Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

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INTRODUCTORY

duction to the Kaulacharyya Sadananda’s Commentary on the Isha Upanishad which I have published.)

The meaning of Veda is not commonly rightly understood. But this is a vast subject which underlies all others, touching as it does the seat of all authority and knowledge into which I have not the space to enter here. There are four main classes of Brahmanical Scripture, namely, Veda or Shruti, Smriti, Purana, and Agama. There are also four ages or Yuga the latter being a fraction of a Kalpa or Day of Brahma of 4,320,000,000 years. This period is the life of an universe on the expiration of which all re-enters Brahman and thereafter issues from it. A Mahayuga is composed of the four ages called Satya, Treta, Dvapara, Kali, the first being the golden age of righteousness since when all has gradually declined physically, morally, and spiritually. For each of the ages a suitable Shastra is given, for Satya or Krita the Vedas, for Treté the Smritishastra, for Dvapara the Puranas, and for Kaliyuga the Agama or Tantra Shastra. So the Kularnava Tantra says :—

Krite shrutyukta acharastretayam smriti-sambhavah Dvdpare tu puranoktah, kaldvdgamasammatah

(see also Mahanirvana Tantra I—28 ef se7.) and the Tarapradipa says that in the Kaliyuga (the supposed present age) the Tantrika and not the Vaidika Dharma, in the sense of mode of life and ritual, is to be followed (See “ Principles of Tantra.” Ed. A. Avalon). When it is said that the Agama is the peculiar Scripture of the Kali Age, this does not mean (at any rate to any particular division of its followers) that something is presented which is opposed to Veda. It is true however that, as between these followers, there is sometimes a conflict on the question whether a particular form of the Agama is unvedic (avaidika) or not. The Agama, however, as a whole, purports to be a presentment of the teaching of Veda, just as the Puranas and Smritis are, It is that

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