co 8193,3 — TG 7TANTRA MAGIC AJIT MOOKERJEE u Afterword by MULK RAJ ANAND ARNOLD-HEINEMANN© Amold-Heinemann First published 1977 Published by Gulab Vazirani for Arnold-Heinemann Publishers (India) Pvt. Ltd., AB 9, Satdarjang Enclave, New Delhi. Plates printed at Tata Press and Text at Oxford Printeraft India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi-110001, TANTRIC ART “Out of me all things originate and into me all are withdrawn.” Tantra has often been misunderstood because of general ignorance regarding its real meaning. Modern research shows the close affinity of Tantras with the Vedas; Tantra itself speaks of its Vedic origin, In its subsequent development, it shows the influence of the Upanishads, Yoga and the Puranas, Jain and Buddhist thought. Tantra is derived from the Sanskrit root, tan meaning to expand. Tantra thus indicates expansion of knowledge or all comprehensible knowledge towards self-realization. Tantra is not a religion, It is not even simply a mystic view of life. It is both an experience of life and a systematic method whereby man can bring out his inherent spiritual power. Tantric rituals are the basis of a variety of philosophies. There are, for instance, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and even Muslim forms of Tantra. During the Muslim rule in India, the philosophical movement of Sufism came under the influence of Tantric doctrines and teachings. Many Muslim saints showed a harmonious blending in their works of Tantra-yoga with medieval Sufi mysticism.Tantra encompasses not only cosmology and astronomy, but also astrology, palmistry, chemistry, alchemy as well as various yogic disciplines. Quite early, Tantra developed an atomic theory of the universe which had references within it to the space-time relationship and observation of the stars. And all this expressed in terms of various mathematical concepts | According to Tantra, the cosmos evolves from the primordial sound substratum as a force of monosyllabic mantra, the om. All the objects which we seo and feel in this universe are sounds of particular concentration, Sound is the reflex of form and form is the resolution of sound. A further stage in the manifestation of this energy results in the emergence of atoms. The universe is believed to consist of an aggregation of atoms, which is conceived of being in a state of constant integration, disintegration and reintegration. All manifestation according to Tantra is based on a fundamental dualism: the male principle, Purusha, and the female principle, Prakriti. The Samkhya system teaches that there are innumerable small parts of Prakriti which, keeping a small part of Purusha in the centre, move constantly around it. The duality that persists in tantric yantras manifests itself in the magificent doctrine of the Tantras as Purusha and Prakriti or Siva-Sakti, as balance of form and energy. Tantra prescribes the discipline of sublimation by the physical union of man and woman into the creative union of Purusha and Prakriti. Owing to the complete intensity of embrace the two all-pervading ones, Purusha and Prakriti become as it were a single principle in supreme bliss which is the highest non-duality—a state of liberation. In order to realise supreme bliss, Tantra has discovered the location of the centres of energy —chakras—in the subtle body. Every individual, according to Tantra, is a manifestation of that energy, and the objects around us are the outcome of the same consciousness ever revealing itself in various modes. Kundalini Sakti, coiled and dormant cosmic power is at the same time the supreme force in the human body. The awakened Kundalini lifts itself upwards, breaking open different energy centres, chakras. Thus in her ascent, Kundalini absorbs within herself all the kinetic energy with which the different chakras remain charged and finally become united with the Pure Consciousness which is Purusha, In other words, these chakras are the centres in which psychic forces and bodily functions merge into each other. Within the chakras, cosmic and psychic energies crystallize into bodily qualities, which are finally dissolved or transformed again into psychic forces. At the universal dissolution, all are withdrawn and return to the unmanifested one, conceived as formless, undifferentiated, without beginning and without end, The transcendental influence of Prakriti again initiates the process of creation, thus awakening the cosmic force. Then the world is tecreated anew and so the cycles continue, ceaselessly and without end. Nothing dies in the world; what is apparently dead returns to its element, and then again is reconstituted into form. There is one unbroken, infinite process of life and change.Woodroffe and subsequent scholars, Indian and foreign—Sneligrove, Tucci, Dasgupta, Chakravarti and Gopinath Kaviraj—have in their published works expounded the greatness of the Tantra system of beliefs, By their dispassionate statements of the real facts, they tried to clear away the cloud of misconceptions which has obscured our view of its profoundly spiritual teachings. But these works are like a drop in the ocean compared to extant oral and written literature in various Indian languages. When, 25 years ago, | left my home with a blanket ‘over my shoulders thirsting for adventure, little did | know that my journey would become a pilgrimage. This pilgrimage took me to the remotest corners of India and during these extensive tours | came across unique manuscripts and specimens of Tantra art most of which had remained either hidden or neglected. Tantra philosophy and physics intrigued me as much as the astonishingly striking similarities between some Tantric works and objects of art, various styles and symbols that are current in contemporary art, The modern artist today employs abstract forms of representation to express the complexities of life and nature around us, ap approach which in Tantra art dates back several centuries. Intellectuals, particularly in the West, are fascinated by the attempt made by Tantric Yogi-painters to lay bare through the art medium the mysteries of the universe and the laws that govern them. The Tantric art forms have, of course, deeper significance. The frustration of the Western youth which today yearns for the mysteries of the universe has already ‘opened a mental door by which Tantrism enters their life. Today's sensitive youth in search of a direction, a purpose behind the pattern of existence, may in due course come to incorporate or even assimilate into their imperfectly developed vision some forms of Tantrism or some elements of the Tantric tradition. The importance of scientific studies in Tantra art, its philosophy and physics, particularly in this space age, is significant. In many countries in the West pioneering studies are being carried on to explore new areas of human thought on the basis of serious research on psychic and cosmo-biological phenomena. Modern discoveries in higher physics have shed new light on what we used to explain away as mysteries. In this aspect Tantra concepts deserve scientific analysis: Unfortunately, knowledge about this has so far been kept a jealously guarded secret in India, depriving mankind of its many benefits. Before it is too late, every effort should be made to reveal the treasures of this wisdom for the service of mankind. Ajit Mookerjeeee ee eee ee ee ee* % Z | ae sea cenagter al caer 8 AMgngleaalsadqaeae Be RAAT CAR FANT GA : ame gdaKalananng AglaQaacganaadels Bae faalanangcanaiacae| EAS) qlee T MIME Tia, aS paceeilaacnmenasee) i A aae Rae OFFyne 4, WAT. AH Ing ey vk ole eae AMON. 4) Mayle) MANGERE aasnaseae nam. & SAT Mensa boon oe a aah soa rasa 2) TW 5.stg IB: SS) SS Baty taqiaen: aes RNaIsaFnAIoAA Add A Ae nay mMay a a 4 34 x a 5 sean: | | nama: a ry a Sy : g am & wy Saag ZIAAA BAG, \ oa ay, Day 35 3 Gy g 2a a) 8 we ¥ a ReAALA, na A \ S- s < ig, oe \ q Say g st ox D AY WY ve yy. S@RIAL7)Bae eaten is 3seePLATESPlate: 2 ‘Tres of Life, illuminated page from the manuscript ‘Omkara para Brahma’ by Shyamananda, written in Arabic script. It illustrates the one: ness of Atman, the Self within, and Brahman, the Ultimate Reality.’ Like Plate: 1 OM Yantra, is the basic and the primal _sound—the sound-symbol_ of the Supreme One. All creation proceeds from this original Sound, which, as the aggregate of all oxisting sounds, gives birth to the cosmic process itself. Rajasthan, 18th century. Gouache on cloth 90 x 90 cm. Piate: 4 Visvarupadarshana, Arjuna’s vision, of the universal form of Krishna's manifestations. Arjuna is shown the Visvarupe—the universal form of the formless, in which unity of forms to the whole universe in its manifold forms manifest themselves in its element power, Rajasthan,¢-18th century A.D. Gouache on paper 36 x 27 cm. Plate: 5 Jambudvipa. The earth was called the id of Jambu, the innermost of the seven ring-like ‘continents of Indian cosmology, It was divided into various surrounded by a water called Lavana mbu are seven continents, and continent-ring, Pus! being encompassed by’ a cir- sea. of fresh water called soa of salt Around kara, cular two inseparable birds with golden Jala, Bordering this outermost sea plumes, the individual and the im: e is the fabulous land of Lokaloka mortal Self perch on the branches Cworld-no-world’) which separates of a single tree. One tastes of the the visible world from the region of ‘sweet and bitter fruits while the other ; darkness. The” position of Jambu: tasting of neither, calmly observes, vipa in relation’ to the universe When one fuses ‘the separate ele: + forms an integral part. of Indian ments of one's being (JIbatman), one cosmology. realises unity with the Universal Rajasthan, 18th century. Being (Paramatman) 23 x 15 cm. Ink and colour on paper 23 x 23 cm. i z Plate: 3 The study of the universe as @ whole includes beth cosmogony, the theory of the origin of the universe, and cosmography, 2 description of the universe. The Brahmanda comprises the whole cosmos and contains zones called lokas arranged in three principle strata known as triloka, three worlds. At the end of each cycle, the worl lg dissolved, in a cosmological event known as laya or ‘and when the universe of Brahma all manifestation starts ag: An illuminsted Ms. page, Gujarat. c. 26th century A.D. 18 x 10cm. Plate: 6 Purushakara Yantra. Tho complete drama of the universe is contained in the human body. The body with all its biological and psychological processes becomes an instrument in and through which cosmic power reveals iteolt. Rajat han, 18th, tury.Plate: 10 Diagram of the chakras in the subt body. The chakras—centres of psychic energy in the subtle body are mainly situates along the central Spinal cord. Within the spine is enclosed sushumna, the _ central nadi—artery or channel of the subtle body—flanked by ida and ping: the lunar and solar subtle nerves sushumna nadi ext from. the muladh: base of the spine, to the medulla oblongata at the top of the Spinal column, which passing through the principal’ aperture called the chakra, generelly translated ‘plexus’, Is also called the padma or lotus, and represents a centre for the supply and distribution to the physical of the vital or pranic forces. Rajasthan, 18th century. Gouache on paper 120 x 46 em. Plate: 7 Sri Yantra, The equilateral triangular Shape standing on its base, the apex of each angle, a laya (absorption) point. determined by the vortex fepresents. Purusha, the immanent Principle, Standing on its apex, with its extensions dominating, it repre sents Prakriti, the power of mani- festation. Rajasthan, 18th century. Gouache on paper 20 x 20 cm. Pla ra ei Worship of the Trident as emblem of its indwelling deity, Siva. Many facets of human sctivity and thought have been assimilated in the deifica- tion of Siva. He is the god of dis: solution, the personification of dis: integrative forces of the cosmos. Rajasthan, 18th century. Gouache on paper 25 x 17 em. Purusha and Prakriti, The complete intensity of embrace, the two all pervading ones, Purusha and Pra. kriti become a single principle in Supreme Bliss, which is the highest non-duality—a state of liberation. Orissa, c. 17th century Goueche on paper 15 x 23 cm. = & : Plate: 12 y @ Muladhara-chakra forming = conti: > nuous scroll. Kundalini Sakti, Plate: 9 Diagram of the six chakras in the subtle body. Humen experience owes to tantra the discovery and location of the centres of energy-chakras in the human body. Every individual is @ manifestation of that energy. and the objects around us are the out come of the same consciousness, ever revealing itself, in various modes. Kangra school, Himachal Pradesh, Aath: centurne symbolically represented as serpent power, is the supreme force in the human body. When kundalini sleeps in the muladhara-chakra, man is only aware of his immediate earthly cir- cumstances. When Kundalini awake: and arises like 9 fiery serpent and unites with the supreme cons: ciousness, man no longer remains Sensitive to his own limited percep: tlons but participates in the source of light itself Rajasthan, 18th century. ne Be is awry anata .Ee ESET tae & ee nts Pi 14 Kundalini, the potent energy symbo- lized by a serpent, lies in deep sleep throughout one’s ‘lifetime, and even its existence remains uneuspected. The controlled awakening of the Kundalini is one of the main objects of several branches of yoga and tantrism. By appropriate exercises the ‘serpent of life, fire and wisdom’ can be aroused and properly directed to energize the body and soul Rajasthan, ¢. 19th century. Gouache on paper 20 x 14 em Plate: 13 Yantra, coiled up energy known as kundalini or serpent power is. lying latent in the human body just = great energy is contained within th atom, The tantric aims to release this ‘great energy and direct it through inner centres (chakras) of the body to attain seif-realisation. Rajasthan, 19th century A.D. Gouache on paper 26% 17 cm. Plate: 17 Surya Mandala Rajasthan, ¢. 19th century Ink ana colour on paper 44 x 44 cm. Plate: 16 Garuda, a mythical bird holding fast nine elepnents symbolizing the lower constituents of the partial self Kangra school, ¢. 19th century. Gouache on paper 25 x 30 cm. an 3 mac igayoureureg | Rawmewadiotcaticrss stsiaegercarsnen ine agregar Caaceunoneres Sitar aang caracie All mantras, primarily mental sound, heve their corresponding colours ‘and forms. When @ mantra is prouounced correct: ponding form begins to manifest itself, the quality of mani festation depending upon the nature and intensity of the pronounciation, When the agni-mantra is uttered, the colour red and the ai evoked. This is the t of this Agni Pinte: 18 The letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, for meditation and worship and the sound root of ail divine knowl Rejasthan, 19th century.Plate :20 Visnnu appeared on earth in several forms, each time as a caviour of mankind or as a destrayer of some evil. These incarnations on the earth ly Scene are known as his avatara, descents’ and his symbols are presented with objects like gada (mace), padma (lotus), sankha (conch), chakra (discus), ete Rajasthan, 18th century. Gouache on paper 20 x 17 om Plate: 19 Hari-Hara. Vishnu (Hari), the pI server, merging with Siva (Hara). | destroyer, symbolizes the eter cycie of birth and rebirth, Jammu-Kashmir, 17th century Gouache on paper 19 x 19 em. Plate: 21 ‘The science of the knowledge of in: terplanetary rhythms and. their inte gral relations with the humen organ ism is shown in differnt. symbols. end signs. Rejasthan, 18th century. Ink and colour on paper 23 x 18 cm. Plate: 22 Golaka, Earth—-globe with stratum fon nine energy fields. The nucleus is global, or oval in shape. All nature! elements possessing solidity are global in their primordial states: Rajasthan Gauache on paper 27 x 42 em. Plate: 23 Dharma, the principle of motion, and adharma, the principle of rest. All creation evolves, inanimate as well fas animate, This development is not 3 process of radical change but rather as a gradual uncovering of 2 quintessence originally present and incapable of meditication Rajasthan, c. 18th century Gouache on paper 20x 17 em Plate : 24 ‘The goddess Kell is manifesting her seit by her maya, power of cosmic delusion, renewing the cycles of i ception and annihilation through never-ending aeons of time. Her third eye looks beyond space and time With the sword of physical extermina- ton she cuts the thread of life, of bondage, and is relentiess only to be Benevolent. She is the changeless, unlimited, primordial power, acting in the great drama ot creation and destruction. Madhubant folk painting, Bihar Gouache on paper 70 x 55 cmPlat 25 Pata paii temporary. Tantric symbols and patterns, the store-house of which is yet little known, light up form and colour because what the shilpi-yogin arrives at is related to his inner spiritual growth—a truth which might open up a new understanding of the world forces in which we are living and which modern artists are trying to explain as shown in the plates 26, 27, 28. Navagunjar, universal monarch fort Puri, de by the folk painter for pligrims. Diameter 7 em, Composition by Priya Mookeriee Etching 1972, 30 x 30 em Plate: 28 Composition by Priya Mookerjee Etching 1972, 25 «20 cm.Pre-historic man and woman AFTERWORD Out of the dark days and darker nights of pre-history, we have glimpses of primitive man struggling to survive in the dense forests. He issues out of the cave shelter after drawing on the walls the pictures of his victory in the hunt of the bison, the rhinoceros and the stag. He moves in the bush almost like one of the beasts, except that he can use the spear, the bow and the flint axe. He is overshadowed by the vegetation of the jungle and can hardly ever see the sky. Thus he only has a one- dimensional view of the earth. He is aware of the dense atmosphere about him, of the vegetation, and the cave from which he goes out and to which he returns. In the cave is the woman, who lights the home fire, roasts the flesh of the hunted animal, and tends the children. After he has satisfied his hunger, he makes love. As man evolved on the ‘bestial floor’, he became aware of himself, as the desiring one, and of the woman, as the desired one. Another leap forward and he began to sense the ecstasy of the connection between himself and the woman, the urge, the vague, momen- tary but real onrush of passion, of which he was afraid and which he yet wanted to express,The symbol The fleeting moment had to be fixed in a visual image, so that he could invoke * it will. The return to the moment was imp .aive, because, through copulation with the woman, he had sown the seed, and the child was born from the very place where he had entered. Thus he made a terracotta image of the y.2man as the giver of progeny, the source of I'*>, for wor- ship, as something remote but vx :red. And, in re order to emphasise the role of m~ “ier, as the bringer forth, he enlarged the tria» gle, and made it a symbol. This mythical symbol became a desire image of the fertile pudenda. The worship of this symbol, through the centuries, made for concentration on the mystery of man, woman and the « vment reached between them. The lover and the beloved, and the love, were not separate anymore. All the three were concentrated in the holy triangle. holy triangle and the erect trident In the gyrations of time, of copulation, birth and death, the residuum of feelings made the moment of which the secret finding place was in the triangle, the sign of all fertile things, the earth goddess itself. The memory of the thrust into the pudenda brought arcther symbol, the trident, held by a wild, lusty look- ing male, whose image we find on one of the seals of Mohenjodaro. jature gods of the Aryan The continuous uprush of the sap, rising in the male and female bodies, urged towards one another, often brought the copsciousness, after every child, and the memory from within the depths of the silences in between the rhythmic periods, of something ineffable, of sitter delight, of a miracle. And this was sacred. Into the circardian undertones of the body- soul, sex became the crucible, in which everything was resolved—the tensions of the workaday life and the casual improvisations longed for in the reveries when the blood *° became hot on seeing the shapely woman, _.Secretly desiring fulfilment. Inspite of the fact that the holy triangle and the erect trident had been established as images of worship, the mystery of the union of male and female remained in the continuous pull of the sexes, expressed through sidelong glances, shared smiles, and the chance touchings. As the leisure hours were in the night, and the days were occupied by the crude lumps of toil, the shining light of the four eyes, when each was both, was clouded, except in sub feelings, in the vital turbulences, ragings and seekings. The image of the mother-goddess was permanent. See * The barbarian Aryan nomads, infiltrating into the lush landscape of the mountains, valleys and plains of the five rivers, found the local Dravidian populations to be creatures of intense passion, who had fixed the images of ‘desire in a naked goddess. Childlike and naive, they also personified their nature shocks into} ; The one and the Hymn of creation many Prithvi the earth, Varuna the sky, Surya the sun, Indra the thunder, and Usha the dawn. This acceptance of the cosmos may have owed itself to the joy in the physical life of the local people. Dharma, artha, kama In the first flush of curiosity, the adventurous mind of the Rig Vedic poet conceived the world in the hymn of creation to be ‘desire in the seed of spirit’. abel of sim The patriarchal Brahmin priests, who recited chants during the ritual of worship on altars, where Yajna sacrifices were made to gain plenty from the gods, spiritualised all offerings. They were already deriding the native folk for their many images, through their own existence on the free offering of pure prayers to the gods. They had perhaps recoiled back at the attraction of the youth to the lure of the dark pagan women. The fact that the organs of sex were also the organs of excretion of bodily wastes, made the priests react away from too frequent mention of male and female. Instinctive life of dravidians In this period, however, the myth was created that Brahma, the One Supreme Spirit, desired to become Many; so he entered his consort Lakshmi, and creation came into being; but as the many cannot survive in their duality, they desire to ‘become One with the Almighty, and continually strive for union with the One’. We can speculate on how much this story owed itself to the animistic cosmic propen- sities of the Dasyus. But as the Kshatriya and the Vaishna castes lived the worldly life to the full, under the sanctions of Dharma, Artha and Kama, as spirit and body, the priests tended to make the worship into cosmorphic prayers and raised the Gods into purer and purer and more exalted consciousness, through words. They did not encourage images to imprison the imagination. There is no trace of any Vedic artefacts, except the cubist sacrificial altars, the Swastika drawing, and the symbol Aum. * * * The anthropormorphic Dravidians, however, have left several terracotta forms, of which the dominant one is the naked woman, with the eternal triangle of the mother goddess. The prohibitions from the top did not inhibit the exuberances of the folk. They freed them- selves from the tyranny of the resonant, pontifical words, into images of lovely female tree spirits, snake gods and goddesses in coition, fauns, fairies, demons, demonesses. And they remained secure in these icons, until the instinctive love of new phenomena demanded identification, fixation and fresh worship. The impulsive life seems to bring new visions, in which the poet of intense emotions fuses the love of beauty, the urge of desire, and the search. The primitivist pantheon continually affirmed the love of life, in all its nakedness, on this earth. The crea- tions of myriads of forms in clay and stone, redolent of the passion to flourish, and to beGautama Buddha against desire Pagan people continue the life of the sense happy in eating, drinking, dancing, singing, and in the ferment of activity, show refulgent desire, the culmination of which is reached in love making. * * * Gautama Buddha, who was also in revolt against the secret esotericism of the Brahmins, felt compassionate to the rejected ones, but thought, at the end of his search, that life was Pain, because it was bound up with desire. And he preached the path of right doing and right utterance in a mysticism of the open mind, which may attain the first and last freedom of dissociation of mind and heart, in a timeless Nirvana. The many people who flocked to him and his monks for sympathy, did not, however, give up the pulsations of the blood. The living warmth of the physical connection reappeared on the memorial stupas of the enlightened one, in the abandon of inspired forms, in the free flow of life. Lovely, big-hipped, moon-breasted, cylind- tical girls move before the men, in innumerable visions of dance, in praise of the enlightened one, on the earth which is their Nirvana. Yoga and bhoga The monks sought to put ambivalent meaning into these reliefs, that such happiness was to be shunned. But the people came to the beat of drums, and went home to the villages imbued with drunken bliss. They clung, in their intuitions, to life as fila of the Hindu myth. And, ultimately, the sensuousness of the pagan folk was to permeate the Buddhist sangha, to achieve the sense of glory in the yab—yam embrace of man and woman as spirit and body. Among the Hindus in the Chandogya Upanishads, the prayer of god himself was : ‘May | be Many !’ This became the mirror for all the selves, and the main sanction for sex union. The participation of the people in the festivals of happiness, with naive abandon, the beating of the drums day and night for worship, and the sensuous imagery of the shrines, seems to have inspired the thinkers, generation after generation, to join the frenzies. The supermen, who had been commenting on the holy books for yoga (union with the Supreme) began to compile sutras on the hundred thousand rites of the people in love making, and began to organise mystical brotherhoods, for ceremo- nies, of what came to be called bhoga, the reaching out to ecstasy, through eating, drinking and interc urse with women. These secret cults for discovering the inner soul flourished, inspite of, or perhaps because of, the contempt for passion of the patriarchs. The new young of every generation were drawn towards the visions of warm embraces, because, in their subdued eyes, they were aware of the taboos against happiness. These urges for freedom from the prison of theTantra Influence of Kama Sutra Vedic esoteric doctrine involved many tensions. The ritualists of bhoga were compelled to invent, at first, instinctive, and, then, intricately constructed images and prayers to convert the reveries of the faith into salvation. Even though the ceremonies of these cults were pleasurable, the relationship of the self to the other self was not a spontaneous union. The touching and tasting, hearing and seeing was not directly ofa woman, but through prescribed forms of ritual in the worship of images. Yantras, mantras and worship images These forms of worship were vaguely called Tantra. And for centuries they continued to be the hidden magical practices of secret societies, * * * About the sixth century A.D., when the Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, and the expressive sensuous poetry of the classical renaissance, had brought sex into the open, the Tantra cults began to be heard of as highly rewarding rituals and not merely barbaric and obscene practices Of debauchery, Of course, the ritual remained secret, because the Tantrics held that only a Guru of long Practice and experience could initiate the worshipper into the Psychology of worship for self-realisation through bhoga. The Prayers and the ritual objects were only the outer signs of an experience more vital than that of the accepted yoga, Penetration of tantra symbols into Ruddhism Thus, the initiate had to give up the ordinary life and spend himself like any Brahmacharya, for many years to make himself the vehicle for the mystique of sex union. The yantras, or diagrams, and the images, through which the Vasanas, or energies, could be aroused, (such as the figures marking out the stages through which the kundalini, at the base of the spine, could throw up light) to make the thousand lotuses in the head blossom, were worked out imaginatively. The mantras, or prayers, based mainly on the ancient Aum, in which was supposed to be the lava of the life-volcano and Mani, meaning jewel or the semen in the male organ, and padma, meaning the lotus indicative of the female organ, were thought out through intense concentration. * * * As the ancient yoga meditation had been accepted by the Buddha, for the pursuit of awareness, so now the bhoga of the Hindu Tantras came to be recognised. And, during the next centuries, certain sections of the Buddhist monks, particularly in Tibet, evolved a highly intricate ritual of breathing exercises, passionate embraces and creative processes of the male Vajrapani in the yab-yam coition, with his heart's wisdom. Many artefacts, in the form of Yantras, drawings, Tankhas, and sculptures, were created, some of great quality, for use in the ceremonials for dissolution beyond space and time. * + *Ritual images As the Tantra ebulitions were secret expolsions from the hearts of people, who wished to reach new resonances, words like ‘serpent power’, anandalahiri, or waves of bliss, Shakti Shakta came to be known as symbolic keys to the enjoyment of delight. The states of mind of the prayer makers of the Tantra, were like those imagined by the Irish poet Yeats, who said : ‘the soul moves among symbols, when trance, or madness, or deep meditation, has withdrawn it from every impulse but its own.” * * * The same creative process produced the ritual images. They were made by craftsmen, who defined the drifting feelings, who had seen the plastic images of antiquity, and who allowed themselves to mould new symbols of ideals seized by the Guru. The icons are, however, either hieratic or ritual objects made on the models of the older images, or new drawings, plaques, reliefs or sculptures, which are instinc- tive works designed for immediate use. Colours often represent the sound vibrations and have close associations with the Hindu Si/pashastra injunctions about the symbolic meaning of the various hues of the rainbow. The obscurities of these vibrations realised in fresh imagery, certainly brought to view a new world of subconscious feelings, such as had seldom been seen in the orthodox artefacts of Hindu iconography. The purpose of all the imagery is magic. The tantric initiate 4 Sat chakra bheda This had obviously arisen from the uncanny beliefs of the early agrarian communities seek- ing plenty from the gods by way of good harvests. In the Atharvaveda, there is a magical mantra to be recited, while sowing the seeds : ‘Raise thyself up, from thick by thy own might, oh ! grain ! Burst every vessel ! The lightening in : heaven shall not destory thee ! The magical invocation to the grain god had a correspondence in the dances of the ancient Greeks, in the Chinese Shamanite dances of woman and man, as well as the dances in the temples of ancient Egypt, where the ritual was presided over by the high priests and the queen herself. The Tantric initiate was groomed into magic by the guru step by step. The ultimate ritual is organised to realise the female power in oneself. One of the rituals of the Jantra Sadhana is based on the Sat Chakra Bheda. This is an almost anatomical ritual. There are said to be two nerve coils or nadis, running parallel, on the two sides of the spinal cord, called the Susumna, which itself stretches from near the pelvic curve to the brain, It is part of the spinal cord complex. In the Susumna is another nerve cord called the Vajrkhya.The kundalini yoga In this, again, there is another nerve cord called the C/trini. This is the core of the Susumna. There are seven padinas, or lotuses, situated at seven different points of the Susumna cord, The lotuses are the seven centres of the female in man. By control of breath, the Tantra Sadhaka is enjoyed to arouse the Ku/a Kundalini Shakti, or the coiled femininity, in the nethermost centre of the Susumna near the pelvis. After this has been aroused, the idea is to communicate through the citrini cord, towards the brain energy, from the source, by piercing the successive seven lotuses, the Sahasra Dula- Padma, the lotuses of the thousand petals, which is the seat of the highest consciousness. The five Ma-s This realisation of the ultimate female principle of the Kula Kundalini Yoga may have derived from archaic magic practices, embodied in the craya songs, in which the dance was conceiv- ed as a vehicle of the flame that burns every- thing, leaving pure femininity behind. * * * Another way to realise the feminine principle in the male worshipper, is through the indul- gence of five forms of sex. This ritual is also based on the reference to old fertility cults, which had conceived a parallelism between the female deity and the plants. The practices associated with the God Shiva as phallic power, and Shakti the female principle, were merged, through the Kapalika monks, from the sixth century downwards, with the Tantric cults. There were other hunches about evolution of the human personality, through the penetration into matter in the universe, through rituals based on the idea of ultimate union between Purusha and Prakriti. The emphasis of these rituals was also on the female genital organ. Thus the magical worship of these cults fused itself into the Tantra magic. The five Ma-s, pleasing to the Gods in the Tantra worship, are Madya (wine), Memsa (meat), Matsya (fish), Mudra (fried corn) and Mithuna (sex intercourse), The ritual, which enjoined these five Ma-s, could not escape the censure of the searchers after the highest consciousness, through the pure Yoga. But the Tantrics assert that there cannot be any Siddhi, ritual success, whatever, without wine. Therefore, ‘you must drink it carefully, and make her drink too and only then you should utter the spells.’ The word Tantra, derived from the root Tan or Stran, means to extend or to spread. In the first instance, it probably meant extending the human family. Later, through the various accre- tions, vague hunches, poetical metaphors and definite psychological insights, it became the concept of liberation, through physical union, by the mingling of male and female, in utter bliss. * * *Is tantra art relevant for us? Tantra magical practices revealed only to initiates ‘Who am | ? Whence have | come ? Where am | going ?’ asks the Tantric Shaktas. ‘Lam all this. Out of me all things originate and into me all are withdrawn,’ answers Shakti. The ritual evolved for the fusion, through the lingam-yoni union, emphasises the primitivist hunch that the evolution of the cosmos itself is based on the sex function. Artefacts vital Shakti, being the controlling intelligence behind the universe, and man and woman its highest creations, the human intercourse in the Tantra is conceived as holy, and the very opposite of sin, as in the Adam and Eve myth of the Christians, where the original couple was turned out of paradise for eating the forbidden fruit of knowledge. Thus the 7antra seeks to establish heaven on earth. There is no doubt that the mystique of the Contemporary Tantra cults has a‘firm psychological basis in tantra art is the many recent theories of the psychology of revivalist the subconscious. And various myths of this doctrine open up vibrations of the evolving human personality, against the subtle esoteri- cism of the word of the Brahmins. And it is likely that the transfigurations will be revealed by advanced research, in the flowing streams of consciousness, with a possible breakthrough to the idea of awakening and activising the self through imaginative creations. If, however, the Tantra magical practices are only revealed 4 to an initiate, who may acquire the secret resonances, and use ritual objects to achieve the ecstasy of bhoga, then artefacts really only have meaning for the worshipper. Certainly, several of these artefacts of ritual have aesthetic appeal. The primitivist drawings have the same urgency as the little statuette of an African Venus, which Picasso valued for its sheer expression of energies. The passional approach of the maker often infused vitality into images of coalescing, which may expand the consciousness of the sympathetic seer. The mask of the image includes the possible strivings of the individual, between self and the other self, and has deep magico-mystical potencies. But it is unlikely that this kind of cult image can carry over, to the secular onlooker, the trans- cending powers for expansion of his own awareness, without total knowledge of its meaning, significance and possible use in his own life. That is why much recent ‘Tantra art’ by con- temporary artists, has remained revivalist. The new images are ‘pretty pictures’ or antici- patory designs, or echoes of the hieratic paint- ings, without exalting either the artist, or the onlooker to the exalted heights. We must beware of the misinterpretation of the Yab-yam image, for instance, as pornography. The ceremonial of the mythological folk beliefs and magical cults has little relevance for the world of technology. Except that it may sti- mulate the breaking away from the staticThe inspiration of tantra for the new consciousness machine civilisation to a ‘return to the native country’, to the spark of those creative energies which have been nearly extinguished by the going away from nature's dark immensities to mechanical artificiality. The desire to experience art possesses many of the young. They wish to venture out and partici- pate in the aboundings, reveries and dreams of the subtle brooding, songs, chants and prayers of a new poetry. They seek new consciousness of the earth and of man and woman and love. But it is true, as Arnold Toynbee asserted, that civilisations die ‘through the isolation of the ephemeral souls'. Also, it is possible that creative forces are atrophied by being impri- soned in old forms. Certainly, the old human emotions occur in the new life. The eternal search of man in woman, and of woman in man, for an ‘equation’, as also for the transcendence ‘where each is both’, is eternal. The tussle between the sensibilities, the ragings, the furious nervous stirrings for each other, against the pressures of civilisations, are, however, thwarted by the guilt and shame of insidious references to sin. The sheer physi- cal exhaustion brought by the machine corrodes the soul Man has to recognise the crucible of the female principle. And he can find fulfilment if he acquires the awareness of his own potential desire, and of the substratum of woman's uprush and offers to the ‘love play’, the warmth of his whole person, to evoke her passion and his own The resurrection of sacred love is possible. Mulk Raj Anand