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An important chapter in the
spiritual history of India is the development of a line of
spiritual discipline called Tantra. These Tantra Shastras are
usually dated in the first millennium after Christ. Traditionally
it is the scripture of the common man, open to all persons,
without any restrictions of caste or scholarship. Many students of
Indian culture believe that it is appropriate to call the religion
of the modern Hindus as Tantric rather than Puranic. Tantra in
Sanskrit has many meanings. As Sri Kapali Sastry points out, the
relevant meaning of the word Tantra is "to act.'' Thus ritual -
ritual is an act - is a characteristic common to all the Tantrik
disciplines. The connection between the Veda and Tantra will be
discussed. It is not uncommon to find in some
books on the history of India a statement that Tantra Shastra
developed as a rebellion against the Vedas since the latter was
theoretically accessible only to members of the two higher castes.
The latter statement is not even loosely true since the Chandogya
Upanishad indicates that the Vedas were taught to any student with
sincere aspiration regardless of caste. Even otherwise, Tantra
Shastra holds the Vedas in high regard and quotations from the Rig
Veda are used in Tantra Shastra to support its approach. While the
Upanishads represent an attempt at recovering the jnana or
knowledge portions of the Vedas, the Brahmanas represent an
attempt at reinforcing the ritual aspect of the Vedas, the Tantra
Sastra represents an attempt at preserving and expanding the
esoteric or the occult part of the Veda. A quotation from Sri
Aurobindo is very appropriate: "The mental images of the Vedic
gods in the mantras of Rig Veda (were replaced) by mental forms of
the two great deities, Vishnu and Shiva, and their Shaktis and by
corresponding physical images which are made the basis both for
external worship and for the Mantras of inward adoration and
meditation, while the psychic and spiritual experience which the
inner sense of the Vedic hymns expresses finally disappeared into
the psycho-spiritual experience of the Puranic and Tantrik
religion and yoga.".
First let us consider the gods in
the Tantra and the gods in the Vedas. There is almost a one-to-one
correspondence between the gods in the two scriptures, not only in
the outward description of their powers, but also in their
spiritual import. In the Tantra, as in the Vedas, we find the
recognition of one Supreme Deity as the highest along with the
simultaneous adoration of a number of other deities. The Tantric
gods, like the Vedic gods, have a twofold aspect: in their
external aspects they are the powers of physical nature like rain,
wind, etc. But, in their more important esoteric aspects, they
represent psychological and psychic movements. For example, Agni
of the Veda continues in the Tantra as Kumara, the child of the
lord Shiva. In Veda, Agni is in the forefront of gods, their guide
and messenger. In the Tantra, Kumara is the commander-in-chief of
the gods and is looked up to for his immense store of knowledge
and wisdom by the seers of later times. The role of Indra in the
Veda is taken over in Tantra, by Rudra who brooks no obstacle. The
Sun, the highest God of the Veda, is addressed in the Tantra as
Vishnu, a name used in the Veda itself. The role of the Aditi of
the Veda is represented by the Supreme Shakti, called as Uma,
Gowri, etc. It is true that there are new gods in the Tantra, but
the prominent gods of the Veda retain their supremacy under
different names and forms.
The Tantra, like the Veda, places a
high emphasis on the Mantra. A mantra is not a mere letter or
collection of letters with some meaning "it is the sound-body of a
Power charged with the intense vibrations of the spiritual
personality of the creator or seer of the Mantra. When a mantra is
uttered under proper conditions, it is not the feeble voice of the
reciter that goes forth to evoke the response of the gods to whom
it is addressed, but the flame of tapasya (askesis) and
realization that is lying coiled up in the body of that utterance.
The Tantra, following the Veda, has formulated some seed-letters,
Bijakshara, which the seeker uses as the Mantra. These Bijaksharas
have been endowed with a perennial store of power by the Tantrik
seers and it needs only the living touch of the Guru to set them
awake in the disciple.”
Sri Kapali Sastry illustrates the
connection between the Veda and Tantra by considering a particular
Tantra called as "Prapancha sara tantra.'' It is made up of three
verses, addressed to Durga, Shiva and Vishnu. All the three hymns
are found in the Rig Veda. The first verse is from the 99th Sukta
of the first book of Rig Veda and is addressed to Agni. The second
verse is the 12th Rik of the 59th Sukta in the seventh book of the
Rig Veda addressed to Rudra, the Trayambaka, father of the three
worlds. In the Tantra it is addressed to the deity Rudra as
Mrityunjaya, the conqueror of Death. The third verse of the Tantra
is the famous Gayatri hymn in the 62nd Sukta of the third mandala
of the Rig Veda. In the Veda it is addressed to Savitr, the
effulgent one, and in the Tantra it is "addressed to Vishnu", the
image of all knowledge and power.
It is interesting to note that the
group of the three verses, also called as Shatakshara Glayatri, is
recited even today in the daily ritual for purifying the conch and
the water. The symbolism is obvious: the primeval sound comes from
its source, symbolized by the conch, naturally of its own accord
when the impurities in the instrument are removed by invoking the
Gods or the psychological power.
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