Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

sordid prostitution, its drunkenness and gluttony, its sexual perversities and its so-called pathological but truly demonical enormities. To take a specific example.—Is the drinking of wine, by a limited number of Vamach&arf Tantriks in the whole of this country to be compared with (say) the consumption of whisky in the single city of Calcutta? Is this whisky drinking less worthy of condemnation because it is Pashupana or done for the satisfaction of sensual appetite alone? The dualistic notion that the “dignity ” of religion is impaired by association with natural function is erroneous.

An English writer, Mr. Conan Doyle, doubtless referring to these and other wrongs, has recently expressed the opinion that during the last quarter of a century we Westerns have been living in what :with some few ameliorating features) is the wickedest epoch in the world’s history. However this may be, if our own great sins were here known, the abuses real and alleged of Tantriks would be seen in better proportion. Moreover an effective reply would be to hand against those who are always harping on Devadasis and other sensualities of, or, connected with, Indian worship. India’s general present record for temperance and sexual control is better than that of the West. It is no doubt a just observation that abuses committed under the supposed sanction of religion are worse than wrongs done with the sense that they are wrong. That there have been hypocrites covering the satisfaction of their appetites with the cloak of the religion is likely. But all Sadhakas are not hypocrites and all cases do not show abuse. I cannot therefore help thinking that this constant insistence on one particular feature of the, Sh&stra, together with ignorance both of the particular rites, and neglect and ignorance of all else in the Agama Scripture is simply part of the general polemic carried on in some quarters against the Indian religion. The Tantra Shastra is doubtless thought to be a very useful heavy gun and is

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