TANTRIC HINDUISM

system of esoteric practices used for both the attainment of spiritual experiences and the fulfillment of worldly desires. Tantra designates a particular group of post-Vedic Sanskrit treatises, heterogeneous in content, that deal with secret practices aiming at the purification of the body and the control of physiological and psychological processes. By such purification and control, it is believed, the body and the mind may be made perfect media for the realization of the highest truth, and also of all that concerns the worship of gods and goddesses, rites and rituals, and black magic. Tantrism also plays a significant part in Buddhism and, to a limited degree, in Jainism. It is practiced in India, Nepal, Bhutan, and especially, Tibet. (For Tantric Buddhism, see Vajrayana.) Tantric Hinduism is mostly concerned with practical methods and lays little stress on religious theories, which it accepts from the main philosophical schools of Hinduism. Theologically it holds that the nondual Supreme Reality has two aspects, Siva (male) and Sakti (female), the one representing pure consciousness and transcendent passivity, the other representing mental activity. This truth regarding Siva-Sakti as well as the nonduality of the Absolute is to be realized within the human body, which is believed to be a microcosm, or epitome, of the universe. The spinal cord represents the fabulous Mount Meru; and the three main nerve connections (ida, pingala, and susumna) running along the left, the right, and the middle of the spine represent the three sacred rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and Sarasvati; the breathing process represents the course of time. Sakti, the female force, also called kundalini, lying serpentwise coiled and dormant in the lowest psychic centre, or cakra, of the body, has to be awakened and made to move upward through the five higher cakras along the spinal cord, so as to be united with Siva, the male force, at the sahasrara cakra, described as a thousand-petaled lotus at the top of the head. This union brings about the transcendently blissful realization of supreme nonduality. Tantrism, in an attempt to reach a supramental and depersonalized ecstasy, advocates the methodical use of sexual union without the pleasurable completion of the sex act, as a yogic process; this, it is believed, creates a state of heightened suspense leading to the complete arrest of all mental processes, in a mystic sense of oneness with the basic reality of the universe. In Tantrism, caste restrictions are reduced to a minimum; women are often revered as manifestations of Sakti, men being manifestations of Siva. Tantrism also upholds the efficacy of yantras (ritual mystic diagrams) and of mantras (mystic syllables or formulas).