Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

is a true Kaula now it is because in previous births he has by Sadhan4 in the preliminary stages won his entrance into it. Knowledge of Shakti is as the Niruttara Tantra says acquired after many births; and according to the Mahanirvana Tantra it is by merit acquired in previous births that the mind is inclined to KaulAchara.

Kauladharma is in no wise sectarian but on the contrary claims to be the head of all sects. It is said “at heart a Shakta, outwardly a Shaiva, in gatherings a Vaishnava (who are wont to gather together for worship in praise of Hari) in thus many a guise the Kaulas wander on earth”

Antah-shaktah vahih-shaivéh sabhadydng vaishnavamatéh

Ndna-riipadharaGh Kauléh vicharanti mahitéle The saying has been said to be an expression of this claim which is I think involved init. Itdoes however also I think indicate secrecy, and adaptability to sectarian form, of him who has pierced to the core of that which all sects in varying, though partial ways, present. A Kaula is one who has passed through these and other stages, which have as their own inmost doctrine (whether these worshippers know it or not) that of Kaulachara. It is indifferent what the Kaulas apparent sect may be. The form is nothing and everything. It is nothing in the sense that it has no power to narrow the Kaulas inner life. It is everything in the sense that knowledge may infuse its apparent limitations with an universal meaning. A man may thus live in all sects, without their form being ever to him a bond,

In Vaidik times there were four Ashramas, that is states and stages in the life of the Arya, namely (in their order) that of the chaste student (Brahmacharyya), secular life as a married house-holder (Grihastha), the life of the forest recluse with his wife in retirement from the world (Vanaprastha), lastly that of the beggar (Bhikshu or Avadhtta), wholly detached from the world, spending his time in meditation on the Supreme Brahman in preparation for shortly coming death. All these four were for the