Verbal know ledg e is not adequate to destroy the delusions o f the w orldly rounds. By m ere talk o f the lam p the darkness does not recede.
1.97)
THE Ignorance that holds man in slavery to inferior Nature cannot be dispelled by a reading of books or instructions by m outh. Words remain m ere words and are ineffective. At best they give a m ental understanding of the problem but no more.
The solution has to com e from elsew here. It is only by living the know ledge, by building it as a live force fo r change in the consciousness, that the liberation can be effected. It is not enough to know and say that a lam p can rem ove darkness, it is necessary to fetch it and keep it alight on the scene.
WINE
i f by the m ere drinking o f wine one were to attain perfection, a il drunkard-crea tures w ould be perfect.
(2.117)
IT is a com m on notion that in the Tantra w ine-drinking is a m eans of spiritual perfection. If that were really so, says the text, all the low types of men that are addicted to drink would have reached the suprem e state. Note the word pam arah, low creatures, used to describe those th a t take to the intoxicating drink. O ne who aim s high can never resort to this type of drink which w eakens and ultim ately breaks the will which is the fulcrum of all determ ination and effort of man. It is a delusion to think that the sense of abandonm ent that com es ove r the senses on taking alcohol can be a m eans or a foretaste of the real freedom of the soul. A ctu a lly it is a p re cu rso r of the disintegration of the centralising pow er of will.
W O RSHIP (I)
W orship with the instruction o f the Guru,
(6.5) TO w orship is to com m une with the Deity. To take and follow a set of procedure of rituals by oneself is not the way to do it. One must first receive the initiation, the authority to hold com m union with the Guru. For the Guru is one who has realised in himself, in w hatever measure, the reality of the Deity and can put others in relation to that Deity by means of his tapas- power. W hen he initiates, he im plants this connecting power in the being of the disciple and the outer ritual is only a physical support to the repeated affirm ation and building up of this relation. W ithout this authorisation and charge from the Guru, mere ritualistic w orship is ineffective.
W O RSHIP (II)
W orship the S ri Chakra b y uniting the M antra.
(6.9)
TO w orship by m echanically repeating the prescribed M antras is no true worship. The Mantra is the sound-body of the Deity, Each Deity has its M antra. To reach the D eity the m ost natural way is to approach through the M antra that is its sound-form . And th a t can be done not by sim ply uttering the letters th a t constitute the Mantra, but by jo in in g , yoga, one’s consciousn ess to the Idea, the Truth that is ensouled in the M antra, By thinking upon the Idea in the M antra, by dwelling upon it in the consciousness, and co n sta n tly affirm ing it in oneself w hile repeating the M antra, one im bibes the vibrations of the Deity and moves closer and clo se r to it. This growing com m union leading to an eventual union is the object of worship.
W O R SH IP (III)
Set aside the faded petals o f Ignorance an d w orship with the consciousn ess o f ‘He a n d I'.
(9.42)
W HILE w orshipping the Divine do not offer to him the state flowers of thy desires, passions, ignorant m ovem ents. Throw them behind thee and realise that thou art another, not a creature of Ignorance. Know it in thy heart that thou a rt none other than He, the Divine, affirm this truth in thy consciousness and in this feeling of identity offer thy worship. So with thou grew into the likeness of thy ideal.
W O R SH IP (IV)
Arouse the soul-force to its full potency and satisfy the Deities in the body.
(6.96)
TH E body of man is conceived to be an m iniature universe in itself. The various cosm ic Deities occupy appropria te stations in the various limbs of the body. They are to be awakened and activised to participate in the w orship. And the m eans to do it is to arouse the innate pow er of the soul which is fo r th e most part inactive and behind the veil. The Shakti lying dorm ant is to be aroused by concentration and evocation with the aid of the M antra and directed upw ards where She meets th e Lord seated in the sahasrara and the show er of Bliss ensues. T he Deities presiding over the several limbs of the body share in this celestial dow npour, becom e contented and join the w hole m ovem ent of w orship.
W O R SH IP (V)
W orship with exclusive concentration.
(6.71)
W O R SH IP is not a m echanical duty to be som ehow completed. The invocation of the Divinity, its reception, adoration, self-surrender and finally, the term ination of the m eeting, are parts of a soul-process of growth into godhood and they call fo r all the a ttention and concentration o f the mind that the practitioner is capable of. If the hands p articipate in the ritual w ithout the proper consciousness in them, if the m outh m erely parrots the form ulas w ithout the m ind and the heart dwelling upon the sense in them if one is only bodily present on the scene of w orship w hile the mind w anders elsew here, th e n the purpose of w orship is not served. Not only the m ind but all the faculties of the being must learn to converge on the object of worship.
W O RSHIP (VI)
If, fickle-m inded, you c a ll one D eity a n d w orship another, yo u receive the curses o f both.
(6.91)
BEFO RE one undertakes w orship and invokes a Deity, one m ust be firm in one’s faith in that Deity. If, in the absence of such faith, one changes the object of the Cal) in the course of the upasana, prefers another Deity losing faith in the one already invoked, then one offends both. The firs t Deity is called but left unattended; the second is offered w orship that has been already dedicated in sp irit and tasted in part by another. It is disrespect to both.
YANTRA
/4s the b o d y is to the juva, as o il is to the tamp, so is yantra the e stablishe d se a t o f a ll the Deities.
(6.87)
THE Deity needs a physical nodus to function in the physical world. And that need is provided by the Yantra which is a diagram m atic form corresponding to the configuration of the forces that accom pany the m anifestation of the Deity on its own plane. W hen this figure — revealed to the vision of the S eer in his tapasya — is drawn and concentrated upon, it recreates, as it w ere, the ve ry conditions in w hich the Deity becam e m anifest originally and the Deity is m oved to m anifest in the Yantra.
Thus the Yantra is m ore than a symbol. It is the body of the Deity.