Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

commence (the process continues until the fruit of Kaulachara is obtained) to cut off all the eight bonds (Pasha) which have made him a Pashu, for up to and including Dakshinachara is Pashu worship. These Pasha, bonds or “ afflictions” are variously enumerated but the more numerous classifications are merely elaborations of the smaller divisions. Thus, according to the Devi-bhagavata, Moha is ignorance or bewilderment, and Mah&amoha is the desire for worldly pleasure which flows from it. The Kularnava Tantra mentions eight primary bonds, Daya (that is pity as the feeling which binds as opposed to divine compassion or Karuna), Moha (ignorance), Lajjaé (Shame, which does not mean that a man is to be a shameless sinner but weak worldly shame of being looked down upon, of infringing conventions and so forth) family (Kula, which ceases to be a tie) Shila (here usage, convention) and Varna (caste; for the enlightened is beyond all its distinctions). When, to take the Svami’s example, Shrf Krishna stole the clothes of the bathing Gopis or milkmaids and cowherds and made them approach Him naked, He removed the artificial coverings which are imposed on man in the Sangsara. The Gopis were eight, as are the Bonds, and the errors by which the Jiva is misled are the clothes which Krishna stole. Freed of these the Jiva is liberated from all bonds arising from his desires, family and society. Formerly it was sufficient to live in worldly fashion according to the morality governing life in the world. Now the Sadhaka must go further and transcend the world, or rather seek to do so. He rises by those things which are commonly the cause of fall. When he has completely achieved his purpose and liberated himself from all bonds, he reaches the stage of Shiva (Shivatva). It is the aim of the Nivritti Sadhana to liberate man from the bonds which bind him to the Sangsara and to qualify the Vira Sadhaka, through Rajasika Upasana, (see Chapter on Panchatattva) for the highest grades of Sadhana in which the Sattvika Guna predominates. He is 84