Tantra: a Much-Misunderstood Path to Liberation Jeff Ery D Long

Tantra: A Much-Misunderstood Path to Liberation Jeff ery D Long Introduction: sexual behaviours and even, in some cases, can- A Misunderstood Spiritual Path nibalism. Depending on how conservative a antra. Th e word brings to mind a vast person might be, this image of tantra will in- range of images and connotations, some spire either revulsion and disapproval or great Tpositive and some extremely negative. excitement at the thought of a spiritual path How any given person views tantra will depend that allows—indeed requires—the free indul- on a range of factors, including that person’s gence of the senses. Both types of reaction can cultural background and general orientation to- be found in both India and in the West, though wards spirituality and the formal religious and it is probably fair to say that the fi rst kind of re- moral conventions of one’s society. In the minds action—revulsion and disapproval—has been of many, tantra is associated or even identifi ed more common in India and the second—ex- fully with practices that defy most traditional citement and intense interest—has come to standards of moral purity, both in India and characterise Western approaches to tantra—a in the West: practices called by scholars anti- pronounced shift from the Victorian period, nomian. Th ese practices include transgressive when tantra began to attract the attention of the Western world, refl ecting the broader shift that IMAGE: CHAUNSATH YOGINI TEMPLE, MITAOLI, MADHYA PRADESH / PANKAJ SAKSENA PRADESH / PANKAJ MADHYA TEMPLE, MITAOLI, YOGINI IMAGE: CHAUNSATH Jeff ery D Long is a Professor of Religion and Asian has occurred over the last century in Western at- Studies at Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania, usa. titudes towards sexuality and sensuality. PB January 2016 157 168 Prabuddha Bharata Both types of reaction, however—positive originate? And what is the philosophical position and negative—are based upon a profound mis- that underlies it, and to which it gives expression? understanding of what tantra truly is. Can an- The question of the origins of tantra is as mysteri- tinomian practices be found in certain tantric ous as the question of the origins of religion it- traditions and given justification on the basis of self, and as productive of creative theories among tantric philosophy? Certainly. Are these prac- scholars. Texts known as tantras and the schools tices in any way representative of tantra as a of thought that produce them first appear, ac- whole? Certainly not. cording to contemporary scholarship, around the Finally, it is worth pointing out to the readers middle of the first millennium ce in India. Many, of Prabuddha Bharata, although many will already however, point out that this style of practice may be aware of this fact, that tantra played a central be far more ancient than this. Some even point role in the spiritual path of Sri Ramakrishna, and to the Indus Valley Civilization, also known as is therefore not something to be easily dismissed. the Harappan or Indus-Saraswati Civilisation, as What is tantra, then? And why is it that so a possible source of tantra.1 This hypothesis is of many people both in India and in the West have course highly speculative, as is anything definite re- gotten it wrong? And finally, what was the role garding Indus Valley culture, until the mysterious of tantra in the spiritual life of Sri Ramakrishna? writing system of this civilisation is deciphered. Although entire volumes could be, and have Marxist scholar Debiprasad Chattopadhyay been, written on these topics, these are the ques- connects tantra with the materialist system of In- tions that this essay hopes to address in a concise dian philosophy known as Charvaka or Lokay- and succinct fashion. ata, finding common elements in the thinking of these two systems.2 In support of this view, it What Is Tantra? could be noted that the Lokayata system is trad- The Complex Question of Tantric Origins itionally traced to the Vedic sage Brihaspati, and Tantra could be characterised most broadly as a that there is a text in the Srividya tradition called style or even as a repertoire of spiritual practice. the Barhaspatya Tantra—a tantric text also at- What does this mean? First, it means that though tributed to the sage Brihaspati. Chattopadhyay, what could be called purely tantric systems of prac- however, and most other scholars emphasise the tice exist, such as Kaula Tantra and Srividya, elem- non-Vedic nature of tantra, suggesting that the ents of tantra can be found across a wide range of Vedic and tantric systems grew up alongside one systems. These include the mainstreams of both another. In these accounts, tantra either emerges Hindu and Buddhist practice, and even some fac- as a reaction against Vedic thought and practice ets of Jain practice. This means that elements of or it is an older indigenous system that asserts it- Hindu practice not generally associated with tan- self against Vedic religion as the latter is carried tra, such as the recitation of mantras, meditation by its brahminical adherents from the north- on yantras, and even image worship and the archi- western part of India to the rest of the subcon- tecture of many Hindu temples, are rooted in tan- tinent. Again, tantra as such does not emerge tric philosophy. So, even many Hindus who could definitively until the middle of the first millen- not properly be called tantrics partake, neverthe- nium ce, so the system that scholars postulate as less, of some aspects of tantra. having existed prior to this period might best be How did this style of spiritual practice seen as ‘Proto-tantric’ or ‘Pre-tantric.’ 158 PB January 2016 Harappa Indus Valley Civilisation Mohenjo–daro Given the nature of tantra as a spiritual style, remain mysterious and difficult to define. In the rather than as a well-defined system of philoso- words of religion scholar Brian K Smith, ‘attempts phy and practice, it is also difficult to make strong at locating the temporal and cultural origins of assertions about how Vedic or non-Vedic, or even Tantrism remain theoretical and speculative’.3 anti-Vedic, tantra might be; for these two systems At least some of the mystery that surrounds actually share a great deal in common. Both, for the origins and even the subsequent history of example, make extensive use of mantras, includ- tantra is no doubt a deliberate effect of the fact ing bija or monosyllabic ‘seed’ mantras, and both that a major factor in tantric practice is an elem- operate according to ritual principles in which ent of secrecy. Tantric rituals are esoteric or oc- certain physical items and gestures stand in for cult in nature. That is, their practitioners see broader spiritual realities. In fact, these ritual them as possessing great power and significance. principles are, to some extent, shared by magical These practices and their deeper meanings are and religious traditions from all over the world. intended only for those whom an experienced HANI They may point to a common point of origin or practitioner deems worthy—that is, possessed of G to a universal instinct in human beings to shape the spiritual maturity to receive this knowledge SMAN the world around them through ritualistic per- and to be entrusted with its responsible use. A U formance. In both a Vedic and a tantric ritual, true tantric practitioner thus must receive dik- O-DARO: O-DARO: one can see the history of the cosmos—its emer- sha or initiation into the practice by a guru or J gence from a state of pure potential to an ordered teacher, in a tantric lineage. OHEN M universe, and then its self-transcendence into a Again, this esoteric character of tantra is state of pure consciousness—enacted. shared by other traditions, including the Vedic AVEED / AVEED One could conceivably argue that tantra traditions. Vedic secret knowledge—knowledge N IN B emerged from Vedic practice, or even vice versa, imparted directly from teacher to student—is or—as seems most likely—that each is an ori- indeed what makes up the Upanishads. In the ginally independent practice and that the two of Vedic case, though, the secret is out. The Upani- UHAMMAD M them have interacted and influenced one another shads have now been widely circulated, translated extensively through the course of the centuries. into various languages, and so on; though there This process has certainly been facilitated by the remain passages within the Upanishads whose peculiar genius of the people of India for combin- meaning remains mysterious, and which could IMAGE: HARAPPA: IMAGE: HARAPPA: ing and integrating aspects of many spiritual paths probably only be fully understood if one were into one. In any case, the origins of both systems able to travel back in time and learn directly from PB January 2016 159 IMAGE: G ODDESS M eenakshi’s W EDDING IN M a Vedic sage. Similarly, the concept of initiation graphically about the interactions of the male EENAKSHI and the practice of imparting a secret mantra and female sex organs may actually be speaking from guru to shishya, from teacher to student, about the relationship of mind and pure con- T are forms of tantric esotericism that are shared sciousness. The graphic imagery turns away those EMPLE, by other Hindu traditions, including Vedanta. who lack the spiritual maturity to delve deeply M Many tantric texts, however, remain un- into the meaning of the text—prudishness being ADURAI / HTTP://WWW.REMOTETRAVELER.COM translated, and many of those which have been as much a mark of attachment to the physical translated are still extremely difficult, if not -im as licentiousness, and often a cover for the lat- possible, to understand fully.

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