The Role of Women in Tantra
Swami Satyananda
Saraswati
In tantra there are two important poles of energy
known as Shiva and Shakti. In fact, Shiva and Shakti have various spheres of
existence and operation in the cosmos and in the individual. In the ordinary
human society man and woman represent Shiva and Shakti respectively. In the
universal mind, time and space represent Shiva and Shakti aspects. In spiritual
life, mind and prana represent Shiva and Shakti. In hatha yogic texts, these
two Shaktis are known as ida and pingala. Ida represents the consciousness and
pingala represents the life force, or prana.
These two Shaktis are the opposite poles of energy.
Ordinarily, they are never together, but at the time of creation, they meet at
a point of union on every sphere. In the universal mind, time and space come
together at the nucleus, and when they unite, then the explosion takes place in
matter. Here, time is represented by plus energy and space by minus energy.
Aspects of awakening
In the ordinary human society, man and woman are the
two different poles of energy. These energy poles have been discussed in detail
in the ancient tantric tradition. You may have seen a photograph of Kali
standing practically naked, with one foot placed on Shiva, who is flat on the
ground. She has a ferocious expression, a blood stained tongue and a mala of
108 human skulls. That is Kali in the awakened state. You may also have come
across some pictures, though they are very rare, of Shiva seated in lotus
posture. Half of his body is Shiva and half is Shakti. Then, you may have seen
the picture of Shiva and Parvati sitting in the position of guru and disciple.
Shiva is seated in lotus posture, and Parvati is seated on a lower platform.
Shiva is instructing her in the secrets of tantra. These are three examples.
The fourth example, you may also have heard about. About 110 miles from Monghyr
is a very important centre of tantra known as Tarapeetha. There you can see
Lord Shiva sucking at the breast of Shakti.
These are the relationships between Shiva and Shakti
at different levels of evolution and awakening. At one point, Shakti is the
disciple and Shiva is the guru; that is, woman is the disciple and man is the
guru. At another level, they are not at all different. Shiva and Shakti are
intertwined together in one body, one frame and one idea. At yet another level
of evolution, Shakti is supreme and Shiva is subservient. Now, this is the
philosophical interpretation of the stages of awakening of the inherent shakti
in everybody.
Spiritual awareness of the
woman
In the tantric tradition, the woman is considered to
be higher than the man so far as the tantric initiations are concerned. This
should by no means be understood as a social claim. It is purely a spiritual
attitude in relation to the evolution of higher consciousness. The frame of a
woman, her emotions, and her psychic evolution is definitely higher than that
of a man. Awakening of the spiritual force, that is, kundalini, is much easier
in the body of a woman than in the body of a man.
Besides this, there is another important point that we
have to understand. Generally, a man who goes into the deeper realms of mind
and comes out, is not able to bring those experiences back with him, but a
woman can. It seems to me that there is very little difference between a
woman's inner and outer awareness. When you go very deep into your
consciousness, you have certain experiences. But when you return from that
deeper state of mind to the gross awareness, a veil falls in between those
experiences and the conscious mind. In the case of a woman, this veil does not
fall.
Apart from this, the psychic being of a woman is
highly charged with spiritual awareness. The external expression that you will
find in a woman or in a girl - love for beauty, tenderness, sympathy,
understanding, are expressions of her inner state. I usually make a joke. I
say, if all women leave this world, it would become a desert. There would be no
colours, perfumes, smiles or beauty. This indicates that the inner awareness of
woman is very receptive and ready to explode.
In the realm of kundalini yoga also, the woman's body
is charged by a particular centre. Mooladhara chakra in the male body is
intricately situated in a very congested area. Men do moola bandha and still
nothing happens. But in a woman's body, you can even touch mooladhara with your
fingers. Therefore, awakening can take place in a woman's body much more
quickly than in the body of a man.
Another important point is that woman has always been
the main transporter of energy and man the medium. The woman may not be your
wife; she could be your mother, daughter or disciple. Mary was Christ's mother.
The Mother of Aurobindo Ashram was a disciple. In the same way, in the tantric
tradition, there is the story of the sixty four yoginis.
The word yogini is the
feminine gender of yogi. Now, these yoginis are worshipped all over India.
There are sixty four temples dedicated to the sixty four aspects of feminine
energy. One of them is in Assam, another in Calcutta at Kali Ghat.
Vama Marga
Now, when we study the books on tantra, we clearly
come across one central theme: Shakti is the creator, and Shiva is
instrumental. Shiva has never been considered a creator. One of the greatest
thinkers and sages of India, Adi Shankaracharya, wrote in the first line of his
most famous tantric work, 'Without Shakti, how can Shiva create?' Therefore,
the Hindus have accepted the union of man and woman in order to facilitate the
process of evolution through tantra.
Although, from time to time, the relationship between
man and woman has had different purposes due to the cultural influences from
various parts of the world, in Hinduism we have continued to remain steadfast
on one point, that the relationship between man and woman has a spiritual
objective.
Therefore, in tantra, a woman's place is on the left
side. Before marriage, the girl sits on the right side, and when the marriage
ceremony has taken place, then she sits on the left. She is thus known as vama.
In Sanskrit, 'vama' means one who is on the left side. Vama also refers to ida.
There is an old story about Sita and Rama. When Rama
was over sixty years of age, his wife Sita became pregnant and went to live for
some time in the ashram of a saint. During this period, one of Sri Rama's
duties as emperor was to perform a certain religious ceremony. However, the
wise men ruled that he could not perform that ceremony without his wife in
attendance. Because Sita could not be present and the ceremony was compulsory,
they constructed a statue of her, and when the ceremony was being conducted the
statue was placed on Rama's left side.
Now, in western countries, vama marga is a very
misunderstood concept. They call it 'left hand tantra', which is an incorrect
translation. If you are reading a book on tantra and find the words 'left hand
tantra', take a red pencil and cross them out. In tantra, vama marga actually
means the path of spiritual evolution, which is practised with your wife. Marga
means path and vama means the wife, the woman, the partner, whichever she may
be.
Tantric relationship
In vama marga, it is Shakti who is important, not only
in sexual life but in spiritual practices, carrying out the processes of
creation and in conducting most of the spiritual rituals. Amongst Hindus, all
the rituals, religious and otherwise, are mainly conducted by women; men have
to sit quietly. Woman is the commissioner; man is the participant. Whether it
is an ordinary social ceremony, a religious ceremony, the worship of sonic
deity, or a day of fasting, it is the woman who has to introduce it. The man
just has to follow her. This is the tradition in India known as initiation from
the woman to the man.
Now, what is vama marga? It is the spiritual path
which can be practised along with your partner. The second division is called
kalachakra. This involves the mother giving initiation in the son, The north of
Bihar particularly is the centre for this type of initiation. Up to the borders
of Nepal in the north. Assam in, the east, and Uttar Pradesh in the west, is
the are in which the kalachakra initiation is prevalent, even today.
According
to this tradition, the son considers his mother a goddess. Every morning, just
as Christians go to church on Sundays or Hindus go to the temple and bow down
before the deity, or do some sort of prostration, in the same way, the son approaches
his mother. This is not just a social respect that he pays to the elders of the
family. It is a spiritual adoration which is performed, not because she is his
mother, but because she is his guru.
The same thing is done in vama marga as well, but here
it is not the son, but the partner who prostrates before the woman. Then the
spiritual mark or mark of blessing has to be put. It is she who places it on
him, not he who places it on her.
So these are the two important roles in which the
woman is involved in tantra. It is a sad mistake to consider the woman in
tantra only as a sexual partner. Sexual life is important, but it is not the
only relationship that can exist between a man and woman. After all, your
mother is also a woman, so too is your daughter, as well as your wife. Now, are
you going to have the tantric relationship with all these, or are you going to
have sexual relationships with all of them?
Misuse of tantra
At present the west is rebelling against its own
religion. That is why they are confusing and misinterpreting tantra. They are
trying to create anarchy in the sexual sphere of man. Many teachers in India
are also confused on this matter. In tantra you don't have to fight with your
religion or tradition.
Tantra never said that sexual life is a sin. It says
that sexual interaction is a natural urge; do it if you like. Religion in the
west has said it is a sin; only one man was born without sin, and all the rest
were born with sin. Naturally you have to rise above that
guilt.
So you have to find some sort of explanation for
sexual life, and tantra has become a cover. Tantric thought is very clear and
straightforward regarding this point. A verse in one of the ancient texts
states that there is no harm if you drink wine, eat meat, or indulge in the
sexual act. These are natural urges of all human beings, but if you can
transcend them, your spiritual progress will be very rapid. As such, tantra
should not become a cover for any particular urge in human life.
The woman comes first
In tantra the role of initiator is shifted from the
male to the female. Ramakrishna Paramahansa always considered his wife Sarada
as Devi, or goddess. In Sanskrit. Devi means illumined or illustrious. When
Ramakrishna was married, he was very young and his wife was still a child, but
he only regarded her as the Divine Mother. That is how he always behaved
towards her, and that is what he considered her to be.
In tantra, the woman has to be dealt with very
carefully because she is the high tension line for kundalini energy. You do not
have to be afraid of her, but you have to be very careful, because in her lies
the potentiality of a great explosion, if you have a wife, well, she is your wife.
But if she is going to be a tantric partner in your spiritual life, then it is
for a different purpose and then the process is entirely different.
In India, right from the beginning, there has been
this tradition. Whenever you make a reference to a man and woman, you always
refer to the woman first and then the man. We never say Ram Sita, we always say
Sita Ram. You never hear Shyam Radhe: it is Radhe Shyam, Radha being the
feminine and Shyam the masculine. This is because in the scheme of evolution.
Shakti comes first and Shiva comes next. With this attitude, if you go On in
spiritual life, either with your wife, daughter or disciple, then you have to
see that she is the activator and you are the participant in every sphere. Even
if a man has realised the higher awareness, he will still have difficulty in
communicating that to others if he does not bring a woman into the picture.
Hypothesis in hatha yoga
In tantra it is also to be remembered that there is
another path called dakshina marga or Vedic tantra. Here the woman is not
necessary, neither as daughter, mother or wife, because the aspirant is
considered to have both forces within himself. Ida is feminine and pingala
masculine, Union between the mental and pranic forces is equivalent to union
between a man and woman.
That is the hypothesis in hatha yoga, ida is shakti
and pingala is shiva. When they unite in ajna chakra, that is the real union.
The seat of Shakti is in mooladhara. The seat of Shiva is in sahasrara. Shiva
is in eternal yoga nidra there, inactive, unconcerned nameless and formless. He
has nothing to do with destruction or creation. His consciousness is
homogeneous and total. There is no vibration in sahasrara. Shakti is in
mooladhara, and by the practices of yoga, you awaken her. She becomes aroused
and makes headway through sushumna up to ajna. When Shakti reaches ajna chakra,
union takes place.
Dance of Shiva
This union occurs when the two poles of energy come
together. When you put on the switch, there is light, because the wires of the switch
are uniting. In the same way, in ajna chakra, when union takes place, the
explosion also simultaneously occurs. Then the energy created in ajna chakra
moves up to sahasrara chakra.
There Shiva and Shakti unite with each other, and
when they unite, Shiva begins to dance. Perhaps you have seen a photo of
Nataraja. That is the symbolic expression of the awakened Shiva.
When Shiva wakes up from his profound yoga nidra, then
he begins to dance. I am not talking about a man, but a force. The awakening of
that force in man is symbolised by the dance of Shiva in the form of Nataraja.
Then Shakti and Shiva descend together through the same path to mooladhara.
Both come down together to the mundane level, the gross plane. That is the path
of the saints who come down and reach us from time to time. If you happen to
read the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, you will understand about the awakening
of energy and its union with Shiva, both of them dancing together and then
coming down to our plane of existence. That is why in kriya yoga we have
ascending and descending passages - arohan and awarohan.
Now, the role of women in the tantric tradition has
been defined, but the position of women in the modern cultures is far from
this. People all over the world are fighting with their own guilt and sin. If
you wish to resurrect the pristine position of women today, then the whole
attitude will have to be changed. In fact, our social structure will have to be
based on a new concept of religious realities, in which the role of woman in
mankind's spiritual evolution is fully understood and accepted. This is
absolutely necessary for the emergence of a new society. And you will have to
realise this very clearly, so that what you practise and teach is not a
consequence of your own religious conflicts within.
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