Even at the height of Tantra’s influence the most enlightened and sophisticated tantric thinkers recognised it as the most “dangerous” path to liberation, and often referred to it as “the hero’s path”. But what made Tantra so dangerous?
Tantra evolved in the Indian sub-continent at a time when practicing austerities and spiritual asceticism was popular. This approach was based on a dualistic understanding of divinity. According to dualistic thinking, there is a separation between the divine and the material universe. Consequently, if you wanted to get closer to God, you had to minimise your involvement with the material world. In short, you had to suffer.
Tantra challenged this. In many tantric texts the physical universe was “churned” into creation. The analogy here is one of churning milk into butter – it simply transforms from a liquid into a solid material, without anything being added or removed. In other words, there is no separation; the butter still contains its original essence, the milk. Likewise, the material universe and everything in it still contains the essence of divinity – it has simply transformed (or manifested) into something physical. For Tantrikas then, to remove yourself from the material world through austerity or asceticism is to deny your connection to God.
Whilst the milk-to-butter analogy expresses the tantric concept of non-dualism, tantric thinkers still needed to account for the transforming process – what exactly, in terms of divinity, is “churning”? According to Tantra, “churning” involves a process of concealment. Within Tantra the universe exists so that God can express and experience Itself simultaneously, to be the actor and the audience. But for the audience to fully appreciate the actor’s craft they must be able to experience themselves as being somehow separate or distinct from the actor – the butter must believe it is different from milk, even though their underlying essence remains the same. Within humanity, this act of concealment involves the emergence of individuality, egotism and attachment.
To grow closer to God then, to experience our own inner divinity, we must reverse this process of concealment and move back towards revelation. But this can’t be achieved through asceticism; if the purpose of the manifest universe is so that God can express and experience Itself, then we, as divine beings, must be prepared to engage fully with the physical world. This is why tantric techniques acknowledge and utilise our sensory, mental and even emotional experiences. But this is where the danger lies! Because it is these exact same experiences that reinforce our individuality, our ego and our emotional attachments. The challenge then, for the tantric “hero” is to embrace the sensual without feeding the ego. A story from India’s religious and mythical culture provides an example of how this can be achieved – it is the story of Siva and Parvati.
There are variations of the story (including variations of the Goddesses name), but the general outline of the tale serves as the hero’s exemplar. In short, Siva, following the death of his wife (an earlier incarnation of Parvati) has removed himself from the world to live as a mountain-dwelling ascetic deep in meditation. However, without Siva’s protection the world is slowly descending into chaos with a variety of evil-doing demons running havoc. The other gods realise they need Siva to re-engage in worldly affairs and concoct a plan to bring an end to his austere meditation. The plan involves Parvati, who has already recognised Siva as her former husband and has already made several attempts to attract his attention. Parvati is young and beautiful, however, so far, she has failed to stir Siva from his reverie. The gods therefore decide to send Kama (Love) to fire a love-arrow at Siva next time he has Parvati in sight.
In the traditional telling of the tale, the arrow strikes Siva but, realising what has occurred, Siva smites Kama with a glare and only eventually agrees to marry Parvati (and subsequently save the world) following various acts of devotion. The tantric version of the story though, seems to provide a more purposeful example of the hero’s path. In this version, Siva is struck by Love’s arrow and is instantly overcome by erotic passion, he embraces Parvati but, in doing this, Siva notices Kama and proceeds to destroy him. Nonetheless the couple continue to consummate their relationship; Parvati (as Shakti) breaks Siva’s reverie and the world is saved. The implications here are clear: Siva acknowledges and confronts his attraction to Parvati – both sensual and emotional – but is able to defeat these egotistical attachments even whilst having sex. Inspired into active engagement with the physical and the sensual, but unencumbered by ego and attachment, Siva is able to save the world from chaos and destruction.
This then, is the hero’s path. In spiritual (or at least tantric) terms failure can be dangerous, because by confronting and acknowledging our sensuality we run the risk of re-enforcing the process of concealment and moving even further from revelation. But the potential rewards are huge: the opportunity to both express and experience yourself as God, the very purpose of creation itself!
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