Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

word however requires explanation, or it may (I have since thought) lead to error in the present connection. There is always danger in applying Western terms to facts of Hastern life. Antinomianism is the name for heretical theories and practices which have arisen in Christian Europe. In short the term, as generally understood, has a meaning in reference to Christianity, namely contrary or opposed to Law which here is the Judaic law as adopted and modified by that religion. The Antinomian for varying reasons considered himself not bound by the ordinary laws of conduct. It is not always possible to state with certainty whether any particular sect or person alleged to be AntinoMian was in fact such, for one of the commonest charges made against sects by their opponents is that of immorality. We are rightly warned against placing implicit reliance on the accounts of adversaries. Thus charges of nocturnal orgies were made against the early Christians, and by the latter against those whom they regarded as heretical dissidents, such as Manichaeans, Montanists, Priscillianists and others, and against most of the mediaeval sects such as the Cathari, Waldenses and Fracticelli. Nor can we be always certain as to the nature of the theories held by persons said to be Antinomian, for in a large number of cases we have only the accounts of orthodox-opponents. Similarly every account hitherto of the Shakta Tantra was given by persons both ignorant of, and hostile to, it. In some cases it would seem (I speak of the West) that matter was held in contempt as the evil product of the Demiurge. In others Antinomian doctrine and practice was based on ‘* Pantheism.” The latter in the West has always had asone of its tendencies a leaning towards, or adoption of, Antinomianism. Mystics in their identification with God supposed that upon their conscious union with Him they were exempt from the rules governing ordinary men, The law was spiritualised into the one precept of the Love of God which ripened into a conscious union with Him, one with man’s essence. This was

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