Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

THE PANCHATATIVA

ordinary rules of morality bind only those who do not see beyond them, and who do not realise in themselves that Power which is superior to all these laws. United with God (Anima deo unita) man enjoys a blessed freedom. He sees the inanity of prayers, of fasts, of all those supplications which can do nothing to change the order of nature. He is one with the Spirit of all. Free of the law he follows his own will (Svechchhach4ri). What the vulgar call “sin” he can commit without soiling himself. There is a distinction between the act which is called sinful and sin. Nothing is sin but what the doer takes to be such. The body does not sin. It is the intention with which an act is done which constitutes sin. “The angel would not have fallen if what he did had been done with a good intention” (Quod angelus non cecidisset si bona intentione fecissit quod fecit). Man becomes God in all the powers of his being including the ultimate elements of his body. Therefore wisdom lies not in renunciation, but in enjoyment and the satisfaction of his desires. The tormenting and insatiable passion for woman isa form of the creative spontaneous principle. The worth of instinct renders noble the acts of the flesh, and he who is united in spirit with God can with impunity fulfil the sensual desires of the body (tem quod unitus deo audacter possit explere libidinom carnis), There is no more sin in sexual union without marriage than within it and so forth. With the historian of this sect and with our knowledge of the degree to which pantheistic doctrines are misunderstood, we may reasonably doubt whether these accusations of their enemies represent in all particulars their true teaching. It seems however to have been held by those who have dealt with this question that the pantheistic doctrine of the Brethren led to conclusions contrary to the common morality. It is also highly probable that some at least of the excesses condemned were the work of false brethren, who finding in the doctrine a convenient excuse for, and an encouragement of, their licentiousness, sheltered themselves behind its 371