Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

and misapplied, namely that the higher man spiritually ascends the less dependent is he on form. The mistake which such Sects make is to look at the matter from one side only, and to suppose that all men are alike in their requirement. The Agama is guilty of no such error. It offers form in all its fullness and richness to those below the stage of Yoga, at which point man reaches what the Kularnava Tantra calls the Varna and Ashrama of Light (Jyotirvarnashrami), and gradually releases himself from all form that he may unite his self with the Formless One. I do not know which most to admire—-the colossal affirmations of Indian doctrine, or the wondrous variety of the differing disciplines which it prescribes for their realisation in fact.

The Buddhists called Brahmanism Shilavrataparamarsha, that is a system believing in the efficacy of ritual acts. And so it is, and so at length was Buddhism, when passing through M&ahaydéna it ended up with the full Tantrik SAadhan&é of the Vajrayana School. There are human tendencies which cannot be suppressed. Hinduism will however disappear, if and when Sadhana (whatever be its form) ceases; for that will be the day on which it will no longer be something real, but the mere subject of philosophical and histurical talk. Apart from its great doctrine of Shakti, the main significance of the Shakta Tantra Shastra lies in this, that it affirms the principle of the necessity of S@dhan@ and claims to afiord a means available to all of whatever caste and of either sex whereby the teachings of Vedanta may be practically realised.

But let no one take any statement from any one, myself included, blindly, without examining and testing it. I am only concerned to state the facts as | know them. It is man’s prerogative to think. The Sanskrit word for “man” comes from the root man ‘to think.” Those who are Shaktas may be pleased at what I have said about their faith. It must not however be supposed that a

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