Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

INTRODUCTORY

guest of all mankind, may be attained. And as lasting happiness is God, they teach how man by the worship of Him in Her form, and by practice of the disciplines prescribed, may attain a divine experience. From incidental statements and the practices described the philosophy is extracted. The speaker of the Tantras and the revealer of . the Shakta Tantra is Shiva Himself or Shiva the Devi Herself. Now it is the first who teaches and the second who listens (Agama). Now again the latter assumes the role of Guru and answers the questions of Shiva (Nigama). For the two are one. Sometimes there are other interlocutors. Thus one of the Tantras is called IshvarakAartikeyasamvada, for there the Lord addresses his son Kartikeya. The Tantra Shastra therefore claims to be a Revelation, and of the same essential truths as those contained in the Eternal Veda which is an authority to itself (Svatahsiddha). Those who have had experience of the truths recorded in Shastra, have also proclaimed the practical means whereby their experience was gained. ‘“ Adopt those means” they say, “and you willalso have for yourself our experience.” This is the importance of Sadhana and all Sadhana Shastras. The Guru says “do as I tell you. Follow the method prescribed by Scripture. Curb your desires. Attain a pure disposition, and then and thus only will you obtain that certainty, that experience which will render any questionings unnecessary.’’ The practical importance of the Agama lies in its assumption of these principles and in the methods which it enjoins for the attainment of that state in which the truth is realised. The following Chapters shortly explain some of the main features of both the philosophy and practice of the Shakta division of the Agama. For their full development many volumes are necessary. What is here said is a mere sketch in a popular form of a vast subject.

I will conclude this Chapter with extracts from a Bengali letter written to me shortly before his death,