Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

as Oghada Sadhus, worshippers of Batuka Bhairava, Kanthadhari and followers of the N&thas, such as Gorakshanatha, SitanAtha and Matsyendranatha. In Nilakrama there isno Maithuna. In some sects there are differing practices. Thus, Iam told, amongst the K4alamukhas the Kalaviras only worship Kuméaris up to the age of nine, whereas the Kamamohanas worship with adult Shaktis.

Some advanced members of this (in its general sense) Vamach4ra division do not, | am informed, even take wine and meat. It is said that the great Vamachari Sadhaka Raja Krishnachandra of Nadia, Upasaka of the Chhinnamasta Marti did not take wine. Such and similar SAadhakas have passed beyond the preliminary stage of Vamachara, and indeed (in its special sense) Vam&chara itself. They may be Brahma Kaulas. As regards Sadhakas generally it is well to remember what the Mahakala Samhita the great Shastra of the Madhyastha Kaulas says in the llth UllAsa called Sharira-yoga-kathanam :—“*Some Kaulas there are who seek the good of this world (Aihikaérthadhritatmdnah). So also the Vaidikas enjoy what is here (Azhikértham kdmayante) (as do, I may interpose, the vast bulk of present humanity) and are not seekers of liberation (Amrite ratim na kurvanti). Only by Nishkamasadhana is liberation attained.”

The Panchatattva are either real (Pratyaksha. ‘‘ Idealising ” statements to the contrary are, when not due to ignorance, false), substitutional (Anukalpa) and esoteric (Divyatattva). As regards the second, even a vegetarian would not object to “‘meat’’ which is in fact ginger, nor the abstainer to “wine” which is cocoanut water in a bellmetal vessel. As for the Esoteric Tattva they are not material articles or practices, but the symbols for Yogic processes. Again some notions and practices are more moderate and others extreme. The account given in the Mahanirvana of the Bhairavi and Tattva Chakras may be compared with

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