SANNYASA
TANTRA
The Path of
Experience
Swami
Satyananda Saraswati
given at
Sivanandashram, Paris on Sept. 15th 1979
There is a
mysterious substance behind man's existence. The wise men have tried to define
and explain it, but most people have not yet been able to understand it. In the
last decades, a tremendous awakening has taken place all over the world and now
people have accepted the fact that there is a very mysterious power at the
core, at the basis of existence.
From where
do the thoughts come and from where does the consciousness emanate? There are
thousands of such questions which man has not been able to answer. We can
discuss and explain them very clearly in theoretical terms, but they will never
be understood in this way, because this mysterious substance is not a matter of
knowledge, but of experience. We may have perfected our intellectual concepts;
we may comprehend the nature of the substance in perfect mathematical terms and
be able to explain it in thousands of equations, but the ultimate thing that
needs to be achieved is 'the experience'.
When we
realise the necessity of the experience, then we have to take a different
direction altogether. The experience is not an outcome of intellect or even of
scientific thinking, it is the culmination of a process of jumping over the
mind. Knowledge is confined within the category of the mind; the experience is
beyond mind, intellect, and emotion. Knowledge can be redefined but experience
cannot. What is the way to the experience? Do we get this experience through a
process of transmission? Can this experience be explained and understood, or is
it an outcome of a process in which you transcend time and space barriers?
We know of
two ways to achieve this experience, the vedic way and the tantric way. We have
heard plenty about the vedic way in the past, but now we are talking about the
tantric way of discovering this mysterious substance. Maybe you already have
your own personal opinion about tantra. If so, for the time being, please
forget all those concepts, otherwise it may' not be possible for you to
comprehend the entire role of tantra. Tantra literally means expansion of
consciousness and liberation of energy. There are books which say that tantra
is occultism, magic, sexual sublimation, or an underground spiritual practice.
However, this is not the grammatical, etymological, philosophical or
traditional meaning of tantra.
A process
by which you are able to expand your personal consciousness is one aspect of
tantra. Our consciousness is confined within an area; the mind functions within
a given space. The activities of the mind and its capacities are related to the
senses and sense experience. For example, you can only hear as much as your
auditory system allows you; you can only see as far as your optic system allows
you. This is the limitation of the personal mind. There are minute forms in
this universe which you are unable to see. There are resonant waves of sound
which you are unable to hear. This indicates that the mind functions within a
very small, confined area.
Therefore,
what we have to do is to break the barriers, then the mind can flow out of its
confinement and experience infinity. But mind is dependent on the information
supplied. If the sensory channels are incapable of supplying the information,
then the mind is paralysed. If your judgement, logic, or mathematics fail to
supply the necessary information and decisions to the mind, the mind fails.
This is the limitation of mind. If you want to break this behaviour pattern,
then you have to adopt a new system; you have to expand the mind.
Science of
mantra and yantra
Expansion
of mind takes place through certain techniques in which you isolate the mind
and allow it to slow down. This is the process of tantric techniques. In this
system the first technique is the science of mantra. If you want to expand the
mind and realise the mysterious substance behind man's existence, then mantra
is the first step.
Mantra is a
vehicle for awakening the deeper forces within oneself. Each mantra has certain
wavelengths and frequencies that are able to penetrate the internal structure of
the mind. If you practise a mantra even without trying to concentrate your
mind, the sound waves that resonate during the practice permeate through and
through your physical and inter-physical system. The different types of waves
that you initiate while repeating the mantra, permeate a new dimension of your
consciousness according to your practices. When you chant mantra, sometimes it
produces standing waves, resonant waves, or rhythmic waves. When these various
waves are produced, they not only influence the atmosphere outside, but the
whole mental structure of your personality.
A sound is
not just a noise. It is a wave that carries electrical vibrations with certain
amounts of energy. When you practise mantra, the sound produced moves in a
certain pattern. However, the sound recorded by your consciousness is not
exactly the same as the sound heard through your ears. In the deeper mind, the
sound of each mantra has its own archetype. Therefore, the sound of mantra has
a totally different effect on our consciousness than other sounds which we may
produce or utter.
Many people
ask, 'What is Om?' Om is the dimension of your consciousness. When you chant
Om, it penetrates into your consciousness and assumes a geometrical pattern.
Every sound has a specific form- circular, triangular, rectangular, hexagonal,
and almost any combination of so many types of geometrical patterns. These
forms are not hypothetical, suppositional or imaginary. They are archetypes,
and each sound has its own corresponding archetype. The archetype of mantra is
known as yantra, and therefore, mantra is the subtle form of everything.
No need for
concentration
The mantra
you practise creates a lot of force within your inner self. Although you can
concentrate with the help of a mantra, mantra is not a tool of concentration.
The purpose of mantra is to permeate your whole body, mind, and spirit with
resonant vibrations. Therefore, when you are practising mantra, even if your
mind is not concentrated but jumping from thought to thought, you are still
getting the full benefits.
Once I told
my guru that the mantra he had given me was of no use because when I practised
it, my mind would jump about like a monkey. What is the value of repeating a
mantra if it doesn't concentrate the mind?
He gave me
some very practical advice: 'You do so many things in life which apparently
have no value. So why don't you continue with the mantra for an extra five
minutes.' I repeated my mantra as he ordered for years together with absolute
regularity. Even though I had no faith in it, the mantra had very deep and
powerful effects on the whole structure of my consciousness. I practise it even
today. So in tantric techniques, mantra is the first and foremost practice,
which does not require concentration.
Expression rather than suppression
Everybody wants to realise and experience the mysterious
substance behind man's existence, but they don't want to break the wall which
separates them from it. They paint it again and again and keep the secret
substance in obscurity.
When you sit for meditation and a thought comes, you
suppress it. Thoughts of worry, anxiety, passion, anguish - different types of
thoughts come to the mind when you practise mantra meditation. If you leave
them unattended, they will crop up again. This is not the tantric way. The
tantric way of dealing with the mind is to attend to each thought as it arises,
and finish with it forever. That is the only way you will surpass it.
Even if you are able to isolate your mind, you cannot
channelize it. You may be able to disassociate the mind from the sensory
channels so that the senses cannot supply stimuli, but what about the inherent
nature of the mind ? Mind is a bundle of samskaras, impressions. There are
thousands of memories, of experiences. How are you going to deal with this
multifarious nature of the mind? If you try to perform mental genocide, you
will have to pay horribly. How many impressions in the mind are you going to
decry, and who is going to do the job? This is how you create animosity within
your own personality. Your religious mind says this is bad, and your free mind
says it is good. So you already have two checks on one mind. This creates what
we call internal conflict, which ultimately makes you schizophrenic.
You must allow the mind to think without opposing, abusing,
or hating it. If there are any evil thoughts in the mind, learn to accept them;
do not suppress them. Whatever thoughts arise, learn to face them with full
awareness. They are your inheritance from childhood, from your parents, and
from society. They are your personality, your structure. They are 'you', and
you must not try to kill yourself. Therefore, when you practise mantra, please
don't quarrel with yourself. If your mind is running into fantasies, let it go.
Learn to witness the mind. Sometimes it regresses into the
remote past, sometimes it goes into the very distant and unclear future. If you
allow your mind total independence and liberty, it will transcend itself even
without your knowledge. The path of experience is not so long and tedious. The
experience is here and now. It is already in you, so you don't have to develop
it. It has always been in existence, but you are not able to experience it
because you are bound by certain limitations. Allow your mind to flow, to break
its barriers, to be anarchical, to wander freely like a vagabond, to commit
crimes (inside, of course). Allow it to find itself, give it space to run, and
let it experience psychic forms. Don't worry about bad thoughts, or be happy
about good ones. Just see them as you see cars moving down the street. You are
aware of them, but you have no personal involvement. Like this, there is
endless traffic in the mind, and when you are trying to practise mantra, the
rush hour begins.
The mind is constantly resonating, vibrating with all kinds
of impressions, even now, but you don't see it, you don't know it, because your
senses are engaged. As soon as you isolate your mind, you can see the whole
beautiful game it constantly plays. The more you evolve in spiritual life, the
more you become aware of the homogeneity of the mind. So therefore, in tantra,
do not aim at killing any of the expressions of the mind. Mind is not your
problem at all- you are the mind's problem, always wanting more experiences. So
whenever you practise mantra, yantra or kriya yoga, please remember that you
are not going to fight with the mind. As you practise your sadhana, you must
see that you don't interfere at all with the mind and the experiences that come
to you.
Bindu - the ultimate point
In tantra the way of meditation is spontaneous. In kriya
yoga, for example, there comes a moment when you experience expanded
consciousness even if you do not want to. Tantra is liberation of energy. This
energy, called shakti, is the sum total of the creation of the universe. To be
in tune with shakti is the discovery of the self. The destiny of man is to
discover the absolute universal energy. This is the bindu, the point. In a
circle, there is one curve which represents time, a second curve which
represents space, a third curve which represents object, and a fourth curve
which represents transcendental consciousness. Then there is bindu, the point
or dot at the centre which represents the absolute. This is the nature of reality
and of the universe- time, space, object, transcendence, and the ultimate
point.
In tantra, the emphasis is on bindu. The whole universe is
an expansion from that bindu; matter has exploded out of bindu. Bindu is one
absolute, but it has divided itself into millions. It is endless, and every
speck of creation is absolute. There is no imperfection in this great universe,
in everything you see around you- past, present and future. That is the extent
of bindu.
So the bindu point at the eyebrow centre is the nucleus of
the universal mind. It is the tiniest of points which explodes into the whole
of creativity. When you concentrate on bindu, what happens? Time and space come
closer. Otherwise they are very far from each other.
Imagine what is time and what is space. They are not
outside- they are within the mind. Time and space are qualities,
characteristics of the mind. If there is no time and no space, there is no
mind; and if there is no mind, there is no time and no space. When you say
mind, you must assume time and space, and when you say time and space, you must
assume mind.
When you concentrate on bindu, time and space come closer.
Time is positive and space is negative. One is Shiva and the other is Shakti.
In symbolic language, one is male and the other female; one is plus and the
other is minus. Mind consists of time and space; if you separate them, mind
drops away. Bring them together and mind is assembled.
If you bring time and space together and connect them, what
happens? It is the same as when you bring two electric wires, one positive and
one negative, together- there is a spark. Bring time and space together and
they will start sparking. But if you bring them closer to the bindu, there is
an explosion of energy, like a bomb. This explosion is the self in tantra. I
use the word explosion here but actually words have no meaning in spiritual
life. Only the experience has any relevance.
Bindu is the womb of matter and the two poles of universal
mind are time and space. We exist in time and space, so we can't take time or
space and throw them away. Only at the time of death, are time and space
withdrawn into the universal mind at two different poles. Then they leave the
body and enter into another body. But this is not what we mean here. We are talking
about liberation of time and space, about active participation of time and
space in relation to spiritual life. Therefore, when you practise concentration
on bindu in the eyebrow centre, whatever experience arises, you must only feel
that time and space are coming closer to each other. When this explosive
awakening takes place, then what happens? Matter issues forth- the universal
mind breaks into millions of fragments. It is all in the form of nebulae with
each fragment a complete bindu, an absolute creator. It is like the atom
splitting itself into thousands of atoms, all over.
At this time you have completed your evolution; the destiny
of human life has been fulfilled. Just as when you finish university, you go
out into the world and begin to work. So in spiritual life, when you have
completed your evolutionary cycle, you go out and become a co-creator, a junior
god. That's the ultimate goal to which tantra leads mankind.
More about Sannyasa Tantra in Greek: https://delfeios.blogspot.gr/2013/04/s-m-n-y-s.html
