aspects of One Reality – without prakṛti śiva is lifeless, and prakṛti can do nothing in the world till śiva wills it.
Tantra expressly differentiates itself from the Vedic methods of Yoga. In the Vedantic tradition, the puruṣa is Divine, the Creator who runs the world, and prakṛti is the māyā, the power of Illusion who creates a world of mirage and casts a veil of ignorance. The god of a Vedanti sādhaka is essentially puruṣa, the saviour from the clutches of māyā.But in the Tāntrik form of Worship,prakṛti is the prime force. She is Aditi the Divine Motherwho reigns supreme, She is Formless, She is māyā who manifests herself in infinitesimal forms to create the Universe, and nothing is away from her. She is mahākālī, mahāsarasvatī, and mahālakṣmī, beyond the description of any known language. Yogis says that her seat is in the Self-Illuminated cidākāśa where She rests on a throne whose legs are none else than brahmā, viṣṇu, rudra and īśvara, and the plank is sadaśiva Himself.
Sound or the nāda at the audible level which can be produced from the various parts of the human throat and voice and is divided into the svara and vyañjana and is collectively called the varṇamālā. Each svara and vyañjana represents an aspect of the śabda brahma, each one is immortal and does not decay and hence called akṣara. Each akṣara is called a mātṛkā and is related to one of the chakra in the subtle energy body, and when a mātṛkā is pronounced it creates a spandana in the subtle energies which correspond to the particular chakra.
These mātṛkās are extremely powerful and Tantra uses these mātṛkās to formulate Mantras. The various aspects of the brahma which are seen as independent deities have unique attributes of form and behaviour and represent the various aspect of Cosmic Awareness. Each of these deities is expressed geometrically by its yantra and phonetically by its name and its mantra. Mantra is the instrument by which the aspirant scales vaikharī and ascends to madhyamā, eventually to transcend the paśyanti and realize his godhood.
Sri Aurobindo explains a mantra as a set of phonetic sounds which create vibrations in the inner consciousness that will prepare it for the realisation of what the mantra symbolizes. In Letters on Poetry and Art, he writes:
"The word is a sound expressive of the idea. In the supra-physical plane when an idea has to be realised, one can by repeating the word-expression of it, produce vibrations which prepare the mind for the realisation of the idea. That is the principle of the Mantra and of japa. One repeats the name of the Divine and the vibrations created in the consciousness prepare the realisation of the Divine. It is the same idea that is expressed in the Bible, “God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light.” It is creation by the Word."
A Tāntrik mantra can be monosyllabic or multisyllabic. A monosyllabic mantra is called the bīja mantra which can be composed either of a single mātṛkā like aiṁ, raṁ or ṭam, or of a complex and cryptic monosyllable like glauṁ, strīṁ or kṣrauṁ. There are different bīja mantra for the navagraha, the five primordial elements, the energy chakras, and tāntrik deities. The multisyllabic mantra varies in its structure and length and for each deity there can be more than one multisyllabic mantra, which depends upon the objective and various other technical aspects of the mantra.
A Tāntrik mantra has six components or ṣaḍaṁga. The first component or aṁga is the ṛṣi who visualized or created the mantra, the second component is the deity or the devata of the mantra, the third component is the bīja of the mantra,the fourth is the shakti or the power of the mantra, the fifth component is the rhythm or the chhand of the mantra in which the mantra should be repeated, and the sixth and the last component is the kīlaka or the lock of the mantra. Because the mantra work at the level of madhyamā and influence a sādhaka at the deep psychological level, and in the wrong hands can cause extensive harm and damage and therefore have been locked or plugged, and the kīlaka is the key by which the powers of the mantra can be unplugged under the guidance of the Guru. It is important, therefore, that the tāntrik sadhana should always be performed under the guidance of a guru or a senior aspirant.
Hindu Tantra sadhana prospered and developed into five spiritual lineages: śākta, śaiva, gāṇapatya, saura and vaiśṇava tantra and spread in all directions of the sub-continent, and as it grew it organically developed into branches and sects[1] Two examples are 1) the development of the śākta tantra into ten branches called the daśa mahavidyā with their distinct kula and traditions, and their rich literature divided as śubhāgama, kaulāgama and miśrāgama, and 2) the development of the śaiva tantra as the sects of the nātha, the pāśupata, kālāmukha, kāpālika, vīraśaiva etc. and their rich literature divided as śaivāgama, raudrāgama and bhairavatantra.
The vindhya mountains were taken to be the Centre and the land was divided into three areas and each one is said to has 64 Tantra:
- aśvakrānta extended from the Vindhya to the southern seacoast
- viṣṇukrānta extended from Vindhya towards Bengal and Assam in east
- rathakrānta extended from the Vindhya in North and Kashmir and to Gandhar and beyond in the west
The quest for Knowledge, Truth and self-discoveryhas been the spirit of this land. Since in the earlier days an oral tradition existed, the knowledge was handed down the generations in the tradition of guru paramparā. The guruparamparā dates back to aeons of years ago to śiva, the greatest tāntrikand teacher of all who, out of kindness towards humanity brought to light the mysteries of tāntrik science. The entire depository of tāntrik text is in the form of a dialogue between śiva and pārvati. From this practice emerged the paramparā of the various sampradāya or sects who guarded the secrets of their lineage. Thus, despite the onslaught of the invaders a lot of tāntrik texts have survivedand the lineage of tāntrik learning and sadhana has remained unbroken to this day. In Bharat Tantra continues to be a way of life and the land continues to be a depository of tāntrik texts, shrines, and sādhakas; it has an uninterrupted history and lineage of siddhas which continues to this day. And its historicity from time immemorial is proved by the fact that in our itihas even the gods are mentioned to be tāntrik worshippers: brahmā, viṣṇu, kṛṣṇa, hayagrīva, indra, skanda, vivasvāna, candrama, vīrabhadra have been worshippers of śrīvidyā, some famous ṛṣi who were Tāntrik worshippers aredadhīci, bṛhaspati, yājñavalka, nakulīśa, durvāsā, viśvāmitra, agastya, lopāmudrā, gautama, yāgyavalka, kātyāyana, bhṛgu, and in later periods gauḍapādācārya, ādi śaṁkarācārya, ācārya abhinavagupta, svāmī rāmakṛśṇa paramahaṁsa, gopīnātha kavirāja etc are some well-known tāntrik sādhakas whose lineage continues uninterruptedly.
Arun Vyas
Vastu Consultant & Teacher +91-98914-22794
[1] The Jain and the Buddhist lineages of Tantra are outside the purview of this article and hence are not being discussed.
©Arun Vyas. This article may not be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. Arun Vyas may be contacted at arun@arunvyas.com / arunvyas.com/contact
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