The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)
principle of the Shākta Tantra is involved.
1 This makes Rāja Yoga the highest and most difficult of Yogas, for mind is made to conquer itself. In Laya Yoga the conquest is achieved for the Sādhaka by Kundalinī Shakti. He arouses Her and She achieves for him Siddhi. It is easier to arouse Kundalinī than to win by one’s thought alone Nirvikalpa Samādhi,
The Shākta Tantra claims to give both enjoyment¹ (Bhukti) in this and the next world, and liberation (Mukti) from all worlds. This claim is based on a profoundly true principle.² If the ultimate reality is the one which exists in two aspects of quiescent enjoyment of the Self in liberation from all form and of active enjoyment of objects—that is, as pure Spirit and Spirit in matter—then a complete union with Reality demands such unity in both of its aspects. It must be known both “here” (Iha) and “there” (Amutra). When rightly apprehended and practised, there is truth in the doctrine which teaches that man should make the best of both worlds.³ There is no real incompatibility between the two, provided action is taken in conformity with the universal law of manifestation. It is held to be false teaching that happiness hereafter can only be had by neglect to seek it now, or in deliberately sought for suffering and mortification. It is the one Shiva who is the supreme blissful experience, and who appears in the form of man with a life of mingled pleasure and pain. Both happiness here and the bliss of liberation here and hereafter may be attained if the identity of these Shivas be realised in every human act. This will be achieved by making every human function, without exception, a religious act of sacrifice and worship (Yajna). In the ancient
1 As there are persons who always associate with the word “enjoyment” (Bhoga) “beer and skittles,” it is necessary to say that that is not the necessary implication of the word Bhoga, nor the sense in which it is here used. Philosophically, Bhoga is the perception of objects upon which enjoyment, or it may be suffering, ensues. Here any form of sense or intellectual enjoyment is intended. All life in the world of form is enjoyment.
2 Which it is possible to adopt without approval of any particular application to which it may be put. There are some dangerous practices which in the hands of inferior persons have led to results which have given the Shāstra in this respect its ill repute.
3 “Worlds,” because that is the English phrase. Here, however, the antithesis is between the world (whether as earth or heaven) and liberation from all worlds.
Vaidik ritual enjoyment by way of food and drink was preceded, and accompanied by, ceremonial sacrifice and ritual. Such enjoyment was the fruit of the sacrifice and the gift of the Gods. At a higher stage in the life of a Sādhaka it is offered to the One from whom all gifts come and of whom the Devatās are inferior limited forms. But this offering also involves a dualism from which the highest Monistic (Advaita) Sādhanā of the Shākta-Tantra is free. Here the individual life and the world-life are known as one. And so the Tantrik Sādhaka, when eating or drinking,¹ or fulfilling any other of the natural functions of the body, does so, saying and believing, Shivo’ham (“I am Shiva”), Bhairavo’ham (“I am Bhairava”),² Sā’ham (“I am She”).³ It is not merely the separate individual who thus acts and enjoys. It is Shiva who does so in and through him. Such a one recognises, as has been well said,⁴ that his life and the play of all its activities are not a thing apart, to be held and pursued egotistically for its and his own separate sake, as though enjoyment was something to be seized from life by his own unaided strength and with a sense of separateness; but his life and all its activities are conceived as part of the divine action in nature (Shakti) manifesting and operating in the form of man. He realises in the pulsing beat of his heart the rhythm which throbs through, and is the sign of, the universal life. To neglect or to deny the needs of the body, to think of it as something not divine, is to neglect and deny that
1 Thus in the Shākta ritual the Sādhaka who takes the wine-cup pours the wine as a libation into the mouth of Kundalī Shakṭi, the Shakṭi appearing in the form of himself.
2 A name of Shiva.
principle of the Shākta Tantra is involved.
1 This makes Rāja Yoga the highest and most difficult of Yogas, for mind is made to conquer itself. In Laya Yoga the conquest is achieved for the Sādhaka by Kundalinī Shakti. He arouses Her and She achieves for him Siddhi. It is easier to arouse Kundalinī than to win by one’s thought alone Nirvikalpa Samādhi,
The Shākta Tantra claims to give both enjoyment¹ (Bhukti) in this and the next world, and liberation (Mukti) from all worlds. This claim is based on a profoundly true principle.² If the ultimate reality is the one which exists in two aspects of quiescent enjoyment of the Self in liberation from all form and of active enjoyment of objects—that is, as pure Spirit and Spirit in matter—then a complete union with Reality demands such unity in both of its aspects. It must be known both “here” (Iha) and “there” (Amutra). When rightly apprehended and practised, there is truth in the doctrine which teaches that man should make the best of both worlds.³ There is no real incompatibility between the two, provided action is taken in conformity with the universal law of manifestation. It is held to be false teaching that happiness hereafter can only be had by neglect to seek it now, or in deliberately sought for suffering and mortification. It is the one Shiva who is the supreme blissful experience, and who appears in the form of man with a life of mingled pleasure and pain. Both happiness here and the bliss of liberation here and hereafter may be attained if the identity of these Shivas be realised in every human act. This will be achieved by making every human function, without exception, a religious act of sacrifice and worship (Yajna). In the ancient
1 As there are persons who always associate with the word “enjoyment” (Bhoga) “beer and skittles,” it is necessary to say that that is not the necessary implication of the word Bhoga, nor the sense in which it is here used. Philosophically, Bhoga is the perception of objects upon which enjoyment, or it may be suffering, ensues. Here any form of sense or intellectual enjoyment is intended. All life in the world of form is enjoyment.
2 Which it is possible to adopt without approval of any particular application to which it may be put. There are some dangerous practices which in the hands of inferior persons have led to results which have given the Shāstra in this respect its ill repute.
3 “Worlds,” because that is the English phrase. Here, however, the antithesis is between the world (whether as earth or heaven) and liberation from all worlds.
Vaidik ritual enjoyment by way of food and drink was preceded, and accompanied by, ceremonial sacrifice and ritual. Such enjoyment was the fruit of the sacrifice and the gift of the Gods. At a higher stage in the life of a Sādhaka it is offered to the One from whom all gifts come and of whom the Devatās are inferior limited forms. But this offering also involves a dualism from which the highest Monistic (Advaita) Sādhanā of the Shākta-Tantra is free. Here the individual life and the world-life are known as one. And so the Tantrik Sādhaka, when eating or drinking,¹ or fulfilling any other of the natural functions of the body, does so, saying and believing, Shivo’ham (“I am Shiva”), Bhairavo’ham (“I am Bhairava”),² Sā’ham (“I am She”).³ It is not merely the separate individual who thus acts and enjoys. It is Shiva who does so in and through him. Such a one recognises, as has been well said,⁴ that his life and the play of all its activities are not a thing apart, to be held and pursued egotistically for its and his own separate sake, as though enjoyment was something to be seized from life by his own unaided strength and with a sense of separateness; but his life and all its activities are conceived as part of the divine action in nature (Shakti) manifesting and operating in the form of man. He realises in the pulsing beat of his heart the rhythm which throbs through, and is the sign of, the universal life. To neglect or to deny the needs of the body, to think of it as something not divine, is to neglect and deny that
1 Thus in the Shākta ritual the Sādhaka who takes the wine-cup pours the wine as a libation into the mouth of Kundalī Shakṭi, the Shakṭi appearing in the form of himself.
2 A name of Shiva.
No commentary for this page.