NEWSLETTER YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X Issue 8

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YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X

April-June 2017

From the Editor in Chief’s desk: By Swami Paranand Tirth

EDITOR IN CHIEF: SWAMI PARANAND TIRTH

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or the séance. The means to get established in Sahasa and mahasahasa . the asana are lax efforts and absorption in Ananta or the principle of infinity . The penultimate effort to enter the realm of effortlessness has been defined as Anupaya or (प्रय配नशैथि쥍यमनंतसमापत्配तभ्याम)् the absence of all means . The negation of upaya or means does not mean that there is no The only effort required here is relaxing all means but means there can be no means . From strenuous effort that an aspirant in the beginning a bit grosser perspective let us reflect on asana puts in . Effortlessness leads to the unison with YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 2

your essential nature; the more you strive more Dhyana are rather introverted convergence of strongly do you adhere to the projections of awareness which can be had not by exercising your lower nature . Usually there is an aberrant ones power of will or action or knowledge but conception that Shambhava Upaya must be by avoiding all efforts .Beyond this point only preceded by an assiduous practice of Shakta faith and devotion or the munificence of the Upaya; after receiving the anugraha in the guru is the only impetus. form of shaktipata or some other type one can intuitively experience the futility of all efforts or More you exert more you deviate and at times upayas especially when the objective is to seek move in just the opposite direction ! unison with one’s essential nature. अयमेवहहतेबंि:समाथिमनुततष्ठशस During my sojourn in Kashmir at a secluded cloister one fine morning I woke up with an Astavakra the rickety hunchback master of king intuitive insight into the relevance of effort and Janak instructs his pupil effortlessness as I recollected Utpala’s verse that I had been mugging up previous night “You want to attain samadhi by practice ,this is your bondage ,samadhi or absorption in उपायजालं नशशवं प्रकाशयेत ् one's essential nature is innate and spontaneous.” घटने ककं भातत सहस्र दीथितत: Initiation into this cult of अनुपाय is a great “No means can lead to Parma Shiva, how can accomplishment, a great break through . After a a pitcher illuminate the bright sun” certain point in the mystic pursuit the advancement becomes like a slow cycling race. For an aspirant it is very difficult to shred the To win the race you go the slowest and if by entanglement of upaya or effort . The any skill or manoeuvre you can stand still your impression of cause and effect, actions and their journey within starts . fruition grip the psyche so strongly that one cannot imagine any phenomena as transcending Sitting still he dashes far and wide ,Lying quite this trail . Very few yogi know that beyond the he pervades everything ,muses the Upanishadic bahirang limbs of yoga all antarang limbs seer * require effortlessness. Pratyahar ,Dharana and साहस erroneously defined as inspiration is in superimposition the instant of disillusionment which suggests "not a serpent but a rope" fact courageous feat that occurs within an doesn't actually exist . So the process of the instant . Another meaning of the word is transition of awareness from the relative to instantaneously the virtue of being सहसा . The absolute realm is a very subtle and an arcanely propitiatory canto of laghustavaa says mystic phenomena . This may happen within a त ं饍यान्न:सहसा पदैत्रिशभरघं may the divine plank second and may not happen even in mother shred all our transgressions within a millions of eons . * trice.  आसीनो व्रजते दरू ं शयानो यातत सववि: Any one with some preliminaries of monistic Vedanta can get it more exactly . Time space Swami Paranand Tirth and substance continuity is within the domain of the superimposed phenomena denoted by a Founder president CEO serpent misapprehended instead of a rope . Since all time is within the domain of YTA yoga Tantra and agama(inc) YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 3

Editorial

The importance of effort has always been slow cycling race. To win the race you go the stressed upon and all of us have grown hearing slowest and if by any skill or manoeuvre you about the significance of hard work but in can stand still your journey within starts .” mystic parlance ‘Effortlessness’ (Sahaja) is considered the most desirable state of being. Following this we have another thought Often it has been observed the simplest things provoking write up by Swamiji explaining the importance of ‘eem’ or ‘Kamakala’ beej mantra are most difficult to achieve. We generally tend th to complicate our lives so much that we lose with respect to 4 Shloka of Laghustava from touch with the Sahaja bhava residing in us. Pancastavi, a repertoire of coded mystic Result oriented work, which has become the knowledge. Sublimating of the desiring process way of working these days gives rise to an in Tantric practices formulates the main idea of anxious mindset responsible for all the chaos we the article. see in the world today. Next we have a detailed introduction to his ‘Uselessness’ of art is stressed on precisely scholarly book on ‘Rituals of Kashmiri Pandits’ because the aspect of being useful connects a by Dr. Shashishekhar Toshkhani, a versatile thing to the mundane world and its complicated expert on Kashmiri art, culture and linguistics. ‘realities’. Immanuel Kant’s ‘Purposiveness Lamenting the amnesia within the community without Purpose’, a concept given with regard which has reduced its culture and rituals to acts to judgement of art, probably comes closest to of token symbolism, he hopes that his work can the idea of sahaja. As he points out if the motive start an active scholarly discussion on the of the work of art can be seen clearly then it practices and their significance. simply ceases to be art. It becomes one more In a similar vein Neeraj Santoshi observes the ‘thing’ around us. lack of knowledge of Kashmir Saiva philosophy Explaining this idea in a nutshell is the in its birth place and vanishing of guru shishya enlightening editorial on ‘Sahasa and parampara which was the bedrock of all Indian Mahasahasa’ by our Guru Swami Paranand philosophical systems. In his encounter with Tirthji. Discussing ‘Anupaya’ (Absence of no Mark Dyczkowski he sees a real scholar seeker means) as a coveted path aspired by mystic who is trying his best to keep alive the tradition aspirants Swamiji opines, “ Initiation into this of the great masters of Kashmir Saiva lineage. cult of अनुपाय is a great accomplishment, a Following this we have a short write-up by great break through . After a certain point in the Geetika Kaw Kher which talks about the mystic pursuit the advancement becomes like a creative impulse in Pratyabhijna philosophy YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 4

with reference to few verses from Pratyabhijnahrdayam of Ksemaraja. The final part of Sunder Shridhar’s Kailas Mansarovar yatra travelogue in a simple yet subtle manner talks about the bliss felt at the feet of the lord of Kailas and the need to surrender to Him completely to feel the ultimate unison. We end this issue with a short passage by artist Suva who reflects on the nature of our life expectations and limited consciousness which does not allow us to delve deep in our own hearts.

(Dr.Geetika Kaw Kher is Asst. Professor at Amity School of Fine Arts (ASFA) and teaches History of Art, Aesthetics and Art Criticism)

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Emancipation through a refinement of school of meemamsakas so far as theorising is libido drive . concerned. सथिदानंद Kamakala : The primordial desire . Out of the grandeur of Parmesvara who Swami Paranand Tirth manifests as existence, consciousness and bliss there emanates Shakti. From her springs forth nada and nada turns into Bindu. The Shakti mentioned here is a priori of nada and bindu or यत्न्न配ये तव कामराजमपरं मंिाक्षरं तनष्कलं word and meaning. Grammarian mystics evolved their doctrine on this principle .Shakti is defined by them as the त配配साररवतशम配यवैततववरल:कत्चि配बुिचिेद्भवु व power of consciousness which is the agency that accounts for the word and meaning आख्यानंप्रततपववस配यतपस:य配कीतवयंतो饍ववजा: relationship. Ancient metaphysics attributes the cycle of birth and death to this all pervasive Kamakala. प्रारंभेप्रणारपदंप्रणतयता नी配वो楍िरंतत रफु टम ् कामानय:कामयतेकामकामी स कामशभजावयते In the arcane lineage of tantricism there is a तिति । tradition of encrypting otherwise lofty 'A desirous man who pursues his desires is conceptualisations in aphoristic or discreet accordingly reborn because of his desires. On syllables called beejakshara. the other hand a desireless man who has These are meant to convey the subjective attained completion subsides all his desires in awareness of the master rather than to convey this life only and thus isn't born again.' the discursive bulk in a nut shell . Krishna Razdan in his Sanskrit gloss on laghustava says It is strange that both bondage and emancipation that this mantra is fruitful only when received originate in the desiring part of human psyche. from a competent guru.The preceptor too should Tantriks however do not begin with gross impart the entire mystic knowledge at the time actions but with what lies at the root of the of initiation and not bit by bit. desiring process i.e. the libido drive. A Freudian libido is an individual drive but a tantrik's concept of the same is a cosmic one. The क् signifies the absolute bliss .ल denotes impetus of सो$कामयत ् (he desired) the creative stability or eternity ,ℂ the most important impulse of the primordial being-besides syllable of Shri kula is called kamkala and is the decreeing the process of universal manifestation encryption of the absolute Brahman . This also pervades the individual in the form of Kamakala has been enunciated as the subtle libido drive. personification of the universal mother. Laghuacharya in the first canto mentions two One of the Upanishads propounds that Kama is manifestations of the divine mother inseparable the essential nature of this purusa .His though. Word and meaning are termed as Jyoti cogitation is determined by his innate desire or and Vak or Bindu and nada.Word precedes to put in the verbiage of eastern meaning in the context of revelations but in a metaphysics 'all conventional parlance meaning precedes the इ楍 ा जन्याकियाभवेत ् word. According to the school of Meemamsa motivations are determined by desiring process Vedic ritualism, word and meaning relation is or libido drive' .अिो खलु काम मयोयंपु셁ष: innate. Tantric schools however fall in with the YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 6

This was postulated thousand of years before comparable to aatmanand आ配मानंद Freud or Jung . While both their theories have .The enlightened seer Yajnavalkya been refuted by later scholars who hinted at instructs his consort Gargi : various limitations this eternal axiom of the ‘ a husband is not loving because he Upanishads is universally relevant for ever. is a husband, he is loving because he The drive for attaining the ultimate bliss is is your atman.A wife is not loving Paramananda, a refined and sublimate form of because she is a wife but she is loving libido drive. In the arcane Tantra more emphasis because she is your atman. Wealth is is laid on sublimating this drive rather than on not dear because it is wealth but it is subjugating or transcending it therefore as the so because it is atman. Everything is implementation of the aforesaid Vedic dictum not loving because of it being so. A Tantriks go about it as follows son is not loving because he is a son कामानय:कामयतेकामकामी सकामशभजावयते but because he is atman. Things are agreeable not because of being a part तिति 配पयावप्तकामरयकृ ता配मनरय इहैवसव े of the objective phenomenon but प्रववलीयंतेकामा: । because the self is their substratum'.

The mystics evolved a sophisticated system of In a compendium of monistic vedantic- refining the desiring process Panchadashi, the author of vidyaaranya has कामेन कामयेत कामी कामं कामेषु योजयेत. cited these mantras and concluded that it is futile to place the fulcrum of agree ability or  Instead of focusing on controlling or subjugating this most cardinal priyatah in anything ephemeral except atman impetus of humankind the Tantra the substratum. A canon on eastern metaphysics aimed at its sublimation. This trend says . also developed in less conservative Priyam tvam rotasyati वप्रयं配वां रो配रयतीतत . Semitic cultures. Refining carnal ‘If your notion of agreeability is any where tendencies which are also produces of else besides atman that object mistaken as dear lower nature into subtler and refined will make you cry presumably due to inevitable forms of platonic, divine and spiritual dissociation’ . love has been common to most of the mystic paths occidental or oriental. It is a Herculean task indeed to channelize and Erose denotes physical and carnal streamline the dissipating "power of will". manifestations of the collective as Since individual efforts do not suffice so the well as the individual libido drive. hoary seers of the past invoked compassion Erose can be sublimated by stopping of the mother of the universe and sought her the dissipation of Ichha Shakti or the munificence through faith devotion and the power of will. This requires a knowledge of spiritual practices imparted by reservoir of such power. Ascetics herself . accustomed to a great deal of moderation can help an aspirant by Usually the path of action is related with inducing his well refined and thus आणवउपाय and that of desire or excercising divine will into the novice.  This refined "erose" or what the eastern individual will to शाक्त उपाय .The path of thinkers called ववषयांद Converts into wisdom and spiritual insight comprises शाम्भव vidhyaanand ie philos. Refined Erose उपाय . This present cogitation on kamkala is becomes Philos or वव饍यानंद a the path of effort or Shakti . Kundalini is comparatively subtler form of ananda. awakened to enhance the pace of spiritual Still more refined aspect is Agape evolution .Awakened kundalini or completely YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 7

unfolded awareness alone can give an दीघप्व लुतोदा配त with triple long connotation . unalloyed vision of the absolute truth .When she Atharva Vedic Omkar is merely the fourteenth is asleep one is badly caught in the quagmire of reciprocating objectivity, at times upto the vowel with nasal accent I.e.ओं or ओम ्, extent of complete oblivion of one's essential nature .Hence there is so much stress in the The viva voce tradition of Vedic recital is left agama on the subservience to the preceptor and with only a few unalloyed branches or shakhas . observance of the kulacharas or the esoteric This canto has some clues about a branch of precepts . rikveda in which instead of Omkara the reciter pronounced eenkar before the An aspirant who learns the knack of commencement of Vedic recital. This arcane accumulating and orientating the individual syllable is a coveted knack of streamlining the willpower syncing it with the cosmic one is awareness among the votaries of tantrikism . liberated from the fetters of incessant birth and Some mystics claim it's origin in the Asyavam death ,otherwise it is impossible even to believe suktam of the rikveda . in the possibility of any such occurrence let This canto of laghustava says that the twice alone seeking deliverance from. borns recite it like Omkara but owing to its There is maxim among Vedic scholars that all subtlety and mystic import this is rather the Vedas emanate from the eternal word or fourth matra of Omkara which cannot be Omkara and subside into it .The primordial pronounced phonetically ,instead it pervades all word of god also pervades all human the three components of Omkara if pronounced expressions specially if it follows the order of with due precision . manifestation into the audible speech as per the mystic canons . The primordial word becomes This has also been called as the fourth matra or three fold as the three modes of vak and then arch matra of Omkara which eight fold comprising eight groups of Sanskrit as durgasaptashati puts it is यानु楍िायाव वव alphabet . The vak as the mystic canons say mixes up with the fire of consciousness शेषत: which is 'remains un pronounced but and vital spirit and assumes grosser forms of resonates spontaneously.' conceivable ideas and expressible utterances. Another mystic phonetic coincidence is "Just as a leaf is pervaded by veins so is the regarding the elimination of its preceding and entire vak pervaded by Omkara*. following portions namely क and ल both guttural and labial palatial syllables which This has been the most meticulously require some effort and stress in their conceived arduously practised pronunciation where as the fourth vowel with and ritualistically propagated holy syllable of nasal resonates spontaneously . There is a the Hindus . belief among the orthodox votaries of the *If one recites Vedas not preceded by Omkara eternal and living word that it stands in no need and not followed by it ,it goes waste . Each of any effort of pronunciation . : is one Veda has its own version of Omkara .Rikveda तनरपेक्ष रव of the attributes of the Vedas, the eternal word for instance has ( with three िैरवयव उदात ् that resonates without any effort of connotations) that is why they put a mark of pronunciation . three between O and M (ओ३म)् . Yajurvedic omkara is called : (contains For this time continuum to be consistent the उदा配तानुदा配रवररत word must be beginning less and thus end less all three letters which are required to be .To be beginning less is a must for an entity to pronounced with उदा配तअनुदा配त and रवररत be endless but vice versa may not be consistent . connotations). Omkar of the Samveda is called Beginningless entity may have an end . The word as the noted grammarian mystic YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 8

Bhartrihari propounds in his vakyapadiyam (a (In the process of manifesting as letters from a compendium of word and sentence ) is to ksha the fourth Vowel is eem may it beginning less as well as endless be victorious as it contains all three realms in अनाहदतनिनं ब्रह्म शब्दत配वं यदक्षरम ् its lap. The fourth vowel I.e. Eem is the manifestation of vak containing all learnings This obviously signifies the like the Veda etc. O mother cultivate that primordial consciousness as conditioned in eloquence and poesy in me which culminates Shabd or Shabda brahm. into the empire of epical composition with all One famous hymn to the goddess Durga goes as rhetorics ,similes metaphors and alliteration ) follows

सुिा 配वमक्षरे तन配ये त्रििामािात्配मकात्रिता The power of consciousness manifests in the अिवमािात्配मकातन配या या तन楍िायाव ववशेषत: ।( form of fifty odd syllables. Among them the Durga saptashati) fourth vowel is ever victorious she manifests in 'O imperishable one thou manifest in the form the form of all eighteen faculties of scholarship of the three portions of Omkara and and all three realms are situated in her lap . also manifest as the half matra which cannot Kamakala or turban as it is called in the mystic be pronounced through any effort of the vocal canons ,has the entire syllabus of ancient chamber ‘. traditional studies nascent in her womb, but this lineage is highly arcane and the author says if There are two forms of Omkara says one arcane any wise man is present upon the earth only he interpretation of the fourth quarter of the can know that this is a key to great erudition . famous Gayatri mantra (this turya Gayatri has There have been prodigies of extraordinary been mentioned in the first or second Agni of erudition who received this mantra from Kathaka Brahman most of which is now competent preceptors . This syllable as Prithvadharacharya puts it in his hymn to obsolete . ) the first form is सवद or Bhuvaneshwari has all areas of human learning pronounceable where as the second one is अवद: encrypted in it , so an adept can induce all his not pronounceable . The former has a beginning learning into a novice through this syllable . and therefore an end since it didn't exist before There have been instances in the history of pronunciation and lasts when the pronunciation Sanskrit scholarship rare though ,when a novice ends . The latter non pronounceable and latent shared all the learning of his preceptor within no mystic syllable is the a synthesis of nada and time . There have been instances when a small Bindu and is usually referred to as kamakala baby began to suckle the toe of a great Saint as .The version of kamakala in this canto has no ka a child's prank and began to compose and la . This fourth vowel,of Sanskrit alphabet flawless complicated Sanskrit verses. A student has been highly spoken off in many prominent was blessed that he will memorise all holy tantras and agamas . books he saw at a library and he actually did Prithvidharacharya one of the prominent .The famous pundit is still remembered in Kashi disciples of Adishankara in his hymn to as a genius who had memorised thousand bhuvaneshwari says scriptures. ,Another yogi put both his hands on a dunce child's head and he became an eloquent

आहदक्षांतववलासलालसतया तासातुरीया तु या scholar . The famous grammarian Nagesh Bhatt िोडीकृ 配य जग配िंववजयते। वेदाहदवव饍यामयी was a retarded lad who was blessed by a yogi through shaktipat and he became one of the

तां वािं मतयसंप्रसादय सुिाक쥍लोलकोलाहल most authentic figures in the area of Panini's िीडाकणवनवणवनीयकववतासाम्रा煍यशसविप्रदा descriptive linguistics . Adi Shankaracharya's (Bhuvaneshwari redemption of Totaka a ten year old retarded satva) child through shaktipat is famous among the votaries of his monism. All this happens YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 9

through an induction of this formula of streamlining human awareness . Laghu acharya the author of this hymns says that arcane phenomena is evident only to rare yogins who belong to this cult .

In the tantrik canons Kamakala has been semiotically described as a lady draped in green and carrying an ear of corn crouched on bare earth . This may be a symbolic depiction of the all pervading consciousness who besides being an agency of all cognitive and volitional faculties also accounts for the process of germination and vegetative reproduction . Ancient hoary seers may have foreseen the future eco imbalance and attributed the essential measures to this aspect of nature . She can be revived as an archaic goddess of fertility and eco awareness . This Indian version of ancient Mesopotamian and Sumerian goddess of fertility is still adored by many aspirants who are initiated into this cult इ配िं कामकलात्配मकां भगवतीमंत:समाराियन ् आनंदांबुथिम煍जनंप्रलभतांमनंि ुं स煍जन: (Tripura Sundari Manaspuja )

‘In this manner by adoring the goddess Kama kala within themselves A decent aspirant should submerge into the ocean of ascetic rapture and attain the supreme bliss’

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A Perspectival Look at the 'Rites and uprooted and were in a state of dispersal. How could I witness a Hindu ritual performance in its Rituals of Kashmiri Brahmins' traditional form outside their eco-cultural habitat? I knew that scholars from different Dr. S .S. Toshkhani parts of the world had been showing a growing interest in the study of Hindu, and particularly Passionately drawn towards exploring aspects Vedic, ritual. But nobody had taken up of Kashmir’s cultural andintellectual traditions Kashmiri Hindu religious activity as a separate though I was from the beginning, I was not field of scholastic inquiry. This was perhaps particularly inclined towards venturing into an because they could not see any perceptible area like rituals and rites. Rituals, I must difference between the ritual system they had confess, were anathema to me as I considered adopted and that which Hindus in general them to be nothing more than superfluous outer followed. The pan-Indian elements were all ceremony which had nothing or little to do with there, but there were also some remarkable religious life in the deeper sense. So when variations and modifications because UNESCO scholar, Prof. B. N. Saraswati chose of deshāchāra which could not be the subject of rituals and ritual arts of Kashmiri ignored. Characteristically Kashmiri ritual Hindus for me to work on as a research project system had elements which had to be identified for the Janapada Sampada department of and analysed while dwelling on the IGNCA during a brief meeting I had with him commonalities. Hardly anything systematic had in early 2002, I did not know what to say. He been done in this direction by the religious was heading that department at that time and historian and social anthropologist, Indian or was a social anthropologist of Western. eminence. Rituals, he explained noticing my discomfiture, were one of the bonds that existed between the Hindu community of Kashmir and the cultural life of Hindus of the country at As I decided to start my study in right earnest, I large, and should not be understood in a narrow understood if had to work on regional sense. They give you a sense of identity. I saw peculiarities of the ritual traditions and practices his point, but how to proceed on a subject you of the Kashmiri Brahmins, I had to comprehend have been holding in contempt all your the “formative consciousness” and life. Kashmir was sort of out of bonds for any epistemological matrixes from which they had scholarly work of the nature I had been assigned sprung. I had to forge my own methodological to take up. And mass exodus of Kashmiri and conceptual tools, I thought, and that meant Pandits from there in wake of terrorist violence adopting an approach involving study of related had complicated things. They had been textual material as well as field work. This YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 11

called for having discussions with available consciousness of a people, even as they seek to ritual experts and resource persons and there link mundane or natural reality with the divine were hardly any around either in Delhi or in or trans-natural. They combine in their structure Jammu for any worthwhile discussions about mental, physical and verbal actions which regional peculiarities regional peculiarities of achieve a symbolical character giving the whole the ritual traditions and practices of the a meaning and significance through “invocation Kashmiri Brahmins. The last of the greatest of the sacred and the transcendent” beyond what amongst them Pandit Raghunath Kulkiloo had any natural process can give it. As Prof. Daya passed away some years ago, but Pandit Krishna has pointed out, rituals transform the Kashinath Handoo was there. The related texts biological cycle into a cultural cycle. That is too had to be obtained. I sought the help of why, he explains, “... In all cultures birth and Prof. Bansi Lal Fotedar and it was he who came death are not just biological phenomena but to my rescue. Interviews with Pandit Handoo profound cultural events associated with a lot of and some other scholars who were still in the ritual and ceremonies which transform the field were arranged. That proved of some help, biological into the cultural”. The ritual at least I was able to clear doubts on some processes that set into motion this points about which I was yet vague in my mind. transformation of the natural or causal are Not a real breakthrough though as many who closely related to the attitude of a civilization to were thought to be knowledgeable about things time and space and their sacralisation and did not exactly prove to be so. Just at that time symbolization. I read Fritz Staal, a German expert on Vedic fire ritual and found him saying that ”Asian rituals Viewing things in the Indian context it can be are rituals without a religion”, creating doubts said about rites or rituals that they are about meaning of ritual itself. “Rites become intertwined throughout with human life and religious” he has written, “when they are human activity, beginning with the birth of an provided with religious interpretation”. At the individual or even earlier with conception, and same time he has emphasised that ritual continuing through crucial stages of his or her traditions have social significance in that they life up to his or her death. Collectively, they are identify groups and distinguish them from each called samskāras. Apart from these passage of other. It now became necessary to arrive at a time or life- cycle rituals, there are ceremonies basic line of approach to the question of what related to different forms of worship in which actually constituted Hindu religious ritual and the blessings of gods / goddesses are invoked what could be defined as variation and deviation for fulfillment of worldly desires or for spiritual at the regional level. Did rituals really have any enlightenment. These worship rituals, meaning and how did they help in defining commonly known as pūjā may externally vary identity? in some respects from place to place or in different social milieus, but they have the same I noted in this context that Richard H. Davis, basic internal structure. another eminent Western scholar, but of medieval Shaiva ritual, is highly critical of such Whether seen as encoded processes of change scholars who tend to “characteristically present or expressions of reverence for the sacred, the Indian rituals as instances of highly elaborate fundamental ritual activities prevalent among routinized behaviour, ignoring the philosophical Kashmiri Hindus, as among other Hindu foundations on which they are based”. A focus communities of the country, can be broadly now emerged for my study and I found it found classified under the following it possible to move ahead. In the new light in heads: (1) Samskāras or life-cycle (passage of which I began see my subject now I came to time) rituals and other domestic ceremonies, understand rituals as established patterns of (2) Pūjā or worship services, (3) Tantric religious activity embedded in the cultural practices and (4) Ritual arts. Eminent ritual YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 12

expert Jayant Burde has divided religious to remove contamination. Bathing, especially in rituals into these four categories: worship sacred rivers, sipping water (āchamana), and rituals, rites of passage, festive rituals and lustration or sprinkling of water are believed to sacraments. According to Nusahi Tachikawa be means of removing physical as well as and Shaon Hino, religious activity can be spiritual impurities. divided into two kinds: (1) That which takes as its goal the spiritual well-being of the Prayers, appeals and blessings are another class individual, and (2) that which has the purpose of of constituents that can be placed next on the enabling the group or the society to operate list. Prayer, says the eminent philosopher Prof. smoothly (festivals, initiation rites Daya Krishna, “seeks the intervention of the etc.). Following these two noted Japanese transcendent in the normal processes that are scholars of Indian rituals, it was the study supposed to be governed by causality”. Prayers of samskāras or life-cycle rituals of Kashmiri for success, health, long life, happiness, Hindus that I took up first, as these for the obtaining children, material prosperity, spiritual common people form the core of religious salvation etc. are a common feature of Kashmiri activity, and then the pūjā rituals. In both cases, Hindu rituals, as also seeking of blessings of as I noted, rituals serve as means of gods, elders, preceptors and teachers, spiritual communicating with divine beings or trans- personalities etc. natural powers that are believed to guide and influence the course of human actions. While Offering sacrificial food and presents to benevolent and favourable influences are sought propitiate and please gods and supernatural to be attracted and appeased, as Dr. Rajbali beings is another major constituent of rituals Pandey has pointed out, ritual devices are used including those performed by Kashmiri to ward off or banish harmful and hostile Hindus. Special occasions and festivals have influences (evil and uncanny spirits, goblins, been set apart in sacred texts to invite, placate demons etc.), often by invoking the help of and feast them in the hope of obtaining their deities and gods. In fact, ritual practices all over favours. As we know, apart from oblations of the world follow a similar pattern – purification, barley, rice, sesame seeds, dried fruits, banishment, propitiation and consecration. molasses, sugar candy, clarified butter or ghee, milk etc. at yajñas and havans, the most After these general characteristics that rituals common food offering to gods made by display, I went on to describe the constituent Kashmiri Hindus is tāhrī or rice flavoured with elements of the rites and rituals of Kashmiri turmeric powder and ghee or oil. Sacrificial Hindus in accordance with the analysis provided food like khicharī and fish and rice is offered to by the pioneering expert of Hindu samskāras, appease Kubera, the Lord of Yakshas and Dr. Rajbali Pandey. Agni or fire is the first and the Grihadevatā (Kashmiri gardivtā) or the most sacred of these components, an dis being Deity of the House, while meat offerings are worshipped as the presiding deity of sacrifices made to deities like Bhairava, Kālī, Jwālā, and and domestic rites and ceremonies since the Tripurā. Lambs are also slaughtered to please Vedic times -- agnim īde purohitam. Fire certain deities with animal sacrifice, though purifies, consecrates and acts as a protector and such practices have now become rare. witness to human intent. Offerings are made into fire and through it to the gods in almost Like their co-religionists elsewhere in the every ritual performance. Kashmiris burn country, Kashmiri Hindus attach great bdellium and sesame seeds in a kāngrī during significance to orientation or direction the weddings and other ceremonies for performer should take while performing a ritual auspiciousness and to banish evil spirits. Water, act. Direction of movement in domestic and a symbol of life itself, is the next important other rituals is clearly specified in the religious constituent for its purifying effects and powers texts they follow. Citing Gobhila’s Grihyasūtra, YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 13

Veena Dass observes: “...The right side has Divinatory methods, based on the belief that precedence over the left in rituals to mark the gods indicate what is to come in the future passage of time, as in the morning and evening through the medium of natural phenomena and oblations to be made to the fire on the advent of other agencies, too have an important place in the new moon and full moon”. She further the pattern of ritualistic behaviour of the writes: “Similarly, in all rites of transition Kashmiri Pandits. Besides liturgical utterances except death the use of the right side is and acts, gods are sought to be pleased in their prescribed.” The opposition between right and rituals through song and dance which are left, she explains, “is clearly associated with believed to evoke generosity and benevolence ‘rites to gods’ and ‘rites to ancestors’, the from them in the form of material prosperity, former being associated with propitiation of success and protection from misfortunes as well divine beings who are friendly and benevolent, as for bringing in auspiciousness. the latter being associated with those supernatural beings who have to be appeased, After these general observations, arose the who inspire terror and have the potential of question of accessing the particular ritual texts causing great harm if they are not regularly which provide the parameters for the Kashmiri propitiated.” This applies fully to the domestic Hindus to follow in their ritualistic behaviour. rites of Kashmiri Hindus as well, though they Foremost among these is the Grihyasūtra of follow the directions given in different texts. Laugakshi. I had heard about Laugakshi but his Following Indian mythology, they too consider name was only a faint echo in my ears. He had south to be the direction of Yama, the god of written his Grihyasūtra for adherents of the Death, and hence inauspicious. In all rites Kāthaka school of Krishna Yajurveda to which performed by them the subject faces the east, Kashmiri Brahmins belong. But to obtain an which is associated with light and warmth, and insight into its ordainments also to know to therefore “happiness and glory”. what extent they were practically followed by the Pandits required that the text be studied Observance of taboos on is yet another feature seriously. Though listed among the that marks the ritual behaviour of Hindus of important grihyasūtras, the Laugakshi Kashmir. These are associated with Grihyasūtra is not a much commented upon circumstances like pregnancy, childbirth, text. I learnt, the rules and regulations laid adolescence, marriage and death and are related down by Laugakshi Muni alone are regarded by to purity and impurity (shauch-ashauch, the Kashmir Pandits as the true norm and source auspicious-inauspicious (shubha-ashubha) or of their āchāra, no other grihyasūtra being used else to warding off evil influences and the evil in Kashmir for guidance in performance of eye and other possible dangers. Then there are rituals and rites. Can anyone beat it --the taboos associated with certain months or days Pandits follow Laugakshi’s ordainments but which are believed to be inauspicious and when know nothing about him or about the Kāthaka certain things should not be done. There are school to which they belong. To excavate the also minor taboos connected with food which facts I buried myself in Laugakshi’s text, are followed mainly from protecting a person photocopies of which were very kindly provided from evil influence or impurity which may be to me by well known scholar and author Dr. physical, moral or spiritual. Fasting, abstaining Rames Taimiri. For this I shall ever remain from taking non-vegetarian food on particular thankful to him. I managed to make some days or occasions and notions of purity and headway, but there was a whole host impurity in cooking, prohibition or prescription of grihyasūtras followed in India -- those of particular type of food – these are also written by Āshvalāyana, Gobhila, Āpastamba, included in the kind of taboos that the so-called Pāraskara, Hiranyakeshī, Mānava for instance. I orthodox among Kashmiri Pandits observe. had to acquaint myself about them too and their peculiarities for a proper understanding of YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 14

Laugakshi’s text and context. It was a reflected in other sources of inquiry like the stupendous task but all the same important to Nilamata Purana and Bhringisha Samhita. And undertake as no Western or Indian scholar had if Laugakshi’s Grihyasutra form the Vedic cred to render it into English nor an Indian substratum of the ritual system of the Kashmiri language with the exception of W. Caland who Hindus, the latter texts represent a stage when has written some notes and comments on it in this substratum was overlaid by elements of English. Puranic and Tantric modes of worship. By the time of the Nilamata Purana, a 6th century text When exactly did Laugakshi live and when did which gives Kashmir’s own creation myth, the the vast grihyasūtra literature came to be Vedic fire sacrifice (yajña) was replaced by composed? Scholars as usual do not agree, but practices like vrata (observance of religious if Veena Das is to be believed, vows), dāna (charity), japa (repetition of the the grihyasūtra litertature was composed deity’s sometime between c. 500 – 200 BCE, and that name), utsava (festivals),tīrthayātrā (pilgrimage is the date we can ascribe to our Laugakshi ), pūjā (individual or collective worship of also. The Vedic elements with which iconic deities), upavāsa (fasts) etc. A his Grihyasūtras are replete seem to confirm significant feature of religion in the Nilamata this. The text of the Grihyasūtra was brought era was the emergence of a whole new pantheon out in two volumes under the Kashmir Sanskrit of gods and goddesses, mostly of local origin, Texts Series by Jammu and Kashmir Research who could be invoked through their and Publications Department in 1928 and 1934 anthropomorphic images. Thus, besides the respectively. It was critically edited by Pandit worship of the five major Puranic deities, viz. Madhusudan Kaul Shastri who wrote a very Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Ganesha in their valauble Introduction to the first volume giving various manifestations and Surya the Sun god, preliminary information about the work, the the Nāga deities, the deities of the Pañcharātra author and the commentator Devpala. Pandit and the Bhāgvata cults, Kubera, even Buddha, madhusudan Kaul had promised to write a Vitasta and many other river goddesses detailed introduction to the second volume as and deities of local origin found their place in well but did not do so. According to him Aditya the religious belief system. Darshana wrote a vivarna on it while the Paddhati was written by Brahmanbala The ever joyful and sportive people of the era and bhāshyam by Devapala. Devapala’s who tried to live in perfect harmony with the commentary, Pandit Madhusudan Kaul tells us, beautiful natural environs of the Valley, has been incorporated in the text but in a way celebrating festivals galore. In spite of a that it is difficult to distinguish between the two. religious veneer, many of their festivals The Italian scholar Dr. Caland had also ike Krishyārambha,Yāvagrāyana, Navānna- critically edited Laugakshi’s Grihyasūtras with vidhāna, Shyāmādevī Pūjana, Irāmañjarī Pūjā, extracts from the three commentaries and Navasamavatsara addition of appendixes and indexes. I found the Mahotsava, Navahimāpātotsava and commentary useful at places but I also took the the vratas of help of Shatpatha Brāhmana and several other Uttarāyanaand Dakshināyana were actually primary and secondary sources to have a better related to agriculture and the cycle of understanding of things. seasons.Some of these festivals such as the Navasamvatsara But while the rites and rituals of Kashmiri Mahotsava (Navareh) and Navahimapātaostsav Brahmins are primarily anchored in a (Navashīn) continue to be celebrated to this theLaugakshi Grihyasūtra, there are also day. Festivals various phases through which they have passed like Irāmañjarī Pūjana and Shrāvanī Utsava sh in terms of their historical development as ow the kind of catholic and liberal values the YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 15

society of the times cherished and the freedom with their legends, mantras, hymns, and modes that women enjoyed. On the Irāmañjarī Pūjana, of worship. What assumes great importance in men and women were urged to visit gardens and this context is that some scholars are trying to parks and adorn each other with garlands of deny any antiquity to two of the most popular the Irāmañjarī flowers, while on local goddesses Rāgñyā and Sharika, in the Shrāvanī festival young maidens are asked particular the former who they argue came into to enjoy water sports. Sukhasaptikā, which was existence only recently. How did the worship perhaps the same as Diwali, was a festival of a “Vaishnavite” goddess who is offered only dedicated to Kāmadeva, the god of Love. vegetarian offerings like milk, sugar candy, khīr etc. come to gain such tremendous Nilamata also describes in detail a number of popularity among by Kashmiri Pandits after the places of ancient pilgrimage, mentioning their advent of Dogra rule only, they ask. Claiming legends and significance. These include that she is a creation of the Dogra rulers who Amareshwara or Amarnath, Kapalamochana were followers of Vishnu by faith, and therefore and other tirthas which continue to be places of vegetarian, they argue that a vegetarian goddess pilgrimage even now. Nilamta is not ritual text is incompatible with the traditions of Tantric as such, but a lot of information about rituals Kashmir and cannot otherwise be explained performed in that age can be gleaned from it. except an anachronism. They also refer to the There is also a clear thrust towards folk legend given in the Samhitā in the section religious practices in this personal purāna of titled Shrī Rājñī Prādurbhāva about the goddess Kashmiri Hindus. having been brought from Lanka by Hanumana to prove their point. An example of such logic More valuable from the ritualistic point of view can be seen in the recently published book ‘A is the Bhringīsha Samhitā which incorporates Goddess is Born: The Emergence of Khir various tīrtha mahātmyas or glorification of Bhawani in Kashmir’ written by Madhu Bazaz sacred sites and sheds valuable light on the Wangu. What such scholars forget, and they sacred geography of Kashmir. Though the exact include T. N. Madan, a sociologist of date of the Samhitā is difficult to detrermine, international repute, is that there are several Dr. Yashpal Khajuria, who has edited its Shri historical references to Tulmul as a place of Ranbir Singh Research Institute edition, is of pilgrimage, besides the fact that it was the well- the view that it must have been composed known mystic saint Krishna Joo Kar, a great sometime between the 5th century and devotee of the Mother Goddess, who 12th century of the Vikrami Era, though it is also rediscovered and demarcated the area of the possible that some portions of it may have been sacred spring in which the image of the goddess incorporated much later. The name of the sage is installed and lived in the 17th century in the Bhringisha, to whom it is ascribed, is associated time of Aurangzeb. The present temple was with ancient sages like Kashyapa and constructed there no doubt by Maharaja Pratap Shandilya. The text marks for the first time the Singh in the year1920, but before that a dominance of Shaivāgamic and Shākta cults in 10th century idol stood there under a mulberry the religious life of the Kashmiris as reflected in tree which was in place there when Swami the its glorification of the sacred sites dedicated Vivekannada made a pilgrimage to the shrine to various deities worshipped in Kashmir. in1898. (It may be noted that the word tul in Beginning with Tulmul, where the famous Kashmiri means mulberry.) These scholars shrine dedicated to Mahārājñī, popularly also fail to note that Bhavani means the consort pronounced as Mahārāgñyā, or Khīr Bhavānī is of Bhava, a name of Shiva and that she is located, the Bhringīsha Samhitā (BS) goes on to represented with all the iconography of describe the significance of the shrines of Durga. Furthermore, devotion to Vishnu was an Sharikā, Jwālā, Jyeshthā, Shāradā and other equally dominant feature of Kashmiri religious manifestations of the Mother Goddess together life along with Shaivism and Shaktism. The YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 16

Nilamata Purana shows a clear tilt towards centres of India like Ganga, Godavari, Prayag, Vaishnavism and scholars say that cults like the Kurukshetra, Pushkar etc. This is so not just Pañcharātra had taken their birth there. Apart because the tīrthas in mainland India were from that, amalgamation of two goddesses into inaccessible in the winters to the common man one can be seen in Sharada, the goddess of because of excessive snowfall, but because of speech and learning, also who is shown seated the deep reverence for these centres in the on a lion indicating Saraswati and Durgā Kashmiri Hindu psyche. That is perhaps the merging into one. reason that almost every sacred river is given the appellation of Ganga by them – Dūdh The glorification of the shrine of Shārikā Gangā, Nila Gangā, Kishengangā, etc. Another Parrvata (modern Hari Parbat) is described in important aspect that I have highlighted is that much greater detail in BS, covering six pātalas in the local sacred texts like Nilamata Purana or sections. Linking it with the creation myth of and BS we find chanting of Vedic mantras Kashmir, the sacred text narrates how the Great juxtaposed with Puranic hymns and Tantric Goddess Durgā herself took the form of mantras and ritual practices. This makes it a shārikā or starling to deliver the land from the obvious that while the Vedic elements terror of the demon Baka and crushed him under continued to play an anchoring role, Puranic and a peak of Mount Sumeru which she was Tantric liturgy had come to be regarded as the carrying as a pebble in her beak, BS also tells us established norm in the ritualistic behaviour of about the various deities that occupy various Kashniri Hindus. In fact the juxtaposition of all places along the entire periphery of the sacred the three elements continues to constitute the hill. It is through the Samhitā we come to know core of their religious life down to the present that the Goddess Sharikā is to be worshipped in times. This shows Kashmiri hindu rituals having the form of a natural Shrīchakra inscribed on a three tiered structure – Vedic, Puranic and the main rock that represents her and that this Tantri.c rock is to be smeared with vermilion and ghee. It also describes the offerings that are to be Apart from the glorification of places of made to her on different days of the week and pilgrimage, significance of important festivals ways for circumambulation of the sacred and celebrations of Kashmiri Hindus, hill. The dhyāna shloka of the goddess given in like Shivarātri, Navavarshotsava or Navreh and BS shows Sharikā carrying among other things a number of other religious celebrations with a ploughshare in one of her eighteen hands their exclusively Kashmiri features l also forms which Durgā. Does this indicate that she was a substantial part of the BS. About these I will originally an agricultural goddess who was later discuss a little later, but suffice it to say here identified with Durgā herself. that this raises the question of the essential nature of these festivals underlining as it does Among the numerous other sacred sites of that festivals and yātrās are related to Kashmir whose spiritual significance BS civilizational memory. The celebration of celebrates are Amarnath and the sacred stops “foundational festivals” can be seen as that fall en route, Harmukh and Gangabal, enactment and re-enactment of cultural events Kapalmochan, Martanda, Pushkara, Sangam supposed to have occurred in the remote etc. The rituals and ceremonies associated with past. They are related to civilizational memory them represent a period in the religious history and, as Prof. Daya Krishna has pointed out, are of Kashmir when the temple and places of internalized to “such a degree that a person pilgrimage had become centres of group finds his identity in participating in them” and religious activities for Hindus. An interesting even feels “that a very important part of himself feature of the work is that quite a number of the would be missing if he does not do so”. While pilgrimage places of Kashmir it describes are the cycle of festivals points to their relationship named after well-known Hindu pilgrimage with civilizational memory in time, the notion YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 17

of pilgrimages to places deemed to be sacred is deceased with a jñāna khadga or Sword of linked with “the spread of memory to knowledge made of thirty-six blades of grass space”. This notion of a journey to these places corresponding to the thirty-six tattvas of Shaiva that an individual would like to undertake cosmology. I have given full details sometime, as Prof. Daya Krishna points out, of Shivakarma antyeshti rites in the consists of the feeling that by doing so “he book. However, many rituals mentioned in the becomes a part of something larger than himself Kashmiri Tantric texts are lost and there is no and through which he achieves a personal track of them. identity at a deeper level of his being”. The Vaishnavite Tantric cult of Pañcharātra I also consider it necessary to mention here that with its own elaborate system of rituals must Tantric modes of worship and ritual have also left an impact on the ritual behaviour practices of esoteric cults came to occupy the of of Kashmiri Hindus. The cult is believed to centre-stage in the religion practiced in Kashmir have flourished in Kashmir in early times and from the 7th century onwards and with an according to some had its birth there. These extensive body of sacred texts, known as the have been described in full detail in Pañcharātra Bhairava Tantras, exerted a pervading influence texts like the Jayākhyā and Ahīrabudhnya on the Kashmiri Hindu mind. These included Samhitās. Today we have only a vague the Rudra Yāmala Tantra, MaIini Vijaya Tantra, reminder of Kashmir having been a an Svachchanda Tantra, Netrta Tantra, important seat of the cult in the Mrigendra Tantra, Vamakeshvara Tantra and appellation Pradyumna Pītha given in BS to Yogini Tantra among various others. The Hari Parbat. Pradyumna, it may be pointed out, schools of Agamic Shaivism like Krama, Kula is one of the four vyūhas or deities of the cult and Trika gained fast popularity and a dominant representing cosmic reality. position when in the 10th – 11th century the great Abhinavagupta synthesized them under one These then can be regarded as the main sources exegetical scheme as monistic Shaivism in his of inquiry about the ritual system of Kashmiri monumental work, the Tantraloka, interiorizing Hindus. Coming back to samskāras or life-cycle their rites and rituals. According to Navjivan rituals, I have drawn attention to the fact that Rastogi it is the most comprehensive and exigencies of circumstances brought about by important single source of information about the the near total displacement of Kashmiri Pandits various aspects of Shaiva ritual have greatly affected their ritualistic behaviour, with mantra, mudrā, nyāsa, mandala, dīkshā, ch contributing further to the cultural loss suffered aryā, upāsanā and yāga as its constituents. It by them due to the processes of modernization. also deals with the nitya karma or daily rites Prolonged contact with Islam and Islamic way and naimittika karma or occasional rites as also of life has done incalculable harm to their with antyeshti or funerary rites and shrāddha or consciousness of their own traditions and post- funerary rites which are performed by the religious practices, blunting their perceptive little known sect of Shivakarmī. The latter are faculties. Of the sixteen standard samskāras actually practitioners of rituals of non-dual they are today practically performing only the Shaivism of Kashmir. These rituals are very bare essential ones like mekhal or sacred thread lengthy, elaborate and complicated, consisting investiture, nethar or marriage ceremony of a series and antyeshtior funerary rites, and even that to of pūjās, nyāsas, mudrās, mandalas, yāgas, hom the minimal extent. as and mantric devices. For the Shiavakarmīs, Shiva alone issupreme and is to be worshipped A few words about the role of samaskāras in along with deities of Shiva Brahmānda or the the Hindu tradition become essential here. It is Cosmos of Shiva. In their funerary rites the essential to note that samskāras consist of performer of the rites strikes at the head of the processes “by which the natural is transformed YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 18

into the cultural”. The process of some interpret these words as a distortion of transformation starts with conception itself in “punahsantu”meaing “May you have more the biological cycle of an individual which gets children”, “panasund”may actually be remnant intimately related to that of another human of a forgotten mantra or being of the opposite sex, leading to a new hymn. Though kāhnethar or the eleventh day human being coming into existence. The life purification rites corresponding to a blend cycle of the newly born person in turn gets of jātakarma and nāmakarana and zarakāsay o closely intermixed with the life cycles of the r mundana, the first tonsure of the male child, parents for the rather long period of growing up and perhaps annaprāshana or ceremonial and attaining maturity. It also gets enmeshed feeding of a new born child with solid food, are with the cycles of his siblings and other still performed by some, the precise dates members of the family, as also their peers and prescribed in the sacred texts are no longer marks the beginning of socialization with adhered to. Modifications have been introduced cultural values like love and sensitivity for each in the performance of other domestic rituals too other’s concerns and respect for the elders due to circumstances. However, mekhalor the coming into play. The “ritualistic consecration” sacred thread investiture ceremony continues to of marriage of two individuals starts it all. It is be regarded as the most important initiation the symbolic character of the ceremonies ritual prior to marriage for a boy. It is rather performed at different stages of life right from strange that the wearing the mekhalā or girdle to the “biological moment” of conception to death put the loin cloth in place, which is only a part that imbues these natural processes with the of the ceremonies significance of a cultural dimension. The of upanayana or yajñopavīta has become the ritualistic procedures of karmakānda for nomenclature of the whole samskāra. This is transformation of the biological reality into something that needs investigation. But one cultural consciousness, is what lends thing must be noted. Today it has become an Hindu samskāras with a meaningfulness and outward sign of being a Hindu Brahmin, just purposive character that raises human beings to astshog or the tuft of hair was sometime back. a level beyond the purely biological existence of non-human beings. The subtle impressions The upanayana samskāra or sacred thread that samskāras leave on mind set into motion nvestiture ceremony as performed by Kashmiri processes that lead to acculturation and Pandits seems to have been reduced to farce socialization. with a compact of as many as twenty four ceremonies right Although the Laugakshi Grihyasutra gives from garbhādāna, kāhanethar, zarakāsay and details of the sixteen standardsamskāras, vidyārambha to samāvartana being rolled into Kashmiri Pandits have been done away with one. But many of the indigenous ceremonies most of the prenatal ceremonies, including dŏd like divagōn, närivan khārun, tĕkytāl, vāridān a dyun or curds ceremony which was performed nd ādidarshun have a great charm of their own till a few decades back. Among the post-natal which they have retained.. The närivan ceremonies khaārun ceremony appears to resemble too jātakarma or shrānasŏndar,which consists the simāntonnayana ceremony in some ways of ritual bath given to the mother and child on with husbands adorning the hair of their wives or after the sixth day of birth, is hardly with the help of small mulberry performed as a religious ritual. On the shrāna twigs. Performed prior to upanayana of a boy sŏndar day, it may be pointed out, ladies would or the marriage ceremony of a boy or a assemble in the confinement room of the mother girl, divagōn is indeed a uniquely Kashmiri and pass lighted pieces of birch-bark around the ceremony, colourful and exciting. On this head of the new born and all those who are occasion the to-be bride is decorated with bridal present, shouting “shokh ta panasund”. Though jewellery for the first time. This includes YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 19

the dejihor, the symbol of her married status, River Saraswati on the banks of which the which is said to be designed as a stylized form Brahmins of Kashmir are believed to have of shrīchakra. The ornament is a late comer and originally lived. The river, says the hymn, shows the xtent of the influence of the Shākta distributes its sweet waters as a mother cult on Kashmiri Hindus. The word divagōn is distributes her wealth to the daughter: probably derived from Sanskrit devāgamana and entails invoking the Āsyandamānā subhage nirgiribhyah Saraswati / presence of gods – Ganesha and the sapta Māteva duhitribhyah kulyābhyo vibhajā vasu // māttrikās – to bless the intiate or the boy or girl to be wedded. It begins with a ritual bath given [LGS Vol. I, 25 / 19] to the initiate or would -be bride or bridegroom by four maiden holding a cloth over their heads Praising the goddess Saraswati, to whom and pouring oblations into the sacred fire. On Kashmiri Brahmins are so deeply devoted, the the eastern wall drawing of akalpavriksha or the husband describes her as a gracious and wish-fulfilling tree supposed to be the abode of beautiful lady of resplendent complexion, the divinities in Nandanavana or the Garden of beautiful eyes and eyebrows, and prays to her to Paradise is made on a shatchakra base protect the lifelong companionship between him symbolizing Shakti is made for the and his bride. invocation. The drawing is called divtamūn in Kashmiri meaning ‘column of the gods’. Another unique ceremony is about ceremonial entry of the ganga vyas or River Ganga The yajñopavīta ceremonies do not conclude personified as the bride’s personal friend soon with samāvartana or the ceremonial return of after the madhuparkaceremony. This is the brhamachārī after the supposed end of his mentioned in the karmakānda manual brought student career. On the day following the sacred out by Pandit Keshav Bhatt Jyotshi. The role is thread investiture, a small homa is performed to played by a young girl from the bride’s side thank the gods for everything having passed off who acts as a confidant of hers. Nothing is well. known about the origin or purpose of this ceremony, but it appears that in ancient times Marriage, or nethar as it is called in Kashmiri, the bride was actually led to the banks of a river is regarded by the Kashmiri Hindus as the most by her female friends for a ritual bath. Later, important of all samskāras as it forms the during the Muslim rule, most probably during cultural pivot around which the life of a person the Afghan period, this ritual must have been as a householder revolves and ensures discontinued for fear of harassment. Supposed continuation of the family and the race through to be the embodiment of the holy river itself, the the progeny. A Kashmiri Pandit marriage has young girl is understood to function as a witness all the core elements that constitute a Hindu to the purity and sanctity of the marriage wedding, but it also has several peculiarities that ceremonies. are distinctly Kashmiri, being a charming and yet a serene affair. Like mekhal, it too There are some other uniquely interesting has divagōn as an essential constituent with features of a Kashmiri Pandit wedding that need Ganesha and the sapta mātrikās showering mentioning. These include ceremonies benedictions on the bride and the bridegroom. I like dvāra pūzā and posha pūzā’, the latter would like to point to two ceremonies in probably showing an influence of particular as they are suggestive of historical the Shivakarmī cult. After the bride’s father and civiliztional facts.. One is remembrance of and the bridegroom’s father have greeted each Saraswati, the river and the goddess both. As other and the wedding guests have settled down the wedding is going on, a hymn is recited by to enjoy the wedding feast, the bride and the the bride and the bridegroom in praise of the bridegroom are called to perform the dvāra YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 20

pūzā at the entrance gate of the bride’s house. “sacrifice” or an act of expiation through the The bridegroom cannot enter the house without medium of fire. This is because of a deep performing this ceremony at which the guardian influence of Shaiva ritual and it has made the deities of the gate are invoked and worshipped death rites among them very elaborate. It is the according to set procedure. They include “final” sacrifice”, according to the Shaivas, Ganesha, Dharma, Adharma, Dehalī, Khinkhinī before the departed soul attains liberation or and gods of the ramparts of the Sumeru identification with the “supreme state of Mountain. The doors are taken to be the Shivahood”. The funerary rituals of the sect thresholds between the outside world and the known as Shivakarmīs are even longer and more consecrated space inside, offering passage into a complicated as they involve performance of a new phase of life. It is considered essential to whole set of purification rituals even on the pay homage to these guardian deities of the door cremation ground to consume and destroy the to ward of perils and dangers and bring in karmic bonds of the deceased. The extreme protection and auspiciousness. Before entrance shortage of performing priests after the exodus the bridegroom and later the bride are made to of Kashmir Pandits from Kashmir has made the stand on the consecrated cosmic circle called situation indeed very difficult for those who the vyūg and are identified with Shiva and want to perform the last rites of their deceased Parvati or Lakshmi and Narayana. These very kin according to Kashmir rites as other priests gods guarding the entrance, it may be pointed are not acquainted at all with the procedures of out, are also worshipped the Kashmiri ritualistic system. during Grihapravesha or the ceremony of entering a new house. I have devoted a whole long chapter to Kashmiri pūjā rituals and festivals, analysing Posha Pūzā is the concluding and one of the their structural aspects, history and also most important ceremonies of Kashmiri Hindu distinguishing characteristics. Rites are marriage without which the nuptials are prescribed in religious texts for the nitya or regarded as incomplete. The bride and the daily worship and naimittikaor acts of worship bridegroom are made to sit under a red canopy performed on sacred dates and special and worshipped with flowers as embodiments of occasions. The latter include religious festivals, Shiva and Parvati by their parents and close birthday celebrations, propitiation of planetary relatives. The benedictory verses recited on this deities etc. in which elements from folk occasion refer to the names of gods and religion, mystic rites, cultic practices all goddesses, sages and seers, ancient warriors and combine and co-exist as constituents. famous kings and queens, pious mothers etc., Conceptualization of cosmic forces and perhaps to remind the couple of having ideal symbolization of ceremonial acts and children like them, and wishing them a firm and movements are significant aspects of loving relationship like ideal couples of Vedic Kashmiri pūjā rites, their basic ritual structure and Puranic lore. The gods are invoked seeking being related to the shodasha upchāra pūjā or their blessings so that they may obtain long life, the sixteen-step worship service which is the learning, wealth, happiness and, of course, norm followed by Hindus everywhere, with of “many sons” . The ceremony seems to have to course some modifications and variations do with Shivakarma ritual tradition. prompted by local factors. In its simplest form it starts with āvāhana or invocation to the deity to As in the case of rituals of life, in performing be present at the ritual setting, after which life is rituals of death too Kashmiri Hindus are guided infused into the image by means of the by notions of purity and impurity (shaucha- prescribed mantras (prāna pratishthā) ashaucha) and auspicious-inauspicious signifying that it is not the external image but (shubha-ashubha). But even more than that, the living deity present inside it who is being they regard the ritual of cremation as a worshipped. After being invoked, the deity is YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 21

welcomed as a guest and offered seat (āsana), by swastika and shrīchakramarks made on it by water for washing feet (pādya), libation of vermilion, it is placed on an ashtadala sacred water with rice grains, Dūrvā grass and kamala or eight-petal lotus drawn with rice flowers (arghya), water for rinsing the mouth flour or lime powder on the ground at the ritual (āchamanīya), bath for purification (snāna), site towards the east and on the left side of lower and upper garment the agnikunda. Vishnu is supposed to occupy its (vastra and upavastra), fragrant materials mouth, Rudra its neck and Brahma its bottom. (gandha), flowers (pushpa), incense (dhūpa), The group of mātrikās is known to reside in the lamp (dīpa), and last of all food (naivedya) middle part. Indra, Agni, Varuna, Vāyu and which is partaken by the performer and the Yama all reside inside it. The kalasha also participants as the deity’s gift of grace. The represents the ten directions along with their worshipper concludes presiding deities. All the oceans and the earth the pūjā with namaskāra or salutation to the with its even continents rest in the interior part deityand then offering flowers and waving of it. The Vedas – Rig, Yajus, Sāma, and lamps (ārātrikā). With mantras he bids farewell Atharva, with all their auxiliary texts assemble to the deity (visarjana). In case of in the water pot: congregational or public pūjāperformed in temples and sacred shrines, the concluding act is Kalashasya mukhe Vishnuh kanthe Rudrah that of pradakshināor circumambulation. The samasthitah / mūle tatra sthito Brahmā madhye Kashmiri Hindus have, however, reduced it now matriganah smritāh / kukshau tu sāgrāh to pañchopchāra and even further to what has sarvesaptdvīpā vasundharā / Rigvedo tha been given the name of “dhūpa-dīpa”. Yajurvedah Sāmavedo hy’ Atharvanah / angaishcha sahitāh sarve kalashantu There are several other important ritual acts samāshritāh // associated with pūjā, like purification of self, the ritual setting, and ritual objects, prānāyāma, Kalasha pūjā begins with the hymn portraying recitation of the Gāyatrī mantra called vyāhriti, the Vedas as the wish-fulfilling tree and praying waving a five-wick oil or camphor lamp to it for protection. (ratnadīpa), holding a parasol (chhatra) over the image of the deity, blowing a conch There are special procedures for special pūjās (shankha) and singing hymns to the as, for instance, those associated with accompaniment of a ringing hand-bell (ghantā). festivals. Linked with civilizational memory, This is what Richard Davis has termed as “the which they help to enact, festivals and least common denominator of Pūjā as a form of celebrations can be described as cultural events Hindu worship”. It is within this broad internalized by people to such an extent that structural and conceptual framework that they feel compelled to participate in them as regional variations, modifications and additions they find their identity in doing so. have emerged and given shape to peculiarities that can be distinctly identified as “Kashmiri”. An interesting fact about some Kashmiri Hindu festivals that I have tried to investigate is that Kalsha pūjāna or worshipping or the water pot their dates fall one or two days earlier than the is an essential preliminary of day on which they are celebrated in the rest of Kashmiri pūjā cermonials as it is believed to be the country. Shivaratri and Janmashtami are the abode of all gods. According to Heather two examples of such festivals. As for Elgood it conveys the idea of fullness and is Shivaratri, the most important of Kashmiri “such a central element in and symbol of Hindu Pandit festivals, it is celebrated on tryodashī or art that no ceremony can be performed without thirteenth day of the dark half of the month of the installation of an auspicious Phalguna and not on chaturdashī as in the rest vessel”. Consecrated of India. The celebrations actually extend from YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 22

the pratipadā or the first day to amāvasyā or the these images have been floated, but last day of the dark fortnight or even beyond to the sanipŏtul actually represents five-faced the tenth day of the bright half. Digging into the Shiva (Svachhandanāth Bhairava?) on which pages of some forgotten Tantric texts, I have water is sprinkled for abhisheka. The excavated the story of the Jwālālinga about the etymology of Vāgur is more confusing. Could it origin of the festival. Describing the whole be derived from Vyāghreshvar – probably the festival in all its details and symbolism, I have name of a Bhairava? Whatever the case may explained that these texts term Shivaratri be these aniconic vessels are a very interesting as Bhairavotsava as on this occasion Bhairava and fascinating aspect of Shivaratri pūjā in and Bhairavi are to be propitiated through Kashmir and decoding its mystery is very Tantric worship. According to the story, challenging job. Svachhandanatha Bhairava, a five- faced form of Shiva, appeared as a Jwālālinga or a column It may sound to be a tall claim but the manner in of fire at pradoshakāla or the dusk of early which I have described most of the major night on trayodashī. Failing to find the festivals of Kashmiri Hindus together with their beginning or end of the linga, Vatuka Bhairava, peculiarities and symbolism, seems to have the principal deity of the pūjā, and Ram some lesser known facts concerning them to Bhairava sing its praises while Shakti, whose light. Besides Herath or Shivaratri these mind -born sons they were, merges into it. The festivals include Navreh, Jyeshtha two emerged, one after the other, with all their Ashtami, Khetsi Mavas, Pan, Tiky Tsoram and weaponry from two pitchers filled with water several others. The fact is that they reveal when the Great Goddess cast her glances into Kashmiri Hindus as people who celebrated life them. She assured Vatuka that he will and tried to live in perfect harmony with their essentially receive worship first on beautiful natural environs, finding glimpses of the trayodashī. This is perhaps the reason that divinity in its phenomena. Their all-inclusive Vatuka is worshipped in the form of a pitcher philosophy of Shaiva monism rejects the filled with water into which walnuts are kept to otherness of God and emphasizes the oneness of soak and later distributed asnaivedya. Rāma Man, God and World. It is sad, however, that Bhairava or Raman Bhairva also has a role to some pūjās that were quite popular in Kashmir play on the conclusion of Shivaratri only a few decades back are now completely celebrations. He is the “Rām Bror” who knocks forgotten. And though in my study, I have tried at the door and promises to bring happiness and to record for the religious historian facts of their prosperity to women of the celebrating family. history and their ritualistic aspects as far as I It is sad that this beautiful piece of drama could, I feel sad that they are no longer being hasbeen forgotten and Ram Bror is regarded to performed. One of these was the Pañchāyatana be a benign cat and not Rāma Bhairava, the Pūjā, which involved worshiping the five major Devi’s mind-born son. deities of the Hindu pantheon – Vishnu, Shiva, Devi (Durga), Ganesha and Surya – with the Consecrated an iconic pottery is an important image of the favourite deity (ishta devatā) of part of Shivaratri pūjā – a unique feature of the worshipper placed in the centre and of the it. Apart from the earthen pitcher representing others at four corners in the temple or Vatuka Bhairava, special hand-moulded vessels the thokur kuth. Forgotten also is of various shapes and sizes believed to be the Parthiveshvara pūjā, which isat once a folk charged with spiritual power and representing art and a ritual. It consists of making an instant the main deities are worshipped during the pūjā. Shivalinga of clay, together with images of These include a cone-shaped Kumara, Ganapati, Uma and the eleven clay linga called Sanipŏtul and an open- Rudras. The linga and other images were made mouthed vessel having three parts artistically of clay obtained from called Vāgur. Ridiculous etymology of both a devasthāna or place of worship, the YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 23

Shankracharya Hill being a popular place for extremely sad and painful story. Gora Tray has Pandits of Srinagar to dig for it. As the clay – the scroll paintings with the image of images could be easily immersed into the river Saraswati and a hymn to her at the centre which after the worship, Parthiveshvara pūjā probably used to delight the hearts of Kashmiri Pandit became quite popular in Kashmir during the children only few decades back -- has vanished Muslim rule when fear of persecution made without a trace. It has beenallowed to die and visiting temples for congregational worship a disappear due to sheer indifference and risk. deadening of aesthetical sensibilities. Years back I went from town to town, village to Ritual art compliments religious practices as a village, person to find one single surviving means to express the invisible in terms of the specimen, b ut without any success. The Krūl visible. Though not exactly driven by aesthetic Pachh and almanac paintings have met the same impulse, this art has been an integral part of the fate. The Vyūg, a descendant of religious life of Kashmiri Hindus. To put it in the bhūmishobhā of the Nilamata Purana, is still the words of Heather Elgood, the role of Hindu there because it is still thought essential to make religious art is to “act as a threshold between the the bridegroom and the bride stand on it at worlds of gods and men”. For the Kashmiri weddings, but in what a grotesque and crude Hindus too ritual art forms serve many form. The same is the case with Krūl, the floral purposes. Some of them serve as an aid to designs painted on the entrance door at the time meditation, while some are believed to have the of a marriage or Yajñopavīt potential of driving away evil forces and ceremony. TheHāramandul – a representation protecting from calamity and misfortune. Many of the Sun god drawn on the floor-- is since of them are associated with auspiciousness and gone. The Tĕky Tāl or patterns well- being which they are supposed to attract of shrīchakra and bindu is in equally bad through their magical power. Yet many such art shape. I undertook to note some peculiarities of forms have disappeared or are on the verge of this wonder art as I was deeply fascinated by the disappearing – a sad commentary on a inherent symbolism of the shapes and community which claims to be concerned about configurations of these ritual drawings with the preserving its traditions. In fact my attempt to square standing for consecrated space and the explore the function, meaning and symbolism of circle easily identifiable with “the cyclical flow these dying folk art forms was a venture no art of time”. historian had undertaken so far. I had dared to open a systematic line of inquiry into a totally I hope it will be appreciated that in my study I uncharted area. The field I surveyed was indeed have desperately tried to capture the feel of a vast in range, covering Gora culture lived – a way of life once vibrant but Tray, Vyūg, Krūl, Hāramandul, Krūla Pachh, D now in the last throes of its existence. What can ivtamūn, Tĕky Tāl, Chittāvāsa, Shrīchakra, be more tragic than that the deeply painful long aniconic pottery used in Shivaratri worship, suffering Hindus of Kashmir should have lost drawings related to several life-cycle rituals the even the feeling of a cultural loss that should and much more. The total indifference and have stunned them. They have lost their land, disinterestedness displayed towards these by they are about to lose their language and if they Kashmiri Pandits, a people whose ancestors lose their rituals also, they could well lose their gave shape to the building blocks of Indian selfhood even for rituals are symbols of identity. aesthetics, shocked me. The way beautiful art The danger of deracination looming large over forms like Gora Tray executed freehand by them is real and terrible. I think Prof. Fotedar priest artists and women were allowed to die – will bear me out that as we surveyed the people would paste them on their window panes situation on the ground to enable me to make a to block blasts of cold air from entering the headway regarding my project on rituals, we room during winter months -- tells an found it to be appalling. Amnesia seemed to YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 24

threaten to take over everything. I hope my work on the rites and rituals of Kashmiri Brahmins will rekindle the flame of desire in them to know their real image and protect it from being wiped out.

(Dr. S.S Toshkhani is a poet, linguist, writer and a thinker. He has contributed substantially to Kashmiri heritage and carried out modern research in various fields of Kashmiri literature, history, religion, art and social sciences)

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few paper boats (books, cyberworld) and limited knowledge. Nietzsche says somewhere ``One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil’’. Given the stature of Shaiva Masters like Abhinavgupta’s, Vasugupta or Swami Ram, we have really been very bad repayers.

Our generation watches the rituals and traditions of our community in exile with great amusement, unaware of their underlying spiritual significance. The fact is that elaborate rituals are now skipped on most Spiritual orphans: Is it the end of Kashmiri occasions and short cuts are being taken- be it in Shaiva lineage ? rituals related to birth, death, birthdays or marriages. Neeraj Santoshi Khar Gloss has overtaken most of our functions, while the spiritual side has taken a backseat. It seems that we are Has the lineage of Shaiva Masters,especially in the slowly moving towards a collective spiritual amnesia. context of oral tradition and guru shishya parampara, that existed in the Himalayan valley of Kashmir for over a millennia, ended? Was Swami Lakshaman joo The realization of this spiritual blackhole dawned on last in the lineage? Is Shaiva tradition on decline or me, when few years back I met world famous dying in the land of its birth? Is observing some authority on Tantra and Kashmiri Shaivism, Mark festivals and rituals giving us a false feeling of being Dyczkowski, who originally hails from Russia, in Shaivites? Are we being hypocrites who keep on Jammu. It was a dream come true, an encounter that harping about Shaiva roots and ignore the fact that exposed my ignorance about the real significance of Shaiva traditions are fading from the Kashmiri ethos? Shaivism and my superficial academic understanding of it.

If renowned physicists are discovering the parallels between Spanda and quantum physics, why our leaders and scholars have failed to teach us even the simple Shaiva traditions and their significance in the modern idiom. Do they really know or understand it themselves. How many of them would have read all the volumes of Abhinavgupta’s masterpiece Tantraloka, forget about understanding it and teaching it.

I had always deeply desired to see a real Shaiva master It pains me that our elders have failed in passing on and talk with him or her or at least be face to face with the teachings and the essence. Our generation is like a real scholar who knows the secrets of Shaiva potted plants lying on dusty staircases of high rise tradition of Kashmir. I hardly know of any living buildings, content with our stunted and claustrophobic Kashmiri who can be said to be a living Shaiva Master potted roots. Phony words and claims of great Shaivist or a real scholar who knows the mysteries of heritage are no substitute for the real transmission, for Shaivism. May be there are secret Masters, but almost real earthy touch. no one is in the public domain who can be given the credit for taking the Shaivist lineage forward.

In this sense, I feel like a spiritual orphan, who is trying to fathom the sea of Shaivism on his own with Dyczkowski was in Jammu to attend a conference. YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 26

When I came to know about it, I was very excited. mysteries of Shaivism, looking far into the distance, as After few enquires that day, I came to know he was in if looking at the fast collage of the past events, he the famous Raghunath Sanskrit Library, looking for recalled that it was great Shaiva master Swami some ancient texts. I was not aware where the famous Lakshaman joo who had initiated him in 1976. Even Library, whose catalogue of nearly 6000 rare Sanskrit after studying different aspects of Shaivism for the last texts was prepared by Sir Aurel Stein himself in 1894, four decades, I could see the reverence in his eyes for was. his Master.

I knew it was somewhere near the Raghunath temple. Then suddenly, as if hinting that my earlier question After half an hour of search and directions from the was not that important or foolish, he said, ``To local shopkeepers, I reached the Library. I made a understand the mysteries of Shaivism, one needs grace mental map of questions in English, which I had to of Lord Shiva and then dedicated efforts in the right ask. For me, Dyczkowski was a Russian scholar, who direction’’. had studied Shaivism. A foreign scholar. I had imagined him as a high brow scholar, with an air of aloofness and absentmindedness, who would dish out As if questioning my stress on books and institutions, replies in Hinglish accent. But when I saw him, I was Mark said with a childlike innocence, ``If the grace of taken aback. He was antithesis of everything that I had Shiva is there , then only the spark will aflame your imagined about him. He was sitting comfortably in a soul, then only access to the teachings of Shaivism chair in front of the Library. Basking in winter sun and through different mediums like books, CDs, audio conversing with scholar employee of the Library, he cassettes, book exhibitions, workshops, seminars and was eating groundnuts with a laidback approach, his lectures of scholars will help and mature your demeanour never suggesting that he was the man who recognition’’ . wrote the famous Doctrine of Vibration. Wearing a casual kameez payijama, with silky white beard and a shining face, he seemed a rishi from some ancient era. On his relations with the Ishwar ashram, the ashram of His eyes had the freshness of wonder and a soft glint Swami Lakshaman joo, he said that he is not much in of a child. He spoke in fluent Hindi, surprising me touch,….hinting subtly that how he got disillusioned further. And I switched over to Hindi as well, loving with the ashram affairs after the departure of the his gentle sprinkling of Sanskrit shalokas Master. intermittently.

After introducing myself, I started asking him general questions, trying to cover-up my ignorance of the That day I felt I had met a person, who has higher topics of which he was a master. When I told transcended the scholarship of Shaivism and was now him, that even now there are no institutions or research moving on the higher paths as a seeker. His life is centres dedicated to the study of Shaivism in the land evident of his dedication towards understanding the of its birth, he was surprised, but didn’t show much mysteries of Shaivist tantra. He has devoted his whole emotion. He told me that it was indeed surprising that life to the study, collation, edition, translation and while in many parts of the world, hundreds of interpretation of manuscripts of the Shaiva and Kaula institutions and scholars are dedicatedly researching Tantra. Dyczkowski, who lives and works in Benares various facets of Kashmiri Shaivism and the works of is a Masters in Philosophy and Indian Religion from various Shaiva masters like Abhinavgupta, Vasugupta, Benares Hindu University and has studied Sanskrit Anandvardhan, Bhatta Kalatta are being researched grammar and literature with Pandit Ambikadatta upon, it is a surprise that there is no serious institution Upadhyaya. After graduating from BHU, he went to in the birthland. England, finished his doctorate in 1980 at Oxford University where he studied under the eminent Prof . Alexis Sanderson, on the Spanda School of Kashmiri When I asked him how he was initiated into the Shaivism. In 1980 he came back to Benares and YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 27

started his research work.

This man who is author of The Aphorisms of Siva, The Stanzas on Vibration, 14 volume work on the Kubajika tantra, had no scholarly air about his being. He seemed a simple Shaiva bhakt to me, a modern day rishi . His simple demeanour, seemed to defy the fact that he is arguably the most original and wide-ranging scholar of Hindu Tantra alive today. As a community, I feel ashamed that we don’t invite him in our functions, for lectures, discourses, workshops for young or for felicitating him. Most of our leaders are busy in petty organizational politics, factionism and mini power struggles.

If this generation fails to carry forward the Shaiva traditions and the lineage, a day will come when all that will be left will be a swelled fan list on Shaivism groups on social sites like facebook and hollow claims of our great Shaiva heritage. The real touch of a master, a real seeker is missing somewhere….words and clicks help to a certain level…but primarily one needs grace, guidance and guru….

That day when I accompanied Mark Dyczkowski back to his university guestroom , where he was staying, in an auto-rickshaw, I felt his silent grace and love……it was wordless….when we departed….he just smiled with his eyes beaming with childlike wonder….that day I felt as if all Shaiva masters of last one millennia were smiling through him…. I recognized in his eyes a somewhat similar expression that I had once seen as a kid in the compassionate eyes of Swami Lakshaman joo, while he blessed me and gave me handfuls of prasad at his Ishwar Ashram in Kashmir…

(Neeraj Santoshi Khar is a journalist with Hindustan Times and is an avid reader and seeker of the philosophical knowledge)

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Creative Impulse in Pratyabhijna "grow into" its form, and the form defines what the Philosophy with a reference to thing can potentially become. Pratyabhijnahrdyam of Ksemaraja When Siva desires to create he has to summon Sakti Geetika Kaw Kher or become Jnana-Kriya rupa to descend. The Sakti of Parama Shiva is seen as Citi Aestheticization of philosophy frees it from the burden of extensive intellectualization and also ensures the The concept is expressed in a poetic manner in the dawning of true knowledge and feeling of pleasure second verse from PratyabhijnaHrdayam, a digest evoked by such a dawning. True knowledge only on the system prepared by Ksemaraja, a student of dawns when knowledge takes root not in our minds Abhinavagupta but in our hearts. The universal appeal of Pratyabhijna philosophy is due to the fact that it blends both rational and emotional side of a person hence venturing into an array of subjects comprising ‘By the power of her own will, ‘Citi’ unfolds the metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics and philosophy. universe upon her own screen. That is she unfolds the tattvas from Sadasiva to Prithvi ‘like a city in a mirror which though non different from it appears as The word ‘Pratyabhijna’ means recognition of one’s different’ because it is a mirror image. This creative essential nature and the entire gamut of literature play termed as ‘lila’ is often celebrated in artistic dealing with the theme is meant to bring home the fact creations, visual and verbal both. The space that that it is possible to realize one’s own Sivahood. manifested universe occupies in the scheme of Pratyabhijna is the mirror space, mysterious and real at Two aspects of Parama Siva, Visvotirna and the same time. Visvamaya are accepted in Pratyabhijna. Mirror space though it reflects our space is not Visvotirna form of Siva has infinite powers and continuous with it. A concept which has fascinated contains everything inside him in the form of a seed visual artists as well as writers all the time. Use of but to manifest into many Param Siva has to assume a mirror can be seen widely as a literary and artistic dynamic form which is known as Visvamaya Shiva. device and also as a spiritual medium. Eg. ‘to see yourself in the mirror of your friend’ is a phrase often used by Maulana Rumi in his Masnawi… Mirror space is construed as a space which can make (Tantraloka III.100) us escape our limited reality..We find the metaphor extensively used in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in “If the highest reality did not manifest in infinite wonderland’ and in recent works by the Japanese variety but remained cooped up within its solid author Haruki Murakami where you often find the singleness it would neither be the highest power not character looking in the mirror and leaving behind Consciousness, but something like a jar” his/her reflection.and this reflection being much more Visvamaya aspect is the creative aspect of Param pervasive and free than the protagonist..Murakami Siva. It is aesthetically expressed as a desire of a borrows these ideas from Shinto mysticism which creator to procreate and multiply. The entire universe again focuses on possibility of entering the other lies as a potency in the heart of supreme like a banyan realms hence transcending the boundaries of kala and tree lies as a potency in its seed. This analogy from niyati. Tantraloka reminds of the similar example given by The continuous search for oneness is hampered by the Aristotle of the acorn and the oak tree and how the veil of Maya Shakti which binds us to various malas blue print of an oak tree lies hidden in the form of an through the coverings (kanchukas) acorn. The essential form of anything defines what it is, and provides the driving force for that thing's existence and development. Everything strives to YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 29

When the highest reality whose very essence is consciousness conceals by his His free will pervasion of non duality and assumes duality then his will and other powers though essentially unlimited assume limitation. Soul is covered with Mala so the all- pervading knowledge reduces to the knowledge of few things.

The ultimate creative play gets translated into individual or group creativity in human beings.Art provides a powerful medium to transcend this physical world. By submitting to ‘Willful Suspension of Disbelief’, a concept attributed to Coleridge there is a chance to escape into the imaginary world created by the artist.Carl Jung proposes that “ True art is something supra-personal’ a force which has escaped from the limitations of the personal and has soared beyond the personal concerns of its creator” Thus creativity is a tool to understand oneself. An urge to create is seeking our ultimate creative self through art and to de-individualize the emotions felt, so that they are in their purest form able to create a universal experience. The idea of ‘Sadharanikaran’ or universalization of emotions is one of the key concepts of Abhinavagupta’s aesthetic thought . To create is to transcend the boundaries of limited existence by introverting the senses. Hence art is considered as a sadhana which has power to de-individualize not only the creator but the spectator/reader/ too. No wonder stalwarts like Bharata, Bhatta Kallata, Sri Sankuka and Abhinavagupta have given so much importance to aesthetic theories The concept of Camatkara which was later developed and elaborated extensively by Abhinavagupta grew out of this branch of knowledge raising the status of art to that of creation of the universe and hence considering entire creative process as a universal play. Abhinavagupta accepted Bhatta Nayaka’s view that the aesthetic and the mystic experiences spring from the same source and the bliss we derive from them is a state of independence from all extraneous factors.

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Mansarovar, I noticed snow all along the route. A tiny voice whispered within- God, let the weather be ok for all of us to trek the whole way to His Darshan.At Darchen, those who needed them, were given ponies and porters and walking sticks based on the decision of the Swamis travelling with us. The Swamis advised us to walk with reverence… as if we were walking on the body of Shiva Himself and to chant ShivaShamBho with each consecutive step and then began the 15 Km long trek to Dhirapuk. We were grouped in teams of 4. I was with another male yatri and two other ladies. Soon, I was walking only with the ladies as they were having difficulty walking and would take frequent breaks. I decided that no matter what, I would be with them and help them make it, even if it took me longer than I would have normally taken. My own physical preparation of 5 months of Yoga before the trip came in handy as I did not really feel the strain of walking along.

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra- The ultimate The views along the trek were surreal- high cliffs on pilgrimage both sides with waterfalls from impossible heights. The Lha Chu river , also believed to be the Ganga by Sunder Shridhar some, gushed and roared along the trek route. There were brightly colored Tibetan Prayer flags all around SunThe Second part of this travelogue is available at and a few monasteries and temples in the cliffs far http://www.yogtantragama.org/yta-5-issue-7th-april- away. The Tibetan pilgrims who followed the Bon Po final.pdf religion, were able to do the trek with much more ease than us who were not used to the rarefied air at this height. Many of them made the entire Part 3- The Saga of ‘Saga’ and onwards to Mansarovar circumambulation of the Mount by prostrating fully! We saw all the seasons in the course of the trek. The weather Gods blessed us, though ! Although, it had snowed the previous night, the weather cleared up shortly after we started trekking and the trek was done amidst light drizzles and perfect sunshine. Several of the Yatris had difficulty in breathing, and Oxygen cylinders were provided to them. So, while some made the trek in 4 hours, I and my group took almost double The early morning of 21st August turned out to be the time, with the frequent breaks that we took to rest. overcast and grey. Our spirits however were bright and It is not a very steep trek, but the low oxygen levels soaring. This was, of course, THE most awaited part makes one tired easily and one needs to take frequent of the trip. We were going to be in the Presence of breaks . From Darchen to Dhirapuk, is a slow ascent Mount Kailash! of 1500 feet with no steep climbs. But from Dhirapuk to Darchen , if one goes the Parikrama route, then one We were to begin our trek to Kailash from Darchen. crosses the Dolma La pass,which is at 19200 feet and Presumably it was called Darshan earlier, as Darshan is most often covered deeply in snow. Isha Sacred means vision or View and one can get a good view of Walks does only half a parikrama. Sadhguru, very the holy Mount on a sunny day from here. As we were aptly gives the following reasons for this: travelling in a caravan of vans to Darchen from YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 31

dormitory, did the North face of Mount Kailash become visible..

• Physically, very few of us are capable of crossing this pass. The fog lifted and there He was in all His massive • Once out of Dhirapuk, one loses sight of Glory! The moment is etched in my mind because Kailash and sees Him only when one is back at tears streamed and my eyes were blurring. Soon it Darchen fogged up again and only the lower part of the mountain was visible. • It is more important to spend time in His presence and meditate rather than walk around, Then the tiredness started showing up in me and the panting. beds and the quilts were invitingly warm. After a rest , as we came out for food, again the amazing moonlit • A very specific Yogic process is performed in view of the mountain enthralled me. The 1 night and 2 front of the Holy Mount, which is intense and gives days spent at Dhirapuk were memorable as we got to the same benefits as a full Parikrama. see Him in various hues and forms- sunny and clear, foggy, rainy and so on. The special Yogic process The previous day, when asked by someone at done by the Swamis, with the group facing Mount Mansarovar, if Sadhguru would accompany the group Kailash, was a different experience in itself, taking the to Kailash, He had said with a laugh , "Of course, I energies to a wonderful high. Another experience will be there with you." which brought a smile on when I felt truly blessed was being asked by one of the everyone’s lips. True to His words, even though Swamis to chant the hymn -‘ Ya Devi Sarva physically absent, Sadhguru's Grace was Evident bhuteshu’- for the Divine mother, amidst the entire throughout the trek. gathering in the presence of the blessed mountain. Whenever I could, I took the opportunity to sit in a meditative posture and experience His Grace while Our porters would scamper ahead of us with the chanting various Mantras. luggage at great speed and then wait for us to catch up. Although they knew only Tibetan, they would keep That night, medical screening went on till around making gestures for us to give them more money ! 12:30, and decisions were taken to send some people back by ambulance. Quite a few people had After about 7 hours, the signboard of Shishapangma succumbed to the low pressure and unavailability of Hotel ( more like a dormitory- but quite comfortable), oxygen. The doctor's room was occupied with people was visible and about a km away, was the dormitory gasping in Gamow bags or through oxygen masks. itself. One of the ladies just then gave up and sat down Altitude sickness can manifest in many different ways saying she could not make it. I tried to tell her.. hey we and people who were not careful with their chronic are almost there… we can see our accommodation… conditions, suddenly had a spike. One elderly pilgrim's but to no avail. There was no other alternative.. I blood sugar shot up to 480 and had to be given insulin. physically supported her and made her walk all the way to the dormitory. Only as I was very close to the The sherpas and Tibetan guides had told us that around 40000 pilgrims visit Kailash every year and that around 4000 don't go back. This was scary. But as YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 32

Sadhguru had promised , he did not intend to leave creative devotees. The skit had all of us holding our any one of us behind. The arrangements were stomachs in laughter. Then came the grand dinner and wonderful and all of us survived, though some did good byes. have to return earlier and by faster means. We all parted ways but thanks to Sadhguru and The return trek was faster as many of us had gotten Swamijis, we had become a family of people who had used to the climate and the air pressure by then. We vowed to take a bit of Kailash home and transform collected water flowing down in streams from the ourselves. Kailash in bottles to take back home. Om Namah Shivaya! We crossed Chokhu Gompa, made famous by Swami (Sunder Shridhar is an engineer and currently is working as a Rama's disciple Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, in his book, Project Manager at Unisys Corp, Bangalore) "At the eleventh hour". According to Swami Rama, this monastery is built around an ancient cave which was the meditation centre for Sanat Kumara and his brothers. Swami Rama's favourite mantra was the Gayatri. In his memory and a mark of respect to all the masters of the Himalayan tradition, we stood facing the monastery and recited the Gayatri for some time. The last point was YamaDwar. At this point, we turned back towards the trekking path and prayed to Him, asking His pardon for all sins committed knowingly or unknowingly.

The one feeling that filled our hearts was gratitude- to our gurus whose blessings gave us the desire to reach Him. We were filled with thankfulness to the Lord for His grace and His darshan.

We went on to the bus, and then to Manasarovar for a quick lunch. It was a long haul to Saga and again from there to Zhangmu. The journey was punctuated with a lot of activity in the buses, which were inspired by Swamijis. So antakshari, 20 questions, Queen of Sheba needs, etc. kept us busy during this interminable journey back.

At the Hotel back in Kathmandu, we ended the entire trip with a lovely skit put together by some of the YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X | Issue8 33

A passage from my recent scribble in the manuscript - "Thoughts perform Actions" –

Suva

We are accustomed to assume our previous birth state and presume the aftermath of death, involving the circumstantial situation of our physical plane. Our physical plane is a labour force run by the mental faculty. This functioning body is a managing booth of inevitable space, time and mannerisms of happening activities. A lot happens or remains static in the circumnavigation of existential paradigm. Our journey relies quite much on this constitution in rotundity. Besides such speculations, we are interwoven in the phenomena of mental and physical properties that which links us to the anatomy of life, that reconsiders a shared space amidst this governing body. When we look into what we know as health, in most cases the effect and cause revolves around these circuits of connection. As humans we do not have access to the ground level in recalling the past or previous life cycle or to reveal the impact-oriented post of future dynamics. So that brings us to the mid ways which we know as present. Therefore we, generally keep aside our sub-conscious, unconscious and supra-conscious catalog, to dust out only our present consciousness. Our being in this consciousness relates to the "gift" of life, often in a transitory phase of pleasant and unpleasant catharsis. This depends on the umbrella-form of (Suva is a freelance performance artist and a musician based our circumstance that triggers our modes, methods, means and in Finland. Academically trained in sculpture he now teaches mannerisms. We therefore get enlisted as passengers in the Yoga and acoustic drumming and is involved in creating vehicle of reaction. experimental music)

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YOGTANTRAGAMA ISSN NO: 2454-888X

Published by : Rashneek Kher, 901-902, Iris Tower, Faridabad, Haryana, 121010 for YTA Inc.

E-mail: [email protected]

Logo: Manik Chawla

Paintings by Tarini Kher

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